Wow, well, I actually have some free time now that I've GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL (yes, I'm that busy of a person) so I decided to continue my fic. Took me long enough, I guess…hehe. Oh well.

I (sadly) do not own Cardcaptor Sakura (Duh!)

Ch.2--New Surprises

Only to come face to face with Eriol! When her eyes widened, he started to clap slowly, his sly mysterious smirk plastered on his lips where it would always remain. Her shock, however, quickly turned to anger. "What the fuck is your problem!" she yelled, her fist falling behind her in a threat to punch. "Were you dropped on your head multiple times as a child? I thought we were done with this crap?" Eriol just stood there unfazed.

"I was only trying to see if you've been training while I was gone. Apparently you haven't."

Sakura was boiling with anger. How dare he insult her magic, and tell her that she hasn't been doing what she's supposed to have been, especially with her busy schedule.

"If you had been training, you would have called on the sword right from the start." Eriol continued to lecture Sakura on how she could have avoided this whole big mess if she had been training.

"Are you done with your lecture yet, oh great one? I have some questions for you."

"Before you start there's someone I'd like you to meet." Before Sakura could cut him off she heard a sweet, innocent, childish giggle that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once.

Anywhere else it would have been music to her ears "a child's laughter is something that must always be treasured," is what Sakura always said. Yet in a secluded park at night with only the pale lights from street posts to illuminate your way, it seemed creepy and strange.

She recognized the voice however. It was the little girl she met earlier.

As soon as the thought hit her, the little girl stepped out of the shadows and onto the poorly lit sidewalk.

"Meet Marina." Eriol motioned to the lively little girl standing in front of him.

"Hi! I'm Marina! Eri's told me a lot about you. You're really pretty. Sorry I had to scare you back there, I didn't want to but Eri made me!" She cutely pointed an accusing finger at him and pouted which made Sakura giggle.

"She is a new guardian. She may be small but she is very powerful. I made her mostly for this kind of stunt while in Honk Kong. She works as a diversion when I want to get in somewhere undetected."

Sakura looked over the girl with a curios eye while Eriol spoke. The girl really was adorable. And if the phrase "looks can be deceiving" were to be applied, this would be the time. The girl looked cute and small but Sakura could sense the great amount of power she possessed as a guardian.

"Some things were getting very complicated and I actually considered making her evil at one point. Of maybe putting her in a card and only calling on her when needed." At this Marina looked up at him and pouted with a how-could-you face.

"Of course I realized by the other half of the second that that would be a stupid idea and that it would eventually come back to bite us—well, more me than us—in the ass." Sakura knew he was right and wouldn't have it any other way, Marina was absolutely adorable.

"I decided to name her that because of her eyes. They're a bluish-green like the sea."

At this Sakura stood confused. She had stared at the girl straight in the eyes when she first met her, they weren't blue-green! When she inspected her more closely, she realized that she did, in fact, have blue-green eyes.

At Sakura's confusion Eriol stepped in. "Her eyes change colour like a guardian changes shape. I didn't want her to change shape though, I want her to resemble a five year old as much as possible."

And that she did. Marina was slim and had cute little wavy curls all along her long brownish-blond hair. It all looked fine until Sakura reached the weird pink and purple tie-dye dress she was wearing. This Sakura looked over with a curious eye.

"Did you make the dress yourself, or did she choose it?"

Eriol smiled sheepishly and put a hand behind his head showing that he was embarrassed. "Well, I didn't make the dress by hand, more by magic. I had to give her something to wear, but I don't exactly know what little girls wear."

"Oh boy, Tomoyo is gonna have a field day with this one." Sakura bent down to Marina's level. "I think your pretty too. Wanna come home with us and meet my best friends Tomoyo and Mei-Ling?" She offered Marina a hand.

Marina smiled and took Sakura's hand. They continued to walk through the park to the girls' apartment. "By the way, where is Syaoran? I thought he was supposed to come back with you?"

"Syaoran decided to stay a while longer to straighten out a few things. Don't worry, he'll be back soon."

"Why would I be worried, I'm not worried, I'm just asking." Sakura shot back. Eriol just smirked at Sakura's need to justify herself.

The rest of the way was pretty much silent and uneventful except when Marina decided to ask a question or two.

When they got home, it was to confused stares.

Questions filled both Tomoyo and Mei-Ling's minds as they looked at the sight before them. First at Sakura, who was wet, muddy and scratched all over. Second, the fact that Eriol was next to her; and third, because there was a little a little girl standing between them who was holding both their hands.

Tomoyo and Mei-Ling moved their mouths but no sound came out.

"Hi guys" Sakura said sheepishly trying to break the ice. "Guess what, Eriol's back, and this" she held up Marina's hand "is Marina."

"She's so Kawaii!" Tomoyo ran over to Marina and introduced herself and Marina did the same. By now Mei-Ling had recovered from her initial shock and walked over to give Eriol his welcome home hug.

Tomoyo took the time to look over the girl and grimaced a bit. "Marina, would you like me to make you a few new dresses?"

At this Marina nodded and Tomoyo immediately took her hand and dragged her off to her room to create a new wardrobe for the girl.

Eriol just stood there watching Tomoyo leave without even acknowledging his presence. "She didn't even say hello" Eriol pouted.

After Sakura took a shower and dumped all her clothes in the hamper, she went into the living room where Tomoyo was talking to Eriol—camera in hand. Apparently she had finally realized that he came home. Eriol had also changed out of his travel clothes. He and Syaoran shared an apartment next door to the girls.

"Oh, finally you're here, Sakura. We were waiting for you. We wanted a little explanation as to your appearance when you came home this evening."

"Well, your boy—I'm sorry, I mean, Eriol here decided that it would be a fun little game for him to play a trick on me like he used to do." She continued on to explain the rest while Eriol got an occasional smack on the head by either Mei-Ling or Tomoyo.

Eriol tried his luck at defending himself, but it didn't really work.

Everyone went to bed a little early that night expecting a big day the next day. They decided it would be best for Marina to spend the night with the girls. They set up the inflatable mattress for her in Sakura's room.

Sakura awoke the next day to smell of eggs, bacon and coffee brewing. She tried to lift her head and realized that she was in pain. Suddenly the events of the day before flooded her memory. She was sore. She remembered the park, Eriol, Marina…Marina! She looked over to the makeshift bed in her room and realized that she wasn't there.

Slowly, Sakura made her way out of bed. For once, she noticed that the day hadn't started too far ahead with out her. When she walked into the kitchen, she was surprised to see that Tomoyo wasn't alone in making breakfast, Marina was there helping her.

Marina was first to take notice of the girl and ran to hug her "Sakura! Good morning! Breakfast is almost ready"

"Good morning Sakura, I was just about to go wake you up." Tomoyo flipped a pancake in the pan. "It turns out that Marina is a really good cook"

"I can tell, the smell woke me up. Am I actually awake before Mei-Ling?" Her growing ego was brought down a little when Tomoyo told her that Mei-Ling woke up a while ago and had to go out to run an errand.

Syaoran had called Mei-Ling's cell phone late last night and told her to come and meet him at the airport at 6am. When she got there she didn't see Syaoran anywhere in sight but noticed that his flight had already come in. She then realized that she was looking at him, he was just facing the other way.

But she always recognized him, it didn't even matter if he was trying to hide from her, she would always find him. It seemed odd to her that she didn't recognize him simply because he was facing the other way.

He smiled a broad and friendly smile and began to make his way over to her. 'When was the last time I saw Syaoran smile like that?'

"Mei-Ling, thanx for coming so early. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Sorry I'm late."

"It's fine, don't worry about it. Come on, let's go home. I can't wait to see everyone!" He smiled that broad smile again and Mei-Ling couldn't help but wonder what was going on. She had never seen Syaoran act so enthusiastically or been so forgiving to her. For being late, he would have been curt and annoyed. The only person he didn't mind being late was Sakura and even then he had his limits.

On their way back to their apartments, Syaoran told the driver to stop at Penguin Park and told Mei-Ling that he felt like walking the rest of the way home. "We still have an hour before school starts anyway" was his justification. He told the driver to take his things back to his apartment.

"So what's your sudden interest in walking Li Syaoran?" Mei-Ling questioned as they walked side by side through the empty park.

"Just figured that this early in the morning, there are bound to be no witnesses wandering around"

"Huh—" Mei-Ling was interrupted by a swift and unexpected kick to the side from Syaoran. She slid against the grass and onto the sand. "Syaoran…" She groaned as she stood "What the hell are you doing?"

"What needed to be done a long time ago." He lunged at her, but she dodged.

"Syaoran, I don't think this is the best time for one of your sparing lessons."

"Oh, this is no spar. To think I actually though you might come in handy later on, you poor excuse for a magician…you're pathetic" Syaoran went in for a punch but Mei-Ling blocked it.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He went in for a hocking kick to her head but she ducked.

Mei-Ling decided that she had had enough, she countered with a swooping kick to his ankles but he jumped in time to kick her down. Mei-Ling jumped up and rushed him with her elbow which he caught and twisted behind her back. She caught his foot with her own and brought him down to his back, with her on top. She swiftly got to her feet before he went in for a choke.

He jumped in the air and came down foot aimed at face which she caught in mid air and landed a hard kick to his inner thigh on the other leg which caused him to land on his but. Mei-Ling chuckled at this until she realized that he was back up.

"This guy may look like Syaoran but it's definitely not him. That is the one attack he is not immune to. But he definitely doesn't give up like Syaoran either." Mei-Ling ducked a kick to the head just in time and aimed a kicked to his side which he blocked with his knee. He tried an open palm with his right to her nose but she blocked with her left and shoved his hand down and aimed a knife hand to his neck with her right which he blocked with his left. They stayed in that position—both hands blocked and pushed down and both knees up stopping the other from doing anything. Both stood on one leg and glared at each other.

"You aren't Syaoran, where is he." Mei-Ling demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know." The Syaoran look-alike grinned.

They shoved each other out of the way at the same time and went in for a crescent kick to the shoulder which they both blocked, but Mei-Ling did the unexpected and lifted her leg out of his X block kicked his head to the side. This sent him flying to the swing set.

"Mei-Ling!" A voice shouted behind her. She turned to look and came face to face with Syaoran. The real Syaoran.

"Syaoran! It's you! This—" she turned to point to the look-alike she had been fighting with before the real Syaoran had arrived and was shocked to find that he was gone. "Did you see the guy I was fighting with?"

"No! And do you know how hard it is to carry luggage on a public bus! Where were you!"

Aww, poor Mei-Ling. Oh well. I know this chapter didn't really have much too it, even after I haven't updated in, what 2 and half, 3 years…heh. Well. Sorry. But I actually want to continue this story. So please review. Have fun!