Chapter Five-A Rose Is A Rose

"Touya?"

"...What?" Sakura's brother was dead-tired. His multiple part-time jobs combined with his homework were making him lose out on precious sleep, and it showed. His smooth brown skin was paler than usual, and he had bags forming under his eyes. He really did just want to roll over and go to sleep.

Yukito had been about to give him a back massage. His hands were warmed and there were a few drops of scented oil lying in a little dish by his bed. He traced the purple marks on his lover's tan skin with his light touch. Delicate fingers felt for scarring, chipped bone. There were none. But the bruises worried him. "Did you hurt yourself in sports?"

The other student grunted an affirmative.

Some anger crept into Yuki's voice. "You're lying." He grabbed his partner and

rolled him over onto his side with an otherworldly strength that he rarely used on purpose. "Someone's been hurting you." He stated simply.

The larger man looked torn. He reached out and stroked his lover's face, tenderly. "Yuki...."

"Don't you 'Yuki' me! What, did you think I wouldn't notice? I thought we told each other everything! Now tell me. Who's been hurting you?"

The archeologist's son rolled back onto his front, so he wouldn't have to look him in the eyes. He couldn't let him know. It wasn't his fault. It wouldn't be fair to him. "Nobody. Nobody's been hurting me."

"He's been hurting you, hasn't he?" Yukito yelled, his normally calm voice frantic. "But why? I thought he was on our side. I don't understand." He covered his face with his hands. Minutes passed as he sat there, weeping silently, praying that Touya wouldn't notice, yet feeling unable to leave. Finally, a few stray teardrops slipped through his fingers, splashing wetly against his partner's strong, muscular back.

Touya sat up and pulled the other man into his embrace, strong arms stroking Yuki's hair, his shoulders, comforting.

"It's not fair! First you starve for me, and then you give up your magic for me, and now this. All I seem to bring you is trouble. I don't understand. Is this punishment? Did I do something wrong?"

***

"I'll get it!" Sakura hopped down the stairs two at a time, albeit slowly. It was weird. She'd been really hyper that morning when Li had come to walk her to school, but around the middle of third block she'd started to fall asleep again. The school nurse had given her special permission to go home early.

She was in her pajamas, but who would be visiting at dinnertime? Oni-chan and Yukito, maybe... but Yukito was like family. Besides, she was "sick".

She opened the door, to find....

"E-eriol-san?" She turned a bit pink. "Tomoyo-chan!" Well, she and Tomoyo were both girls, they'd seen one another in their pajamas before.... "Syaoran-kun?" Sakura felt herself go bright red. The last time Syaoran had seen her in pajamas was the night that he and Kero had changed bodies, but they had both been very young back then... it... it wasn't appropriate....

"Very lovely pajamas, Sakura-chan." Eriol commented, smooth as always. "I don't suppose we could come in?"

"Well..." Sakura laughed, putting an arm behind her head, "I am supposed to be sick."

"I'm afraid it's very important."

"Uhm...?" It couldn't wait? This surprised Sakura. As Clow Reed's reincarnation, he was very powerful. Couldn't he handle it himself?

"Yes. No. There's something I need your help with...."

Sakura blanched. How did he know what I was going to say? She thought.

Eriol moved out of the way to let Tomoyo, who held the baby dragon from last time, and Li, who was dragging the lizard-person with him.

"H-hoeee?"

"There are some binding objects in the library that I'm going to need in order to hold them," Eriol said, slipping around the stairwell. "If that's alright with you!" He called from the basement.

"H... Hai!" Sakura blushed. There were bad guys in her house and Li was watching her in her pajamas! "I think I'm going to go upstairs to get changed. I'll bring the Cards and Kero down with me just in case."

"Ye... uh, you do that," Li stuttered before following Eriol down into the basement. He almost tripped over the comatose lizard-person he was half-dragging, half-carrying down the stairs.

When he got there, Eriol was sitting quietly at a wooden desk situated near the window at the far end of the library. "Oh look, old newspapers." He put the baby dragon down and leafed through one of the yellowing stacks. "Hmm. White husband, <expletive> wife. Four children. Cause of Great Row. Oh my." He squinted. "Looks familiar."

Syaoran joined him, propping the lizard man up against the shelf on his left, which was ironically the same one that Sakura had discovered Clow's book in. "Expletive? What does that mean?"

Eriol smiled. "They used a bad word. Come and see this picture, though," he motioned for Li to join him.

Li looked, and did a double-take. The lady in the newspaper looked a great deal like his mother, and the man standing next to her resembled Sakura's father, Fujitaka, a great deal. "Are these Clow's parents?" He asked.

Eriol nodded. "I wonder how many of his things are stored down here," he looked around. "I know for a fact that Keroberos and the Cards were placed in this house intentionally about 40 years ago in anticipation of Sakura's birth. Before either or us were born." He smiled. "It's a little scary to think about, isn't it?"

Li's heart sank. "Does this mean that Sakura and I are related?"

The other boy thought on this. "You come from Clow Reed's mother's side of the family, the Chinese branch, and not from him directly, whereas Sakura and her father are in a way descended from Clow himself."

"What do you mean, in a way?"

"It's not important." Eriol said, scanning the bookshelf to his right. "Mind looking for a book bound in leather? The title has something to do with magical creatures."

Li nodded and started looking. "Care of Magical Creatures?"

"Hmm... put it aside, but I don't think that's it."

He attempted to open it. "Ahh!" The Chinese boy dropped the thick leather tome. "It tried to BITE me!" It was only then that he realized the book had a face.

Eriol gave the book a perfunctory glance. "I think that must have come from Clow's days studying Western magic somewhere in England." He said thoughtfully. "I don't know how to open it."

Syaoran sucked on the grazed skin of his second and middle fingers, making a deliberate show of scanning the library as if nothing had happened. He noted that for every book written in Japanese, there were about five or six written in Chinese or English. "The Water Margin?" He said, taking the first the five-book series off the shelf and flipping through it. "This is just a fairy tale."

The dark-haired boy shrugged. He seemed a little annoyed. "There's a lot of truth to fairy tales. But that's not it. Keep looking please."

"Romance of the Three Kingdoms... Alice in Wonderland... The Grand Art of Fighting with Snake People Without Getting Your Head Bitten Off...?"

"That's it!"

"You're kidding, right? The words 'Magical Creatures' aren't even in the title."

Eriol ignored him politely. He seemed to be reading some script hastily scratched into the back of the book. Syaoran tried to get a glimpse of it by reading over his shoulder, but it looked like some sort of private code. He squinted, and was surprised to see that the words were beginning to unscramble themselves and become Japanese Kanji.

"Dear Me," it said... (there was a happy face). It sort of reminded him of Sakura's messy writing. His eyes traveled down to the next line when Eriol slammed the book shut, and walked over to where the large oak desk was. He picked the baby dragon up, and placed it off to the side. "Help me move this thing, would you?"

***

Soft footsteps padded across the stone temple floors. "Hello?" She voiced timidly. There was a tall, red-headed figure sweeping the entrance. "Mizuki-sensei?"

"Yes...?" An older man's voice called back to her. "And you would be?"

She paused. "You must be Mizuki-sensei's father! You're the master of this shrine, Tojifuri Mizuki!"

The old man smiled. "Yes, I'm Kaho's father, but as for this shrine... I prefer to think of myself as a caretaker and a guest of the spirits, not their master."

"Oh... gomen." Tomoyo apologized.

"It is alright, little one. Would you like to speak with my daughter? I believe she's out by the pond doing a little bit of last-minute cleaning up. Follow me,"

"So...." The girl paused. "You are often abroad, do you mind my asking where it is you go?"

"Why would you want to know?" The temple priest grinned.

Tomoyo blushed. It was an impetuous answer to an equally rude question, one she shouldn't have asked of a holy man and elder. "Gomen," she said for the second time, rather timidly.

To her surprise, this encouraged raucous laughter from the priest. He doubled over, holding his stomach. "Oh! I'm sorry. I must be scaring you." He wiped tears of mirth out of his eyes, slapping her on the back gently. "You're so cute and meek and timid, well, let's just say if I hadn't taken my oath of celibacy a few years after Kaho's birth...."

"N... nani?" Tomoyo began to wish she'd taken someone else with her. This was beginning to get weird....

"Father! Stop that, you're scaring her!" It was Mizuki-sensei. Tomoyo breathed a sigh of relief. "Hello, Tomoyo-chan," the tall orange-haired woman smiled. "Why are you here so late at night? More trouble?"

Tomoyo nodded, and then cast a glance towards Tojifuri. "Uhm...."

"It's okay," Mizuki assured her. "He can be trusted."

Of course! Tomoyo thought. Where else would she have learned all her powerful magic from, if not from a Shinto priest? "Well... those people attacked again... and Eriol-kun came to help us... and we took them to Sakura's house... something about binding them with objects in her library.... He seemed worried though, and I was sent to come and get you."

"Eriol-kun? You mean the reincarnation of Clow Reed?" The old man barked.

"Uh... yeah...." Tomoyo blinked. Somehow this guy didn't seem to really understand the urgency of her mission. "We really have to go, Mizuki-sensei," she said, tugging on the sleeve of her old schoolteacher's uniform. "It's really important that you come and look at these guys."

Toji was unmoved by this. "I just saw him yesterday! What's he doing back here?"

"There's a purple lizard person and a baby dragon-looking thing," Tomoyo pleaded. "Eriol-kun had them wrapped in this black fog stuff so they couldn't move, but I think it's making him tired. Please come soon,"

"Dragon? Lizard person?" Mizuki's father paused, his eyes thoughtful. Could it be? But no. They were all supposed to be dead....

His daughter's voice broke his reverie. "We should go father. Are you coming?"

"Yes. Just let me get a few things together first."

***

One last heave, and the dresser was finally displaced to Eriol's satisfaction. "Couldn't you have just used magic?" Syaoran asked testily.

"Tired." The other boy grunted in explanation. "Besides...." He knelt down, feeling around. There was a trap door. He pulled on the handle, but it was stuck, so he placed the flat of his palm face-down on the floor. It glowed purple and opened.

Li looked down. There was a small room there made out of some sort of green stone. "That should hold our guests for the time being."

"Did you know about this?"

Eriol shook his head. "No. But this is better than what I was looking for. I was hoping to find some silver manacles or something, but this... a magically insulated holding cell... it seems almost tailored to our needs."

"Was it made... especially for us?"

"Was what made especially for us?" Sakura asked innocently, walking up to where the two boys sat. They used to have similar haircuts, but now Eriol-san's was longer. It made him look more like Clow-san. "Why did you move the desk? That's a family heirloom you know. Waiiii!" She stared open-eyed at the trap door, unbelieving. "Where did that come from? Did you just make that?"

"Where's that stuffed doll of yours?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura shrugged. "You know, it's funny but I can't find him anywhere. He's not in the house."

"Could you use the Float Card to lower those two in?" Eriol asked suddenly, looking uncomfortable for the first time she could remember. "The spell I've placed on them is sapping a lot of my energy."

"But she's tired!" Li protested.

Sakura blinked. "It's okay, Syaoran-kun, Float isn't a very hard card to use. I should be fine. But no more, tonight, or I'll faint." She pulled out her key. "Oh key which hides the power of the stars, reveal thy true form before me. I, Sakura, command thee under contract. Release!" The key lengthened and became her Star Rod. A card magically appeared before her, floating in midair patiently. She tapped it with the Rod. "Float!"

After the trap door had been sealed and the dresser was pushed back into place, the wand reverted back to its dormant state and the Card rejoined its fellows with a bright flash.

"You're getting stronger." Eriol observed. "Do you remember when the Cards first started appearing in front of you without making you reach in your pocket to go through them?"

Sakura thought on this. "It's happened since the beginning, but usually only when I'm in a big hurry. And I really wanted those guys locked up."

Li looked around. "Where's Daidouji-san?"

"She volunteered to go and get Mizuki-sensei. So," she turned to the two boys, "I guess you're both staying for dinner. Is eel okay?"

"Uh... yeah."

"What about, you, Eriol-san?"

But Eriol was staring rather intently at the wall. "Eriol-san?" She asked.

*~*

Keroberos was shouting something. "SHAPESHIFTERS!"

He whipped around, his ears straining to hear him over the other noises of the battlefield. Where had that come from? And then he felt it-something wrapped against his thigh. He looked down. A small purple creature was biting its way through to his flesh, gnashing its teeth impatiently at the folds of cloth between his leg and it. Panicking, he lifted the encumbered limb and began to shake it and swat at the demon, as if by those feeble acts of retaliation he might dislodge it.

A dense stream of water came and blasted it off. It disappeared into the masses of surging glowing eyes ever moving towards him-the Lizardmen.

*~*

Li poked his... no, their ancestor's reincarnation experimentally. "He said something earlier about having visions he couldn't control. I think he's just in a trance."

"Oh." Sakura seemed perplexed. "My visions usually only come to me when I concentrate on something and then go to sleep." She viewed the pale, thin boy. He looked a bit fragile, and she realized with amazement, Syaoran now had a few inches on him. It had been a while since she'd gotten a letter from Eriol. She'd been a little worried, but then what could happen to someone as powerful as him? "Should we just leave him here, then? But... I feel kind of bad doing that."

"My mother has visions sometimes. She'd beat... uh." Li paused at the look of confused look on his girlfriend's face. He'd tried once or twice to explain to her how disciplined his life back in China had been, how militantly strict his mother was, but he'd never really had the heart to go into detail. It was better just to let Sakura remember his mom as 'that nice lady who helped her once.' "She'd be very cross when we disturbed her."

"Would you like to help me make dinner, then? Maybe he'll wake up in time to eat with us. We should make enough for Mizuki-sensei and Tomoyo-chan, too."

Go upstairs? Alone? With Sakura? Suddenly the thought that they were both technically alone in the house made him very giddy. "Uh... yeah."

"You're taking that book with you?"

Li looked down in a very surprised way at Care Of Magical Creatures, which he'd unconsciously placed in a strategic position over his crotch. "Yep." Hopefully he'd be able to slip into an apron without her noticing.

***