One Fateful Day – part 1
"I'm home!" Aiden shouted. Sakura peeked out from the door of the kitchen, where she was cooking.
"Oh, are you cooking? Thanks Sakura. Smells delicious!"
"Thanks Dad. How was your day at the university?" Sakura began to lay the table, while he put down his briefcase and started serving the meal. Tori began to come downstairs, and then stopped. He could see something in the briefcase – a red glow. It was quite faint, but it was connected to Sakura, he could tell that much. He just stayed in the doorway, and stared at his father's briefcase.
"What's the matter, Tori? Come on, it's dinner," said Sakura. Tori jumped and glared at her. Whatever was in the briefcase wasn't going to affect Sakura. "Sure thing squirt – sure it won't poison me?" he said, trying to cover his worry. Sakura growled, "Stop calling me squirt!"
Tori sat down. Sakura didn't seem affected by the glow. "That's what you are, isn't it?" he commented. "Find anything interesting at work Dad?"
"Now you mention it, yes I did." Tori blinked. Dad had brought home the glowing object? Why?
"I find a very strange book. It doesn't open when anyone touches it, and I just felt I should take it home and look at it more closely. We have no idea what time it comes from, but the material seems old."
"Can we see it Dad?" asked Sakura, intrigued by her father's story. Tori, on the other hand, did not want Sakura anywhere near the book. He just knew something would happen.
"What is it squirt, think you're clever enough to solve the mystery? Not likely considering your grades at school."
"Tori! There is nothing wrong with my grades!"
"What was it you got on that maths test? A C?"
"A B! And there's nothing wrong with that!" Tori just smiled at her, and turned back to his plate. Mission accomplished – Sakura had forgotten all about the mysterious book.
Dinner was eaten in amiable silence after that. They helped clean up and Aiden had to go to his study to finish some work. Sakura decided to practice twirling the baton in the garden, because she hadn't been given any homework. Tori, on the other hand, had some homework and he went upstairs to do it.
He was halfway through his essay ("Appearances are deceiving – discuss") when he felt something. He put his pen down and opened the door. The tug grew stronger and stronger and he knew instinctively it had something to do with the glowing object his father had brought home. He ran to his window, and looked out where Sakura had been twirling her baton earlier. She wasn't there.
He ran downstairs, and saw her opening the briefcase. "Sakura! What are you doing – that's Dad's bag!"
"Tori! I wanted to see the mysterious book, look!" She held out the red-leather book. "The lock looks like solid gold," she said. "It's really cold too."
As she said those words, the seal opened. "Hey! I opened it!" Tori looked at the book which had been worrying him all day. He grabbed the first few cards and looked at them.
"Hey, let me see!" Sakura said. The cards were a maroon colour, with a black-and-white sketch drawing. "Nice drawings" she commented. "Why've they got names?" Tori looked at the two in his hand. One was called Firey and the other was Glow.
He walked over to the book and picked it up. The pages were glued together, with the middle cut out. This was the hole where the cards had been lying. He looked through them all, and put them back, placing Glow back in the box. He kept Firey so he could examine it in more detail.
Sakura had been examining her card, Windy in more detail. She loved the patterns on the back, and had been memorizing them. She was going to have an art project soon, her teacher had warned them, and this pattern would be a great border. Innocently, she turned to Tori, "which one do you have? I've got Windy. Do you thi-"
She stopped and looked at her feet. A huge circle had appeared, glowing brightly.
"TORI!" she screamed, dropping the card at her feet. Tori turned around and saw Sakura, with wind blowing around her. He dived at her, and sheltered her from the wind.
"What's happening, Tori?" she said, barely audible above the wind.
"I – I'm not sure," he admitted. Both he and Sakura looked as the cards flew through the roof. A minute later, it stopped.
"How did Dad not hear that?" Sakura asked.
"He didn't need to. He doesn't have magical powers, like you two." Keroberus was floating out of the book.
"You woke me up from a nice nap, you realise." He commented. Sakura shrieked and shrank back. Tori laughed.
"I know you're small, squirt, but not small enough for THAT to hurt you?"
Sakura opened her mouth to scream, then realise that the floating teddy was still there. And now she looked closer, it was obvious to her it was some kind of prank. She grabbed it from mid air, and looked at it."
"Oi! Let me go! I'm Keroberus, girl!" said the teddy bear furiously. Tori, having got up, lent over Sakura and took it from her.
"Odd thing. Well Mr Keroberus, I am Tori Avalon. That's Sakura Avalon." He introduced and let it go. It flew in front of Tori and started talking. Sakura walked next to Tori as well, so Keroberus was facing them both for his introduction speech.
"I am Keroberus, guardian of the Seal and Keeper of the Clow Cards."
"What are they?" asked Sakura. Tori just looked at Keroberus sceptically. "You don't look like a guardian beast".
Keroberus ignored the second comment, and made the Clow Book float behind him. It felt slightly lighter than normal, but that was probably because the seal had been broken. Made of solid gold, that seal.
"These are the clow cards. They are magical cards that can cause a lot of damage, so my creator, Clow Reed, put them into Clow Cards to help protect –" he stopped. The two children were looking horrified, rather than amazed. He had an awful feeling, and turned his head slowly. Nothing. The clow cards – they weren't there! There was a huge hole were they were meant to be!
"My clow cards! Where are the clow cards! What's happened!" he shouted. He started flying desperately to find the clow cards. Suddenly, he spotted one by Tori's feet. He grabbed it desperately. Tori lifted his foot and Keroberus showed them Firey.
"This is a Clow Card. Um – do you know where the rest are?"
Sakura blushed. "I picked up one, Windy, and I was looking at it when this wind started blowing.
"Yeh, that happens if you say its name."
Tori continued for Sakura, "after that, all the clow cards started glowing and they flew away. What were you doing through that? Napping?"
"It's hard work being a guardian beast, you know!" Keroberus said indignantly.
Sakura sniggered slightly. Tori, unable to resist the temptation pointed out to her that she was as lazy as ol' Kero there.
"Kero! My name is NOT Kero!"
"Kero suits you better, teddy" was Tori's caustic comment. Suddenly, they could hear Aiden walking up the creaky stairs in his study.
"Dad's coming!" Sakura said worriedly. Tori agreed. His father was always stressed – no-one would mention the magical clow cards on top of that. He grabbed Kero and shoved him in the red book. He gave it to Sakura as Dad came through the door.
"Isn't it your bedtime, squirt? Not like that would help you get up on time tomorrow!" he said. Sakura realised that this was the perfect excuse to go to her room and hide both the book and Kero, but did he have to tease her? She stomped on his foot angrily.
"Don't call me squirt!" she shouted.
Aiden smiled slightly at his children's antics. He knew Tori loved Sakura, and he knew Sakura would realise that in a few years time. He felt lucky that he had two children who would always help him out, and knew they'd come to him with any problems they had. "He is right, Sakura. You should be in bed – it's coming up to 9:00". Sakura jumped slightly when she heard him, and turned to look at him.
"OK dad. I'll go to bed." She started walking upstairs, but heard Tori's whisper when she passed him. "I'll be up soon and we can talk to that teddy bear then!"
A/N That's my first fic! I'm so pleased! As you can see, things will be wildly different from Cardcaptors. By the way – I saw the American-dubbed version, so I will use the character names I know. Sorry, but don't flame me. I don't learn Japanese, so I won't make a fool of myself by trying to end –chan and –san, because I don't really know the difference. "Mr" and "Mrs" will be the most formal I get. Next chapter: One of them will become a cardcaptor (guess who!) and they will capture the first card. It's not Fly, though.
Vote: Do you want Lee to come or not? Madison and Julian/Yue are going to be there (wait till final judgement for Yue, though)
Cutecess!