Agent08 Reporting for Duty!

Now… on with chapter two!

I Forgot to Remember

Trying

Sometime later…

"Good morning, Kinomoto-san," Tomoyo, the amethyst-eyed beauty said brightly to Fujitaka, Sakura's aging father. Old as he was, no one could deny that he was still very, very handsome for his ripe old age.

"Daidouji-san," he said, obviously pleased to see her. She carried in her hands a picnic basket, filled with pastries and home made meals that she'd prepared for their outing. Behind her stood two of her friends, Meiling Li and her cousin, Syaoran Li.

"It's so good to see you," he told them all, "Perhaps you could try and get my Sakura out today. It's so nice out,"

"Oh, we'll get her out alright," Tomoyo assured him confidently, "even if I have to drag her out of this house by her hair."

Fujitaka wanted to laugh at her joke, but he wasn't sure if she was actually joking or not.

He stood aside and allowed the threesome to enter his home. They thanked him, put on a pair of house slippers and let themselves be lead up the stairs by him.

They arrived outside of Sakura's bedroom and Fujitaka knocked once, speaking softly to her. He knew she'd be able to hear.

"Sakura-san, your friends are here to see you," he told her cheerfully.

No answer.

"Sakura-san, please come out, they've arranged a picnic outing for you,"

"I'm sorry otou-san," came Sakura's muffled voice. "I'm busy. Can you tell them that I can't make it, please?"

"Busy doing what?" he asked, because they all knew she was just making an excuse to not go.

He heard a small sigh on the other side of the door. "Otou-san, please?"

"No, Sakura-san," he said gently but firmly, "it's a beautiful day outside and I will not have you spending it in your room with your curtains drawn. Get dressed, they are expecting you in five minutes."

"But 'tou-san, I—"

"Five minutes," he reminded her, and left it at that.

He smiled at the three who were paying attention to their entire conversation. He led them back down the stairs without a word, as if the few words he'd just exchanged with his daughter didn't make anybody uncomfortable.

"Kinomoto-san, I think I'll help Sakura-chan decide on her outfit, if that's okay with you," she said, slipping passed him and going back up to her bedroom. They all watched as she slid in through the door and closed it again behind her.

Fujitaka sat in the living room with the other two guests, keeping them company while Tomoyo and Sakura did their thing upstairs. Meiling was perfectly at ease, humming quietly to herself and admiring the nice décor of the Kinomoto home.

Syaoran, however, was still as a stone, his back straight and rigid as a board. His hands were laced together tightly and kept firmly on his lap. He kept his lips firmly together in a thin line; his eyes and ears open for anything that might happen. He, for some reason, was on his guard.

"So," Fujitaka began, "I was wondering if any of you two might be able to explain to me, what, exactly, happened to my daughter."

Syaoran stiffened. Meiling kept calm. "What do you mean?" she asked politely.

"Surely you two have noticed," he told them, "Sakura has been acting not herself lately. She isn't as cheerful. She hardly smiles. She barricades herself up in her room for hours with the curtains drawn. Did something happen at school? With her friends? What is it?"

Syaoran shifted nervously and his cousin noticed his discomfort. "It's… a boy," she told him honestly. There was just no lying to a sweet old man like Fujitaka Kinomoto. It was near impossible.

"A boy?" he echoed, blinking once. "Should I be concerned?"

"No, no," Meiling assured him at once. "It's just complicated. Please, don't let her older brother know. The situation isn't as bad as it seems. Kinomoto-san just took it all very bad. We're working on her,"

Fujitaka did something that surprised both Meiling and Syaoran. He smiled.

"Oh, believe me, I'll be the last person to tell her brother. Just make sure my Sakura gets back to her old self," he said sweetly. It warmed their hearts. "And if this boy does anything to hurt my Sakura, tell me so at once, so that I can do the appropriate thing and inform her brother,"

They began to sweat, knowing what would happen if Touya even had an inkling that the boy sitting across from his father had anything to do with Sakura's new attitude.

The three sitting in the living room heard movement upstairs and they all turned to look. Meiling and Fujitaka smiled, happy to see Sakura up and about for the first time in a really long time. Syaoran stared at her, mesmerized.

Being locked up in her room for so long turned Sakura's fair skin to chalky white, which actually looked quite nice on her. Tomoyo had dressed her in a pink summer dress with a floral pattern around the hem and topped it off with a white ribbon that circled her extremely tiny waist. Apparently she hadn't been eating very much, either.

"Kinomoto-san, you look great!" Meiling complimented, running up to her to give her a hug.

Syaoran stayed rooted to his spot, gaping at the pretty girl that stood before him.

"Have fun, you four," Fujitaka said, herding them out the door and waving goodbye. Sakura smiled weakly at him and turned quickly around, grabbing the arms of the two girls and rushing forward, leaving the boy behind.

He still hadn't stopped staring.

xxxxxx

"Do I really have to be here?" Sakura asked meekly, afraid to look back at the reason why she wasn't up for the picnic plan. Or for anything now of days.

"Yes, you do," Tomoyo told her.

"But… you guys… I…"

"We know, Sakura-chan," she said, "it'll be okay."

She gulped. "Will it?" she asked almost fearfully.

Tomoyo and Meiling, the two schemers, glanced at each other worriedly. Sakura was always so confident. She'd never doubted anything before in her life, until now.

"Of course," Meiling said, trying to make up for what Sakura lacked.

Tomoyo slowed her pace so that she was now side by side with Syaoran, who was staring, dazed, at Sakura's retreating back. He didn't even notice Tomoyo join him, nor when she started staring at him with curious, plotting eyes.

"Hello Li-kun," she said.

He was snapped from his reverie. "Oh, hi Daidouji,"

"Thanks for agreeing to come to this picnic with us. We know it must be hard for you,"

Tomoyo watched very closely for his reaction.

He shrugged.

"We're sorry things didn't work out,"

Still, she was given no reply.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him, truly concerned, not just for the sake of making conversation anymore. "Really, Li-kun, how are you feeling?"

He shrugged again and hesitated a moment before replying. "I don't… I don't know," he answered truthfully. "That girl… that Kinomoto girl, she says she's… she's…" she watched him struggle to say the next few words. "She says she's… in love. With me. But I don't know who she is, or why she even…" More struggling. "Loves me."

They walked in silence as they followed slowly behind Meiling and Sakura. Meiling was talking animatedly, probably trying to get Sakura's spirits up. Sakura was nodding along to everything she was saying, actually not paying any attention at all. She was trying to distract herself from the temptation she felt to turn around and ask Tomoyo what the hell she was saying to Syaoran.

"Why?" Tomoyo asked, her voice suddenly full of emotion, her eyes filled with sadness. "Why can't you remember her? Why won't you try?"

"I am trying," he snapped, "I've been trying!"

"Not hard enough, apparently," she muttered.

He sighed to calm himself. "I'm trying my best to remember who she is and what she meant to me," he told her seriously.

"No," she said angrily, "you're not! You're not trying your best."

They stopped walking to stare angrily towards each other, allowing the two girls ahead of them to slip further away.

"You don't get it, do you?" Tomoyo asked him breathlessly. "You loved Sakura. You loved her more than anyone else. If you've been trying your best these past three weeks since you broke her heart, you would have remembered her by now!"

"How do you know that?" he asked, exasperated.

"Because you told her so, Li-kun! You told her!" she said desperately. "You told her yourself, if you were ever to forget the feelings you had for her, you would still be in love with her,"

He opened his mouth to rebuttal, but was cut short before he even started when Meiling bounded up towards the two of them, her eyes bright, her smile wide. "Come on, slow pokes! Our spot is right there," she said, pointing to a nice, shaded space beneath a cherry blossom tree. Neither of the two had even noticed that they'd arrived at the park.

Sakura came to join them, unsmiling and head bowed down. She and Meiling both seemed to have noticed the tension.

"Is everything okay?" Meiling asked.

Tomoyo sighed and shook her had sadly at Syaoran. She then turned to her two best friends and smiled brightly, completely transformed. "Everything's fine," she said convincingly. And they would've believed it too, if Syaoran didn't look so down in the dumps. "Let's go, shall we?"

They nodded and set the picnic blanket down on the grass. They took their spots as Tomoyo began emptying the picnic basket and handing out the pre-prepared meals.

"Here you go," she said to each person as she gave him or her a bento box.

"I SMELL FOOOOD!" came a shrill voice from Sakura's purse. Everyone jumped at the suddenness of it all except for Sakura, who hardly reacted to anything anymore.

"Kero-chan," she said in a flat voice, "be quiet, please."

He ignored that, flying up to Tomoyo's ear level and whispering, "Geez, what took you so long, girly?" he asked, half angry, half relieved. "I couldn't get her to leave her room for the last week. I've been sweet deprived for days!"

Tomoyo giggled at him, "Here you go," she said again, handing him a pastry. "Sorry," she added.

"You're forgiven," Kero told her between mouth fulls.

Sakura nibbled at her food quietly, staring at the picnic blanket, the cherry blossom tree they sat beneath, letting her eyes rest upon just about anything except for Syaoran. It hurt too much to look at him.

Tomoyo, Meiling and Kero chattered up a storm and pretended not to notice the quietest of the five there. In between conversations Meiling would nudge her head in the direction of Syaoran and shoot meaningful glances towards Sakura. It looked like the two plotters were at it again.

"I'm thirsty," Meiling announced after a couple of minutes of eating and chatting, "Daidouji-san, have you got any drinks in that picnic basket?"

"Oh no," said Tomoyo after rummaging through the picnic basket for a moment, "It looks like I've forgotten!"

"What?" Kero asked, his cheeks bulging, "That's a first. You never forget to pack—"

Meiling swatted him quickly and he gave out a yelp. He glared at her and she shrugged, "There was a fly on you."

Before things got any more obvious than they already were, Tomoyo stood up quickly and announced that she was off to buy drinks from the nearest vending machine, which, conveniently enough, was on the other side of the park.

"Come with me, please, Meiling-chan?"

"Sure," she agreed easily, dusting herself off.

"Come along now, Kero-chan," Tomoyo said, waving him over.

"But I haven't even started on my seconds—"

Both girls turned to give him death glares. He got the point.

"Uh, on second thought, I feel like stretching my wings."

He fluttered up and away from the picnic blanket and went with the two girls as they looked over their shoulders the entire way.

Throughout the entire exchange, Sakura had not said a word. She hadn't even given any sign of recognition that she was even on the same planet as the others. She was just on her own, picking at her food, staring at the grass with blank eyes. She was completely alone.

But not really.

Seconds passed as the silence lapsed between them. Syaoran shifted his seating position for the millionth time and suddenly didn't feel like eating anymore. What was he supposed to say to the girl that was in love with him, but he hardly knew?

"It's… a nice day," he offered lamely.

It seemed as though she hadn't heard him. She remained the same, staring but not really staring, not eating her food. He tried again.

"Uh… don't you think it's a nice day?"

She still did not react to anything he was saying.

"Kinomoto-san?" he asked, seriously considering that maybe she wasn't on the same planet as he was. "Kinomoto-san, are you even—"

"You call me Sakura," she said suddenly, in a voice so quiet and timid he never would've caught it if he hadn't seen her mouth move. "You used to call me Sakura."

He caught himself and felt the heat rising in his face. Damn, and it was already so freaking warm. He was going to start sweating soon, he knew it.

"O – Oh," he stuttered, "I — I didn't know—"

"We were stuck in an elevator," she told him, looking up at him, finally. Though she seemed rather hesitant. "We were stuck in an elevator, and you thought that I fell down the shaft. That's when you first called me by my first name."

"I — I see," he replied, nodding his head. "I don't remember that,"

He realized what he'd said a millisecond after saying it. He immediately felt guilty when Sakura's head bowed back down, her cheeks flushing and eyes welling.

"I mean I — I don't —"

"No," she said softly, blinking back her tears and forcing a smile. "It's okay. I should've known better than to bring it up. You don't—" her voice cracked and she swallowed down a sob, "you don't remember much. Do you?"

It was his turn to swallow. "No. I don't."

She nodded, trying to be understanding, but she wasn't doing a very good job at it, nor was she doing very well at hiding her sadness. "It's okay," she said again. "Totally fine." She tried, again, with great difficulty to smile as she could before, before it all happened.

"I — I want you to try and help me remember," he said gruffly. He was starting to irritate himself with all the stuttering that he was doing. "I want to remember you and – and…" he sighed, frustrated, "I just want to remember!"

"Why?" she asked quietly, sounding genuinely curious.

"Why?" he repeated incredulously, "Look at you, you're miserable!" he exclaimed, "You're miserable, and it's because of me, I know it is. You need me to remember, so that you can be happy again. Daidouji-san and Meiling won't shut up about it. All anyone ever does anymore is nag me and tell me to remember!"

"That's not exactly answering my question," she said, her voice still extremely quiet.

"What are you—" he began, angry, until he realized that he really hadn't answered her question the way she'd wanted him too. "I… I don't…"

"Do you want to remember because you're being forced too? Because everyone around you is telling you that you need too?"

He remained silent, not sure how to answer that question.

Sakura continued, ignoring his silence. "Or do you want to try for yourself? Because you want to remember and love me again?"

"I…" he began breathlessly. "I want to remember so you can be happy again," he answered to the best of his ability. "I don't want this guilt hanging over me anymore. I don't want to be the reason why you don't smile anymore, or why you lock yourself in your room and don't hang out with your friends anymore."

He looked at her seriously and she stared back with the same empty, emerald green eyes she'd had ever since the day he forgot her and broke her heart. "I won't be responsible for that," he said angrily.

"Okay," she said lightly, smiling at him with a grin that actually looked natural, and not forced. "Okay," she said again, nodding her head, "that's reason enough for me."

"It… is?" he asked cautiously.

"Of course," she said, "I don't want you to feel bad over the way that I'm feeling right now. If remembering helps you to rid yourself of this… guilt, then I'll do my best to help you remember. Even if…"

She trailed off with her thoughts, swallowing her next few words and returning her gaze to the picnic blanket.

"Even if what?" he asked softly at first. She gave him no reply, and he was seriously starting to run out of patience. "Even if what?" he demanded.

"Even if… even if you come to remember your feelings, but realize you don't love me anymore as you did before."

He nodded. "That's generous of you," he said truthfully.

"I'd do anything for you," she said meekly, though matter-of-factly. He immediately became uncomfortable again.

"So… what else can you tell me? About before?"

Sakura lifted her head to stare into the skies reminiscently. "Everything," she said truthfully, "I can tell you anything and everything you want to know from before. Tomoyo-chan used to tape us on every adventure, used to take pictures of us after every capture… we did just about everything together. I think…" she said, her voice growing quiet again, "I think that's how you fell in love with me."

"Why don't we start from the beginning?" he suggested.

Sakura turned to face him and smiled an honest to God smile at him, her eyes twinkling for the first time in weeks. "I'd like that."

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Hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I know I liked writing it.

Please read and review, it means a lot to me. Since this will only have about five or six chapters in total, I know I'll be lucky to reach a hundred. Still, I don't write for reviews, but feedback and your thoughts are always, always welcome and appreciated!

I probably won't update until sometime in the early New Year. Be safe, everyone!

Signing off,
Agent08 – My life as a secret agent