Right, so first thing I wanted to do was get my right of reply out of the way

Mrs. Radcliffe13: Thanks for apparently being the only person who reads the authors note, and thus your word is now law and there will be an Epilogue! I am trying to work on longer chapters . . . this one is longer than the last one, and very sweet.

purple_hearts10: I guess I have to explain myself a bit. Yes I know the thingee's are damn annoying, and I'm sure most of you don't care a jot about any of the other characters but that's the stories gimic and I am very committed to my gimic's (I wrote a 36 chapter story with a song in the middle of every chapter because I was committed to the idea of 'Pokemon the Musical' - these were also noted as being annoying, but I would not give them up). Secondly, the nitty gritty of internet romances is very difficult to write - most conversations are over extremely mundane things and it's hard to get right so I chickened out and skipped the nitty gritty and jumped a bit. The fact that they're soul mates and they practically fell in love over that first email does make it easy.

Thanks to everyone else who reviewed and everybody who added this to their favourites or story alerts - for all your good work you get . . . this chapter . . .

DISCLAIMER: If I owned CCS you would not be reading this here, you would be watching it on TV or reading it in a manga. I think the rest is self explanatory.

Not What You Think - It Would Be Her

"I finally figured it out," Syaoran typed into the box and pressed send.

"Figured what out?" she asked willing herself to remain calm, knowing that he probably hadn't figured out what she thought he had figured out. She knew now that he just had a way of saying things that made her think for a second that he knew, only to find out it was something else completely. It was so assertive and sure that her first thought was always 'how could he know?' followed by 'not again Sakura'.

"How does it go?" she thought to herself aloud. She had tried to explain it to Tomoyo and in response her friend had reminded her of a song that was in some old musical.

"He smiles like he knows all the thoughts in my head;

He talks like he thought of them first."

"The word," he replied, unaware that Sakura was breathing a steady sigh of relief. "Arachibutyrophobia – the fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth."

"It still doesn't count," Sakura wrote in reply.

"Awwwwwwww," he whined playfully followed by an appropriate emoticon. "What if I bribe you?"

"Depends what you'll give me . . . :?"

Syaoran thought for a moment, but he knew exactly what to give her.

"A dozen red roses," he replied. "1. ~` 2. ~` 3. ~` 4. ~` 5. ~` 6. ~` 7. ~` 8. ~` 9. ~` 10. ~` 11. ~` 12. ~`" (A/N: for some reason it won't let me use the 'at' symbol so you'll all just have to imagine it)

"Oh Xiao-kun you shouldn't have," she giggled in reply. "11 would have been enough," she said, returning the spare.

"So it counts now?" he asked hopefully.

"No it still doesn't count," she replied, grinning cheekily even though she knew that he couldn't see it. "But thank you for the roses ;?"

"Xiao Lang!" a voice called in the real world, making a huge rackus as she pushed open his front door. "Xiao Lang I have news," Meilin cried chirpily as she walked into his house.

Syaoran sighed ruefully, sad that Meilin's arrival meant he had to put an end to his time with Sakura.

"My cousin has just arrived with news," he typed, trying somehow to convey how much he wanted to stay there with her, even though he was about to say goodbye.

"What sort of news?" she replied.

"I don't know," he replied. "But if I'm perfectly honest, I'd much rather forget about her news and keep talking to you."

Sakura blushed madly at a computer many miles away. "Same time tomorrow?" she offered helpfully and hopefully. They had worked out a sort of rhythm mostly consisting of the two planning their days around a one hour conversation over messenger.

"Definitely," he replied, sadly unable to convey through the simple medium of text just how much he meant it. "Don't be late."

"Never"

"Well, cousin?" Meilin asked, interrupting him as he signed off his account. "Don't you want to hear this news?"

"Go on Mei," he replied forcing a little excitement into his voice as he turned around on his swivel chair to face her. "You have my attention?" he added drolly.

"Well if you're going to be like that," she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Aw c'mon Meilin," he said feeling guilty. He took a few steps towards her to try and somehow convey his interest, non-existent as it was, somehow sensing that it was very important to her that he were told. "What's your news?"

"Eriol and Tomoyo are engaged!" she cried excitedly, almost unable to contain herself. "Isn't this the best news?!"

'I had to leave Sakura for this,' he thought ruefully, immediately feeling guilty because Eriol was one of his closest friends and he really was happy for him once he got past the part of being annoyed at Meilin for wrenching him away from his Sakura.

"I didn't think he had it in him," Syaoran replied, smiling through his guilt.

"Anyway," Meilin continued bouncing happily around the room, "Tomoyo and Eriol are in Tomoeda right now so they're having an engagement party and they wanted to know how soon we could get there . . ."

"I'll go check my diary," he said, heading towards his bedroom where he kept his organizer. He knew there was some important work going on for the next month or so that he may not be able to tear himself away from even for a day, but he also knew that Meilin would not be convinced unless he gave her evidence.

"Cool, I'll just check my email to see how long they're in Tomoeda for," she replied, moving towards the computer screen.

Syaoran nodded to himself, something at the back of his mind nagging that there was something very important that he had forgotten to do. And then it hit him, the thing he had forgotten to do. In all of the 'excitement' he had forgotten to close his chat windows which meant his previous conversation with Sakura was sitting right there for Meilin to see.

"Noooo!" he cried turning back, trying to get between Meilin and the computer screen, but it was too late. She had already seen it, and the look on her face said everything. There was shock, puzzlement and curiosity, but overwhelmingly there was a positively evil glint in her eye that meant she knew.

"Xiao Lang," she said slowly, that evil glint now apparent in her smile which widened into into a toothy grin. She paused, almost not believing what she was about to say. "Are you . . . flirting?" she asked indicating perhaps to the dozen red roses, or his few words about wanting to talk to her more, or perhaps the whole conversation generally.

"No, of course not," he replied blushing madly as he protested which really did nothing to help his argument.

"You offered to giver her a massage," Meilin replied sceptically.

"What that? You're taking it completely out of context," he offered, sounding a little unconvinced himself. His voice went up at the end of the sentence as though it was a question rather than a statement. "It's a long standing joke.

"How can you think . . . really Meilin I think you've just got romance on the brain or something, what with Eriol's engagement and all."

"Who said anything about romance?"

"Well . . . you . . ." he protested unsuccessfully.

"I said you were flirting," she stated matter-of-factly, it quite evident in her voice that she was holding back her laughter. "Flirting need not lead to anything nearly as sordid as romance, but apparently someone else seems to have love on the brain. You're sisters aren't going to like this," she concluded.

"Why?" he said, thrown off by the seemingly random and unexpected change of topic in the conversation.

"Because their only brother has fallen in love and they played no part in it," she replied with a self satisfied smile.

"I'm not . . ." he began to protest once more, his cheeks burning bright red and giving him away.

"Oh really Xiao-kun?" she said pointedly raising a bemused eyebrow in his direction. "You are so obvious."

"It's not what you think," he offered pathetically, but at this point there wasn't any point even protesting. He wasn't even ready to admit it to himself but there was no point denying it to Meilin because she knew him better than he realized.

"Oh sure," she said flippantly. "It's probably just some meaningless fascination. It's the intrigue that's got you hooked, all the mystery. In fact it's exactly the kind of relationship I'd expect you to get into."

"No, it's not like that," he tried to explain. "It's more . . . complicated."

"That's my point," she continued, her voice heavy with understanding but her eyes sparkling with cunning ("as cunning as a fox what was the professor of cunning at oxford university but has recently taken up a position at the UN as the high commissioner of cunning planning" . . . or so they say). This however went unnoticed by the usually astute Syaoran who was far too caught up in his own thoughts to observe the dastardly look in his cousin's eyes.

"It's an impossible relationship," she explained when she saw the confused expression on Syaoran's face. "I mean, I'm sure it feels like you're souls are meeting on a deeper level, but it's the sort of relationship that couldn't survive in the real world. It's the sort of relationship you constantly have to justify to other people; even now you're trying think of ways to prove me wrong and you can't because it's an impossible relationship. It's doomed because no matter what you feel now, people just aren't programmed to make this sort of a connection."

"No you're wrong," he argued, his jaw hardening with determination and all the confusion fading from his eyes. "You're wrong because . . . because she's the only one who knows how to make me smile when I'm having a crap day and everything has gone wrong. And because she knows exactly what I'm thinking even when I don't have a clue myself and she always knows the right thing to say to make it all make sense. And every moment I'm with her passes by so quickly and the rest of the time goes on for eternity just thinking about her and the next time I talk to her.

"Why does it have to be impossible?" he asked, his voice rising in passion. "Why do I have to justify it? I'm finally thinking about my future here, and all I can think is that I don't want to be in it if she isn't. Isn't that enough? Isn't that reason enough not to go and write it off before we've even begun?"

"It's good enough for me," Meilin replied with a smile. "Now how soon can we get to Japan?"

"I can be ready in four days," he said sternly shoving his hands in his pockets and somehow feeling as though he had been 'had' in the worst possible way. "But don't you dare mention a word of this to anyone."

She smiled again. "My lips are sealed."

~ to be continued ~

Right. Not long to go now.

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