Tattooed

Summary: "I've lost everything to drugs, do you know that?" Sakura told him with tears in her eyes. "The funny thing is I've never even touched a drug in my life and yet it destroyed me. It took everything." She turned to face him then. "Please, don't let it take you away from me. I won't be able to handle it, not this time, not again." S x S.

Author's Note: Fashion Fairy 26, deadflo, amelonchalicangel:

Not many of you reviewed, but I guess that's only expected. It is a Sunday, after all.

A little more than two months and Tattooed is finished.

This is it, you guys. This is it.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Epilogue

I don't want this moment to ever end,
Where everything's nothing without you.

- With Me/Sum41

Three Years later

Ms. Fanren Li

And

Mrs. Sonomi Daidouji

Would like to request the honour of your presence

At the marriage of their daughters

Mei Ling Rae

to

Tomoyo Daidouji

on

Saturday, the eighteenth of September

Two thousand and fifteen

The Hilton Hall,

Glasgow, UK

Sakura walked down the aisle with the flowers in her hand, smiling at the guests all the way. She felt nervous, but then she scoffed at herself. It wasn't as if this was her wedding. In any case, Sakura didn't want to think about why she was nervous. She instead focused on putting one foot in front of the other, her eyes on the minister.

She stood by the minister, smiled at him, and wondered if she looked any different in these past few years. Yes, she had put on some weight, and maybe even some wrinkles added onto her face, but that could just be her cynical self talking.

Why was she thinking about this, again?

Her father was seated on the front row with Touya and Yukito next to them. The other bridesmaids walked down the aisle. Then, there was Tomoyo, being given away by her mother. It had been beautiful to watch.

Sakura knew what was coming next. She couldn't help but look away. She was too afraid to look, too afraid of what could happen if she looked. She dared a look then.

Mei Ling looked beautiful in her white, short dress as she was escorted by Fanren and... Syaoran. He looked the same, Sakura decided, as he walked down the aisle. He hadn't noticed her yet, it seemed, but that was probably a good thing. She hoped he would go the entirety of the wedding without noticing. It would make things so much easier. It would kill her from the inside, but it would make everything so much easier.

Syaoran kissed Mei Ling's cheek, then Fanren's, and then he and Fanren took a seat on the other row, away from her father's row. Next to them were three other women who Sakura knew for a fact were Syaoran's sisters, and they were as lovely as in his painting. He'd be out of sight now, but Sakura couldn't help sneak a look.

"Dearly beloved," the minister began. "I welcome you all here to the joining of Mei Ling and Tomoyo in holy matrimony."

Sakura couldn't really grasp what else the minister had said, for at that moment she'd decided to sneak a glance at Syaoran.

And he'd been looking straight at her.

Her clasp on the bouquet of flowers had tightened as her mind drew a blank. Syaoran was looking at her in that way that she'd always known, as Sakura wondered if she should smile. He looked the same, his eyes bright and his skin a good colour. Sakura then saw Lillian in a seat behind him, looking all too grown up and beautiful, her long blonde hair now up in a bun, the pink streaks gone without a trace. She was saying something to the man with dark hair and spectacles... and Syaoran was still looking at her. She decided smiling would, or could, break the ice. So, after mustering up the little bit of confidence she'd brought with her, she smiled.

Seconds later, Syaoran smiled back.

*.*

"Ladies and gentlemen," Sakura said as she stood up at the table he'd been sharing with her through dinner. It'd been painful not to say anything, or do anything, but smile at her. What else was there but smile?

"My name is Sakura Kinomoto, and I am the Maid of Honour of our dear Tomoyo here," she said, her smile widening.

"Tomoyo and I have been best friends since we were five years old, and through the years, somewhere, somehow, she became more than a best friend. She became the sister I never had." Sakura then turned her gaze to Mei Ling. "Today I have the honour of welcoming a new member to our family, someone who Tomoyo has trusted and loved through the years. Mei Ling is someone who anyone can fall in love with, someone who is free spirited, strongly willed... someone who will support you no matter what.

"May you both have an eternity together, and may the madness never die. This is for my sisters, ladies and gentlemen, and you all have a wonderful night here with us,"

Syaoran remembered to applaud along with the crowd as his cousin and her partner kissed, their love clear for anyone to see.

Syaoran stood then. He'd been asked to speak, and he couldn't have denied her. "This is for the sister any guy would be lucky to have. She was blessed enough to find love, and doubly so to be able to marry that love. Cheers you guys, may love fill your home and always bring you happiness."

The song that Syaoran had suggested was playing, the familiar chords and words in the air. Mei Ling had complained it wasn't mushy enough, but Syaoran reminded her that neither was she. A man Syaoran had never seen took Tomoyo's hand and walked to the dance floor. Mei Ling looked at Syaoran and the two of them stood to join them.

"Who is that?" he asked Mei Ling as they danced on.

"Sakura's father," Mei Ling told him, and then rested her head on his chest.

Sakura's father... the words left an impact on him, an impact he didn't understand. The man danced with Tomoyo carefree and easy, the man so opposite to the person Sakura had illustrated. Syaoran frowned and looked away.

So that was Sakura's father.

A few more hidden glances and Syaoran had his answer. Sakura looked so much like her father.

*.*

"Can I have this dance?" Syaoran asked Sakura as she sat with her legs up on the seat, her shoes piled on the floor. Sakura grinned and moaned.

"My feet are killing me, Syaoran." She hadn't said his name out loud in years. It felt strangely nice to say his name again.

"Come on, Sakura, I'm sure you've got one more dance left in you."

So they danced.

Sakura laced her hand in his, her other hand around his neck as she wondered if green was the right choice for the wedding. She looked bland, in her opinion, but Tomoyo and Mei Ling had assured her it was the colour for her. Sakura shrugged the doubts away and simply danced to the melancholic tune.

"You're still wearing the earrings," Syaoran told her as he brushed away some hair from her face. She knew she should have tied it up.

"I am," she told him, swallowing the bit of nervous cotton balls in her throat.

"They look beautiful on you, just as before."

The word beautiful made something in her blood stir. "Syaoran, I'm sorry."

"I don't want you to apologize." He told her as he brought her closer to him. She could feel his warmth, his heartbeat in his chest, his breath on her face. God, he felt the same.

"I'd given up, Sakura. I got high, I sat on the streets and sulked in self pity and there you were, in the rain, looking at me with those green eyes. Finally, somebody who saw me for me. Finally, someone worth it. I will never be able to repay you for that. So please, don't apologize.

"You told me that you didn't want to lose me to the drugs, and I'm sorry that's how I managed to lose you." He told her with a tone she couldn't quite place. "You'll be happy to know that I've been clean for years now."

"Really? That's great. I'm glad for you."

Syaoran twirled her then and dipped low, Sakura's hand clawing into Syaoran's skin, probably a little painfully. His face was so close to hers now, like it had been many years ago, and while Sakura should have been admiring his beautiful eyes, she'd found her own wandering down his throat...

"What's this?" she asked as he pulled her up, her hands gripping his collar.

Before he could object, or even think of stopping her, she'd already shoved away his collar forcefully, revealing the remainder of the black ink she'd seen. She didn't think it was what she thought it was, but it was.

You will never see her again.

But whenever it rains, you will think of her.

The words had made her think of that one time they'd spoken about it. The vertically sprawled majestic writing had her entire life flashing before her.

"I'm surprised you don't have any tattoos,"

"I never really thought about it,"

Green eyes, sparkling in the twinkly lights, met rich brown ones.

"I'm twenty,"

A hand brushed across the writing, just along the length of his neck, gently, lovingly.

"Have you seen my pipe?"

"Did it hurt?" Sakura found herself asking, her hands back at her sides, her head held high.

"... and I've been so jealous of you, your untainted skin, body... heart and soul."

Syaoran fingered the tattoo, or what could be seen of it from over his shirt. "What's life without a little pain?"

"Why?" the question escaped her lips before she could stop herself. Now that she'd asked it, she waited for an answer. She got none.

Instead, the man before her smiled.

"You are everything and nothing can ever change that."

Sakura puffed out a breath of air before smiling back.

All the streets, where I walked alone,
With nowhere to go, have come to an end.

I knew what song I would use for the epilogue even before I started writing this story.

You all have no idea how much I'm going to miss this, miss writing Tattooed. This is my first finished project. My absolute First, and while there are so many changes I need to make, it's still something I will cherish forever, and you all helped with that. Thank you. Thank you for sticking with me for so long. Thank you for reviewing, complaining and just being here, reading all the updates and sticking with me while I tried to complete this.

Q. Did you find Tattooed to your expectations? Why, and why not?

I've put up the paintings and dresses and rest used in the story on my CCS Fanpage on FB called 'Hiiragizawa's Archive of Bolting Cardcaptors'. Come like!

Also, I have a group opened called GP06FR. Come add yourself and we can talk about anything. From my next project to your dead end job, absolutely anything.

I hope to see you guys there. And I hope you'll read my next story.

Also, whenever you're free, read Tattooed again, all together. It's something magical, I tell you, how Syaoran and Sakura come together.

Thank you.

P.