Sakura, Syaoran, and the Newcomer

As night overcame Tomeda, Sakura stirred in her sheets. She dreamt of dark and far away lands. Of times forgotten by most. And of people now faceless and nameless because all that knew them had long passed. There was a tower in the land of darkness that she dreamed of. It was tall and proud and black. But than it was gone. And where it had been; only grass and shadow. But then there was a voice. It was a pretty voice. And it sang a song. A sad song. Sakura would not be able to remember any of it but this:

Up where the griffins call

Down in the river's glade

Over where the shining tower falls

Death by the wing-ed blade.

Sakura again woke with a thud as she fell onto the floor. "Owwwwwww." She cried as she rubbed her behind with both her hands. She looked around her room to find that it was still dark outside. It was only 5:45 but remembering the scary dream she decided not to go back to bed. She put on some slippers and went down stairs for some tea and some time to think to herself.

When she walked into the kitchen she saw someone already sitting in the dining room reading the paper. "Well good morning Sakura." Her father said as he took a sip of coffee. "how are you this morning?"

"Daddy!" Sakura said with excitement as she leapt into his lap. Even though she was older she was still small enough to do this. Sakura was happy to see her father, as he normally left for work before she got up. She also felt fortunate to catch him because he was to leave that morning to give a lecture at Tokyo University and he wouldn't be back for a few days.

"What are you doing up so early, honey?" He said to his daughter.

"I had a bad dream." Sakura blurted out for her father's attention before thinking. After a moment she realized that she should have talked to Kero about it first.

"Oh, I'm sorry dear. Why don't you tell me about it?" He said in a caring voice. Sakura sat down in a chair next to her father's.

"Ah, oh, it was nothing never mind. I think I just wanted to get some tea. That's all." Sakura said. She started to get up to get some but her father stood up first.

"That's okay, I'll get you some Sakura." He said

"Thanks dad." Sakura said in a misty voice as she watched her father leave the room. After he was gone she thought about what she had just said. 'I lied, it wasn't nothing. It was definitely something. But what was it?' Sakura thought as she waited for her tea and her father's company again.

"Here you go, Sakura." Fujitaka said as he handed Sakura some tea. He sat down again but didn't pick the newspaper back up. "How are you doing, Sakura?" He asked in more of an inquisitive tone than normal. Sakura almost thought that he knew what was going on, normally when he asked a question it seemed like he already knew the answer, very much like Eriol for obvious reasons, Sakura thought, but this time he seemed to be looking for one. "I'm okay. Everything's fine." Sakura said.

"That's good to hear." He said with a smile. "Oh yes, you are keeping the necklace safe aren't you?"

"Yep!" Sakura said. "It's safe in my room and sometimes I keep it with me!"

"Thank you, I still haven't had any time to look at the book I found it in," He said but paused. There was something to his voice, Sakura thought, again sounding almost unsure, very much not like him. "So I'd like you to hold onto it for a while longer."

"Okay, daddy." She said still wondering if there was something more to this than he had said.

After Tomoyo picked her up and they went to school they sat in their homeroom with Syaoran (Syaoran, Tomoyo and Sakura all have the same homeroom) and talked about things, or Sakura made wild and fantastical theories about what was going on most of which involved ghosts of one sort of another. She was beginning to scare herself. Syaoran had been suspiciously quiet during the conversation and Sakura once again got the feeling he was holding something back. She decided to finally ask him about it. "Syaoran? What do you think it is?"

"I don't know." He said bluntly.

"Oh." Sakura said. She knew he was lying. He knew something but he didn't want to tell her. Not just yet anyway.

Though they talked at length, Sakura held back her dream for some reason. It seemed to her that the dream somehow concerned Syaoran, even though it was a girls voice singing the song.

Their conversation was broken up however by class starting. As Sakura looked out the window she vaguely heard the sensei say something about a new student. That grabbed her attention. It wasn't all that odd for a student to transfer in at the beginning of a semester but it was where the person was from that go Sakura's attention, England. Unfortunately Sakura's hopes were crushed when her sensei announced the new student's name. Though he had to do it through some noise. It was a rowdy bunch.

"Ah, attention. atten- Shut up class!" The sensei shouted "please come in now." The classroom door opened and the student walked in. "This is Kako Yuakito. She is a transfer student from Great Briton." The sensei said. Kako was a tall girl with long black hair and dark blue eyes. It looked to Sakura that she was half Japanese and half British. Sakura felt some dajavoo when looking at the girl because it seemed that she was looking at her. But at a second glance she noted that it was Syaoran at whom she was starring; and he was starring back. But not how he had starred at Sakura the first they met, more with light eyed awe, an almost admiring look if not for the fact that he wasn't smiling and had his hand on his wrist which made Sakura nervous anytime she saw him doing it.

"Please take a seat." The sensei held the note of 'seat' as he looked about for a one. "Right there." He pointed at the empty seat next to Li's.

'Damn it.' Sakura thought and then wondered why she already felt resentful of this girl. Kako walked over to her seat with a bounce in her step and the sensei sat down at his desk to take role and once again ignored the undisciplined class. Immediately after Kako sat down she turned to Syaoran.

"Hi! I'm Kako but you already know that. Actually you can call me Ka! (pronounce Kay) what's your name?" she said sounding as if she was in need of riddlen. Li reared back a bit but responded at least half civilly.

"Er, hi. I'm Syaoran." he said.

Sakura and Tomoyo looked at each other in conferment. Tomoyo whispered in Sakura's ear: 'have you ever hear Li introduce himself as Syaoran?'

Sakura made a sort of pouty face as she tried not to stare at Li and this new girl talking. Suddenly Tomoyo decided to chime into their conversation. "Um, excuse me, Li? Weren't you going to introduce us to your new friend?" Tomoyo said in her neutral way. Syaoran looked uncomfortable which was Tomoyo's intent.

Kako Looked at Tomoyo and Sakura. "Oh, I'm sorry. I hadn't seen you there. I'm Kako" She said less vibrantly than before.

"I'm Sakura and This in my best friend Tomoyo. Can we call you Ka too?" Sakura said being as friendly as she could.

"No." Kako said abruptly as she turned back to Li. Sakura made a mad face but nether Syaoran or Kako saw. Syaoran seemed to be perfectly comfortable talking to Kako. Before Tomoyo had a chance to butt in again the bell rung and homeroom was over.

As the day went by Sakura hoped that she didn't have any more classes with Kako. She went through her first five classes without incident but when sixth period rolled around her hopes were crushed once again. When dressing in her p.e. uniform in the girls locker room she saw her. Kako's locker was just a few away from hers and Tomoyo's. Kako ignored the two girls as she dressed. Something that Sakura would get accustom to.

In the gym Sakura and Tomoyo typically met up with Chiharu, Takashi and Syaoran, but Takashi had been avoiding Syaoran since the last week so Syaoran wasn't with them. He wasn't anywhere that Sakura could see at the moment. After a while she found him. He was on the other side of the gym with Kako. They were leaning on the wall talking to one another. Tomoyo heard a grumble from Sakura as she turned away from the two.

All of a sudden who came bounding up but Meling as pissed as ever. "Sakura!" She said quietly and cautiously but obviously fuming with anger. "I am going to jump that malicious bitch! Tomoyo you record it. I want a copy." Sakura began to try and calm her down.

"Wait a minuet, Meling. Who?" Sakura said knowing very well who she was speaking of.

"HER!" Meling said pointing right at Kako across the gym. Sakura grabbed Meling's arm.

"Don't point at her! Meling what is this all about?" Sakura said truly puzzled. She thought that in all likelihood Meling would have simply cornered the girl, made threats and intimidated and scared the hell out of Kako but it seemed as though that hadn't happened yet.

"Do you know what she said to me?!" Meling explained. "She told ME to stay out of THEIR business!"

"When did she say that?" Tomoyo asked.

"Huh, oh, when I cornered her in the hall earlier." Meling said.

The girls were cut off by everyone starting to dividing up into separate classes. Sakura and Tomoyo went into one of the side rooms off the main gym for the gymnastics class. Meling had class with Li in another part of the gym and Sakura would be relieved at this in a moment.

During role call Sakura learned of the new student in her gymnastics class from the coach's announcement he gave before he stated role. Of course it was Kako. As she walked by Sakura to go to the end of the role call line she gave her a sideways glance and a smug smile.

As the class went on Sakura found that Kako was an excellent gymnast and she matched Sakura's skill in each exercise move for move. This was starting to get to Sakura. And it was blatantly obvious to everyone that Kako was trying to best Sakura. It wasn't until the end of class when Sakura's occasional clumsiness came into play. She stumbled on a landing and fell straight on her butt. Afterwards Kako did the same flip and landed perfectly.

After school Sakura felt embarrassed and depressed. She asked Tomoyo to just drop her off at home instead of going to her house to do homework. As she sat in her room looking at her very few cards she felt sad. Kero fluttered over to console her but it was no use.

Eventually she went to bed. In the minuets before she fell asleep she thought about how it might not be such a bad thing to have Kako around even if she didn't like her. Sakura thought that Syaoran seemed less depressed when he talked to Kako. And that is what Sakura thought she wanted; for Syaoran to be happy and not try and hurt himself anymore. Though the last word that almost totally unconsciously went through her mind were: 'why not me.'

In that night as Sakura slept the dream came again. The same land of darkness and the same tower there and then gone just like before. With the images again came the song. But then there was something she hadn't seem before. Behind where the tower had fallen was a hill illuminated by moonlight. On the top of the hill was the figure of a person in flowing dark purple robes. In the figure's hand was a long halberd* which glinted brightly in the moonlight.

Like the night before the dream disturbed Sakura and she woke up early. Actually she woke about as early as possible at somewhere around one o'clock. She starred at the ceiling knowing she wouldn't be able to sleep without talking to someone. Not necessarily about the dream; she just wanted to be with someone before she slept and dreamt again.

Ordinarily she would have woken up her father but he had left for Tokyo that morning. She began entertaining the thought of waking Touya up. She knew he would be irritated and maybe yell at her but she knew that her brother loved her and wouldn't turn her away.

Sakura, without waking Kero crept down the dark hallway to Touya's room. She knocked and softly whimpered his name but there was no answer. Not wanting to raise her voice in the middle of the night, Sakura just opened the door, closed it and walked over to her brother's bed. He was sleeping on his side facing away from Sakura. She knelt down next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Touya?"

Touya rolled his eyes without moving and than shut them again. "What do you want squirt." He stated to the wall. He then decided that he was being a little too insensitive since he figured that she was in his room for a reason. He sat up in bed and put his feet on the floor. "Alright what's wrong?" He said less antagonistically. "Couldn't sleep?"

Sakura smiled at her brother and sat next to him on the bed. "Yah." She said and she leaned on his shoulder.

"Well you know, I can't do anything about your sleep habits." Touya said as he looked down at his sister clinging to his arm. "Hey are you okay?" Sakura wasn't moving. "Geese, wake me up just to fall asleep on my bed. Monster." Touya grumbled as he gently picked Sakura up a sleeping Sakura and took her back to her own bed. After he tucked her in he stopped at her doorway and looked at her. "I didn't want you to have to go through this again. Not if it's going to do this to you." Touya shut the door and went back to his room.

The next morning Sakura awoke a little confused as she could have sworn she fell asleep in Touya's room. She felt relived as she hadn't dreamt of dark hills or dark figures anymore that night. Only dreams about bunnies, Yukito and a confusing one about her and Syaoran at the park at night. It wasn't a dream about impending battle or anything negative that she could tell but it had an odd feel to it that Sakura couldn't identify.

She went to school with a smile and an overall cheerful attitude that morning and felt even better when she found that Kako was absent that day. She wondered a little bit as to where she was because it would only be her second day but it was a passive thought and left her mind quickly.

School ended and Sakura this time went to Tomoyo's house and studied and goofed off and than decided to walk home. On the way she decided to walk through the park because she liked the way it looked at sunset. As she walked along one of the paths through the park she saw someone sitting on a bench next to the path a few yards away. When she got closer she saw that it was a boy with dark brown hair and a familiar face holding something in his hands. She ran up to him and called his name. "Syaoran!"

Syaoran looked up and saw Sakura bounding toward him. A smile almost made it to his face but when she was a few feet away she tripped and fell down. Syaoran quickly stood up leaving the object on the bench. He knelt down next to Sakura. "Are you okay?" Sakura looked up at Syaoran embarrassed.

"Yah I'm fine." She said blushing.

They sat down on the bench so that Sakura could catch her breath. She glanced over to Syaoran and saw that he was holding the object again. It was a headband made of small white flowers. Sakura could see in Syaoran's face that he was still feeling depressed. Under the sleeve of his jacket she could see the white of his bandages. It would be a while before a deep cut like that one would heal. Sakura returned her attention to the headband. "Syaoran, what's that?"

Syaoran paused before he answered. He wanted to tell her about it or he would have hidden it when her first saw her, which was before she even saw him. He shifted it around in his hands for a while before speaking. "My mother sent this to me. They are my sister, Shiefa's flowers. Mother though that I might want them." He trailed off.

Sakura stayed silent. She didn't know anything to say other than that it wasn't his fault but it didn't seem appropriate in that moment. But before she could have said anything the band of flowers slipped from Syaoran's hands and fell to the ground. Syaoran didn't make any move to pick them up though. He just stared at them and put his hand on his wrist.

"Syaoran ." Sakura couldn't think of anything else to say but just the sound of her voice was enough for Syaoran. He picked it up off of the ground. Sakura could tell that even if he wouldn't admit it the band meant a lot to him. He looked down at it.

"Of all the deaths in my clan." Sakura barley heard Syaoran say. "and all the songs that have been sung."

Sakura was beginning to get worried. Syaoran seemed entranced or just deeply saddened. "Up where the griffins call. Down in the river's glade. Over where the shining tower falls. Death by the wing-ed blade." Syaoran said very softly.

"What!?" Sakura said loudly. Syaoran was jolted out of his 'trance' and looked at Sakura.

"What?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura looked at Syaoran in wonder. "What you just said. What was it?"

"I- it's a passage from a memorial ballad of my clan. It was written to commemorate and morn someone's death." Syaoran said.

Sakura hands found her star key around her neck. "Who's?" She said uncertain she wanted the answer.

Syaoran looked at Sakura blankly. "Ah, I don't really know."

"You don't." Sakura said halfway between relief and disappointment.

"My mother sang it to me when I was younger but she never told me about the events behind it. And come to think of it, the song isn't written about in any of my families histories or in any of Clow's books." Li said thoughtfully. Sakura could tell that she had brought up some questions that Li had already thought of at one point.

Syaoran looked back down at the band. His expression changed back to sadness. "It's a reminder of past things." Syaoran was talking about the band now. He looked at Sakura. She thought she could almost see a smile. She almost gasped when she felt his hand take hers. He place the band in her palm and closed her fingers over it. "I want you to have it." He said.

Before Sakura could object Li stood up and walked away into the dimming light and shadows of the park. She looked at the flowery band and smiled.

Away in the darkness of the a tall and wide tree a female figure in robes stood. The last of the days light faded away as the figure gripped a staff with her small hands. As the wind blew through the figure's long black hair her eyes stayed fixed on the figures making their way through the park away from the bench. The girl ran her fingers gently down her lips as she looked onto Syaoran's dark figure. "No more mistakes. There will be no more mistakes." The girl said in a longing tone. "You will come to me and not her."

Authors Notes: * a halberd, for those of you who aren't apt to ancient European weapons, is a long spear with a small axe head on it.