Time Frame: Just after the last line in Chapter 4.

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"She's/He's your what?" both Syaoron and Sakura yelled at the same time to Ming.

"Why didn't you tell me?" asked both card captors once again.

"You never asked." was Ming's simple answer to both teens.

"Wait a minute, how can Syaoron be your uncle if he is the same age as you?" asked Sakura, as the expression on her face turned from one of surprise and shock to one of curiosity.

"I don't really know myself." replied Ming. "But, I'm sure my UNCLE can tell you."

Syaoron had a very large sweatdrop on his forehead at the question from Sakura, and the stressing of the word 'uncle' by Ming in her response.

"Well it mainly has to do with the ages of her mother and my father," said Syaoron as he began to explain. "Her mother is my father's older sister's daughter. My father's sister was a lot older than my father was. Ming's mother is about the same age as my father and according to 'ber' I'm one level above Ming which technically makes me her second uncle."

He saw the look of confusion on Sakura's face had remained, so he continued with his explanation.

"Ber is essentially a system of levels in our family tree. Ming's grandmother and my father are on one level of the tree. Ming's mother and I are down one level. And Ming is lower by one more level." finished Syaoron.

Finally, a look of comprehension came upon her face.

Just before Sakura was about to open her mouth to ask why Syaoron was here. The door opened to reveal Tomoyo and Eriol.

They were as surprised as Sakura was at the site of Syaoron in Ming's room.

They asked the same questions as Sakura and got the same answers. Then as they began to relate the events, which led to this point, they got an idea. Eriol went led Syaoron to a corner of the room to talk to him, while Tomoyo had whispered her idea to Ming. Ming grinned devilishly and quickly agreed to go along with the plan.

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"Do you love her?" was Eriol's simple question to his friend.

"What?" Syaoron almost shouted, surprised by the bluntness of his friend's question.

"Well do you?" asked Eriol again.

"I… I… um…" stammered Syaoron unable to simply say the words he knew to be true.

"Come on, we've all seen the way you stare at her and the way you seem to go completely brain-dead whenever she's around. Then there are the times when your face goes so red that you would make Rudolph's nose look pale," said Eriol trying to get his friend to talk.

"…"

"You have to tell her how you feel," pleaded Eriol. "She's been waiting for you for 3 years and now she comes after you in Hong Kong. It doesn't take a genius to figure out her feelings for you. Now the question is, what are you going to do about it?"

"All right, hypothetically speaking if I did have those kinds of feelings for Sakura-chan, what would you have me do?" asked Syaoron.

"Well for starters you came ask her out to do dinner," replied Eriol. "I mean it's about time you two went out on a date. You've known each other for 9 years and you haven't even gone out once."

"…"

"Well are you going to do it or not?" asked an eager Eriol.

"Yes," was Syaoron's simple response.

"Great," said Eriol. "Now how's about you go over and ask her now?"

"I don't know about that," replied a very nervous Syaoron.

"Go on, ask her," encouraged Eriol.

"Okay, okay, don't be so pushy."

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While on the other side of the room Ming and Tomoyo were trying to convince Sakura of the same thing.

"Come on Sakura-chan how can you say that he doesn't feel anything for you if he kept sending you letters and cards after he left?" asked Tomoyo.

"If he did feel for me the same way that I feel for him then he should've told me by now," said Sakura. "It's been 9 years. That's more than enough time."

"For regular guys yes, but not for my uncle," said Ming. "Sakura-chan you should know better than anyone how dense my uncle is when it comes to the subject of emotions. He's been trained to be the leader of our clan since the day he was born. He's always been told that emotion was a luxury he could not afford. Now I know he loves you the same way you love him but he's just too shy to show it. He's never had the practice before."

"I guess I know that he loves me, but I'm just not sure if it's the same way that I love him," said a quiet Sakura. "I'm just afraid that he only loves me as a sister."

"Trust me when I say that he loves you as more than just a friend or a sister," said Tomoyo. "Just look at the way he acts when you're around. His face gets flustered every time you look at him. He protects you from anything and puts your life above his own. You should see the jealousy in his eyes every time another guys talks to you. And the death glare he gives guys who even look at you the wrong way. Didn't you ever wonder why very few guys ever tried to ask you out in school? Well it was because they were all afraid of Syaoron and they all knew that he liked you, so they kept their distance not because they didn't like you but because they wanted to be able to live."

"Oh," was all Sakura could say. She had never noticed any of those things, and was only now beginning to understand.

"He truly does love you. He told me as much when he came back from Japan," said Ming.

"But he was engaged to Meiling. So she should've been the one he loved. Shouldn't she?" asked Sakura, for the first time unsure of the conclusions she had reached about her relationship to Syaoron.

"He never loved her. He tolerated her and was engaged to her simply because of an arranged marriage. He never loved her," answered Ming. "He had the engagement cancelled shortly after he came back from Japan. Meiling was sad but eventually she got over it. That's why she's in the states and not here."

"Oh"

"Once when we were talking about his time in Japan he brought up a certain girl in Japan who had stolen his heart. This was shortly after he came back. He never mentioned you by name, but he did describe you in very stunning detail," said Ming.

"Really? What did he say about me?" asked Sakura, getting very anxious.

"He said that you had eyes like emeralds, with a face that was as delicate as porcelain, a spirit as gentle as a feather and as strong as a lion," replied Ming.

Sakura had a far away dreamy look in her eyes as she contemplated Ming's words in her mind. 'Does he really love me as much as Tomoyo-chan and Ming-chan says he does? I sure hope so.'

Tomoyo and Ming smiled at each other, satisfied that the plan was working so well. They turned to the other side of the room and saw Syaoron being pushed towards them and knew that the other part of the plan had also succeeded. Inwardly they cheered at the prospect of playing matchmakers.

"Sakura?" asked Syaoron nervously.

Sakura's head snapped upon hearing the voice of her little wolf. "Yes?"

"Um… I…" Syaoron stammered, until Eriol gave him a soft smack on the back encouraging him to speak coherently. "Sakura would you like to go to dinner with me?"

To be continued…

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