--- Sakura ---

-CRASH!-

Sakura watched, tense, as another of Eriol's magicked sticks was taken down, this

time by the fiery card. She waited in anticipation for the next attack. She heard a loud

'whoosh' and ducked just in time for a stick to go flying over her head.

"Loop! Maze!" She cried, and the two cards trapped the stick in a never-ending

maze. She sent fiery inside, and fiery burned up the stick. She again heard the all to

familiar 'whoosh' from behind her and quickly cried, "Shield!" a fraction of a second

later, the stick hit the shield, bouncing away with a loud 'thwack'. It flew up into the air

of it's own accord, trying to escape.

"You're not getting away! Sword! Power! Fly!" She called all of the cards in

succession, taking off from the ground in hot pursuit of the offending stick. It still flew to

fast for her. She cried out, frustrated for a moment, before she shouted, "dash!" and flew

at an incredible speed, quickly catching up to the offending stick and slicing it neatly in

half.

That was a bad move on her part, as she quickly found out. The two pieces few to

either side of her and before she could react, hit her on either side. She lost her grasp on

the cards, and helpless, dropped.

"AAAHHHH!" She desperately tried summoning windy, but had no time. She

balled up and closed her eyes... Only to find that she hadn't hit the ground. She opened

her eyes to see the grass three inches from her nose. Then, she fell down completely.

"ERIOL!" she yelled, lifting her face off the ground. " you could have stood me

up, or something!" she said, spitting grass out of her mouth. "but NOOO, you just had to

DROP ME!" She gave him an evil glare, remarkably like Syaoran's.

Eriol smiled serenely, annoying the hell out of the Card Mistress. "I'm sorry,

Sakura, but it was too hard to hold you up. It's not easy to stop a person from hitting the

ground after a fifty-foot freefall. In fact," he said, amusion written all over hi face,

"shouldn't you be thanking me for saving your life?"

Sakura grumbled, getting up and brushing the grass off of her clothes. "yeah, I'm

happy I'm still alive, but I blame the endangerment of my life on you, so it was your duty

to save me. No need for thanks."

Eriol sighed, chuckling. When Sakura became stubborn, there was no way to

change her mind. "well, it's lunch time," he said, getting a loud, "hurray!" from Sakura

before she dashed over towards Eriols house, famished from practicing her magic. Eriol

followed behind her, not running though h was equally hungry. Magicking all those

objects to attack the Card mistress was no easy task.

He smiled at Sakura, she was the same happy, innocent girl she had been seven

years ago. She had lost some of her innocence, of course, how couldn't she with all those

boys looking at her suggestively- She had grown up to be quite the looker-, but she was

still the fearless, caring girl that made her such a good card captor.

He came inside his house to see Sakura eating her food at a phenomenal pace,

next to Tomoyo, who was laughing at her hungry friend

"Hard practice?" she asked both of them, judging by Eriol's weary look and

Sakura's ravenous hunger. Eriol half collapsed into his chair, thankfully piling food on

his plate.

"Yes, it was a very hard practice," Eriol answered as Sakura's mouth was still

full, "and thank you for preparing this delicious meal for us." Tomoyo smiled brightly at

him before getting herself a plate so she could eat with them.

Once Sakura's hunger had receded so that she didn't inhale food like Kero,

Sakura thanked her friend for making the meal too. "thank you, Tomoyo," she said

happily, making her best friend smile.

"It was no problem. I'd do it any day for my best friend and my perfect

boyfriend," she said, pecking Eriol on the cheek, causing the sorcerer to smile just a little

dreamily.

Just after that, the phone rang, waking Eriol up out of his dreamy state. "Excuse

me, Ladies," he said, as he went to get the phone. He walked into the parlor, an answered

the phone.

"Hello, Hirigawza residence," he said as usual.

"hello, Eriol? It's me, Joshua." Immediately, The reincarnation snapped to

attention.

"Joshua, did out find out anything about whats going on in America?"

"not much." The man answered, "but I thought you'd like to hear this. The Clans

are becoming impatient, Eriol, they want someone to do something about it immediately,

namely a certain card mistress, along with yourself." Eriol cursed quietly.

"So none of those fools have done a thing about the circumstances in America?"

Eriol asked.

"Of course they have. The Li Clan immediately sent two of their most capable

sorcerers to go and investigate the predicament. Right now, they're staying with a group

of mutant allies in the states. Later, other houses will send people, too."

"So then why are they calling for our help?" Eriol nearly hissed into the phone.

"You know it would have happened sooner or later, Eriol. They have seen no

proof that the cards mistress really exists, or is actually powerful." Eriol sighed. "People

are beginning to think the clow cards are just a fairy tale."

"I told you already, they're no longer Clow cards." Eriol sat down, highly

frustrated at the news.

"That's besides the point. Eriol, if you and this card mistress don't go looking for

this new evil soon, the clans will go looking for you. For the sake o hiding your identities,

you're going to have to look into this."

Eriol held his head. "I know."

"then I suggest you get out of Japan soon, my friend. The Clan searches will

begin in one week."

"Thanks, Joshua."

"No problem. Bye."

Joshua hung up. Eriol put the phone back into it's cradle. "There goes our peace."

He said to himself, and hung his head.

Downcast, he came back into the kitchen. Sakura and Tomoyo had cleaned up

from lunch time and had set out a dessert of strawberries with cream and chocolate.

Sakura was munching on a chocolate covered strawberry and Tomoyo was dipping one in

cream.

"eriol, something wrong?" Tomoyo asked, noticing his saddened expression.

"no, nothing at all." He quickly regained his composure and gave her a smile.

Tomoyo looked suspicious of him, but then finally bought his lie. Sakura was completely

unaware of his bad mood; she was still happily munching on her strawberry, looking

quite pleased with herself for some reason.

"Well then, come on and eat some of the dessert Sakura brought for us," she said

smiling warmly. Despite his sadness, he couldn't help but smile at the way Tomoyo

looked at him. he was so lucky to have her. He sat down next to Tomoyo, and grabbed a

strawberry. As soon as he sat down, Sakura jumped up, saying, "Well, I'm finished!

Guess I'll just leave you two to finish the dessert. See you guys tomorrow for practice!"

And with that, she strolled out of the house, barely hiding her mile wide grin. Once

outside, she broke into giggles.

"Eriol, I can't believe it, but I think she's-" Tomoyo was stopped mid-sentence

when a cream topped strawberry was placed in her mouth. She bit it, and looked at Eriol,

who she had noticed had gotten closer to her. She swallowed the strawberry with a slight

blush and a smile.

"You're right, Tomoyo, she is setting us up," He said, leaning closer to her,

blowing on to her neck causing her to get chills. She closed her eyes, giving in to the

feeling.

"And you know," he added on, lazily, giving her a light kiss, "I think it's

working." He pulled her closer to him as she scooted onto his lap and gave her a long,

passionate kiss.

'Thanks, Sakura' he mentally projected to the girl, who was already a block away.

He could feel her laughter.

'No problem.'