Disclaimer:I do not own Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. CLAMP do.

Spoiler warning: This story can include spoilers up to chapter 179, which means we are developing! Usually, it'd be only 166…

Please Read, Enjoy and Review, even if you're not a logged member, I'll appreciate that.

Forget-me-nots, they say,

Are flowers from a fairy-tale.

They grow by the brook,

With yellow eye they look.

When you pass in a craft

They give a quiet laugh

And whisper humbly:

"Don't forget about me"

1. hold me as I am falling apart

At a knock on the door Sakura lifted her head.

"Yes?" She asked. Unnecessarily, because she knew whom to expect.

"I brought you breakfast, Sakura-chan," Fai's voice came to her ears.

"Please come in."

Like the previous day. Like the day before the previous day. Like everyday.

She rose to her feet as he entered.

"Hello, Fai-san. How are you today?"

The casual question struck her as vain, if not absurd.

"Hello, Sakura-chan. I'm fine, thanks." Sakura wondered briefly if that could even be considered a lie. Not like it mattered, of course. "How about you?"

"Pretty well, thank you."

Fai placed the tray he'd been holding on a small table and stepped back.

"Bon appetite. I hope it'll taste you."

She looked at the sweet pancakes and foamy cappuccino waiting on the table top, and suddenly felt scarily weak against the ties of formality they'd imposed upon themselves.

"You know it always does."

In a way, they had become even closer. Yet in another, a barrier appeared – or maybe it'd been there from the very beginning, only she'd failed to notice?

"There always has to be the first time, right?"

Whichever the case, she didn't want him to leave. Even if they wouldn't share their thoughts, being with him was still significantly different to being alone.

"Would you mind staying?"

That, in turn, sounded artificial and insufficient, given how much she needed him to stay.

His hand froze on the handle.

"Not at all, if you'd like me to."

Was he, too, struggling for breath in those ties? Or was he so used to them he treated them as natural?

"Then please stay."

They were entangled in ritual words and gestures; the bindings of this new, unfamiliar formality hindered them.

"All right."

But none the less did that entanglement also keep each of them together, preventing them from crumbling completely.

He held the chair for her as she sat down.

In addition to that, she'd come to realise it was his very presence that reminded her of what had to be done and why.

The taste of sweetened cottage cheese with cream and raisins persistently reminded her of that blissful time in their café, when he'd been bringing her cookies and teaching
her how to cook.

Even if there were no other reasons, then – for him. And that was enough.

He took place across the table and watched her eat.

As long as she could be with him, she was more or less composed – she had to be, for his sake.

'Cat's Eye' had turned out to be merely a dream, an illusion. Yet she hadn't paid attention to that simple fact until when everything else, everything she'd used to take for granted, everything which had given her the overlookable everyday happiness, turned out to be an illusion, an act or a lie.

"It's delicious," she remarked.

His grown hair veiled his pale face as if in an unfeasible attempt to conceal the dark spot of an eye patch.

The corners of his mouth raised in a rather tired manner at her customary praise.

"I'm glad."

That time in Outo Country… She held it in her memory with a note of nostalgic longing, despite knowing that wishing for it to return was selfish.

The right eye of his was looking at her, and its expression she couldn't decipher.

Back then, she'd used to be happy. But the others hadn't. Fai hadn't.

That blue colour… she remembered comparing his eyes to sapphires, yet that likeness seemed strangely inaccurate. Incomplete.

Her ability to be happy had been a result of ignorance. Ignorance of the others' hurting.

Only later had she realised what his eyes were really like.

Not that anyone was happier now, quite the opposite. However, she could share the burden. Or even try to help.

Fai's eye, which stared at her across the table, had the subtle shade of a forget-me-not.

But although she genuinely wanted to save everyone, she sometimes missed those days when she'd been able to meet his compelling gaze oblivious of what lied beyond his smiles.

And that was finally suitable, for she had a notion that this eye remembered everything it had seen; all those painful sights, it could distinctly remember.

What was once seen cannot be unseen.

Along with that, as she'd been increasingly captivated by the air of his look, she'd felt as if it also bore a plea. Don't forget me. I'm here. It's me. Please don't forget.

She had seen it, but he had lived in it for so long she could hardly imagine how it must've been like.

Presumably, he wasn't aware of that himself; indeed, she had reasons to suspect his intentions were contradictory. Even so, each time she lost herself in his eye deep with memories, she knew she would never, ever forget.

She had to save him. He needed to be saved.

"Sakura-chan, we should be going soon."

She called herself back from the unfathomable blue to see him smiling warmly.

"Oh. Uhm. Sure. We have 'chess' today, don't we."

A rapid urge hit her to tell him that she knew, and he didn't have to act, to pretend. To hug him and say it would be all right, she'd make sure it would.

Immediately he was next to her, helping her to stand up.

On the other hand, if he was smiling in order to reassure her, add her courage, show he was there for her – could such a smile be considered fake?

"The others are probably already waiting for us!"

They continued speaking of trivia to avoid lies. They relied on courtesy to communicate their silent pact.

"Let's go then. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."

Only that it appeared that wasn't enough.

"But not at all, absolutely."

She was beginning to comprehend that what she needed most of all was for him to be near. Without him, the supporting bonds disappeared; with him, they frayed as her heart craved after him.

Every time he was to leave her side, she feared she would fall apart.

Author's Note: All right! First, about that little rhyme at the beginning. I haven't written it. What I have done was render it! I don't believe there are any copyrights for it; it's just that kind of a rhyme everyone knows. If you can guess the original, you win a secret prize! (negotiable)

You probably noticed that this story's structure is all mixed and twisted… Needless to say that was the idea, but how was it?