CardCaptor Sakura Remastered IV Episode 6 (10)

January was rolling along.

The threat of CLAMP School no longer existed, so things rolled along as they should have. Quietly and at it’s own pace.
Still, even without the “threat” that once lingered overhead the inevitable still occurred. The Council, not so patient with Sakura’s slow pace of capture, came down with it’s request to speeding up of the process to capture Clow Cards, which only seemed to make Nina sneer at the thought (again).

It was hard enough to track down and locate each card, especially
since there’d been a recent slump in card appearances as of late, but
to pick up the pace with said slump hindering them? It seemed an unreasonable request yet there it was all the same.

“How am I going to carry this out?” she griped, looking over the
letter again as she laid in bed. The “letter” was a copy of a
communique she received yesterday, yet it troubled her even now.

There just didn’t seem to be an answer to the problem of increasing
the pace to search for Clow Cards. Sakura could do more “patrols”, but
they seemed to have learned their lesson the second time around and
were finding new and inventive ways to “lie low” and stay in hiding.
Clearly new tricks had to be used to flush them out, but what?

A few gentle fingers brushed through her green hair, bringing Nina’s
attention up towards Tina who laid close to her smiling at her. “Isn’t there someway to do this?” Tina asked, to which Nina replied “I suppose, but I wish it was something you could chase away with your fingertips.” she sighed, drawing her Sexdroid love close to kiss her, letting the paper fall to one side as they cuddled.

* * * * * *

It was a weekend, so Sakura didn’t wake up early for school.

Yet, if Nina was the one being asked, she would complain that Sakura
didn’t wake up early for anything (even her own funeral).
Tomoyo, however, kept to her usual schedule. She woke up the same time every morning regardless of whether it was school or not, though
occasionally she lingered in bed if only to relish and treasure the
soft glow of sleeping in Sakura’s loving embrace just for a little bit
longer. As she woke this morning she brushed a few fingers across
Sakura’s sleeping face, feeling quite warm just looking at her.

Carefully her fingers loosened the sheet around one arm so she could
look at it. The arm didn’t bear any marks from when she gripped Sakura
too hard a few weeks ago, but the thought still lingered.

She didn’t know why but that moment she -- at that moment she stopped
and chided herself. She was thinking to hard about it. Slowly she dressed and snuck out to make breakfast, leaving Sakura behind.
Ten minutes later the door opened and someone else entered.

She was not tall, nor was she terribly short, but she did seem to
stand out from her appearance.

She had short red hair, a mischievous look on her face, and wore a
strange mis-mash of an Alliance uniform jacket, a t-shirt with a face
sticking it’s tongue out at the viewer, shorts, high top sneakers, arm
and leg pads and three pairs of gloves which hung off a belt on her
waist ranging from tough work gloves to soft petite gloves. She also
wore a backpack slung on her back which made a soft beeping noise
every so often.

If one had to decide the person she resembled in passing, it would be
Radical Ed (Cowboy Bebop), but the appearance was altered making her
her own individual and not a clone, though in a sense cloning was
involved in her “Creation”.

She stopped, tilted her head slightly upon looking at Sakura, and
blinked a few times. Then she jumped onto the bed hard, bringing Sakura up from her sleep in a panicked shrieking yelp, screaming “ME-ME!!” at Sakura as she sent the formerly sleeping one into a panic.

Sakura wouldn’t stop screaming, or trying to get away from the now
grabby and huggy girl until Tomoyo came to cuddle and comfort her now
stressed out lover. Sakura’s screams could be heard all the way from
the upstairs kitchen so Tomoyo quickly abandoned the room and came
running to her aid.

Leaving one rather frustrated Umi with breakfast to make.
Gaia couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw the former Clow Card
making breakfast, to which she was promptly scowled at by the stove
burdened girl who growled, “Well? Don’t just stand there! Plates!!”

* * * * * *

The first thing Nina did when she entered the upstairs kitchen was
sigh miserably.

“Where is she?”

“Where’s who?” Umi grumbled, looking over at their new “guest”.

The strange girl at the table looked over at Nina and smiled, pointing
a finger at her and going “Nena!”

“Nina, not “Nena“ you social retard.” she growled, looking at the girl
severely. Sakura (still being comforted) was being watched over by
Tomoyo as she fed the mistress of the cards her breakfast. “It’s Nina.
Can’t you get that through your---”

“Miyu-chan says HI!!”

Nina falls into one of the chairs and grabs some food, “So where is
the furball anyway? Sleeping? Eating the plants? Making mad love to
the first unconscious girl she could subdue on the street? What?!”

“She’s putting in the Nasty Clow Card Tracking Gizmo Device thing you
ordered!” (makes a weird face) “Track those nasty Card things and
wham! Bam!” (smiles) “That’ll be 59,350 credits please, no IOUs.”

“---whatever---” Nina sighed, waving her off with a dull expression.

Since Sakura was staring at her with anxious eyes, and Tomoyo seemed
interested in hearing an explanation as well, Nina bit the bullet and
started. “Sakura---?”

“HAI!” (the strange girl shot her arm up)

“Wait a second--- Sakura---”

“HAI!” (again, the strange girl shot her arm up)

“---sigh--- this hyperactive freaky thing over there is…” (Nina points at girl) “…that too is Sakura…” (pauses) “…don’t you want to say something?”

She thinks about it for awhile, before asking Tomoyo for the syrup.

Nina - “Now, Sakura here…”

“HAI!”

“WOULD YOU STOP THAT ALREADY!!” (snarls) “SAKURA HERE IS A WHACKED OUT
SEX DROID OUR CHIEF ENGINEER OWNS! SHE’S A PAIN UP THE ASS AND ABOUT
AS MUCH FUN AS A STRAP ON THAT’S WAY TOO THICK, WHICH IS IRONIC
BECAUSE SHE’S WAY TOO “THICK” FOR HER OWN GOOD!!” (Nina stops and
pants to catch her breath) “There… I said it. Good riddance.”

Sakura, the other Sakura, sits at her chair eating mindlessly not
paying Nina one bit of attention. Finally giving up, Nina ignores her
and eats as Tina walks into the kitchen. The minute the taller
woman’s eyes falls on “Sakura” she gives out a cheery cry and waves “Hi!“ (the other Sakura responds in kind) “So you know Miyuko’s here already, right?”

“How’d you guess?” Nina grumbled in an unpleasant manner.

“Because Sakura’s here and… oh, right, you can see her. Thank you.” (Tina smiles as she takes a plate of food from Tomoyo) “How’s the work
progressing?”

“Miyuko needs Nina to give her the data on…”

“WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER?!?” Nina screams, storming out of the
room as she does. “Sakura” looks at her leave, frowns, then goes back
to eating with the same strange smile on her face.

“She’s got Miyuko’s strangeness down pat at least.” the other Sakura said before going back to eating.

* * * * * *

Once the system was up Nina couldn’t wait to shove the catgirl and her
Sex Droid into a shuttle and ship them back to the USS Ryoko ASAP.
Problem was, however, they weren’t going anywhere!

“Captain wants us to give you technical backup and nerve center
support.” Miyuko responded, pushing herself out of Nina’s grasp as she did so.

“We’ll get your back up and nerves out in no time!” “Sakura added.

“Too late.” Nina hissed, walking out of the room with the appearance
of wanting to kill someone.

“She’s funny.” (“Sakura”) “Will she always be this angry?”

* * * * * *

Nina didn’t take too long to call Michi to complain about it.
Her one mistake.

Michi didn’t look like she was in a very good mood since it looked
like the call came during sex, but she took the call anyway. She
explained (bluntly) that Miyuko was there to speed things up and there
was nothing she could do about it.

As Rahne tended to Michi’s feelings (the link severing) Nina set down
the first ground rule of the house (despite the fact that she
shouldn’t have been making ground rules in the first place).

“You’re Ed.”

“Sakura is Sakura.” Sakura pointed out, as the two (Miyuko as well as the original “Sakura”) looked at each other oddly.

“No, YOU ARE ED!” Nina repeated firmly, “We can’t have two Sakuras in this house! It’d mess up communications and we’d get a lot of mixed signals and awkward situations so from now on we’re calling red here “Ed” until you two leave, got it?”

“Ed? Sakura is Ed?”

“Whatever.” Nina spit out, turning to leave. “You’re Ed?” Miyuko said,
pointing at “Ed”.

“Sakura is Ed, but Ed isn‘t Sakura -- ok?”

“Ok.”

“Don’t worry, Miyu-chan!” “Ed” whispered (loudly) “When Miyu-chan
comes during sex and screams for Sakura-chan, Ed-chan won’t feel
jealous because Ed is Sakura and Sakura is…”

Nina slams the door before she hears another word come out of her
mouth.

(Ed) “Maybe Nina-chan needs a cookie.”

* * * * * *

The name change seemed to help. A little.

Still the strange girl made Sakura abit nervous. It was only when the
two promised to keep to the lower side of the house (and sleep out of
the huge room which they converted into a “nerve center” did Sakura
feel a little better about the situation).

Still, for everyone’s sanity, Nina surrounded the room with sound
nullers to block out the noises of lovemaking from the room. She also
put alert sensors and door locks so that people couldn’t walk in and
catch an eyeful of them doing it by accident. Still, even then, she
still felt it necessary to lay down ground rule #2 - no sex in public
areas. Now, mind you, that might seem like common sense yet for the
two of them it was as if Nina told them to stop breathing. Still, they
would comply.

“Ed can’t have fun in---”

“No Ed can’t get laid in the living room, the washroom, the bathroom,
the main hallway and NO WAY are you getting it in the front yard!”
Nina huffed, spitting out the orders in chain fire manner. “High fence
or no I don’t want you two to become a shameful public spectacle! Keep
it in bed, got it?”

“Ed have fun in Sakura’s…”

“YOUR BED!!” Nina screeched, once again slamming the door and raging
off towards the staircase. By now people have gotten used to the sound
of slamming doors since Nina did it now daily ever since the duo of
“Sakura” (who was now “Ed”) and Miyuko appeared.

That said, all they had to do now was wait for the first card to be
tagged and detected by the new equipment and see if the stuff was
working. It wouldn’t take long before the first contact --

* * * * * *

Or so they thought.

Nothing happened.

Days passed, and as each day grew longer Nina began to fear the worst.

The cards may not have had the spectre of CLAMP School overhead but they were not more willing to come out as they were before. Still there didn’t seem to be any reason to fear. Clow Cards were not pulling a “Mimic” and launcing pre-emptive attacks, Fly like incidents were not happening, and things overall seemed rather quiet for the most part.
Wasn’t helping with card capturing, but wasn’t hurting anyone either.

Still, as long as they were looking for runaway Clow Cards they had something to do -- even if it was becoming a test in futility as cards were not so willing to accomidate the Council’s wishes for the hunt to speed up.

Still, something had to give sooner or later.

* * * * * *

Tomoyo decided that the whole gang needed a break from the constant
pressure of hunting Clow Cards.

The first thing Sakura realized when Tomoyo said they were going to
have a little girl’s night slumber party is that all the girls were
going to be invited.

However when she saw the guests she realized she got the “girls”
wrong. It was all the girls from inside the house, not from school.
Tomoyo shrugged and whispered “They were all busy tonight.”

Umi, abit uncomfortable in her jammies, prodded at the material and
sighed every few minutes, muttering “Is this becoming wet? This isn’t
drawing moisture from my body, is it? I don’t like dry skin. I don’t
like this material, it feels too squishy. Am I wetting it? I sleep in
the nude. This won‘t make me sweaty, right?”

“Is there something wrong with your pajamas?” Tomoyo asked, to which
Gaia replied “Umi prefers to sleep in the nude.” to which Tomoyo
nodded (having already heard Umi say that three times), causing Sakura
to blush as she glanced at her. Tomoyo also slept in the nude from
time to time, which usually was because she was too exhausted to dress
after lovemaking.

Light & Dark would have made a matching set if not for the fact that
Light wore midnight black panties/bra while Dark wore soft white in
the same design and fashion as Light. Fuu wore her usual nightie.

Cloud had skipped out of the party because Kero had gotten a batch of
new games and she wanted to break them in with him. That, however,
didn’t stop Umi from occasionally (when not complaining about the
state of her jammies) kidding that the two were experimenting with sex
awkwardly in his closet/bedroom (Gaia kept reminding Umi to behave
herself).

Keiko/Eve also were no shows despite the fact that they were invited.
Miyuko/“Ed” slash “Sakura” didn’t show up, they preferred to watch TV,
eat and do whatever else they did in the privacy of their own room,
which suited Nina just fine. As for Nina? She laid listlessly in a
pile of one huge quilt and a bunch of pillows looking rather bored.
“When you said “slumber party” I thought you meant “orgy”, but this is
dumb.” she pouted, her feet kicking listlessly as she turned to look
over at Tina who seemed rather into the girl talk everyone was into.
“Somebody play Hentai Truth or Dare, or something which the loser ends
up naked and at our mercies -- or something.”

“You might be the victim more than the rest of us if we play Hentai
Trivial Pursuit, Nina.” Tina remarked truthfully, drawing a frown from her lover. “The questions are all stupid anyway, so what.”

* * * * * *

Over the kitchen countertop in Sakura’s “lab” hung a simple looking board. Usually reserved for listing the meal being served or a shopping list written in haste, it now held a list of a different sort.
Cards captured to date.

Clow Cards (19)
Big, Bubble, Cloud, Create, Dash, Erase, Flower, Fly, Hope, Illusion, Little, Maze, Rain, Shadow, Shield, Shot, Silence, Sword, Thunder

Hybrid Cards (7)
Animus Dark, Animus Light, Animus Mirror, Animus Water, Animus Windy, Animus Woods, FairyGlow

Fan Cards (captured, lost or unusable)
Fear (lost), Pervert (unusable), Prism, Toon

Known Cards in Tokyo area (at large) (2)
Fight, Power

28 Remaining Cards to be accounted for - 26 Below it all, scrawled in quick handwriting, was the words “SAND FOUND!” Everyone who was in the capturing party was already there.

* * * * * *

New King Penguin Park
Tomoyo jumped back, hand still grasping her camcorder as she filmed Sakura’s bravery against the Sand card. Eve, however, was having a time of it barely holding Sand’s relentless attacks back with her NovaShields. If she was hoping for a lax day today then she was sorely disappointed.

Keiko jumped back, backpedaling as she slashed at the shots of sand coming straight at her, taking as much sand in the hair and face as she reflected away with gusts of wind. Even with her protective gasmask from one of her tesseract pouches she was still being overwhelmed by Sand’s attacks.

The huge King Penguin slide shook as the sandy ground beneath it liquefied and began to suck it in. Sakura barely had time to leap onto the back of the huge slide and climb up to the two trapped kids on the top. Eve, hands full protecting three young girls with her NovaShield spell, turned her attention towards Nina. “Give Sakura some cover fire!” she yelled, continuously fortifying her NovaShields spell with her willpower.

Nina, lugging her pulse rifle upwards, carefully took shot after shot, clipping each sand tentacle as it tried to latch onto Sakura to drag her down, all the while slowly dragging the huge penguin slide downward into the now liquid sand beneath it. “Nina! Behind you!” Tina suddenly yells out, just as two sand tentacles attack Nina from behind. She barely manages to dodge them as the whoosh over her, her rifle firing blindly upwards as she tries to nail them.

Tomoyo, filming Sakura’s heroic acts, cringes inwardly as she watches. ‘All the trees are too far away.’ she thinks to herself, ‘I can’t use Gaia’s ring to help Sakura-chan -- but maybe --” Tomoyo’s free hand raises upwards, Gaia’s ring pulsating with energy, “Trees! Use your roots to cut down Sand’s tentacles!” Almost instantly long strings of roots shoot out from the ground near the trees, whipping through the air hacking into each sand tentacle that rises from the ground.

As the tree roots keep Sand occupied, Sakura reaches the two children and grabs onto them, using Windy’s ring to give her a boost over Sand and onto the grass in one long jump from slide to safety. As she sends the children to Eve for protection, she turns and regards Sand, her hand bearing the Water ring rising into the air. “Umi! Give me your strength in the form of a waterfall to restrict Sand!”

From above a shimmering disc of blue begins to form, the air growing dry as moisture is drawn into the circle and condensed. From that circle a powerful blast of water shoots into the sandy ground, soaking it through and through making the entire sandy pit into a dense clump of sand. From the quagmire, Sand’s true form appears, covered in the sandy gunk and bogged down by it’s weight. Quickly Sakura rushes up and slams her staff down, “CLOW CARD RETURN TO YOUR POWER CONFINED! SAND CARD!!”

Tendrils of energy shoot out, encapsulating the card’s physical form, transforming it, and turning it back into a card. It shoots into the air, and lands in Sakura’s hand.

Nina, dazed and dirty, turns and claps from her resting position on the ground, “You did it!” As everyone gathers around Sakura, whose blushing, Tomoyo taps her on the shoulder, “Now all we need to do is retrieve King Penguin.”

“What?” Sakura asks, confused, “What do you---” (stops and looks) “---hooooeeee!!!” King Penguin rested half trapped in the sand, tilted at an awkward angle. Nina, putting her rifle down, moves in a mock stumble towards the slide and screams “Damn you, King Penguin! You did it! You did it!”

“Yeah, yeah, Planet of the Apes. Figures.” Keiko grumbles, annoyed by Nina’s antics. “Get a life.”

It takes a little effort, and the tech shuttle of Nina’s which she summons to the park via remote, but eventually the penguin is dug out and set upright again. By the time the news crews arrive everyone had already left and the situation was resolved.

The Daidouji Residence
Keiko sat quietly on the second story balcony outside of Mirra/Hikaru’s room, watching the clouds roll by. She had been rather quiet since Eve went to see her parents, and yet she didn’t seem angry or frustrated, she just seemed deep in thought.

Suddenly she turns and smiles, motioning for Tomoyo to join her outside. “You alright?” she asked, “You seem rather worn down today. Sand?” Tomoyo shakes her head, “No. Not Sand, but---” Silence reigns for a bit, until finally…

* * * * * *

The night before.
Shh. Tomoyo’s sleeping.
While dreams, true dreams that those of the waking world take for granted, are not to be had here, dream they still can (in a sense).

Instead of dreams they see visions. Sometimes to occupy a mind craving something to fill the void between “darkness” and the light of “dawn”. Sometimes to help the person remember something, or someone.
Sometimes it’s a hint or a clue to something yet to come -- or a painful reminder of what came before.

For Tomoyo it’s the last of these which has her dreaming. Tears flowed hotly down her face, stinging her eyes and making her face red. Sakura was back, and she was her’s -- but at a price. When Sakura came back she was on cloud nine, then it happened. She became sick for no reason, and her mother began to dread. She was taken to the hospital and -- Tomoyo wakes up, eyes glancing about the darkened bedroom.

Suddenly she could feel movement to her side, and knew she wasn’t the only one up. “What’s wrong, Sakura-chan.” For what seemed like forever there was only silence, then in a thin whisper she said “Why can’t we have children? Children of our own I mean. Mirra-chan is a beautiful daughter but-- I mean--”

Tomoyo lowers her head, knowing that it had finally come to past.
The day she had dreaded was here. She had to tell Sakura the truth now. She laid back, and at first tried to be relaxed about it. “Girls can’t make girls pregnant, remember?”

“But -- with the stuff they have today? Can’t we -- can’t we make a baby? I mean, I’ll work hard to get a job as a mage after school and become the best mistress of the cards in the world so I can support you and our baby! Can’t we --”

“Money isn’t the problem, Sakura-chan. You can’t bear our child because I’m not -- suitable -- to bear offspring with you. No magical lineage.”

“But --”

“And I can’t bear our child because -- papa made me sterile.”

“---Tomo-chan---” Sakura rasped, Tomoyo already picturing Sakura shoving her fists into her mouth in the darkness to stifle her whimpers. With that she grasped Sakura tightly, drawing her shivering body close to comfort her at tears rolled down her face. “It’s alright. It’s alright.”

“But why--- how---” she cried, no doubt confused by what Tomoyo said. With a deep breath she rolled herself onto her back, drawing Sakura with her, so she could slowly tell her what happened. “When you returned, do you remember a few weeks later when I became sick? And I had to go to the hospital after awhile?”

“Yes.” Sakura answered meekly. “Well -- that day --”

* * * * * *

Tomoyo’s flashback
Tomoyo sat on the bed of the doctor’s exam room stunned. She reached down and slowly ran a circle about her belly beneath the cloth of the examination robes she wore, then she drew a figure eight.
Sonomi wouldn’t stop crying. She didn’t want Tomoyo to see her cry, but she knew that mother was crying in another room. Tomoyo was pregnant.

Her “father” had made her pregnant. With that she clenched her eyes shut and damned her “father” for the first time in her life. She lost her virginity to him. Her first time. And now, she could lose Sakura’s love if she knew -- she saw only pain and regret in this yet, as she touched her belly with one finger, she wondered what it would be like to have a daughter of her own.

But her mother wasn’t ready for it, and neither was she. Her mother’s money made a lot of things appear in Tokyo, but that day she used her fortune to make something disappear…

The night before
“Abortion?” Sakura whispered, feeling Tomoyo nod her head. “Mother said I was too young to have a baby of my own while I was still a “baby” myself. I couldn’t raise my child properly, and I feared -- I was going to lose you if you knew I was -- burdened with child.”

“Noooo -- noooo -- I wouldn’t have left you -- I love you!!”

“I know! I know!” Tomoyo cried, holding Sakura tighter, “But I was so afraid, and I didn’t know what to do! I leaned on mother for support and she told me that I had to have an abortion! I couldn’t say no, but I didn’t want the baby to die so I -- asked them to -- remove the baby so it could be born by another.”

“Is that -- possible?” Sakura asked, “Yes.” Tomoyo said, “But in the end -- there was a mistake.”

* * * * * *

Tomoyo’s flashback
Sonomi was furious. She looked ready to kill. Her screams echoed throughout the hospital. She was ready to kill someone. Tomoyo laid in her hospital bed stunned. She couldn’t move.

When Sakura came to see her she put up a brave front, hiding the truth. They did it in one day. With the technology of the 23rd Century, and a fortune fueling the job’s costs, Sonomi had her former husband’s “mark” removed from Tomoyo -- but it was too fast. In her rush she pushed too hard, and because it was done that day they couldn’t prepare for all the possible repercussions of saving the slowly growing fetus instead of killing it outright.
When she came out of the operating room Tomoyo was sterile.

The operation damaged her reproductive systems beyond hope of repair, even with 23rd Century tech. It was a fluke, a one in a million mishap often practiced for in Medical School, but that didn’t comfort Sonomi who blamed herself and the doctors for the damage caused to her precious baby. Sonomi was on the edge of a breakdown, but she hid it from Tomoyo to keep her spirits high.

She agreed to take anti-depressants, medications, anything to keep herself together if only for Tomoyo’s sake. But Tomoyo felt cheated by this. She couldn’t lose her virginity to Sakura. Sakura couldn’t be her first. And now she couldn’t even bear Sakura’s child.
Everything pure and wholesome she ever dreamed about was taken away from her by her father. Her first time, her first child, but not her first love. When Tomoyo turned 14 Sakura gave her a beautiful ring and vowed one day to be her one and only.

That day Tomoyo cried, and Sakura thought she angered her friend. She smiled, tears flowing down her cheeks, and whispered “But I’m happy! I’m so happy---” When Sakura turned 16 Tomoyo gave her a ring of her own, and gave herself body and soul. The minute she opened her robes, allowing them to drop to her feet baring her nude form to Sakura she knew that she would be Sakura’s forever. But what she never told Sakura was the first time they made love she wanted to cry -- she felt like she was giving Sakura a ruined “gift”, a spoiled unwanted shell of a young woman that she had no right presenting to her beautiful Sakura-chan.

Sakura, not realizing then about Tomoyo’s misgivings, asked her why she was crying. “You deserve better than me.” she whispered, to which Sakura replied “But all I ever wanted is you. Ever since the day I realized how truly special you were to me, all I ever wanted was you.” From that day forward Sakura had never faltered, never failed Tomoyo once, never left her side. At times poor Sakura-chan beats herself down because she fells at times she isn’t worthy of Tomoyo’s love, to that she smiles.

She herself felt so often that she could never be worthy of Sakura’s love that hearing Sakura say that made her realize how petty and baseless her fears were. She would gently reprimand Sakura for her silly thoughts -- only because she had felt the same way time and time again, but realized that they were as untrue as Sakura‘s fears that Tomoyo did not love her.

Finally, after a long time of soul searching and thought, Tomoyo came to the conclusion eventually that she was indeed worthy of Sakura’s love, because she knew Sakura was always worthy of her love.

* * * * * *

The night before
Sakura reached down, and touched Tomoyo’s belly, “If I had the power to take back what happened to you, and give you a child of our love I would---” tears rolled down Sakura’s cheeks and she tried to hold them back, gritting her teeth to be brave. “I would do anything for you -- anything.”

“Sakura-chan---” she whispered, holding Sakura tightly. “Let it go. Don’t hold your tears back for me -- let it go--“
As Sakura collapsed into her grasp, they held each other tight until all their tears were wept, and all their fears shed away in their warm embrace. Slowly their eyes fluttered close and they fell asleep held tightly together, the sound of their heartbeats lulling them to sleep.

* * * * * *

The present Keiko nods her head, looking abit worn from the telling.
“I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t tell anyone.” Tomoyo admitted, “Only mother, Fuu, Sakura and you know -- and I trust --”

“That I won’t tell a soul. Ok, leave it to me.” Keiko whispers, winking at Tomoyo as she takes her leave. Tomoyo sits down in the chair, and looks out over the yard.

To Be Continued (3 to go before 100)