Summary: Eriol, a prodigy in the making who is always bullied; Syaoran, a transfer student from China with a troubled past and no friends; and Sakura, a beautiful girl full of nothing but optimism and always half full rather than half empty. As if life wasn't hard enough, when their lives intermingle and two boys fall for a girl, who's only supposed to live until her graduation . . . well, this is their story.

a/n: I did a little update on Chapter 8. I re-read it and realized I confused myself what grade they were in. It's nothing too important you'd have to go back on. Just accidentally indirectly mentioned that they were third years instead of second years—which they are.

But I hope you're all enjoying this story! What I'm trying to do with this story is to have everyone enjoy the story as a whole. Instead of leaving you with something amazing after every chapter, what I'm trying to do is create little things that will hopefully add up in the end of the story and when you finished, you'll have enjoyed the story as a whole and really feel what the characters have been through; the change, the growth, the relationships, all of that. So sorry if things might be going a bit slower for some of you readers, but I promise you'll really truly understand and feel the lives of these characters in the end.

That said, please enjoy! Don't forget to review!

By: Shinigami 42-42-564's Friend

Friday, October 22, 2010

Well today was the day; and to be honest, I was excited. It was the first time I've been excited actually too now that I think about it. The weekend that Eriol promised at his resort was no in progress.

After school that day, everyone went back to their houses to pack what they wanted for the weekend. I didn't pack much; just my phone, cloths, and bathroom necessities. I thought about bringing my thousand-piece music box, but I decided against it. If they saw me fiddling with that, it'd be weird. I left the house with a green shirt and khaki shorts.

The meeting spot was a boat dock. I didn't know where it was, so I met up with Tomoyo within a small downtown shopping district and we walked there together. It wasn't far, but the weather was a lot better than last week. The sun was out with no clouds, skies were blue, no humidity, and only a small breeze—perfect weather.

When we got to the dock, there were quite a few people there—some I hadn't expected actually. Parked floating next to the dock that Tomoyo pointed out to me was a rather large, luxuriously-built, boat. It wasn't big, but it could fit about ten people easily. The boat had a small retractable roof like a convertible car.

"Ah, you made it!" Sakura cried as we approached the dock. The girl had changed from her school uniform to a knee-long, white silk dress that was shoulder cut. She had black leggings and wore a sunhat.

"Well it's not like we planned this just a couple hours ago," I said sarcastically—mainly to Tomoyo as Sakura was still an earshot away.

Tomoyo, who had changed into a rather odd black blouse, laughed for a moment at my remark. She then proceeded to meet with Sakura further down the dock where the boat was parked. On the boat fiddling with the anchors was Eriol. Next to him was Yukito and Touya as well. I wasn't surprised to see Touya since Sakura was going, but I was surprised to see Yukito.

"Ah, Li-kun, you're coming too?" I heard a voice from behind me. It was a familiar voice, a girl voice, but I had trouble making it out until I turned. It was Chiharu approaching the dock with a guy next to her side.

"Well yeah," I started when they came up to me. "Of course—I mean, I should actually be asking you that."

"Oh, this is Yamazaki Takashi. He's in my class too."

"Pleased to meet you, Li-kun," Yamazaki introduced.

The guy had dark hair, was quite tall and very skinny. He almost seemed like I twig. I thought maybe Chiharu had more fat on her than he did.

"Pleased to meet you, Yamazaki." I slowly said. After that Chiharu took a step forward and shoved her face in mine. It took me by surprise so I took half a step back.

"If he ever wants to tell you a story," Chiharu started, "run away, or you'll regret it."

I looked from her to him as I was questioning her statement. I didn't know the guy, but from the warning I got, I didn't want to. Slowly I nodded and proceeded to the boat.

"Everyone, get on board," Eriol called out.

Immediately, everyone was given a life-vest as everyone stepped in. I never really understood the use of a life-vest when you knew how to swim—and I knew how to swim.

When we departed, right away I saw where we were going and what Sakura and the others had told me about just last week. It was a rather larger island than I had anticipated. Even from where we were at, just off the shore, I would already see the giant resort that Eriol had. In front of it was its very own beach and around it was infested trees.

While gazing my way there, I thought about the rocking of the boat as it raced across the lake. I still don't remember much about my past and what led me to coming here to Japan, but for some reason I remembered that I loved the feel of a rocking boat—as odd as is sounds. Maybe it was the immense breeze that came with it or the dabbles and splashes of water you get that waft your face. I felt free; relieved of all stress.

I took a quick glance around at everyone; they all were smiling. This was the first time I've seen so many smiles so close together. It wasn't a smile for laughter and it also didn't seem to be a smile for happiness. What were they smiling about? Deep inside, I felt like smiling too though. I wanted to smile—but what's the reason for that? Did they feel the same way I did? Free?

I wanted to smile. But for some reason, I just couldn't.

The Taste of Salt

It took us ten breezy minutes to reach the shore of Eriol's island. From up close, it looked a lot bigger than what I had imagined before coming here. When we docked, the first thing past the dock was bright white sand that seemed almost flawless. No random shells or unidentified items sitting around. Past the sand was ground mixtures of solid clay dirt and grass that led up to wooden stairs that led up to a rather large balcony that led to the front door of Eriol's resort.

Wasn't that unique?

The resort was looked like it was two stories, but the stairs oddly led to the second story. I guessed that, that was the main floor. The windows on both floor seemed to cover nearly the entire side of the resort like it was the wall itself.

I was awed. I really was.

"Wow, Eriol-kun, it looks amazing!" Sakura cried as we reached the steps.

Eriol scratched his head and quietly laughed as if he was nervous. "Thanks."

"I can't wait to go swimming!"

Sakura rushed up the steps first as the rest followed. When we got in, the Eriol flashed the lights on and everything lit up. To the right was the kitchen; it had a large gas stove, next to it was a cutting corner and next to that was a double-door fridge with the freezer on the bottom. What amazed me most was the sink; the sink faced a large glass window so that whoever was doing the dishes could look outside into the beach.

On the opposite side of the kitchen was the dining area that easily made up a fourth of the main floor. The rest of the floor was the living room that had its very own fireplace. Around it was three long couches that could fit four people each. Outside of the couches was a pool table and a TV set.

"Well," Eriol started, "Let's settle down. Then we can go swimming."

It didn't take us long to settle down. The rooms where we slept in were downstairs. There was just enough for all of us to have our own rooms. I was actually quite surprised. Not every house has eight rooms. But then again, this is a resort. Sadly, however, there was only one bathroom down by the rooms. The other one was upstairs by the main area.

After about half an hour, everyone was already out on the beach. Me, however, I just wanted to relax so I spent my time lying on the couch. I liked the waters, the feel of the waves and the win, but for some reason, swimming just wasn't my thing at the moment.

I thought aimlessly about things that I didn't understand, things that were unrelated to me, and things that didn't make sense. Soon after, I found myself asleep—faster than I had anticipated.

The Taste of Salt

When I woke, I woke to the shaking of Sakura. Though my vision was still a blur, I could tell by the voice as it urged me to get up. When I focused, I sat up and said, "I'm up, I'm up."

"Come on, Syaoran-kun, it's time to eat," said Sakura.

"Already?" I mumbled. When I looked outside, it was already dark.

"You've been out for a while," replied Sakura and she joined the rest of the group at the dining table.

"Well that's surprising." I was hoping that it would just turn into a nap, but I guess not. One of those moments I suppose.

"Dinner's ready," she said.

"Who made it?"

"Eriol-kun and I did."

"Eriol?"

I was quite surprised to hear that Eriol cooked. That was one thing that I guess I never really knew about him. All I ever knew was he was the smartest kid in school that loved playing games. Now that I thought about it, that was a very odd combination of talents. Cooking, gaming, and being the number one student in our class.

Dinner was pasta and fried fish with black beans; another off combination, but can't disagree about the taste. Exquisite, might I say. The fish had the perfect mixture of herbs along with the sauce. Its aroma was almost priceless. The pasta, I'm sure Sakura made it. The soft angel-hair noodles just tasted like she made it. We didn't use red sauce, but we used a Japanese style alfredo sauce.

During the meal, Sakura rambled on about what she wanted to do next, like she planned to not sleep this entire weekend. Aside from Yukito, who was going along with Sakura with her plans to do for the weekend, everyone else was pretty quiet—but Sakura and Yukito made up for that. Eriol ate and smiled at Sakura and Yukito's conversation, Tomoyo laughed at every joke they spilled, and Touya seemed to almost not care about the conversation, like he was only there as a guard dog. Across the table, Chiharu and Yamazaki sat next to each other and seemed to be having their own conversation.

Touya caught me staring at him and gave me another one of those death stares. I turned quickly and started eating as if I did nothing.

About half an hour later everyone finished eating. We all were actually quite full before the food was done, but Sakura insisted that we stuffed as much as we could and finished it—this meant every scrap of meat on the bones of the fish.

By now the sky was dark; not completely dark, but navy blue skies with a moon that simmered the beach, which illuminated the sky.

"Now what do you got planned for us?" Touya muttered like he was bored.

"We can have a bonfire," Eriol replied. "There's a fire-pit right outside. The view of the beach is pretty and the lake is pretty good at night with the moon right above it."

"Great!" Sakura exclaimed. "Anyone know how to start one?"

"I can," Yukito smiled.

"And I can help too," Yamazaki started. "In fact, I have—"

"Shut it!" Before Yamazaki could finish, Chiharu had covered his mouth forcefully with her hands.

"You guys can go on ahead. I'll finish the dishes quickly," Eriol said.

I sighed and got up with my plate. "I guess I'll help too." Surprisingly there was no objection.

When the table cleared, everyone other man Eriol and I rushed outside into the dark. Within a few minutes, I saw a flicker of red, orange, and yellow just outside before the beach sand. It was the fire and I was surprised to see it up so fast. Everyone gathered on beach chairs and blankets and sat around it. I could see Sakura and Chiharu burning some marshmallows over the fire.

There was quite a bit of dishes to do. We agreed that Eriol would scrub and soap while I rinse and dry. I will admit though, it was really awkward being shoulder length away from Eriol washing dishes. Through the window in front of us I could see stars glowing madly. Sparks from the fire-pit rose and exploded away. The night was calm and quiet—the only sound was the sound of the friends by the fire playing around.

I balled my eyes to Eriol who I knew was staring out the window at Sakura while scrubbing the dishes. His eyes showed a melancholy and worry.

"So, Eriol," I started deciding to break the silence. "Why don't you just tell her?"

Eriol jerked his head back like he had just been snapped out of some sort of confusion. "Huh? What? What do you mean?"

I sighed. "You know what I mean. Why don't you tell her that you like her?"

"Who, Sakura-chan?"

"Well, yeah. Who else?"

"Ha! I'm not going to be doing that."

I made a face and was actually quite irritated at the answer. "Aw come on you big baby, why not? You honestly can't let something like this slide."

"That's none of your business."

"And why's that? You know if you like someone, you should tell them that."

"Yeah, thanks for the tip. I'm not dumb, I know that."

"Then what's the hold up, huh? You had the guts to stand up to two people who beat you up, but not confessing yourself? That's lame."

"Shut up!"

"Or else I'll tell her that I like her." I added a little giggle at the end. This got Eriol frantic.

"What? You wouldn't—"

"I was just kidding. Damn, kid, chill out."

Eriol turned away and gave a low pout. He waited a few seconds and then turned back. "You don't . . . really . . . like her, do you?"

I made a face. "What, me? Of course not. Don't take me lightly, I was just playin' around. But I am serious about you telling her that you like her."

Again, Eriol turned away. But this time, as he turned back, he began to start a gaze on Sakura. The look on his face was somber as if he was thinking about something that was really important to him. After a moment, he sighed and said,

"Thing is . . . I already did."

This caught me off guard. I stopped rinsing for probably the longest minute of my life just trying to register what he said. He already confessed to Sakura? There was no way. The lifestyle they lived, the relationship they had, it just didn't seem to be the usual follow up after a confession. Since they're not going out, I'd assume that he got denied. After a denial though, a friendship usually isn't the same. So I was surprised to now know that they are still as close as they are.

"O—oh . . ." I mumbled—lost for wards. "I'm sorry then. When was this?"

"It was as first years last year. I did what anyone would do: I took her up to the school roof and told her that . . . I liked her." Eriol seemed to be quite depressed talking about this topic. I wanted to change the subject now but this was just too interesting. "I then asked her out, but of course, as you can see, things didn't turn out in my favor."

"What, people here in Japan take their confessions to the roofs of a school?" I muttered.

"Shut up you foreigner."

"Woah, personal attacks!"

"Sakura-chan and I were close friends before all of that . . . in fact we were childhood friends. My dad was really good friends with her dad. They taught at the same University for a long time."

"You know . . . now that you mentioned it, I was always wondering: where are her parents?" Based on Eriol's subtle reaction, I could tell that this was a touchy subject.

"Sakura-chan's dad is working overseas in America."

"This isn't another lie like Tomoyo's mom now, is it?" I sputtered suddenly.

Eriol jerked back and looked at me with surprised eyes. Like he didn't know that I knew such a thing. "Oh . . . so you know about that."

I sighed. "Sadly. But what about her mom then?"

"Sakura-chan's mother . . . died when she was little."

Yet again another hard-struck event. I was speechless. Her mother was dead? Was Eriol being serious? Of course he was. It just seemed so unreal though. How could so many things happen around this one little girl? I remember Touya saying about how Tomoyo's mother was a mother figure to Sakura; but now to hear that her actual mother died? Regardless, I felt so sorry for Sakura. She has one too many losses already and to also know that she's also being lied to by the people she trusted most.

"Her mother," Eriol continued, "was said to have the same illnesses as Sakura-chan."

"What?"

"Of course, her life expectancy was supposed to be until she was nineteen—from what I've heard at least. But she ended up having Sakura-chan and didn't die until she was twenty-two; Sakura was almost three at the time, so she doesn't have much memories of her mother.

"Does she know about her mother at least?"

"As much as we all do."

"So then, her mom lived three years past the time she was projected to die . . . that means that—"

"Yeah, Sakura-chan could live longer. But we always have to prepare for the worse."

"I suppose that's true. So that's why she never talks about her parents . . . I suppose Touya's doing everything he can for her."

"Touya-san has a lot on his shoulders. Being a friend of someone who's dying is one thing, but can you imagine if your baby sister, who's suffering from the same illness your mother did, is going to die just as she graduates, in little under a couple years?"

No, I couldn't. Though for some reason a part of me said that I've witnessed something quite close to me before. For a second, that same girl flashed in front of me again, but I shook it off rather quick.

"You know . . . when you told her that you liked her back then, did you just do that? Or did you actually tell how your entire feelings?" I decided to get away from the subject of her family and back to Eriol's feelings.

"What do you mean?"

"It's complicated I guess . . . I'm not sure how to explain things. But I guess what I'm saying is, you should give it another shot. But this time, if you haven't, really be thorough; don't just tell her you like her and ask her out. You have to consider her feelings, her situation . . . your guys' relationship as friend."

"Bah, that wouldn't work either way. Even if she did like me back—or anyone for that matter—she wouldn't want to be in a relationship. She doesn't want the thought of dying and leaving a loved one behind."

"Oh so you're saying that's the reason she rejected you."

"Shut up! Maybe she didn't have feelings for me too. But that's not what I'm saying, just think about it for yourself; would you really want to date someone if you knew you were going to die and leave them behind eventually?"

"Apparently you were willing to date someone and be left behind eventually?"

Eriol fell quiet. He bit his lips and tossed a piece of dish over to my side to rinse. "Truth is: we're all going to do that eventually. We're all going to die, leave someone behind, or be left behind one way or another. So what's so wrong about being with someone you really care about until then?"

This time I fell quiet for a little bit. Outside, the sky got darker, but the bonfire that they made was still bright and big. I could hear quiet laughter through the window and see Sakura and the others playing around with the fire.

"You really like this girl, don't you?" I said.

"Enough to set aside my happiness for hers; if she were to die unhappy, I wouldn't know what to do with myself; I'd consider myself a failure as a friend if I let that happen."

I sighed. These guys really are living one hell of a life. I didn't know what to make of it. Was this really the life they wanted? More or less, was this really the life that Sakura wanted? I felt like both sides of things, everyone was just living one sad, fake life. They think they're happy, but really, they're sad. True happiness. What is that? What does it take to have true legit happiness in this situation?

"Ever consider that maybe her happiness is your happiness? Are . . . are you even happy right now?" I asked Eriol.

Eriol just stared out the window. It was like he was in deep thought, pondering about himself. After a long minute, he slipped a dish over to me and said, "Come on, that's the last one; let's get down there with everyone."

I honestly didn't expect an answer. Actually, I didn't want one. I wasn't sure how to handle whether it was a yes or a no. When Eriol dried his hands and walked outside, I finished rinsing the last dish and did the same.

When I got to the group, everyone was sitting in a circle close together and close to the fire. Eriol found a spot next to Sakura and I found a spot next to Chiharu who was across the fire from Eriol and Sakura. Just as we got relaxed, Sakura quickly offered a fire-baked marshmallow to Eriol with a smile.

As the fire swayed back and forth, I caught glimpses of Eriol's face like picture frames being played and every time the fire would cover his face and reveal it, a new picture of Eriol would appear. The first face I saw from Eriol was a joyful face, but after that, it depressed. Even though he smiled and joked around with Sakura, it was like the fire in between us showed me what Eriol really felt.

For a quick second, the fire showed me the face of a sad Eriol. Not only sad, but a disappointed one, like he was a failure at something. But it wasn't just sorrow that I saw through the fire . . . but also madness. Was he mad? Was Eriol mad about something? I wasn't sure, but I know for sure that there was one thing the fire was telling me,

"Eriol," I quietly said to myself, making sure no one else heard me, "you're not happy, are you?"