AN: This was one of the chapters that just frustrated me to no end. All of this stuff was supposed to happen at the end of the story. But my muses had another idea and this is what ended up being written and before I planned to write it. Ugh… But it came out wonderful once I stopped trying to force it to write the way I wanted it to. So heads up, we're looking at a few months later and Sakura's back in school. So this is somewhere in late December or early January.

Read, enjoy, and review!

Chapter Eleven
Confessions

Yukito didn't fall in love with you…

He didn't fall in love with me, Sakura thought to herself. Even months after Yue had told her that, Sakura felt she was missing something, something that should have been obvious.

"Sakura, are you okay?"

Sakura blinked out of her stupor at the sound of Syaoran's voice. Despite the initial tension between them after she broke up with him, they had patched things up and he still remained one of her closest friends.

"Yeah," Sakura said. "I'm fine."

Syaoran frowned. "Somehow, I don't buy it."

"Why?" Sakura asked.

"Because class is over and you're still sitting here," he pointed out.

Sakura blinked and looked around. Indeed, the school day was over and all her classmates had left. She blushed.

"I just have a lot on my mind," she whispered.

"No kidding," Syaoran said seriously as he looked at her. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah fine. Just tired," Sakura admitted and it was partly true.

"Does that have anything to do with staying up studying magic?" Syaoran asked knowingly.

"Who told you that?"

"Doesn't take a genius," Syaoran muttered and Sakura looked at him expectantly. He sighed. "Kero told me you're looking for a way to separate Yukito and Yue. Don't ask why I was talking to Kero."

Syaoran then snatched the book from under her elbows and raised his eyebrows.

"Exorcisms?"

Sakura blushed, taking the book back while saying, "Well I figured it could be something like that, except I don't want to hurt Yukito or Yue."

Syaoran glared even harder at her.

"You're piecing together magic?" he asked.

"No," Sakura said. "It's the concept that counts."

"That's dangerous Sakura," Syaoran said to her.

"Eriol's helping me."

"And although I'm sure they'd both appreciate your effort, I'm sure neither of them want you to kill yourself, especially Yue," Syaoran said bluntly.

Sakura winced at his tone, but he was right. She wished it had been the beginning of the summer when Yue confided in her, but as it was, before she could even begin to really delve into trying to look for a way to give Yue and Yukito separate lives, school came back around and Sakura was busier than ever with homework and extracurricular activities. She could hardly find the time to do all that, let alone time to mess around with and study magic. So anytime she had free time, she was burying her head in a book trying to learn as much as she could about the creation of magical beings and personalities and souls. When she finally went about performing the spell, she couldn't afford to mess it up less she accidently change or harm Yue and Yukito in some way she didn't want to. To say the least, she wasn't getting much sleep at night.

"I'm fine," Sakura replied and as though to contradict her, she yawned.

Syaoran looked at her pointedly.

"I'm fine," she insisted again as she began to walk backwards. "I have to go now."

Syaoran watched her run off. Sakura wasn't going to listen to anyone. For all her pure heartedness and caring towards everyone, she could be extremely hardheaded, especially when it came to her own self preservation.

"Baka," Syaoran muttered. He couldn't let Sakura do this to herself and if she wasn't going to listen to him, there was one person that could at least get her to see some reason.

Sakura sighed in frustration as she the passage again, not quite understanding what it meant. She ran a hand through her hair and glanced at the clock. 1 o'clock… It was probably better that she went to bed and started fresh the next day, Sunday. She hadn't made any plans and she didn't plan to so she could get started bright an early… Maybe she could make another thirty minutes though, she thought to herself before continuing to read.

She had only made it to the next sentence before she felt a chill go down her spine and she turned around from the living room coffee table to look behind her, book in hand. There stood Yue, his arms crossed, eyes closed, and a look of what could only be disapproval and exasperation on his face. It took her all of two seconds to notice this and then…

"HOOEEE!"

She tossed the book in the air in her surprise and Yue reached his hands out to catch it before it hit the ground.

"Well it's certainly been a while since I got a reaction like that out of you," he said.

Sakura immediately noticed he hadn't spoken in the amused tones he usually used and so she stood up to be level with him (as level as she could being that she was shorter than him, at least by two heads or so).

"What?"

"Li told me what you've been doing," Yue said coldly. "I would have thought you learned after what happened last time you did magic while you were tired."

Sakura mentally cursed Syaoran before saying, "I was only reading, not actually practicing."

"You're exhausted."

"I'm fine."

"Don't lie."

Sakura sighed as she sat on the couch. There was never any fooling Yue and because of her insistence on them being on equal footing as friends, Yue wasn't as submissive to her as he had been when she was younger, but only when it came to her wellbeing. He still couldn't say no to her when it came to anything else.

"I'll be fine. I'm going to bed soon."

Yue closed the book. "You're going to bed now."

Sakura rolled her eyes and reached up to take the book back, but Yue held it out her reach, just so happening to get a glimpse of the title on the front. He then lowered it back in his hands and stared at it for a long time. Sakura sensed something in his mood shift, and something like fear began to mix in with his concern for her. She blinked in confusion. What had just happened?

"Yue?"

"Mistress," he said. "No."

To say that Sakura was bewildered would have been an understatement.

"What?"

"No. Not again," Yue said coolly obviously trying not to betray whatever emotion her was feeling. "I won't let you hurt yourself on my behalf again. That's my duty, to protect and aid you not-."

"Yue," Sakura said taking the book from him and setting it on the table. Then she embraced him and slowly, Yue returned the gestured leaning his chin on her head.

Yue didn't understand why. The thought that she might overdue it, put herself in danger for him was… well it bothered him to say the least. He wouldn't let anyone else know that. As far as anyone else knew, he was still the same stoic guardian as ever. But that face was hard to maintain around his mistress because he knew she wouldn't take advantage it up for her own gains, her own needs.

"I don't need you to protect me."

"I know, but I want to."

He still didn't understand it. Why was she so willing to put her own life on the line for him? Sure he had done it countless times for her, ever since she had become his mistress and he always knew that when she cared for someone, she cared fully and wholeheartedly. But this was beyond that type of caring. It only served to confuse him more than he already was about his own caring for her.

He opened his mouth to say it to her, but couldn't get it in words. The only thing he managed was a quiet, "Why?"

Though she was trying to remain calm, Yue could feel her heart pounding, racing, against him and with her next words, he figured out why.

"Aishiteru," she whispered.

Yue lifted his head to look down at her in obvious shock. She only kept her head down, a blush on her cheeks as she leaned her forehead into his chest.

"What?" he said because it was the only thing he could remember how to say.

Sakura didn't answer as she looked at him, her amusement overcoming her shyness as she suddenly smiled. If Yue had been shocked before, it was especially so when she leaned up and pressed her lips against his and to his surprise, he liked the feeling it invoked in him as he kissed her back. He had thought by now that he was above many human needs, especially after Clow died. Feeling, desires, emotions… those were things he was above. Yet his mistress would come along and without even trying show him that whatever he thought he was, he was still like her human and as much as he liked to deny it, he could feel human wants, human desires… It was hard to reflect when kissing someone was Yue's last coherent thought as he focused on the event at hand.

She finally pulled back, a silly smile on her face as she said again, "I love you," and kissed him again. Again, his body reacted before his head could comprehend it, that what they were doing was wrong in a way. He wasn't supposed to… It couldn't happen again. He had vowed never to let it happen again. Clow had said the same thing, knowing he hadn't meant it the same way Yue did.

He pulled away and sighed avoiding her eyes as he let her go and sensing his doubt Sakura jumped back, apparently realizing what she had just done

"I… Yue I'm sorry! I shouldn't have," Sakura stared at him tentatively at him, waiting for him to do something.

"I think maybe it would be best if I…" he trailed off as tears sprang to her eyes. Damn it, he thought.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. I just wanted you to know why-why-." The tears fell and a sob escaped her. "You don't have to say anything. I don't want you to feel forced to say anything. Just… Please don't run away from me. Please don't hide."

She sank onto the couch and turned her face to the side, covering it with a fist to hide her tears. How could she have done something so stupid?

As uncomfortable as the situation was for Yue though, he still couldn't say no to her and so he sat next to her and pulled her into his arms to comfort her.

"Don't cry Sakura," he said and she buried her face in his chest.

"Don't leave me. I don't want anything to change between us," she whispered.

"It's okay. I'm not leaving," Yue replied back and though that was true, he couldn't promise her second request, because things had already changed and he didn't know whether they could stop it.

He felt blind. How could he not have noticed it before? Now the things she did make sense, why she worked so hard to please him, why she liked when he was around even when he was being aloof and distant, why she was now working so hard to do something he hadn't really requested of her, but she knew he desired and knew was in her power to fulfill. As he thought about it, he wondered how he missed it. Probably because he hadn't wanted to see it…

Yue sighed to himself. This was why he didn't like dealing with emotions. They were fickle, too complex, and worked their way into hearts whether the person wanted them to or not. He would have been better off if Clow hadn't created him with that capacity. Then again, if he hadn't, how would he find it in him to want to protect her? He hoped she didn't notice the glances he kept stealing at her as she spoke to Eriol who had arrived earlier as they discussed the ramifications of what might happen and could happen if she were to go through with this. Then again, she couldn't quite meet his eyes like she used to. Despite her desire that things didn't change between them, he knew she saw that it had.

"Yue, you better listen to this too," Eriol said snapping him out his thoughts.

Yue slowly turned his gaze on the boy who was looking at both he and Sakura with a penetrating stare.

"You both need to know that if she does this, Yue, your fate is now directly tied to hers. Now she may be more powerful than Clow was at this age but the fact of the matter is, Clow was centuries older when he created Yue. You have to be sure you can do this Sakura," Eriol warned.

"I am," Sakura said without pause.

"And Yue, you have to trust that she'll be able to."

Yue didn't answer. Certainly that was a given if he was willing to risk it in the first place. He looked up when felt a pair of hands clasp one of his in them.

"You know I won't let anything happen to you, right?" Sakura asked him, looking him in the eye for the first time in a week or two, since the night she admitted she loved him. He could see it on her eyes now. She wasn't trying to hide it from him anymore, nor was she trying to hide the sadness in her green eyes.

Yue smiled a little and nodded. That seemed to satisfy Sakura as she quickly unclasped his hands and turned back to Eriol a small blush gracing her features. He ignored the look both Eriol and Toya were giving him and the snickers coming from Nakuru, Spinel, and Cerberus.

"What about Yuki?" Toya asked.

"He'll keep the magic you gave up Toya," Eriol explained. "Yukito will be fine. It's only Yue who has need to be concerned."

"No he doesn't," Sakura corrected. "So when can we do it?"

"I'm thinking it will be best to be done on the full moon," Eriol said. "That works for both of you actually, on a starry night of the full moon."

"That's in a week and a half," Spinel pointed out. "Are you sure she'll be ready?"

"I going to be helping her," said Eriol. "But I do advise you use no magic until then. You'll need to be at full strength."

"That means you'll need to get up on time so you won't use DASH to make it to school monster," Toya said putting his finger on her forehead. "And no late night flights with Yue."

Both Yue and Sakura looked at each other and then averted their gazes, not unnoticed by Toya.

"Shut up," Sakura muttered knocking his hand away as she started up the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Toya asked.

"To call Tomoyo. She insists on making an outfit and wants an accurate date," Sakura explained.

Eriol, Spinnel and Nakuru left next, leaving Yue, Toya, and Cerberus. Cerberus looked around to see if everything before the sly grin that had been on his face disappeared.

"Yue," he said.

"What?" Yue asked.

"You've got to be the biggest idiot there is on the planet," Cerberus shot and Yue glared at them.

"If you're going to call me an idiot, I'd like to know what I've done," he pointed out.

"When are you going to put both you and her out of your misery and tell her you return her feelings?" Cerberus asked.

Toya regarded Cerberus with a sharp stare. "What?"

"Sakura didn't tell you," Cerberus said and then shrugged. "I guess she wouldn't. The only reason she probably told me is because it's hard to hide something from someone who stays in the same room when she cries herself to sleep over it at night."

"Would you tell me what you're talking about?" Toya asked missing the way Yue looked in the direction Sakura had gone.

"She told Yue," Cerberus said simply and then looked at Yue annoyed. "And this guy doesn't know how much effect his silence can have on her. Silence is never a safe answer for Sakura."

Toya looked confused before it dawned on him and he set his face into a tight scowl. That explained a lot. For the last couple of days, he had detected the tension in a room raise dramatically when his sister and her moon guardian were in the same room together. Even when he wasn't in the room and Yukito was present, his sister seemed to shy away from Yukito and Toya had wondered why. Now he knew that even when Yukito was present, Sakura was seeing through him to Yue who was no doubt probably observing her all this time.

"So?" he asked Yue finally.

Yue raised his eyebrow and Toya groaned.

"What are you going to do to fix it?"

Yue was silent and so Cerberus said, "Well let's start with this. Do you love her?"

Yue looked at his brother trying to figure out how to answer him. Did he? He wasn't sure because to be quite honest, Yue wasn't sure what love was. The last time he thought he was in love, he had his heart broken in the end.

"I…" Yue was going to say he didn't know but then he found another answer tumbling out his mouth before he could stop it. "I do."

Cerberus and Toya looked shocked he had admitted it. Yue himself was shocked at how easily the words had slipped off his tongue. He wasn't even sure himself, yet it came out like he had known all along, he had said it without thinking. Without thinking, he thought as he finally just reflected on it, without letting his own doubts and past experiences confuse him. There usually was no thinking when he was around her. It was just him and her doing what they wanted on a whim. He always trusted that she knew what she was doing (or at least that it would work out because most of the time she had no idea what she was getting into) when he followed her on one her crazy ideas of adventure and fun, from using the illusion card to drag him into town or sitting around the house while she drew a picture of him (one of her favorite pastimes since the first time she had done it). Trust… He trusted her in everything else and for him to admit he loved her so easily when he had wanted to deny it said something. But he couldn't ignore the whisper in the back of his head that told him it would end the same way, that he would end up hurt again.

"Then why…?" Toya started.

"This is about Clow, isn't it?" Cerberus asked knowingly.

Yue didn't betray any particular emotion, but Cerberus already knew.

"I take it they had a relationship that didn't end well," Toya stated more so than asked because he knew he wouldn't get a confirmation from either guardian.

"I'm sure she'd understand if you told her."

"She already knows," Yue replied before Cerberus started to list the reasons why he should tell her.

It dawned on Toya before Cerberus could comprehend it.

"You're scared, aren't you?" he asked.

Yue was quickly becoming uncomfortable by how vulnerable he felt as between Toya and Cerberus the two began to remove the layers of excuses until they got to the core of the problem.

"Yue, you've fallen out the sky before right?"

Yue looked at Cerberus in what could only be carefully concealed bemusement at the sudden changed in topic.

"Well?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Have you ever fallen out the sky before when you were flying or not?"

"You know the answer to that," Yue replied annoyed.

"And did it stop you from getting back in the air because you might fall again?"

"That's hardly the same," Yue said finally catching Cerberus' meaning. "This is different."

"Is it?" Toya asked with a penetrating stare. "I don't know what happened between you and Clow, but we all know that Sakura wouldn't hurt you. But it appears in your effort not to be hurt, you are hurting her because I think she knows that you may feel the same way. She's empathetic, remember?"

Yue knew that, but generally it took Sakura a lot of effort to read his emotions as he carefully guarded them from others, even her. She just didn't have the patience to try harder to decipher his emotions. And even if she did, he knew she didn't want to invade his privacy. Then again he hadn't been careful that night he came to make her rest. He knew he hadn't been, if not before her confession, certainly not after. Was it possible he had unknowingly slipped something through the careful mental and emotional guards that he was conscious of even when around her? That he had given her some kind of false hope or signal?

"I…"

"I don't want to know," Toya said looking sternly at Yue. "I'm just warning you to fix this. Guardian or not, if you hurt her, no amount of magic will stop me from killing you after she separates you from Yuki."

AN: Toya and Yue weren't supposed to talk in this chapter, but somehow, the story flowed better when I dealt with Yue and Sakura's romance first. So I said, what the heck? If this is how the story wants to go, who am I to stop it? (Muse: Uh… The writer…?).

Also, Japanese is an ambiguous language, and they believe, love should be shown through action and not words. So technically they wouldn't throw around aishiteru (I love you) like that. They'd say something like dai-suki (I like you). But many of the younger generation do use it (aishiteru) today. However, you won't see it thrown around in this story like it would be in a western culture because even then in the youth it's not that often. Japanese married couples actually usually don't say it at all according to my research.

So tell me what you think. I was pleased with it. It was so hard to keep Yue in character though. He's a very emotionally guarded character because he's emotionally vulnerable. His character reminds me of me. I'm emotionally guarded because I feel vulnerable when I show my emotions and I understand that people like that try to fool themselves that nothing bothers them when they know it does which is what causes confusion in a person like that. Anyway, two more chapter after this. Again, I may like it, but you're the judge.

Hope you enjoyed! Review Please!