Disclaimer: I don't own any ccs characters. :( They all belong to CLAMP.
a/n: boy was I evil or what? Anyway, sorry for the two week gap...i was on spring break and now i'm wrapped up in studying for various tests...>_
Sonomi looked around. The scream and the gunshot had come from where the children were! It seemed like most of the other guests couldn't figure it out, which was just as well. She rushed into the servant's wing. A dozen and a half terrified thoughts presented themselves. Immediately banished because they were too terrible to possible true, or at least, that's what she hoped.
Tomoyo had turned around to see a wild eyed Spiral coming at her with a knife. She screamed and then she heard gunfire and a bug thud. Eriol had fired his gun, but the wound to Spiral was only superficial, he, like Tomoyo, had no desire to kill.
Spiral looked down at his leg. He touched the blood pouring from it in wonder. Why had Eli not killed him?
Sonomi came into the hallway and gasped. Her daughter was standing, frozen like a statue, her son-in-law was calmly holding a gun at a beggar. The beggar was sitting on the floor, his pupil's dilated and a knife at his side, blood on his leg. What was going on? How did Tomoyo and Eriol get mixed up in a situation like this?
Spiral looked up. He had lost his will to live. The gun shot. Phoenix. Eli. They didn't kill him, but they didn't want him. "Why didn't you kill me?" he asked to no one in particular. It was al he could think about. Boom. Phoenix. Eli. Boom Phoenix Eli Boomphoenixeli phoenixeli phoenixeli...
"We don't want to kill anyone, Sprial," Tomoyo answered gently in a tone that conveyed more distaste than sorrow. "I didn't want anyone to get hurt. Not even if the person was you."
"You should have just left well enough alone," Eriol added.
Sprial seemed to contemplate that. His hand traveled along the floor to the knife. Eriol got ready to shoot again. He turned the knife around in his hand. "Why didn't you want me, Phoenix, why did you go with Eli?"
Tomoyo didn't answer. She just looked at him like he was some fantasmagorical figment of her imagination. Sonomi watched. The three of them seemed to know each other. What had the children gotten into??
Sprial saw that Phoenix wasn't going to answer. His last vestige of hope was swept away by the hard, disapproving look she gave him. He raised his knife and killed himself.
The sound of a knife sliding through ribs was one that Tomoyo hoped never to hear again, he had looked at her as he was dying. Despair, Depression, Sorrow, Shame, Disappointment. She would never be able to shake off the look on his face. She looked at Eriol, her breath coming in big gasps of relief. Eriol walked over to his wife and took her in his arms. Both of them sank to the floor and he cradled her in his arms like a baby as she sobbed dryly on his shoulder. Sonomi watched unable to utter a single word until Eriol spoke. "Someone, call the police or the medics or something."
The servants scrambled around to do what they were told and Sonomi demanded, "How did you....what did you....who was that?"
"Not now, please mother," Tomoyo pleaded with her mother, her voice muffled by Eriol's shirt.
The police arrived, startling all the guests, who all left at the request of the police, except for Harold and Edith. To the police, Eriol told a story different from the truth. "We like to help the poor people," he explained. "Apparently, this one was just ill or drunk, or both and thought my wife was someone else and attacked her, twice. He killed himself, I only shot at his leg. Neither of us wanted him dead..."
"That's enough, Mr. Hiragizawa, we'll take him away now," the sergeant said.
Sonomi waited until they were a good distance away from the police before she started. "That's not what it seemed like to me, Eriol. The three of you knew each other. You knew each other! I want to know the truth. How did you get messed up in such dangerous affairs?" She felt hurt that her children had kept a secret as dangerous as this one.
Eriol seemed to ignored the question. He carried Tomoyo into their room and got a bath ready for her. Sonomi went back down stairs to wait with Edith and Harold who were even more clueless that Sonomi. Tomoyo was in shock. She never realized that Spiral was so determined. She didn't want to see him killed. She hated killing people. Grateful that Eriol was so understanding, she allowed herself to be led around by him. She vaguely understood that now the truth would have to come out, but full realization didn't hit her until she was soaking in a tub full of hot water.
In the Underground, she had killed, but out of self defense and as a last resort. More frequently, she had hurt the person, just a nick to show them never to mess with Phoenix again.
When she came out, Eriol was waiting for her. He patted the spot on the bed next to him, motioning for her to come over. She sat. "Your mother-"
"Yes, I know, we should tell her."
"Our parents won't be happy."
There was a long quite. Just sitting together was comforting, and both of them reveled in the familiarity of the other's presence. "Melly might come up."
Eriol hadn't thought of that. That would really make their parents angry. And their parents might tell others. And that would just not be good. "May be we could swear them to silence over the matter."
"I don't think Underground tactics would work very well."
"We'll just ask them to be quiet about it."
They walked downstairs, hand in hand, to face their parents. Sonomi had told Edith and Harold about what had really happened. They were all experiencing different degrees of furiousness mixed with curiosity.
Eriol motioned with his free hand, "I think you'll need to sit down." Tomoyo agreed. "Hopefully, we won't shock you too much."
She started her story after their parents had made themselves comfortable. Her hand never left Eriol's.
"All right, out with it. What the hell was going on?" Sonomi demanded again.
Eriol calmly meet her flustered gaze. "That's what we're going to tell you now."
"Mother, do you remember when Daddy left?" Tomoyo started. "Do you remember how sad I was? And then you told me you had betrothed me to someone and I ran away, and I didn't come home until night. Do you remember?" Sonomi nodded. "Do you know where I went? I went to the parks district first. I wandered around and before I knew it, I was in the Underground." Seeing the protests bubbling up from her family, she said, "Let me finish. I was in the Underground. No one ever talked about the Underground at home, so naturally I was curious. I had a vague impression that it was dangerous, and that first time, I fled, because I was terrified."
"The Underground is so different that here," Tomoyo closed her eyes, remembering, "the people are so much more genuine. They worry about things that really matter. In the Elite, we worry about the reporters, our clothes, our hair, our makeup; in the Underground, those people are worried about finding food, shelter, things where making the wrong choice could very well cost them their life." She opened her eyes and looked right at her parents. "They were happy the way they were. I rarely met anyone who wasn't satisfied with his lot in life, even though they were in rags and more often than not, didn't have enough to eat or a place to sleep. They were happy."
"You weren't happy?" Sonomi accused.
Tomoyo shook her head. "But I went back. I wanted to know why they were happy and I wasn't. And each time I went back, I got to know more and more of the place. And then I found the Jester. A bar. I didn't drink anything, I was just curious. Do you want to know what I did in the Underground? I know you do, mother," she asked, almost challengingly.
She was right, they all wanted to know what she did.
"I was a spy. The first job I got was almost an accident. I had overheard two men wanting to find out more about...about...well, I can't remember what it was about, but the point is, I knew what they wanted. I went up to them and told them that I could find out what they wanted to know, for a price. They asked what price. I told them, but I was suspicious that they would try to cheat me. They swore their honesty. I said, 'If this isn't real, you know I'll have to come hurt you.' They laughed at first, but I had a knife on me and I slashed it across one guy's arm."
"Needless to say, they handed over the money easily and the bartender confirmed that it was real money. I told them what they wanted to know and that was the start of my career as Phoenix. I choose Phoenix because that's what I like to shift to. My reputation grew because I always made good on my promises. Always. And I was also dangerous to be around. I didn't like being lied to, so in those first few months, I made sure that I was serious about my work."
"Oh, I did other things too, legitimate things, like learning hand-to-hand combat, financing, so on and so forth. Mainly because I had to find a way to throw off the spies that you hired to follow me, Mother, and also because they were useful to me in my other life."
Tomoyo paused to catch her breath. She didn't want to know what her parents were thinking, not yet, so she didn't look at them directly. "Oddly enough, It was my ruthlessness that bought my ticket to life. There were more than a few times I would have possibly gotten killed, but I was such a valuable asset that just being Phoenix was my pass card. Anyway. I made millions of dollars. Millions. I made really valuable connections too. I have money in many different accounts under various names, which was really useful later." She stopped as if contemplating whether or not to go on, when in fact she was wondering what to say next.
"I meet Eriol there too." She stopped again. Looking at her in-laws and at her mother. Shock and disbelief was all she saw.
"Yes," Eriol picked up where Tomoyo had left off. "I went to the Underground too, out of curiosity. Two years after Tomoyo did, so I was seventeen then. I was just a nobody there. Eli was the name I used. Three years later, I meet Phoenix for the first time. I didn't go to often, so I hadn't really heard of her. It was at the Jester. She was drinking something. I thought it was alcohol, but it turned out to be root beer. She called me a fathead that first time I saw her." He grinned at that memory.
Tomoyo smiled a little too. "By that time, I had enough money to buy most of the planet if I really wanted to, but I invested some in root beer. You know how much I hate alcohol."
"There were people following Tomoyo. I had watched them leave every time she left and they were always there. I wanted to help her, but also wanted to see what she thought of me, so I decided that the best thing to do was just to sit tight and let her take care of herself. And then, she asked me to help her. I was absolutely delighted because I was madly in love with her." His next sentence was directed at his parents. "You might scoff at the idea of love, but...you shouldn't." He hugged Tomoyo around the shoulders with one arm.
"And I wasn't sure about my feelings for him, but something inside was pushing me to Eriol. I wanted to leave the Underground. I was getting tired of it, but I wanted to know what was going on. As a general rule, I never trusted anyone from the Underground, but I really, really wanted to trust Eli."
"I found out who was hiring the spies to follow Tomoyo."
"But I didn't really believe him, so I shifted into a mouse and hid in the bar until closing time. Eriol was right. The bartender, Spiral, the man that killed himself, was hiring spies to come after me. And he ordered them to kill Eriol if he got too close. I remember being so afraid. That was the first time, I realized that I did love him and I didn't want him to die. But I was so convinced that love didn't exist...That was the worst moment of my life, not discovering I was in love, but finding out that I was the reason people were after Eriol."
"Luckily, I had practice with guns, I always had one with me. One day, she told me to leave. I would have left, except that same day, they tried to kill us, so I shot at them. I killed one of the spies."
"They were really rotten at spying. Spiral obviously didn't have very much money," Tomoyo added. "That's why I got paid so much, because I actually was good at spying."
"We don't know what happened to the other spy though," Eriol said.
Edith was about to cut in when Eriol stopped her. "There's more, mother. After you told me I was getting married, I was a little depressed. I told Phoenix that I loved her and she surprised me and told me she loved me too. I wished she were an Elite. At that point, I had no clue that she was, and for the two weeks following, we meet in clandestine places in the Underground."
"Then at her party. That was when I realized that my wife-to-be and my Phoenix were one and the same. I was afraid, no, terrified, of getting married to a prissy stuck up woman, which was what I thought Tomoyo would be." Tomoyo leaned against Eriol. She had never heard this part of the story before. "The ice sculpture was a phoenix. Sometimes, when she was with Melly and Greta, I could see her real self shine through and I only suspected, at first, so I watched her very closely. Tomoyo Daidouji was Phoenix. I was in love with the woman I was going to marry. It was....it was..." he struggled for the right words, "beyond incredible, beyond euphoria, excitement to the infinite power..."
"He told me he knew who I was, two days before the wedding. He didn't tell me who he was though. I was completely devastated. Do you remember what I said, Eriol?" She looked up at him.
"Umm, I think you said that if you knew I was and Elite, we might have actually had a chance?" Eriol wasn't sure either. "But I remember saying to you that I would never be very far away."
"I puzzled over that statement, what he said to me. I clearly remember thinking you were insane for saying that. Until I realized that you were Eriol Hiragizawa, and you were mine." Her tone became reflective. "I didn't recognize you without glasses, and when I finally saw you, I didn't, I couldn't believe that it was Eli. My Eli. Remember that strange, well, it wasn't so strange, but that conversation between Eriol and me when we first met? He said I was the Phoenix girl and that was what started me thinking."
"But that's just details," Tomoyo continued. "I promised Eriol that I would never go back to the Underground. And I kept that promise until Melly came over."
"Did the two of you have something to do with Melly's disappearance?" Sonomi asked, unsure whether to be angry or happy.
Tomoyo grew defensive. "I couldn't let me best friend marry that...that...that..."
"Wife-beater?" Eriol supplied
"Yes! I couldn't let Melly marry that wife-beater. I showed her my other life, I took her to the Underground. I offered her a new life. A new identity on another planet. She would have more than enough money because I had so much saved away, I could give her more than enough to live comfortably and still have money left over to live ten times more extravagantly than Eriol and I do now."
"Melly took Tomoyo's offer. She's perfectly safe and happy," Eriol ended. "Except, Spiral found out about us. That was why we sent Jo to live with you for that one month."
"Spiral turned up tonight, and you know how this story ends." Tomoyo finished finally.
Eriol and Tomoyo watched their parents closely. They all seemed to be fighting an internal battle. Sonomi finally spoke. "I'm very disappointed that you chose to risk yourselves in such a manner, but what's done is done. We are going to keep this a secret between the five of us, no?"
They all nodded. Eriol looked at his parents. "Mother? Father? Are you angry?"
Harold shook his head, still stupendously flabbergasted. Edith answered, "As long as you're happy I guess."
Eriol frowned. "You're all just confused aren't you?"
"I'm tired, Eriol. Let's go to bed." Tomoyo said, she didn't want to face her parents anymore.
"We'll leave," Edith and Sonomi said at the same time.
Tomoyo didn't go directly to bed. She went to see her daughter, who was asleep and had not woken up at the sound of screams and gunshots. She would not know about what happened that night. Jo looked to peaceful, sprawled out in her little bed, her leg sticking out from under the blankets and her hands curled up into fists at her head. Tomoyo brushed curls away from her little face, wishing that she could be like Josie, so innocent and free.
Eriol walked in quietly. "Tomoyo," he whispered. "What do you think?" he asked.
She knew what he meant. How did she think their parents took their story. She shrugged. "Isn't she beautiful, Eriol? Isn't she perfect, such a beautiful little princess."
He stood by Tomoyo. "Yes."
"I don't understand, Eriol, I don't understand," she whispered, her voice husky.
Eriol didn't answer right away, not immediately understanding what Tomoyo was talking about. A tear rolled down her cheek. A single tear, down her pearly cheek. Then he knew. Eriol kissed the tear away. "I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it's because it happened in a place we never expected."
"Maybe," she spoke, not quite meeting his steady gaze. "This...this would never have made me so if it had happened in the Underground."
"But it happens all the time there, baby."
"I know..." She suddenly heaved a heavy sigh, as if she were going to say something, but then decided against it.
"Yes?" He pressed his forehead against hers.
Tomoyo smiled a little bit and closed the little space there was between their mouths. Tomoyo got up so suddenly that Jo woke up. She turned a little to see what had woken her up. Her parents were kissing. Jo knew better than to disturb her parents when they were getting close to each other, so she turned over and went back to sleep.
Eriol choose to let Tomoyo sleep in. She seemed to be more shaken by last night's events than he was and he was so scared that his arms and legs might have turned into jelly if he wasn't busy worrying for the safety of his family and guests.
The news reels the next day were interesting. Tomoyo knew there'd be a little piece on her husband's birthday, but what she wasn't expecting was a headline about the suicide in their house. Eriol had chosen not to look at the news until after he had finished eating breakfast, so he didn't read the article until later. What he read surprised him.
The reporter had made up facts and completely stretched the story out of proportion. It was insanity. Almost none of the facts were true. Yes, Spiral did kill himself....that was the only truth in the whole article. Reporters. Now he knew why Tomoyo hated them so.
Speaking of Tomoyo, he wanted to go buy her one of those cakes with fruit toppings she like so much, to celebrate her condition. They didn't get a chance to last night.
It was as if an invisible wall had suddenly sprung up. Sonomi wasn't sure how to act around Tomoyo, Tomoyo wasn't sure how to act around Sonomi. Eriol's parents pretended nothing had happened, but Sonomi felt like she didn't know her daughter anymore. Tomoyo found, though, that as her pregnancy progressed, as it became more apparent, the barrier between her mother and herself vanished away.
Her new baby was another girl. They named her Melly, after, who else but Melly? Jo was fascinated with her new sister and abandoned all her dolls in favor of this new little doll that actually needed to be feed, changed and put to sleep. Little Melly came to view Jo as a second Mother, even though they were only three and a half years apart, and when she could crawl and walk, would follow Jo every where. Tomoyo often wondered if this was healthy behavior, but Eriol just laughed and said it was cute.
When Melly was five, Tomoyo had another child, this one was a boy they named Eli. When he was two, Tomoyo had another baby, a girl again, named Devonny. Eli was fiercely protective of his little sister. Devonny, unlike her two older siblings, was timid and shy. She was more inclined to stay home and sew than to go out and play tag and she allowed herself to be lorded over by her brother. Tomoyo also wondered if this was normal, and once again, Eriol laughed and told her not to worry too much about it.
So as the sun sets on this story of ours, let us live content that the Prince and the Princess, safe in their castle on the hill, but not disillusioned to the real people, lived out their lived in splendor, always surrounded by their children and their children's children and other's they loved. Live your life to the fullest, don't doubt your heart and you too, will find your Prince and your castle on a hill.