Hello! It's Tick and Tock again with our first actual chapter.

We do hope that you'll drop a review!

Disclaimer - Cardcaptor Sakura isn't ours (Though I wish Syaoran is)

Chapter One

The door slammed shut and there was a patter of small feet on the marble floor. Sakura looked up from her newspapers and called, "Eriol!"

"Yeah?" he asked innocently, his midnight blue eyes twinkling as he appeared from around the doorway.

"Yes, not yeah," she corrected him sternly. Her voice was full of authority as she had become a professional after the last few years.

"What are you doing?"

Eriol stepped out of the doorway and into the kitchen. "Me and Syaoran are going to play on the computer," he explained.

"Syaoran and I," she corrected and went back to her newspapers. As the words finally sank in, she stood up and almost knocked over the chair. She swore loudly and raced down to the playroom, seeing Eriol sitting on the floor, eyes glued to the TV screen.

"Eriol, who's Syaoran?" her eyes darted suspiciously around the room, "You know I hate it when you bring strangers home."

"He is my new friend," Eriol replied, his eyes still fixed on the game.

Sakura insisted on meeting this "friend" of his. Eriol nodded his head in the general direction of Syaoran without moving his eyes from the screen. Sakura looked around and crossed her arms, "Is he hiding?"

Eriol finally took his eyes off the screen and stared at her in confusion. Pointing at the yellow beanbag beside Sakura, he exclaimed, "He is right there!"

Sakura's eyes widened as she stared, only to find a sagging yellow beanbag sitting innocently. She leaned down to an even level with Eriol, the room so silent she could hear her knees crack.

"There is no one but you and me in this room," she explained softly.

Eriol's cheeks flushed and his chest heaved impatiently.

Please don't be like your mother. Please don't be like her!

He finally exploded and screamed exasperatedly, "Do you not see him? Why don't you?"

"Okay! Whatever!" Sakura stood up to a level where she had control. She could not see this made-up "Syaoran" and her brain refused to let her pretend. She threw a last glance around the room before giving up. Eriol shrugged and went back to his game.

Sakura then said she would be putting on pizza in twenty minutes. "Syaoran would like some too, with olives on top. It's his favourite!" Sakura could just swallow helplessly.

"Thanks!" Eriol beamed as he went back to his game. She went out of the room, not before showing her crystal clear emerald eyes clouding with worry. "Imaginary friends?" she whispered.

Inside the playroom, Syaoran rolled his eyes and wriggled his body further down into the beanbag. Ever since he started this job, parents have called him that and it was beginning to bother him. There was nothing imaginary about him.

They just couldn't see him.

I don't want to believe. Is it because I'm afraid? After all, I can live my life through controlling, right?