Eriol gaped at the tastefully decorated dining table that morning. Today's breakfast was practically heavier, as compared to the usual breakfast cereals and sandwiches that Nakuru's culinary talent specializes on. Sunny-side up eggs, hotdogs, rice, and a tray of tropical fruits were served in the house.

"H-Hi!" A stammering voice broke his thoughts. He turned to the left and found Tomoyo smiling at him uncertainly. She was holding a pitcher of orange juice.

He looked back at the table, then took his seat. "Nakuru, the newspaper," he ordered.

"W-Wait, I'll get it for you." Tomoyo hurriedly placed the pitcher on the table, then went to the living room. Seconds later, she returned to the dining room, clutching today's edition of his favorite broadsheet.

"Where's Nakuru?" he asked as she handed him the paper.

"She went downtown. We're running low on condiments…"

"I reckon you have examined the cabinet's contents already, am I right?"

She nodded slowly.

"I see." He looked down on his meal. "You…you don't have to do this. We don't need a maid."

She bit her lip. "I-I'm not doing the work of a maid. I'm just being…your wife," she whispered softly. "And a wife is not a mere biological toy, you know."

He fell silent.

"S-Sorry." She resumed with serving him the food.

"Sit down," he said quietly. "I can eat on my own. Take your breakfast already."

"Later. I'm going to wait for Nakuru."

"I thought you want to do what a wife does?" His eyes pointed to the seat next to hers. "Eat."

She had no choice but to do as told. She went to the seat next to him and started eating too.

"D-Do you have an eight to five job?" she found herself asking when after a while no one had spoken yet.

He looked at her, halfway amused. "Do I look like one who would keep one?"

She shrugged. "Well…even if you are the former Clow Reed, you would still need to pay for electricity bills and stuff. You're not exempted from tax too."

His mouth twitched. "True, although there are times when I'm tempted to create a Clow card to erase bills from our lives forever." He paused to take a bite of his meal, then spoke again. "I compose songs for the church in town. The choir sings it every Sunday."

"And you maintain this mansion with THAT job?" She looked incredulous.

"I don't get paid for that," he said. "Just sporadic donations."

Her eyes widened. The most powerful mage in the world living on endowments. Now she had seen everything.

"Of course, my stocks in the real estate company didn't hurt too." He shrugged. "But basically, my job is songwriting."

"Can I…ah…see some of your works?" she said softly. She realized that her husband had relaxed immensely, and he was actually engaging her in a surprisingly casual talk.

The guarded look on his face returned. "You wouldn't want to see them. I made all my songs for my wife and child."

She bit her lip. "E-Even so…" She exhaled shakily. "I-I want to know about the kind of love you gave them." It hurt so much when he made it sound awhile ago that she was an outsider, but she was determined not to let him see how it mars.

"What will you get out of it?" he asked sharply. "You are more of a masochist than I thought." He got up. "Excuse me."
She stood up. "W-Where are you going?"

"I am not obliged to answer."

"W-Well, at least you can tell me that not out of obligation." Her eyes shook. "D-Don't make me worry."

He paused. Seconds later, he muttered something.

"P-Pardon?" she said.

"Bookstore. I'm going to buy new books." With that, he left the dining room.

===========

"Why did you suddenly decide to get married? And to a stranger at that!" her mother cried in anguish over the line.

"Mom, you're exaggerating. You know him already, and he's a good man." Her grip on the phone tightened. "Really."

"You didn't answer my question. Don't tell me you married him for love?" she demanded.

"Mom, love is not the only reason people get involved…"

"Oh Tomoyo! Of all people, you were the last person I would ever expect to say that!"

"Mom…"

"I know you are sensible. What you did though, contradicts my presumption. Now answer me truthfully: why did you marry him?" her mother asked sternly. "Is it because of your obsession to get married?"

She looked down. "Mom…you may never understand this in a million years, but I'll say it anyway. I fell in love with him the moment I saw him in the Tsukimine shrine. He embodied all my dreams. He is my destiny, Mom. I can feel it!"

She heard the Daidouji matriarch sigh helplessly.

"Trust me on this, Mom. I know when to quit, and right now, I'm far from it. He may not love me, but I have enough love for him and me both."

"But from what you told me, he's a widower. He might just be using you—"

"Don't!" she hissed. "Don't say that, Mom, please!" She felt a lump form in her throat. "I-I need to go."

"We'll talk again, Tomoyo," her mother said. "Rethink your decision. You were too impulsive—"
"Bye Mom." She placed the phone down shakily and looked at the portrait hanging on the living room. She gazed tearfully at the scarlet-haired woman smiling serenely. "Let him go, Kaho-sensei. Please…" she said softly. "Please…"

"Mistress Tomoyo…"

She turned to see Nakuru looking at her sorrowfully. She dried her tears with her apron and smiled. "H-Hi! S-So the grocery trip is through. Let's get started on making the salad, shall we?"

"Oh Mistress…"

"We'll surprise Eriol!" she said as she led the way to the kitchen. "I make really good salads! That would surely chase away his foul mood!"

Nakuru forced a smile. "Y-Yes. He loves salads…especially those leafy ones."

==================

Eriol was seated on the park bench, browsing through the new novel he bought. However, he couldn't concentrate. His hands were itching for a pen; they also wanted to touch the ivory keys of his grand piano that was long buried under the heavy white blanket. The day Kaho and Luna died, his yearning to write songs died along too. Somehow, he was only reminded of the time he and Kaho sat together in the bench, enjoying his music.

He wrote so many love songs – he wrote his love for his wife's incomparable beauty, he wrote his overflowing love for the child blossoming within the body of his wife. He wrote of how these two women were the biggest miracles in his life.

It seemed so long ago that his pen had shifted to gospel sounds. It was ironic though, when he himself had grown to dislike God for His manipulations in his life. He took away his happiness. Yet He was cruel enough to let him still live.

"That was it. A moment of happiness," he said bitterly to himself. "Ah hell…"

He looked at his hands. He knew they wanted to write something, and he was aware of that feeling. It was the same thing he felt whenever he was inspired to write another song for Luna.

"I want to write…but I shouldn't." He clenched his fists. "God made me miserable, and I should live with that condition to the fullest."

A leaf fell on his shoulder. He looked up and saw the withering leaves.

Autumn was here once more. The season he hated the most. The autumn that took both of his loved ones away from him.

He got up and walked away.

======================

"Now we have to wash the vegetables…" Tomoyo tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear as she finished stirring the dressing. She passed the bowl to Nakuru to have her concoction refrigerated. "Now go and set the table, Nakuru."

"Aye, aye, Mistress!" The moon servant saluted.

Tomoyo laughed, then continued with washing the vegetables on the basin.

She turned the faucet on, but didn't realize that she did it too much. The running water blasted down on her hand in full force, making her scream in surprise.

That sent Nakuru and Spinel rushing into the kitchen. "Mistress Tomoyo!"

"I'm fine!" she said, succeeding in turning the faulty faucet off. "I guess I screwed up with it." She reached for the towel to dry her hands when she realized something.

"M-My ring! My ring is gone!"

Nakuru rushed into the sink and looked at the drainer. "Hmmm…it might have gone down though that!"

Tomoyo panicked. "Oh no! I have to get that! Eriol might not like it when he learns that our wedding ring clogged up our sink!"

Nakuru nodded. "We have to get it out!"

"Call the plumber," suggested Spinel.

"No time! Master Eriol would be here any minute now!" said Nakuru.

Tomoyo looked around the kitchen, then clapped her hands. "I have an idea! Nakuru, get the monkey wrench!"

The servant's face looked at her blankly. "The what?"

Tomoyo groaned, then looked for it in the tool cabinet herself.

==============

The first thing Eriol noticed was the water seeping from the kitchen. And then it was the panicked cry from Tomoyo. That jumpstarted him into hurrying towards the kitchen.

Only to find the woman hunched under the sink, desperately tying an absorbent cloth around the pipe. She was already drenched halfway from her ankles. Her hair was also wet, and so was her face.

He couldn't suppress a smile. She was a funny sight right now.

Nakuru, Spinel, and Tomoyo were so immersed in what the woman was doing that they failed to notice the additional presence in the room.

"Oooh, where does all this water come from?" Tomoyo cried out loud in frustration. "Is this thing hooked to the South China sea?"

"Don't give up, Mistress Tomoyo! The ring should be swimming out down any minute," said Nakuru encouragingly.

"By that time, the compound had been an extension of the sea of Japan," he said at last.

The three turned to him at the same time.

It was Tomoyo who got up suddenly, face flushed. "I-I'm sorry! I-It was my fault! T-They were just trying to help me…"

"You were…looking for something?" he asked.

Her eyes widened. "Aah…"

He reached for the spanner in her hand. "I'll get it." He knelt down in front of the leaking pikes and went to work.

Tomoyo turned to Nakuru and the feline. "Continue setting the table so we can get dinner already."

The two nodded immediately and left the two of them alone in the room. Silence reigned for a few moments until finally, Tomoyo spoke.

"I-I'm really sorry about this…"

"You already said that."

"I-I really am."

"You sound like a broken record player already." Within minutes, he made her ring materialize in his hands. "Here."

"T-Thank you." She was about to take it when he seized her hand. He then gently placed the ring back on her finger.

Tomoyo blushed uncomfortably. "Aah…"

He stood up already. "Get up. Where's dinner?"

"C-Coming right up," she said. She got up shakily, wincing at the prickling sensation in her legs. It was then that she realized that she had been seated on the floor for hours already. "Um, Eriol-kun—" She didn't have the chance to finish what she was saying because she slipped on the floor. Eriol quickly grabbed her to help her regain her balance. However, that startled her. Impulsively, she pushed him away hard, sending both of them down on the floor again.

"Christ! Ouch!" yelled her husband, holding on to his back.

Tomoyo combed her wet strands away from her eye. "E-Eriol! Oh my gosh! I-I'm so sorry!" She tried to crawl towards him, but slipped again. She crashed down on him, making him yelp in pain some more.

"Woman! How did you get this clumsy—" He looked at his drenched shirt. "Oh damn!"

She blinked, then burst into laughter.

"I demand to know what the hell is so funny!" he yelled.

She laughed some more. "You are! You look so silly! Oh, get up, Eriol!" She surveyed his appearance with twinkling eyes. He was drenched too, and his hair was slick with water. His glasses fell on the tip of his nose, and he was struggling to push it up while maintaining his balance on the slippery floor.

"Why, thank you. You are an ego booster!" he snapped. But his outward annoyance was just a cover for the creeping feeling of embarrassment within him. And it was a fact of life that an Eriol Hiiragizawa, a Clow Reed reincarnate, NEVER gets embarrassed.

"Here, let me help you." Her hands pushed his glasses back to its place.

The task was over in seconds, but still, her hand hadn't left the frame of his glasses. She was just staring at his face with quiet contentment and admiration. She took in his handsome face to her heart, memorizing its contours and shadows. Hiiragizawa Eriol's face.

Eriol, on the other hand, was beginning to grow unsteady with the way she was looking at him. He couldn't understand why for the life of him, he couldn't snap at her and tell her to stop what she was doing.

Her hands left his glasses, and made its way to his cheeks. Her skin was trembling, but he could feel the determination that lies within it.

And before he could stop himself, he took her hand and placed it back to her side. "You will only do this when you are ready to go to bed with me," he said firmly.

Her eyes looked hurt, and despite of himself, he felt himself wince inwardly.

"I only wanted to touch you…must that always mean sex, Eriol?" she inched away from him, sighing.

"I am a widower…I had been celibate. And now, I am a husband again. I am a man first and foremost, with basal needs. You shouldn't ask such silly things."

"Can't it mean that I love you?" she asked, eyes shaking. "Is that silly?"

He froze, then laughed mockingly. "Love? Daidouji Tomoyo, we had never been close when we were young. And we just met days ago. Do you want me to believe what you just said?" He got up. "Let's go get that dinner."

She got up, clearly dumbfounded. "Am I not allowed to fall in love with my own husband?"

"Hey, hey." He faced her. "We entered this relationship because it would prove beneficiary to both of us. You want marriage, I want offsprings. It's nothing but a symbiotic, physical kind of thing. You're just confused."

"Y-Yeah…maybe." She embraced herself, making her look even more vulnerable. "Maybe…"

But I am attracted to you. He stopped himself just in time from saying that. No, his honesty would only confuse her even more.

He shouldn't take advantage of her vulnerability. She was just confused—it was the only sane explanation for her falling in love with him in barely two weeks. Love takes time and effort to grow. Theirs contain none of those.

He looked at her quietly. All her life, Daidouji Tomoyo was not loved by a man before. Perhaps, she must have psyched herself up for this situation.

"Tomoyo…" he heard himself say with such utter tenderness that it puzzled him. Where did that emotion come from?

"I'm sorry for forcing you into this awkwardness." She composed her face into a cheery smile. "Let's go get that dinner!"

Tomoyo… He watched her walk past his shoulder and caught a glimpse of what seemed like a tear that she briskly wiped away from her eye.

======================

to be continued (I MEAN it! Syao WILL continue this fic! ^^ Just to let you guys know that she's not going to let this baby go on hiatus!)

Syao-chan: I read your reviews, and thanks so very muchie. ^^ Don't worry. This fic will be updated. It's just that it's summer vacation, meaning no allowance for ur Syaochan. No internet allowance for her then ^^. But I'm letting you know that I'm working on ALL of my fics right now.