A Way to Love Forever: Epilogue

By: Cobalt Rose

Eriol sighed contentedly, his arms wrapped tightly around Tomoyo. They sat inside the stall on a small couch that Eriol had created, watching the night sky. It was almost midnight, when the fireworks would shoot up in an amazing display. Shyly, Tomoyo slipped her hand into Eriol's, but a look of worry crossed her face at the slight flinch. She glanced down at his hands. The tiny pinpricks were a testimony to his labor.

"You didn't use magic while making the teddy bear, did you." Her words weren't a question, but an unhappy statement of the facts.

"It wouldn't have meant as much if it had been," Eriol replied. "I had to do it without magic. I cannot sew very well if it's without magic, but for once, I know what a guy goes through when he decides to sew a bear for the girl he loves. Tomoyo-chan," he glanced at her blushing cheeks, pink from happiness at the endearment. "I love you, more than life itself, and," he slipped the ring from the length of ribbon and slid it onto the ring finger of her right hand. "Will you be my girlfriend?" he asked.

Tomoyo nodded, not trusting her voice. Tears of happiness quietly rolled down her cheeks. Eriol wiped them away lovingly. "Eriol-kun?" she asked, voice still quivering from her tears. "Can I call this teddy bear Eriol- kun?"

Eriol smiled happily at her. "Of course, my lady, if you will allow me to call the teddy bear you have given me, Tomoyo-chan," he replied.

Laughing happily, tears still shining on her lashes, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a loving hug. Eriol blushed, stunned by the open display of affection, then encircled his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him. "Look," he whispered, pointing up at the sky as the first of the fireworks burst in a colorful display. "Did you know that long ago, two people were deeply in love with each other, and wanted to tell the other their feelings, but were too afraid to do so? Finally, a festival came, and they visited it together. When they reached a shrine, a woman there read their fortunes and told them that they would find true love and happiness that night. Both happy, told each other their feelings as fireworks burst above them, and were later married. When they told their friends that story, their friends told them that there had been no fortune telling woman or fireworks that night."

Tomoyo laughed, wiping tears from her eyes. "You're just as bad a liar as Yamazaki-kun," she said in mock reproof.

"Oh Tomoyo-chan, your words wound me," said Eriol, one hand to his heart. He winked. "But then how do you explain that lovers kiss under a sky filled with fireworks hoping that they too will love each other forever?" he asked.

Before Tomoyo could answer, he pulled her close and gave her another kiss, the second one that night, and both hoped that lies could become truth and that they would love each other forevermore.

Sakura and Syaoran

Sakura lay her head on Syaoran's shoulder and sighed contentedly. "The fireworks are so pretty," she said happily. "It's too bad that Tomoyo can't come out here and see it with the rest of us."

Syaoran shook his head. "I think Tomoyo doesn't mind, because, unless I've missed my guess, she has company to watch the display with, right where she is."

"Ne Syaoran?" asked Sakura, much confused. "Who would be with Tomoyo at this time? She's minding the shop."

Syaoran put an arm around the waist of his beloved girlfriend, the other hand holding a slim, golden ring studded with a single, heart-shaped ruby. "I saw Eriol with a blue teddy bear walking in the direction of her shop half an hour ago," he said as Sakura nodded with satisfaction. "Sakura," he said tentatively. "I know this might seem a bit fast because we're young, but we've been dating for four years now, and," he stopped as Sakura turned to him. "Will you marry me?" After all those years of blushes, stammered date proposals, and uncertainty at what Sakura would like, asking her to marry him was the easiest thing in the world.

Sakura stared at Syaoran, his eyes filled with love for her, serious and understanding, certainty radiating from him as he said four words that she'd been longing to hear for the past year and a half. For a few moments tears blurred her vision and choked her voice so that she couldn't talk. "Yes," she whispered, tears pouring down her cheeks unchecked. "Yes I'll marry you my beloved Syaoran-kun," she said, more confidently this time.

Syaoran nodded, slipping the engagement ring on the ring finger of her left hand. Then, the two lovers sealed their promise with a kiss.

Chiharu and Yamazaki

"Will our parents be surprised?" asked Chiharu softly.

"I doubt it," answered Yamazaki, one arm lightly around Chiharu's waist, his cheek resting lightly against her soft, nut-brown hair. "I think they've been expecting it to happen for a long time; probably since middle school. They know we've been close friends, and I guess they must have suspected it ever since that teddy bear you made me in grade school."

The two lapsed into silence, both pondering their own thoughts. The fireworks burst in brilliant displays of red, green, and golden radiance above them. "Did you know that fireworks were created a long time ago in Africa? One of the tribe chiefs found some sparkly red and black powder on the ground. Suddenly, lightning burst from the sky and hit that spot, giving forth a shower of red sparks on the ground. It started raining, and the – itai Chiharu-chan!" cried Yamazaki, as his new fiancée bopped him on the head with her fan. "You didn't let me finish," he said in a plaintive tone of voice.

"No, I didn't because you're lying again," she said, a smile playing about her lips. She liked his stories, and Yamazaki knew it, but she was sometimes surprised at the gullibility of some of her friends. If they had known them for tall tales as she did, she wouldn't have had to hit him all the time.

Yamazaki smiled, his eyes still closed. "And so the chief devoted his life to finding those red sparks again, because he thought it was great magic. His whole tribe went with him, and he spread the word about the exploding, red, spark magic. That's why the African tribes became nomads!" he said happily. "And," he said, trying to continue before Chiharu did something to stop him.

Chiharu sighed as though exasperated, though Yamazaki knew better. Taking a hold of his collar, like she used to when she preferred strangling him to smacking him to stop his lies, she brought his face close to hers, the smile on her lips becoming more and more menacing, to Yamazaki at least. "Did you know," she asked in a whisper, "that there is more than one way to keep a liar from lying? Other than hitting him, I mean." A grin began to form as Yamazaki shook his head, obviously a little worried. He had stopped his story and she could practically see cold sweat running down his forehead. "There is," she whispered her words even softer now. "You can kiss him," she said, just as her lips met his. Yamazaki smiled as they kissed, his hand holding hers, fingers lightly stroking the golden engagement band he had given her that evening, just as the fireworks had begun.

Naoko and Kenichi

Naoko blinked in surprise. A moment before, she and Kenichi had been watching the fireworks display, and now the fireworks were blocked out of her view by a large, lumpy, silver-paper wrapped object that was in her line of sight. "What is this, Kenichi-kun?" she asked.

"My gift to you for the festival," he replied simply, blushing redder than a cherry and fidgeting slightly. "Go on," he urged, "unwrap it."

With the soft crinkle of wrapping paper, Naoko pulled away the covering and gasped. Two books and a teddy bear, black as sable with bright blue eyes lay unveiled in her lap. Running her fingers softly over the bear's short, silky fur, she read the titles of her other gifts. "A Collection of Tales of Aliens, and A Collection of Ghostly Tales?" she murmured softly. "I've wanted these for so long, but every book store in Tomoeda didn't stock these, and..." she trailed off, looking at her boyfriend, her mind traveling back to a few months before, during their summer vacation.

Flashback

"Naoko-chan! You came!" cried an excited Kenichi.

"You thought I wouldn't see my own boyfriend off when he went to Tokyo to visit his family?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I didn't think you'd have enough time," he said as solemnly as possible. The effect was ruined by the grin that burst over his face. "Don't worry, I'll be gone for a week and a half, but I'll come back, and I'll bring you sometime nice from Tokyo ok?" said the dark-haired youth with sparkling blue eyes, so different from a normal person's.

"I'll miss you," said Naoko frankly, "and by the time you get back I'll have filled whole notebook with notes to you, but when you get back, you can read them."

"And I'll spend lots of time with you for the week and a half we've lost," promised Kenichi.

Naoko laughed. "I know you will," she said. "Now have fun!" She hugged Kenichi tightly and waved as he got on the train. Even after she lost sight of him and the window he was sitting at, she still waved.

End Flashback

"It was these books you got when you went to Tokyo, the something nice that you said you'd get me, wasn't it?" she asked. "I thought it was the sterling silver picture frame engraved with our names on it, but it was these," she said.

Kenichi nodded. "I love you, Naoko-chan," he told her softly.

"I love you too," she replied as he pulled her into his arms for a hug.

Rika and Tereda-sensei

Yoshiyuki Tereda, his arm around the beautiful, nearly full-grown woman at his side, sighed contentedly. This night was the anniversary of their first year as an engaged couple. It had gone much easier than anyone, least of all himself, had expected. There was no one to despise their relation, his own parents being dead for nearly 3 years now, and Rika herself being the child between teacher and student, a case much like their own. All her parents had asked of him was to keep their daughter happy, and he had been more than willing to comply.

"It's been a year now, hasn't it a-anata," said Rika, blushing and stumbling on the foreign word as it left her lips.

"It has, Rika-chan," replied her fiancée. "A whole year between the two of us."

"I haven't regretted it you know," she said. "Not once have I wished you to be anyone but yourself."

He nodded. "I know Koishi, I know. And that's one of the things I like best about you; your patience and love."

"Is that the only thing?" she asked with a blush that stained her cheeks a deep red.

"Nope, not at all," replied Tereda-sensei. "What I like best about you is all of you, because I can't choose just one part of you. All of you is special to me, no one part being better than any other part."

"You know, anata," Rika said almost slyly, silently proud that she did not stumble on the word this time, "have I ever told you I like, no, I love that about you? Your faith in me and your love for me?"

Tereda-sensei laughed, placing a kiss on Rika's forehead as he said, "Every day Koishi. You tell me that every day."

Owari!

Please visit my profile site for information on upcoming stories, and...I'm so sorry....A Month in the Courts of Li is going to be down for a bit while I try to work on the chapters. Whatever happens, before this summer is finished and I go back to high school, I WILL have it done! I hope...

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