Title: One More Day
Author: Feit
Site: http://atare.com
E-Mail: hawk_witch@hotmail.com
Quote of the Chapter:
"To wear your heart on your sleeve isn't a very good plan; you should wear it inside, where
it functions best."
Margaret Thatcher, interview with Barbara Walters on ABC-TV, March 18, 1987
(AN: 1.)I don't know Syaoran's sisters' and mother's names. I apologize for that and I did my
best to make up for it.
AN: 2.) I might be starting another fic while writing this one. It's not certain, but keep a
look out, ne?)
Disclaimer: *takes a deep breath* I. Don't. Own. CCS. CLAMP does. I dont own CCS, CLAMP does.
*repeats the same thing over again, going faster and faster each time, until she's screaming
out loud. Men in white coats come in...*
Sakura: Leave her alone! *bats away the Asylum men*
Feit: *crying* I don't own CCS.. I don't own CCS...
Sakura: *Gives Feit some tea*
Feit: *Squeals happily and sips her tea contentedly.*
Sakura: *sweatdrop* On with the fic, I guess...
-- Chapter 8 - Distraction --
Syaoran straightened his back and stood tall, raising an arm to wipe the sweat from his brow.
It had been three weeks since he had left. Everyday since then he trained and trained hard.
The Clan thought it was devotion to his destiny. It was devotion, in ways, but not to his
destiny, but to forgetting a certain someone. Sliding his sword back into it's sheath,
Syaoran stood by the window looking out upon the grounds of his home. Home. The grounds his
eyes took in was supposedly his home, and it was for the first ten years of his life. But
now, his home felt an ocean away, in an apartment overlooking the streets of the inner city.
That was his home. This place, the grounds that belonged to him felt no more like home than
hell or heaven. Home was where ever she was, and she was unreachable. He could not go back,
he could never go back, now that he had returned to Hong Kong. Maybe when he was the leader
of the clan, but that would be a long time away. Years away. By then she'd surely have
forgotten him, and he'd have been forced to marry. He didn't want to marry, he didn't want
anything but to go back and live the life he had grown to know, and love. But willing and
wishing to go back wouldn't make it happen. Still, he had often thought of leaving silently,
during the night, or during his training. He had thought out every scenario possible, and it
was completely and utterly undoable. He was respected, yes, but he needed to be practically
groveled by the servants and the other people below the clan, before he could do as he
pleased.
Syaoran's mother then walked in silently, unnoticed by the young man standing at the window,
deep in thought. Angtian stood behind her son before speaking. "Syaoran, you have been
training harder than you did before you left for Japan." Syaoran turned around to look at
her, unfathed.
"Hello, mother." Syaoran replied, no emotion threaded into his voice. "I wouldn't know."
"Yes you would." She said. A pause ensued before she continued curiously. "Why?"
"No reason." he said nonchalently.
"Don't lie to me, son." Her voice was laced with warning. Syaoran took no worry from it.
"Mother, there's nothing to know."
She sighed lightly. Her son was more stubborn than anyone she had ever met before in her
life. "Fine, Syaoran. Just keep in mind that whatever is distracting you needs to be
forgotten about. Or something should be done about it, at the very least."
Syaoran darted a look at his mothers retreating back. That was a suprisingly short
conversation. Normally she'd stay away from the training room unless she had good reason.
And, just as he predicted, she stopped and turned around. But what she said suprised him
greatly. "Whoever she is, it is best to either let her know, or never contact her again. I
hope you make the right choice."
"Mother?" He called out, slightly confused.
She turned around, and smiled at her youngest child, her only son. "How did I know?"
Syaoran's eyes flickered. Sometimes he could swear she had mind reading capabilities that she
didn't let anyone else know about. "Yea..." he said. There wasn't much he could say.
"You daydream. You never daydreamed before you left this house, and stayed nearly a decade
from this city. My son never smiled before. You never looked so happy, and yet so lost at the
same time. You never truly loved, until whoever she is, came along." With that, she turned
back into the doorway and left.
The conversation his mother had begun had triggered feelings he had begun to bury to rise to
the surface. His heart ached once more to see her, to touch her. He couldn't help but hope
she hadn't given up on him. But still, he never said he loved her, and she never gave him any
reason to believe that she loved him. His life had become an enigma, and she was only a small
part of the riddle.
He shook his head lightly, trying to shake the image of her from his mind. But her glistening
hair, glowing emerald eyes and smiling face burned into his mind's eye deeper everytime he
tried to be rid of it. Even in his dreams he found no peace. His dreams always contained the
same thing, and have been continuous since the night before he left Japan. It was always
dark, and cold. Wind battered everything around him, but left him be. A figure approached,
spoke, and disappeared. The words were always the same. "Someday soon, Syaoran. I promise."
Syaoran had the oddest feeling Sakura might understand, but there was no way he could have
said it directly. Of course, it was physically possible, and definately reasonable. But the
action seemed more forbidding than the action of touching the moon with your feet on earth.
And so, Syaoran decided to see if he could get a clue, to see if he could find a inkling of
understanding the next time he came across her. But it was not to be. After he placed the
letter in her mailbox, he had gone home, his apartment, only to find the letter and the plane
tickets. The letter, he grimly remembered, contained worse than his own worst nightmare. He
had to return to the Li Clan, or they would come and hurt the one he was protecting. Namely,
Sakura. He had no choice. Sure he was strong, and he could have told Kero and Sakura, and
they could have fought the attack. But it would have been in vain. There were secrets only
the leader of the Clan knew. That simple fact drove Li to becoming the leader, and that was
the only thing of it. If he knew what they could do to hurt Sakura, he would have the ability
to keep it to himself, straight to the grave. No one could ever be threatened by that
knowledge again. But Syaoran had yet to learn it.
A servant came in with a letter on a tray. Syaoran never really understood why they did that.
'It's like their afraid to contaminate it,' he thought as he picked up the envelope. It was a
pristine white envelope, with just his name written on the front. He flipped it in his hand
to see the backside. There was only a seal holding the envelope shut. Syaoran waved off the
servant, who was standing a few feet away, and peeled off the seal. It was candle wax, like
people would use in the ancient times. But why? Everything was handwritten, as if the
inquirer had been born in the wrong era. Syaoran pulled out a single sheet of paper.
"Syaoran, you were too late." Syaoran said aloud, reading the first line. Syaoran darted his
eyes up, expecting no one, and finding just that. He was alone in the training room. His eyes
unwillingly drew back to the letter, and he continued. "You made the wrong move. You need to
find a way back. There's another way to solve this problem. Find it, and take it. If you
don't, you will lose everything."
"What the hell does that mean!?" he whispered harshly. There was no reason for him to
whisper, but he felt the need to. He looked around at the empty training room. He FELT
something, but he could see nothing. Opening his hand, the hilt of his sword found it's way
to his palm. Syaoran stood there, all senses peaked. But whoever the presence was, it
contacted him through one way Syaoran forgot to guard. The spirit spoke in his mind. =You
know what it means, Syaoran. You know what it means, although you do not understand it
entirely, you know what it means.= Syaoran gripped his sword tighter as the presence
disappeared. This time, Syaoran was truly alone.
Syaoran read the note again, memorizing every word. He crumbled it into a ball in his fist.
Anger rose up in him. He was angry at this presence that no longer existed. He was angry he
could get no more information than what he had gotten. The spirit, though, had thrice said
'you know what it means.' He was angry he truly did not know what that presence meant. He was
angry at himself for taking the wrong move, whatever that may have been. And lastly, he was
angry at himself for not seeing it earlier. Syoaran looked at the letter rolled into a ball,
laying on his open palm. He concentrated on it. He stood still for endless minutes until he
finally moved. He threw the letter forward and mentally called forth lightning, and watched
as the lightning disintigrated the airborn letter.
Syaoran's eyes widened slightly. He didn't say a word to call forth the lightning. He simply
had to will it to come, and it did. He smiled. That would be useful. Syaoran sheathed his
sword by hand, more of habit than anything. Silently, and quickly, he left the training room
and walked outside. He stood before the cherry blossom tree, which was beginning to bloom.
'Soon. Someday soon. That letter I gave you, Sakura... it will not have been in vain. Even if
I myself am confused as to what is happening. I promise you Sakura. I never break my
promises.'
"Syoaran! What are you doing out here?" a voice called to him. Syaoran ignored it, still
standing before the cherry blossom tree. He felt his sister rest a hand upon his shoulder,
which she had a habit of doing. Shuli smiled weakly at her brother, who gave her no heed.
"Thinking about her again, aren't you, little brother? She's a distraction, you know. The
elders aren't liking how you always space out at meetings. You need to at least try to pay
attention to the matters of the clan, Syaoran."
Syoaran finally turned his head to look at her. "You'll help me get back to her, won't you
Shuli?"
"Of course, little brother."
-- End of Chapter 8 - Distraction --
GAHHHHHH!!!! Short! EVIL EVIL EVIL! Short chapter! NOOOOOOOO! Anyway: why did I jump to a
chapter about Syaoran, and completely leave last chapter's cliffhanger hanging? Well, for two
reasons. 1.) the best chapter here would be one to throw off the guesses for Syaoran being
the mysterious one. It would have been SO KAWAII if he were, but then my story would be cut
drastically. *meeps* sorry my readers! and 2.) Syaoran was about to kill me.
Syaoran: It's about time.
Feit: Seriously, you NEED to lower the ego!
Sakura: He just doesn't like you.
Feit: Well I realized that! *sobs*
Syaoran: *rolls his eyes*
Sakura: Syaoran!
Syaoran: What!?
Sakura: Apologize!
Syaoran: *thinks about it*
Sakura: *Shoots a warning glance at him*
Syaoran: Fine. *gives Feit some tea*
Feit: For me? *beams* THANKIE! *sips her tea, smiling*
(AN: A very good friend has given me a package. Can you guess what it is? It's a PENNY! Now
if you sue me, you'll get two pennies instead of one. Awesome, isn't it! THANKIE MG!)