Fountain of Age
Summary: AU. Syaoran and Eriol are on the trail of the Fountain of Youth... a trail that would lead them inevitably to Tomoeda... and Sakura...
Disclaimer: I don't own Card Captor Sakura. None of it: manga, anime, little plushie Keros; I own nothing.
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Chapter 8: In Walking...
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Syaoran tried to avoid Eriol for the rest of the weekend. He thought, for a moment, that it would be difficult, but Eriol didn't try to talk to him at all. It seemed as if Eriol knew that he needed to sort out his thoughts, which, he probably did. This tortured Syaoran to no end. He almost wished Eriol would bother him, try to talk to him, just so he could vent his anger. But he always followed this thought with a denial of it; in case Eriol could read minds. He wasn't positive of this. It was very hard to read minds; most people couldn't do it.
But, of course, Eriol wasn't most people.
Magic was not Syaoran's favorite thing. It had its many uses but, for the most part, was a real bother to study. It involved reading and reading endlessly in an ancient Chinese that involved extra books for translation. His mother, who supervised his education, kept him busy with other things too. She made sure he learned every self defense ever conceived; he learned how to use everything from his fists to swords. Tutors taught him math and the sciences, history, calligraphy and multiple languages: English, Japanese, both Mandarin and Cantonese.
Still, there was a limit to what Li Yelan could teach her son. She was, after all, only the head of the Li clan by default. His father had carried the title when he was still alive. Syaoran had four sisters, all older and, he felt, more qualified for the job. But being women meant that they were in line all right, but only behind him. One of them could only be the head if he failed. And he could not fail. It would mean being disowned, and being a scar on the family's name. The shame would kill him.
So he slogged through all his work. He could speak English proficiently (nearly accentless) and he could defeat a band of full grown men with his fists alone. But he could not read minds. Not the way he suspected Eriol could. It was inevitable, he supposed, that one of his areas of study would be weak, and unfortunately, it was the magic. If his mother found out...
"Syaoran," called a voice. "Syaoran..."
"Huh?" he said with a bleary eye. His eyes focused and he stared up at an empty ceiling.
Nakuru was nudging him awake, concern etched into her features. "Syaoran," she said. "It's time for school. And Eriol wants to speak with you." She disappeared from view.
"But..." he slurred, "it's not Monday yet..."
He dragged himself out of bed, and dressed, fumbling with the buttons for several minutes. He thudded down the stairs, peering blearily at the dining room table. Eriol was already there, drinking hot chocolate.
"'Morning," Syaoran droned, still not quite awake. Nakuru rushed forward with a cup which he drank, enough to be aware of what Eriol was doing. Reading the newspaper.
"Good morning," greeted Eriol, putting the paper to the side and gazing at his cousin. "You're late."
Syaoran checked his watch to verify this, and nearly choked on his chocolate. "What are you talking about?!" he roared. "School doesn't start for another hour!"
"Yes, but I thought you'd like to catch up with Sakura before class started," Eriol said, not at least bothered that Syaoran had taken offense at this. He stood up, walking past Syaoran so that he could drop his cup in the sink.
"Why in the world would I want to see that little perk queen?!" This was the last straw. Eriol's millions of eccentricities, the fact that he acted as if he was so much better than Syaoran finally cracked his nerves, and Syaoran could feel the heat in his face color his cheeks.
Eriol was still completely unperturbed. He simply cocked his head. "You didn't like her?"
"I-" It was hard to think nice thoughts about other people when he was angry at Eriol. "It's not that she's not a nice person-"
"Good," said Eriol, patting him on the shoulder. "You know where her house is. Go walk her to school. Go check on her. Sakura's big lug of a brother might've grounded her to the end of the school year. Nakuru, please help him on his way."
Nakuru gave a weak grin. She didn't seem too enthusiastic about following Eriol's orders. "Erm," she said, "this way." She tried to steer him towards the door.
Syaoran shoved her hands out of the way. "If you're so freakin' interested in how Sakura is doing, why won't you just go see her for yourself, huh?!" he shouted at his bespectacled cousin as Nakuru grabbed a hold of his arm, and dragged him to the door. "I won't ever forgive you for this, you-!!"
Nakuru watched him walk down the road to Sakura's house. He seriously considered forgetting about the girl and heading for the school instead, but didn't like the idea of being there thirty minutes too early. He hauled his legs to Sakura's house.
He was stomping up the steps when the girl in question opened the door.
"There you are Syaoran," Sakura said with a smile. She reached behind her for her backpack then ran down to meet him. "I had a funny feeling you were coming."
But Syaoran was staring, mystified at her garden. On such a gorgeous spring morning, the flowers took in the sun's light and spilled it back out, like tiny moons, except far more colorful. None of them were snapped, dug out, or dying. The walls around Sakura's house looked as forbidding as ever, matching the stone steps below him in color. They weren't broken. It was as if the teddy bear attack hadn't occurred at all.
"Nice, isn't it?" said Sakura as she saw what he was looking at. "It was like that Saturday night, after you left. My brother didn't even notice a thing."
Syaoran was strongly reminded of Eriol again. "Sakura's garden was never ruined," he'd said. That little idiot was behind this; Syaoran was sure, even if he couldn't feel anything. Did Sakura...?
"Do you... do you feel anything?" Syaoran asked.
"Feel what?" Sakura asked back.
He shook his head. "Nothing." So, yes. Eriol was stronger than her.
"That was quite interesting last Saturday," said Sakura, thoughtfully, as they started to walk to school. "I wonder who did it. Attack us, and then just fix it back up. Kinda strange, don't you think?"
"Yeah," said Syaoran. He thought about how Eriol had done it to show his weaknesses, and the guilt troubled him. "You're not going to look for the person who did this, are you?"
"Nah, not really," said Sakura with a smile. "You saw the place. Didn't really look like it was destroyed."
"So you're fine." Syaoran looked for confirmation. "No problems. Your brother didn't ground you, or anything?"
Sakura giggled. "My brother can't ground me."
"Well, that's good," he said. And he remembered what she'd said about him last Saturday. "Did he- did he really miss the bus, like you said?"
This Sakura answered a laugh, a roaring one, with her head thrown back. "Yeah, he did," and she smiled at the thought of it.
"Really?" Syaoran couldn't believe his ears.
"Yes, really," she echoed him. "Do you doubt me?"
"No, but," he was still overcoming the surprise of it, "but that's really hard. No one- I mean, most people our age can't do uncontrollable magic." He was struck again by the painful image of his annoying cousin.
"Uncontrollable magic?"
"You mean you don't know?" Syaoran stared at Sakura as if she was an alien. He launched into an explanation. "There are two classes of magic. You've got your controllable magic which is the stuff that happens when you want it too. Like shooting lightning with your wand thing, or burning paper. Then there's uncontrollable magic which is the kind of magic that just HAPPENS to you. Like, knowing what's happening to your brother right when it's happening to him. I mean, you don't know everything that goes on in everyone's lives right? Just snapshots of it every now and then, right?"
Sakura nodded, and Syaoran let out a sigh of relief.
"Can some people really do that, thought?" Sakura asked. "Know everything that's going on at every waking moment?"
Syaoran shook his head violently at thought of it. "No, nobody can do that," he said. "I've heard of a lot of people who've come really close though. They go mad within hours. People just aren't meant to know everything that's happening at every waking moment. Drive 'em nuts, that's what."
Sakura's eyes seemed balloon. "Could-could that happen to me?" she asked, and Syaoran could see her just imagining going insane.
He smiled, sympathetically. Sakura was so innocent. "You'll be fine," he assured her. "It only happens to people who force it. You can't force uncontrollable magic. Like I said, it's the kind that just happens to you."
She brightened almost instantly. "I'm so glad I can finally talk to someone about being a magician, Syaoran," Sakura confided, as they approached the school gates. "I just talk about it with my family, that's all."
Syaoran nodded. Of course Sakura's family would be full of magicians. Magic tended to run in families.
Together, they entered the school and headed for their classroom. Syaoran wasn't surprised to find Eriol already present, as was Tomoyo whose nose was in a book. Eriol gave him a grin, and he felt an old ripple of anger. Otherwise, he was much calmer now than he'd been earlier that morning.
"Settle down class, settle down," Mr. Terrada declared when the bell rang, and he started the day by passing out their math tests from the week before. Seeing a satisfactory 96% at the top of his paper, Syaoran decided that he could zone out for the rest of the day. Which he did; just managing to answer Mr. Terrada's water-percentage-in-the-body question so that he wouldn't be scolded.
At break, Eriol rattled Syaoran's shoulder violently before running to Mr. Terrada's desk to speak with him. Syaoran shot his cousin a disgruntled look, then settled back down to continue his nap. But there was a tap on his shoulder.
"Um," said a nervous voice. "Syaoran?"
"Really," said Syaoran, his temper on the rise. "Will people stop touching my shoulder?!" And he tried to elbow the person.
It was Sakura, and she yelped as his elbow swung past. His face burned at the sight of her, and he was only aware that it wasn't out of anger.
"Sorry," he mumbled, cheeks still flaming.
Tomoyo, behind her, gave an amused giggle. Sakura just twiddled her thumbs.
"What is it?"
"Could..." the words didn't seem to want to form, "Could you tutor me in math?"
"Huh?"
"Could you tutor her in math?" Tomoyo piped in.
"Huh?" he repeated, swiveling his head in search of his cousin. "Did you ask Eriol? He scored the highest. 104."
"He said he was busy," Sakura admitted. "He recommended you."
"Busy with what?"
"I don't know," said Sakura, and Tomoyo continued to giggle for seeming no reason in the background.
Syaoran thought it over. Did he have time? He remembered, as if from a century ago, that he needed to find the Fountain of Youth. It was why he was in Tomoeda; why he was currently in Eriol's company. And he'd been distracted with the weekend. Could he afford this new distraction?
He looked at Sakura, and found himself falling into her green eyes. He was no closer to finding the Fountain of Youth than he was when he first came to Tomoeda.
"Um..." said Sakura, who was uncomfortable at having him gaze into her eyes like that. "If you can't, you can just say so."
Syaoran snapped into reality. "Huh? Oh- oh nothing. Sure, I'll tutor you."
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Author's Notes: Thank you ChibiYuffie1. I remain amazed and gratified at your continuous reviewing.
Thanks you also to h2omelonnga.