Multiple Personalities

Chapter 17

Final Chapter

After a while of listening to people bustling around and the sound of IV's beeping, I was finally able to drag my eyes open. I glanced around the room; I was in the only bed in the room, and immediately deduced that Yelan had gotten me a private room. I used my arms to push myself upright, but everything started spinning as a wave of dizziness crashed over me. Suddenly there were hands on my shoulders, easing me backwards until I was lying down again.

"Don't try to sit up yet," the doctor said, stating the obvious.

I nodded and looked down at myself. There was a bandage wrapped around my ankle, and a tube going into the back of my hand that was connected to the intravenous. My neck was stiff when I tried to move it. "What's the damage, exactly?" I asked, my voice raspy. I cleared my throat and it burned.

"Sprained ankle, stressed neck, couple popped blood vessels. Oh, and a nasty bump on your head. But overall, you should be fine."

"Okay, thank you. And . . . how is Syaoran?"

She side glanced at me. "He's still sleeping. After your little troupe arrived, he passed out as well. We're going to start him on some pills for his disorder; it's best to strike after some emotional trauma. We're gonna keep him here for a couple of nights."

"How long am I going to be here?"

"We're keeping you overnight, just to make sure you don't go into shock or anything."

I opened my mouth to protest, but quickly closed it, thinking that it would make me feel more comfortable if I could stay here and keep an eye on Syaoran.

Shortly after the doctor left, I found I could sit up, and Tomoyo came dancing in, a smile plastered to her face. "Sakura, you're awake!" She pounced on me in a fierce hug. It sent a shot of pain through my neck and head, but I didn't say anything, just smiled. "How're you feeling?"

"I've been better," I sighed, "but I'm okay."

Tomoyo glanced around, then held out her hand. Winking, she whispered, "Let's go see him."

I nodded and smiled, taking her hand and using it to pull myself up. The dizziness washed over me again and I fell against Tomoyo. She wrapped her arm around my waist lightly, holding me steady. "Are you okay? Do you want to wait?"

I squeezed my eyes shut, willing the dizziness to go away, and shook my head. "Now." She chuckled and took on most of my weight as we made our way down the hall to Syaoran's room. By the time we reached his door, I had cleared my head and was able to walk with minimal support from Tomoyo.

I looked down at him, sleeping peacefully on the hospital bed. His chest rose and fell in a delicate pattern and I wondered if it was the most peaceful sleep he'd had in a while.

"We're taking this chance to jump his multiple personality disorder." The doctor's voice was so unexpected I jerked in surprise and my ankle and head throbbed in response. I looked over at him, motioning for him to go on. "He's been through some serious emotional trauma in the last few days, and was especially stressed today, I understand. So while he's unstable we're trying to make the extra personalities disappear. Hopefully, by the time he's discharged, he can be back to being just his normal self."

Just his normal self, huh. I glanced over at Syaoran again. I bet it would be such a weight off his shoulders if he were the only one occupying his body and mind. A smile made it's way to my lips, and I thanked the doctor.

I was not expecting what I got when Tomoyo and I returned to my room. A slew of kids from school were standing around, holding teddy bears, balloons and cards. My jaw fell open as they all shouted "Surprise!"

"What—what the hell are you all doing here?" I asked, not knowing what else to say.

"Charming as always," Rika giggled.

"We're here for a get well soon party, of course!" Chiharu exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air.

Tomoyo helped me through the crowd over to my bed. "Let her settle down," she laughed. "She is still injured, after all."

Suddenly there was a mountain of teddy bears at the foot of my bed, an elaborate array of cards set up in various places around the room, and stray balloons resting against the ceiling. "When did I get so popular?" I demanded, a confused, goofy grin stretching across my lips.

"Who really knows?" Chiharu proclaimed dramatically.

"Maybe when you started hanging out with Tomoyo and her girls."

The room went silent at the addition of a new voice. My eyes lifted up to see Harumi standing sheepishly in the doorway, clutching her elbow awkwardly under our classmates' leers.

"What do you want?" someone demanded.

I could've sworn she flinched. She had a bandage around her neck and band-aids in various other places. She had a couple bruises, as well. "That was rude. Sorry."

I cleared my throat, feeling the awkward way down to my bones. "Uhm, Harumi . . . ."

"That's—that's why I'm here," she blurted, looking extremely uncomfortable. "To apologize."

"We're waiting," another voice drawled, clearly skeptical.

"Come on, now," I said. Harumi looked near tears, and I felt sort of bad.

"Sakura, I'm really sorry for everything I've done to you . . . the doctors gave me some medicine—"

"I thought you didn't want to take medicine?" Tomoyo interjected, her face stony.

"I was asleep!" The words came out in a high-pitched, stressed voice, and I saw her clench her hands tightly. "But I realize just how off the edge I was and I'm starting to see all of the holes in my logic . . ." She bit her lip and looked me directly in the eye. I could still see her pure dislike for me in them, but I could also see the sincerity in her apology. "I'm very sorry for hurting you and Syaoran. I shouldn't have done what I did, and I hope you can forgive me."

"There's no way she'll forgive you!"

"Look at what you did to her, you psycho!" The random voices from across the room were beginning to get on my nerves.

I glanced up at Tomoyo. She was looking at me, and I could tell that she still hated Harumi and wouldn't forgive her personally. But I could also tell that she knew what I would say.

I met Harumi's eyes again with a neutral expression. "You've caused me a lot of pain and suffering, Harumi." She nodded. I could feel the tension seeping from everyone in the room. "But I forgive you. Thank you for apologizing." My classmates looked at me in awe. "Now get out. And don't ever speak to me again."

She nodded and dashed out of the room, looking thoroughly embarrassed. It seemed a weight had been lifted off of my own shoulders.

I woke with a start that night, and looked at the figure in the doorway. I sat up immediately, the dizziness no where near as bad as it had been that afternoon. "Syaoran."

He smiled quirkily at me, one corner of his mouth raised higher than the other. He had one arm resting against the IV attached to his hand, and he was leaning against the doorframe. The light from the hallway illuminated his outline in gold. It amazed me that even in a hospital gown, this guy still looked cool.

"Like my new ride?" he asked, patting the intravenous.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Sure. Way to wake me up."

He walked over to my bed and sat down beside me. "I'll take initiative and invite myself in." He looked down at my bandaged ankle. "What's wrong with you?"

"Sprained ankle, stressed neck, popped blood vessel here and there . . . the usual. But I'm fine, really. What really got me was the whole strangling me with a noose thing," I told him with a nonchalant shrug. I was more worried about him. "How are you feeling?"

He turned and looked at me, and I realized his face was very close to mine. My heart started to beat a bit faster. "What really got me," he said, in a barely audible voice, "was the 'I love you' part."

Goosebumps raised along my arms. "What do you mean?" I whispered back, my cool and collected side draining away.

"I mean I haven't stopped thinking about it. And, well . . . ." He smiled crookedly up at me again. "I haven't stopped thinking about you for a long time."

I felt my face flush scarlet and scrambled to think of something to say but the only thing I was thinking about was his skin tone, and the way he smelt, how his smooth collar bone was showing from under the gown. And then suddenly he was kissing me and I almost exploded with my craving for him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and his hand went to my waist as we fell back onto the pillows. It was like a dream – well, plus hospital gowns . . . .

We separated in a gasp for air, and I noticed that the IV's had been beeping. We tried to sit up but the chords had gotten tangled and thus it was a struggle. Eventually we manoeuvred out of it without ripping the needles right out of our hands, but I must tell you, we ended up in some odd positions to do so.

Uhm, anyways, Syaoran went back to his room and left me with a goodnight kiss. Lying back on my bed, the last thing I felt before falling asleep was the tingle on my lips.

Footsteps pounded in the hallway and a notorious beeping sound was coming from another room, waking me. I looked at the clock; three fifteen in the morning. What could possibly be going on?

I threw my legs over the side of the bed and balanced on my IV machine. I stepped lightly into the hallway, my feet freezing from the cold floor. Glancing around, my heart sank; all the business was in Syaoran's room. The doctors running in and the beeping coming out. I picked up the pace and limped as quickly as I could over to him.

I stood, horrified, in the doorway, watching the doctors contemplate what was happening to him and fret about what to do about it. His heart monitor was beating at an extremely fast rate and the nurses were clearly freaking out about it. They put an oxygen mask over his face, which was sweaty and screwed up in pain.

"Doctor, what's going on?" I frantically grabbed one of the doctor's sleeves, my voice cracking.

"I—I don't really know, to be honest," he replied, a drop of sweat rolling down his cheek. He looked over at Syaoran, concerned and confused. "He was doing great and now suddenly he's in critical condition."

"Critical condition!" My grip on his sleeve tightened.

He let out a sigh. "Yes. Now I'm sorry, but maybe you should go back to your room and rest, Miss Kinomoto."

A lump was forming in my throat, a rock that I couldn't swallow. "No, I can't, he's—"

The beeping got even faster, and one of the nurses was crying. The machine couldn't even keep up with how fast his heart was beating. The doctor I was holding on to rushed over to it and talked to another doctor, who was shaking his head.

I looked back at Syaoran, petrified. What was going on? Was he going to be okay! He had to be!

Syaoran! I wanted to call. What's happening inside you!

Without warning, everything stopped. The noise, the talking, the bustling. It all went still and silent. The heart monitor had stopped. There was no more beeping. Just a straight line and a soft, continuous buzz.

"His heart stopped," the doctor whispered. "He's de—"

I blocked the rest out, feeling my stomach churn with nausea. This couldn't be real. This couldn't be happening.

Then there was something cold and threatening passing through me. It chilled me right down to the bone. I hadn't felt that kind of fear since I'd looked in to the psycho Syaoran's eyes . . . .

And then I realized what was going on.

I grabbed onto the doctor's sleeve again. He started to scold me, but I cut him off. "Hold on. Just wait. He's going to be fine."

Three seconds passed—I counted them, and they were the longest three seconds of my life—and the heart monitor booted up again. It started out slow, very slow—but suddenly Syaoran jerked forward with a gasp ravenous for air. His heart was now beating quickly, but not abnormally—as if he had just been running.

Warmth spread throughout my entire body and I'd never felt a rush of relief like the one that I had at that moment. I breathed out slowly and put my hand over my own heart, which was now beating fast as well.

Seeing that everything was fine now, I began to make my way back to my room. The doctor stopped me. "Miss . . . how did you know that he was going to be okay all of a sudden?"

I smiled half-heartedly at him. "After his heart stopped, I felt something cold and dark pass through me and I suddenly understood what was going on. His psychotic personality is gone now, Doctor. That was Syaoran rejecting it from his body."

He turned to look back at Syaoran. "Amazing . . . ," he breathed, and turned back to me to say something again. But I was already gone.

They discharged me before Syaoran the next day. Tomoyo's chauffeur drove her and I home.

"So Syaoran died last night?" she asked incredulously as we pulled up to my house.

"Well, I don't think he died," I replied, fidgeting with nothing. "I think the psychotic part of him died. He was fine the whole time."

When she didn't respond, I glanced over at her, wondering if she thought I was crazy. Instead she was smiling at me with so much warmth that it, well, warmed me up. I still couldn't get over how beautiful she was.

"You amaze me, Kinomoto Sakura," she whispered as the chauffeur opened my door.

I blinked but smiled back. "Thank you."

She leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "I'm glad that I'm able to take the spot of your best friend now."

I felt myself blush a little and grinned widely at her. She chuckled and waved as the chauffeur closed the door again. Walking up the steps to the house, I thought about how lucky I was to have Tomoyo now.

Before I got to the door, I stopped in my tracks. I could hear vehement shouting from inside the house. I tried and failed to decipher what they were saying. Suddenly a man burst through the door, the air around him crackling with fury. He nearly bowled me right over and didn't even stop to look at me. I watched him get into his limo; even from looking at just the back of his head, I could feel his threatening aura.

"Who was that?" I asked Yelan when I made my way into the kitchen. I noticed that there were papers scattered on the table—divorce papers?

"That was Minghua Li," she said, one hand on her hip, the other holding a glass of wine. "Syaoran's father."

My jaw fell open but I quickly closed it. "Whoa," I managed. That was Syaoran's father? Damn. I didn't even get a good look at him. But he seemed pretty terrible anyway.

"We're getting a divorce," she announced. "I'm filing the papers today."

I was shocked. "Divorced? Yelan, I'm so sorry."

She waved it off. "Don't be. He was only mad because I took out a shitload of money from the bank account before I called him."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Is that illegal or something?"

She thought about, then shrugged. "Meh. At least I'm finally free of him. And I'm still going to be rich after." She grinned and winked at me, then pulled me into a hug. "I'm glad you're okay, Sakura. I was really worried."

"Thank you."

The phone rang, so she let go of me and went to answer it.

There was a thud outside the sliding screen doors heading to the back garden. Frowning, I walked cautiously over to the doors and saw two figures sitting on the bench in the backyard. When I went out to see who it was I let out a cry of surprise.

Toya and Meiling were wrapped in each other's arms on the swinging bench, and when they saw me they went red.

I put my hands on my hips and raised an eyebrow playfully. "Well well. What do we have here?"

Toya stood up quickly, coughing awkwardly. I smirked down at Meiling, who was relaxed and leaning against the back of the swing chair. "Uhm, hi."

"When did this happen?" I pointed at the two of them. "What do the other girls think of this?"

"Actually," Meiling started with a grin.

"They said they knew it from the start that we would end up together," Toya finished, shaking his head.

"From the moment we met," Meiling sang.

He gave her a stern look and she stuck her tongue out back at him. He put his arm around my shoulder and steered me through the garden.

"Remember when you were pestering me that time, when I was on the computer and you said you could tell I liked one?" he asked, his face going red all over again.

"Sure." I nodded.

"Well, I wasn't looking at the quadruplet's pages. Well, I was—but I was looking at all of the pictures with Meiling in them."

"Oh ho." I was grinning now. "I thought you greeted her too roughly."

He sighed, clearly embarrassed. "Yeah yeah. But whatever; how about you? Are you all right?"

"Yes, I just got a sprained ankle and stuff. I'm gonna be fine."

"And Syaoran?"

I looked at him with wide eyes. "Showing concern for Syaoran, are we?"

He glared at me, and then sighed. "Fine. Yes. He grew on me. Kinda."

I beamed at him. "Syaoran's going to be okay too. He'll probably be discharged today."

Toya stopped walking. "I always knew that Harumi girl was going to be trouble."

I frowned. "Yeah. It used to irritate me that you didn't like her . . . but I guess you were the best judge of character out of all of us."

"Don't worry, kiddo. Even if you had have known she was evil, you'd probably still befriend her."

"What does that mean?"

"I bet you let her off with an 'I forgive you, but don't ever talk to me again.'" He gave me an inquisitive, 'I know I'm right' look.

I scowled at him. "Yes."

He laughed. "Softy."

"Shut up!" I punched him in the ribs.

"Wow, that tickled a little!"

We were distracted by four synchronised voices calling my name. I turned, knowing who it was, but not expecting an extra four people.

All four sisters ran over to me with open arms. They crushed my windpipe for a little while, each mouth moving a mile a minute telling me how glad they were that I was okay. When they finally detached themselves, I asked who their friends were.

They were four boys who looked exactly alike, each with blonde hair and bright green eyes. One had bangs swept to the right, another to the left, one had it parted in the middle and the other had it brushed back.

"These are our new boyfriends," Feimei explained giddily, grabbing on to the one with the left-swept hair, who grinned with her.

"They're American quintuplets," Fanren continued, playing with the brushed back one's fingers.

"We met them at the ski resort a while ago," Shiefa said, her eyes wide and excited as always. I could tell that the one with the right-swept hair was her new beau from his expression; it was identical to Shiefa's.

"And fell in love," Fuutie finished quietly, leaning against the one with the middle part. He was the only one that didn't seem to match personalities exactly; he seemed strong and tough, with muscled arms showing through his long sleeved shirt. I guess they would be a pretty helpless couple if she had a crybaby boyfriend, too.

"Wow," was my reply. I was actually quite speechless. Leave it to them to find quintuplets that make perfect matches for them.

Shiefa grabbed my hand. "Come on, we made food for everyone!"

After being dragged to the huge dining table for a surprisingly delicious lunch, I started to think about Syaoran. I hoped that he was doing okay and the more I thought, the more my worry grew—

Suddenly, my ringtone cut through my thoughts.

"Tomoyo?"

"You're coming over for a sleepover with the girls tonight."

"Oh?"

"You need to take your mind off things."

"Do I."

"Yes. I figured it would be about now that you started worrying yourself about Syaoran."

"Oh." Dammit. She was right.

"Silly," she giggled. "Pack your stuff and get over here!"

When I arrived at Tomoyo's house and rang the doorbell, I realized I had never met her mother. For some reason my heart started beating super fast in my chest when I heard the footsteps leading up to the door.

The woman who stood before me almost surprised me. At first glance, she didn't look much like Tomoyo. She had red hair, cropped on an angle in a stylish way that would have looked bad on anyone else. Her eyes were an indigo, almost purple, colour. But when you really looked into her face, you could see that her beautiful features were the same as Tomoyo's. Her eyebrows arced in the same way her daughter's did, and her mouth smiled warmly in a very familiar way. Her skin had the same delicate, porcelain feel to it that Tomoyo's did.

She smiled as she held her hand out to me. I shook it gingerly. "Hello. You must be Sakura that I've heard so much about. My name is Sonomi Daidouji; I'm Tomoyo's mother."

"It's nice to meet you. Your daughter is very wonderful," I blurted, and even as I said it my ears went pink with embarrassment.

She chuckled, and pointed to an elaborate staircase. "Tomoyo and the rest of the girls are already upstairs."

"Thank you." I bowed before rushing up the stairs. I was met with a large hallway of rooms, but before I could really get confused, I heard giggling and a shriek and knew which one to go to.

I threw open the door with one eyebrow raised. Chiharu and Meiling were wrestling, each with a marker in hand, attempting to colour on the other's face. Naoko and Tomoyo were lying on the bed, making sure to keep safe from the battle. Rika grinned and stood from her spot on the floor to come and greet me with a hug.

"Hey, guys," I said, plopping down on the bed. "What's going on?"

Chiharu threw Meiling off of her and flung herself dutifully at the bed. "What's going on!" she practically screamed. "What's going on with you!"

I smiled and recounted what had happened with Syaoran in the hospital, then changed the subject to Meiling and Toya. After some teasing, it came back to Syaoran.

"Well I'm glad you're finally together," Chiharu sighed.

"Same," Naoko added.

"It was boring waiting for so long." Rika shook her head.

I stared at them all. "You were waiting for it! But I hated him for so long! How could you have predicted it at all?"

I met silence and several 'dur' faces.

"Damn." Chiharu broke the silence. "You're stupid."

The other girls laughed as I flushed in embarrassment. "Have you never seen a rom-com, Sakura?" Tomoyo asked. "Love-hate relationships are the best."

I threw some pillows at all of them, giggling. It was nice to just be normal and forget for a while.

The streetlight outside shone in through Tomoyo's window blinds, casting a horizontal light and shadow pattern across the floor. I gazed at it, lost in my thoughts about Syaoran.

"Sakura," Tomoyo's whispered voice floated over to me. I turned to look at her. "What's wrong?"

After a moment, I said, "I feel kind of . . . ashamed."

"Ashamed?" Her amethyst eyes widened in surprise. "What for?"

"I felt . . . I was seriously afraid of Syaoran. I shouldn't have been. It only made Syaoran feel worse about himself—he was already afraid enough—he probably thought I didn't accept him—"

"Sakura, that is so silly." She reached over and grabbed my hand. "I think he wanted you to be afraid of that side of him. He wanted you to love the real him. And you do. That's nothing to be ashamed of."

I was silent for a minute. "Thank you."

I felt refreshed and revived when I got back to the house the next morning. Tomoyo seriously knew how to make me feel so much better, about anything and everything. She was definitely the best best friend I'd had in forever.

The door opened before I grabbed the handle. Stunned, I looked at up at Syaoran.

It took my brain a minute to clue in on what was happening. He stood, waiting with an expectant smirk.

"Sy-Syaoran!" I finally shrieked, and jumped on him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and squeezed as hard as I could, burying my face in his shoulder.

"O-okay, Sakura, you're going to pop my head right off." He tugged on my arms until I loosened them. A little bit.

"I'm so glad you're okay." I raised my head to look him in the eye. "You are okay, right?"

His face melted in a smile that made my heart pound harder and louder. He nodded, and then slipped his hand down to mine and led me over to the living room. We sat on the couch, and he unexpectedly guided my face with his fingers, long and warm, so that his gaze locked with mine.

"When you look into my eyes, Sakura," he murmured, "is it just me that you see?"

His eyes were so vivid and alive, the brightest I'd ever seen them. His amber irises seemed to be luminous, seemed to radiate a loving warmth. Before, when I would look into his real eyes, I would feel like I was stepping on clouds. Looking into these eyes felt like the clouds were enveloping me.

I nodded before I could get the words out. "Yes," I breathed. "You're all that I see."

I kissed him, my hands on his face, feeling how smooth and soft his skin was, running my hand over his hair, and knowing that it was purely him, no other personalities were going to pop through. And he was purely mine.

Our attention was brought to a quick scampering behind us. Syaoran twisted around to see who it was. "Meiling!" He jumped up as she bolted for the stairs in a panic, a blur of raven hair and tanned skin. He dashed over and grabbed her arm before she got to the third step. She made a little squeak and looked back at him with terror clear on her face. "Meiling."

She flinched and didn't meet his eyes. I could tell she wasn't expecting it when Syaoran let her wrist out of his grasp and bowed low to her, because I wasn't either.

"Meiling," he said, clenching his hands. "I am so, so sorry for everything that I've done to you. I can't express how terrible I feel about it. But I also can't express how terrible the things I've done are. I know I can never take it back, or make it up to you, but I just wanted you to know that I am sorry."

Several moments passed where nothing but the wind in the trees outside made a sound. The suspense and tension crackling in the air was almost hurting me. I didn't dare to take a breath.

"Raise your head." Her voice was unusually small. Cautiously, Syaoran lifted himself, looking braced for whatever might come to him. Meiling's sharp bronze eyes searched Syaoran's nearly matching amber ones. Her expression softened with every second that passed. Then, without warning, she pulled him into an embrace. Her shoulders trembled ever so slightly, and I knew that she had seen the brightness and the innocence (as well as the mild cockiness) in his eyes.

After a moment, they pulled away from each other. She gave him a look that said 'thank you,' and then declared that she was going to find Toya.

Syaoran made his way back to me, looking even happier than he had before.

"I made something right," he said, and his innocence and absolutely adorable smile was blinding. "Her demons are gone now. She can live without fear of me and we can be a real family again."

I stood and put my arms around his waist, resting my head against his chest. Hearing his heart beat against my ear was like a lullaby, and it amused me to hear that it sped up when I touched him.

"My psychotic personality started out like my friend." My eyes widened; I hadn't been anticipating a speech about his personalities. Maybe I was going to get one? "No one was paying any attention to me, except for Fanren—sometimes. So I wanted a friend just like her that I could play with all the time. And he came. At first, we played little pranks together, like letting frogs loose in the house or hiding my sister's hair products. But they slowly began to escalate. Cutting my sister's hair at night, feeding their pets Lysol or something . . ." He rested his chin on my head, and I could feel the weight on his shoulders as he recounted the horrible events of the past. "And then I met Meiling; she was three years older than me and yet shorter. So I never let her forget it. I made fun of her constantly, and I cut her hair all the time too. I put insects in her bed, snakes in her clothing drawer, I pushed her down the stairs, and one time I actually cut her. Like, with a knife." He choked on the words. Tears were running down his face, dampening my hair. I held on tighter.

"It's okay," I whispered.

"When I was ten I finally put my foot down. My friend wasn't turning out to be so nice after all and I didn't want to play with him anymore. So I holed up in my room and made other friends to play with that he wouldn't like, so he wouldn't bother me anymore. And it worked, for a while."

He hauled himself away from me and headed out toward the back garden. I held his hand and walked with him.

"I was always subconsciously attracted to you. And when I realized that bugging you kept bringing you back to me, I kept at it." I felt myself blush a little. "I think that's what caused the psycho personality to come back again. And then it started getting out of hand and—well, the rest is history."

"That's all over now," I whispered. "You're free of him forever. And you have me now, too."

He groaned, and I hit him on the shoulder. He grinned at me, and threw his arm around me. "I realized that I was starting to seriously like you when you went on the date with that jerk guy. I really just wanted to hit him, even before you needed my help." He ran his fingers through his hair. "God, that was a long time ago."

"You know . . . that's when I started to really like you, as well. After that, all I could notice was just how damn attractive you are. And whenever we touched, it was like an electric current was rushing through my body."

I looked up at him, and he was already looking down at me, smiling. We chuckled lightly together. "I fell in love somewhere along the way," he said softly, looking positively angelic, standing there in the sun, the breeze tousling his hair, the most blissful look on his face.

"I knew I was in love when he kissed me and I was so devastatingly disappointed when it wasn't actually you. It hit me really hard that day," I admitted.

He stopped in his tracks, going quiet. Heat rushed to my cheeks. I had just made things incredibly awkward, hadn't I? Dammit Sakura! You are so stupid!

I jumped when he turned to me suddenly, grasping my hands in his. He looked me directly in the eye again, his features set and determined. "I promise you that the psycho personality, and all of the other ones, are gone forever. It's only me now. Only me—and I'm yours." I nodded, confused at where this was going. "I know we're kinda young—not even sixteen yet. But I'm so in love with you. And I know that I will never, ever feel this strongly about anyone else as long as I live."

I blinked, still not quite understanding why he was telling me all of this; he didn't need to—I already knew how he felt.

"But just because we're young doesn't mean we're stupid. After what we've been through together, we have a love and a bond that is never going to break—I promise. So our age doesn't matter."

Yeah yeah, so we're young? Get over it. I raised an eyebrow, still utterly in the dark about what was happening.

Until he got down on one knee. That was when I almost died.

"So you better not make this unmanly, mushy-ass speech go to waste when I say . . . ." He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a ring with a small but absolutely gorgeous diamond.

"Sakura Kinomoto, I am asking you this because I wanted to do it myself, and I didn't want to just go with what our parents said. I love you, and I want you to marry me. So—will you marry me?"

I could barely hear anything; my heart was hammering so hard and the blood was roaring in my ears. "Y-yes," I stuttered.

He slipped the ring onto my finger, and stood up, keeping his hold on my hand. I met his gaze and we were silent for a minute, letting it really sink in.

Syaoran let go of my hand and fisted his own. Then he punched the air with a bellowed, "YES!"

I threw myself at him and he twirled me around, his arms holding me firmly and keeping me warm, and I knew that I never wanted this feeling to go away. This feeling of triumph, happiness, warmth, several other mushy touchy-feely words, and even a little apprehension. As we whirled around together, the background blurred, and I could see only Syaoran. It fit the scene so perfectly and I thought I might just explode and send confetti joy everywhere.

I was taken aback when cheering erupted from inside the house. Both of our families were smiling and clapping for us, and even Tomoyo was there, videotaping everything.

"That'll be embarrassing to see again," Syaoran muttered, and I snorted.

"Let's make a toast!" Shiefa squealed. "I'll get the wine!"

"Don't give Sakura any," Syaoran started with a smirk, "or she'll get all jealous in her drunken stupor."

I scowled at him. "At least I'm an innocent fifteen-year-old, not a professional partier!"

"Blah blah blah." Syaoran stuck out his tongue at me.

As we walked back into the house, I elbowed him hard in the ribs. I heard his grunt of pain and smiled with satisfaction.

"Beast," he growled, grabbing my hand.

I glanced at him, smiling. "Loser," I insulted again, seeing the sun glint off of my new promise ring. Syaoran raised it and kissed the diamond, and then I kissed him.

Still holding hands and grinning like crazy, we said in unison, "Stupid rich boy."

"Stupid woman."

-crawls in- You have no idea how long it took me to write this last chapter. Wait…I guess you do. Exams are a real killer, broski. And then I had a bit of writer's block and then I went away for a few days and I was like DAMMIT! FINISH IT! So HERE IT IS! I REALLY hope you liked it! It is 11 pages long on Word! That best be long enough for you! XD

I can't believe this one is over now too! Now I can finally focus all of my efforts on Amber and Emerald and maybe get around to The New Teacher epilogue. ;p I'm really happy with how this story turned out. The original plotline was SO DIFFERENT. Originally, she was going to make all of the personalities fall in love with her, and then Harumi was gonna kidnap her and set the building on fire and Syaoran would have to save her and then he'd end up in the hospital and she'd think he was dead but she was in a coma…or something really super stupid like that. XD And the pyscho personality was definitely nowhere near as serious as he turned out to be. So yeah, that one review that made this new idea blossom in my head? THANK GOD YOU CAME ALONG or this story would have been just ridiculous.

17 chapters may seem short to some of you, but if I dragged it out any longer, bad things would happen to the number of reviews coming in. :P Since this is my most popular story I didn't want to wreck that.

I still hate the first two chapters. Maybe someday I'll rewrite them. But the rest of the story, I actually really like the writing quality. And I hope you all did too.

Thank you, everyone who has been reading and reviewing all this time. I really appreciate it and I apologize for all of the update waiting. Thanks again and good bye for now!