A/N: Spinel's a male and Ruby's a female for this fic. I know this isn't really canon, but… Oh well. It's too complicated to explain quickly otherwise.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN CCS! … Please don't sue.

Conspiracy: Planning

Spinel'd seen quite a few harebrained schemes in his day, due to the very fact that he'd seen quite a few of them. Days, he added quickly to the running dialogue in his head. I've seen quite a few days, not them. The antecedent for the pronoun had been unclear otherwise, and there was nothing like an unclear antecedent to spin Spinel Sun into a tizzy.

Spinel preened for a moment from his literary success before tiptoeing delicately across a room (actually Ruby's room) that looked like the contents of every closet in the house had regurgitated on the floor. Floss was draped around the posts of the bed like a gossamer, minty curtain and toilet paper hung in streamers from the ceiling, apparently stuck there by wads of chewing gum. Cardboard hearts were stacked in piles and strewn on the carpet to create an archipelago of love on a fiber sea. Candy wrappers were thrown everywhere but the wastebasket. Candles were lit – scented and unscented, pot candles, candlesticks, candelabras, flames flickered throughout the room. Various perfumes made an atmosphere similar to LA smog. Spinel coughed delicately.

Ruby's head snapped up. She'd been sitting in the middle of the chaos of paper and cardboard, fiddling with a CD player in her lap, but she let it drop to grin at her fellow guardian. "Hello, Suppie-chan! Come to help with Operation Get-Sakura-Chan-To-See-What's-Right-In-Front-Of-Her-Nose?"

"Catchy title," Spinel commented dryly. He picked his way around a pool of wax that was dripping on the carpet and gracefully leapt up to the dusty windowsill.

"Thanks!" Ruby smiled brightly. Spinel rolled his eyes. His comments always went right over Ruby's head.

"So what's all this for?" Spinel motioned vaguely with one paw.

It was Ruby's turn to roll her eyes. "The Hook-Up. Duh."

Spinel snorted. "You've got to be kidding. Hearts, I understand. But toilet paper? Dental floss?! What in the world are you thinking?"

Ruby became smug. "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

"Oh?" Spinel raised one eyebrow. "I thought I was in on the Operation Blah-Blah-Sakura-Blah-Blah."

"Nope. I just un-invited you."

"'Uninvited'? And we're turning how old this year?"

"Um, well, uh, let's see…"

"Never mind. I'll just do it myself, then." And Spinel Sun floated out of the room, swerving around the toilet paper.

Ruby breathed a sigh of relief and continued doodling on her paper hearts with the crayons she'd found in a side closet downstairs. Suppie-chan was not going to ruin her fun!

o.O.o.O.o.O.o

Ruby Moon transformed before dawn the next morning into her true form, wiggling her wings with a sigh. They disappeared while she was human, but they always felt cramped and stiff for the first few minutes or so after she'd dropped her human disguise, as if they'd been folded very tightly and tucked into a cramp corner for a few years. She gathered up her sack of equipment (including dental floss) and fluttered her wings. She rose into the predawn air and flew towards Tomoeda High, where… Ruby giggled. Well. They'd just have to wait and see.

Quickly, she zoomed into the courtyard of her high school and flitted over the fence separating her school from the elementary school, where her targets would be at 0800 hours today. (Military time… Ruby giggled again. This was like professionals were doing it…!)

She used just a touch of magic to unlock a side door into the gymnasium and a flick of her fingers disabled the school's security system. She tiptoed into the girls' locker room first. Now which one was…? Ah. There it was! Ruby could sense the residual power that lingered on Sakura's locker. It appeared to glow slightly in the dark. Sakura must've kept old outfits (and weren't they just kawaii?! Ruby squealed silently in her head) in this locker. Carefully, Ruby extracted a pink heart card, sprayed it with some cologne she'd snuck from Eriol-kun's washroom, and slipped it in between the ventilation slots in Sakura's locker.

She listened for a moment as the paper slid against the metal door, and grinned. Now Sakura would see (and smell!) the card she'd assume was from Syaoran, and she'd have to realize that he loved her! It was just too perfect!

She wouldn't get to use her floss, though… Ruby pouted briefly, then cheered. Oh well! Life wasn't perfect, and at least she'd have played Cupid well enough to get those two cuties to get together! Before a janitor could see her, she darted out of the locker room and flew over the fence to arrive at her school just in time to glomp Touya-chan, who was arriving at school with Yukito-san just then. And he didn't even throw her off today! She smiled smugly as Touya wearily trudged up the stairs with her hanging off his back. She knew today was going to be a good day!

o.O.o.O.o.O.o.

"Ruby Moon!"

Crashes on the stairs could be heard. Ruby poked her head around the corner, her hair a little frazzled from her slight tumble.

"Yes, Eriol-kun?"

"You didn't happen to start work on Sakura-san and Syaoran-san today, did you?"

Ruby skipped into the room and clapped her hands. "Yes! And you won't believe what I did! I –"

"Slipped a card into Sakura-san's locker, neh?"

Ruby stared at her master. "How did you know?!"

Eriol sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Because it wasn't Sakura's locker you put that card in. It was Daidouji-san's locker."

Ruby shrugged, unruffled. "So? I'll just correct the error tomorrow."

He sighed again. "Ruby, Daidouji-san now thinks she has a secret admirer. Who's not so secret, seeing as a very distinctive and expensive" Ruby wilted under Eriol's glare "cologne was sprayed all over the paper."

Ruby pursed her lips, hard in thought. "So…" she said finally, "Tomoyo-chan thinks that…" Her eyes brightened. "That you're her secret admirer?" She giggled. "Oh, this is too perfect!"

"This is not perfect!" Eriol snapped. "I spent half of lunch avoiding Daidouji-san's eyes and couldn't eat! She's been staring at me all day like I was going to eat her! You've gotten me into quite the mess, Ruby-san."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Eriol-kun, I'll fix this, okay?" She waved and bounced back up the stairs. "Everything'll be alright, I promise!"

"Wait –" But it was too late; Ruby'd already disappeared. Eriol sighed again and turned to Spinel Sun, who was lounging in his favorite window sill and lazily flipping the pages of the newspaper. "Spinel-san, would you keep an eye on Ruby-san for me?"

Spinel carefully closed the paper and floated towards the stairs. "If you insist, Eriol-sama…"

"I do," Eriol replied with a little more force than necessary. Spinel didn't reply. Instead, he quickened his pace and disappeared to find Ruby, leaving his master alone in the living room.

"So she doesn't do me any more favors…" Eriol murmured to himself. He spent the rest of the afternoon writing letters and trying not to think about how Daido – Tomoyo-chan's eyes hadn't left his face all day, how she'd blushed slightly on the rare occasion when he couldn't avoid her gaze, how his heart had sped up whenever she'd glanced at him…

He sighed again. Definitely had to keep Ruby Moon from doing him anymore favors. Life was complicated enough trying to deal with his feelings for Tomoyo-chan without her sensing them. The priority was Syaoran and Sakura – they had to realize their connection before he left for home.

They had to.