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//Stars//
by: Kinomoto Touya (formerly known as Ceres ^_^)
Chapter Four: Light and Spirit [Hikaru to Rei]
Author's Notes: Gomen for not updating for a long period of time. Firstly, I have no time. Second, I have no inspiration and third, I keep on creating other stories (which, I also cannot finish). Hehehe….again, words in italic happened in the past.

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//Stars//
Chapter Four: Light and Spirit [Hikaru to Rei]

"Pink sash and ribbons is…" Meilin asked, looking at her checklist.

"Checked," Tomoyo replied, smilingly.

"Invitations?"

"Checked,"

"Candies?"

"Checked,"

"Chocolates?"

"Checked,"

"Potato chips?"

"Potato chips is," Tomoyo paused with her realizations. "HEY...Melin-chan, we are supposed to check things that are for Sakura's second birthday party and not your snacks." Tomoyo chuckled.

Melin frowned as she threw herself upon Tomoyo's lavender and white colored bed. Her arms and legs are wide spread. She yawned loudly. "Ah...all this checking makes me real hungry. But if it wasn't for Syaoran and Sakura, then I won't organize this little party."

"But Meilin," Tomoyo lies beside her. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What is it?"

"All of this are your idea,"

"Right," Meilin sighed and grinned. A light feeling then entered her. "You know what, Daidouji, though the thought of another woman getting Syaoran-kun away from me, I still feel happy. It is because the person I love most is happy. Really, I longed to see him blush and smile again."

"You've been away for so long," Tomoyo started. "But didn't you find a boy who replaced Syaoran in your heart."

"Daidouji," she breathed heavily. "No one could ever replaced Syaoran in my heart. Even if I will be able to meet thousands of Syaoran, he is still my only one. That would never change."

"I see," Tomoyo said with a tone of sorrow. "But then, falling in love will never be happy for you. You would be hurt always. The pain...the heartache...it shall never leave you."

"I suppose," Meilin replied. "But it is better this way."

"Why?"

"My beloved is happy," Meilin answered happily. "I let him go. The person whom he love the most loved him back. Though we have a little problem to be settled here, I know we can fix it---they can fix it. For they love each other and besides..."

A sudden change is seen from Meilin's face. Meilin then rolled back from Tomoyo.

"Meilin-chan?" she started. "What is wrong?"

"Who am I kidding?!" Tomoyo couldn't see her face, but she knew that tears again flowed down her eyes. "I love Syaoran! I still do! I promise I'll never cry for him again...but what am I doing, Daidoji-chan? I am so stupid. I am suppose to accept the fact that he...Syaoran...shall never love me EVER! It hurts, it really hurts. But, who am I fooling? You? Sakura-chan? Syaoran? I just can't..."

"Let go of your feelings," Tomoyo finished. "It hurts, so much...right? Cry...cry as much as you like. i would be right here to comfort you. I still cannot understand the power of love, but deep inside...I do not know...something inside of me is telling me that I understand you."

Meilin then stopped and sit up. Hurriedly, she wiped away her tears and turned around. She gazed at Tomoyo's mist-like eyes---it is deep and it seemed in pain.

"What do you mean?" Meilin asked, a tone of shock is pretty obvious. "Do you, by any chance, is in..."

"I am in love with somebody," Tomoyo finished bitterly, but a small smile curled her lips.

Millions of questions entered Meilin but then she decided to ask, "Huh...since when?"

"I do not know," replied Tomoyo dreamily. "It seems that I love that someone even before I was born in this world."

"D-don't tell me-" Meilin cried moving an inch or two from Meilin, shakingly pointing her index finger to her.

"Don't tell you what?" Tomoyo inquired.

"Y-you are...in...love...with..."

"With?"

"Syaoran????"

"Iie," Tomoyo shook her head.

"To Yamazaki-kun?! Hiiragizawa-kun?! Kinomoto Touya-san?!" Meilin blurted, every inch of her body craves for the answer.

"Iie,"

"Iie?" Meilin just cannot believe it. "In any case...is it Tsukihiro Yukito-san? Or maybe...even..."

"TERADA-sensei," Meilin paused, breathing heavily. She then gathered her strength and continued.

"Or maybe you are a lesbian...in love with...Sakura-chan, Naoko-chan? Chiharu-chan?! Or maybe even with me!!!"

"Iie. I am not a lesbian either. I am in love with a man." Tomoyo added, "Of course."

"THEN WHO IS IT?"

"I'll tell a story for you first." Tomoyo beamed. Her voice changed to serious and her smile curled back to a sad one. "I am six years old, when my fraternal twin brother named Hikaru and my father died in a car accident. I couldn't understand much but I know I loved them. Espacially my brother. We were never separated from each other and we enjoy each other's company. He always defend me and cheers me up when I am down. I really, really love him."

"Wait a minute," Meilin said, thinking deeply. "If your brother named 'Hikaru' died about tweleve years ago. Then who is the 'Hikaru' whom me and Syaoran-kun caught kissing with Sakura-chan?"

"I was always looking for my brother, and so is okaasan," Tomoyo went on. "I keep on asking her questions that as if he is still alive."

"Hikaru went with father right?" young Tomoyo asked her mother. She tightly held her big white teddy bear in her right hand, and the hand of her mother in the other. "They went to grandfather and grandmother. They will visit them...right?"

"Yes," Sonomi painfully replied to her daughter. "Your brother and your father just visited your grandparents. I am sure-" she forced a smile for her daughter. "that they would return very soon."

"Really, mother?" Tomoyo lit up. "Really, really?"

"Yes," a pain struck Sonomi's heart, beads of tears formed by her eyes. "Really, really...my child."

"Wow!" Tomoyo then felt like talking a lot. "When they return, I'll show Hikaru that I can already count numbers one to five hundred---he can only count up to one hundred. I'll show him too my new secret hiding place where my deepest secrets lies. And I'll ask father to help in Math--I am having a little hard time 'carrying' numbers in addition. Yes...I can't wait for them. I want to see them again!!!"

"Yes, you will see them again."

"One day though, mother bought a boy as old as me," Tomoyo proceeded. "It is very odd for he looks exactly like my brother, Hikaru!"

"Hikaru!" Tomoyo then ran to the pale boy his mother bought in. She tightly gaped him with her little arms and fingers. "Hikaru, oh, how much I miss you!"

"I-I..." the boy didn't know how to exactly react. "I miss you too, Tomoyo-chan."

Hearing those words, Tomoyo stepped back.

"You," Tomoyo uttered sadly. "You are not Hikaru."

Sonomi looked down, almost wanting to cry. The boy just stood there emotionlessly.

"Hikaru would bonk my head," Tomoyo narrated with a smile. "And he would comment how I look like a pig. He would run away running while I...I would go after him..." she turned to the boy. "But you...I cannot feel any emotions at all. You are not him even if you look like him."

"Yes, I am not Hikaru," the boy said coldly. "My name is Rei."

"It turns out that the boy mother brought in was Rei," Tomoyo explained. "Rei was adopted by my mother so that we won't be lonely---for he looks so exactly like Hikaru. But in the end I finally accepted that Hikaru is Hikaru and Rei is Rei---they are both two different people that means so much to me. They cannot replace each other."

"What do you mean?" Meilin asked.

"Though Rei was a little cold, I learned to befriend him," Tomoyo replied. "I learned to love him the way he is. I cannot really explain it. Before, when I learned the word 'infatuation' I thought this is it. But after so many years, I know it. I understand the way I really feel...I love him."

"I see..." Meilin nodded, feeling every word Tomoyo said.. "But why do you call Rei, Hikaru still."

"That is my mother's wish," she said. "We just fulfilled it for we cannot bear adding more pain in her heart."

"Does he know that you love him?" Meilin asked curiously.

"Yes," Tomoyo replied, shyly. "I just do not know if he loves me."

"Huh?"

"He once told me that I meant everything to him," Tomoyo's face suddenly went down. "But when I asked him how his date with Sakura went, he said..."

"She is very unique, wonderful..." Rei dreamily narrated. "You are right, Tomoyo-chan. Probably she is the girl whom I dreamt of all my life."

"Like you, I wanted to hate myself," Tomoyo bitterly said. "But I cannot hate her. I have no choice but to hate myself even more." Tomoyo, couldn't help it. She bursted to tears, Meilin came in and embraced her tightly.

"I admire you for being a very strong woman, Tomoyo-chan," Meilin comfortingly said. "Do not worry, daijobu desu."

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Author's Notes: Hehehe...that is quite a revalation, right? Some points aren't stressed deeply---but you'll see them in the next chapters. From now on, I'll promise to finish this fan fiction first before creating another story or creating some more chapters for the rest of my stories...sorry guys. But then again, I guess I'll eat my words ^0^. So many ideas for fanfic keep on forming in my head like crazy! Hehehe....I just need to find time to write it and express it!!!

Well, see yah! Please review. Or flame (constructively, please ^0^)!

Glossary:
Iie: No
Daijobu desu: It will be alright.

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