Last Time…

Kero was astonished. Rose was talking with the cards. And before his very eyes, she took out a pen from one of her many pockets and signed both cards.

"How did you know to do that?"

"Windy told me."

Then she jumped off the building with a flip, and landed with cat-like grace on her feet, and then she started running towards home.

'So much alike, yet as different as night and day.'

This time...

When Rose got back to the house, she went up to her room and took out the cards then placed them on her desk. She heard Kero panting so got up and ran to catch him before he collapsed, and held him until he caught his breath.

"Good grief. Even Sakura didn't have that much energy after capturing a card."

She just smiled and placed him on her right shoulder before he went up to the attic.

"Rose, how did you capture Fly so quickly?"

"First I figured out what course she was taking, then estimated the speed and distance. Then I estimated how fast Windy would be able to carry me, the distance and then triangulated at a meeting place where Fly would go. Then I asked Windy to disorient Fly by creating downdrafts, which would send fly down, and make it harder to fly, and updrafts, making it easier. Eventually Fly would be dizzy, making the capture easy. Just simple math, science, and luck really. Ah, the attic."

By the time Rose was done explaining, Kero's head was spinning. It sounded so complicated, and from the sounds of it risky, but the couldn't complain since it got the job done.

"Interesting. Sakura didn't do it that way, but then she hated math. She needed a little help her first capture."

"Really, tell me about it."

So Kero did, not really noticing what Rose was doing, so lost in thought was he about Sakura. He really did miss her.

Rose noticed the small smile on Kero's face as he told of Sakura's first capture. After Kero was finished she asked him to tell her about Sakura.

"She was wonderful. She was nice and sweet, and very compassionate towards others. She did cheerleading, and she hated math. She was wonderful cook, but was always late. She had auburn hair and emerald green eyes and was very pretty." And Kero continued to tell Rose about Sakura.

"Sounds as if you really cared for her."

"Yeah we did." Then Kero noticed they weren't in the attic anymore.

"Hey, what did you do?"

"While you were talking I brought the trunk, book, sword and box down to my room. I'm curious as to what all was in there."

Kero was once again impressed; she seemed genuinely interested in Sakura and the cards. He didn't think she would take it all in so easily. Sakura was hard pressed to believe it at first.

Together they went through the box and trunks, Kero describing everything he as remembered them.

"Kero, what happened after Sakura caught the cards?"

"I don't remember. If I did, I might feel tempted to help you, and that is something I can't do, so whatever happens will be as much of a surprise for me as for you."

"Oh. You know, some of these clothes aren't half bad. Granted, I wouldn't wear them, but they're cute."

Rose put everything back into the trunk and then allowed herself a small smile. She got up and went into the room across from hers and pulled out the sewing machine. Kero, who was starting to fall to sleep on her shoulder, woke up and asked what she was doing.

"Nothing much. You can go to sleep, or play a video game, or raid the kitchen if you want. You're choice. I'll let you know if I need you, alright?"

Kero blinked, then left her shoulder and decided to look around the house. He went up to the attic first. It looked like the usual attic, a bunch of boxes, desks, pictures, etc. Something in the corner caught his eye. He looked and found it was a picture, a portrait actually. Upon closer inspection, Kero saw it was a picture of a beautiful family, a woman with dark blond hair and blue eyes, a man with black hair and aqua eyes, and a little girl with emerald green eyes and auburn hair. The little girl looked almost exactly like Sakura, except for the few freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and nose; just like Rose's face. Looking at the picture, Kero realized that Rose never said anything about her parents.

Leaving the attic, he went to the third room up stairs. It had paintings on the walls of different things; all of them either had the sun or the moon in them. He went to look for the artist and at the bottom saw the initials "SRT." It appeared to be a guest room. There was a bed with a few stuffed animals and pillows, all and all very comfy. There was also a bathroom. Kero then went down stairs and found a comfy living room, a den, and a pantry stocked with food. There was also another bedroom, which apparently belonged to Rose's grandmother. Then seeing a clock on the wall, Kero saw it was 12:30 in the morning.

He went back up stairs to see what Rose was doing. He went to the room he left Rose in and noticed there was a bed in that room too. But he didn't find Rose in there. He went to Rose's room, but she wasn't there either. Getting a little worried, Kero went into the last room, and was relieved to find Rose in there, looking out the window.

"Hey Rose, whatcha doin'?"

"Just looking at the moon. I 'm trying to see the Rabbit in the moon."

"I've never heard of a rabbit in the moon."

Rose looked at him and smiled a small smile.

"Really, then I'll have to tell you about it. But first let me change for bed. Which reminds me. I made something for you. It was either this or a doll cradle I make when I was seven. This is so you don't have to sleep in a drawer."

It was a small bed, just Kero's size. At the foot was a replica of the Guardian on the cover of the book and at the head was a replica of Kero himself.

"This is for me? Wow, than k you so much." He was genuinely touched. He looked up at Rose and found she was gone, so he went to look for her and found her in her room, already changed.

"So Kero, where do you want to sleep? You can pick any of the rooms upstairs."

Kero thought about it, deciding that he didn't want to be alone in this strange and large house. Besides, he needed to be close to Rose in case a card appeared.

"How about in here, you have to tell me the story of the rabbit in the moon."

Rose smiled and nodded.

"A long time ago, the man on the moon was feeling very lonely. So he looked down on earth and found a forest. He disguised himself as an old man and went down into the forest. There he found three animals; a monkey, a fox and a rabbit. They were talking with each other when the old man came walking up to them.

'Excuse me, young ones, do you happen to have some food to spare for an old man?'

"The three animals nodded their heads and went off in search for food. They were gone for a while and when they all came back, the monkey came forward with an assortment of fruits, the fox came with some meat, but the rabbit didn't have anything. Curious, the old man watched as the rabbit built a fire, then turned to address him.

'I'm sorry grandfather, but I am no great swinger of trees like the monkey, so I could not fetch the fruit, and I am no great hunter like the fox, so I could not fetch fresh meat. But I will give you myself to eat.'

"The rabbit took a step back and was about to jump into the fire when the old man revealed himself to be the Man of the Moon.

'Wait little rabbit, don't jump into the flames. As you can see, I am no old man; I am the Man of the Moon. I am looking for a companion. You have proven yourself worthy, willing to sacrifice yourself so someone else might eat. Would you come with me to live on the moon?'

"The rabbit agreed, and that is how the rabbit came to be on the moon."

Rose looked over and saw Kero was asleep. So turning out the light, she too went to sleep. While she was sleeping, Rose had a dream. In it was her, Kero, and someone flying in the sky, silhouetted in front of the full moon. It was too dark to see anything specific. Rose was about to fly to the shadow when she woke up.

The Guardian of the Sea- I wanted to make a note for you. Thank you for reviewing. And I know that right now it is not a Yue and Sakura pairing. But if you recall, Yue didn't show up until later in the show. This story follows the show quite similarly. So, right now, the only characters in it are Sakura and Cerberus. But thank you for your comments. For the Yue and Sakura parts, keep reading. I have this story all planned out.

Hoshimare-thank you for the praise. Blushes

Viky-thank you. I know that right now it is slow and my not seem like anything interesting, but I am still setting things up. It does get interesting, I hope.

That is it for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. It may have seemed to be a frivolous chapter, but it delved further into Rose's personality. It turns out she is caring of others; she just doesn't show it all the time. She is not as dark as one might think. However, more will be revealed in later chapters. How fun.

The story of the Rabbit on the Moon is a real fable I heard while I was living in Japan. I am afraid I probably did not do the story justice, for it is far more beautiful than I could possibly tell it. I loved it because it showed that you shouldn't judge a person by looks alone, (the old beggar man, not really and old beggar man), and that giving freely of one's self is its own reward; one should not expect a prize for being nice and self-less. If I have the story wrong, please let me know and I will fix it.

Thank you and Please Review.