AN: Every time I write a story, I have a chronological time of events in my head. But every time I write a story, the story has a mind of its own and no matter how hard I try not to, it strays from the original timeline I had in place. But that's good. I let it be, because that means the story isn't forced and flows better. Anywho, there was a scene in here that was supposed to take place while Sakura was at school, but it didn't turn out that way and it ended up in this. You'll see. It's not hard to figure out what scene I was talking about. And no, this isn't the last chapter or the conclusion. It's just the title of the chapter.

Read, enjoy, and review!

Chapter Ten

Conclusions

It was becoming a problem, a problem that no one had foreseen. But the more time Yue and Sakura spent together, the more time he took from Yukito and though Yue still relinquished control to his false form most of the time, for the first time ever it was becoming an inconvenience and a bother for him. Yukito could feel it inside him, the irritation and annoyance and it wasn't stemming from his own emotions. It had been bothering him for a while now. Actually, years ago it had started out as some kind of wistful patient longing, then it became something of restlessness, until now it was full blown irritation and annoyance. It was enough to let him know that something was wrong with his other self and it was certainly something he couldn't fix, which was why Yukito found himself sitting with Sakura and Kero one summer afternoon having tea and some cookies she had made.

"So what's going on?" Sakura asked. "Is everything alright? It's not like you to come over here without at least calling."

"Toya said you would be here," Yukito replied. "So I thought I'd drop by."

Sakura continued to sip her tea with a small smile before saying, "You didn't answer my question. Something is wrong, isn't there?"

Yukito hesitated. "Not with me exactly. But I think there's something wrong with Yue."

Sakura stopped mid-sip to look at Yukito, who felt the stirring in the back of his mind again. Yue didn't like being talked about like he wasn't there and he always was when Yukito was around.

"What do you mean?" she asked putting the tea down to look at him.

Yukito blinked a little in confusion as he took in the obvious worry on her face. But there was something else.

"He's been in a bad mood," Yukito replied.

Kero scoffed. "Yukito, Yue's always in a perpetual bad mood."

"Not like that," Yukito said. "Even then I rarely sense him in my subconscious. But something's really bothering him and he wants me to know it. But I don't know what I can do about it."

Sakura scowled a little and then sighed. "Yue's been a little reserved lately, more than usual anyway. I don't like to pry but if it's affecting you…"

"To you," Kero said smirking. "He's always this way with everyone else."

Sakura ignored the comment as she looked down at the table. That look passed across her face again and Yukito was finally able to pinpoint it. It was the same look Toya would give him when he was concerned, the look a person gave when they were concerned for a lover… Yukito smiled. So that was why Toya hadn't been able to tell him exactly who it was Sakura was rumored to be pining over for the last few days.

"I think maybe you should talk to him," Yukito said setting down his tea.

Sakura nodded as she softly called Yue under her breath and when she looked back up, Yue was sitting in front of her. Kero nearly dropped his cookie. Yukito had been right. Something was obviously wrong with Yue. He looked stoic and neutral as ever, but something about him seemed a little sad, longing, lonely, and weary of something. Of course, Sakura detected it long before Kero figured it out and so crawled around to the other side of the table and moved his arm around her so that she could practically, and quite literally, lie in his lap, a gesture Sakura would later swear was innocent to Kero (he wouldn't believe it).

Tomoyo was going to be mad she missed it when Kero told her about it later. Those two, really, Kero thought to himself as he rolled his eyes. Situations like this were becoming more and more common between the two, especially since a week or so ago after Sakura took that attack to protect Yue. Yue seemed to have come to terms with something that night or at least started to examine his feelings on some matter (namely his feeling about Sakura). If only the two of them would realize what was apparent to everyone and anyone with eyes. Kero sighed. Sakura obviously knew how she felt, but in her loving and caring for Yue didn't want to say anything for his sake. She knew how he was when it came to emotions and she probably didn't want to put her own emotions about him on Yue. But Yue was just stubborn and for all his wisdom, courage, and seriousness, he could be a downright coward when it came to his emotions, more willing to ignore and deny them than face them and risk getting hurt.

Kero held back a sigh. He might take Tomoyo up on her matchmaking plan…

"Yue," Sakura said to him.

"Mistress…"

Sakura scowled. "Don't start that again."

"Sakura," he corrected.

"Are you okay?"

"I suppose," Yue said wearily.

"We'll take that as a no," Kero said. "What's going on? Yukito says you've been moodier than usual."

"I'm aware of what he said," Yue snapped. "And tell him I apologize if I'm a little restless."

"Restless?" Sakura and Kero said.

"Yue, what's this all about?" Sakura asked.

Yue glanced at Kero and then at Sakura before looking down again.

"We'll talk about it later then," Sakura asked as she sighed in contentment and began to play with Yue's hair.

There was a knock on the door a few minutes later. Yue tensed and balled one of his fists in what must have been frustration though his face didn't show it.

"You can relax," Sakura said. "It's just Tomoyo. Come in!"

"Sakura," Tomoyo's voice said.

"In here," Sakura shouted.

"Okay," Tomoyo said. "In here guys."

Before Sakura could even register that Tomoyo was talking to someone else and before Yue could make the transformation back to Yukito, in came Tomoyo, Chiharu, Rika, and Naoko.

"Sakura, we heard you haven't been yourself lately and so we decided to come over and cheer you up…"

All of then stopped. Tomoyo gasped and gave Sakura an apologetic look. No one said anything until Rika calmly said with a giggle, "It doesn't look like Sakura needs cheering up."

"Yeah," Chiharu said giggling herself. "Who's this Sakura?"

Sakura sat up feeling her cheeks start to heat up while Yue only raised an eyebrow.

"He's a friend of the family."

"You sure he's not more than a friend?" Naoko teased. "Because it sure looks like he's not just a friend."

Sakura put her hand on her flaming cheeks.

"No… He's not. Yue's my guardian."

Her three school friends looked at each other before saying, "Kawaii!"

"It's just like in the movies," Tomoyo said sighing dreamily.

"Tomoyo!" Sakura said mortified.

Tomoyo only continued to grin as she said, "A girl falls in love with her guardian."

The four girls came to sit around the table.

"So, does your brother know you're dating someone so much older than you?" Chiharu asked.

Sakura's mouth opened and closed.

"No… It's-."

"We get it," Naoko said laughing.

"You guys don't tease Sakura," Rika said smiling at her.

Sakura could have died on the spot. She carefully avoided Yue's eyes as she grabbed him by the arm and started to stand up.

"Yue was just leaving," she said.

"No! Why doesn't he stay? You've never introduced us to your boyfriend," Naoko said.

Sakura tipped over onto the floor that time.

"I can't believe this!" Sakura said mortified as she hit her head on the refrigerator while Yue and Kero fixed more tea and sweets since she was too embarrassed to care.

"Well," Kero said trying not to laugh. "Better they think he's your older boyfriend trying on a costume Tomoyo made than suspect anything else if you think about it. At least you don't have to explain that."

"Still, I'm never going to hear the end of this," Sakura said as she turned to Yue.

"I'm so sorry about this," she said to him. "I don't want to have to put you through this."

"As bothersome as this entire situation is, Kero's right. Better to play into what they want to hear or you tell them about your magic," Yue said as he handed her the tray with the tea and cakes on it.

Sakura took them, her cheeks still aflame and then she frowned as she met Yue's eyes.

"You're laughing at me," she said.

"I'd never dream of it, mistress," Yue replied.

"Don't lie," Sakura muttered. "And don't laugh. You don't have to go back to school with them after vacation."

With that she braced herself and made her way back out into the living room. Kero flew to float next to Yue as they stared after her.

"You shouldn't be so mean," he said, though he was grinning at the situation himself.

"There's nothing to get worked up about. It's not true," Yue said dryly.

"But you wish it were," Kero said bluntly. "That's why you've been in such a bad mood. Before, you had nothing you wanted to live for, but now… Now it's different."

Yue didn't respond to the question only crossing his arms apparently trying to distance himself from what was going on outside of him.

"It's no use denying it. Everyone knows it except Sakura," Kero said, "And you'll be a real fool to deny it and let her slip away."

Meanwhile, Sakura was now sure her cheeks would have a permanent red stain on them as the girls began their game of twenty questions with her. Tomoyo had taken out her camera in order to record the occasion.

"Yue… That's a beautiful name," Rika said.

"So who is he? Where's he from?" Chiharu asked.

"He's from around…" Sakura muttered.

"Around where?" Naoko asked.

"Uh… He's Yukito's cousin!" Sakura said snapping her finger. "Yeah… he lives outside the city and visits every now and then."

"So that means you don't see him very often! No wonder you've been so sad lately. You missed him," Rika said.

"Is he the reason you broke up with Syaoran?" Chiharu asked.

Sakura slowly nodded. That part wasn't a lie. Yue was part of the reason she had left Syaoran even if she hadn't been sure of it at the time.

"So when did you meet him?"

Sakura looked at Tomoyo with a pleading look, but her best friend was enjoying herself too much to help her out and so she sighed.

"When I was eleven."

"That's so sweet! You've been friends all this time," said Chiharu.

"How come we've never met him then?" Naoko asked. "I've never seen him around."

Now Sakura could answer that one pretty much truthfully.

"He's not always around and Yue doesn't like people much. He's always been cold and distant, really aloof…"

"Yeah," said Tomoyo and then added dramatically, "But Sakura was able to melt his icy heart."

All of the girls giggled and Sakura glared at Tomoyo who was nonplused.

"So how old is he?" Chiharu asked. "He doesn't look too old."

Sakura almost rolled her eyes. They'd be surprised. Yue was at least a couple of centuries old (she wasn't exactly sure), but she couldn't tell them that.

"Yue's much older than he looks," Tomoyo said making it even harder on Sakura.

"Well he looks twenty-something… So late twenties right?"

Sakura only nodded stiffly. She was really going to kill Tomoyo for this later.

"Twenty-seven to be specific," Tomoyo replied.

Sakura choked on her tea.

"You all will keep this to yourselves though…right?" Sakura asked nervously. The last thing she needed was for this to somehow get back around to her brother, not to mention her father.

"Don't worry. Your secret's safe with us," Rika said. "We're just glad you're happy."

"Sakura."

Sakura turned at the sound of Yue's voice.

"I think I'll leave now," he said to her ignoring the bothersome giggling from her friends. It amazed him how people could automatically jump to conclusions like that.

"Oh you don't have to. We'll leave," Naoko said.

"It's okay," Sakura said a little relieved. It would be much easier to talk to them if Yue wasn't in the next room. "I'll walk you out."

Sakura was relieved to have the excuse and she followed Yue to the door.

"You might want to just fly home to make sure they don't notice you change back into Yukito," she said. "And I'm so sorry about this."

"It's fine. They're your friends. What's to be sorry about?"

"Well they do think you're my boyfriend now," Sakura said sheepishly.

"You know the truth. That's what counts," Yue said and something flashed in Sakura's eyes. It looked like disappointment.

Before he could ask though, she said, "Come back tonight. You still haven't told me what's bothering you."

Yue nodded and started to say something else before stopping and eyeing the girls who were peeping around the corner. Annoyance flashed across his face as he crossed his arms.

"Don't let us interrupt," Tomoyo said smiling as she recorded them, Naoko, Chiharu, and the usually mature Rika behind her.

"I'll come back tonight," was all Yue said to Sakura as he left the house, closing the door behind him.

Sakura sighed as she got ready to face her friends. This was going to be a long day.

"We're sorry Sakura, but don't be so sad. He'll be back tonight," Tomoyo teased and the other girls giggled.

Sakura was waiting on the roof for Yue late that evening. He had seemed so sad earlier and lonely. She hadn't seen Yue like that in while, since after the final judgment when he was still trying to accept that Clow was dead and never coming back (even if he were reincarnated) and trying to learn to accept her as his mistress.

"What could it be now?" Sakura wondered aloud to herself as she looked at the stars. Why was Yue looking like that again?

Her thoughts strayed to earlier that day and a blush formed on her cheeks. She had a time convincing her friends that she wasn't in a relationship with Yue, not an official one anyway. Her friends were now convinced it was a matter of time with the way they had found her snuggled up to Yue earlier. Sakura sighed. She wished it were that simple. If it were any other person, she could just use her empathy, but she had to fall in love with the guy who could even guard his emotions from that…

She sensed Yue land behind her, and without announcing himself in any way, he came to sit by her. Sakura leaned against him. It was out of habit more than anything.

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked after a while and then added, ""Yukito says you seem restless and moody lately."

"Just tired," Yue said wearily.

"Tired? Of what?"

Yue sighed and looked to his side, trying to avoid her curious and concerned gaze.

"What?"

"This half life I guess," Yue admitted. "And I guess I've been taking my frustration out on my false form. Apologize to him for me later."

"Half life?" Sakura said sitting up. "You mean you're tired of sharing your body with Yukito."

Yue only nodded and Sakura looked at him in something of confusion and curiosity.

"Since when? You never seemed to mind before."

Yue snorted.

"Before it was only a minor annoyance. Now it's becoming frustrating and I can tell it's frustrating Yukito now too. This arrangement isn't working anymore."

Sakura opened and closed her mouth not quite knowing what to say. This was so sudden. There was a time Yue was content to never have control unless Sakura herself was in danger and Sakura had to almost force him into appearing. But now that she thought about it. That was years ago, before he started to open up to her and enjoy her company. Years, years that didn't seem so long ago anymore, where her relationship with Yue was much simpler than it was now. Sometimes, she wished she could go back to those times, but only sometimes. She sighed. Now wasn't a good time for her to get into deep thought about those things.

"Well," she finally said, "surely you had to have taken this into account before now. Surely Clow did!"

Yue rolled his eyes, a gesture Sakura had never seen him do when Clow was mentioned up to then. "Clow did take it into account. But it didn't quite go like he planned. Yukito wasn't supposed to develop so much of a personality. And I thought he would be expendable. He was just a disguise. I could get rid of it and to be quite honest, I wasn't expecting to take another master anyway. But as it turns out, you did defeat me and Yukito… I didn't expect so many people to care about him. I suppose I so distanced myself from the personality it was bound to happen, that we would end up two people in one body although technically, I have the right to get rid of him forever."

Sakura tensed. Yue wasn't really thinking…

"But although I may be mean and cold like Cerberus reminds me every day, I'm not heartless."

Sakura was silent, not quite sure how to respond to the admission. Yue didn't press her for an opinion as usual, but it was a rare thing for him to open up to her about his own issues. He wouldn't ask directly, but he wanted her advice.

"What brought this on all of a sudden? Why now?"

"It wasn't all of a sudden," Yue replied curtly and Sakura got the point. He wasn't telling her.

"Well," Sakura said in contemplation. "Clow did create you and by proxy Yukito, so isn't it possible we could give Yukito his own body."

"There's one problem with that," Yue said. "Toya's power keeps us alive."

"Then let Yukito keep Toya's power and you could do what you're supposed to do, live from my magic," Sakura suggested and sensing her moon guardian's protest continued, "I've gotten much stronger since I was eleven. I could do it now. It might take some getting used to and everything but-."

"You're talking as though you're actually going to consider doing this."

Sakura stopped her rambling noting the serious expression on Yue's face. He naturally didn't like getting his hopes up and so looked neutral as always, but there was something coming from him. She looked at him in determination and reached up to turn his face to look at her.

"I have considered it, and I've decided I'm going to."

"Is there anything I can say to try and talk you out of this?" he asked raising an eyebrow, already knowing the answer.

"Nope. I'll call Eriol about it tomorrow," Sakura determined.

Yue looked at her for a long time and she at him. Yue broke their gaze first, looking to the side as he stood up, his wings appearing on his back.

"I think I'll leave," he whispered.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" she asked hopefully.

Yue paused trying to carefully answer her without saying no but where she wouldn't get her hopes too high.

"Perhaps. But I've already been taking a lot of time from Yukito lately…"

Sakura smiled. "I get it. Good night Yue."

"Good night Sakura," Yue said planting a kiss on her forehead. He started to fly away until Sakura called him back.

"Yue," she said. "You said that things with you and Yukito didn't go like Clow planned. What do you mean?"

Yue's eyes darted away from her and back, the only indication of his hesitation. Then he said, "Yukito didn't fall in love with you."

AN: Again, this isn't the last chapter. The title is just called conclusions. Anyway, I was thinking that CCS just leaves itself open for fanfiction with all the ambiguity and open ends (Not counting the Tsubasa Chronicles. I haven't read it and don't plan to). This story is just one of the many possibilities in my head. There are many other stories I considered, but I went with this one. I mean that plan of Clow's for Yukito and Sakura leave a lot for the fanfic writer to deal with and a bunch of other scenes in the manga and anime. I might do more fics later and who knows, I may even dip into S/S fic because well, it's an okay pairing and it is canon (I think fanfiction turned me off from it. There are really some horribly GAF of it not an insult to those who write the pairing well).

So, the scene that wasn't supposed to be in here was the scene with her friends, but it just wrote itself right there. And you really didn't think that last chapter was the end, that the two would finally end up together. Tsh… My Star Wars readers know that I've never been a straightforward romance person, which is why I like the pairings like this. They prove to be more of a challenge to me and in the end more fun for me to write. So, tell what you thought. The next chapter-. Well, I'll surprise you.

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!