Tied By Fate
By: pnaixrose
Disclaimer: I do not own CCS. The wonderful CLAMP does.
Chapter 2: Plans
Sakura and Syaoran stared at each other for a couple of minutes. They just stood there and stared, trying to comprehend what was happening. Deep inside, they were secretly wondering what the other one thought about the sudden "feelings" they get from each other.
The others around them stared at the two teens in bafflement while Eriol studied them silently, taking mental notes.
"Um, Sakura-chan, do you know him?" Tomoyo asked gesturing with her amethyst eyes to the amber-eyed boy.
"No," Sakura answered quietly, her eyes still boring into Syaoran's, "I've never met him."
"And I've never met her," Syaoran said, equally staring Sakura down.
"What are you doing here?" Sakura asked him casually.
Syaoran narrowed his eyes. "You've got a problem with my being here?"
It was obvious they weren't exactly getting along well. Actually, it really peeved both of them out that another person knew their most secret emotions. Although, Sakura wasn't as peeved as Syaoran was. She was embarrassed more than angry. All those times she got into her "floaty" moods whenever she saw Yukito weren't secret after all. This stranger had felt them. It was a total invasion of privacy!
Syaoran on the other hand was more than peeved. His thoughts regarding his life aren't exactly uplifting. In fact, they were depressing...really, really depressing. But he was the stubborn kind. He would never show that his thoughts were saddening to him. He had been brought up being taught that showing sadness only led to weakness, so he basically kept it inside, not allowing anyone know his thoughts. This actually worked pretty well…except for her. She ruined everything. This complete stranger knew his feelings; his sadness, his anger, his anguish…everything. She probably pitied how he was always pretty gloomy by now! If there was something he hated more than showing emotion, it was pity. Sure, she didn't have anything to worry about anything. She had friends, a normal family and he was pretty sure she had a crush for he often felt really tingly feelings and had seen an image of what he thought was the guy she liked. In fact, it was the guy with the silver hair and glasses. So yeah, her life was perfect.
So to summarize everything up, they were complete opposites.
"N-No, I'm just surprised to see you here," Sakura said. Boy, was this guy rude. She had only asked a simply question.
"And that I'm not somewhere brooding? Is that it?" Syaoran said icily.
Sakura frowned deeply. "Hold on, I never said that!"
"But that's what you were thinking, wasn't it?"
Sakura felt a weird emotion in her chest. She knew that he was annoyed. Deeply annoyed.
"N-No! It wasn't!"
"Yes you were. I know how people like you think."
He started feeling a little anger coming from her now as soon as he had said that. Wow, she was mad. That was actually the first time he had felt any kind of anger from her.
"People like me? What's that supposed to mean!" Sakura shouted, clearly as mad as he was now.
"People like you are the people who have perfectly normal lives with normal situations, normal families, normal friends and normal problems. I bet the biggest problem you've had was a zit that you suddenly got and were afraid to go to school," he responded almost dully.
But dull definitely wasn't what he felt inside as he felt his anger rise in his chest. All of it wasn't even his anger either…
"You have no right to say any of that! You've only met me! And for your information, I've probably had bigger problems than you," Sakura blurted.
Syaoran laughed, which dripped with loads of sarcasm. "Yeah, right. You? Okay, why don't you tell me one of your oh-so-big problems!" he said folding his arms in front of him.
"Hey, brat," Touya started as he glared at the new guy, "Why don't you just shut the hell up and leave my sister alo-"
"Well, how about fighting a friend – who by the way was Clow's reincarnation – to lift a curse from the whole town that was putting everyone to a deep sleep where they couldn't wake from!" she shouted, cutting her brother off.
She immediately stopped after she said that and slapped her hand over her mouth. She had just blurted that out, consumed by her anger! Although she wasn't too worried about her friends and family, but Syaoran was a complete stranger! Maybe his mother knew, but her stupid, rude kid probably didn't know one bit about magic.
The rest of them were silent, utterly amazed at her unusual quick temper. They were especially surprised that she had just blurted out her special gift. Usually she was keen on keeping her magic a secret and had been careful not to spill it. But Sakura had forgotten about all that. She had been too angry at Syaoran, which was definitely a first.
Syaoran, on the other hand, had changed his monotonous gaze to a slightly amused one.
"Uhh…I-I mean," Sakura stammered.
"Oh. So you are the Card Mistress?" he said as if it was the most normal thing.
Sakura's eyes widened. "Y-You know, too?"
The others, except Yelan, Eriol, Nakuru and Spinel Sun, were equally surprised.
"Li-kun, you mean you know about Sakura-chan having magic?" Yukito asked.
"Yeah."
"How?" Tomoyo added curiously. She had to admit, this guy was handsome...but his personality didn't exactly match. She was sort of curious how a rude boy like this would know anything about things like this, even if his mother had magic.
"Well, it's my job."
Touya rolled his eyes, clearly irked by Syaoran's manners. "Dammit brat, explain."
Syaoran simply raised an eyebrow. "You mean my mother hasn't introduced me fully yet?"
"Hoee? What are you talking about?" Sakura said.
Suddenly, his dominating demeanor disappeared, only to be replaced with and sorrowful one. He looked at the wooden floor, trying hard to hide his eyes. "I-I'm Li Syaoran, direct descendant of Clow Reed and…...current leader of the Li clan."
Everyone was silent.
"You! The leader of such a prestigious group as the Li Clan? HA! No way! They would never have a brat as their leader," Kero shouted watching all that was happening from Tomoyo's pocket.
Fujitaka, Touya and Yukito were too surprised at Syaoran's statement to be nervous about a "stuffed animal" talking. Sakura and Tomoyo were shocked, too.
Nakuru grinned, not noticing everyone's confusion and surprise. "Isn't that cool! Master Eriol, I and Suppi know the Lis because obviously Master Eriol would want to meet his descendants. We met the Lis a long time ago before we came to Japan. Eriol and Syaoran turned out to be the best of friends, ne Eriol?" she said excitedly.
"No," Syaoran quickly retorted with a grunt.
Eriol chuckled. "Well, I'm not sure Syaoran will agree."
"Hold on, what is the Li clan exactly anyway?" Touya asked.
"I thought it was clearly obvious," Suppi said yawning, although was mildly amused at the situation, "the Li clan is a family who are all the direct descendants of Clow Reed's mother. I bet even your father knew that one, Kinomoto."
Touya rolled his eyes. "Hey, gimme a break. This whole magic thing is still giving me quite a shock okay? Just you talking gives me the creeps."
Suppi only rolled his eyes.
Fujitaka turned to Yelan. "Yelan, this is shocking. I mean, your son is pretty young to be taking up such a big responsibility. I mean, he looks like he's only around the age of twenty or so."
"I'm seventeen," Syaoran grunted.
Fujitaka's eyes widened even more as his glasses slid slightly off his nose. "Seventeen?" The Li clan's leader was only a year older than his daughter? Someone who was as young as him was leading a whole clan plus the industry they were in charge of?
Tomoyo scanned Syaoran. "I understand how you could've made the mistake, Kinomoto-san. He does look older than seventeen, considering his height, body figure, and facial expressions. The way he talks and scans people discreetly also makes him seem older. You know Li, you'd be pretty attractive if you didn't act the way you do," Tomoyo said scanning him carefully as she circled him. Suddenly she clapped her hands together. "I bet you look great in green, don't you?"
Syaoran looked at the odd girl. Was she crazy or something? Well, he did have to give her credit though. She was pretty damn observant to notice things like that. The others smiled a small smile at Tomoyo's behavior as Yelan looked at her as if she were strange. However, Eriol's grin was the biggest out of all of them. She continued to amaze him with her quick wit and analytical ways. Her modest and fashion loving personality also amused him. She was just full of surprises, no matter who she meets.
"Heh. Well, even if he were the leader of the Li clan," Kero said, "he must've just been assigned to it recently. I mean, I hate to face it to you, brat, but you are way too young."
Syaoran looked away from them as everyone kept on trying to comment all at once. He didn't want to talk about his life to some bunch of strangers he just met. No, he didn't want to talk about all the strenuous training, the endless hours of studying and how it had all started...definitely not about how it started. Because then that would start leading him to think about…
'Otou-san…'
No. He couldn't think of his lousy father…the father who died right in front of him when he was only at the age of eight…
It was too late to stop his thoughts though and he knew it.
Immediately and suddenly, Sakura got the pain in her chest again. She reached up and touched her heart with her hand. Sadness…pain…suffering…these were the things she was feeling. She glanced at Syaoran and caught his amber eye.
Syaoran scowled as he avoided her gaze. "Dammit…"
Yelan who had been silent through all the comments the others had been saying, noticed his expression. She sighed. She knew that he was thinking about his father. Any little mention about the clan triggered thoughts about his father, her husband whom she had loved so much. It was just so unfair! Why'd he have to go? Why'd he have to abandon them, leaving their only son who was only eight to be the leader! Yelan looked at her son sorrowfully. He had acquired everything from his father. He looked exactly like him, except with shorter hair. Her son had those deep, penetrating amber eyes, the quiet manner, the chocolate colored hair, the clever and intelligence from his father. The only thing he lacked now...was his caring, loving side of him. Yelan knew he was caring inside. But the Elders had wanted him to be perfect in every aspect to gain the confidence and skill of a leader. As a result, they had told him that he should never ever show emotion of any kind. They had only meant that he shouldn't show too much sadness and anger, but this of course backfired to them, when he refused to show even any sign of happiness by smiling or laughing. He had lost all those years of innocence...just because he had to become leader of the clan.
"Hold on," Tomoyo suddenly said, immediately cutting everyone off of what they were saying, "Eriol, you said you invited the Lis here. Do you have something to explain to us?"
Eriol grinned, loving once again how Tomoyo was always the one to notice everything first. "Finally, somebody's noticed."
Everyone was sitting anxiously in the Kinomotos' living room couches where there were still a few things left over from Sakura's party. But they didn't bother picking the litter up right now. Everyone wanted to hear Eriol's explanation. Meanwhile, Eriol stood in the middle, pacing nervously.
"So Eriol, why did you request our presence here?" Yelan asked, taking on her regal voice once again.
He sighed and combed his hand through his navy blue hair. This would take a lot of explaining. It was especially hard because he didn't know all the information himself. "It's seems…that I, Hiiragazawa Eriol, have just discovered something that evidently is supposed to happen," he said.
Tomoyo gasped in surprised. "Wow! Really! You overlooked something?"
"Aren't you supposed to have a power where you can look into the future or something?" Touya asked.
Eriol nodded meekly.
"Even if you did fail to notice something that was to happen in the future, wouldn't Clow Reed would've known?" Yelan asked in confusion.
"Yes. That's what I thought, too. But, I have no memories whatsoever about Clow seeing this in the future. And, he didn't put it in any of his journals, which he constantly wrote in. So I doubt that he knew this either."
"But Hiiragazawa, I don't get it. Why are you making such a big deal of this? Everything seems as they are to be," Yukito said, glancing carefully at everyone in the room.
"That's what you think. Something very important was to happen. It's important to all of us…especially Sakura-san."
Sakura blinked her large emerald eyes. "Hoee? Me?"
Eriol sighed in exasperation as he saw everyone's perplexed faces. "Neither I or Clow Reed have noticed this event that was supposed to happen. Apparently, Clow had found out all he could about Sakura and her future. But he had missed something, something very essential to Sakura's life."
"And what was that?" Fujitaka asked curiously. Hey, wouldn't you be curious about your daughter's life, too? He especially should be curious since Sakura was the Card Mistress and had magic. All kinds of situations had happened to her already that he hadn't known about.
Syaoran grunted, his anger raising. "You're making no sense, Hiiragazawa. What does this thing have to do with my coming here? You drag me out all the way to fucking Japan to explain something I'm not even included in?"
Yelan looked at Eriol. "Even though Xiao Lang is being rude and impolite about it, I have to agree, Eriol. Why ask us to come here?"
Eriol sighed again. "I wasn't done yet. That something that need to happen was associated to you, Syaoran."
Syaoran look at him confusedly with a deep frown on his lips. This whole thing was bullshit. He was convinced that Hiiragazawa was simply trying to looked smart in front of all these people.
"Syaoran, at age ten where were you?" Eriol asked.
Syaoran's amber eyes widened momentarily before looking down at the ground.
Sakura felt the pain tugging at her heart again and she swore she had seen at least a little sadness in his eyes replace the stubbornness. She sighed. She couldn't reach his eyes anymore. They were covered by his messy bangs. She tried to ignore the slight twinge of pain in her to listen to the situation.
"I was in Hong Kong of course…" Syaoran said dully.
Eriol looked sadly at his friend. He hated seeing Syaoran like this, but Eriol had to make a point. "What were you doing in Hong Kong?" he asked softly.
Syaoran was angry. In fact, he was furious now. He didn't care if the Card Mistress felt what he was feeling anymore. How could Hiiragazawa ask him these questions! He knew perfectly well what was going on at that time. The clan had been in chaos. Even though it had been almost two years since Syaoran's father had died, the Elders and important people in the clan had spent all this time debating. And do you know what they were debating about? They were debating whether of not Syaoran will be able to lead the clan even at a young age. They didn't really want any other male in the family be the leader because it was a strict custom to have the son of the leader take his father's place when he passed away or was unable to continue. So the Elders made their decision. That's right. Syaoran had to become the leader of the Li clan at age ten. Actually, they were planning to initiate Syaoran's leadership on the day of his tenth birthday. So, Syaoran had to do nothing but study and train everyday. Then suddenly on his tenth birthday, there were all these people and then- BAM! You're the leader of your clan. That's some way to celebrate your first double digit birthday, huh?
"What do you think, Hiiragazawa! You know exactly what was happening when I was ten years old!" Syaoran suddenly exploded.
Eriol didn't flinch despite the deadening glare and outburst from his descendant.
"Actually Master, it was pretty inconsiderate to ask him that. You know what he has been through. Why remind him of it?" Suppi whispered to Eriol from his shoulder.
Eriol ignored the small guardian. "So you were busy all that year?"
Syaoran looked at him with a disbelieving look. "You were there when I was ten, dammit! You saw how fucked up everything had been! Damn you Hiiragazawa...I thought you were supposed to be 'all-mighty,' being Clow Reed and all," he shouted. He couldn't contain himself any longer. Why the hell was Hiiragazawa doing this to him!
There was silence once again enveloping them after Syaoran's outburst. The pain in Sakura's chest tightened a bit as he said all of those things. But as she took a peek into his eyes, she saw intense pain, even greater than what she felt, and sorrow. He was suffering deep inside and bottling it up. It was a bad thing to contain all your emotions inside. They would build up and suddenly explode without warning, just like when he had exploded in front of Eriol. But even those cruel words didn't seem even a bit of the anger that Sakura saw in his eyes.
Eriol just sighed warily, hating to do this to his friend. "Yes, I was there. But your mother, the Elders and I didn't tell you something."
"What?" Syaoran said with an annoyed tone obvious in his voice.
"We didn't tell you the Cards had been released."
Syaoran looked at Eriol for a minute before putting his head down again.
"You mean that's it?" Syaoran whispered, starting to calm down now. "You didn't have to tell me. I knew the Cards had been released," he said.
Eriol and Yelan looked taken aback. "Xiao Lang? H-How? We never even mentioned it to you," Yelan said.
Syaoran looked up and stared right at Sakura. "I knew…because I felt her nervousness and I saw the Cards being released in my dreams." Syaoran rolled his eyes. "Honestly Kinomoto, you released the Cards accidentally! You thought the Cards were normal! Even a regular human with no magic could sense something odd about those Cards."
Sakura felt hurt and frowned and opened her mouth to speak but Touya interrupted her. He had gotten up and walked over to Syaoran who was still sitting. Touya towered over him while they both glared at each other.
"Why don't you just leave my sister alone?" Touya said through gritted teeth, "If you ever insult her again…"
Syaoran smirked a bit unfazed by Touya's threats. "Oh. You're one of those over-protective brothers aren't you? So what if I insult her again? What can you do?"
Before Touya's fist came crashing into Syaoran's calm face, Yukito and Fujitaka were already holding Touya back.
"Touya, calm yourself," Yukito said. He looked at Syaoran disapprovingly as he tried to sit his best friend down.
Fujitaka frowned towards Syaoran. "Li-kun, please do not speak that way about my children and please do not get Touya-kun angry," Fujitaka said holding Touya back. There was a tint of unusual resentment in Fujitaka's voice as he spoke to Syaoran, which was highly unusual because he usually liked everyone he met.
Syaoran only grunted in response.
Touya was yelling obscenities at the brat who was sitting calmly through the whole yelling session. Fujitaka and Yukito held him back and tried to quiet him. Finally Touya had calmed down and was yet again sitting in the opposite couch of Syaoran. His father and Yukito staying near him in case Syaoran infuriated Touya again. During the confusion, Yelan took that time to scold her impossible son who in return just gave her a hard stare.
"Okay, Eriol," Kero said finally speaking again, "You've gotta get to the point before any more fights break out."
Tomoyo nodded in agreement. "Kero's right," she whispered to Eriol, "Touya-san and Li-kun don't seem like they like each other much. Not even Fujitaka and Yukito-san seem to like Li-kun right now, and you know how they are always friendly to everyone."
Eriol nodded and cleared his throat loudly to catch everyone's attention. "Well, the whole time, Syaoran knew about the Cards being released. He didn't come here to Tomoeda, Japan because he couldn't leave the clan."
Syaoran shouted as he stood up suddenly, "I wouldn't have come here even if I had to!"
Yelan gave her son that mother look. Syaoran sighed in annoyance and sat back down.
"Well, Syaoran and Sakura were supposed to meet," Eriol said.
"If you say Li-kun and Sakura-chan were meant to meet, why didn't they, Eriol?" Tomoyo asked.
He sighed in response. "That seems to have been Clow's fault. Actually, Clow's and mine. We both hadn't seen anything about them meeting. Both Clow and I had our limits. We weren't perfect. We couldn't find out every single thing that was supposed to happen in Sakura's life."
"Wait, Hiiragazawa," Fujitaka started, "How did you find this out if you had no premonitions or such about Li and Sakura meeting?"
Eriol fiddled with his glasses. "Well, I've noticed something. Ever since Syaoran was small, he was able to somehow feel a stranger's emotions. And it wasn't only that. He also had dreams of the stranger…"
Syaoran glared at Eriol. He was as observing as that Daidouji girl was. "How'd you know that? I never told you…"
Eriol smirked. "I have my ways, cute little descendant."
Syaoran's frown deepened at the nickname.
"So anyway…" Eriol continued, "Syaoran's constant dazing out never really bothered me until Sakura-san had told me that she had been having weird dreams about a boy she hadn't met a few months ago."
As Touya and Fujitaka looked her way, Sakura squirmed. She hadn't told her family about the weird dreams. She didn't want them to worry. But she guessed it was useless now.
"Anyway," Eriol quickly said, "I knew she probably felt the strange boy's emotions too. So obviously, if you put all these facts together…"
"So wait," Tomoyo said trying to comprehend, "What you're saying is that Sakura-chan and Li-kun are somehow…somehow bonded together!"
Syaoran and Sakura stood up from their couch at the same time.
"NO WAY!" they said in unison.
"Are you sure you haven't lost it yet, Eriol?" Kero asked, "I mean it's clear that Sakura and this brat have nothing in common…except of course for the fact that they both have magic."
"Well, they obviously do have something in common, Cerberus. They are both connected to each other," Eriol replied.
Touya was in hysterics. "Sakura and this gaki! BONDED to each other No way, Hiiragazawa!"
Eriol shrugged. "I've been doing research on this. I've been through all the books, documents, journals and everything I could find. They all say the same thing; 'Channeling one's emotion to another, even involuntarily, can only occur if the two people are somehow connected. Connection between two people can only be proven in one way; the two must have dreams of the other.' So this isn't just a guess. Syaoran and Sakura are definitely connected to each other."
"Hold on, how are they connected?" Fujitaka asked.
"Well," Eriol said, "I have no idea how they are bonded. It could be because they both have approximately the same strength of magic? I don't know. That's why I brought Syaoran here. If they are connected somehow there must be a reason. I have a feeling that if he's here we'll all be able to find out."
"And just why are we …bonded?" Syaoran asked, saying the last word with distaste.
They all saw Eriol's smirk. It grew larger as Eriol looked at Syaoran to Sakura.
"Eriol?" Nakuru said noticing the familiar evil tint in her master's eye.
He gave a deep, long chuckle. And somehow to Syaoran and Sakura's ears, it was not very comforting.
"Eriol?" Tomoyo said. Something was definitely up.
He laughed for a coupled more seconds as everyone was silently watching him and wondering what was wrong. As Eriol finally stopped, he had to take off his glasses to wipe the few tears in her eyes he had gotten from laughing.
"You would never believe if I told you what I think," Eriol said smirking as he placed his glasses back on, "Well, we'll just have to find out if my theory is right."
Everyone blinked in confusion. Maybe Eriol was starting to get a bit psycho.
"Hmmm," Eriol said thinking, "I think I might need a little help though." He smiled and looked at Tomoyo. "I think you'll find my little plan enjoyable, Tomoyo. Would you like to assist me?"
Tomoyo looked at him in bafflement. But she said, "I-I'd be happy to lend you a hand anytime, Eriol."
He smiled in triumph. "Good."
Syaoran rolled his eyes. "This is all bull. Bull, I tell you. Now if you don't mind, Mother, do you mind if we go back to Hong Kong now?" he said, clearly irritated by all these people.
She sighed. It was pretty hard for Yelan to take all of this information in. Syaoran had been having his connection with the Card Mistress even before she had even noticed Sakura's magic? It was giving her a headache. The last thing she needed was her son's complaining.
"Syaoran," Eriol said, "Leave your mother alone. All this information including the amount of magic she had used up when you guys had transported here must have tired her out."
Fujitaka's eyes were wide. "Yelan, you used your magic to get here!"
Yelan smiled tiredly. "Not only with my magic of course. I did it with the help of Syaoran and the Elders…"
Sakura looked at Yelan in worry. "Li-san, do you have somewhere to stay?" she asked.
Yelan smiled at the girl. "Oh Sakura, just call me Yelan. And yes, I'm pretty sure we'll be staying at Eriol's house."
The birthday girl smiled. "Okay…Yelan-san."
Syaoran groaned. This stranger had already gotten on his mother's good side! It usually took ages to get on his mother's good side. In fact, he was still trying to get there…
"C'mon, Yelan-sama! You look tired. Let's get you back to our house," Nakuru said, "You can tell me all about your daughters!"
Yelan smiled weakly as Spinel Sun noticeably rolled his eyes as he heard Nakuru's comment from Eriol's pocket. Nakuru walked Yelan over to the door.
"Good-bye everyone," Yelan said, "And happy birthday, Sakura-san."
Yelan and Sakura smiled at each other before the regal woman let Nakuru walk her out the door.
Eriol walked towards Sakura sadly as everyone said their good-byes to Yelan and Nakuru.
"Sakura," Eriol whispered, "I'm sorry for ruining your birthday."
"Oh don't worry, Eriol. At least I've gotten the chance to meet Yelan...and at least I now know the person I'm…connected to…"
He still looked guilty. "But trust me, Sakura. This isn't exactly my birthday present."
"Hoee?"
Eriol smirked. "Nope. My present is just beginning…"
And with that, he swiftly left her side and bid good-bye to everyone. Syaoran followed silently, looking at the floor.
He felt Sakura's gaze as he left and frowned. This was so damn unlucky of him. But then again, he was the king the unluckiness. An image of his father flashed through his mind…
Sakura meanwhile felt the pain once again. She somehow understood Li's sadness. She herself had a deceased mother… The major difference was that Sakura's mother didn't die in such a gory way. Her mom had died from an illness…
Maybe…Just maybe… Li Syaoran isn't really what he seems to be. Maybe somewhere inside him was a good person. Death of someone close can cause someone to be distant. Maybe if Li-kun had someone who would be willing to help him, he'd open his heart.