Tomoyo greeted Sakura at the door. She smiled at her friend.

"Hi, Sakura-chan. Did you come so I could take some new measurements?" She asked.

"Yes," Sakura replied, "and I have to a lot to tell you." As they went up to Tomoyo's room, Sakura told all about seeing Elainu do the water chamber escape, and Tomoyo hung on every word. She secretly was hoping that Sakura would get a chance to do something in the show, some magic trick of her own, but even though Sakura hadn't told her what she intended to do all this talk about the show only fueled her hopes.

"It only took her how long to get out of the tank?" Tomoyo asked as she opened her bedroom door.

"About 30 seconds," Sakura told her, "or that's what Joushin said. I thought it took longer than that, but I guess there has to be time to get into the secret costume. But Elainu said when she does the escape in the show, she goes out and hides in the audience."

"It may not be real magic, like the cards are," Tomoyo said as she got out her tape measure, "But it's still really exciting. Come here, and let me get the measurements." Sakura took off her book bag, sat it on the ground and walked over to where Tomoyo was waiting next to the window.

"How tall am I now, do you think?" Sakura asked. Tomoyo let one end of the tape hit the floor as she held up the other end to Sakura's forehead.

"134 centimeters," Tomoyo told her, "you've grown a few inches." Tomoyo then stepped behind Sakura and told her to hold her arms out to her sides. She reached around Sakura's waist with the tape measure, reading the size to herself, but she held the tape there for a few seconds. She so much loved making these costumes for Sakura that she never wanted to stop doing it. She reached around again to get a measurement or Sakura's hips, just to be on the safe side, since it wouldn't be good if it turned out her hips were larger than her waist. Tomoyo gave Sakura a quick hug while she was at it.

"Um," Sakura said, letting her arms down and sighing at the same time, "Joushin said the colors have to be light blue, red and black. He said the design could be anything, as long as I could move around ok."

"I can do that. I already have a costume with those colors. I just need to alter it a little." Sakura went to pick up her book bag, to get it off the floor, but as she picked it up, the handcuffs that Elainu had loaned her fell out and hit the floor. The sound of them caught Tomoyo's attention, and she bent down to pick them up.

"What are these for?" She asked as she looked at them with curiosity on her face.

"Um," Sakura started to say. She had hoped to surprise Tomoyo with this news, but she had wanted to practice a lot before letting anyone know. "I got those from Elainu. I'm going to practice unlocking them while I'm cuffed behind my back."

"What?" Tomoyo asked, "why?"

"Well," Sakura was sweating a little. She had might as well tell her. "Promise not to tell anyone?" Tomoyo nodded.

"I'm learning how to do the Water Escape."

Tomoyo was silent as she lowered her hand and the cuffs. It took a few seconds, but the news finally sunk in, and Tomoyo smiled. Sakura was going to try to do something special in the show, but.

"But, aren't you afraid?" She asked.

"Well," Sakura told her, "I haven't exactly decided I'm going to do the escape, but I at least want to learn how. That's why I have these. I have to learn to get out of those while my hands are cuffed behind me."

"Oooo," Tomoyo said to her. "Can I help you practice?"

Sakura thought about and realized she probably would need help with it at first. What if she lost the key? Or dropped it? It would be nice to have a friend to help if something went wrong.

"Sure. I was going to wait till I got home, but now is good. I've been so excited." In fact, both of them were so excited that they immediately went over to the sofa and sat on the edge of the cushions. Tomoyo looked at the cuffs for second, frowning.

"How do they work?"

"You just put the ends around my wrists and squeeze them till they lock."

"But what if I make them too tight?" Tomoyo was worried about that. She didn't want to hurt her friend.

"You wont," Sakura told her as she turned around and put her hands behind her, "I trust you." The situation felt altogether different with Tomoyo than it had with Elainu that first time. Sakura figured that since it was Tomoyo, she didn't have to worry at all.

"OK," Tomoyo said, "here goes." She put one cuff on at a time, and slowly clicked them into place as snug as she dared. Sakura pulled on them to see if they were on good, but then she realized she had forgotten where she put the key! She turned back to her friend with a slight look of panic in her eyes.

"Tomoyo," she whispered, "I don't remember where I put the key."

"Isn't there a trick to getting them off?"

"No, they're real. There's no trick. I have to unlock them off with a key." Sakura looked at her book bag. She knew she had the key, and that she put it somewhere in her book bag, she didn't remember where or inside what. "It's in my book bag."

"Don't worry, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said, "I'll find it for you." Tomoyo went to where the bag still lay and carried it back to the sofa. She started looking through everything in it, but she didn't see a key. She pulled each book out, each notebook, her pencil case, and tipped the bag up so that anything in it would fall out, but no luck.

"Oh, no," Sakura said, "I was sure I put it in there." Sakura got up awkwardly and walked over to where the bag had been laying, and Tomoyo started putting the books back in the bag. But as she picked up the math book, the key fell out of it, hitting the carpet silently. Tomoyo looked at it as it rested on the floor, and a sudden devilish streak hit her. She picked it up quickly and put it in her pocket. Sakura was struggling to get down on her knees so that she could look around the floor closer. Tomoyo didn't know what came over her, but she just had to play a prank on her friend. She never did anything like that. Usually she was nice and never played tricks or anything like that. But she couldn't resist this once. After all, when was the last time she had Sakura stuck like this. She went over to her trapped friend and got to her knees to help 'look' for the key.

"What am I going to do, Tomoyo?" Sakura said, looking around as best she could with her hands cuffed behind her. She was a little more than worried now, and her eyes were all over the place, trying desperately to see any nook or cranny that the key could have fallen into. Tomoyo did her best not to giggle. Watching Sakura like this was entertaining. But she also felt a little bad about what she was doing. She started to reach in her pocket when the door in the other room opened and Arisu, the upstairs maid, came in.

"Hoe?" Sakura said, "oh no! Tomoyo, what do I do?"

Tomoyo reacted quickly, helping Sakura get up and sit on the couch. She pushed her all the way back, so that her hands couldn't be seen, and then sat on the couch herself.

"Tomoyo-sama," Arisu called out, "would you and Sakura-chan like some tea?" Arisu came into the room with a cart and tea set.

"Yes," Tomoyo said, trying to act as natural as she could, "could you leave the." But Arisu had already poured a cup and was motioning towards Sakura.

"Would you like sugar or cream, Sakura-chan?" Arisu asked. Sakura was sweating big time.

"No, um, no," she stuttered. "N-not right now, but thanks." She giggled nervously and tried to grin and act like nothing was wrong, but the fact that she was practically sitting on her hands didn't make it any better. And worse than that, her wrists were starting to hurt.

"I'll have some now, please, Arisu," Tomoyo cried, "Sakura was going to go to the bathroom in a minute anyway." Tomoyo mentally yelled at herself for saying something so stupid. Why would she be waiting to go to the bathroom? "There was someone in there a while ago."

Nice save, Sakura thought. She stared at Tomoyo so that she wouldn't have to look at Arisu, hoping that the maid wouldn't get any more suspicious than she was, but it wasn't working. Arisu handed Tomoyo the cup, and then turned around, left the cart where it was and left the room confused.

"Whew," Tomoyo said, "poor Arisu. I put her through so much sometimes."

"Poor Arisu?" Sakura said, leaning forward to take the pressure of her wrists, "What about me?" She stood up to try looking for the key again. She wasn't as scared now as she had been, but she definitely didn't want to spend very much more time stuck like this.

"Do you remember exactly where you put the key, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said, smiling to herself.

"Um," Sakura thought for second, the said, " I remember opening a book. My math book! That's it. Tomoyo, could you get my math book and open it up? Please?" Tomoyo did like Sakura asked her, but of course, the key wasn't there.

"Hoe," Sakura said as she got back down on her knees and started looking again. Tomoyo watched her friend, and as always she thought that Sakura was the cutest, but right at that moment, in the predicament she was in, she seemed especially cute. Tomoyo got on her hands and knees and pretended to look for the key, then sat up on her knees, pretending she got an idea.

"Maybe, if we put soapy water on your wrists, your hands will just slip out of the cuffs."

"That's a good idea," Sakura said, "but where can we get some soap?"

"How about," Tomoyo said, staring at the ceiling a second and trying not to look guilty, "there's lots of dishwashing liquid in the kitchen. Maybe we could go down there and get some."

"But," Sakura said, twisting herself so that Tomoyo could see her cuffed hands, "how will we keep people from seeing me?" Tomoyo thought quickly.

"I'll go get it, then," Tomoyo said as she jumped to her feet. "You stay here."

"No! Don't leave me like this!"

"Oh," Tomoyo said, "your right. Let me see." She was enjoying this way too much, she knew, but she couldn't help it. She walked around the room for second, acting like she was thinking, then ran back to Sakura and helped her get up.

"Hoe," Sakura said, "what are you doing?"

"I'm going to hide you in the closet. I can lock it, so no one can get in and find you."

"Whoa, wait," Sakura protested, but it was hard to struggle with her hands behind her.

"In you go," Tomoyo said as she pushed Sakura into the closet. Thing was, Tomoyo had two closets, one a large walk-in with an overhead light, the other for storing things with just a tiny nightlight. Tomoyo had chosen the second one. Sakura stumbled in, and fell to her knees.

"Tomoyo-chan," she said, "I don't think."

"See you in few minutes!" Tomoyo said as she turned the light off and closed the door. Sakura heard a lock click, and the darkness settled in around her. She wasn't afraid of the dark, normally, but right that second, she couldn't do anything at all. She couldn't even reach her star key if she needed to. She sighed a loud sigh and settled in to wait.

Tomoyo, on the other hand, was still standing outside the closet, laughing as silently as she could. She was being so evil to Sakura, but she couldn't stop herself. I'll go get the dishwashing liquid, then when I get back. She really had no idea what she was going to do, but she ran out of the room in hurry to get back and do it.

In the few minutes that it took Tomoyo to get back, Sakura was getting over being panicked. The dark was still just the dark, and the fact that she couldn't use her hands wasn't so bad either. As usual, her almost unbreakable spirit was helping her deal with her problems. She thought about the escape, and then she thought about her situation. It wasn't so bad, she thought, because she had Tomoyo to help her. Then she thought about Elainu. Sakura was beginning to trust her; with all the hard work she'd done training her in the magic for the show.

"When I see her," she said to herself, "I'll ask her if she can help me learn if I can do that escape. I'm not saying I'll do it for real, I just want to try it out."

She heard the lock click again, and a bright light came through the door. Tomoyo was standing there.

"Sorry it took so long for me to get back," Tomoyo said as she came in and helped Sakura get up again.

"That's ok, but," Sakura replied, "but did you have to turn the light off?" Tomoyo didn't answer her as she took her back to the couch again. She had the soap and a towel. Without saying much, she held Sakura's hands over the towel and began pouring the soap over them.

"This should make them slippery," she said, and then she rubbed the soap all around her wrists. "I'll hold the cuffs, and you try to pull out of them." Tomoyo was smiling so hard, but since she was behind Sakura, she didn't try to cover up.

"OK," Sakura said. She started slowly, trying to make her hands as small as possible, but the weren't coming out. "It's not working, Tomoyo, I."

"Oh," Tomoyo said as her hands slipped. She heard a click as the cuff on Sakura's left hand clicked tighter.

"OW!" Sakura cried out. "What happened?"

"Oh, I'm Sorry, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo felt really bad. The fun of this wore off very quickly as she realized what she had done.

"It hurts. OW! OW! OW!" Sakura turned around one the couch, her eyes filling with tears. Tomoyo looked her friend and cursed herself for having done something so stupid. She immediately reached in her pocket and pulled out the key. Through the tears, Sakura saw it, and in her pain she suddenly became angry.

"Tomoyo-chan!?" She cried out, "You had the key the whole time?"

"I'm sorry, Sakura-chan, I," Tomoyo said as she turned her friend around and unlocked the cuffs. She took the towel and handed it to Sakura, who was shaking now from the pain and the anger.

"How could you?!" She cried out. "You locked me in a closet when you could have undone me at anytime?"

"I, I," Tomoyo didn't know what to say or do, "I'm sorry." Tears began to well up in her eyes. Sakura dropped the towel, her eyes flaring from being madder than she had been in a long time, and she pulled out her star key.

"RELEASE!" She cried, and it transformed into her staff. Still staring at Tomoyo, she pulled out two cards.

"Shield, lock this room!" The card leapt forth. Brilliant blasts of light exploded all around as the card put a magic seal on all the windows and doors. Tomoyo was terrified, and pushed herself back against the couch. She'd never seen Sakura turn her magic on anyone who was a friend before.

"Sakura!" She cried as she heard Sakura calling the Silent and the Wood.

"Wood!" Sakura commanded, "Grab Tomoyo and hold her!" The wood branches flew out and grabbed each of Tomoyo's hands and feet, stretching her out and holding her still while another branch moved the couch out from under her. Tomoyo's heart was racing with fear as wood flattened her out on the floor with her arms and legs spread wide.

"Sakura, Please!" She cried, but it didn't seem to help. Sakura was now moving slowly towards her former captor, an indescribable look of anger in her eyes. Each step she took was an eternity of dread for poor Tomoyo as she waited to see what Sakura was going to do next.

She didn't have to wait long, as Sakura suddenly ran at her, screaming. She dropped her staff, jumped high and landed on top of Tomoyo, who screamed as well. Sakura's hands went way up in the air and came down on her would be captor. And she began tickling the unholy crap out of her!

"Stop, please, don't, stop," Tomoyo began howling, laughing, shrieking, but she didn't put up much of a struggle at all. She couldn't. Wood held her tight, and there was no use in struggling at all. Sakura stayed on top, an evil kind of look on her face and her tongue hanging out. Of course she couldn't hurt her friend, but she could teach her the lesson of her life. Since she knew that Tomoyo was particularly sensitive under the arms, Sakura concentrated her attacks there, wriggling her fingers all along her sides. Tomoyo breathed quickly, laughing, but she had stopped protesting her torment. She knew she deserved it.

Neither of them paid any attention to how long it took for Sakura to decide that Tomoyo had learned her lesson. Neither of them noticed when Arisu knocked on the door. (The silent had made it so no one outside the room could hear any noise from inside.) But both of them did remember that day for the rest of their lives. And, although she didn't tell her at the time, Tomoyo had always secretly wished that it would happen again...

Sakura sat on the edge of the couch while Tomoyo caught her breath. She just stared at the floor, kind of upset that she had lost her temper like she had. Tomoyo, on the other hand, was still giggling a little.

"I'm sorry, Tomoyo-chan," Sakura said, "I shouldn't have been so cruel."

"No, don't think like that," Tomoyo told her, "you had every right to be mad at me, I mean, I locked you in the closet with the light off. I had it coming."

The two of them looked at each other and smiled. Their friendship could just about survive anything. Sakura picked up the handcuffs and asked her friend a question.

"Wanna help me practice?" She asked. Tomoyo just smiled.