This was written after seeing the clip when Li tells Meiling that he has found someone else. I don't have the episode reference, I found it on youtube and there is a debate as to what number it actually is. ;
Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura.
A Love Lost by Ransomed Heart
Pale skin taking on an almost ethereal glow in the moonlight, Daidouji Tomoyo cast a glace over the side of her bed at the sleeping girl. Meiling had finally collapsed into sleep on a futon next to the other girl's bed. She had declined a guest room on the grounds that she did not want to be alone. Tomoyo's presence had a calming affect.
That concept was something that Tomoyo had always found rather ironic, even at her still-young age. She was the watcher, the comforter, the giver of unquestioning and unfaltering love and support. Yet it was times like this, when sitting up alone in her room at ungodly hours that Tomoyo felt the most alone and unable to console herself.
It was, she reasoned to herself, only a matter of time. Tomoyo was nothing if not observant, and she had seen Syaoran Li (and everything he would become) coming a mile away. Meiling's appearance, the arrival of a fiancée (who was therefore a barrier) had almost given her hope, though it was short-lived.
"But...if the person I love is happy...that's all I need to be happy."
Sakura always came first. It was a lesson well-learned from her own family's experiences with Nadeshiko - You should be happy if the person you love is happy. So Sakura's happiness always came before her own. All Tomoyo ever asked for was that Sakura wear her costumes and allow Tomoyo to tape her. It was, especially after the arrival of Li, a way to preserve in her own heart a feeling that would never be realized. Because no matter how much Tomoyo loved Sakura, she was not Sakura's number one.
"But the worst part is…I really like Kinomoto too…"
Tomoyo had expected Meiling to say that. After all, who didn't like Sakura? But she shared the sentiment behind the words; Tomoyo couldn't hate Li either. She respected Meiling very much for not hating the "other woman." And Li was someone that Tomoyo considered a dear friend. She could not hate him for acting on his own feelings.
It was then that the tear slipped out, trickling through a crack in the dam, which suddenly burst. Tomoyo threw herself among the down pillows and comforter. They muffled the sounds of her quiet, despairing sobs from the sleeping girl on the floor. She shared her pain more than Meiling would ever know.