I thought I'd give it a shot at a fic that isn't video game-based. What better way to do that than with one of my favorite anime series, Card Captor Sakura?
Note that I don't know a lot of Japanese customs, so this is kind of an Americanized version. Warning that I do believe that Yuki and Touya are in love, so yes, there is shonen-ai when they're together. If you don't like it, ignore it or don't read.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters affiliated with Card Captor Sakura in any way, shape, or form.
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A Song For You
Chapter 1: A Fresh Start
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The stage's lights ignited in a dazzling display of color, shining down on the single high school student with sincere vigor. The crowd out in front of the stage became silent as they waited for the music to start. One table in particular was riveted on the stage, wishing the best for the young woman standing on stage with a guitarist, bass, and drum set.
The drummer tapped his sticks a few times to establish the beat:
1, 2, 3 –
The guitarist and bass players came to life as the lights began to shift around the stage. The music was lively without being too metal-happy and it had a definite beat that the entire café soon found itself tapping their feet or fingers to.
After three bars of intro, the lights centered once again on the young woman standing in the center of the stage. Her long black hair flowed as if it had been waiting for this moment, her fair skin dazzling in the bright lights. Her eyes were bright and showed the truth about how she felt about singing in front of an audience: she loved it.
The words began to flow as Tomoyo Daidouji felt the inspiration of song fill up her chest. She rocked to the beat, twirling and dancing along the length of the stage as the words flew as if the girl had known them since she had been born. The café was ecstatic, but no one said a word – smiles crossed the faces of familiar people and strangers alike at the magnificent sound of Tomoyo's voice.
The one table in particular, down in the front, the very center of the café, was the only one who said anything at all, with a rousing, "All right, Tomoyo-chan!" and "Woo!" It was obvious that this particular table was filled to the brim with the vocalist's closest and most wonderful friends.
One patron of the table was especially excited to see Tomoyo sing. Young Sakura Kinomoto had been Tomoyo's best friend since they entered grade school together, and here they were, sitting in a café as Tomoyo sang her heart out for a contracting agent sitting in the back of the room. They only had four more months of school left before hitting the world on their own, and Sakura knew that Tomoyo was making sure that she enjoyed what she did for a living.
The song ended on a lengthy note held by Sakura's friend. The longer the note, the more people began to cheer. Sakura and the other patrons of her table stood up before anyone else to applaud Tomoyo's performance with vigor. Tomoyo ended the song with a swing of her arm as the guitarist played one silencing chord and took a bow, her black tresses falling about her head, still shimmering in the harsh-yet-beautiful stage lights.
When the crowd finally died down, Sakura and her friends sat again at their table, each one eager to compliment Tomoyo's performance.
Naoko, an intelligent and vividly imaginative girl with brown hair, a round face, and bright eyes behind no-frame glasses said, "I don't think I've ever heard Tomoyo sing like that!"
"Me, neither!" another girl chimed in. It was Rika, a beautiful redhead who had almost been nominated to be Homecoming Queen that year. The vote had been very close, a staggering two-count difference between first and second place.
"It's just like Daidouji to bring down the house, eh?" a dark-haired young man piped. Takashi Yamazaki was taller than anyone else at the table and was known for his long-winded stretches of truth that were only proven wrong by his loving girlfriend Chiharu Mihara, who sat on his left.
Sakura nodded, her brown hair bobbing with her head movement. She'd never let her hair grow past her shoulders because it would be too much of a hassle, so she usually kept it about the length she'd had it as a child – roughly even with her jawline, curled up to frame her face. Sakura's hand was enveloped in the hand of another, one Li Syaoran, who had been Sakura's significant other since they were little. He had once asked Sakura to grow her hair out, but Sakura wouldn't have it.
"I don't even think I could have done better!" a loud teen said, followed by a harsh but friendly laugh. It was Li's cousin Li Meilin, from Hong Kong. She always thought of herself as the best in everything, which most people ignored. Her long black hair was tied in a single braid tonight and her bold, bright eyes were glistening in excitement for her friend Tomoyo.
"Where'd she go?" Sakura asked, looking around. Li gripped her hand tighter as she made a move to leave the table, at which she looked down at him in inquiry.
"She probably went to go talk to the recording agent," Li reminded her. She nodded in agreement and sat back down with her friends.
"Such a lovely song," Rika said as she rested her head on her hands. Her face had taken on a dreamy expression and not a person at the table didn't doubt whom Rika was thinking of. There was a boy in another homeroom that Rika had been crushing on for years, but had never mustered up the courage to say anything to him. After thinking about it, Sakura realized that she didn't know the guy's name.
"I bet that Kero and Yuki would have enjoyed this," Sakura said to Li and Meilin, who both nodded in agreement.
Kero was a special guardian beast that had been protecting Sakura since she had been in the third grade. It had all began with that blasted Book of Clow, which was now known as the Sakura Tome. Li, Meilin, and Tomoyo were the only ones out of all of Sakura's closest friends who knew about Kero's existence, as he was a magical beast forged from ancient magic. The only person who would have believed Sakura's tale would have been Naoko, but she wouldn't have been able to keep the secret for long – she had too much of an imagination to keep something like that to herself.
The Book of Clow had been guarding a deck of 52 special cards known as Clow Cards, each granted an aspect of nature. Sakura had accidentally released them in her father's basement library one evening, awakening Kero and becoming the one true Cardcaptor on Earth. Li's family in China was immediately alerted of this and sent him to Japan to collect the Clow Cards, but he found that Sakura and Kero were already doing a decent job of finding and negating their threats to society. With Li and Kero's help, Sakura was able to collect all the Cards and defeat Yue in the Final Judgement, becoming the true owner of the Cards themselves.
That had been roughly ten years ago. Such memories had been swept up in growing up and becoming ready to go out into the world. Kero and Yue, being Sakura's guardians after she claimed the Clow Cards for herself, had been with her ever since, protecting every aspect of her life that she allowed them to. Most of the time, however, she just left things to herself or Li, who had been taking very good care of her all those years.
Remembering all this, Sakura squeezed Li's hand affectionately, to which he grinned in response. Meilin giggled and looked to a conversation with Yamazaki and the others.
"Everything all right?" Li asked, drawing Sakura in closer. She let him wrap his arms around her. He played soccer for the high school team, as well as other sports, so he was a very strong and fit young man. Sakura loved being in his arms.
"Everything's fine," Sakura replied. "I'm just thinking about how things used to be."
Li blinked in surprise. "Don't do that, you'll make me remember Yuki."
Sakura laughed. Yuki was Yue's earthly form, a disguise that allowed him to be among normal people. When they were little, both Sakura and Li had been emotionally drawn to Yuki, but for different reasons. As it turned out, Li's "crush" on Yuki had in fact been Li's sensitivity to Yue's powers, a magnetic force that proved to Li that he was stronger, magically speaking, that he'd originally thought.
"Yuki and Touya are coming over for dinner," Sakura informed Li. "Would you like to come as well?"
Li's face turned a deep red as he tried to refuse as politely as possible. Sakura just laughed.
"Oh! There she is!" Chiharu cried, pointing over the crowd. The table turned to see Tomoyo's fine figure and long black hair rushing over to them with a magnificent smile on her face.
"I've been signed on!" she cried before she even reached the table. "I'm going to be a recording artist!"
Everyone at the table leapt up in cheers. "That's great, Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura cried. She was the only person who still called Tomoyo that, which neither of them minded at all.
Sakura hugged Tomoyo tightly in congratulations, followed by Meilin, Chiharu, Rika, and Naoko. Li and Yamazaki stood by the side and merely beamed. It didn't matter to Tomoyo – she knew that they were happy for her as well.
"So now what?" Chiharu asked eagerly.
"Now I have to come up with more songs for my first album," Tomoyo said. She paused. "My first album. Oh, Sakura, this is so exciting!" she wrapped her arms around Sakura, who laughed nervously and agreed.
"You? Original songs? That shouldn't be too hard," Meilin piped. "You're good with lyrics."
Tomoyo detached herself from Sakura and looked over at Meilin. "Oh, no, I can't write. I can sing lyrics, but I can't write them."
"How about having Naoko write them for you?" Rika suggested. "She's amazing with the pen."
Tomoyo looked over at Naoko with a look of great hope instilled in her eyes. Naoko blushed for a moment, normally the shy type, and nodded with a smile. Tomoyo and Sakura squealed simultaneously and hugged once again.
"That's getting old," Meilin joked, pretending to prod her ear with a pinky.
The group proceeded to leave the café, having done what they intended to do, and turned instead to head off their separate ways for the night. After all: Touya and Yuki were coming over for dinner!
After separating from the others, Li and Sakura, hand-in-hand, found themselves in front of Sakura's house. Li leaned in and gave Sakura a quick kiss before smiling. Curious as to what he was smiling about, Sakura gave him a look of inquiry and a grin before giggling. Li started laughing as well.
"Aw, how cute."
Sakura gasped and turned to the doorway, in which stood her older brother Touya. He was taller than even Yamazaki with short brown hair, darker than Sakura's, with a serious expression on his face.
"Hey, Monster," he said.
Sakura growled. He still insisted on calling her that, after ten years! "I'm not a monster!" she cried.
"Heh. Whatever." Touya looked next to her and saw Li standing there. Sakura could almost see the lightning bolts shoot from each man's eyes. Touya had never liked Li, for a reason that Sakura couldn't understand. "You watching out for her, kid?"
"As well as I can," Li replied sincerely. Sakura inwardly shrugged. With Yue and Kero around, Li didn't really have to "protect" Sakura often. Besides that, life had been pretty normal after fifth grade, when she had completed the Sakura Tome.
"Good."
Touya turned and walked inside. "Food's almost ready," he called out to Sakura without turning back.
Sakura sighed and shook her head. "That man never changes," she said. She looked up at Li and smiled sadly. "I guess this is good night, Syaoran."
"So it would seem," Li replied. He leaned over and gave Sakura another, lingering kiss before departing. He walked slowly away from Sakura, watching her as she waved to him and turned to head for the doorway.
After she had disappeared from sight, Li nodded to himself, satisfied, and turned to make his way home. Meilin was staying at his house and it was his turn to cook.
Sakura had just shut the door when she heard a shrill, "You're hoooooooome!"
"Gah!" Sakura ducked and the flying, plush doll-like creature slammed hard into the front door.
Sakura picked the creature up off the floor and patted the dust off of his wings. "Sorry, Kero. You okay?"
Kero sighed. "Just like you to treat the great Beast of the Seal like some throwing knife," he cried, looking back at Touya. Touya just laughed.
"Some Beast of the Seal," Touya remarked. Everyone knew he was just joking, but Kero wasn't one for jokes about plush dolls.
"What was that?" Kero cried, a vein throbbing in his temple. A magnificent seal with a sun in the center appeared on the floor.
"Kero! No!" Sakura cried. The seal disappeared instantly and Kero returned to Sakura's side.
"You're no fun at all," Kero whined, crossing his arms.
"Where's Yuki?" Sakura asked.
"He's in the living room," Kero replied. "Want me to go get him?" Without a response to dictate him, Kero shot away from Sakura and headed for the living room.
Sakura walked up to the kitchen counter and leaned on it as Touya cut up a stalk of celery for the stew. "It's so weird to have him out of my room with other people around," she sighed.
"How long has he had free roaming privileges?" Touya asked. "I remember only seeing him in your room all the time."
"About four years," Sakura replied. "I figured that since he and Yue are part of my life, I'd better let him meet the family. Dad loves him, you know."
"Dad would."
"So how are Yuki and Yue? Are they getting along okay?" Sakura asked.
"You know, it's odd, but Yuki still finds it disturbing that he can talk to another person inside his own head. It's been ten years, after all, but Yuki just can't seem to let it be natural."
"Would you?" Sakura asked. "I mean, he doesn't have a memory prior to knowing us, so wouldn't you feel a little wierded out?"
"Probably."
"See? I'm right." Sakura grinned. "So what's for dinner, Mister Chef?"
"Veggie stew and fried rice is all I'm responsible for," Touya replied.
"Dad must be making the rest," Sakura commented.
Footsteps from down the hall issued Sakura to turn around. Standing in the living room doorway was a man just shorter than Touya with silvery white hair and glasses. His face was pointed and he had very kind eyes. He gave a smile to Sakura, which she returned.
"Something smells good in here," he said. "Is Touya almost finished?"
"Almost," Sakura announced. "How're you two doing?" she asked.
"I'm fine," Yuki replied. "Yue is feeling a little cabin fever, though. He doesn't get out much anymore, you know."
"I know. I'm sorry." Sakura sighed. "There's just really no reason for him or Kero to be involved in much right now. The Sakura Tome's locked up upstairs and there hasn't been anything major happening around here."
"Maybe something will happen soon," Yuki said as he sat down at the table. "Yue seems pretty restless."
"It'd be nice, but I don't want anything dangerous to happen," Sakura admitted. "After all, if I do something, Syaoran will be there, and I don't want him getting hurt."
"Of course."
"Dinner's coming along, so it'll just be a minute," Touya announced from somewhere inside the kitchen.
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Li and Meilin sat down at the table to eat, talking about Tomoyo's performance and her deal with the record company. It was a lively conversation, since she was a friend to both of them, and it was evident that they were both very happy for her. The topic of conversation switched to what Li was going to be doing come the weekend, which Li was clueless about.
"You should take Sakura to the Nadeshiko Festival," Meilin suggested. "It's the main reason I came to visit, you know."
Li considered it for a moment and shrugged. It was only Tuesday; he had plenty of time to decide.
Just then, Li felt a strange wave of something cross his consciousness. He sat up straight and looked around as a cold shiver went up and down his spine. Meilin looked at him in inquiry, but he just shook his head, confused.
Magic? But whose was it? It wasn't familiar…Li went back to his dinner as Meilin began to prattle on about what was new at the Nadeshiko Festival this year. He eventually came to tune her out completely – that wave of sense he'd felt was beginning to get to him.
Someone was in town, but he had no idea who.
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Well, what do you think? It's kinda boring for my tastes, but I promise that I have something planned. This is my first CC Sakura fanfic, so please, any reviews at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
