A/N: It feels good to be back online! I feel my brain cells dying all over again . . . what a wonderful feeling. However, I doubt you'd like to read about my dying brain cells, so I'll move on. I want to thank ALL the reviewers who put up with me, my move, and my still-not-bitter loss of my internet. Here goes . . .

YumYumXP

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Desert-chan

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Seriously, thanks. Moving on yet again; on with what you're actually here to read.

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Sakura's POV:

"Syaooooooooooooraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan hunny, there you are!" Meilin squealed, throwing her arms around her fiance (still hate that, don't hate that, still hate it anyway, this was the track of my mind for the last half-hour). He didn't even groan, just silently removing her arms from around his shoulders. While she was still in miniature shock, he walked away in what could only be described as a slouch.

It was Tuesday. Yesterday was Monday, tommorrow was Wednesday, today was Tuesday. This was for my own mental clarity; I do that for maybe five seconds at random spots in the day. It reminds me what day it is. Anyway, it was Tuesday, so Syaoran was in charge of building. The morning group hadn't seemed to have gotten very far, but eventually we saw that the morning group had been working on the outer defenses. Those looked pretty strong, and well under way. That would explain the proud smiles of the morning group . . .

I paused in my digging of a six-foot deep, six-foot long trench which seemed to have no absolute use to me. Inspecting Syaoran, I nodded. Yep, he was depressed. Shaking my head, I got back to work.

All that afternoon, he (meaning Syaoran) gave orders in quiet, careful tones.It was as if his depression spread in waves; everyone worked in relative silence (meaning they didn't talk, partially because of the depressed-wave-things and partly because we couldn't have heard each other anyway). Syaoran had already called four breaks when someone decided to act during the fifth.

Unsurprisingly, it was sensitive Tomoyo Daidouji, my bestest-bestest-bestest-bestest (if you haven't gotten the idea by now, stop reading this page already) friend ever. She walked very pointedly right up to Syaoran, who blinked up at her expectantly.

"Can I help you?"

She looked him in the eye for a moment, held it for another moment, then . . . hugged him tightly. Over her shoulder, Syaoran blinked in surprise and had one of the funniest expressions ever on his face.

"We have no idea what's bothering you so much, but we know we want you to know that some of us are here for you." she told him gently.

"Please cheer up again soon . . ." Rika Sasaki, my other bestest-bestest-bestest-bestest friend ever, told Syaoran shyly. "We hate to see you like this . . ."

Syaoran looked around as a small crowd gathered around him, each offering some form of support. Slowly, he gave a small smile. "So much for a break . . . when I don't have you working on the defenses, I've got you working on cheering me up!" his voice was sarcastic, but somehow you could tell he was actually pretty touched. Oooh, that's nice!

The crowd around him caught it as well, and grinned just as slowly. Syaoran grinned back. Their grins turned devilish.

Syaoran's grin faded slightly, kinda worried. He shot to his feet, turning to run. Too late; he was buried under what must have been the largest doggy-pile in this history of doggy-piles.

I winced. Ouch, that musta hurt . . .

"Hey Sakura, what' wrong with my Syaoran?!" Meilin whined.

I junped. How exactly do you tell your best friend that you found out something deep about her fiance before she did? "H-how should I-I-I know . . .?" Right! You don't!

The doggy-pile caught my attention as it startyed to sway and shake. Somehow, Syaoran managed to wriggle his way out of the pile. He ambled calmly over to us, stopping in front of Tomoyo (who'd been wise enough to get out of the way before the doggy-pile occured).

"Tomoyo . . . thanks."

She blinked. "N-no problem . . at least it wasn't your sisters. They would have hugged you tightly, then whapped you on the head for making everyone worry." Her dangerously dark side peeked through her normally gentle, calm demeanor for a moment. "I could and will, if you make us worry like that again!"

Syaoran grinned at her, easily replying with "How can you threaten me after you give me a big hug? I mean, it was a hug, after all. However . . . how will Eriol react?" Apparently, Tomoyo had caught the teasing spark in his eyes, and naturally began attacking with her hand-held camera. He laughed, skipping away from her whole-hearted attempts to throttle him into oblivion and catch it on tape at the same time.

"Oh yeah, and thanks Sakura!" he beamed at me, while also using me as a shield from Tomoyo's camera-of-death-and-devastation.

"Huh? Hoe, for what?" I asked, craning my neck around to look at him and failing miserably.

"For helping me." Strong arms suddenly wrapped around me from behind as Syaoran gave me a quick hug. Then, leaving me in slight shock, he took off to escape Tomoyo's wrath some more.

"Helping you with what?!" I called after him, shaking my head to clear it. Those arms . . . it had felt good to be in his embrace . . .

"Telling the ending . . . it helped me move on!" he shouted back. Apparently, however, Tomoyo had caught up with him. "OW! Tomo-chaaaaan, that actually hurt! Hey, you better not be videotaping this . . . !"

"It should hurt! Yes, as a matter of fact, I am taping this!"

I laughed, but it faltered when I saw Meilin's very . . . fierce and . . . more than slightly intimidating glare. Then, unsurprisingly for some reason, Eriol walked up with the newly-hospitally-released Takashi. Takashi was leading a group of the younger kids, and when he saw Syaoran he grinned wickedly.

As Syaoran finally freed himself from Tomoyo's clutches, Takashi yelled "Hey kids! DOGPILE!!!"

Syaoran's eyes widened when the kids grinned just as wickedly as Takashi. He froze, and the kids hadn't moved yet.

"Well?" Eriol looked around at the kids. "What are you waiting for? Get him already!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!" The kids ran after Syaoran, bearing a scary resemblance to a tidal wave.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" Syaoran yelled in mock-fear as he turned on his heel to run. Somehow, I could tell he wasn't at top speed . . . maybe my first hint was when the kids launched themselves into a doggy-pile with a laughing Syaoran on bottom.

"Hmm. I'm glad my cute little descendant is smiling again." Eriol grinned, shaking his head when a faint 'I heard that!came from the background.

Syaoran ambled up, a kid on his back, another clinging to his leg, a third tugging on his arm and a fourth somehow standing on his shoulder and tugging at his hair. "Hi, oh-wonderful-leader-master-mine."

"Why, oh why must you call me that?!" Eriol mourned.

"Becaus you are an oh-wonderful-leader-master-mine, and you're my oh-wonderful-master-mine" Syaoran retorted smartly.

" . . . it's your revenge for me calling you my cutle-little-descendant, isn't it?"

"Well . . . yeah, that too."

"Speaking of leadership, shouldn't you be supervising the building project?" Eriol rolled his eyes, and both Tomoyo and I giggled. Meilin had walked off earlier.

"What?" Syaoran blinked. "Waitaminnut . . ." His eyes suddenly widened in realization. "WHAT?!" he ran off, probably to resume his post as an overseer of sorts..

Eriol chuckled, taking Tomoyo's hand and starting to walk away. "At least he's making some progress in those lessons I have to force him to attend."

Lessons? I thought as I headed back to my assigned area for working. What lessons? As I pounded nails into a board to hold it in place, I shrugged it off. Not like it concerns me . . .