RECAP: Okay last chapter Sakura found out that Aruka, this freako lady, was living in Uncle Guan’s house, and had been trying to kill Sakura. Sakura got caught by her but she ran away, and Syaoran and her took a train to some place. They fought the Fight card and several other loose cards, and Syaoran ended up getting stabbed in the stomach (poor fellow), so they go back home. (they had been trying to run away from Aruka) Sakura finds out that Aruka is her mom’s murderer, but then Touya accuses Sakura of starting all that stuff. That’s about where this comes in....

Chapter 15-Crashing Parties

Syaoran awoke to the phone ringing. The room he was in was filled with red sunlight, but Syaoran knew he had slept for a long time. Had he really slept from sunrise to sunset? He remembered when he had fallen asleep the sun had just risen, so that seemed the only logical explination. Syaoran tried to close his eyes and get back to his much deserved sleep, but the phone continued to ring. Syaoran sighed loudly. "Meilin!" He yelled, hoping she’d get up and answer the phone.

He heard thudding footsteps and the phone stopped ringing. He could hear Meilin’s faint voice. "Well he is lying in bed, sick. Okay, I see, but he’s in bed, don’t you have any compassion? What do you mean you don’t care!? What kind of a sick person are you- No! I will not lower my voice, Syaoran has been through more than you could understand you-"

Syaoran had gotten to his feet and ran dizzily in to the living room to tear the phone out of Meilin’s hand before she could finish her insult. "Hello?" He said breathlessly.

"Li Syaoran?" A stern voice on the other line said. Syaoran groaned inwardly. It was the pizza place’s manager. Syaoran had forgotten completly about calling in sick, that hadn’t been at the top of his priority list.

"Yes." He said dully.

"At our restaurant (Syaoran holds back a snicker) we have a policy Mr. Li. Now I am quite positive I give all my workers a chance to fully understand this policy, I make myself quite clear when I tell everyone about this. This policy is that if you are sick, you call in sick. Now any person with a fully functional brain can comprehend this rule, do you feel you are an exception?"

Syaoran was relaxing on the couch, half-zoning out. "Uh, no."

"Very well then. Would you feel obliged to explain to me why you haven’t reported your three absences? We are all very anxious to hear."

Syaoran held back a sigh. "I am sorry sir, I must have let my mind slip." He said through closed teeth.

"Mind slip. I see. Well in the real world, there is no time for ‘mind slips’. If your mind choses to slip again, you will no longer hold a position in this company. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, crystal." Syaoran said monotonously.

"Very well. I will expect to see you tommorrow for your regular hours?"

"I suppose." Syaoran said, hopping up on his feet and walking to the phone’s charger. His boss hung up abruptly, and Syaoran set the phone down on the stand, irritated. fully functional brain my ass those people are brainwashed. Tommorrow’s going to be awful, I am not sure if I can really walk around for a whole day...

Meilin was watching him carefully. "Who was that?"

Syaoran shrugged. "Just - uh, the guy that works at the plastic place- um Trent’s brother. Wanted to tell me the conditions of getting the cans and,... er, stuff." Syaoran said, drinking down a glass of milk.

Meilin shook her head and plopped down on the couch. "You should call your mother when you have the chance, she’s called at least three times for you."

Syaoran sighed and walked slowly towards his room. "Yeah, I will when I get the chance." He said drearily. Syaoran shivered and quickly sat himself down on his bed, pulling at his blankets till he got them where he wanted them. I should really call Sakura, also. Make sure she’s alright. But...I bet she’s fine. I’d probably interrupt her or something. Syaoran pitifully reasoned with himself, until his eye lids sealed over and he was asleep again, but he was kept unsettled with his dreams.....

"Starcrossed love, just like I was bound in fate to be in." Something was saying, though he couldn’t see the source of the voice.

Syaoran’s dream faded into blackness again, and he slept, undisturbed by the images that had been in front of him. Another tormenting picture started to form in his mind, and his sleep was tortured by his boss’s relentless lectures.

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Sakura locked the gate with her fingers, then immediatly put them into her sleeves to warm them back up, because the cold metal of the gate had ice and snow on it, which were very cold to her bare skin.

Moondust snorted at being seperated from Sakura, then trotted indignantly off, leaving Sakura to face her own troubles. Sakura felt stupid for running off as she had, for now she had cooled down remarkably, and she was ready to head back home. It was about sunset, and it was starting to get cold outside. She wanted to get home before dark.

Sakura knew her father would be worried about her, and she hoped Touya was regretting his words, though she doubted he could, because he had sounded so ardent when saying them. She did not want to face the horrible murder scene. Sakura hoped the police had not been brought into the situation, because the next thing she’d know people would be spreading rumors about her family. Plus there was the danger factor, she had no idea what had made Aruka run away, but whatever it was must of been pretty bad and horrible. And if Aruka came back, she’d surely not hesitate in killing the rest of Sakura’s family, would she?

All in all, Sakura didn’t want to go home at all. The only thing that made her keep walking was the cold darkness she didn’t want to be stuck outside and alone in. She wanted to sit in her father’s lap and cry for a good hour, then she’d consider feeling better.

Sakura had spent most of the day crying, not for herself but for everyone else. She felt horribly for Syaoran and his stab wound, and felt bad for just leaving him at his apartment and not staying to help take care of him. Still, she had to go home, she knew that she had to face this sometime.

Sakura was cold already from trudging through the snow, so she took out her working cards. "Dash, help me reach home more quickly!" Sakura spun her staff around then brought it down on the card. She gathered herself off and started running, keeping herself deep on the side of the road, going through woods and fields if she could. Almost immediatly she found herself at the end of her driveway.

Never before had her house looked so dark, but never before did she have the urgency to have to go inside. So Sakura stared down at the shadowed snow and forced her legs on, trying to keep positive despite the heavy weight that weighed at her shoulders and made her slouch. Maybe Uncle Guan is just fine, it was some kind of joke or something? It couldn’t of really happened, I am sure I was just exagerating everything in my mind. Touya’s probably laughing his head off, come to think of it.

Sakura pushed the ton weighing door open and stepped into the dark and silent entry room. She couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in her ears. She shut it quietly behind her, as if afraid to break the silence, and stepped timidly forward. "Hello?" She called out softly.

Sakura set her outside coat down on the coat tree and looked around, noticing the dim light coming from the kitchen. She walked cowardously towards it, slinking against the wall. she hoped it was her family that had the light on, not someone else.

Sakura flattened herself along the wall and peered around the corner. She saw her father, sitting wearily with his hand stuck in his hair, having a coffee cup in front of him. Touya was standing and staring blankly off into space. Chindra was sitting in the room also, looking completly torn apart. Her usual calm expression was wrecked, and a frantic one took its place. Sakura looked hopefully for Uncle Guan, but he was not in his usual chair on the table, there was no cup of tea waiting for him. Sakura’s eyes watered momentarily, but she squeezed them dry and then took a deep breath. This was going to be a horrible entrance.

She stepped into the room and her father was the first to acknowledge she was even there. He stood up and walked over to her, smiling, though his usual smile full of love showed hints of distress. "I am glad to see you, Sakura-chan. Are you alright?"

All her fought back tears were trying to rush out all too fast. Sakura’s lip quivered, and she nodded her head silently, frowning intensly with pain. "Uncle...Uncle G-guan?" Sakura said with her wavering voice.

Her father hugged her close, and Sakura took it gratefully. "He is gone, Sakura." He father said softly. Sakura sobbed, she couldn’t hold it back, the reality hit her and she reacted the only way she knew how.

Touya stood solemnly at the counter, staring out the window, and Chindra had fresh tears fall from her eyes, Sakura’s sadness rekindling her own. Sakura stepped back from her father’s arms. "We can’t stay- I mean- ,...Can they find her? The police? Can they trek her down and put her in jail?"

Her father shook his head. "We don’t even know where to start looking." His face turned gravely serious. "We want to keep quiet about this Sakura-chan. No one is to know how he died, do you understand? We’d rather them assume he died of age, not have rumors flying this way and that about murder."

Sakura cringed, but nodded. "I understand." She said weakly.

Her father continued. "Try and keep quiet about our move back, we’re going to move houses as quickly as possible. That way she can’t find us. Do you understand?"

Sakura nodded, though she was having trouble surpressing the shakes of fear that were plaguing her.

Her father smiled grimly then took her up again. "I wish you hadn’t had to see any of this; I wish none of us had seen this."

Sakura had regained control of her tears and were forcing themselves to build up for a time she could release them privately. "I am sure everything will work out." Sakura said hopefully, though she knew her words sounded silly and insignificant to everyone else in the room.

She did not want to linger in the room any longer, for she could hardly bear meeting eyes with Touya. His thoughts remained unchanged, she could tell, by looking in his eyes. She felt guilty whenever she glanced over at Chindra, even though Sakura knew she couldn’t have prevented it. "I am going to my room." Sakura said. She quietly turned and exited the room, walking up the foreboding carpeted stairs.

I wonder where Kero is, anyway? Sakura peered into her room and found him playing Space Destroyers. "You should start packing up, we’re going to move back to the house."

Kero barely acknowledged her, so absorbed into his game. Sakura sighed and continued. "Kero, where were you? Did you see all that just happened?"

Kero nodded, though his eyes were still locked and mesmorized on the TV. "KERO! This is important! People are dying, and all you can think about is some stupid nintendo game? I need GUIDANCE!"

Kero pressed pause, and turned blankly. "Huh? What, I am sorry. Guidance for what?"

Sakura rolled her eyes and stomped out of the room. Kero was going to be of no help. Sakura wanted to dig into her family history, try and get to the bottom of this scandal before it got to her. Sakura looked up and down the broad hallway. She had no idea where to start.

The phone rang. Sakura ignored it, and continued thinking. She was disrupted when her father called from downstairs. "Sakura-chan! Phone call!"

Sakura sighed again and headed downstairs quickly. She took the phone from her father when she got there, then walked out of the room before speaking. "Hello?"

"Hi Sakura! This is Rika calling. I’s just callin to remind you we are meeting at Penguin Park at three this Friday. You can still go, right?"

Sakura looked down at her watch, but it didn’t really help her, because she needed a calendar. Oh yeah! Mark’s party, I completly forgot. Am I really going to have time or spirit to do all this sabotaging stuff? "Uh, yeah I think so." The line went dead for a second, when Sakura realized that she was still on the phone. "Well listen, I’m sorry but I am really busy. I’ll talk to you later then?"

"Oh, yeah sure! See you Friday! Bye!"

"Bye!" Sakura clicked the phone off, then clipped it to her pocket. She might call Tomoyo in a little while, she could use some consoling.

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"Ow, dammit!" Syaoran grumbled as he pulled back his hand. He had immediatly been demoted to pizza maker when he had gotten to work, so here he was, safe away from the grouchy customers but confronted with another hazard. The grease on the pizzas was about eight hundred degrees, and it didn’t feel to good on bare skin.

Syaoran was sad to see he already had burn marks on his hands from handling the wretched things, and then on top of everything his boss had been on him all day about this that and the other. Syaoran was about to blow, literally, and anyone within a mile radius should be on their gaurd, because it was going to be one big explosion.

His coworker who had been promoted to cashier buzzed back to get some change she had left on the counter. "Be careful, that stuff’s hot." She said.

Syaoran grunted in response and glared at the pizza. He promised himself right then and there that whenever he got himself a real job, it would never be in foods. Syaoran looked folornly at the clock. Another four hours to go. think- for Moondust, for Moondust! I am going to finally have that horse once and for all, and I’ll look back and think- oh yeah, I worked for a month at a pizza place, big deal.

His boss entered the room, holding a clipboard. Syaoran glanced up at him then went back to waiting on the pizza in the oven. His boss scribbled down something, then stood squarely. Syaoran sighed, he didn’t like this whole scribbling thing; who knew what he was writing about him in there. The oven dinged and Syaoran pulled out the next pizza, being slightly more careful in his handling it. He set it down and heard more pencil scribbles. Syaoran made a point to give a good glare at his boss before setting the pizza out onto the shelf.

His boss made a ‘hmm’ sound. Syaoran turned and looked at him. "What?" Syaoran asked.

His boss looked up from his clipboard trying to be surprised. "What? Oh, uh, nothing. Just something interesting, that’s all." He looked back to his clipboard and started humming.

Syaoran was all the more enraged. "What’s so interesting?"

His boss looked up from his clipboard again, "Oh nothing. I am just evaluating you." He said.

Syaoran grit his teeth. He would have liked to set his temper loose on him, but the upcoming prospect of his last paycheck momentarily cooled him. "I see." Syaoran said through clenched teeth. He turned and started on the next pizza. One more week. One more week. One more week. Lunch break! I completly forgot! How could I!? After this pizza, I am taking a break!

After Syaoran fixed that pizza up and cooked it, he told his coworker where he was going, then snuck out of the door. He was really supposed to stay in the pizza place while on break, but Syaoran didn’t really care. He could use some distance between himself and that...that place. Syaoran set himself out of sight in the food court and looked around. He wasn’t really hungry, but he could use some energy. The spell he had put on himself to keep his pain down on his gash was starting to wear off, and his physical energy along with it.

I wonder how Sakura is doing? She spent her first night at that house last night. I hope nothing happened. I really should’ve called her yesterday when I had the chance. Too bad. I guess I could call her now, but I don’t really want to...who am I kidding, it’s just a business call, right? Well why should I call her? If something was wrong, she’d call me. Yeah, no problem here then. Well...It couldn’t hurt to call...yes it would, my pride could be severly damaged. The battle going on in Syaoran’s mind was almost too loud for his own ears. I’ll call her tommorrow. Definitely. Okay, that’s settled. Now I could use something to drink...Syaoran got up and walked a bit stiffly to the nearest restaurant. Three hours and fifty minutes to go.

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Sakura set down another blanket on the side of her old room. Her window was completly repaired, but every time she’d look at the window and see the new glass, she’d think of the ghost. Her room seemed alot smaller than she remembered, or maybe that was just because her room at the mansion house was so much bigger. Sakura missed the dojo already, along with the stream room and the awesome hallways, but she was thankful for the extra security her house held. Touya and her had made numerous trips back to the mansion to get their stuff, which seemed to build up at some point in time, because they left with alot more then they came with.

On top of that, Sakura was trying to decorate a little bit for Christmas, which was only a few days away. Her family wasn’t exactly in the Christmas spirit; neither was she, but she still felt obligated to decorate. Kero was trying to help in her room as he chewed on some old candy he had had stashed in this room for the past two months. Sakura warned them that the food might be past expiration, but Kero would have none of her warnings, and kept chowing down on the gross rock hard foods.

Chindra was there too. She had no place to go at the present, so her father offered her their spare bedroom for a while. Chindra took it hesitantly, Sakura knew she didn’t really feel ecstatic about living with a family she hardly knew. Sakura was a bit nervous around her, though she knew Chindra hadn’t killed her Uncle, she remembered that Syaoran had said she was Aruka’s youngest daughter.

Sakura clambered down the stairs and looked to the kitchen where her father was making a late dinner. All the moving through the day had forced them to eat late. Sakura wasn’t as hungry as she was tired, really. Her father had the radio on, and Sakura like the song that was playing, so she walked over and turned it up. Sakura walked to the counter, her mood a bit lifted by the upbeat music. "What are you making?" She asked.

Her father turned from the stove. "Well I was trying to make a fish dish but it just won’t work.!" Her father looked very frustrated. "Maybe we can order some take out somewhere?"

Sakura nodded, then grinned. "I know a good pizza place. Will someone take me to the mall?"

Her father sighed. "All the way to the mall? Is it a special kind of pizza or something?"

Sakura half nodded. "Yeah, it’s, uh, really good." She gave a convincing smile.

Her father sighed. "I guess. I need to got some things in the postal office anyway. Come on, we’ll go ahead now."

Sakura nodded and grabbed her coat. She had been wanting to talk to Syaoran, but she never had the time to call him. Sakura jogged out energeticaly to the car.

________________________________________________________________

Sakura looked around at the mall. All the people buzzing about made Sakura cheer up even more. She had been dismal and depressed for the past three or so days, and being with all these people with the nice music playing helped her mood alot. She looked at the money she had in her hand and made sure she had enough then looked up at her dad. "I’ll come back here if I get done first. I’ll be in the foodcourt, if you want to find me." Sakura said to her dad.

Her father nodded and went into the post office. Sakura walked energetically away, she was free! She had brought some extra money for herself, she could use some chocolate. Kero had eaten most of hers, the mean little bugger. I wonder if Syaoran will be working already? He shouldn’t be, his stomach needs time to heal, but knowing him, he’s probably been working since he got back. I wouldn’t mind running into him, anyway, there’s a ton of stuff for me to tell him.

Sakura rounded the corner and turned to the counter of the pizza place. A girl with short blonde hair a little older than Sakura was chewing a big wad of bubble gum and drumming her long nails on the counter. Sakura was dispirited; where was Syaoran? She shoved the thoughts away, she was here to get pizza. Sakura ordered the three larges her father sent her to order, then leaned on the counter, it would be a while before they were all finished.

Sakura stared off into space, propping her elbow on the counter and leaning her head on her hand. I guess he’s still recovering. I hope he’s okay. I’ll call him tonight when I get home, if it’s not too late.

A tap on her shoulder made Sakura jump. She turned around and met Syaoran’s bright eyes. "Oh, hi! I was hoping to see you!" She said.

Syaoran screwed his face up with mock disgust. "You would actually buy one of our pizzas?"

Sakura frowned. "Why not?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Nevermind. I just threw yours in the oven, so I can’t stay out here long."

"Are you feeling okay? Seriously, is it healing up alright?" Sakura asked, feeling debted to make sure he recovered properly.

"Yeah, I am okay. I’m here aren’t I?" Syaoran said with an obvious look of irritation and depression.

Sakura sighed, he said he didn’t have alot of time, but she was horribly anxious to tell him all that had happened. "Alot has happened since I got home." Sakura said quietly.

Syaoran could see the obvious change in her tone of voice. "What happened?"

Sakura opened her mouth to start, but her father was rounding the corner. Sakura looked over at him, as did Syaoran. He smiled warmly at both of them. "Hello Li Syaoran. How are you tonight?"

Syaoran did his best at a formal smile. "I am well, thank you."

Her father held his smile and looked at Sakura. "Have you ordered yet?"
Sakura nodded. "Yeah, they should be almost ready."

A pale looked went over Syaoran’s face. "I, uh, gotta go." Syaoran said quickly, then rushed around the corner. Sakura hoped her father hadn’t noticed Syaoran was wearing the pizza place’s work uniform, he might guess at why she wanted to go to this particular pizza place.

The blonde haired girl came walking out with three boxes of pizza. She got the money for them, then returned to her chewing bubble gum and drumming her finger nails phase.

"That Li boy always seems to leave in a hurry." Sakura’s father said as they walked towards the doors.

Sakura smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess."

"Well I am sure Touya will finish his whole pizza; maybe you and I will share with Chindra, huh?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah." I’ll have to call Syaoran tonight-but then again he’s probably at work until like eleven. I don’t want to call his house that late. I wish he’d call me. I think I’ll wait until tommorrow at least.

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Sakura set her feet down on the floor. It was only dawn, the sun still had to rise, but she hadn’t had very good sleep, so she decided to get up early and make pancakes or something. Kero was sound asleep in his drawer. Sakura was carefully not to make any noise as she tiptoed out of her room and headed down the hallway. It was Friday, and she still hadn’t talked to Syaoran. He hadn’t called, like she had been hoping, and Sakura was a bit mad at him for that. She would definitely get a chance to talk to him today, because they were having another meeting about Mark’s party at Penguin Park.

Sakura looked outside. The snow glowed blue from the grey twilight set in the sky. Sakura liked the subdued look. She decided she wanted to go outside, not for a long time, but just for a little walk.

I wonder if Syaoran still trains at Penguin Park in the morning? Sakura left her robe outfit on, but put a coat over it, and put on her thickest insulated boots. She quietly opened the kitchen door that led to their front yard and stepped into the almost knee deep snow. Sakura had a hard time getting to the plowed sidewalk, because the snow was heavy and made it hard for her to pick up her feet. Sakura started walking towards Penguin Park, enjoying the covering shade of the twilight.

She could already see the Penguin slide in the distance, it was looming high and dark with it’s large mass. Sakura stepped a little faster, she didn’t want to miss Syaoran.
Sakura reached the park and stepped through the snow once more, looking for foot prints she might recognize. There were several prints going into the woods, but Sakura could see no one through the bare trees. I didn’t think he’d be here anyway; he’s still needing to recover before he can start his training again.

Sakura walked over and brushed off a swing then sat down. Her feet were very close to the ground because of the high snow, and it was impossible for her to swing right. Sakura got down and threw the swing over the bar to make it higher. Sakura had to climb up onto it, but now her feet were dangling like they should be. It was slowly getting lighter outside, and Sakura was glaring at the first rays of sunlight. She wanted to head home before it got to late in the morning, or her family would be worried about her.

It was stupid to expect him to be here. But still, I thought he was at least a little bit concerned...? I guess not. Sakura hopped down from her swing and walked out of the park, stepping onto the plowed sidewalk. Maybe he’s really busy or something, who knows it’s not my place to be angry with him. But is it? If he is really my friend, he’d be worried about me, right? Sakura sighed. I shouldn’t hang on whether he’s concerned or not; I am more independent than that.

Sakura walked absently the rest of the way to her house. Though she tried to keep it away, a grudge was developing against Syaoran. He could at least call. There’s no excuse for that! Sakura let herself into her house and was surprised to see Chindra was standing at the kitchen stove. It was still around seven thirty, Sakura figured everyone would still be asleep.

Chindra just smiled. "I making pancakes, you want some?"

Sakura nodded happily. She got out of making breakfeast for today. "Yeah, I’ll help. We’ve got chocolate chips somewhere." Sakura walked over to the counter and started ravaging through the cabinents.

She pulled out a yellow bag triumpantly. "Here they are!" Sakura set them down.

"Chocolate in pancakes? They going to be as cookies!" Chindra said.

Sakura shrugged sheepishly. "But they are very good like that!"

Chindra smiled and opened the bag, pouring a small healthy amount into the batter. Sakura looked with dismay at the small number she had put in. "That’s not even enough for one chip per pancake!" Sakura picked the bag up and poured it in, loading the batter with thousands of chips. Chindra watched with wide-eyes.

"Don’t worry, they’ll taste great, I promise! I love making pancakes; I make them like this all the time." Sakura said.

Chindra just stared. "If you speak so."

Sakura smiled. "Say so, not speak. What are you doing today?"

Chindra poured a bit of batter onto the pan. "Uh...nothing planned. But I don’t want to bother. You- bother you I mean."

Sakura shook her head. "Do you want to go with me and Tomoyo to see a movie today? We are going around noon if you want to come."

Chindra flipped the pancake over perfectly and looked back to Sakura. "Sounds fun. You sure? I will not bother you?"

Sakura shook her head. "No not at all!"

Chindra smiled broadly, her face glowing. "Cool!" She said through her thick accent.

Sakura looked upstairs. "I am gonna go change out of my pajamas. Keep some pancakes for me!" Sakura jogged out of the kitchen and up the stairs. She had planned to meet Tomoyo around eleven, go to the movies, and from there go straight to Penguin Park for the meeting, but she was sure Tomoyo wouldn’t mind taking Chindra along as well- they could drop Chindra off just before they went to the park.

Sakura opened her door to find Kero planted in front of her fixed TV. Space Destroyer music was playing quietly in the backround. Sakura sighed and walked over to her closet, unnoticed. She looked through for a good outfit and grabbed her extra long sleeved shirt and long pants that’s bottoms were frayed from being walked on. Sakura took these with her to the bathroom along with her still packed toothbrush to get ready.

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"So are we all in this, then? I mean I don’t want to show up at his party and none of you are there." Meilin said.

Rika nodded. "I will definitely be there, along with the rest of you, right?" She gave a mean glare to the circle of kids - trying to intimidate them out of saying no. "Yes." They all said in unison.

"Okay. Now we have to distribute jobs." Rika said. "Tamakazi, you are in charge of screwing up the music." She looked at Trent. "Trent and Tomoyo, I thought you could switch the whipped cream cans; it’ll be pretty tough, but you’re the least suspicious. Meilin, you and Chihura can sabotage the food with pop rocks. That’ll give some people a scare. Sakura, if you don’t care, you have to keep Mark distracted- he seems to notice you the most. Syaoran, you’re going to be everyone elses’ cover-make sure no one’s getting suspicious. Are those jobs okay with everyone?"

Syaoran tried not to glare at Rika and Sakura. Mark’s distraction? That’s so cheap why does she have to do it? Syaoran shuffled his feet in the snow. He was dying to talk to Sakura about what had happened, but he had to wait until the meeting was over before he could talk to her about it. He still had to think about how he was going to get rid of Meilin so he could talk with Sakura openly; Meilin still didn’t know about the ghost thing or Aruka or anything else, though she was highly suspicious. He was dimly aware of everyone saying ‘okay’ to Rika since he was busy formulating a plan.

Sakura glanced over at Syaoran. He hadn’t attempted to talk to her yet, it seemed like he was biding his time. Sakura looked back up at Rika. "I think that’s it, then." Said Rika. "We’ll all be here Wednesday at six then?"

"Yes." Everyone said.

"Then this meeting is adjourned. Merry Christmas everyone!" Rika said. The rest of them returned the ‘merry Christmas’ to the others, then people started to scatter.

Meilin grabbed Syaoran’s arm. "Let’s go ride Moondust!"

Syaoran sighed. "My stomach still hurts," he lied. He had been putting healing spells on it the past few nights with the recovery of his magic, and was feeling much better. His magic was almost all the way full again, and he was anxious to be able to use some of it since he had it, but there was no where for him to use it; magic isn’t one of those things you go using on the streets.

"Oh no! It does? Well come on, we can ride the bus home." Meilin said.

Syaoran sighed. It was going to be hard to lose Meilin. Meilin started dragging him away, and Syaoran had no choice but to follow. Syaoran gave one more sad glance at Sakura, who was watching him leave with confusion and a bit of sorrow.

She probably thinks I am really insensitive or something. That’s just great. Well it’s not my fault, we can’t talk with Meilin around anyway, she knows that. Still, Syaoran knew he was being chicken. I’ll call her when I get home. Definitely. Or I can sneak out of the house- that’d be the cooler thing to do. Yeah. I’ll do that. Syaoran followed Meilin around the corner of the sidewalk, listening to their friends’ voices fade off in the distance.

"Meilin we are going to end up walking longer looking for a stop then we would if we’d just walk home." Syaoran said.

Meilin stopped walking and looked around at the road. "I suppose." She said finally, her pride a bit damaged. They turned and started backtracking their way to the apartment building. Jogging footsteps made Meilin turn her head.

Sakura came jogging up beside them, her breath coming fast in the cold air. Kero was hanging on to her pocket. "Hey!" She said cheerfully, her smile illuminating.

Meilin gave her a polite smile. "Hi Kinomoto. What are you doing?"

Sakura shrugged, keeping her smile, while Kero had already begun a staredown with Syaoran silently atop Sakura’s shoulder. "Just wanted to see how he’s healing." Sakura said.

Meilin’s eyes lit up with rememberance. "WHAT HAPPENED!? You can’t just drop Syaoran off at my door with some MORTAL STAB WOUND and figure I’ll take him back without any questions! You guys owe me a long story!"

Sakura bit her lip. "uh..." She had been forcing herself to be cheery, because she felt bad for holding a grudge against Syaoran even though she might have had a good reason behind it. Now it was becoming a chore, to keep cheery while Meilin was scolding her. Sakura contemplated using magic to move or return Meilin back to her apartment, but the Move didn’t work, and it took a ton of magic to use the Return.

"Listen here, brat’s girlfriend- (Meilin took a tiny bit of satisfaction by assuming Kero was refering to her as Syaoran’s girlfriend) You have no right to talk to a cardmistress, let alone boss her around! One day she might get sick of you and blast you into oblivion!" Kero said, tearing himself away from the rough staredown.

Meilin was going flushed with rage. "I’ll show you what rights I hold you little stuffed animal!" Meilin lept at Kero with such ferocity that all three (Kero, Meilin, and Sakura) went diving into the snow. Sakura rolled away quickly, while Meilin struggled to keep Kero smothered. Sakura looked up from the snow at Syaoran, who was watching it all with a superior kind of amusement. Sakura got up and stood next to him, facing the two fighters.

Syaoran shook his head. "Meilin’s going to be in trouble when he transforms and she’s got him in her hands."

Kero did just that, and Meilin watched with fear as the tables turned. Keroberus pinned her down in triumph. "Who’s a stuffed animal? I’m sorry- do you think, could you say that one more time? I am not sure my ears were functioning at the time."

Meilin stared up sheepishly. "K-k-keroberus?"

Sakura laughed. "She hasn’t seen Kero transform before, huh?"

Syaoran shook his head. "Nope-" He cut his sentence short, as he noticed a few adults walking down the sidewalk. "Hey, Meilin, Kero get up!"

Meilin and Kero both looked around from their positions and spotted the unsuspecting walkers. Keroberus’s wings came up and he quickly transformed, as Meilin hurried to her feet and brushed off some snow that was on her pants. She smiled sheepishly at Syaoran and Sakura. Kero fluttered into Sakura’s pocket, taking just enough time to stick his tongue out at both Syaoran and Meilin before falling out of veiw. Sakura started walking with them again.

"Well anyway, I just wanted to wish you guys a good Christmas, seeing it’s tommorrow and all." Sakura said.

Meilin nodded. "Well thanks." She turned sarcastic. "So where is our bag of presents?"

Sakura took her seriously, being the gullible person she was. "Oh, uh..." Sakura realized she was joking and quickly ripped the panicked look off her face. "I guess they’re hanging out with the presents you got for me."

Meilin shook her head with a smile. "Well I tell you what, if you give me ten minutes in a empty room with Kero and a pair of boxing gloves, I’ll give you a free fighting lesson."

Sakura smiled. "Sure, you’ll have to keep Kero from roaring too loud though- when he gets mad the whole neighborhood hears him."

Meilin shrugged. "Well you guys have that dojo in your house, don’t you? Plus that house is out in the boonies, no one would be close enough to hear Kero’s cries of pain."

Sakura looked down at her feet. "Oh, uh, we moved back. To my old house, I mean."

Syaoran was now listening to her with surprise. She moved back? Why? Why does she look so dispirited when she says that? Something big was up - Syaoran had been wrong not to call her when she had tried to talk to him at the mall.

Meilin had hardly any of the concerns Syaoran had; she had other ones. "Oh that sucks! I wanted to train in there - it’d be really good to spar in, right Syaoran?"

She looked at Syaoran for a response, though he seemed to be off in la la land. "Huh? Oh, yeah, right." He said quickly, making sure to meet Sakura’s eyes with a questioning look before going back to staring off ahead of them as they walked.

Meilin sighed loudly and looked at the snow. "I hate this snow! You can’t do anything in it!"

Sakura nodded. "Some snow is pretty, but this is just annoying! You can’t even walk in it without getting completly exhausted."

They had reached the apartment complex, and Meilin stopped at the edge of the parking lot. "Well I will take you up on that beat Kero up offer sometime. Merry Christmas."

Sakura smiled, holding her pocket tight where Kero struggled to be set loose on Meilin. "Merry Christmas Meilin! Merry Christmas Syaoran!" She said, waving with her free arm as Meilin and Syaoran continued across the parking lot.

Syaoran turned his head just slightly with surprise at hearing his name, then just offered a small wave, occupying himself from keeping the light blush down. Meilin grabbed his arm and leaned into him as she walked, though Syaoran was practically walking sideways to get out of her grip. "I hope you got me something good for Christmas! If you didn’t get me anything, that’s okay, just a sample of your passionate affection for me would be nice once and a while..." She said dreamily.

Syaoran managed to squirm out of her grasp. "Please, Meilin...!"

Meilin shrugged innocently and skipped away by herself into the complex and up to their apartment. Syaoran stepped into the lobby and was glad to be warmed immediatly by the hot fans that blew down from the entry way. He looked with disgust at the small pizza place that was in the lobby, then clambered up the stairs and walked into the small apartment.

Meilin was putting a CD into their stereo. Some techno song came on exstremly loud, Syaoran glared at her from the doorway. He shut the door behind himself and then realized that this was the perfect opportunity to call Sakura. Meilin started running aroun and singing the lyrics horribly. "Can you sleep alright with this on?" Meilin shouted over the music.

Syaoran grabbed the phone behind his back. "Yeah." He yelled drearily, heading for his room. He shut the door behind him and was thankful for the rest it gave his ears. He could still hear Meilin’s lunitic rantings and the bass and drums of the song were coming audibly through the walls, but it was pretty quiet in his room.

Syaoran sighed and stared at the phone. I am such a baby. If I want to talk to her, I should just call her, what’s the big deal? With that in mind, Syaoran determinedly dialed her number (which he had unconsciously had imprinted in his brain since about fifth grade) and sat down on the side of his bed.

It rang for a while, only dragging on the suspense, then finally the other line picked up, very fuzzy. "Hello?" Sakura’s voice came through, very broken up.

Syaoran hated himself for calling, introductories were always so awkward. "Sakura?" He responded back.

Sakura’s line was fuzzy for a second, then it cleared up slightly. "Oh, hi (Sakura kept from saying his name, for Kero was still hanging out on her shoulder.)!"

Syaoran didn’t want the introductories to go on any longer, so he cut to the chase. "So you moved?" He asked.

"What?" Sakura shouted over her staticy phone. "Sorry, hang on, we’re in the woods." Sakura said.

Syaoran leaned against the wall behind his bed and stretched his legs out. The fuzz was very loud on the phone, so he held it away from his ear. In his other ear he could hear Meilin singing some unintelligible jibberish. (..You! baby oooo! The wall treeeees!) Syaoran’s eyes threatened to drift shut, but the absense of fuzz on the phone made him snap back to attention.

"Okay, sorry about that. I haven’t gotten home yet." (Syaoran kicks himself mentally) "But yeah, we moved. Uh...let’s see where do I start?..." Sakura said.

Kero’s voice popped into the phone’s range. "Who ya talkin to?"

Sakura held the phone tightly in her hand. She didn’t want to lie, but she didn’t want to tell Kero it was his worst enemy. "No one of your interest."

"Is it Tomoyo!? Hi Tomoyo! I hope you’re baking those Christmas cookies like I asked!" Kero shouted louder.

Sakura pushed him down from the phone’s microphone. This was hopeless. Sakura looked to her last hope. "Oh my gosh Kero, I think I just saw a guy go in that doughnut shop! Hurry, see if it’s still open! I’ll be there in a sec!" Sakura said, pointing to a very deserted looking store.

Kero, generally not gullible, was over ecstatic to hurry over by himself at the prospect of getting fresh doughnuts. Sakura sighed and quickly apologized. "Sorry, he’s been grouching about...about you guys the whole way home. If he knew it was you he’d go ballistic."

Syaoran was sitting impatiently on his bed. " ‘sokay." He said shortly, wanting Sakura to get on with her story.

"Okay, right...the house thing. It’s kind of a long story, you wouldn’t beleive that Aru- oh hang on, dang it, Kero’s coming back. Uh, I’m really sorry, but as you can see this isn’t really the best time. I promise to call you back later, will you be home? Of course not, you work, well I’ll talk to you on Christmas. Sorry, bye! Oh- Merry Christmas!" Sakura hung up the phone just as Kero reached her, looking both steaming mad and horribly depressed.

"They said they’re not open on Christmas eve, right on the sign in the door." Kero said disdainfully.

Sakura tried to sympathize as she shoved her phone back in her bag. He finally calls, and I have to hang up on him. "That’s really weird, I thought I saw someone go in (I am such a horrible liar). We’ll have tons of doughnuts tommorrow, don’t forget, it’s Christmas."

Kero seemed to cheer up a little bit. "Right! Christmas! Candy candy candy!!!" He looked Sakura straight in the eye. "Space Destroyers for the new Nintendo! You have to get the new nintendo Sakura! HAVE TO!"

Sakura shook her head. "We’ll see."

Syaoran was sitting on his bed with a mix of shock and anger. Did she just hang up on me? She said she’d call me back- no wait, then she said I work tonight. But I don’t, it’s Christmas Eve. Tommorrow. She said she’d call me tommorrow. Well that’s just great. See if I try to call her again. Syaoran ventured back out into the kitchen to set the apartment’s phone down, and was tempted to cover his ears.

Meilin was sitting on the couch tapping her foot to the music, until she saw Syaoran. She hopped to her feet and grabbed his arm. "Good dancing music, huh?"

Syaoran sighed and pulled his arm. "Stomach." He said.

Meilin, temporarily dazed by the music, looked back at him with perplexion. "Huh?"

"My stomach!" Syaoran shouted.

Meilin nodded. "Oh yeah, sorry!" She let go of him and danced over to the window, looking outside. Syaoran walked back to his room. He didn’t know what he was going to do with the rest of the day, it was about four thirty. I better go check on Moondust. Syaoran pulled on an extra pair of pants and a heavy sweatshirt, grabbed his coat and gloves along with his ear band and snuck his way outside.

Syaoran got off the bus and stepped into the deep cold snow. It had drifted into three to four feet walls along the open parts of the field. Syaoran trudged his way along to the barn. He stopped dead when he saw footprints going from the gate to the barn. He looked down at the footprints and saw that they proceeded all the way to the side of the road. Syaoran studied the footprints more carefully and saw that the footprints leading into the barn had hoof prints along side them.

Who would have been to this barn in this weather? Hardly anyone knows it’s here. Meilin wouldn’t come here without me- that’s just the way she is. Would Sakura...No, why would she come here? She’s sort of afraid of horses, isn’t she? Tomoyo maybe? She knows where this place is. So does Mark and his friend... Syaoran’s fists unconsciously went tight.

Syaoran walked over to the fence and whistled loudly. A distant whinny repsonded, and then Syaoran could see the silvery horse come over the field’s hills and watched her canter her way through the high snow, leaping for every stride. She reached the gate breathing hard, it took so much effort to move around in knee high snow. Syaoran patted her on the neck and looked her over. She was very clean- almost suspiciously so. Did someone brush her? She wore no saddle marks, not even any ruffled fur around her barrel that could indicate someone was riding her around without a saddle.

Syaoran postponed his inspection and headed to the barn. He grabbed a heavy bale of hay and carried it out, heaving it over the fence for Moondust to eat at her leisure. She looked at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to hop on and ride around.

"Not today. Your owner is still in recovery." He said, patting her again. Seeing that all was well, Syaoran turned and headed back to the road. So it hadn’t been a very productive visit, oh well.

___________________________________________________________________

Sakura set her feet on the floor and was practically running by the time she reached her doorway. It was Christmas! Kero was sitting in his drawer poutingly, he had wanted to come along downstairs as well, but he was stuck as a suspicious stuffed animal in her room.

Sakura wasn’t expecting any good presents this year, but she still enjoyed the spirit of the day. She galloped down the stairs, skipping the last three, and found that her whole family was sitting in the living room already, along with Chindra. They all had their glasses of tea or coffee, and were looking much better than they had the last time Sakura saw them all together in a room.

"Merry Christmas you guys!" Sakura said brightly.

Her father smiled broadly. "Merry Christmas! We were waiting for you to start opening up presents."

Sakura grinned. "Well then...Shall I take the honor?" She didn’t wait for an answer, but picked up the smallest present she could find with her own name on it. She opened it and found a ring, very pretty and sparkly, but it didn’t quite meet Sakura’s taste-she really wasn’t into the whole jewelry thing.

Touya opened a present, and then her father. Even Chindra had several presents her family had managed to buy her on such late notice. Sakura was very happy when she opened the new nintendo. It came with the latest Zelda, of which she had been dying to play. She couldn’t contain smiles. "Thank you thank you!" Sakura said happily.

Along with that, her brother had gotten her Space Destroyers. As she opened it he commented; "I don’t know why you wanted it, you never play your old one anyway..."

Sakura smiled sheepishly. "Well, yeah, cause I, um, I beat it."

Touya shrugged.

Sakura sat around and chatted with her family cheerfully for a while, and was glad to see that Chindra and her father were able to accept Uncle Guan’s death with such apparent ease. Touya, however, still looked suspicious to Sakura- or maybe it was the other way around. The glances he gave her made her uneasy.

Sakura took her presents upstairs in several loads. She was surprised at the clothes Chindra had bought Sakura- they were very nice and stylish, Sakura didn’t know Chindra had any money. Sakura saw some potential tops she could wear to Mark’s party, though she wasn’t sure how she would get out of Tomoyo’s clown costumes. Sakura entered her room with the nintendo in its box and was greeted Kero’s shout of joy.

She quickly hushed him down and set the nintendo down in front of the TV for Kero to plug in. Sakura sat and watched Kero drool and stare at the new graphics for a while, then walked over and shut her door. Sakura walked to her bag and pulled out her hand phone, then sprawled out on the bed. Kero was much too absorbed in his game to even notice Sakura, so she dialed Syaoran’s phone number, though a bit hesitantly.

"Hello?" Syaoran answered a bit breathlessly.

"Hi! This is Sakura!" She said cheerfully. Sakura could hear music in the backround, along with Meilin who shouting something.

"Hey Sakura. Wait one second- Da-Meilin quit!" Syaoran shouted.

Sakura could hear someone running in the backround. "Meilin always triumphs! Come on, quit being so mean about it, Syaoran!" Sakura heard Meilin’s voice shout.

A door slammed, and then she heard pounding on the door. "Umm, am I calling at the wrong time?" Sakura asked.

"Huh?" Syaoran asked again, out of breath. "Oh, no, sorry. Meilin has been chasing me around all morning for a, err, Christmas present. Sorry, anyway, what’s going on?"

Sakura was reluctant to launch into a story about her uncle’s death and her mother’s murderer while Meilin was chasing Syaoran around his apartment. "Listen, maybe I should call you back later, this is kind of...lots of listening stuff..."

"No, no! God I’ve wanted to talk to you since you got back." Syaoran immediatly was at shock with the isolated words that had just formed out of his own betraying mouth.

Sakura was surprised on the other line. "Oh- um...go ahead then.."

Syaoran was choking on his horrible words. "No, I meant, um...Nothing I was just wondering why you moved, that’s all."

Sakura could only half grin to herself, the rest of her was annoyed with curiosity. Did he mean something by that or what? "Right..." Sakura was still a bit hesitant while she could still hear Meilin’s relentless pounding.

"Meilin if you won’t quit acting like a baby I think you’ll need a trip back to Hong Kong before you can speak to me again." Syaoran shouted, holding the phone away from his mouth.

Meilin’s pounding stopped. "So that’s it, you’re just gonna tell me I’m in the way again? Not one sympathetic nerve for your cousin?" Meilin’s voice came through, muffled by the door, but still holding it’s weight.

"Yes." Syaoran yelled back practically.

"You insensitive JERK!" Meilin was furious on the other side of the door. She charged down the hallway to the phone’s charger. She acted on the fury of the moment, and yanked the cord out of the wall, leaving the phone dead.

Syaoran, thinking she had finally left, went back to his phone conversation. "Okay, anyway...hello?" He looked down at the blank phone light and frowned. "Meilin!"

Syaoran hopped up from where he had been sitting against the wall, unlocked his door, and went to charge her with her crime.

Sakura, on the other line, sighed folorn and shut the phone off. I guess we are one for one. At least I bothered to say bye when he called me. Sakura tossed the phone into her bag and looked up at Kero’s game. "Don’t play it too loud, Touya might hear and see that I am not playing. I am gonan play Zelda tonight, don’t plan on having the TV."

Sakura laid across on her stomach on her bed, staring out the window. With her mind quiet as it was, Sakura could almost sense something. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it was still very faint. Maybe this means magic is going to be used sometime soon? It’s the faintest feeling in the air, maybe I am just imagining it. Even if it’s real, not just my imagination, I can’t exactly do anything right at the moment. Sakura sighed and let her eyes wander off into a day dream. In it she was having a vision of a perfect Christmas, no cards to worry about, everyone was happy and carefree, not a worry to even dim the day in the least.

She slowly snapped back to attention hearing Kero howl at a game over. "Kero hush! I am gonna have to take that game away if you don’t quit!"

Kero barely heeded her and started another game. Some walking outside caught Sakura’s attention. She walked to the window and peered out, seeing Syaoran walking along the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. He looked up at that precise moment, startling Sakura a bit as if he had caught her staring. She brushed it off, waved, then sprinted away from the door to head outside.

"Play quietly!" Sakura called softly to Kero on her way out.

Sakura rushed through the living room. "I’m going to play outside! I’ll be back in a bit!" Sakura called to her family. She hardly noticed Touya’s suspicious eye as she picked through the coats and grabbed hers.

Sakura hurried out the door and jogged down her driveway to the sidewalk. Syaoran was still planted where he had been standing, but he was watching her come toward him from the different angle.

"Sorry, Meilin unplugged the phone." Syaoran mumbled when she stopped in front of him.

Sakura smiled, regaining her breath. "It’s alright." She went a little serious. "Do you sense this too?" She asked.

Syaoran frowned and looked around himself before answering. "I thought I did earlier, so I figured I should come and...make sure everything’s alright. It is, isn’t it?"

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, nothing’s happened, it seems far away yet. If you can sense that, your powers must be getting restored."

Syaoran nodded. "Yeah, but so are our enemies, as long as she keeps channeling my magic."

Sakura looked up the road. "Are you walking any place in particular?"

"No, why?" Syaoran asked.

"Well it’s not the greatest standing here in front of my house, where Touya’s likely to come out and see you and...you know. We can walk to Penguin Park, that’s where most everything suspicious in the area happens."

Syaoran nodded and started walking. "So what you started to say- why did you move? Was everything alright when you got home?"

Sakura couldn’t help but hang her head at the cruel irony Syaoran’s words played. "Well, not really. I found some things out, about Aruka I mean..." Sakura started, her eyes already threatening their horrible embaressment of tears. She kept them back with the developed control she had learned, and continued. "She, um, she’s the cause of, uh, my mother’s death. Touya told me." Sakura said with some difficulty. She paused just to get a grip on herself, and continued on, not wanting to look at Syaoran’s reaction to the news. "Okay, anyway, she’s obviously after my family. She killed my Uncle." Sakura said it all casually, contrasting the way she felt.

"Your Uncle- you mean your uncle Guan? Like, while we were away? Why didn’t you say something about it-" Syaoran started, but Sakura interrupted him.

"No, I came home, and,...and there he was, on the ground. Touya found him with me, we were looking for him and...Aruka was in the room holding a gun, I think she was going to shoot it, but..." Sakura stared hard at the ground as she walked, solely concentrating on keeping the tears back.

Syaoran stopped walking, so shocked at her news. Sakura took a second to notice that he had even stopped, then she turned back to face him. She kept her eyes on the ground, not trusting them to keep the water away. Syaoran was thinking hard of something to say without making her cry, though he was very very interested in the rest of the story. "Go on, then." He said gently.

Sakura breathed a shaky sigh and looked back up, her eyes temporarily safe. "Well then she just ran away. I am not sure why, but...Anyway, it’s a good thing she did. I would have had to use my magic with Touya present." Sakura laughed, though both of them could tell it was forced and fake. Sakura knew Touya’s accusations were irrelevant to the part of the story Syaoran wanted to hear, so she left it all out.

Syaoran studied her carefully. "That’s not all?" He said after a while.

Sakura looked away again, her eyes shiny. Why do they have to do that? Can’t my tear ducts take a vacation once and a while? Those thoughts seemed to help her momentarily. "Well I am not sure, but I think she might have used magic, I saw her pick up a gun without ever touching it, it just moved. I am not sure what that means, but... That’s about it."

Syaoran was a bit annoyed with her lying, because it was obvious to him something else happened, but Sakura didn’t think it was important enough for him to hear. "Well if she is using magic, that kind of wrecks our theory about the ghost." Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded. Why does Touya have to be so mean to me about that? Why does he blame me so strongly for deaths in our family? They started walking again, though now the air about them was a bit more clustered with thoughts, despite the thick silence.

"You say she ran off?" Syaoran asked after a while.

"Yes." Sakura answered.

"Nothing happened that would make her run off?" Syaoran inquired.

"Well there was like a whispering windy thing, but it was probably all in my over vivid imagination. I dunno, maybe something was calling at her, I’m not sure." Sakura said.

"Maybe the ghost will start going after the right person." Syaoran said to himself.

Sakura frowned, he didn’t make any sense to her. "What?"
Syaoran sighed, though not in an irritated way. "She called you Aruka several times, remember? When she spoke in all that old english?"

Sakura nodded. "Yes, I remember. Oh, so you mean, maybe she’ll go after the real Aruka? I suppose. but none of this really makes any sense. Why was the ghost after me in the first place?" They stopped again, both thinking. Sakura looked back at her feet, as if thinking the plowed sidewalk would provide an answer.

"There’s alot of things we don’t understand. One thing’s for sure, we’ve got to get rid of Aruka before she does anything to you." Syaoran said.

Sakura was hesitant where he was so quick to act. "I don’t know, I mean...She’s got to have a reason. Why would she be after my family without a reason?"

"I’m not sure." He glanced up at Sakura, whose eyes were still clouded over with something. She was holding something back, he was sure of it.

"What else happe-"
"Sakura-chan! Hey, what are you guys doing out in the cold?" Tomoyo came running up, a smile on her face. She had her video camera on and focused on Sakura and Syaoran already. "Or should I say... (Tomoyo adds a sly grin to her face) What are you two birds doing out here under the mistletoe on Christmas day? Does capturing cards really involve these kind of old traditions?"

Sakura glanced slowly up and gasped at the arch of lighted mistletoe that strung across their heads on the sidewalk. Syaoran noticed at about the same time, and they both jumped back out of the way.

Tomoyo giggled hysterically with her camera, trying vainly to keep it from shaking. "Okay guys, come on now, you know the tradition!"

Syaoran’s face turned healthily red. He looked at his feet and kicked an invisible rock out of the way. "Who cares about some retarded tradition from an era of psychos, anyway?"

Sakura was shaking her head, her cheeks slightly blushed. "Tomoyo, how in the world do you manage to run up to us...(Sakura struggles to find words without embaressing them further) here?"

Tomoyo lowered her camera. "Oh, I have my ways. Please tell me you guys are off to capture some dark force, I haven’t been able to tape anything for years!"

Sakura shook her head again. "You’re exaggerating."

Syaoran sighed to himself and looked toward the Park. Something was developing, and Syaoran meant to use his magic against it before his magic was channeled to his enemy. I doubt we are going to do much capturing today.

"Syaoran how is your cut healing up?" Tomoyo asked.

Syaoran gave an exasperated sigh. "Does everyone in Japan know about it? Geez it was just a cut, who cares!"

Tomoyo clucked her tongue. "Sakura tells me it was some stab you took."

A wind started to howl down the quiet street. All of them looked straight towards the park. Sakura and Syaoran took the lead, as Tomoyo chased after with her camera in hand. Sakura gasped with shock as she reached the open fencing’s entrance. A strange drift of snow was moving freely across the ground. Sakura called her staff out then looked to the drift. It moved sluggishly at first, then darted at Sakura with amazing speed.

The snow drift buried her right foot with amazing solidity. Sakura schreeched and pulled back with all her strength but the snow only began to advance at her other foot. Syaoran brought his sword out and slammed it down onto the snow, just missing Sakura’s foot with his precise aim. Sakura jumped back, then took her cards out. "FIERY! GO!" She yelled, just in time to dodge a large group of flying icicle chards.

She watched the sharp ice just barely whiz by Tomoyo’s head, who looked in the least startled. "Tomoyo, go cover behind that bush!" Sakura called, jumping up and over a moving drift that had detachtched from the largest one. Fiery swung around the snow, but the snow combined with the wind, and it moved quickly away. Sakura looked at the Fiery with horrid disappointment. What do I do now?

Syaoran slammed his sword into a blast of ice. The sword’s vibrations went up his arm and made his whole body ache, for in physical strength he still wasn’t back to top form. Syaoran’s eyes widened as he watched another batch of ice head for Tomoyo’s measly cover of bush.

Syaoran ran over with amazing speed. He pushed her out of the way just in time, though they both were covered in snow as they slowly sat back up. Syaoran shook the snow off his face and looked at Tomoyo. " ‘You alright?" He asked.

Tomoyo smiled and nodded, still loosely hanging on to him. Syaoran was disturbed for one second, and his frown turned clouded for a moment as he felt that the way Tomoyo was touching him was so very...unTomoyo-like. The strangeness lasted for one second only, because the next Syaoran jumped up to see Sakura being pulled around by the largest drift of snow.

Syaoran could feel some powers inside him. "Fire! Come to my aid!" He shouted. To his great delight, a stream of fire shot out. Not as powerful as he would have preferred, but good enough. It hit the very surprised drift of snow head on. The drift immediatly floated up into the form of Snowy.

Sakura acted quickly. "FIERY! GO ONCE MORE!" She called it out. The Snow moved away, only to move into Syaoran’s vengeful attack of fire from the other direction. Fiery took full advantage and hit the Snow with all of Sakura’s stocked up powers.

The Snow wailed and fought against the attack, and slowly went down into the card. It stopped on the way down, however, and seemed to communicate with the Fiery card on the way down. Sakura looked down at the Snow card as it fell into her hands. The eyes burned black and red, they kept the most hideous glare on Sakura, and their look stayed in her mind even when she looked away. She shoved it into her pocket and looked up at Syaoran.

"It’s not use, even if we are putting them back into their cards, they still hate me. They will betray me the second they get the chance." Sakura frowned angerly at the ground, thoughts flooding her mind. If the cards are like that, I should just give up. It doesn’t matter if I have them captured, they don’t do anything....Then again, that’s the whole point. Capture them so they can’t do anything to dirsupt the world.

"Watch the Fiery." Syaoran said, walking over to Sakura. "Watery is trying to get her to cross over. So they can have all the elements against us."

Sakura sighed forlorn. "There’s no way we could ever match that. We can’t even defeat two weak cards, let alone the elements."

Tomoyo came walking over, camera in hand. "Wow, that was some great footage! What’s going on, though, why was it so fast?"

Sakura couldn’t help but think of the eyes in her pocket. The eyes that were on the Watery card, and now were on the Snowy. "It is teaming up with other cards."

Tomoyo’s eyebrows raised. "Woah, it never did that before, right?"

Syaoran shook his head, but let Sakura answer. The oddness of Tomoyo was gone, she was back to the normal video crazy, sweet, friend of Sakura’s. Syaoran yawned and swayed unsteadily, he had just used his magic on three cards, though he himself had only used fire to help out. Sakura looked at him sympathetically.

"Can’t these things just leave use alone? Don’t they take a holiday or something? I mean, come on, it’s Christmas!" Sakura said spitefully.

Tomoyo tried to lightly change the subjects. "You guys wanna come to my house for some Christmas cookies? We’ve got some new things for Christmas you might enjoy."

Sakura nodded enthusiastically, then they looked to Syaoran. He was in between decisions. I don’t really want to go. Wait yes I do, anything’s better than staying at home with Meilin. But then, that’s completly against me-why would I go play with two girls? Then again, why would I put what others think in front of how I have fun? Maybe I can leave after a half hour, make some excuse so I have a way out.

Tomoyo grinned at him. "Oh come on, it’s my Christmas present. You don’t have to stay too long if you don’t want to."

Sakura smiled, enjoying teasing him. "We completely understand you don’t want to be caught hanging around with a bunch of girls."

Syaoran had made up his mind. "I, uh, I gotta go to....well Meilin doesn’t even know I’m gone." Syaoran said, realizing his responsibility. "I kind of snuck out of the window, so..."

Sakura shook her head. "Merry Christmas, then." She said, as they started to part ways.

Syaoran barely mumbled it back and waved gruffly. His thoughts wandered quickly to the card capture, to Tomoyo’s oddities, then they wondered to the upcoming new years party. This is so kiddish. Why am I even bothering to go? I don’t care about Mark’s stupid get togethers, and the best way to show that is to not show up. Though it would be funny to see them put horse crap all over their icecream. Still, this is really childish, the elders would not approve.

Syaoran sighed. I should call my mother back, she’s probably getting worried about me, and it is Christmas, after all. It can’t hurt. His thoughts drifted to Meilin. She is going to kill me if I don’t come out with a Christmas present soon. I haven’t really boughtten anyone anything this year, asides from the spells I put on Bob the bug, which turned into failure. I thought it was a good idea, figures Sakura doesn’t like it, he’s scary. I should just give up, we are too different.

Syaoran’s eyes started dragging down. He was hardly aware of himself as he climbed up the fire escape and into the bathroom, then snuck into his own bedroom, which he had locked. Syaoran quietly slipped in and flopped down on the bed, almost immediatly falling dreamlessly asleep.

_____________________________________________________________________

Sakura fidgeted excitedly.

"Sakura-chan, stand still, or you are gonna get poked." Tomoyo said around the safety pins in her mouth.

"I can’t help it. I mean, what if we get caught?" It was the day of Mark’s party. She had been walking nervously around everywhere. Did they really want to sabotage this? There were so many things that could go wrong.

"That’s why you’ve got to do your job in keeping him distracted, though this outfit should help a little bit." Tomoyo said, standing back to see what the dress looked like.

Sakura looked up and gaped at herself in the mirror. "It looked like you pinned a bunch of towels over the parts of me that had to be covered, then left the other parts bare. Tomoyo, I refuse to wear this."

Tomoyo shook her head. "Not exactly how I thought it would come out..." She muttered to herself, scratching her head. "Maybe..." Tomoyo adjusted the sleeves higher, but it still looked awful. "I was afraid of this, so I made a Plan B, just in case."

"Plan B?" Sakura asked cautiously.

Tomoyo walked over to the trunk of clothes and pulled out a silk dress. "Here, put this on."

Sakura examined the emerald green silk dress, and was a bit more satisfied. Much better. Has Tomoyo finally broken down and gone for a more normal look? Sakura pulled off the raggedy concotion of clothing she had on and pulled on the silk dress. She examined herself in the mirror. Not bad, it’s almost flattering! She smiled with satisfactory at Tomoyo. "I think we found something that works."

Tomoyo was already planning something. "Yeah, if we just..." She walked over and pulled at a side of it. "Or if we make this here..."

Sakura watched Tomoyo with dismay. "Is there anyway you are going to let me go in normal clothes? Remember, I should always be ready to fight a card, I can’t have your little frilly fluffo things falling off and making me trip."

Tomoyo nodded. "Yeah, something to make it more heavy duty, good idea."

Sakura sighed and untangled some of the hair that was bothering her when it fell into her face. She looked at Tomoyo for suggestions. "What should I do with this?"

Tomoyo bit her lip and thought for a moment. "I’ve got it. That dress calls for an open neck, we are obviously going to have to put your hair up. Remember that one day you had your hair up loosely in a clip? Well something like that would work, we’ll make the wisps of hair curl around your face, of course...."

Sakura sighed and looked back at the mirror. At least she had a nice dress. Sakura fiddled with her hair and put it up in eight different buns of varying heigths until Tomoyo gave approval to the hairdo. Sakura then had to endure Tomoyo curling the peices to frame her face, then it was back to the dress.

After what seemed an eternity, Sakura got away with only a minor adjustment to the sleeves on her dress (which meant there wasn’t much of the sleeves left), and her hair wasn’t as annoying as it could have been. She and Tomoyo grabbed their coats and headed outside, to meet the group before arriving at the party.

"It’s ff-fff-freezing!" Sakura said, teeth chattering, arms crossed with her thick coat.

Tomoyo nodded. "You’ve got bare legs, I’m sure you are very cold. Don’t worry, it’ll probably get warmer when we get to Mark’s."

Sakura nodded. "Yeah, bb-but what about the h-half hour in b-bbetween? I’ll turn to ice!" She shivered violently, and tried to keep the coat tight around her.

Tomoyo smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, Sakura, I should have considered heat preservation when I made your outfit."

They quickly arrived at the Park, where Rika, Trent and Chihura were sitting on the swings. Sakura could see Tamakazi walking in the distance. She and Tomoyo walked over and sat on the swings.

Sakura couldn’t help but notice the outfits each of them wore. I am so used to seeing them in school uniforms, I guess. Tamakazi reached the swings and sat down. "I’ve got some poprocks!" He shook the bag, smiling.

Chihura jogged up. "Sorry I’m late, did you guys get the whipped cream cans?"

Rika grinned and nodded. "Over there." She said, pointing to a suspiscious box.

Sakura looked at it nervously. "Mann, I hope we don’t get caught! Are we sure about this?"

Everyone seemed to have the same nervous tension, but they were still dedicated. "Nothing would I like to see better then that worm being crushed." Chihura said with some spite. Everyone looked at her with surprise, she seemed so angry. "Uh, cause, you know, he’s so mean to everyone." She said, laughing weakly.

"Right." Everyone else responded.

"I wonder where Meilin and Syaoran are?" Tomoyo said, looking around.

Rika shook her head. "I don’t know, but I hope they hurry up, we need to get there on time!"

They stood impatiently for a while, some discussing the upcoming actions, then Meilin came storming in, dragging Syaoran behind her. She had locked his arm tightly within hers, and she was walking energetically as Syaoran looked annoyed and hopeless. "Hey guys! Really sorry we are so late, I forgot all about it." Meilin said, smiling. She looked to Syaoran, who was staring forlornly into space. She elbowed him harshly in the side.

He winced and looked up. "Umm, yeah, really sorry." He mumbled. Meilin smiled normally again.

Rika took charge. "Ok, this is going to sound like a sports pep talk, but I can’t help it, we need motivation. Our number one objective tonight is to humiliate Mark. Keep that goal ahead of you no matter what, and we’ll get him! So does everyone know their jobs?"

"I need the poprocks." Meilin said. Tamakazi reached into his deep coat pocket and pulled out several packages of candy. He gave half to Meilin and half to Chihura.

"How are we getting that box into the party?" Tomoyo asked.

Rika looked blankly at Trent, who was head of the whipped cream expedition. He looked startled with all the sudden attention. "Oh, uh....I don’t know, sneak them in through a back door or something." He said.

Tomoyo shrugged. "I suppose."

Rika took back her leading aura. "Okay. So now that everything’s straight, shall we go?"

Everyone nodded and followed Rika out the park. They slowly spread out across the sidewalk as they walked. Sakura walked next to Tomoyo. "I really don’t want to do this." Sakura said quietly.

Tomoyo looked curiously at her. "Do what?"

"I don’t want to have to hang around Mark for a couple of hours. This is really dumb. He’s going to get the wrong signal."

Tomoyo giggled. "Don’t worry Sakura. If anything goes wrong, just slap him and shout something. That always works."

Sakura sighed. "Gee, thanks Tomoyo. I’ll be sure to act on your advice."

They got closer to Mark’s house. Sakura saw several groups of kids walking down the sidewalk, all seeming to be going to Mark’s house. Maybe if I turn around and run, no one will catch me. That’s what I am going to do. Sakura spun around, but Tomoyo’s firm hand grabbed her arm and turned her back around. Sakura found herself walking along next to Tomoyo. "Keep walking, don’t worry, everything will be fine."

Sakura reluctantly walked silently again.

"Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who doesn’t want to go." Tomoyo said, looking towards Syaoran. "I am sure he will not permit Mark to get far with you anyway."

Sakura’s cheeks burned red. "What’s that supposed to mean?"

Tomoyo grinned and shrugged.

Sakura crossed her arms and pouted. Tomoyo hasn’t been very nice today. Normally she’s come up with some nice friendly advice that sounds caring and friendlyish. Now it’s just ‘slap him across the face if he does anything bad’. Great. Sakura looked down at her dress. She didn’t do a whole lot to mutilate this dress, either. Actually, she hardly seemed to do anything at all...Sakura looked suspiciously at Tomoyo. She was smiling and staring off ahead. It’s just me. Tomoyo has been changing, that’s all. Everyone’s growing up. Except for me. No, little Sakura has to stay all little girlish in her pink costumes and innocent sheltered little world where she plays with talking bugs. Sakura sighed and looked up at the house, which she could now hear distant music. Just great.

"Come on, let’s catch up to Meilin." Tomoyo said.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura found that there was nothing to like about this party atmosphere. She felt overwhelmed with the constant buzz of excitement, and she didn’t know how much more she could take. On top of that, Mark was nowhere to be found. That wasn’t really completly accurate, it was just that there was so many people dancing around on the large cleared out floor that she couldn’t find him in the sea of people.

Sakura did her best to fit in, she knew she probably looked awfully out of her element there. She looked towards Tomoyo and Tamakazi, who were standing nonchalantly next to the CD player. They seemed perfectly cool. Sakura looked away jealously and stomped over to Rika, who was standing against a wall, watching everyone dance in the mosh pit style way.

"Have you seen Mark?" Sakura yelled over the blaring music.

Rika shook her head. "No, I haven’t seen him anywhere!" Rika shouted back.

Sakura turned, and was greeted with an arm tightly around the shoulder. "Are you looking for me?"

Sakura looked up startled at Mark’s chocolate eyes. "Oh, yeah, I was!" She said, giving a smile.

Mark’s arm continued ruthlessly to weigh down on her shoulder. "Wanna dance?" Mark called over the music.

"Oh, uh, not right now!" Sakura called back, hoping she didn’t sound too nervous.

" ‘Kay, well I am going to get some food." Mark shouted.

Distraction, distraction. "Yeah, um, I’ll go with you!" Sakura shouted back.

Mark’s arm finally came off (Sakura is able to strand straightly, and she smiles in releif) and he nodded. She followed him over to the food table. "So how do you like it?"

"What?" Sakura shouted back over the music, examining a peice of cheese carefully before claiming it semisafe to eat.

"How do you like the party?" Mark shouted back again.

"Oh, yeah, it’s great!" Sakura yelled back, praying she didn’t sound sarcastic.

"No Syaoran?"

Sakura frowned. "What?" She asked, making sure she had heard right, and that Mark was being that blunt.

"No Syaoran around, did you finally ditch him?" Mark shouted.

Sakura quickly glanced around to make sure Syaoran wasn’t nearby. "Um, sure, I guess." Trent was standing by the table, giving Sakura an annoyed look. Sakura quickly got his hint. "Hey, is there any other party rooms?" Sakura shouted, hoping she could get Mark to flock away.

Mark glanced at Sakura. "Yeah, I’ll show you in a minute."

Trent was looking like a nervous wreck. "Oh come on, show me now!" Sakura shouted back.

Mark glanced at Sakura again and grinned. "Alright, very anxious aren’t you?" He said, his voice losing it’s volume towards the end.

Sakura followed him along, not really sure what he had said, but knew it was no good. Sakura followed him into a hallway, where finally her ears were free from the ringing power of the music.

Mark opened the door to his left. "This room has the big screen TV..." He stopped talking, as they both noticed the large group of highschoolers in different parts of the room making out. "But I guess it’s been dubbed the make out room."

Mark shut the door and continued down the hall. "This is my room," He said, opening the next door, "But I doubt we’ll need to go in there." Mark gave a hopeful glance at Sakura, who was oblivious.

"Well you’ve been in my house, right?" Mark asked.

"Yeah." Sakura said.

"There’s not really much left to see. Are you ready to go back yet?"

I wonder if Trent and Tomoyo are done switching the food? Distraction, I am a distraction. Think like a distraction, Sakura. "Yeah, um, let’s dance."

Mark was surprised but he shrugged. He followed Sakura out the hallway and they stepped back into the large room, where the music was it’s deafening volume. It can’t be that bad. No one’s really dancing, it’s like jumping in a collective form. Sakura looked around the room for Syaoran, but she didn’t have much time to carefully scan the ocean of faces. ‘he won’t let Mark get very far with me’ my butt, Syaoran couldn’t care less about being here. He probably snuck out and left or something, I can’t expect him to look out for me. Then again, his job is to make sure our cover isn’t blown. He’s probably still in here somewhere.

Mark took Sakura around the waist and led her into the crowd of dancing people. They parked themselves about in the middle and stood. Mark started dancing first. Sakura positioned herself so that she could see Trent and Tomoyo (who were on the higher kitchen part of the room) before she started dancing along with him. After about three minutes of constant movement, Sakura’s legs started to hurt. These stupid shoes! Why did Tomoyo give me these high heels? Sure, now I am nice and tall, but I can hardly move. I can’t dance much longer.

Mark seemed to be getting bored also. Sakura figured she had done enough of her duty for the moment, she wanted to go chat with Tomoyo for a while. "I am going to go talk to Tomoyo." Sakura shouted to Mark.

Mark just shrugged and continued dancing. Sakura happily pushed her way through the crowd of kids, who most of them she didn’t know. Sakura clomped up the two stairs to the kitchen table things. "These shoes kill, Tomoyo!" She shouted.

Tomoyo nodded. "Sorry I’m late!"

Sakura frowned. She wasn’t sure she had heard her right. "What!?"

"I said, Sorry I’m late, we were out getting my outfit!" Tomoyo called back.

Sakura was very confused. "Whatever. Listen, this is awful, I’ve been walking around with--Hey Mark!" Sakura quickly went back to her weary smile as Mark was standing next to her.

"Hey! Did you hear the music? I’m going to put something better in! Any requests?" Mark asked.

Sakura thought quickly. She wasn’t sure which CD cases had the wrong cds in them since Tamakazi got to them. "Uh, no, not really!"

Mark walked over to the huge stereo system and looked through the cd cases. He quickly changed the cds, then played it again. Satisfied, he walked back over to Sakura. Midway, a very loud pikachu filled the room, followed by a weak beat.

Most of the dancers stopped dancing, and looked quizzically around. Mark froze and looked behind him. The horrible pikachu continued, followed by the kiddy beat song. Mark rushed over to the cd player, stopped it, switched cds, and stood at the stereo until it started playing. This time it was a mix of goldy oldies. Mark quickly stopped the cd and switched it yet again. He now had most everyone’s attention in the room. Many were laughing and snickering at him. Finally another hard rock song was playing again, and everyone continued on.

Sakura looked at Tamakazi and Chihura, whose faces were both beat red with held in laughter. Even Sakura had laughed for a breif second, but she couldn’t be too happy, because Mark was coming back to talk to her. His face looked a little darker and confused then it had a few minutes ago.

"I wonder who did that?" Mark grumbled. He grabbed a peice of cheese and stalked off. Sakura and Tomoyo quickly hurried over to Tamakazi.

"That was great!" Sakura said.

Tamakazi laughed a bit more. "Better than I hoped for, he did two CDs at once! Just wait until he puts in the theme song for Sailor Moon!"

Chihura gaped at him. "I like that song!" She said, slapping him on the shoulder.

Tamakazi cringed away. "Sorry."

Sakura looked over at the whipped cream cans. "Has Trent or you (she is talking to Tomoyo)..."

Tomoyo nodded. "Trent switched a whole bunch of them."

Sakura smiled. "Good. How about Meilin? Have they got the pop rocks on the food yet?"

Chihura nodded. "Yeah, I think everything’s been done. Meilin and Rika are sitting over there talking to Trent. Everybody got their jobs done, thanks for keeping Mark out of the way."

Sakura smiled warily. "It was tough." She looked around the room. There’s one person I still haven’t seen.

_____________________________________________________________________

Syaoran snuck through the hall. He was determined to finish messing up Mark’s room. He had had to hide when Mark was giving Sakura a tour, but now everything was clear. Syaoran quietly opened the door and slipped in the dark.

What to sabotage? There’s gotta be something...Long term damage, something to get him with, and he’ll pay for it for the next year. At least until Valentine’s day. Syaoran looked around the dark room and spotted some bottles on a desk. A half full hair gel bottle caught his attention. PERFECT!

Syaoran quickly grabbed the gel hurried out of the room and back to the bathroom, where he had already pulled out some instant hair die. What color should we make our friend’s hair... Syaoran looked through. Blonde! It would turn orange with his black hair. He dumped the hair gel into the sink and washed it down, which made quite a sticky mess. He carefully made sure no remains of the gel were left, because Mark would probably be able to suspect something. He poured the die into the bottle, then looked at it suspiciously. This looks too thin. Something to thicken it up...Syaoran hurried out of the bathroom and went back into Mark’s room. I know! Syaoran dashed out of the room. The stuff he’d need would be in the garage.

Syaoran quietly slipped in from the hallway into the noisy dancing room. He looked through the dancing people to make sure Sakura wasn’t dancing with anyone. Not seeing her, he continued through the room. Syaoran spotted Sakura standing with Tomoyo and the rest of their group. He hesitantly made his way around them, but Meilin spotted him almost immediatly. Syaoran slowly made his way over.

"Hey Syaoran, where have you been?" Sakura asked him.

Syaoran was a bit surprised with her question, but was happy about it, and was also happy Mark wasn’t hanging around her. "Around." He said.

Trent was blushing furiously, which caught their attention. Rika smiled and grabbed his arm and dragged him down into the crowd of dancing people. Tamakazi shook his head. "I am gonna go eat some un-sabotaged food. Meilin, you didn’t put any pop rocks on the pizza, right?"

Meilin shook her head. "I thought about it, though."

Tamakazi got up from the chair he had been sitting in, and Chihura got up also. "I’m going too, this business makes you work up an appetite."

Syaoran watched her go, then looked over at the dance floor to see how Trent was doing. Tomoyo was laughing. "That’s so kawaii (cute)!!" She brought her camera up and zoomed in on Rika and Trent. Next she turned it to Sakura, Syaoran, and Meilin. "When are you guys going to dance?"

They all looked at the camera with pitying glares. Meilin grabbed Syaorans arm. "Syaoran’s taking me dancing, right?"

"Not right now." Syaoran said annoyed.

Meilin dropped his arm. "Fine. Fine!" She said, exasperated. "All day you have been crabby at me, ‘No Meilin, I don’t want to do this, No not like that, Meilin you are so stupid, Meilin you are in the way, Meilin, not right now’"! Meilin took a deep breath after saying that in one breath. "You know what, that’s fine. I’ll leave you in your own crabby little world. I am going to have fun. If you feel inclined to come out of your misery any time soon, I’ll be on the dance floor." Meilin spun on her heel and stalked down the steps and dissappeared into the crowd.

Sakura and Tomoyo gaped at her, then looked to Syaoran, who looked completly unphased. Tomoyo got a close up on him, though he looked very irritated that she was filming. She lowered her camera, giving a weak smile. "Sorry, guess I got carried away."

Syaoran shook his head. "I don’t know how much longer I can stand her." Syaoran said, sitting on an empty chair. So he was supposed to be finishing up his sabotaging thing, oh well, this was just a little detour.

Sakura and Tomoyo both sat down. "At least she left you alone for a while." Sakura said.

Syaoran glanced up at Sakura. She had taken off her coat, and now he could fully see her dress. Her hair looked really nice, he had to say, one of Tomoyo’s better concotions. Syaoran quickly blinked his eyes away. Her dress is for Mark to look at, not for me.

Tomoyo stood up, smiling. "I am going to, uh, get some food." She left abruptly, leaving Sakura and Syaoran sitting together.

"Did you hear the Pikachu song?" Sakura said.

Syaoran looked at her quizzically. "The Pikachu song?"

Sakura smiled. "Yeah, Mark switched CDs and the one Tamakazi put in the case was a pokemon CD. It was really funny."

Syaoran managed a half grin. "That’s great. I am working on switching his hair gel with some blonde die and carpenter glue."

Sakura laughed. "Oh my gosh, that’s a good idea! So that’s where you were, sneaking around?"

Syaoran shrugged. "I guess you could call it that. I have to look for some glue in his garage."

"I know where his garage is, do you want me to show you?" Sakura asked, anxious to get out of this room.

"If you don’t mind." Syaoran said gruffly, getting up. "We’ve got to stay casual."

Sakura nodded. Casual. Got it. Sakura led him through the kitchen part and they stood against the wall. "We’ve got to get through this door." Sakura whispered.

Syaoran didn’t hear her over the music, but could read her lips, at least partially, and he got the jist of what he was saying. Syaoran leaned his back and the door and twisted the knob with an arm behind his back. "It’s locked." He mouthed to Sakura.

Sakura bit her lip. "Umm..." The Through card. "We can use the Through Card." Sakura inched her way into the smaller hall where no one could see her. Syaoran leaned himself across the doorway nonchalantly, so he could block everyone’s veiw.

"Key that-"

"So you found each other once again?" Mark said, leaning against the wall.

Syaoran glared intensly at Mark. He had just gotten some time to further talk to Sakura about the whole ghost thing, and Mark had ruined it all. "What do you want?"

Mark grinned. "Woah, hey, sorry, I was just seeing if Sakura wanted to dance, but I guess you two are busy, so...We can dance again later, then?" He asked Sakura.

Again? Syaoran thought.

"Uhh-" Sakura was looking past Mark where Trent was quickly switching several cans, with Rika watching him. Mark couldn’t turn around yet. "No, no, (Syaoran is releived) We can go now (Syaoran is furiated)!"She said quickly. Mark started to turn towards the dance floor, but Sakura quickly grabbed his arm to distract him as he walked; something she never would have done on her own will. She quickly cast an apologetic look at Syaoran, who was watching them leave. She nodded at the whipped cream cans where Trent had just finished switching the last cans. Syaoran slowly understood, and felt a little bad for thinking so lowly of Sakura.

Sakura regretted grabbing Mark’s arm so enthusiastically, apparently he was getting the wrong vibes, and they were walking a little bit closer than they had before. Mark stopped at the step before going down onto the floor. "I don’t really want to dance right now. Maybe we can do something else?" Mark said.

Sakura looked worriedly around. How was she going to get out of this? "Uh, mm, Let’s go listen to the music!" She said cheerfully.

Mark looked at her quizzically. "You can hear the music from any part of the house. Why would we want to go stand next to those booming speakers. How about something else?"

Sakura nervously fingered the end of her dress with her finger. "Uh...Like what?"

"We can watch TV or something."

Sakura started to panic. She could see where this was leading. She looked to the tables, where Meilin and Tomoyo were both rushing around with a package of pop rocks. "Uh...."

Mark smiled. "Come on you’ll be fine, it’s not like I am going to torture you or anything." He put an arm around her waist and dragged her along.

Sakura could only smile weakly. If he only knew. She very relcutantly followed him into the hall and followed him into the ‘tv room’. The TV was on, and a very sparse amount of kids were actually watching the parade and preliminary things that went on before the fireworks were set off in Tokyo. Mark led her over to a centered couch and sat down.

Sakura was exstremly out of place and a nervous wreck. This was an alien atmosphere for her, she didn’t know how to handle it. Sakura looked at the TV warily. Mark was sitting very comfortably and had his arm up on the couch. "Is the party alright so far?" He asked.

Sakura kept her eyes on the tv, afraid that if she would meet his eyes it might bring on some more unwanted physical contact. "Yeah, great." She said fakely. One thing she was very curious to know. "How did your parents ever let you have this large of a party?"

"Who says they know?" Mark retaliated.

Sakura’s eyes accidentally came off the screen. "They don’t know?" She asked rather loudly.

Mark shrugged. "Like they’ll care. They’re off at some party of their own, anyway."

"But how will you ever clean all of this up by yourself?" Sakura inquired.

Mark shrugged again. "I’ll hire some housekeepers. No big deal."

Sakura couldn’t help but admire his laid back attitude. "Oh." She was silent for a moment. "But you don’t think they’ll find out?"

Mark sighed. "They wouldn’t care."

Sakura looked with some pity for the first time at Mark. "But your mom seemed so nice when I was over."

"She always seems nice, yeah, but they put on an act. If people knew what they were really like, well..." Mark said.

Sakura tried to determine whether this was wholly the truth, it kind of sounded fishy to her. Maybe he was saying this to get attention? But if she didn’t beleive him, she would sound very insensitive. She decided to keep a medium. "Oh. That’s sad." She said a bit flatly.

Mark shrugged. "Oh well. At least I have friends like you."

Sakura wanted to either slap him on the face or pull her hair out. What an ironic thing for him to say. "Sure." She said, unsure.

Mark met her eyes. Sakura wanted to jump off the back of the couch and run away, but she was stuck as the ‘distraction’. What a sucky job for me to get. Is he getting closer or is that my imagination. No, I think he’s getting closer. Oh no! What if he tries to kiss me, I’ll die! No way am I kissing him, NO WAY! That wasn’t part of ‘distracting him’. I am just going to look away now, that’s right, come on eyes, tear yourself apart from his horrible gaze. Sakura almost breathed a sigh of releif as her eyes returned safely to the TV. She sat uncomfortably for a second, then figured a lousy plan to get out. "I’ve got to go to the bathroom. I’ll be back."

"Sure." Mark said.

Sakura got up and rushed past the other highschoolers in the room, opened and shut the door behind her, then breathed in the air with new appreciation. She was about to return to the main room when she saw the back of Syaoran’s head disappear into a room she hadn’t been in yet. Sakura looked after him curiously, then silently padded down the hall to see what he was doing.

She peered in the room and saw that it was pretty much empty, aside from a chair that was placed randomly to the side. She immediatly noticed Tomoyo huddled over in the corner against the wall, crying. Sakura was about to go in and see what was wrong, but it seemed Syaoran was going to beat her to it. She decided to sit back and watch, this would be interesting. Syaoran comforting Tomoyo, something you don’t see every day. This is so mean, I should go talk to her, she’s my friend! But...I can’t interrupt now!

"Sakura-chan! Come ‘ere!" Said a voice from behind her.

Sakura reluctantly turned. Chihura was smiling at her. "Come on, we need your help in our next expedition!" Chihura said.

Sakura sighed and glanced over her shoulder one last time. The room was too dark, and she couldn’t see anything. Sakura walked over to Chihura. "You know I am supposed to be with Mark right now........."

____________________________________________________________________

Syaoran leaned against the door and tried for the last time to unlock the door with the toothpick he had behind his back. He fiddled with it for some time, when he heard a click. Syaoran twisted the handle, and the door gave in, swallowing Syaoran into the garage with it. He quickly regained his balance and silently shut the door. Syaoran looked around at his surroundings and saw that there was a table with lots of tools on it. He walked over and started looking for the glue.

Red spray paint, wood stain, ah! Here it is. This’ll work. Syaoran grabbed the model glue and hurried back to sneak through the door. He quietly walked down the hall and headed to Mark’s room, keeping the glue well hidden under his shirt.

Syaoran snuck into the hallway and quietly padded down the carpet. Just before he opened the door to Mark’s room, a quiet sniffle caught his attention. He quieted himself and listened to confirm that it was a real noise, then started heading to the source of it. Syaoran opened a door and found that it was only a closet. He shut that and tried the next door. Inside the room was nothing but a chair. Syaoran looked further to see that a person was sitting in the corner, crying.

Syaoran walked carefully over and knelt down. He slowly recognized the figure. "Tomoyo, are you alright?"

Tomoyo looked up, startled. "Oh, Syaoran-kun! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for anyone to find me..." Her eyes welled up again.

"No, it’s alright, I was just wondering why you were crying." Syaoran said gently. He hated to watch people cry. So here he was with Sakura’s friend, the one he was wary of, trying to consol her.

"No, it’s nothing, it’s really silly, actually." She said, laughing and sniffling at the same time.

"But you don’t find it very funny." Syaoran said logically.

Tomoyo looked downcast. "Well-it’s just,...I had asked Trent to dance with me, then when we were about to go down, Sakura said she had claimed him first. So I waited until they were done. Sakura told me Trent had said he didn’t really want to dance with me, he thought I was ugly, and my outfit looked horrible."

Syaoran had a hard time beleiving this, but he knew something must have happened, because Tomoyo always seemed to be cheerful, no matter what the environment. Tomoyo stood up, brushing the tears away from her eyes. Syaoran stood back up also, grateful to get out of the kneeling position. "I know you would understand." She said quietly.

Syaoran approached this cautiously. "How do you figure?"

Tomoyo smiled, meeting his eyes again. "You never get what you want. You give as much as you can, but nothing ever is returned. Do you understand?"

Syaoran frowned. This was definitely not Tomoyo behavior. "What are you talking about?" He asked.

Tomoyo stepped slowly closer, though Syaoran stepped back. "You have been fighting for Sakura for years now, and what have you gotten back?"

Syaoran continued to step back. "Tomoyo what is wrong with you?"

Tomoyo ignored his question, but continued to advance. "She doesn’t understand what you want. You know that, she’d never give you what you really want from her. I mean come on, we know her innocence only goes so deep, why is she holding back?"

Syaoran was very apprehensive now, the wall behind him was slowly coming closer, and he wouldn’t be able to back away from Tomoyo any longer. Had it been anyone else but Sakura’s best friend, he might have taken action, but his brain was crazy right now, and part of it seemed to agree with Tomoyo’s words.

She continued. "I understand. I know what you want."

Syaoran’s back hit the wall. He looked nervously to the side. How could he escape this? Tomoyo stopped advancing, though she was exstremly close to him. Their eyes stared each other down for a few unbearable seconds, then Tomoyo took light hold of him, and kissed him.

Syaoran was so startled by Tomoyo’s actions that it took his brain a few seconds to even understand what was going on. Once everything registered in his brain, and he realized that Tomoyo’s lips were kissing him, he quickly pushed her away. He stumbled back and stared at her wide-eyed, quickly wiping his mouth with his sleeve. "T-Tomoyo what’s gotten into you?"

Tomoyo grinned cooly and shrugged. "You know I am speaking the truth. Consider it."

This was the last straw. Syaoran had suspected something about Tomoyo for a long time, and now this was over the edge. Is it possible this isn’t Tomoyo? No, I have seen her quite often, and she had seemed off. But still, this is definitely NOT Tomoyo like at all! "You are not yourself!"

Tomoyo shrugged again and leaned against the wall, smiling playfully. "How would you know? The only time you ever see me is when Sakura is around. Don’t you ever want to have some fun?"

Syaoran took an extra step back, just for safety’s sake. "You don’t know anything about me. You can’t determine that-"

"You know that your life is being upheld by other’s wishes. You are so dependent on what she thinks of you, no matter how hard you try not to be. I am just trying to help you regain your independence."

Her words were starting to hit a sore point. "Don’t you tell me how to run my life, you couldn’t possibly understand what I’ve-"

"Oh couldn’t I?" Tomoyo cried. "How much do you know about me? Circumstances are beyond our control, yet they determine who we are, I cannot help but be who I am, which is not very different from who you are. You try to change yourself for her, she doesn’t know the other side of you. She will have to see it sooner or later. Your relationship is already a twindling thread, putting it through a test like that would be its end for sure." Tomoyo went back to her smug grin. "But I am not telling you this for the first time. You have thought this yourself. Your protection means little to her."

Syaoran was fuming. "Don’t betray your own friend like this!"
Tomoyo shrugged. "Sakura always used me, couldn’t you see that? Sure, I tolerated it, but my toleration only goes so deep, just as yours does. Don’t let her innocent act fool you, she uses people. Everyone, close friends, family members, all part of her little magic game. Watch her closely, you will pick on the pattern quite quickly."

Syaoran tried to calm himself. "I-"

"I’ve got to go." Tomoyo said, brushing past him calmly.

Syaoran turned and watched her walk out of sight, then leaned against the wall, hardly taking in the scene that had just occured. That can’t be Tomoyo, it can’t be! Twin card, most likely, but how does she have such a messed up personality? How am I ever going to tell this to Sakura?

Syaoran walked dazily into the hall and headed to Mark’s room to finish his hair potion, though he had completly lost his spirit. Syaoran poured in the glue, slushed it around, and satisfied with the near-hair-gel-color, he walked away. He figured he’d better see Sakura’s side of this story, maybe she had sensed something.

Syaoran walked through the dancing crowd, unconsciously scanning to see if Sakura really was dancing with Trent. Rika was dancing with Trent as she had been when Syaoran had left. Had all Tomoyo said really have been a lie? Then that whole story, that crying, it was all a trap? And I fell in? Why would she do that? I don’t understand. Syaoran spotted Meilin in the center of attention, doing some wild and exotic dance moves that Syaoran would be humiliated if he was associated with her at the moment. He spotted Sakura up at a table of food with Tamakazi and Chihura. They were up to something, Syaoran could tell from their cautious smiles. All three of them burst out laughing as they chewed on pizza. Syaoran made his way up, where Sakura held up her peice of half eaten pizza to Syaoran. "Want some? It’s reallllly good!" All three of them started laughing again.

Syaoran frowned, they sounded like they were drunk. "Are you guys okay?"

That brought on another laughing spree. Sakura calmed herself down and leaned in to him, lowering her voice. "A big group of preps just ate some of this pizza and started freaking out when the pop rocks went off!" She stopped, because they were all laughing hysterically again.

"Wait, wait! Listen to me!" Chihura said, quickly biting off a peice of pizza and then sticking her tongue out. They could barely hear the fizzle of the poprocks over the loud music, but they could still hear it.

Sakura and Tamakazi were laughing hard again. Syaoran shook his head. He didn’t smell any alchohol, but they sure were acting very strangely. What’s with everyone tonight? It is the new years thing? Or the party atmosphere? What? "Sakura I need to talk to you." He said seriously. The smile slowly faded off Sakura’s face.

Chihura and Tamakazi were watching with amusement. "Oooo! He needs to ‘talk’ to you Sakura, you guys better go ‘talk’ somewhere private, we’ll hang out here until you’re finished ‘talking’." Chihura said, giggling, emphasizing all the ‘talks’ in her sentence.

Syaoran shot her an annoyed look. "Did you guys spike the punch and drink it or what?"

All three of them laughed, then their laughs slowly detoriorated into pale faces. They sprinted randomly down into the dancing floor and ran to Meilin, who temporarily stopped dancing and exchanged a few words. The three of them walked solemnly back up the steps.

Sakura looked warily at her drink. "She put double doses of straight caffine in, oh my." Sakura half snorted half laughed. "Woops I was supposed to be going to the bathroom, I have left Mark sitting around in that room for like a half hour!" Sakura laughed.

Chihura joined in. "Yeah, he’ll think your stomach didn’t agree with the pizza or something!"

"Like it’s sizzling in your stomach!" Tamakazi said. They all started cracking up again.

Syaoran sighed. This was no time to talk to Sakura. He froze as he spotted Tomoyo across the room, talking cheerfully to Naoko. She didn’t look anything like when he had last seen her. He didn’t want to talk to her, he needed to talk to Sakura. He shot a glance at Sakura, who was sticking her tongue out now, laughing as well as she could with an open mouth as the pop rocks fizzled.

Syaoran watched a group of kids approach the ice cream set out. They scooped out their ice cream, then grabbed seperate whipped cream cans. They looked around to see if no one was looking, then they popped off the tops, holding the cans up to their mouths. Syaoran couldn’t help but feel sick for them, the two high schoolers they were, for the horror they were about to spray.

Sakura, Chihura, and Tamakazi were watching with delighted smiles, their expressions almost scarily happy. The boy’s fingers slowly pressed down on the cap, until it made a loud rushing noise. The contents of the can came surging in and filled their mouths immediatly. Both boys spit out the green brown mush with grotesque disgust. The crowd around them turned and looked with sickened glances at the floor in front of them.

"Holy crap, man!"

"That’s what it is! It’s crap!" The other one said.

Some people were laughing now, while others were looking down at the food on their own plates with unsurity.

Tamakazi, Chihura, and Sakura, had dropped to the floor, laughing so hysterically. They could hardly breathe through the convulsions of laughter, but they continued on, rolling back and forth, gasping for air.

Syaoran couldn’t help but smile. One of the highschoolers and went surging off to find Mark and beat the ‘stuff’ out of him. It took a good five minutes of laughing before Sakura had managed to stand, though she was horribly off balance, and was leaning on the table heavily. She was still laughing, tears brimming her eyes. "I can’t beleive he actually-" She stopped, laughing again. Her laughter was interrupted with hiccups. Now Tamakazi and Chihura were laughing at Sakura, who was laughing at her own hiccups.

Syaoran was very annoyed. He decided he could at least go talk to Meilin, she was at least sane. He looked over at her, but she was still dancing. He didn’t want to go through that crowd of people. Syaoran looked down at his watch. It was only ten oclock. Late enough. I should just leave. Syaoran looked to the door. That was the simplest solution. Sakura would be fine here, laughing and hiccuping, Meilin was having a good time, and Tomoyo...well whatever, Tomoyo was fine too. Syaoran turned to go, but Sakura put a hand on his shoulder. He turned grimly, afraid of what she might dare him to do next.

"Where (hiccup) are you going?(hiccup)" Sakura asked.

"Home." Syaoran said.

Her face fell, and she gave a silent hiccup. "Oh." She stopped, hiccuping again. "Happy New Years then."

Syaoran weakly lifted one side of his mouth into a smile. "Same to you."

Sakura grinned, then turned around, heading back over to Tamakazi and Chihura. Syaoran turned and walked silently to the door, then stepped out into the frosty night.

The night had it’s calming effect on Syaoran, and he welcomed it. He couldn’t stand the constant tension of the atmosphere in there. He would much rather be home sleeping than be up all night worrying about this or that. Syaoran half slid on a patch of ice on the sidewalk. He looked down at the snow around his feet and sighed, trying to let all his thoughts go as he exhaled. I’ll think about all this tommorrow. Everything will be better then, it’ll be a new day-hell a year-maybe a better year for... for what? Just a better year? With all this ghost stuff going on, I’m not sure. Yet it’s because of the cards going loose that I am able to be friends with Sakura once again. What was wrong with Tomoyo?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Crummy way to end a chapter huh? I know. But still this was getting way too long. Some news: THIS IS MY LONGEST CHAPTER YET! haha. No records can’t be broken! Anyway, next chapter will be GREAT!!! action packed, you know? I have lots of ideas given to me by my faithful writing consultor Gabrielle; devoted ccs fan, also big fan of Lord of the Rings, who isn’t!? LEGOLAS! ahh. Okay anyway, yeah. We are attempting to start a band (you probably don’t want to hear any of this but...) and we are making a song called "Li (Syaoran) Link (Guy in Zelda) and Legolas (Elf in Lord of the Rings). So the song could be Li, Link, Legolas: Triple L song. heheh okay anyway.........My site should grow soon if Gabrielle’s computer will cooperate, she’ll put in some new parts to it as site’s comanager.

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K. Always faithfully writing though she doesn’t get nearly enough complimentaries on her story to sustain her,

Syaoran’s Biggest Fan 4 Life!!!!!

aka SyaoranFan4Life