A/N: RUSHED COMPLETELY. The asthma attacks are annoying. Exactly one year from my bronchitis attack I get this. Boo. Anyway, I've tweaked chapter 23 and 24 a bit for consistency. Please check on the minor additions.

Thank you to cheng, apple, lu and Property of Eriol for always reviewing. :D ENJOY!

Disclaimer: Characters and song are not mine. :D


You light up the way for me in the darkness of night.

Oh, that warm look on your face...

- Yui Makino, You Are My Love


Act 25, Winter

Yamazaki Takashi was undoubtedly an excellent violinist, and he and Eriol Hiiragizawa were definitely the perfect pair for the piece. The two were playing Beethoven's violin sonata without so much care in the world and at the same time the music they were producing made the bitter season transform to subtlest spring.

An image was vividly captured that it was like seeing swaying and blooming dandelions in the snow.

Chiharu had told her before they started playing that Yamazaki had mentioned he would always ask Eriol to be his accompanist in his exams. The reason that Yamazaki would do this was to charm the grading professors with Eriol's own talent if not with his regal appearance, consequently forgetting the former's mistakes in the performance. However, Tomoyo's friend suspected it to be a lie. Even she knew that the pianist had been Yamazaki's good friend ever since high school and that they always performed together in chamber music presentations, recitals and otherwise.

Her amethyst eyes set themselves on her pale hands that were resting on her lap.

Eriol was almost painful to look at because he was so beautiful and so wonderful on that grand piano with his countenance fixed between pleasure and a hint of unconscious affection. He was simply warped into a world of his own again.

Senpai must really belong there, the former heiress thought as she noted the chords that dwindled with finality, the scenery of green meadows disappearing quietly on the last note.

She could imagine him playing on a stage, catching an audience in stark admiration, and that thought alone made her proud. Tomoyo lifted her hands to applaud.

"Sugoi," Chiharu gushed beside her, blushing in exhilaration. Her words insinuated her sheer appreciation of the performance. "I've heard Takashi-kun play a few times but I never realized he'd sound even better with Hiiragizawa-kun."

The violinist made his comical bow.

Eriol looked passive as usual but he almost would not look at Yamazaki in the eyes when his friend turned to grin at him.

I can say the same thing for Hiiragizawa-san, Tomoyo mused as she excused herself to stand by the piano this time. He seems rather an intense musician but this delicate, cheerful character surprisingly suits him.

After a moment of delayed realization, her feet had frozen into place.

The dais beneath her geta was an intimidating representation against her self-consciousness. She may had been a voice instructor and had sung in front of a crowd before but an experience like this would always be frightening. No matter the number, the feeling of a few people gaping at her like this was still too unbearable.

"Daidōji-san?" The pianist's questioning whisper cut through her musing. Tomoyo was almost leaning her side on the piano for support.

Does Hiiragizawa Eriol ever feel nervous before any performance?

"We'll be fine," he mouthed the words carefully.

Anxious amethyst met quiet sapphire.

It was ironic that he had to say such things to her now. He had been the doubtful one at dinner after all.

"Sumimasen minna-san. I have not been originally part of the programme. This is actually to make up for the recital that Hiiragizawa-san and I were supposed to do a few weeks ago," Tomoyo confessed with an embarrassed face and a bow to match. All the guest didn't particularly have much reaction and probably had already realized why this was the case. "However, it's still not a piano duet, and we had only a day for practice. But we will try our best to entertain everybody."

She gave Eriol a nod before the pianist once more poised his fingers on the ebony and ivory keys in front of him, his back almost stiff in expectation.

Eriol had not intended to perform a song that he composed out of whim. The pianist was wary of her reaction, almost at the brink of self doubt, when he first played it that morning, and even argued that the lyrics may be too melancholic for their annual Christmas presentation. He didn't want to play it in any way.

But Tomoyo was more stubborn and trusted him with the music. The former heiress won in the argument by promising to perform it with him, hence, this current arrangement.

She just didn't expect that the spotlight would be on her, too.

The dark-haired young woman stilled her speeding heartbeat in a swift inhalation and pursed her suddenly parched lips.

If there had been any more trace of sun-drenched spring in the piano room, Eriol's brooding notes completely changed the mood. He had improvised from their last practice but the amethyst-eyed woman had not minded the slight change at all.

Tōya, who was just casually standing by the velvet divan between a harassed-looking Syaoran and a flustered Sakura, had finally looked up in collected curiosity with another wine glass in his hand. He seemed much more interested of this duet than the first.

The doctor's assistant had a far-away look in her brown eyes as she gazed at her, spellbound by the anticipation in the music.

Tomoyo understood how there was no helping this anxiety as she determinedly fixed her already brittle concentration on the evergreen bristles of the Christmas wreath hanging behind the audience.

ame ni nureta hoho wa namida no nioi ga shita

(The faint scent of tears on my rain-soaked cheeks...)

yasashii manazashi no tabibito

(The warm look on the face of travelers...)

Notes floated by and eventually her gaze was not centered on the decoration that melted against the kaleidoscope of lights that bounced on the pale walls of the room. The face that these people could clearly see wouldn't betray her real feelings but the hand on the side of the piano was already trembling in restlessness. Even so, tingling tremors were quivering the tips of her fingers, traveling gradually to her arm then to her body thoroughly.

It was the most comforting caress.

Hiiragizawa-san...

Amethyst eyes widened in the stimulating sensations. It was strange how the feeble trembling could feel like butterflies fluttering in her hand.

yume wa tobitatsu no chiisana tsubasa de

(But with these tiny wings launched by my dreams...)

omoi no kienai basho made

(over distant oceans and skies we'll soar...)

Is this how he really feels?

The dejection and affection flickered alternately between the words and melody, making her focus on his music alone.

She had partly written some of the lines but the natural emotion of the piece was all the pianist's doing.

His piano had not sounded like this when they had rehearsed.

futari de

(together...)

tooi umi wo sora wo koete

(to a place where memories never fade.)

Her free hand slipped itself to her chest again when a dull pain wrapped around her previously racing heart.

This longing is too overwhelming, she said to herself, eyes glassy as she spun to look at the pianist's serene face.

Eriol already had trained his cool sapphire orbs on her, waiting.

The piano throbbed in every sure press on the keys. Nothing else existed in the room but this dark-haired man and his song.

So painful that I can't breathe.

He smiled to her way, and that bittersweet look almost broke Tomoyo's heart.

He was really so beautiful on the piano.

aitai...

(I miss you...)


A/N: The song is taken from Tsubasa Reservior Chronicle. It's the one that Sakura sang in the cafe. nyahahahahahahaha I'm so out of creative juice right now. TAT


Quick notes:

geta - Japanese wooden sandals