Sorry so late, but school slows me down! ^_^ Aoi means Love in Cantonese. I know it's a Japanese name too, but that's not what it means in the title. (angel, hope you didn't dare say a word about the love plot to
anyone!) Guess what, by the time you people will be reading this, it'll be my birthday!! That's right folks, September 6th is my b-day!!! Aren't you all gonna wish me happy birthday? *listens and hears nothing*
Hmph, well fine, have it your way.

I Know The Meaning Of Pain…Chapter 4…Aoi

"Hurry up with it, we have no time to spare!" Ishiro reminded. He got up from where he was sitting and walked out of the bushes. Peering at the silent night road, he mumbled something about wasting chances,
and heard something as two lights came into view. Quickly, he jumped back slightly behind the leaves, to conceal his presence. The car passed quickly, the driver not even bothering to look in his direction. Ishiro
sighed. That had been close.

But even if the driver had seen him, and gotten out to find him, that unfortunate man would have been taken care of quickly. After all, he was pretty hungry. Unfortunately, he had let Tomine talk him into letting
her get the first meal.

Tomine nodded. She advanced towards the unconscious human…previous human. It’ll all be over soon, she thought. Tilting his head to the side, she felt her fangs piercing the younger boy’s flesh and felt the
warm liquid pour out. She felt it fill her mouth and slide down her throat. The uneasy churning in her stomach diminishing as soon as she fed. But as soon as she backed away, the wound closed, leaving nothing
but two marks from her attack. She closed her mouth and let her lips crinkle slightly into a satisfied smile. "Are you done yet?" Ishiro said, turning to her. She nodded and motioned to the pale boy. Ishiro nodded
and faced her. "Are you happy now?" She nodded and smiled. Patting her ally’s cheek, she responded.

"Don’t worry, Ishiro, you can have the next one." She said. Ishiro growled low in his throat, how come he had let her get her way? He changed the subject. "Where’s the cards? I gave them to you, where’d you put
them?" he asked. She walked over to where her jacket, or rather Ishiro’s, lay on the ground and picked it up. Reaching into the pocket, she took out all the cards she had.

An unfamiliar sound disrupted their thoughts, as Shotoku began to stir. His face was still deadly pale, having a sickly bluish hint in his skin. He looked around drowsily, the blue eyes darting from Ishiro to Tomine.
He stood up quickly, or tried to. Losing all the blood he did, his legs felt wobbly and fell back to his knees, propping his body up with his arms, though they threatened to fall as well. He glared at them with the
best of his ability. "What did you do to me?"

"We didn’t do anything." Ishiro said. "She just had a little……snack." He pointed to Shotoku’s neck. Shotoku reached up and felt his wound.

"Two holes…but…that would mean that…" he glanced at the two smirking evilly at him, "what are you really?"

"Since you really seem like you want to know," Tomine said, "we’re like guardians of the CLOW cards. Not the Sakura cards. Our job right now, is to get them all back."

"But they’re Sakura Cards already, you can’t do anything!"

"That is officially incorrect." Tomine said as she took a card from her stack and bit into it. Immediately the image border changed from light pink to the dull orange it used to be as a Clow Card. The back of it
changed as well. Shotoku stared at the sudden transformation. "We plan to get all the cards from your little friend this way. Don’t make conclusions when you don’t know the whole story." Shotoku directed his
attention at the two holes in the card.

"You…bit me?" Shotoku asked, "Are you vampires or something?"

"We know nothing of your human myths. Don’t ask us things that you would expect a human to know." Ishiro said. "And I advise you keep your mouth shut for the rest of the time you’re here. Your friends are
probably searching for the cards right now."

"How about me? They’d be searching for me as well."

"Maybe your sister would. The rest of them don’t really care. I’d bet their first priority is to find the cards. And by then, if they even remember you, they would search for you. But I don’t think that if they didn’t find
you, they would spend as much time as if they didn’t find the cards."

"They wouldn’t do that. I know they wouldn’t, I don’t care what you say, I won’t believe you." Shotoku said. From behind his back, he threw a large rock. Unfortunately, Ishiro jumped away in time…but Tomine
didn’t. The projectile hit her straight in the head, and she fell instantly to the ground like a broken doll. Ishiro quickly picked up the rock and made it fly back at Shotoku. It was too quick for it to miss. It hit the
captive square in the stomach, and he lapsed into unconsciousness again.

Carefully, Ishiro lifted his friend’s head onto his lap and with his sleeve, wiped the dark blue blood away from her wound. Her eyes fluttered open. The rock had hit hard, and he wasn’t sure if it damaged her skull
or not. She would quickly faint from the blood loss. He had to stop it as soon as possible…or she wouldn’t make it. She coughed a few times, and a trail of blue ran from her mouth. This wasn’t good…the rock had
been big. It had probably hit the side of her head too. A line of dark blue was running down her face. Ishiro pushed the purple hair away from her face slowly. She smiled weakly. "Do you think that it’s bad,
Ishiro?"

"I…uh…don’t think so." He lied. "It’ll be fine soon." She glanced up at him. She knew it was a lie, he did too. He just thought it sounded better than if he told the truth.

Right then, he realized how afraid he was. If Tomine was gone, the only friend he had ever had would be eliminated from the face of the earth. Then he would be alone, much more alone than he was right
now. You can’t die, Tomine…hang on a little longer please, for me! He pushed the pleads in his mind to a corner as he tore off a strip of the jacket he had brought along with him. Carefully, he tied the cloth
around her head. It wouldn’t last long. He would have to change it soon. But he hoped he wouldn’t have to change it too much…that would mean too much blood loss…and that meant…

He pushed that thought out of his mind just like the others. He lay her head down on the ground. "You should get some rest now." He said. She nodded. He began to get up, but her hand grasped his and kept
him down. "What do you want? You should really be getting some re…"

With most of the strength she had left, Tomine pushed herself up and locked her lips with Ishiro’s, closing her eyes. She thought to herself. To think, I must be becoming weak…I’m supposed to be strong enough
to avoid this emotion…it’s such a weakness…love is the most dangerous weakness…

Ishiro’s eyes widened at the feeling of her lips touching his. He stared at her face, finding that her eyes were closed. Then, abruptly, she fell back down, unconscious. He kneeled over her, totally speechless, a let
out a withheld breath. Blinking a few times, he found himself wishing that she hadn’t blacked out. He mentally hit himself for thinking such weak things…he couldn’t do this…she couldn’t either.

It was a dangerous issue that neither of them had any experience in. It was a human emotion!!! She wasn’t supposed to feel this way!! Then what was this reaction in his chest, as if something was pounding his
ribs to get out? It kept on attacking, but he wasn’t paying attention. What was happening? Who did this to them?

This could cost them their mission…how come this was turning out so hard? Everything they had done before had never gotten either of them in such a close predicament with death like Tomine was in now. He
stared at her motionless face, and found himself finally noticing how beautiful she was, even in the dark. He mentally slapped himself again, but couldn’t help it. He reached out and stroked her face. "What was
that, Tomine?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sakura, Syaoran, Himika and Kirin had left the house as soon as they could, each bringing a flashlight and jacket, though Kirin kept her teddy bear close to her chest as she walked just as close to the others. She
looked out at the darkness, her flashlight’s light darting here and there as quickly as her eyes did. They were filled with worry as they walked out into the night. "I’m scared…is onii-san going to be alright?"

Himika nodded. "Of course he will. Don’t worry, Kirin." She glanced around and the group of four. "Sakura, we would be able to cover more distance if we split up into groups of two. Groups of one would be too
dangerous." She said. Sakura glanced at Syaoran, who was not looking her way, an nodded. Though he didn’t see it, Himika did. "Um…I’ll go with Kirin." Syaoran glared at her, but nodded nonchalantly. "Let’s
go." Syaoran and Sakura went more to the left, as Himika and Kirin went more to the right. Both pairs were walking into the forest. Kirin clutched onto Himika’s arm.

"I’m scared…I hope onii-san is okay." She said. Himika nodded and squeezed the little girl’s hand lightly.

"I’m sure he is, I told you not to worry. You’re just wasting your energy, and I’m sure Shotoku wouldn’t like that. He would get mad at me, now do you want me to get in trouble?" Himika said gently. A smile slowly
spread across Kirin’s face as she shook her head, tossing her hair about her face.

"Of course not!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile, both Cardcaptors were practically walking two separate ways, considering the space between them. Each time Sakura stepped towards Syaoran, he stepped away. She stared at the gap between them
until she couldn’t bare it anymore. She looked at his form in the dark. "Syaoran, why are you avoiding me?" He turned to her and shook his head.

"I’m not avoiding you."

"You can’t fool me. Did I do something wrong?" she said, taking a step closer, this time, he didn’t back away. She knew he noticed, but he kept on staring into her eyes. They were quickly becoming glassy, making
the emerald seem glossed. A tear slid down her cheek, but she brushed it away quickly. "Please tell me if I did something wrong, then I can fix it. Why are you avoiding me? I don’t want you to! Please!" Syaoran
quickly turned away from her, to avoid her stare.

"Why would you care?"

"Why, why?" she sounded almost hysterical, but she kept her voice low. "You’re asking me why? You know perfectly well, stop acting dumb! Do you know how much it hurts?"

He knew the answer, but didn’t dare say it. "Why would it hurt anyway?"

She stopped and stared at him, disbelief evident in her watery eyes. She ran into his arms and buried her hands. Her cries came out muffled. "Because…Syaoran, aishiteru…you knew it, what did I do wrong?" His
arms froze, motionless in the air. He looked down at her head, the brown hair around her face, and the sad green eyes looking at him for an answer. His heart cried out in him, but he dared not speak. They just
stared, looking at each other. She looked for an answer, he looked for a way out of telling her the answer. Her hand reached up and brushed his cheek.

She didn’t bother waiting for his reply. She drew her lips close to his, until they just touched. "I’m sorry, for whatever I did…" she said, before she pressed them onto his. His arms finally came into motion as they
wrapped around her, and her hands touched his cheeks. They stayed like that for a few minutes, until both of them broke away from the lack of air. Syaoran got lost in her eyes as he stared at them. He shook his
head, smiling slightly.

"You didn’t do anything, Sakura. It’s all my fault. I’m so sorry for avoiding you, please forgive me."

Sakura smiled as if nothing else mattered and wrapped her arms around his neck. She nodded. "Apology accepted." She said, before kissing him again. A new voice was heard as they broke away.

"You didn’t listen to me, Syaoran, I told you not to get near her. Now she’s going to get hurt, just like I promised."