Dance With Me

Part 3

"Eriol?" whispered Tomoyo. The phone suddenly felt as heavy as lead in her hands. "I-I'll go get Sakura, just hold on a minute-" The slight tremble in her voice could barely be heard.

"Is that you, Tomoyo?" Her heart rushed at the sound of her name being spoken by that voice. "Don't worry about it, just tell her that I'll pick her up at seven forty-five tomorrow night."

She didn't say anything, just stared into space with the phone pressed against her ear. Why did you have to tell me that? You should've just waited until I got her, then you could tell her, not me, I didn't want to hear it, didn't want to know and be reminded all over again-

"Tomoyo?" said Eriol, his voice filled with concern.

She swallowed hard, trying to get rid of the stupid lump in her throat. "Couldn't you just tell her that when you see her at school tomorrow?" she said, trying to keep her voice as normal as possible.

"Well, I..." He sounded politely confused. "I wanted to tell her in advance, so she could tell me if she wanted the plan changed or something..."

"Then why don't you wait for me to get her so you can discuss it completely with her right now?!" Tomoyo hadn't meant for the words to come out so rudely. So loudly. This was so completely unlike herself. What was happening to her??

"What?" Eriol gasped. "Well fine! Go ahead and get her then! If that's what you want!"

If that's what I want...no, Eriol, that's not what I want, it's the last thing in the world I want. She tried to put down the phone, but her hands seemed frozen in place. The tiny beginnings of tears stung at her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily.

She heard a sigh. "Tomoyo, no, don't get her. I'm sorry I snapped, I was impatient..."

Her heart flew up through the clouds and danced at his words. Could he read her thoughts?

"...don't trouble yourself about telling her, I'll just tell her myself tomorrow," he continued.

Her heart dropped back down to earth and died.

"I-I'll just go get her now," Tomoyo managed to say.

"No! Don't! I'm- I can't talk to her right now!" bursted Eriol, his voice rising in...panic? No, it couldn't be.

"Why not?"

There was silence for a moment. When he spoke again, Eriol's voice was as calm and composed as before. "Please, just don't worry about it. I'll talk to Sakura tomorrow." His tone was final.

She said quietly, "I'll tell her for you." The barely audible sound of his breathing entered her ear, and she found herself hating it and loving it at the same time.

"Thank you, Tomoyo," Eriol said. A pause. "Goodbye."

"Bye," whispered Tomoyo. She listened for the click. To her surprise, he was still there.

"Bye," he said again.

In spite of herself, she felt a silly grin spread over her face. "Hang up, stupid," she murmured.

"You hang up," came the reply. She almost laughed; she could see the expression on his face. He was smiling too, she was sure of it.

"Okay, I will," she said. "Bye."

"You're still there," Eriol pointed out.

"Yeah. So?" said Tomoyo defiantly.

He chuckled softly. "Both at the same time?"

"Okay."

"Fine then, no cheating this time! When I count to three. One...two...three."

As Tomoyo brought the phone down slowly from her ear, she caught his voice, "Goodbye, Tomoyo." She yanked the phone back up. "You cheater!" she said in delight. But he was already gone.

~*****~

Though he had hung up, Eriol's hand still clung to the phone. What was it he had felt when he talked to that girl? Tomoyo had always just been the Master of the Clow's faithful best friend, always videotaping her adventures. But she was honest and brave, and there was something, a certain spark in her, that captured his interest. Tonight, he had felt a beautiful sadness in her voice that tugged at his heart. Just hearing her awakened something strange and new in him, something he wasn't sure he liked, but he couldn't make it leave him alone no matter how hard he tried.

He felt so exposed and fake when he talked to her. She made him want to cast his mask away and be truthful with himself. To be truthful and real to her. Very painfully, he had a sudden urge to call Sakura's house again, just to listen to Tomoyo's voice.

He glanced down at the ball of swirling aura in his other hand. How could he have known that the spell would become ready while he was talking to her? If it had been Sakura on the other end, his magic would immediately have been detected.

Eriol shook his head sadly. "Tomoyo, it's a good thing you didn't get Sakura," he said softly. "You would have discovered at once that I'm not the good, nice person you want me to be."

~*****~

"Take that!" said Sakura as she pounded Syaoran one last time with the pillow. Curling back on the sofa, his hands were extended up in front of him to fend off her blows. When he realized that she had stopped hitting him, he tentatively opened one eye.

"I'm not weird, and I'm not hyper!" she told him firmly, her face flushed.

Syaoran pushed himself up. "Okay, okay, you're not," he agreed. "I'm sorry."

"That's right. You should be," she huffed, though she couldn't keep a small smile from her face. Seeing it, Syaoran seized his chance and tripped her easily, making her collapse onto the sofa. He bombarded her with pillows, and he started tickling her when he ran out. "Weird hyper monkey!!" he teased.

Laughing, she grabbed his hands to keep him from tickling her further. A jolt of warmth suddenly shot through their fingers and into each other. Sakura froze. "What was that?" she said, looking up into Syaoran's surprised eyes, and she gasped at the sight.

A thin, fuzzy layer of green aura floated over him, making his hair wave as though it had a life of its own. She saw the same light covering her own arms, but hers was a light fuschia color. Where their hands met, the two colors mixed. No, not mixed; they didn't combine into one shade. Instead, the auras curved around and over each other like straws in a weaved basket, creating the most beautiful pulsating colors she had ever seen. Sakura could feel the warmth, the power and energy they contained.

"What is this...?" whispered Syaoran.

"Sakura!!" The cry came from her room. Immediately, their hands broke, and the aura disappeared as though it had never been. Sakura jumped up at once and made for her room. Syaoran followed closely behind her.

"Tomoyo, what's wrong? What happened?" she cried, flying to her friend's side. Tomoyo pointed wordlessly to the old book on the floor. It was lying wide open. Half of the cards were spilled across the floor, all facing up. The Key emitted a bright but slowly fading light, illuminating the single card which lay in front of it- the Flower. And a little pile of pink cherry blossoms sat near them.

"They just flew out of the Book!" said Tomoyo. "The cards flew out, and the Flower card rose up into the air and those flowers started pouring out of it! I don't know how it happened...I didn't even touch it!"

Sakura squeezed her friend's hand comfortingly, but inside she was trying to sort out what had happened. How could the cards come out on their own? Why the Flower card? And why did it make...

"Cherry blossoms?" Syaoran voiced her question aloud. Carefully, he scooped up the flowers in his hands and peered at them. "They're just ordinary flowers now, I can't feel any magic coming from them. Could this be a warning?" His eyes shot to Sakura, and she understood what he meant. Could this be a warning of danger? A trap? But who was it from? The last time she had experienced magical traps from someone capable of such power had been years ago. "Eriol," she and Syaoran said at the same time.

"No!!" shouted Tomoyo, so loudly that the others jumped. She blushed when they both stared at her, but she didn't waver from her argument. "It can't be him, he would never do that. Not anymore. It isn't him!"

"How can you be sure?" said Syaoran. "Remember all the danger he put Sakura in before?"

"But he apologized! He promised never to do it again! Sakura, why would he try to do anything to you now? He asked you to the dance!" Tomoyo protested anxiously.

Syaoran bristled at these words, but Sakura looked at her friend's flustered, earnest face and smiled. "You're right, Tomoyo," she said. "Maybe it's something else." How could she have not seen it before? Tomoyo liked Eriol...no wonder she was in such a hurry to get away when he asked her to the dance. She had caused her so much pain, and she hadn't even known it.

But then...Syaoran had a point. Eriol could be the one behind this. Who or what else could it be? And if it was indeed Eriol, he could cause much more harm than just a bunch of flowers. Which meant that she had to keep Tomoyo away from him. 

And that meant she would have to cause her best friend even more anguish.

*****

Yeah, I know, the last part of the phone conversation was a LITTLE fluffy...but hey, Tomoyo deserved it! ^_^ And all this pre-dance stuff is dragging on and on...U_U; maybe I'd better get to the actual DANCE part of it sometime soon!! Hehe...

Please please keep reviewing! I really look forward to reading each and every review! You are all so nice, thank you^_^