"The tea's here," Kaho announced happily. She entered the room to find Tomoyo with her head on Eriol's shoulder and her eyes closed, as Eriol gazed at her, a light smile on his face. "Did I miss something?" asked their former teacher, smiling knowingly.

"Not really, this is just a comfortable spot," Tomoyo said quietly, rising.

Chuckling, Kaho said, "Then I'm glad for you. You'll have to tell me about it all later."

Tomoyo and Eriol smiled, looking a little bit embarrassed. They both tried to cover it up by taking their tea and drinking it, and then blushed almost imperceptibly when they noticed that they had done the same thing. Kaho merely smiled.

She obviously knew already what had happened, and was supportive. I appreciated so much that she accepted it quickly. I hadn't been sure whether there would be any complications. But something still nagged me. How exactly did their relationship end? Why had Eriol come to Kaho when he went to England? I was puzzled, and worried.

"So, Tomoyo, what has brought you to London?" Kaho asked.

"I really needed a vacation," Tomoyo said, sighing. "I've been working a little too hard recently. And England sounded like a nice, interesting spot to visit."

"Where are you staying?"

"Well, I arrived today, so I'm not booked anywhere yet, but it won't be any trouble to find a hotel, I'm sure."

"That's silly. Why pay for a room when you could just stay with a friend? Eriol still has his house. Don't you?"

"It's part of the Reed heritage; of course I still have it. And I always knew I'd return to London at some point." Eriol seemed amused.

"Then that's that. Tomoyo will stay with you."

Tomoyo was about to protest, but then closed her mouth and smiled. "I won't waste breath on arguing when I know I'll lose."

"Excuse me one moment. I'll be right back." Unpredictably, Eriol disappeared. Tomoyo stared for a moment with confusion, and laughed.

"I hate it when he does that," Kaho muttered.

"I think it's hilarious," said the smiling Tomoyo. Then she looked at the older woman seriously. "While he's not here, may I ask you something?"

"Do you want to know what our relationship was and how it ended?" Kaho asked. She received a nod of confirmation. "That's for Eriol to tell you," Kaho said quietly. "Am I right?"

"Yes, but I had to try."

With annoyingly perfect timing, Eriol popped right back on the seat, as though he'd never randomly disappeared. Kaho sighed in exasperation, while Tomoyo just giggled away at Kaho's reaction.

It never occurred to me that I was acting differently than usual, but I was. Normally I wouldn't be quite so open, so free. I wouldn't have giggled like that; I would have just smiled to myself secretively. He was the reason for it. Letting all that out, figuring out what I had been doing wrong my whole life, had left me feeling like I could finally be myself around somebody, even if I didn't know who I was, because he would let me find out on my own. It was different. It was better.

"And where did you go?" Kaho asked.

"The mansion, of course. Yes, it should be fine. Tomoyo may stay there."

Tomoyo murmured, "Thank you. That's very generous."

Eriol began to turn his head, and Tomoyo took the opportunity to yawn while he wasn't looking. Unfortunately for her, he saw it anyway.

"Are you tired? You just arrived here."

She protested, "I'm fine. I'm just a little bit jet lagged."

He shook his head. "Kaho, you won't mind if we leave, will you? Tomoyo should rest and get settled."

"Of course," Kaho agreed promptly, "We wouldn't want her to tire out if she's on vacation."

"You don't need to talk like I'm not here," Tomoyo muttered, feigning annoyance.

"Then we'll leave immediately. Goodbye."

Tomoyo heard a tiny pop, and then looked around in confusion. Her entire surroundings had changed. It made her dizzy for a moment, but then she realized that Eriol must have teleported her. "Does that ever tire you out?" she asked in exasperation, seemingly to the air.

"Not really." She'd had a feeling that he was behind her. It seemed to be a growing habit of his, the sneaking up at her back. Her suspicions had been correct.

Without warning she spun around and kissed him sweetly, and though confused, he still accepted the spur-of-the-moment display of affection.

When it ended, she smiled and put her head on his shoulder, resting a little.

"What was that for?" he asked.

"Just thanking you."

"Oh." They were silent for a moment, simply glad to have a quiet moment to enjoy each other's warmth, with all other obstacles out of the way.

"You have a question for me," stated Eriol after some time.

With a sigh, she said, "Why did you come to Mizuki-sensei? Why to England? I know you don't feel that way about her, but I can't help but wonder."

"First, I missed it here. I never realized just how much until I came. Hong Kong is great, but it's not the same."

She didn't need to ask him to continue.

"I needed to sort it out. She helped me figure it out, Tomoyo, like… Like an older sister would. I needed to get past it. I needed to face her. So that I could face you."

"Thank you," she whispered softly, smiling into his shoulder. "Thank you for taking a chance. I'm glad."

"You have more you're curious about."

"Yes," Tomoyo admitted. "Did you… Did you ever really love Kaho?"

Surprisingly, the question actually caught Eriol off-guard. He hesitated in answering. "You want to know?"

"I do."

He sighed. "I don't know. I still don't know. I know at least that I don't now though. It was so different then."

"How?"

"Well… I was a man, stuck in a boy's body. I still am to some extent. But then, she was the only one who could keep up with my maturity and knowledge, at her age, and with her magic. But, did I love her? I think not. She was a companion. But she was not my love."

"As for me? Back then?"

"Why, you were Daidouji-san to me. A person who was intriguing, certainly. Truthfully even then, I was slightly attracted to you, and I found your perspectives and ways to be very unique, very special, and worth notice. But it would not have been right. You were young, for all your maturity. It would have been strange. But now, I can accept it. I'm not old like Clow. I'm Eriol. I have my own will, my own age. Maybe I'm older mentally because of Clow's memories, but I am not him. I'm Eriol, somebody the same age as you. And we are very alike, Tomoyo – observant, mature, dare I say odd? We are a pair. I see that now. When we were young, my belief that I had to be with Kaho blinded me to the truth. Tomoyo, with every second I'm becoming more convinced. My heart," he said quietly as he kissed her hair, "Is yours."

He could not see her smile. He didn't need to. He knew it was there.

"Eriol," she whispered with content. She lifted her head again, looking into his eyes. "Thank you."

Again, no more words were necessary between them. Tomoyo felt warmer, softer, and happier than ever. She had been missing this wonderful feeling out of her own stubbornness, but now she could finally have it. And have it with him.

There were no more lies. They had all been broken and shattered, and they left me hurt. It had been so painful to see what my stupidity had done. For that moment, there was not a single lie. I was not perfect. I was only me, resting with my head against the one I loved at last, a girl who had been through too much recently and who had seen everything in her life fall apart before her. Family, money, dreams and love had all disappeared. But love had returned, and the others would in time. He would keep me from making the same mistake. I would forever love him for it.

"Tomoyo?" he asked quietly. There was no response. He looked to see that she was actually sleeping in his arms, a content smile on her face that hadn't been there for so long. Seeing it made him smile back. With a little magic, he could put her right in bed, but that would be careless. He picked her up and carried her to her room, tucking her into the bed sweetly, and kissing her on the forehead. Her suitcase had already been put on a chair with magic.

Eriol smiled and left the room.

The rest of vacation was spent occasionally with Kaho, but mostly with him. We went around England, relaxing, simply enjoying the fact that we were together, that we didn't have to care what anybody else thought about it at the time. We kissed, we smiled… We enjoyed ourselves. I was having fun, I was happy. I hadn't been so happy in so long, because all along I had been pretending, lying to myself about happiness. But now… It was real. And I loved it. More importantly, I loved him, and he would come to realize that he really loved me back. That was all that mattered.

.o0o.

Grr. It's shorter than I would like, but oh, well, I guess it will do… I've had shorter chapters anyway. One of these days I'm going to start a story where the chapters are about 5000 words themselves. Wouldn't that rock? Sorry about the delay, too… I was trying to be a perfectionist on this chapter, I guess. Review! I have to know if I managed well enough… Sigh… No. Confidence. Whatsoever.

The next chapter is most likely going to be the last one, sadly. I'm not entirely sure yet. But I do know that it's almost over! I'm so proud of me for sticking with this to the end!

One last note: this is dedicated to hamxham, who I think deserves a little notice for reviewing often. So, thanks!