Hey everyone! Thank you for reviewing my story! I really appreciate it. I'm sorry my update time has a huge gap in between, things are a little hectic, my grandma's in the hospital, and my mom and my aunt are like taking turns going to the hospital to stay for the night. My baby cousin is here so I have to help take care of her as well, I really hope you guys would forgive me, I will try my best. Sorry my story seems to be moving slightly too rushed, I realized that way after I posted it, so I'm going to try to slow things down a little, just so my story falls into my original plan. Thanks for reviewing, and I'll see you all soon.

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Syaoran-with speed he didn't know he had-immediately went to catch the fallen girl. He gazed down at her sleeping face, and began to wonder.

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Chapter 3: A Helping Hand

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Sakura groaned, her limbs and muscles felt tired and her whole body ached. Her head felt dizzy, as if all the blood was drained from it within a matter of seconds. She tried to open her eyes, and immediately regretted it. Her room exploded in a blast of multi colours, she squeezed her eyes shut, and her hands immediately went to her forehead, trying to get the spinning to stop.

What ever that possessed her to counter exorcism on her first try, she made a mental note to never do it again. When she was sure the room wasn't about to spin around her like a merry-go-round again, she cautiously opened her eyes. This time-much to her relief-the room did not explode in colours; her room light was closed except for the pink lamp that stood on her night table. Crickets sang a song outside her window the moonlight filtered through her closed bines. It was night. She took a glance at her clock. It read 9:00pm. Rubbing her eyes, she slowly sat up and leaned her back against her head bored and stared down on her bed covers. Had she slept for so long? She remembered coming home at 3 with that ghost, Syaoran, yes that was his name. Then… the exorcism… they were talking with her mother… then she countered it…

"Must've taken a lot out of me." She mumbled to what supposedly was herself.

"Tell me about it. You've slept for 5 hours all ready, aren't you hungry at all?" a slightly amused voice came from the corner of her room. She looked up and saw Syaoran materializing in the moon light that came from her window. She had to admit, the moonlight made his slightly transparent body glitter in her dark room.

"You wouldn't be saying that if you were the one who countered exorcise something." Sakura retorted tiredly, Syaoran's expression softened slightly. Sakura took his silence as a good thing, and started to stand up, leaning herself on the wall. Who knew an exorcism would take so much out of a girl. Her legs felt week and her body was probably shaking.

Syaoran was looking at her under his chestnut bangs, leaning himself against the little corner he now called his sanctuary. He crossed his arms against his chest. He watched as Sakura continued to try to regain her balance. Syaoran couldn't forget the forbidding chill and the seeping coldness the crawled deeper than his skin and into his heart; it chilled him to the bone. He felt so useless, so weak at that time, he felt as though no one in the world would be able to help him, yet, this girl, who was 2 years younger than he, was-alive or not- protected him with a few uttered words and a brilliant pink glow. Sighing, he strolled over, happy for the fact that he was actually able to grab hold of her and not just walk right through her. Sakura raised an eyebrow.

"Look, I see your point about the whole other mediators and dangerous things that can happen to someone that's dead. Regardless, I'm stuck with you, so I might as well make sure you don't get weak on me." Syaoran said almost monotonously, he wrapped one of his arms around her waist and the other one around her shoulder. Ignoring his tone, Sakura couldn't help but lean on him, her body would welcome any type of support right now, and-she supposed- it helped that Syaoran's body was a strong build.

"Oh it's ok, you don't need to thank me for saving your life-lack of-, it's just part of my job, to counter exorcist for the first time." Sakura said sarcastically, making sure her hands were gripping tightly onto him, just in case he decided to "drop her off". The two did not say anything to one another as they carefully made their way down the stairs. Syaoran made sure Sakura was able to balance at the bottom of the stairs before walking off towards the kitchen and setting her down on a chair. Syaoran sat across from her. The two looked at one another, not saying anything.

"So, what can you tell me?" Syaoran said starting to get irritated from the on going silence. Sakura stayed silent for a second.

"I'm thirsty." She concluded. Syaoran wanted to stand up and throw something onto the floor and smash it into a million pieces, but he held down his instinct. This girl did save his… life. Standing up, he took a cup from the opened cupboard, not even bothering to wonder how he could've done so.

"What do you want?" Syaoran asked harshly. Sakura ignored his tone happily,

"Hot chocolate." She beamed. For the next 15 minutes, Sakura started to give out instructions and where places were. Sakura laughed when Kero, her little golden puppy, bounced in from no where, making Syaoran jump up in surprise, almost dropping the chocolate powder filled spoon.

Syaoran gingerly poured the hot water into the cup, cautiously watching to see if the dog was any place near by. Unfortunately, his concentration was a bit more focused on aiming the water on the hand holding the cup, rather than inside the cup.

"Holy crap," Syaoran swore loudly, making Kero bark at him, glaring at the ghost with chocolate brown eyes. "How the hell can I get burned if I'm a ghost?" Syaoran asked in an annoyed voice, wiping the table top. Sakura shrugged as Syaoran walked back to her with a pink cup filled with steaming chocolate milk in it, she took it with both hands, thanked him gratefully, and took a deep, satisfying breath of the sweet liquid.

"Hmm… that feels good." She sighed happily; she took a small sip from the cup. "Oh, and I placed small spells on the pantries and appliances, you're not the first ghost to come to me house, or suddenly appear in my house for that matter." Syaoran raised an eyebrow,

"Oh, so you use ghosts to help you make your hot chocolates and cakes and cookies then?" Syaoran looked at her, Sakura glared back,

"No you idiot. If a ghost suddenly just appears in my house, or some how was able to find me without help, then or she would at least have some sort of relationship to my family or ancestors, like a distant cousin, or a best friend of someone in my family." Sakura explained, draining half of the hot chocolate.

"Right," Syaoran did not give the explanation much thought, "So, back to mediators. How do I know you won't go all exorcism on me one day if I get you mad by, like oh I don't know, spilling on your cosmetics or all the gruesome things girls has?" Syaoran smirked. Sakura gave a dry, sarcastic laugh,

"Ha, ha, think you're real funny don't you?" Sakura rolled her eyes, "for your information, I do not use cosmetics or all the 'gruesome things a girl has'. And second of all, there are different types of mediators, two, from what I know so far. They have the same power, the ability to see ghosts, to stop them, to help them, to harm them, to send them away, or help them solve their problem and let them move on to the other world. I am a Mediator, someone who helps a ghost that has something they've left behind that they couldn't let go. I use my powers to help them solve or find the problem so they won't have to carry it to the other world. If they do, they'll be stuck in the other world forever, they can't go anywhere, not back to earth and wonder, but they can't be reborn either. I can do exorcism, but I rarely do it because a ghost that goes to Mediators is usually ones that have personal or emotional issues." Sakura took a deep breath, drinking from her cup, and allowing Syaoran to absorb the information.

"The other type, are called Shifters. (Note: Again, this name is in reference to the book 'Haunted: Tail of a Mediator'. If you want to know what shifters really are according to the book, you can find it in your local library. –Smile-) Shifters do have the same power as mediators, but unlike me, they are people who, instead of helping ghosts, actually banishes them from the earth and universe, and send them through eternal darkness and let them wander forever. The ghost who was banished, or nowadays, exorcised, won't have any memory of having ever lived, of their family, their problems, and even their identities. They'll forget who they are, and why they're there, they'll just wander in the darkness forever, searching for the answers to questions that don't exist." Even Sakura had to suppress a shiver that ran through her; she quickly finished her chocolate while it was still warm. "Ghosts that go to shifters are usually ones that were seeking revenge while they were alive, and when they died, their held the grudge against them. They go to shifter because they think wandering in the darkness is a lot better than wanting revenge, but not being able to fulfill it." Sakura added an after thought, "Of course they were never told they would forget everything, from everyone and thing they love to themselves."

Syaoran looked at Sakura, his eyes widened slightly,

"But I came to you, so why is this… mediator, shifter, what ever they are, coming after me?" Sakura sighed,

"You've watched shows there they say ghosts gives off signals, like a drop of temperature or something metallic that draws the arrow of a compass right?" a nod, "well they weren't all wrong, you do give off signals, but nothing the normal technology could track, only a real mediator or a properly trained shifter can sense a ghost's presence. The problem is the shifter population are slowly going down. The originals are starting to back off, and they're losing to the mediators. Mediators are born with power, they are born honed. The powers are like radar; they are perfectly polished, honed, and ready to emerge as soon as your body is of age and ready to handle the responsibility, shifters, how ever, when they're born, their abilities aren't as sharp and toned. They're fuzzy, and uncontrolled, and it takes a talented, patient and stronger shifter to teach how to control them, and usually the process takes at least 3-5 years to perfect it. A Properly trained shifter hunting ghosts increases their power, and because the originals are all old and weak, the younger generation are taking over. They're now fighting with mediators to obtain ghosts to exorcist, therefore increasing their power, and should the time come, there would be a lot more shifters to help train."

"I'm lucky I found you first then?" Syaoran gave a small smirk, breaking the seriousness of the conversation that was there earlier on. Sakura laughed,

"No, you're lucky my brother can't see ghosts nor has the ability of a Mediator. Touya's the over protective type." Sakura said dryly, referring to her brother.

"So you mean your family has no idea that you can see ghosts?" Syaoran cocked his head to one side. Sakura shook her head,

"It's best they don't know, in case I do stray upon some bad ghosts, they won't use the fact my family knows about my secret against me. I've read that where there were Mediators who have told their families, most of them got kidnapped or used as some trade off." Sakura stated, "Mediators can give up their powers and trade them off, but only willingly." She added.

"So," Sakura started, standing up, now more balanced by herself, and placing her cup in the sink, "tell me about you." Syaoran shrugged,

"Nothing to say, my name's Li Syaoran, I'm from Tokyo." Sakura raised a hand to stop him,

"Wait, so you're the Li Syaoran that was on the news last week, the one that got into an accident?" Sakura interrupted. Syaoran raised an eyebrow,

"So it's true that girls love to read about gossip and news." Syaoran said in an amused voice, Sakura stuck her tongue out at him,

"No, I read them because I fall asleep faster than eating a sleeping pill." Sakura countered.

"You're different." Syaoran commented, cocking his head to one side to get a better look at the girl, Sakura smiled proudly, her radiant smile seemed to brighten the room.

"Well, how many girls do you know that can see the dead?" she asked smugly. When Syaoran's mouth dropped open slightly to retort an answer, and only to find nothing to return, she smiled triumphantly, "exactly my point." Sakura stood up and started to head up the stairs, Syaoran followed her immediately, Sakura found that amusing. On the way up, Sakura caught small phrases such as "girls" and "unbelievable" and "confusing".

"You can both go into my room, and find some place you'd be comfortable in, or you can stand outside my room and mumble about how girls can be unbelievable and confusing all night." Sakura smirked. Syaoran entered her pink-now bathed in the moon light-room, and found himself a comfortable spot by her opened window. He watched as the slim girl climbed onto her bed and slip until the covers.

"If you don't mind, I've really got to sleep. I've got this horrible math test tomorrow morning and I need to at least get some sleep so I could fail my usual way and not because I was to tire talking to a ghost." Sakura mumbled, her back facing him.

Syaoran didn't answer her, but after a few minutes, even breathing came from the still bed sheets and he knew that Sakura had fallen asleep. He leaned against the wall and gazed up at the sky through the window. Stars twinkled down at him and the moon beamed down a light on their side of the earth. Had it only been mere weeks ago that he had gotten into a car accident, and in the mean time, lost his life, losing his 25 more years of living on earth.

He closed his eyes and wondered. He wondered if he had died, would he have cared if anything had happened to him. He was drinking really badly while he was in the car, maybe if he hadn't died, he would've never thought life was something so precious to lose. He wondered what would happen if he had never known there were people who could actually see ghosts. He wondered why he was here.

He wondered a lot of things that night.

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Syaoran awoke to the fuzzy sounds of someone scrambling and urgent grumbles. For a split second, he thought he was back at the hospital, and doctors and nurses were bustling around, trying to keep him alive. But then the vision shattered into pieces before his eyes as his memory reminded him that he was, indeed, dead and he was inside a mediator's house… a mediator by the name of Sakura.

"Oh I'm late! Why am I always late!" he heard a voice in front of him. Opening his eyes, he watched Sakura walk front and back in front of him, one hand with a comb, combing her tangled hair, the other hand flying around the room as she walked around, stuffing books from tables, bed and floor into a pink bag. She was wearing her navy uniform and skirt, her mouth now occupied with a white hair band. Her emerald eyes glanced at him by the window,

"Oh great now your awake!" she exclaimed, the next thing he knew, his hand was grabbed her hers, and he was pulled off the window ledge. "Oh hurry up! We have to go, I'm going to be late!" she started for the door. Syaoran followed her calmly.

"We?" he asked her as he watched her drain down a cup of ready orange juice.

"Oh, if you want to stay here with a 50 of a shifter exorcising you, by all means, go ahead and stay. But I for one, will not waste another minute in this house!" she cried, snapping on her shoes. Syaoran followed her through the door. By the time he caught up to her in the kitchen, she had a piece of toast in her mouth, and it was followed by her washing a glass of orange juice down her throat.

"You seem very familiar with this routine." Syaoran smirked. Sakura through him a glare,

"Ha, Ha, now let's go before I decide to bind you to this house!" she said crossly. Syaoran followed without complaint. From now on, and no matter what life, he would remember one thing.

Never, ever anger a girl in the morning… especially when she's in a rush.

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Sakura dropped down to her seat tiredly, not even minding where Syaoran was currently sitting and looked tiredly at Tomoyo. Tomoyo chuckled at her friend,

"Late again?" Tomoyo giggled, having no idea a certain ghost was standing behind her. Sakura replied with a small yawn,

"Yea… no thanks to him." She mumbled. Syaoran was about to reply her with a snappy comment, when the door slid open and the teacher-Syaoran assumed- walked in.

"Alright class, take your desks, and shove them apart, your test will be handed out shortly." Terada-sensei spoke to his class. Groans filled the room, and desks scrapped against the floor, Syaoran watched lightly as Sakura pushed her desk away from the Tomoyo girl, chewing on the eraser part of her pencil. A package of paper drifted down the rows and finally reached Sakura. Syaoran dematerialized, and drifted in front of Sakura's desk.

Her emerald eyes hadn't glazed over yet, but the potential was there.

"You disturb me a single moment, and when we get home I'll pummel you so much you'll know the true meaning of the term dead." Sakura hissed from under her breath, not bothering to look at him, her mind concentrated on only the evil piece of paper in front of her, covered with numbers and equations.

Syaoran floated around the room, watching orange wooden pencils flying, and scribbling around the paper. His eyes trained only on one auburn hair girl, watching her pick up her eraser again and again, erasing the same spot for god knows how many times. He took a glance at the clock, 9:30, she only had half an hour. Sighing, he drifted down towards her, his mind constantly asking him why he was doing this.

Sakura felt Syaoran shove her off the seat half way, before occupying the other half for him. She opened her mouth, ready to scream her head of at the ghost, when she felt his big hands grasp hers.

"What are you doing?" she hissed under her breath as quiet as possible. She would look pretty awkward if she was found talking to thin air. Syaoran replied her with a grunt; his right hand gripped hers, and started to guide her pencil around the paper and filling in the blank spots with complicated answers for the equations.

Sakura felt her heart grow warm, watching him help her do her math test. She focused her eyes on the numbers he was writing with her hand, trying to at least understand why he did certain actions, but her eyes strayed up the arm and at the face of the ghost. He was very good looking, Sakura decided. He looked especially cute with his eyes furrowed in a concentrated kind of way, she could almost hear his brain whirring, gears turning as he filled in the math package quickly.

"Kinomoto-san." A voice said from in front of her. Both ghost and mediator looked up at the same time and saw Sakura's stern teacher looking down at them with dark beetle eyes. Sakura grew red, realizing she had been looking to her right, while her right hand had been moving on its own accord, filling out pages.

"Um… Hai sensei?" Sakura stood up abruptly, in the process, knocking Syaoran down from the chair, the pencil fell from her grasp. Sakura bit down on her bottom lip, trying to stop herself from shaking and holding in her giggles.

"Is something funny, Sakura-san?" Terada asked sternly. Sakura shook her head, not trusting her mouth for a moment. She watched from the corner of her eyes as Syaoran stood up with a painful expression,

"God, your teacher needs a large red sign saying "caution, earth quake may happen when object approaches'." She heard Syaoran groan. Sakura gave out a snort,

"Um…" she cleared her throat, "nothing, sensei, I… just remembered something, and was a little bit over excited." Sakura lied quickly. Terada looked at his student suspiciously,

"Sit, Kinomoto-san, you have 15 minutes to finish your test." He said, before stalking away. Sakura fell down onto her chair in relief. She shoved over and let Syaoran sit. He grasped her hand again, and filled out the last 2 pages in 10 minutes. Walking up together, Sakura handed in her filled test, and with the teacher looking at her suspiciously, the two walked out together, and for once, Sakura felt confidence after a math test.

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"Did you see the old man's face? God this school needs to hire some younger staff." Syaoran sniggered when the two reached the cherry tree. Sakura rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but let out a reluctant giggle,

"I thought we would get in trouble." She confessed sheepishly. Syaoran waved it aside impatiently,

"As if, you're with Li Syaoran." He said handsomely, giving her a famous grin. Sakura pretended to be hit with an arrow, and fell down onto the grass. She giggled, feeling a few cherry blossom leave fall from the tree and brush against her cheeks.

Syaoran gave out a smile; Sakura was so full of life. She was so different from all the other girls he had met.

"Sakura!" a voice called from the school. Sakura sat back up and saw Tomoyo running towards her.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura called, waving her hands. Tomoyo waved back, before settling down beside her,

"You must have studied a lot Sakura, your page were filled." Tomoyo admired. Sakura grinned sheepishly.

"Want to know my 'secret'?" she said mysteriously. Tomoyo nodded, "Syaoran, meet Tomoyo. Tomoyo, my 'secret' for becoming a math master."

Sakura pointed to a patch of thin air under the tree.

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A/N: I know, lame ending, I'm sorry. I've been busy, but I promise the next chapter will be up real soon. Until then.