The plot is still an ongoing thing, but here I am again with more CCS. Lol. Lots of drama, hits at fun, and some action. New characters, and probably some historical inaccuracy. But bear with me. ;

Let's rearrange.

Alarm.

Wake.

Shower.

Stairs.

Skip breakfast

(yesterday's bagel is showing on her side)

voicemail?--

No new messages.

"Ohayo. Ja matte ne."

Oak door shuts,

she breathes.

Repetition had never been a constant for Sakura. Repetition meant normal, repetition meant day-in-day-out. Repetition was magicless.

Now it was her only companion.

sakura: year one - the way it was meant to be.

DISLOYALTY: bridges

The sunlight ... is caught.

"Nothing for Valentine's either?" Tomoyo asked, fingers lifting to her brow to shield the afternoon sun. "Nothing?"

"Nothing," Sakura imitated. Another thing repetition bought you: boredom, breathlessness,

mechanic response. Mechanic living.

"Your letters aren't returned, are they?"

"No, no, nothing like that." Sakura fell back onto the grass, her shoulder blades shifting, burying into the earth.

"The sunlight's all caught in your eyes ... "

She brought a palm up to the bridge of her nose; it cast a long shadow over her forehead and her springtime eyes. Tomoyo shifted to place a hand deep within her best friend's scalp. The gesture wasn't a comfort; if anything it was, and contained, the direct opposite: it was an unspoken sentence, one of weight and thoughtful deliberation. In this silence after Sakura would mention news of him, there was always this tense, unspoken conversation. And today neither of them spoke for a long, long time.

I think my memories are vanishing. Where is that warmth he always promised me? The cards are silent and any divination reveals only the weather or my next failed test. I shut them up into the Book and shoved them under the pillow he always slept on.

Everything seems failed now with him gone. When was he the one that decided when I next breathed, when I blinked or decided to smile? When did he control the beating of my heart? When did he control the good days, the bad; when did he become the puppeteer of me?

He's a tyrant and I want a revolution.

The wind was always so icy this time of this year. The backdrop of a very Van-Goh starry night added a whimsical smile to tonight's midnight; the moon was very high and very yellow; it was very bright and very beautiful.

And very grounded, and very worried.

"I see now why your brother has always been so wary of him," Yue's breath was cool against his mistress' forehead, each word like a sliver of ice across her pores. It did nothing for the lack lack lack of warmth; Sakura supposed she brought it on herself.

Why run to the moon, the frozen, white earth, when you want all the heat of the sun?

"There's probably some reason," Sakura laughed. It sounded bitter even to her.

Yue might have been fooled. He wrapped his arms tight around her waist and up they went; she ascended for the first time since Syaoran took the evening flight out of Japan.

Where Tomoyo chose silence to communicate Sakura's loss, Yue vocalized his worries: there they were, his moon-breath encompassing her like a winter chill, and cooling her dull beating heart. His fingers slipped beneath the cloth of her pajamas with each unfurling of his massive wings, and there was the shock of her hot skin there to welcome him; she found it equally startling to find his fingertips warm.

"No reason--" he said moments later. "There's still no reason. Why are you always put into these situations?" Was that his grip around her tightening her wishful thinking or her skewed imagination? "Let me help you .. " He flew to nearly dizzying heights -- but she'd been higher,

always higher.

It hadn't been the first time he'd threatened her with leaving. Always for the same reasons. Always for his same, noble cause. Syaoran and Sakura worked best when there was an argument to mend with much kissing and much touching, a lot of heat and a lot of magic.

Then go, if it's what you have to do.

Then go.

Instead it was her that took off, calling on Fly to help her get a grip on heaven. It had been a thickly clouded night; the moon was nearly full, but so much light was still hidden behind the pillowing cumulonimbus, the wispy cirrus. She flew above it all, flew to get away from the finality that if he left, if he left, .. if he left he wasn't coming ba--

--Sakura!

Sakura!

Was that him from below? From so far below? The air was thin here; the air was nonexistent here. She took a chance and braved the look down; was that him there, the flailing ant? The brown eyed, brown haired insect? In that instant he was just as cumbersome as any bug.

Just go. Just go, go, go if it's what you have to do. Stop breaking my heart.

Sakura felt the rush of wind on her face, accompanied with the sound and the feel of wings ripping, catching her off guard. Feathers stuck in her eyes, flew into her nose; she choked on white.

It's the blackest part of her memory, and she remembers nothing but that black, that omnipresent darkness. She remembers only that,

and waking up with Syaoran still beside her the next day.

Needless to say he didn't leave.

I am the very sakura I was named after. I bend easily. I bruise easily.

But I come back anew every year.

syaoran's apartment - one year four weeks ago: syaoran

Mother, I can't, not now; she needs me more.

No I'm not choosing sides.

No I'm not backing down from my duties.

I love her. Yes. I love her, too. I'd do anything for either of them.

Don't use that against me.

I know where I belong.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, I understand.


I apologize for raising my voice.

I apologize for arguing.

Yes, I am aware. But she's equally strong. She doesn't have to have my protection.

Neither does she, Mother. I love them both because they are both so strong. They don't need me. Neither of them need me.

Yes, Mother. I know you do.

Yes, Mother.

Yes, Honorable Grandfather.