A/N: Many thanks to all those reviewed! I really appreciate your feedback and opinions! Geez, I realised that for all my chapters so far I haven't put disclaimers X-( I'm so forgetful.

DISCLAIMER: I do not and will never own Card Captor Sakura, I am merely using the characters to portray my own sick and twisted universe! These characters don't belong to me except for the ones you don't recognise. If anything in my story seems similar to something someone else has written, I didn't steal, I thought of this story from the top of my head one day while I was doing a wordsearch XD

Good now that that's done, let's continue the story!

It was now nine thirty, Sakura had officially spent two hours with Syaoran and almost an hour with Eriol and despite the obvious dislike experienced between Eriol and Syaoran, Sakura was enjoying herself immensely. She had a smile plastered on her face for the past fifteen minutes as they sat with their empty plates and joked about everyday things and of course while Eriol and Syaoran made wise-cracks about each other.

"Oh yeah? Well, you wouldn't believe this but Syaoran still wets the bed!" Eriol practically shouted before laughing uncontrollably. Sakura joined in as she watched Syaoran's face turn to a scarlet red colour. "I do not!" Syaoran shouted back at Eriol and opened his mouth for a retort, as was the custom for the past fifteen minutes, however, the chirpy waitress that had been serving them all evening came up to the table and handed Syaoran the bill. He looked at it, furrowed his eyebrows and whispered something to the waitress. She stood up and bowed her head a little and retreated back to the kitchen with the bill.

A beeping sound was then heard coming from Syaoran's pocket. The laughter died down as Syaoran pulled a pager out of his pocket and said, "Dammit, I have something urgent to attend to. Sakura, you don't mind Eriol taking you home, right?" She shook her head and he sighed and stood up. He walked over to Sakura's side of the table to pull out the chair for her to stand. She got up and Eriol did the same. He said his goodbyes and walked off.

Eriol looked to Sakura and held out his hand for her to take. She took it and they walked onto the balcony overlooking the lake. Sakura gasped as she saw the shining body of water and stared enchantedly at the reflection of the moon. Eriol stared silently at her and then cleared his throat, "It's about time for me to take you home, don't you think?" She turned to face him at this question and as much as she didn't want to go home, she knew she still had to get up early in the morning to open her new library of puzzle books. She looked at him with a childlike glance and then nodded.

Eriol then led her out of the restaurant to his motorcycle. He fixed his helmet and handed one to her saying, "Now isn't this romantic? Two people riding together on a motorcycle." He said in a somewhat airy voice. She looked skeptically at the helmet he was holding out to her and replied, "Romantic...?" He chuckled at her response and then said, "Well what would you prefer? A limosine? Or perhaps a nice stroll under the moonlight? Or maybe even a horse-drawn carriage?" He pulled back his arm and took off his own helmet. "I personally think a horse-drawn carriage would be nice, don't you agree?" He enquired again. She laughed at his quirky responses and then replied, "I think a walk will do just fine." He smiled and hung the helmets back onto the bike, "Then lets walk." he said and held out his arm. She hooked her arm around his and they walked off.

As they walked, they conversed about current events, their childhood and about their favourite recipes. Their talk spanned a wide variety of topics. Sakura realised that Eriol was more open than Syaoran but there was still a lot of mystery about him despite his open-ness. Syaoran kept his emotions inside while Eriol willingly showed every change in his mood. She found herself being drawn to Eriol, not as a potential partner, just drawn in by the mystery and his odd habits.

Sakura then realised how far the restaurant actually was from her house and she started feeling fatigued. She slowed her pace and Eriol followed suit, but he noted her discomfort. "Getting a little tired?" He asked. She looked over to him and smiled sheepishly, "Yeah just a little." He grinned back, "Well how about that horse-drawn carriage I offered before?" She looked around, they were walking down a rather deserted street and it was almost ten thirty. "Where are we going to find a horse-drawn carriage now?" His face turned deep in thought and he said, "I have no idea." She laughed a little and sighed, "No, it's not really THAT far, I can walk." She picked up the pace to show that she was determined, leaving Eriol behind, but as she turned the corner she stopped in her tracks and gaped. Eriol, ran up beside her, "What's wrong?" concern obvious in his voice. She pointed infront of her and he followed her hand. "Oh look! A carriage, how convenient. Weren't we just talking about this?" He said and jogged toward the carriage owner asking him to take him and Sakura for a ride. The carriage owner nodded and Eriol ran back to Sakura taking her by the hand and leading her to the carriage.

"Now wasn't that nice of the man to take us to your house?" Eriol smiled at her as they settled themselves on the seats. Sakura was still a little shocked but had regained herself sufficiently to nod and carry on a decent conversation with Eriol all the way to her house.

As the noise of the horse's feet hitting the pavement slowed to a halt, Sakura gathered her things and stepped down with Eriol close behind. He walked her to her door and was about to turn back to the carriage when Sakura said to him, "Thanks for taking me home. I had a great time!" Eriol smiled at her and replied, "I'm glad, I had a great time as well, Sakura." She returned his smile, opened her door and stepped in intending to turn around to wave goodbye but saw that there was no one there. Not even the carriage was still on the curb. She looked around, her heart beat quickening a little. She hadn't heard the carriage move or Eriol's footsteps walking back to the carriage and yet there was nothing to be seen. She hurriedly closed the door, locked it and sank to the floor. 'That was odd,' she thought and the tried to calm her panicked heart.

After five minutes, she slowly got to her feet and walked to her room. As she sat on her bed, she reflected on the day's events and found them all to be rather peculiar. The two gentlemen she had met seemed nice enough but there was something strange about them both, and she couldn't quite think of what was so different about them other than odd things kept happening when she was around them.

She sighed in frustration and got off her bed to change into her pajamas. She then sat on her couch and pulled out a puzzle book, ready to calm herself down when the phone rang. She glanced at it over her book and decided to ignore it. Eventually it stopped ringing and she went back to her puzzle, but then it rang again. She glared at it as if wishing it would cut off but when it didn't she groaned and picked it up. "Hello?" She asked quite puzzled as to why her home phone was ringing again. "Oh, hey Sakura, I was wondering whether Eriol had gotten you home as yet," said the voice on the other end. Recognising it as Syaoran, she breathed a sigh of relief and answered, "Yeah, sorry I just couldn't get to the phone on time..." she lied. "It's fine, well I'll see you around then." And with that, he hung up. Sakura replaced the receiver and sat back in the couch. 'How the heck did he get my number?' she thought as she furrowed her eyebrows. She shook her head; she really didn't want to think about that right now. She just wanted to relax and not have anything strange happen. She sighed and decided she would just go to sleep, and that's what she did.

---------------------------------------------------

The next few days ran smoothly enough for Sakura, she had no extremely odd visitors or mysterious occurences. It was now Friday and she had only been out with Syaoran and Eriol once more after their dinner, and that was the night before when they had gone to the mall and decided to watch a movie as well. She really enjoyed their company and nothing too strange had happened that she took notice of. The only down side was at 8:30, both Eriol and Syaoran had gotten called away after the movie and their night was cut short. But other than that, she was glad that it was a relatively normal night out with her two new friends.

She was due to return to work the next day and as much as she enjoyed her vacation, she couldn't wait to start back working. So what if she was a work-a-holic? She didn't mind. The only bad part was that she wouldn't be seeing Syaoran and Eriol much after going back to work and she had told them last night, so they decided they would meet one last time that afternoon. Eriol suggested they go for ice cream making a comment about Syaoran's obsession with chocolate to which Syaoran replied with a glare to the aforementioned commenter.

So here she was getting ready for the afternoon with her friends. She had closed her puzzle library earlier and recieved disheartening glances after revealing that it wouldn't open back for a long time. She was sad to disappoint so many puzzle-loving people but she couldn't work and run her library at the same time. She apologised to her 'regulars' and soon watched them walk off.

Sakura fastened her earrings in place, grabbed her purse and headed out the door. They were all supposed to meet at the park a few blocks away from the ice cream parlour. As she walked along she noticed the overcast sky and cursed herself for not noticing sooner when she had the chance to turn back and get an umbrella. She shook the thought from her head and hoped that either Syaoran or Eriol would have one. She soon saw the park and hurried toward it seeing a familiar figure standing near the pond in the middle of the park.

As she reached the pond, the figure turned and smiled. "Hey Sakura," Syaoran said. Sakura looked up at him noticing the jacket he wore to protect him from the rain and smiled back, "Hey Syaoran, where's Eriol?" she replied. He informed her that Eriol would be arriving soon and then suggested they sat down while they waited. Sakura nodded in agreement and walked over to a nearby bench. Syaoran followed and after they were both seated, he asked her, "So, what is it that you do exactly?" He looked at her inquisitively and she informed him that she was a cryptologist. He seemed interested in her line of work so he continued to ask questions which she continued answering without giving away too much information. She was always taught that she shouldn't reveal too much about the JTPS just to be safe.

Soon enough, Eriol arrived and they headed toward the ice cream parlour. The sky had cleared considerably and Sakura breathed a sigh of relief, although she noticed that Eriol had brought an umbrella with him. They walked in the ice cream shop to meet it relatively empty with only a few tables occupied. Syaoran decided he'd pick a table for them while Sakura and Eriol chose the ice cream. When they walked to the counter, a girl with long raven coloured hair had their back to them and after Eriol cleared his throat, the girl turned around and smiled at them. Sakura's eyes widened a little. It was the same girl who had been their waitress at the restaurant, and the usher at the movie theatre. "Hi! I'm Tomoyo, how may I help you today?" the girl with glittering amethyst eyes asked. 'This Tomoyo girl sure has a lot of jobs,' Sakura thought, her eyes narrowing slightly.

Eriol ordered a plain vanilla cone for himself and a 'Chunky Double Chocolate' cone for Syaoran while Sakura decided on a 'Cherry Berry' cone. Tomoyo punched in the orders to the cash registers, then scooped out the orders and handed it to them. They thanked her and looked around to where Syaoran was seated. The table was near a window and overlooked the road which they had walked to get there. Eriol and Sakura walked over to the table, sat down and Eriol handed Syaoran his ice cream. Then that's when it started, the most awkward conversation that Sakura had ever had.

Syaoran started with, "So Sakura, about what we were discussing earlier, I was wondering where you worked because I've always been interested in cryptology and wanted to find out more about it." Sakura blinked. Of course she couldn't tell him, but what would she say to him now? However, she was saved by Eriol, in a way, when he said, "Come on Syaoran, haven't you heard? Cryptology is a rare field to get into, Sakura isn't just going to tell you where she works because it must be in some super secret organisation, right?" Both their attentions were now focussed on her. She stared at them, her ice cream long forgotten in her hand, as her mind rushed to think of an appropriate answer. But she wasn't given the opprtunity to answer because Syaoran replied, "Well if she did work for a secretive society, then she couldn't tell us, because we might be the enemy." He said this still looking at her, putting emphasis on the word society. Her eyes were wide and locked on his, then Eriol spoke, "Precisely, and she wouldn't want to jeopardise her job to possible murderers or thieves or terrorists." That's when she lost it, her ice cream fell out of her hand accidentally and her trance was broken. 'How could they know?' She thought as she hurriedly cleaned up the fallen ice cream. But Eriol spoke again, "But, of course this is all assuming you were a secret agent of some sort."

"And also assuming that we posed a huge threat to you if you were." Syaoran added in. Sakura sighed deciding that she'd keep herself out of trouble by just not responding.

Sakura then suggested they go home, for fear of another 'conversation', and it was agreed that they would walk Sakura home and that would be it. As they arrived in Sakura's walkway, she spotted a package on her doorstep. She went over to it, ripped open the wrapping paper and gasped at what was there. It was 'Clow's Logic Puzzles, the Fifth Edition'. Saying she was shocked would be an understatement. She turned to Syaoran and Eriol who were looking in her direction with curious eyes. "I thought your friend who owned the store didn't want to sell this book?" She directed the question to Syaoran, who replied, "It seems he's had a change of heart." Syaoran then glanced at Eriol and Sakura followed suit. She saw a slight twinkle in his eye, and a small upturning of his lips as he winked at her.

That's the end of the 6th chapter! I'm really sorry for the long wait geez, I've just been busy with schoolwork (as usual). At least it's longer than usual! I'll try as hard as possible to update sooner but don't hold your breaths. Hope you liked it! Stay tuned for the 7th installment of 'Puzzled'! Oh and don't forget to 'Spot the Magic'!

- INVU4URAQT