Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura. This fic has nothing to do with Cardcaptors. *shudders*
Gomen! Blame school! School is evil! Its now spring break, so I'll try to write as much as possible. Also, I've been sketching out a lot of ideas, instead of actually writing chapters, which explains the slow progress. Sorry.
Oh yes, I made a minor change to the plot. Now, if I've got it right, Sakura was 10 when she opened book, and I think that the whole series covered 2 years. So Syaoran was 12 when he left, and 3 years have past, instead of 1, so everybody is now 15.
An End and A Beginning
Chapter 2: Syaoran Returns
Sakura sighed.
She absently twirled her pencil as she tuned out the teacher's incessant rambling about math. If there was one class she hated, it was math.
Half the reason was cause she always got lost in all those numbers. Another reason was that math always reminded her of… him.
Math had always been Syaoran's best subject.
Sakura missed Syaoran a lot. Though when he had first come he had been a rival (Sakura could never think of anyone as her enemy really) he had been really mean to her, especially when he had tried to beat her up to get the Clow Cards. Eventually, he had started helping with Card captures, and had even given her some of the Cards he had earned.
After Eriol had arrived, Syaoran had stayed, and seemed to always become red for some reason whenever she was around. Tomoyo had started giggling, but had never answered her question about why Syaoran was red. Syaoran had comforted her when Yukito had rejected her, and had helped her with the Light and Dark Cards transformation. He had acted strangely after that, but Sakura attributed that to Syaoran knowing that he had had to leave.
To Tomoyo's chagrin, Sakura still had no idea about Syaoran loving her. As such, the oblivious Sakura had done something that the long-haired girl deeply disapproved of.
Today looked like it would just be like any other day, when something bright green crashed through the window of the classroom.
"Hoe?" Everybody stood up to see what was going on, with another figure, clothed in a dark blue, leaped through the window.
"A Clow Card?" Sakura whispered as she felt that familiar tingle.
Then she saw the figure on the ground start to slowly rise from his fall. The moment she saw his face, her heart leapt.
"Syaoran-kun!"
Everybody stared. It was indeed Li Syaoran, the former foreign exchange student from Hong Kong, and as he slowly got up, Sakura saw that he was in full battle attire, sword drawn.
"Li-kun!" half the class shouted as they saw their former friend.
Syaoran looked up, and panicked when he saw most of his old friends staring. He reached into his robes, and Sakura was startled to see him pull out one of the old Clow Cards. But she had transformed all of them, hadn't she?
"Hypnosis! Put everyone to sleep!" he shouted.
Sakura blinked as a spirit rose from the Card, male and holding a pendulum, and waves began emanating from it. Everyone looking at it slowly fell to sleep.
"Hoe?" Sakura looked around, everyone was sleeping peacefully now, except for herself, Syaoran… and Tomoyo-chan?
Syaoran frowned. Tomoyo opened her closed eyes, and said simply "I can't be hypnotized if I close my eyes, can I?"
He sighed. That was the one major flaw with the Hypnosis Card. Anyone who closed their eyes, and had a strong will, could withstand the Hypnosis' power. Of course, if it hadn't been for that one flaw, he couldn't have been able to capture it.
He turned back to the blue figure. It was still waiting for him to rise. "Fight Card, these people aren't involved. We'll finish our fight outside, okay?"
The card looked at the sleeping people, and then his eyes rested on Sakura.
"She is not your Cardcaptor,
I am, so leave her alone!"
There was a definite note of command in his voice, and the Card looked back to him, and then, when it was still hesitating, another familiar voice from outside called.
"Hey! What about me? I'll give you a challenge!"
Sakura blinked again. "Meilin-chan?"
The Card looked outside, and seeing the Chinese girl, leapt out to battle with another opponent.
Syaoran slowly got up. He winced as he had landed rather hard, but luckily his battle clothes had prevented any glass fragments from hurting him. Outside, he could hear Meilin's shouts. He didn't know how long she could hold out. She had managed to hold her own against Sakura's Fight Card for a little while, but had still lost, but then again, Meilin had trained more since then. Still, he didn't want to leave her alone.
"Syaoran-kun!"
Syaoran turned around at that voice. That voice. Sakura.
There stood Sakura. Beautiful Sakura, with her bright emerald eyes, and bright smile.
Syaoran started blushing on the spot, but then remembered that there was a Card outside. "Sakura, I need your help, Meilin's in trouble."
"Syaoran-kun, is that a Clow Card?" Sakura asked again.
Syaoran nodded. "I'll explain later. Right now we need to capture it!"
Sakura nodded as she shifted into her cardcapturing mode. "Right!"
She pulled her key out.
"The key that holds the power of the
stars.
Reveal
your true form to me.
I, Sakura,
commands thee under contract.
Release!"
Her small charm enlarged, until it was a long pink wand with a star at the end.
Syaoran nodded. Good to see she hadn't gotten rusty. "Come on." And he jumped out of the window, with Sakura following.
Neither of them noticed Tomoyo smiling evilly.
"Looks like the 2nd Deck is on the loose. Everything is going exactly according to my plan. Now I just wait."
Suddenly she pulled out her video camera. "In the meantime, I can tape Sakura-chan and Li-kun, fighting together once more! Oh, this will be so kawaii!"
And Tomoyo followed them.
***
Meilin grunted as she blocked one of the Fight Card's punches. She smiled predatorily at it. "Come on, I was hoping for a challenge."
The Fight Card growled, and then launched into a flying kick at her.
Meilin waited, and then while it was still in the air, sidestepped it, grabbed its leg, and then threw it into a nearby wall, causing a large imprint to appear in the shape of the Fight Card's body.
The unconscious Fight Card fell to the floor, with swirly eyes.
Meilin shook her head. "And I thought Clow Cards were good opponents."
"Meilin!"
Meilin looked up to see Syaoran and Sakura running towards her, with Tomoyo close behind.
"Don't worry, I've already taken care of it!" Meilin shouted, waving.
"Meilin, watch out!" Syaoran shouted.
"Huh?" Meilin didn't know what Syaoran was talking about until she felt something grab her leg, and pull.
The Fight Card had pulled her down, and was up again. The male Card stood menacingly over her, when Syaoran launched into the air, and knocked it down again.
He raised his sword. "Fight Card, return to your power confined! Fight Card!"
A rectangle of energy appeared below the tip of his sword, and then the magical spirit was sucked in. The card then floated into Syaoran's hand.
On the Card was almost what looked like a male version of Sakura's Fight Card, with a lot more muscle.
Syaoran immediately brought out a pen from within his robes, and signed Syaoran on it.
Syaoran sighed. 20 down, 32 to go, he thought as he stared at the card.
"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura had caught up to him, and was panting slightly. "Syaoran, what type of Card is that? Where did you get it? And what are you doing back here?"
Sakura suddenly remembered the circumstances of Syaoran's departure. Her smile turned to an icy frown.
Syaoran turned around. "I am here on a mission, and I'll explain everything later, because everybody should be waking up about now."
Before anybody could protest, Syaoran had leapt to the top of the building, and was leaping from roof to roof.
Meilin nodded at them. "See ya later, Kinomoto." She followed Syaoran out.
Sakura stared after them. Syaoran-kun…
Tomoyo tapped Sakura on her shoulder. "Uh, Sakura-chan, maybe we should get back and fix the window before anyone notices us."
Sakura started. "Oh right."
A quick application of the Create Card, and the school window was fixed, and Tomoyo and Sakura pretended to wake up with everyone else.
***
"You're going to have to face her sometime, Syaoran," Meilin said as she kept up with the swift Syaoran.
"After school then," Syaoran answered. He had seen the look on Sakura's face when she had caught up with him. Apparently his departure had left a mark on Sakura.
"You'll need her help for these cards, you know," Meilin said as they arrived at Syaoran's old apartment. The clan had bought the apartment when Syaoran had returned to Japan. For the last month or so, Syaoran had traveled around Japan, capturing various cards. While he had managed to keep some of the Cards, the 2nd Deck had a longer range than the Sakura Cards did, so he had worked on capturing the most prominent cards first. Now, the rest were all here in Tomoeda, where the Card Mistress was.
Syaoran and Meilin entered through the window, and Wei offered them clean clothes as they stepped into their own rooms.
"Master Syaoran, I've already registered you two at the local school," Wei said as he patiently waited outside, and after a few minutes, Syaoran and Meilin emerged in ordinary clothes.
"Should we go look for Sakura after school?" asked Meilin.
Syaoran sighed. He would have to talk to Sakura eventually. He just hoped Sakura forgave him for his abrupt departure a year ago.
***
"Why do you think Syaoran-kun is back?" Sakura asked Tomoyo in a low voice as they walked home.
"I bet that he missed you, and wanted to see you again!" Tomoyo said, getting her starry eyes look again.
Sakura sweatdropped at that, but didn't have the heart to knock Tomoyo out of her stupor.
She turned her head away from Tomoyo, to hide the tears in her eyes. Syaoran-kun, why did you come back now of all times?
For some reason, she felt guilty about telling Syaoran about her life. She thought of Syaoran as an overprotective friend, nothing more, since he constantly rattled off death sentences for Eriol. So she hoped that Syaoran didn't react too badly to this new development.
"Hey Sakura!" shouted a voice as a boy popped out from nowhere and planted a kiss on her cheek.
"Oh, hi Akira," Sakura said giving a false smile, while Tomoyo scowled.
"Ready for our date tonight?" asked Akira, her boyfriend.
Keeping her grin on, Sakura smiled up at him. "Of course."
To be continued…
So, Sakura has a boyfriend. In this little fanfic, Syaoran left without saying anything, so Sakura was open. And Sakura still has no idea how Syaoran feels for her. I think. Sorry, I keep most of the plot in my head, so sometimes, I can't keep up with my own imagination. I'll try to have the next chapter out in give or take a month.