Before you read this, I have one thing to say. I have yet to figure out what kind of coupling I gonna use. I love Sakura and Yue pairings and sometimes Syaoran and Sakura but both of them have there could happen qualities and their no way could ever happen qualities. In your reviews tell me what you want so I can plan on what I'm gonna do. Give me any pairing because as you know I'm messed up and depending on my mood I'll write anything. So now go do your job of reading my beautiful story.
Ray slowly walked down the aisle nervously. She wasn't scared about school or making friends or anything like that. She was scared that Sakura would recognize her. Sakura had been having dreams about her for a few years now and Sakura had a pretty good idea what she looked like. She prayed to the fates that Nakura had done her job of getting Ray unrecognizable well. She passed Sakura's desk and Sakura gave her a small friendly smile. Ray smiled right back but for a different reason. Nakura had done her job well. Eriol breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was going to plan. Ray would come friends with Sakura and Ray would be near Sakura at all times. The only thing he was worrried about was that Ray stuck out among the members of the school. Ray was only girl that wore pants and she had re-sewn them to make them flared. The school shirt for the girls came in 2 sizes, newborn or elephant and Ray had chosen newborn. All the other girls had gotten the bigger size. Ray was wearing a pair of flip-flop sandals even though it was April. Ray wasn't to easily pass as your average normal student. Eriol should have expected that because Ray wasn't normal.
The whole day passed uneventfully and it was around 5:00. Ray was walking home from cheerleading tryouts. Actually Ray didn't exactly have a house, but you get the idea. Ray had quickly become friends with Sakura and Tomoyo and Sakura had talked her into going out for the cheerleading squad. Ray hated cheerleading because of it glorifying guys, but she went out for it anyway for fun and to stay close to Sakura. Ray got to the end of the abandoned road and climbed over the black iron fence that surrounded the house. She landed inside the fence gracefully and let herself in to the house. The smell of chocolate chip cookies was hanging in the air and ray walked into the kitchen where she found Eriol taking out a batch of cookies out of the oven. Ray walked in and sat on the kitchen counter waiting for Eriol to decide of the cookies were done or if they had to brown up. Eriol put the cookies on the counter and faced Ray.
"You had to make a scene, didn't ya," Eriol said sighing.
"What do you mean?"
"Look at you," he said, and Ray looked down at her school uniform.
"What's wrong with it? Ray said defiantly.
"For one, you just can't possibly be normal. Did you see the guys, they were practically drooling when they saw you. You stand out."
"And your point is. Eriol, look, loosen up, for god sakes," and Ray grabbed a cookie off the hot tray. "And seriously, I'd like to see the guys try to make a move on me," she muttered while chewing the cookie.
"I can understand the shirt and pants because you basically grew up wearing that kind of stuff, but the flip-flops. Couldn't you just wear dress shoes."
"Uhh, I don't have dress shoes. I have boots though. I could wear those, if it really bothers you," Ray suggested.
"Don't worry about it."
"Then why are telling me not to wear flip flops if you really don't care if I do," Ray said flabbergasted.
Eriol shrugged. "I have a favor to ask of you. Can you find out Syaoran and the Li clan plan for getting the cards?"
"K ," and Ray reluctantly slid off the counter.
She walked towards the door and stopped like she was remembering something. "By the way, the cookies are awesome," Ray said before stepping outdoors. Eriol heard the door slam and he went back to baking the cookies. Ray crossed the lawn and pulled out her knife from her back pocket. The knife was a three-inch blade with a red stone embedded in the hilt. She spun the knife once around her hand and it turned into her staff, a wooden stick with a ruby at the end. She twirled it once around her head and chanted some words of an ancient language. 2 wings surrounded her and then they opened. Where Ray once stood, remained only air.
Inside the chamber of the Elders at the Li clan mansion, a heated debate was going on over what to do to get the cards.
"Why can't we just go there and kill Sakura and then take the cards," yelled Brad frustrated. It seemed to him that no one was listening to him. It never occurred to him that his idea was stupid.
"It's not that simple, Brad. If we are going to get the cards, we need to plan before we just go out and get them," Mari said calmly.
"That's where we messed up before. We acted before we planned," Ty said, leaning on the wall standing.
"We also have the problem of the tiger. It isn't going to allow us back in Tomeda without a fight," Mari added..
Ray smiled from the rafters of the room. It was good that they still feared her. She had transported herself to the mansion from Eriol's house. She enjoyed watching ordinary people go about their life's. Since she never ever had a family, it made her feel like that they were family, that their problems were her own. She crept to the end of the plank she was balancing on and jumped down making sure to stay parallel with the wall. She landed softly on her feet and walked through the wall so that she was just outside the room. Being invisible and walking through stuff were some of her favorite abilities. Syaoran stood outside, his ear to the door, trying to listen in to the Elders discussion. He was going to be a part of getting the cards and he wanted to know what they were planning. He wasn't sure whatever he was happy or mad that Sakura was alive. They were choosing her fate in there.
"What are you doing?" said a voice from behind him.
Syaoran jumped startled. He turned around and saw Melien facing him, her arms crossed.
"Well."
"I was just uhhh kinda listening to their conversation in there," said syaoran sheepishly.
Melien just nodded her head in understandment and kneeled down next to him by the door where they sat in silence, just listening to the conversation. They had agreed on how they were going to the cards and when, but they had yet to agree on to who was going to get them. Brad was trying to convince his fellow clan elders that he was the one most fit to get the cards. Whoever got the cards would be proven worthy by getting them and would be the leader of the clan. Ty and the others with a exception of Will couldn't, won't agree that Brad should be the one to get the cards. They were lucky enough to get a second chance for the cards and they couldn't mess it up.
"Why not Syaoran," said Aubrey. This was the first time the whole meeting that he had spoken and Syaoran's ears perked up at the mention of his name.
"He is the same age as Sakura, making it easy for him to get close to her. He knows the town and he knows her abilities and her minion's abilities. He was the one who was originally supposed to get them, but because of circumstances out of his control, he wasn't able to get them. He deserves a second chance and has to the right to prove himself to all of us."
The idea was greeted with murmurs of agreement. Brad leaned back in his chair, mad that he was being out-voted.
"If Syaoran gets the card, he will the ruler of the clan, agreed," said Ty.
"Agreed," shouted the rest the elders and they moved on to the next thing on their agenda. Syaoran backed up from the door in shock. A small grin was on his lips. He would be able to complete his density, be the master of the cards and be the leader of the clan. He was getting a second chance.
"Why are you smiling?" asked Meilen.
"We're going to Tomeda," said Syaoran, grinning evilly.
"I'm not going," said Melien defiantly and started walking away.
Syaoran jumped to his feet and grabbed Melien's arm before she could get away. "What do you mean you're not going?"
Melien pulled her arm from Syaoran's grasp and leaned against the hardwood wall. "I'm not going to help you this time get the cards. I didn't want to do it then and I don't want to do it now."
Syaoran looked her in the eyes playing on he fact that Melien used to be in love with him. " I need your help," he whispered softly.
When he did that, Melien could never refuse him. "Ok," she whispered back.
Ray rolled her eyes from behind the fish statue that stood in the hall. Meilin was weak. She was blinded by her love for Syaoran, but whatever was family or not, Ray didn't know. She watched as Syaoran went up to his room. Before Syaoran could close the door to his room which was just down the hall from where she stood, Ray bolted from her spot and slipped through the door. She needed to know how far along in his training Syaoran was so she could go tell Eriol.
A full moon light up the entire town of Tomeda, making it easy to see by even though all the street lights weren't yet on because it wasn't dark enough. Yue was flying back from practice with the cards. Him and Kero were trying to teach Sakura how to use the mist card which really wasn't going well. Sakura just couldn't get the card to do what she wished. Yue flew down to Tokyo Tower and perched on its rafters. He liked this place because this was the place he meet his new mistress and he really didn't feel like flying home just yet. He looked at the setting sun and sighed. It felt just like yesterday when Sakura was battling him for the possession of the cards. He wouldn't admit it but Sakura had grown on him and he loved her as if she was Clow. Sakura had grown up from the scared scrawny 10 year old to almost fearless young adult, the key word being almost fearless. Anytime Sakura got scared, she would immediately grab Yue who was usually the closest to her. He would pretend that it didn't affect him, her touch, but it did. More so then most people thought.
"Yueeeee," screamed a certain crazed winged butterfly. Yue looked up, his thoughts being interrupted, and saw Ruby Moon flying at him. He didn't move quickly enough and Ruby bumped into him, sending both of them in a tangle of limbs and wings off the roof and plummeting to the ground. Yue landed softly on the ground, his wings had slowed down the fall so it didn't hurt too much. Yue pushed Ruby off him and stood up, dusting off the dirt from his white clothing. His clothes were dirty because knowing his luck they landed a mud puddle.
Yue sighed." Why can't you just leave me alone for once?" he complained.
Ruby smiled and said her hyper annoying voice," And the fun in that would be."
Yue just groaned. She didn't get it how annoying her hyper-activity was. It was like she was high on life.
Ruby, noticing how annoyed Yue was at her decided to dig the wound deeper," Thinkin about a certain emerald eyed flower again."
Yue blushed and growled in his best tone," Shut up."
"Make me, I'm going to tell," she shouted teasingly and took off like a shot towards the direction that she had come from. Yue took off after her to stop her from telling the whole world something that wasn't true. If course if it happened to be true, he'd never admit it.
Sakura rushed into the door to homeroom, just barely making it to her seat before the bell rang. She was like usual late for school. The homeroom teacher called them off for attendance and Sakura savored her time of just sitting down and not moving. The bell rang announcing the start of 1st period and Sakura and the others trudged their way to gym class. Sakura opened her locker containing her clothes and found Ray changing right next to her.
"I thought you were in 8th period gym."
"I got switched."
"O, cool."
"Yeah."
It was outdoors co-ed gym class and they were going to be playing 1 on 1 basketball. They got to choose their partners and Sakura immediately paired up with Tomoyo. Eriol had paired up with a different guy and Ray was left to fend for herself getting a partner. She looked around trying to find someone anyone that wasn't already partnered up with. The line shifted in front of her and she found that she was up. She looked up and found that her partner was some buff guy with spiked up blond hair and blue eyes. She heard Sakura from behind her give a sigh of sympathy. Ray rolled her eyes and walked up to the court and got ready to steal the ball from his hands when he started to dribble towards the basket. Sakura felt sorry for her. The guy was Wayne Greding, star of the basketball team and had a ego the size of Texes. He thought that he was gods gift to the world and thought he was all that. He swaggered confidently to the court with the basketball in his hands. He was so sure that he was going to win. Eriol felt sorry for him. Wayne started dribbling the ball in place, forming a strategy in his head on how to get past Ray. Ray just stood in front of him, eyes half closed, listening the drum of the ball on the hard blacktop. Wayne made a step towards the basket and Ray was on the ball like a dog is to a bone. She stole the ball and dribbled towards her basket and slam dunked it before Wayne even had a chance to react. The ball swished through the hoop and Ray caught it and passed it to Wayne. The expression on Wayne's face was priceless, he was in complete shock and everyone else was too. It wasn't every day that the star of the basketball team got showed up. Eriol hid his grin from the others because Wayne would murder anyone that dared laugh. Everyone hated Wayne because he was so full of himself and everyone was happy to see him get beaten by a scrawny girl. Wayne's face was red in anger and Ray smirked. This was going to be fun. Wayne glared at her and Ray nonchalantly stretched her arms in the air raising her white tank top and showing off her flat tan stomach. Instead of waiting for Ray to get in position he immediately started towards his basket. Ray easily caught up wit him and got the ball and shot it in her basket from the other side of the court. The ball went in like it was nothing and Eriol grinned remembering how long Ray and Nakura had practced doing that in his house in England. The pattern repeated itself and Wayne got creamed by Ray.
Ray walked off the court calmly like nothing had happened and headed toward the locker room to get a drink of water. The gym teacher dismissed them and they headed to the locker room to get changed. Eriol could hear Wayne telling all his friends that Ray had cheated and he had let her win. Everyone just chuckled under their breath. Though he was one of the so called "popular" people, everyone hated him.
After school, cheerleading practice was ending and all the girls were hanging around the front entrance, buying soda from the machine. Basketball practice was getting out also and Eriol, Sakura, and Ray were talking about their plans for the weekend.
"So what you doing, Ray," asked Sakura.
"I was going to go roller-skating, but my plans kinda fell through so I have no idea what I'm doing."
Sakura was going to say something but when she noticed Wayne getting close to them, she stopped.
Wayne budged into the tight circle they had formed and tapped Ray's shoulder. Ray spun around to face him and Wayne pinned her shoulder to the wall with one hand so she couldn't escape.
"Do you have plans for tonight?" he asked, running his other hand through his blond hair.
"No, I don't. Why do you ask?" Ray answered back, trying to sound sugary sweet.
"So you'll go out with tonight, meet me at…"
"Wait a second. Did I say that I was going to go out with you? Because I didn't hear myself saying that. I have better things to do with my time then to go out with vain jackass like yourself," Ray said sarcastically and started walking away from him.
Wayne's face blushed a deep crimson and he grabbed Ray's shoulder, preventing her from moving. No one got to insult him, especially around a crowd of people.
"You will go out with me. No girl can say no to me. You want me, you know you do," he hissed in her ear, loud enough so that everyone could hear.
"Leave me alone, Wayne. I don't want you and until hell freezes over then I will actually want you. Now let me go or I'll…."
"You'll what. Like you could actually hurt me."
Ray grinned and in a low whisper said," I can and I will. Now let me go."
"Not until you say yes."
"Fine, your choice," she said and punched him in the nose, making him bleed.
Wayne's hands went to his nose and he looked at her angrily. No one hurt him without getting hurt back. He threw a punch at Ray, which she easily dodged. He threw punch after punch, kick after kick at her, but she avoiding them as easy as a little kid jumps over a jump rope. It was all fun and games for her. Wayne backed away from her, sweating like a pig, thinking that Ray had been beaten badly by him. He was surprised to find that ray hadn't even broke a sweat yet or was breathing hard. Ray was going to hurt him for even attempting to hurt her, but noticing the look on Eriol's face, she walked away, slightly swaggering in confidence that she had won. Wayne tried to go after her but Eriol and Yamazaki held him back.
"Why the hell did you stop me," yelled Wayne in the face of Eriol. His nose was bleeding badly now and his entire face was smeared in it. Eriol was able to hold back his laughter but Yamazaki had no such luck. He started laughing hard and fell to the ground shaking.
"Shut the hell up," Wayne screamed and made a motion to kick him but decided against it, seeing that a teacher was near by. Wayne made a motion with his chin to his crowd and they walked away behind their leader. As soon as he was out of earshot, everyone cracked up.
Gold eyes meet the stone-faced members of the clan. It was a meeting of the entire clan. The clan elders had came up with a plan to get the cards and were announcing it to them. Syaoran stood in front of the clan. He, after many hours of discussion with the elders, had finally thought up a plan.
"Members of the clan, please take your seats and quiet down," Syaoran heard himself say.
The crowd settled down and Syaoran continued," A few days ago, I went to Tomeda to see what had happened to the cards that Clow created. I found that Sakura wasn't dead and we had been tricked into believing that she was."
Murmers erupted from the crowd and Syaoran raised his voice so he could be heard.
"The cards belong to us by birth right, not to some girl who just happened to open the book," he shouted, ignoring the fact that Fugitaka was the half-recarnation of Clow.
He heard himself shout," Sakura has to die, it's the only way we can ever control the cards," but his heart wasn't in it. It was an oxymoron. He didn't like to see Sakura hurt back then and he still didn't. But he had to do what he had to do. "We have been given another chance at the cards and we can't mess up. We will go as a clan to Tomeda.." he paused for dramatic silence," And get back what is ours." The whole clan cheered. Brad who was sitting to Syaoran's right with the rest of the Elders smiled. He would now have an equal chance as Syaoran to get the cards and come leader of the clan. Ray watched silently from the back of the room. After the incident with Wayne, she had transported herself here to hear the plan so she could relay it to Eriol. It never ceased to amaze her how much of a wimp Syaoran was in front of the clan. She leaned on the wooden doors that led out of the room and drew her power signature with her staff and transported out of there, before the members of the clan got near to her.
In front of Eriol's mansion, two white gold tipped wings unfolded to reveal Ray. She climbed over the iron gates and walked to the front door. Not bothering to knock, she barged in and found the house quiet. She could hear the pounding to a basketball on the hard ground from outside meaning Nakura was at least there. She concentrated, listening for any sound. She could hear a low moan from the top of the stairs. She didn't bother walking up the stairs, that would alert whoever was up there of her presence. If she was right on what was happening up there, she was going to embrass them real good. She floated up the stairs and towards the direction of the sound. The sound was coming from inside the bedroom. She slyly grinned and let herself in. She was disappointed in what she saw. They weren't doing what she thought they were. Eriol was giving Kaho a back rub. Oh well, she could do what she wanted to do anyway.
Ray made herself uninvisable and stood in front of the door, arms crossed.
"Am I interrupting anything."
Kaho sat up with a start, startled. She self-consciously pulled her shirt down and re-snapped her bra. Eriol wasn't too surprised to see her. She always showed up at the oddest times.
"Didn't ya ever think about knocking," Kaho grumbled.
"And what would be the fun in that," Ray said grinning.
Kaho said something under her breath and stood up and straightened her clothes. "You always have to pop in at the most inconvenient moments," she whined.
Ray just ignored her and said," Eriol, I need to talk to you."
Eriol made a motion for Kaho to leave the room and Ray flopped down on the bed.
"Why does she hate me so much?" she asked, after Kaho left the room, pouting.
"Because you're competition for my attention."
"O"
"Anyway you're not exactly nice to her are you. So what did you want to see me for."
"I have news. Almost the whole Li clan is coming here to Tomeda to try to get the cards. They are bringing so many people because of the combined forces of Sakura and you and also," Ray made quote marks with her hands," the tiger."
"I see, so what's the problem."
"Duh, the entire clan is coming. Sakura and her guardians and you guys could handle a few of them but not almost 70 of them. Sakura's isn't going to be able to handle them, especially if she doesn't know about it."
"So make her know."
"What do you mean."
"Let's just say if someone finds out what is happening in one of the most powerful mysterious groups and it gets leaked out to the press…you get the idea."
"Yeah..I have a question. Why didn't you want me fighting Wayne. We all know that I could have took him," Ray said, cracking her knuckles for empathize.
"I know you can, but let's face it. When you start something you have to finish it and if you hit him, he would have ended in the hospital in critical condition, not that would be a mad thing "Eriol smiled. "By the way, don't show off your skills so much in gym class. You stand out."
"Why shouldn't I? You have to admit, you wanted to see Wayne go down just as much as I did."
"Yeah, I did," Eriol admitted.
Ray stood up from the bed and walked out of the room. She had work to do.
Sakura stumbled up to her bedroom half- asleep. She had gotten back from ice-skating and it was around 11:00 at night. She turned on the TV and slipped out of her clothes into her pink satin pjs. She moved around quietly as to not wake Kero and slipped in under the covers. She had almost nodded off when she realized she had forgotten to turn off the TV. She stumbled out of bed and was about to turn off the tv when something the reporter said caught her attention.
"Today, a reliable source informed us that the infamous Li clan is coming here to our town for some business. The Li clan is based in Hong Kong and is one of the powerful and mysterious clans in the world."
The reporter droned on but Sakura wasn't listening. She turned off the TV and sat under the pink covers on her bed. She thought that it was all over with the Li clan. She thought that night was the last of ever seeing Syaoran. She hoped with all her heart that Syaoran was coming to apologize for the pain he put her through, but she knew it wasn't. They wanted the cards. She rolled onto her stomach and fell into a deep troubled sleep.
She was walking through the halls of the school. She was looking for an answer that she seeked, She walked into the classroom and saw her clone sittimg in a school uniform on the desk, obviously waiting for her. Her gray eyes skirted around the room, finally focusing on Sakura.
Sakura walked over to her and stood next to the desk that her clone had her feet on.
"Syaoran's back," Sakura said simply.
"I know."
There was a moment of silence before her dark eyed clone spoke," You honestly thought you would never see him again."
"Well I thought…"
"You thought wrong. You have to be ready for anything. They are going to send everything they have againest you. They will do anything to get the cards."
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see," she said smiling. " Besides you want to see him again."
"I do not."
Ray raised one eyebrow.
"Ok, ok, I do, but not because I like him or anything. I want to hear him apologize for that night and anyway I kind love someone else."
Ray gave a knowing grin and vanished and Sakura woke up.
Lerae was mad. Somone had leaked the plan of attack to the press and by now Sakura proberly knew they were coming for her. But, she had no control over what happened from now on.
"Plane 80 is leaving in five minutes. I repeat plane 80 is boarding right now."
"There's our plane," she said to Syaoran who was behind her. It was the plane that was taking the most of the clan to Tomeda. Some were staying behind in case of some acccident happening there. Lerae put Meilin and Syaoran in front of her and they walked towards the boarding area.