So… Hey everybody. I know. It's been a while. Blame it on school. I'm in my senior year of college and this semester has been one hell of semester. The worst one ever in fact, but that's okay. That's really okay. The worst of it is over. I don't even think my senior project class will be as bad as Shakespeare was and next semester should be easier (I'm going to read this note again and roll my eyes and ask myself what I was thinking come March).

Thus, I've decided to reward myself by putting up a new story. I know I haven't finished Love Always, but I will… eventually. Right now, after spending months writing what everyone else wanted me to write, I'm going to write something purely because I want to. Thus the reason this story is being posted. There are no warnings other than excuse any errors or typos. And don't ask me about an update schedule. It's just whenever at this point.

Technically, it is a Hunger Games/Cardcaptor Sakura crossover, but it's not a crossover with the characters. It's mostly Cardcaptor Sakura with the idea of the general world of the Hunger Games behind it… You know what. Just read it and tell me what you think folks. I just need to be reminded that I'm still a good writer even though my Shakespeare teacher has made me think otherwise. So without further ado or explanation, here's my new story…

The Magic Games

1

"Yue. Yue."

I pull the covers even tighter over my head as Sakura's soft voice awakens me. I keep my eyes shut tight so that not even the tiniest silver of light can reach my eyes.

"Come on Yue. It's time to get up."

I sigh and reluctantly pull the covers down and stare in the green eyes of my best friend's little sister. She smiles brightly at me, but I don't return her enthusiastic morning greeting. In fact, I glare at her, to which Sakura blushes and mumbles, "Breakfast is ready," before rushing out of the room.

I sit up, regretting staying up so late, but then again, I'm a night owl. I've always awoken when the moon rises and something tells me it was like that before too. When I say before, I mean before the Kinomotos found me, some odd ten years ago having literally walked out the woods and into their back yard where Sakura, little more than four years old was playing. Now that I look back on it, she was an odd child. To see a strange dirty little boy stumbling out the woods and do nothing more than stare in plain curiosity, not at all afraid that I might be a monster or something.

Sakura had always been innocent like that. A little too innocent to live in a world like the one we lived in.

I get dressed and head downstairs to find my adopted family sitting around the table enjoying what meager breakfast we have.

"You," says Toya dryly, "Look like hell my friend."

"Ha, ha," I say dryly, hiding a slight smile as I grab a pot to put some coffee on.

"Were you out late again, Yue?" Sakura asks.

I only hum in response. There's no need to say anything else. Of course I had been. It's very normal for me to be out in the woods late at night, despite the fact that I'd probably get shot on site if I was caught. But out in the woods at night is the only time I feel free, the only time I allow myself not to worry about things like survival and making it day to day. The only time I could release an arrow from my bow because I wanted to, not because I needed to. And if I did manage to shoot something, that was great. As it was, I only utilized my archery skills for survival when the occasion arose for it, which was much too often than I was comfortable with nowadays, especially since Toya and Sakura's father died five years ago.

Even though it wasn't uncommon for children to be orphaned in the district we lived in, it still came as a shock to all of us, even me despite that fact that Fujitaka was not my biological father. He was father enough where it counted. So when he died from some sort of lung sickness, an occupational hazard of the mining most people are forced to do in District Twelve, all of us were understandably worried about what would happen to us. It would not have been such a detrimental blow if not for the fact that Nadeshiko, Toya and Sakura's mother, was also dead. At the time, Sakura was nine, I was thirteen, and Toya, being the oldest of all of us, was only sixteen at the time and, technically, not old enough to look after us.

I don't know how he managed to convince the peacekeepers to let us stay in the house, to not send all us to the community home, but Toya managed it. Honestly, I think it had something to do with the fact that he's best friends with the mayor's son. Either way, while they let us stay in the assigned housing, that meant nothing without food on the table. So while Toya left every day to find work, I did what I was best at.

Archery.

I used to take Sakura with me, having been tasked with keeping an eye on her when Toya was unable to. And it was either take her with me after school so that we could all eat or starve. The choice was simple. She and I would cross through the electric fence that was supposed to keep us trapped inside of the District and she would entertain herself just outside the perimeter of the thick woods while I hunted, as Sakura didn't have the heart to even skin a dead animal.

Who knew my illegal past time would come in handy one day to put food on the table?

As it was, I had to be careful, even more careful than I had been about sneaking out to the woods to practice with the weapon I had been found with. Every time I think about it, I wonder why Toya and his father didn't burn the bow in the first place seeing how it's illegal to possess a weapon.

Either way, we managed. We survived and we would continue to survive… Well, Toya definitely would since he was now past reaping age. Today is my last one, and including this one, Sakura has five more to go. Toya is good at not showing it, but the fact that he can't protect Sakura from this pains him.

"I'm heading out," Toya says.

"You have to work today?" Sakura whines.

Toya smiles, ruffling Sakura's hair, much to her dismay.

"Don't worry. I'll be back in time for the reaping. Besides, Yue's here. He'll take care of you."

Sakura scowls in my direction, to which I roll my eyes. It's no secret that with our conflicting personalities we don't necessarily get along well. When I say that, I mean while she's a talkative and optimistic bundle of sunshine and daisies, I'm… I'm not. One would think that with all the time we spend together though, we would have at least come to some sort of understanding about each other.

We haven't.

Toya leaves and both Sakura and I finish our breakfast in silence. After we're done, we both split the chores for the day with Sakura doing the cleaning in the house, while I tend to the small garden in the back. I have to move my hair out the way as I do so. It really is too long, a hazard really, especially for people like us who have to do manual labor for a living. I'm just lucky I haven't gotten it caught in anything yet. Hopefully there will be some potatoes for the stew that Toya will make for our "feast" in celebration of escaping being reaped again.

There's enough, and I briefly wonder if I have time to go into the woods to do a little more hunting since I know that my chances to go into the woods during the games will be slim to none.

That train of thought is broken when I see Sakura. She's scrubbing the walls clean in the kitchen, in preparation for the arrival of Toya's best friend, Yukito, the mayor's son, for our potluck feast later. The problem is that she isn't doing it with her hands. The brushes are moving up and down the walls on their own, and in Sakura's hands is a thin leather bound book.

"You shouldn't be doing that," I say harshly as take the magic book out her hands.

Books like these are rare to come by, especially since magic was outlawed in the districts after the rebellion ended decades ago. We found it at the Hob, which is the black market of District Twelve. Sakura thought it was a cookbook, but when Sakura read one of the passages out loud and the spoon she had been using to tend to her stew began to stir on its own, we found out otherwise.

Sakura flushes in embarrassment at being caught.

"But Yue," she says quietly. "It's just a little magic. It won't… No one will find out."

"It's risky enough that Toya lets you keep this book to begin with, but to use it, especially today of all days, is too big a risk. Do you want us all to be killed because you couldn't resist doing your little magic tricks?" I ask.

Tears are forming in her eyes, and even though I wasn't trying to hurt her feelings, I won't apologize for being so harsh. My harshness is nothing compared to what will happen to her, to all of us, if she's caught using magic. Only Capitol officials are allowed to use it and even then with restrictions. Any of us who are born with an unfortunate affinity to magic are forbidden to do so. The penalty for being caught using magic is even harsher than the penalty for going into the woods to hunt. It's not just death for the individual caught, but also death for their entire family.

"I'm sorry," she mutters and the scrubbers fall to the floor.

I don't say anything, only go to pick up the scrubbers. In reality, I do feel sorry for her. Sakura's always had a certain affinity for magic, but because of the laws we can't indulge it. She didn't understand when she was little, but as she got older, she reluctantly resigned herself to restraining the undeniable impulse to use her magical talents. It's like having an extra perfectly live and capable limb, but being unable to use it because it's constantly tied behind your back. I should know. I have magic too and I have the same impulses to use it. And while it admittedly makes me a big hypocrite, sometimes, when I'm alone in the woods, I indulge in that impulse.

"Come on," I say finally, patting her on the head, which I know annoys Sakura to no end. "Let's get ready for the reaping."

Sakura and I walk together to the square where the annual reaping takes place in District Twelve. Toya will follow shortly, to stand with the other families who wait with bated breath, wondering if it will be a love one or someone they know will be sent into the games.

Sakura sees some of her friends and runs to stand in line with them where they register all the children in the district for the reaping.

I go to stand in line by myself. I don't have any friends to wait with like Sakura does. Toya is my only friend because he's the only one who knows how to put up with my mostly anti-social personality. Yukito can too, but I wouldn't consider him a friend. More like Toya's our mutual acquaintance. Yukito can be a little too… eccentric to my tastes. Either way, both of them are now too old to be reaped. After they've pricked my hand and registered me, I go stand with the other eighteen year-olds, all of whom are hoping, just like me, that once again their names will escape the fingertips of Sonomi Daidouji.

I wait in tense silence for the reaping to begin with all the other eighteen-year-old boys. Finally, Yukito's father comes to the podium and just like every year, they explain the history of our country and the history of the games we're forced to play.

According to the stories, when the wars between the muggles broke out, the most powerful magical families came together and brought order to the world for the safety and security of those who survived the bombs, escaped the radiation poisoning, and managed to get a share of what little means there was to fight for in the world. They came together and created Magea from the ashes of the continent once called Asia and then separated the country into thirteen districts, each of whom were forced offer most of their resources to the Capitol, most of whom are descendants of the magical families who generously saved us. But then, the districts rebelled and despite their valiant efforts, they lost with the thirteenth district being obliterated. As punishment for rebelling, each year, each district is required to participate in the Magic Games. It's one of the other exceptions to the general outlaw of magic in Magea.

Each district offers two tributes, a boy and girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen, to fight to the death. The last tribute standing wins. It's not that simple though. The capitol makes a big event out it. They show off the tributes to the Capitol, and put the tributes through "training." This is the part where the exception to magic comes in. While the Capitol could just throw the tributes into the games with weapons and watch them kill each other, magic is a novelty, even to the people of the Capitol who live closest to it. Magic makes the games a lot more interesting, even, shamefully so, to the districts. Thus, the tributes get a crash course in the use of magic during training week; that is if they have even the slightest ability to use it.

This year will be the seventy-fourth Magic Games.

The Capitol calls it a mercy, but I know and so do many others, that such a notion is a lie. These games are a punishment, a way to throw in the districts' faces that we'll always be at the mercy of the Capitol and there's not a thing we can do to stop it.

I ignore the speech, having memorized the entire thing after attending it for the last ten years. I even ignore as the mayor reads off the list of victors from our district. We've only had two and only one is alive. His name is Clow Reed, and rumor has it he's very distantly related to one of the powerful magical families that founded the capitol, or at the very least, he shares their last name. It's not particularly uncommon. Not like it matters though. The Reeds, the magical family, died out decades before the rebellion. Anyway, he's a strange man and something of a hermit, although sometimes I see him town. And when I do see him, I feel a strange sense of kinship with him, although I have no clue why.

Then, Sonomi Daidouji comes front and center and greets us with her trademark, "Happy Magic Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" As usually, she's dressed in what must be the latest fashion of the Capitol and her hair is dyed an obnoxious pink this year.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her eccentrics. Spending even two minutes with that woman would probably irritate the hell out of me.

"Ladies first," she says and walks over to the glass ball filled with all the girl's names in our district. She pulls out a slip and walks back to the microphone before reading it.

It takes a while for my brain to register what I heard and when it does, I'm convinced I've misheard until I see her, brown hair and emerald green eyes, walking up onto the stage.

Sakura Kinomoto!

Normally, people have a hard time reading my expressions, but I'm pretty sure that today I'm wearing my shock. She had the best chance out of all of us. Sakura's fourteen, which means that she only has three slips of paper with her name written on it. Three slips out of thousands of names. Three slips compared to my twenty-eight; compared to other children's dozens.

Admittedly, whenever I thought in the past about what might happen if Sakura was reaped, my thoughts went to my best friend, Toya, who would be devastated after losing both his parents to lose his little sister to the Magic Games. But what I didn't think about was how it would affect me, to see her on that stage, putting up a brave face while I knew that inside she was probably scared to death.

My thoughts immediately go back to a decade ago, when I stumble out of the woods on a cloudy day while Sakura is playing in the garden. Her brother thought I was trying to hurt her and even at eleven years old, there's no doubt in my mind that he would have killed me if not for Sakura, barely all of four years old, running to stand in his way, with the same brave face she was using now that she was reaped.

"What's your name?" she asked me in a timid tone after I had been dragged to sit at the table with a cup of tea placed in front of me.

"Yue." I muttered. That was all I remembered.

"I'm Sakura, and I want to be your friend."

She has been trying to make good on that promise ever since; annoyingly so much to my dismay.

I'm prevented from thinking about it any further when I hear a commotion behind me. Toya has somehow made his way through the crowd and is making his way towards the stage. He's not saying a word, but it's Yukito behind him, trying in vain to stop him that is causing the racket. Somehow, I'm unsurprised by his actions. Toya would fight the entire world if he had to in order to protect Sakura, so a few peacekeepers with guns are not going to stop him.

But I can.

So regardless of the fact that I'm technically supposed to stay in my place, I make my way through the gathering of eligible boy tributes and walk directly into his path.

"You can't do this," I say calmly.

"Get out of the way Yue," he says trying to move past me.

"Toya," I say. "She'll be fine. She'll…"

But even as I say this, I know it's a lie. There's no way Sakura could survive in the arena on her own. There's no way I can assure her safety. But how else am I supposed to convince Toya of that?

While Yukito and I somehow manage to get Toya to stand back with the rest of the district not eligible for reaping, I try to figure out to find a way to quell the sudden overwhelming urge to protect Sakura for, if nothing else, Toya's sake. I owe it to him. Actually, I owe it to both Toya and Sakura; Sakura more than Toya maybe.

But how?

While I've been focusing on trying to stop Toya from making a bad situation worse while also reassuring him that Sakura will be okay, Sonomi has moved on, already passed the point of asking for volunteers. In the more fortunate districts, being reaped is an honor and they train children up for the games. Technically, it's illegal, not just because the games are supposed to be fair, but because they toe the line of using magic and not using it. All they learn is magical theory, but even being caught with a book on magic is enough to be charged with using it. In those districts, the career districts, the trained children happily risk their lives for the chance at victory in the Magic Games. In District Twelve, a volunteer for the games is unheard of, and unsurprisingly, no one has taken Sakura's place.

I mostly tune out the rest of the happenings as Sonomi moves on to the boys.

I don't go back to my spot for two reasons. One is that I don't trust Toya not to try to get to Sakura again. The other is that I'm still contemplating how I can possibly make this right. I can't take Sakura's place, and there's no way I can protect her during the games unless…

I become unnaturally stiff, even for me, a person who can sit still for almost unnatural periods of time. I don't think what I'm contemplating doing has ever happened in the history of the games, but there's no rule that says I can't do it. There's no rule that says I'm not allowed.

I make sure to focus on the stage as Sonomi reads a name from the slip, someone who I don't know and don't really care about, and I make sure to avoid looking around less I make eye contact with Toya or Yukito, and they someone realize my intentions and try to stop me, but somehow, Yukito already has.

"Yue…" Yukito begins but trails off.

"What?" Toya asks looking at Yukito and then at me.

Our eyes meet, and instantly, Toya knows what I'm thinking and shakes his head.

"She'll be fine. I'll make sure she comes back," I say and then begin to make my way to the front of the crowd.

Because I don't want anyone to stop me, I haven't even reached the front of the crowd and Sonomi has barely gotten her question about volunteers out when I say clearly, just loud enough for Sonomi to hear, "I volunteer."

Until this moment, I have no clue that silence can be so deafening. In fact, I think no one believes me, even as my peers make a path for me as I make my way to the front of the crowd, in plain view of everyone in the square. The wind, which had been still until now, blows my platinum hair in my face, forcing me to move it so that I can clearly say, "I volunteer as tribute."

AN: So how was it? Have I lost my touch?

Anyway, this is all very experimental for me. I don't really do first person, let alone first person present, let alone from the point of view of a character that's so hard to nail. And I haven't done a crossover since… well never. So I'm going to unwind by watching American Horror Story.

Hope you enjoyed. R&R.