Hello everyone! S. Halliwell here. Wow, it's been ages since I posted something. I have to apologize for that, but as I already mentioned, I lost all my oldest story ideas and documents. But then again, 7 Year Old Law didn't turn out the way I wanted it to. I actually have a more intricate plot in mind, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing it. I have a bunch of loose ideas that are partly connected, but I never get around to completely connecting them and working it out on paper. Anyways, I'm not here to rant. I am here to post!

This one-shot is for the New Trials 100 Themes Challenge Prompt 67: Boundaries. New Trials (NT) is a wonderfully written fanfiction by Wish-chan that started back in 1999 that has as of date accumulated 69 truly long chapters. If you haven't read New Trials, now is the perfect time to start as it is coming to a close. Wish-chan's wonderful work can be found on this very site at u/23409/Wish-Chan (her story is actually under my favorite stories in my profile) and at her own website at wishluv. revolutionhosting .net.

This scene is set to take place during chapter 53 of New Trials: Yesterday's Letter right after Sakura trips trying to run after Syaoran when he turns away from her and gets into the car during her trip to Hong Kong to look for him.

So Close, Yet So Far

She couldn't tell whether the wetness on her face was because of her tears or because of the rain that had started to fall. She didn't even care that she was in the middle of the street on her knees, hands lifelessly lying on the crevice between her thighs. All that was running through her mind was him turning away from her and getting into that car. There was so much she wanted to say, but it was no use. She had thought he would always be by her side. She knew now that she was wrong. His place wasn't with her; his place was with his clan. It had always been like that. In the end, no matter how much they faced together, how much they went through, he still had to return to Hong Kong, to his clan, always. They were that close, yet that far.

She never realized just what being a part of his clan meant. They weren't just ordinary rich people and they weren't just any sorcerer or sorceress. His clan was not only an economic and political power of the normal world, but also a leading power in the magical world with very ancient roots. The power his clan held didn't fully register until she saw the hill, the entire hill that belonged to his clan. It wasn't like a mini fiefdom, it was a mini fiefdom, which was actually not that mini, and he was basically their lord. That was exactly what they had called him. She wouldn't even have been able to get into their territory, let alone their main estate, if she hadn't traveled through the back forest. Even then, she still had a tough time getting past that wall and avoiding guards. And her? She was just some small town girl who just got lucky and somehow suddenly gained magical powers.

She wasn't trained from birth like him in martial arts and using magical powers. She remembered how experienced and confident he was when he first came to Japan. He had stopped the Sword Card from slicing her in half with just one strike of his own sword. Sure she had made him stay out of the way and captured the card, but he had complete control of the situation, unlike her. All she did was run until he stepped in and saved her. She wasn't even like her brother who had grown up sensing and understood the presence of his own magical powers. Yet somehow, this clueless, oblivious girl had won the cards. She now knew and understood why his clan hated her.

She had written him a letter hoping that if she somehow couldn't see him during this trip, she could at least find some way to get the letter to him and tell him thank you for all those times that he had been at her side, but she couldn't do that either. Apparently, she had been right in throwing away the letter. Apparently, it ended up being of no use after all. She had learned that someday, she had to let him go, but she thought she could at least tell him that she wished the best for him and perhaps they could still be friends, or maybe allies, but she couldn't even do that. He was right. She shouldn't be here; she had to let him go.

Somehow, she started walking. She didn't know where, she didn't know when, she didn't know how long, but she somehow just started walking. When she finally realized where she was heading, she was already there, right outside the outer wall of their territory. She could make out the highest points of their main estate at the very top of the hill. That was where he was right now and this was where she was right now, between them, very real and literal walls of separation keeping them apart. Walking up to the wall, she placed her hands on it; letting her tears flow to her heart's content. She had told herself not to be selfish and cling to him, and she wouldn't. She had told herself that as a long as he was happy and safe that she would move on, and she would, yet her heart kept telling her not to give up and have hope. She couldn't help but throw a halfhearted punch at the wall as she cried. She knew he wouldn't come back to her, but she wanted to wait, she really wanted to. She had promised that she would, but she understood that it was useless. She had to move on, or at least try her best to.

She would return to Japan and continue her life, without him. No matter how much it would pain her to go back to the hotel and get on that plane back to Japan, she would do so. Whether she ended up being able to move on or ended up waiting for him, at this moment, she would to return to Japan because at this moment, the boundaries between him and her were far too great.

And there you have it, everyone. As all of us NT fans would know, SS is enduring very, very difficult times. When I thought of the prompt boundaries, I thought of how the differences between Syaoran and Sakura's background are keeping them apart in NT and I thought that doing a scene that highlights that would really suit the prompt. I realized that such a scene could fit right into NT and the end of chapter 53: Yesterday's Letter is the perfect place for it. Wish-chan's thinking is actually not far from mine. Wish-chan described in the chapter when Sakura was heading to the main Li house that the entire hill was basically Li territory and that is actually how I had always imagined the infamous Li Clan. The clan would own an entire hill where they would be living with a huge and grand main estate at the very top of the hill just like Wish-chan said. I'm not sure how enclosed Wish-chan imagines the Li territory to be, but regardless of that, it worked out really well. The point is that Syaoran's family/clan is more complicated than a huge rich family running a corporate enterprise and they are not just your average sorcerer/sorceress. They aren't people you can touch. Sakura is shown that when she tries to find Syaoran in HK. She couldn't get close to him at all and is practically thrown out of the main Li house. He is like a prince of sorts which would make her a peasant of sorts. There have always boundaries regarding that kind of thing. Please let me know what you think. Do you think this works?