Wish Upon a Falling Star
By: maixwolfblossom
-Chapter Twenty-Two-
--Aftermath of Emotions—
Disclaimer: We all want to own something…CCS is one of them, but life is unfair like that because CLAMP has owned it since 1996. So we must sadly live with that fact. So plz, don't sue original characters belong to CLAMP!
Recap:
Yelan leaned in waiting for the response and when it came she smiled, knowing exactly what would happen next.
Syaoran released his breath that he didn't know he had been holding and fought himself from smashing the wall next to him.
Need I write more of what Rioka chose? She chose her child's happiness and her greed for power instead of common sense and now it was final. Her path had been chosen and the road she took would be one heck of a ride.
End
As soon as the response left her lips, Syaoran was no longer free to love anyone. Rioka had chained his soul and solidified his fate, Sakura was out of Syaoran's reach from this point on.
So this was it. Had this really ended our favorite couple's relationship?
Well, what do you think! Syaoran was not one of those elders-take-control-of-my-life people, he bit his lip and fought back!
The ringleader of the elders raised the sealing stamp to the document and said a few words of prayer. In slow motion the stamp made its way to the paper, in Syaoran's mind it seemed to be forever. As the stamp touched the document, Syaoran ran just in time to knock the object out of the old geezer's hand.
Suh Li punched the air with his hand and yelped a big, "Whhhhooo haaaa!" as his brother, Hynh glared menacingly at the predestined leader of his clan.
Syaoran, who just realized what he had done, heaved a big sigh and shook his head, forgetting all his fears, "I will not allow you to let me make the biggest mistake of my life."
It seemed for a small itty-bitty moment, Hynh's eyes softened slightly but his response was as cold as ever.
"You will greatly regret that."
Yelan's expression returned to it's old self, but a hint of a smile tugged at the ends of her mouth. Syaoran glared at the man before him, the one who was his only obstacle between arranged marriages and true love.
He was, after all, a grown man ready to make his own decisions. The elder waited almost patiently for an answer from the young master.
Outside the Solarium
"Doesn't it seem a bit odd that no one has not come out yet?" Sakura added worriedly.
Eriol, who was putting a finger under his chin and pouting in every angle answered, "Well I don't know, Sakura-chan…You should not be worried. The longer the gathering, something positive may come your way. Hrmmm…which is my best side?"
Tomoyo giggled, watching her Eri-boo-booobooboo strike manly poses. His azure eyes blazed with fire as he started to hum a familiar tune and in his head he was singing his song that no one else knew…'I'm too sexy for my shorts, too sexy for my shorts, oh just too sexy…-tiger growl-'
Tomoyo raised an inquiring brow, "Why did you just...growl?"
'Oh no! She found out my secret weapon? What am I to use now?' Eriol squatted near a corner and drew circles on the floor, wonderingly.
Ling hung back near a portrait of a past leader, he was not listening attentively to what the group of people next to him were talking about. His thoughts were a bit scattered at the moment as he was thinking of what Rioka had said to him just a few hours before…
'I'm going to end whatever bitterness I hold against you and I'm ending whatever relationship we ever had. It ends here.'
And then that kiss. Ling held his head in agony, his mind was screaming. He knew he shouldn't feel like this, but no matter how many times he tried to forget that kiss it was just too hard. It kept replaying in his mind's eye. He had fallen for a women that was just too out of his reach and it was making him feel frustrated.
"I won't have you be a tyrant over my own life. I can think for myself. It's my life, don't I have a say in it?" Syaoran pleaded, which left Hynh to be speechless, he had never seen such worried emotions run through any other predecessor.
Frustrated and embarrassed for the hesitant thought in his mind, he grabbed a glass of water and took a long drink.
Everyone was silently waiting for his answer to Xiao Lang's plea, but it never came, instead there was gagging.
"Who the heck put salt in my water!"
One of the servers who were in the room sweatdropped, "Um, sir…that's the finger glass. It's a new recipe, the salt is supposed to give a soothing effect for gentle hands."
Hynh coughed, Suh laughed at his brother's stupidity that it almost came to a point where he felt sorry for his complex brother.
"This calls for a short five minute break."
Within those five minutes everyone in the Solarium conversed loudly.
"Did you hear that? The next leader actually isn't so icy!"
Others said, "This is outrageous! How are we going to live through tradition?"
Rioka was still a bit dazed from her decision-making. Yelan and Suh discreetly talked about the hullabaloo, while Syaoran thought of ways to convince Hynh to reconsider.
The minutes passed quickly and Hynh had come out of the restroom, which made everyone…laugh, especially Syaoran.
Apparently, a long trail of bathroom tissue was at the bottom of his slipper. He could feel a deep blotches of red appeared on his cheeks, he ripped the tissue off his slipper and sat huffily in his chair.
"I'm glad we're all amused here and all we want to do is to get out of here. Yet, we have a slight matter to take care of..." He directed his unwavering gaze on Xiao Lang." Hynh nodded and continued, "So…if I let you off the hook, then what? How will the Li Clan benefit and who will produce the next heir?"
Syaoran's mind raced, just hearing that all that man ever cared about was the fate of the clan and the next of kin to take over was driving him crazy. Did this former leader not know his feelings? Did he know that someday these clans would cease to exist in this fast growing metropolis? "Sir…with all do respect. It seems that you think that women are the product of child bearing. Why do you care about having sons to live on the name Li? Better yet, have you ever loved anyone besides this clan?"
His speech touched everyone in the room, even Rioka. Hynh felt a sting in his heart, an almost longing. Suh slowly looked at his brother and saw him furrow his brow. That one expression made him feel sorry for all the sacrifices and loss that Hynh had to go through to live up to their father's wishes. He shoved his hand in his pockets and recovered a golden locket, he opened it to reveal a couple looking at each other with love in their eyes. Suh knew he had to fulfill his faithful wife's last wish even though he bitterly did not like the idea that someone else had held onto her heart until her last breath.
Hynh took a shuddering breath, "I am not entitled to answer that," he made a noise that sounded of somewhat between a laugh and a soft sigh, "I have had enough of this nonsense. The decision is FINAL!"
He grabbed the stamp and pressed it upon the legal document.
Syaoran dropped to his knees helplessly as the elders too were shocked. Yelan suppressed the growing rage in her mind but held back, knowing that better things would grow out of this.
Suh sighed knowing that he had the power to change his brother's decision, but he relented against it since his bitterness got in the way of his heart.
Outside
Everyone passed the awaiting crowd of young adults without announcing anything.
Sakura clutched onto Tomoyo nervously, none of the elder's had even acknowledged Meiling, nor Eriol.
Hynh came through the doors of the Solarium and immediately made eye contact with Sakura. A knowing look flickered over his eyes, which was quickly covered up and grunted, passing them as all of the others did.
No one had seen Syaoran yet, which made Sakura feel worried.
For ten minutes no one else had come out of the darkened room, not even Rioka. They all stood there waiting, but no one came.
Rioka blinked once or twice to rid the burning sensation behind her eyes. She still saw Syaoran kneeling where everyone had left him.
She had never seen such desperation for him to be with someone before, not even for her. This was the change she sensed from him in the weeks she had stayed in the Li Mansion.
He suddenly stood, his movement echoed as if every step he took weighed him a million pounds. Syaoran stopped and looked to the glass ceiling and whispered to the stars, "I thought that if I wished upon a star, my life would change. It has, but not for the better…I'm sorry, Cherry." He sighed and made his way out of the room.
Sakura spotted a figure making their way out, she gasped seeing the miserable looking Syaoran. She knew immediately that things had not gone smoothly. Sakura struggled with a slight smile, Tomoyo squeezed her best friend's hand, even Eriol stopped flexing his arms and looked serious for once.
Syaoran finally looked up to meet Sakura and shook his head.
"Zetai Daijoubu (Everything will be alright)" Sakura had said tearfully as she released Tomoyo's hand and went to hug Syaoran.
Her warm embrace made his eyes sting slightly. He took her face in his hands and pressed kisses all over her temple and then hugged her once more. For once in his life, Syaoran did not know what to do now. He knew he had to break the relationship sooner or later. But right now, he couldn't tear himself away from her and he did not care who saw him now.
Meiling shook her head for she had not seen her cousin act so vunerable until now. Her tears fell automatically knowing full well that it was hard to break an engagement made within the family especially if you were a Li and if this was a second engagement.
At the same time, two shadowed figures were cloaked by the darkness. The first star had already come out as if to listen to their convestion.
"You know how much trouble this can cause if we don't recover those documents, right?" a feminine voice voicedher thoughts after a long silence.
The other voice spoke after much thought, "Don't you fret, I think I'm close.This is...I think...the last service I could ever perform formy master." the figure's hand clutched their chest, their voiceturned into a raspy whisper, "He would want this..."
The two disappeared into the night, going their separate ways.
Suh took a swig of a bottle of sake with the golden locket in his other hand. Tears streamed down his cloudy brown eyes, like the sorrows that overflowed in his heart. He wanted to drown in his misery, with the secret he swore to take to his grave. He wouldn't let anyone know that the women he gave his heart to had secretly, truly loved his brother instead. That was a scandal in itself.
He really loved his brother, and probably the reason why he did not want to show him this shred of a memory was because this was the only possession that his wife had kept near and dear. Heck! She had kept it on her neck during most of their marriage.
But when he saw Xiao Lang's plead for his right to love freely, he felt his heart go out to the poor young man. He knew that Yelan's son had earned the right to have at least a bit of love outside of the family and of people within their society, but it was the world that the Li family had always lived in. Isolated and bland.
The elder slurred a few curses here and there and knew he didn't mean any of what he had said. Maybe a bit more sake, and the pain would recede...
The dazed Rioka, stood frozen at the spot. As soon as Syaoran had made that statement and Hynh had made the engagement legal, she saw in her mind's eye that Ling was beginning to fade.
She realized right then and there that…she might be in love with Ghouzu Ling.
"I think I made a terrible mistake…"
Uncertain and doubtful, the pallid looking girl sobbed out in agony. Finally she came into terms with something. Maybe this feeling for Ling was nothing but to her imagination. Maybe she became confused because the shock of Xiao Lang not being able to love her was too unbearable. All she knew was that the woman that had made her fiance feel this way, had ruined her well laid out plans. This person had destroyed and munipulated her into thinking that she was not good enough to be made Li Xiao Lang's wife. IT WAS ALL THAT WOMAN'S FAULT!
Rioka contemplated, and came to this desperate conclusion. Whoever had made the icy prince crack, was going to pay in the end. Intentionally, or not.
A/N: I kno, I kno...another late update coming from maixwolfblossom -reviewers throw tomatoes- I'm srry, so srry! I didn't know what to write! Well I hope this was enough to last a while, because for now I can't make any promises about updating. I hope y'all review this fic, it's one of the things that keep me going. I'll try to update soon before the month ends, count on it.
Thanks to all who reviewed last chapter!
chikichiki, SilverLunarStar, Sakura-Blossom-Cilla-85, B, Rushi Star, jimjam333, anata, Sakura Mei Yunalesca, PnKSaKuRaSyAoRaNS2, xxaznbabexx, big dreamer girl, bludtherstEw0lf, anjuliet, VietGirlie92, Panda-chan, someone, Syaoran'n'SakuRocks, and asiangirl68
Seriously, you guys are the best! I'm so happy you've stuck to me even to this point! -rubs the tears off eyes-
Until next chapter!
-maixwolfblossom
