Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. I never have and I never will.

Summary: By day, she's a host on the local radio, by night, just another waitress at a café in downtown Tomoeda. Life's hard for Kinomoto Sakura, and it's about to get even harder. Especially when he shows up again... AU

Notes: And thank you to all the reviewers. The reviews are much appreciated! ^_^

Footprints in the Sand

"You have some explanation for this, obviously?"

Syaoran seldom heard those words; yet, he dreaded each one. They filled him with guilt, for the thing that he would have to do. He didn't know that when he had gotten in with this girl, that she would go to such lengths to get rid of him.

Most just asked him to leave, and he usually complied with their request.

But this one was different. There was something about her that drew him to her, like a moth to a light. There was something, something that he couldn't quite put his finger on, but he knew that something was there. She was like him in some ways, yet she was different. He could tell that she had something like what he had, but he didn't know what.

Maybe it was magic.

Or maybe it was just him being delusional. He didn't quite know.

"Li?"

Syaoran's horrified face rose to meet Sakura's eyes. She was staring at him with the utmost curiosity, obviously wondering what was going on. She had seen him stop flowing water dead in its tracks. Of course, something was going on.

"Um... Sakura?" Syaoran was fiddling restlessly and constantly fidgeting.

"Spill," Sakura said, taking both mops, including the ancient one, and resting them against the damp fridge. "I want to know everything, and since it's a little mildew-prone here, I think we better go to your house. That'll give us privacy, since I know that my nephew and my friend will want to listen in on everything. It seems like you want to keep this to yourself as much as possible, and that you weren't intending to let anyone, much less me, see you do anything like this."

"Okay," was all Syaoran managed to get out. His hands went into his pockets and he rummaged around for his keys among the other crap that was in there. He emptied his pockets out onto the table. Sakura's eyebrows arched further and further up as she looked at the ever-growing pile of mess. The growing disbelief on her face, that Syaoran was happy to pretend not to notice, was priceless. It wasn't often that someone got to see what was in Syaoran's pockets.

Now she was going to think that he was even weirder.

If that were possible.

Sakura was looking very sceptical. "How does all of that fit in there?"

"Magic," Syaoran answered.

Sakura shook her head sadly and sighed deeply. "After what I've seen today, I don't think I'll ever be able to doubt anything. God, this is nuts..."

"Tell me about it," Syaoran said. Seeing Sakura's look, he hastily added, "Actually, don't."

Sakura's look faltered. "I can't believe all this stuff is happening to me."

Syaoran raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean, just you? You were the one who tried to spill over the bucket. How did you do that anyway? I didn't see your foot move or the mop move or anything." His gaze was piercing.

Sakura looked a little uncomfortable. "You were the one who froze the water," she pointed out. "If any of us was in the wrong, it was you."

"Me?" Syaoran asked. "How is that? Stopping the water was child's play where I came from... that was the basic stuff."

Sakura's stunned face halted him in his progress.

"I should probably stop here, anything else that I say might put you in danger," Syaoran said. His eyes met Sakura's and communication passed between them with a glance.

"Let's go to your house," Sakura suddenly said.

"Yeah, that might be a better place to discuss this," Syaoran said, sighing and massaging his temples with his fingertips.

Sakura's sharp glance made him hastily correct himself, "I mean, that would be a better place to discuss this."

Sakura was looking pointedly upstairs and Syaoran got the message. "Let me get my jacket." He searched around in the mess for a couple of moments and then tossed Sakura the keys. She caught them in one hand and stared at them suspiciously.

"Yes, they're mine," Syaoran said in exasperation. "Go out and start the car, but don't take off without me. You have no idea where my house is." He stood up, pushed the chair against the table, opened the lounge door and walked out into the space. Eyeing around the room, he spotted his jacket, one that he had flung down on a nearby chair.

He picked it up, and noticed the barest hints of energy signature, affirmation that there had been someone different in here lately. Most likely the brother.

Syaoran saw tufts of brown hair peeking over the top of an armchair rest. His face cracked into a wry half-smile and he shook his head ruefully. He decided not to bother the boy, being it was Roka, and he was meant to be upstairs with Tomoyo.

Syaoran knew that Sakura would be furious with her nephew if she knew that he had been sitting there eavesdropping on their conversation, and maybe she had had some idea, and that was why she was suggesting that they go to his place. It seemed like the right thing to do.

He wasn't really all that willing to talk about this to many other people.

He wanted to keep this secret, but that was unlikely to happen, as news in the Kinomoto household seemed to spread like wildfire. Sakura's family tended to like juicy gossip, spread mainly from Touya and Roka, as they were around the most often.

Tomoyo tended to help out too, as she was Sakura's best friend.

When Syaoran walked back through into the other room that he had been sitting in just moments earlier, Sakura was already gone, and he saw that the floor was still very wet and covered with water. He shook his head sadly, noting both mops were still leaning against the fridge and he looked at the ancient one with almost dismay. The head was almost falling off of its handle. Little bits of sponge flaked off its metal rim. It looked well past its used-by date.

His eyes narrowed a little. Maybe it was time to do something with this thing.

His mind thought better of it. Nah... Syaoran thought. Sakura would probably kill me if I did anything to it. Besides, it's not worth it anyway. I don't really want her wrath on me in any way. She can be one scary person sometimes. He left the mop alone and walked through the house, seeing Tomoyo coming down the stairs.

Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him putting on his jacket. "Where's Sakura?" she asked.

Syaoran shrugged aimlessly. "She's coming to my house, we have something to discuss."

"Oh?" Tomoyo asked with raised eyebrows, a mild look of surprise on her face. "Why?"

Syaoran's eyes met Tomoyo's. He averted his gaze and looked a bit uncomfortable. "There's something that I need to talk to her about, and I can't risk anyone else hearing about it. I'm sorry, Tomoyo, but there's not much that I can tell you. I'm not taking him either." Syaoran pointed his thumb behind him in the direction of the lounge.

"Roka?" Tomoyo asked. "What's he doing down there? I told him specifically to stay upstairs while I came to talk to the both of you in person. There's something that I needed to talk to you about."

Syaoran looked back at Tomoyo again, making sure to keep Roka in check. The boy was hanging off of the seat, lying upside down in the other room, able to see clearly what was going on, but not able to hear anything. He was out of earshot. "Can it wait?" Syaoran asked.

Tomoyo looked out the door to see Sakura sitting in Syaoran's car, tapping the dashboard impatiently with her fingertips and staring out of the window at the rapidly colouring leaves. The seasons were shifting from summer into autumn and the leaves were changing from their usually green colour into hues of red, orange, yellow and brown. The fierce wind created tiny leave twisters and blasted leaves everywhere. The trees were a mix of colours.

Her eyes went back to Syaoran. "Yeah, it can wait." She rubbed the toe of her tarnished brown boot against the floor at a stain absentmindedly.

Syaoran looked Tomoyo right in the eyes and smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Tomoyo, I really appreciate it. This is really urgent. I have to talk to Sakura for a while, and then I'll contact you on your mobile and tell you where my house is, etc." He lifted up a leg, tied his shoes quickly, and then shrugged deeper into his coat, feeling the cold chill from the wind as it blustered outside. He shoved his hands deeply into the pockets of his fleece-lined jacket and felt grateful.

He turned back to look at Tomoyo and nodded. Lifting one hand to shut the door behind him, he caught Tomoyo's arm. She turned back to look at him in surprise. "Don't worry about Sakura," he said, "she's safe with me. I'm not going to do anything to her."

Tomoyo looked relieved. "Thank you, Li." She put one hand on the doorknob and another on the frame and shut the door, then heaved a shuddering sigh. I just don't trust people easily... Tomoyo thought. So far, Li has done nothing wrong. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic. I should let Sakura make her own decisions, but she's made things so hard for herself so far. I'll let Sakura be. She's old enough to take care of herself, but sometimes I fear for her, she hasn't exactly had the easiest life ever.

"Too-moo-yoo?" Roka asked. He pulled on the hem of the top that she was wearing.

She didn't even notice him until he started poking her.

"Huh? Oh, Roka, what is it?" she asked.

"Tomo, what are we going to do about Auntie?" Roka asked again.

"Sakura should be fine," Tomoyo replied back to the child, crouching down to the boy's level. "But how about we go clean up that mess so that it doesn't reek of mildew in here when Sakura gets back."

Roka wrinkled his nose. "Do we have to?" he asked. "I don't like cleaning."

"I know you don't, but it's something that you did, and I know that Sakura and Li started to clean up, but they had to go somewhere and so it's only us here, I'm pretty sure that your dad is still with Nakuru, and we don't want to bother them now, do we?"

Roka shook his head vehemently. "No." He knew how annoyed his dad could get if he was bothered when he was with his girlfriend. That's why he had sent him over to his auntie's, but she wasn't here anymore, so he had to hang out with his auntie's best friend, who was usually quite nice and didn't make him do anything. But he had to clean up the mess that he had made, even though he didn't want to.

It was probably fair though.

His auntie shouldn't have to clean this up. She hadn't been the one that had caused it. He was a little curious about what that Li person was doing with his auntie though. She didn't really like guys that much, and he had been following her around for ages. Well, ever since her accident anyway, and that had been a few days ago.

He had never seen someone who had insisted on spending so much time with her. And also, he'd never seen anyone that had been able to baby-sit him and live to tell the tale. Most ran out of the door screaming. That Li guy had even played "Horsie" with him, something that his auntie had told him to make that Li guy do. The Li guy had been a little reluctant, but he had ended up doing it, and Roka had only been too happy to comply.

"Come on, Roka, we have a lot of work to do," Tomoyo said, and she walked into the kitchen. Then she stopped short. The floor was dry already. Everything was dry, including the bench, sink, and everything else that had been wet. Tomoyo raised one eyebrow. How had this happened? Then she looked down to see Roka's beaming face and she ruffled his hair. "Good job, kid," she said, smiling.

"What did I do?" Roka asked innocently.

"Rascal," Tomoyo said affectionately. "Come on, let's go get some ice-cream and go rent out a movie or something, because those other two could be a while." She picked up her keys from the table and steered an enthusiastic Roka away and out the door. She picked Sakura's house key up on the way out and locked the door, then smiled satisfactorily.

It would be a while before Syaoran and Sakura would be able to get in.

Sakura had forgotten her house key.

And Tomoyo now had it.

Meaning, they would be locked out.

+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+

Syaoran opened his car door and slid down into the driver's seat. Sakura tossed the keys over to him silently and continued to stare out of the windscreen. He looked at her for a few moments before adjusting his seat-belt, putting the keys into the ignition and starting the car.

Sakura looked over at Syaoran. "How much are you going to tell me about this?" she asked.

"As much as I want to. But not here," Syaoran replied. He pulled out onto the street and started driving towards his house.

Sakura sighed. "Okay then, just let me know when we're there."

"It'll probably be about a half hour or so, I live more out in the country," Syaoran said.

"Okay, then, I'm going to sleep."

"Tired huh?"

"No, duh."

Sakura yawned widely and drifted off to sleep.

Syaoran looked over at her, shook his head a little and focused on the road. There was a lot to tell, and he needed some time to think about it.

Maybe this silence would give him that.

He decided to use it well.

To be continued...

Well? This was a more speedy update than the other one. I was intending to make the chapter longer, but... I didn't really want to give more away. Well, thanks for the reviews!

The next update will be sometime next weekend. I won't promise anything though, 'cause you never know with me.

--Kari