Chapter 19

A bothered Eriol ran along the seaside park following his usual route. It had been a week since that night. He hadn't called Tomoyo and neither had she called him. It wasn't a fight, but it felt like it. Just as he clocked in 6k, he stopped in front of a stairway that led to the shore. As he walked down, he bumped into someone.

"Sorry," they said at the same time. Both looked up. Eriol and Syaoran looked at each other with surprise. "Hey," came out again simultaneously.

"What are you doing here?" Eriol asked first, wiping the sweat off his brow with a sports towel.

Syaoran pointed to the beach bathrooms. "Just walking around with Sakura. How's it going?"

Eriol sighed. "Could be better."

"What happened?"

"I'm surprised you haven't heard. Sakura hasn't said anything?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Nothing about you. Something about Tomoyo?"

Eriol scratched his head. "Not good, Li. I kinda…"

At that, Syaoran frowned. "What did you do?"

"I don't know. I don't know what to say to her. She asked about Shiori."

Syaoran's eyes slightly widened. "When?"

"A week ago. I haven't called her since."

"Wow. You two had a fight?"

"No," he replied. "Not a fight. Just…"

"Eriol!" Came the cheerful greeting from behind them. Sakura stopped beside Syaoran and smiled. "I guess we should have anticipated bumping into you here."

He smiled back. "Hey, how's it going?"

Sakura glanced at the expression on both their faces. "Is everything…ok?"

"Yeah!" Syaoran patted Eriol's shoulder good-naturedly. "I was just asking if he was going to take a shower before going to bed tonight. Sometimes he doesn't." Figuring this was an issue between Eriol and Tomoyo, he knew it was best not to get involved.

Eriol threw him a brief, grateful glance. "I will, don't worry. I'll call you when I'm done," he added.

Sakura laughed. "Dorks."

"We'll head out first. Call me later," Syaoran said. Taking Sakura's arm, he led them up the stairs. "See you man."

"Bye Eriol!"

"Bye guys."

When Eriol was out of sight, Syaoran and Sakura continued their walk down the opposite path of the seaside park to go back home.

Curious, she asked, "Did you ever think Tomoyo and Eriol would ever get together?"

"Ah…I hoped it."

"I had no idea Eriol liked her all this time."

"He was in love with her all through high school. Though when he met Shiori, he did forget all about her." He became quiet for a moment, thinking back to a memory. "But that first night we saw Tomoyo again, you should've seen his face." Sakura looked up at him in question. "He was really affected. The first thing he said was, 'I never thought I'd see you again.'"

"Do you think Eriol loves Tomoyo more than he loved Shiori?"

"Good question."

When he became silent again, she elbowed him. "Do you?"

It took him another moment to answer. Then, he admitted, "Honestly, yeah. I think he does."

"Really?"

"Shiori, you know, she cheated on him a couple times. He knew about it too, but he forgave her twice. He was just gone for her."

Sakura grabbed his arm. With wide eyes, she said, "I didn't know that."

"He didn't tell anybody, except me," Syaoran said, "so don't say anything about it."

Sakura nodded immediately.

"But eventually, once she left for good and they broke up, he started to realize she wasn't good for him. He didn't want to talk about her again after that. I haven't brought her name up in years." Syaoran looked up at the clear sky. "Man. Exes."

:::

On the other side of the park, Eriol sat by the shore, his knees up and his arms stretched back behind him. He spent a good half-hour there, somewhat in a daze, wondering what to do next. Why was he being so stubborn about this anyway, he asked himself. She'd said to forget the whole thing. And she'd apologized. He didn't have to bring it up himself.

But come on, who wanted to talk about the past? He thought stubbornly. Why bring up old wounds? There was no point in it.

Tired of thinking, he picked up his things and headed back to his car.

When he was about 100m from where Tomoyo always waited for him, he caught sight of her. She stood there as usual, with a sports drink and a small smile.

Keeping his eyes on her, he walked over. She tucked a stray strand behind her ear and he felt a ridiculous urge to hold her.

She passed him the drink when he got close enough. "I figured not even my little slip-up would make you break your habit."

He glanced down at the drink in his hands. "Thanks." After some silence, he asked, "How've you been?"

"I've been waiting for your call," she admitted. "I guess my little slip-up wasn't so little. You kind of disappeared on me for a week without a word."

He didn't know what to say.

"You know, I meant it when I said forget about it. But it looks like you didn't." When he still wouldn't meet her gaze, she poked his stomach with a finger. "You want to break up?"

At that, Eriol's head shot up. "No."

And then she smiled, albeit a bit sad. "Are you sure? Some guys have left me before for being too curious and poking into their past. So I understand if you want to too, you know… I'm a big girl."

He held her shoulders firmly. "No, that's not what I want."

"Okay." At that, she started to cry.

And then he simply melted. He pulled her into his arms and held her, rubbing her back, smelling her lovely scent. He was being stupid. Because of one girl who'd torn him up, he was almost ready to jeopardize this relationship with the woman he'd loved almost half of his life.

::: 8 years ago :::

"Thanks for taking the notes, Daidouji," Syaoran said as the two exited the conference room.

"No worries. Are you heading home now?"

After a two-hour long homeroom leaders' meeting, the only students left in the school were those who attended it. As they walked down the building hallway, they heard the sounds of students in sports teams.

"Aw man." Syaoran stopped, leaned against the railing and watched the soccer team practice with jealousy. "I want to play soccer again." He turned to Tomoyo. "Would you do all my homework?" He asked with a charming grin. "So I can play soccer." When she opened her mouth, he laughed. "I'm kidding."

"I would."

"I know you would. But you shouldn't."

They walked up the stairs to their homeroom class. "You want to grab something to eat before we go home?" Tomoyo asked.

"Ah, yeah maybe." When they walked into the seemingly empty class, their eyes landed on the auburn-haired girl sleeping at her desk. She had her cheek resting on her palm, with her elbow propped up.

"Sakura?" Tomoyo asked.

Syaoran put a finger to his lips. "She's sleeping," he whispered.

"Should we wake her up?"

He grabbed the seat in front of Sakura's desk and sat backwards on it. He leaned forward towards her and watched with amusement.

"What are you doing?" Tomoyo asked with a hushed voice.

"I'm gonna push her elbow and see what happens," he said mischievously. When Tomoyo threw him a disapproving look, he said, "I'm kidding. Go home ahead of me. I'll wait till she wakes up."

Tomoyo stared at them for another moment then said goodbye.

Left alone, Syaoran sat, watching the sleeping Sakura. Propping up his own elbow on the same table, he stared silently. Unable to help it, he continued to watch her for a good five minutes when finally, her elbow started wiggling. It was going to give way. And just when it did, he motioned to catch her falling face, but she woke up then, startled and sleepy.

"Wha-…Sho?" She asked sleepily.

"Yep. Welcome back to the land of the living."

"Was I sleeping?"

"Yeah. What are you still doing here?"

"Huh? Oh I wanted to wait for you and Tomoyo." She squinted a few times, then yawned. "When did you finish the meeting?"

"Ten minutes ago. Daidouji went home already," he said, getting up and grabbing his bag from his desk.

She nodded and followed suit. "Ugh. I seriously need to sleep earlier tonight."

Syaoran turned off the lights and closed the door behind Sakura. As they walked the empty halls of the building, he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and she rested her head against him.

"You up for studying at the library today?" He asked her.

She nodded. "I want to go home and go to bed, but I have so much homework to do." She yawned again. "Thanks for waking me up."

"I didn't. I just watched you drool, then you woke yourself up."

At that, she pinched the side of his abdomen. At that, he jumped and shoved her a meter away from him. "Get away."

She threw him a look. "I did not drool."

"You did."

"I did not!"

"How would you know? You were sleeping."

After watching them secretly several ways away, Tomoyo glumly walked the opposite direction towards the field. How sucky was this. To be in love with the guy your best friend is also in love with. But even worse was that he obviously felt the same way about her. He just didn't know it.

"Tomoyo-senpai!" Some girls from the cheerleading team called to her.

She waved back half-heartedly. "Hey."

"What's wrong, Senpai?" One asked.

She shook her head. "Nothing. Do you know if the track and field team is still out there?"

"Yeah, some of them are still running laps."

"Great. See you later."

"Bye!"

Walking a few hundred meters to the field, she surveyed the view for nothing in particular. Then plopping down on grass, she watched the track and field team run lap after lap endlessly. At some point, she caught sight of Eriol looking at her direction. She waved and he came walking, the good friend that he was, towards her.

"Hey," he greeted with exhaustion. He started stretching in front of her. "What's up?"

With her cheek resting on her hand, she blew out a heavy sigh. "What am I gonna do, Eriol? I like him so much. But he obviously feels something for Sakura. I know you think there's nothing there, but you should see the two of them together. Just the two of them. They might as well be a couple. How can two friends be that close anyway? I don't believe that a guy and a girl could ever be 'just friends.' It doesn't exist!"

"We're just friends," he piped up.

"That's different," she dismissed with the wave of a hand.

"Well why don't you just tell him then?"

"I can't tell him! I would betray Sakura if I did that. And I can't do that," she thought with a deep frown. "I want him to fall in love with me."

"Unfortunately for you and me, we can't make anybody fall for us."

She glanced at him. "Why unfortunately for you? Any girl you like would easily fall for you."

"Interesting you say that."

"What?" She brushed off the grass from her skirt. "Do you know how many girls have a crush on you in this school? At least one in every class! You and Syaoran. It's insane."

He shrugged. "That doesn't mean anything if the girl I like doesn't like me back."

Tomoyo stopped and narrowed her gaze at him. "Do you like someone?"

"Yeah."

"Who!?"

He chuckled. "Why would I tell you?"

"You know who I like! That's totally unfair."

"Well, you chose to tell me. I didn't pry it out of you," he reminded lightly.

Ignoring him, she continued, "Is it someone from our class?!"

"I'm not gonna tell you, so give it up," he said.

"That means YES. Is it the girl sitting beside you? She totally has a crush on you-"

"Hiiragizawa!"

At that, both of them looked over at the field where the track and field coach stood with hands up in question.

"Yikes. Talk to you later. Just think about it, would you?" He said as he began to walk back to the field.

"Think about what?" She asked back.

"Try showing him how you feel. You're both homeroom leaders. You got plenty of chances to do it!" He waved backwards, then disappeared into the group of track and field team members gathered in front of the coach.

::: Now :::

Why she suddenly remembered that incident, she didn't know, but Tomoyo clutched onto Eriol a bit tighter. "You liked me for a long time, right?" She demanded.

"Yeah."

"Since high school?"

"Yep."

"Even when I was in love with your best friend."

"Mm."

With a little punch to his chest, she said, "Then don't give me away so easily."

At that, he tightened his hold on her. "I'm not a perfect guy. I do stupid things sometimes. But I know that. I didn't even expect you to come back, much less end up liking me."

"Stupid Eriol," she mumbled, wiping away the corners of her misty eyes. "I don't just like you. I love you."

He blinked. "What?"

"I'm stupid too. That night in your car, I just wanted to say I love you. Somehow, it ended up being a question about your ex. Maybe some stupid defense mechanism or something," she shook her head in disbelief. "I guess we belong together cos we're both equally-"

"I love you too."

She stopped.

He kissed her then. "I love you Tomoyo," he repeated.

"You're awful," she mumbled against his shirt. "Here I thought I had to prepare for a breakup. Turns out you're in love with me."

Smiling, he leaned down and kissed her again.

::::::

The group of seven sat in a restaurant, their first reunion since Hong Kong. And it was the first for Syaoran and Sakura to reveal their new relationship in public.

"Wow. It finally happened," Taka mused with a grin.

"I'm so happy for you guys," Naoko added with hearts in her eyes.

Hiro shook his head. "This is EPIC. Like a movie!"

Naoko then smiled mischievously. "So how does it feel to have Sakura as a girlfriend, Syaoran?"

"I can honestly say it's sometimes weird."

Sakura punched him.

"What's weird?" Takashi asked.

Syaoran rubbed his arm. "We've only been seeing each other a few weeks and already she knows all my secrets, my life story, everything. That's a first for me."

They laughed.

"Well. Not everything." Tomoyo added coyly.

"What do you mean?"

"I bet you two haven't kissed yet."

The simultaneous gasps from around the table turned Sakura's face even redder. With nerves suddenly going off inside of her, she threw a stare of disbelief at Tomoyo. How…how…how could she…?!

"Ah…" Not easily embarrassed or affected, Syaoran replied, "That's true."

Sakura punched him on the shoulder again.

He threw her a look. "Stop hitting me."

"Are you trying to make me regret this night? Because you're definitely succeeding," Sakura shot back.

Sympathizing, Naoko patted Sakura's shoulder. "Don't worry hon. As weird as you might think it is for us to see you two dating, it's…really not that weird. If that makes you feel any better."

"Yeah that's true," Taka added.

Sakura glanced around the table for confirmation and received nods from the rest of them. "Why not?"

"Because… you two always seemed to be meant to be together." At the oddly sweet words, the table looked over at Hiro, who had uttered them. He blinked. "What? I always thought it."

"Didn't think that ever went through your brain, Hiro," Eriol said with a laugh. "But I have to agree."

"Can you not say things like that?" Sakura asked then. When everyone looked back at her, she put her hands together in a sign of discomfort. Releasing a small breath, she continued, "I want to take this slow, whatever Syaoran and I have between us. After what happened with Kohei, I…learned that relationships aren't easy and no one can say whether two people can be together until the end except the two who are in that relationship." She swallowed. "Sorry. I don't mean to be too serious about this. I just…" When she couldn't form the right words, she looked at Syaoran.

"Just don't make our relationship into a fairy tale love story and don't expect things out of us just cos we're dating now," he then said frankly, swooping in to the rescue. "Sakura was against telling you guys, but I thought we should just be honest and lay it out there, on the condition that, if the two of us, you know, eventually end up together or eventually break up, we don't want this group – our friendship - affected at all. Do you guys understand?"

Admiring the two of them for bringing up something that would obviously affect the group's dynamic, Eriol spoke first. "It's only fair." Agreeing, the rest of them nodded in return. "Thanks for telling us."

"Yeah. We're just happy to see you two together, that's all," Taka said supportively.

"Yes. I totally understand what you're both trying to say, but at the same time," Naoko added then, "don't feel like you have to be 'just friends' around us. I want you two to feel natural…about dating each other even around us. Okay?"

At that, Sakura smiled. "It might take me some time, but okay."

"Glad that went smoothly," Syaoran said with a grin, leaning back against his seat again. "And you were stressed out about it all night," he teased, bumping Sakura's shoulder with his.

:::

At the end of the night, when everyone began to separate ways, Tomoyo and Eriol were the last to say goodbye to Syaoran and Sakura as they walked to Eriol's car hand-in-hand.

When they were out of sight, Syaoran turned around and faced Sakura. "What should we do?"

She laughed. "What do you mean? Let's go home. It's already 11," she yawned.

"Aw, but it's only Saturday. Let's go for a walk."

Unwilling, she groaned. "Why? You're not tired yet?"

"Come on," he urged, tugging her hand. "Just half an hour."

"I'm so sleepy, Sho. I drank more than I should've tonight."

Disappointed, he said, "Seriously?"

She nodded, patting his chest. "Sorry."

He sighed. "Fine."

Taking her hand anyway, they walked to his car. Sakura studied the way he held her hand in his. His grip was strong, not too tight, not too loose. Sometimes, he'd only grip a few of her fingers, but he never let go. She smiled, wrapping her hand more tightly around his.

When Syaoran slowly drove in the driveway of Sakura's apartment, he parked the car. "We're here," he said. When she didn't respond, he looked over at the passenger seat. She was dead asleep, a slightly open mouth and a bit of drool running down the corner of her mouth. It was an unattractive sight, but one much too familiar for him. He watched her for another moment with an amused smile on his face and then he tapped her forehead. When she woke up with a start, her green eyes blinked several times, disoriented.

"Ugh did I fall asleep?" She asked. Then realizing the corner of her mouth was wet, she wiped it quickly. "Oh I totally drooled." Then she looked up into his brown eyes. "And you saw it."

"Yup."

Her nose scrunched up. "Sorry."

He chuckled. "Part of life."

She slapped his cheek playfully. "Don't be smart. Walk me up?"

"'Course."

Still sleepy, she leaned against him as he walked her to her apartment suite. When they got to the elevator, she rested her cheek and arms on his chest. "You're warm," she murmured. "And I'm so sleepy. It's not even funny."

Feeling his chest tighten at this unusually vulnerable Sakura, he wrapped both arms around her, cradling her against him like a baby. "No one's laughing."

"Sorry we haven't kissed yet."

Oh she was probably tipsy, he realized. The normal, awake Sakura wouldn't even mention it. He sighed silently. "That's all right. Everything will happen at some point."

"Yeah."

When the elevator doors opened, he said, "We have to start walking now, Sakuchin. Just a few more steps to your door."

"Oh ok."

Like a little child, he led her to her apartment door. Knowing she kept a spare key inside her mailbox, he found it and led her into her suite. Inside, Sakura opened her eyes again.

"Oh I'm home."

He chuckled. "Yes you are. Take your shoes off."

As she did so, she looked up at him. "Sorry I fell asleep on you. Did I drool on you?"

"I hope not."

"Ok. I'll call you tomorrow? Or you'll call me?"

He nodded. "Go to bed. I'll see you tomorrow."

She nodded, standing at the entrance, looking at him with eyes half-open. "Bye." When he made no motion to leave, her head angled to the side. "Hmm?"

For a moment, he just kept staring at her. Then he stepped closer to her. "Are you really half-asleep right now?"

She smiled sleepily. "Yes."

"Fine." He then leaned down and kissed her cheek, like the way he'd done on the day she fell for him, only this time not so loudly, but gently. And for a longer time. Then he stepped back. "Night Sakura." Without looking at her again, he left her suite, closing the door behind him firmly.

Resting his back against her door, he let out a breath. Staring up at the starry sky, he continued to feel the fast, uneasy pulse at the base of his jaw. He wanted to kiss her. It was the first time for him to feel it. But…not tonight. Not when she was half-asleep. Another time. At the right time, he reminded himself.

A/N: Sorry this took some time to come out! I hope you enjoyed it!