When Dreams Come True: Tam/Sakura
In a chat one day:
snowykittenz: Oh, hang on I might be Syaoran if I was
someone out of CCS
snowykittenz: and fall in love with Eriol then
Tam Chronin: hehehe
snowykittenz: see, if I'm Syaoran, Tomoyo can have Sakura
Tam Chronin: ~nods~ Ooohhh, if you're Syaoran can I be Sakura? ~blink, blink~ er... ~hides~
snowykittenz: ok I would wish for that then! For me to be
Syaoran and you to be Sakura
snowykittenz: I'd be a boy and you'd be a girl
Tam Chronin: yay!
Tam Chronin: :-)
snowykittenz: and were both girls now
Tam Chronin: ~nods~
snowykittenz: so you'd fall in lurve with Tomoyo?
Tam Chronin: Yeah...she's so sweet.
snowykittenz: and I'd fall in lurve with Eriol (or Yue)
snowykittenz: but hang on you'd get Yue *glomps*
Tam Chronin: :-P We'd both be in love with Yue. ~giggles~
Tam Chronin: My mean brat of a big brother would get
Yue! ~cries~
A week later:
Yes, it was just another day in front of the computer. Dull, boring, and--wait, no, that just about covers it. I was sick and had the unbreakable writer's block from hell. The house was a disaster, I hadn't gotten any sleep, and I wished I could be anywhere but here. I brought my head down on the keyboard with a soft thud, then closed my eyes and started rubbing my temples. Why couldn't I write?
I decided suddenly that my biggest mistake that day had been getting out of bed in the first place. I stumbled off to bed, pulling the box of tissues with me in a protective embrace, and cursed my allergies. My head hit the pillow and a bright flash hit my eyes. I decided I had to just be sicker than I thought and cuddled in closer to my pillow.
~beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep~
"Hoe?"
I sat up in bed, eyes wide and staring. The beeping was still going on, but I had more important things to worry about. I was NOT in the same room I had been in. It looked vaguely familiar, but I was sure it was a room I'd never been in before. I blinked sleepily, taking in the strange stuffed animals and the calendar hanging next to me on the wall.
The numbers didn't throw me a bit...the calendar was for March and April. Across the top though, where I expected normal letters or tiny words, there was kanji. And I knew what they meant.
"HHOOOEEEEEE!"
I clamped my hands over my mouth. Did I just say that? It didn't even sound like me!
Someone was knocking on the door. "Hey, monster--"
Except I knew he had just said, "Oi, kaijuu" when he called through the door.
"Come on, wake up and shut off that stupid alarm. It's giving me a headache!"
I reached over my head to grab the alarm clock I knew would be there. I looked at it, trying to figure out which button would turn it off. Just as I was about to get it, the door opened and a face poked in with a condescending sneer. "What's the matter, kaijuu, forget how to turn it off?"
I turned the alarm off and glared, grabbing a pillow to throw at him, but he shut the door too fast. Oh yes, I knew who he was. With all these clues, how could I NOT know?
That was Kinomoto Touya. My "Onii-chan". My big brother. I walked calmly over to a mirror I knew would be on my desk. Yes, there I was.
Kinomoto Sakura. A fourth grader at Tomoeda Elementary. My favorite subjects are P. E. and music. My least favorite is arithmetic. You could say one of my best qualities is that I'm so cheerful.
This was going to be harder than I thought when I made that idle wish a week ago with that girl online.
I sighed and looked in the top right drawer of my desk. No red book, no Kero-chan, no cards. Not yet at least. I heaved a huge sigh and got ready for school.
I raced downstairs, sure that I must be late. I had watched every episode I could of Card Captor Sakura, and almost every one started with me, Sakura, running late for school.
I started by smiling at my big brother, shouting a cheerful "Ohayo!" in his direction. I couldn't help but smile to see him. I was the luckiest fangirl in the world, looking there at Touya. I had never had a "thing" for him like so many other girls I knew online, but I could feel the envy. I basked in that warm glow for a moment.
He didn't even smile at me back, he just drank his morning tea then shot me a look. "Why were you thrashing around in your room?"
What? "I wasn't thrashing around."
"For that, you sure were making a lot of noise." He wouldn't even look at me as he talked, dismissing me like some little girl. Well, maybe I was now, but that wasn't the point.
What noise? "I was just walking around like normal." Wasn't I?
"When you walk, it sounds like some huge monster walking around." He was still looking off into the hallway as if I were a bug beneath his notice.
Oh, that was it!!! "I am not a monster!" I stormed over to him, making him pay attention to me.
Now he smiled as he used my head to rest his cup on. I couldn't believe it! It wasn't fair! I wasn't used to being treated like a little kid, dismissed so easily, and I absolutely detested being teased!
I tried to reach him, losing my temper and wanting to just beat him up, but he managed to hold me back with that stupid cup he put on my head. It was humiliating! It wasn't fair! I pulled back, madder than ever, but then I stopped.
Was it déjà vu? I knew this scene! Their dad--no, our dad would interrupt by walking over to give me my breakfast and--
"You two get along so well this early in the morning." Almost as if on cue.
I smiled up at him, enjoying the bit of humor and taking it as a cue to drop it. The original Sakura had thought about growing as huge as a telephone pole and squishing Touya, and I now took some comfort in that image, but now was not the time or place for that. I had to finish breakfast as fast as I could. Like I said, I knew this scene, and I was really looking forward to the next one.
Everything else unfolded exactly like the anime. Touya took off for school while I was still eating, so I gobbled down the rest of the food as fast as I could shove it in my mouth. I ran out the door, almost forgetting the skates.
Oh god, skates. I'd never been on rollerblades, and the last time I had been on traditional skates I had fallen down and hurt myself somewhere tender. I stared at the skates for a moment, but Dad was watching. What would happen if I changed events? Would I be thrown out of this dream? There was no way in hell I'd test that before I got a chance to see him.
I took a deep breath and hurried with the skates, hoping I wouldn't fall flat on my face. I wobbled a little at first, but as long as I didn't think about what I was doing I was fine. Part of me already knew, just like part of me knew Japanese suddenly. Would that part of me know how to get to school too? I remembered a little bit about the directions from watching the show, but there were too many omissions. I started to get scared that I'd get lost. If I got lost I'd get yelled at. I'd get in trouble at school. I'd never be able to explain why I got lost without giving away my secret, and I was scared that if I gave away my secret I'd mess up everything. Would I be sent back home? This was a dream come true for me! I didn't want to go back now!
I found myself at a corner where there was a street lined with blossoming trees, almost glowing a soft pink in the morning light. This was where I turned, I'd recognize this street anywhere. I looked up at the trees, spinning as the sakura petals fell around me. It was more beautiful than I imagined. This moment was the stuff dreams were made of. The sky was a perfect blue, the air was crisp without being cold, the pink blossoms above me were utterly beautiful, and if I hurried just a little bit faster I'd catch up with Touya.
And, of course, if I caught up with Touya I'd get to meet his best friend.
I put on an extra bit of speed, determined now to catch up. I spotted him ahead and kept up the speed, pushing myself as hard as I could. I was panting by the time I caught up and Touya looked over with a puzzled expression. "You could have taken a little bit longer at home, couldn't you?"
"Hai!"
"Then why did you...?"
I just smiled up at him, and then looked dreamily off into space. This is what being Sakura was really all about, wasn't it?
"Oh--Yuki!"
My eyes snapped up as he called out to his best friend. My heart skipped a beat. Soft gray hair framing a face with delicate features and the creamiest pale skin. Amber eyes that sparkled with inner light and joy. I went completely mushy inside just looking at him, and no matter how I fought I could feel a blush rest on my cheeks. It was him. Yukito. But I knew that it was also him. Yue. I felt like I was going to faint.
I floated to school. It wasn't skating; I swear my feet were not touching the ground. I was in a dream state where the world contained Yukito and me. It caught me by complete surprise when he turned to me to say good-bye with a smile and a wave. I was now surrounded by a bunch of little kids that were all "my age". I didn't pay much attention; I just slowed down while I watched Yukito ride his bicycle away from me. It was quite a let down. After waking up as Sakura I hadn't really thought past that moment, and now it was gone.
I had to go to school. I'd graduated from high school ten years ago, and now I was in fourth grade. This was either going to be very easy or very hard.
I was startled from my thoughts as Yukito turned around and tossed me something. He waved with a quick "Ja ne!" and was gone. I opened my hands to find a candy...oh yes, that had been part of the first episode hadn't it? I wanted to huggle it up to me, my first gift from him, but before my hands closed around the treat again I was startled when someone said something behind me and I dropped it.
My first thought was to just bend over and pick it up, but I realized I couldn't do that in this short skirt. I tried to just kneel down, but had forgotten all about wearing rollerblades, and wound up falling flat on my face.
I was suddenly very thankful for the kneepads and elbowpads. Still, I wanted to sink into the ground and hide as I heard people laughing and commenting on "poor, clumsy Kinomoto-san". Only one kind voice reached my ears, sounding angelic in my misery.
"Sakura-chan! Are you okay?"
I got up carefully, acutely aware of how short that stupid skirt really was now. I almost toppled over again as a breeze blew by and I made a mad grab for my skirt. I barely regained my balance after that, but the whole school would know the color of my panties all day. Now I really wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear.
"I'm okay, I'm okay, nothing wounded but my pride." I turned to look at the girl who had asked if I was okay, and I recognized her immediately. "Good morning, Tomoyo-chan!"
She was looking at me funny. She frowned a little, looking at me closely. "Good morning, Sakura-chan."
I tried to assure her with a sunny smile. "We should go inside now, right?"
She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "We have plenty of time. Come over here with me for a minute, okay?"
She started walking off to an area where no one else was. I followed curiously, not remembering this part in the anime at all. Was this just a scene that got cut, or were things about to take a dramatic turn for the worse?
Tomoyo turned to me finally, a serious expression hung on her face. "Something is different about you today. It's like--it's like you're not Sakura-chan today."
"Why do you say--"
"You aren't Sakura-chan, are you?"
I stared at her, unsure how to answer. How did she know? Well, of course, she knew Sakura better than anyone else. Still, it hadn't even been five minutes!
Well, now what?