Story Key:
" " = Speech
' ' = Thoughts
* * = Noise/Sounds
italics = Big Scene change/Notations A/N = Author's Note A King and a Card mistress >> Explanations

Sakura sat Syaoran down. "I will tell you everything... Why I kept myself a secret, why I did the change to the girl, etc. But first..." she turned to Syaoran, face to face. And slapped him hard. In shock that his cherry blossom would ever hit him, he put his hand to his face, feeling the burn. "What took you so long to figure me out? It wasn't exactly like I was hiding my aura!" she yelled. "Boys..." she muttered after. Then she took a cold tissue and held it to his face. "Gomen-nasai, Xiao Ling," she apologized.

"That's okay. Just don't ever do that again. And call me Syaoran, I prefer it when you use my Japanese name."

"Hai." Sakura began to explain.

"I was in Japan when it happened. There was a king from China," she look at Syaoran, "whom apparently, was going to take over Japan and China. Quite a task. He needed more slaves, so that it would be an example to those who didn't like his ways would be captured and sent to work for him. He-" Syaoran stood up, outraged.

"I have said no such thing! So I wanted to rule China and Japan, but from the sound of it, it sounds like I'm trying to start a war here!" Sakura shrugged.

"My father-you know him, right Syaoran?" Syaoran nodded. "He told me all about it; it was in the newspaper. Anyway, he didn't think that what you were doing was right, but he didn't want to stand up; he knew that if he did, there might be a struggle, and that would make one more annoyance in your head and make some severe punishment for us. But one day, you pushed too far with the rules and he-" Syaoran sat back down, looking hurt.

"I-I would never order anybody to do that." he whispered. Sakura looked away, tears forming in her eyes.

"Otousan..."

Syaoran thought miserably, 'It must have been Mr. Wong. He hated the Japanese, and he was very war-strong. I don't even know why he was hired.'

Sakura pushed the tears away and continued the story. "Onii-san and I were left. Otousan told me all about what was going on. I was frightened. The more I learned, the more I got scared. But he comforted me by telling that he'd always be there, that he'd always watch over me. But one day, when I was walking home from school, a big man appeared in front of me. I knew that he worked for you, Syaoran. So I had to run. Run far, far away. He chased me so fast, I couldn't lose him. I couldn't go back home or he'd wait there, knowing where I live and even go after Onii-san if he came out. I ran into the dark alleys, and I was so scared, Syaoran... so scared... And there was so much kodoku..." Syaoran put his arms around her.

"It's okay now, Sakura-chan. You're here with me now."

"Eventually, he caught up with me. I managed to escape, but there were others now looking for me. They caught me and I was brought to you. From what I knew, you were a terrible king that would most likely kill me for being Japanese (A/N: Gomen-nasai! I'm really sorry if that sounded racist, I just wanted to make it sound like Sakura was really afraid of the king... And I know that that really happened when the WWii was going on... Gomen-nasai again!!!) and kill my family if you knew my real last name-Kinomoto. So I made up another name. Tomahura Suzuhara. Pretty silly name, wasn't it?"

"Iie! I was fooled by it the whole time!" Sakura smiled.

"Arigato. I don't know why I chose 'Tomi-chan' but after a while, I got kind of attached to it... I had planned on escaping, but after I was moved up the being a maid, I saw some of the other part of the 'King'. I saw what happened with you and Meiling-are you still engaged to her?" Syaoran nodded.

"Years after I came back home, my family and her's decided to re-call the engagement. I don't know why, though. I was being nice to her because I felt lonely with no friends, but that doesn't mean that I want to marry her!"

Sakura giggled until Syaoran gave her one of his 'stares'. He didn't think it was that funny.

"Anyway, I saw an argument between you two and after Meiling left, you seemed pretty down. I wanted to cheer you up. I had just found out that Cerberus and Yue were so kind to watch over me! Kero-chan had flown in and left a note with my staff and cards that I left at home. I didn't have time to retrieve them before being brought to you." Syaoran felt a pang of guilt. "Once I got them, Kero-chan left a couple more notes. He didn't want anyone to discover the notes, so he called me the 'powered one' because of my magic. Kero-chan thought it would be best if he and Yue stay hidden in the trees, so they did, thought they worried a lot. With my staff and cards, I decided to use them. For you. You, who seemed to disappear into a depressing world after a talk with Meiling. I felt much sympathy for you. I designed a dress in my head and on the night of the ball Meiling held, I appeared at the ball for a little while just to make you think that it wasn't me, just in case. After I made a small entrance at the ball, I snuck out and used the change card. It transformed me. I then snuck out to the garden and used the voice card to help me with the background music, but the singing was mine." Syaoran was impressed that Sakura could sing like an angel.

"I was so pleased that you enjoyed me, but I learned that the King I served was actually Syaoran Li. I was in so much shock!" Sakura said, whacking Syaoran slightly.

"In case you are wondering about appearances, I tried to use the Illusion Card from afar-Kero was teaching me how, but I got whisked away before he could finish teaching me how to use the Cards without them actually being there." Syaoran felt guilty once again. "I tried using it in the truck, and succeed-I think. I didn't have a mirror, but I could feel the Illusion's aura against my skin. I was trying to make my hair black or at least deep brown and turned out to be a patchy auburn colour. I tried to make my green eyes brown as well, as to make them not so outstanding, but I didn't quite succeed. They went murky green-yuck." Sakura made a face.

"I was planning to escape as soon as possible. But after I got to know you a bit better, I wanted to leave only when you were happy. Even when- even when I didn't know that you were not only King Li of the Li clan, but the Syaoran Li, my little wolf, that had left me with a broken heart so many years ago." The last line was softly said. Syaoran looked startled.

"Sakura-chan... left you? I-I thought that you did not love me; you did not reply me ever. I left you my phone number, my house address, my email, even my fax, everything! And I-I-I even got this." He pulled out a small box (remember? From chapter 2^^). He slowly opened it. It contained a fragile silver necklace with a shiny diamond wing pendant. He held it up to Sakura's neck.

"How does it look? I saved up and bought it, hoping that you'd come back to me someday. Do you like it?"

Sakura, full of joy and shock, sat there, speechless.

"Oh... Syaoran-kun! It's so beautiful! But why? I mean, you didn't even know-How did you save so much money?!" Syaoran smiled with pleasure that the card mistress liked his gift.

"On the back, I had it engraved."

To: Sakura Kinomoto, my love,

Love: Syaoran Li

Sakura turned so that she was shielded from his gaze. Her eyes filled with tears again. "Syaoran-kun...? I-I thought that... By that time, I finally knew that I loved you the most! ...But. I figured that it was too late to tell you. That you'd reject me because of all that time I made you wait for my answer, be it good or bad. I especially didn't want to tell you in letter or phone call. It would definitely be too late then, and even if you did still love me, we would beable to do nothing about it! And I felt that they were much too impersonal... Syaoran-kun, I'm so sorry..." she trailed off.

"Sakura-chan... You know that I'd never... never not love you anymore just because you replied too long! I would have been so happy and I would buy airline tickets to Japan to see you!" Suddenly, Sakura's silent tears burst out. She was definitely crying. She jumped into his arms.

"Aishiteru, Syaoran! I love you so much!" Syaoran hugged her back. A tear of happiness trickled out.

"Aishiteru, Sakura-chan..."

{End of Story and Chapter 10} *sniffles* that was a good ending, wasn't it? I hope so. I worked on getting it the right way for so long @.@... And I hope that all of your questions about this are answered. So, now that it's the end, I've decided that if I get at least 45 reviews, I'll probably make a sequel. Fair? Right now, I've got about 33. So hope you liked this fict, please review! Arigato!