A/N: Whee Another chapter!

I deleted Skating Towards Love; too bad planned plotline. Maybe in the future I’ll rewrite it.

Thanks, tsubasacrazed, my reader from Tsubasa Forums, who encouraged me (lots of times, actually, LMAO) to update!

Disclaimer: I don’t own Cardcaptor Sakura, nor Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE.

Well, no more of my rambling, and on to the chapter!

The Feather

Kinomoto Residence, living room

Why aren’t my muscles responding? Move, stupid! You’ll give her ideas! Frustration rose up high in the black haired man’s mind. The few seconds that had passed between Sakura appearing and Fai pushing him off to help her with the sleeping bags seemed like ages. He just sat there in the floor, frozen, hearing far off murmurs in the background. Even the pain in his butt from falling so hard in the wooden flooring was nothing compared to his embarrassment and impotence. Embarrassment because, well, they were caught so effin’ close! And anger, because his whole body had decided to take a nap, not caring if he wanted to get up or not.

“Think fast, Kuro-pyon!” The black sleeping bag thrown by the mage to Kurogane, which landed in the back of his head, was what brought him back to reality. With his eyes widened and jaw hanging open, showing that he was still shocked by the past events, he grabbed the sleeping bag with both hands and looked at it weirdly. What am I supposed to do with this…thing

“Ah, Kurogane-san” Sakura let go of her own pink sleeping bag and walked in the ninja’s direction. Making good use of Kurogane’s strong grip, she pulled the bag out of its packing. “Here. Just straighten it up on the floor, tuck yourself in and sleep”.

“A–ah. I see.” Was all he said. She, who was still standing in front of him, smiled warmly and left to her own corner of the room.

“Fai-san? Are you needing help, too?” She asked, concerned. Fai grinned. They may live a different life, but their kind soul is indeed the same.“Thanks, Sakura-san, but I managed to do it already. The lesson you gave to Kuro-chin, worked on me, too” (A/N: I don’t know why, but Fei Wong popped in my mind, and his cleft chin helped me to create a new Fai-styled suffix!)

“Okay!” Sakura chirped.

Oh, God. We have a situation in here…!Syaoran tried to remain serious, but the look in his counterpart’s face was just priceless. Not that the princess’ wasn’t, of course. His gaze went from the girl, to the boy, and to the girl again. Oh, how I wish for Tomoyo and her camera to be here…

“Princess, would you like some hot chocolate?” If us three are staying alone…I’ve got to do some matchmaking…! With her mind still in the awkward situation, she turned her head to Syaoran.

“H–hai…!” The subtle nod she was planning to give him turned out as an exaggerated shake, almost making her head fly. In fact, she felt kind of dizzy afterwards. Syaoran nodded and left quickly, the laughter threatening to leave his throat wasn’t planning to obey his command. Staring at the blushing couple, and snorting sporadically, unconsciously he took out another mug from the counter, the cocoa powder and some milk.

“Syaoran-kun?” She whispered “What– what were you talking about?” The blush in both almost-lovers’ faces was unintelligible, but it was still there. Syaoran-sama’s face was serene, but his eyes wore the saddest expression ever seen by her. “It was nothing, Princess” And he left the room, to the hallway, and to where he figured was Syaoran’s room. Syaoran took that as a very bad signal.

“Princess” He said, still from behind the counter “There you go. Wait here” On his way to the hallway, he handed her the hot chocolate mug. As his frame disappeared, she let herself sink in her thoughts. Syaoran-kun…he looked so sad What did he mean, that he wouldn’t explain to me?She felt her own eyes becoming watery, letting out a soft sniffle and sitting on the couch.

Syaoran found his counterpart sitting on the side of the bed, his legs as parted as humanly possible, each elbow on its respective knee and his right hand traveling from his chin to forehead and to chin again. He wore an upset visage, his frown deepening as each second passed.

“I just can’t tell her” Syaoran widened his eyes as the other chestnut-haired boy noticed his presence. He had entered the room as silently as possible; the only person with such keen hearing he knew in Tomoeda was himself, and now his Clow Country counterpart did as well. Regaining composure, he sat next to Syaoran-sama on the side of the bed.

“You can’t tell her that you love her? It’s hard, I know but–”

“I can’t explainit to her!” His voice was rising, something odd for the calm boy. “I can’t tell her that I’ve loved her ever since we first met.” And now it was starting to break “Because she doesn’t know I know her since long before she woke up at Hanshin Republic!” He slammed his right fist against his own knee, shutting his eyes tightly, trying to prevent the tears to fall. “We–us…” Suddenly, he started weeping, something that he had never done in front of anyone. But, as they were the same person, it didn’t matter. Syaoran patted his counterpart’s back, handing him some tissues from the drawer beside the bed.

“Once we were at a country, where you entered some kind of videogame, you being a character.” He continued as his sadness calmed a bit, Syaoran nodded. “One day, Sakura tried to figure out where we had met for the first time; she suspected it wasn’t at Hanshin Republic.” He looked out the full-wall window in the other end of the room “And she collapsed.”

Syaoran raised an eyebrow, in a knowing expression. “I see. Because of the price you had to pay in the beginning”.

“Yes” He looked back at Syaoran. “And if I can’t tell her why I love her, the real story, I won’t ever do it” He seems pretty determined… Syaoran thought. But he doesn’t need to actually confess to show her how much he loves her. I’ll talk with Tomoyo and Sakura ‘bout this…!

“Hey” Syaoran said, softly. “We can’t stay locked in here anymore. Ready to face the Princess?” Syaoran-sama chuckled. “Sure”

Syaoran-sama ran to the Princess as he heard her sniffles, the pang of guilt in his chest was almost burning him.

“Princess, I am so, so sorry I made you feel bad!” He knelt in front of her, caressing her soft hand in a tender manner. The bangs that were covering her eyes before moved as she lifted her face, showing her puffy emerald (and now a bit reddish) pools. Their gazes met in a powerful, full of feeling stare. Holding her hands with his own, his left thumb caressed the back of her left hand, not letting go of the loving stare.

“No, I am sorry I’m making you worry…!” Syaoran almost snorted at this, but restrained himself. What a way to destroy the romance, snort boyHe mocked himself. I can’t believe that I was like that with Sakura on our first phone calls. Always apologizing when it wasn’t needed.

“…I’m going for the sleeping bags” Syaoran muttered, turning around and going to his room again.

“I told you I don’t like polite expressions” She looked at her left side. More silence. She giggled.

“I’m fine; I just got a little fever. The doctor said that it’ll go down if I sleep. Oh, but…” She sank under the sheets, trying to hide the blush appearing on her cheeks. “I think…I’ll get better faster if you hold my hand, if it’s okay with you” She lifted her hand from under the covers. A second of silence.

“Can you stay here?” More silence. “I’ll got sleep now” She smiled. “The first person I want to see when I wake up is Syaoran”.

Sakura woke up, startled. She looked around, relieved that she was in the same place she remembered to fall asleep in. The ninja slept behind the sofa, so she couldn’t see him. The mage slept a few meters to the left, near the door that lead to the kitchen and dining room. Luckily Mokona didn’t wake up, as she was sleeping with Sakura, when she suddenly sat up on her sleeping bag. What kind of dream was that? She frowned. I was talking to no one…

End of chapter 5

A/N: Well, that was it. I have the rest quite planned; I hope school doesn’t catch me before I finish this story, since it’s starting on February 28th.

HEY! There are lots of Story Alerts without any reviews! PLEASE, reviews encourage me to keep writing!

Luf you, Pipi.