Chapter 6: Cerberus: Guardian

Kero sat on Sakura's bed, wondering when she would be home. She had been gone for only ½ an hour, but he was still worried.

'Sakura... where are you?'

BANG!

'Hmm? What was that?'

He flew over to the window, looking down in time to see the door slam.

'YES! Sakura's home! Sakura's home!'

He nudged open Sakura's bedroom door the rest of the way (she had left it open a crack)and flew down the stairs, yelling, 'Sakura!'

When he got to the bottom, however, it wasn't Sakura at all, but-

'Saku- err...' Kero stopped just in time to avoid flying right into the tall, brown-haired bespectacled man who had just walked in the door.

'Huh?' Kinomoto Fujitaka looked over at the small, yellow, winged, stuffed animal sorry Kero!lion. 'Aren't you my daughter's stuffed animal?'

extremely large stress sign appears on the side of Kero's head 'I AM NOT A STUFFED ANIMAL! Although, for a human, you sure are taking this well...'

Fujitaka stared at Kero for a moment longer, before sighing and turning towards the living room.

'Why don't we sit down, and you tell me who you are then?'

Kero watched as Fujitaka looked at him expectantly. Stress sign is smaller now 'My em name /em is Cerberus, Guardian of the Cards and their Mistress. I was created by Clow Reed, who also created the Cards, and the other guardian, Yue.'

Fujitaka nodded. 'And I am Kinomoto Fujitaka, the father of Kinomoto Sakura and Kinomoto Touya. I am a University Professor, and am deeply honored to meet you, Cerberus. I hope to one day meet this Yue, and your master... or mistress did you say?'

'Please... we must talk some more. I will explain everything to you.' Kero flew into the living room, closely followed by Fujitaka. Settling himself down on the coffee table, he faced the couch, where Sakura's father was sitting.

'You already know both Yue and my Mistress... do you have any guesses who they are?'

Fujitaka looked thoughtful for a moment, but then shrugged. 'Anyone in Tokyo, probably.'

Kero nodded. 'Not just anyone... haven't you ever wondered about your daughter or Yukito?'

That made Fujitaka freeze. 'Sakura... and Yukito? Sakura is your mistress... and Yukito is Yue? But how? Why? When? Where? I don't understand you, Cerberus.'

Kero sighed. He might as well Sakura's father everything, but would she appreciate it? It didn't matter anymore. Now that he Fujitaka, sorry! knew, if Kero refused to tell him now, he would only question Sakura about it later. 'Might as well start at the beginning...'

Kero started to tell Fujitaka about Sakura's adventures, her unleashing the Cards, capturing some of them by herself, then about Syaoran and how they had become em very /em close, her being proclaimed Mistress, her trials and changing the Cards into Star Cards. At this, Fujitaka got confused, and then Kero had to start explaining about the two different types of Cards- Clow and Star or Sakura, as some people call them.Just then-

'Dad! I'm home! Where's the kaijuu or squirt for those people who have only seen the American version?'

'She went out, Touya. May I introduce you to-'

However, when Touya had come into the house, Kero had panicked and flew behind the couch. Which is where Fujitaka found him. 'Maa, maa. There's no reason to be afraid.'

'Yeah, for you.' Kero muttered under his breath, but flew up to finally face Touya. 'So you're the one who's always picking on Sakura. em And /am me.' Stress sign appears again, only much, much larger than before, so it takes up most of Kero's head, leaving just enough room for a small mouth.

Touya stared at Kero for a second. Then, 'So you are alive.'

'I AM MORE THAN ALIVE YOU INCOMPETENT LITTLE MORTAL!' Yes, its certainly not like Kero to call anyone a mortal, but ya know, I couldn't think of anything else to make Kero say.

Touya stared in shock for a moment before replying with, 'fine, then who are you?' He looked expectantly at Fujitaka.

Sighing, the older man replied, 'Touya, this is Cerberus. Cerberus, this is my son, Touya.'

Touya and Kero nodded their heads in agreement. 'So, what were you two talking about?' Oh, yeah, that was Touya.

Kero shook his head, before starting to go through the whole story (only quicker, and in much less detail) again. Finally, he got up to the point where he had left off (in less than half the time it had taken to say it in the first place). Then he began to finish the story, leaving out a few, less important parts. After another 15 minutes of that (there had been a lot of questions), Kero got to the Final fight.

Which was right about when Sakura came barging through the door, looking as peeved as ever. When she saw Kero, her dad and Touya sitting around, talking, however, she completely lost it.

'KERO! WHAT DID I SAY?!'

Looking down, he muttered, 'Sorry, Mistress Sakura.'

Which made her stop in her tracks. 'Kero, I'm sorry for yelling, I was really surprised' ('so were we' muttered Touya under his breath, while Fujitaka gave the slightest nod to show he agreed) 'but I though you were gonna wait until I got home to say something. And, please don't call me 'Mistress Sakura'. I don't want to be your master, remember? I want to be your friend.'

Kero suddenly brightened up. 'Well, now that that's settled, what took you so long to get home?'

Sakura sighed regretfully. 'Oh, Kero, I had the worst day. I'll tell you about it later, though okay?'

Kero nodded his agreement.

'So, kaijuu... your little friend here was just telling us about your little adventure. Care to finish it?'

Sakura glared at her brother. A glare, he noticed, that would rival Syaoran's. Don't-call-me-kaijuu.' She said it in such a slow, quiet tone, making large spaces between the words so that they would be able to miss a word, that it sent shivers down the guy's spines.

'Where did you leave off, Kero?'

'You and Syaoran vs. Eriol.'

'I love your sub-titles.' She told him grinning evilly. 'Anyways...' she told her father and Touya all about what happened that night. She got up to when she was trying to transform the LIGHT and DARK Cards, and right when she was about to tell them when Syaoran lent his power to her, and what he told her...

She couldn't finish. She was halfway through a sentence- 'Only, as I was trying to transform them, they wouldn't, and I kept trying, and...' -when she stopped. Both of the other humans in the room were looking strangely at her, trying to get her to finish. Meanwhile, Kero didn't say anything. He knew what happened, even though he had been part of Sakura's staff at the time, he had heard and felt Syaoran's power being added to Sakura's. He also began to understand exactly what Sakura had realized.

Which was why he spoke up. 'Sakura, shouldn't we start again with those charms?'

She nodded, grateful for the interruption.

'But, what happened?' Touya asked. Since she had mentioned Syaoran being there, he had wanted to know every single detail about it.

'What do you think? You're awake, aren't you?'

He was about to say something else, but she turned away from him, said 'goodnight' to her father (it was now past 7) and walked slowly up to her room. They had taken a brake for lunch and dinner, and since it had been a while since she had wanted/tried to recount the story, it had taken a long time to tell.

She sat down on her bed, and stayed there for a while, while Kero floated in front of face. She didn't know what to do.

'Sakura... why did you stop?'

Sakura looked at Kero, trying to think of a good reason. She obviously did not want to tell him what she was feeling, in case he had a mental breakdown. But she couldn't come up with another reason.

Kero saw something in her eyes he had never seen before. It wasn't fear, it was more like caring, but at such a deep level....

He floated down onto her lap. 'Sakura... does it have something to do with Syaoran?'

She jumped. Not only had he just about guessed what made her stop, he had said Syaoran's name without even a hint of hate or malice in his voice.

She nodded her head slowly. 'Yes... I just realized something, but Kero... please don't ask me to say more. I don't feel as though I know what I'm feeling, and I want to be sure of my feelings before I do anything....'

Now Kero nodded. 'Of course. Goodnight, Sakura.'

Yawning, she replied, 'Yes... thanks. Goodnight Kero.'

Sakura crawled under her covers, and was soon asleep.

Kero, however, instead of going to sleep, stayed up and watch his Mistress sleeping so peacefully. It was obvious she was having a dreamless night, which he was grateful for.

He was about to go to bed, when a sound outside the window made him jump up. 'Who's there?' he growled. 'Answer me!'

In reply a young man dressed all in black (remember him? landed softly on the roof beside Sakura's bedroom window. He gently pried it open, and dropped onto the floor. Not noticing Kero, he crept even more silently so that he did not make a sound over to Sakura's bed. For a few seconds he stood there staring at her.

Which made Kero nervous and agitated. Which is also why he suddenly yelled out, 'Get out of here you little creep!'

The man jumped and looked around- Kero shut his mouth and sat motionless, with his arms slightly outstretched like a little stuffed animal. The man's eyes rested on Kero for a few moments before turning back to Sakura.

Kero just barely saw his hand reach toward's Sakura's cover's, like he was about to pull them back ...

Which I like that word... which... err, is -ish better though was why Kero yelled out, again, 'Don't even think about you perverted little piece of crap!' Only instead of acting like a stuffed animal when the man turned around, Kero launched himself at the guy's face.

'AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!' Kero started to scratch and claw at the man, trying not to wake up Sakura, who was still sleeping peacefully.

However, Kero completely forgot the size-factor. Kero was the size of a stuffed animal. This man was taller than even Fujitaka. Therefore, Kero went flying against the wall. The other man just stared at Kero for a moment, before going over and picking him up. 'Who are you... no I should ask what are you? There must be a stamp from a company on you somewhere... I would want something like this... ha! Look at me! Talking to a stuffed animal!'

Kero immediately regained consciousness.

'I AM NOT A STUFFED ANIMAL!' how many times have I written Kero saying that? 1000?

He flew around the man's head for a few moments before reverting to floating in front of the man's face. 'You asked me ho am I? How about who are you?'

The man was speechless. Well, not really, just wanted to say that...;)! 'But, wah... I thought...'

'What ever you thought, you thought wrong!' Kero yelled at the top of his lungs. Hearing Sakura stir, however, Kero lowered his voice. 'How dare you come here, disturb my Mistress', and my, sleep, and sneak into her room in the middle of the night and I am not a stuffed animal, nor am I made by any little 'company' that you buy all your stuff from and what are you doing, just standing there looking at my Mistress like that, like she's an object that belongs to you, you have no right to be here, you perverted creep, so I suggest you leave, now, but not before I get your name.'

The man just stared at Kero for a few more moments, letting the information sink in. Then, 'do you always talk like that?'

'Hey! Answer my question!'

He (the man) stopped for a second before saying, 'alright. But first, I asked you the same question. Who are you?'

Kero glared at him. 'You swear, on whatever you believe in, that you'll tell me who you are?'

The man nodded. 'Fine.'

'My name is Kero, or Cerberus... Guardian of the Cards and their Master. Now... who are you?'