Next chapter on the 15th of June.
"I'm going to keep going." Sakura says. Her hand presses down beside his thigh and he takes it, one hand going to her back to help her sit up.
He grits his teeth, looking down.
He supposes that his decision is made.
"I'm going to keep moving forwards so that I can find Syaoran-kun." The princess declares, gaze taking on the determination that the other Syaoran had had in his.
It looks bitter on her.
The witch is quiet for a second, leaving her time to think about it.
"If you do that you will be doing exactly what Fei Wang wants you to do." She says, voice solemn and yet somehow unconcerned, unaffected.
Fai feels her grip on his hand tighten a little and some of that determination fails.
"I." She looks down, thinking, "Even so. I'm going to do it. I'm going to return Syaoran-kun's heart." Her gaze becomes resolute once again as she seems to challenge the witch, locking green eyes on red.
"Would you mind if I came with you?" He asks. It isn't really a question and he knew that whatever decision she'd made he'd go or stay wherever she went. Still she seems surprised by it, looking up at him, pupils wide beneath one heavily shadowed and one almost swollen shut eye.
He manages to summon a smile to his face as he looks down at her.
"Right now my left eye is with Syaoran-kun. Magic which comes from the same source as another piece of magic attracts it which might make it easier for us to find him."
Her hand squeezes his, gentle. Her gaze is sympathetic yet questioning.
"Fai-san. Is that?" Her breath leaves her in a gasp and she draws in another with gritted teeth. He waits, hand smoothing up and down her back as she summons her strength to speak.
"Is that the way you really feel?" The princess' voice is a soft rasp, fingertips on raw skin, "When you say that you want to come with me… You aren't actually hiding the real reason you want to come along?" She asks. There's something harder in her still but the question cuts through it to her vulnerability, through the defenses she is learning to put up.
He peers through the crack and gives her the best smile he can at the moment which admittedly isn't much.
"It's truly what I want." He says.
And it's the truth.
He deserves to pay penance for what he's done to them all and the only way he can do that is to stay with them.