DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP or (very unfortunately) Nelvana, so don't sue me.
Rika lay in bed quietly. She only had a foggy recollection of what had happened in the tree, though the others assured her that the demonstration had been quite spectacular. She wished she wasn't so drowsy so she could focus on actually trying to remember some of it. She pulled the key out from under her shirt and ran her thumb over the design. She wondered for the thousandth time that day if she too had magic. Rika took the box from the small dresser next to her bed. "Who ever made this must have been very skilled," she thought, "unless it was created by magic," the forbidden part of her brain added.
Nakuru poked her head into the room. "Rika."
She looked up. "Ruby Moon."
"Call me Nakuru, remember?" she reminded Rika. "Hungry?"
"Famished," Rika jumped up enthusiastically.
"You'd better come quick then, before Kero eats everything," Nakuru said with a wink.
Rika sometimes felt a little left out. The others had known eachother for such a long time already, they seemed to know exactally what was on everyone else's mind just by looking at faces. They did make an effort to include her, but she still felt like an intruder. After all, eight years of private jokes were hard to penetrate.
She also missed her Yoshi immensly. His comforting hugs, his gentle kisses, his smell. She wanted to stay on earth and let the ones with magic take care of everything, but Rowan had made it perfectly clear that she had to go on this trip. Rika absently twisted the ring on her finger, the engagement ring he had given her so long ago. She could almost feel him next to her; she always knew when he was coming up behind her, so he could never scare her. Right now, the thing she needed was Yoshiyuki.
When she entered the dining room, Eriol noticed Rika twisting the ring on her finger and guessed at what she was thinking. He casually walked up to her. "Miss Mr. Tereda?"
Rika glanced at him, surprised that he knew. "Yes, terribly."
"I know. I wish Tomoyo were here. She always knew how to make everyone feel at ease." Rika looked at Eriol questioningly. "Rika, I know you feel kind of like an outsider, but I have a feeling that you won't feel that way for very long. This trip of ours. It will take a while won't it?"
Rika nodded slowly. "Yes. And we'll all change. A lot. When we get home, I don't think we'll be the same. Ever."
Eriol nodded. Rika seated herself and Eriol went to his own place.
All throughout dinner, Rika's mind wandered to what had happened. She was extremely fatigued and strange bits of information, presumably from the walls of the tree, would pop into her mind, inturrupting her train of thought. She would soon learn to lock the information away in her mind until she needed it, but for now, she simply had to put up with an extremely random series of thoughts.
That night, Rika collapsed into bed, sleep claiming her almost before her head even touched the pillow. Everyone else stayed up, chatting.
"It was magic," Sakura insisted.
"But we can't tell. It's not any magic I can sense, and Clow Reed has no memories of this kind of magic wither," Eriol said.
"Well, we should assume it's osme kind of magic, that way-" Suppi was cut off by Kero.
"Suppi, if we don't know its magic or if it's a magic we can't sense, how can we guard her?" Kero had guessed Suppi's thoughts.
"For once, I have to agree," Syaoran reluctantly admitted. "We probably should just leave her alone for now."
Nakuru nodded. "You know, she doesn't believe in magic fully yet." Silence. It was the first time in a long time there had been this kind of awkward silence between the seven of them.
"Well then," Yue struggled to make conversation. "The eight of us versus the Universe."
"Yeah, I'm sure the odds are stacked against us too," Suppi cynically supplied.
Nakuru snatched him out of the air. "Be a little more optomistic Suppi, dear," her eyes sparkeled evily and she jammed a spoonful of Kero's pudding into Spinel Sun's mouth. Havock ensued Ruby Moon's action and Eriol was obliged to put a spell on Suppi to keep him from breaking everything in sight. Almost everyone was exhausted afterwards.
Sakura watched as her friends trudged off to bed. Hours later, Syaoran sensed that Sakura was not in her room, so he tiptoed quietly around looking for her. She was in the kitchen, scrubbing fiercly at dishes and blinking rapidly. Syaoran came up behind her and slid his arms around her waist, surprising her. "Did you even go to bed at all?" Sakura just sighed. Syaoran tigtened his arms and kissed the top of her head.
She turned around suddenly and sobbed into his shirt. Syaoran wasn't quite sure how to react, for he had never seen his beloved Sakura so distraught before, so he just awkwardly patted her back. When she had calmed enough to talk in complete sentences, she said "you know, I used to think we'd live happily ever after, the two of us, since the Cards and everything are safe."
"Maybe after this is over...you're dream will come true....I want us to live happily ever after too."
"I just-"
"Just what?"
"I want to be close to you right now."
The two sat down on the couch. "I always want to be close to you," he whispered as she fell asleep, her head against his chest and her arms wrapped around his torso.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" was Kero's reaction when he woke up to a Sakura-less room. He frantically flew about from room to room, searching for his mistress. He found her on the couch on top of Syaoran. "Sakura! What are you doing?"
"It's too early to be up dad..." she turned her face away from Kero.
"Sakura!!"
Eriol, who was already up, came to see what the commotion was about. She sight of his cute little descendant sleeping with Sakura on top of him triggered a train of very naughty thoughts. He surpressed a wicked grin and sauntered over to the couch, giving Sakura a little shake. "Sakura....Sakura!"
Her eyes fluttered open to see a sorely confused Kero and an evily grinning Eriol. She looked down at where she was sleeping and blushed wildly. It was a good thing Touya was not around to see this or else her darling probably would not be alive right now. The sudden movement woke Syaoran up too. He sat up too quickly and Sakura fell onto the floor. "Don't say a word..." he threatened Eriol while helping Sakura up and apologizing to her.
"Starting early, are we? You looked very cute together." Erilo whispered disregarding Syaoran's threat and meandered back to his own room. Syaoran glared at Eriol's retreating form. "Tomoyo would have loved seeing that...." he called mournfully over his shoulder.
Sakura was about to run after him when Syaoran rested his hand on her shoulder. "We'll only make him feel more miserable," he said.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The key around her neck was vibrating and glowing fiercely. The sudden warmth on her chest woke Rika up. Grabbing the key, she wondered what was happening. She took the box from her night stand. The flower of Love was glowing. She opened the box, half expecting a key to be in one of the slots, but it was empty. Rika left the room, looking for everyone else.
"Sleep well?" asked Nakuru. "You've been asleep for a long time."
"I was tired."
"Food?" she offered.
"Yummy." As Rika was eating, the melodic voice of the computer started talking. They were approaching Love's location. Another two hours. Rika stopped eating and racked her brain for information about the place they were going.
Love was put on a rather tropical planet. The ruler of the planet was a benevolent woman. She carried the key in a chain around her neck. Everything else she could think of was about the scenery. Rika couldn't wait to actually get onto the planet to see what it was like for herself.
Eriol gathered everyone in the living room. "Plan. We need a plan."
"Yes. I think perhaps we should turn to Rika?" Yue suggested.
"Me? Why me?"
"Because you know things that we can only guess at." Suppi supplied.
Rika sighed. Once again, she was the one they were all depending on. Why? Why? Why? They were the ones with magic. Not her. But, then....why was she able to understand things no one else could? Why was she able to open the box? How was it that she had "sensed" all this "magic" for almost a year before the others did? So many questions, so few answers. "The planet Love is on is called Ishtar. The queen is named Inanna. She's a very good natured woman. She carries the key around her neck, ummm...the planet is very warm. That's it. That's all I can remember."
Sakura smiled. "Well, if the queen is nice, then I guess we really don't have to plan anything."
"I love warm climates," Nakuru said, her eyes half closed and a dreamy grin plastered on her face.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Roald sat lamely in front of a glass. The fog trapped inside it swirled hypnotically. Whenever the smoke moved, some image of the future would soon appear, usually very shortly after the swirling started. Except for today. The fog had been moving for so many hours he had lost track of the time. Since four o'clock that morning, he had been sitting in front of his future-glass, waiting for something to show up, yet nothing. He pulled at his already thinning hair in frusteration. "Show up damnit!!" He yelled at the reliquary.
There was a timid knock on the door. "Come in," he growled.
"The Queen commands your presence, my Lord," a servant boy said, his shaven head bowed. He was wearing simple, light, white robes from his waist to the middle of his lower leg. The only sign of his position in the Queen's service was his bare head and a golden band around his ankle.
Roald sighed. His sister always managed to inturrupt him while he was working. "I'll go see her," he started walking out the door.
The boy stiffled giggles. "In your pajamas?"
"Oh, dear gods, no." Roald had completely forgotten that he was still wearing pajamas. "Tell her I will be there shortly. I hope there will be food." He dismissed the servant boy and put on clothes that spoke of his rank. He was brother to Queen Inanna and the court magician, even though most everybody had some sort of magic, he was the court magician. His clothes were exactally like the servant boy's except made of finer material and were more richly decorated. The edges of his robes were hemmed with gold thread and decorated with a light sea-green forest print. Two silver cuffs were around his wrist and on his left arm, was a silver arm band. He carried a staff made of a light colored wood that was carved with the images of various winged creatures.
Right as he was about to leave, the glass caught his eye again. It flashed the word "Tiriki" and then showed a picture of a girl. Roald recognized the word from the prophesies. He practically ran to Inanna's recieving room.
a/n: Ishtar is the babylonian goddess of physical love and war, Innana is the Sumerian goddess of love and war. The two are often closely associated.
