Litanya: It's been a while since I have written a CCS fic, but I'm going to try my luck again. This is a re-make of my old fic 'Cursed Love' which I deleted a while ago. I do not own CCS, nor do I claim to.

Eriol never was Clow Reed, but he is a very powerful magician. Sakura and Syaoran never had to find the cards either, but they still have a little magic. Basically this is an AU fic.

Cursed Love

Prologue

'Well, this is a daily occurrence,' the eighteen year old master magician thought to himself as he found that he had been backed into a corner. His attackers? A hyper twenty-five year old woman and a flying cat that vaguely resembled a stuffed toy that the boy had had when he had been younger.

"Eriol-sama, Suppi won't eat any sugar," Nakuru, the only female among them complained, sounding incredibly like a five year old child. Her hands were on her hips and she was giving the 'flying cat' an accusatory look, whilst trying to keep an angelic look on her face. 'Suppi' or Spinal as was his true name, was protesting loudly as what he called "an insufferable fate."

"She has gone completely crazy Master! Every single thing I eat she has tried to put sugar on. You have to stop it! I have wrecked the house six times this week already and it's only been three days. How much longer will you allow her to continue this madness?" he demanded. Even though he was small, his voice still managed to almost deafen the poor boy that had to handle this conflict. Spinal's small grey-white wings hardly moved and it almost looked as if they were only for show.

"Nakuru, how many times have I told you to leave Spinal's food alone?" Eriol's voice was surprisingly calm. Although he did not get pushed into a corner everyday, his guardians still had the same argument day after day after day. It was a little repetitive but… they were family. And families were important.

"I knew that you would side with Suppi-chan," Nakuru crossed her arms and turned her head in a sign of disgust, "You never let me have any fun!"

"Nakuru, I've already told you that you can only give him sugar three times in a week. If you keep on breaking that rule then I am going to have to ban sugar from the entire household," he sounded angry but inside he was laughing at the scene. He loved the two 'people' in front of him. They had all grown up together after Eriol's parents had died when he had been only five years old. Nakuru had been twelve at the time and her parents had still been alive. Eriol had moved in and lived with them until they died when Nakuru was sixteen. Since then they had lived by themselves and as a result they were extremely close. He could not imagine his life without his wacky 'guardians' arguing.

"But…but Eriol-sama!" she whined, grabbing a hold of his arm. She made her eyes water and screwed up her face, "I want to give Suppi-chan some more sugar!" She pretended to bury her face in his shoulder. This was when the doorbell rang. Eriol sighed and untangled himself from his female 'guardian.'

"This can wait until later Nakuru. You guys go and start making lunch and I'll get the door," he expertly dodged Nakuru as she tried to get him again and he knocked Spinal away before he could land on his shoulder. He had to answer the door without being hugged by his guardians. The last time it had happened the girl at the door had almost had a heart attack. It had mainly been because Nakuru had been holding a knife with one hand whilst the other had been around Eriol's neck. It had taken Eriol over an hour to explain before he had given up and he had just tampered with her memory a little. Then he had let her go and she had been fine, but it had been a close call. He could hear Nakuru and Spinal arguing in the background as he turned the door handle.

"Hi. Hiiragizawa Eriol isn't it?" on the doorstep stood two males. They were approximately twenty years old, only two years older than Eriol. They appeared to be twins as they were almost identical. They both wore black, with thick black dog collars which had been embellished with sharp silver spikes. Eriol had a bad feeling about them as soon as he saw them. It had been the one on the left which had addressed him.

"Yes, I am he. Who are you?" his suspicion of the two guys on his doorstep was making him uncivilized. He usually was extremely civil to strangers but these two just… made him angry.

"I'm Sintered and this is Santerado. We need to talk to you. Alone. Come with us," his voice was clipped and he pulled Eriol out of the house without his consent.

"What do you want?" Eriol demanded angrily as they pulled him down an alleyway. They only stopped when they were sure that no one would be able to see them from the top of the typically English-looking alley.

"We want you to help us," the one Eriol thought was Santerado finally replied. The 'twins' flared up their auras and Eriol instantly recognised them. They were both pretty strong magicians in their own rights and he had often sensed their auras. Unfortunately, they were criminals. They used their magic to kill people and steal from them whenever they were paid to do so. In other words, they were a lot like an assassination organization. Eriol raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but I don't like hurting people. I am not going to help you," he declared, trying to get past them and back into the street.

"No, you have to help us!" Sintered held out his arm, barring Eriol's exit.

"Help us or die!" Santerado agreed, pulling out a short staff. Eriol pulled off his sun necklace and muttered the password under his breath. The necklace immediately turned into a long Sun staff. Sintered also pulled out his staff and the three magicians faced each other, each ready to attack.

"Fine then, die!" and Sintered used his staff to form a fireball and he fired it straight at Eriol. In response the dark-haired boy countered it with a ball of ice. The two attacks collided and then disappeared, having cancelled each other out. Santerado's attack came next, a thunderbolt of lightning. Eriol dodged the attack, muttering something about the battle being unfair. He quickly fired off two balls of fire, one heading for Sintered and the other for Santerado. One of the fireballs brushed Santerado's shoulder, but the other missed completely.

"You will pay for that!" Santerado launched himself at Eriol, deciding to make the battle more physical. He pinned Eriol down and was about to throw a punch when his 'twin' used an attack with his staff. Santerado managed to get out of the way, but Eriol could not. The attack pierced into Eriol's chest but it was not painful, nor did it do much damage. Eriol looked down, confused. There was absolutely no sign that he had been hit by the attack, although he knew that he had.

"What did you just do?" he demanded, getting to his feet.

"You have one year to change your mind. If you don't, you will die. We put a curse on you. You will die within a year if you do not change your mind. You will get sick first, to remind you of the curse. That will happen about two months before the curse will kill you. Then you will die, if you do not join us. You will know how to contact us if you change your mind. Have fun for the rest of your life Hiiragizawa," and with that they disappeared. Eriol blinked at the spot where they had been standing.

'I'm cursed to die by the end of the year unless I join them? What do they take me for? I would rather die a million deaths before I would join them. There is absolutely no way I am going to give in to them. Even if the love of my life herself appears, I will not give in,' he told himself firmly as he stumbled back home to a waiting Nakuru and Spinal.


The ebony-haired girl smiled brightly as she taped her best friend for the last time in Japan. Tomoyo Daidouji loved filming her best friend. Sakura Kinomoto. Syaoran Li, Sakura's fiancé, scowled with impatience.

"Come on Daidouji-san! You're going to miss your flight if you don't hurry up!" Syaoran was driving her to the airport. Tomoyo had won a scholarship to one of England's best universities. She had wanted to study fashion designing and the university that she had gotten into was one of the best. She was going to do a double degree, meaning that she was taking a course in fashion designing and she had also decided to take up Law. She planned to open a fashion designing business up, but she wanted to make sure that she knew what laws there were and how to deal with them. That was the reasoning which had led her to the law degree.

"But Li-kun, I just have to tape Sakura-chan this one last time!" Tomoyo exclaimed, but she grudgingly put her camera away, "Now… I have all of my bags and books, I've said goodbye to 'kaa-san and I have cleaned the house from top to bottom. I guess that I'm ready to leave now." She was really excited. Even though she knew that she had to sit through a seven or so hour flight, she could not wait. Her mother was letting her stay in her apartment over near the university and she could not wait to decorate it.

"Tomoyo-chan, are you sure that you have to go?" Sakura's emerald eyes filled with tears. She was going to miss her best friend immensely. Tomoyo had been her best friend since they had been in year three at school. They had been best friends ever since then, bringing their friendship to the ripe old age of ten years.

"Sorry Sakura-chan, but I really want to go. This is the best chance I'm going to get at learning how to start my own business. And anyway, you and Li-kun are leaving for Hong Kong next week. You wouldn't have been able to see me anyway!" Tomoyo engulfed Sakura in a final hug. Sakura had claimed that she would not go to the airport because if she did she would 'cry until her eyes fell out.' Li-kun had agreed to drive Tomoyo to the airport so that at least one of her friends would see her off. And he also wanted to warn her about the English guys of course.

"Do you promise that you'll call me? And e-mail me? And write to me?" Sakura's eyes were wide, and tears were threatening to fall.

"I promise Sakura-chan, that I will call you, e-mail you and write to you. I'll never forget about you guys, but I need to go. I'll call you when I arrive to tell you that I'm safe, okay?" Sakura nodded, before wiping her eyes.

"Then you should probably go. I don't want to be the reason that you missed your flight," and she took a step back, away from the car. Tomoyo smiled.

"Thanks Sakura-chan. I'll call you!" and with that she got into the car before she could change her mind.

"I'll see you in about two hours Sakura," Syaoran informed his fiancé before he, too, leaped into the car. He knew that he had to leave quickly otherwise Sakura would attack Tomoyo with hugs once more. It was a pleasant drive to the airport. The two friends chatted about random things, such as the weather, what to get Sakura for her birthday, to if Tomoyo should be allowed to design the clothes for the wedding. Once they got to the airport though, it became serious.

"Daidouji-san, just make sure that you're careful in England. There are many guys out there, especially university guys that will look to exploit you. You know what I mean by that. You have to promise me that you'll be careful," Syaoran warned as he helped her with her luggage.

"I promise that I'll be careful, although I never knew you cared that much Li-kun," she giggled as his face turned bright red, "But seriously, don't worry. I can take care of myself. Now you have to promise to take care of Sakura-chan and make her happy. Do you promise?"

"Of course I do! Now go check in before you miss the check-in times," and he handed her the rest of her luggage. He wasn't allowed to go any further into the airport, "And Daidouji-san, don't go and do something stupid, okay?" She grinned.

"I won't," and then with a nod of his head, he was gone. Syaoran never liked to show his emotions in public and Tomoyo knew that he must have considered her a really good friend just because he had driven her there instead of letting her normal chauffer drive her.

"Excuse me Miss, but you need to check-in now if you want to catch your flight," an attendant reminded her. She shook herself out of her daze and handed her ticket and passport to the attendant at the check-in desk. She had not even realised that she had walked there. She checked-in with no further troubles and soon she was on the plane that would take her to her destiny. She had a feeling that her life was going to get interesting in these next few years.

'Maybe I'll find my special someone, just like Sakura-chan has Li-kun. For all I know they could be waiting just around the corner. Oh, I just can't wait to get to England and with those thought she settled down to try and get some sleep. After all, there was not much else to do on a plane. Her destiny was beginning to get clearer and as the plane took off, so did her dreams…

End of Prologue

Litanya: Okay, this is really different from my first 'Cursed Love' fic, but I am much happier with this version. Oh, by the way, I have no idea what I am doing when I add the '-kun', '-chan' etc. I have never learnt Japanese, at least not that I can remember, so if I do something wrong can someone please let me know and I will fix it for the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this and… please review if you feel like it!