What Matters In The End

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There in front of him, was a drunken Sakura swaying from side to side on the concrete bridge ledge, walking like she was on a tightrope in the circus, with her high heeled shoes. She was holding a drink in her hand and it seems as though she was going to jump.

He really didn't care about what happens to others, since he had seen many deaths before in his life, but something here, right now seemed to pull some kind of emotion out of him and for the first time, in a long time he felt something.

He looked down. Underneath her was a long 30 meter drop into below freezing, deep, and unknown waters of Cascade falls.

…

Chapter 8

Syaoran remained calm. He knew that he had to go and do something, but what?

He watched as Sakura continued drinking the beverage in her hand, and turned around walking towards him, on the ledge. She was humming a tune, unaware of his presence. She stopped at the middle of the bridge and looked down. Her vision was blurry and couldn't really see a thing in the darkness.

Syaoran slowly edged towards her making sure that there were no sudden movements to startle her. Inch by inch he got closer and closer till he was beside her, only thing was that he wasn't standing on the ledge.

Hearing a noise to her side, Sakura slowly moved her head and looked down towards Syaoran.

"W-What are you doing here Syaoran?" she asked sipping more of her drink.

"Sakura, get down and then we can talk" he told her calmly, but his gaze on her was intense.

"Why?" she whined. She opened up her arms so she could feel the slight breeze. "It's nice and beautiful out here".

Syaoran frowned, "Get down now" he ordered her seriously in a harsh voice. He didn't like this side to Sakura one little bit, but then again he really didn't like her at all.

"Don't tell me what to do" she snapped looking angrily at him. She lowered her head and the anger she had turned into sadness. "You're just like Darren" she whispered, finishing her drink.

Syaoran didn't really know what to say. Did I just get compared to that idiot? He asked himself. He could feel the anger rise within him. The one thing he hated most was being compared to others. He was going to start yelling at her but he knew that he had to suppress it as anything sudden movements could send Sakura off the ledge. A faint sobbing broke his thoughts. He turned to face Sakura who was crying. "I did everything for him" she continued in a soft voice and more tears started to spill.

Syaoran did nothing but listen and watch her cry. So she's human after all he thought.Whenever he was around Sakura she would always be cheery and happy. She would smile at him even if he had treated her badly. He thought that she had always been like that and knows nothing about sadness, but here and now proved him wrong.

Sakura wiped the tears away and focused her attention on the sight below her. She was high up but since alcohol was in her system she didn't care and took a small step forwards.

Syaorans eyes grew wide She really going to jump? He couldn't take that chance because it would mean he was responsible for letting a girl who everyone loved and adored die.

"Sakura" he said emotionlessly.

Sakura turned around to face him, her eyes red from crying.

"I'm not into emotional things and I don't like to pry in others business, but by the sounds of things Darren isn't worth it. I don't know why you let him get to you so much that you would want to take your own life. You're better than that"

Sakura stayed quiet and continued to listen intently at what Syaoran was saying.

"You have a lot of people in this town who adore you, how do you think they will feel if you died?" He held out one of his arms for Sakura to grab hold to. He felt slightly weird as this was the first time he had done it to a person.

She looked at Syaoran confusedly and then at his extended arm for sometime. She knew he had a nice side to him She looked at his intense amber eyes and could still see the coldness within them but with a flicker of gentleness. She gave him a warm smile and slowly reached for Syaoran's arm but in doing so she accidentally lost her balance and slipped, falling backwards.

"AHHHH" her scream filled the air.

"Sakura!" Syaoran yelled running as fast as he could to try and grabbed her but it had been too late. He was just inches away from touching her fingers.

"Damn" he cursed aloud. He looked down only to see the vague body of water and the darkness wasn't helping him. It was around 3:30 am in the morning, the skies were black and the moon was slowly disappearing for the sun. Syaoran upon instinct, he got up onto the ledge. "Here goes" he said talking to himself and he slowly leant his body forward and jumped.

The moment he landed in the waters of Cascade Falls, his body became freezing and he felt pain all around him, like sharp pins stabbing him everywhere making his breathing became heavy.

He made his way to the surface of the water and frantically looked around for the emerald eyed beauty. "Sakura!" he yelled as loud as he could but the sound of the waterfall was making it hard for him to hear himself. He looked around the surface to see if she was there but she wasn't and that could only mean one thing. She was underneath.

He had to think of a way to see in the darkness underwater and he had to think quickly. He had used most of his magic when they were fighting Tor the winged bear who had gotten away, but he focused on his remaining energy and murmured an incantation to stop time, for a few minutes. As soon as everything had stopped he reached for his pockets and took out a magical piece of paper. His sword appeared before him which he took and hit the piece of paper with its tip. "Wind" he yelled out loud. A big gust of wind surged through the piece of paper and spiraled into 4 giant tornados, absorbing the waters. Slowly the water level dropped until the bottom of the waterfall could be seen and there in the middle was Sakura, looking limp.

Syaoran spotted her and immediately jumped into the big hole where the waters used to be and made his way to her. He scooped her freezing body into his arms, and started to dash away back in the safeness of land, out of the ditch. He couldn't do much to help her here because his powers were weakening and he had very little strength left to hold up the tornados.

He had managed to run past 2 of the tornados but as his magic was being drained by stopping time, one of the tornados broke sending a huge amount of water came crashing onto the ground making big waves.

Syaoran cursed and started to run a lot faster but it was really hard as the waters had reached up to his waist. Almost there he told himself. He was running out of energy, and another one of the tornados was starting to break sending more water into the big ditch. It was up to his shoulders now. He couldn't hold time any longer. Syaoran had reached the side of the ditch. He looked behind him and saw a giant wave of water heading towards him.

His eyes grew wide. With the remaining strength he had left, he used it to jump to safety just in time because the other 2 tornado's broken sending back all the water it had absorbed up.

Syaoran lay tiredly on his back, out of breath. He slowly turned on his side and looked towards Sakura's body. He quickly got up despite his aching body and checked her breathing. He held his ear close to her and he couldn't hear anything. The same feeling he felt before when he saw her on the ledge returned; only this time it felt worse. Immediately he started to do mouth to mouth resuscitation. "Sakura breath" he frantically told her and continued to do it 5 more times but she still wouldn't breathe.

"Come on Sakura" he said and tried it one last time.

Sakura immediately coughed up the water that was in her lungs and slowly opening her eyes. Her vision was blurred but she could make out the figure. "Syaoran" she whispered before fainting.

Syaoran started at her figure intently. This was one of the reasons why he didn't like to make friends or be nice to others. They were too much trouble, and they get attached. He had used an extraordinary amount of magic in one night and he used up the rest on her. They're all burdens he said to himself. He stood up gingerly, bending down to scoop Sakura's freezing body into his arms. This is going to be a long walk home……

……

It was night time and Syaoran had just awoken in a grumpy and bad mood. He sat up on his bed and looked up at the clock. 7:00pm it read. Groaning he got up from his bed slowly made his way outside of his room and over to the spare room in Eriol's Apartment where Sakura was sleeping. He was too exhausted to walk to her house, so he brought her here instead. Slowly he turned the door knob and peeked inside. Sakura was sound asleep, tucked in comfortably in bed. He watched her sleeping figure for a few minutes. She looked so innocent and carefree, and even in her sleep she looked happy. Syaoran didn't get how someone could be so cheerful and happy, but when he thought about what happened before hand, it was obvious to him that there was still more to her that meets the eye.

DING DONG... The door bell rang. Syaoran cursed at the person who was at the door. Taking one last look at Sakura's sleeping figure, he closed the bedroom door and walked towards the front door, opening it angrily. He gave a cold look at the two figures in front of him.

"Eriol, This is your apartment, Why the hell you ringing the doorbell?" he asked angrily.

Eriol walked inside, "I left it here" he replied with his own angry tone and made his way to his room and slammed the door. It seems that he wasn't the only one who was in an angry mood.

Tomoyo walked in with her head facing down, not wanting to look at Syaoran. She sat down on one of the lounges, with her hands gripping her skirt. She could feel Syaorans cold glare towards her as he sat down opposite her.

He has so many words he wanted to yell in anger at Tomoyo but refrained from doing so, because it's inappropriate to use foul language in front of or towards a lady. He did have morals he believed in, despite his rude attitude.

Tomoyo couldn't stand the silent treatment the guys were giving her and her eyes grew sad, shedding a few tears.

Syaoran however was unmoved by her and continued to give her the glare.

"Tomoyo" a soft feminine voice spoke.

Tomoyo's head rose up and immediately stood and ran towards her best friend, giving her an embrace which she returned. Sakura had a major headache and she felt really weak somehow. All she could remember being around the waterfall and falling, which is probably the reason why she had cuts around her arms. She was wearing the same clothes as she was wearing yesterday, only she was wearing a big green t-shirt on top of it.

Syaoran stared at her and looked at his shirt on her and the first thing he thought of was that it matched her eyes. That was the only nice thing he could think of for that night.

"Sakura, thank goodness your alright" Tomoyo's tears continued to spill. "I'm sorry, so sorry" she cried hugging her best friend tighter.

Sakura's expression softened. "Shhh, Tomoyo please don't cry, there's nothing to be sorry about, and If anyone is to blame then it should be me. I'm sorry Tomoyo" she whispered.

Tomoyo gave a small smile, but as soon as Eriol walked out of his room, it soon disappeared. He walked passed the girls without saying a word and sat in the empty seat beside Syaoran, face looked distant and serious.

Both the girls looked at each other bewildered at Eriol's attitude. He seemed to be really pissed and Syaoran seemed to be even more so.

"Sit down" Eriol ordered, in his cold voice.

"I'll stand" Sakura told him, grasping onto Tomoyo's arm.

"I said SIT!" he spoke more loudly and harsher.

At the sound of his voice both girls jumped in fear and immediately sat down to where they were told. They have never in their entire life seen Eriol this angry.

The room was filled with silence for a little while making both girls very uncomfortable.

"I must say, I'm very disappointed with the both of you" Eriol told them looking at them dead straight in the eyes. "Do you know what drinking can do to you? It's okay to have it moderately but all in one night, just to get drunk" he continued.

Tomoyo gave Eriol a weird look. "We didn't drink any alcohol" she argued putting her hands on her hips.

Yeh right Syaoran said to himself and looked over at Sakura's direction because he obviously knew that she had something to drink. He continued to listen intently to what the others were saying.

Eriol gave a small chuckle of disbelief, which made Tomoyo frown at him.

"And what is so funny?" she asked him getting slightly angrier.

"Nothing" he replied back, putting his hands up as if he was pretending he was defeated.

Tomoyo shook her head at him. This was one side to Eriol that she really didn't like and it seems lately everyone's other personalities is surfacing. She was glad to see this part of him though. She shook off her anger because this was going to get them nowhere, and she loved him too much to fight with him.

"Eriol please believe me, we did not have any alcohol to drink" Her eyes were watery and Eriol looked at her. The moment he saw her hurt amethyst eyes, his face softened.

"I believe you" he said gently giving her a reassuring smile. The reason he was so angry was that he was scared of what could have happened to both the girls if he and Syaoran had gotten there later. Also he felt that it was partly his fault for leaving them on their own. He thanked the sky's above, that they were safe.

Tomoyo smiled and gave him a hug which he returned.

"Someone spiked your drinks" Syaoran interrupted the couple.

"But who? We knew almost everyone there; they wouldn't do that to us would they?"

Sakura asked, joining into the conversation.

Syaoran shook his head at her, So naïve. He thought to himself.

"Wait no there wasn't, there was that Jake guy who gave us those drinks that didn't taste like coke!" she said excitedly as she thought she solved the puzzle.

"Jake" Eriol asked raising his eyebrows.

"Yeh, he who looked well built, with messy dark brown hair and aquamarine eyes. It was the first time we had seen him before"

That stupid bastard lied straight to my face. Syaoran grew mad at that thought because he had been fooled and made to look like an idiot. He clenched his fists. I'll get him back.

"If I ever see him, I swear that he will not live to see another day" said Eriol who also clenched his fists. "Im glad both of you girls are alright".

Sakura got up from her seat. "Im sorry Eriol, Syaoran for burdening the both of you. I've decided that I will not be going to anymore college parties for as long as I live".

Eriol laughed and was about to go and say something but was interrupted by Tomoyo. "Sakura!" she shrieked looking over at her best friend and pointed towards her shirt. "What kind of clothes are you wearing?"

Upon hearing that, Syaoran looked the other way pretending that he wasn't there. Eriol had noticed his movement and gave a playful smirk.

Sakura looked confusedly at the shirt. Whose shirt was she wearing?

"Why that looks to be one of Syaoran's favorite shirts" Eriol teased. He had emphasized the word favorite just to annoy Syaoran and seemed to work. His eyes were twitching and his cheeks turned a slight shade of pink, but it wasn't very noticeable to the untrained eye.

Sakura had a huge blush upon her face, and her eyes grew wide. "I'm sorry Syaoran, I promise that I'll wash it and return it"

Syaoran just waved his hands at her, turned his back and walked towards to the kitchen to make himself something to eat.

Tomoyo giggled and gave a huge grin towards Sakura. Interesting she thought and looked towards Syaorans way, Very interesting.

Author's Notes: Another chapter finished sigh how did you like it? Please review!

The next chapter might take a little time as I have kind of lost my inspiration in writing. Gracias! To everyone who had reviewed it means a lot to me and a special Gracias! to BetterDeadThanAlone and sakuraxsyaoran you guys are the best. Thank you for your all your reviews, I really appreciate them!!

Till next time,

Always Chikka