SUMMARY: D.N.Angel crossover. Syaoran has not contacted Sakura for the past five years after the TeddyBear incident in Volume12 of the manga. Her depression has affected her greatly, and everyone notices it. Even the new foreign exchange student who comes straight from Azumano. The appearance of the new kaitou Dark has also thrown Sakura off-kilter as she inadvertently reveals the feelings that she has been repressing for five years…
DISCLAIMER: CCS belongs to CLAMP. DNAngel belongs to Yukiru Sugisaki. This story idea belongs to me. Don't sue or steal. Or else…!!
"Sakura-chan~ look over here! Yeah, that's it. You look great," Tomoyo said from behind her video camera lens. Sakura sweatdropped as she tugged at her overly frilly dress.
"Tomoyo… why are we doing this again?" she asked, staring at her toes. Kero-chan punched his fists energetically into the air.
"Just because the cards are all caught and sealed, doesn't mean we can't have a little fun with them! And besides, Tomoyo likes filming us in action!" he said excitedly, fluttering towards Sakura and landing on her shoulder. Sakura sighed, as Tomoyo gleefully placed a mask onto Sakura that covered only the surrounding area of her eyes.
"You mean filming me as I order cards to attack me and then more of me running around?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Tomoyo chuckled.
"Don't worry, Sakura. You make it look authentic! As if the card were really attacking you!" she said. Putting down her camera, she walked up to Sakura and brushed away invisible dirt from Sakura's puffy, white skirt and stood back. "You look great," she said, beaming at her.
Sakura chuckled nervously.
"So where do you want us?" Kero-chan asked, fluttering around with adrenaline. Tomoyo waved absently to a spot next to King Penguin.
"Okay Sakura, now." Tomoyo said. "I'll start rolling once you're ready,"
Sakura nodded, and called upon her cane.
"Key which hides the power of the stars, reveal your true power to me! I command you by contract!"
A bright light enveloped her and her magic circle appeared, glowing brightly from underneath her.
"Release!"
The tiny key, which floated in front of her, grew and with an expert toss, Sakura caught it in its new form, in the size of a cane.
"Cool, Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo shouted happily.
"Sakura! Use the Watery card!" Kero called out.
"…Against what?" she asked, scratching her head with her cane.
"Just pretend! This is a movie! So start acting!" Kero responded.
Sakura sighed, and dug out the Watery Card.
"Watery!" she shouted, as she hit it squarely with her staff. "Attack! Uh… the air?"
Watery shot out from the card and flew into the air recklessly. Tomoyo's camera panned to the dark sky. Everyone watched as Watery flew higher and higher into the air, a relentless whirlpool.
Sakura watched the card, a bit bored, when suddenly, a black shadow moved across the sky, and just as suddenly, Watery attacked it. The shadow seemed to have extremely black wings, and as Watery went rushing angrily towards it, it tried to turn and fly away, but ended up flapping awkwardly. The delay cased Watery to hit it strongly, and it fell towards the ground.
Sakura yelled with shock, and commanded Watery to return. She hastily shoved the card and her key back into her pocket and ran towards the area where the thing had fell, with Tomoyo and Kero struggling to catch up with her. But Sakura was more lithe and didn't have an expensive camera to be careful for, and she outstripped them easily. She ran to the forested park next to King Penguin Park, and disappeared among the thick foliage. Tomoyo's cries and Kero's shouts could not reach her.
Heavy panting indicated where the fallen form was. She pushed away shrubs and was surprised to see a person. A man, actually, with dark purplish hair and an elaborate costume. There were dark, black feathers strewn everywhere. Sakura raised an eyebrow as she knelt by the unconscious stranger.
"Hey… mister," she said, shaking the man, and noting to herself that his costume was made of leather. Which was strange – she didn't see too much of people flying around with silly costumes.
Sounds like me. She though wryly. The leather didn't seem to be holding up too well either, now that it was wet.
She shook a bit more firmly, and the man groaned. He swore loudly, and struggled to sit up.
"What the hell was that?" he shouted, his arm covering his eyes.
"Are you alright?"
The man rubbed his eyes with his glove-clad hand, and opened one eye blearily to look at the voice's speaker. Both eyes widened in surprise, as he saw Sakura.
"Hey," he said, his voice deepening a notch, and he grinned slyly at her. Sakura's "Hoe?" look came, as he eyed her with a strange look. "What's a young girl like you doing in here in the middle of the night? In… a costume?" he asked, reaching out to touch a frill. She absently brushed his hand away.
"I could ask the same thing about you," she said, "Who are you?"
The man stared at the girl with amazement, and then began to laugh. "Y-you don't know who I am?!" he asked.
"Hoe?" Sakura asked. "Am I supposed to?"
The man scoffed. "Tomoeda," he muttered, shaking his head. "So isolated. This would have never happened in Azumano,"
"Eh?"
He turned back to her, with a frown. "That's a first. Someone who doesn't know me," he got up, ignoring the cracking of joints and his extremely sore back. He shook back his extremely wet hair. He then whistled, and suddenly, a black, feathery creature came flying towards the man, and landed on his back. The man fished around into his jacket with the many buckles and managed to pull out a card. He handed it to her, and patted her head with a small chuckle.
"We'll see more of each other, I hope?" he said merrily. The black creature spread large, voluminous black wings and lifted the man into the arm. "And next time, without your mask!" he shouted, before flying away.
"Sakura!"
Sakura stared at the card, and slowly turned around to meet Tomoyo, who was panting heavily and an infuriated Kero. Sakura laughed nervously.
"What… was… that?!" Kero asked, punching the sky.
" 'Kaitou… Dark'?" Sakura read off the card. She frowned in confusion. "Kaitous have cards now?"
Tomoyo aimed her camera towards the card. "I suppose so," she said, with an impressed look. Kero stroked his chin.
"Dark…?" he mumbled.
"Kero-chan?" Sakura asked, trying to catch her guardian's eyes. Kero waved his hand carelessly over to her.
"It's nothing, it's nothing," he said. "I guess that's a rap!" he said happily. "Now to go home for some cake!!"
"HOEEE…"
+++
Sakura sighed heavily as she got into her bed.
Another day done… she thought to herself. She pulled her blankets over her, and made sure that Syaoran was sitting next to her pillow. She hugged it close to her and nuzzled her nose into its velvety cloth. Being sure not too sniff to loudly so Kero wouldn't hear, she finally allowed the tears to come to her eyes.
I miss you, she thought. It's been… too long.
Images of the boy she loved flitted teasingly through her mind, a bit blurry from the many years that had passed by.
Five. Five years.
"I'll come back! I promise!"
When, Syaoran? When…?
More tears came as she remembered clearly Syaoran's waving hand as the bus drove him away.
There were no letters. No phone calls. Not even emails. No contact from him whatsoever. Sakura gave up checking long ago for anything.
He forgot about me. He found someone else and forgot about me.
She wrote to him every day for the first two years. But she received no answer. Touya had commented numerous times on how much paler she looked. On how unhappy she felt to him, since with Yue growing a bit stronger independently, he had received some of his powers back. The honey-milks treats were every Sunday now.
Sakura knew people were worrying about her. Every moment she frowned, she was attacked with comforting caresses and soft coos of encouragement. So she realized, at fifteen, that all she had to do was pretend to be alright. Be like she was, years ago, and no one would notice. And she had enough powers to hide it, so not even her brother or father could tell at moments.
Everyone only assumed that she had healed and moved on.
But her wound was far from healed. She had been cut deeply, and every night, when there wasn't anything to distract her – no Tomoyo films, no video games with Kero-chan, no school, no festivals… just at night, right before bed, the memories and bitter thoughts came crashing back to her.
Sometimes she regretted not realizing her feelings sooner. Sometimes, she thought to herself, that his move to Hong Kong could have been avoided, if she had done something. And these thoughts ate away at her every night.
Friends and family weren't enough for her. She needed him. Not only was half of her heart missing, but her soul, her essence, her innocence, her self, was gone as well.
She bit back her sobs by biting down on her pillow. She knew that these were the times when her magic was weakest, and anyone with magic could feel her from a mile radius away. She was finally lulled to sleep by her intense concentration on hiding herself with her magic.
In the drawer in her desk, Kero lied on a pillow of soft cotton, his eyes wide awake.
+++
"Good morning, Sakura!""Ohayo!" Sakura greeted in return, as she entered her classroom. She flashed a bright smile, which silently relieved many of the hearts inside the classroom. As she sat in her seat, Chiharu and Naoko sat next to her, and giggled softly.
"Did you see the news last night?" Naoko asked, her eyes twinkling from behind her glasses.
"No, I was busy," Sakura said, remembering the previous night's expenditure.
"Oh it was fabulous!" Chiharu cried. "There's a thief in our town!"
Sakura's eyebrows shot up. "Thief?" Kaitou Dark? "W-What's so fabulous about a criminal?"
Everyone in the classroom froze, and gasped.
"It wasn't just any thief! It was the Famous Kaitou Dark!" Naoko cried.
H-Hoe??
Everyone excitedly talked in loud whispers about how Kaitou Dark had just recently stole a landscape painting that was held at the Tomoeda Art Museum. Sakura's head swiveled from side to side as everyone commented on the thief's extraordinary costume, "dashing" good looks, and clever mind. The girls swooned over Dark's handsome face, while the boys excitedly portrayed themselves in their own mind wearing a costume made of leather and flying around at light with black, feathered wings, breaking the law along with girls' hearts.
"Ohayou gozaimasu," Tomoyo said sweetly, as she entered the room. But she was ignored as everyone continued their conversations. Tomoyo appeared confused for a moment, and then walked over towards a stunned Sakura.
"What's going on?" Tomoyo asked. "That was very odd for everyone to ignore me like that… although I'm not saying I shouldn't be ignored, it just felt… odd…"
"Everyone's talking about that weirdo I met yesterday," Sakura whispered. "That Kaitou, Dark."
Tomoyo's eyebrow rose.
"Oh? Well, one of the maids mentioned a painting being stolen… do you mean to say, he did it?" she asked. Sakura nodded.
"That's odd. If everyone knows who it is, then why isn't he caught?" Tomoyo wondered aloud. Chiharu laughed.
"That's his appeal! He's so mysterious! Not like some people…" she trailed off.
"Did you know!" Yamazaki shouted, scaring the wits out of a group of girls, "That Kaitou Dark is actually hundreds of years old? So for anyone to date him it'd be pedoph…"
Chiharu's accurately aimed punch cut him off. He chuckled good-naturedly at his bloody nose.
"Good morning, class!" the sensei called out, as he entered the room. "Into your seats everyone, we need to greet a new student,"
Tomoyo rushed into her seat next to Sakura. "Maa," Tomoyo murmured, as she took a swift peek at Sakura's contorted face, which had a grimace one second, and a falsely painted smile the next.
"Class, please welcome Niwa Daisuke," the sensei said, as he wrote the name on the board. A tall young man with extremely red hair and bright crimson eyes walked into the classroom, grinning nervously at everyone.
Sakura slunk lower into her seat, as she realized where the only empty seat was.
"Well, Niwa," the sensei said thoughtfully. "I guess the only seat is behind Kinomoto. Kinomoto-san, please stand up,"
Everyone nervously looked at the shaking girl, as she stood up. The new student walked obediently to the empty seat behind her. He smiled a greeting, which she falteringly returned.
"Okay class, let's begin,"
