Author's Note: Sorry for the late update! I meant to update much sooner but school started and things got C.R.A.Z.Y.!!! Hope Xmas break is soon enough and I could update much faster then.

Thanks to my reviewers: MoonLove Angel, ccsread, tomoyo-amethyst, dontclickmyname, rizaleth, Princess of Altea-170, and cheng.

Thanks also to all those who put me in their favorites and/or alerts lists: Lycrea, i love muffins yay, KyteAura, sha xd, and Firefly Orain Xi-Wang.

I hope I didn't miss anyone. Believe me, I tried my best and I went through my mail a couple of times to check. Some reviews didn't appear on the site, so I wanna blame ffnet if I did leave out someone. Teehee! Really, thank you so all so much! I am overwhelmed... and humbled.

***

Chapter II

"Hiiragizawa, why didn't you take another day off? We heard from Tomoyo-san that you were burning up with a fever yesterday," Li Shaoran stalked into the room as he saw Eriol sitting in his usual spot behind Tomoyo. He then mumbled a good morning to Tomoyo as the latter answered back with a smile.

"Why, my dear darling descendant!" Eriol placed a hand on his chest for more effect, "I didn't know you cared about me that much!"

Shaoran stilled his vein that was threatening to pop, "I only meant that I enjoyed myself immensely yesterday since you were not here! Why don't you just go home Hiiragizawa! And never come back here! Hmph!" Shaoran huffed his way to his seat beside Tomoyo.

"That's what I told him too Shaoran-kun, he should just have rested for today," Tomoyo shifted in her seat to face Eriol behind her, "your fever could come back Eriol-kun."

Eriol cleared his throat to hide the beginnings of a blush on his cheeks. He didn't notice that Shaoran sent a murderous glare his way.

"Thanks for the concern Tomoyo-san, but Eiri and Sonoko are coming today,"

"Oh yes, I almost forgot about your cousins,"

"Hiiragizawa's cousins?" Shaoran did not really want to reveal he was listening on his friends' conversation. But as far as he knew, his clan was the closest relatives of Eriol, because the latter almost just literally popped out of nowhere.

"Err yeah..." Eriol glared at Shaoran to keep him from saying out more, "MY cousins. Your distant relatives too, Li Shaoran. If you felt a sudden surge in my powers since yesterday, well it was because of them arriving in my house yesterday. They rather have an almost identical aura with mine."

"Sudden surge in your power huh? I kind of sensed it all the way to my place. But it was early in the morning, so I figured you might have just been taking care of some... uh... manly business," Shaoran gave him the cheekiest grin he could muster. Who would have known that the naive Shaoran would somehow grow into a normal adolescent boy with a dirty mind?

Eriol delicately coughed to hide the fact that what Shaoran said was not that far away from the truth. Had he not been expecting Tomoyo that morning, he would have been just preparing for school, and therefore still taking care of a predicament a lot of adolescent boys find themselves in after they get out of bed. Eriol was sure Shaoran had often took care of such manly business himself, it's just that he was slightly scandalized as Tomoyo was just sitting in front of him, and she might have heard what Shaoran said.

Thankfully, the songstress's attention was occupied by their other classmates making their way into the room, and by Sakura who managed to step into the classroom as the bell began to chime.

"Ohayou Sakura-chan!"

"Ohayou Tomoyo-chan! Ohayou Eriol-kun... Ohayou Shaoran-kun," she gave an affectionate smile at her boyfriend before she settled herself to sit in front of him.

The rest of the class mumbled their morning greetings to each other, before the classroom door slid open to reveal the form of their homeroom adviser, Morishita-sensei.

"Ohayou gozaimasu minna-san,"

"Ohayou gozaimasu Morishita-sensei,"

"Since our school festival is nearing, as I promised last week, today, we will be talking about what project your class would carry out in the said festival. We would also be assigning students to lead the project. But before we delve into that, I am going to introduce two exchange students from England," the teacher signalled to the doorway for the students to enter the room. "They will be part of your class for an indefinite period of time. But certainly, they will be here for the festival so be thankful for the extra pairs of hands that will help out in your preparations. Please introduce yourselves,"

"My name is Hiiragizawa Eiri, I am a senior just like you from a high school in England. We were born and raised there, but we are of Japanese descent. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu," a tall boy with messy midnight blue hair and purple eyes bowed his head in front of the class.

The class started murmuring 'Hiiragizawa' and most of the eyes turned to Eriol, especially Shaoran's and Sakura's.

"I'm his younger sister, Hiiragizawa Sonoko. If you are wondering about our surname, Eriol-san is actually our cousin. We are staying with him for the meantime and his being our relative is also the reason why we were assigned to this class. Yoroshiku onegai shimasu," it was Sonoko's turn to bow her head in front of the class. There were appreciative murmurs and glances by the students to the newcomers. Both were certified lookers, and if the Hiiragizawa gene truly ran in their blood, their looks are certainly coupled with brains.

Most of the class positively accepted the Hiiragizawas' story, except for the two non-Hiiragizawa magic users in the class. Both could sense the identical auras of the exchange students, and it was easy enough to trace a family tree from the magical powers the two emitted. Sakura was pleasantly surprised when she traced the lineage of the two Hiiragizawas standing in front of the class through her powers. However, Shaoran was rather pissed-off. He did not have Sakura's power to confirm that the Hiiragizawas' auras were identical with each other, but he had been living in paranoia for some time, having noticed how much attention the proud mage had been bestowing the Daidouji heiress with, and so he had seen enough to start to form conclusions in his head. He started throwing Eriol his most murderous glares.

Somebody in the class asked, "excuse me, but since you are in the same grade, are the two of you twins?"

Sonoko seemed to have been waiting for that question as she readily answered, "nope! We are ten months apart. After my mother gave birth to my brother, my father only let her rest for a month and then he couldn't control himself anymore!"

Eiri sighed in resignation as if he had heard the thing thousands of times before. The class laughed out loud while Eriol began choking himself to death, and his red face was automatically associated with such choking. Tomoyo got up from her chair to thump him on his back, but she, as the rest of the class, assumed that he was just surprised by the boldness of his cousin. Because of Eriol's extreme reaction, Shaoran did not need any more confirmation as he stood up shaking his fist in rage at the mage, "Why, you little piece of--!"

Sakura came to the rescue as she managed to restrain her boyfriend in time. By this time, the class had stopped laughing to gape at the ruckus Li was raising, "I am honestly going to kill you Hiiragizawa! You better be good at hiding because I won't stop until I've squeezed out every single drop of life from you!"

"Li Shaoran!" Morishita-sensei raised his voice in such a way that would have made a lesser man cower in fear, "what is this commotion all about? And what is with your language young man? It is not befitting of a highly educated lad such as yourself."

Eriol stood up to defend his friend, "Morishita-sensei. I apologize in Li Shaoran's stead. Most of the class probably already know that Shaoran and I are distant relatives. Thus, he is also distantly related to them," Eriol held out his hand to point at the two students standing in front of the class. "It's just that Shaoran has a rather... err... sour relationship with Eiri-kun and Sonoko-chan's father. It is actually my fault that I have not warned Shaoran beforehand. His actions are perfectly justifiable. If punishment is due anyone, then I, and no one else, deserve such," Eriol finished his speech with a flourish.

His charm effectively worked to pacify the teacher, "very well then. Family matters are delicate and it is beyond my rights to interfere with such matters. Since Hiiragizawa Eriol-san explained the matters quite clearly, I would let Li-kun get off scot-free. However," he turned to look sternly at Li, "I trust that this won't happen again. Do we understand each other, young man?"

"Hai sensei... gomen... Hontou ni gomen nasai,"

"Hiiragizawa-kun uh... Eiri-kun, you can take the seat behind Li-kun, and Hiiragizawa Sonoko-san, you take the seat in front of Daidouji-san,"

Tomoyo gave a little wave at Sonoko before she settled herself in front of her. Sakura, who was on the seat on Sonoko's left, whispered something to her ear. Sonoko nodded her head enthusiastically as she whispered back to Sakura, "sharp as ever, Sakura-basan."

"Obasan? Oh!" Sakura covered her mouth as she giggled uncontrollably.

On the other hand, Eiri made his way to his seat. But as he passed Shaoran, he placed his hand on the latter's shoulder. The brunet was obviously still fuming, and Eiri wanted to calm him down a bit. Shaoran did not like the idea of an Eriol-look-alike approaching him, but when he stared into his eyes, he realized that he was staring into Daidouji's purple eyes. Iie, it's just that Eiri's eyes were an exact replica of Tomoyo's. And they contained the same magic that could easily disarm Shaoran's temper. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled, that was definitely from the Daidoujis. Shaoran found himself surprisingly fond of the newcomers, when moments ago he vowed that he would probably hate them.

***

Six teenagers made their way under the shade of a big sakura tree; then one of them laid down a checkered cloth for all of them to sit on. Sakura pulled out a bento box from the pink paper bag beside her and handed it to Shaoran. Simultaneously, Tomoyo pulled out her bento box from a purple lunch bag and placed it on her lap. She then seemed to pull out something else from her bag, but she hesitated and put it back.

As Sakura took out her own bento box, she noticed that the three Hiiragizawas were only holding breads which were most probably bought from their school canteen, "hoeee... you guys are only having that?"

The two mumbled their assents. Then Sakura proceeded to chastise her friend, "Eriol-kun, why didn't you prepare lunch for them? I'm sure they're used to having their parents prepare their bentos for them. Now that they are here with you, it's your responsibility to take care of them."

Eiri and Sonoko smiled fondly at Sakura as they felt her being protective of them. They just chose to ignore the fact that they were old enough to know how to cook, or have someone from their class prepare lunch for them for that matter. The older of the siblings noticed how their father seemed a little embarrassed so he decided to rescue him, "Sakura-ba... aherm... Kinomoto-san, Eriol-san did try to prepare lunch for us."

"Yes, try being the operative word," Sonoko interjected.

Eriol seemed to want to say something but no sound came out of his mouth. His mind was recalling the happenings just that morning.

***

The frying pan was already over the fire and his hand was already poised to crack an egg with one hand when he heard Little Eriol crying through the baby monitor he had placed on the kitchen counter. He turned off the gas stove and he made his way into the makeshift nursery they have put together for his toddler.

Nakuru popped out her head into the hallway from her room; but Eriol signalled that he would take care of the baby. He managed to bring Kurorii into the kitchen relatively peacefully. He placed the tot in his high chair near the breakfast table and the young 'un seemed to understand that he was about to be fed. Eriol took out a feeding bottle filled with milk from the fridge then he popped it in the microwave for a few seconds. After testing the temperature, he handed him his bottle as his child was old enough to grasp it. Just when he expected him to start drinking his milk, Kurorii threw the bottle on the floor.

"No! Juice! No juice! Apel juice!"

Eriol picked up the bottle and handed it back to his namesake, "Hey son... uhm... Junior... Little Eriol, Here's your milk. Drink it up! It's yummy! It's good for you! It will make you taller. You'd grow up faster."

The teenage dad proceeded to bribe his son with the merits of drinking milk at a young age, however, his pleas fell deaf on the ears of the tot. They went through a couple of cycles of the baby throwing the bottle and the father picking it up and reasoning with the former. Such was the scene Eiri and Sonoko walked into.

"Otousan, Kurorii drinks juice in the morning. In a cup. I think okaasan bought one yesterday," Eiri rummaged through the cupboards.

"Otousan, do you want me to cook breakfast?" Sonoko offered.

"No, no... I'll take care of it. What do you kids want? Kidneys? Bacon? Eggs? And of course some toast right?" Eriol began raiding the fridge when he heard a different voice crying.

"Thomasina... Thomasina is lost... She left..." Tomoko cried in between hiccups. She ambled into the kitchen as she rubbed her eyes in a vain attempt to dry them.

As Eriol turned to his older children to ask who Thomasina was, Eiri answered, "It's her doll otousan. She brings it everywhere she goes. When she wakes up without it by her side, she'll cry for approximately an hour."

When Eriol knotted his eyebrows, Sonoko further informed him, "As early as when Tomoko was about a year old, she would throw tantrums that last for an hour. She stares at the clock and stops by herself on the right time. You could make her stop if you adjust the clock and show it to her."

Tomoko made her way in front of her father before her wails got louder. She was already coughing in between her sobs and it pained Eriol to see her suffering. He glanced at his older kids as if for moral support, then he held out his hands to lift up his young daughter. She then wound her arms around his neck quite tightly. She clung as if for dear life. Eriol stroked her back and mumbled vague assurances, but it only did little to soothe her.

The last of his kids finally found his way into the kitchen, "Otousan. Is okaasan coming for breakfast? She could make Tomoko stop crying if she sees her."

"No, Yoru-kun. I know you already understand the situation. She has no reason why she would come here this early in the morning."

"She could cook us breakfast like she always does in the future," Yoru grinned his most seemingly innocent smile.

Eriol absorbed the insinuation and he realized that it was true he hasn't started cooking breakfast yet. But his hands were full as Tomoko was still in his arms. He then finally noticed a thumping sound and he saw Kurorii banging his cup on his tray and juice was sputtering out from the spout of his cup. When a drunk Spinnel Sun whizzed into the room followed closely by Nakuru, Eriol realized that he had to concede that somebody else would have to start cooking breakfast.

Changing diapers... changing clothes... braiding hair... cleaning up... feline babysitter... drop off at the kindergarten... then the grade school... and finally their high school... Eriol's mind whirled in recall.

***

Four spectators watched as Tomoyo offered a bento box in front of Eriol. She earlier said that she already bought ingredients good for two people as she usually prepares Eriol's bento for him. Though it was surely not enough for all of them, she hopes they could all share the lunches she prepared, including hers of course. But Eriol seemed lost in his reveries, and Tomoyo's hand remained suspended in front of him.

A fierce aura was suddenly directed on their location and Shaoran almost jumped into a defensive stance if not for the fact that his instincts had already categorized Clow's aura as safe. Instead, he directed his gaze, and the others did so as well, to a young version of Eriol. As the boy got closer, the only official couple in the group realized that the young boy had darker hair; otherwise, he was Eriol's clone, including the glasses.

He stomped his way into Eriol's side and he menacingly said, "Eriol-san, Tomoyo-san is talking to you."

If there were still any doubts that Eriol's attention was already with them, the little boy effectively quelled them. Eriol mumbled an apology. But before he could take the bento from Tomoyo's hand, someone else already took it away, "ah. It seems my cousin does not want this perfectly crafted lunch. But if permitted so, my humble self would like to accept this gift."

Shaoran was scandalized as the Eriol he remembered in fourth grade materialized in his face, "who the hell is this kid?"

"Bon jour mademoiselle. Je m'appelle Yoru. Hiiragizawa Yoru," the boy managed to immediately draw up to Sakura and kiss her hand. Shaoran almost shouted in agony but he was detracted by Eiri's next statement.

"He's our younger brother,"

"How many kids are you exactly?"

"Five,"

"What?!? There's that many of you?!?"

"But Shaoran-san, I bet you won't be far behind," Sonoko then decided to whisper the rest of her sentence to his ear, "in my time, you already have three boys and one little girl."

Li Shaoran turned redder than what was thought was humanly possible. He hid his embarrassment by gobbling down his food while Sakura was reminding him in the background that he could choke if he ate that fast. Meanwhile, Yoru was commenting on how Tomoyo cooks as good as his mother does. And when he was asked how he got to the high school grounds, he said that he jumped over the fence that separated Tomoeda Elementary School and Seijou high. As Eiri whacked his brother's head for using magic, the girls seemed to remain amused over the situation.

Eriol, amidst the starting chaos around him, tore the wrapper off the bread in his hands then he read the label: Melon bread. Tomoeda Grade School Cafeteria.

Tsuzuku

***

Nota bene:

Trivia: Yoru was born in Paris, France. What Yoru said, according to our friend freyasakura is French for "Hello miss, I call myself Yoru. Hiiragizawa Yoru". (thanks for the info dear!) He is quite the mama's boy, so if you didn't get why he was hostile towards Eriol, it was because he was being protective of his mom. Even if he's his father, he hates it that he was ignoring his mum.

I love reading Dame Agatha Christie's and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works. The characters usually eat kidneys for breakfast, and from google I think it's lambs' kidneys. Gave me the impression they are very English. Teehee. For years now, I've wanted to write an ExT, but I can't seem to write their dialogues as formal as I want to. Thanks to the dame and knight that I worship, my vocabulary improved, and felt formal enough. (for me! Haha!)

Thomasina was a name I encountered in the dozens of the mystery books I've read. Before then, I didn't know that Thomas had a female version. My research said that it is Aramaic in origin and it means "twins". It was the 2nd choice for the name I wanted and searched for and it seemed to fit as the doll and Tomoko are supposed to be inseparable. But alas, Thomasina was left in the future!

***

Next chapter's preview: Child from the future bonding with parent. Some secrets of the past revealed. Broken hearts weep then heal. Why Eriol stopped playing the piano. How he started playing again. Why he decided to call Tomoeda home. Stay tuned for the next chapter! Coming to you in December... ^_^