Author's Note: Yay! I finished it! The day after my April Fool's joke, too! Heehee. This is short, I know, and you're probably thinking, 'It took her a month to write that!? What the heck!?' Except I had a little trouble. I wasn't going to have this chapter at all before; I was going to go straight to Sakura in Tomoeda. However, I thought I should put this is, so the idea changed. I kept what I'd written before, though, so know I have a small headstart on the next chapter.
But honestly, I could have finished this much sooner. It was just laziness and other things getting in the way. As I said in my note before, I have started writing a story/series thing that is important to me, and takes up much of my writing time. As well as the fact that I recently got into jdoramas...those take up time, too. ^.^
Anyhow, enjoy the chapter, short it may be, and look forward to the next chapter (although there will be a wait). Expect it to be more serious :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Cardcaptor Sakura or the characters or anything. This is purely fanfiction.
"Tomoyo'nee-san! Play with us!"
Tomoyo offered the five year old's a smile, but it was forced, and she had a hard time to not show her irritation. It was the millionth time she'd heard that in the last hour, and she was beginning to lose her patience.
"Just hold on a sec, Nami-san," she said into the phone before covering the receiver and bending to the young girl's height.
"Sorry, Midori-chan, but I need to go to work right away. I'll play when I get back. Until then, Saya-san will look after you," she explained, before straightening and putting the phone back to her ear.
"Nami-san? Okay, I'll be leaving in a couple of minutes. Try to keep Anna-san from leaving until then," she said, completely in business-mode. She snapped the cellphone shut and then turned to a pouting Midori.
Her face melted into a weak smile. Bending over, she ruffled the girl's light hair.
"I'm sorry, Mi-chan. Your mother had some important things to do, but I promise she won't be gone forever. We'll just have to be strong for her, okay? Mama would want you to be strong, and be happy! If you get sad, she'll be sad too!" she comforted, and the girl nodded, content in that little-girl way with the answer. Even if she couldn't exactly understand it, it sounded smart, so she'd go along with it.
Tomoyo giggled lightly and patted the girl's head one last time before turned and walking to the door.
As soon as the door was closed behind her, she took a very deep breath, closing her eyes.
"Good gosh, how does Sakura keep up with all these children of hers?" she exclaimed in exasperation, heaving one last sigh of exhaustion before walking briskly to her car.
Syaoran sat in his desk, leaning back and staring out the large window. His thoughts drifted to all that had happened the day before. He'd saved Sakura from a group of men, and gotten her to be his friend. Her kids had been introduced to him, and they were all such wonderful little kids.
He kept remembering her smile. He might have been fooled by it, as she was very good at acting like everything was alright. But he knew. She was still hurting. She had not gotten over what had happened. Heck, he didn't even know her for very long, but he already knew that! Something was wrong!
There was a knock on the door. Syaoran turned away from the window to face the door's direction.
"Come in," he called briskly, and the door opened. Two women stepped inside.
"Li, this is Hiiragizawa Tomoyo, as I'm sure you know. She appeared saying she had some business with you..." Chiharu said as Tomoyo stepped further into the room, looking around casually.
Syaoran rose an eyebrow at the Hiiragizawa woman standing in his office.
"Really? Has anything gone wrong with the product?" he asked, referring to a business deal they'd made not so long ago.
Tomoyo shook her head, long black waves flowing around her. "No, that's all going fine. I have a more...personal matter to discuss. I think it's time we start a new project, and I'll need your help," she explained, walking over to his desk and helping herself to a seat across from Syaoran's.
"Mihara, you're dismissed," Syaoran ordered, and Chiharu obediently left the room, closing the door.
Tomoyo waited until she heard the footsteps walking away before laying an open folder before Syaoran. Turning it around so he could read it, she pushed it towards him.
Syaoran read over the title, and then glanced up at Tomoyo.
"Hiiragizawa?" he questioned, frowning slightly.
A smirk came over her face. "I know you're not quite so involved, however, this could all work out for your benefit. In all the time I've known you, you've been a real gentleman, and Chiharu-chan says that you're a good person. So, I think that, in the end, this will all be for the best. Even you would know that Sakura needs to get over what happened...for real, this time," Tomoyo explained.
Syaoran, after a few moments of consideration, nodded. "I understand, Hiiragizawa-san, but where do I come into this? As a friend? Because if so, then why did you come to me? She has many other friends, closer than I am by far," he questioned.
Tomoyo's grin deepened, and her amethyst eyes sparkled with excitement.
"Li-kun, I think it would be best if I left you to read over the documents. When you finish and you've made your decision on whether or not to participate, you can contact me, and if things are a go, we'll meet together with Eriol and discuss our first course of action," Tomoyo said, and stood from the seat. "Thank you for your time, Li-kun. Oh, and here's my cellphone number. It's the fastest way to contact me," she added, handing him a small business card, with her cell number written neatly on the back.
Syaoran nodded, and waited for the woman to leave before turning back to the papers Tomoyo had given him. He read the title out loud to himself.
"Operation 'Recover Sakura'...well, it won't hurt."
"I'm serious, Chi! The legend of the flying dogs is true! I saw a dog with wings just yesterday, and already, it's brought me all this good luck!" a man animatedly exclaimed.
The woman next to him rolled her eyes. "Tell it to someone who'll believe it, Takashi," she retorted, glancing up in the sky. The two were walking down the sidewalk to work together after lunch break.
"Seriously, Chi!" Takashi cried, trying to get the stubborn woman to believe him, but to no avail.
"Hello there, Yamazaki-kun, Mihara-san."
The couple looked up to see a familiar English-Japanese man in glasses smiling to them.
"Hiiragizawa-kun?" Chiharu questioned, cocking her head to the side.
"This may be some of a surprise, but both of you are Sakura-san's friends, so you should be involved in this. Here, I'll let you read over this, and call me when you're done. There will be a meeting after that to discuss our plan," he said, pulling out two documents and handing one to Chiharu and the other to Takashi.
Chiharu glanced at it briefly before her face twisted up into an expression of uncertainty.
"Um...is this what's best? I mean, Sakura-chan is doing fine, isn't she?" she asked, her voice wavering.
"She hasn't quite gotten over it, not in her heart. And now that your boss is a part of the picture, things have changed, and some course of action is needed," Eriol explained.
Chiharu nodded slowly, and glanced up at Takashi. "Well, what do you say, Takashi?" she inquired.
"Whatever you wanna do is fine, Chi. I want to help Sakura-san as much as you do," Takashi replied, and Chiharu nodded.
"Alright. We'll be in touch soon," she agreed, and they bid their goodbyes as both headed off back to their separate workplaces.
The door to a quaint little cafe opened, the bells jingling, and a waitress with short brown hair and glasses looked up, a practiced smile appearing on her face.
"Welcome to Cherry Blossoms Cafe!" she greeted cheerfully, before blinking as she recognized who stood at the door.
"Well, I'm happy to be here, Naoko-chan, but I have something to discuss with you. How 'bout an oolong tea to go?" the woman said, starting over to a table for two.
"Sure, Tomoyo-chan!" Naoko agreed, hurrying back into the kitchen.
Tomoyo took her seat, and pulled out her bag. Reaching inside, she pulled out some papers, and placed them on the table as she waited for Naoko to arrive with her tea.
It didn't take long, and Naoko had gotten permission to take a short break to talk with Tomoyo.
"So...what are those papers for?" Naoko asked, already noticed the documents Tomoyo had.
"These," Tomoyo said, sliding the papers over to Naoko, "are our plan to save Sakura."
Naoko only glanced at the first page before nodding her head firmly.
"I'll do it. It's about time something happened around here!" she exclaimed, and Tomoyo smiled, nodding.
"I knew you'd feel that way. So, read these, and after you're done, contact me. After that we'll get together with everyone to make final plans," Tomoyo said, sipping on her tea as she stood.
"Alright! I'll get back to work, but I'll finish it as soon as I can!" Naoko agreed, also standing.
Tomoyo nodded. "Good. I'll talk to you later, then," Tomoyo said, giving Naoko money for the tea before leaving the small cafe, a triumphant smirk on her face.
The door to Hiiragizawa Eriol's office opened, revealing a young woman with dark and curly hair. She looked over to where Eriol sat, and he smiled pleasantly at her.
"Hello there, Sasaki-san. I'm sorry, Tomoyo was busy and couldn't discuss this with you, so I'm her replacement. That's fine, right?" he said, standing and offering her a seat.
"Yes, that's fine," she said, and sat. "I'm just curious about why you've called me here."
Eriol nodded, once again taking his seat behind his desk.
"That would be for a couple complicated reasons. You see, you're a good friend of Kinomoto Sakura's, so you're a part of this, unless you choose not to," Eriol said, pulling out the document from his desk.
"What do you mean?" Rika questioned, cocking her head to the side in confusion.
"This," Eriol said, pushing the document across the desk to Rika, who scanned the first page.
"Hiiragizawa-kun, perhaps I'm wrong, but Sakura has been doing fine since the incident two years ago, hasn't she? Sure, it was hard at first, but she got over it quickly enough, didn't she?" Rika replied in inquiry.
"Sasaki-san, you know as well as I do that Sakura has a tendency to cover up her feelings with a happy face. She's been doing it since what happened with Tsukishiro-kun," Eriol said, and Rika bit the insides of her cheeks, her eyebrows creasing in a slight frown.
"Well...since she's my friend, I guess...but I do have a wedding coming up shortly, and that will be my main focus...if you understand that, then I'll agree," she replied hesitantly.
"Of course! Everyone knows how important that day is to you! We wouldn't want to get in the way, and Sakura-san would feel devastated!" Eriol rushed, and finally, Rika nodded.
"Alright then. I'll help you out," she agreed, picking up the documents.
"Wonderful! When you're done reading this, call Tomoyo or I, and from there, we'll all get together for a planning meeting," he said, leaning back in his chair, a happy smirk on his face.
Rika nodded, standing from the chair.
"I'll do my best," Rika said, bowing politely before leaving the room.
Eriol grinned wider as soon as the door had clicked shut.
"Everything is falling into place perfectly."
A phone rang, and a young girl ran to pick it up.
"Moshi moshi! This is the Kinomoto residence!" she greeted into the receiver.
"Hi Hikari-chan! This is Tomoyo! May I speak with your mother?"
Hikari grinned, recognizing the older woman's voice as her aunt's best friend, and chirped into the phone, "Sure! I'll go get her!"
"Great! Thanks!" Tomoyo replied, and Hikari put down the phone, skipping off to find her mother.
"Mommy! Tomoyo'nee-san is on the phone!" she cried out, and Kaho's head popped out of the kitchen.
"Oh, really? Thanks, dear," she said, and walked into the hall, picking up the abandoned phone with a greeting.
"Hello? Tomoyo-san?"
"Hello Kaho! I guess you know it's me. Alright, I'll get straight to business. Sakura-chan should be arriving there in roughly an hour and a half, correct?" Tomoyo asked over the phone.
"Yes, that's right," Kaho replied, frowning slightly in confusion.
"Okay, good. I think you know as well as I do that this is the time for her to get over what happened, and I want it all to go down as smoothly as possible," Tomoyo explained.
"What are you talking about, Tomoyo-san?" Kaho asked, glancing over at Hikari nearby before heading upstairs where she could get some privacy.
"Okay, this is the plan..."
In Hong Kong, a woman with black hair tied up into a ponytail was walking at an easy pace and casually sipping on a coffee, not having much to do after work.
Her cellphone rang, and she pulled it out, flipping it open.
"Hello?" she greeted in Cantonese.
"Hi there, Meiling. This is your dear cousin Eriol calling," the man on the other end said, speaking in Japanese rather than Cantonese.
"Oh, Eriol? What is it?" she asked, switching to Japanese.
"Are you busy right now?" he asked hastily.
"No, I just left work. Why? What is it?" Meiling asked, talking a sip of her coffee.
"Well, actually..."
It was a while before Eriol finished explaining everything, but when he did, Meiling sighed.
"You're lucky I don't have any big meetings coming up soon, and that I have somebody reliable to replace me," she chided, throwing out her now-finished coffee in a garbage can.
"Of course! So that means you're in, right?" he said.
"Yeah, Sakura's my friend too, and since Syaoran is so interested in her, I'll do what I can to help him out. I'll be in Japan by tomorrow," Meiling replied, a smile coming over her face as she thought over the plan Eriol had told her.
"Good. I'll see you then, and I'll give you your papers when you arrive," Eriol replied.
"Yep. Goodbye," Meiling said, shutting her phone, a giddy smile sparkling in her eyes.
"This is gonna be interesting," she mused before starting off towards home to make arrangements.
Tomoyo looked around the table at the people gathered here. It was evening of the following day, and besides Eriol and herself, there were six people at the table.
"Hiiragizawa, when are you going to get to the point?" Syaoran shot at Tomoyo, obviously growing impatient.
"As soon as our food gets here," Tomoyo replied calmly. They'd all been waiting in tense apprehension, anxiously curious about what was to come.
Soon, the waiters arrived with their food, and once they were gone, Eriol got straight to business.
"Alright, just the fact that you're here means that you read your documents. Now, each of you had a different outline, because each of you plays a different role in the overall plan. Each role is important, mind you. Also, Kaho-san, Touya-san, and Fujitaka-san would also be here, but as you all know, Sakura is back in Tomoeda, and that part of the plan is incredibly crucial, as I'm sure you would guess. They've already been informed of their part in the plan, but here, since you all only got your part in the plan, we're going over everything, all the parts, so everybody knows what's going on," he explained, and everybody nodded along.
And so, throughout the meal, Tomoyo and Eriol went over the entire plan with everybody gathered there. It took quite a while, even after dessert, but those listening already knew it would take a while.
"Now...we've answered all your questions, right?" Tomoyo inquired, and all the people there nodded.
"Great! So, the plan is already being put into action. For now, we're leaving it to Kaho and the others. Be ready, everyone, and make sure you do well!" Tomoyo exclaimed excitedly.
There was a loud cheer of agreement, and Tomoyo met eyes with Eriol. They shared a happy smile, and the night continued.
Sakura stared out the window of the train, recognizing the familiar countryside, her heart twisting when she realized how close they were to her hometown.
"Next stop: Tomoeda. Be ready to depart from the train," the voice over the intercom informed, and Sakura sighed, gathering her things together. Glancing out the window one last time, she couldn't help but have the feeling that after this, things would never be the same.
How right she was.
A/N: Okay! This sets the ground for the next chapter, and the chapters to come! Wee! And you'll have to wait before you know the plan...well, actually, I'll never lay it out in plain words before you, you'll just see it in action. heehee. :D
Side Note: Eriol in cousins with Meiling, and Meiling is cousins with Syaoran, but Syaoran is NOT cousins with Eriol. Just to make that clear. Meiling's dad and Syaoran's dad are brothers. Meiling's mom and Eriol's dad are siblings. Well, that's for this story, at least.