Once Sakura was properly dressed in clothes that fit her, we left my home and headed out to meet up with Tomoyo at Penguin Park. The walk was mostly silent. We talked about school and I asked her how her cheerleading team was doing. She asked me how soccer was and I told her I liked it. It was certainly becoming more difficult to speak with Sakura as only friends. I want so much to help her out during this situation and at the moment she needs her closest friends to help her deal with the drama going on in her house. I'm not going to take advantage of the fact that she's in my home to tell her how I feel. That would just be wrong; it would be unfair to the both of us. I want her to be comfortable but if I make my feelings known she might feel like she is obligated to give me an answer since we will be living together.
I can't do that to her. For the moment, I am content to just walk beside her and know that she wants my help.
As we enter Penguin Park, there is no sign of Tomoyo. Sakura notices she is not here and heads to the swing set and sits down. There is a crease on her forehead and I know she must be worried about going home and facing her family. I go and sit on the swing right next to her and can't help but get a sense of déjà vu as we sit in silence on the swing set.
I turn to face Sakura. She's still quiet. "Hey Sakura, what are you thinking about?" I ask.
"Hmm…I'm thinking… I wonder if my dad is going to be mad at me for not coming home last night or for not even calling to let him know where I was. I know that I have to go home and give him an explanation but I'm scared that he'll ask me to stay home; I don't want to make him sad by leaving since Touya is leaving too. And I'm also scared that Touya will be there and I'll want to yell at him. But most of all I'm scared that Yukito will be there and he'll look at me with the same eyes he used to look at me when I was little; when he thought of me like a little sister."
All of this she said in a soft voice and I wanted nothing more than to get up from this swing and hold her, but since I can never get a break, Tomoyo showed up and Sakura got up to greet her. A moment later I got up as well and walked to where the girls were standing. "Hello Tomoyo, how are you?"
"I'm doing well, thanks for asking Syaoran. Sakura didn't mention that you were coming along."
"Ah no, I asked Sakura if I could come and help out. That way we can finish sooner with three people." I looked at Tomoyo and hoped she wouldn't think too much of it. However, the way she was staring at me with her grey eyes let me know that she was aware how important it was for me to help out Sakura in any way.
Tomoyo smiled and just said, "Well that's nice of you Syaoran to volunteer to help Sakura out; it's natural to want to help out the people you care about." And with that insightful comment she turned to grab Sakura's hand and they both started walking in the direction of Sakura's house.
I lagged behind to give them the chance to talk. Not long after we left the park, we arrived at Sakura's house. Sakura and Tomoyo stood in front of the house; Sakura took a big breath and entered the house with Tomoyo and myself behind her.
"Hello?" called out Sakura to what seemed an empty home. We walked into the living room and saw no one, we proceeded to the kitchen and once again it was empty. "Anyone home?" called out Sakura. It seemed that no one was currently here and that seemed to make Sakura relax a bit. But then we heard a noise upstairs and a second later her father called out, "We're upstairs Sakura."
Sakura looked at both Tomoyo and me when her father said "we."
Tomoyo took a hold of Sakura's hand once again and they climbed up the stairs with me following them. We reached the second floor and I saw the girls heading to Sakura's room but before they could reach her door, Sakura's father stepped out of Touya's bedroom. He walked up to Sakura and gave her a hug.
"Sakura, I'm glad you're home. I became worried when you did not return yesterday. Where were you?"
"Dad, I'm sorry I didn't let you know where I was. The truth is, I wasn't at Tomoyo's last night; she is really busy with her internship so instead I went to see Syaoran and he was kind enough to let me stay with him since I wasn't ready to come home. I'm sorry father but I just couldn't be in the house with Touya and Yukito. I'm glad that my big brother is happy but I guess deep down I'm still the same little girl who put her feelings out there and got rejected; I'm still the little girl who had her heartbroken by the man in love with my brother."
During the whole exchange, Tomoyo and I stood by the edge of the stairs and tried to be as invisible as possible, after all this was a family moment. The whole situation became more stressful when Touya appeared at the edge of his doorway and it was obvious that he had witnessed the exchange between Sakura and her father.
"Sakura," said Touya.
"Big brother, I didn't think you would be here," replied Sakura while looking at the floor.
"Um yeah, I'm just packing up my stuff so I can move in to Yukito's before the week is over." At his explanation, Sakura looked up to him.
"So soon?" she asked.
"Yeah, we want to get settled in as soon as possible." There was an awkward silence that followed. "Listen Sakura, I have loved Yukito for a long time and he has loved me as well, now that we are done with our studies this is our opportunity to be happy together and not care what people think. I'm sorry that this is difficult for you to accept and I didn't think it would bother you so much; you just have to get over your infatuation with Yukito."
I've known Sakura for a long time and I know that at times things will just set off her temper; I was certain that this was going to be one of those moments. Yet, Sakura amazed us all with her maturity.
"You're right big brother; I need to stop caring so much for Yukito. And in order to do that I need to be away from everything that reminds me of him and I need some time to figure things out." Sakura then turned to her father. "Daddy, I'm sorry but I need some time to figure out my feelings and I hope you understand why that cannot happen in this house. I'm going to be spending some time at Syaoran's house since he's one of my closest friends and has helped me through a lot. I'm just going to pack up some of my clothes and my books for school. I promise I'll return as soon as I can."
After Sakura made her intentions she walked down the hallway to her bedroom; Tomoyo and I took this as our cue to leave our hiding place and follow her. I entered her room and noticed the subtle changes in the room. No longer were the shelves lined with stuffed animals, no longer were there little kid sheets on the bed. This bedroom now belonged to a young woman who liked to keep things impressively organized.
The only thing that remained the same was the yellow plush toy that was currently lying on Sakura's bed asleep. Sakura went to the bed and shook the lazy guardian, "Kero, wake up." Nothing. "Kero, wake up!" Nothing. "KERO!"
Cerberus woke startled out of sleep and looked around the room for the source of the interruption.
"Oh Sakura! You're home, yay." He proclaimed.
"Yeah… about that Kero… I'm actually going to be spending some time at Syaoran's place and I just came to get some of my belongings. I want you to stay here and take care of the house and my dad, please."
The plush toy looked dejected and I felt sorry for him because for the past couple of years Sakura has been all he's known. Still, it was his duty to help Sakura in any way possible and if this is what she needed then this is what he should do to help her.
"Okay Sakura, whatever you say."
"Thanks for understanding Kero." Sakura told him and then turned to us. "Tomoyo can you help me start pulling clothes from the closet? Syaoran, can you get the suitcase that's under my bed please?"
It took us about an hour to get all of Sakura's necessities packed to her liking. She took one last look at her room and at Cerberus sitting on her bed and said "Goodbye….for a little while." I took her suitcase downstairs and just before we left, Sakura said farewell to her father and promised she would come back.