Entering Eternity

Time: 12 yrs post Xiaolang's leaving according to the manga, go figure

Disclaimer: CCS will never ever belong to me as much as I dream of it.   

I am fully aware that I am not a great writer but hey, knowing that at least one person is reading your story is comforting enough. :D Hopefully, more readers will be attracted. Haha, right, on to the story and thanks to JediClare for helping me beta the story, I am astounded that my English could be so lousy...

Chapter three: Confrontations

The late bell clanged rudely at all latecomers, warning them that classes had already started. Sakura and Xiaolang had long since beaten the bell by sprinting all the way to school. Xiaolang was naturally the winner, given his head start and his "failure to inform" Sakura, as she so kindly termed it.

They had both strolled hand-in-hand to their favourite seats at the back of the lecture room. As they waited for the arrival of their professor, they greeted the classmates who, not giving a damn that the bell had already sounded, were still sauntering into the room.

Suddenly, the door banged wide open and a pack of girls entered the theatre giggling loudly and uncouthly, attracting the attention of all the students in the room who were busy preparing for the lecture. They were wearing loud harsh colours with pink being the dominant colour and shades, even though the room was not glaringly bright. Their hair had been bleached and dyed so many times that most of them had weird streaks of colours popping up from beneath the wild mess of curls dyed in the different shades of the rainbow which they apparently thought made them look "cool".

Sakura tried hard to stifle her giggle at their new look. Instead of looking "cool", all they had achieved with their new hair job was to look like clowns with their rainbow-coloured hair and garish make-up. She caught the eye of the leader of the girl-pack, a rather overwhelmingly over-confident woman who always got on her nerves with the way she flirted shamelessly with just about everyone.

Louella had always insisted that she was a pure Caucasian but there were just those subtle clues that she had unknowingly dropped to suggest otherwise. Even though she had been born outside Japan, she still had Japanese blood in her. Her natural hair colour had been black from elementary school but years of bleaching had finally allowed her to achieve the ideal hair colouring that she had longed for many years.

She had always lusted after Xiaolang and did not bother to keep it a secret that she was eyeing a married man. Everyone but Sakura and company on campus was used to her flirtatious ways and did not bother to take much notice of her or rather they had learned to tune out her high-pitched voice with the much-affected accent.

Louella made direct eye contact with Sakura, challenging her, daring her to fight over Xiaolang. Sakura calmly received the unimportant challenge and dismissed it with a toss of her head. But Louella was not so easily intimidated. She had tried for many years to get Xiaolang and she was not going to admit defeat to a pathetic little loser who claimed to be his wife with just the signing of a few papers. Sensing that she no longer had the class' and Sakura's attention, Louella flicked her hair behind her shoulders in what she considered to be a sexy move and sashayed over to the row directly in front of the professor's table. She made herself comfortable on the seat right smack in the middle of the row and carried on with the loud and raucous conversation with her endless stream of followers, punctuated frequently by their trademark giggling.

Sakura sighed inwardly; she had always detested those kinds of confrontations with Louella. It had always seem that just when she was on the verge of blowing up, Louella would back down immediately though not without dissatisfaction showing in her eyes which were a pale icy blue, the effects of contact lenses. It made Sakura feel so weak and useless to defend herself and her family. She did not want to bear the pain of losing a loved one anymore. She moved unconsciously towards Xiaolang for warmth and comfort, but when she did not receive any, she became aware that something was wrong with him. His eyes were half glazed over, his head was held rigidly at an awkward angle and his hands were pressed painfully hard on the armrests of the chair, with a vice-like grip on the handles.

Xiaolang? She called out desperately through their bond, only to find it painfully blocked on his side. Sakura started to panic terribly; he had never drifted away like that or even shielded his mind so strongly that she recoiled from the impact of trying to break through. She lifted her hand up high and brought it down with a resounding slap on his cheek that echoed around the room. People dropped what ever they were doing and turned around to stare at them. Louella had a triumphant grin on her face as though Sakura and Xiaolang had just fought.

Sakura looked around sheepishly, holding Xiaolang, who had woken up from his reverie, close to her. She grinned apologetically, murmuring a lame excuse about a fly landing on his face. All the drama stirred up by the slap dissipated in a moment and soon the room returned to its usual noiselessness of pages flipping wildly.

Xiaolang are you fine? Why did you suddenly blank out like that? Her eyes full of fear were scanning his face frantically, trying to look for signs that would betray his condition.

I'm fine really. I just got too caught up in my own thoughts. You don't have to worry about me 24/7.

Sakura looked at him sceptically and decided to accept that lame excuse for the time being. She did not want to make another commotion in the class and risk the attention.

Thank goodness Tomoyo and Eriol are not in our class. Who knows what they might have thought of that slap, or yet another confrontation with Louella.

Xiaolang chuckled at that thought. It had taken him many years of persuasion, many talks and much evidence that Tomoyo and Eriol were indeed in cahoots to embarrass them at any chance they could get and in their own words, "foster a stronger bond between the both of you."

Bah. Strong bond my foot. Our bond is stronger than they realise.

He felt Sakura admonish him gently for thinking that way about her "uncle" and best friend.

Okay, so maybe I just need to persuade you a little bit more to get you to see my point that both of them are evil.

Xiaolang was saved from another whack from Sakura by the timely entrance of the already quite late professor.

You haven't heard the last of this issue yet, my darling. Her eyes glinted mischievously as she thought of the different ways to punish him.

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After school ended, the two of them met up with Tomoyo at the front gate, their dispute earlier that day forgotten. To their immense surprise and delight of a certain somebody, Eriol was not there to torture them. Tomoyo was frantic with worry for him and was muttering threats to disembowel him, gorge his eyes out, and then use his bones to make her bread.

The three of them walked out of school in a depressing silence broken occasionally by Tomoyo's frenzied threats as they headed for Tomoyo and Eriol's mansion for lunch as per normal. It was made even more insufferable as Sakura and Xiaolang dared not cough in order not to aggravate Tomoyo, who was nearly half-mad with worry.

Xiaolang had once remarked that even though Eriol was technically many years their elder, it was amazing how Tomoyo treats him like a five-year old child, fussing unnecessarily without thought to the fact that he actually possessed magic and was more than able to look after himself.

Sakura smiled inwardly at the thought. Xiaolang had paid an embarrassing price when Eriol had "accidentally" fed him something that shrank him to infantile size, but with the mentality of an 18-year-old teenager, leaving him totally dependent on Sakura for everything. Luckily for him, his bond with Sakura remained intact, which allowed him to communicate with her in proper human language whenever he needed anything, which was practically every five minutes. Sakura, as a punishment for Eriol, had made him change Xiaolang's diapers whenever the latter soiled them. Eriol had not argued with Sakura, he dared not to. After all, anyone who trifles with the most powerful sorceress of all time when she is placid is bound to come away with at least some major injury, not to mention when she is angry. Xiaolang would deny it with his dying breath but Sakura knew that Xiaolang had rather enjoyed being fussed over by Sakura. He had been quite upset when the spell wore off in a day's time.

They had finally reached the mansion and Sakura, seeing how distressed Tomoyo was, gently took the keys out of her shaking hands and opened the door calmly. She had not expected to see Eriol as large as life seated in the living room sipping tea and watching television as though his disappearance the entire morning was something that occurred everyday.

All three stood in the doorway like deer caught in headlights with mouths gaping like goldfishes and each trying to gather their thoughts together to form a cohesive sentence. They were all unable to get further than, "what..."

Eriol was amused by the impact his sudden appearance had on them to render them speechless. It was such an once-in-a-lifetime moment and he heartily wished for one of Tomoyo's cameras to take a photo of their hilarious faces with mouths opening and closing without any audible sound. He broke the silence, pronouncing, " If the three of you are done gaping at me as though I have just sprouted another head and three pairs of arms and grown all hairy like an ape, lunch is quite ready in the dinning room for us to appreciate."

Tomoyo was fuming mad, how could he make her so worried over nothing? She stalked towards him, eyes blazing with fury and stopped just directly beneath his nose. He turned his sapphire eyes to focus on her and nearly gulped at all the negative feelings directed to him. Abruptly, she grabbed hold of his ear and hissed loudly into it, "You will never do such a thing and make me worry to death again. Do you hear me, Eriol Hiiragizawa? Do your marvellous disappearing act again and you may never live to see light, understood?"

Eriol could only nod meekly in response to Tomoyo's unleashed anger. Sakura and Xiaolang stood at the side and only their emotional eyes revealed the amusement they felt at seeing the great reincarnation of the all time powerful Clow Reed subdued by the immense fury of one woman.

Ah well, it is just like what Rudyard Kipling said: "the female of the species is more deadly than the male."

Xiaolang had a hint of a smile hovering about his lips and his amber eyes twinkled with merriment. He felt a ghostly smack on the head and turned rather indignantly to face Sakura with a child-like pout What? He asked in an innocent tone.

Much too innocent, I must say, added Sakura dryly, Don't try to act all cuddly with me, Li Xiaolang. You know all too well what that smack was for, and there are many more where that came from.

Xiaolang grinned in spite of all the commotion erupting around him. Tomoyo was still screaming her head off about what she would do if Eriol actually dared to make her worry like that again. To make matters worse, Nakuru had reached home from wherever she was and after noticing that an argument was ongoing, took Tomoyo's side and started admonishing Eriol. Eriol who had remained silent during his wife's outburst started shouting at Nakuru about taking sides and not helping her master, which provoked Tomoyo even more and started a whole chain reaction. Supi-chan, meanwhile, was hovering near the chandelier with huge wads of cotton wool in his oversized cat ears, one eye out for any incoming trouble for him with the other focused on an ancient-looking book with scribbles all over the front.

Feminist, Li Xiaoying.

Well, then you are such a male chauvinist pig. By the way, have I told you recently how cute you look when you grin? You really should do it more often. A slightest tinge of red covered her smooth porcelain cheeks.

Xiaolang only responded by widening his roughish grin and suggesting that Sakura get all of them to sit down for lunch peacefully before they start using physical violence. She agreed to his suggestions and tried to get their attention by clearing her throat loudly.

Nothing happened.

She cleared her throat again – only this time was louder.

Still, nothing happened.

I'm going to get a sore throat soon if they don't pay much attention to me. She thought wryly.

Giving up trying to attract their attention with her vocals, Sakura stalked into the kitchen angrily, grabbed a bucket full of ice from the refrigerator and promptly poured its contents all over the three of them in the living room.

Tomoyo, Eriol and Nakuru stopped their arguing and turned around to stare at Sakura in astonishment, who was staring back at them with sparks almost flying out of her eyes. In a desperate bid to better the situation, Xiaolang cleared his throat and extended a finger towards the dinning room to indicate that they should probably start lunching. The three of them gained enlightenment and with furtive glares at each other headed towards the room with Sakura and Xiaolang herding them up.

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They had left immediately after lunch, not wanting to get caught up in domestic matters. Tomoyo had been shooting Eriol dirty looks throughout the meal and the tension had been high. Sakura and Xiaolang had gulped down the meal, having sensed that Tomoyo desperately wanted time to talk to Eriol, thanked their hosts for it, dragged Kero away from the deserts and were on their way home in just a matter of minutes.

Kero had been jubilantly munching on sweets the whole day. He had been over to play computer games with Supi the day before and had stayed overnight in a bid to break his personal record at "Angelic Layer". He had managed to get both him and Supi high on sweets and was currently snoozing soundly in Sakura's bag while she and Xiaolang sauntered home.

The both of them usually took the few minutes' walk from Tomoyo and Eriol's home to theirs to find their centre of calmness. Their hands barely touched and each was lost in their own sea of thoughts, yet they could clearly feel the presence of the other. Usually, they would lift up whatever mental shields they had erected during the course of the day to allow their thoughts to flow freely and allow the other to know about what big issues they were pondering over. However, on this day, Sakura could sense that Xiaolang was hiding something from her. His shields were down partially, only allowing her to skim the surface of his thoughts, no more. She did not press him, as it would only aggravate him. She knew that he would tell her eventually what he was pondering about.

She turned her head to study his profile. Sakura just loved it when he was so deep in thought and intense over something, like homework or when he was practicing a new skill or spell; it served to make him glow with life. His face would hold that probing look while he fought with the problem, be it mathematics or magic.

Sakura moved closer to him and briefly caressed him on the cheek, jerking him out of his deep thoughts.

Penny for your thoughts?

It's... it's nothing. I promised I would tell you later. You just have to wait.

He absently tapped her on the nose, knowing full well that patience was not one of her better virtues. Sakura realised with a start that he was looking rather weary all of a sudden. She plastered a bright smile on her face and walked home silently with him while he held her close, worry running wild through both of them.

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