Disclaimer – I don't own CCS.
The Price of Love – When the Tears Finally Break
"Morning dad," she said her voice slightly lacking her usual cheer.
"Morning princess," her dad replied. She quickly ate her breakfast and was out the door.
"Things have changed so much since he left," he sighed to Keroberos, the guardian beast of the seal. "I remember when she would sleep in every morning and we would have to do everything we could think of to wake her up."
"That's because she doesn't sleep," Kero sighed. "And if she does her dreams are haunted by him and she wakes up at dawn her face damp with newly shed tears."
"She was always so cheerful," her father added. "It's as if I lost my daughter the day she lost her heart."
"He was so young," Kero said. "He was everything to her and he was so in love with her. This shouldn't have happened, especially to Sakura. Sakura was such a kind and generous person, she was never unkind to anyone, she didn't deserve this."
Her father shook his head. "I only wish she would stop blaming herself," he said. "I wish she wouldn't think that Syaoran dying was her fault and accept that she could never have prevented it."
"I think what's hurting her the most is that he left without knowing that she loves him and no matter what she always will," Kero said.
"This never should've happened."
It had been three years since the plane crash. Sakura was sixteen and had changed so much. She was no longer the cheerful, gullible person her friends had all loved, she was sad, lonely and cold to everyone even her closest friends. No one was ever allowed close enough now to see the real Sakura, the one that had loved and lost all she held dear. That was the Sakura who would forever be in love with Syaoran Li.
"Well done young man, you have passed our test," the old man smiled. "What is your name?"
"I do not know," he replied.
"Then we shall name you Xio-lang, the little wolf," the man suggested.
The young man nodded quite pleased with the name he had been given.
"Your first task as one of us is a girl named Sakura Avalon," the man told him. "You are to test her heart. Go Xio-lang, we are counting on you."
"Thank you Master Tang," the man replied.
"Doesn't the creative writing class seem interesting?" Madison asked trying to cheer Sakura up. Sakura had changed since Syaoran's death but Madison wasn't going to desert her best friend when she was needed most just because she was different. Sakura was still the same old Sakura deep down.
"That's a good word for it," Sakura replied.
"Quiet now class," said the teacher at the front of the classroom. "I am Miss. Welsh and I shall be your creative writing teacher. Now the first task today is a simple writing exercise," she said while handing out papers. "You are to write for ten minutes and write about what ever comes to your mind. Write from your heart. Begin."
All the students put their heads down and began to write. About five minutes later Sakura began screwing up her paper.
"Miss . . . Avalon?" Miss. Welsh asked after looking at the seating plan before her. "Why are you screwing up your work?"
"Because its stupid," Sakura replied. "Everything I wrote was just stupid."
"Well seeing as you were going to throw it away you obviously won't mind reading it to the class, will you?" Miss. Welsh asked though this was obviously more of a statement than a question.
"No Miss," Sakura replied standing up. "Write from the heart you say. What is a heart anyway? An organ for used to pump blood and oxygen around the body? Or is it an instrument for loving?
"How is it that something with a purpose stated as to love is looked upon so often with hatred. Heartache, heartbroken, is that what love is about?
"What is love? A simple four-letter word no one can really explain, yet we never question whether or not it really is there and all believe that it exists. You know what else are four letter words? Pain. Loss. Hate. Gone. That's what love is to me. My heart is filled with the pain of a loss I can't replace, my hatred for everything that reminds me. My love is gone.
"Nights I cry myself to what little sleep I receive. Days I try so hard to occupy my mind with anything to keep my thoughts away from him. Only at night do the tears finally break free. Only at night when darkness is the only thing left to comfort me.
"Death was when my pain began and will be when it ends," Sakura finished and ran out of the classroom her eyes filled with tears.
"Miss may I . . ." Madison began.
Eriol placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head. "She needs to be alone right now. She needs to organize her thoughts," he told her.
"But she just said that death is where her pain ends," Madison sobbed. "She's going to kill herself."
"She would never do that," he said. "She loves Syaoran too much to end her own life. He may be gone but she still lives for him. She feels that if she dies, he will die with her. He is still alive to her, just not in the conventional way."
"Poor Sakura," Madison sighed. "Why did he have to die?"
Xio-lang walked into the school dressed in a long cloak. Master Tang and his followers were counting on him. He wasn't going to let them down and the sooner he was back the better.
He was dressed in dark clothes so that if anything happened no one could point him out. He spotted a girl running down the corridor. He caught a glimpse of her as she ran past, she was Sakura Avalon, his mission. He followed her.
She ran out of the school past all the shops till they reached a park. She ran to the Sakura tree and crumbled to the ground crying uncontrollably.
'What has happened to you? What have I done? My fragile cheery blossom, falling to the ground like the autumn leaves. It isn't supposed to be like this. My gentle angel, your eyes, they are not supposed to be filled with tears. The light should shine through your eyes putting even the brightest stars to shame. My broken angel, how could I do this to you?'
'Where did that come from?' Xio-lang asked himself.
He shook his head clearing his thoughts. These thoughts seemed so natural, like they had always been there. 'Maybe she is a key to my past.' He cleared his thoughts again. He had to stay focused. He had to focus on his mission or he would never find out what all this meant.
He walked over to the girl. To test her he would have to earn her trust. He held out a tissue to the sobbing girl, kneeling down to see her face. She could not see his though, she never would it was just too important to his mission that it remained that way.
She looked up at him, her emerald green eyes sparkling with tears. 'Those eyes' he thought. 'They're so beautiful, so pure. There's something about her.'
"Are you Sakura Avalon?" he asked knowing that she was.
She nodded. "Who are you?" she asked. "How do you know my name? And why do you hide behind that cloak?"
"So many questions," he said mysteriously. "Yet you haven't asked the most important question and it is evident that I shall only answer one at this time."
"What question?" she pondered.
"Why I am here?" he replied.
"Why then?" she asked.
"I said only one question and I did so," he told her.
"That was unfair," she said. "You tricked me."
"My mission here is to test you," he replied. "And the test is for keeps."
"The boy has made contact," one of Tang's minims told him.
"Brilliant," he replied. "Xio-lang is so foolish. He believes that his mission is for the best. He believes that we are his only friends in the world. Soon the cards will be mine."
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So that was chapter two, what did you all think? I think I'll remove my other CCS fic so I can concentrate on this one more seeing as it's a lot better and actually has a plot. Please review and tell me what you think. Thanks