A/N: Well, since my Christmas one-shot is still sitting half-finished in a folder, I figured I'd scribe away to produce a set of Valentine's Day ficlets and actually upload them on time. Hopefully Sakura and Syaoran will be able to help me get over my hatred of the day. Anyway, I've taken a few liberties when depicting Clow's version of Valentine's Day – I've made it more of a love celebration thing, partly because I think in Japan they exchange presents between friends as well as significant others, and partly because it worked better in the story.

Oh, and this fic will be three chapters long – the last one being posted on Valentine's Day.

Thanks go to SilentCynara for beta'ing this for me. As always, your feedback was amazing! It's nice to have someone to squee over fluff with …!

Disclaimer: Trust me, I don't have the brainpower to own TRC … if it was mine, everyone would have been returned to their home countries volumes ago due to a lack of creative ideas. And there would just be one of everybody. –sigh– 179 has kinda taken the fun out of writing childhood fluff scenes …

Summary: Even when she can remember nothing else, she still knows she has to kiss him five times. SxS Valentine's fic.

Tradition

Chapter One: The Tradition Starts

"Valentine's Day?"

Sakura blinked at him in confusion. "You've never heard of Valentine's Day?"

She was frowning, and Syaoran had that horribly familiar feeling of disappointing her. "I – uh, no. Sorry."

Suddenly she was all smiles again, and she lunged forward to take his hands. "No, no, no! Don't apologise! This means I get to teach Syaoran all about Valentine's Day!" She looked around for somewhere to sit, but they were in the middle of a corridor in the castle – and so Sakura just sat down on the floor, patting the space next to her to indicate that he should do the same.

"Won't we be in the way, your highness?"

"Of course not!" she said dismissively, her excitement causing her to miss the fact that he was using Keigo with her again. "And even if we were, it wouldn't matter – this is too important!"

Syaoran had a strong feeling that he'd underestimated how significant this holiday was.

"Now," Sakura said slowly, beaming with importance at being the one to explain this to him. "The reason Valentine's Day is so important is that it's a day about love."

Now he was really confused. "Love?"

"Yes!" she cried happily. "Valentine's Day is a day when people celebrate love!"

"B-But …" he scratched his head awkwardly. "… I'm not in love."

Sakura rolled her eyes playfully. "Not just being in love! Love in general. You love lots of people, right?"

"Um …"

"You love your father, and you love your friends in the village that you play with, and our pet sand rabbit, and the people that help you with your big dig," she babbled, before tugging on his hands shyly. "And you love me!"

He blushed furiously and avoided her eye, but he didn't deny it.

"Anyway!" She shook her head to focus herself, realising she had veered off topic. "On Valentine's Day it's traditional to give presents to everyone you love, to show your appreciation for everything they do for you and how good they make you feel."

"Presents?" Syaoran echoed weakly. The onslaught of information was proving to be too much for him.

Sakura nodded enthusiastically. "Yup! Traditionally people exchange chocolate – but you have to make it yourself because there's more love in it that way – and then you give the person you love a hug and a kiss and you tell them why they're so special!"

"R-Right …" he stammered – this was more complicated than he thought.

"Of course, it's a bit different when you've found your most precious person," Sakura continued happily. "Then you spend the whole day with them, and you give things like jewellery. But we don't have to worry about that yet, ne?"

Syaoran cleared his throat, which she took to be agreement.

"Now, Syaoran, you should come upstairs with me so I can give you your present!" she announced, leaping to her feet and attempting to pull the boy up after her.

"W-Wait!" he cried in panic. "You've got me a present?"

"Well of course!" Sakura smiled. "Because Syaoran is my very, very best friend!"

"B-But I didn't … I mean I …"

"Silly," she sighed, taking his hand and beginning to lead him down the corridor. "You can't have got me anything if you didn't know!"

"But I feel bad –"

"Well don't," she cut him off, pulling him to a halt and putting her arms around his neck. "You've already given me a present – because of you I now have a best friend. I never had one before!"

He wanted to say that she'd done the same for him, she'd done more – she'd given him light and sunshine and smiles and she was the reason his life was so much better, the reason he could feel. But he couldn't quite find the words, and so he remained silent and allowed her to pull him up the stairs and along the corridors to her bedroom.

Being in Sakura's bedroom always made him feel awkward – he could see no reason why he shouldn't be in there when he was allowed in the rest of the castle, but her brother always got furious whenever he caught them in there together.

Sakura, however, didn't appear to be bothered, and was rummaging underneath her bed for his present. Finally she found a beautifully wrapped box and presented it to him, beaming widely. "Here you go! I made them all myself … they look a little funny, but I'm sure they'll taste okay." She then leaned closer to him, whispering in his ear conspiratorially, "I gave you the biggest box. It was even bigger than 'nii-sama's!"

Syaoran blushed and thanked her, again feeling horrible that he hadn't got her anything – and for that matter, he hadn't gotten anything for his father either, or any of his friends.

As though reading his mind, Sakura suddenly asked, "Did you want to go down to the kitchens? I could show you how to make the chocolate and you could give it to Fujitaka-san when you get home!"

"I – I couldn't ask you to …"

"You're not asking, I'm offering!" she beamed happily, reaching for his hand. "Come on, let's go!"

They were nearly out of the door, when suddenly Sakura stopped short. "Oh, I nearly forgot!"

He looked her quizzically.

"The rest of the tradition!" she giggled happily, throwing her arms around him once again. "I need to give Syaoran a hug and a kiss and tell him why he's special!"

Syaoran couldn't help but feel horribly embarrassed. He adored Sakura, but he was sure he'd never understand her.

"Hmmm …" Sakura hummed thoughtfully, as though contemplating what to say. She leant forward and kissed him on the cheek, making his face heat up. "Syaoran is special because he's my friend," she began, before kissing him on the other cheek. "My very, very best friend!" This sent her off into peals of giggles, and Syaoran felt as if he'd got off lightly. He felt warm all over whenever her lips touched him, but at the same time the action was frightening. He didn't know what it meant or how he was supposed to respond, only that it made him feel good.

But Sakura wasn't finished yet. "Syaoran is special because he's so very clever –" She punctuated the remark with a kiss to his forehead "– and he knows so much about everything!"

Syaoran gulped nervously. When she was this close to him he could see every detail of her face – sun kissed skin, long, dark lashes, the thin silvery scar near her hairline where she'd tripped over a log when they were out exploring. Insignificant things that should mean nothing, and yet they meant the world to him and made it hard to concentrate on what she was saying. He shook his head slightly, forcing himself to pay attention to her.

She then kissed him on the nose, which made him smile because it tickled. She'd known he would smile, and she laughed in triumph. "And he's special because he has the loveliest, brightest, kindest smile in the world! But most of all …" She paused, before beaming happily at him. "Syaoran is special … because he's Syaoran!"

Then she pecked him on the lips, leaving his face flaming and his heart racing.

Sakura, of course, was completely unaffected. "See! Isn't this fun! And now, every Valentine's Day I will give Syaoran his five kisses! Every year, for as long as we're together! Which is going to be a really, really, really long time!"

Syaoran sensed he was supposed to say something, but could do nothing more than nod his head in agreement.

It seemed to be enough for Sakura, for she changed subjects almost immediately. "Come on, Syaoran!" she cried. Let's go make some chocolate!"

She seized his hand and pulled him off again, his face still burning red. They passed Touya on the way out, and the prince glared at Syaoran as though he'd been doing something terrible.

It hadn't been terrible though, he realised. Despite his red face, Syaoran had never felt more loved in his life.

Valentine's Day was truly a wonderful thing.