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Disclaimer: I do not own CCS nor any of the characters.

Special thanks to ~bonchi~ for taking her precious time on the proofreading and grammar/spell checks!

[Remastered] I fell in love with the rain

NINE: SLEEPLESS AT FALL - PART 2

-.-.-.-.-

"You okay there?" popped in Tomoyo at the hallway, walking towards Sakura who was in front of the hob.

"Where are they?" Sakura asked instead. She was constantly stirring something creamy on the saucepan.

Tomoyo came closer as Sakura let her taste the sauce. "Perfect." Tomoyo smiled widely to her while she gently sniffed on the sweet-smelling smoke coming out from it. "I left them in the living room, but I kinda heard Li-kun drag Eriol-kun to the garden outside…"

"Ah… Okay." Sakura finally turned off the stove. Soon after, she held Tomoyo's hands and dragged her happily to the island counter nearby, looking very excited.

"So!" her eyes gleamed and squeezed Tomoyo's warm hands. "'Eriol-kun', you say, huh! Time for you to spill…"

-.-.-.-.-

"What?"

"Hey… you're asking 'what' after all the trouble I did?" Syaoran annoyingly said to Eriol as they headed to the garden. "Go on, what happened?"

"Calm down, grumpy young man." Eriol chuckled as he came closer to one of the flowers that he saw. "W-Well, I saw her coming from the spot I told her to go."

"Hmm…"

"I planned to surprise her, so I kinda waited a bit for the best moment to show up in front of her. Let's say… around ten minutes?"

"Uhuh…"

"And she patiently waited while she sat quietly at the bench. I felt happy just to see her even from afar. She looked even more beautiful from the last time I saw her."

"Uhuh. Then?"

"Then, slowly, when I came and sat behind her, it was only that time I realized that…"

"…"

"…she was crying the whole time."

"Ha?!" Startled, Syaoran came closer to Eriol and lightly punched his bicep on purpose. "Y-You had her crying for ten freaking minutes! Unbelievable!" He messed Eriol's hair with his hand and then slung his arm on Eriol's shoulder.

"You know what? It was actually my first time to see her create a hysterical face and run with that frail-looking body just to see you, yet you made her wait for long and saw her cry for more?!"

"No, no. I didn't mean to! It's not like that!" Eriol protested.

"Then, what? Man, you must have been very bored—"

"I-I did prepare myself to this because… I told her, the next time we meet again…" Eriol paused for a little while and then smiled gently. "I will f-finally confess."

"…And?"

"I did."

-.-.-.-.-

"Huh?! I thought he had already told you his feelings since four years ago?" Sakura's emerald eyes had gone wider. "No?"

"U-Umm… Back then, I guess he, uh… m-missed the chance of properly saying it." Tomoyo's cheeks reddened as she cupped one side with the palm of her hand and sighed softly. "He may look like he is always brimming with confidence, but when you get to notice, he has those dilly-dallied, reserved moments, too."

"Heh…" Sakura leaned her body on one side of the island counter and rested her arms on the surface to balance herself. A genuine smile was surfacing her lips while she stared at her best friend's face. "Look at you. You're glowing."

Tomoyo couldn't help but to break her stare. "Y-You think so?"

"So, did you guys finally kissed?"

"E-Eh?!" Tomoyo blushed even more than she could express. "H-H-How am I s-supposed to answer this?"

Sakura somewhat thundered the house with her laughter. "When?" She paused. "When was the last time I've seen you like this? Funny, but I am pretty amazed with the fact that Eriol is the only person who can make you stutter in dealing with your true feelings." She laughed heartily. "Your face is so easy to read now. Most of the time, I don't exactly know what you are really thinking!"

Tomoyo hid her face with her hands. "Stop it! T-This is embarrassing, Sakura-chan!" However, with her hair tied up high on her head, her ears were on display, reddening, a tell-tale sign that she was getting more and more embarrassed with the conversation.

Sakura came closer and held both of Tomoyo's wrists for her to slowly uncover her face, intentionally ignoring her best friend's red and presumably hot ears. "But I am happy. You probably don't know how much I am happy for you," she whispered. "I think I am the happiest when you're at your happiest, too." Grinning, Sakura then scratched her head at the confusion made by her own words. "Eh… What did I just say?"

"Thank you, Sakura-chan." Slightly teary eyed, Tomoyo held her hands warmly. "I am so lucky to I have you."

Sakura smiled back. "I think… I am luckier to have you, you know?" she said back while she pinched her best friend's cheek instead.

Afterwards, Sakura resumed preparing the meal she was making as she walked all the way to the cupboard and pulled one of the drawers. "Then?" She asked Tomoyo again. "What happened next?"

"Um… The rest would be just for the both of us."

Before Sakura pulled one bowl out from the drawer, she stopped and looked at Tomoyo who seemed to be back on doing a blank, shaded expression. She teased, "Wow, where did the ultra-sweet-looking girl go to? So cunning and sooo—"

"So, you? How about you?" Tomoyo assertively followed and came to her side to tease her. "Your eyes are telling me something's new and strange, huh?"

-.-.-.-.-

"What a great guy should do…" Syaoran calmly said; his voice lowered down, wavering in an oppressed air of blues.

"Was that so?" Eriol inserted his hands in the side-pockets of his pants and looked up in the sky. "Maybe what you mean is 'what a great friend should be'."

"Yeah… add that..." he replied back as he saw something at the area that caught his attention.

Eriol observed Syaoran as the latter stared at the garden hammock from not so far away. He noticed that his friend has been ogling at it longer than usual. He wondered why, but the thought of it quickly diminished and decided not to say any single word.

So, this was where it all started… this was where he had taken a nap, Syaoran said to himself, referring the person to be Yukito in Sakura's recent story. Quietly, he grabbed the nearest pole he could reach and then carefully sat on the netted bed as it slowly sagged down.

"I was there, when she helplessly tried to remember the reasons of what she could probably consider her first love."

Eriol then followed him and found some comfort at the nearby set opposite where Syaoran was. He was just looking at him quietly.

Grasping both of his hands, Syaoran made a simple sway by pushing the hammock lightly with his feet. "I was there, so she could muster the courage to scream her heart out from all the hurting..."

"…"

"…because she thought, if she did... she could finally let those feelings go."

-.-.-.-.-

"Syaoran's been kind, ever since…"

"I know, but at what time you're referring your 'ever since'?" Tomoyo innocently asked as she sat on the bar stool.

Sakura leaned at the bar countertop opposite her and faced her. "Hmm... do you remember that one rainy day we came back to town from my mother's grave at the uphill, many years ago?"

"Y-Yeah?" Tomoyo felt unsure of her answer until her eyes went bigger upon recollection. "Oh, that one!" She shrieked. "You were both murky and soaking wet at that time, yet you were so happy that you even hugged me with your wet clothes!" She recalled.

"Oh, I did?"

"The next day, both of you got flu. How can I forget?"

"Hahaha!" Laughing, Sakura couldn't help but to be amazed on how sharp Tomoyo's recap revealed. "I must have forgotten that part where I hugged you, but there is no way I could ever forget that it was the day that I became close to him. I was just so happy that we finally became friends." She smiled happily. "I really thought we wouldn't go along so well!"

There's no way he would hate you. Tomoyo said to herself upon returning the wide smile back at Sakura.

"You, two, became my best friends." Sakura continued. "I thought I would not handle the pain of seeing Yue-nii and Akizuki-senpai together again. It's still a slow, healing process. I can't help it. He's my first love."

"..."

"But you were always there. You always give me that calm but scary-looking face. But I know that's your way to cheer me up whenever I'm down." Sakura gave off a shy smile; she took a tomato that was freely resting in an open basket and started playing it with her palm. "You would even unknowingly scold me when I messed up. But that's how you show your concern and support, and that's what I love about you."

"Damn right of course I do." Tomoyo gave her a reassuring response. "You know me so well."

"But... Syaoran is different."

Tomoyo was surprised that she couldn't help but to blink her eyes twice.

Sakura was rolling the tomato gently on the surface until she grew tired of playing with it. "Maybe, there are still a lot of things that I don't know about him. He doesn't talk too much. But even if so, I always feel like, he already knows how to deal with me." She replied timidly and, at the same time, returned the fruit back in the basket.

"He knows how to read your atmosphere, I guess." Tomoyo said. Since, Yukito-san is all that is written.

-.-.-.-.-

"At that time, I really wanted to tell her my feelings, but I held back when I saw the painful look on her face." Syaoran tried to rest his back by reclining into the hammock and sighed gently.

"…And I question myself if telling her how I feel would cause her to create more painful-looking face."

Eriol lightly stood up from his chair, tucking his hands in is side pockets again. He wanted to get some more air in an open area while he was still all ears for Syaoran's story.

"She doesn't want to see the person she loved to stop smiling because of her. In my mind, I told myself… I would've wanted to see the same thing… even if the reason why she does,"

"…"

"…wouldn't be me."

"Hmmm…" Eriol ran out of words to say. "There are tons of reasons why a person smiles and why they don't, you know. Don't be so hard on yourself."

-.-.-.-.-

Sakura rested her face on the palm of her hand, with the support of her elbow on hand and the countertop, sighing quietly.

"The calmness of his personality is more than enough for me to feel assured that if I'm judging my decisions unfairly, he'll always be there to correct it with me, and to check up on me when comprehending with my feelings seemed too difficult."

"He listens." Tomoyo added.

"And he surprises me with he fact that despite talking less, whenever he does,"

"..."

"He says words that could actually wring my heart in so much gratefulness."

-.-.-.-.-

"I don't know anymore. After all, my words couldn't reach her enough… for me to see again that warm smile… I fell in love with…"

Syaoran exerted a huge yawn when the mild air that had just passed somehow mellowed the strength of his senses. The hammock more or less did a splendid job letting him momentarily escape his blurry thoughts.

"I hope your frustrations don't build up and may cause you and your feelings to explode." Eriol added.

Syaoran's eyes were battling in a made-up carousel of innumerable memoirs.

"Hey, Li-kun?"

"Can you do me a favor?"

Should I tell him?

"Hey, Hiiragizawa…"

"Hm?"

At the last minute, he backed out. Maybe I shouldn't.

"I'm t-too good to be a great guy, don't you think…" his voice was getting weaker and weaker; his body was trying to relieve him and his mind was bringing him somewhere vast, yet innoxious.

"Like I said—", Eriol turned to look at Syaoran, and to his surprise, all that he managed to do was to let out his breath and smiled contently.

"…you really are her one great friend."

-.-.-.-.-

"If it is Syaoran, I feel like I can hold on to a stronger rope, and I am not afraid to fall down."

"Heh..." Tomoyo crossed her arm and gave her a very meaningful smile.

"Err... I-I mean, like you, he's truly a friend for keeps..." Sakura gave a shy laugh as she scratched the apples of her cheeks, turned her back to face the sink and started to fill a pot with water.

"… and I never wonder why Meiling chose to fall in love with him."

Tomoyo's amethyst eyes frivolously sparkled in bewilderment. Could it be...?

"S-Sakura-chan?"

The gush of water coming out from the faucet made it harder for Sakura to hear her call. On a subtle note, her lips began to curve wider upon realizing that it was the first time after such a long while that she heard Sakura reassessed her views about Syaoran.

Tomoyo silently reached her side. She looked at Sakura and leaned further to see her face up close. All she saw was something that she did not expect.

Sakura looked startled. "H-Huh?"

"Tell me… Are you also feeling the same thing you're never wondering why?"

-.-.-.-.-

"Hey, Eri. Li Syaoran seems to be a kind guy, isn't he?"

"Setting aside his sometimes snobbish side, indeed, he is kind… he is a very selfless and reliable fellow."

"Heh… selfless, you say…"

"How come you've ask, Na-chan?"

"Nothing. I just think that maybe, he could look over for people very well."

"That could be possible, but why the sudden curiosity?"

"Haha, he just looked like he deeply cares for people."

"…"

"…especially for those people who matters a lot to him."

Suddenly, Eriol recalled a random conversation he shared with Nakuru, since they have talked exquisitely about Syaoran before they came back to Japan. He attempted to reconcile that peculiar questioning of his cousin to that of his friend's unusual, sullen mood, wondering on the possibility if she was responsible.

He weakly stretched his arms and massaged his neck, thinking that by doing so would repress the current low-spiritedness that was about to exhaust him. His gloomy feeling gradually changed into something lighter; something that would probably be good for his friend. With that, he knew he could be at least hopeful for what was to come next.

He started to walk and reach for the main door, leaving Syaoran who was sleeping soundly at the hammock.

"Soccer Freak." Eriol whispered softly to himself.

I hope you can still wait patiently.

-.-.-.-.-

How do I see this world now when it confuses my heart and wake up to what is real and what is just only a dream?

Sailing in a boat on a gently-swaying sea, drifting aimlessly without any rope to resist its pace... Syaoran was there, lying down, alone and defenseless. Colder breeze whiffed his perfectly toned skin; his cheeks were at least pinkish rather than red.

Something lightweight dropped on my forehead... also on the temples of my face... and felt like it nibbled all the way down to my ear.

One. Two? Wait… I cannot count it.

Seems like it is coming down from the sky.

Is this rain?

How could rain become this warm and velvety on my skin?

…

Ah...

Deep down inside me, I think I knew.

I already knew,

This dream again.

An explosion of cherry blossom petals were hailing down from the open sea, fading magically as, one by one, they gently touched the water.

He could hear how mellow the wind sounded and the petals were freely dancing. He was still unaware how delightful that was to see, if he could just open his eyes. The outpour was dry, yet soothing; soothing enough for him to clearly realize why his chest hurt continuously, if he dared to resist the desire to fight a battle that could either heal or scar him.

The afternoon sun's rays were hitting in between my eyelashes, but I don't want to open my lids.

This light would blind me out, and everything that I felt would probably be over.

The rain might stop if I open my eyes.

If I do…

I...

Come to think of it.

It was also raining at that time when I...

Sakura.

"S-Syaoran?"

Gravely mystified, he snapped back in, woke up and met the eyes of the person whom he was calling out. They were gleaming, blinking in obliviousness, that all he could ever do was to say nothing.

"—"

"E-Eriol told me you're here. Food is ready, let's go!"

Another serving of cold wind blew the loose strands of her auburn hair, and his chest was wringing again in an inexplicable, unfathomable feeling.

Her face was lightly flushed when she smiled at him again. It was definitely not an ugly sight. Not at all.

"…"

"Oh," Sakura noticed a dried maple leaf stuck in between Syaoran's earlobe and the net of the hammock. "Hey, just how long did you fall asleep he—"

Before she could even pick it up, Syaoran immediately grabbed her wrist and pulled her face a couple of inches closer to his.

Why are you doing this to me?

"E-Eh? S-Syaora—"

"You really don't get it at all."

-.-.-.-.-