Disclaimer: CardCaptor Sakura is not mine, it's owned by CLAMP. Yes, you've read right. It took me five years of therapy to finally admit that. Akira, Nami, Tama, Yuri and Yuri are mine, though. So you can't sue me for that.
Summary: Tomoyo and Eriol's children traveled through time by a century old pocket watch that turned out to be a time turner. They traveled back where their parents were still in school, only to find out the shocking truth… that their parents hated each others' guts! So how are they going to end up together? Will they learn to love each other? Or will they hate each other more? Read and review!
Author's Notes: I would like to thank my beat-reader and editor, TeDDieZ, for being so patient with me though I always bug her about this. I would like to dedicate this chapter to her too. Thank you very much, TeDDieZ.
Now and Forever
by Hidden Tala
i. Dad's pocket watch is equals to a time turner
"Venturing around the dragons' lair again, little sisters?" asked the amused female standing in the doorway, arms crossed firmly below her chest.
The two girls shuddered involuntarily at the sound of their sister's voice but turned around to face their doom.
"We were just-" one girl tried to explain but was crudely interrupted by a deep baritone voice coming from the doorway too.
"I won't hear a word of it," he sternly rebuked. "I told you not to wander around this part of the house. This is Dad's study, and he doesn't want us snooping around his things." He crouched down so as to be leveled with his twin sisters and he gently ruffled their dark heads. "God, you two will be the death of me. It's either with Dad skinning me alive or of high blood pressure!"
The two little girls bowed in apology at their elder brother and sister. "We're very sorry. We promise not to do it again."
The hardened features of the elder brother softened and took their little hands in his. "Come on, let's get out of here before Mum and Dad comes home. Nakuru-chan's playing with Suppi upstairs, let's go."
"Hey, look at this! It's Dad's pocket watch!" A little boy exclaimed, holding an old gadget he found on his father's desk. He opened the golden pocket watch expecting to find numbers to indicate time like normal clocks do but it was blank except for the short and long hand, immobile. "How very odd. How am I to know the time without the numbers here? It's not moving. Is this a watch?" he said to himself, eyeing the object in fascination.
"Tama, put that watch down," said the elder sister who was standing a while ago in the doorway. "Dad'll throw a fit when finds out you touched one of his collections."
"Bah!" Tama threw his arms in indifference. "It's not even a watch to begin with!" He toyed with it for a while but returned it to the desk when his eldest brother gave him a cold glare.
"Gosh, you're such a grumpy old man, Akira!" Tama, the one who played with the watch, remarked then made his way to the door.
"Come on, you guys. I wanna eat my ice cream now," said the older girl, turning to the door.
But before they could step out, a yellow light enveloped the room. All of them froze in fear.
"What's happening, Akira?" the older girl asked worriedly, eyes darting nervously from side to side.
Akira, the eldest of the five, turned to little Tama and eyed him suspiciously. "What did you now, you bloody midget?"
Tama glanced nervously around the room. "I didn't do anything, I swear!"
Remembering Tama's statement about the watch 'not being a watch', the older girl bolted upright. "The watch! What did you do to the watch? What does it look like?"
"It doesn't have numbers and-"
But he was interrupted by a vacuum-like force that swirled around the room. The golden watch gleamed and devoured the five occupants of the room. They were gone a moment too soon.
"Well, in multiplying two radicals of different orders, it is first necessary to express them as radicals of the same order. The order of the new radicals should be the LCM of the original radicals. We derive here a law raising the order of a radical. Letting n be the order of a radical and c a positive integer greater that 1, we write,
nth root of a a 1/n a 1/n (c/c) a c/cn cnth root of a raised to c
Hence, we have a law a of radicals that states that in order to raise the order of a radical, multiply the order of the radicand by any chosen integer c 1 and take the cth power of the radicand.
For example, we'll multiply 2 cube root of 2a by 5 cube root of 3a squared b," Tomoyo took a glace at Sakura to check if she was still breathing. Seeing that she still does and blood's not spilt and that her beloved cousin's still wide and awake, Tomoyo demonstrated how to solve the problem.
"2 cube root of 2a times 5 cube root of 3a squared b is 10 cube root of 6a cube b. Get it? You have to multiply the numerical coefficients then proceed to the radicals. Being of the same index, you'll just have to copy them and proceed to the radicands. You see they're still not simplified, yes? Since a cube is still there, we have to get that out of the radical sign to be with the numerical coefficients thus the final answer would be - 10a cube root of 6b."
Sakura nodded grimly, beads of sweat forming in her forehead.
"Thanks, Tomoyo-chan. I'm really glad you're my best friend. I don't know what I'll do without you," Sakura said seriously, then broke out into a sheepish smile. "Syaoran-kun's good at this too but he's always complaining about my slowness in understanding Algebra… he said he'd rather capture Clow Cards and fight evil spirits than have a tutoring session with me."
Tomoyo chuckled lightly. "How predictable of Li-kun to say that! Of course he's like that because he just wanted to spend time cuddling with you and all that gooey stuff you do!"
The other girl reddened in embarrassment but laughed as well. "Well, I'd rather do that too," she said, giggling at the same time.
"Hey, I heard my name two times there; what is it, what are you talking about?" asked the chestnut-haired boy behind Sakura who was buried in his math problems. Sakura looked at him fondly then kissed his cheek making him blink in confusion. "It's nothing, Syaoran-kun. Just study your equations. Tomoyo and I will work this out."
He nodded and went back to his work.
"Hey, Clow," Syaoran called to the boy beside him, too busy to look up. "How do you solve this?" he asked, showing the other boy a particular number on his book.
"Hmm, a raised to m minus 3 times a raised to 4 minus m isn't that hard a question, Li-kun," the reincarnation of Clow Reed taunted. "You're losing touch, dear descendant."
"Oh yeah? Then what's the answer, all-knowing ancestor?" Syaoran said, throwing a disgusted look in Eriol's direction.
"You have to add the exponents first in multiplying polynomials with the same bases. M-3+4-M, you cancel out the ms because they're unlike signs and negative 3 plus a positive 4 is 1, correct? That leaves you a raised to 1 because you can't multiply exponents of the same bases. That's one of the laws of exponents, no? So the answer is a because a raised to 1 is a itself."
"Oh," Syaoran nodded, agreeing to Eriol's explanation. "I knew that."
Eriol only laughed at his descendant's reaction.
"Please settle down, everyone," their Advanced Algebra teacher announced at the door and it was followed by silence. Seeing the confused glances of his students, he shook his head. "No, I won't be giving you the exam," he said, cheers and applauses erupted in the room. "Well, not right this minute but I will in an hour." Seeing the fallen faces of his students, he chuckled softly. "So study well, my test is rather enlightening. Before I forget, Mr. Hiiragizawa please follow me to the Principal's office." He motioned for the dark-haired boy to the door.
Syaoran shifted to Eriol and glared at him suspiciously. "I knew it! It was you who painted the boys' bathroom in pink using magic! I knew it!"
"Hush, Syaoran-kun!" Sakura admonished her boyfriend then turned to Eriol and beamed at him. "I'm sure it's nothing Eriol-kun. Don't mind Syaoran-kun, he's just upset because you knew the answer and he didn't," she said and stuck her tongue to tease Syaoran.
Eriol chuckled lightly and went to Principal's office as ordered.
Tsuzuku.
"I've always been a big fan of time travel, and I'm very into the notion that some day we'll be able to do it. Beam me up!"
-- Scott Bakula