Disclaimer: Card Captor Sakura and related enterprises are property of CLAMP, bless them and their character-eye-gouging souls. This disclaimer hereby applies to all chapters of this fic, because these things are probably redundant on a fanfiction site to begin with...
Opening Notes: Based on prompts from the ever-popular 30lies challenge community on livejournal. For the uninitiated: each story is based on a pre-established theme and must contain a lie in some form or another within it. Enjoy.
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#5 Half-truth
Tomoyo always writes in pen, never in pencil, and Eriol could never understand why.
"It's because I never make mistakes," she replied when he asked, with a smile that sparkled as brilliantly as broken glass.
Once he returned from a trip to England to give her a fountain pen, a joking gift on a whim inspired by his own curiosity. She'd held it gently then, as she did all things, before carefully putting it away in her box of treasures next to a small pink bunny eraser.
He realized then that Tomoyo always smiled and accepted, but she never forgot.
-ooo-
#3 Cover-up
She has been ill over the winter and so Eriol invites her over for tea one gloriously sunny, radiant spring afternoon. They sit across from each other and he talks cheerfully about the weather, the season, and the sakura blooming in her garden until he realizes that she is not replying.
He stops, and the sudden pause in his rhythm is enough to make her stir and look at him with half-seeing eyes.
"I'm sorry, Hiiragizawa-kun," her voice is soft enough to be muffled beneath the glow of the sun. "I wasn't listening. Did you say something?"
"Are you feeling all right, Daidouji-san?"
Her hair is bathed in a wreath of light that makes it shimmer and shine like spun silver as she wraps her arms around herself.
"I'm afraid it's a bit cold today."
He accompanies her home like the gentleman he is, and says nothing when she closes the curtains to block the pink blossoms drifting past her window.
-ooo-
#20 Masquerade
They are sitting together outside a little French cafĂ, surrounded by round tables and chattering couples. She is here for business, he is here--by chance, he claims--on a walk through the city on a lovely afternoon.
Tomoyo hadn't planned this little stop, but Eriol insisted--after all, they were old friends that hadn't seen each other in years. She was too polite to refuse.
Formalities are exchanged, stories shared, before the waiter arrives with their order. Two cups are set before them: Earl Grey for him, black coffee for her, as well as a bowl of sugar and a small pitcher of milk. He inhales the familiar scent of the tea before raising the rim to his lips, eyes widening slightly when he sees her doing the same.
"I wasn't aware you drank your coffee black, Daidouji-san," he speaks, faintly surprised.
She pauses, glancing at him with a slight smile. "Is it too bitter for your tastes, Hiiragizawa-kun?"
He finds himself scoffing. "Hardly. But I would think that it is too much for yours, my dear."
"You underestimate me," Tomoyo replies, sipping calmly. "I've found that the lack of sugar enhances the flavor."
"A stronger taste, is it?"
"Quite so."
"But very harsh."
"It makes everything else that much sweeter." She raises an eyebrow at him to make her point.
"Yet alone," He sets his cup back on its saucer. "There is nothing but more bitterness, is there?"
She smiles at him, again. "Some things are best left unchanged."
Eriol understands, but pretends not to. "And the others?"
"Are already changed, and better left undisturbed."
A few seconds later, her cell phone rings, and Tomoyo apologizes while answering the call. A meeting has come up and her presence is required. She makes her exit with her usual grace, and he stands to send her off.
"Thank you, Hiiragizawa-kun. It was pleasant meeting you again. I wish you well for the rest of your day."
Let her happiness be the path to my happiness.
"As do I, Daidouji-san. Farewell."
A path walked alone, Tomoyo-chan?
"Good-bye."
Yes, Eriol-kun.
They do not meet again.
-ooo-
#26 Misunderstanding
There were certain advantages to being the reincarnation of one of the world's greatest magicians. Knowing your future years ahead of schedule came with the package, and Eriol never ceased to use his keen powers of foresight.
He'd seen visions of her since the very beginning: a priestess of the moon, with long flowing hair, destined to be the light of his own shadowed sun. She was lithe and graceful and surrounded by red--but that was all he could see, for she stayed stubbornly in shadow no matter what he did.
She haunted his thoughts and lurked in the corners of his English mansion; he could not bear the emptiness and tried to fill it with his guardians. When born, they only seemed to mock him: a brilliant scarlet moon and a dark gloomy sun, fragments of his dreams that tried their best to love him.
Years afterwards, he meets Kaho Mizuki and feels relieved at having resolved his visions at last. Still later, he receives her call and flies to Tomoeda, where he proceeds to wreck merry havoc with his heiress-to-be, her faithful friend, and his cute little descendent.
He almost feels regretful on the day he is to leave them, but hides it behind a smile that provokes flustered reactions from the two redheaded children. (Really, he couldn't help but see them as such, so young and adorable.) Their friend comes between them, a sea of serenity that smiles in reply and elegantly wishes him well. (She, on the other hand, was different. Poised and in control and--Eriol half-suspected, just as skilled in manipulation as himself.)
He looks at each face clearly, reserving a softer gaze for Clow's ex-Guardians, making sure each has a place in his memory. Kaho calls and he answers her, finalizing his departure.
On his first night back he dreams of her again, the first time since he'd left for Japan. She is standing, back towards him by a lotus pond that reflects the full moon. This time he is able to approach her, and he does, hand stretched out to touch her shoulder as he confidently speaks the words--
"I know you"
--only he realizes, as she turns, that he does not, because she is a stranger. An ethereal being, indescribably beautiful; a princess cloaked in amethyst robes embroidered with crescent moons, whose face is hidden in shadow but whose eyes call out to him from their violet depths.
She speaks, but stops when she realizes he cannot hear her. He reaches for her again, questioning, and she backs away, still staring him down. There is disappointment and something else--was it sadness? Disbelief? He couldn't tell in the light--in her eyes as she shakes her head slowly and disappears.
He rushes forward to where she stood but senses nothing in the air. Despair and confusion fills him--he has lost her already without ever knowing who she was and yet--and yet something insisted that he did know her, and had, in fact, met her before.
-
Ten years later he sees her again, standing with Sakura and Syaoran at Tomoeda's school reunion. They are flustered and blushing; she is the same as always, calm and collected as she zooms in for an 'exclusive shot' of her favorite person.
He steps forward, but stops as a sudden crash causes a shower of crimson petals to explode from the ceiling, accompanied by confetti and a hanging pink banner with the words: "Happy Valentine's Day!!" in golden letters.
"Ah, Takashi you idiot! You released it too early!!" a shrill voice screeches from the left, followed by what sounds suspiciously like choking noises.
In the aftermath, he finds himself picking rose petals from her hair, and marvels at how her smile stings like a thorn in his heart.
-ooo-
#07 Make believe; fantasy
Once upon a time there were two sisters, both princesses, who lived in an enchanted tower high up in the clouds. They were equally beautiful and kind, but different as dawn and dusk, and for that they were named Twilght and Tierce. Since birth, they had been the closest of confidantes and cared for each other deeply. Yet one day their peace was interrupted by the arrival of a little bird that half-flew, half-fell through the tower's one lone window. It was rare for any living creature to reach the tower, even if it could fly, and the princesses were quick to take notice.
"How could such a little thing have gotten so lost, so high?" Twilight mused out loud as she knelt by the bird, a smile lighting up her lavender eyes.
"Maybe it was trying to find the end of the sky," spoke Tierce, looking out the window to the endless blue beyond. "Maybe it needed to know if it went up forever."
The bird chirruped, hobbling along the grund as it dragged one wing behind its body. It was injured, and the two sisters quickly decided to tend to its wounds.
A few days after the bird was well again, another visitor appeared, this time by climbing through the window. He was the proud prince of a distant land, who had scaled the tower in hopes of finding the injured bird.
"Then he belongs to you?" asked Tierce, even as the creature joyfully skipped in her palm. "He was injured when he flew in. My sister and I treated his wounds." She stepped forward and extended her hand towards the prince, who did likewise, and the little bird promptly hopped onto his wrist and then his shoulder.
"Thank you for your help," said the prince, turning slightly red when the princess's hand brushed against his. "The bird belongs to my cousin, and she will be very grateful to have him back. As am I."
There was a soft trill, and the trio watched as the little bird fluttered to the window ledge and dove off, out of sight. A few seconds later it rose anew, a large and majestic creature with wings reborn.
"I must return," said the prince with a bow. And then, he paused. "Would you princesses like to leave as well?"
The younger princess hesitated, glancing at her sister with uncertainty in her emerald eyes.
"You go on," said the elder, with a happy nod. "Perhaps, with him, you will find an end to the world you've always wanted to see."
So Tierce bid her sister farewell and flew off with the prince, with a promise to return after she had seen the world. And Twilight promised herself that she would stay and wait until that day arrived.
But alas for the sisters, for the tower was cursed, and those who left its walls could never return. Still Twilight waited, day after day, week after week, yet there was no sign of Tierce. Finally a day came when she met a new visitor--a wandering magician who had happened upon the tower by chance and offered to free her from her imprisonment.
"I must refuse, kind sir," said Twilight, "For my sister Tierce has not returned, and I have promised to wait for her."
The magician was a clever youth who understood the mysteries of the tower. He tried to explain them to the princess, but Twilight still refused to leave. And because he was so struck by her loveliness, he was loath to go without her.
"Hiiragizawa-kun!"
He stops abruptly to look up.
"Ah, Daidouji-san."
He is sitting in the corner with a group of children at the Daidouji Toy Company's charity party. Tomoyo had invited him--along with all her other friends--to attend, and he had accepted despite the distances.
She tilts her head to the side, an amused smile playing on her lips. "Making up stories again? At your age?"
His tone is simple, his smile enigmatic. "You're never too old for fairy tales."
"Ne, ne, what happened to the princess and the magician?" a little girl asks, tugging on his shirt.
"Well then," Eriol returns to face her indulgently.
"So the magician decided that he would wait until she was ready, and sat with Princess Twilight until the end of time."
-ooo-
Closing Notes: Until next time...