Good to see so many people still reading. So everyone knows, I'll only be updating once a week so look out for it every Sunday/Monday depending on your time zone...

Administrative stuff

Summary: Li Syaoran must return to Kinomoto Kingdom with the remains of his fiancée after her tragic demise. But a marriage is still required to unite the two families, and now Syaoran has his pick of the six remaining daughters of Kinomoto Fujitaka for the sake of both their kingdoms. Romance/Mystery

Ages:
Kinomoto Touya: 27yrs
Li Syaoran: 22 yrs (almost 23)
Kinomoto Sakura: 21 yrs
Kinomoto Tomoyo: 20 yrs
Kinomoto Ayame: 18 yrs (dec)
Kinomoto Meilin: 18 yrs
Kinomoto Chiharu: 17 yrs
Kinomoto Naoko: 16 yrs
Kinomoto Rika: 15 yrs

Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura.

It's Only Love – The Journey Home

"Sakura, please come here," Syaoran asked pleasantly, gazing at his wife seated as far away from him as possible within the small confines of the carriage.

Sakura scoffed pointedly and scooted further into her corner (if that was possible) drawing in her limbs so that she took up only a fraction of the space she should have. "You're not my father," she replied childishly when Syaoran questioned her actions with just a cock of his eyebrow. "You can't tell me what to do."

"No, Sakura," he replied plainly, holding back his frustration, "I am your husband, which is why I said 'please' and why I asked you to please come sit beside me."

She let out a petulant "hmmmph" in response and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Syaoran rolled his eyes, checking she wasn't watching before he attempted such an action – as much as he loved her temper, he really didn't want to be the target of it when she was in this sort of mood.

He sighed, sliding across the seat so that he was sitting right beside her. It seemed he would have to be the one to yield if he wanted to get anywhere with Sakura. He considered this his way of atoning his great sin – his penance for letting Ayame fool him. He had denied himself happiness for Sakura's sake only to discover that almost everything Ayame had told him was a lie and that Ayame only ever cared about her own well-being.

He found it difficult at times to feel sympathetic towards someone who had caused the person dearest to him such pain, whether it be deliberate or merely reckless. He would spend the rest of is his life ensuring that Sakura never felt that way again.

Sakura stiffened as his knee brush against her own, and Syaoran tried not to be too disheartened. Instead he pressed on, unwinding her tightly crossed arms so he could take her tiny hands in his larger ones. Although she refused to approach him, she did not resist his actions and eventually relaxed into the familiar touch.

"Sakura, how well did you know Ayame-san?" he asked cautiously, hoping that revealing this secret would put things to rest and convince Sakura of where his heart really lay. For a moment Syaoran wondered if perhaps it was too soon to speak of her – she had hardly been gone a fortnight – but knew the sooner that it was out in the open, the sooner they could get past it and start their lives together properly.

Sakura looked at him curiously, hurt flashing in her eyes momentarily as she wondered whether Ayame would ever leave his thoughts completely. "We were sisters, so I knew her well enough," Sakura responded vaguely, a clipped tone to her words. "I knew her as well as she knew me."

"And yet she didn't know that I was pursuing you?" he questioned, although it was really more a statement than a question.

"No," she said, feeling no shame in the admission. "Only Tomoyo knew, and that is because we tell each other everything no matter how trivial.

"I say it hardly matters," she added breezily, forcing her tone to remain nonchalant even though she found herself fighting back emotion. "A few letters and a couple of face-to-face encounters hardly amounts to serious courting," she finished sarcastically, rolling her eyes derisively.

Syaoran couldn't contain his frustration at her casual description of their short-lived relationship. "Not serious?" he exclaimed painfully. "Sakura, I was planning to ask for your hand in April. If Gensou hadn't interfered, I would have been marrying your properly a year from now in front of both our families and friends and acquaintances and anyone else I could think of. I would –"

"Then I think you can consider yourself lucky," Sakura cut in coolly, turning her face away from him. "Perhaps you should thank him for saving you all that time and effort."

Syaoran almost growled aloud, biting back a sharp retort. 'I shouldn't be thanking him,' he said internally. 'I should be strangling the conniving bastard for causing you to believe I don't love you.'

He sighed, forcing himself to move along. "All I was trying to say, Sakura, is that you were keeping something pretty big from your sister," he explained calmly, silently congratulating himself on keeping his cool in such extreme circumstances. "Maybe there were some things she was keeping from you as well."

Sakura ruffled defensively, snatching her hands from his grasp. "How dare you, Li Syaoran!" she exclaimed, glaring dangerously at her new husband. "How dare you try to sully my sister's name when she can't even defend herself.

"I don't know what you're implying, Li," she said coolly, the point she tried to make by referring to him by his last name losing some of its panache now that she shared the name, "but my sister was a good and pure person, and I will not take you saying otherwise."

Syaoran sighed aloud, retreating to his own side of the carriage. Sakura bit back a whimper, missing his closeness but refusing to step down from her high horse. She wondered briefly whether Ayame was worth losing Syaoran's touch and as guilty as she felt to say so, the answer was an uncontested no.

"At least I tried," she heard him murmur to himself, her heart aching as she caught the words. She hoped he was talking about whatever he wanted to tell her about Ayame and not about her generally. As much as she hated him for hurting her, she hated the thought of losing him even more.

"You should sleep," he said, louder now, staring out into the ink black sky. "It's a long ride to the Li castle, and we're going to try and finish it in one night."

She nodded, but didn't close her eyes, fidgeting anxiously in her seat. "Um . . . Syaoran . . . I . . ."

He sighed, opening his arms up to her in a heart-warming gesture that was so trusting and honest it almost brought tears to her eyes. "I forgot how much you disliked the dark," he smiled, his expression softening as he took in her vulnerability. "I'm sorry for reminding you of it, darling.

"Come here," he insisted, "I'll make sure nothing bad happens to you, Sakura-chan."

She only hesitated for a moment before nestling her head upon his chest and curling up to his side. "Thank you, Syao-kun," she said quietly, her voice becoming heavy as sleep took over.

"Think nothing of it, cherry blossom," he told her sweetly, knowing she wouldn't be consciously aware of anything after this point. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead as his arms wrapped around her and slowly traced relaxing patterns into her back. "I'll always be here if you need me, Sakura," he promised the sleeping figure. "Aishiteru."

And even though he knew she had only come to him under extreme circumstances, Syaoran couldn't help but feel as though he was making progress, no matter how small.

Sakura found herself waking blurrily to the low murmur of voices. She had been flitting in and out of consciousness for the better part of their journey, waking each time to find herself safely encased in Syaoran's arms, the one place in the world where she knew no harm could find her.

"Ohayo, baby sister!" came a loud cry un-fogging her mind as she desperately wished she could find her way back to the land of dreams.

Slowly cracking her eyes open a slither, she heard Syaoran admonish the perpetrator of the cry. "Hush, Feimei, I don't want you waking her," he told what Sakura concluded was probably one of his sisters. "She didn't sleep well on the journey here, and its only an hour ago that she fell into a restful sleep."

Sakura's eyes snapped shut at that proclamation, although she didn't know why. She should have just told him he was wasting his breath and have him direct her to her bedroom. She should have admonished him for being so harsh on Feimei and introduced herself to his sister with an affable smile and a quick curtsey. There were a lot of things she should have done, but instead she chose to feign sleep and just remain in Syaoran's arms a little longer.

"I'm sorry, brother," Feimei replied in a tone that hardly spoke of repentance. "No need to be so grouchy.

"Oh she's so kawaii," she sighed a moment later, glee evident in her voice. "I can't wait 'til we get to meet her properly. Okaa-san is going to love her."

"I hope so," Syaoran sighed, adjusting the weight in his arms slightly. "Did mother say when she'd be back?"

"By the end of the week," she answered after a brief pause, probably as she nodded her head to Syaoran's question. "She's going to spend a few days with Kaho-heika and Eriol-kun before she returns."

Sakura could feel a low murmur of disapproval reverberate in his chest at the mention of Eriol. Feimei chuckled, most likely at his expression, which Sakura could practically picture in her mind. "Don't frown, otouto-chan," she cautioned, "you'll scare off that pretty little wife of yours, and I know how much you'd hate to be without her.

"You just need to leave Eriol to his own devices," she added wisely. "I'm sure he knows what he's doing. You, Syaoran, need to stop trying to protect everyone, no matter how dear to you."

This time the murmur erupted as a growl and Sakura had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. She knew how much Syaoran hated people thinking that he actually liked Eriol, Syaoran's rather controversial choice of best friend. The two had grown up like brother's, almost to spite their family – Eriol was Syaoran's grandfather's illegitimate son and by virtue of this, Syaoran's half-uncle. Each having only a weak claim to the throne (Syaoran's weak because his grandfather, Li Ryuu, had no other sons besides Eriol, and Eriol's weak because of the status of his birth), the expectation was that the two would be at one another's throats from the moment they met.

"Anyone can see it will end badly," he argued, evading Feimei's insinuation. "It will-"

Sakura moaned loudly, curling into his chest to distract Syaoran from finishing the thought. She sensed where his words were going, and so she cut him off rather than let him finish the sentence and have her suspicions confirmed. She considered wilful blindness her best option, and didn't want to have Syaoran unwittingly describe the most likely consequences of her sister's attempted romance. She felt safer not knowing; this she knew for sure.

"I guess I better put you to bed, sleeping beauty," he said gently, remembering the pleasant weight in his arms. "Did you set up one of the guest rooms?" he asked his sister, pulling Sakura's lithe form closer to him.

There was a brief pause for Feimei's confirmation or dissent before Syaoran responded indignantly. "Why not?" he insisted. "Have one of the servants prepare it immediately, and make sure her things are prepared for the morning."

Sakura heard Feimei laugh at her brother's sudden aggressiveness. "I'm not sure it's a good idea, otouto-chan," she told him almost patronizingly. "I mean, what would people think if they knew Li-heika and his wife slept in separate beds?"

Syaoran groaned at her words, probably aware that she made a good point. The formal side of their marriage was complete, but there was still the matter of convincing Gensou that they'd fallen in love and married with no regard to his plans to wage war. She wasn't sure how fastidious Gensou would be in his enquiries, but if word somehow got out that the newlyweds had separate rooms, the whole pretence would fail.

"I don't want to place her in such an . . . intimate situation without her consent," Syaoran argued pathetically. "It would be disrespectful. Sakura should get a say in things before we go and decide without her that she should share my bed."

Feimei sighed. "Unless you're willing to wake her up, which I know you are not, I don't see us having any other option," she responded in a final sort of way. "You told me yourself she was an intelligent and understanding woman, and so I'm sure she'll understand that you had good reasons."

Sakura blushed at the compliment, hoping no one would notice that an apparently sleeping figure had just turned a brilliant shade of red.

"Fine," he sighed, beginning to move. "Can I trust you to put her in some bed clothes?"

"Of course, brother," Feimei answered eagerly. "I already had the things you sent over unpacked in your room, so it shall be no problem at all."

"Thank you, Feimei," he said tiredly, jostling Sakura only minimally as he climbed the steps to the second floor.

Feimei just smiled, watching her brother carefully bring his wife up to his bedroom. She'd never seen him be so careful or gentle with anyone before that moment. It was like seeing a whole other Syaoran, a Syaoran whose life had been touched in the most profound way.

Love was truly a beautiful thing.

~ to be continued ~

Next chapter: Sakura's first day with her new husband in her new kingdom.

Note:

In my mind it takes about two and a half days to get from the Kinomoto castle to Li castle, thus, I imagine there was probably a stop or two along the way and this was just the final leg of the journey. Thus, Sakura and Syaoran have been married now for about four or five days for anyone who keeps track of that sort of thing.

Eriol as Syaoran's illegitimate half-uncle: cos cousins are so last year and this is the only way to maintain any 'cute little descendent' comments. Because Eriol is Yelan's half-brother, that makes Syaoran his descendent even though the two are pretty much the same age. This relationship will bear some significance later, especially if I decide to do a spin-off story (titled Only, Is It Love?) focussing on the Eriol-Tomoyo-Mizuki love triangle.