AN: ok, unlike Sakura Will You-Damnit and Shotgun Wedding - Touya Style, this will be a little less crazy and more of a light humor thing. (dankeshien for the reviews, btw….altho I haven't worked on Shotgun for like half a year…*sweatdrop*) Please read and tell me if you like it!

Chapter 1: Be careful what you wish for…

The leaves spiral past me, dancing on the wings of the wind and so I know that it is autumn again. You can smell it in the air: the musky scent of flowers releasing their last pungent fragrance, the sharp tang of rain that hovers everywhere…

It is a time for rest, when the world is tired of throwing out riots of color and smells, when the world has stored and spent the last of its energy in a six-month whirl of growth and flowering and is just now returning to it's semi-somnolent state of drowsy sleep. I close my eyes in meditation, sinking deep within myself and expanding my other senses. As always, deep inside me, I can feel a wellspring of silver shimmering, waiting for my beckon.

My magic, my inner star.

But sometimes, magic isn't they key to your life; sometimes, fate takes unexpected turns, fading and changing as quickly as the seasons and taking you down roads that you thought you would never travel. It's then that you learn the real lessons in life, about loneliness and happiness and sadness. Sometimes, you find that the greatest magic is not only inside you but all around as well.

Magic is a wonderful thing, it would be foolish to deny that. But sometimes…magic can't help you at all.

The alarm clock rang, causing Sakura to roll onto her back, an arm thrown above her head. For a moment, she stared at the ceiling through half-lidded eyes, letting the piercing call of the alarm penetrate through the haze of sleep and rouse her protesting body into action.

"Sakura!!!" A voice that was even shriller than the clock yelled in her ear. "Wake up! You'll be late for work!" Kero grabbed her hand and beating his wings frantically, pulled her into a sitting. Her amber hair whisped affectionately at her cheeks, framing her heart-shaped face and she yawned, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from her eyes. Kero, who was frantically rummaging through her closet, muttered peevishly to himself as he found her blue uniform and carried it towards the bed, struggling with the heavy folds of cloth.

"I can't believe this…You're twenty five, Sakura! Man, if it wasn't for me, you would be late to work every day and that Freako-sama would have fired you a long time ago!"

"Fugito-sama." Sakura corrected absently. "And that's my boss your trash-talking, Kero."

Ignoring Kero's disgusted snort, she hopped out of bed and immediately pulled her hair into its customary style, brushing the stubborn strands back behind her ears. She twirled once and smiled at her reflection in the mirror. Her reflection smiled back politely then gave an impish wink for good measure, causing Sakura to laugh aloud. Well, it was a waste to have a Mirror card and not use it, she mused, and besides, they got restless when confined to their card form for too long.

Grabbing her bag and skates, she ran downstairs, her feet clattering against the mahogany wood.

"Hi!" She called cheerfully as she ran past the kitchen table. Nimbly nabbing a rice ball from the plate, she crammed it into her mouth and began to lace up her skates under Yue's disapproving eye.

"You," He said coolly, "are late."

"As always." Sakura bit her lip to hold back a laugh as he gave her a frigid look that nonetheless managed to convey an air of cultured disgust. Knowing all too well his aloof affectations, she teased him a bit more before he finally retreated to the refrigerator in the pretense of getting a glass of orange juice, although they both knew that he hated the stuff. Sakura smiled fondly at him behind his back before going about with her own morning ritual of cobbling up a quick, if unhealthy, breakfast.

After she had graduated from Todai-U, she had gotten a job offer she couldn't resist for a teaching job as a third grade teacher. Unfortunately, the school was in Kyoto, a long way from home and family. For the first few weeks, she suffered from chronic loneliness despite the fact that she always had the cards and Kero to talk to, not to mention that she called Tomoyo and her father regularly. But phone calls and emails were somehow different than talking to a person.

That was when Yue had shown up at her door with nothing but the clothes (or robes, for that matter) on his back and his usual imperturbable demeanor. He came as her guardian and had moved in without a by your leave 'for the meantime.' Meantime? He had been staying ever since.

It had taken some time for her to get used to having him around; he was always painfully polite but still distant from her. In fact, it had seemed hard for him to even respond to her 'good mornings' and 'see you laters'. Being out of touch with familiar people was almost easy in comparison with having someone there that didn't want to be.

So last summer isolation from her family, stress from work, and uneasiness at home had finally caused her to snap. She disappeared, leaving no note and most of the cards scattered on the floor where she had thrown the Book of Clow. After she didn't come back that night, Kero and Yue initiated a citywide search for her, risking flying in broad daylight to search for their missing master. They had finally found her in one of the central parks, sitting listlessly on the bench and holding Hope in her hands as tears ran silently down her cheeks.

They tried to take her home, insisted on it, in fact, but Sakura had used Shield to ward off unwanted intruders and even they couldn't get through her barrier. So Yue had sat by her side, or sat as close by her side as the Shield card would allow, and just talked to her, something that he had never done before. He talked about her students (gakis, as she affectionately called all of them), about her work, about how her family would hate to see her like this and that she just needed to rest. He talked to her about how the cards would be worried if they didn't sense their master close to them and how they needed her to guide them.

He talked and talked, always in that same reasonable, soothing voice, until finally, Shield cracked and crumbled at her feet, flickering back into its card form. Kero, being Kero, immediately started ranting at her, scolding her as he always did when he got worried.

Yue didn't.

He let her cry on his shoulder (although he did not put his arm around her shoulder…far be it from him to initiate physical contact…) and listened as she let everything loose. In between her recriminations and apologies, they managed to sort out the cause of her problem and…well, things had improved after that. They couldn't do anything about family, but Yue made an effort to be more pleasant, going out of his way to get to know her better, although sometimes, he wore this pained expression as if someone was trying to yank out a tooth that wasn't even loose. They even tried their hands (err…paws?) at housework, although the house was cleaner if they didn't help. She would never forget the time that she had come home from work to find both Kero and Yue covered from head to toe with flour and the kitchen covered in beige goo. Apparently, they had tried to make dinner and learned the important lesson: one does not mix batter in a blender… especially not without the cap on.

It had been an endearing incident…and hilarious, although dinner was a complete write-off. They had gotten Chinese delivered instead. It was times like those that she was glad that she wasn't living alone; with Yue and Kero, it almost felt as if she had her family around her to protect and laugh with her again.

In a way, she did.

Now, Yue followed her as she dodged through the cluttered living room, struggling with her pinstripe suit as she skated awkwardly over the carpet. "Why must you always roller blade to school?" There was a tinge of exasperation in his monotonous voice as he handed her her bento box and schoolbag. "There is the bus you could ride to school in. It's not befitting of a teacher-"

"Hmmm…you worry to much, Yue," Impulsively, Sakura threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. "See you later, okay?"

She laughed at as his ice blue eyes widened marginally in surprise and yelled, "Bye Kero!" towards the kitchen where enthusiastic expressions of "ooh, cake!" and "Yum yum…chocolate!" were coloring the air.

Kero appeared, hovering at Yue's shoulder as he crammed a spoon into his mouth that was disproportionately large to his face. "Bye Sakura!" He said cheerfully, "Make sure you save some of your pudding for me! Hey, can I have that cup of jello-"

"No Kero." Sakura said firmly, jamming on her helmet.

"But-"

"I gotta go! Yue, make sure that Kero behaves, okay?"

"Of course."

Waving to her two housemates, she set off, racing down the sidewalk, neatly dodging the neighbor's dog that had taken a deliberate disliking to her. She laughed, spreading her arms wide as she took in the cool autumn air, tipping her head back so that she could see the leaves falling and dancing about her.

As they went back into the house, Kero turned indignantly to the other guardian, crossing his paws over his chest with a wounded expression on his face.

"What did she mean by 'make sure Kero behaves'?! I always behave!" Yue rolled his eyes, and merely raised a disbelieving brow as he began to wash the plates gingerly as if he still couldn't believe that he had sunk to this all time low. Kero glowered and flew alongside Yue as he repeated adamantly, "I do! I mean, what have I done that's ssoo wrong?"

"You almost blew up the television two weeks ago."

"Hey! That was an accident! It could have happened to anyone! Just because I spilled a little drink…"

"Or the time you ordered ten pizzas to the house and the delivery boy almost fainted when a flying toy opened the door? The only good thing about the entire incident was that he ran away screaming and we didn't have to pay for dinner for the next week."

"I was hungry! And don't call me a toy! I am Keroberos, Guardian of-"

"Your stomach."

"Hey hey hey! What is it, make fun of Kero day?!"

"Undoubtedly."

"Well, you, Yue, are so uptight that if I put a coal up your butt it would turn out a diamond!"

" Keroberos, that insult is cliché and overused, confirming my opinion that Clow Reed should have added brains and imagination when he sewed all that stuffing into your head."

"I am not a stuffed animal!!"

***

As she glided down the streets, Sakura couldn't help but marvel at the bronze sheen to the once green world. In the stead of lithe youth, the leaves had become brittle, hard, speckled and marked with vibrant gold, carmine, and a light orange. The trees had shed their emerald cloaks and blazed with fire that reminded her of the time that she had caught Firey; the trees had burned then too. Sakura smiled a little, nostalgia making her eyes misty.

They had all been so young…so vibrant. Back then, she had known exactly who she was and what she had to do: she was a Cardcaptor and it was her duty to capture all the cards and then transform them. Kero had always been there to guide her along the path of magic; he had always known what was to be done, even if he had not always told her. And when he wasn't there, Tomoyo was, or Li…even Meilin, her so-called "worst enemy" had cared enough to give her advice in her peevish, I-already-told-you tone of voice.

Now no one could be able to tell her what to do…well, because things weren't that simple anymore. Kero had already taught her the basics of her magic and it was now up to her to find the limits of her abilities, expand her senses so that she could be a better Captor. She could call her old friends and tell them about her job, but what advice could they give on how to handle thirty rambunctious kids? Tomoyo was a classy fashion designer and was so busy that she was barely at home to answer the telephone anyway. Meilin and Li had surprisingly concluded that they made good partners (although both had firmly vetoed the idea of a romantic relationship…they found out that they were too much alike) and were working together in a successful law firm in Hong Kong. Touya was earnestly courting a girl that he worked with and had little time for anyone else and her father…

Well, she didn't want to burden her father. He worried too much for her as it was.

"Kinomoto-sensei!"

Sakura jolted back into the real world long enough to smile warmly as one of her students waved to her from a passing car. She skated just a bit faster and waved back, yelling, "Ohayo, Taro! Did you finish your homework!"


"Hai!" He called back emphatically, then gave her a gap-toothed grin as the car turned the corner. "But you better hurry up, sensei! You'll be late again!"

Sakura laughed, pushing the melancholy thoughts from her mind as she shook her head in self-mockery. "He has a point…" She thought more cheerfully, then sped up, letting the wind whistle through the whisps of hair that escaped her helmet. Grinning fondly at the memories of how many times she had sped through the streets of Tokyo to just make it on the bell, she went faster, leaning into the wind. After all, she hadn't been one of the top triathlon athletes at Todai for nothing and she was still as fit as ever.

She rounded the corner on a sharp curve and glanced at her watch. "Five minutes left!"

Two of her colleagues stopped to stare as she shot past the school gates, Ms. Siechero had a shocked, disapproving look on her face, but Mr. Takatori smiled with tolerant amusement.

"Late again, Sakura?" He called. His voice was raised above the early morning chatter of students, and Sakura flashed him a conspiratorial grin in response, her emerald green eyes sparkling mischievously.

"Not yet, I have four minutes, Seta-san! I just have to get past these gakis and I'm home free. Wish me luck!"

Ignoring Ms. Siechero's huffed 'well I never', Sakura glided past the fifth and sixth grade classes, waving at some of her former students who were well used to her antics. Finally, she stopped just outside classroom 3-b and let her kids in…just as the bell rang.

I've still got it…She thought with some satisfaction and sat at the doorway to change her skates into her no-nonsense platform before entering the classroom.

"Ohayo, class!" She said happily and listened as thirty voices chirped back "Ohayo, Kinomoto-sensei!"

She had always loved kids, seeing as how she herself had not yet lost that bit of sunny charm that was associated with youth. Some people, aka some of the more conservative, older teachers told her that as a their colleague, she had to act her age. Which meant that she should act more like them. She invariably told them, "I am acting my age!" and left it at that. Some of them, like Ms. Siechero would never really like her for her flaunting of 'tradition', but the way she conducted her class was what made her one of the best teachers that the Kyoto Elementary had ever seen.

She had learned early on that if she showed her class that she wanted to teach, then they would want to be taught and once she had discovered that, the rest had been easy.

"Okay class, today, we're going to learn adding--yes Mamoru?"

One of the boys was leaning across his desk and was waving frantically at her from his seat. Mamoru sat up and whispered loudly, "I saw my sister kissing a guy yesterday!" then sat back and grinned proudly at the inevitable squeals of 'Ewww…kissing…" The girls huddled together, glaring warningly at the guys and whispering loudly amongst themselves. The boys shrank away from the girls, giving themselves 'cootie-shots' and shooting disgusted looks back as if to say, "uh uh…you aren't gonna touch me…" Sakura stifled a smile.

Some things never changed.

"Alright, thank you for sharing that Mamoru--yes Lily-chan?"

The girl blinked, seeming startled that Sakura had called on her as she always was. Slowly, she put down her hand and asked carefully, "Kinomoto-sensei, have you kissed a boy?" Thirty pairs of wide eyes swiveled to gaze raptly at Sakura, whose cheeks were becoming noticeably stained with pink. This was not the way that she had planned on starting the day's lesson.

She didn't want to lie to her students; it wasn't in her nature to lie. "Well…yes. Now moving on-" but of course, that tactic didn't work. Immediately, the room exploded in "Wow! Really??" "My mommy says that she kissed my daddy and she got pregnant with my brother." "Kimomoto-sensei, have you ever gotten pregnant?" "Do you want a baby?" "What's pregnant?"

Sakura coughed but her raised voice and repetitions for order did nothing to stop the babbling chaos. Finally, she did the thing that she would only do at the last resort. "Class, if you aren't quiet by the time I count to three, I'm giving you a quiz tomorrow."

And complete silence reigned.

After that, things progressed more normally with one or two minor squabbles over broken pencils and lost notebooks. She finished explaining the fundamentals of the difficult concept of adding, put her students in pairs, and watched as they painstakingly counted out numbers on their hands. Sometimes, they found out that they had run out of fingers and asked to borrow their partner's ten as well. Sometimes, even those twenty weren't enough and they pulled off their socks to count their toes.

After making a circle around the room and finding her students well on their way to learning, she wandered back to her own desk and began grading their last grammar tests, scratching out mistakes with a large, red marker. It was mindless work and Sakura found her mind wandering back to the latest discussion of pregnancy and children. She propped her head in her hand and grimaced, thinking of the questions her students would go home and ask now. She would probably be getting quite a few parent phone calls tomorrow.

But, she admitted, that the question had some merit. Did she want a baby? She knew, of course, that babies were hard work, always needing to be taken care of, fed every two to three hours, needing diapers changed…and the crying. Sakura decided instantly that she could probably deal with the rest of it, just not the crying. Her lips curled up wistfully as she looked at the stack of tests with half her attention. But the mothers that Sakura talked to all agreed that in the end, it was worth it, just to feel the pride, the love…

Actually, I just want to skip the terrible twosomes and get an eight-year-old all ready made. Sakura thought, then chuckled silently at her own whimsy. No diaper changing, get right into the birthday parties and soccer practice and magic lessons. Yep, that'd be the best.

Suddenly, her desk phone rang shrilly, causing half her class to look up curiously, a little murmur going through the room. Sakura frowned slightly at them, asking sternly, "Are all of you done with your assignments?" Headshakes answered her and she made shooing gestures as she picked up the phone.

"Moshi moshi?"

"Kinomoto-san, you have a phone call, line one," the harassed secretary muttered, "Something about an emergency…"

"Thank you, Norise," Sakura replied, trying to mask her alarm. What had happened? Who would have called her for an emergency? Quickly, she punched in line one, blurting out, "Hello, Sakura Kinomoto here. What's wrong?!"

"Sakura?"

"Yue!" There was an edge of anger in Yue's normally placid voice, causing a shiver of foreboding to climb up Sakura's spine. "What happened? Norise said it was an emergency-"

"No one's hurt," Yue answered grimly, "if that's what you were worrying about. But you better come home all the same. A twelve-year-old child tried to break into the house. Lock caught him, and it won't let go."

Tbc…

Author's notes: uh-oh….Sakura's magic caught up with her…but who's the kid? And what does he have to do with the plot? ^_~ I have a question tho. I can 1. Tie s+s into this (no! it's not Syaoran's kid…he's in Hong Kong!) or I can just leave it s+s-less. So tell me, to be romantic or not to be? That is the question! Please r&r! I'll give you candy…*bargains shamelessly*

Ps. If you want to be emailed when the next chapter comes out, please leave ur email address! ^_^ k. tha's all…

gaki - monster/little brats (can be used affectionately)