A/N:-Hops up and down excitedly- Yay! I've only gotten five more reviews, and I don't care! It means that people are still alive and they're reading what I wrote! Five is way more than what I wanted. Thank you all SO much.

I want to send a special shout-out to WhenItAllFallsApart93and Deprived of Chocolate for reviewing both chapters. If I could bake, I'd mail giant cookies to you guys! But I'm good at origami, so have origami cookies instead! You know what? Paper cookies for EVERYONE!

Please bear with me through the parts in the beginning. In my opinion, it's kind of boring, but rather essential to know. I promise, something WILL pop up.

Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura will never be mine. -sigh-

F o r g e t – M e – N o t

B y : E n t r a n c i a

Chapter Three: Comrade

Sakura lay where she was, breathing heavily. For a blissful moment, she believed that the dream was just a dream and that she was actually safe at home, not inside an old tree house. She turned her head and saw a digital alarm clock that was not hers. It read 9:12 PM. Then she noticed that she was on a maroon couch half eaten by moths and remembered that she hadn't been home for a year.

She forced her eyes shut when felt the tears come. I will not cry any more, she thought fiercely. Crying would give Onii-chan a reason to tease me, even... even up there. For him—for them—I'll stay strong. I will not break down. No more crying. No more tears...

When sleep took over, Sakura did not dream. Her face had dried by the time she fell into the state of deep slumber, but the scent of her tears still lingered on her cheeks.

Nobody was watching her. Nobody was around. But just to make sure, Sakura did a full three-sixty-degree turn, then picked up the disappointingly thin wallet hiding in the grass. She peeked within the leather confines.

She counted a total of 6,440 yen inside. Not bad. Besides that, there was also a broken toothpick, a gas bill, a photo of young man with a girl—presumably his girlfriend—leaning up to kiss him, a square of aluminum foil, and two credit cards. Sakura took the money (the owner wouldn't really miss it), but she wasn't evil enough to steal the cards. As she started to close the wallet, she caught a flash of something white sticking out of one of the pockets. She pulled it out to examine it. It was slightly stiff, but when she pulled it in her hands, it gave and stretched like a deflated balloon would. It even looked like one, being made of a thin, translucent, rubber-type material shaped like one of those long balloons used for twisting into animals, only the opening was wider. She had no idea what it was, or whether it would be useful or not, so she pulled her hat down so it shaded her eyes, stopped a lone woman across the street, and showed the balloon-thingy to her.

The woman gave Sakura an odd look. "Honey, that's a used condom," she said. She continued on her business, leaving Sakura standing there staring blankly at the item in her hand.

It wasn't until the woman turned a corner did her words register in Sakura's head. When they did, she shrieked and dropped the thing as if it were a hot potato, wiping her hands furiously on her pants. She already knew what condoms were and what they were used for because her mother had told her. She had even seen them before when she stumbled upon them accidentally under Koji's bed—while looking for her shoe—during one of her visits, all wrapped in foil inside their proper box. But never had she seen an open, used one that was still crusty with who-knows-what. She shuddered. After all this time on the streets, there were still many things she would rather not know.

Then she spotted the leather wallet laying at her feet. It must have slipped out of her hands during the whole condom episode. She bent down to collect it. Something, or rather, some things tumbled out and plummeted to the ground as she retrieved the wallet. They were small and flat and clinked when they hit the cement floor.

Although she was sure they weren't condoms, she hesitated before picking up the items. When she saw what they were, Sakura nearly jumped for joy. They were her tickets to her next destination.

Well, not tickets, to be exact. They were train tokens, something that could get her to another place in Japan so people in this area would forget her presence. She placed them safely into the pocket of her jacket, relishing the fact that her sore feet would get a break. She put the wallet back where she found it. If they guy who owned it was smart or at least had some common sense, he'd retrace his steps and would spot his wallet right away.

Not three seconds after she had run away from her house, it dawned on Sakura that she was a wanted girl. She was the only living member of her immediate family and surely the police would be hunting for her, wanting to capture her, question her, then send her off to one of the few relatives she had left. She was sure it would be her great-aunt Kira living in Korea—a woman so unpleasant that even the former Sakura couldn't stand to be around her for more than a few minutes. She wouldn't have minded it so much if she was sent to live with her great-grandfather, but he had passed away five months ago from old age.

So Sakura decided to disguise herself. And hide.

Right after Sakura had calmed down enough to think rationally, the first place she went to was a store that offered clothes at low prices. True, Sakura knew she was slow when it came to most things, but she wasn't stupid. If she waited even one more day to buy new clothing, the fire would have already been put into the news, and everyone would know all the details: that Sakura had run away; that she was last seen wearing a white skirt, a blue tank top, and had a jacket tied around her waist; that she was the only Kinomoto left; that she had green eyes and long auburn hair; and that she was a seventeen-year old girl, five-feet-three inches tall on her fourteenth birthday, her blood type was A and she enjoyed roller blading, swimming, and cheerleading. She needed to obtain her disguise before that happened, or else the people in the shops would take one look at her and holler for the police.

She sacrificed a part of her birthday money to buy a simple, unembellished, white cap, similar to the one she had to wear in elementary school except in a large size, to cover her hair. Then she purchased a plain long-sleeved shirt, also white, with a grey, zip up, fleece vest over it and a pair of black pants—an outfit she generally wouldn't wear because of its lack of color. But she thought it was for the best. People all over Asia would be looking for a brightly dressed girl with gorgeous hair the color of honey, skipping down the street as if her life weren't a giant screwed up mess. They wouldn't expect that this Sakura—who never skipped, rarely smiled, wore dark colors, and wasn't afraid break most rules—was the same girl who went missing a year before.

Her initial plan, during that moment when she wasn't thinking rationally, was to commit suicide. End her life then and there by jumping into the path of a speeding car. Quick and easy so she could be with her family as soon as possible.

Then the haze in her mind cleared up, the haze that caused her to consider stupid things, and she could think properly again. Her conscience screamed at her, sounding oddly like Touya. Suicide was a definite NO. If she offed herself, Koji and Jouichi would win. Although technically she would not have died at their hands, it would be because of what they had done. So, they would be victorious. Sakura couldn't let that happen. She needed to avenge the deaths of her family members. The only way to do that was to stay alive. No self-killing. Her vengeance wouldn't have to be that extreme, of course. As horrible as the accident was, Sakura could never muster up enough hatred to stoop to their level. A bit, or rather, a lot of misery inflicted on them would be sufficient for her.

But she couldn't do it. Not yet, at least. She couldn't bear to face the two people who reduced her life to... this. No. It was too soon. She first had to be able to prove to them that she was fully capable of taking care of herself. She would return to them someday to carry out her revenge and to show them that she was alive and—somewhat well, but for the time being, she would wait. That was when she made the decision to travel.

Her adventure begun then.

She started out in the charming city of Hikari, Yamaguchi, where her house was located, and made her way up into northern Japan. She traveled at her own pace, often exploring a city for a week before heading on to the next, staying long enough to be able to identify the new place, but not so long that she'd be recognizable to its inhabitants. She was currently somewhere in the Tokyo area, a place so busy and crowded that blending in was easy.

Sakura's stomach growled suddenly, demanding to be satiated. She groaned. It was only ten in the morning, two hours after she woke, and already she was hungry. Usually, she would rest until eleven, but she wasn't used to the luxury of having something proper to sleep on, like the sofa. She much preferred the hard, flat floors of the many alleyways she came across during her travels, no matter how uncomfortable they were. Waking early meant that she needed to eat three times a day instead of the usual two. She ate less food in a typical day than a normal person did during dinnertime.

She walked into the supermarket with one intention, and that did not involve spending money.

Sakura planned to steal.

Thievery was the only option she had if she wanted to eat. Once in a while, she would have to pay for an item if it was too bulky for her to sneak into her pocket or hide beneath her baggy vest. Unless a purchase was necessary, she would just take what she needed, and only what she needed. It was never a matter of what she wanted, only what was essential to survive.

Stealing was easy. She just had to be certain that the aisle was free of mothers on errands or confused fathers with shopping lists or those pesky security cameras. When she was alone, she'd walk up to the desired food item, act casual even though no one was around, and quickly shove it into her pocket. And that was it. Generally, though, her meal would be a piece of fruit, which was displayed out in the open, requiring a little more work to obtain. She was caught once when she tried to smuggle a grapefruit into her jacket and got kicked out. She went without dinner that day.

At the beginning of her travels, she paid for everything. Then, reluctantly and without any other choices, she started stealing. But she would be so guilt-ridden afterwards, she'd run back into the store and she would toss the money owed at the perplexed cashiers. But by the end of her first month out on the streets, she stopped paying. When the second passed by, there was no more remorse as she took what she wanted.

Sakura headed over to the fruits and produce section of the market. She effortlessly swiped three small apples and slipped them underneath her vest. She held her arms over her stomach where the fruits were—pretending she had a stomachache—to prevent them from slipping out. She exited the store without getting caught, though one woman kept giving her distrustful glances every now and then.

She retrieved her belongings—the backpack and roller blades, carefully concealed in yet another bush—and took out the apples. She put them into her backpack and, satisfied that she would have decent meals that day, went off in search for an area to sit down. She turned a corner and gasped in delight. She saw the perfect place.

It was an absolutely beautiful park, but not like any park she had ever seen. This one was huge. The ones in Hikari were small, but in a quaint way. Nevertheless, they often only featured a couple benches, a slide for the kids, some skinny trees, and lots of grass. Hikari was famous for its lush grass.

This park appeared to have everything: perfect stone footpaths, a neat lawn, dozens of benches, several gazebos, picnic tables, public grills, thousands of vibrant flowers, a large playground, and so much more. It even had a grand fountain in the middle of the park. Crystal-clear water spurted out of the top and flowed down the sides.

Sakura sat down on a bench across from the fountain and removed an apple from her backpack. She bit into it slowly, savoring the slightly tart fruit. Eating things like apples, oranges, bananas, and other various fruits kept her healthy, but, lacking protein, it also caused her to lose quite a bit of weight and muscle. The clothes she had bought right after the fire used to fit her. Now they hung off her like coats on a coat rack.

She took the last bite of apple and threw the core into the grass, not seeing any wastebaskets around; it was biodegradable, anyway. She walked over to the fountain and stuck her sticky hands into the water to rinse them off. Sakura turned around to get her things.

And nearly tripped over something stretched out on the ground.

Sakura, after regaining her balance, glanced down. The thing she almost fell over was merely a sleeping dog. It had a collar on it, so it probably belonged to another person in the park. She paid no attention to it and moved around the dog to return to the bench, but froze in her tracks when it let out a soft whimper. A very familiar whimper. Slowly, Sakura turned around.

A Labrador retriever. Black fur. A blue collar. The same one Sakura herself had selected. Big brown eyes gazing blankly into space. It couldn't be—

"Spinel-san?" she whispered, staring at the dog with shock and disbelief.

At the name, the dog lifted its head and moved its tail feebly. That was all the confirmation she needed.

"It is you!" she cried, and knelt down to his side. She scooped him into her arms and held him close, tears sliding down her cheeks. He was considerably lighter, she noticed. His ribs protruded scarily. "I've missed you so much," she said into his fur. He smelled horrible, but at that moment, she didn't care. She let go of her dog and started to rub his back soothingly.

"What's happened to you, boy?" murmured Sakura. "Have you been wandering around all this time?"

Then, without warning, Spinel jerked his head up, ears twitching. He appeared to be listening to something. When he started squirming in her arms, Sakura released him.

"What is it? Do you hear something?" she asked him.

He stood up unsteadily, one of his hind legs clearly broken, and began to hobble away towards a noise only he could hear. Sakura allowed him to move in front of her. She worriedly followed him.

"Spinel-san," she said, "where in the world are you—" She halted abruptly when she saw what was ahead. "Oh my..."

Spinel had led her directly into a chain link fence that seemed to stretch for miles. But that wasn't the cause of her sudden stop. The thing stuck in the fence was.

A puppy. Howling and whimpering from the pain in his back where the fence dug into his skin. He couldn't have been more than a week old.

Sakura looked at Spinel. It seemed like he was trying to free the poor creature from the wire trap, judging by the way he scratched at the fence. But whenever his paw made contact with the metal, the puppy would let out the most heartbreaking cry Sakura had ever heard. She opened her mouth to question Spinel—not expecting an answer, of course—about the small animal.

Then she saw it. Another dog, a miniature poodle, was half buried in some weeds close by. But she wasn't moving. She appeared to be napping, but when Sakura moved closer to observe her, she saw that her chest was still.

Dead.

A poodle! thought Sakura. It suddenly came to her attention that the trapped puppy was a Labradoodle, a crossbreed that was half poodle, half... Labrador retriever! She instantly put two and two together, her eyes flickering from the motionless poodle to her dog to the little one still ensnared in the fence.

Oh! The puppy! She mentally smacked herself for even momentarily forgetting the animal.

With one hand, she yanked the fence up high enough for the pup to wiggle through. When he refused to move, she nudged him forward from behind with her free hand, and he crawled out, immediately rushing to his father's side. Sakura restored the fence and went to join the reunited family.

"That's some baby you've got there," she said to her dog, sitting crosslegged on the ground. "It's too bad I never got to meet the mother."

She saw the puppy sitting next to Spinel. He didn't resist when she reached over to pet him, and when she did, her hand touched something wet.

"You're bleeding!" exclaimed Sakura, inspecting the blood on her fingers. "Come on, let's go wash it out," she said to the puppy, and lifted him up. He was so tiny she could fit him in one hand.

"Stay here, boy," she ordered Spinel. "I don't want you walking with that—Spinel-san, what is it?" She set the puppy down and stooped to examine her dog.

She saw that he was extremely weak, weaker than when she ran into him, literally speaking, lounging near the fountain. She sat down and pulled his head into her lap. At once, she sensed that something was wrong. His body temperature had decreased greatly, his breathing irregular and fitful.

Sakura knew these signs, having read them before in a book she had borrowed from a library when she first got Spinel. Instead of panicking, she cradled him in her arms and shut her eyes. She felt Spinel's pup climbing up her leg and into her lap, not wanting to be left out of the touching moment. Despite the situation, she smiled. Quietly, she started to sing to her dying companion. It was a lullaby that Nadeshiko had taught her years ago.

"Goodnight, my angel
Time to close your eyes
And save these questions for another day
I think I know what you've been asking me
I think you know what I've been trying to say
I promised I would never leave you
And you should always know
Wherever you may go
No matter where you are
I never will be far away."

The puppy stood up on Sakura's thigh and walked over to his father, using her leg as a bridge. He sniffed Spinel inquisitively.

"Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to sleep
And still so many things I want to say
Remember all the songs you sang for me
When we went sailing on an emerald bay
And like a boat out on the ocean
I'm rocking you to sleep
The water's dark
And deep inside this ancient heart
You'll always be a part of me."

Spinel's eyes fluttered shut.

"Goodnight, my angel
Now it's time to dream
And dream how wonderful your life will be
Someday your child may cry
And if you sing this lullaby
Then in your heart
There will always be a part of me."

And didn't open again.

"Someday we'll all be gone
But lullabies go on and on...
They never die
That's how you
And I
Will be."

Sakura wasn't surprised to find herself crying, as she did whenever she sang this song to herself in her lonely nights in the alleys, the tears dripping off her chin and onto Spinel's fur. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve.

At least I was there for him, she thought. At least I got to hold him.

She hugged him one final time before letting go. "Goodbye... Spinel-san," she whispered. "I'll take good care of your baby." She got up, glancing at the bouncy puppy, still far too young to understand what had happened.

"I need a leash for you," she said, shaking her head lightly, forcing herself to be cheery. An idea came to her as she looked at Spinel. She removed the collar from his neck, murmuring, "I'm sorry." From her backpack, she pulled out her old nightgown and easily tore a long, narrow strip out of it. She fastened one end of the strip to the collar, created a small loop with the other end, and approached the puppy with it. He seemed to know that he wasn't going to like whatever she had in store for him and attempted to escape. He wasn't quick enough. Sakura held the struggling puppy in her hands and slipped the collar over his neck, tightening it as much as she could without suffocating him. She held onto the loop she made, not letting him get away.

"I can't have you running away from me," she said. He stopped wriggling around and sat down when she spoke, as if he was listening to her. "I am your new mistress and you are to obey me. Understand?"

For a moment, she thought he did. But then, after a second of staring at her, he lifted up one leg and peed into the dirt.

Sakura clapped a hand to her face. "Suppi..."

It came out suddenly and unexpectedly, but Sakura instantly fell in love with the name. She loved the way it sounded and how it fitted the puppy perfectly. A cute name for a cute dog.

"That's it. From now on, your name shall be Suppi!" she declared. "Isn't it lovely?"

Suppi wrinkled his little wet nose in obvious distaste.

Sakura stuck out her tongue at him. "Too bad. That's your name and you will learn to love it. Now, let's go get you cleaned up." She grabbed onto his leash and dragged the reluctant Suppi to the fountain.

"Suppi-chan! Hold still!"

Sakura ducked just as Suppi kicked some water at her, aimed at her face.

She placed her hands on her hips and gave him a stern look. "If you refuse to let me wash that cut of yours, it will get infected and you will die and I'll live the rest of my life in guilt knowing that I couldn't save you. Now, do you really want that to happen?" she scolded.

Suppi ducked his head under the water and paddled away.

"Suppi-chan!" cried Sakura tiredly. "Come back here!"

He ignored her and swam further away. She let him have his moment of rebellion, but as soon as he came close enough to her, she leaned over as far as she could and scooped him out of the fountain. Unfortunately, she lost her balance and toppled into the water with a scream.

When she got out, the entire top half of her body was soaked. "You're a lot more trouble than you're worth," she muttered to Suppi, removing him and her wet cap from the water. She tied the makeshift leash to the leg of a bench, preventing him from escaping while she changed.

Five minutes later, she was—mostly—dry, having switched into her blue tank top.

She wrung out her hair and glimpsed at Suppi, who was shaking the water out of his fur.

"At least you're clean," she sighed.

She neatly folded her clothes and placed them into her backpack. She'd let them dry once she returned to the tree house. She took her shoes off, putting the roller blades on in their place. She skated over to Suppi and untied the leash from the bench.

"You're coming with me now, Suppi-chan, whether you like it or not," she said, hoisting the puppy up and holding him securely in her arms. She skated her way out of the park. "Just wait," she told the squirming Suppi. "When we're back in the tree house, you can run around all you want. But for now, stay."

He didn't listen, so Sakura tightened her grip on him and kept moving.

They passed by dozens of houses and buildings that she didn't recognize, and Sakura was sure that she was lost until she turned and found herself in a familiar street. All she had to do was take a right turn and keep going straight.

She grabbed onto the pole of a stop sign to swing herself around the corner, and the next thing she knew, she was somehow on the ground. There was this stinging pain in her arms and legs and face and her head throbbed and everything else hurt and vaguely she heard Suppi barking two blocks away and there was this pair of concerned blue eyes hovering above her and then everything faded away to... nothing.

A/N: This chapter took a long time to finish. I started writing it before I posted the first chapter of this story. Forgive me if the whole scene with the dogs was... not good. I always have trouble with mushy parts. But now it's done, and I can move on to the more exciting things.

I am not sure how things are priced in Japan since I have never visited the place. I just converted American dollars into Japanese yen. So 6,440 yen would be equivalent to sixty-something dollars. I think.

I'm not sure where I got the lyrics of the lullaby from. All I know is that the title of it is "Goodnight, My Angel." It is not mine. I hope you actually read it because the lyrics are very beautiful and fitting.

I'm sorry to say this, but I'll be taking a day or two off from writing. Not that I want to, but because I have to. It's apparent that I have neglected my summer work for far too long. And if I don't finish it before September 4th, six zeros will be on my conscience. I am SO screwed.

Understand that my grades mean everything to my parents. If my grades go down, my scholarship will cease to exist, therefore my dad will have to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my school tuition. He won't be happy if that happens. And if he's not happy, there goes my freedom. It will just take me a little longer to update. Give me a minimum of six days and a maximun of ten. If I take longer than that, feel free to send me a very angry message. I won't hate you. But if you review I might try to write something in-between my summer torture -wink wink, nudge nudge-

Until next time,

- Mimi