AN: Thank you for your reviews sniffs and wipes away tears. Here's chapter 5, hope you enjoy it, if not - notes on how to make this story more interesting is always welcome!

Disclaimer: I do not own CCS, how many times am I going to have to say this?

Always & Forever

After dinner, the five friends walked back to their rooms, tried and stuffed. Each of them had rooms next to each other. Meilin was next to Tomoyo, Tomoyo was next to Eriol, Eriol was next to Syaoran and Syaoran was next to Sakura. Before going into his room, Syaoran looked at Eriol, who as looking back at him. With a quick nod and look of determination from both of them, they stepped into their own rooms.

A few minutes later Sakura heard a knock on her door. She opened it and immediately Syaoran came inside and started looking around her room. She stared at him curiously, wondering what he was doing. "Syaoran, what are you doing here?" She asked him. He continued to look around her room as if he didn't hear her, and he finally found what he was looking for. He pulled out what looked like a duffel bag to Sakura. "Syaoran?" She asked again. He looked up at her, as if seeing her for the first time that she was in the room.

"Get your stuff packed, we're leaving tonight," he told her, his voice urgent.

"Hoe? Tonight?" She repeated him in surprise. They weren't supposed to leave till tomorrow night according to their plan.

"Hai, now only pack the stuff you need because we're going to be carrying out own stuff," he told her and he rushed out of the room. She stared after him for a moment, then started packing her things. A few minutes later Syaoran returned to see if she was packed and she was waiting there with her bag ready to go. He told her to follow him and be as quiet as she could. She nodded and they were soon outside of the house, greeted by the others.

"Wakarimasen (I don't understand), why are we leaving now?" Sakura asked them, wanting to know why.

"Because Syaoran's mother has a great deal of power and if we stayed any longer she would have figured out what we were up to. By the time she does figure out what we're doing, it will be too late to stop us," Eriol told her as she nodded in comprehension. They wasted no more time talking; they immediately started out on their journey.

As they continued through the woods, known as Sherblue woods which to Sakura seemed quite scary. She had no problem walking in the woods though; she had changed her clothes before leaving knowing that it would probably get chilly. She was wearing a long sleeve black shirt with black pants (AN: don't ask me where she got that from), something she felt much more comfortable in; plus, something felt - almost comforting about being in the woods, aside for the face there might be ghosts wandering around. The group of five continued to walk and paused every now and then for rest, but soon they all grew tired and decided that they had walked enough for the night.

Using his magic, Eriol set up two tents; one for the guys and one for the girls, plus he made a fire. Sakura, although she walked a lot and was tired, didn't feel like sleeping just yet. She sat down around the fire to keep herself warm and looked up at the sky, which was filled with the bright shining moon and sparkling stars. Everyone else had gone inside their tent and was sleeping.

"You seem interested in the stars, as if they were telling you a story they have not told me," Eriol told her, surprising her. She laughed.

"The stars can't tell me any stories," she told him, "it's just that, they do have stars back home." her voice trailed off. Even though she had only been with them for a day, she already missed her father and her brother very much. But even though she missed her family, she felt somewhat - safe, as if she knew this place. Eriol, sensing this, decided to go onto a different topic.

"How would you like to know how to control your magic?" He asked her. Her eyes grew wide in wonder.

"Could you really?" She asked him, excitement clearly shown in her voice. Eriol smiled and nodded at her. He taught her how to do simple things, like creating a shield around herself - which she managed to do before by blocking out Yelan. He taught her how to start a fire, how to move things telepathically. Sakura was enjoying every bit of her lessons, and was eager to learn more but by using her magic - she felt herself going very weak. (AN: Yes, I do realize that they don't have that kind of power, but oh well. live with it. makes my job easier anyway)

"That's enough for tonight," Eriol told her, sensing her weakening aura. She nodded at him.

"Arigatou Eriol," she told him as she yawned. He nodded to her and she walked off to her tent. Eriol frowned for a moment; there was something about that girl that - it seemed as if he knew her, like he already met her before this once, but that didn't make any sense at all. Eriol shook the thought off, looked towards his tent and smirked.

"Coast is clear, my cute little descendent," He said mischievously, knowing that Syaoran was awake the whole time he was teaching Sakura how to use her magic and that he was watching them from the tent. Syaoran stayed inside the tent though. "Come on out," he continued to call him. Finally, he did and sat across from him, the fire in the middle of them. "Why didn't you join us?" Eriol asked him. Syaoran seemed utterly interested in the fire.

"Because I didn't want to interfere," he replied. "What good is it if I'm here watching and doing nothing?"

"Ah, but you can watch and do nothing from hiding inside the tent, right?" Eriol told him, hoping to get some sort of upset reaction from his cute little descendent, but received none, which shocked him. "What's up, Syaoran?"

"Why am I feeling this way Eriol?" he asked suddenly, the fire crackling in the night (AN: yes, I do realize this is something Syaoran would never actually do, but it's MY fanfic so deal. I personally like Syaoran being all downright mushy when it comes to Sakura.but that's just me). Eriol sighed and remembered how he felt when he realized he was starting to fall in love with Tomoyo. It was very confusing for him; he didn't know what was going on, he thought someone had put a spell on him or something.

"Well, do you mean that why is it that you feel yourself falling for the green-eyed stranger that has suddenly fell from the sky?" Eriol asked him. Syaoran nodded, his eyes never leaving the fire. "Do you find it strange that you have started developing feelings for her?"

"Yes," Syaoran replied with a sigh. "Why though? I don't get it, all the other girls I've never liked, they - they're too - girly. But what makes her different? Why did I fall for her?" He asked Eriol all these questions, feeling confused. There, he had said it, he had admitted he liked the girl that fell from the sky in his room. He heard Eriol chuckle quietly, and felt his anger starting to rise.

"Syaoran, how am I to know the answer to your questions? Am I the one who has fallen for her? You know the answer to your own questions, there must be something about her that makes her different from all the others, whether it be her green eyes, or her kindness - I don't know.but you do. But you do know it's ok to feel that way right?" Eriol told him. Syaoran looked up at Eriol and saw that for the first time, he wasn't smirking at him. He returned his gaze to the fire. Once more he heard Eriol sigh and get up. "I'm going to bed, we have to get up early to start again. I suggest that if you stay out here longer, that you do get some sleep." With that, he left towards his tent. Syaoran didn't know how long he stayed out there, but finally he went to get some sleep.

The next couple of days were like that for the friends; they would travel every day with breaks, and at night Eriol would teach Sakura more and more how to use her magic. He was surprised how quickly she learned how to control her magic, it usually took a very long time for someone to control his or her magic; but it seemed natural to her. (AN: I'm sorry, is this getting too boring? I'm not much for excitement.sowwie)

One day Tomoyo and Sakura were walking a little way from the others. "So Sakura," Tomoyo started, "What do you think of Syaoran?" Sakura stared at her friend, feeling the blood running to her cheeks.

"He's a very nice friend," Sakura replied to her. Tomoyo smirked at her and opened her mouth to ask another question, but Sakura asked before her. "How did you and Eriol get together?" It was Tomoyo's turn to blush.

"Well," she started, her soft voice going much softer, "I remember I had started falling for him when I started spending more time with him. I spent nearly all my time with him, he always offered to show me around and teach me things. I remember one day we were in the garden and I was on a swing that hung from a cherry blossom tree. I was just there, barely moving on the swing and suddenly he came up from behind me and covered my eyes.

"Of course I knew it was him. We started talking and I got on the topic of all my friends and how much I missed you. He asked if I regretted staying here, and I replied no because I didn't. Sure I missed you all very much, but I was enjoying myself very much here with him. He then asked me why I chose to stay here when all my friends were somewhere else. I laughed at this because I thought he would get it by now. Boys, they sure are dense," She said laughing, thinking of both Eriol and Syaoran. Syaoran was dense for not seeing that Sakura had fallen for him. The two had been spending a great deal of time together, Syaoran was showing her the different plants and trees, telling her stories of all sorts and even some magic.

"Go on," Sakura urged her, very much into the story. Up ahead of them, Eriol could hear the girls' conversation and smiled as he remembered that day. Syaoran caught hold of it and smirked.

"Thinking about Tomoyo again?" He asked, his voice teasing. Eriol looked up knowing that he wasn't going to let himself be the only one blushing.

"And what about you, my cute little descendent? Are you not constantly - and I use that term loosely - about your little green-eyed tenshi?" Eriol replied with his own question. Syaoran turned red as Eriol smiled to himself; it was so easy to get back at his little descendent, he was always so soft when it came to Sakura. He heard Tomoyo giggle, telling Sakura to relax, she'd continue with her story. Once more he smiled to himself. Syaoran looked behind him and saw Meilin walking behind him and Eriol, her head down deep in thought. Behind her were Tomoyo and Sakura, and seeing Sakura, he quickly turned back around.

"Ok Sakura," Tomoyo said, still giggling. "Well, I asked him why did he think I stayed, and surprisingly enough, the great Eriol could not figure it out. I then asked him if he wanted me to go back and I will never forget the look on his face," Sakura looked at her friend, her violet eyes were happy remembering the memory, a smile on her lips.

"He looked so shocked - but most of all, very scared and hurt. He told me, 'of course not, why would you think that?' I could tell my question hurt him and apologized. I asked him why he wanted me to stay and he turned red. It is very rare that you see Eriol blush; it surprised me that I had the ability to do that.

"Then finally, after moments of silence from the both of us, he managed to blurt out really quickly that he loved me," she paused and giggled, "oh, he was so cute. He mumbled something about knowing I didn't feel the same way and I started laughing. I told him that the reason I stayed was because of him, and that I did love him." She concluded, her voice soft. She blushed slightly remembering what happened after that, that Eriol was so happy he picked her up, twirled her around and kissed her.

Sakura realized that her friend was forgetting to mention something else - especially from the blush on her face; but she kept quiet, knowing that some things were personal. "Oh Tomoyo, that's so swee - AAAAHHHHH!" Sakura's voice shrieked into the air, piercing the ears of her friends. The ground beneath her had collapsed and she fell through a hole that had appeared in the ground.

AN: Yes, I did take that bit from the episode where the sheep were trying to suffocate her. Sigh another chapter up. What'd you think? A little too boring? I thought so, but eh, I'm too lazy and tired to change anything up at this point. So, feel free to send any comments, you know I'd be happy to any of them. Thank you!