Syaoran entered the apartment with a heavy sigh. "All my stuff's in here?" he questioned Meiling. He'd already sent his luggage to her two days in advance so that she could arrange things for him. Anyway, he trusted her to know him completely. He realized with appreciation that everything he'd sent her was put away exactly like his room back at home in Hong Kong. The furniture was simple, elegant, and best of all, actually usable, unlike the fancy crap that he usually got whenever he went on business trips. She had good taste. "Perfect. Thanks, Meiling."
"No problem, Syaoran," she said with a warm smile. "This floor is permanently reserved in the name of my company anyway. You're rooming amongst the stars, or stars-in-training, now—lots of people would kill to be in your shoes. You might want to make friends with them while you're over here. The person I was talking about… she's here too. In the next room. Do you want me to introduce you now?"
"No thanks," he said, flopping down on the bed and testing the mattress. He was dying to jump up and down on it just like he had when he was still a pre-teen in Japan—not that anyone ever knew that he'd done that. Except maybe Wei, who had wondered why the bed had fallen apart after just a year. "Just tell me the truth, though: is it some filthy-rich Chinese brat who happens to have a nice voice and a body to match and therefore screams mass appeal?"
"Don't worry," Meiling assured him. "She's great. You'll love her."
His eyes narrowed at the last three words. "This had better not be another one of your lame-brained matchmaking attempts, Meiling."
"Syaoran, please. Give me credit for being smarter than that. I know better than to set you up with anyone else by now," she replied, shaking her head ruefully. "But I wish to God that I could still hope for you. Oh well. But at least you could make friends while you're here."
They saw a girl in a Burberry trench coat suddenly walk by the open door, conversing in Japanese on her cellphone. "Yes, Eriol, I will bring you something nice back as a souvenir," she said, sounding slightly exasperated but clearly enjoying the banter. "No, I promise it won't be one of those cheesy 'I Love NY' shirts. You have my oath. I'll ship it over there." She laughed into the phone. "Be quiet, Clow Reed."
Syaoran gave a little start as he heard the last two words. Hiragizawa Eriol…? The voice was familiar too. When the woman turned, he realized that it was Xiao Long from earlier, her face still hidden underneath the hat and behind the sunglasses, even though she was inside. She was being trailed by someone who was obviously her agent, plus a bulky man whom he supposed was either her boyfriend or her bodyguard. Eyeing the man's gun, which was peeking through his pocket, he believed it to be the latter.
"Hae. Give my regards to Ruby Moon and Spinel Sun." She flipped her phone shut with her thumb, then turned and realized that she had an audience. "Li-san!" she blurted out when she saw them. Then she seemed to realize that they both had the same last name. "Um… Meiling-san," she said, switching to the first name. Although she spoke in Chinese, she automatically attached Japanese honorifics. "I didn't know that you two were related. I ran into Li-san earlier today already. So you must have been the cousin he was talking about! I had no idea. He was irritated that you were late."
Meiling snorted derisively. "I was late because they told me that you'd run off again. You have to stop doing that—oh crap. I almost said your name out loud. Remind me that you're incognito again, or I'll let your name slip." She chuckled, shaking her head. "But I'm glad that you've already met Syaoran." She beamed at her cousin. "This is the singer I was telling you about! I had no idea that the two of you already know each other."
Syaoran stared hard at her. "How do you know Hiragizawa Eriol?"
Xiao Long betrayed no reaction except to consider him from behind her shades. "Oh, him. He's an online friend of mine. We exchanged cellphone numbers—his screen name in chatrooms is Clow Reed, and he told me that he's in the same neighborhood as two of my other chatmates, Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon. Why? Do you know him too?"
"We're kind of... related," he answered, grimacing at the thought of Eriol's reaction had the reincarnation of Clow Reed heard him. Eriol would have laughed in his face and called him 'my cute little descendant' over and over again, just to irritate him.
"Small world," she said with a grin. "Do you two want to come in and have a cup of tea with me? It's still pretty early. And I may be able to persuade my dear bodyguard and agent to leave me for awhile by myself if I'm with Li Meiling, marital arts expert." She turned to her agent. "Please?"
"Oh no. Not the puppy dog pout," the agent said, trying to ignore Xiao Long's pleading tone. "Fine, go ahead. But no more running off or I'll have you locked in your room for the next millennium. Clear?"
She laughed affectionately. "You're more like my older brother than my agent. So, Meiling-san, Li-san, will you?"
"Yeah, sure," Meiling said automatically, digging her fingers into Syaoran's arm and clearly sending him a message: don't you dare back out or I'll have your head on a platter, sweet cousin. She sent him a poisonous death glare and he forced a smile on his face too, nodding in assent.
Hearts from Aries
"Thank goodness. Now I've got them off my back," Xiao Long said, breathing a sigh of relief as they entered her sumptuous suite. It looked a lot like Syaoran's, but more lived-in. He couldn't help noticing the stack of DVD's and video cassettes piled up near her closet. She noticed him looking at them.
"Oh, those. Pay no attention to them. They're just some gag videos of… of some friends of mine, when we were younger." She stared at the wobbly pile with something like regret and wistfulness. "We all sort of drifted apart when we got older. That tends to happen a lot in this day and age. How about you, Li-san? Meiling-san said that you two have been close since you were children, but then again you two are relatives. Do you still talk to your childhood friends?"
A flash. A pretty brown-haired girl with emerald eyes. Tears brimming over.
"No," he said with effort, suddenly glad that his bangs were so long—at least they hid his eyes. "No, we don't, not anymore. Like… uh, Eriol. We used to live in the same neighborhood." His mouth twisted into a scowl at the thought of the other boy's face—but no, Eriol wasn't a boy anymore, was he? "He was always an immensely irritating pest, but I suppose he was okay in his own way. But we don't talk anymore."
Meiling reached out a protective hand to him, taking his hand into hers with a gentleness that most of her coworkers, who'd dubbed her 'Oh-she-who-must-be-obeyed-unless-you-want-to-be-spitting-teeth-out-for-the-next-eighteen-years', would probably have fainted at seeing. "Hey. That's okay, Syaoran," she said softly.
"Tea?" Xiao Long asked, handing him a cup and gracefully glossing over what was evidently a painful subject for him. Or so he thought. "So you and Eriol used to be friends. Neighbors and relations, even. I wonder… he's so much fun, you know, and he's extremely tactful. Why don't you talk to him anymore?"
"We have issues."
"Hmm." She took a quick sip of her tea. "And the rest of your friends? Do you have issues with them too?"
"He doesn't know where some of them are," Meiling supplied when he hesitated for a nanosecond before answering the question. He shot her a dirty look, knowing full well who she was talking about. That was an extremely sensitive subject that he really never wanted to touch on. Ever again.
"Really." It was a word, not a question, when it came from Xiao Long's mouth. He frowned at her. She most definitely reminded him of someone. But it seemed almost like sacrilege to even imagine… he took a big gulp of the steaming tea, burning his tongue and feeling grateful for the numb sensation. She was assessing him. Those shades were a mercy right now, because he felt as though her eyes would have burned into his head had he been able to see them. "That's sad. But that's reality, isn't it?" She sighed. "Why didn't you look for them, then?"
"I did," he said through gritted teeth. If only Meiling hadn't breathed a word about it. He was staring daggers into her head, but she only fidgeted a little before bestowing upon him a small, apologetic smile instead of squirming as usual. "I couldn't find them."
"Maybe you were looking in all the wrong places," she said serenely.
He stood up. "I'm… feeling kind of tired. Jet lag." He avoided Xiao Lang's gaze as he started backing away slowly, putting down his empty cup onto the table. "I'm sorry. I just really need a good rest for now. Maybe we can all talk tomorrow instead." Maybe by tomorrow she'd forget everything that had been mentioned.
Unlikely.
Hearts from Aries
It was five years ago. There was nothing about that day that was out of the ordinary. Chiharu was yelling at Yamazaki, who was gleefully spinning yet another farfetched tale as Eriol egged him on and Rika actually humored him by listening. Meanwhile Naoko was buried in a book, and Syaoran was busy talking with Kinomoto Sakura.
His girlfriend.
He was beaming at her, and the way her face lit up back at him was almost too mushy for the others to endure, if they weren't so kind and understanding about the couple and their unbelievable sappiness. There was nothing out of the ordinary; at least, nothing that he'd noticed. Until it was a little too late to do anything.
"Ohayo," Tomoyo said dispiritedly as she entered the classroom, just narrowly avoiding being late. Then she smiled tiredly as she saw the two of them, Syaoran and Sakura, sitting together and holding hands. "You two are so kawaii," she told them with a half-hearted laugh, taking her place at her desk.
"What's wrong, Tomoyo? You don't look too good," Sakura said. "Are you sick?"
"It's… nothing," the other girl said, smiling sweetly at them. But her typical 'benevolent fairy godmother slash hyper girl with a really big voice and camera' wasn't working quite as well today. She looked up, feeling a presence by her side. "Oh, hey Eriol."
He looked down at her with concern. "Is everything all right?"
"Yes," she insisted coolly. She never got flustered—that was just who Daidouji Tomoyo was. "Honestly. I'm just feeling a little under the weather today." She laughed with a dismissive toss of her head. "I was up all night—I think I'm becoming an insomniac. Must be all that coffee I've been drinking lately. I really have to switch to decaf."
Eriol took her by the hand. "Come on, let's just talk a while."
She looked at the door. "But the teacher might—"
He blinked. It was a small gesture, but one that didn't escape Syaoran or Sakura's detection. They frowned at him, as thought to say, don't use magic for social purposes, Eriol! But he ignored them and kept his eyes on Tomoyo. "Oh, he'll be late today. Trust me on that." Reluctantly she got to her feet, allowing him to take her hand and lead her outside the door, down to the landing between first and the second floor.
"So. What's wrong with the lovely Daidouji Tomoyo?" he asked her flat-out.
She flinched. "Eriol, I have no idea what you're talking about."
"You've been showing a tendency to mope these past few days," he said. "I notice, even if no one else does—"
"Of course they don't," she said. He looked into her eyes and wondered what secrets she concealed there. Even he, as Clow Reed's reincarnation, could only predict. He didn't know. He couldn't see into people's hearts. There was a flash of something wrong there, but Tomoyo was a gifted actress. She may as well have been blind, because all he saw there was an ocean of purple that reflected his face. He had no idea, to be honest, of what was going on here. "They don't," she said in carefully measured tones, "because there isn't anything wrong with me, Hiragizawa-san."
Ouch. Now they were on formal, last-name basis? He winced at the distance that she was deliberately putting by way of her form of addressing him. "They only don't because you're good at hiding things from other people. I'm asking because I'm concerned, Tomoyo," he said, keeping his own voice light and cheerful. "Please. Is it your mother?"
She flinched again. Bingo.
"Mother is away overseas. You know that already, Hiragizawa-san." He scowled. Again with the last name! She sighed. "You were there when I was telling Sakura and Li." A pause. "Why don't you tell me what this is really about? This isn't just me, is it?"
No, it wasn't. Stupid teenage hormones. Even with his magical talent and brainpower, he was still prey to those ridiculous adolescent pangs. "I just wanted to make sure that you were all right, Tomoyo." Ever since that Kaho thing had fallen apart… he just… he couldn't take his eyes off her.
"I'm fine, Hiragizawa-san." She even added a little bow as she spoke, as though to emphasize the thin sheen of courtesy that was making the conversation bearable for her. "Please don't worry about me."
But he couldn't do that.
Maybe it was just because he was on the rebound from Kaho. That's it, he thought. How could it be possible…? No, most certainly not. Kaho just couldn't face it that he was all that younger. She had been in love with the magic, not with him. He would never be Clow Reed; whatever power he had, he just wasn't his past incarnation.
And was that where Tomoyo came in?
Syaoran and Sakura were peeking out at them from above, their hands interlocked as they looked down at their other two friends who were conversing. "You think she's okay?" Sakura asked him, frowning down at them. "I don't know what Eriol's thinking. Tomoyo can handle anything. Didn't he hear her when she said that she was just tired?"
"Mmph," Syaoran replied eloquently, wrapping an arm around her thin shoulders. "And I'm sure that you're factoring in the whole 'We are now fifteen years old and not everyone is exactly nice in this school'. You're worried that Hiragizawa's fan club will be after Tomoyo, right?"
"Well… yeah, there's that too," Sakura acknowledged with a protective frown at her best friend. Normally it was Tomoyo who watched over Sakura. "But I hope that those two get together! They would be so…"
"Kawaii?" he suggested with a laugh. "Now you sound like Tomoyo. And to think that I thought that my girlfriend was normal!"
"Shut up," she said, punching him lightly on the arm. "Can't I have my own starry-eyed kawaii freak moments?"
He chuckled. She was adorable. It was still pretty much hard to believe that the two of them were together. "Nope. Tomoyo already patented those. You know that." He kissed the top of her honey head gently. "But it's cute that you try."
She smiled up at him, not realizing that the scene below was escalating into something else. "Could you cut the whole 'Hiragizawa-san' thing, Tomoyo?" Eriol said. "It doesn't really suit you. I thought that the whole frozen-heart act died out when my cute little descendant stopped being so cold."
"Sakura really changed him," Tomoyo said softly. "They love each other so much—it's almost as though they were destined to be together. Even though other people's hearts get stepped on." She ran a hand through her hair. Eriol scrutinized her. "Like Meiling, I mean. She was really… well…"
Eriol bent down and kissed her.
Hearts from Aries