Disclaimer: I don't own CCS

To professorkatze: No, Dear. Kiyoshiro isn't a real character from CCS. Sorry that I have to add my own original character, but don't worry. He doesn't have big part in this story. :)

Oh, Ladies and Gentlemen!

Chapter 8 :: You'll Tell Me Your Dirty Little Secret…

Tomoyo sighed deeply upon gazing at the warm-looking building. Never before had she had the fear for entering the familiar house. History reminded her of how the usual sensation she had when coming to the Kinomoto's residence: giddiness ("Sakura, Sakura! Look! New costumes for you!"), warmth (Sakura always had that kind of effect toward her –and surely, to everybody else), or happiness (Seeing the Kinomoto brother and sister plainly brought that kind of effect to her). But now, looking at the beautiful house, she couldn't help but feel terrible nausea was coming to her.

"Tomoyo, are you planning to stand there all day?" asked the deep voice of Touya as the front door of the house suddenly swung open.

Blushing, the woman shook her head. "Sorry. I was just thinking. Er…can I come in?" Touya nodded and she invited herself in. Gazing at the empty living room, Tomoyo unconsciously sighed at the rather sad and plain atmosphere.

"This doesn't really feel like home after Kaijuu left," Touya spoke what was also there in Tomoyo's mind.

Tomoyo nodded. The mention of Sakura brought sudden easiness that calmed her recent jitters. "Such a precious dear little sister, isn't she?"

"I won't normally admit it," to this Touya's statement, Tomoyo laughed. "But yes, I think I miss her,"

"You think?" Tomoyo nudged playfully.

Touya's ears reddened a bit. "I'm not exactly… comfortable –"

"–to admit that you achingly miss her?"

He didn't reply, but later Touya gave a slight nod.

The Daidouji smiled softly. "You are very lucky to have Sakura as a sister. Just as how lucky she is to have you as a brother," she said with little jealousy. Being the sole daughter of Sonomi Daidouji sure brought her luck, (and fortunes, undoubtedly), and showers of love, but even until this very age of her currently, Tomoyo couldn't help wondering how nice it was to have a little sister like Sakura, or a big brother like Touya.

"You have both,"

She blinked. "Pardon?"

"Sakura as your sister and me as your brother," explained Touya simply. Took her a couple more seconds before she realized that, embarrassingly she had spoken her thoughts out loud.

But rather… weirdly, the thought of Touya being her big brother didn't scare her as much as it used to. Months back, Tomoyo always feared the pain that would greet her once she learned that Touya only considered her as a young sister, but now…

Now…

She was almost… comfortable with such fact.

"Do you ever love me, Touya-kun? Or even like me?" She couldn't believe that she was that comfortable with the situation that she asked such a blunt question. Weeks or months ago, Tomoyo would gladly drown herself into the South China Sea if she ever asked such a direct question. But now, it didn't really matter that much.

"You don't need to ask that,"

"As a woman or as a sister?"

Touya gazed back at her. "This isn't exactly your characteristic to be demanding,"

"Ho-ho. You just don't know. I can be very demanding, Touya-kun,"

Touya featured the smallest smile (smallest mean: the slightest pull of lips). "Honestly? I was tempted to love you as a woman. You are indeed a very attractive young lady but –"

"But you have Mizuki-san," she answered it out for him.

"Well, that's one of the ethic reasons not to –aside from the fact that it would be incest if we had relationship together. Apparently, no matter how goddess-like I found you to be, you will always just be my goddess-like cousin,"

…

Funny how this was the kind of replies she had originally thought she would loathe, but it turned out that his reply made her even more at ease instead of grimness.

Her pretty face turned toward the older cousin. "Can I hug you, Touya-kun?"

His face remained stoic as ever, but he nodded and stepped forward to accept the embrace.

"Why so sudden?" he asked.

"I want to… test something,"

"Whether you're really in love with me or not," he stated what was on her mind.

She paused (a bit embarrassed at his statement) before giving a slight nod. "What do you think is the answer?"

Touya took a deep breath. "I think… you've already know the answer, but you're just afraid to say and admit it,"

Tomoyo chuckled. "Then would you please help me say and admit it, Touya-kun? Perhaps you're right. I AM afraid,"

"… All along, you love me. But the love that you consider to be a man and woman relationship turned out to be just normal brother-sister love. You were just… confused about that,"

She didn't reply.

"Did I say it right?" he asked back.

A relaxed sigh was formed out of her mouth. It felt… funny to admit that the years she had 'devoted' to love Touya apparently be mistaken as a romantic kind of love. Sometimes, it almost felt sad to say goodbye to those times when she thought she was in love with Touya.

"Tomoyo?"

…

"Yes. I guess you've said it right,"

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

"I thought you said you wanted to stop drinking those stuffs?" was Eriol's first greeting once he spotted the raven-haired lady seated gracefully on a secluded corner in that crowd less bar. He put on his own choice of drink (alcohol-less apple cider –really, unlike Tomoyo, he was never a good pair with alcohol) on the small rounded table in front of her and let himself be seated next to her.

Tomoyo laughed rather nervously. She remembered how Eriol had practically reprimanded her about her bad drinking habit and how he had urged her to stop it ("You stop drinking, and I will stop smoking in front of you". And really, it meant a lot. She hated smoke that much). She felt rather guilty, but she swore this would be her last bottle… for the month. "I said, I will try, Hiiragizawa-san. Seriously, stopping this habit permanently will take times,"

"Any particular reason why you start drinking again?" he asked as sipping his own drink.

The maiden gave a soft sigh. Her motive to drink again… was none other than the meeting she had just had with Touya earlier that evening. It wasn't that she was depressed knowing the truth behind her own feeling towards the Kinomoto guy, but it was just… you know… it felt rather cheerless to part with an obsession that had colored up your life for years. Kinomoto Touya had hold an important role in her life as her crush (which later was discovered not to be real crush after all), her life spirit, her… story. The fact how Touya had been, was, and would always be her brother was acceptable, but then again, she was a woman with sentimental attachments. That was all.

"You didn't reply to my earlier question," Eriol reminded her.

She stammered back to the real world. Giving a small grin, she replied, "Oh, it's nothing,"

"Is it concerning Kinomoto Touya?" His tone cold and rigid, but she unconsciously paid more attention on how keen his senses were.

"Hmm, sort of,"

"What did he do? Or what did you do?" he urged more.

Tomoyo contemplated. Truly, it was a revealed knowledge that Eriol was a good and trustable friend. But on the other hand, she didn't think that it was wise enough to tell him about her own discovery of her truest feeling. So in the end, she just shook her head. "I think I'm allowed to have my own little secret, am I not, Hiiragizawa-san?"

He incoherently mumbled but didn't push the subject forward.

"But anyway, it reminds me. Have I told you that I met Mizuki-san yesterday?"

Eriol hadn't seen Kaho ever since their trip to the beach a week ago, and neither had he heard any news about her. Strangely enough, he hadn't been that bothered about not knowing Kaho's whereabouts. And to imagine he had spent a whole week almost not thinking about his former lady love was quite a record. "No, you haven't. What about her?"

"Well I was in the café when she came and then we had some chitchats."

"Oh," he commented as drinking more his apple-cider.

She raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "You're not interested in finding out the details?"

"Is there any big news?" he asked back innocently. "Oh, don't get me wrong. You may tell me your whole fun chats you had with her. It's just that… I'm not exactly that fanatic to girlish gossips,"

"Well it's not exactly that… great… but I originally thought that you would be eager to hear the smallest fact of her, like what did she drink yesterday or stuffs like that? Well, not that I remember such miniscule details anyway…"

He laughed before casually asked, "So what did you two talk about?"

"Not much actually. About Sakura-Syaoran's honeymoon, my current job, her current job, er… some gossips, and that's pretty much all. Oh, and I did ask him about her relationship with Touya-kun. And she said that it was going fine…"

"But?" he added, noticing the doubt that colored her tone.

"But I noticed the… bitterness. Mizuki-san suddenly diverted her gaze; she looked fidgety and uncomfortable… The atmosphere around us shifted awkwardly for the following moments so I decided not to push the subject forward,"

Eriol nodded calmly and for the second time Tomoyo was silently surprised with his lack of reaction. "What is it with you lately?"

"What is it with me?" he asked back.

"You…seem not you," she explained as pouring more liqueurs to her glass.

He sighed. "I just have couple of things in my mind, Daidouji-san,"

"Like?"

His clear sapphire eyes looked directly at her, and Tomoyo fought back the blushes. "Just like you, I have my own little secret," he teased her.

"Fine, fine. I will not interfere. But I just thought that –" she paused upon realizing her ringing cell phone. "I'm sorry. My future client. I'll be back in minutes," Tomoyo announced and standing up and walked in fast pace to the outside of the longue to get better signal. The debut singer's manager had called her to request her schedule for discussing the costumes the singer would wear to his first concert. After finally settling up the matter, Tomoyo headed back to the inside of the longue and approached Eriol. "Finally. A new project. I thought I wouldn't have anyone use my designing service anymore ever since I kind of disappointed my last client. You remember? The case that I told you when the TV programmer –" the woman didn't continue her story for she caught the early bad signs. "Hiiragizawa-san, are you alright?"

Slurred reply.

"Dai-dou-ji…san…,"

In alarm, Tomoyo shot a look at the table and she realized that her glass had only a little of alcoholic beverages liquid inside of it. She was sure she had just refilled her glass before answering the phone call. Her suspicion doubled when she noticed Eriol's apple cider was still in the same amount when she left him. The color of those two beverages looked identical in the dim light of longue. "Hiiragizawa, have you mistakenly drunk my drink?!" she wailed.

He goofily nodded.

Her face fell as remembering the last experience she had with Eriol's drunkenness. "Please don't tell me you have tendency to be masochist when you're drunk. I don't want to be your punch bag just like what you did to Touya-kun,"

"…Not... masochist…" he replied. "But se…ductive…" Eriol replied as encircling his arms around her and pulled her close. Being sober, fortunately, brought her extra strength to push him away.

She sighed. "That's almost as bad as being masochist, Hiiragizawa-san,"

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

"Hiiragizawa… please pull yourself together and cooperate with me here!" Tomoyo let out a frustrated growl as she tried to wake the very drunken young man up. The man flinched a bit, and with what she supposed as a zombie walk, Eriol stumbled out of Tomoyo's car just to fall down to the cold pavement just in front of the huge gate of his own manor. Tomoyo screamed when seeing his limp body fell and with her topmost strength, she tried to pick his body and aided him the help to walk inside the manor.

Good thing women were gifted with the talent to do multitask in a same time, for as her left arm half-dragged the drunken guy, Tomoyo's right hand searched for her cell phone and tried to call help: Nakuru Akizuki.

But later, the busy tone from Nakuru's cell phone killed her hope. Nakuru must have been out and left her cell phone or whatsoever. Deciding that she had no other choice, Tomoyo focused her power to bring the guy inside. Finally, after stumbling to find the key of the manor (hidden in his pants' pocket), she managed to open the manor's door and finished her task bringing the master back home.

"You owe me a lot, Hiiragizawa. Seriously," she mumbled as finding her strength drained and fell down with him to the cold marble floor. The night's wind blew from the still ajar door, and Tomoyo, for the umpteenth time, gathered back her strength to release herself from the drunken Eriol's grasp, stood up, and went to the door to close it with a heavy, relief sigh.

She still couldn't exactly grasp the concept of how Hiiragizawa could erroneously drink her alcoholic beverages. The guy never matched alcohol that much, and during her attempt to drive him back home, she had met the obstacles of his absurdity ("Hiiragizawa, don't put your head outside the window!" or "Hiiragizawa, get your hands off me! I can't concentrate driving!"), but successfully, she managed to bring him safe home.

Tomoyo sighed once realizing that she couldn't leave him in front of the door on the cold floor like this, but she didn't think she had any strength left out to pull him upstairs to his bedroom. So kneeling back to the guy, she tried to shake him to wake up. "Hiiragizawa-san… wake up. Come on. Your warm bed is waiting for you upstairs. Come on, Hiiragizawa-san…"

Incoherent mumbles replied.

"Hiiragizawa-san…"

Another mumbles.

A sigh. "Hiiragizawa-san! Can you hear me?"

He grunted as response.

"Eriol!"

At the mention of his name, the blue-eyed guy looked up with blurry gaze and responded with hoarse voice. "Yes?"

"Help yourself and walk to your own bed," she patiently explained.

A half, almost ghostly smile crept up to his handsome face and his pale, slightly trembling hand slide up to touch Tomoyo's cheek.

His sapphire eyes looked clear, so clear, that she was almost sure he had gained back his consciousness.

But his slurred voice indicated that alcohol hadn't left his system. "Kaho…You're here…"

She almost stopped in movement once hearing him called her that.

Kaho…

Was it the name he would always remember even in his least sober condition? Tomoyo knew that her ex. teacher had that many effects towards Eriol, but she hadn't originally thought that… it would feel this… awful to realize who had been occupying his mind…

Her depressing train of thought was cut when she felt a hand touched her cheek.

"Kaho?" Eriol repeated.

The voice that called was so soft, and the hand on her cheek was so warm… as a woman, Tomoyo would normally feel delighted to have such care from a man, but… knowing how none of these were directed to her, the result was rather the contrary.

The exact contrary.

"Hiiragizawa, I'm not Kaho," and Tomoyo hated how her voice sounded that… sad.

His hand dropped back, and she almost missed such tenderness. "You're not?"

"I'm not. Be sober and take a good look at me,"

The clear gaze he always possessed never failed to catch her breath away.

After a long moment of stare, the magician chuckled. "Oow..of course, of course. How could I mistake you to be Kaho, Spinel?"

More than her injured pride (which part of her that looked like a cat anyway?), was her own perplexity of how his idiocy could appear even at the most serious times (and furthermore, how could that certain idiocy manage to entertain her so?). Chuckling, she gave up convincing him that she was Tomoyo and not his ex lover and moreover certainly not his feline.

"You smell good, Spinel. Finally following Ruby Moon's advice to take bath?" he asked as deeply inhaling the smell of Tomoyo's hair. "Ne, Spinel…" he continued in inaudible murmurs.

"Yes, Eriol-sama?" she replied in monotonous voice.

"There's something disturbing greatly lately…! I need to let it out of my head!" he childishly whined.

"Yes, yes, tell me what it is. Hope this Spinel here can help," Tomoyo said sarcastically.

"Of course you'll help! You have been my loyal guardian. And you will always be, right?"

"Right, ri –whoa!" she yelped once Eriol jumped and strangled her body.

"Funny. I thought you have more fur than this…" Eriol commented as caressing Tomoyo's flawless cheek. "And hey, Spinel, isn't it great? I don't sneeze again when I'm this close to you!"

"That's great, Eriol-sama! Now could you please get off of me?!!" The violet-eyed lady screeched as trying to push him away as well as trying to prevent her heart to beat faster.

"But I haven't told you my secret!" he wailed. "Now where's your ear? I'll whisper it for you!"

Tomoyo held her breath as she could feel Eriol's lips brushing against her earlobes."Spinel… promise me not to tell anybody… but I…
"You wha –" she paused when noticing such beautiful eyes started back at her. Even covered with the hazy drunkenness, his eyes still managed to captivate her so.

"I think I…" his voice slurred in his own sexy way. "I think I'm deeply…deeply attracted to Daidouji-san,"

The Daidouji Tomoyo froze.

"…So attracted," he continued his whisper. "Until I think I'm falling for her,"

Suddenly losing all her strength to move, Tomoyo could only stare in disbelief to the now sleeping young man –her heart beating in uncontrollable pace.

To Be Continued

A/n: Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 are actually later additions that I worked out just weeks ago. In the original fixed version, these 2 chapters don't actually exist, but I thought that without these 2 chapters, my story will be too rushed (I have BIG tendency to do that, sadly). At the end, these 2 chapter turn out to be as essential as the other chapters. So I hope, I don't bore you with these 2 'filler' chapters. Next chapter, we'll move back to the original story. Thank you for still sticking with 'Oh, Ladies and Gentlemen!' .