Author's Notes: Personally, I think chapter one was a little bit better, but it's all still good. Chapter three will pick

up more because I planned out the beginning and the end, so the middle was a ill-prepared. Also I have school

tomorrow and I didn't finish my summer assignments (those should be banned!)… I do however tend to like this

Chapter, even though I don't make it sound to good. You all know what I mean. I hope you do anyway because I'm

confusing myself. Okay, skip the other stuff I said. This chapter is really transitioning from the beginning to the end

but is still fully enjoyable so please read and review. There! That sounded a little better! Anyways, I looked up

CLAMP's number to see if they'd let me have the rights and remembered that I can't afford to call them. So CCS is

still in their possession and I have no rights to it. -Anrui (On a later note, that one fic without author's notes is

Rosy-dear's, and I really shouldn't put my chapters down and then defend them in the same paragraph… Oh, and I'm

sorry, but it might be awhile before If Only For Love is Updated. Before next week is over is all I can say.)

Kero groaned as Meilin brought in a really nice looking computer. "How much did that cost?"

Meilin shrugged, "A couple of thousand."

"What am I supposed to do if there's something I want to buy?" Kero gave her a dirty look.

"Use your cash. I know your mom still gives you money each week."

Kero clapped excitedly, "Would she give it to me now?"

Meilin shrugged again, "She might if you asked her…" Before he finished hearing what she had to say, he was out the door. "Don't ask me if you're going to run off!" Meilin shouted from behind him.

"Man that kid's annoying." Kero stopped and looked around the street, "Where is his mother?" The phone in his pocket rang, and Kero picked it up, "Hello?"

"Syaoran," Yelan's voice greeted, "I thought you were going to come so we could check up on your training."

"You didn't tell me where you were staying," Kero explained, smiling to himself. He was so clever.

He heard Yelan sighed over the phone, "I'm at the Hotel Marion. It's two blocks North of where you used to go to elementary. Now if you don't mind… get over here!"

"Yes, Mom." Geez, she's bossy, Kero thought to himself. He looked up to see the hotel in front of him, "Kero, I always knew you were smart, but psychic?" He nodded to himself, "A creature as brilliant as me is bound to have some extraordinary mental powers…"

Yelan stepped out of the hotel, "Syaoran, stop screwing around! I got off my phone, looked outside, and you were standing there right in front of my window!" She sighed, sounding exasperated, "Since we're outside, show me how you're training's been going."

Kero stared at her blankly, "Oh! My training!" He laughed, looking for any possible means of escape. There were none. With a sigh, he took out the sword and made swirls with the blade and fake stabs at nothing. Then he tried throwing it up in the air like a baton and yelped, jumping away, as it came back down at him. The sword clattered to the cement.

"Here," Yelan said angrily, picking it up, "If I must, I'll show you what to do so you can stop whatever it is you're doing." She held the sword out in front of her for a moment and then started twirling it around in her hands. Then she threw it up in the air, flipped, caught it, and threw it behind her. Kero watched as it hit a flower pot dead on. "That should be simple enough," Yelan told him, wiping her hands.

Kero really wished for his old body right now. He took a breath and picked up the sword. Putting his feet firmly in the ground, he started trying to twirl it and screamed as it slashed his hand open. Kero fell on the ground crying, "I'm bleeding! I haven't gotten any ice cream today! And I didn't get to spend any money! This sucks!"

Yelan got down beside him and took out gauze and some clear liquid. She poured a little bit of the liquid on the wound, and Kero snatched his hand away, "That burns!"

"Of course it burns," Yelan explained patiently, "It's cleaning the cut so it won't get infected."

Kero held up his hand, "You call this a cut! Any closer and I'd be one pawed! I… I mean handed! I don't want to be in pain!" More tears streaked out his eyes.

"You haven't cut yourself like that since you were young. I really don't know what has gotten into you, but Syaoran, you're going to need to grow up. This behavior isn't befitting…" she stopped and snatched his hand from away from his mouth, "And you don't ever literally lick your wounds!"

"I don't have to listen to you!" Kero shouted, scooting back. This was no good. It was better to be himself, even if he had to hide and ask Sakura for everything. Syaoran's life was next to torture! He almost felt sorry for… Kero shook his head, hating that thought, and stood up yelling, "I'm going to have fun if it kills me!"

Yelan looked at her son with worried eyes, "I think that you need a break… maybe I've been pushing you too hard…" She handed him a wad of cash, "Here, you can even have an advance on your weekly dividend."

Kero jumped and clapped his hands, wincing as he did the latter, and then ran off, "I'm freeee!"

-----

Syaoran bounded along in Sakura's purse. He rubbed his head where the lipstick case had hit him. "When am I going to get out of here?" he whispered up at Sakura, sticking his head out.

Sakura pushed him back in, "When I'm done shopping."

Syaoran frowned. There were things in this purse that he knew existed but never wanted to see… especially when they were nearly his size. The purse tilted, and he held up her checkbook like a shield as everything rushed towards him. When it finally stopped, Syaoran started sifting through everything, trying to find something to do.

"I guess this will do," he announced to himself, holding up her little address book with a picture of a swan on the front. He opened it to the first page and his eyes got narrower as he read, "Who are all these guys?" Syaoran picked up the pen that was lying beside him. "Time for a little editing," he chuckled.

He opened the pen, tried to lift it up, and was rewarded with a squirt of ink. Syaoran started panicking as the pen continued to leak over everything. He squirmed as far as he could away from the growing black puddle, managing in a last effort to kick the little address book into it. "Sakura," he hissed, sticking his head out once more, "I need out."

Sakura glanced down exasperated, "Kero, not until we get out of the store." Syaoran glanced around enough to know she was in the checkout line and then went back in pouting. Syaoran had always seen the creature's life as easy. He didn't seem to do much but exercise his mouth, whether he was eating or talking or doing both at once. This, though, hadn't come into the picture. "I just want my body back," he muttered to himself.

He began to scramble to the other side, which was less covered in ink, and was wrenched from his feet. Syaoran looked back to find his tail stuck to the wall of the purse by a piece of chewed gum. He pulled on it and winced. What was Sakura doing sticking things like that in here when she knew he had to stay there? "So inconsiderate… if I were in my other body, she wouldn't treat me like that!" He stopped, an impossible thought drifting into his head. Was that why the little stuffed animal resented him so much?

Syaoran shook his head. They had always hated each other. Suddenly a flood of light blinded him, and he felt the air become significantly less stuffy.

"Kero!" Sakura yelled, "What did you do to my purse?"

"I kind of had an accident," he explained sheepishly.

"I just got this purse last week, and it cost fifty dollars!"

He gazed up at her wide-eyed, "You paid fifty dollars for a purse!"

She just sighed, "Come on out. We'll have to go shopping for Syaoran's present and a new purse."

His ears perked up, "Present?"

"It's not for you, so don't worry about it… though where am I going to put you now," Sakura searched around, "I guess you'll have to stay in my pocket."

Syaoran eyed the pocket in her skirt, "Is that even big enough for me?"

Sakura picked him up by the neck, "I seriously don't get you, Kero. You've been in smaller, so why are you complaining now?"

Syaoran diverted his eyes and crossed his short, yellow arms, "I'm just standing up for my rights!" He made an insulted noise as she finally just stuffed him in her pocket.

-----

Kero listened to the soft music playing on the phone. "How long am I going to be on hold?" he cried, bored half to death. He looked at the clock, "An hour already?"

The lady finally came back on, obviously automated, "Please enter the id numbers of the items that you wish to purchase." Kero punched in two of the numbers for the small stereo system, and the lady cut him off, "Thank you for your purchase!"

"But I wasn't done," Kero complained at the phone, "And I don't even know what I ordered now."

Meilin came down the stairs from her room, "What are you doing, Syaoran?"

"I was just trying to order some stuff out of this catalog…"

She tilted her head and glared at him suspiciously, "Why aren't you spending time with Sakura?"

"Uhh… she had to…" the gauze on his hand caught his eye, "go to the doctor!"

"Is she sick?" Meilin's eyes got wider, "Or did you… well you know."

Kero shivered, "No! Yuck! Why would I do that with Sakura?"

Meilin was twice as suspicious now, "Because hopefully you're attracted to your girlfriend, and couples do that sometimes."

Kero wrinkled his nose, "Well I don't want to!"

"And Sakura's okay with this?" Meilin checked his forehead, "Do you have a fever?"

"No, why?" Kero thought for a minute and then remembered who he was supposed to be, "Oh, I just meant before we're married." He smiled and thought for a second about patting his back. The thought didn't last long.

"That's why you said yuck," she said sarcastically, putting her hands on her hips.

Kero quickly moved to look over her shoulder, "What's that?" Meilin looked back, and he took the opportunity to jump out the window.

"You're a coward!" he heard her yell from behind him. Kero ran until he got about five blocks away and glanced at his watch. There was still plenty of time before he had to give up his current body. A girl whistled at him from across the street, and he blew her a kiss. "I adore my fans," he smiled to himself, "Who couldn't help but love Kero?"

He whistled a tune he had gotten from somewhere he couldn't remember and pondered what to do next. As if by fate, an ice cream shop loomed in front of him as he turned the corner. "I must be in heaven," Kero drooled, entranced by the pictures of sweets that lined the window. He moved steadily closer until his nose was right up against the glass.

"Syaoran?" a voice asked from behind him. He turned to see a girl he didn't recognize.

Kero regarded her cautiously, "Do I know you?"

"I'm Naru. You took me out for a drink once," she batted her eyes with a speed Kero thought was unnatural.

He put a finger by his mouth in thought. The kid must be a player or something like that… He shrugged, "Do you want some ice cream?"

"It's so nice of you to offer to buy me…"

Kero held up his hand, "Whoa, I think you misunderstood me. I asked if you wanted to buy ice cream with me, not have me buy you ice cream. I don't need to be spending my money like that."

The girl, Naru, looked offended, "But, but."

"And I don't want to see you again. I have a girlfriend!" someone has to help Sakura out, he thought.

"Why would I care? I just wanted to talk to you since you were so nice to me when I broke up with my boyfriend a long time ago, but you've apparently gotten a lot more shallow. Good day," she flipped her hair and then rushed off.

"Girls are so confusing," Kero remarked, turning back to the pictures, "So many choices."

-----

Syaoran tried his best to watch through the material as Sakura picked up different items. He saw her pick up something awful. "Not that one!" he shouted.

Sakura hit her pocket softly. "Hey," he said more quietly than before.

"Well what about this, since you've decided to give you're comment?" Sakura asked, holding something near the material.

"Nuh uh," he told her shaking his head. Syaoran scanned the shop, "There isn't anything here."

"I can't help it," Sakura sounded exhausted, "It's not as if I've seen him that much lately… or ever… I don't really even know him anymore." She sniffed dejectedly, and Syaoran felt bad.

"I'm sure he'll like whatever you get him," he assured her.

"You think so?" she brightened up a bit.

Syaoran closed his eyes and sighed, "I'm sure."

"Then I'll get him this!" Syaoran tried to peek out at what she was talking about and was thrown back as she moved suddenly. He smiled, happy to cheer her up. Even if he did have to pretend to like something stupid.

"I'll get her a fifty dollar purse as soon as I can handle money again," he promised himself, "in case I need to ruin the next one…" He frowned again. What were all those guy's numbers doing in her address book?

"Let's go home, so I can wrap this, and then we'll go see Syaoran!" Sakura exclaimed as soon as she walked out of the shop.

He stuck his head out, "Yeah, let's go see Syaoran!"

Sakura looked at him, "You said you didn't like him, so why are you so eager to go?" Shrugging, he popped his head back in her pocket. "Nice way to avoid a question, Kero," Syaoran heard her shuffling around in her other pocket, "Shoot! I don't have enough money to buy my purse…"

"Too bad," Syaoran told her sympathetically, smiling. He didn't have to ride in another of those things!

"Wait, I have an old one at home, it's just a bit smaller than I need…"

Syaoran shuddered, "I don't want to be in another one!"

"Well you don't have to come with me to visit Syaoran," she sounded annoyed. He just crossed his arms and remained quiet for the rest of the ride home, pouting. Sakura opened the door and then took him out of her pocket, "I'm sorry you don't like the arrangements, Kero, but I'm really too old to just be carrying a stuffed animal around. Plus, you haven't complained about it in forever…"

I can never stay mad at her long, he thought to himself. Syaoran gave a weak smile, "It's alright."