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Chapter Five
Syaoran Inadvertently Kills Millions of Fangirls Worldwide


Fai tapped the digital display in the Chevy. “I suppose that’s enough dramatic silence, hm?”

Sakura hardly heard him (though she thought she had heard that line before…). Her head spun—even more than it already had been doing. She must have misunderstood what he had said. Maybe “vampire” was some kind of label these days….

“What did you say a couple of minutes ago? ‘Hoe’?” He grinned. “That’s really cute, Sakura! You sounded like a ten year old girl.”

Amazingly enough, she ignored that comment. Mostly because a wonderful thought suddenly came to her mind. “Oh! I get it. You volunteer at the blood bank and help take blood from people, right? That’s so thoughtful!” Whew, that was a relief.

“Actually… no.”

“… No?” She thought for a minute. “T-Then, you volunteer at… the… the hospital?” She was grasping at straws, now.

“Wrong-o.” He rested his chin on his palms. “C’mon Sakura, games are fun and all, but guessing games aren’t really your thing. You don’t have to act like an airhead to spare my feelings or anything.” Insert smile here.

Ignoring that too… “So you’re really a… vampire?”

“I see Ashura didn’t explain it very well.” He sighed and leaned back in his seat. He started talking again before Sakura could explain that his father hadn’t told her anything. “Tell ya what. How about tonight you get a good night’s sleep. I’ll meet you tomorrow sometime and explain a bit more. I won’t be at school again, so I’ll meet you sometime afterward. You got a cell phone?”

She was starting to feel very tired. It was pretty cold in the truck, but she felt warm and snuggly. “Uh-huh…” She reached into her pocket and pulled it out. Wow, until just now, she had forgotten she’d even had it on her. Maybe that was because she didn’t use it much—she wasn’t really into texting. She much preferred speaking in person. “Here ya go.”

He took it. She might have dozed off a bit while he was exchanging their numbers, because it seemed he handed it back to her almost immediately. Waving goodbye, she hopped out of the car. She nearly forgot it was her own car and was surprised when Fai jumped out as well. She was more surprised when Fai was suddenly beside her. She hadn’t even seen him move! Maybe she’d dozed off again…?

“It wouldn’t be very gentlemanly if I didn’t escort the lady to the door,” he said simply.

A horrible thought struck Sakura, and she actually stumbled a little (though, thankfully, Fai steadied her). “You’re a vampire.”

He looked a little confused. “… Yup, though I believe we established this already…”

“I brought you a cake.” She sounded as miserable as she felt; which was a lot.

He thought for a moment. “Ashura did say something about that. You’re very sweet, Sakura! Even if you sometimes make funny sounds.”

“But…” Her eyes were getting dangerously heavy. Why the hell was she so tired? “You can’t eat it, can you?”

“Ah… nope!”

“Sorry,” she murmured at the door. Apparently, Fai had been leading towards the entrance of her house. She’d been too shocked by her realization to notice.

But Fai just laughed. He opened the door (wait, did he even have a key? If Touya had left it unlocked…) and started to usher her in. “Don’t worry about it. I haven’t received a cake in so long, it will be enough just to look at it.” He put a hand on her head. “Now, run along and get to bed before you pass out from the drugs, ‘kay?”

Sakura nodded slowly, not fully understanding. She waved weakly to Fai before he closed the door. She didn’t even have time (or the coherency) to worry about how Fai would get home before she passed out on the couch.




“You look like crap.”

Sakura glared at her brother, but stayed silent and soon turned back to the table. She wouldn’t have been able to put up a very good argument, since she felt like crap, too. Her head seemed to be pulsating and it was a struggle just to hold up a glass of milk. She’d never had a sip of alcohol in her life, but she had to imagine this was what a hangover must have felt like.

Actually, she was having a hard time recollecting the events of the night before. She woke up this morning (with lots of coaxing from Touya) on the couch with a blanket over her. She knew something about last night was important, but she couldn’t quite remember it. It was like someone had freaking stolen her memories or something.

“Oi,” Touya snapped, lightly whacking the back of her head (which sure as hell didn’t help her headache). “You okay to go to school? You’d be alone here for a little while, but I should be able to get off work early.”

She blushed a little. Touya was being… nice? She really must not have looked too good. “No, I’ll be fine. I really can’t miss school today. Thanks, though,” she added a bit more softly.

He shrugged, but she didn’t miss him grab his cell phone and turn it on before leaving. Usually, he didn’t take it, since the communications in the cruiser were all that he needed during the day.

It took a while to get ready. Sakura knew it wasn’t because she was sick; it didn’t feel like an illness or anything like that. She just felt… out of it. Like she was looking through a fogged up window or something. Ugh, she really hoped she hadn’t done anything bad last night.

She arrived at school late. Thankfully, her first period teacher liked her, so when she saw how bad Sakura looked she was spared from detention. There was only about ten minutes left of English, so she copied all of her homework down and found out what she had to make up from her neighbors. Then the wonderful teacher stopped class five minutes before the bell. She was just cool like that.

What wasn’t so cool was what happened right after that particular announcement. Someone tackled her from behind, nearly knocking her out of her chair. “Sakura, you didn’t call last night!”

She looked up to see Tomoyo, clearly distraught. She freed herself from her friend’s death-grip. She tilted her head to one side. “Call?”

“Yes, call!” Tomoyo looked flustered. Sakura had never seen her like this before. “You made a visit to Fai’s place, and you said you’d call to tell me you were okay, but—“ her voice cracked, but she quickly composed herself again. “But you didn’t. I thought something horrible had happened. And then, when you weren’t here this morning…”

“I went over to Fai’s house…?” The idea seemed familiar. Her head started to hurt again.

“Yes,” Tomoyo said, but she started to sound different—wary? “You were terribly worried that the two of them were sick, since they had missed so much school. You went to make sure they were okay.” She stepped in front of Sakura and pressed a hand to her forehead. “Are you feeling well?”

Sakura didn’t hear her. The events of last night were coming back to her very quickly. Some parts were a little blurry, and she hardly remembered getting back into the house and plopping down on the couch, but the important things were there.

“Fai’s a vampire.”

She expected Tomoyo’s eyes to go wide, for her to deny such a ridiculous thing. After all, vampires were the works of fiction. Actually, Sakura wasn’t sure she really believed it herself.

Tomoyo laughing was not what she had expected. At all. In fact, it made her kind of upset. “That’s what Fai told me. And I trust him.” Crap. That meant she really did believe it. It just didn’t seem like Fai would lie about something like that, she supposed.

“Ohoho… Sakura, it took you long enough to figure it out, didn’t it?”

And then she was hit by a truck. SPLAT.

Maybe that wasn’t what happened… But that’s sure as hell what it felt like. She wasn’t surprised? She had actually known about this? It must have just slipped her mind to fill Sakura in on this apparently inconsequential detail. Next there would be ghosts. Or werewolves.

“Tomoyo, I don’t really think this is that funny,” she muttered. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She leaned back against the desk in front of Sakura and sighed, though she still wore a smile. It was obvious she had been waiting for Sakura to find out, though Sakura couldn’t fathom why that would be. “Well… Would you have been so friendly and warm towards Fai if you had known from the start that he was a vampire?”

“Yes.” She surprised herself by answering so quickly. But when she thought about it, it seemed like the only answer. Even if Tomoyo had told her the truth during that first lunch period, after Sakura had spent one Biology period sitting next to him, she knew that she would have thought the same about Fai as she did now.

Tomoyo smiled. “I probably should have expected that from you Sakura. That’s not really the main reason anyway. I’m sure it was much more dramatic to figure it out by yourself than to have someone just tell you. That’s really the whole point, right?”

“But I didn’t figure it out by myself.”

That caught her attention. “What?”

“Fai told me. I never suspected a thing.” Here it went again. Did they all have to make her feel so stupid?

“But…” Tomoyo seemed really confused. “He told you after you inquired about it, right? That’s how it was supposed to happen.”

Sakura shook her head, her brown locks flying in every direction. “Nope! Fai thought Ashura had told me, or that I had figured it out after meeting Ashura. So he just said it conversationally. I still don’t think he understands that I didn’t realize it beforehand….”

Ah, crap. Whatever she had said, it had made Tomoyo’s face flush. Something wasn’t good.

“You… met with Ashura?”

Now that she remembered the night, she was completely able to retell the encounter. She remembered it as being pretty pleasant, but Tomoyo kept looking more and more forlorn as she went on.

The story ended, and Tomoyo clasped Sakura’s hands in hers, her expression more serious than Sakura could ever recall. “Promise me you won’t go over there again. If Fai’s there with you, than it’s better, but…. Just, please try to stay away from that place, alright?”

“Um… sure?”

“Good,” Tomoyo sighed, relieved. Next moment, she smiled, startling Sakura. Could someone’s expression really change that fast? “Well, the bell’s about to ring! Try not to get too depressed, all right Sakura? I know it will be trying, but you’re the heroine! You’re more popular when you’re angst-ridden and have a war of emotions raging inside of you.”

She was going to ask just what the heck she was talking about, but apparently the bell listened to Tomoyo’s prediction. Her dark-haired friend hurried out the door before Sakura even had a chance to pack her stuff up. Tomoyo was easily the most confusing person she had ever had the privilege of meeting.

Silly Sakura; most confusing person she’d ever had the privilege of meeting so far.



Lunch was weird. Again. And that was even with the lack of Tomoyo, who was still practicing for her audition.

She’d been bombarded with questions about yesterday by every girl at the table. She answered each one, but halfheartedly. She wasn’t one to talk much about herself on a regular day, but on a day when she didn’t feel her best… well, it was a struggle. And then they went on their all-too-familiar rant on how angst was the best possible thing for a teenage girl to have at her disposal.

But she could hardly hear any of it. The news of Fai being a vampire was consuming her thoughts. The part of Fai actually being a vampire wasn’t the part to blame, though. Actually, she was perfectly okay with that. He really was still the same person in her eyes. He’d always been nice to her, and she would hate it if something like that ruined their friendship.

She was more concerned about how it came to be, and how it had affected him. Maybe that was why he always seemed so sad…? She was sure that was part of it, but… she was almost positive there was something else that was troubling him. It had to be something that had only affected him, since Yuui always seemed genuinely upbeat, even though she didn’t have any classes with him. She wanted to help him, but she didn’t know how much she’d be able—

Oh, God. They were getting to her. They were actually getting to her, the bubbly, energetic one. Her thoughts were starting to fall under the “angst” category….

And that was how she decided life in Forks was officially going to suck.




After her not-so-great day (she wasn’t going to call it horrible or even think much about it, lest her thoughts start turning more depressing again), all Sakura wanted to do was go home, take a shower, and have pancakes for dinner. And eat them with a spoon, just to rebel. That would have been perfect.

Fate had a different plan…. It was probably trying to get back at her for threatening to not use customary eating utensils.

“Sakura! Syaoran!”

She sighed. Tomoyo was still her friend and all—Sakura wasn’t really one to hold a grudge like that—but today really wasn’t the day. She turned and saw Syaoran a few feet behind her, heading towards his own car. Far behind, but getting closer by the second was Tomoyo, waving and smiling at the two of them.

Unable to be impolite to her friend just because she’d had a bad day, Sakura smiled back and met her in the middle where Syaoran was.

“What’s up?” she asked cheerfully.

She grinned at them. “Are you two doing anything of interest?”

“Not really.” Heaven knew she wasn’t going to drive in the snow and ice except to get home. The sun had come back out again today, but it was still too cold for the snow and ice from the night before to melt.

Syaoran shrugged. “I do not have anything planned.”

Tomoyo clapped her hands together in delight. “Great! Then we can all go to the movies!”

That changed her attitude almost immediately. She could feel her pulse quicken. “Movies? You don’t mean…”

The dark-haired girl nodded, and they both squealed like the rabid fangirls they were.

Syaoran looked on at them with a “what-in-the-world-is-going-on-here” expression. He was probably surprised that he was being invited to go with them, since he only really knew them from lunch and gym class. And a little bit from the Halloween party. His natural curiosity won out against his bashfulness. “… What movie?”

“Ohoho, Syaoran, don’t you realize what day it is?”

He blinked. Even Sakura could tell he was completely oblivious. “November 19, 2010. Why, what is so important about the date?”

With those few words, millions of fans worldwide died a great deal inside. Every November nineteenth, if you listen close enough, you can still hear their wails....

… There Sakura’s mind went again. She really needed to do something about that.

Sakura and Tomoyo did die a bit inside though. “You poor thing! You’re even more sheltered than Sakura, aren’t you?”

“Hey…” Sakura couldn’t make a valid argument against it though, so she left it at that. Instead, she turned to Syaoran. “Today’s the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One! No one blames you if you forgot,” she added with reassuring smile

Her expectations seemed to be failing her a lot lately, with lately being today. She had thought that Syaoran, like any other sane person, would be jumping up and down with excitement, cursing the world for making him/her forget such an important event. Reality instead brought her a still-clueless Syaoran, wrapped up and ready to be given to some equally confused soul.

Eventually, he took notice of their open-mouthed stares. “O-Oh. Right. That. Deadly Hollows.”

“Deathly Hallows,” Tomoyo corrected politely, as though nothing had been disturbing about that statement at all.

Sakura, however, found that statement disturbing. Very disturbing indeed.

Her heart felt like it had just been trampled… which was weird, since it was only a movie. “You mean… you don't like Harry Potter?”

He shifted his weight from foot to foot uncomfortably. “I don’t really know if I like it or not…”

Wait, what? “Have you never read any of the books?” She’d seen Syaoran at the library on numerous occasions. Maybe he didn’t like the genre…?

“Huh? I thought you just said it was a movie?” he asked incredulously.

The world started spinning. Could it be he didn’t…?

“My goodness, you really are sheltered, aren’t you?” Tomoyo laughed, though Sakura was wondering how she could be taking something as serious as this so lightly. The famous Daidouji limo pulled up behind Tomoyo. A female guard ran out (rather quickly, considering she was in heels) and opened the door for the teenager. She ignored it for a minute. “Well, everyone has to see a Harry Potter movie sometime! So, why not come with us?”

The two brunettes gaped at her.

“T-Tomoyo! He’ll be completely lost. This is the seventh movie!”

The heiress started to climb in, then turned back to the couple. “Well, then we have until we get to Port Angeles to explain about ten years of movie magic.”



If it had been anybody else, explaining six movies’ worth of information would have been a complete nightmare. The only reason it wasn’t an epic fail was because Syaoran absorbed all the information they threw at him faster than should have been possible. Tomoyo also helped keep Sakura’s explanations brief, since she had the tendency to try to connect every event together, explaining every nuance and pure genius behind every action.

They arrived at the theater. With a glance at the clock in the lobby, Sakura suddenly realized that they hardly had enough time to buy refreshments and snacks. This was the opening night of a Harry Potter movie… how would they ever find a seat? Let alone three in a row? “Tomoyo,” she started tentatively. “Will we have enough time…?” Her voice trailed off at Tomoyo’s knowing grin.

“Sakura, you still don’t get it, do you? I’m a Daidouji. I’ve had these tickets reserved since last month. Oh, and don’t worry about the seating. A friend of mine is saving ours. We’ll have the best seats in the theater!”

Oh. Well, that settled that.

With their popcorn and sodas in hand, they made their way into theater number seven (Sakura had to smile at that. Gosh, she was a nerd.). Previews were already playing, and Sakura took note to check out the one that looked like a Rapunzel tale. They made their way up the lit stairway and crossed into one of the middle rows. Tomoyo had been right—there were three empty seats smack dab in the center. Man, she was good.

It was only when they got to their seats that Sakura realized who the friend that had saved their seats was.

Today really, really hated Sakura.

“It was so nice of you to save our seats, Kurogane!” Tomoyo beamed at the dark and… rather frightening looking man. “I knew you’d be enough to scare away anyone that would want to take our seats.”

He scoffed and folded his arms (rather, erm, large arms) over his chest. “I don’t understand what’s so special about this damn movie,” he snarled.

Tomoyo, being Tomoyo, simply laughed and… didn’t take the seat next to him. Or the seat next to that. No, she sat in the last empty seat happily. “Syaoran, why don’t you sit between Sakura and I? That way, if you have any questions, you can ask either one of us.”

Being a “good little puppy,” as Tomoyo would put it, he dutifully obliged. Which meant….

Sakura lifted the bag of popcorn to hide her face as she took the seat beside Kuro-something… she believed Tomoyo had called him Kurogane. That sounded right. Luckily, he seemed to busy scowling at the preview for the animated movie about two wolves. She had to admit, the Rapunzel one looked much better.

And then… she noticed something.

“Are you still not wearing a shirt?!” She covered her mouth immediately after she said it. It probably was not the best idea to let that one slip out. Seriously though, how did he manage to get in here without being arrested or thrown out? More of the Daidouji magic, she supposed.

Kurogane twitched. He finally seemed to acknowledge her existence. “Oi—You’re the suicide girl!”

Syaoran choked on the popcorn he had been eating. Tomoyo rubbed his back, but seemed unfazed by his statement. “So you two know each other?”

“Not really,” Sakura admitted. That was all she was going to say though, since meeting Kurogane had not been the most enjoyable experience of her life. But… maybe they’d just gotten off on the wrong foot. “So, um, Kurogane. Do you like Harry Potter, then?” she asked with a convincing smile.

He seemed just as annoyed and temperamental as when they first met. Surprisingly though, he answered. “I don’t think there’s anything interesting about a bunch of idiotic mages that wouldn’t be able to stand up for themselves in a real fight.”

“Wizards,” Tomoyo whispered (un)helpfully. “They use wands. Mages usually use staffs, or maybe a magical gem, or sometimes nothing at all.”

Sakura wanted nothing more than to sit someplace else and ask Tomoyo how she knew Kurogane. Then the movie started, so she made a decision. She had been waiting so long for this movie, and she wasn’t going to let something this petty ruin it.

Everything went on like a normal movie night for a while after that. She even dared to glance over at Kurogane a few times. At times, he looked almost as invested in the story and action as she was. No matter what he said, no one could resist the phenomenon that was Harry Potter. It was much easier and less uncomfortable to check and see how Syaoran was doing. At times, she would lean over and explain to him who a character in a scene was, or what a certain spell did. He seemed to be enjoying the movie as well, which made her happy. She and Tomoyo would exchange knowing glances right before a very dramatic part, silently telling another that things were soon going to hit the fan. The only part she had to tear her eyes away from the screen was the part with the snake, because she did not want to have nightmares.

The movie was reaching the climax (they’d just been found by the Snatchers!) when things in her own life started to hit the fan. She readjusted herself in her seat to get more comfortable and her arm accidentally grazed Kurogane’s. Strange thing was… she had to stop herself from yelling out in pain. His skin was hot—as in, scalding fire-from-the-deepest-level-of-hell kind of hot. She looked at him, and his forehead was beaded with sweat. It was actually pretty cool in the theater thanks to the marvels of air conditioning, and she still had her coat on. His jaw was clenched, and his fingers were wrapped around the armrests in a way that made her think he was going to tear them off. Then, suddenly, he stood up and all but raced out of the theater without a word.

Oh, poop. Was he sick? He didn’t look too good, and it couldn’t be healthy for skin to be burning hot like that. Sakura noticed Tomoyo’s worried look and that she was moving her things off her lap to get up and go after him.

That… that just wouldn’t do at all. Tomoyo had bought tickets for all of them and was just as big a fan of Harry Potter as she was. Cursing the world and promising herself that she would buy the DVD as soon as it came out, she stood up. “I’m going to find out if he’s okay,” she whispered to her to friends. Both looked like they were going to protest (there was no way she was going to take Syaoran away from his first HP movie), but she pushed her way through the row and trotted down the steps before they could say a thing.

It took her a while to spot him, since the lobby was already filled with HP fans that were determined to be early and get a good seat for the next showing. When she finally did see him, she made a beeline for the girl’s bathroom. He would probably just yell at her if she came empty handed, after all. She raced out of the bathroom with cold, damp paper towels.

Kurogane looked like he was in serious pain. He wasn’t rolling around on the ground moaning like a dying giraffe or anything (though she had to admit, that would be hilarious!), nor even have his head in his hands. He was just sitting, eyes closed and arms crossed, against the wall. Most people just passing by wouldn’t even notice that anything was wrong. But the way his jaw was clenched and his muscles were tensed….

“Um… here,” she said, offering the wad of wet paper.

He opened his eyes a crack, then closed them again. “Tch. I don’t need those. You’re missing your movie.”

She shrugged, but smiled. He was actually concerned about her missing it. She decided right then and there that, though gruff and cruel (and shirtless), he was a good guy. “I’ve already read the book about ten times, and the movies never really live up to them.” She knelt down beside him and, without thinking much about it, pressed the paper towels to his forehead. He didn’t really react, which was better than what she thought would happen, so all was good. “I’m sorry about what I said to you up on that cliff,” she admitted slowly. “It was wrong to assume you were suicidal when I didn’t even know you and not consider that you might have an… an allergy to cotton or something.”

“What?”

“Well, I mean, that’s probably not the reason you don’t wear a shirt, but it was something I should have considered before saying what I did,” she added hastily, realizing how weird that comment sounded. She secretly hoped that he would take this opportunity why he didn’t cover his upper body, but he simply grunted.

This guy wasn’t much of a talker, was he?

“I probably should have asked this earlier, but do you need me to take you to the hospital? Do you feel sick?”

He breathed out a long sigh. “This isn’t something a doctor would be able to cure.”

Oh, goodness. Was it some terminal disease? She was sure she would cry like a baby if it was cancer or something equally as dangerous. “I-Is there anything I can do to help? I can get you some water, or get some new paper towels, if you want.”

He looked like he was getting annoyed again. He opened his mouth to say something (probably along the lines of “Go away,” or “Leave me the hell alone”).

But something happened.

His eyes shot open and he stood up faster than was probably advisable in his condition (whatever that condition may be). His gaze was glued on the front doors, like he was expecting someone to walk in.

It was probably a good idea to stretch her legs as well. Wondering just how much more of the movie was left, Sakura pulled out her cell phone and turned it on (who wore watches anymore? And the clock in the lobby was way too far away for her to read.). The screen blinked a message over and over again. Crap. She’d missed three calls while watching the movie. She started to go through the process of finding out who had called when a single word interrupted her thoughts.

“Bloodsucker.”

Her head snapped up at Kurogane’s dangerous tone. But it wasn’t his tone that had caught her attention. It was the word and what it implied. She followed his gaze. Who could help but smile and wave at him as he walked through the door and spotted them?

At last he reached them. She didn’t really pay much attention to it, but Kurogane moved between her and Fai. “What the hell are you doing here,” Kurogane snarled in a not-so-friendly kind of way.

He just smiled, but once again, it wasn’t that genuine smile Sakura had so seldom seen. “I had to come make sure Sakura was A-OK, since she wouldn’t answer her phone…” he said simply.

Sakura vaguely remembered Fai saying something about explaining his vampirism more to her today. Oops.

Then something… unsettling happened. Fai’s entire expression and demeanor changed. He didn’t look mean or angry or anything like that, but… it made the hair on the back of Sakura’s’ neck stand on end. For the first time, Sakura could believe without a doubt that Fai was in fact a vampire.

“… Especially since you’re around, Kuro-woof.”