RECAP: Last chapter, oh what excitement....um... Link left for Hyrule. Syaoran is being really strange and Sakura’s worried. He basically was willing to commit suicide in their run in with the Sword. Sakura’s definitely worried.

Chapter 45 - Good Times in Old Houses

Sakura hated not having first class with Syaoran. She couldn’t keep track of his attendance, she couldn’t observe him quietly through class, and she didn’t have the beginning of school to talk to him about the excitement of the previous night. But noo, Syaoran had to show up in Japan Mr. Smartypants. Sakura looked up at the clock. There was five minutes until first class was over. She could at least search for him in the hallways. If he wasn’t in school that day Sakura would have to go to his apartment and break in. She was worried about what rash decisions he might make since the previous night’s display.

Strange. So strange. Why won’t he just say what’s wrong? I don’t understand why he’d hold it all in like that. We’ve known each other for...for ever, and he still can’t feel like he can talk to me? I’ve told him everything about me, and he just thinks it can be one way like this?

"Earth to Sakura. You there?"

Sakura blinked up at Chihura’s voice. She had been sitting amongst the girls absently listening to their conversation. Apparently her listening skills weren’t as good as she thought. "Huh?"

"I was saying, do you happen to know what time the shrine festival starts this weekend? None of us could remember."

"Oh, no, sorry but I’m not sure." Sakura said.

They returned to their conversation and Sakura glanced back at the clock. Two minutes. She gathered her books and thought about how she’d do this. ‘Something’s wrong with you and you need to fess up tonight at six at the restaraunt of your choice.’ No. Maybe...hm. This sucks. I don’t want to have to ask him out just to try and fix his problems. But...I can’t just leave him in the dark on this one. He’d fight over me. I should do the same. Right, okay...

The bell rang. Sakura found her hands so shakey it was hard to hold onto her books. This is a life or death situation here! I’m not admitting I like him, I’m just trying to save a life. She set her determination into her steps and walked down the hall, trying nonchalantly to look around for him. She spotted the back of his head in the far part of the hall. Sakura tried to catch up but he was soon lost in the crazy mob of kids. She sighed, annoyed with her luck.

Tomoyo grabbed her arm and she was dragged to math class. At least he’s at school.

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It was at lunch that Sakura decided to try her move again. She looked up nervously from her lunch tray several times and found after she had paid for her food that she had accidentally filled her salad portion with olives. She grimaced at the ugly little black circles and then looked up, trying to keep herself calm. I’m going to help him. Chill out! She saw him sitting off at the end of a table. The soccer team filled the rest of the seats.

Good. The end seat. I can just go over and sit down without being really noticeable, right? This was a big step. Sakura had never been totally comfortable being the only girl in a crowd, and she was sure Syaoran wasn’t going to do much to make her feel comfortable. Sakura caught a flash of Tomoyo’s hair heading in her direction. It was now or never. Sakura took a deep breath and walked courageously over to the soccer table. She could feel the eyes of the whole lunchroom on her.

Sakura knew there was only a certain amount of time where she could turn back. Once Syaoran saw her, she had to sit down. Debating for the last time, Syaoran glanced at her. He didn’t look very good, he looked completly stressed and worn out. His stress increased as he saw Sakura. He went back to looking at his food. Sakura forced her stiff legs on and shyly pulled out the chair, sitting down across from him.

Trent, who she had just sat down next to, glanced to his side before continuing his conversation with the rest of the guys. Syaoran wasn’t acknowledging she was there. Sakura tried to tune out everyone else and looked intently at Syaoran. "I know you don’t want to explain anything." She stated bluntly. Good. Keep it smooth. Stay in control.

Syaoran sighed loudly. He was good at that. He finally dragged his attention away from his lunch. Sakura smiled slightly with releif, though quickly went back to her authorative face. "What do you want, then?" He asked in a bored mumbled, quickly looking back to his tray where he entertained himself by flipping his food over with his fork.

"An explanation," Sakura said.

Syaoran looked up questioningly, meeting her eyes for a breif moment before looking away. "Maybe you should just leave me alone."

"Sitting at the soccer table are we!?" Tomoyo exclaimed, pulling another table over loudly and seating herself next to Sakura. Sakura almost laughed from the annoyed look Syaoran gave Tomoyo before looking back to his food.

Chihura, Rika, and Naoko all sat down next, totally killing any chance of conversation. Sakura moaned inwardly as they started up a conversation about the festival again. Sakura couldn’t really care how many spikey thing the juggler could juggle. She sat impatiently, pretending to be interested, then thought up an idea. She quietly tore off a sheet of paper and scribbled some words on it. Looking to see if anyone was paying attention, she stood up, trying unobtrusively to throw the peice of paper at Syaoran. "I need a fork, do you guys need anything?"

Chihura, Rika, and Naoko all shook their heads. Sakura smiled and then turned to head up to get the fork she didn’t need. She meet eyes with Syaoran for a microsecond before she headed off to the line.

Syaoran watched Sakura go, then looked down at the unfolded peice of paper in front of him. We’ll continue this later. He sighed and looked up. He noticed the glare Tomoyo was giving him. He glared back. He then glanced at the clock. He still had half of lunch left. He couldn’t sit in front of Sakura with all of this for another fifteen minutes. Syaoran gathered his stuff and got up, shoving the paper in his pocket. He made sure he would get around without Sakura noticing him leaving, then headed up to the counter to put the tray away. He sighed and then headed out into the hall, not having any place in particular to go. The library’s always open. I can just finish my homework there.

Syaoran walked to the library, shuffling his feet along. Some part of him wanted to go back and tell Sakura everything that had happened in Hong Kong. But his stubborn habit of keeping things hidden prevailed. He walked through the library to a secluded round table and sat down, putting down his books for the next class and staring off into space for a moment. When does she think we’re going to talk about this, anyway? It’s not like she can just say ‘Hey, why are you so down’ and I can just say ‘well my mom died and the elders were tearing me apart so I destroyed my family’s life as well as my own just so I could see you again’. Syaoran leaned his elbows on the table and glared out the window into the small school courtyard. He wished things were that easy. But things were never like that for him. Why the hell do things have to be so hard? Do other kids go through near as much as I do? No. Why does it have to be me? Wasn’t one parent enough? Is this just what I get for all the mistakes I’ve made in my life?

Syaoran got another urge to do some destruction with his sword. He felt his muscles were tense but he didn’t care anymore. He would only exhaust himself after a while and the adreniline would leave him without anything but depression. Syaoran finally inspired himself enough to open the book in front of him, hoping to lose his troubles in the equations he should have done last night. He went through them at a fanatical speed and finished just as the bell rang for him to be out of lunch. Syaoran got up from the table and headed out into the hall, making sure not to pass by Sakura.

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Syaoran could tell Sakura was planning on keeping her word. All of P. E. class she had been casting looks at him. Now in art class, Syaoran had a feeling if he looked up from the pot he was working on he would meet a fimiliar pair of eyes. So Syaoran focussed on the tragedy of artwork in front of him that he called a pot.

"I can’t beleive she expects us to finish these today. Mine keeps caving in," Tamakazi complained, surveying his pot.

"Yours has got to be the best one in the room. Quit whining," Trent muttered, he faring about as well as Syaoran.

Syaoran just kept on going silently. He didn’t care if they hated him for his weird silence. He didn’t want to waste his time saying things he didn’t really mean or think. He had to admit, the slab method did seem to have structural problems. Syaoran decided he was putting on a last layer that was too thin and therefore could not hold it’s own weight. Syaoran made a thicker peice and then added it on. It held. Syaoran set it upright.

With that done, Syaoran decided it needed some 3d parts. This was 3d art, after all. He made some little designs out of small fringes of clay and then slopped them on with a little too much water. The vine affect he had been aiming for turned out to look more like a dying centipede. He wiped off some of the excess water that dripped down and tried to refix the peices. It looked more like a vine that time. Satisfied, Syaoran carved his name on the bottom of it and headed up to the kiln room. He tried to make himself invisible as he passed Sakura’s table.

Syaoran rushed to find a place on the shelf for his pot and then turned, trying to make it out alive. But he had a feeling Sakura had just been waiting for him to stray out of the herd. He was trapped. Sakura stopped in the doorway, having such an innocent look on her face for the predator she was, trapping him like this.

"Hey," she said simply, heading around him to the shelf to set her pot down as well. Her pot had leaves all over it. What a coincidence. Maybe if Syaoran would put some leaves on his pot the vines wouldn’t look so much like an insect. As she had her back to him Syaoran tried to get out of the danger zone.

"Hang on-" Sakura said, hurrying to turn around. She had that look on her face. That intent, I’m-feeling-horrible-even-though-I’m-so-innocent look. "Do...do you think we could go somewhere tonight and...talk?"

Syaoran felt the pain of the awkwardness in this conversation. He refused to let it get to him. What, she thinks she can just invite me out somewhere? How good of friends does she think we are? But... we were good friends. Really good friends, and only...a month ago? Two months? I don’t know, those weeks were just an ongoing hell after she left. "I’m busy," he mumbled, fixing his eyes on a stain on the tile in front of him. Syaoran kicked himself for that automatic response. He glanced up, hoping his desperate look would save him. No matter how busy he was, he could find time for this.

Sakura looked down, looking slightly hurt. Why wouldn’t she? She let out a loud sigh. Trent walked up to the kiln room, evaluated the situation, and sat back down with his pot-in-waiting. Sakura felt slightly embaressed but ignored it. "Listen. I know you don’t think this is important at all but I do. You can’t find any time at all?"

"I...." Syaoran wanted to jump into the kiln with his pot. "I have some work to do but...." He let out an annoyed sigh, but deep down it was one of releif. She had fought enough that he could allow this. "What time?"

Sakura’s expression changed. "Um..." She paused as she saw Tomoyo was coming up to the door. She better get out of this. Sakura started walking back into the art room and Syaoran followed suit. "I’ll call you," She said, just before Tomoyo reached earshot.

Syaoran glared at her as she sat down at her table. His phone number changed. How could he tell her that one? Syaoran just walked back to his table and collapsed in his seat. Trent had already taken the opportunity to try yet again and put his pot in the kiln room. Tamakazi continued on his masterpeice. All was well. Maybe not well but at least normal.

Syaoran looked at the clock and then drummed his fingers on the table. Part of him had this sudden excitement. Why? It’s not like this is anything but a death trap. I can’t do this, she’s going to make me tell her everything. And I can’t. Can’t anyone understand that? I need time! Maybe even time can’t fix this, I don’t know. Syaoran saw that Tamakazi was glaring out the corner of his eye at Syaoran’s loud drum beat. Syaoran sat back in his chair and calmed his hand down. What can I do? Nothing. I can’t do anything, not now. I could leave her with the old phone number but..... that’s lame.

The bell finally rang and Syaoran got up. Sakura walked out of the room with Tomoyo. He didn’t want to pursue her. He couldn’t even pursue himself. But he trailed them anyways. Sakura and Tomoyo split to their lockers. Syaoran went to his own, finding he had a pretty good veiw of Sakura. Their lockers weren’t too far away this year. "Kinomoto-san." Syaoran forced himself to say.

Sakura turned from her locker, looking for the source of the voice. Her eyes rested on Syaoran. "Yeah?"

"My number changed, um," Syaoran realized stupidly he should have written it down previous to this discussion. He looked for paper.

"Well," Sakura said, pulling her bookbag over her shoulders and shutting her locker. "Just call me then. I’ve got my new hand phone. The number’s the same."

Syaoran shrugged. Sakura looked like she had more to say, but either Syaoran mistook her look or she preferred to leave it at that for then. She walked down the hall with a less than usual bouncy walk. Syaoran quickly tore his eyes off her and went back to taking out his CD player and his coat. He wouldn’t have any time to do homework tonight. He shut his locker and then headed out the side door, secluding himself for no reason in particular.

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Syaoran got home and glared at his answering machine. It was blinking. Two messages. Syaoran did not want to hear them. There were only a few people who had managed to get this number and he could not bear to listen to them. He hit the delete button without ever playing the messages, then looked to the phone beside it. After some arguing in his mind, he picked it up and dialed Sakura number by memory. After two rings she picked up.

"Moshi moshi?"

"It’s me," Syaoran said with a sigh, collapsing on his couch.

Sakura, on the other line, felt slightly sick of the amount of self pity Syaoran was wallowing in. "Hi. So I figured we can just go out to eat."

"That’s fine."

"Where do you want to go?"

"I don’t care."

Sakura scowled on the other end. "Well.... Pizza’s good, there’s always fast food..."

"No pizza. I can’t eat pizza anymore."

Sakura had to smile at that. She wasn’t sure if he was being funny on purpose, but it definitely had a funny appeal to her. Just Syaoran working at a pizza place was a funny fact in itself. That seemed so long ago now. How could I not get along with him back then? He was an angel compared to now. "Italian, American, Chinese, Japanese, whatever’s cool with me. We can just go to that place that’s off the park road."

"Sure," Syaoran replied, just willing the conversation to end.

"Great, well.... Five, six....?"

"Six," Syaoran said, at least having a preference on time. The longer he could delay and plan the better.

"Alright. Six. I’ll just meet you there I guess."

"In front of the place," Syaoran added.

"Okay. I’ll see you later, then,"Sakura said.

"Bye," Syaoran mumbled, hanging up the phone.

He sighed and leaned back in the couch. This blows.

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Sakura shivered as the wind broke through her jacket. I need to start wearing my winter jacket already. She headed down the sidewalk in deep thought. The resteraunt would be just around the turn of the road. She had to admit to herself, this was probably the first planned dinner with just the two of them ever. Not like it was going to be anything. Sakura could not beleive how incredibly dismal and selfish Syaoran was being. But then when she remembered how he looked as he completely gave up, she knew there was something very deep rooted behind all of this. And she hated that with everything in her. She wanted the boy that had just been starting to build up to his potential. But he kept backtracking, it seemed so useless to try and stay friends.

But it’s not. Someday he will overcome this and then he will be so secure that I will be depending on him. She rounded the corner and glanced up at the resteraunt. In her quick observation she only retained that there were many cars there and several people in front of the place, some coming in, some going, and some maybe...waiting on someone? She hoped he had beaten her there. She didn’t want to have to wait for him in the cold. But it seemed like lately she had been doing a whole lot of waiting on him.

Sakura walked quietly up the sidewalk and onto the parking lot, not looking up until she had to. Once she did she found Syaoran. Syaoran was standing impatiently by the door, giving her a wary and annoyed look before looking inside and pretending to be interested. Once she was a few footsteps behind him he opened the door and walked in, barely keeping the door open long enough for her to go through. Syaoran stopped at the sign telling them to wait for their seatin. Sakura told the waitor ‘two’ and they headed off to the corner of one of the rooms.

Sakura was glad that there were so many other people there. It made this more comfortable somehow. She figured she could hide easier like this. Sakura sat down in the booth and took the menu gratefully from the waitor. From there she snuck a look at Syaoran. He only took his menu and opened it, glancing at Sakura as she just looked down. Sakura sighed as she looked through the foods. She had to admit, this lighting really set off his good looks. But, Sakura wondered, what lighting didn’t set off his good looks? Sakura set down her menu once she knew what she was going to order, then looked at Syaoran.

Syaoran was almost amusing in the way he was desperately trying to avoid her. He looked over his menu for a second and then looked back to the words on the paper. But he could still feel Sakura’s eyes drilling into him. With a loud sigh, he set his menu down and looked straight at her with a glare, using intimidation as a defense.

"Well...." Sakura said, looking away from his intense stare before looking back. "This is very awkward."

Syaoran let out a little breath that could have been a laugh. "You insisted."

Sakura grinned and shifted uncomfortably. "So did you get all of your work done?" She asked, not caring if she brought up a boring conversation. It was his fault for not helping out.

"For today," Syaoran said, his voice showing some signs of exhaustion.

"What kind of work?" She asked.

Syaoran closed his menu up several different ways. "Computer work."

"Oh, do you get paid?"

"Yeah," Syaoran said.

Sakura waited for him to explain more. He didn’t. She looked over to the neighboring table. A family with a girl about her age were eating. The girl was giving Syaoran looks. Syaoran hadn’t noticed. Sakura glared at her. She sighed at her own immaturity and went back to looking boredly at the table in front of her. She despised Syaoran at moments like these. Not giving her any help, just sitting there, inwardly laughing at Sakura’s failed attempts to make him talk.

The climax of the conversation occured in which the waitor was by to take their order. Syaoran disagreed on split bills and said he’d pay for it. Sakura didn’t want to let him, now thinking maybe he was supporting himself with this computer work. But she didn’t infringe on his display of manly responsibility to take the tab. She was figured she’d at least leave the tip. She even scaled down her order to keep her side very cheap.

Once the waitor left, Sakura was ready for another round. After taking a drink of her apple juice, she set her determination. "Why did you just leave Hong Kong?"

Syaoran was kicking the toe of his shoe on the ground, seeing how long it took for his foot to go numb. "Because I told you I would come back as soon as I could to help you."

Sakura was frustrated. This was true. But she knew that couldn’t be the basis on which he decided. This was deeper than that. "Then why did you change like this?" When he hesitated as if playing dumb she added, "I mean, look. You’ve been kicking your shoe into the ground for the past three minutes. You are very different."

Syaoran abruptly set his foot right and sat back in his seat. "People change."

"Things make people change." Sakura combatted.

"Can you just talk about anything else for one second? Maybe I’m in such a bad mood because everyone just keeps pointing out my problems."

Sakura was taken aback at his irritation. It was obvious he was getting upset cause he actually brought his voice to a normal volume for that one. She was saved from reply as the waitor returned. Sakura was shocked at the speed of this service. In one way she was happy to get her food but in another... she was worried Syaoran would scarf through and leave before they finished this. But it didn’t even seem like they had started their conversation. Once the waitor left, Sakura was intent on picking up the conversation.

"Syaoran, I’m worried about you because, I mean... what was all that about?"

Syaoran glared at her for using his name. And he glared because he didn’t want to answer this. In a way he was horribly embaressed by himself of the previous night. But it wasn’t like it could have been helped. Those feelings were going to get the best of him sometime. And he had a feeling he had more to go through. He pulled at the bandage he had wrapped around his arm absently. "Maybe I’m just going through a depression." Syaoran said sarcastically.

Sakura was getting very frustrated with him. "This isn’t just that. Something’s wrong and for some reason you think you’re proving something by keeping it to yourself. All I know is the person I ... left in Hong Kong was a completely different person than the one that just showed up all of the sudden here."

"I didn’t have anywhere else to go! If you want me to go back to that hell this bad just say so!" Syaoran looked ready to get up and leave before he ever touched his food.

Sakura was a bit scared of the built up emotions inside of him. She didn’t know how well he could control them. "I don’t want you to leave. I just want you to talk to me." Sakura said, her voice very soft as his was now louder. "You let all of this build up until you end up hurting yourself and everything around you."

Syaoran had had it. He didn’t want to go off on Sakura, but that meant he better leave while he could still control himself. "Quit talking like you understand me." He stood up and got his coat. "I’m sorry you didn’t get whatever you wanted to get out of this but," Syaoran put money on the table. "I can’t stay here any more."

Sakura stood up as well, feeling stupid for looking up at him as he talked. But he was already leaving. "What about your food?"

"Put it in a box and give it to Kero." Syaoran said, continuing his way towards the door. Sakura bit down hard on her tongue and tried to contain herself.

She collapsed back in her seat, ignoring the stares she was getting from the tables around them that had witnessed the scene. She was fuming with anger towards him. He was being more selfish than she could have ever accreditted him being. She watched his back go out the door and into the cooling evening. She shivered from the draft that probably didn’t even reach her table. Sighing for the last time, she looked to her food and twirled her fork around.

I can’t just let him go like that. But with the way he’s being, why should I even bother? I didn’t do anything but cause an upstart. Maybe I should give up. She grabbed the money from the other side of the table and counted it. She would have extra left over. She wouldn’t feel right keeping his money. The next time we talk I’ll give it to him. If we do. She sighed and forced down a quarter of her plate, then flagged down the waitor and had their things put in boxes. Sakura paid and left a healthy tip out of her own money, then headed outside.

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Syaoran hated himself for not eating. He now was starving but didn’t have the time or patience to cook anything. He hated himself for being such a bastard to Sakura when she was trying to be so nice to him. He hated himself for ruining every good thing that was ever in his life. Syaoran threw his keys on the counter and looked at the message machine. Three messages this time. He hit the delete button and continued to his room.

With no one around anymore Syaoran did whatever he wanted. So when he was changing clothes with his door left open he about jumped out of his skin as he heard a knock on the front door. Syaoran finished pulling the T shirt over his head and headed to the door. But he paused as he stopped by the kitchen. He stood unsure. Did Sakura run after me that quickly? I can’t talk to her now! Doesn’t she know she’s wasting her time?

"Syaoran! If you don’t open this door in five seconds I’m going to break it down!" A voice that was fimiliar but not Sakura’s shouted. Syaoran was pale and still for a moment, then rushed to the door.

He opened it and found Meilin backing up to give herself space to kick it down. She quickly stopped what she was doing and looked at Syaoran, her eyes glazing over. She dropped her bags and attacked him with one of her hugs. "Syaoran!"

Syaoran tried to back away, not very annoyed with her for once in his life. "Meilin, what are you doing here? I told you not to follow me!"

Meilin stepped back and put her hands on her hips. "You think I would listen to that?" She turned and grabbed her suitcase and her hand bag. Syaoran couldn’t have been more happy to see she had a very small amount of luggage. She couldn’t be planning on a long visit.

Syaoran shut the door and locked it behind her, then followed her into the main room of Syaoran’s apartment. Meilin dropped her things then turned and took a good look at Syaoran. "We have alot to talk about."

Syaoran almost responded ‘I don’t have time’; he did have alot of work he needed to catch up on and didn’t have time for one of Meilin’s conversations. But she had just flown across an ocean. He couldn’t refuse. He walked over, looking very deflated, and plopped down on the couch. Meilin sat down on the one across from him, stretching her arms and legs. "Every time I fly it’s worse and worse."

Syaoran sighed. "How did you pay for this?"

"Your sisters."

"How did they pay for this?"

Meilin had an expression change. She wasn’t going to be talking lightly from here on out. "They barely could. We all chipped in. They agreed to send me because it would be hard to choose between themselves."

Syaoran sighed again but did not respond. He only looked distantly off, willing himself into another life.

"Syaoran, I can understand you running off like you did but... I just can’t beleive you did it. You have no idea what kind of crap is going on in the clan now that they don’t have the...strong family you were to hold them up."

Syaoran glared at her. "You have no idea what kind of hell it was slaving for them. It’s my life, Meilin. I’m allowed to do what I want. I do not have to spend my whole life thinking I can only be as good as they let me."

"Yes, it’s your life, but you destroyed your sister’s lives as well! How fair is that? The only reason they’ve kept the house is because the elders aren’t strong enough to make decisions anymore. When they find someone else in charge, they’ll be kicked out, probably my family as well, just because you couldn’t keep your anger down."

"Those bastards and everyone else in the world could die just because I didn’t come here to help Sakura! Would that be my fault also? Everything always seems to come back on me, whether it truly is my fault or I’m just too much of a coward to deny the accusations. You of all people should understand why, Meilin! Did they brainwash you as well?"

Meilin let out a sigh, her eyes tearing up again. "I’m beginning to think they were right, you are putting your feelings for her in front of your family and your honor." She stood up with an angry puff of breath. "Where am I staying?"

Syaoran got up from the couch. "Here." He stalked out of the room, heading for his own room. He grabbed his laptop. He couldn’t imagine trying to work after that little discussion, but he couldn’t let anything else slip. Without this money there’d be no apartment, and he would have to go back and face everything. He couldn’t do that. He collapsed on his bed with his computer. He frowned as he felt something was off.

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Syaoran wasn’t at lunch, to Sakura’s best knowledge. In art class she figured out he really wasn’t there. Sakura glazed her pot with a dismal attitude, causing some of her leaves to be painted brown. She tried to recover them by adding extra green glaze on top, but instead the green would drip off onto the brown pot and create a landside of green-brown. Sakura took some paper towels and tried to componsate. Only smearing it more, Sakura decided to try her hand at a tie-dye pot.

Sakura was very glad Tomoyo didn’t have this class with her. Sakura had heard it all day ‘you should stay away from him’ ‘let him be’ ‘it’s not right’ etc. Sakura decided it had been a vital mistake to answer the question ‘where were you last night’. Chihura was laughing away at another one of Rika’s deep art insights. Sakura decided to tune in.

"Well, I mean, it’s true. Look at her pot. Something was hidden and then she confused it all by trying to fix it."

Rika cracked up at Sakura’s pot. "What have you done!? Do you think any of those different colors will show through?"

Sakura grinned and shrugged with defeat. "I gave up trying to fix it. Now it’s just going to be something....strange."

"Innovative, anyways." Naoko said, eyeing the splotchy clay work.

"Well....there you have it. Personality readings by pot done by Rika-chan. Get your reading today!" Chihura giggled.

Sakura smiled and looked back to her pot, a strange kind of worry. What if that’s right? Maybe I screw things up more trying to fix them? I know I do. But then... life’s not a pot. You’ve got to get over this crap before things get any better, right? Sakura looked up at the clock. She had ten minutes to finish. Then she had the whole weekend to do as she pleased. Touya was going to be gone and her father wasn’t going to be home until the evenings. She still felt depressed. Syaoran wasn’t here which meant she had no convenient way of talking him into doing anything. And she just couldn’t call him again. For once she actually wished a card would release itself. But that wasn’t going to happen. Nothing ever happened in her favor.

The bell rang and Sakura headed out into the raging river of kids. Everyone else was excited about the weekend. Sakura guessed she was just a party pooper. She went to her locker, got her things, looked habitually at Syaoran’s locker, then headed outside. She was soon drafter by Tomoyo and found herself listening about the funny things some guy said in her journalism class. Sakura tried to laugh along but it didn’t work.

Sakura parted from Tomoyo and began to head home. But she didn’t really feel like going home. No one would be there to welcome her asides from Bob and Kero. There was a time when she wouldn’t have dared go anywhere without Kero. That time wore off. She looked around. She didn’t want to see Syaoran. Not by her will anyways. If he were to search her out, she’d be more than thrilled to be with him. But that wasn’t going to happen either. She had been to the park just the other day and too many vivid memories lingered in her mind. Where else could she go? The mall? Not by herself. I could see Moondust. I haven’t ridden her since before Link visited. But... what will we do? Run in some circles and then I’ll go home only a bit more sore. Figuring that was her best plan, she headed towards the bus.

In Moondust’s field Sakura realized she had underdressed for the occassion.

In the barn Sakura put on some pants she left in her bookbag and ignored the chills she got from the cold fall wind. It seemed winter was close. Soon there would be snow to worry about. She sighed and grabbed Moondust’s bridle, then headed out through the pasture. Once she spotted Moondust, the mare trotted up to her, making a low rumble sound as a type of greeting. Sakura had to smile at the horse. She was beautiful. But that figured. Syaoran always had to have the best.

She patted the horse’s neck and tried to brush through some of her silvery mane with her fingers. That done, Sakura pulled on the bridle and led her to a nearby stump. The stump fell as Sakura jumped on and it caused a sloppy mount. Moondust pulled away but settled down as Sakura did. Sakura looked around. She was sick of riding in the pasture. Feeling risky and not herself, Sakura walked Moondust over to the fenceline and looked out in the darkening woods. The ground was flat and safe. She looked at the fence. It was low, very low. The barbed wire hadn’t held up well and had almost folded in half. It was a good thing Moondust wanted to stay in this pasture, else she’d have escaped long before then.

Sakura took Moondust away from the fence and then cantered up like she had remembered seeing Syaoran do. Moondust didn’t hesitate at all. Sakura twisted the mane around her hands and gripped hard with her legs and she found herself on the other side in no time. Ignoring the danger of trees, she let Moondust keep cantering, enjoying the smooth fairy tale like gait. After a while Moondust slowed on her own to a walk. Sakura continued walking through the woods, seeing the tops of houses in the distance. A few looked fimiliar. She squinted to see. Not able to figure it out, she let Moondust walk on.

With a close approach, Sakura came to a tall wall of old stone. She followed it around, looking at the old vines that covered it. Slow realization hit her. Sakura paled as she reached a broken down gate. A long stream came out of the courtyard, deep and fast. The inner walls had a section that was falling apart. Sakura felt slightly sick to her stomach but curiosity held her there.

It was Uncle Guan’s house.

Rememberance of all that went on there flooded back. The ghost, the woman that had been locked up but was able to get into Sakura’s room. Sakura shivered as chills ran down her spine. All that time she had been sleeping there and her mother’s murderer was locked up in the basement below, able to sneak through to the back door of Sakura’s room. She looked around at the courtyard. No one would ever live there again. It was dead. It would decay away and leave ruins across the forest it sat in. There would be no more lights in the house. But wait....

Sakura turned white. Through the windows that faced the inner courtyard she could see one pale light. She adjusted her eyes to make sure her eyes were not playing tricks on her. But it was still there. A very faint light that fluctuated. Candle light. The light grew and shrunk, but stayed by the window. Sakura was frozen with fear for a moment. A strange breeze blew through, turning over dead leaves and causing noises in all directions. There was strong magic in the air. When Sakura got a hold of herself, she whirled Moondust around, who, feeling Sakura trembling atop her, was getting very nervous herself.

A flash of the ghost Sakura had seen so many times blinded Sakura’s vision for a second. She shut her eyes tightly and spurred Moondust in the flanks. Moondust obliged by leaping forward, tearing wrecklessly into the woods from where they had come. Sakura almost fell. She could not fall, she did not want to be left there. Sakura grabbed mane tightly and let Moondust run where and how she wanted. She probably knew the better way home.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura didn’t mention anything to Kero about the house. She had some funny feeling he had something to do with it. Why she did not know. All she had was the knowledge that everything odd seemed to start back around that time. Visions of an old clow reed, his screwed up social life... and that all seemed to be when Kero quit being much help. Sakura was too tired to try and figure out how it all tied together. She was beginning to think she would never come to a solution.

Sakura did, however, want to tell Syaoran the whole story. He had been her only help back then. But now he wasn’t even that. He was only a burden. Sakura was getting sick of trying to hold all of these things up. She couldn’t be expected do all of this alone, could she? On Saturday she sat around with the living room stereo on, wanting to do something. But she couldn’t go over to Syaoran’s and just ask herself in.

At two O’clock the phone rang.

"Moshi moshi?" Sakura answered.

"Hey, it’s Meilin."

Sakura blinked a second before that registered. "Meilin-chan! Hi, how are you?"

"I am fine, I suppose. Listen, Syaoran and I were wondering if you knew what all that magic was about last night?"

Sakura wanted to laugh first of all for Meilin’s rudeness and second of all for her making it sound like she had even noticed the magic the previous night. But then other things occured to Sakura. "What, you’re in Japan?" She asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I"m in Japan. I would have gone to school yesterday but Syaoran was being mean, said he had work to catch up or something... Whatever. Anyways, do you?"

Sakura had so many questions to ask these two. She didn’t get it. How did these kids get enough money to fly back and forth from Japan to Hong Kong this many times? And if they had that money, why did Syaoran have to work in the first place? "Ah, yeah, last night I felt that as well. I was riding by my uncle’s old house, there was a light on there. Then I felt that magic."

"And..." Meilin prompted.

"And I ran back to the barn as fast as Moondust could," Sakura said, leaving out the little flash of ghost and all the eerie feelings that had gone through her mind.

"Why didn’t you call us?" Meilin demanded.

"Well... I don’t know. I just didn’t," Sakura lied.

"You should have stayed to investigate, you might have gotten something out of it but... whatever. Thanks, Kinomoto."

"Oh, um... alright. Bye." Sakura hung up the phone then frowned to herself. Things just kept getting stranger and stranger. So Meilin was in Japan now. Strange. Sakura wondered why, even if Meilin was there, why she would call instead of Syaoran? It would make sense to Sakura that the one most knowledgeable about magic would discuss this with her but... She sighed. She wished she would have been bold enough to ask to talk to him.

At least maybe with Meilin here it won’t be so awkward. But I wonder how long she’s staying for? I should invite her somewhere. Maybe that way I can get through to him? Probably not. Sakura waited hopefully by the phone for another two minutes or so, then headed up the stairs to her room. Maybe she should investigate it. Maybe if she figured out whatever that way, she could gain both of their respect back.

It was probably just the illusion card playing tricks on my mind or something. That’s all. I’m sure there’s no one here. The phone rang.

Sakura ran so fast down the stairs that she tripped on the last one and stubbed her toe.

Hopping her way to the phone, she breathlessly picked it up. "Moshi moshi?"

"You’re sure there was a light on there?" A lower voice asked. It wasn’t Meilin this time.

Sakura smiled happily. "Yes. Appeared to be there anyways." She said, hinting at her theory.

Syaoran seemed to get it too. "Illusion?" He guessed.

"I don’t know. It freaked me out so much but... I guess I should have figured it’s a card."

"But you didn’t check it out?" He asked, his voice disapproving.

"No, I’m sorry, but I didn’t. I was totally freaked out, honestly, all that stuff that happened there-"

"Okay, alright, it’s fine," Syaoran broke in, seeing she was getting worked up. "But... somebody should probably check it out and seal it before anyone starts noticing things. That house should have been condemned, right? There’s no way anyone else is living there?"

"Right," Sakura agreed, feeling a little stupid for raising her voice.

"Can you handle it or do you want me to do it?" He asked.

"Me too!" Meilin shouted in the backround. "You guys can’t leave me out!"

Sakura smiled at Meilin’s antics then was a little disturbed with what he was saying. She didn’t want to go there alone at all, no way, but she wasn’t going to let him look this much better than her. "I can," She said, forcing her voice to stay level.

"Alright, when do you want to meet?"

"Huh?" Sakura asked, confused.

"You’re not going alone," Syaoran said bluntly.

Inwardly she thanked him for taking that step. "Whenever. Now’s fine with me."

"’kay, we’ll just wait where our road connects to the one to the house."

"Okay, see you."

Syaoran hung up the phone.

Sakura breathed a sigh of releif. Maybe cards were releasing in her favor. She tried to shake off the slight bit of fear she had for going back there. It’s broad daylight now. You have Syaoran to look out for you, right? Or will I be looking out for him? She ran upstairs to get a good outfit on. This was going to be hard. Nice looking and durable.

_______________________________________________________________

If there was a bridge around Meilin would be flying off it. At least, Syaoran would like to hang her upside down over the edge, just to give her a scare. She had an amazing gift of nonstop nagging and bragging. Syaoran couldn’t wait for Sakura to get here, if not for anything else but the sole purpose of shutting up Meilin.

He had told her several times ‘It’s too dangerous, Meilin!’. But no, she would not listen. She had the utmost faith in her fighting abilities. Syaoran eventually gave up and allowed her to come along. She at least could keep the awkward factor down to a minimum. Syaoran saw Sakura coming out of the corner of his eye. He kept a good watch on her that way and counted down the seconds before Meilin’s talk would transfer.

"Well, Kinomoto-san, took you long enough," Meilin said, her haughtiness having a friendly ring to it.

Sakura smiled in apology. "Sorry, I had to change and leave a note about where I was going."
Meilin shrugged and they all three began walking, Meilin staying in the middle to keep things under control. "So how has it been in Japan since your little trip to Hong Kong?" Meilin asked.

Sakura shrugged. "So-so. Cards break seals, I seal them, cards break seals, I seal them. Just like the rest of my life."

"Hmm. All of this is odd. You have asked Eriol about it, right?"

Sakura sighed loudly. "Eriol is the hardest person to get a hold of. Maybe he moved and just didn’t tell us, I don’t know. It doesn’t seem like him to do that but..."

"Yes, I’m sure he’d tell you before anyone else what his new address and phone number was. Very odd, very odd...."

Sakura ignored the implied. "How long are you planning to be here, Meilin-chan?"

"I don’t think very long." She glanced at Syaoran, then looked back ahead of herself. "I’m just here to get some things taken care of, that’s all."

Sakura nodded to show she understood, but deep down she screamed. They’re so secretive! I can’t stand it! Meilin probably knows everything that happened there! UGH! What does she mean ‘things taken care of’? She better not mean anything... emotional wise. Or....this probably is all about whatever happened in Hong Kong. And I’m never going to understand that.

"What time did you see that light last night?" Syaoran asked.

"Oh, ah....about 6:30 I guess."

When I felt that magic. It definitely was the same thing, then. He walked along, glaring at Meilin for taking charge like she was. But if she wasn’t there, he would be looking everywhere but at Sakura, trying to pretend she wasn’t there. He sighed. He was really getting on his nerves.

"Why don’t we catch the bus that stops at the end of that road?" Sakura suggested, not really wanting to walk the rest of the distance unless it was necessary.

"Good call," Meilin agreed. They stopped and waited at the next stop, letting two buses pass before the right one was there.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura remembered walking this road every day on the way home from school. She remembered hating how far it was but loving how odd and unique the house was. Sakura remembered playing hide and go seek. And then getting caught... She shivered. She didn’t notice the sympathetic grin Syaoran gave her as he saw her fear running high.

The walked down the lond road and Syaoran began to wander what the best approach was. If anyone around saw three kids walk right to the house, they might report them. "Is there another enterance to the house besides the front door?" Syaoran asked.

"Thousands," Sakura answered. "There’s a..um...a broken up hallway you can get into from the courtyard. We might get lost trying to find our way into the normal part of the house but... from there you could get in through my old room or go up another staircase to the main entry way but... those doors might all be locked."

"We can handle that," Meilin said confidently.

"Then there’s always swimming upstream into that room...." She left the rest unsaid. She knew Syaoran knew what room she was talking about. He had a scar on each hand to remind him of that room.

"Well it’s cold. Let’s try the broken hallway and go from there." Syaoran said.

"Sure," Sakura agreed, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"So how do we get into the courtyard?" Syaoran asked.

"Um, follow the wall around.... just follow me." She took lead and increased the speed in her steps a little more, not wanting to be called slow.

"This place is so cool!" Meilin said, looking over the tall wall with the vines covering it. "I can’t beleive you guys moved..."

Sakura didn’t respond. Syaoran didn’t blame her.

Sakura found her way to the broken gate and stopped. This gate had been broken only by Syaoran. She remembered that night well, she had been in the freezing stream and the next thing she knew she was atop Moondust with very warm arms keeping her up. She blushed at the thought but quickly lost that feeling as she looked up at the window. "That window- the top one in the center."

"Your old room," Syaoran muttered.

Meilin looked at him skeptically, then looked up at the window. Stepping forward she started the expedition. "Let’s check it out, then."

Sakura looked at it a little longer before looking back down. She found Syaoran was watching her. She quickly looked ahead at Meilin and hurried to catch up. They wandered through the courtyard. Sakura looked around. She remembered fighting cards here with Syaoran. Or... she remembered being hurt after being thrown against a tree and watching Syaoran fight. She bit her lip to keep from smiling and followed Meilin through the courtyard.

"Hey, there’s the place where you should be able to get in," Sakura said, pointing towards a collapsed portion of the roof on the hallway. They veered their path that direction.

Sakura looked nervously at the pile of stones they’d be climbing to get into the hallway. She couldn’t beleive she was just going to go back in. But... it was stupid for her to be such a scaredy cat anyways, right? She followed Meilin up the pile of collapsed stone. They clambered up and stumbled down the other side of the rock mountain into the dark. Sakura’s eyes took a second to adjust and she stopped walking to wait until she could see. From there she walked on, looking around slightly disturbed at the dark and dusty hallway.

Meilin seemed content to lead though she had no idea where she was going. She just charged ahead, dragging them into the black yonder. The light from the collapsed part of the hall slowly seemed to fade away and things became darker and darker until Sakura was worried she wouldn’t be able to see soon. She felt adrenaline pump through her veins, causing her to be jumpy and alert. She listened carefully to Meilin’s progressing steps. When she heard hesitation, Sakura quickly looked about herself.

Meilin shreiked. "What was that!?" She grabbed Syaoran’s arm and held it tightly to her side, looking around.

"It was probably just a mouse or something," Syaoran muttered, pulling her along and trying to regain ownership of his arm.

Sakura wished she could have an arm to hold onto. She ignored herself and continued on behind both of them, thinking at least she was in the back and they had to face what lied ahead of them first. She followed them until light seemed to seep into the hall enough to reflect off the dust that was thick in the air. Sakura tried not to breathe it in but find it was quite impossible to do that. Meilin reluctantly gave Syaoran his arm back and looked around the old hallway worriedly.

"Look, there. That’s the door I tried to board up, remember?" Syaoran pointed to the mess of wood that was thrown about.

Sakura remembered. Syaoran had been the only one to help her then, when they knew that someone was breaking into her room every night. Sakura shivered as she remembered the sickening fear she’d feel as she looked from her bed to the large heavy door across the room, hidden under heavy cloth, and see it was open. This door was the one at the basement that Syaoran had nailed shut. It obviously hadn’t help up too well. More light was inside the big room, still full of boxes. "Yeah, you’re right." She said, looking worriedly in. She didn’t really want to go back here. Why hadn’t she just agreed to the accusations of her being a chicken?

Syaoran continued over the boards, looking around cautiously. He felt something off in the air but couldn’t point out what it was. He didn’t think he felt any magic around but if not that...what else could it be? He didn’t recognize it. Deciding his mind was playing tricks on him, he looked back to get the other two to follow him. Meilin gladly jumped in after him and Sakura looked slightly more cautious. She walked around the wood carefully, her eyes large and darting around the huge room. Syaoran felt a slight wave of pity. This place held bad memories for her. He knew what that felt like.

Sakura looked around the room. It looked much as it did in her memory, asides a few things. But as she looked more closely at the boxes she passed by, she noticed they seemed more askew. Or maybe she hadn’t noticed that before? She ignored it and followed Syaoran and Meilin to the door that was at the base of the stairs leading to her old room. She bit her lip. She didn’t want to have to open doors. It was scary, who knew what was on the other side? But Syaoran seemed pretty fearless.

When they reached the door, Syaoran reached right out and opened the heavy wooden door. It creaked loudly and echoed through the huge basement. Sakura tried to hold back her jumpy temperament and stood stock still, looking around them at the stone steps. They were just like she remembered, old, faded, worn. Light from a cut out window brightened the stairway. It wasn’t that bad. Syaoran continued on up as did Meilin. Sakura, fearing to be left behind, rushed after them.

"This place is so incredible," Meilin remarked, looking out the window at the veiw of the courtyard as they followed the steps up.

"It is pretty," Sakura agreed quietly. She almost ran into Syaoran as she had been looking out the window too long and saw that he had stopped in front of her door. He twisted the door knob to open it but it wouldn’t budge. Syaoran pushed it hard with his body weight but nothing happened. Syaoran sighed, then spoke an old spell Sakura had almost lost from her memory.

After finishing the lock spell, the door opened without much protest. Syaoran looked around, keeping the doorway blocked for a moment. Sakura didn’t argue with the offered protection. He eventually stepped out onto the floor of her room, frowning as he looked around.

Most of her old furniture was gone. That wasn’t that odd. But there was something about the room that was darker, as if it had suddenly aged a few years. Sakura looked around, intrigued as well. Meilin didn’t know what they were looking at, but figured she should look perplexed as well. They were all quiet for a while, until Syaoran spoke.

"Look, there’s the candle," He pointed over at a tall candle, with seemingly fresh puddles of wax around the base. It sat near the ledge, by a table Sakura didn’t remember. She frowned, then looked anxiously at Syaoran.

"There must have been someone here then."

Syaoran walked over the candle and reached out to touch it. Maybe it’s only an illusion. His finger hit the side of the candle solidly. He drew back, slightly surprised. Frowning, he felt the candle again. He could feel a faint trace of magic on it. That didn’t make any sense. Unless.... "Someone was here that uses magic."

Sakura gasped inwardly. She looked around with a sudden sense of urgency. "It...could have been.... my m-mother’s...."

Syaoran frowned and looked around, trying to find some sort of assurance to ease Sakura’s anxiety. "There’s no one here, now. I doubt it could have even been here, she was put into jail, she can’t harm your family any longer."

Sakura swallowed hard, still not satisfied, and glanced over her shoulder, shifting her position so her back wasn’t facing any vital passageway. She didn’t want to be here any longer. But she thought of the way back, and knew she didn’t want to go that way alone. She looked at Syaoran and Meilin. Meilin looked around with a blind sense of curiousity, not comprehending the terror that Sakura felt in the walls of the house. Syaoran seemed zoned out for the moment, trying to scrape his brain for a solution.

"What time did you see this lit last night again?" Syaoran asked.

"Around 6 or so," Sakura said, unsure of what that had to do with anything.

Syaoran sighed, looking out the window and seeing it was well before six. "Well... they...or it... may show up around the same time, so we should probably hang around till then..."

Sakura didn’t bother to hide a glare. "Stay here? That’s like another three hours!"

Meilin rolled her eyes. "Kinomoto-san, you complain way too much! This could end up being some huge catastrophic magic thing, what is three hours to spare?"

Sakura was getting a little more than irritated with the Li family. "I’m sorry, Meilin, that I can’t be as considerate of you. Of course I’m being foolish, letting my fears in the way of the world’s safety. How on earth could I be so selfish?"

Meilin’s eyes blazed with the challenge. She sized up her opponents weaknesses. "You, Kinomoto, are the most scared, helpless person I’ve ever met. I can’t begin to comprehend why something as important as all those cards would be entrusted to someone like you."

Sakura clenched her teeth, caught up in the battle, but Syaoran intervened first.

"Meilin! Control your jealousy and try and think clearly for once. She’s smart to be scared, you could learn alot from that," Syaoran glared at Meilin harshly for a while as she glared back, but her emotions faltered and she was forced to look away.

Sakura stood motionless for a moment, the bitterness of the tension between her and Meilin burning at her skin. She didn’t need to be on bad ground with an accomplice. After they were all three quiet, Syaoran finally forced himself to speak again.

"Alright. You don’t have to stay here, if you don’t want. I can stay and keep watch for a while, and call you if anything starts to happen," Syaoran offered to Sakura, his eyes earnest.

Sakura had to smile at his kindness. "Thanks, but you know if you called me I could never be here to help in time, not even with Dash and Fly working. I’ll just deal."

Syaoran nodded, feeling a wave of pain as he reminded himself how much he wanted to open himself to her again, to rid himself of his problems and concentrate on only her. But there were many things to be done before that could happen. He needed to last a little longer. "I guess we either stay in here or scout out the rest of the house, your guy’s choice."

Meilin’s anger was still burning strong against Kinomoto-san. How dare she make Syaoran think lowly of her. After all that had happened to Syaoran, couldn’t Sakura quit burdening him with her own pointless problems? No, she didn’t care about how Syaoran felt, she only wanted something to back her up when she was feeling weak. Not Meilin. She understood what Syaoran was going through, she was probably the only one that understood. But what did that matter to him? Nothing. Why? She glanced at Sakura, who looked perfectly content to sit still under Syaoran’s wing of protection. "We should scout it out. What if we’re waiting here and wasting all this time when we could find a solution right now?"

Syaoran looked grimly at Sakura, who had paled slightly. She forced a weak smile. "Oh, yeah, I suppose you’re right," She tried to agree with Meilin.

Syaoran sighed. He wished she would stand up to Meilin more often. "Alright, let’s go then."

_______________________________________________________________________

Sakura yawned. She glanced at her watch. Seven eighteen. She sighed and looked over at Meilin. She was looking through the shelves of the desk, having gotten bored of sitting still. Sakura looked over to Syaoran. He still stood by the window, looking blankly outside. She side and forced herself up, her knees cracking as she forced them out of their dormancy. "Well, this is pretty pointless, no offense. I’ve been having this feeling for two hours and twenty minutes now. Don’t you think whatever it is would have shown up?"

Syaoran blinked out of his trance and looked around the room. "I dunno," He sighed loudly. "I think I’ll just stay here tonight and watch things. You can leave if you want."

"We’re staying here?!" Meilin asked excitedly.

Sakura frowned. "You’re just going to sit around here all night until something shows up?"

Syaoran shrugged. "Nothing else to do. I’d rather stay around in vain than miss whatever this is. I know it’s odd but...this magic...it doesn’t feel like a Clow card. It feels almost like...well it’s probably not but I just keep getting this feeling-"

"-Eriol is involved in this somehow?" Sakura suggested, voicing her suspicions.

Syaoran sighed, seeing it sounded even more ridiculous when spoken aloud. "Yeah. It just gives me that feeling, anyways."

Sakura nodded. "You’re right. Me too."

"Excuse me, we’re staying here tonight, Syaoran? Where- just on these cold stone floors?" Meilin persisted.

Sakura grinned and decided to help out. "I have an idea, if anyone cares to join me."

Meilin looked supsiciously at Sakura as she turned and headed for the door out into the hallway. She sighed and headed after her. Syaoran was close on her heels. They walked down the large hallway, heading away from the stairs. Sakura stopped at a door they had not ventured into and opened it without hesitation. She smiled and stood back. "Good thing they left alot of this stuff behind." She yanked down a pile of blankets, then stepped on top of them to reach the pillows.

"One step up from the floor," Syaoran said sarcatsically. Meilin pouted.

Sakura stepped off the pile of linens and shut the closet door, a little freaked out as she saw the huge dark hallway behind Syaoran and Meilin. She tried to shake off her fear and returned her attention to moving the pile of blankets back to her room. As she bent down to pick up her things, a sudden blindness hit her.

For a split second Sakura didn’t know what happened. Then she realized, the light that had been on in her room must of been shut off. But why was it so dark here? She couldn’t see her own hand. She thought for a second she might be in a different dimension, but Meilin’s shreik and the pile of blankets she almost tripped over assured her that was not the case.

"Syaoran!" Meilin cried out, the darkness terrifying her. "Where are you!"
"I’m right here, where are you?" He asked, his voice almost a little too calm for the situation.

Meilin caught a hold of his arm and slowly felt safe. "What happened!?"

Syaoran sighed and complied with letting her hold his arm. At least he wouldn’t lose her. "Sakura, do you feel this magic? That light didn’t just go out on accident."

Sakura shivered and tried to find Syaoran. "Yeah, I feel it. Where are you- oh." She stopped as a soft hand grabbed hers. She turned and faced him, gladly letting him keep her hand. "Do you think this is the Dark? I don’t get the feeling of one of my cards."

"I’m not sure..." Syaoran said, sounding in deep thought.

His other hand surprised her, running slowly across her cheek. Slightly startled, Sakura stepped back. "What are you doing?" She asked, her voice almost sarcastic.

There was silence for a moment, then Syaoran answered with, "What?"

The light came on in her room. Sakura felt his hand leave hers. Except she saw very quickly that Syaoran was standing to her left, past the pile of blankets, with Meilin clinging to his arm. She paled, then spun to her right. The hall dissipated into darkness. She frowned with puzzlement, then turned to them, a horrified look on her face.

"Wha....."

Syaoran frowned, freeing his arm from Meilin’s hold. "What’s wrong?"

"You....you were just here-" She frowned and turned to look over her shoulder again. This didn’t make any sense.

"I’ve been standing right here," Syaoran said, looking at her to explain herself.

Sakura shuddered. "B-but...."

"Spit it out, Kinomoto!" Meilin said with irritation, hating how this girl could keep the attention on her for such a long period of time.

Sakura frowned, then looked at her hand. "S-someone, just then, was holding my hand..."

Meilin rolled her eyes. "That’s ridiculous, Syaoran was standing right here and I was holding his arm. Right?" She glanced at Syaoran, who was frowning. "Right?" She repeated.

Syaoran nodded, his frown deepening. "Are you...sure? Meilin and I were right here, and there’s no one else in this hallway..."

Sakura looked around worriedly again, her nerves getting to overload. "No- I mean, yes, someone was here, just now...." Her eyes started to glaze with fear. She tried to blink it off. When she saw the looks Meilin and Syaoran were giving her, she let out a snort of exasperation. "I’m not lying, guys! Why would I make this up!? Someone was standing right beside me when that light went out, and by the time I could see again, you two were over there!"

Syaoran looked slightly worried now. "We should get back to your old room.," He said quietly.

Sakura was happy to comply. She grabbed some blankets and stayed right behind Syaoran and Meilin. They put their blankets down and resumed their places. Sakura looked around the room nervously. It was too much. The hall wasn’t safe, and here on her right was the door her mother’s murderer had used over and over to sneak into Sakura’s room. She pulled a blanket around her tightly, biting her lip.

After a while, Syaoran walked over and sat down next to Sakura, an action Sakura appreciated greatly. He settled on a blanket and looked ahead for a while before talking. "I can walk you down to the road if you want."

Sakura had to admire his second act of kindness. But nerves kept her glued to her spot. For some reason, she felt she was much better off near Syaoran than just being in her own room. "No, I can handle this. I have to stay here, now. Thanks, though."

Syaoran shrugged. He looked around the room for a while before sighing with boredom and getting to his feet. Meilin grabbed her ration of blankets and looked around the room for a good empty space. "Where are we camping out tonight?"

Syaoran glanced at the action. "I don’t care. Find a place we can make a good triangle, to keep watch."

Meilin looked around for a moment, then put her stuff down. She walked over and picked up the remaining blankets, then set them quite close to hers, deeming that Syaoran’s spot. She left a large gap in the triangle for Sakura’s things, then laid out on her own blankets, looking around with a yawn. "What time is it now?" She asked.

"About eight thirty," Sakura responded, looking at her watch.

"It feels so late, I’m so sleepy!" Meilin said, stretching and yawning once more.

Sakura shuffled her things over to the circle, a bit upset that she seemed to have an entire 180 degree span of area to keep watch on. "Yeah, it does feel late."

"We should take shifts," Syaoran said sensibly, seeing that everyone seemed to be grouping together. "I said a triangle Meilin, not a .... T or whatever this is." He kicked his stuff over, then stood up straight as he felt another pulse of magic. His eyes immediately went to the hall. But he saw nothing.

Sakura, apparently, had felt something as well, and had sprung to her feet.

Meilin, having no magic capabilities, looked at them blankly, then looked towards the door, puzzled. "You guys-" She was cut off, as the entire room went black. She sighed. "Sense something," she finished.

Sakura panicked. She didn’t want to meet whoever she had met only a half hour earlier. She jumped away as a hand took hold of her arm. She was quickly drawn in to the fimiliar smelling person. "It’s just me, don’t worry," Syaoran whispered into her ear, his eyes trying to search out whatever they possibly could in the dark. He tried to see with his magic, but there was nothing. His sight was being blocked.

Sakura was numb with releif as she left herself lean against Syaoran’s chest. See that person try and grab her hand now! She turned her head to see if she could see anything in the darkness and wondered how long it would be before the lights came on. She could stand like this forever, she thought. But the light would come back on soon, as it did last time, and Meilin would catch them standing like this.

Syaoran felt something off in the air. He couldn’t see anyone’s aura, he couldn’t sense any distinct magic, but his primal senses told him to look out. He prepared himself to lash out, but was too late, as something or someone strong had torn his hold on Sakura and sent him backwards to the ground. Syaoran landed hard on the stone floor, just barely catching himself before his head hit the ground. He did let out a loud curse, his hips and back hitting the floor with much force. Almost the moment he spoke the light came back on. Syaoran quickly checked to make sure Sakura was still there. She was on the ground in almost the same position, though quite a distance away, rubbing her elbow with a pained expression.

Meilin threw her arms around Syaoran’s neck, ignorant. "I couldn’t find you!"

Syaoran pushed her off and jumped to his feet, looking around the room. He sprinted to the door and looked about the hallway. But there was nothing anywhere near them anymore. He pressed his teeth against each other with annoyance, then walked stiffly back over to their messy make shift beds.

"What was that?" Sakura asked, her voice quivering slightly.

"Did you get the same feeling you had earlier?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura looked down, as if thinking, then looked up. "Yes, I did. But it’s like something clouding my thoughts, like I can’t distinguish anything..."

"Yes, I feel that too," Syaoran agreed.

Meilin frowned. "What are you talking about, what happened-"

"We’ve got to be prepared next time, to call out some sort of energy spell right when it happens. I know one that should work," Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Good call."

"What!?" Meilin shouted with frustration.

Syaoran sighed and looked to her, setting his blankets straight. "Something’s out there," he explained.

Meilin looked up worriedly. "Great," she responded sarcastically.

Sakura sighed and tried to settle herself under her blankets. "So... what are the shifts?"

"I"ll watch things till two or so. Hopefully if something’s out there, it’ll show up before then. Meilin until six, and then you until whenever I wake up." Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded. "Alright. Do you want my watch?"

Syaoran looked up at the door, then looked to Sakura. "Sure." He took it from her without saying thanks and then stood himself against the wall, looking around with tired but alert eyes.

Sakura and Meilin both remained in their blankets. Sakura settled in as well as she could to stay warm on the cold floor, then rolled on her side. "Oyasumi, Syaoran." She didn’t wait for a response.

Meilin lay on her back, looking up at the ceiling. She sighed. Those two were perfect for each other. She knew it. So why couldn’t she get over it? Because Sakura could never appreciate the things he does for her like I do. Because how could she ever understand when I’ve been in their family all my life and have seen him through every problem he’s ever had. But...doesn’t that mean I should see him through this too? She exhaled slowly, her head aching from such thought processes. Does she even know everything he did in Hong Kong before coming here?

____________________________________________________________________

Syaoran waited. And waited. And waited. But nothing was occuring. No lights going suddenly off, no traces of faint magic. Nothing. Sakura had fallen asleep a long while ago and now Meilin was also breathing evenly. Syaoran felt slightly envious as his eyelids weighed and begged him for sleep. But he forced them to stay open and alert. He wouldn’t mess up.

Why does Meilin have to be here, keeping watch over everything? But... if she wasn’t here, I wouldn’t tell her anyways. Our trip to the restaurant proved that. She’s just trying to figure out what’s bothering me and I can’t even get myself to trust her that much. What is wrong with me? Syaoran looked over at Sakura for the thirtieth time since he’d started that watch. She still lay in her angelic position, radiating beauty so brightly it almost made up for the light Syaoran and shut off. He yawned and let his eyes rest for a moment, a sudden wave of sleepiness hitting him.

The feeling was incredible. Syaoran found himself quickly drifting and forced his eyes open into the dizzy world of reality. The room shook and moved, the floor shifted underneath him. Syaoran squinted and rubbed his eyes but the feeling wouldn’t leave. Syaoran brought his watch up and looked at it. It was one thirty. Meilin wouldn’t know the difference. He wasn’t going to do them much good gaurding in a state like this. Syaoran stumbled and tripped so badly he allowed himself to stay on his knees and he shook Meilin’s shoulder. She groaned and rolled over. Syaoran persisted.

"Meilin!" Syaoran whispered harshly, stalling his sleepiness for that moment.

Meilin finally rolled over to face him and squinted at him through the thick darkness. "What? Already? I just fell asleep, give me more time..."

Syaoran gave a convincing glare. "Wake yourself up and be of some help for once. I can’t stay awake any longer."

Meilin, now more awake, was able to tighten her lips to that and threw off her covers. She stood up and glared at him. "You could have given me more wake up time before you started insulting me."

Syaoran hardly heard her as he fell into the luxurious pile of blankets. He wrapped them around him with his remaining strength and fell into a deep sleep.

Meilin watched her cousin fall asleep like he was falling unconscious. She shook her head. He must have really been exhausting himself here lately. That was so out of character for him. She looked at Kinomoto. A sleeping beauty. Meilin thought about pushing them both a little further from each other, but from the unconscious look on Syaoran’s face, she doubted it was necessary.

Meilin walked around the room for a while, trying to wake herself up. She only scared herself as she would see funny shadows on the floor. After a while she realized the light in the room was turned off, and figured Syaoran had finally shut it off after both of the girls were asleep. She yawned and retreated back to the blankets where she sat quietly, looking around with woken eyes. But after a while, the blankets were so comfortable, she decided to keep watch from a lying position. The Sleep needed no help at all to coax Meilin into the final stage of sleep.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Syaoran’s eyes shot open. Was it morning already? As his eyes adjusted to the dark room, he was assured it was not. Why had he woken up? Syaoran didn’t know. He didn’t care. He just wanted to sleep. Syaoran shut his eyes. Meilin is on guard still, right? I should check on her, I know how hard it is to stay awake... Syaoran’s thoughts drifted into the beginning stages of sleep. But he made his eyes open against their will. He forced himself into a sitting position and looked around the room. Meilin wasn’t standing anywhere. As he continued to scope out, he realized what had happened.

Meilin lay over her blankets, almost shivering. She must have tried to keep gaurd like that. Meilin should have known better. He shook his head to wake himself up more, then glanced to the blankets on his left. It didn’t register at first. But then when he looked a second time, he noticed his mistake. Sakura wasn’t under her blankets anymore. She wasn’t anywhere in that room. Syaoran jumped to his feet and ran around the old bed frame. Maybe she was just playing, just hiding somewhere he couldn’t see. But Sakura wasn’t under the bed frame. He looked towards the hallway. It was a black void now, an expanse of darkness that was infinite, endless. He ran out into the hallway, looking right and left. No aura, no magic, nothing. He quickly thought through where she would be.

She wouldn’t go downstairs. Too many dark things are there. But Syaoran had a feeling this had to do with something other than Sakura’s free will. She wasn’t going to be working out in the old dojo or getting more blankets from the hallway. She was going to be somewhere difficult to find, where many dangers lurked to test Syaoran’s abilities. But that wasn’t going to dishearten him.

Syaoran ran down the hall, hardly able to see where he was going. All too soon he reached the broad staircase. He sprinted down them wrecklessly fast, trying to decide which way to turn when he hit the bottom. He didn’t think this would involve the kitchen, Uncle Guan’s old den, or the living room, so he headed right, to the old part of the house.

Syaoran found himself faced with many choices. There were so many old hidden stairs cases here that it was impossible to guess which one would lead to the old sections of the house. Syaoran remembered the path to the room with the stream. That was on the side of the house with no electricity. And, as Syaoran recalled, it passed Chindra’s apartment and the boarded doors that held back the murderer. Syaoran quickly headed towards those stairs, almost tripping down the steep old wooden steps.

He ran down the narrow hallway, heedless to the hundreds of doors that led into dark expanses left and right. As he reached the end of the hall he saw his next goal. The boards were split and there was enough room now for a decent sized person to fit through. Syaoran sped through the hole and slowed as he reached more confusing territory. This part of the house was old and decaying, with road blocks in every direction. Syaoran frowned. He couldn’t help but feel a little wary of his surroundings. Suddenly it felt as if he was not alone, but rather someone was watching him. Someone was watching him and they didn’t have his welfare in mind. Syaoran looked around, fighting the fear away and trying to keep calm. It is my mind playing tricks on me. There is nothing here, I sense nothing, only darkness. And the dark never hurts anyone. Syaoran drove himself forward, heading down a crumbling hallway.

A wave of fatigue and an incredible lust for sleep hit him so hard he thought he might have fallen over. Syaoran clutched his stomach and shut his eyes in pain for a moment, longing to curl up on the floor and take a nap before completing this expedition. The want for sleep sent him staggering, his knees almost giving under him. Syaoran clenched his teeth and then bit his tongue hard, forcing himself to stay awake. He tried to look ahead but his eyelids seemed incapable of moving up that far. Syaoran lifted his head and straightened himself out, ignoring the pain that went through his stomach. He saw it. A distant head, walking aimlessly forward, seeming to have some unseen goal in mind.

Syaoran opened his mouth to shout but instead forced himself after her. He started running again, but it felt as if his legs had full length weights on them, holding him back, keeping him from gaining. Finally his voice complied, and Syaoran was able to speak. "Sakura!" Syaoran shouted.

If the last wave of bad things had been bad, this was the end of the world. Syaoran stumbled to the ground, holding his forehead as if to keep his head together. A headache surged through, making the floors move once again. Syaoran’s eyes wouldn’t stay straight but he ignored it and forced himself to his feet. Heedless to the fact he could hardly stand straight without fulling one way, Syaoran threw himself into another sprint. The head that was walking away seemed to either ignored or not heard its name at all. He found himself finally gaining speed and saw that this definitely was Sakura walking away. But as he ran, his dizziness increased, and against his will his body overcompensated and threw all his weight to his left, sending him crashing into the ground and the wall. Syaoran let out a loud breath of pain, then grabbed a stone on the wall and pulled himself up.

Syaoran proceeded, running, falling, and getting up, until he was so close to Sakura he could almost touch her. But every time he would get close enough to reach out, the thought of moving his arm sent him careening down. Syaoran refused to give in. He threw his arm out and tried to at least grab hold of her arm, but he missed again, and fell miserably to the ground.

I can’t let her keep going! Syaoran got up once more, his knees cracking and his body starting to ache from the many falls. Ignorant to any physical pain, Syaoran threw himself out once more, trying desperately to grab her arm, her shirt, anything. As he fell, her ankle seemed in his grasp. Not sure, Syaoran closed his hand tightly. It was her ankle. Sakura tripped as her planted leg was not allowed to move and then caught herself just as she hit the stone floor. Syaoran collapsed on the ground with releif, hoping this meant she was out of her trance.

Sakura blinked a few times, then looked around. She looked to her left where Syaoran lay, heaving for breath. She looked around, frowning. She wasn’t in her old bedroom anymore. She had no idea where she was. Sakura pushed aside all those facts and directed her concern to Syaoran’s health. She crawled over and squatted uncomfortably. "Are you alright, Syaoran?" She asked.

Syaoran made no response, only continued gasping for breath, his eyes tightly shut. Sakura frowned, then jumped as a hand on her shoulder startled her. Sakura looked at the hand, but didn’t want to look up. She didn’t want to know who this person was that was in her old house, torturing her like this.

"He is a damned fool, going without a purpose like this," A fimiliar voice said.

Sakura wasn’t sure she had heard correctly, but as she looked up, her eyes widened. "Y-you! What...why- what are you doing here! I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for months, I-"

"You are so very naive, Sakura, that’s one thing I like about you. People are dangerous when they try to know too much. You wouldn’t want to turn out like him, would you?"

Sakura looked at him blankly.

"You two have spoiled my plans, you know. I had something very special in mind this time, but that’s what happens when you let your mind be ruined by his. You must promise me you will stop polluting yourself with his foolish ideas. Promise?"

Sakura glanced at Syaoran. He still couldn’t catch his breath. What was wrong? She looked back up and shook her head slowly, disagreeing.

His eyes clouded with anger for a moment before he replaced them with his usual calmness. "It’s too bad you always chose to learn things the hard way. You could have had such a simple life. But I shall be on my way now, I’m sure our paths will cross again."

Sakura frowned as he smiled and turned, heading down the hall. She opened her mouth to shout after him but then shut it. She looked to her left as she saw Syaoran sitting up, his breathing still fast but his eyes dark with fury as he looked ahead.

"Eriol, you bastard!" Syaoran jumped to his feet, the dizziness gone, and lept after the figure walking cooly away. He did not quicken his pace or turn at his name for a fraction of an instant. Syaoran threw his whole weight at Eriol, aiming to take him down in a very violent manner, but he fell through the air as the figure seemed to evaporate. Syaoran landed sharply on the ground, banging his entire forearms on the hard stone. Cursing loudly, he finally sat back up and examined the area. There was no one there.

Sakura walked quietly over, dumbfounded. "Th......" She sat down indian style next to Syaoran, looking around with confusion. When she finally found some civility inside, she asked, "Are you alright?"

Syaoran sighed as he realized he was gone. "Fine," he mumbled. After a moment of silence, Syaoran began putting things together. "He was putting spells on me, that’s why I was so tired. And that’s why you sleptwalked all the way down here."

Sakura shivered as a cold draft passed through the hall. "Where is here, anyways?" She asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"Somewhere through the boarded up doors," Syaoran responded.

Sakura shifted a little closer to Syaoran, her fear increasing. "D’you think.....d’you think that was really Eriol? Maybe it was just the Illusion playing tricks on us."

Syaoran shook his head. "Don’t you get it? The weird magic; we just forgot what Clow Reed’s magic feels like. Why would we expect to feel it here? And the mysterious person next to you when the lights went off, and the spells on me and you...."

Sakura sighed. He was right. But that didn’t make any sense. Why would Eriol be here? "I don’t understand. Why?"

"I’m not sure yet. But it is freezing here, and we might as well go back to your old room where there’s a little heat and think," Syaoran responded.

Sakura shivered again and stood up. "You’re right." She waited for him to stand up before looking around worriedly. She didn’t want to walk through here, awake anyways. "This place give me the creeps. I hate this house." She felt emotions welling up and figured it’d be best to leave things unsaid.

Syaoran wasn’t sure whether it was the cold or the pity that inspired him, but in a very unromantic and blunt way he put his arm around her shoulder and walked with her closer. Sakura seemed to appreciate the gesture as she was leaning a considerable amount on his side. "Yeah, me too," Syaoran agreed dryly, glaring over his shoulder for a second.

Sakura walked carelessly beside him for a while before she got herself to say, "Thank you."

Syaoran didn’t respond, as she had predicted, but her thanks had given him enough security to continue holding her to his side until they split at the narrow hallway, where without any prompting from him Sakura had taken his hand in replacement. After a while, Sakura spoke again.

"Did Meilin see me leave?" Sakura asked.

"No, she was under the same spell I was," he replied, shivering involuntarily as his body refused to heat up.

"Oh..." Sakura replied. There was silence for a while. "I just don’t understand, why Eriol, here? It doesn’t make any sense."

"I dunno..." Syaoran mumbled, though he was formulating a pretty good idea. The hallway was going by so slowly. He couldn’t beleive he had ran this so quickly, under such bad conditions.

Sakura sighed to herself and rested her eyes on their hands. It seemed like everything was normal for now. The bad guys were confusing, but Syaoran was right at her side, ready to help. But Sakura could not forget how Syaoran had been. He hadn’t wanted to live anymore. Something really wrong had happened that he was trying to hide. "So Syaoran, when will you tell me what is wrong?"

Syaoran walked silently for a while, loathing how she had to ruin the perfection they had been walking in for a while. He had been able to ignore all of the pain for those few moments but now she had brought it right back. "I dunno..." He mumbled, trying to avoid it as best he could.

Sakura frowned at his response, feeling sadness come over her. She shouldn’t beat around it anymore, she should just go ahead and explain what she was feeling, right? "Look, it’s just, knowing that you’re feeling hurt and you can’t tell me, it’s hurting me too."

Syaoran couldn’t stand her saying things like that. Trying to guilt him into confessing things, that wasn’t fair at all. He spun around, taking his hand back, a deep glare set in that Sakura could barely see in the dark. "Hurting you? Look, if you cared about how I felt at all, which you seem not to, you’d respect that I just can’t talk about it right now." Syaoran turned before a response and walked a bit more quickly down the hall.

"What’s that supposed to mean!" Sakura stalked after him.

"It means...nothing."

"It obviously meant something! Who says I don’t care?" Sakura shouted, her voice raising.

"Who says you do?" Syaoran challenged, slowing down.

"Who says I don’t!?" Sakura demanded, coming to a stop.

Syaoran turned, looking exstremly frustrated. He was quiet for a moment, then he spoke. "I have noticed a pattern with you," he said, his voice lowered. "I help you, try my hardest, make sacrifices till I’ve destroyed my whole life and everyone in it, all just for you, and you know what I’ve gotten out of it? It seems instead of getting what I should life dumped everyone else’s shit on me just to see how much I can handle. One day I’m finally going to look back and realize I’m not getting anything and I spent all this time sacrificing in vain."

Sakura blinked her large eyes with shock, trying to keep her tear ducts from ever starting. She looked down to the floor, trying to find a response quickly as Syaoran’s eyes burnt holes into her head through the darkness. Nothing could come to her. She couldn’t find anything to combat his strong words. Finally she dragged her eyes up. "I’m sorry you feel that way," she said in a weak voice.

Syaoran stood stone still for a second, glaring at her, despising her for not having the healing words he needed. But he should have known better than to expect that. Syaoran turned and walked on, completely silent.

Sakura delayed a moment then walked after him, still soaking in his words. She longed for the right thing to say, but it was still at loss to her. Some good it did to ask him what was wrong. She looked around the hall, not able to see anything but the narrow walls, and continued quietly up the stairs. A low rumble brought her wandering mind to focus. A second later the ground started to vibrate. She frowned and looked around quickly. "The Earthy," she said outloud, wondering if the card might be striking again.

The ground only proceded into a heavier earthquake, making Sakura had trouble getting her balance. But it ended as suddenly as it had begun. The ground settled and the rumble stopped, leaving behind only a memory of an earthquake. Sakura bit her lip. She almost asked Syaoran about it, but as he turned and continued on his way Sakura remembered the words that had just been exchanged. She shut her mouth and continued with a heavy sigh, wishing she could solve all of her problems.

As they went through the entry way and up the main stairway, they were greeted with Meilin’s loud call for Syaoran. As they approached the room she came running out, the light on inside and showing through the hallway. She flung her arms around Syaoran’s neck like always, making some drama.

"I was so worried, an earthquake and then I saw neither of you were there...!"

Syaoran held his glare fixedly on Sakura, not responding to Meilin’s melodramatic performance at all.

Sakura shifted uncomfortably, meeting his eyes only a few times.

Meilin didn’t notice any odd glares, only dragged Syaoran back into the room, chattering for a while. Syaoran spoke breifly of their findings of the danger and then they headed back to the blankets, Sakura never speaking a word. Syaoran shut off the light and let them all go back to peaceful sleep.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura opened one eye. She wasn’t sure why she had woken up, but she had, and there was probably a cause. She forced her other eye open and sat up stiffly, her back aching from the hard floor. She looked around the room, still dark. A slight glow came through the window. She looked back to a dark shadow in the room. Syaoran sat quietly, not moving any muscle in fear it would draw attention to himself. When he saw Sakura move out of the corner of his eye, he permitted himself to turn.

"There’s alot of magic in the air," He said quietly. Sakura thought he was talking to himself, then realized he was watching her for a reply.

"Yes there is..." Sakura answered absently, trying to sort through the memories of what went on before she had fallen asleep.

"There’s been a few earthquakes through the night. Another one just hit. They’re all very weak, but they aren’t meant to be damaging." Syaoran continued.

Sakura hated him for doing this. His words had cut too much, she needed to stand up for herself now. What a fool she was being, thinking he would change, everyone else had been so right... But a small part of her still lingered on hope. And that hope grew slowly but steadily. He says things he doesn’t mean all the time. But, that doesn’t make it fair! Why should I put up with it anymore? But, he doesn’t need any more friends backing out on him now... If I give up, what will he do? "Mm," Sakura finally responded, not able to overcome the bitterness settling in.

"Look, I know I’m the last person you want to be talking too right now, but alot of things have just happened, and you need to do whatever you have to do to ignore your feelings until we’ve sorted out this immediate problem, alright?"

Whatever she needed to do. He just gave me an okay to be mean. "Sure. Earthy’s about to strike again. We should try and track her down," Sakura said. Ignore my emotions. How Syaoran-like. But of course Earthy’s more important than my own feelings. Sakura neglected to reason that if Earthy was ignored, she might be dead and not even have feelings to deal with.

"There’s a bigger problem, here..." Syaoran let out a large sigh. "Don’t you see, with Eriol showing up like that last night, what this has all been about? He’s playing-"

"You know, that had to be the Illusion working. There’s no way that was Eriol, no way, it just doesn’t make any sense."

Syaoran grit his teeth. It figured Sakura was going to be this thick headed about it. "Kinomoto, quit trusting people for a moment. What motives do the cards have to turn back in Clow Cards? None, except, if their master is calling them back. This has all been about Eriol, we have been approaching this the wrong way from the start."

Sakura glared at him for using her last name. She glared at him for having to force so much horrible information on her. How could that possibly be true! "Listen to yourself! Clow Reed didn’t give us these cards just to take them back! There’s just no way, no way that Eriol is trying to play tricks on us like that."

"Do you remember, when you had to change your cards to Sakura cards, how Eriol was playing tricks on us all of the time? It doesn’t seem to unlikely to me."

Sakura shook her head. "He was only trying to help me hurry so I could get them safely transformed before anything bad happened! Eriol’s only trying to help me, and I don’t know what you have so against him, but what you’re talking about is just impossible."

Leave it to Sakura to manage to be that incredibly naive and stubborn about it. Syaoran could have let his frustration drive him insane. He couldn’t take much of anything anymore. It seemed rather pointless for him to keep going, because even when he was trying he failed. But once he helped Sakura seal this final card, it was his end. He wasn’t going to try any longer. Syaoran promised himself, mentally swearing across it, then looked back across the room to Sakura. Everything could have been so perfect for them, why did they have to keep screwing it up? "We should get going now. Earthy can strike any time." He said, emotionless.

Sakura turned to her side where Meilin was curled up in her sleeping bag. She shook her arm, rather roughly, then stood up and began gathering her blankets. Meilin sat up groggily, observed Syaoran and Sakura’s behavior, then stood up, her knees popping from the forced movements. They gathered the blankets and threw them in a pile on the old bed frame, then headed into the dimly glowing hallway.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura walked through her quiet house, knowing she was going to be in big trouble if anyone discovered her. She walked in and collapsed on the couch, her exhaustion setting in again. She sat with her eyes half shut, letting her muscles relax. Syaoran and Meilin had left without another word to their apartment on the bus. Sakura yawned and tried to keep the night pushed far back in her mind. She needed to stay detatched for now. The Earthy was far too powerful a card to be ignored.

She glanced towards the upstairs where she thought she heard movement, then returned her gaze to the black empty screen of the television, letting her eyes rest on the easy target. A loud ring made her flinch. For a moment she didn’t know what was going on, and looked around for an alarm clock, but then realized it was the phone ringing. She looked towards the clock. It was a quarter after five. She blinked hard, waited for another ring, then got up slowly to pick up the phone from the counter.

"Moshi moshi," She said, her voice lagging a bit.

"Look at channel thirteen." Syaoran’s voice said on the other side, wasting no time.

Sakura frowned at the phone for a second, then silently walked over to the television set, turning it on with the volume almost all the way off. A picture of a fimiliar mountain came up.

"...scientists say the activity has sky rocketed within the past week, and a catastrophic eruption is predicted. Though no one knows for sure why the peaceful Mt. Fuji is suddenly coming to life, the eruption is believed to have some sort of connection with the movement of the plates underneath Japan this year.

"Earthquakes have been the main cause of casulties the past day, approximately 100 people have reported minor injuries. The earthquakes, however, are expected to reach an all time high on the Richter scale within then next week. The series of events leading to the erruption will then occur, causing unthinkable devestation to all the communities surrounding the Mt. Fuji area..."

Sakura looked blankly at the TV for a moment. Couldn’t Syaoran just give me a break? "Earthy, you think?" She said quietly into the phone.

Syaoran sighed slightly. "Yeah...." There was silence for a moment, then he resumed. "We should go down there as soon as we can."

Sakura shifted her weight to her left leg and picked at her thumb nail. "Where do you want to meet?"

"In front of your house is fine. We should bring some stuff. Those water suits, anything that is heat resistant..." Syaoran said, his voice revealing his lack of sleep as well.

"What do I tell Kero?"

"Don’t tell him anything," Syaoran said, almost adding ‘he’s on Eriol’s side’, but refraining last minute. "I’ll see you in fifteen minutes."

"Alright-" Sakura said, but he had already hung up. She sighed, looked at the phone, then walked over and hung it up on it’s charger. More time to spend with Syaoran. Great. Touya and Otto-san are going to be worried about me... Maybe I could leave a note. I suppose I will. Who knows how long I will be gone. It’ll take us a while to get there... I wonder if we can find a bus to take us there? And then we have to track down the card around the mountain...

Sakura tiptoed up the stairs, feeling miserable. But some small spark of hope inside her made her step a bit brighter. It was more time, after all, to resolve their problems...

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OMG I am so slow. I know, I know. And I’m sorry! But now it’s summer, which at least garuntees a few more chapters. School’s so gay. But, yeah... Some exciting things going on here. Don’t worry!! for Sakura and Syaoran really will someday figure out their problems and quit fighting. I swear. This is like getting close to the end of part one (of two parts). The ending of it is quite dramatic if I can pull it off. They’re going to like... go on a big trip, then, the end battle and stuff... So like a few more chapters. Woo. I’m going to try and get a good start on the next chapter before I go to bed. Summer’s great.

Ja mata ne!

-Syaoran fan 4 life

PS it’d be nice you know... to tell me what you think:

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or on aol SyaoranChic