Oh ho ho ho... I hope this is a better chapter. And I made sure to do it quick and longer... he he... I guess its still a tad short. I'll make each chapter lengthy as I go by! And, this chapter is all thanx to Mikkasura! She's a writer on this site, and she happened to be on my alerts list, and she helped me a WHOLE lot for this chapter! Thanx for the ideas! Mikkasura, I couldn't take the whole thing... then the story wouldn't be mine. So I scattered your ideas a bit, and everything turned out to be GREAT! Thank you sooo much! I finished this all in one day! I'm on a roll!

We walked toward the mansion, slowly as though we were in a dream. Our eyes dazed, as though we were in a trance. We walked without talking, keeping our thoughts to ourselves. At least I was. I felt secluded, as though it were like the old days again, when I watched their exploits quietly, keeping my thoughts to myself, my motions to myself, being careful to not make a sound, brush my skin against the morning sun, and to stay in the shadows, low and quiet. And here I was, doing the very same. I walked in the shadows beside Tomoyo, I was trying to stay low, quiet, reserved. I didn't want to move my hand across anything, make a sound. I didn't want them to notice me, disturb their thoughts. But there was a problem; they already knew I was beside them, so why did I bother?

Because. There was nothing else I knew how to do.

"Mika-chan."

Tomoyo's smooth, gentle voice made me shudder with utter guilt. The voice… how lonely and sad it sounded… how it sounded like a shivering voice, alone in the winds, waiting to be blown away, to vanish in the air.

"Mika-chan." I heard it again, but more strength to it.

"Mika-chan, Mika-chan."

"Eh?" I awoke from my thoughts, turning to see who had called me.

"Tomoyo-chan?" My eyes met her eyes, feeling something rushing into my body. No, not love. Not hate. Not happiness. Not fear. Not sadness. I do not even know, but the feeling welled inside me, it turned me to the verge of tears.

I could have collapsed right there, in front of her. I could have been pouring out my sadness in front of all of them, to pour out my tears like the pitters of raindrops. But no, I held them back. I wanted to show them I had courage. I could help them, I wasn't a coward and someone who was like a bent bar of iron. I was straight, forward, and that was how I had always wanted to be. I could be a new person. I could be someone new.

"This is your house, isn't it?" I pointed to the large gate.

"Yes, you almost missed it." She smiled.

I saw the smile as an encouraging smile, so I smiled back. Not half-heartedly. Whole-heartedly.

"How do you know?" I heard Li-kun frown, his arms still wrapped together.

I didn't dare look at his eyes, so I spoke with my shoulder to his eye instead, "I don't know, I just had a feeling Tomoyo's house should be this big."

"You're brilliant Mika-chan!" Tomoyo clapped her hands, "You knew how to get here from Penguin Park!"

"Eeh?" I gave her a puzzling look.

Tomoyo opened the gate and we stepped into the blossoming garden, the mellowed sunshine gently touching the grass and opening flowers of exotic kinds. The blazing red compared to the soothing lavenders. The plums, the lilacs, and the white tinted with light yellow lilies. I gazed around me, these shocking sights, with amazement. But what I thought about was different.

What had brought me here to the right direction anyway? What had driven me toward Tomoyo's mansion? It was the same thing as what had driven me to Sakura's magic. Fate.

It was strange, the first day I saw her up close. The full moon glowering in the sky, the stars scattered across the universe, twinkling against the blackened sky. The lampposts were lit, the air ruffled with something… and if I had ever known there was such thing before… magic. What had driven me toward them, I don't know really. But when I think about it, it was fate.

Dazed, I felt the air rousing with more magic, and then… I began to tiptoe. And then I saw her. I saw them. I saw both of them. Maybe I shouldn't have looked, maybe I should have gone away, gone home, gone back to where I didn't belong. To the place I hated. But something stopped me. It was my own will. Destiny. And so I stayed there, and I looked.

There was the girl, and I knew at once where all that feeling came from, where all that magic came from. It was like mist, shrouding around her, the glow filling the air. And I saw the other girl, clutching her camera to her right eye, the other shut.

It was beautiful. The whole picture was beautiful. Her, the girl, standing amidst the magic, the moon radiant, the moonbeams directed down to her. And the stars, twinkling around her as though she were the center of the universe, the center of magic.

And then how much I wanted to be in that picture, to be there, with them. But that would be too much. So I would be their audience. I would watch them. But they wouldn't want me as their audience, they would shoo me away, tell me that this had never happened. She could erase all my memory, wipe out all the beautiful and glory, all those memories I saw, all the memories I've lived to see. But no matter how much they didn't want me, I would be their audience no matter what. Because it was the feeling I felt when I watched her. It's too indescribable to put in words, only one would understand if they felt it as well. And so it the day I first saw her up so close. My first audience.

Thanx again for reading and for those who helped me with my ideas! And I dearly enjoy reading other writer's stories, so if you're a writer and happened to pass by, I'd love to read your story too! If only I knew who you people were...