A/N: Hi! Hmn. I've been posting short chapters and well, I'm trying to tread the waters. I think it's time to give you guys a longer chapter and the answers to everything. I've reread the whole story and so far it's a jungle. Stupid me, too young to write a good story; I shall try to redeem myself. HAHAHA! Excuse me for the poor grammar. :p

P.S.

People, reviews are very much appreciated. Thanks in advance! :D

So, here you go!

"Father, are you okay now?" Touya asked Fujitaka as he helped him sit up. He had been bedridden after that night.

Fujitaka nodded. "Have you called Sakura?"

"I haven't yet." Touya answered. "Here," he gave his father a pill. "This will make you feel better." Fujitaka shook his head lightly. "I want to hear Sakura's voice. I want to talk to her."

Touya sighed. "Father, she's probably asleep right now." He sat at the edge of his father's bed. "Take the pill, please."

His father nodded, took the pill from his palm and swallowed it without water. Truth be told he had called Sakura after Iyori left. The call was unanswered. He tried several times up to no avail. When he tried Syaoran's, thankfully, he was answered. All he got from him though was a short we're on our way to Switzerland and tell the Ballroom Festival executive committee that Sakura and I are still in. Too short. He didn't even have the time to speak.

"Touya," Fujitaka pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, father?" Touya swallowed the storing saliva in his throat. He couldn't point a finger on to what's making him nervous.

"Touya, your mother was a beautiful woman; a very beautiful woman." His father smiled.

"I know, father." He nodded.

"And she suffered a lot."

"Yes, she did." He nodded again.

"She had this genetic problem, you see." Fujitaka looked down.

["Don't bow to me father. I am not that majestic!" Touya, rather, Jericho, my idiotic brother who's sitting beside me trying to manipulate my goddamned story, said. Now, back to my own story…]

"You told me," Touya frowned. "Just last night"

"I'm sorry." His father started to tremble and cry.

"What you told us before, that mom died of heart attack, wasn't true?"

"It was, partly." His father chuckled. The change of emotions in a single bound made Touya worried.

"What happened really?" He pressed on, still.

"Touya, your mom's illness can never be cured. We tried everything we could. Remember how we travelled all over Europe? We weren't always at home and if we were, your mother would be always sleeping. Your mom," he wrapped himself and started sobbing.

"Father," he placed his hand lightly on his father's shoulder. He isn't used to emotions. He isn't used to comforting people. It's not like he could tease his father and call him a monster like how he does with Sakura.

"She," Fujitaka bent over, "she couldn't move, couldn't walk, couldn't feel. It spread all over her. It ate her. It started with her arms."

"Father," this time Touya held both his father's arms. "Calm down,"

"The doctors said it was the first time they had seen such mutation. Her DNA was changing the functions of her body. Her skin couldn't feel. Her heart wouldn't pump. No one can even name it. Every doctor we went to contributed to the damage of her liver. She was given too much unnecessary medicine." Fujitaka kept on in one breath.

"Father please calm down." Touya shook his father.

"Touya," he took hold of his son's arms.

"The reason why I worked for Li Syaoran was because his grandfather suffered the same fate. I've talked to his grandmother before she fell ill. She said that Li's grandfather suffered the same fate…" his father's eyes were wide and wild. "Suffered," he whispered to his son, "suffered the same fate."

"Father," was all ever Touya could say. He felt dumb repeating, calling his father.

"She promised she'll help me find the cure as long as I work for her. Then her husband died, his lungs stopped functioning. She withered in depression. I didn't know what to do. I wasn't getting younger. Sakura had been diagnosed with the same disease. It says it's passed on. She told me that Yelan, Syaoran's mother, died the same way. She had gotten it from her father. "

"Father, you're starting to confuse me,"

"When we learned about Sakura, she assigned her to Iyori. She – "

"You mean Iyori had known about Sakura all along?"

"Sssssh," Fujitaka placed a finger on his son's lips. He started chuckling. "Sakura might stop breathing right at this very moment." His chuckling grew into a hysterical laugh.

It scared Touya. "Father," he shook Fujitaka. "Father, stop it!" Fujitaka laughed more. "Father!" He pulled him to a hug. "Be strong. Stay strong." He was in the verge of tears.

"You see, Touya? There's no cure. I tried my best. Really tried. Really did. No one can cure her. No one. Not even love can cure her. Your mother loved me. I love her. Have been. Will always love her. You see, Touya, she left me anyway. She left me." He was crying but with a grin plastered on his face.

"Father, stay strong." Was all Touya can say.

"I'm always away just so I could fund the research for the cure to her curse. I came back here, now, because Li bought my team in Switzerland to research on beauty products." He shut his eyes tight. "I didn't want to give in but he told me I'll lose my job. I thought then that if I lose my job, I'd be a professor again but that wouldn't give me enough money for Sakura. She loves dancing. I need to give her the opportunity to dance."

His father's train of thoughts blurted out were unorganized but he understands. He understands that Li Syaoran is the enemy; that Iyori Masashi was right and was a friend all along. Li Syaoran had only wanted to take hold of his sister for profit.

That bastard.

"Sakura?" Syaoran had been knocking on her door and had been calling out for her. He sighed. What the hell? "Are you still mad at me? I don't really see the reason why. You know, I should be the one moping around. You should be asking for forgiveness!" He was about to continue in Mandarin but he held his tongue. Am I this furious now? "Sakura!" He called out once more. "I'm forcing myself in!" He backed a few steps, his stance ready to take down the door. "Rather," he paused, "I'm getting the keys!"

Sakura woke up. She tried wiggling her toes. It moved. She felt fine. She felt. She got up from bed and went straight to the bathroom. She took off her clothes and stepped in the shower.

"Sakura!" a rapping on the door again.

"Go away!" She yelled. Her voice was drowned by the water though. She wanted to calm herself down. She wanted to make herself comfortable in her own skin. She didn't feel right. She didn't feel. She couldn't feel the water.

The knob turned. "I'm letting myself in now." Syaoran said as he peered in, slowly opening the door. He inserted the keys to his pocket. "Sakura?" he heard the shower knob turned off. Suddenly, saliva started to store in his throat. He swallowed. Since when did I feel nervous about women being in the shower? His mind started to generate thoughts he didn't want it to picture. He shook his head. No, not with Sakura; it's wrong. He swallowed the newly stored saliva. She hasn't come out yet. Syaoran, stop acting out of character! He straightened.

Sakura wasn't thinking of Syaoran being in her room while she's in the shower. Feel. Feel. Feel. She rubbed her arms, her thighs; she wringed her hands. Feel. She touched her face. I can't feel myself. She didn't know that she was crying now. She slid, slumped on the floor. She slapped the white tiles, trying to hurt herself. She growled. Feel. Feel. "Feel!" she yelled.

Syaoran heard her and the repeated sharp whacking on wet tiles. "Sakura?" he rushed to the bathroom to find Sakura on the floor. He turned for a towel, grabbed one, wrapped Sakura and carried her to bed. Sakura gripped the towel tighter around her. She rolled when she was laid to bed. "I'm crying. I'm crying, I don't feel the tears on my face."

Syaoran went in the bath again to get another towel. He wrapped Sakura with it and slid beside her, hugging her. "Calm down," he whispered. "Calm down." He hugged her tighter.

"What's happening, what's happening?" She thrashed.

"Ssh, calm down." His hugged tightened even more.

"I can't feel a thing!" she tried freeing herself.

"Shut up, woman!" Syaoran's voice rose. "Calm down!" he pinned her down underneath him. He was panting, so was Sakura. She turned to face him. "I can't even feel you." She whispered. "Am I crying?" she asked. Syaoran just stared at her. Her tears were streaming down her face. "I am," she sighed a sigh of defeat. "I can see my reflection in your eyes."

"Sakura," he breathed out shakily. He was scared. What's happening? "When we get there you'll be fine." He said this to assure himself more rather than Sakura. "You'll be fine." He whispered. Sakura closed her eyes, tears still flowing. "You'll still dance. You'll dance. You'll dance with me." He couldn't steady his breathing. He could feel her amidst the thick towels wrapped around her. She felt soft, small…fragile. Being on top of her, Syaoran had a clear view of her face. He wiped the tears off her face with a thumb. He moved to the side. Sakura rolled to her side to still face him. "I'm scared. I want to go home. I couldn't feel anything." She started crying again. He just stared at her, at the fallen angel. He couldn't manage to say anything. "I know this," he whispered to himself. Sakura looked up. "What?"

He remembers now. His grandfather telling his grandmother, "If only I could feel you before I die" while on his deathbed. That time, he wanted to laugh as it was, he thought, a perverted joke by a dying old man. Now, it made sense, what his grandmother had answered. "You might feel again. You know how this is. It comes and it goes. You'll be fine again. You'll feel your wrinkly skin again." his grandma managed to giggle but she was crying. He might feel again. Then there was, "Xiao Lang, I'm sorry that you might end up this way too." His grandfather reached out for him. He disregarded this remark and took his grandpa's hand. And as if his insides were crushed, his grandfather's eyes widened in horror, screamed in pain. In minutes, the Li Cheng Jie had fallen.

News about Dr. Iyori Masashi's death had reached Touya. A friend called and informed him. After that, he has been sitting in the library on the same couch that Iyori had sat on before leaving the manor. He died that night. His friend said Iyori was found in his car with blood all over that came out from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. His car didn't crash. It was even parked out of the road. There was neither sign of robbery nor signs of fighting back had he been strangled. Whatever happened, the police can't say yet.

Iyori…

"Touya,"

This startled him. It was his father. He stood. "Father, what are you doing? Why aren't you resting?" he walked to him and assisted him to the couch across the one he had seated on.

"Now, now," Fujitaka sighed as he shifted for comfort.

"How are you feeling?" Touya sat back to his seat.

Fujitaka dismissed it with a wave of a hand. "Let's not worry about me please. I'm sorry for how I acted last night." He sighed again after saying this. "Have you called your sister?"

Touya nodded. "I can't contact her."

"She's with Li Syaoran, right?" his father's brow raised.

He nodded again.

"You know how he is with girls." Fujitaka's eyes narrowed. "I know it isn't your fault for entrusting him your sister. Had you known about the whole story, I know you wouldn't."

"Sakura won't let that happen. Besides, I believe she wanted to come along. She wouldn't be with him right now if she didn't want it." Touya's tone was business-like. It was awkward to talk to his father this way after seeing him break down last night. Of course, after his mother's death, this was how they had always discussed matters. His father has always been calculating and formal since. He never thought that he could see him weak. He had always been the strong one in the family. He had looked up to him. He still does. Now though, he looked up to him not only with respect but also affection.

"That brat, for such a young age…" Fujitaka stopped there.

"I've always thought of them as rumors." Touya mused.

"Cunning; He's a wolf. He preys on sheep. Xiao Lang," Fujitaka said his eyes cold. Those eyes that had always been warm, they're not iced. He couldn't blame him. He feels the same aversion towards the brat now.

Eriol Hiiragizawa ran all his ten fingers through his blue hair. It wasn't really this blue. It was too black that when hit by light it shows off a blue color. He dyed it when he heard about Tomoyo's addiction to blue last year. He's gotten used to it and kept it that way. He ran all fingers through his hair again and sighed. "If I know his intentions…if I know where he is… why he's going there…" he looked up to face Mei Ling, "I'll tell you." He sounded annoyed. He sighed again.

"Okay, sweetie." Mei Ling cooed. She went near him and covered Eriol's lips with hers. When their lips parted, she smiled. "I want you to stay here at my condo."

"Fine," he sighed in surrender.

"I'll be back soon, as if I never really left." She swept off invisible dust from Eriol's shoulders.

"Where are you going?" he smiled that dangerous smile that touches his eyes.

"I'll be meeting up with a young promising designer." She smiled back at him. "Tomoyo, I think," she tapped her chin with a finger as if thinking, "yeah, it's Tomoyo alright. That's her name."

Tomoyo? "Why meet up with a designer? Any high-fashioned event you'll be attending?" he kept the smile plastered to his face but inside, he's panicking. What now, Mei Ling?

Mei Ling pouted and shook her head lightly. "I just want to meet her, that's all." She smiled again, a hint of evil on her eyes.

This is bad. "That isn't something important," he grabbed Mei Ling by the waist. "How about meeting someone else? I've got a fun friend with me and he's excited to meet yours." Bad innuendo. I can never be good at this. He felt ashamed of his speech.

Mei Ling chuckled and kissed Eriol. A deep kiss – she explored his mouth – and nibbled his lower lip softly. Eriol moaned. Fake it better! He urged himself. He pulled her closer to his body and felt the length of her, her softness… she stopped and pulled herself away from him a bit to see his face.

She licked her lips and said, "Such sweet lying lips…"

Syaoran stared at the person sleeping beside him. "Sakura," he whispers. He just needed to say that. Still in awe that he could call her by her name, still hoping that he'll get closer to her, he traced the bridge of her nose with a finger. "Sakura," he said again in a hoarse whisper. He looked at her. He stared at her. He studied her face – her eyelashes that aren't thick but long, curving upwards, almost touching her eyelids; her thin pale lips that were once rosy pink; his eyes stopped there. The memory of kissing her, of her lips on his, of her trembling body against his, it flooded his head. I couldn't really say I regretted stealing your first kiss. He smiled to himself after this thought.

He had fallen for her the very day they met. It was right after the cremation of his grandfather. She was with Fujitaka and Touya. She wasn't shy. Not even around him or around his grandmother. People cringe away from his grandparents. They say both have this authoritarian aura emanating from them. It wasn't really because people hated his grandparents. They were just highly respected and people don't want to play with the two biggies. In his case, a lot of people don't talk to him that much because it's either he's too handsome for them or that he's too handsome for them. He doesn't really think that he is. In fact, he thinks Touya looks better than he does. And Eriol is more charming, too. But he plays with it. He knows it's what people do to get close to him. They shower him with compliments so that he'll help them one day. He sees himself too overrated by girls. They flirt to her, he hadn't learned how to flirt back yet. He hasn't got a friend that time. Guys hated his guts thinking that he stole their girlfriends on purpose. So, he mastered the art. But Sakura, she smiled at him. It looked natural. It was a sincere smile.

When Fujitaka and Touya went to the library with his grandmother, he was left alone with Sakura and was requested by his grandmother herself to tour the lady around. He knew that look that his grandma threw at him. It was a sign of approval. She likes Sakura, on which of course, he assumes that the two ladies have met. He scanned Sakura head to toe. She was wearing a white plain cotton shirt and blue skinny jeans and white Chucks. The only accessory she had that day was a dog tag. He remembered scanning her again, but from toe to her face. To her face – he stopped there – when he saw her smiling – so did his heart.

"I'm sorry about your grandfather. I know it's awkward, apologizing to someone, to you about your grandfather's death. It's not that I killed your grandfather or anything," she started to blush and looked down. "It was supposed to be a joke." She turned redder.

Syaoran chuckled. "It's alright. You don't have to redeem yourself. It's not like it wasn't funny."

Sakura shrugged, losing her blush. "Well, I guess it is." She had lost the red color on her face.

He wanted so badly to see her blush again, to see her smile. And what a brat he was. Well, he is and so he told her this, "No, we're not speaking the same language here. You're talking Japanese, me sarcasm. What I said before, it meant in Japanese that what you said earlier was stupid."

That line. Repeating it again and again after that night up until now, he felt stupid. I shouldn't have said that. He looked at Sakura who's beside him, still sleeping. He closed his eyes to continue reminiscing that fateful day.

He remembers that he felt proud saying such smart retaliation. He thought it was smart. And there it was, the payment of his crime, Sakura's blush. Her eyes widened, he recalls, cause he wasn't able to contain himself that day grinning at her while her green orbs stared at him in disbelief. They were the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen.

"Okay," she managed to say in a small voice.

"Hmn?" he raised a brow. She shook her head rather too vigorously. "Nothing," she said.

"Okay," he turned his back to her. He couldn't help it. If he hadn't she would be seeing him blush and smile like crazy.

He heard Sakura sigh and the warmth of her breath reached his neck. He opened his eyes. Ever since then, I've talked to you that way and it didn't take long before you started answering back. He thought. He brushed aside the strands of hair that had fallen on her face. I thought being like that, with you, was okay. I didn't have any intentions on hurting you.

Sakura turned. I hate you. Syaoran closed his eyes again. He was really surprised, hurt, when Sakura told him that. I'm sorry. It's not that I wanted to hurt you or anything. The plane shook. He sighed. He takes in the scent of Sakura's hair.

What am I doing? I don't seem to be myself lately.

A/N: Yeah! What am I doing? I don't seem to be myself anymore! AAARRRRGH! Anyway, I really tried my best. REALLY! Guess I can't redeem myself. HAHA! So yeah, please be so kind and give me some love ( and by love, I meant reviews). Hihi. :3

I hope this chapter is long enough. :

So, I'm going to finish the theoretical framework of my thesis. Psssh. BYE!

P.S.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! :D