The young woman stumbled out onto the balcony, belting the white robe around her waist as she yawned. Her reddish brown hair fell messily into her eyes as she looked out at the crazy quilt of different buildings that made up Crystal Tokyo. The tower that she stood in was a holdover from when this place had been called Tokyo-3, an outpost of a long ago war. Kinomoto Sakura took a deep breath, savoring the taste of the sea air carried from the waters not so far away from them. Her lover was asleep in the bed just behind her, and Sakura was content to just let her sleep. Today was a difficult anniversary for them both, and for now Sakura wanted to be alone, and remember. It had been a summer's day like this one, but their hearts had been heavy. The grave sat on the hill, the script almost unbearable for them to read, the earth freshly turned up. 'Kinomoto Toya,' it read, then the two dates, '1980-2050.' Yukito stumbled forward, there was a flash of blue light and the sweep of mighty wings, and Yue fell to his knees in front of the grave. "Oh, Toya," Yue murmured softly, "how could you have left me so very soon?" "I'm so sorry," Sakura said softly. 'It isn't fair,' she thought, 'my magic stopped me aging at twenty-five. Why couldn't it save Toya from his cancer?' "I'm sure that the doctors did everything they could," the over sixty years old Tomoyo Daidouji said to him sadly. Tears slowly began to trickle down Yue's face as he said, "I don't know what I'll do without him. He was my life, my heart." Toya and Yukito had been living together for years, almost as soon as they graduated from school. Despite whatever life threw at them, they remained the perfect couple. Sakura had thought that nothing would ever split them apart, but she had been wrong. Kero's voice was quiet, "You have to carry on, for his sake." Yue's hawk's eyes met Kero's gaze, "I've lived so very long, Keroberos, and all things must end eventually." He looked up at Tomoyo, "Come here, please." Tomoyo took Yue's hand gently, "Let me help you up." "Do you love Sakura," Yue looked up to ask her, "with all of your heart?" "Yes, always," Tomoyo blinked in surprise. "Good," a smiling Yue murmured, while keeping a firm grip on Tomoyo's hand. His body glowed a soft blue, slowly becoming brighter until it flared brightly, then the wings seemed to shatter into a cloud of feathers. They swirled about Tomoyo's body, the light building all around her, and with another flash she stood transformed. The wings stretched from Tomoyo's back now, and she carried with her an aura of power, this beautiful twenty-five year old woman. Her long black hair flowed free from age, her body restored to all of it's vigor of youth. Her eyes, though, remained the same, shining with love as she looked adoringly at Sakura. "Yue," she gasped, and turned to look at him worriedly. Yukito lay there, leaning up against the stone. He looked much older than he should have, like he was a hundred years old, not seventy. His blue eyes were closed, looking almost as if he had simply fallen asleep there. "Oh, no," Sakura murmured, kneeling down beside him. She felt the side of his neck, but she knew as soon as she touched him that he was gone. Sakura pulled her robe around her, feeling a chill. 'We lost both of them that day, Toya and Yue,' she thought to herself sadly. A warm hand rested on her shoulder, and she turned around to meet Tomoyo's caring gaze. "Are you all right?" Tomoyo asked. The dark haired woman looked completely normal, having learned to hide her other nature over the years they had been together. "A little sad," Sakura said quietly. "It's all right to miss them," Tomoyo slid her arm across Sakura's shoulders, "but you should also try to remember all the good things." An impish smile, "Remember how Toya used to call you a little monster? And poor Li's crush on Yukito?" Sakura had to smile, "That was pretty funny." They walked inside together, standing close. "I'm looking forward to the meeting up at the Palace," Tomoyo said. "It'll be nice to see all of our old friends once again," Sakura admitted. She blushed faintly, "Do you want to visit the Locket, while we're in town?" "Arisugawa's Locket?" Tomoyo exclaimed. She blinked, looking honestly surprised, "It's actually still open, even after all these years?" "I did some checking," Sakura beamed, "and it's still around. I'm not sure who's on the staff, anymore, but it could be fun." A sleepy, and clearly only just awakened Kero flew in. "Is this the bar that I couldn't get in to one time?" he asked them pointedly. Tomoyo looked at the little flying toy lion with wings, "Well, I could put a skirt on you, a bit of makeup. The bar has let a few crossdressers in before." Kero puffed up, "No way you're pouting me in a skirt!" "Then I guess you can't go," Sakura grinned. She noticed Kero looked a bit disappointed, so she added, "We'll get you some cake for when we're gone." "Cake? Yes!" Kero perked up almost immediately. "Simple mind, simple pleasures," Tomoyo murmured to Sakura, who had to fight to keep from laughing aloud. The two got dressed, and headed out with Kero to pick him up some cake. The lift brought them down to street level, and they smoothly moved into the bustling foot traffic. "I kind of missed this, when we were living on Mars," Sakura noted. "It was pretty boring," Kero admitted. A girl wandered by in a pink, ruffled catsuit and he pointed her out to Tomoyo, "Wasn't that one of your designs?" Tomoyo nodded, "It doesn't look as good on her as it did on Sakura, though." Tomoyo sighed dreamily, "Then again, everything looks better on Sakura!" Sakura sweatdropped. Years back Tomoyo had released some of her designs commercially, and they had just taken off! Even now, girls were wearing outfits inspired by Sakura's card capturing days. Even worse, she had used digitally captured images of Sakura herself in the ads. "Too embarrassing," Sakura murmured softly. "What?" Tomoyo asked. "Nothing, nothing," Sakura sighed. She pointed, "There's a bakery." "Yeah! Cake," Kero almost danced in midair. "Then on to the Locket," Tomoyo smiled. She leaned in close to whisper in Tomoyo's ear, "Maybe we can rent an upstairs room like we used to." Sakura went beet red.
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