Epilogue

They part ways in mid April, in the midst of a crowded airport in Los Angeles, with a kiss and hurriedly exchanged addresses and mobile numbers.

Tomoyo returns to her flat on the Left Bank, and then from one of her suitcases, immediately takes out a few framed photographs and then sets them up on the mantel over the fireplace.

There’s one of the bridal party, one of herself and Sakura before she and Syaoran left for their honeymoon.

But she is surprised to see that there are a couple more beneath them, unframed and most probably sneaked in by her mother.

The first one was set out on the balcony of Eriol’s house, where she is looking out at the fireworks display, and Eriol was looking at her.

There is another of them dancing at the party, and one more of them during the reception.

She almost drops the last one in surprise.

She and Eriol are kissing in the picture.

She turns the back to see that someone has stuck a note behind it.

I’m so happy for you, Tomoyo-chan. Syaoran is as well, though I did have to keep him from going in there like an idiot and ruining the moment.

Don’t worry, I sent a copy to Eriol-san as well.

Love, Li Sakura

And then Tomoyo laughs and holds the picture to her chest.

Leaving her bags still packed, she puts on her coat and heads out the door to purchase more frames, and maybe check if those new designs from her lingerie label have come out yet.

Sakura had given her the address of their hotel in Bali.

She grins mischievously.

Maybe she’d get an early niece or nephew in the deal.

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In July, Eriol visits Tomoyo and she takes him for a whirlwind tour around the city.

He’s seen them all before, even has memories of their construction, and he shares with her some of the undocumented stories (the funnier ones, he and Tomoyo agreed.)

He tells her about Clow, about his only great love – the one person he could never have.

“I would have liked to meet the woman who stole the heart of someone like Clow.”

“She’s a woman to be both greatly admired and greatly pitied.” Eriol replies.

“Do you remember much about her?”

“We have tea once every often. I’m sure she’d love to have you over next time.”

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in August, Eriol takes her to an obscure tea shop in the heart of downtown London, where she is surprised to enter through a door of glass beads into the most unusual rooms.

There is the unmistakable scent of time and magic, centuries worth of it, magic she’s learned to sense in the years that she’d been the best friend of the most powerful sorceress in the world.

“Welcome…” a voice drawls out, and out comes the most magnificent woman she had ever seen.

She bows.

“Daidouji Tomoyo, pleased to meet you.”

“and you. You may call me Yuuko.”

“Oji – sama!” a voice cries out and Tomoyo is startled to see a round black creature jump up into Eriol’s arms.

“Long time no see, Mokona.” And then Eriol brings it up to Tomoyo, saying,

“This is Mokona, Mokona, this is Tomoyo.” Mokona’s eyes widen and he jumps into the woman’s arms.

“Konnichiwa, Tomoyo-obasan!”

“Pleased to meet you, Mokona.”

“Soel is still away?” he inquires of Yuuko.

“yes.”

They head over to the gazebo (Tomoyo wonders how such a thing could even exist in London) and in what seemed like an instant, she had become a part of the family.

She and Yuuko exchanged stories on Eriol, and they’d all watched Yuuko’s assistant (slave, Watanuki-san insists, flail and rant and scold Yuuko with futile effort.

And then later that night, when Watanuki has gone into the kitchen to clean up (refusing all offers of Tomoyo’s help, saying that she’s a guest, unlike some people – said with a glare to Yuuko), she spends a quiet moment with Yuuko, as Eriol offers to put the two little girls, Maru and Moro to bed.

For a while, they sit idly, Yuuko lazily drinking her sake, and Tomoyo gazing at an unusually bright moon for the foggy London weather.

“We’re not in England anymore,” she states, and not asks.

“No, we aren’t.” and she leaves it at that. Tomoyo has a feeling that they weren’t on Earth anymore, either.

“Have you known Eriol long?”

“I have known Eriol since he was born here.”

“is that so… Yuuko –san, Eriol mentioned that you grant wishes?”

“For a price. You have a wish.”

It wasn’t a question.

“I wish… that I could make him happy.”

Yuuko looks at her and then at the moon.

“we are all governed by our past, our future dictated by the choices we make and paths we choose to walk on.

The price for that wish… would be two things. One, would be the eraser you keep on the second drawer of your bureau.

The other, would be your first video camera.”

Tomoyo blinks.

“My… old video camera? Whatever would you need that for? ”

“I have my reasons,” she smiles slyly. “Will you accept the payment?”

Tomoyo closes her eyes and then takes a deep breath.

“Yes.”

“Very well.”

Eriol returns and Yuuko walks them out the shop.

She places an affectionate hand on Tomoyo’s hair.

“It was hitsuzen that we met, Daidouji Tomoyo.” She says in lieu of a goodbye.

And Tomoyo sees in Yuuko’s eyes something she isn’t quite sure was supposed to be seen.

She is surprised to see herself embrace the older woman.

“Thank you,” she whispers.

“Your wish, has been granted.”

The next day, Eriol asks as to what she has wished for.

“Yuuko asks for unusual payment, but there is always a good reason for it.”

“She misses him.”

“I know. But she knows, more than anyone, that fate is fickle, and that everything happens for a reason.”

Tomoyo leans against him and she is surprised to see that he’s set his head over hers, and has taken her hand in his.

The next day, Tomoyo isn’t surprised to see that both the eraser and the camera have disappeared.

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in October, Tomoyo comes over to Reed Manor for a Halloween dinner.

She spends the night battling with Eriol against his guardians in an all night fright fest.

And when the entire thing is over, Eriol finds her curled up in front of the fire, Spinel sleeping contentedly in her lap (the effects from the Halloween candy Ruby Moon had stuffed him with dissipated), and Eriol feels something he can’t quite identify stir within him.

Something resembling completion? He wonders.

But it is a good feeling, he decides.

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In December, Tomoyo returns to Japan to celebrate Christmas with the family. She gushes over a very pregnant Sakura (her plan worked, she thought), and as she spends the holiday with her family and friends, feelings of homesickness surface.

Perhaps it is time she comes home, she thinks.

But then she remembers Eriol, and she realizes that she might have to choose, and then she realizes the price for the wish wasn’t actually the eraser and the camera after all.

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in February, Tomoyo gives him a beautiful chocolate g-clef, and then tells him that she plans to move back to Japan.

She doesn’t say it, but she wants to know if he’s decided.

They spend the rest of the night walking hand in hand along the Left Bank, the lights twinkling on the water’s surface.

“Are you sure? What about your line?”

“I’ve already made arrangements to transfer my headquarters there.”

I wish you’d stay, was the first thought that came into his mind, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t be so selfish as to ask her to leave her family for him.

“Will you still come and visit?” he asks instead, and she replies,

“Will you?”

And then he finally realizes, without a doubt, that ever since that Halloween night, he would never again be satisfied with meager visits and long separations.

He wanted her by his side, right now, tomorrow, and always.

He takes her into his embrace and she sinks against him, the intoxicating scent of her hair wafting up his nostrils and dulling his senses.

Jasmine, always Jasmine, with the smallest hint of cherry blossoms.

“Eriol…”

“I love you. I’ve only just realized it now, but I love you, Daidouji Tomoyo. I love you so much that I want you here with me forever. But I know that you need to return,,,”

“Shh… “ Tomoyo whispers, and she brings an arm behind his head and pulls him down into a kiss.

This kiss was long, sweet and achingly tender.

The fulfillment of a promise made a year ago.

There were no fireworks, no bells, and no choir of angels serenading them on high that was the stuff of the shoujo manga her high school classmates had liked to read.

Rather, Tomoyo thought, there was the sense of completion that sense of coming home.

There was no need to hurry , all the time in the world was theirs to take.

They had the rest of their lives to look forward to, after all.

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when they finally part, Eriol gazes at her with heavily lidded eyes.

“But what about… what will happen to us if you move back to Japan.”

“I’ll go home.. but only to tell them… that I’m staying here. If you’ll have me.”

She’s sacrificed her family to grant her wish.

“I think…”

“What?”

“That you should kiss me again.”

And then he puts his hands in her hair, kisses her, and all rational thought flies out the window.

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it is April, and Tomoyo is on the plane, reflecting on how much her life has changed since the previous year.

She’s returning home to be present for the birth of Syaoran and Sakura’s first child, and to make preparations for her permanent transfer to England.

Thoughts of England brought her back to Eriol, and she frowns. Eriol had been very vague when she’d left him to board the plane, saying that he had a surprise waiting for her when she returns.

She wonders what that is.

And then the pilot announces that they’ve landed and when it is all clear, she stands and goes down the steps and into the airport.

Now she is in front of the luggage carousel, searching for her belongings.

She spots the last one, but before she could get to it, someone else pulls it from the pile.

She notices that the hand belongs to a man.

“Excuse me but this is …” and she looks up to see Eriol smiling down at her.

“What are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?”

“there are a lot of things you can accomplish with a little magic and two lifetime’s worth of connections,” he replies.

“But.. why?”

And he pulls her to him and says muffled words in answer to her question, “because I want you to be happy, and I’m not selfless enough to let you go, now that I’ve finally found the one person I was definitely meant to be with.

But if you can leave everything behind for me… so can I.”

And then he kisses her in the middle of the airport, and when they break off, he whispers into her ear.

“But I really don’t think that I’ve left anything behind after all. Not when all I need is right in front of me.”

The end.