First-
I'd like to thank my reviewers, especially Higaki, who did one review for each chapter, along with some very helpful constructive criticism. I didn't know by putting down five chapters I might make the story seem less good, so thanx.
I'd also like to thank drownin' my tears- I double spaced it in word, but it just didn't come out that way for some reason.
And finally, I'd like to thank Heather-hezzer-and-honoluki, Here's my update for you. Right now, I need all the help I can get- this is my first fanfic. So here's one more Ch., but sooner or later I'm going to have to slow down on writing these.
On with the story!
--- Sakura ---
"Eriol, Tomoyo said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Sakura asked
after work, after pulling away from Tomoyo's house
"...Yes..." He replied, surprising the girl with the slight twinge of sorrow his
voice held. Usually his twisted sense of humor could cover up anything, or at least baffle
the listeners enough so they wouldn't notice it. She remembered him one time, when
Sakura's powers had increased tremendously while the three of them were out on a
picnic. Somehow, Eriol distracted the nearby couple enough for them not to notice her
very noticeable display of power, and did this without using his powers. She still
wondered how he did it.
"...Um, ah...Well?" she coaxed him, questioningly.
"...Sakura, you know that new evil I spoke about, a few weeks ago?" he began as
he made a left turn. The honey haired girl nodded solemnly; If the talk was going in this
direction, then she knew she really did have to worry.
"Well, since then, I'm sure you have noticed those dark powers have grown
stronger." Yes, she had, though she tried desperately to ignore it. Lately, it had tended to
cast a shadow on her days.
"Well, needless to say, you and I are not the only people noticing the change in
climate," he continued, slowly making his way to why they were really having this
conversation. "A growing number of the magical community have gown wary and want
to take action against it."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Sakura said hopefully. Eriol simply sighed.
"No, it isn't good news, not for us anyway. Sakura, the people want us to deal
with it." Now that caught her by surprise. For the most part, Sakura thought herself
unknown by the magical public- She had only met three of four sorcerers other than
herself, Syaoran, and Eriol, and none of them seemed to have recognized her.
"What?..." She said weakly. "You mean people have heard of me?" The message
sunk deeper into her head. "And they want me us to fly half way around the globe to fix
this problem?"
"exactly," Eriol answered, tiredly. "The only reason sorcerers aren't flocking our
way is that they know we- the card captor and reincarnation, exist, but have no clue of
our identities or where we live." He finished, reading her thoughts.
"But, if we don't start investigating this new danger as of the end of this week,
we'll have a massive search party of worried sorcerers on our tails, insisting we do our
job- protect the people." So more less, the public had given them an ultimatum: Do
something about this problem or we destroy your privacy.
"so you see, Sakura, there's no way around it- we have to go." He parked the car
in front of Sakura's house. "I've already asked you father's permission for yourself,
Tomoyo and I to go to New York for a month. He said you could go as long as you
agreed to it." They sat there for a while in silence.
"You don't have to go, you know, Sakura," Eriol said after a while. "It'd be hard
to persuade the public, but I bet they'd accept it if I was there." He lied. If the Li Clan
was investigating and the public was still restless, it was a very big problem. No matter
how powerful they were, they wouldn't be able to hide for long under the searching eyes
of the sorcerering world.
"But I will," Sakura answered, decisively although he could tell that she was
unsure of herself. "It's my duty to protect others because I have the abilities to do so- I
mean, somebody has to standup for those who can't do it themselves, right?"
Eriol simply looked at the girl with admiration. Here she was, being forced half
way across the world to god knows what dangers by lesser sorcerers, and here she was,
accepting and actually defending those who gave her no choice. She could always find a
good spin on anything.
"I suppose, yes." Eriol said absent-mindedly, before continuing in a business-like
manner, "Well, I'm happy I'll have you're help on this matter. Other than that, I'd like
you to know the flight leaves on Friday at five. We're renting a house out in Westchester
County for a month. I already gave your father all the information he needs to reach you."
He finally gave her a twisted smile. "And, I already told Kero to bite you awake, if
needed."
She looked at him, surprised and a tad angry as she got out of the car. "You did
what?!"
"Just to make sure you get there on time," He said lightly, scrupulously covering
up his grin, which she still noticed.
"You're just too...You!" Sakura cried exasperated. Eriol had his own unique, and
rather strange form of humor, that few understood. He was just lucky that Tomoyo was
one of the few who did- Well, she had a strange sense of humor like he did, though
slightly different.
"Goodbye, Sakura. I'll see you on the plane on Friday," He said, pulling out of his
spot in front of her house. She grumbled the whole way up to her house.
* Saturday *- Eriol's P.O.V.
Tomoyo and Sakura had fallen asleep in the back seat of Eriol's rental as they
drove away from airport- from the time zone changes, although it was the middle of the
day in America, to them, it felt like four in the morning. Despite Eriol's wise advisement
for his two companions to rest on the flight, they did nothing of the sort, bubbling about
going all the way to America and speaking with some of the other passengers. By the end
of the long flight, they knew just about everyone aboard the plane, but not had a moment
of rest.
Eriol chuckled as he remembered trying to get them out of the airport. They were
so tired, that they were prepared to fall asleep on the carpeted floors of the terminal. It
was really quite a funny picture: Sakura already passed out, her head in Tomoyo's lap,
and Tomoyo herself leaning back on to the wall, barely able to keep her eyes open to see
her boyfriend trying to rouse the two of them. He stole a glance into the backseat to see
that they were in much the same way, with Tomoyo sitting up, and Sakura resting her
head on her best friend's lap.
He pulled off the I-95 and started weaving through the streets, getting slightly lost
before finally finding the house they had rented out. It was a small, pretty house, painted
sky blue with white shutters and flower boxes hanging out the front windows, a pretty
little cherry willow tree placed in the front yard. White fence surrounded the yard, and
the entrance was a little latch gate with a white trellis, bedecked with roses thanks to two
little rose bushes planted on either side of it.
It was too bad the girls weren't awake- It would have been fun to hear their
reactions, something along the lines of 'kawaii!' and a kiss from Tomoyo for picking out
such a good place...Yeah, it really was too bad, now he didn't get that kiss. He got out of
the car and hauled all their luggage in, before deciding he'd have to wake up the girls. He
brought them in one at a time, first picking up Sakura and resting her on her new bed,
before getting Tomoyo. He gave his love a light kissed, which she stirred from, smiling
and whispering a barely comprehensible, "Eriol" before passing out again. He smiled
lovingly, tenderly, at her, before gently picking her up and laying her down on her bed.
He gave her another light kiss.
"Sleep well, my angel."
Sakura's P.O.V.-
Sakura's eyes slowly fluttered open as she began to wake up... She had been having a
good dream. She closed her eyes, trying to remember what is was about. She remembered
Dreaming of when she was young- one of the days the whole class took a trip to the
beach. Everyone had a good time that day. She remembered that she was swimming,
trying to catch up to Li .
She scrunched her eyes, trying to focus harder. She remembered that she had
swum so far, she had made it across the ocean- what a crazy dream- before she stopped,
finally catching up to Li. But when she had seen Li...the dream was starting to slip from
her, she tried remembering even harder- he was not the same. He seemed older, much
older- he radiated feelings of pain, unbearable responsibility, and hurt.
'Maybe this wasn't such a good dream after all' she thought to herself as she tried
to remember the last grains of the dream. She had gone up to him, trying to comfort him,
trying to soothe away his pain, which at first he shied away from, until giving in and
letting her ease his tortured soul. But all of a sudden, she felt him tense up. She felt him
shove her away before he turned around to face...something...she remembered his
agonized cry as shadows engulfed him, her reaching out, trying to save him- their fingers,
she could feel their fingers brushing against one another! But she missed. No, it wasn't a
pleasant dream at all.
She opened her eyes, and her thoughts immediately snapped o the present- Where
was she? Last time she had been awake, she remembered getting into a rental car with the
help of Eriol...Now she wasn't in a car, she was in a room on a bed!
She sat up trying to push away her drowsiness from her sleep, forcing down a
yawn as she got off the bed to inspect her new environment. She walked out of the room,
and found herself in a hallway. "I must be at the house we rented," she said aloud to
herself.
"Hm..." She quietly wandered around, looking inside each door as she went
down the hall. 'Bathroom, closet, empty room,..' she quietly thought to herself as she
opened up each door. She opened up the next to find Eriol and Tomoyo making out on a
bed. Sakura became a violent shade of magenta and quickly turned around, hoping they
didn't notice her. Surprisingly, they didn't- they were a little preoccupied exploring each
other's mouths.
She found her way into the kitchen and saw that somebody must have gone on a
shopping spree as there was food in the fridge- She poured herself a bowl of cereal and
started munching away. She ate in silence until ten minutes later, a breathless Tomoyo
and a dreamy looking Eriol showed up. She smiled into her cereal- they didn't know she
had seen them!
"Morning sleepyhead!" Tomoyo said energetically, tousling her hair like she was
a little girl.
"hey Tomoyo, and what are you doing?!" Tomoyo simply laughed, and said
mostly to herself, "Sakura is so Kawaii when she wakes up!" She beamed at her friend.
"Sakura, silly, we're in America! Oh, there is so much I want to do- So much I
want to see- we'll have to go to New York City, yes, and see a Broadway show (of
course!), and go to the Metropolitan Museum, or Natural History, or the Guggenheim,
and go all over SoHo, see the Statue of Liberty, and to little Italy..."Sakura's best friend
went in a daze from thinking of everything she wanted to do. "It's already four (pm), we
don't have much of the day left!"
"And we'll do it all, my love," Eriol said calmly to her. She gave him a stunning
smile, followed by a sweet kiss.
Sakura just smiled at their antics- She hadn't seen Tomoyo this excited since their
old card capturing days. She herself was starting to catch Tomoyo's good mood, as was
Eriol, though she wasn't sure if it was just because of the kiss; nevertheless, it seemed
Tomoyo's happiness was contagious.
Sakura went back and found her room (though she at first mistook it for the
closet) to change her clothes. She was digging through her bag when she heard a distinct,
muffled cry.
"Mmmph! Mmmmph!" She dug through her bag to find a severely angry Kero
gasping for breathe.
"Kero! What are you doing in my luggage bag?!" she cried, scooping up her little
feathered friend and holding him to her face.
"Your gaki... of a brother... noticed me ....in your purse." He wheezed, furious,
"and stuffed me... in that-that torture chamber... saying I'd get lost!" Sakura's lips
formed an 'o' in understanding as she tried to look only concerned despite the hilarity of
the situation.
"I'm soooo sorry Kero!" She said, cradling the motionless sun guardian. "I didn't
notice you weren't in my bag with me." Sakura immediately knew that wasn't the right
thing to say as the limp figure in her hands sprung to life as if it hadn't spent the half day
plane trip to America stuffed in a bag.
"you FORGOT ABOUT ME???!!!!" the little guadian bellowed unbelievably
loud for such a little creature. "I, the one who helped you survive that reincarnation's
crazy schemes?! Who helped you countless times?! Who-"
"I know! I know! I'm realllllly sorry Kero!" she pleaded. This damage called for
drastic measures. "I'll get you some pizza!" Kero was listening now. She sweetened the
deal. "And pudding!"
She waited for the winged creature's response. " Well...Okay, I forgive you,"
Kero answered as he got round eyed at the thought of food. Sakura smiled. "That is, as
long as it has pepperoni's on top!"
Sakura laughed, answering "Sure Kero."
"Yeah!" He cried, delighted, his past anger completely erased. "But what can I eat
now? I'm starving!" he cried, and without a backward glance, flew out of the room.
With Kero gone, Sakura got ready and changed her clothes, brushing her teeth
and hair. She came back into the kitchen, to find Kero inhaling the same cereal Sakura
had eaten minutes before. Tomoyo rushed into the room.
"Sakura, come on, let's go!" She said, eyes shining. She looked at the guardian
pigging out at the table. "Oh, hey Kero. We're going to the city, now want to come too?"
Kero, as expected, declined. "No,- must – eat," He said between munches. "Okay See you later Kero!" The girls both chimed, before Tomoyo nearly
dragged Sakura out of the house.
She pulled her friend out of the house towards the rental car where Eriol sat,
already turning the engine on. Sakura smiled happily- If she had to go all the way across
the world to deal with some new danger, at least she had Tomoyo and Eriol by her side.
She beamed as she hopped into the backseat, Tomoyo already in the front. "Let's go!"
I'd like to thank my reviewers, especially Higaki, who did one review for each chapter, along with some very helpful constructive criticism. I didn't know by putting down five chapters I might make the story seem less good, so thanx.
I'd also like to thank drownin' my tears- I double spaced it in word, but it just didn't come out that way for some reason.
And finally, I'd like to thank Heather-hezzer-and-honoluki, Here's my update for you. Right now, I need all the help I can get- this is my first fanfic. So here's one more Ch., but sooner or later I'm going to have to slow down on writing these.
On with the story!
--- Sakura ---
"Eriol, Tomoyo said you wanted to talk to me about something?" Sakura asked
after work, after pulling away from Tomoyo's house
"...Yes..." He replied, surprising the girl with the slight twinge of sorrow his
voice held. Usually his twisted sense of humor could cover up anything, or at least baffle
the listeners enough so they wouldn't notice it. She remembered him one time, when
Sakura's powers had increased tremendously while the three of them were out on a
picnic. Somehow, Eriol distracted the nearby couple enough for them not to notice her
very noticeable display of power, and did this without using his powers. She still
wondered how he did it.
"...Um, ah...Well?" she coaxed him, questioningly.
"...Sakura, you know that new evil I spoke about, a few weeks ago?" he began as
he made a left turn. The honey haired girl nodded solemnly; If the talk was going in this
direction, then she knew she really did have to worry.
"Well, since then, I'm sure you have noticed those dark powers have grown
stronger." Yes, she had, though she tried desperately to ignore it. Lately, it had tended to
cast a shadow on her days.
"Well, needless to say, you and I are not the only people noticing the change in
climate," he continued, slowly making his way to why they were really having this
conversation. "A growing number of the magical community have gown wary and want
to take action against it."
"Well, that's good, isn't it?" Sakura said hopefully. Eriol simply sighed.
"No, it isn't good news, not for us anyway. Sakura, the people want us to deal
with it." Now that caught her by surprise. For the most part, Sakura thought herself
unknown by the magical public- She had only met three of four sorcerers other than
herself, Syaoran, and Eriol, and none of them seemed to have recognized her.
"What?..." She said weakly. "You mean people have heard of me?" The message
sunk deeper into her head. "And they want me us to fly half way around the globe to fix
this problem?"
"exactly," Eriol answered, tiredly. "The only reason sorcerers aren't flocking our
way is that they know we- the card captor and reincarnation, exist, but have no clue of
our identities or where we live." He finished, reading her thoughts.
"But, if we don't start investigating this new danger as of the end of this week,
we'll have a massive search party of worried sorcerers on our tails, insisting we do our
job- protect the people." So more less, the public had given them an ultimatum: Do
something about this problem or we destroy your privacy.
"so you see, Sakura, there's no way around it- we have to go." He parked the car
in front of Sakura's house. "I've already asked you father's permission for yourself,
Tomoyo and I to go to New York for a month. He said you could go as long as you
agreed to it." They sat there for a while in silence.
"You don't have to go, you know, Sakura," Eriol said after a while. "It'd be hard
to persuade the public, but I bet they'd accept it if I was there." He lied. If the Li Clan
was investigating and the public was still restless, it was a very big problem. No matter
how powerful they were, they wouldn't be able to hide for long under the searching eyes
of the sorcerering world.
"But I will," Sakura answered, decisively although he could tell that she was
unsure of herself. "It's my duty to protect others because I have the abilities to do so- I
mean, somebody has to standup for those who can't do it themselves, right?"
Eriol simply looked at the girl with admiration. Here she was, being forced half
way across the world to god knows what dangers by lesser sorcerers, and here she was,
accepting and actually defending those who gave her no choice. She could always find a
good spin on anything.
"I suppose, yes." Eriol said absent-mindedly, before continuing in a business-like
manner, "Well, I'm happy I'll have you're help on this matter. Other than that, I'd like
you to know the flight leaves on Friday at five. We're renting a house out in Westchester
County for a month. I already gave your father all the information he needs to reach you."
He finally gave her a twisted smile. "And, I already told Kero to bite you awake, if
needed."
She looked at him, surprised and a tad angry as she got out of the car. "You did
what?!"
"Just to make sure you get there on time," He said lightly, scrupulously covering
up his grin, which she still noticed.
"You're just too...You!" Sakura cried exasperated. Eriol had his own unique, and
rather strange form of humor, that few understood. He was just lucky that Tomoyo was
one of the few who did- Well, she had a strange sense of humor like he did, though
slightly different.
"Goodbye, Sakura. I'll see you on the plane on Friday," He said, pulling out of his
spot in front of her house. She grumbled the whole way up to her house.
* Saturday *- Eriol's P.O.V.
Tomoyo and Sakura had fallen asleep in the back seat of Eriol's rental as they
drove away from airport- from the time zone changes, although it was the middle of the
day in America, to them, it felt like four in the morning. Despite Eriol's wise advisement
for his two companions to rest on the flight, they did nothing of the sort, bubbling about
going all the way to America and speaking with some of the other passengers. By the end
of the long flight, they knew just about everyone aboard the plane, but not had a moment
of rest.
Eriol chuckled as he remembered trying to get them out of the airport. They were
so tired, that they were prepared to fall asleep on the carpeted floors of the terminal. It
was really quite a funny picture: Sakura already passed out, her head in Tomoyo's lap,
and Tomoyo herself leaning back on to the wall, barely able to keep her eyes open to see
her boyfriend trying to rouse the two of them. He stole a glance into the backseat to see
that they were in much the same way, with Tomoyo sitting up, and Sakura resting her
head on her best friend's lap.
He pulled off the I-95 and started weaving through the streets, getting slightly lost
before finally finding the house they had rented out. It was a small, pretty house, painted
sky blue with white shutters and flower boxes hanging out the front windows, a pretty
little cherry willow tree placed in the front yard. White fence surrounded the yard, and
the entrance was a little latch gate with a white trellis, bedecked with roses thanks to two
little rose bushes planted on either side of it.
It was too bad the girls weren't awake- It would have been fun to hear their
reactions, something along the lines of 'kawaii!' and a kiss from Tomoyo for picking out
such a good place...Yeah, it really was too bad, now he didn't get that kiss. He got out of
the car and hauled all their luggage in, before deciding he'd have to wake up the girls. He
brought them in one at a time, first picking up Sakura and resting her on her new bed,
before getting Tomoyo. He gave his love a light kissed, which she stirred from, smiling
and whispering a barely comprehensible, "Eriol" before passing out again. He smiled
lovingly, tenderly, at her, before gently picking her up and laying her down on her bed.
He gave her another light kiss.
"Sleep well, my angel."
Sakura's P.O.V.-
Sakura's eyes slowly fluttered open as she began to wake up... She had been having a
good dream. She closed her eyes, trying to remember what is was about. She remembered
Dreaming of when she was young- one of the days the whole class took a trip to the
beach. Everyone had a good time that day. She remembered that she was swimming,
trying to catch up to Li .
She scrunched her eyes, trying to focus harder. She remembered that she had
swum so far, she had made it across the ocean- what a crazy dream- before she stopped,
finally catching up to Li. But when she had seen Li...the dream was starting to slip from
her, she tried remembering even harder- he was not the same. He seemed older, much
older- he radiated feelings of pain, unbearable responsibility, and hurt.
'Maybe this wasn't such a good dream after all' she thought to herself as she tried
to remember the last grains of the dream. She had gone up to him, trying to comfort him,
trying to soothe away his pain, which at first he shied away from, until giving in and
letting her ease his tortured soul. But all of a sudden, she felt him tense up. She felt him
shove her away before he turned around to face...something...she remembered his
agonized cry as shadows engulfed him, her reaching out, trying to save him- their fingers,
she could feel their fingers brushing against one another! But she missed. No, it wasn't a
pleasant dream at all.
She opened her eyes, and her thoughts immediately snapped o the present- Where
was she? Last time she had been awake, she remembered getting into a rental car with the
help of Eriol...Now she wasn't in a car, she was in a room on a bed!
She sat up trying to push away her drowsiness from her sleep, forcing down a
yawn as she got off the bed to inspect her new environment. She walked out of the room,
and found herself in a hallway. "I must be at the house we rented," she said aloud to
herself.
"Hm..." She quietly wandered around, looking inside each door as she went
down the hall. 'Bathroom, closet, empty room,..' she quietly thought to herself as she
opened up each door. She opened up the next to find Eriol and Tomoyo making out on a
bed. Sakura became a violent shade of magenta and quickly turned around, hoping they
didn't notice her. Surprisingly, they didn't- they were a little preoccupied exploring each
other's mouths.
She found her way into the kitchen and saw that somebody must have gone on a
shopping spree as there was food in the fridge- She poured herself a bowl of cereal and
started munching away. She ate in silence until ten minutes later, a breathless Tomoyo
and a dreamy looking Eriol showed up. She smiled into her cereal- they didn't know she
had seen them!
"Morning sleepyhead!" Tomoyo said energetically, tousling her hair like she was
a little girl.
"hey Tomoyo, and what are you doing?!" Tomoyo simply laughed, and said
mostly to herself, "Sakura is so Kawaii when she wakes up!" She beamed at her friend.
"Sakura, silly, we're in America! Oh, there is so much I want to do- So much I
want to see- we'll have to go to New York City, yes, and see a Broadway show (of
course!), and go to the Metropolitan Museum, or Natural History, or the Guggenheim,
and go all over SoHo, see the Statue of Liberty, and to little Italy..."Sakura's best friend
went in a daze from thinking of everything she wanted to do. "It's already four (pm), we
don't have much of the day left!"
"And we'll do it all, my love," Eriol said calmly to her. She gave him a stunning
smile, followed by a sweet kiss.
Sakura just smiled at their antics- She hadn't seen Tomoyo this excited since their
old card capturing days. She herself was starting to catch Tomoyo's good mood, as was
Eriol, though she wasn't sure if it was just because of the kiss; nevertheless, it seemed
Tomoyo's happiness was contagious.
Sakura went back and found her room (though she at first mistook it for the
closet) to change her clothes. She was digging through her bag when she heard a distinct,
muffled cry.
"Mmmph! Mmmmph!" She dug through her bag to find a severely angry Kero
gasping for breathe.
"Kero! What are you doing in my luggage bag?!" she cried, scooping up her little
feathered friend and holding him to her face.
"Your gaki... of a brother... noticed me ....in your purse." He wheezed, furious,
"and stuffed me... in that-that torture chamber... saying I'd get lost!" Sakura's lips
formed an 'o' in understanding as she tried to look only concerned despite the hilarity of
the situation.
"I'm soooo sorry Kero!" She said, cradling the motionless sun guardian. "I didn't
notice you weren't in my bag with me." Sakura immediately knew that wasn't the right
thing to say as the limp figure in her hands sprung to life as if it hadn't spent the half day
plane trip to America stuffed in a bag.
"you FORGOT ABOUT ME???!!!!" the little guadian bellowed unbelievably
loud for such a little creature. "I, the one who helped you survive that reincarnation's
crazy schemes?! Who helped you countless times?! Who-"
"I know! I know! I'm realllllly sorry Kero!" she pleaded. This damage called for
drastic measures. "I'll get you some pizza!" Kero was listening now. She sweetened the
deal. "And pudding!"
She waited for the winged creature's response. " Well...Okay, I forgive you,"
Kero answered as he got round eyed at the thought of food. Sakura smiled. "That is, as
long as it has pepperoni's on top!"
Sakura laughed, answering "Sure Kero."
"Yeah!" He cried, delighted, his past anger completely erased. "But what can I eat
now? I'm starving!" he cried, and without a backward glance, flew out of the room.
With Kero gone, Sakura got ready and changed her clothes, brushing her teeth
and hair. She came back into the kitchen, to find Kero inhaling the same cereal Sakura
had eaten minutes before. Tomoyo rushed into the room.
"Sakura, come on, let's go!" She said, eyes shining. She looked at the guardian
pigging out at the table. "Oh, hey Kero. We're going to the city, now want to come too?"
Kero, as expected, declined. "No,- must – eat," He said between munches. "Okay See you later Kero!" The girls both chimed, before Tomoyo nearly
dragged Sakura out of the house.
She pulled her friend out of the house towards the rental car where Eriol sat,
already turning the engine on. Sakura smiled happily- If she had to go all the way across
the world to deal with some new danger, at least she had Tomoyo and Eriol by her side.
She beamed as she hopped into the backseat, Tomoyo already in the front. "Let's go!"
