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On a Wing and a Prayer
Written by: Kinomoto Touya
Summary: If you only have three days to live and you are entitled to wish for three wishes, what will you do and what will you wish? Sakura and Syaoran fic again!

Author's Notes: Thanks for the reviews! I know the first chapter is kind of crappy, so ehehehe.

Hmmm...about the queries of ethereal-moonrain, yeah the Fates are females but no, I have not based my fan fiction from Greek Mythology. I made Death into a woman because woman is compassionate and emotional just the way death should be.

I made Fate into a man because man is like Fate. Man and Fate almost never changes his mind but with this attitude, it leads to nothing but sloppy outcomes (just kidding XD!).

Hah, but more about these two characters later. You'll see!

Also, if ever you are wondering, where I got the 'Jack and Poi', I watched it from GTO, another great anime/manga. Got it? Well, another chapter to go now...



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"The Lord gives perfect peace to those whose faith is firm."
---Isaiah 26.3

On a Wing and a Prayer
Chapter II: Intra Muros (Within the Walls)

Rain, rain go away...
Come again another day...
Little Johnny wants to play...

Quietly, a little boy listens to the sound of laughter from the other room---their laughter. He was inside the other room---alone. The day would surely be a long one with someone who is like him---apart from the group, lonely. For a person who often uses the pronoun 'them' than 'we', a closure to life is what they really needed. Like a very small island in an endless ocean he is---just waiting for the great waves to destroy him.

It wasn't raining. But for him, the sun never really went up. In the darkness of his loneliness and the pain in his heart, he only wishes to be taken by the angel of death. It is very strange for a ten-year old boy to think like that. But it is very painful for him.

"I-I want to," he shyly uttered just moments ago. "I want to join you in your game."

"You can't!" the other kids in the ward nastily said so. "You might just...die or something!"

The kids in the ward---they were ill too. Their cheeks were pale and can't move much. But the little boy was different, hardly can't he move his body. He doesn't speak much too.

He was in a bad nightmare. And now all he wanted was to wake up.

"Oh, you are now awake!" a nurse clad in fitted white garments gleefully entered the room, pushing in a tray of hearty breakfast---scrambled egg, three pieces of toast, steamy hot chocolate beautified with a vase of white roses. "Now it is time for your breakfast...Syao..."

She noticed the trace of sadness in the child's face, "Syaoran?"

"Uh, good morning, Nurse Rika Sasaki," he gloomily greeted.

"Uh...'morning, Syaoran!" she beamed. "Oh come on, don't put that look on your face! Smile! Another great day has come."

Syaoran just stared down.

"What is wrong, Syaoran?" Nurse Rika thoughtfully asked. "Did they..."

Syaoran looked away from Nurse Rika.

"Uh, do you want me to do the talking to them?" Nurse Rika thoughtfully offered.

"How is Sakura-chan?" Syaoran inquired.

"She is still sleeping," she answered quickly and very softly.

"That's good," Syaoran smiled a bit, looking at his blanket. "We'll play later when she wakes up. It has been days since I last saw her."

"Oh dear," Nurse Rika's encouraging smile disappeared and her eyes filled with worry. Her voice moved a tone lower. "She is not well."

"Not well?" Syaoran alarmingly look upon Nurse Rika's youthful face.

"Syaoran, I am so sorry, but you have to know the truth by now," she heavily said. "This would be very, very hard to take because I know, she is the only friend you have in the children's ward. But cancer cells invaded her body thoroughly. Her leukemia is in Stage Four already, you know. I am afraid that..."

Nurse Rika shut her eyes and gripped her chest strongly.

"You are afraid of?" Syaoran clasped his hand over Nurse Rika's shoulder and hollered. "Tell me! Tell me! Sakura would me alright, wouldn't she? She would play with me later right? Right? Am i not right, Nurse Rika, tell me!"

"Syaoran, calm down!" Nurse Rika sobbed, pulling Syaoran's body in her loving arms. "Calm down!"

"Sakura, would be alright, am I not right?" he persisted, his eyes were filled with tears. His innocent tears, his dreadful shouts stopped everyone in that ward from doing anything. All eyes turned to Syaoran and Nurse Rika. Suddenly, an impulse stroke at Syaoran's heart---a very painful impulse. Syaoran then stopped talking and clenches his left chest. His pale face turned lavender, like something is suffocating him to death.

"Sa-ku-ra..." Syaoran breathed and his brown eyes shut down.

"Naoko-chan!" Rika shouted to the nurse wearing glasses, while checking up on Syaoran. "Naoko-chan! Call Dr. Yoshiyuki Terada immediately!"

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"How is it to die, Eriol?"

This question suddenly breaks the perfectly wonderful silence. Nadesiko Kinomoto, Sakura's mother was buried in such a beautiful place. Anyone would have wanted to be buried in a small chaplet architecture near a small river nearby with birds flying high upon your ground, swans swimming in the river and nature guarding you silently. That place is almost so near to heaven.

Sakura blinked. Eriol remained silent.

"It is okay," Sakura grinned. "You do not need to tell me if you do not want to..."

"I do not remember it anymore Sakura," Eriol finally said. Tomoyo and Kero who were offering pinks in Nadesiko's tomb then was suddenly alarmed.

"You don't?" Sakura repeated sadly. "But how about your family? Your friends? The memories you've shared together? Would Death just remove that instantly?"

"I do not know," Eriol shrugged. "All I know is Death is being born backwards?"

"Backwards?" Sakura scratched her head. "What do you mean?"

"He means like an infant we were delivered in the after life," Tomoyo supplied. "Like a little child we do not know what to do or how to express ourselves. We just woke up in an empty white room with nothing but cold, barren walls. Nothing was stored in our minds. Only two questions entered our minds at those times: 'Where am I? and 'Who am ?' Even the language we have used in our previous life were erased completely."

"I do not want to remember my previous life either," Eriol then spoke. "The hidden and only reason on why Death removed my memory is because my previous life was sad and I had almost not felt happiness."

"How did you know?" Sakura inquired. "You can't remember anything, right?"

"I don't," he agreed. "But to be Angels of Death or Grim Reapers like we are, there is only one requirement and that is to have a very sad past. Plus, I am never really a happy spirit. Something seems to be lacking in me always."

"But, why..." Sakura stopped and just embraced herself sadly.

"What is wrong, Sakura?" Eriol placed his arm on Sakura. "Sorry for making you feel bad because of my story."

"I am not feeling bad, Eriol," Sakura explained. "My feeling is more of---sad. Father told me when I was a little child that mother is already an angel and she would eternally guide us from the heavens and that she would listen to every prayer that I offer to her because she was an angel. I offer her a prayer almost every time my mind is free especially at night. But...what if she was a Grim Reaper too...then all my prayers---who listened to my prayers then? And can't she remember me, as a daughter or how about, Touya-onichan? And how about father, the only man she ever loved? Everything is not just right...like something is very, very unfair."

"She is listening, Sakura," Kero spoke. "I know she is."

"How did you know?"

"It is like this, Sakura," Kero started. "Even if your mother barely stayed in this world, you made her happy. No matter how tough things happened in her life, she is gratefully honored to have a family like yours especially to have a daughter like you. She is still blessed with her memory Sakura, she is always there beside you, your older brother and your father. She is your guardian angel who listens with every happiness, sadness, loneliness and emptiness in your heart."

"Really? What makes you say that?" Sakura's eyes brightens with hope.

"She told me so," Kero grinned. "For she is right beside you this very moment."

"Mother..." Sakura sighed.

"Huh?" Eriol and Tomoyo looked around. "We don't."

"Of course you can't!" Kero laughed. "Only a Spirit Guide like me could only see guardian angels, as if you do not know that."

"We don't" Eriol and Tomoyo chorused.

Kero sighed. "Oh well, you are still rookies, that is quite acceptable."

"But where will I go, Kero-chan?" Sakura asked worriedly. "Would I be a guardian angel too like mother?" her voice's tone then suddenly loses hope. "Or would I be placed within the walls of forgetfulness."

"Honestly," Kero tightened his squeaky voice, closing his eyes. "Brace yourself Sakura..."

"You mean there is a decision already?" Tomoyo questioned in shock.

"Whatever the decision is," Sakura bravely said. "I am ready..."

Tomoyo, Eriol and Sakura waited intently for the words of Kero.

"Honestly," Kero coughed. "The decision is...according the the Council of Death otherwise known as the C.O.D. there...there is no decision yet!"

The jaws of the three dropped solid down the ground.

"You...almost...killed...me..." Sakura panted right in front of Kero's face.

"Put yourself together, guys!" Kero shouted angrily. "How am I suppose to know? I am a Spirit Guide. Get it? Only a Spirit Guide. I held no responsibility with the judiciary system of the dead, as if you do not know that!"

"I don't," Sakura huffed. "How am I suppose to know?"

"But Sakura, remember this," Kero firmly told her. "Just keep a whole lot of faith in yourself. And with that, I assure you, the rest would follow."

"Just keep faith in myself..." she repeated with her heart.

"It is almost time, Sakura," Eriol reminded. "We better be ready to leave."

"Just one more prayer, okay?" Sakura pleaded.

"Fine then," Eriol smiled. "By the way Sakura, this tomb of your mother is really, really beautiful."

"Oh, thanks," she gratefully bowed. "Father owned a fairly big business before that's why mom's tomb is like this. But our business then mellowed down, we have to sell our mansion plus some of our stocks in the stock market. Oh well, at least this is still maintained well, my brother Touya can go forth to Tokyo University on April and my medical expenses were paid somehow. Plus it was nice living in an apartment, I've met a lot of friends..."

Eriol smiled even broader. "You are such a good person, Sakura. I just hope that you live a little longer for surely, somebody will love you with all his heart and soul and maybe he will even die to protect you."

"Nobody wouldn't like me," Sakura grinned. "Who would have want a dying person like me? Thank you for such kind words anyway, Eriol."

Sakura quickly run to a pew and kneeled down.

Eriol was left at her back thinking, "You will never know, Sakura. You will never know..."

Mother, I know very much that you are there,
Somehow, I could still hear your lullabies,
And can feel your warm presence everywhere,
I want you to be with me, father and Touya always
For we love you endlessly, needed you helplessly,
I want nothing but your love and to see you again.

After her prayer, Sakura, Eriol, Tomoyo and Kero flew back to the infinitely beautiful skies of Tokyo bringing nothing but the presence of Nadesiko with them.

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Author's Notes: Hahaha...I enjoyed writing that one. Almost every idea I gathered about Dying and Living were written by I carefully as possible. Oh, Happy Mother's Day to all especially my mother and the Virgin Mary and a very Happy 16th birthday to me :)!

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