"Sakura…" said the boy standing inches away from her, his face contoured in pain and sorrow. But deep inside she could feel no regret, he was happy, she realized.
"Li, I'm sorry." She said, not knowing any other way to express her emotions without letting her many held back tears spill.
"It's not your fault. I should never have said anything, I knew about Meilin, you didn't…"
Yeah…well, this is a goodbye, I guess." She answered, then stumbled away. Deliberately walking backwards towards the rest of the group, her eyes capturing his gaze, never showing any anger, pain, none of the things Syaoran had expected. Nothing.
He was sad, no, sadness was not even on his emotional scale, he felt something that he didn't think he should feel, he felt pride at breaking their bond so early, pride for Sakura's tearless face, for Eriol's smile, confident as ever, and for the way Yukito hugged his flower to comfort her heart.
He also felt a pride for Meilin, who accepted the marriage she did not want, nor need nor chosen.
This mix of pride and confusion was a small description of Li Syaoran's emotion as he for the second time now, boarded the plane back to China and his heritage.
Sakura had not felt this feeling of lose for such a long…very long time now, not since her father passed away had she felt this particular mix of emotions. She looked around; everyone seemed to be so sad about Li's second departure. She imagined that they were all thinking of this as a loss of a friend, not a good bye. Sakura signed, she released herself from Yukito's strong hold and pushed herself forward, almost sad to feel his warmth no longer against her.
"Well, he's gone, and it's about to rain, let's go squirt, I still need to drop you off before soccer practice." Said Touya, his face shifting from a light sign of worry to annoyance in less then a second.
"Ohhh… Touya!" Sakura exclaimed before following her older brother to find his motorcycle, purchased only a little while ago. Waving to her friends and shouting for Kero to stay out of trouble.
"Well, what do you think of her?" asked Yukito, sounding worried, his brows knitting together in a manner unlike him.
"She seems as "Sakura" as ever, I wouldn't have even guessed something was wrong, but…I don't know…there should be something wrong…"
Answered Tomoyo, sounding more worried by the minute.
"That brat better be sorry for this, Sakura's gonna stay up all night, again!" said Kero, popping out of Tomoyo's backpack once again, before being pushed back in by the owner herself.
"You're the most selfish person I've ever seen!" she said, glaring the little guardian down and pushing him some more.
"Now, Tomoyo, I'm sure Kero-san is just expressing his feelings on the subject. Nothing wrong with that." Interrupted Eriol, smiling slightly as the teen in front of him fumed.
"Yeah! I was just sayin' that Sakura was gonna be a heck of a lot of trouble now! Stupid brat… I'll never get any sleep…" said Kero, his voice acidly. Showing his deep resentment towards the Chinese boy.
"I think Sakura-chan looked well, don't you? She didn't seem upset in the least." Said Eriol, still smiling a secret smile, meant for no one.
"You're clueless! I have to sleep in the same room with her! And Sakura is not ok!!" fumed Kero, waving his miniature arms about furiously.
"I agree with Kero-chan, Sakura was too normal. Li just broke up with her! For god's sake." Said Tomoyo, angry enough for both herself and her best friend.
"Well, Eriol–san has a point, Sakura looked just fine, and…so did Li-san." Agreed Yukito, a puzzled look residing on his face.
"We need to find some cover before going forth with our discussion, it seems to be about to rain." Suggested Eriol, his voice smooth and cool, but still managing to sound as good an idea as any. As the small group soon found out.
"GREAT…" said Kero, his hardly visible whiskers wet at the tips, and his short golden fur clinging to him, tiny drops gathering at the base of hair.
"Yeah…well you're not the only one wet!" exclaimed Tomoyo, hastily covering her white and extremely wet shirt with her coat.
"I believe we should think of a way to get out of here without getting any wetter then we are, preferably soon." Said Eriol, a tiniest signs of irritation hardly showing.
Yukito shook his head, his short silver-like hair immediately adopting a strange and wild position.
***
"Hey Tomoyo… how are you?" asked Sakura, her voice sounding as genki as ever, and had Tomoyo not seen with her own eyes what had happened, she would never have guessed that something was wrong.
"We need to talk." She answered, her voice not really as confident as it usually was, which Sakura noted immediately.
"Ok, Tomoyo, what's wrong? You sound a little worried." She said, expressing her thoughts as soon as they appeared in her mind.
"Sakura…you're not sad, and Li just BROKE UP WITH YOU!" said Tomoyo, almost shouting into the phone.
"And…? Tomoyo, it's alright, I don't mind." She heard her best friend answer across the phone line.
"You two were almost inseparable a week ago, and now you don't mind!??" replied Tomoyo, sounding shocked at Sakura's words.
"Really, Tomoyo, Li-san just needs to go get married, he doesn't mind, why should I?" asked the young girl, her voice sounding puzzled.
"Well…how 'bout, YOU LOVE HIM!?" answered Tomoyo, seriously considering the odds against Sakura going mad with sadness.
" Well…I guess we 'loved' each other, but really, it's no reason to think I'll go mad when he leaves, Tomoyo. I think it's nice for Li-san to settle down with Meilin." Answered Sakura, laughing as she read Tomoyo's mad guesses as to why she was acting this way.
"Oh, yeah…the 'magic mind reader…' I should have known." Said Tomoyo, disappointed at herself for not predicting Sakura.
"Well, I think you're right about one thing, Eriol isn't worried about me at all, he knows exactly how I feel, and feels the same way." Said Sakura. A small laugh was heard across the phone line as Tomoyo blushed, realizing Sakura was reading her thoughts as they spoke.
"And Yes, I know you love him, it's really predictable, Eriol-san is handsome, smart, polite…" she wag cut off by a sharp word from Tomoyo, who had had enough embracement.
"OK!" she said, an unseen blush creeping at her cheeks.
"Well, he is!" Sakura giggled, smiling at the thoughts flying through her friends' mind.
"Ok, so I fell for Eriol-kun. What about you? And what exactly does he know?" she asked, changing the subject.
"He knows that me and Li-san are friends, that Li promised to write, and that I think he and Meilin are a nice couple."
"Ok…"
"I need to go Tomoyo-chan, I've got to make dinner, Kero's tugging at my sleeve, and I'm not done my homework yet." Said Sakura, then hung up, the annoying sound of the dial tone replacing her.
"Ok…I wish I could read her mind…" said Tomoyo, talking to no one in particular.
***
"Hey! Eriol-chan! Wait, we can walk to school together!" shouted out a genki-as-usual Sakura, roller-blading down the road, only to stop in front of a young boy in a school uniform similar to his own.
"Eriol-chan?"
"Hello Sakura-chan, I didn't hear you, I apologize." Answered Eriol, polite as ever.
"Yeah, rrriiiggghhttt…Eriol-chan? What's wrong?" she asked, once again sending a probe, this time having no obstacles in the boy's mind.
"Now you know." He answered. His head bent a little lower then usual.
"Oh, I didn't realize you would be upset by Li-kun's departure." She said, he eyes showing concern.
"Yes, he caused me a wide spread of emotions."
"Sorry, I should have thought of that." Sakura replied, giving a sympathetic sign.
"Well, Sakura-san, we should head towards school, you don't want to be late."
"Sakura-san…do you mind…?" he began, his thoughts filling in for speech.
"Oh… yes! Of course you may, why?" she returned the question, trying to figure out Eriol's motives.
"Well, they are your guardians, I wished to know your relationship…I'm…wondering about the proper emotion I should feel for Spinel and Nakuru. " he answered, the block from his thoughts signaling that he did not wish to speak any further, Sakura didn't mind.
"Well, I care about Kero…he's funny, and he's like a teacher…I guess, I'm used to having him around…to talk, ask questions…"
She trailed off, but Eriol, searching her thoughts, whispered another word in his mind, knowing she could hear him.
"Yue…? I don't know…he's nice, but I've only met him when he was forced to be there, or when Yukito–san decided that Yue HAD to have a "wing stretch" I feel like he doesn't accept me as a friend or mistress…"
"Wing stretch?"
"Yeah, when ever Yukito-san remembers about Yue he feels sad because Yue never gets to "live". So he forces himself to transform and leaves Yue to hang around…but he always spends his day in the clock tower, it's like he hates us all that much!" said Sakura, her emotions rising at bit higher up the scale.
"I doubt that, but do you enjoy his company at least, Sakura?" Eriol asked, showing minor signs of disappointment.
"Of course, I like him…I guess, Yue's sorta miserable, I can just feel all that pain around him. But no one else notices, and Kero-chan says it's just his "thing"…Eriol? What's this all about?" she asked, suspicion showing clearly.
Eriol looked up, only to meet a suspicious Card-Mistress staring at him, looking for an explanation.
"Sakura…I wanted to know about your relationship and figure out how to improve mine and Nakuru's…"
Sakura's suspicion passed, or so Eriol guessed, but she closed off her mind to him, using quite a powerful shield against his probes.
"Ok…well, I don't know…Yue-san and I aren't the best example…he's so…miserable, sad, every time we're in the same room…it's like he's begging for me to take away his power…or…or, or let the Sword Card kill him, it's horrible…I wish I could help him, make him better, make him see life as a good thing…you and Nakuru are better friends then us. I bet Yue-san would put the world betweens us if he could."
***
A/N: remember, I don't know much about CC, I've only watched the dubbed ep.s Up until "Stormy Weather" (where the snow card's captured.) and I haven't actually seen Yue in the anime, and haven't read the manga, this is all from info pages, screen caps and fanfiction. If anyone sees anything wrong with the fic in terms of information, please inform me, but bear in mind that this is the SECOND time Li left. More about that later.