Sakura smiles in delight as Syaoran pulls the cloth off of the cage he's carried from the ruins where they landed up to the castle. Her eyes light up and he watches, smiling just as softly for the way that she reaches for the latch on the door and looks at him questioningly.
"Go ahead." He tells her.
She does.
As the latch clicks the door swings open slightly on a spring and the small bird inside whirs to life, chirping tinnily and cocking its head from side to side for a moment, surveying its surroundings, before fluttering its wings, preening, the slide of metal along metal a slight noise before it shuffles again and then hops up and glides a little, hovering above Sakura's hand, head tilting from side to side, tail down as it chirps, something about it questioning.
Sakura holds out a finger and it drops delicately onto it, preening again as its tiny talons wrap around the side of her finger and it bobs, balancing.
"What is this?" she asks, voice quiet as if she'll scare it, peering closely at the small bird which looks back at her equally as curiously, "I mean- it's a machine of some kind, mostly clockwork it seems but it's so real." The princess says in wonderment.
Syaoran nods, hands on his knees as he watches the little bird.
"Yeah- I don't know how it works so realistically either. The man who gave it to me told me he'd been waiting for me, that I was late and that he'd almost forgotten why he was there or why he'd made the bird in the first place. He said it was better in dry climates and insisted on me taking it even though I told him that we'd never met and that I'd only been there a little while. He told me that I should get new clothes and then got on the train with a little girl before I could ask anything else. I wonder if he knew the future like Yuuko-san had because later that day a car splashed me with mud." He laughs a little, looking at the miracle little bird, holding out a finger for it and lifting it slightly as it hops over to him after a moment of inspection and chirps after, looking at his face.
"I realised it was for you when I was talking to everyone later." He says, flushing a little and keeping his eyes on the small mechanical creature, smile dropping a little.
Sakura watches him, face solemn for a moment, eyes tracing over the line of his nose, the round of his cheek.
"That sounds strange." She says at first, contemplative.
The princess stops again, meeting his eyes.
"You see so much without me," she says softly, hand gentle as she cups his cheek in her palm, "I hope I can come with you some time or that you can stay eventually." The princess admits.
The boy, much older now than when they'd first met, as she is too, looks down, places his hand over the one she has in her lap.
"So do I." He says too.
Like every time he leaves after about a week, Mokona growing itchy from staying in one place too long and Kurogane's arm needing some maintenance which cannot be done in Clow.
She watches them walk up to the castle one final time through her window which overlooks the town, along the main road, as strong as they always do. The bird cage sways in the breeze in the window, door open, unclosed since she'd first opened it.
The bird twitters on her finger, light refracting off enameled wings over the sandstone walls.
She sighs and raises her hand to the cage.
The bird hops inside obediently but she does not close it as she walks from the room, hurrying to the courtyard to say goodbye to her friends once again after such a short time.
Syaoran smiles apologetically and takes her hand.
She squeezes it back and looks into his eyes.
"I'll see you next time." She says.
He responds in mirror and presses his forehead to hers.
"The time is getting shorter between." He reminds her.
"The time is getting shorter between." She echoes, letting him go, watching as they are all swept up by Mokona once again, away from her.
The bird sings in its open cage as a flock passes over the castle.