Chapter 10

Syaoran stood in one fitting room and Eriol in the other. Partially because Sakura was unwilling to pick one of them to be her maid-of-honor and partially because her closest friend out of them was a man, she asked the four of them to be her "bridesmen" and Naoko her bridesmaid. Of course, with Tomoyo's arrival, and after their reconciliation, Sakura made the emergency call to get one more bridesmaid dress made.

"This is weird," Syaoran said as the tailor readjusted his lapels. After another moment he added, "I can't believe she's getting married. Two weeks from now."

Eriol glanced up. They were wearing the same black tuxedo and light pink vest and tie, as decided by Sakura. But for some reason, Syaoran looked a lot better in it than he did. Maybe if he took off his glasses, he'd look as good, he wondered vaguely.

"I feel weird about this," Syaoran said again.

Eriol's tailor stepped out so Eriol could look at the mirror in different angles.

"Are you listening to me?"

Eriol turned around and looked over his back. "Uh…if it's about how weird this feels, I tuned you out like half an hour ago."

"Don't you think it's weird?"

"No."

"Really?"

"What's so weird about it? People get married all the time. Rika's married."

Eriol was fairly sure he knew why Syaoran was feeling that way, but he knew Syaoran didn't. And that was amusing.

"Because. It's Sakura."

"Mm, that explains a lot."

After they both inspected their suits and walked around a few times to feel the comfort, Syaoran decided everything was good. The tailor began to help him out of it, when out of nowhere, Syaoran asked Eriol a question he'd never before asked.

"Do you think Kohei's the right guy for her?"

Eriol looked up at that.

Syaoran met his gaze. "What?"

"You're really gonna ask that question right now?"

"What?"

"Their wedding is two weeks away."

"…So that's a yes?"

"Why are you asking right now?"

"What? It's an innocent question."

"No it's not," Eriol said with an amused chuckle. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous, buddy."

Finding it a ridiculous and confusing assumption, Syaoran remarked, "Of Sakura?"

"Of Kohei. Because he's the one who gets to marrySakura." Not you.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"You don't make any sense."

Syaoran threw him an exasperated look.

"Ok fine, I'll ask you the same question. Do you think Kohei's the right guy for her?"

He judged it for a moment and was about to open his mouth when the door of the wedding shop opened.

"Hey guys," Sakura greeted first.

Eriol and Syaoran exchanged a look.

"Hi boys," Tomoyo said as she followed Sakura in.

"Wha- why aren't you wearing your suit?!" Sakura demanded.

Syaoran stopped midway of putting his sweater on. "I'm done."

"But I want to see it on you!"

His mouth opened in disbelief. "But I just took it off! I look exactly the same as Eriol so just check his out."

"Ah, he looks better in it than I do," Eriol immediately said. "But what do you think?"

"You look amazing!" Tomoyo praised. "Doesn't he?"

"Yes you do! Wow, that light pink really does look wonderful."

Momentarily distracted, Sakura shoved Syaoran aside and made Eriol turn around and around as she inspected the sleeves, the back, the front, the length of the pants, and whatever else there was to inspect.

"It looks good," she began tentatively. "What do you think? Is it comfortable? The length is good?"

Eriol shrugged. "Yeah."

"All right well I'm heading out," Syaoran announced, grabbing his things from the bench. "Thanks Mr. Tailorman," he said kindly to the gentleman who attended to him.

Sakura turned around. "Where are you going?"

"I gotta go pick up Meilin."

"Uh no, you're going back in there and putting that suit on again, Li," she ordered.

"What? No way."

"Yes way! I need to see how it looks on you. Go back in, Sho. You're not getting out of this store until you put it on and show me." She moved to the entrance door with her hands on her hips, a firm frown on her face.

As the bickering began, Tomoyo went to Eriol.

"Are you here for a fitting too?" He asked.

"Mm. It's a good thing Naoko and I are the same size," she answered, touching his tuxedo. "You look really nice, Hiira."

Her compliment made him slightly go red. "Do I? I felt like a dork standing beside Syaoran earlier. I should wear contacts for the wedding, right?"

She laughed. "I think you'd look great with or without those glasses."

"Take your shirt off!" Sakura cried, pulling on Syaoran's shirt under his sweater.

"I'm not taking my clothes off for you."

"Take them off now or I'm going to rip them off you with my bare teeth!"

"All right kids, this is starting to sound inappropriate," Eriol interjected calmly.

Tomoyo quickly went to Sakura and pulled her off Syaoran. Like a perfect maid-of-honor would say, she said, "Can't you just put it back on quickly so the bride can see? She just wants to be sure everything's perfect."

Syaoran stared at her. "You're gonna take her side?"

Eriol patted Syaoran's shoulder from behind. "Just do it, Li. She's the bride after all."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Walking to the fitting room, he muttered to himself, "If it's not one woman, it's the other."

When he disappeared, Sakura huffed out a breath. It tired her out to argue with him. But he was being so stubborn. Which was a very rare occurrence. Frowning, she waited impatiently for him to come out.

"You okay?" Tomoyo asked.

"Hm." Sakura pursed her lips. "Syaoran's acting strange. He's not usually this difficult to convince. Do you know why?" She demanded, turning to Eriol.

Feigning ignorance, Eriol shrugged. "Maybe he hates tuxedos."

Moments later, Syaoran came out wearing the black tuxedo, pink vest, and pink tie. One of the collars was folded backward and his hair was a bit more disheveled than before. The tie was off-kilter. Signs that he'd thrown on the outfit haphazardly.

"Satisfied?" He asked Sakura as he half-heartedly fixed the wrist collars.

Narrow-eyed, she stepped forward and fixed his collar. Tying the tie properly, she almost choked him in the process. Despite the discomfort, he showed no reaction. She turned him around, inspecting the same things she had inspected on Eriol's tuxedo. When she was satisfied, she stood back in front of him with hands on her hips.

"That wasn't so hard was it?" She replied mildly. "Everything looks good."

"Great. Can I go change?"

"Wait." With a small sigh, she looked him over again, then reached up and fixed his hair.

Having stepped closer to him, Sakura was only inches away. Syaoran began to soften up the moment her hand touched his forehead. She always had this effect on him. He could never be angry with her for too long.

He looked down at her. From this close, her eyes were even more green than he thought. Why did his chest feel like someone was pressing down against it? Then a moment came that neither had expected. She looked up and met his gaze.

Amber met emerald. For that one moment, they weren't childhood best friends. They were two people, man and woman, as though seeing each other for the first time. When his gaze flickered to her lips, her heart pounded in response.

Actually, it was reacting violently inside her chest. He had never looked at her that way before.

Then the moment ended when the door of the shop opened again. "Hey guys," Kohei said as he came through.

What just happened?

Syaoran somehow recovered first and stepped backwards. Without a greeting to Kohei, he quickly went back into the fitting room.

Sakura couldn't quite recover as fast as Syaoran. She remained frozen, her hand clutched to her chest, her pulse still slightly erratic.

"Kohei," Eriol greeted with a nod. "How's it going?"

"Good! I'm ready to try on my tuxedo! Hi, my bride-to-be," he said, walking towards Sakura, who still had her back to him.

When she felt his hand on the small of her back, she snapped out of it.

"Hi honey," he said as he bent down to kiss her cheek. She managed to smile. Noticing she wasn't her usual bright self, he asked, "You ok?"

"She's fine, just getting emotional!" Tomoyo replied quickly, stepping in. "You know, the wedding is coming up so fast." She put her arm around Sakura's shoulders and pulled her out of Kohei's grasp. "You understand how brides are."

"Hamasaki-san, your suit is right over here," the tailor interrupted, directing him towards another room in the shop.

"Yes, thank you." With another worried glance at Sakura, he said, "I'll be right back. Excuse me."

When he disappeared, Syaoran came out of the fitting room in his regular clothes. Sakura looked up again.

As though the moment had never happened, he patted her head and said, "All right, I did what you said. I'm off, Sakuchin."

She didn't know what to say or what to do. She couldn't even muster up a nod.

Trying to settle his own confusion at what had happened, he quickly said, "See you guys later," and then exited the store without looking back.

Eriol and Tomoyo turned back to Sakura tentatively. She looked like she was going to break.

"Are you-"

"I can't be here right now," she interrupted, grabbing her bag. "Can you tell Kohei I'm feeling sick or something? I need to get out of here."

"Ok, I'm coming with you," Tomoyo said.

"No. You need to-"

Tomoyo shook her head. "I can do that another time. Explain it to them for me would you Eriol? You need someone to be with you right now. I'm coming with you."

With a heavy breath, she nodded. "All right."

"Bye girls." Eriol took Tomoyo's hand and whispered, "Let her talk."

She nodded dutifully.

:::

Tomoyo took Sakura's car key and drove. During the entire ride, Sakura remained rigid and silent in the passenger seat. Tomoyo didn't say anything. When they arrived at her apartment, Sakura let her lead and she followed numbly.

It was inside her apartment suite that Sakura then felt her knees go weak. Tomoyo placed a strong arm around her and guided her towards the sofa, and there, she began to cry. Painful sobs, coming from deep inside. Tomoyo let her cry it out and waited.

Her heart constricting too, Tomoyo passed her the tissue box. It took a long, long moment for Sakura's cries to quiet down and eventually stop. And another few minutes of silence before she found her voice and was willing to talk again.

"Two years ago, I gave up on him." With a derisive laugh, a laugh directed at herself, she continued, "it was only two years ago, Tomo. Can you believe it? I continued to love him for six more years after high school."

Sakura wiped her cheeks, then folded the wet tissue in her hands.

"And then I met Kohei…and he was so wonderful. He loved me the way I always wanted Syaoran to. I refused Kohei for a long time."

"What made you say yes?"

Her gaze falling to her lap, she said, "Syaoran said one day that I should date him. That I should give it a try."

"He…"

"That was when it finally hit me that things would never change between us. Syaoran would never see me as anything more than a friend. So I gave up. I stopped loving him that way…I really did."

Though she knew the words would hurt, Tomoyo said quietly, "Then why are you crying right now?"

Sakura met Tomoyo's sympathetic gaze. She didn't want to admit it or say it out loud. Fresh tears filled her eyes again.

"Because for one moment back there…" At the memory, her heart ached again. Squeezing her eyes shut, the tears escaped through the corners of her eyes. She hated herself for feeling or thinking it, so the words, "For one moment…he loved me back," came out painfully.

Tomoyo's grey eyes filled with tears too as she held Sakura in her arms.

A/N: Whoo, talk about drama... dare I say the tides are changing? =)