Sakura looked at her hair at every angle she could in her mirror. She had been purposely growing her hair out and she wanted to see if she'd made any progress – apparently not. She'd taken the hairbands out of her hair and was fluffing it up from underneath, but her efforts seemed to have so far been in vain. She was going to a school event with Tomoyo in a few days and whilst her appearances weren't her greatest priority, Sakura still liked to look nice. She looked over her desk for her hairbrush, but her eyes caught at her cards. When she looked across them she could hear that the Windy card was missing. Kero said it was because Windy was in charge of communication and her absence would leave a silence around the cards, especially since Windy was Sakura's first card. That silence made her want to do nothing more than call out to Windy all the way in Hong Kong and summon her back, but she stopped herself. She entrusted Windy with the instruction that once Syaoran indicated that his responses were ready she would fly them and herself back home. Without much else to do, Sakura gathered herself and left to meet Tomoyo.
~\*/~
Sakura closed her bedroom door by falling against it, sighing as she sunk to her butt. The dance was almost turned into a disaster by a pack of rogue hobgoblins. They spilled drinks, tripped people over, flipped up skirts and dresses and nearly tore down all the doors on top of people. Granted, hobgoblins are more like pests than actual problems, but they still needed to be dealt with. And such a duty fell to the Master of the Cards, who was frankly exhausted by the ordeal. She had originally thought that she could turn Shield inside out to make a cage and use Move to gather them all, but they turned invisible, which meant that she had to use Time to freeze time, then Sand to find where they were, Sand again to get rid of all the sand, then they all focused an attack on Shield and cracked through so she had to go through the whole thing again except she used Loop on them, then she had to call Kero and ask what to do with them and it was all just a giant kerfuffle and she wanted to go to bed.
Kero was, no doubt, fast asleep at this point. He'd called her when she was on her way home and she said that she was going to go straight to bed anyway so he might as well sleep, but they'd talk in the morning. She pushed herself up off of the ground and changed into her pyjamas, put a comb through her hair lazily and allowed herself to be lured in by the silent siren song of her bed. She lifted up the covers, put her knee on the mattress to start shuffling in and her windows suddenly opened wide. She turned around instantly and watched the yellow streams herald Windy into the room. Sakura watched as Windy gracefully folded from the outside world into her bedroom. The card looked at her mistress and smiled kindly before dissipating into her card and three envelopes. Sakura was instantly on her feet again racing over to the card and the letters. She lifted up The Windy Card and held her to her chest, thanking her sincerely for her work before reuniting her with the rest of the cards.
Sakura then eagerly turned to the envelopes and read the names on each of them: Sakura, Tomoyo and Cerberus. Obviously Sakura wouldn't open the ones that weren't for her so she set them down on top of each other next to the cards, but she clutched her letter and opened it so carefully. She smiled at Syaoran's neat, simple language. As strong as his spoken Japanese was, his written Japanese often faltered when he wasn't being formal.
Dear Sakura,
Thank you for your letter. Knowing that you're still there thinking of me as much as I think of you is more than enough to keep me going, even despite all the paperwork. You're always thinking of others and doing what you can to help. It's one of the things I love about you. Don't worry, Windy didn't startle me so much as it startled one of the neighbour's dogs, but I don't think anyone else saw her. Animals are far more attuned to that sort of thing, cats especially. I think that's why Clow Reed and Eriol created Cerberus and Spinel Sun in those forms. I hope you know that not a day goes by that I don't think about it you too.
About the Tsukimine Shrine, I think I might know something. There's an old story about how the Sun follows the Moon and vice versa, perhaps without Ms Mizuki or her bell some sort of power might be trying to fill the space. I'm sorry I can't be more helpful. If I was there, I'm sure we could figure something out together and deal with it quickly, but I'll do my best over here, just like I know you're doing yours. As for all that courage and strength, those are all yours. I didn't help that much. It was all your own power and I know it'll only grow until you're even greater than Clow Reed, and when that happens I may not be able to help as much but I promise to still do all that I can. I will be worried about you, I hate not being there, but I know you can handle it.
You're strong, Sakura. I know you are. Whatever comes your way, you can handle it. I will help you as much as I can, but I'm sure you'll be all right.
Love Syaoran.
P.S. Tell Yamazaki that I miss him too.
Sakura found herself laughing at the last line. She laughed until she remembered the time and let it simmer into a giggle as she folded the letter, tucked it under her pillow and fell asleep atop it, with her hand still gently holding it. She would reply in the morning, but as much as she wanted to she could no longer keep her eyes open. Slumber and the thought of Syaoran sat at a desk writing to her quickly immersed her and she smiled in her sleep.