Agent08 Reporting for Duty!

Now on with the final chapter!

Saving Syaoran

The Q&A

Hello, audience. The Witness here - obviously. I'm here to explain myself and to answer your questions. Because, well, if I'm assuming correctly, you guys are simply dying to know what happened to our favourite couple. You are, aren't you?

This should do it. It's a Q&A session that should answer and explain most everything. I hope I don't disappoint.

Q. What did the elders do after the night Syaoran told them to basically piss off?

A. Oh, I'd love to tell you. But you guys don't seriously expect me to just go on and blurt out the answer, do you? Simple replies are only for simple questions! What kind of witness would I be if I didn't reply like this?:

"Xiao-Lang, you've disappointed us greatly." The leader of the elders grunted, staring at Syaoran through the darkness of his hood.

It was always the same, every month. It was the same building in China, the same people present, the same spotlight focused on Syaoran, hoping to put some pressure on him to finally give in or make a decision that was in favour of the clan. Nothing ever changed. But maybe, after six months, they would finally clear the air and come to a decision that everybody was okay with. But they could only hope.

"I understand," Syaoran replied, because that's how he always replied every time the elders told him that. He was sure never to apologize, because he had nothing to be sorry for. He and Sakura were still going strong, ever since he told her the truth and stood up to the elders. That was definitely nothing to be sorry about.

There was a short silence. Normally, after Syaoran's reply, one of the elders would babble on about putting the future of the clan at risk and putting his priotirites back in order. And then Syaoran would make some nasty retort, forcing the elders to spit back another scolding, and then everything would go back and forth until Syaoran got fed up and left with all twelve leaders screaming at his back. But things did not go that way this time around.

"We've come to a decision," the elder said sternly.

Syaoran raised a brow. "You have come to a decision?"

The elder rolled his eyes. "We've come to a suggestion." He corrected himself, hoping to avoid further arguments and just get on with the meeting.

"Really," he answered shortly, stealing a glance at his mother's face who was standing in the dark confines of the room. He turned back to the leaders. "And what suggestion would that be?"

"We believe it's a suggestion you'll rather like. As bad of people you think us to be, Xiao-Lang, we did consider you in making this decision - " and at the word 'decision', Syaoran gave another lift of his eyebrow, and the elder quickly corrected himself, "I mean, suggestion."

"Well?" he replied rather impatiently, "What's your suggestion?"

The elders smiled. Literally smiled. It was a more than peculiar thing of the elders to do. And it was even more peculiar of them to say, "Marry the girl."

If Syaoran had been drinking from a glass of water, he would've spit it all up over his shirt and the floor. Had he heard them correctly? Marry Sakura?

I mean, of course he was planning to ask her. One day. But how would marrying her solve anything?

"I - I..." Syaoran mumbled, not exactly sure how to reply. "I mean I... of course I want to marry her, I love her very much... but, sir, I don't understand how that will make any of us happy. I mean, it will make me happy, but how would that...?"

"If you marry her, Xiao-Lang," the elder interrupted, already knowing how to answer his question, "you make her part of our family. As the wife of the clan leader, the ownership of the cards will be within the family, shared between the two of you. And if you have forgotten, Xiao-Lang, that was all we wanted from the start. To have the ownership of the magical Clow Cards.

Syaoran couldn't help but be suspicious. "And... that's all you guys want us to do? You just want me to marry her? And you guys will be happy?"

"Well," the elder shrugged, "I wouldn't necessarily say happy. But it's the best solution we've got."

"No strings attached?" he interrogated.

All twelve of the elders rolled their eyes simultaneously. "No strings attached."

"You swear?"

"We swear."

"Upon the family crest?"

"Upon the family crest."

"Pinky promi - "

"Just marry the girl and we'll leave you alone!" the elder snapped.

Syaoran immediately shutup. He thought for a moment, considering how he felt about the proposal, and how Sakura would feel. He looked to his left.

Finally Sakura emerged from the dark corners of the room and came to join her boyfriend in the spotlight. She smiled at him encouragingly and took his hand.

"If I may speak?" she asked politely, acknowleding each elder that sat behind the marble table with a nod of her head.

"You may, Card Mistress," they answered monotonously.

"Well..." she began, "I'm glad that is the suggestion you've given us. But this is not Syaoran's choice alone. This involves me too. And I would love too, but... I don't want to marry him."

Syaoran was taken aback for a moment. His mother caught her breath. All the elders had their jaws nearly touching the floor. All different reactions for all different reasons.

"Right now." She added. "I don't want to marry him right now." They all breathed a sigh of relief.

"Geez, Sakura," Syaoran whispered in her ear, "you could've added that sooner."

She ignored this and continued, "When Syaoran and I marry, I want it to be on our own terms, when we feel like we're ready. Not when you want us too, just for the shared ownership of my cards."

"My lady," the leader replied, "this suggestion of ours is already swinging in your favour. Don't be selfish now. We can't let everything go your way, or otherwise this wouldn't even be a compromise."

Sakura bit her lip. "I understand..."

There was a tense silence. And then the elders were on their feet, shoving back their chairs and making a sort of huddle behind the marble table. They spoke quietly among themselves for a few minutes, every once in a while stealing glances at Syaoran, Sakura and Yelan. All twelve seemed to breathe a sigh of defeat at the same time. They returned to their seats.

"We've come to another suggestion." the leader announced.

"And?" Sakura asked, suddenly feeling very excited.

"Finish your schooling first, the both of you. And then get married."

The young couple hesitated. They turned their heads to stare at one another. They raised their index fingers in the signal for, "one moment please" and shuffled out of the spotlight until they were in complete darkness. Like the elders, they conversed and expanded on this idea, weighing out the pros and cons. They both thought it kind of strange how they were just planning their marriage out like this in a building in front of twelve grouchy geezers and the groom-to-be's mother in the corner.

After a moment, they returned to the spotlight, hand in hand.

"We can finish college?" Syaoran asked.

"Yes."

"And university?"

"Of course."

"And any other type of schooling we want to take in order to better ourselves or our careers?"

"Absolutely. But you cannot simply take as much schooling as possible in order to stall the marriage."

Syaoran and Sakura shook their heads. "No, absolutely not."

"So then we are in agreement?"

They nodded. "We are."

There was a sigh in the back of the room somewhere, and they all knew that it had been breathed by Syaoran's mother. That decision was six long months in the making.

"Wonderful. Now let's get this in writing before we face more problems."

A. So basically, it was either they got married, or nothing was solved. It was probably the the best solution anyone could have ever come up with.

Q. So, Syaoran is still the future clan leader?

A. Nope. He's the actual leader now.

Q. Please, pretty please, tell us how he proposed!

A. Well, if I must...

"Syaoran-kun, are you sure about this..." Sakura asked her long time boyfriend, Syaoran Li, as he drove. It was rather late at night and she had no idea why they were even out so late, but Syaoran seemed rather determined. So determined, in fact, that he seemed to be clutching the steering wheel too tightly. His knuckles almost seemed glow in the dark in the shade of white that they were turning.

"I'm positive, Sakura," he assured her with a smile.

"You're not lying to me, are you?" she asked him.

"Why would I lie?" he asked, acting offended. "Would I lie to you?"

She punched him in the arm. "Well it wouldn't be the first time," she teased.

"Yeah," he muttered, "I set myself up for that one."

They continued their drive down the road. He loosened his grip on the steering while after their short conversation and allowed one of his hands to release the steering wheel in order to hold her own. Sakura smiled at him childishly and suddenly he didn't feel so nervous about what he was about to do.

They arrived at the beach a few moments later. Syaoran parked the car and they both got out, joining hands and heading straight for the sandy shores. The moon was high in the sky, just slightly covered by a few grey clouds. The sound of the tide moving in and out to a silent rhythm known only to them was relaxing as they walked out onto the pier.

Sakura stared out over the black water. "I can't see anything, Syaoran-kun."

"You're not looking in the right place, Sakura."

"Where am I supposed to look?"

Syaoran took her by the shoulders and steered her to the edge of the peer, closer to the front. Sakura got on her knees and bent over to get a closer look into the water. "I really don't think there's buried treasure here, Syaoran-kun."

"But there is, I'm telling you."

Sakura sighed. "I know I told you I wanted a little adventure, Syaoran-kun, but this wasn't exactly my - "

"Look! Over there, I can see it!" he suddenly exclaimed, shaking her arm for her attention and pointing back to where she'd been standing previously.

She suddenly became very excited and made the very poor decision of running. "Wait, Sakura, not so fast!" he warned her, but of course he was too late in doing so.

Sakura, being her clumsy self, tripped over her own feet and fell into the water. Syaoran cussed and immediately followed suit, jumping in after her. After a moment or two they both came up for air, spurting with water and shivering badly. After Syaoran brushed the hair out of his face he turned to see Sakura glaring at him. He suddenly felt very, very stupid.

"You were lying to me again, weren't you?"

"Well, no, but..."

"That wasn't a funny prank, Syaoran-kun! We're both wet now!"

"I know, but - "

"And it's really, really cold!"

"But Sakura, look - "

"At what?" she snapped.

He held up an oyster that had been, in truth, in his pocket the entire time. The original plan was to distract Sakura, drop the oyster into the ocean and get her to find it before it sank too far down into the ocean. Luckily he'd managed to re-capture it when he jumped in after her.

"It's an oyster." she said plainly.

"A very pretty oyster."

"Syaoran-kun, what are you going on about?"

"Sakura, it's - "

"Let's get out of this water, please, it's freezing!"

"Sakura, look." he said simply, taking her by the arm and opening the oyster.

Sakura's eyes took the shape of two very round coins and her eyebrows went way, way up at the sight of the beautiful diamond ring within the oyster.

"I thought... I thought..."

"You thought?"

"I thought pearls were in oysters."

"Pearls? In oysters?" Syaoran teased, "That must be another lie Yamazaki told you. No, in oysters, there are engagement rings."

If it was possible, her eyebrows went even higher onto her forehead and her eyes got rounder. "Engagement rings?" she echoed lamely. "But... but I thought - I thought we were waiting until we were finished with school. I thought - "

"To be honest with you, Sakura, I could care less when we get married. I'm ready now, ready whenever you are. And I know what the deal is between the elders and us. But they never said I couldn't propose to you in my own way. Marry me, Sakura?"

Sakura remained speechless for a good two minutes, just staring at the insanely large diamond before her inside of an oyster. Her eyes welled with tears, just thinking about all the trouble that Syaoran went through just to propose to her in a creative way. And she'd been scolding him, too. She suddenly felt very guilty.

"I know what you're thinking, and you shouldn't feel guilty." Syaoran said, reading her mind.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't worry, you can make it up to me." he joked.

"How can I do that?"

"You can say yes. My ego hangs in the balance, Sakura."

Sakura laughed. "I think you already know the answer to that question," she replied.

"It never hurts to hear a 'yes', Sakura."

"Well then, just because I feel so, utterly, horribly guilty," she teased, taking the ring from him and wrapping her arms around his neck, "yes, I will marry you."

A. I know. How completely vomitous.

Q. Did they have any kids? (Insert fangirl squeal here)

A. They sure did. After their first year of marriage, Sakura gave birth to their daughter, Ying Fa, named after the mother. After three years, they had another little baby bundle and this time around it was a boy, whom they named after daddy. Xiao-Ling. Cute, huh?

Q. Whatever happened to Tomoyo-chan and Eriol-kun?

A. They broke up after almost two years of dating. Tomoyo hit big with her new clothing line in China and Eriol was going to attend med school in America. They decided they'd go their seperate ways. If they were supposed to be together, they'd meet up after a few years and see if anything changed between them.

Q. And did they?

A. That's a very good question:

Tomoyo strolled along the marble floors of the airport, her luggage rolling neatly along behind her. She removed the sunglasses from her face, revealing nervous, amethyst eyes. They focused on a certain auburn haired young lady around the age of 26 with an unusually large and round belly...

"SAKURA-CHAN!" she screamed, losing all feelings of anxiety and making a bee-line towards her best friend.

"Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura exclaimed in reply, just not as high-pitched or maniacally. She'd always been more reserved than Tomoyo. And plus, Tomoyo's scream had caught the attention of half the people in the airport, Sakura really did not feel like she needed the other half to be staring.

Tomoyo stopped directly in front of her, sure not to crash into her or anything like that. Sakura was carrying some very important things.

"Thank you for coming to our one year anniversary!" Sakura thanked, taking her best friend by the arms and kissing her on the cheek.

"Are you kidding me? I wouldn't miss your first wedding anniversary for the world!" she gave another peck on the cheek. "Nor would I miss this." Tomoyo specified, patting her belly with extreme care.

Sakura smiled. "You'll be a fantastic aunt," she said with all sincerity.

They joined hands and made their way out of the airport. Tomoyo rambled on and on about unimportant things, sometimes touching base on how her family was doing, how cool it was to be her own boss. Mostly she talked about her clothing line. When they reached the limousine that would be taking them back to Sakura's mansion - that's right, mansion - she was still not even half way through.

"Oh, Sakura, you're going to love the outfits I made. I made a maternity wardrobe for you, pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy. I also made some clothes for the little rascal. Now, as neither of us know the gender yet, I wasn't sure what kind of outfits I should make, but then I decided, oh, what the heck, let's make them gender friendly - "

"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura cut in.

"You'll be seeing lots of pants, lots of overalls, and I know what you're thinking - overalls are not exactly the cutest thing for a little ankle biter to wear, but trust me, these are really cute overalls - "

"Tomoyo-chan..."

"And I was thinking about this 'no cussing around the baby' rule that you made, and I think it's a totally wise decision, but I wonder how Syaoran-kun will keep up with it, he never exactly had the cleanest mouth in the world if you know what I mean, and I don't mean that it wasn't clean in the way that he ever gave oral - "

"Tomoyo-chan!" Sakura screeched, rather horrified.

She swallowed her next word. "Huh?" she asked her, eyes expectant.

"Geez, talk about babbling when your nervous!" She huffed, though rather amused.

Tomoyo sighed. "I'm sorry, Sakura-chan. I'm just... anxious."

Sakura giggled. "I know. But don't take it out on my ears, Tomoyo-chan, please."

She smiled sheepishly. "I'll try not too..." she bit her lip, "He... he hasn't arrived yet, has he?" she asked pathetically.

"Well, there are already a lot of people back at the house, but he isn't there. Not that I know of, anyway. He might've arrived while I left to pick you up."

"Do you think he did?"

Sakura's phone rang. "One moment," she said politely, whipping it out and answering sweetly. "Yes, Syaoran?"

Tomoyo waited patiently for the conversation to end.

"Yes, Tomoyo-chan is with me, I just picked her up about fifteen minutes ago. We're nearly at the house. Oh, really? Oh, well, that's great! Oh no, I won't. Trust me. Bye, see you soon." She hung up.

"Anything new?"

Sakura's eyes twinkled. "Nothing, really." she answered with a shrug.

In just a few more minutes they arrived at Sakura's mansion, which she much rather preferred to call a house. When it was definitely not the simple size of such. Sakura just liked to be modest. In truth, Sakura's home that she shared with Syaoran and soon the baby could rival Tomoyo's. It was large and had many rooms. It was ancient, of course, with stone gargoyles on the roof and steel gates, but Sakura gave it a very home-y feel.

It was early evening and Syaoran and Sakura's first wedding anniversary celebration was already in full swing. Lots of old relatives and friends occupied the mansion, clinking champagne glasses, conversing with one another about how long it'd been, things like that. They planned it so that it would be exactly like their wedding reception exactly one year ago. And for it to be exactly like it was before, they needed the best man and the maid of honour to be present, didn't they?

The two young ladies thanked Wei and left to enter the mansion while he went to park the limo in their insanely large garage. Syaoran emerged from the mansion that was already booming with music and laughter. He greeted Tomoyo with a hug and a peck on the cheek. Chivalrously he took her luggage for her and lead the way into the home he shared with Sakura.

On the way in and on the way to the spare bedroom that she would be staying in during her visit in China, Sakura and Tomoyo were greeted by many old friends. None of whom went by the name of Eriol Hiirigizawa, which Tomoyo was glad of. She wanted to see him, of course, she just wasn't sure if she was ready or not.

After she got settled, Tomoyo climbed down their mountain of stairs to join in on the party. She found Sakura being a very dutiful hostess, making sure to say hello to everyone in the mansion. Obviously, she was very busy. Instead of distracting her from her greetings, she chose to sit and wait a while in the kitchen, where nobody bothered to stay and chat, just because it wasn't as large as the other parts of the mansion and couldn't accomodate a lot of people.

She suddenly didn't feel like drinking alchohol that night. Her stomach was already tight enough. She took a clean glass from a cabinet and opened the refridgerator to trade her wine in for some juice. She was very surprised to see a wide variety of juices and milk ready for selection in the fridge. She thought, it must be in preparation for the baby.

After finally choosing a carton of grape juice and carefully pouring some into her glass, she shut the refridgerator door.

"Hello, Tomoyo."

Tomoyo's heart jumped into her throat. "Ah!" she shrieked childishly. Her glass of grape juice met the floor of the kitchen. It shattered into just about a million pieces, leaving a big spill and some sharp glass on the floor.

"Geez!" she cried, "Could you have done that in a less creepier way?"

"I'm sorry," Eriol chuckled.

"Great," Tomoyo muttered, "I think I stained my new shoes."

Eriol's smile widened. "Of course, always worrying about your fashion before everything else."

Tomoyo didn't seem to sense the humour in his teasing statement. She glared at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," he said defensively.

"Right," she snapped, "Of course you weren't referring to our break up."

"I wasn't," he said, failing to hold back a smile.

"Right!" she scoffed again her anger fueled by his handsome smile, "You know, I didn't leave you for my fashion!"

"I know you didn't!" he quickly replied, holding up his hands in surrender.

"Then why would you tease me like that!" she blubbered, her eyes watering fast. She always made such a fool of herself in front of him when she was feeling like this.

"So I could muddle you," he replied. He bent down to clean up the glass. Or so she'd thought.

"What?" she asked, terribly confused.

"Well, since I'm already on my knees..." he said mischeviously.

"What?" she asked again, not sure whether she heard him correctly.

She watched him take a tiny, black, velvet box from his pocket. He popped open the top to reveal violet velvet cushioning around a diamond ring.

"Marry me?"

"What?"

"Did I stutter, dear?"

"Yes."

"Yes I stuttered?"

"No."

"No you won't marry me?"

"No!"

"Yes you'll marry me?"

"Yes! Now stop confusing me before I change my mind!"

She pulled him to his feet and hopped neatly over the puddle of glass and grape juice. She planted her lips on top of his and they didn't part for a long, long time. Not even when they noticed Syaoran and Sakura spying through the tiny square glass of the kitchen door.

A. And when they finally did part, a lot of explaining followed from both sides. I could sum it up for you in just a couple of sentences, really, because a lot of what they said was very similar.

"When we broke up to pursue our dreams, I never really wanted too. I'm sorry I ever left you. I still love you very much. Let's have a really fancy wedding with people dressed in only what I design, okay?"

Okay, so maybe the last part was only part of Tomoyo's schpeel, but you get the idea.

Q. Did they have any kids?

A. Twins to be more specific about it. Two (very hyper) little boys.

Q. So, everyone basically lived happily ever after?

A. Well, they've all got their problems and fight every once in a while...but yeah, I guess everyone did.

Q. That's great! There's just one more thing...

A. Get on with it.

Q. WHO FOR BLOODY HELL'S SAKE ARE YOU!

A. Oh, yeah. Who am I? No one important really...this story was brought to you by me, Meiling Li, as told me by Syaoran and Sakura Li.

Q. Meiling Li? It's YOU? Syaoran's cousin?

A. Who else? He tells me everything.

Q. How could you have witnessed any of this?

A. Hellooooo, can't you read? I said, "as told to me by Syaoran and Sakura Li."

Q. What's that supposed to mean?

A. It means that they told me their story of how they came to be the kawaii couple that they are, and it really and truly felt like I witnessed it. I mean, didn't you guys feel like you witnessed it as well? After I finished telling you the story?

Q. You're nasty. At the beginning of your story, you called Syaoran hot!

A. What's your point.

Q. You're related to him!

A. ...What's your point.

Q. That's gross!

A. Grow up. Didn't you guys know I used to be in love with that guy? Engaged to be married when we were eleven years old and everything?

Q. Oh.

A. Yes. Now, if that's all the questions you all have to ask me, I'd like to get on my way...

Q. Wait! There's one more question!

A. What is it?

Q. Will Kero-chan ever stop eating so much sweets?

A. We will never know, my friends. We'll never know.

The End

Apologies for taking so long to update. I added a little Tomoyo/Eriol action in there as an 'I'm sorry' gift.

That's it, folks. This concludes the end of Saving Syaoran. Thank you for reading it and I hoped you enjoyed it. I hope you will tune in for my other stories, as well, should I choose to make more. :)

Thanks again for being great readers and supporters. I appreciate it very much.

Love you all!

Signing Off,
Agent08 - My life as a secret agent xD