Now and Forever
by Hidden Tala

xii. the impenetrable li syaoran

"There's something strange about this scene," Sakura whispered to him once they reached the foyer in the Manor

"It's not just strange." He stared openly. "It's abnormal."

The reincarnation of Clow himself was running around in circles with a laughing toddler straddled on his shoulders. Somebody in a giant potato costume was running after them, arms outstretched, reaching for the child on Eriol's back.

"I'm going to get you, Yumi-chan," threatened the giant spud. And it would have been convincing if the potato didn't wheeze it out in her soft and girly voice. "Eriol, don't run so fast!"

"You can do it, potato girl!" Nami rooted, waving a flag from the sidelines which basically means the couch. "Go get that freak with the glasses and that little brat with him!"

"Hey!" Eriol yelled, panting a little.

Nami slumped in her seat, pouting. "It was only trash-talk, Daddy! I still love you!"

Akira complained about her lack of loyalty. Tama was still clapping for potato girl. Yuri looked bored.

The little girl slipped away from the couch, unnoticed by her squabbling siblings, and went to the spot where the visitors where frozen into. Yuri stayed close to her uncle by hugging his legs which made the teenager uncomfortable.

"Uncle Syao-Syao," she called in her sweetest voice, tugging at his pants. "Why do you look like that?"

Syaoran reached down and scooped her in his arms. "Why do I look like what?"

Yuri slapped both her small hands on his cheeks and leaned into his face. "You're funny."

Sakura pinched the girl's cheek. "Aww, you're so cute, Yuri-chan."

Yuri giggled then reached for Sakura's arms.

"You know," the little girl started in a high-pitched tone, "you know, Uncle Syao-Syao is thinking about the potato eating my daddy. He's so funny!"

Syaoran stared at the girl, studying her, while her back was turned to him. "A mind reader, great."

Sakura looked excited. "Can you read my mind too, Yuri-chan?"

Yuri frowned at her, confused. "I don't know."

"But you just did," Sakura insisted, pointing at her boyfriend. "You read Uncle Syaoran's mind just now."

"No." She shook her head in a cute way. "Uncle Syao-Syao is happy because the potato is eating my daddy."

"But Yuri-chan, how did you know he's happy?"

Yuri creased her brows together, exasperated at her uncle and aunt.

"She's an empath," Syaoran answered now, enlightened. "I was wrong. She can read emotions. And as a side benefit, she can also find the cause of those emotions."

But Yuri was already bored with them. "My mommy is missing. I can't find mommy anywhere."

"No, she's not," Sakura assured, rocking her, when the girl sniffled. "Maybe she's hiding."

Yuri pursed her lips and knotted her brow. "But why? Did Mommy do something bad?"

"Maybe because she looks ridiculous when she runs," muttered silently, earning him a hard elbow from Sakura.

Sakura turned to the purple-eyed girl and smiled. "Maybe she wants to surprise you, Yuri-chan."

The little girl brightened at this. "Really? I wish she gives my daddy a kiss again. It makes me tickle."

The couple's eyes widened at the annunciation. "Yuri-chan, did you just say that your mommy kissed your daddy?"

Yuri gave them the patented haven't-you-been-listening? Sonomi Daidouji look. "Uh-huh."

"When?" Sakura squealed in excitement, bouncing in anticipation. Syaoran looked contemplative.

"Night time," Yuri answered flippantly, playing with Sakura's hair.

Then the girl fixed her gaze to Syaoran. "Uncle Syao-Syao, you make my head hurt. Stop it."

Syaoran was startled. Then he cleared his mind and grinned wolfishly at her.

"I give up!" cried the giant spud that was lying on the floor. "I give up! I can't breathe!"

Eriol, finally realizing that no one was following him, stopped on his tracks and put her daughter down to attend to the large potato. The remaining people in the room rushed to the scene to help the person out of the costume.

"Did we beat the potato monster, Daddy?" Yumi asked curiously from behind.

"Yes, Yumi," he grunted as he tried to pull out the head of the potato. "And I think we killed her too."

"Is she dead?" Tama whimpered fearfully when they found the body unconscious.

"Mum!" Nami cried, shaking her sides. "Mum, wake up!"

"Daddy!" Yumi shrieked in terror. "Mommy is the potato monster! We killed Mommy!"

"No, we didn't, Yumi. Calm down," Eriol soothed her as he swept the limp body from the floor. He turned his head to his eldest son. "Akira, get her some water!"

The Hiiragizawa heir nodded and ran to the kitchens.

"She told you not to run so fast," Syaoran reproved, his eyes blaming the head of the Hiiragizawa family. "You know how she hates running."

"Syaoran-kun!" Sakura hissed, rocking the sobbing Yuri in her arms.

"She insisted to play the 'it'," he answered dangerously, not appreciating the head of the Li Clan's intrusion.

Nami and Tama exchanged worried glances.

Eriol gingerly placed the unconscious Tomoyo on the couch. Then he faced the daunting figure of Li Syaoran.

There were so many things, so many words that played within the boy's mind. He didn't have to do anything to pry it open because it was laid out for him. As if the impenetrable Li Syaoran wanted him to read his mind. He became heady with all the confusing information. He wanted to pull himself out of it until it centered on in the memory of that fateful day when he told Tomoyo he loved her. He knew because she was wearing that yellow headband he gave her that morning. But this isn't his memory. It was Li Syaoran's. And he was looking at her in Syaoran's eyes – of her tear-streaked face as she wept all alone on the rooftop.

"Here," came Syaoran's voice beside her, handing out a handkerchief.

She jumped in surprise then frowned at him. "When did you get here?"

"I was sleeping in that tree when I heard some noise," he said, evading her question, as he pointed at the tree adjacent to their school building. "I found you up here. I figured something was wrong."

"Take it," he persisted, putting the hanky in her hand.

She reluctantly accepted it and dabbed it at her eyes.

When she didn't say anything, he sighed. "You know you can tell me anything."

Still, nothing.

It irked him. He didn't have that much patience especially if it the person wasn't Sakura. "What did he do now?"

It got him the reaction he wanted. She recoiled, as if burned.

"Nothing," she told him in her meekest voice. "He didn't do anything at all."

But he knew better than that. "Is it about Mizuki-sensei being jealous about you?"

She gave him a soulless stare. She didn't say anything. But her eyes told him that she wished it had been like that.

The memory stopped and changed.

It was an hour before first period and it was only him and Tomoyo who were in the room. He saw himself seated behind the girl who was ignoring him as if he didn't exist. He saw his face wear a mask of calm. But his eyes glinted in something achingly close to pain. Then those eyes suddenly wandered, sensing an intruder observing him. It met Li Syaoran's smoldering gaze.

"Hiiragizawa," Syaoran's voice boomed from the doorway. "A word?"

"Good morning, Syaoran-kun," Tomoyo politely greeted.

Syaoran nodded at her direction.

Before he knew it, he was exchanging heated words with him at the hallway.

"I'm going back to England tomorrow," he said finally. "I'll leave her to you."

Syaoran had his hand fisted on his collar, seething in uncontrolled anger. "She's not a toy that you can give away when you decided that you're tired of her."

Eriol's eyes flashed instantly. He yanked Syaoran's hand out of his neck, making him free from his grasp. "You don't know what you're saying."

"Then enlighten me," Syaoran snapped at him.

The memory stopped there. Then everything turned black. Before he knew what was happening, there was a flash of light. In that light, he saw Tomoyo's many faces put in fast forward – of her surprised look when their homeroom teacher announced that Eriol Hiiragizawa moved back to England, of her pained expression when she turned from her seat and didn't find him there, of her sad smile when their classmates talk about him, of her somber face in choir practice, of her sullen eyes at lunch. As he watched the outpour of her images, he finally realized what the other boy was saying.

You did this to her, Syaoran told him in his mind.

In his anger, he couldn't help saying it out loud. "You still don't know what you're talking about."

The other people in the room stared at them in confusion. They had been watching the non-talking exchange between the two. And in the past five minutes, none of them had talked.

Syaoran put a weary hand to his eyes, breaking their connection. He turned his gaze to Akira, who suddenly materialized beside Eriol, holding a glass of water.

"Do not test me," Syaoran warned his nephew.

"This is between him and me," Eriol seconded, giving his son a glare. "Do not interfere."

Akira looked like he would argue but Syaoran already brought his eyes back to Eriol.

"You don't deserve her," Syaoran pronounced gravely.

He took a deep breath and sighed, the anger leaving him. And dejectedly, he nodded.

"I know."