The Ripple Affect
By: Xiao

` Syaoran Hiiragizawa... Ah... Don't we just love the ring of that? Okay, that was my slash side taking over. Gomen-nasai. Also, this may seem like the last chapter, but it isn't. In fact, it's just the beginning. ^^; `

-- Chapter IV --

It had been two days since Tomoyo had talked, or even made any effort to talk to him. This was half because she had asked her mom to let her stay home; that she wasn't feeling good, and being the caring mother she was, she let her stay home.

Those two days that Tomoyo wasn't at school wasn't exactly happy for Eriol, but then again it wasn't exactly sad either. For some reason, a reason that he couldn't put his finger on, he missed the idea of a girl following him around, always wanting to be his friend and deny both of them of that horrible title of 'outcast'. The other half, however, he was glad that the girl wasn't there to bother him, and try to pry open his past and his life in general. Neither side of him was winning.

As for the moment, the sky was dim and the air cool. Children were getting ready to leave the park, and the teens that refused to go inside held an umbrella. The forecast guy had predicted rain, and from the look of things, he was correct. Eriol sighed, sticking his hands into his coat pockets, his eyes staring down at the sidewalk beneath him. He had just decided to go out and walk, instead of having to be stuck in the house when his dad was home. And after all, a little fresh air would do him good, right? No use in being stuck in a stuffed up house with someone that made him angry just by exchanging a few sentences.

He heard the sound of rustling leaves as the wind began to pick up, and then the soft trickle of cold raindrops hitting the different surfaces, including himself. He looked around, mostly everyone disappearing from the outdoors and retreated to somewhere that would stay crisply dry through the awaiting storm. 'Oh well, you're already far from home. There's no use in heading back yet. And anyway, Tomoeda doesn't get rain often, you should just enjoy it while you can.'

"Eriol?" There was a distant sound fighting over the wind. He blinked, not recognizing it since it was so quiet and far away. With a slight shrug of his shoulders, he continued his walk and held out his hand, catching the tiny droplets of water, and then watching as they exploded silently against his skin.

"Eriol!" The rain began to fall faster, each drop splashing harder against the surface than before. A few moments later, his was already beginning to get soaked in the falling cold water. He looked around and stared at the plants rustling as they were struck until his vision was blurred from the unwanted water against his lens. With a sigh, he took his glasses off and cleaned them with the inside of his coat.

"Hey, I know you're not deaf!" The female voice rang over the sound of water exploding not so silently anymore. Each word she spoke becoming louder, no doubt resembling that she was coming closer toward him. Soon, the sound of shoes slapping against the sidewalk and small puddle filled his ears and she stood next to him, her breath coming in short gasps. An umbrella held over his head and hers.

"Finally, you stopped." She said after taking in a few long inhales of air. Quietly, he waited for her to catch her breath before he began to walk again, then she caught her pace matching his. For a long moment, the only sound that rang in their ears was the sound of wind howling, and water splashing, now on the umbrella rather than him.

"You're soaking—" She began.

"You're here." He said, his tone of voice unable to be labeled if he was being emotionless or if he was relieved that she was here, or if it was even anything in between. She nodded, as she looked forward, mimicking him. A faint smile played across her pale lips.

"I called you," she said. He took glance at her, as if to ask how he had found her number. "Which I found in the school's directory." He took another glance at the lavender haired girl as if to ask where did you get a student directory. "Which one of the teachers gave me earlier in hopes that it would help me find a study buddy." He grinned.

"I'm impressed." He said, his eyes keeping forward this time.

"Oh? I'm glad that I've won that from you. Why are you impressed?"

"Are you psychic, Tomoyo?"

"No."

"You're just lucky then, I guess." For a moment she set her gaze on him, a slight look of confusion placed across her face. He stared ahead, not smiling, and not frowning, with his eyes holding no emotion, either.

"And that means—" She began.

"Why weren't you at school for two days?" He asked, cutting her off before she could finish. Tomoyo looked back forward, organizing her thoughts in her head as she bit her bottom lip softly.

Tomoyo hadn't actually been sick for those two days, but she had decided that things would be easier if she told him she was. After all, what would he think if she told him that she couldn't take the idea of facing him after everything he had told her that fateful day in her backyard? She shook her head softly at the thought. "I wasn't feeling well."

For a long moment, Eriol took apart Tomoyo's reaction time, actions, how she said it, and her explanation, analyzed it, put it back together and then placed together an explanation. He denied her of looking at her. "You're a liar."

"I am not!" She protested instantly in return, her eyes trying to lock with his, but him still denying that. The rain continued, the wind still picking up and making her slightly shiver in return, despite the coat placed around her.

"Would you like to know how I know?"

"Yes, yes, I would like to know."

He paused. "Well, first you took a long time to come up with an answer, obviously showing that you really stayed home for a reason that might make me mad or hurt, and so you had to come up with another idea that would be believable. Next, you shook your head before you spoke as if to say, 'no, he will not believe me'. Also, you bit your lip, which is a symbol that you're nervous, probably because the real reason, in your eyes, will somehow bother me, hurt me, or make me mad. Lastly, you said everything fast, meaning you're nervous." He stated everything calmly. "So, do you care to tell me the real reason why you weren't at school?"

"I wasn't feeling well, Eriol." She insisted.

"You weren't feeling well with the idea of seeing me after I told you so much about myself and past that one time." He added, eyes still locked with something that had been in front of the two. Impressed and shocked at the same time, she looked at him. He still denied her of a look.

"That's not it!"

"Yes, is it, Tomoyo." She was silent. "And the question now is, why are you here now if for those two previous days you didn't like the idea of seeing me?" She was silent. "Don't you just hate it when the other person denies you of what you want to know?"

"Stop that." She stated, firmly. He looked at her, their gazes locking with each other and holding it there. They stopped walking as well. Everything around them moved, and yet they were still for a moment.

"Why should I? If you had to make me explain what I didn't want to, then why can't I make you explain what you don't want to?" He looked back forward and began to walk, his pace slow. Tomoyo followed. "You're not being fair, Tomoyo."

She had to admit that he was right. How can she be able to make him tell her something that he'd rather not of told, and then expect herself to keep silent about what he wanted to know? It was only fair. She didn't he would react to her explanation, but then again, Eriol didn't know how Tomoyo would react when he gave her his explanation. It was exactly the same, and so, she would have to explain to him why to make everything fair.

But then again-- "Life isn't fair, Eriol."

Silence. Eriol shut his eyes and took in a deep breath, already getting angry with the girl standing next with him. He bit a small part of his lip for a moment, looked up, and then over at her. He shook his head. "If you would of taken that for an answer, I would of used it."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I'm leaving." He said, as he turned and dug his hands deeper into his pockets and walked off, his clothes beginning to take in the water, which was still falling at the same rate as before. His dug his finger nails into his hands as he quickened his pace to get away from her.

Tomoyo didn't turn, but stared ahead of her, down the street as she listened to his footsteps fade. "No," she whispered to herself. Had she just sent him off the edge all because she didn't want to hurt him? 'Now, he's going to hurt himself. No matter what you do, you're going to hurt him.' It was opposite of what she wanted, and just thinking about him hurting himself made her begin to cry.

"Eriol?" she said, turning around, sniffling lightly. He didn't stop walking, and so she began to walk quickly to catch up with him. "Eriol!" She said, tears still streaming down her cheeks, and her eyes beginning to turn a faded salmon color from the tears. She whipped her eyes with her hand and sniffled again, running over to him.

"Listen!" She said, loudly, her voice shaking. When she was next to him, she dropped her umbrella and wrapped her arms around him without even noticing, and even dug her face into his damp coat sleeve. He instantly stopped, his eyes widening as he stared at the girl clinging onto him. "Please don't do anything to yourself!" She said, her voice warm compared to the black cloth.

"W-what?" He found his face becoming warm and his cheeks flushed slightly, considering this had been the first time that a girl had grabbed his arm and was crying over him. Tomoyo looked up to him, tightened her grip around his arm as they stood still.

"Please, just don't!"

He knew what she was talking about, but where she got the idea that was going to do it was unclear to him. "I-- " He tried to say.

"I'm sorry!" She began, sobbing. "I just didn't want to tell you that it hurts to see some guy you want to be your friend hurt himself and have such a hard life, so I stayed home, but then I figured that it was being unfair to you so I called you, and Syaoran answered and told me that you were taking a walk generally in the other park area. But now knowing that I hurt you by not telling you, I'm sorry… I just don't want you to hurt yourself, Eriol!" She explained. He blinked, still flushed in the cheeks. She sobbed into his sleeve some more, while he just stood and watched her, his eyes slightly bigger than usual.

"I wasn't going to," he said. "I just was mad, and I wasn't going to do anything because of you not telling me something—" He blinked again. 'But you were going to, Eriol,' he told himself silently. All of the sudden, he just realized that he had hurt her by storming off and by her knowing that he did cut himself. His heart ached because of it. After a moment, it seemed that she wasn't listening to him, and so he hugged her, just trying to make her stop crying and to comfort her, and to perhaps get rid of the pain he was experiencing.

"I just thought," she said, as she looked up at him. Well, it turned out that she had been listening to what he was saying despite the fact that she was sobbing into his shirt. "That you were going to do something because of me."

He let her go, and instantly he began to feel cold. Quietly, he looked around to see if her umbrella had blown away, but saw that it was pushing against the bushes a few feet away from the, threatening to blow away at any moment. He grabbed it and held it over the both of them, Tomoyo hugging herself from now being damp a cold.

'Oh god, and you made all this happen.' He thought to himself, sighing lightly, already feeling darker than ever. He looked at the girl shivering next to him, and in attempts to make her feel better, but his arm around her shoulders and began to walk slowly with her.

"Come on, I'll take you home." He said, softly. Tomoyo sniffled lightly, her arms still around herself, and she nodded, matching her pace with his. Eventually her sniffles stopped and her breathing became back to normal as she calmed down.

He didn't though, just knowing that he had made her cry and worry so much about him made him feel deeply depressed and like he was holding the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Minutes later, he dropped her off at her house. She thanked him for walking her home, hugged him and went inside her house slowly, him watching until she was safely inside before he made his way down the sidewalk to his own house.

The rain began to slow, and the wind dimmed as the clouds began to move aside for the sun to take it usual shine upon the small town. Later, the kids would come out to dance in the puddles and have fun, the parents watching over them like a hawk. The teens would eventually come out and chatter, shop, and do whatever was on their minds. Everything would be back to normal.

Except him.

As he opened the door, he took of his coat and threw it into the dryer as he made his way upstairs, his brother sitting in his room working on homework. He walked to his room, slowly, still in the same mood as before, despite the fact that the sun had come out and everyone was happy again. He glanced around the room, and then went to the nightstand, pulled the drawer and found his one sense of relief sitting where he had left it before.

He sat down, held it in his hand and thought. 'At least now you won't have to hold the weight of the world on your shoulders, and you won't feel the pain about Tomoyo anymore.' He pressed it, and everything dripped away.