Essence of Blood

He had met girls throughout his life but never had he met a woman as unique as her. Not only did she defy him in an erratic way but her blood held an essence that differed from everyone else. Her blood was special… her blood made her, his.

Chapter Twenty One
Essence of Fight

.xx.

-Tomoyo-

August 7th, 2007 –7:27 pm

"Thank god you're safe!" I hugged Sakura in the comfort of her bedroom. After I lunged at Sakura, the others also lunged onto us creating a dog pile of people. We had to be pried off of Sakura by Eriol and Li so that she could breath and, well… stay alive.

Chiharu, Sakura and I were in her room and we had quickly debriefed her on Chiharu's situation before returning to the thank god you're safe tirade. Sakura had tackled Chiharu and randomly started crying in her arms—we thought it was due to shock so we let her cry her heart out. Eventually the girl relaxed and we were, again, spazzing over the fact that she is indeed back.

"What did they do to you?" Chiharu whispered and I saw Sakura's eyes widen with a look of shock before quickly recovering. I frowned, knowing she was hiding something from us—from me—but I decided that I wasn't going to pry it out of her until we were alone. I know Sakura better than anyone else in the world and I'll be damned if I don't know what's bothering her…

Sakura shrugged nonchalantly before lying back down on her bed. "Regular hostage stuff?" she muttered. "They had me locked up, gave me shit for food, and tortured me until Xiao Lang and the others got there."

I frowned. "Tortured you? How?"

Sakura glanced at me before closing her eyes. "I don't wanna talk about it guys. Can I just sleep?"

Chiharu and I exchanged glances before hugging Sakura and leaving her room. I quietly closed the door behind me and power walked back into my room with Chiharu following suit. We shut my room door and I started pacing.

"Something happened, other than regular hostage stuff," I muttered and Chiharu nodded.

"Yeah," she whispered. "Sakura's been through a lot of shit but I haven't seen her like that."

"I know right?" I turned to Chiharu. "If there's one thing she's good at it's coping. She coped with Yue cheated on her…"

"YUE WHAT?"

I sweat dropped. "O-kay…" She didn't know about that little tidbit. "I'll explain to you after… but yeah he cheated on her. She coped with that, she coped with the shootout at Yukito's club back in July, with us being taken here and knowing we probably won't ever see our family ever again. She's good at coping."

"But right now she's shutting herself down," Chiharu murmured and I nodded. "Let her figure it out herself," Chiharu said firmly, looking at me. "Whatever happened, she'll tell you if not anybody else. Let her come to terms with it herself and then you can hound her. You have a bad habit of making her tell you things she doesn't wanna yet."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh shut up."

Chiharu giggled. "It's true. So I am gonna go shower… Mei Lin told me that tomorrow afternoon her cousin is gonna decide what to do with me." I saw her visibly gulp. "You think it'll be bad?"

I shook my head. "Nah, Li is generally the nice one. He only looks mean."

"I hope you're right." Chiharu hugged me. "Alright, 'night, Mamacita."

"'Night, kiddo…"

.xx.

August 7th, 2001 – 10:49 pm

I wanted to grab a snack and decided to take my regular trip to the kitchen and grab some fruit or yogurt or something. I didn't bother turning on the lights because I knew the mansion by heart now—I had been there for the better part of a month. I started quietly creeping down the stairs when yelling stopped me dead in my tracks.

"How dare you accuse me of shit like that, Eriol!"

"Accuse you?"

It was Yasui and Eriol. I frowned, peeking over the banister of the staircase and I caught a glimpse of them yelling at each other near the kitchen. Okay… there goes the midnight snack idea but the fight seemed pretty intense…

"How the hell do I accuse somebody of something they actually fucking did?"

"What proof do you have?"

"I have been keeping tabs on you since you got pregnant with Yamamato's kid!"

My eyes widened.

"THAT WAS YOUR CHILD!"

"Really? When we only had sex once before you switched bases? And you got pregnant two months after we were together? How does that biologically make any damn sense, Yasui?"

"It was not two months!"

"I HAVE PAPERWORK TO PROVE IT!"

I have never heard Eriol yell so loudly in my life… well, in the two months (give or take) I've been here.

"And now you think I'm cheating on you?"

Way to switch the subject, bitch…

"I know you were cheating on me while I was in Punta Cana and then with Xiao Lang in Kagoshima saving Sakura. You were spreading your legs for every damn bastard in the gang."

"I DID NOT! HOW COULD YOU SAY THIS TO ME?"

"You didn't?" Eriol sneered. I was starting to get afraid. "Xiao Lang and I had a specifically designed pendant for you. It reads the aura of another person if you get physical with them."

"How the hell do you create something like that?"

"We have our ways. Let's just say the pendant wasn't stagnant while I was gone…"

Yasui was quiet.

"Cat got your tongue?"

"It's probably broken."

What a dumb response.

"No," Eriol harshly spoke, "it isn't. I don't fucking care about this marriage any longer. I don't care if Yelan did it for familial merger and strengthening of the gang. We are getting a divorce and I'm sending you to the farthest Bloodhound base we have." He took a step towards her and I was starting to fear for her life. "And if you start spreading garbage to ruin my reputation, I will not hesitate to eliminate you."

"Eriol!"

"It's Hiiragizawa to you. You can leave now, I don't wanna see your face."

"ERIOL!"

"I SAID LEAVE!"

Yasui turned around and ran out of the room. My heart was racing; I shouldn't have stayed to hear the argument. I was about to quietly go back to my room when Eriol called out to me.

"Come down here, Tomoyo."

I froze. How the hell did he know I was here?

I heard him chuckle softly. "I might not have magic like the others, but I have acute senses."

I rolled my eyes and quietly strode over to where Eriol was. Sitting on the sofa, he looked exhausted and way over the age he probably was. I sat down beside him and we were quiet for a few moments.

"Sorry you had to hear that."

I nodded. "My bad for staying there. I should've gone upstairs when I heard it."

"Curiosity killed the cat," he smiled over at me. Oh God his smile was so beautiful. My heart started racing.

"Satisfaction brought her back." I shrugged in response and he chuckled.

Again, the ever-so-wonderful silence.

"I have to call our lawyer tomorrow," he finally stated and my gaze snapped towards him.

"You're really going to divorce her?"

Stupid question on my part. Eriol looked over at me and studied me for quite some time before opening his mouth to speak. His glasses were sliding off his face and he used his index finger to push it back up. That motion was kind of cute…

Kind of.

"Yeah," he replied, "I never loved her and we were never happy together. Why bother? It was personal reasons we had to get married—you probably know," he snorted, "Xiao Lang's sisters can't keep their mouths shut for anything."

I blushed in embarrassment. Yeah… I kind of already knew he was forced to marry her.

"I wanna be happy. I'm probably only restricted to women in the gang but hey, if I could find love somewhere there, why not? I'm not gonna die unhappy that's for sure."

Very deep…

Suddenly he sat up. "So why are you down here?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh—snack. The usual, you know."

Standing up, Eriol held out a hand towards me. "If it's a snack that you want, then it is a snack that you'll get. Ever tried apple slices with honey and cinnamon?"

I frowned. "Umm… no?"

"Then let Chef Eriol introduce you to the eighth wonder of the world!" He dragged me into the kitchen—I noted that he did not let go of my hand…

Sitting down on the bar stool, I watched as Eriol grabbed a few apples, some honey and a jar of cinnamon and came and sat down beside me. He began cutting the apples and assembling them on a plate.

"Happy that Sakura is back?"

I nodded as I bit a bare slice of apple. "Yeah. She's quite shaken though."

"That's understandable." He drizzled honey on top of the apple slices and then sprinkled cinnamon on top of them. "Try." He handed a slice to me and I took it thankfully.

It tasted wonderful…

"You like?"

I nodded, licking my lips before going to take another one. I watched from the corner of my eye Eriol watch me eat. He's really cute. Yasui was a lucky woman but she fucked up big time. Whoever ends up with Eriol next is going to be a very, very lucky girl…

"Shall I escort you upstairs?" He asked as we finished the last slice of apple.

"It's alright." I smiled. "I can manage."

He laughed as he put the dish in the sink. "If you say so. See you in the morning?"

"Yeah, goodnight, Eriol."

I headed up the stairs and looked over my shoulder to watch him watch me.

"'Night, Tomoyo…"

Damn, the way he says my name…

.xx.

Special thanks to my beta-editor, Sakura-chan Master of the Clow
Edited/Updated: November 5, 2011

Re-edited: February 08, 2013