Chapter 12

"You what?!" Touya got to his feet and banged his hands on the table.

"I think you heard me." Sakura said as she looked at him.

"You and that English brat?!" Touya yelled. "There I was, worried about the Chinese brat, while that English brat stole you right in front of me."

"You're overreacting, Touya." Fujitaka told his son calmly.

"Yes, thank you, Dad." Sakura agreed with him and then turned to Touya. "You're making it a bigger deal than it really is, Touya. Nobody 'stole' me. And please do not call them brats, English or otherwise."

Touya turned to his Dad. "You knew?!"

"I've known for a while, but Sakura never told me." Fujitaka confirmed.

"And you're okay with this?!" Touya looked at his father in disbelief.

Fujitaka frowned slightly. "Well, if it wasn't Eriol, then I might have reacted differently. Although not as dramatic as you are now, of course." He finished off with a smile.

"Does Yue know?" Yukito asked as Touya continued to mutter about brats under his breath.

"He does. All of our guardians know. I'm sorry to have kept it from you, Yukito. I asked him not to say anything because we weren't ready for people to know." Sakura told Yukito.

"That's okay, Sakura. I understand." Yukito said with a smile.

"How long?" Touya asked.

"About a couple of months now, give or take." Sakura told him. "I'm happy, Touya. He takes a good care of me, so don't worry okay?" Sakura's voice turned gentler when she said this.

Touya looked at her for a while, but in the end, nodded. "Doesn't mean I'm happy about this, though. If he hurts you…" His hand turned into a fist.

"And there I was, wondering why he didn't to be in the room when I tell you." Sakura muttered.

"He's smart, I give him that." Touya smirked.

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"How did it go?" Eriol asked her on the phone later that night.

"As well as expected." Sakura said. "He was yelling and everything, but all in all, no damage done."

"He's not banging on my door with a baseball bat, I'll take that as a positive." Eriol said laughingly.

"What time is your match tomorrow? I want to go and watch you play." Sakura regretted snapping at him yesterday, and she would go and watch him play tomorrow.

"It's at ten in the town's sports center." Eriol told her. "You don't worry about cheering for me, okay? Just come, I'll feel you and I'll know you're there."

"I will be there." Sakura smiled even though he couldn't see her. "But that's not fair. You can always feel my presence, but you can hide yours."

"What can I say? It's a perk of being me. You need to learn how to hide your presence though. I will teach you how to do that." Eriol smiled too.

They talked for a bit more and then hung up.

When Sakura arrived at the town's sports center the next morning, she saw that a bunch of her friends were there too, so she joined them. They went to the soccer field and looked for seats.

"Sakura!" Sakura turned when she heard her name and saw Nakuru waving at her enthusiastically. Sakura told her friends she's be right back and went to the guardian.

"Hi, Nakuru!" Sakura greeted her. "Here to see Eriol?"

Nakuru nodded. "You too?"

"Yes." Sakura said and noticed that Nakuru's bag shifted slightly. "Spinnel?" Sakura asked quietly.

"He wouldn't miss it either. It's Eriol's first ever soccer match. Those are your friends?" Nakuru gestured toward Sakura's friends.

"Yeah, it's our school team, so we're all here to support everyone in the team." Sakura told her.

They chatted for a bit more before Sakura made her way back to her friends just before the match started.

Their school's team won the match with a final score of 3-2. Both teams shook hands and then they went inside to get changed as the audience started to disperse.

"They're so great!" One of Sakura's friends commented. The rest agreed.

"Did you see how Li blocked that player and took the ball, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked. Sakura nodded and she was sure the rest of the audience saw it too.

"He's very good." Sakura acknowledged. Sometimes she wondered if Tomoyo was always so eager about Syaoran, then why didn't she confess to him instead?

They made their way to the entrance and went their separate ways.

"Where are you going, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked her.

"Home. I haven't finished my homework for tomorrow." Sakura told her.

"Oh, okay." Tomoyo looked somewhat disappointed, but then they parted ways.

As Sakura walked along the street, she spotted Nakuru standing at the intersection, waving at her.

"That was a good match, right Sakura?" Nakuru commented.

"It was. Everyone did a good job." Sakura agreed.

Nakuru looked hesitant, but then she said, "Ah, Sakura, are you going to wait for Eriol?" At Sakura's nod, she continued, "Can I ask for a favour? I'm supposed to wait for Eriol so that Spinnel can go home with him, but he's taking his sweet time and I'm almost late to my part-time job. Is it okay if I pass Spinnel to you?"

"Of course, Nakuru." Sakura opened her bag and so did Nakuru. Spinnel floated out of Nakuru's bag and went into Sakura's. After that, Nakuru left.

"You haven't done your homework?" Spinnel's voice came from inside her bag. He saw Sakura had her books with her.

"Ah, no. I'm going to your house to do homework. There are some things that I don't understand." Sakura's weekly training sessions had somewhat turned into study sessions as Eriol helped her with school subjects and homework. She once lied to Tomoyo that she had tutoring on the weekends and it seemed that her lie had become a truth.

A few minutes later, Sakura spotted the soccer team exiting the building. They bid each other farewell and Sakura stood there, around the corner, hidden from view, waiting for Eriol.

"Hello." He greeted her as he stopped at the intersection. "Been waiting long?"

"Not really." Sakura said. "That was a good game."

"Thanks." He thanked her as they started walking. "And thank you for coming."

"You're welcome. A lot of our friends were there too. Everyone did a good job. Seeing how unhappy you were when you had to move to the soccer team a few weeks ago, you're a star now." Sakura commented. Out of the three goals that the team made, two of them were made by Eriol.

"The club isn't so bad. Everyone is nice and I'm part of the team too." Eriol said. "I was just disappointed that they disbanded the Go club."

Ten minutes later, they arrived at his house and Sakura let Spinnel out of her bag as Eriol disappeared upstairs to take a shower. Sakura got settled down in the kitchen, sitting at the small dinner table there. While Eriol had a formal dining room, he preferred to eat his meals here when it was more casual.

Twenty minutes later, he joined her, and they started working on their homework.

"But I don't understand." Sakura said a few minutes later. "If x=5, then how did you come up with this solution?"

Eriol explained to her patiently how to work on the math problem.

An hour later, Sakura finally finished her homework. She laid her head down on the table, tired from all the thinking. Math really wasn't her strong suit and she found it increasingly difficult to keep up with it in class.

"I got your voicemail." Eriol suddenly said. Sakura lifted her head and looked at him questioningly. "The one that you left yesterday, when you cried." He clarified.

"Oh…" Sakura looked embarrassed. "I thought you didn't want to see me. You were quite angry on Friday. So, when the gate didn't open, I thought you didn't want to let me in. I never thought that there was nobody home." In her own miserable state, it never once occurred to her that nobody was home.

Silence, then he said, "No matter how angry I am with you, I will not do that to you, Saku. I might need some time to cool down, but I will not shut you out like that. Don't ever let me do that, okay?"

Sakura nodded. "I will not do that either. Let's make a promise." Sakura said as she held out her pinky to him.

He looked at her finger briefly and then hooked his own pinky around hers. "I promise." He said solemnly.

"I promise." Sakura said.

"I will never break my promises to you, Sakura. Every promise that I make to you, I will keep them." Eriol said seriously as he looked into her eyes.

"I will keep my promises to you too." Sakura told him sincerely. Then she said, "Let's make a pact. This way, we won't be taking our promises lightly and we won't be making promises just because we could. We will only make a promise when we really mean it."

"I promise that I will never break my promises to you." Eriol told her firmly.

"And I promise that I will never break my promises to you either." Sakura told him.

They looked at each other and then he kissed her.

"To seal it." He said afterwards as Sakura blushed furiously.

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Touya glared at Eriol as they ate dinner together the next weekend at the Kinomoto house.

"We found an old book with some unknown language in my last dig. I want you to take a look at it, see if you can make out the language." Fujitaka said as he tried to lighten the mood.

"Of course, Fujitaka. I'd be happy too." Eriol said with a smile. He and Fujitaka had been on first name basis for the past couple of years now. Fujitaka had insisted.

After dinner, Touya and Yukito cleaned up, Fujitaka and Eriol disappeared into his study and Sakura plopped down on the sofa to watch TV with Kero.

"I'm so glad that it's now out in the open. I don't know how much longer I can keep up with the ruse." Kero commented to Sakura. "Your brother seems to take it quite well, all things considered."

"I agree. But we haven't told any of our friends yet, so you still have to keep it up when we're with Tomoyo, okay? Thank you for not saying anything, Kero." Sakura told her guardian sincerely. She wanted Kero to know that she really appreciated him.

Kero sighed. "Why though, Sakura? I thought Tomoyo would be happy for you."

Sakura was silent. She had never told Kero about Syaoran's confession a couple of years ago and how Tomoyo had been trying to get them together ever since. "I'll tell you later, okay?" Sakura said as she glanced at her brother. It was bad enough that Touya had been upset about Eriol, he definitely didn't need to know about Syaoran too.

A couple of hours later, Sakura told Kero about Syaoran.

"WHAT?!" Kero yelled.

"Shh… Keep your voice down." Sakura shushed her guardian.

"That brat!" Kero narrowed his eyes. "Does Eriol know?"

"He does. I told him. Tomoyo knows too. And that's why I don't want to tell her about me and Eriol. Tomoyo has been trying to get me together with Syaoran for some reasons and if she knows about Eriol, I don't know how she would react. I think I wouldn't put it past her to try to break us up." Sakura admitted.

"Hmm… I wonder why she's doing that." Kero looked thoughtful. "But even if she finds out, and tries to break you up, that won't work, right? You and Eriol won't break up just because Tomoyo says so, right?" Kero had seen how happy Sakura had been lately ever since she and Eriol got together. At first, Kero and Yue weren't sure what to expect, seeing that Clow had never been in any relationship before, let alone with a teenager, but they both agreed that he cared a lot for their Mistress and he made her happy and that was the most important thing for them. Besides, as Sakura's magic got stronger, she would need Eriol to guide her. No matter how you looked at it, their relationship was good for everyone involved.

"Of course not, but it would be a hassle to deal with that. Maybe even more than what we're dealing with right now." Sakura said.

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"Summer holiday is coming!" Sakura said excitedly. This was their last day of school before summer holiday and as always, she was excited for the holiday. She skipped happily beside Eriol, who was watching her with a smile on his face.

"What should we do?" He asked. This was their first summer holiday as a couple and he was also looking forward to it.

"We should go to the usual ice cream place. I heard they have some new flavours, summer special, starting next week. Also they've finished the renovation for the amusement park, we should check it out too. Oh and of course, the summer festival!" Sakura chattered on as they walked.

They reached school and greeted their friends.

"Good morning, Syaoran!" Sakura greeted him with a big smile on her face. She wasn't the only one. Everyone seemed to have huge smiles on their faces.

"Good morning, Sakura!" Syaoran returned her smile as he sat down at his desk.

"What are you going to this summer? Are you going back to Hong Kong?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran nodded. "I am. What about you? Going somewhere?"

"No. Just staying here. My Dad doesn't really get any holiday during summer, so we can't really go anywhere." Sakura told him. Fujitaka would be busy at dig sites during summer. They didn't usually have any summer vacation, or any other vacation, really. And now that Touya was in university, he too had gotten even busier.

"We should hang out, Sakura." Tomoyo joined in their conversation.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere this year, Tomoyo?" Sakura asked her. For the past few years, Tomoyo had been away during summer holiday.

"Not this year." Tomoyo said.

They chatted until the teacher arrived and then they started their lesson.

The day went by and when the bell rang, everyone excitedly packed their bags and left. Sakura and Tomoyo had agreed to go to the baking supply store after school, so she had told Eriol not to wait for her.

"I'm so looking forward to the summer festival! I've missed it for the past few years." Tomoyo told Sakura as they made their way to the shop. "Have you been going, Sakura?"

Sakura nodded. "I have. I went with Eriol, Touya and Yukito. Last year, Kero even joined us." Sakura told her. She had stopped trying to hide the fact that she and Eriol were spending a lot of their time together. She wasn't going to tell her outright that they were dating, but she wasn't going to actively hide it either. Even though Eriol had said that he didn't want her to choose, Sakura refused to let Tomoyo bully her into doing something that she didn't want or let get away with treating Eriol badly. She was going to stand up for him, just like she should have from the beginning, even before they became an item.

"We should go together this year." Tomoyo said and Sakura nodded.

They arrived at the shop and bought some baking supplies.

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"Fly!" Sakura used her fly card to evade the energy blast that was coming her way.

"Sakura!" Kero yelled from his position on the other side of the clearing.

"I'm fine!" Sakura shot up to the sky and glanced down at Eriol. He was standing on the ground, his magic circle underneath his feet as he moved his staff. He had put a shield around himself and was in the middle of opening a portal.

'What a way to start the summer holiday.' Sakura thought as she flew around.

It was only the third day of their summer holiday. Sakura was in the middle of cleaning up after dinner when she had felt a strong magical presence. It was just her and Kero at home today, so she and Kero quickly left to check it out and were met by Eriol and his guardians near the woods. Yue met them shortly thereafter. Eriol said it was black magic and had told everyone to be very careful.

Sakura looked at their opponent. She was shooting energy blasts towards her and the three guardians. Eriol had needed them to provide distraction as he opened a portal to banish the witch.

Suddenly, Sakura heard a cry and saw Kero was hit by a blast. "Kero!" She yelled for her guardian. She tried to make her way to him, and the witch saw that as an opportunity. She knew that she wouldn't win this fight. The young wizard was stronger than she was, but if she were going down, she would not go down alone.

She gathered up her energy and then take a shot at the young girl who was too distracted by her guardian.

Eriol saw the dark energy heading towards Sakura and he knew that she wouldn't be able to evade it. That much of energy would've been fatal for her. He jumped up from the ground and shield her using his own body. When the energy hit him, he cried out in pain before plummeting to the ground and landed with a loud thud.

"ERIOL!" Sakura cried his name.

"Master!" Spinnel yelled and then blasted the witch who couldn't do anything to stop the blast, seeing that she had used most, if not all of her energy to the last blast. It hit her, but Spinnel couldn't care less as he made his way to his fallen Master.

"Eriol!" Sakura dropped to the ground and cradled her boyfriend in her arms.

"The… portal." He rasped, his voice filled with pain. They needed to get the witch into the portal before it closed.

"Get her through the portal!" Yue yelled, noticing that the portal was closing. When Eriol passed out, it would close completely.

Ruby grabbed the now unconscious witch and threw her through the closing portal just in time before the portal closed.

"No, no… Eriol…" Sakura said frantically as Eriol fell unconscious in her arms. Her vision was blurred by tears. "No!" She resisted as Ruby pulled her away. Spinnel was standing nearby and Yue was checking on Kero.

"Sakura, we need to get him back to the house." The pink haired guardian said, her voice surprisingly gentle as Yue and Kero made their way over to them.

Yue picked up the fourteen years old wizard from the ground. Ruby picked up the sobbing Sakura and then the four guardians shot up to the sky and flew to Eriol's house.