Green Ribbons

by Rhapsody Moonschild

DISCLAIMER: Cardcaptors and Cardcaptor Sakura belong to CLAMP. They're so lucky! ^_^ Anyway, I acknowledge this fact and pray that they don't sue me. (Surely my fanfic isn't that bad...) The characters Koneko and Mr. Yukohama are mine.

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This story is set when the characters are all about 18... Some of my details are probably wrong, because I haven't seen all of the Sakura cards season or anything past that... Syaoran is in Hong Kong, and Sakura is in Japan... And she never told him that she loved him (a fact she regrets every day of her life).

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CHAPTER ONE: THE BEGINNING

IN HONG KONG....

A tall boy with messy cinnamon--brown hair and hazel--colored eyes comes around the corner slowly. His eyes are downcast and, though he moves with the easy strength of long training, he drags his feet along the ground.

His mood is not improved by the sudden appearance of a raven--haired beauty that runs up to him smiling.

"Syaoran!" Meiling says happily. "Good news!"

Syaoran does not look up.

"What?" he asks flatly.

"Well," Meiling says, mood dampened a bit, "I've decided to break off our engagement." She pauses here, a bit uncertain.

Meiling likes it best when Syaoran is happy, and she's accepted the fact that he will not be happy married to her. He loves Sakura. And besides, the cute guy in third period keeps smiling at her...

Syaoran looks up now, eyebrows raised.

"Are you sure?" is all he says.

"Yes," she insists. "I hope we'll stay friends, though."

"Yes, Meiling, of course we will. We're cousins." He pauses. "Domo arigato gozaimasu," he says slowly. The words sound strange running over his tongue once more...

"So-" Meiling claps her hands, "-when are you going back to Japan?"

Syaoran tenses. "I'm not," he says, but his heart says something else: Go back, it says, go back to your emerald--eyed beauty.

Sternly Syaoran pushes the thought from his mind.

"I am not," he says, "going back to Japan. Ever." He hears himself say this with a sort of horrified fascination.... He won't ever go back to see his beloved again...

Meiling, good at reading expressions, watched his internal struggle sadly.

This isn't right, she thinks desperately. Syaoran loves Sakura so much, and Tomoyo told me that Sakura has been so sad since he left...

Tomoyo! She grins to herself. Of course! Tomoyo would help get Sakura and Syaoran back together...

"Why the smile?" Syaoran asks woodenly. He doesn't really care, but he feels like he should ask. Just in case it is important.

Nothing is important but Sakura, his heart tells him sternly. Go back to her!!!

Nothing is important but the clan, his mind says just as sternly. Forget Sakura!!!

"Nothing!" Meiling says cheerfully, interrupting his thoughts. "I've got to go. I need to write a letter!" She skips off.

Syaoran stand there for a minute, letting his new--found freedom soak in, and then continues down the street to his home.