A/N: Here's another update for you all. A big thanks to all who added this fic to their alerts and left reviews. ^_^ I'm glad to see you guys are enjoying this.

Here's chapter 2. ;)

Chapter 2:

Savior

"The name's Ryouh." The man he had just saved stuck out his hand for a shake as Syaoran watched the three attackers disappear into the darkness. "You've got some really nice moves, kid."

Syaoran observed him out of the corner of his eye, taking note that 'Ryouh' appeared hardly any older than nineteen, his red hair mussed up, his lips split and bleeding and his right eye swollen shut, but there was a grin on his face that conveyed his gratefulness to the teen.

"Syaoran." He said shortly, letting his sword vanish back into his arm. When those three muggers had started pushing him back by converging on him using simultaneous attacks, he had resorted to using his magic to summon his sword. It was quite easy to make them turn tail and run for their lives after that.

"You ever participate in one of those chess matches?" Ryouh had most probably noticed his collar.

"Every now and then." He shrugged, turning around to leave. He knew he had been walking around for a few hours. The chess match had taken place at ten pm that day, so it must have been well past midnight by now. It would be best if he headed back to the apartment. It had felt so good to take out his frustration on those men but now that the fight had ended, he was back to square one, the look Sakura had shot in his direction before going over to Fai attacking his mind with a vengeance.

"Where you goin'?"Ryouh asked as he fell into a limping walk beside him.

"… Nowhere." Hopefully, he would not have to face her disappointed gaze when he returned to the apartment. It was quite late. She'd be asleep by now, wouldn't she?

"You look like you've got quite a lot on your mind, kid."

Syaoran chose not to say anything to that. After all, he couldn't just start spilling his life's tale to some stranger.

"Relax, I'm not asking you to tell me what's wrong." He laughed, somehow managing to read the thoughts going on inside his head. Seeing Syaoran's incredulous look, he plowed on, "if you need a place to crash for the night, I live only a few blocks away from here. You seem like you need some time away from whatever's the source of troubles."

Did he really want to return to those cold eyed stares and those accusing looks and those contemptuous voices? So what if she would be asleep right now. She'd wake up in the morning, wouldn't she?

"You can leave whenever you want."

"…" His mind made up, Syaoran heaved a tired sigh, "Lead the way."

He just wanted to forget about it all for a little while.

A/N: Yeah, just a little note, this fic is probably gonna have short chapters since I'm trying to see if I can actually convey a story using less words. I've already finished writing this fic so you guys are bound to have a steady flow of weekly updates for this one.

What I want to know is whether I manage to create the same impact when the chapters are short as when I usually write really lengthy ones so please do tell me your opinion in the reviews.