A/N: I'm so sorry, guys. Real life has kinda taken over … in that my supervisor's having an emotional breakdown and I've unofficially taken up her job. It's no excuse though – I grovel for your forgiveness! Even worse, I've actually now been asked to temporarily manage a different store (all the way across town!) for a couple of weeks, meaning I'm skipping classes and doing all my uni work at night. So the next update may be a while. But Easter break is just around the corner … Void will be my top priority then, I promise!

So, this chapter. I'm afraid it's just Yukito … Touya ended up ranting for far too long, so he's been moved to the next chapter (he gets his own one, lucky boy!). I really struggled with this – I think it shows, it feels really boring – but now it's out of the way I can hopefully get back on track. Next chapter we get Touya, then SxS fluff all the way!!!!

Quick note on the card reading: There are about a thousand theories as to how it's done, and I've used the one from the official CLAMP Clow Card reading book. The definitions of what each card means comes from that book too, so the interpretations are a little strange, but they're CLAMP's, not mine. I don't own them!

And lastly (I promise!), huge thanks as always to SilentCynara, without whom I'd still be flapping around chopping, changing and rewriting.

Chapter Six: Divination

He promised me.

Sakura peered through the darkness, trying to figure out who was talking to her.

He promised me you'd help me!

She struggled into a sitting position, one hand clutching at her chest – it was aching terribly, and she was freezing cold. She had to work out where she was and who had brought her here –

You were supposed to make it better!

"I'm sorry," Sakura apologised, even though she didn't know who she was talking to or what she was apologising for – the person just sounded so sad and desperate that she didn't know what else to say. "I'm sorry – what can I do?"

I don't know. He knew – he was the one that promised me!

"I don't understand," Sakura shook her head frantically, trying to clear it. "Who promised you? Who are you?"

You know who I am.

She did know. She just didn't want to admit it.

Why didn't you help me? Why did you lock me away like this?

"I had to!" Sakura cried desperately. "You were hurting people, you destroyed my home, I – what else could I have done?"

You could have helped.

"I didn't know how!"

You could have, but you didn't.

"If I could have helped you I would have!"

You could have – he said so. But you didn't. And so I'm going to punish you for it, now you're setting me free.

"I'm not setting you –"

I'm going to make you feel everything that I had to feel.

"I don't understand what you want …"

I want you to suffer.

xxx

Someone was shaking her shoulder, and it was that which managed to pull Sakura out of the dark, cold dreamworld and back into her own bed. She moaned miserably, burying her head deeper into the pillows as she savoured the warmth of her bed and desperately tried to ignore whoever was attempting to pull her out of it.

"Sakura-chan … Sakura-chan, you have to get up! Now!"

Sakura sighed – Tomoyo was getting impatient. Not that she blamed her; she really was old enough now not to need a wake-up call any more. Usually she didn't; she was able to get herself up even if she was still always late. But these dreams had been robbing her of sleep which was making it harder and harder for her to drag herself out of bed each morning.

"Kinomoto Sakura!"

She sat bolt upright in bed at Tomoyo's stern tone, a hand dragging sleepily through her hair. "I'm up, I'm up," she mumbled resentfully, swinging her legs out of the bed and checking the time on her clock.

"Hoe … Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura wailed, seeing it was only five to eight. "I don't start until ten today … why did you wake me up?"

Determined to get her lie in, Sakura crawled back into her warm bed and pulled the duvet over her head.

Only for the whole thing to be ripped away from her.

Sakura screeched indignantly, peering up at Tomoyo accusingly. "What's the matter?" she asked in confusion.

Tomoyo rolled her eyes. "Do you remember what we're doing this morning?" She was met with a blank look, and she sighed heavily.

"You said you were going to do the card reading today?"

More blinking.

"And because you're working late tonight you told everyone to come in the morning?"

Still blank.

"At eight?"

"HOEEEEEEEE!"

Sakura bolted out of bed, only for the sheets to get tangled round her ankles and bring her crashing to the floor.

"Tomoyo-chan, why didn't you wake me earlier!" Sakura wailed, ripping her sheets away and scrambling to her feet. "Oh, this is a disaster – I make everyone get up early and now I won't even be ready!"

"I'm sorry!" Tomoyo cried, watching as Sakura began flinging underwear out of a nearby drawer. "I'm sorry, I know I should have woken you up – you just looked so tired. You're always so tired lately …"

"I'm fine," Sakura soothed distractedly as she pulled off her pyjama top and put on her bra. "Oh God, everyone will be waiting and –"

"It's fine –" protested Tomoyo weakly.

"No it's not!" she replied, getting more and more worked up as she hunted for a clean shirt. "I've dragged Yukito-san all the way here without even telling him why, and he's been so good about it … and then there's Syaoran-kun … and I don't have a single item of clean clothing in this closet!"

Tomoyo bit her lip worriedly. "You mean … did the Void …?"

"I have no idea," Sakura sighed, picking up a pair of jeans from the floor. "I don't know if it's her of if I just need to do laundry – though my emerald earrings are definitely missing. These jeans will do, right?"

"They're fine," Tomoyo replied, but her eyes widened as Sakura slung the jeans over her arm and headed for her bedroom door. "Hey, what are you –"

"I'll grab my sweater from the living room and wear that again," Sakura said. "Then maybe I'll have time to fix my hair …"

"Sakura-chan, I really wouldn't –" began Tomoyo.

Sakura hurried into the living room, knowing she'd left a pink sweater draped over the back of a chair. She somehow managed to cross the room, retrieve it and get half way towards the bathroom before realising that Syaoran was sitting on the couch, his mouth hanging open.

She looked at him – he'd dropped the paper he was reading on the floor, and he'd turned fire-engine red but somehow couldn't tear his eyes away from her. And then she remembered that she was wearing nothing but her bra and a pair of tiny pyjama shorts. For several seconds, neither of them moved. Then …

"HOEEEEEEEE!"

He clapped his hands over his eyes at the same time she started to scream, his face darkening impossibly further. "I-I'm sorry, I'm really sorry …"

Sakura fled into her bedroom just as Tomoyo was coming out, and slammed the door behind her with a bang.

Tomoyo shrugged. "I tried to tell her."

Syaoran, his face still buried in his hands, muttered, "Go ahead."

"I have no idea –"

"Daidouji."

Tomoyo erupted into peals of laughter, just as Yukito wandered out of the kitchen with a large baguette in his hand, Kero hovering by his shoulder.

"Did we miss something?"

xxx

By the time Sakura had worked up the courage to emerge from her bedroom (now fully dressed), Tomoyo was still giggling, Kero was sharing Yukito's baguette, and Syaoran was staring blankly off into space, his face just as red as it had been when she left.

Usually her instinct would be to run and hide. But for some reason, Sakura made her way across the living room and sat beside Syaoran on the couch. She blushed, but at the same time she didn't regret the move. Every time she saw him, all she could think about was being as near to him as possible – it made her feel warm and safe, even now when she should be embarrassed. Even back when he was looking at her half dressed, she wasn't half as humiliated as she should have been. It felt right, being this close to him. Even though it wasn't right; it was very, very wrong.

"Um …" Sakura said awkwardly, fidgeting beside Syaoran. "A-About earlier … I didn't, I mean I … I'm sorry, I didn't know you were – I never meant …"

"It's okay," he cut in swiftly, his cheeks burning as he refused to meet her eye. "Really."

"But I've embarrassed you," she said apologetically, her own cheeks equally as red.

"N-No," he denied, wishing she would stop talking about it so he could try and get the image out of his head. "I – I didn't even see anything."

For some reason the remark made her smile a little, despite her blush. "Liar."

He looked at her in surprise, but couldn't help smiling back.

"What's up with you two?" Kero asked them, sounding annoyed.

Tomoyo started laughing again, and Syaoran came to his senses long enough to glare witheringly at her.

Kero scowled. "What? I don't like secrets being kept from me – what happened?"

Yukito chose that moment to step in. "Well … I'm assuming since Keroberos is present, your business is with my other self?"

Sakura smiled at him gratefully, both for intervening and for being so good about Yue. Although Yukito had never quite understood the extent of who she was or what was inside of him, he was always more than happy to trust her and give her whatever she needed. On the rare occasions she had to speak to Yue, Yukito always turned up and never asked questions – and more importantly, he never mentioned anything to her brother.

"Um, yes please," she replied shyly. "If you don't mind, Yukito-san."

"Not at all," he beamed, and in thirty seconds Yue the Judge was standing in the living room, as imposing as ever.

"Mistress," Yue greeted her quietly, bowing low to the floor.

"I don't see why you need him here," Kero pouted.

"Kero-chan," Sakura scolded. "You and Yue-san are both my guardians. It's only right that both of you are here."

"Well if Yue's transforming then I should too," Kero grumbled indignantly.

"No, Kero-chan!" Sakura stopped him hurriedly. "The apartment's really not big enough for two pairs of wings … besides," she added, seeing the disgruntled look on his face, "You don't need your true form to do your duty."

Kero beamed proudly, before sticking his tongue out at Yue.

With one guardian placated, Sakura turned to Yue. "I'm sorry for calling you out, Yue-san," she smiled at him. "But lately there's been –"

"I know," he interrupted her. "You forget, I see and sense everything in my space within the mortal's mind."

"Right," she nodded. "I'm going to do a card reading – do you think it'll work?"

"That is not for me to say," Yue replied, completely impassive.

"But the moon rules divination," Syaoran pointed out, his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Yue regarded the man with a completely neutral expression, nodding in Sakura's direction. "And she rules the moon."

"Um – n-not really, Yue-san," Sakura stammered, looking embarrassed – no matter how much older she got, she always felt at a bit of a loss around Yue. "Um … you remember Tomoyo-chan … and this is Li Syaoran."

She was oblivious to the sudden tension in the room, but the others were waiting anxiously for Yue's response. Kero, Tomoyo and even Yukito were willing to lie through their teeth to protect Sakura's feelings, but feelings were not exactly something Yue worried about.

The judge tilted his head in Syaoran's direction. "Charmed," he muttered, sounding completely uninterested.

They all let out the breaths they'd been holding, and Sakura clapped her hands together happily before moving to sit on the floor.

"Take a deep breath and clear your mind," Kero instructed her, moving to sit on the coffee table for a better view. "Focus your energies into the cards; for this to work they need to access your subconscious and your dreams."

"What?" Sakura asked, suddenly looking anxious.

"The cards work by using dream energy," Syaoran explained gently. "They're not going to lay out your dreams for us all to read."

Sakura blushed. "I knew that."

He nodded, but he couldn't help but wonder what she was dreaming about that made her so worried.

"Okay …" she said slowly, shuffling the cards and starting to draw them out at random. She went very quiet, as did the rest of the room, as she concentrated her power into her cards. They hummed in response, and she felt comforted to know they were still warm and bright and on her side. She lay nine of them in a diamond shape on the floor in front of her, and laid a tenth one off to the side.

She felt oddly nervous as she placed the pile on the coffee table and looked over the cards on the floor. "It's been so long since I did this …" she muttered worriedly. "Kero-chan, you might have to help me with interpretation."

"Hmmm …" Kero said distractedly. "Oh, damned if I can remember. It's been years." Everyone shot him a horrified look, and the guardian beast smirked knowingly. "Don't worry, Sakura-chan – I'm sure the kid'll help you out."

Tomoyo beamed, Yue rolled his eyes, and Syaoran looked like he'd just swallowed a lemon.

Sakura turned to him hopefully. "Syaoran-kun … would you mind?"

"N-N-No," he stammered. He got up and knelt down beside her, wondering how he was going to remember how to divine anything when he couldn't even talk properly. "Um … t-the first one is at the top – the top of the diamond. It represents the subject of the problem."

She picked it up and turned it over. No one was surprised when the mournful face of the Void was revealed.

"Stop the presses," Kero said sarcastically.

Sakura grinned wryly. "At least we know it's working."

"Next is the cause of the matter," Syaoran continued, prompting her to carry on. They both reached for the second card at the same time, and as their hands brushed, Sakura felt a warm tingle shoot up her arm. She snatched her hand away, blushing furiously, and saw that he had done the same.

"S-S-Sorry," Syaoran stammered awkwardly. "Ah – you should …"

She nodded, still slightly dazed. Her skin buzzed from where he'd touched her – surely it couldn't be normal to react like this to someone just touching your hand?

"Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo prompted worriedly.

Shaking her head determinedly, Sakura picked up the second card. "Maze."

"Confusion, loss of confidence," Syaoran interpreted.

Confusion sounds about right, Sakura thought. The feelings in her hand had turned into the warmth she had come to associate with Syaoran, and she found herself dying for an excuse to touch him again as she picked up the next card. "Cloud – this is past problems affecting the situation, right?"

He nodded. "Cloud indicates a wrong decision."

"Oh," Sakura sighed, trying to smile. "Well, everyone has to mess up at some point, right?"

"Not exactly," Syaoran said sadly. "It was lying this way up –" He paused to lay the card upside down on the floor to demonstrate. "That means you were forced into the decision."

"But wouldn't I remember –?"

"Let's carry on, shall we?" Kero interjected suddenly. He knew from experience that trying to remember would only upset her, and they needed her calm so they could finish this.

Sakura frowned, looking a lot less happy as she reached for the fourth card. "Libra."

"Additional complications of the problem," Syaoran said, suddenly fidgeting and looking distinctly guilty.

"But Libra is justice, I remember that one," Sakura countered, "How can justice be –?"

"It was upside down again," Syaoran replied, refusing to meet her eye. "Upside down, Libra … Libra indicates a lie. Someone's lying to you."

The entire room shifted anxiously, and even Sakura felt the change in mood. She looked at her friends curiously, trying to make sense of what she'd been told. "So … I'm having a problem with the Void, caused by confusion. I've made the wrong decision in the past, and on top of that someone's lying to me?"

None of them would meet her eye, and Sakura felt the frustrating sensation that she'd missed something huge.

"Y-You have to remember, Sakura-chan," Kero ventured, "A reading can be partially correct – in fact, it's rare that every detail is right."

Sakura nodded uncertainly, reaching for the card off to the side. "Sweet – how others see the matter?" she asked Syaoran, looking to him for an interpretation.

He flushed scarlet. "Uh, S-Sweet … Sweet is, um … n-n-new love."

Sakura frowned at the card. "Well that makes no sense," she pouted, discarding the Sweet and turning to the next one. "Storm."

Syaoran, still red in the face, explained, "Um … i-i-intense emotions."

Sakura blushed, not knowing why. One half of her brain was devoted to disappointment at the lack of answers she was getting, while the other was focused on finding a way to touch Syaoran – hand, cheek, ankle, it didn't matter – anything to feel the warmth again. "Honestly, I don't get how any of this is relevant," she said embarrassedly, trying to keep herself on track. "Hmm … key point to solving the problem. Firey – oh, this is easy! Strong belief in yourself!"

"Yeah," Syaoran agreed, shaking his head slightly before handing her the next one. She reached out, but instead of taking the card her fingers wrapped around his wrist, tilting his hand so she could read the card that way. He looked at her in confusion, but she resolutely ignored it.

Syaoran cleared his throat. "O-Obstacles when solving the problem –"

"Illusion," Sakura read slowly.

Syaoran looked at her, feeling somewhat sad. "A desire to escape from reality."

The phrase seemed to take on a double meaning for her, and she blushed, letting go of his hand. It didn't matter that being close to him eased the cold inside her chest. He wasn't hers and this was in no way appropriate – and Tai! What would Tai say if he could see her now? Syaoran was still looking at her sadly – she felt as if he could read her mind when he looked at her like that – and she busied herself by picking up the next card. "Um, this is the solution, right?" she asked awkwardly.

He nodded, watching as she revealed the Return.

"Return …" Sakura said slowly, gazing at it in disbelief. "I don't get … how is that supposed to help?"

Sakura felt something akin to panic rising up within her. She been hoping the cards would give her answers, but nothing they had revealed seemed to be of any help at all. Not to mention how sick and guilty she felt for continually obsessing over the man next to her when her boyfriend had been so kind and patient …

Seeing she was now on the verge of tears, Syaoran reached over and turned the last card face up for her. "Outcome … the Snow," he said slowly. "A new beginning."

"Well … that's good, right?" Tomoyo said awkwardly.

"Not necessarily," Yue cut in.

Silence descended on the room once more, and Syaoran noticed worriedly that Sakura's hands were shaking. He looked up at Tomoyo, hoping she would say something comforting, but the girl just flapped her hands at him to indicate that he should do it.

"Um …" he began awkwardly. He was terrible at things like this. "Y-You know, it's not that bad – at least now we have a vague idea of what we're dealing with. Sometimes the answers the cards give don't seem relevant right away, but that doesn't mean they won't be later on. And I've got those books with me; they might still help."

Sakura nodded slightly, noticing her shaking hands and shifting so she was sitting on them. "I just … I don't know. I thought they would give me some sort of clue, but … I still don't know what to do."

"I'm going now," Yue announced suddenly, and out of the blue his wings wrapped around him.

Yukito emerged, looking vaguely stunned. "Huh. I'm never going to get used to that," he mumbled, before turning to the group with a bright smile. "So! Get everything done you needed to?"

He was met with an awkward silence, until finally Sakura got to her feet. "I need to go to work," she announced softly, still looking a little dazed.

Tomoyo opened her mouth to ask if she was okay, but Yukito cut across her. "I'll walk you, Sakura-chan."

"You don't have to –"

"It's on my way," he smiled cheerfully, going to get both of their coats. "Come on – I'll take you to work and we can leave those three with the books."

"Okay," Sakura said slowly, heading for the door. "I'll see you guys later – and thank you. You know, for coming and – and everything."

"It's fine," Tomoyo beamed. "We'll take care of everything; you go to work!"

Sakura waved at them before heading out of the door. As soon as her back was turned, Tomoyo began mouthing hurriedly to Yukito and signalling to him to make sure Sakura was okay. Yukito smiled and gave them the thumbs up, before he and Sakura went down in the elevator and stepped out of the building.

The second they were outside, Sakura burst into tears.

Yukito's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, Sakura-chan …" he sighed heavily, pulling the girl to him and gathering her against his chest. "Shhh … it's okay. Everything will be okay."

"Everything's a mess!" she countered miserably. "How am I supposed to fix this? What if she gets bad again – what if someone gets hurt? I couldn't bear to lose someone again … and then there's me! I shouldn't be … and back there I was … oh, Yukito-san … what's wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you," he insisted firmly, supporting her round the shoulders as they began to walk down the road. He wasn't quite sure what she was talking about, but he could fill in the blanks.

"I shouldn't be feeling like this …" she whimpered.

"Don't be so hard on yourself," Yukito said soothingly. "The heart wants what it wants."

"I feel so much better when he's around," Sakura murmured dazedly. "My chest doesn't hurt as much …"

Yukito looked down at her anxiously. He knew Sakura hadn't been right for years, but she never talked about it – she didn't like worrying people. The fact that she was blurting all this out now meant that she was getting worse.

Or, he thought somewhat optimistically, That Syaoran's making her better and it's just confusing her.

By the time he'd walked her to the shop, she'd stopped crying and she was only two minutes late.

"Everything will be all right," he promised her. "You should come to dinner with me and your brother soon – or maybe we should go over to your father's; he keeps saying he'd love to have us. I'll drop in tomorrow to set it up – and I'll bring Touya with me."

Sakura smiled slightly. "That's supposed to help?"

Yukito laughed, but suddenly Sakura's eyes widened worriedly. "You won't tell onii-chan, will you? About me crying, or … any of the other stuff?"

He shook his head. "I promise. Just remember we're both there if you need us."

She nodded, and Yukito kissed her on the forehead. "I love you."

Sakura waved and smiled for him, but the smile was noticeably forced. Yukito sighed heavily, wondering how on earth such a wonderful girl could have warranted such a cruel and vicious punishment. He knew vaguely of the sacrifice she'd made, mostly due to glimpses he got from Yue's subconscious. Something had died in her that day, the day when everything had gone to hell and Sakura had launched herself into the middle of it, emerging a pale shadow of what she'd been before. But Syaoran was back now, and the thought was a little comforting. Still, he didn't know which was worse for her – living with the hole in her heart, or constantly being tempted by the only thing that could fill it.

xxx

"She's not sleeping properly," Tomoyo said agitatedly, fiddling with the fringe of a cushion.

"I guessed," Syaoran replied shortly, not looking up from the book in front of him. "Is she dreaming?"

"I don't know," she sighed. "I haven't heard screaming, if that what you mean. But she murmurs a lot when I wake her up –"

"What does she say?" Syaoran asked, trying to sound casual and failing miserably.

Tomoyo shrugged. "I'm sorry. I don't understand. That sort of thing – nothing revealing." She paused, as if debating something, before adding, "And your name. She says that a lot. But I don't think she remembers saying it."

Syaoran didn't reply, and after a while she realised he wasn't going to. "So … what do you make of the cards?" she asked, watching Syaoran closely as he flipped the pages of the book distractedly.

"I don't know," he admitted finally. "Most of it seems obvious, but … I think they might have a bit of a conspiracy going on between them."

Tomoyo's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"A wrong decision, lies, Return … they're trying to make her look back," Syaoran answered, thinking over the cards that had shown themselves at the beginning. "They want her to get back what Void took from her."

"Well that's great, isn't it?" Tomoyo asked. "That's what we all want."

"Yeah," Syaoran agreed hesitantly. "Except there's no going back. She'll never be able to take back the sacrifice."

"But what if –?"

"Daidouji," he cut in quietly. "If you want to save her, you have to stop looking back. We can't fix the past. All I care about is salvaging her future."

"And what about yours?" Tomoyo asked quietly.

He didn't answer her. A future without Sakura … that was his sacrifice. And sacrifices couldn't be taken back.