AN: I was looking up Japanese wedding customs to the very end, but thankfully the wedding isn't the important part of this chapter. It's just the setting. Anyway I plead my right again to creative license and if anything seems vague, it had purposefully been left up to the imagination of the reader. So there!

Read, enjoy, and review!

Chapter Ten
Wedding Crasher

"Yue, Kero," Tomoyo sang as she poked her head in Yue's room the next morning.

Yue was instantly wary. There was something about the way Tomoyo said his name that had him on edge. There was also this mischievous glint in her eyes as she held two garment bags. He raised an eyebrow at her in question and Tomoyo only smiled back at him.

"Where's Sakura?" Kero asked.

Tomoyo sighed. "Poor thing… Turns out there was another attack last night and after she chased it off, she stayed up to repair everything the harpy broke or messed up. She did it with magic of course, but now she's exhausted, especially because she's worried it'll attack at the wedding and needs to be prepared for it. But don't worry. She's fine," Tomoyo added seeing Yue and Kero begin to try to rush past her to the room.

"Speaking of that though, she needs to talk to you two about it," Tomoyo said, that look that made Yue wary reappearing.

Yue and Kero went to the room to find Sakura sprawled out on the bed with her eyes closed, appearing to be sleep. However, as soon as they walked in the room, she began to talk.

"Did Tomoyo tell you about the harpy demon from last night?" Sakura asked and without waiting for a response she continued, "It got away, and I have a feeling it's going to attack Rika's wedding so I need you two to stay close. It's supposed to start at three, but since Tomoyo's got to be there to make sure all the dresses fit right and the hair styles don't get in the way, we're leaving early, around twelve."

Sakura then opened her eyes and turned to look directly at Yue, whose resigned attitude she detected through the way he had now crossed his arms.

"Have you ever been to a wedding before Yue?" she asked smiling lightly.

"No," he said simply as Kero seemed to catch on and began to snicker uncontrollably.

"Well it should be a good experience for you," Sakura continued as she exchanged a look with Tomoyo and then looked back at Yue. "I'm really sorry about this but…"

Tomoyo squealed as she started to jump up and down, unable to contain her excitement anymore.

"I get to fit you into one of my designs and you can't say-"

"No," Yue said firmly.

Sakura sat up and stared at Yue, wincing at the annoyed look he shot at her for even wanting to allow Tomoyo to use him as her 'doll.'

"Yue, I wouldn't have told her any other time. But it would be easier for you to just attend the wedding with me, and if that's the case, you need something to wear and Tomoyo's been working on stuff for you for months so…" Sakura trailed off as Yue fixed her and Tomoyo with his signature annoyed glare.

Then he said something to in a dry tone in another language, English it sounded like, and walked past her to his room Sakura guessed. Sakura half expected to hear the door slam, but when it didn't, Sakura took it as a sign that despite his annoyance with the idea, he'd let Tomoyo work her magic.

"That was English right?" Sakura asked Tomoyo who knew more of the language than she did.

"No… I think it was German," Tomoyo said staring after where Yue had gone.

"German?" Sakura said as she looked at Kero was now openly laughing. "Yue knows German?"

"German, English, Chinese… I think he knows quite a bit of Latin too," Kero supplied still laughing.

"What did he say then? Did you understand it?" Tomoyo asked.

"Something about Sakura's odd choice in a best friend. I didn't catch it all," Kero said shrugging.

"I hope you didn't overdo it with my Kimono," Sakura said later as Tomoyo ushered her in the direction of a room to get dressed for the wedding.

"Of course not Sakura. Today is all about Rika. I did have a hard time toning it down though. So many designs I could have used…" Tomoyo trailed off a little but then continued, "Don't worry. It's just a simple elegant kimono, not to mention you and Yue have matching designs. So I had to tone it down to match his robes. You've grown up Sakura and for these occasions you need to look elegant and classy, especially with an older boyfriend. We'll save frills and elaborate designs for special occasions," Tomoyo decided.

Sakura didn't believe it for a minute. Tomoyo would always find a way to make Sakura's kimono's unique in some form or fashion no matter how 'elegant' and 'classy.'

"Hurry up. The wedding starts in two hours, and you have to make sure that harpy doesn't ruin everything if she comes back. While you do that, I'll have to finish helping the bride, so I won't be able to record your brave endeavors," Tomoyo said sighing.

Sakura shook her head. She would think Tomoyo would have grown out of those tendencies, but even now, she still hadn't.

"You really need a boyfriend or something," Sakura muttered as Tomoyo put her in one the dressing rooms of the venue where the kimono in question was hanging. It was a simple pale blue kimono, just like Tomoyo had assured her, with a beige sash.

"I have to do your hair first though. Thank goodness Rika's still getting her hair done. Otherwise I'd have no time to help you Sakura," Tomoyo said as she grabbed sheer bag hanging on the door with chopsticks in it so that Tomoyo could pin up her hair.

Doing her hair was a new hobby of Tomoyo's and for that purpose alone, she had requested that Sakura grow her hair out, just a little. Sakura didn't necessarily want her hair long though, so for the sake of compromising, she grew it out so that the back brushed the top of her shoulders giving Tomoyo a just enough to play around with and put in elegant buns and French twist depending on the occasion.

"There," Tomoyo said inserting the two chopsticks. "Now hurry up and get dressed so you can go on the lookout for that harpy."

Sakura raised her eyebrow at the eagerness of her friend as she went to put the kimono on. Tomoyo took the sash and helped her tie it into a neat bow in the back before passing her the shoes that went with it. Tomoyo laughed when she was done and took out her camera to record and snap a few still pictures.

"So how does it look?" Sakura asked her.

"Sakura looks so grown up and elegant," Tomoyo said sighing. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were a queen."

"Really Tomoyo," Sakura said blushing as the other girl backed up opening the door behind her. "Come on. Yue should be ready by now."

Sakura followed her out the room and, spotting Yue behind Tomoyo, who was too consumed admiring her, started to warn her but did so too late. Tomoyo backed right into the moon guardian, who patiently raised an eyebrow as her when she turned around to apologize but stopped when she saw him in the robes she had crafted for him.

"You look perfect," Tomoyo gushed and then pushed Sakura next to him as she recorded the two. She groaned. "Smile a little Yue!"

Sakura laughed. Yue wasn't frowning, but he didn't look necessarily pleased either. He was looking neutral as always.

"It won't kill you," Sakura said trying to help the situation.

Yue blinked and turned to look at her for the first time since she came out the room as though just really noticing her, which he probably had as he'd been so intent on being stubborn with Tomoyo. He couldn't help it then and smiled just a tad..

"That's better," Tomoyo said snapping a few pictures of the two before checking the time and gasping. "Uh-oh. I have to go help Rika. I'll see you two later."

When she left Sakura grinned as she turned to Yue and said, "Go ahead and admit it. You like it don't you?" She fingered the fabric of the outfit as she asked before adding, "And to think you threw a tantrum because you didn't want to."

"I did not throw a tantrum," Yue insisted.

"Sure you didn't," Sakura said mischief alight in her eyes.

"It's comfortable I guess," was all Yue would admit to before he said, "You look nice."

Any other girl would have been offended at him saying it was 'just' nice, but the fact that Yue thought it looked nice enough to say anything at all was saying enough as it was. So Sakura blushed at the comment and muttered a 'thanks' before noticing someone was missing.

"Where's Kero?"

"On the lookout for that harpy," Yue replied.

Sakura sighed. "But it won't make any difference if I can't send it back where it came from. It has so many charms and trinkets that I can't figure out-."

Sakura stopped talking just as they came down the stairs of the venue, staring near the entrance where guests were starting to arrive for the event that was to start in the next hour or so. Yue followed her eyes to where she was staring at a woman wearing a rather plain but still formal kimono with her black hair in an elegant bun.

"What?" Yue asked not seeing why she was staring so hard.

"That's her. That's the harpy," Sakura said pointing at the woman.

Yue raised an eyebrow, but knew not to be fooled. Harpies were nothing to worry about until they started to get angry. Otherwise, they could take on the guise of female all day.

"I thought you said this was invitation only."

"It is…" Sakura said also wondering how the woman got in. "But she's not doing anything now, so maybe we should just go sit down."

"Do you think it's wise to leave her be?" Yue asked

"Well, she only really wrecks havoc when she's angry, so as long as she's calm we should be fine."

"Harpies are known for their short fuses," Yue reminded as the two walked into the main venue area. One of the ushers gave her the program and then led the two to their seats.

Seeing that Yue was getting more tense the more people came in, Sakura grabbed his hand and then said, "I hope that Tomoyo was exaggerating when she said that no wedding ever starts on time, that something always makes it start late."

"Can I ask you something?" Yue began.

Sakura nodded.

"What's the point of all this?" Yue asked. "A wedding I mean."

Sakura blinked, a bit taken aback by the question. But as she thought about it, it made sense. For all his knowledge of things and wisdom in many areas, certain customs that were just the norm to Sakura, Yue couldn't quite grasp the meaning of. Of course he understood the concept. But knowing Yue, it probably seemed a little pointless.

"Well, for two people to get married," Sakura began not quite sure how to explain it.

Yue threw her a dry look. "I know that, but why all the show? Why all the elaborate dresses, and flowers, and celebrations for one day?"

Sakura smiled. "It's one day of the rest of their lives. Why not celebrate?"

Yue raised an eyebrow, still not grasping the idea, and Sakura took it as a signal to elaborate.

"Well think about it. Not everyone is lucky enough to find someone they truly love and care about and even then, they might not be brave enough to make the commitment. I mean being in a relationship is difficult enough. So when two people do, it's a big deal and cause for celebration because it means they love each other enough to make a commitment to try to be together for the rest of their lives despite the difficulty involved," Sakura explained hoping he understood.

"Then why all the people?"

Sakura grinned. "So everyone else can know it of course," Sakura said winking playfully knowing Yue still probably didn't see the point of it all.

Yue was silent for a long time, looking ahead with a contemplative expression, arms crossed. When he didn't say anything further, Sakura turned her attentions back forward.

"Would you want to get married?"

Yue's straightforwardness would be something Sakura would never completely get used to. Of course, she knew what he meant, but Sakura still glanced at him just to make sure. He was wearing his usual neutral expression, almost looking with entire display.

"What?" she managed.

"Would you want to get married?" he asked again, still not looking at her.

Sakura turned back around and smiled. "It would be nice, but the way I see it, you're stuck with me anyway whether you want to be or not."

Yue sighed, but Sakura sensed his teasing mood.

"Yes… For the next few centuries I suppose," he said. "It's a long time, but I guess I'll have to live with it."

Sakura giggled, a blush creeping to her cheeks.

Yue briefly left the room and came back with Kero in the folds of his robes as they waited for the event to begin.

"So where is the harpy?" Kero asked poking his head out of Yue's robe to try and see the woman Sakura had identified before.

Sakura nodded her head a little in the direction and Kero looked that way. He stared at her.

"I have to say, I wouldn't have known if you hadn't pointed her out. But everyone will know soon enough. She's bound to lose her temper," Kero muttered.

"No," Sakura muttered. "She can't ruin Rika's wedding."

"Somehow I don't think that's her motive, but doing so would get her closer to whatever her motive is," Kero replied. "We have to make sure we keep an eye on her. No telling when she's going to strike."

"I'm so happy for you," Sakura gushed as she held Rika's hands after the wedding when she greeted her outside.

Rika laughed, practically glowing with happiness as her friends manage to corner and surround her after the wedding.

"Thank you," Rika said. "Thank you for coming and I'm glad you all are happy, but we have to go take pictures."

Seeming to realize they were holding her up, the girls moved out the way so that she could go to take pictures.

"I'll see you at the reception right?" Rika said and all the girls nodded. Then she added directly to Sakura, "And I want to meet Yue Sakura. Officially this time as your boyfriend."

Sakura blushed, remembering the last time all her friends had met her guardian and nodded her consent. She then turned to go find Yue, Syaoran, and Kero, but stopped, suddenly having the urge to look among the guest.

"What's wrong Sakura?" Meiling asked.

Sakura didn't answer as she scanned the crowd.

"Where did she go?" Sakura muttered. "Where is she?"

"Sakura?"

"That harpy! She's gone," Sakura explained grabbing Meiling's hand and pulling her to where the others were. She nearly tripped over her kimono in the process and grabbed the skirt to pull it away from her feet.

"Are you okay Sakura?" Syaoran asked.

"Have you all seen that harpy anywhere?" Sakura asked.

"She was just-" Yue cut himself as he glance to his right and not seeing the harpy there scanned the crowd.

"She's gone?" Syaoran asked.

"Is that a bad thing?" Meiling asked.

"Yes," Kero said floating out of Yue's robes. "Harpies have miserable tempers and it only takes a little prompting. We've got to find her."

Sakura nodded as the group split off in different directions to find the woman, but on a hunch, Sakura went to where Rika had been going to get her pictures taken in the garden behind the venue. Sure enough, there was the harpy, spying on the wedding party as they took pictures. Her hand was up, her nails looking more like sharp claws than nails. Suddenly she got up and started to sprint forward to the wedding party.

If it weren't for the fact that she had planned what she would do ahead of time, Sakura wouldn't have thought to use WINDY to restrain the harpy, at least temporarily before she launched.

Not at all liking that she was being restrained, the woman let out a cawing noise and turned red as she began to struggle with WINDY. Sakura had a feeling WINDY wouldn't be able to restrain her for long and so summoned her staff this time.

"TIME!" she yelled and suddenly everything and everyone not magical went still.

It was just in time too, for as soon as time was completely stopped, the harpy made her transformation and broke out of WINDY's grasp. She cawed loudly again and looked at Sakura with murderous intent.

"Uh-oh," Sakura muttered as she realized it probably wasn't a good idea to try to restrain her before. She should have used TIME first. Then again she had been expecting time to stop the harpy too. She looked at her staff, Eriol's words coming back to her. She was stronger than this and whoever it was doing these things, she just knew it.

The harpy cawing again and making it's charge made Sakura realize that she needed to get out the way.

"FLY," she yelled and flew into the air just as the harpy charged. If it was possible, the harpy looked even angrier since Sakura thought she could escape in the air, so it decided to follow Sakura into the air

Sakura tried to fly away, but the harpy was even faster in the air than it was on the ground and easily caught up with her raking her claws right in the area where her wings joined with her back.

Sakura cried out in pain as the wings disappeared from her back, and she began to fall to the ground. She was snatched out the sky before she could even get close to the ground though. She winced as the arm of the person that caught her agitated the three gashes on her back. She was repositioned so it wasn't agitated.

"Are you alright?" Yue asked taking note of the gashes, but paying more attention at where the harpy was, a crystal shard hovering above his palm as he readied himself to attack it.

"Yeah," Sakura said trying to ignore the dull throb in her back as she looked to where Cerberus was facing the harpy.

"Don't fight her in the air," Sakura yelled to him. "She's too fast up here."

Cerberus nodded, and they all landed on the ground where Syaoran was with his sword. Yue set Sakura one her feet and she visibly wobbled a little as she tried to steady herself. Syaoran gave her a reproachful glare.

"Why did you use time? That's dangerous, even for you."

"I use TIME a lot more often than you think Syaoran. It's fine," she said.

"True enough," Cerberus said but added, "However you usually aren't injured and in the midst of battle while using other magic when you do."

Sakura grabbed Yue's arm to steady herself as she replied, "I had to. If I didn't, the harpy would have taken time from Rika's wedding and her time to celebrate it. I don't want her to ruin that. I'll be fine. I'll just sleep all day tomorrow."

With that she readied herself with her staff pointed in the harpy's direction ignoring the exasperated and worried looks she was getting between the three.

"SWORD," she called and the staff transformed to suit her needs.

Apparently Sakura pulling a weapon out on the harpy just made the beast angrier at her and without warning the Harpy charged at her. Yue pulled her to the side, not quite sure what Sakura was trying to do. But as he did so, Sakura swung at the harpy's upper arm, cutting off two of the charms that hung there.

"What are you doing?" Cerberus yelled. "You completely missed her."

"I'm not trying to get her. One of those charms has to be grounding her here. I have to figure out which one."

"No!" Syaoran yelled from where he was before having to duck out the way for when Yue again pulled Sakura away, the harpy, unable to abruptly stop her charge, ended up coming his way.

"No?" Yue asked raising his eyebrow at the other boy.

"I think you're taking the wrong approach," he said as he summoned the wind to temporarily discombobulate that harpy since it was now angry at him for moving out the way of her attack.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked trying not to trip over the skirts of her kimono as she and Yue landed again. It was definitely not made with fighting in mind, and she was seriously beginning to consider taking up Tomoyo's idea of a card that sewed outfits and such in the future…

"Harpies like to collect shiny things like charms. The item grounding her here wouldn't be something the harpy has collected on her own. It would be less obvious than that," Syaoran yelled.

"But besides the charms, what else…?" Sakura's eyes landed on the kimono sash. "That's it!"

"Now you only have to get her to stop moving so fast," Yue pointed out.

Sakura nodded and reverted her staff back before taking out the WATERY.

"WATERY! Drench the harpy in water so that her movements are slowed down!"

WATERY came forth and rushed at the harpy. The harpy, still trying to gain its bearing and perhaps figure out who to attack next, was taken by surprise as WATERY thoroughly drenched her. It made the harpy angrier, and she shook out her wings to prepare herself to attack Sakura, but as intended, the water certainly weighed her down.

"DASH, SWORD!" Sakura yelled and faced the harpy with the sword in front of her.

The harpy charged at her, significantly slower than before and when the harpy was just in reach, she slashed at the sash while simultaneously using the power of DASH to move out the way of her claws. As the sash fell in two pieces to the ground, the harpy almost instantly became too unstable to remain grounded to the living world and was sent back where she came from.

Sakura let out a deep breath and felt to her knees on the ground, instantly letting go of the hold she had on the magic of the cards she had used, ignoring Cerberus yelp, "Hey wait!" as he hurried to return to his disguised form.

Time resumed and thankfully, Sakura had decided to collapse behind a large rock in the garden where the wedding party behind them wouldn't see them. Yue inspected her back while Syaoran and Kero rushed over to her.

"Unfortunately I never quite grasped the art of using magic to heal, so we'll need to leave to tend to this," Yue said sighing a little.

Sakura shook her head as she stood up. "No. It's okay. It's even stopped bleeding now. We can just clean it up, patch it, and fix the tears in the kimono."

"Are you sure Sakura?" Syaoran asked with the pieces of the sash in his hands. "You'll probably need to go get some stitches."

Kero gave him a pointed look as he said, "Don't be stupid kid. How is she going to explain how she got gashes in her back?"

Syaoran glared at him. "I meant we could take her to my house stuffed animal."

Sakura laughed despite herself. "You guys!"

Dominik crossed his arms impatiently, caught between watching the card mistress and glaring at his sister who pbecause the girl had figured out how to defeat her undead monster.

Finally he said, "This was a complete and utter waste of time. What did we gain from doing this?"

"Quite a bit," Jasmine replied seriously, not acting silly and airy like she usually did for once. "She went out of her way to make sure she didn't ruin her friend's so-called happiness, even as far as pushing herself to her limits. Card or not, it takes a lot of power to stop time and then continue to fight. It just shows how weak that heart truly is."

Dominik would never admit that he had been kind of impressed that the card mistress had been willing to go to such lengths, even at the cost of her own safety, for someone else. It was such a selfless act, unlike his grandmother who even when it appeared like she was being selfless, always had an ulterior selfish motive. Yes. He'd definitely keep that opinion to himself.

"So now what?"

"Now it's just a matter of testing just who it is that makes the card mistress take any means necessary, and we can use it to our advantage," Jasmine replied.

Dominik couldn't help glancing at the guardian. He had taken it upon himself to go look up Japanese customs and how girls related and interacted with their male companions since she at least treated the guardian like a friend. He had to admit, he may have been looking too deep into it, especially when he found out that some terms and actions that meant something serious in western culture wasn't as serious in Japan. The term lover didn't indicate sexual relations here and boyfriend/girlfriend could be a term used loosely between friends depending on the context. And because they were so big on respect and honor, gestures that implied a person might be interested in an actual relationship in western culture was just being polite.

But even as he tried to look at it through the guise of Japanese culture, there was something oddly intimate about the way the card mistress interacted with her guardian, and it annoyed him that his sister didn't notice it. Perhaps it was because he had met her before. Either way, his sister didn't think much of it, and he didn't feel the need to inform his grandmother about it. So, while his sister planned how she would find that one person who would, for all intents and purposes, send the card mistress over the deep end, he would continue to discreetly observe the pair.

"You know, I suspect it's rude to fall asleep at a wedding reception," Yue said to Sakura as she again tilted over to lean on his shoulder and doze off.

She instantly sat up straight looking ahead.

Meiling sighed. "Really Sakura. You should have just gone home. Rika would have understood if you told her you were sick."

"I really do look awful, don't I?" Sakura asked with a small smile. It wasn't that they hadn't been able to repair her kimono or get the dirt from the battle off of it, or even redo the bun in her hair. However, exhaustion was practically written on Sakura's face and as a result, she had dozed off quite a few times during the reception, hardly touching her food.

"Yes," Tomoyo agreed. "Even Rika asked me if you were alright earlier. She's very concerned about you."

Sakura dismissed them as she looked ahead and saw many of the women and teenage girls gather in the free space at the front of the room right before the table for the wedding party.

"What are they doing?"

"Oh," Tomoyo said grinning. "Some western wedding tradition where the bride throws her bouquet to all the unmarried women at the reception. Whoever catches it is supposed to be the next to get married."

"Oh," Sakura said laughing a little. "I think I'll sit this one out."

Meiling and Tomoyo shrugged as they went to join.

"Suit yourself."

Sakura leaned her head back on Yue's arm and closed her arms, vaguely aware of Kero whispering from under the table for Yue to pass him more food. Just as she started to doze off though she felt something land in her lap. She touched the item and then feeling the velvety blossoms opened her eyes to see Rika's bouquet sitting in her lap. She blinked once as all the women turned their attention to her, some of them whining about their luck at not having caught it and the girl who hadn't even been trying to get it managing to catch it (or rather have it fall in her lap) instead.

She picked it up out her lap to stare at it blankly not sure what to say or do with it, but Tomoyo squealed before she could decide.

"How sweet? It's destiny, né Sakura?" she teased. "I'll get started on your wedding dress right away."

Sakura glanced at Yue who looked remarkably unimpressed and back at the bouquet, a blush alighting her cheeks as she said, "HOE!"

AN: I tell you this was one of the easiest yet hardest chapters to write because I had to keep Japanese culture in mind and I think people forget that when writing anime fanfiction is that the setting is usually somewhere in Japan and therefore, the culture does apply and though greatly influenced by western culture, still much different. This chapter was a nice blend of that and I enjoyed writing it.

So now that this is updated, I have to throw a blog post together.

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!