Chapter Text
"Hospital?! What happened?!" Sakura asked Touya over the phone. She had just finished her lunch when Touya called to tell her that their father was in the hospital.
"Exhaustion. He's been busy lately, with some new projects. Earlier, he collapsed in the office and they rushed him to the hospital. The doctor said he's too tired and that he has pushed himself too hard." Touya explained. "Nothing to worry about. But he needs to rest and take a break. Let's be honest here, we all saw this coming."
This was what she'd been worried about for the past few years. "I've told him he needs to get some rest, take a break… How's he doing?"
"Pretty upset, actually. He was supposed to go on a dig site tomorrow, but obviously that's not going to happen now." Touya said. "He didn't want me to call you, but hey, there's nothing he can do about it."
"Thanks for letting me know, Touya. What is he going to do, do you know?" Sakura asked as she loaded the plates into the dishwasher.
"I'm going to ask him to take a vacation. Yuki and I are going to take a few weeks off work. We're going to take him somewhere." Touya said. "Maybe it's time we visit you guys in London, seeing that it's almost Christmas and all."
"That's a great idea! Since Eriol and I are not going back to Japan this year, you guys should come over and we'll spend Christmas and New Year here. We're going to the lake house. That would be very good for Dad!" Sakura said excitedly.
"Yeah, well, the problem is how do we convince him to go? He's itching to go back out there to the dig site." Touya said and saw Yukito call him. "You should call him. Oh, and get Eriol to call him. Maybe he can talk some sense into him. We're going to gang up on him. I've got to go. The doctor is here."
"Okay. Please keep me posted, ok Touya?" Sakura told her brother before they hung up. Sakura sighed heavily. She had been telling her father to take a break, but he was adamant that he was fine. Now he had collapsed and had to be hospitalized.
Sakura told her husband about it over dinner and about Touya's idea about coming over for Christmas and New Year.
"That's a good idea." Eriol agreed.
"The problem is, we need to convince Dad. Call him, talk to him. Maybe he'll listen to you." Sakura said as she placed his food in front of him.
The next day, Eriol called his father-in-law and talked to him. Sakura had also talked to her Dad and like Touya said, they were all going to gang up on him to get him to agree to take a vacation.
Finally, Fujitaka agreed to take a vacation and go to London to visit his daughter and son-in-law. They quickly made the arrangement and they'd be arriving in London a week before Christmas and would stay until a week after New Year.
On the day of their arrival, Sakura and Eriol went to the airport to pick them up.
"Over here!" Sakura waved her hand excitedly when she spotted them walking out.
They greeted each other.
"Dad, how are you doing? Are you feeling okay?" Sakura asked worriedly.
"I'm okay, Sakura." Fujitaka assured her.
They walked to the parking garage as they chatted. They would be staying in their house for the duration of their stay.
They loaded up their bags into the trunk of Eriol's car and piled up inside. Sakura sat in the back with Touya and Yukito, while Fujitaka sat on the passenger seat up front.
"This is your house?" Touya looked at the big house after they stepped out of the car at the front door.
Sakura nodded. "Welcome!"
"Wow! It's huge!" Touya took in the entrance hall, the grand staircase and the general feel of the house. The house was old fashioned, like the ones seen in historical shows or books. There were plenty of rooms and although Eriol had done many renovation to modernize it, he left some parts in the original state and design.
"It's a little on the big side." Sakura led them upstairs and assigned them their rooms. Touya and Yukito would be sharing a room, while Fujitaka would have the room for himself. After they'd put their bags away, she gave them the tour of the house.
Fujitaka was happy to see that his daughter was well taken care of, not that he ever doubted Eriol. It was clear to him, and everyone else, that the young sorcerer was very much in love with his wife. From the look of things, his son-in-law had money and he wasn't hesitant to spend it on Sakura.
After the tour, they took them to dinner at one of the upscale Japanese restaurants.
"I heard that fish and chips are popular here. Maybe we can try them at some point?" Fujitaka asked.
"Yes, of course. There's one near our place, so we'll definitely get it." Sakura nodded. "We've also booked some attractions, including a tour to the Buckingham palace. I've never been there myself, so it's going to be new experience for me too."
"I've never been there either." Eriol said. "This is a good opportunity to tour London."
"But, we're going to the lake house for Christmas?" Touya reviewed the plan.
"That's the plan. But if everyone would rather spend Christmas in the city, that's fine by us." Sakura said.
"A lakehouse sounds nice. I personally would love to go there." Yukito said and Touya and Fujitaka agreed with him.
"Okay, so if everyone agrees, then we can go." Sakura nodded.
The next day, Fujitaka woke up pretty early at 5.30am. He looked out of the window and saw that it was still dark outside. So, he stayed in bed for a little longer before finally getting up at 6.30am. He got dressed and stepped outside. He wanted to go downstairs, but ended up getting lost.
"Good morning." Someone greeted him.
Fujitaka spun around and saw Spinel. "Oh, good morning, Spinel."
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, Mr. Kinomoto." Spinel apologized.
"That's alright." Fujitaka assured him.
"Master is in the kitchen, preparing breakfast. Mistress is still asleep though. She usually wakes up at 7am or so." Spinel informed Fujitaka.
"I'm trying to find the kitchen, but I'm afraid I've gotten lost." Fujitaka admitted.
"Please follow me. I'll take you to the kitchen." Spinel said.
Fujitaka followed Spinel to the kitchen. "Thank you, Spinel."
"You're welcome." Spinel nodded and floated away.
"Good morning." Fujitaka greeted Eriol when he saw him standing in front of the kitchen counter, whisking a big bowl of eggs.
"Good morning." Eriol smiled. "Did you sleep well? You woke up early. Jetlag?"
"I believe so. But I slept well last night." Fujitaka replied and approached the younger man. "Anything I can do to help?"
"I'm fine. But if you want to help, please start on the pancake." Eriol showed him where the batter was.
Fujitaka started making pancakes. "You have a nice house."
"Thank you. It's actually Clow's house." Eriol told him. He grabbed another pan and heated up some oil. He poured the egg into the pan to make scrambled egg.
"Oh? When was it built?" Fujitaka asked as he flipped the pancake.
"I don't know for sure, but most probably sometime in the 14th century. It's the Reed family house, have been for generations." Eriol stirred the egg. "But of course, it has gone through numerous renovations."
"That's very interesting." Fujitaka said. "So, the house still stays in the family."
"Yes, I suppose." Eriol nodded. "Even though I don't carry the name, I'm still a Reed."
"Morning!" They heard Sakura's voice from the doorway. "Dad! You're up early!"
"Good morning, Sakura. I believe I have jetlag." Fujitaka greeted his daughter.
"Oh yeah, jetlag sucks." Sakura walked to the cabinet and grabbed some mugs. "Would you like tea or coffee, Dad?"
"Tea is fine, Sakura." Fuijtaka said and Sakura put two tea bags into two mugs, one for Fujitaka, one for Eriol. The coffee machine was already running.
Eriol moved the egg into a big dish before starting on the bacon and sausages.
Fujitaka stacked the pancakes on a plate. "What are we going to do today?"
"Hm, I think we're going to the Tower Bridge and the museum. If we have time, we could go check out The Shard as well."
"When are we going to the Buckingham Palace?" Fujitaka asked.
"That should be tomorrow… Hii, did you get the tickets?" Sakura checked.
"I did, for tomorrow. We can go to London's Eye too today." Eriol flipped the bacon. "We can go to the House of Parliament and Big Ben tomorrow too."
"Sounds like a good plan." Fujitaka nodded as Touya and Yue showed up.
"Yue?" Sakura looked surprised.
"Hello, Sakura. Touya and Yukito got lost, so I had to take over." Yue explained.
Sakura smiled. "Yes, this house could be confusing. I got lost too at first. It's good that you still remember."
"A lot of things have changed since I was here though." Yue said.
"I did some renovation." Eriol said. "Some parts of the house were starting to fall apart and had to be repaired or rebuilt entirely."
"Tea? Coffee?" Sakura offered as Yue turned back to Yukito.
"Coffee, please." Touya yawned. He was still a little sleepy.
"Tea for me, please." Yukito said and Sakura placed a tea bag into another mug.
Sakura poured the hot water into the mugs and took the mugs to the table. She then went to get the sugar and milk and brought them to the table too. Lastly, she poured two mugs of coffee for herself and Touya.
"Sit down. Here's the sugar and milk. Oh, hold on, I'll get the creamer." She went to the fridge to get the creamer for the coffee.
Everyone sat down and started eating breakfast. They went over their plan for today, with Sakura's assurance that they absolutely didn't have to do everything and would play it by the ear.
After breakfast, Sakura and Eriol cleaned up quickly and they got ready to leave.
They took their family around London, visiting the various landmarks and taking a lot of pictures. They went to the Tower Bridge and the Victoria and Albert museum in the morning. Then they had a late lunch and continued the tour, ending the evening at the London Eye.
"That was great!" Touya said at the end of the day.
"Get some rest, everyone. We'll have another full day tomorrow with the booked tours and all." Sakura told them.
They bid each other good night and retired to their rooms.
"Maybe we overdid it today. After all, it's only their first day." Sakura mused as she sat in the bathtub. Eriol was standing by the sink, brushing his teeth.
"You're excited and wanted to show them everything."
"Hm, true. But the goal is to help Dad relax and for everyone to enjoy themselves, not to rush to places, one after another. We should take it easy…"
"After tomorrow, the schedule is pretty open. We can relax a little."
"Yes." Sakura nodded and got up. She reached for the towel and dried herself off before wrapping the towel around herself and made her way to the sink. She ran her toothbrush under the water, applied the toothpaste and started brushing her teeth as Eriol walked to the bedroom.
The next day, they went to Buckingham Palace, the House of Parliament and the Big Ben. For dinner, they bought fish and chips and ate at home.
"The rain is so heavy." Touya said as he stood by the window.
"Unfortunately, it's quite a common thing here in London." Sakura said from her place on the couch. "It looks like we're not going to be going anywhere today."
They had planned to go to Hyde Park, but that wasn't happening anymore. The rain started early this morning and had been getting worse as the day went by.
"We could go for a drive, but with this rain, there's not much to see." Eriol said.
"Then let's just stay here for today." Yukito said. "I don't mind. It's supposed to be a holiday when we can relax. We're not in any rush, are we?"
"Yukito is right. Let's just have a lazy day indoors today." Touya agreed.
So it was decided that they would spent their day at home.
"Eriol, can I take a look at your book collection?" Fujitaka asked and Eriol led him to the library.
"Hey, Sakura, I saw a pool table. Can we use that?" Touya asked.
"Yes, of course." Sakura nodded and they went to the game room.
"Oh, I don't play though." Yukito said.
"Neither do I." Sakura said. "Eriol usually plays with John. Let me get him." Sakura left them in the game room and went to fetch her husband, who was in his study. "Hii, are you busy?"
"No, just checking emails. Why?" Eriol asked.
"Touya wants to play pool, but he has nobody to play with."
"Give me a second. I just need to send this." Eriol typed his reply and clicked 'Send'. He closed his computer and went with his wife to the game room.
Touya and Eriol played pool with Yukito and Sakura watching from the side. At some point, Sakura announced that she was going to make lunch and Yukito went with her.
After lunch, the rain hadn't stopped. They hung out in the living room, just relaxing.
"I'll play something." Eriol said and moved to the piano. He sat down and started playing some music, which everyone enjoyed. Next, it was Touya's turn.
"It's been a long time since I had this kind of relaxing day." Fujitaka said. "In fact, I don't remember ever having a day like this."
"I'm glad, Dad. That's the whole point of coming here, isn't it? So that you could relax and not worry about a thing." Sakura said.
"That's right." Touya agreed. "I think this is good for all of us. I've been rather busy too lately. It's good to be able to relax and not think about work for once."
After dinner, they decided to have an early night since there was nothing much that they could do anyway. Outside, the heavy rain had turned into a thunderstorm.
"Good night, everyone." Sakura told them. She was going to stay in the living room to watch Netflix. Kero and Spinel were with her and Eriol was in his study.
"Man, the storm outside, these corridors… This house could get creepy." Touya commented as they walked back to their room.
"I'm sure there's nothing to worry about." Yukito said reassuringly.
"I'm surprised Sakura isn't scared." Touya said as they entered their room.
"I'm so thirsty…" Touya said as he lay in bed a couple of hours later.
"Didn't you bring water?" Yukito asked sleepily from beside him.
"No. I guess I could go and get some." Touya got up and put on his robe. At the same time, there was a loud thunder that made him jump. "Geeze!"
Yukito chuckled. "And you like to laugh at Sakura for being scared."
"Shut up!" Touya grumbled and walked to the door. He reached for the handle and paused briefly, but long enough for Yukito to notice.
"Do you want me, or Yue, to accompany you?" Yukito asked teasingly.
"No! I'm not scared! Why would I be scared? I can see spirits. Nothing scares me."
"Okay. Bye then." Yukito turned and pulled the blanket up.
Touya opened the door and stepped into the dark corridor. He wasn't sacred, but the unfamiliar environment made him uneasy. He tried to remember which way to go and started walking. "Scared? Why would I be scared? There's nothing here that scares me." He muttered to himself as he navigated through the corridor. "Huh? Have I not been here earlier?" He looked around and scratched his head.
Touya continued to walk, but he felt like he was walking in circles. A small part of him told himself to give up and go back to his room, but the more stubborn part compelled him to go on, until he reached a dead end. "Shit…" Touya muttered in annoyance.
When he heard the door opened and a faint light flooded into the hallway, Touya jumped in surprise and turned around to see Eriol standing by the open door, Sakura peeking out from behind him. Both of them were dressed in pajamas and sleep robes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Is everything okay? What are you doing?" Eriol apologized. Touya saw he wasn't wearing his glasses. It looked like they were both ready for bed.
"I'm okay." Touya said quickly. "Sorry to wake you up. I just wanted to get some water from the kitchen."
"I'll go with you. Go back to bed, Hii." Sakura yawned and told her husband. Eriol just smiled in amusement before stepping back into their room. "Come on, Touya."
"I didn't get lost!" Touya told her. "It's just dark and unfamiliar."
"I didn't say you were. But this house is confusing." Sakura said calmly as she started walking. "Took me a couple of weeks to really familiarize myself with the layout."
"I thought you'd be scared living in a house like this." Touya said.
"I was, at first. You know me… But Eriol has made sure that there's nothing else here but us and after a while, I got used to it. It is, after all, my home now."
"I didn't see any sort of alarm. Aren't you worried about intruder?" Touya asked.
Sakura shook her head. "No. Nobody could get into the house without Eriol knowing about it. He'll know the moment anyone stepped across the threshold, past the gate."
"Well, he could be asleep."
"He could be, but the house would alert him." Sakura told him as they walked down the stairs. "Nothing could get into the house if Eriol didn't want them to."
"That's quite something."
"This house has magic and Eriol is the master of the house. And when you're talking about magic, especially Eriol's magic, there are… perks."
They arrived in the kitchen and Touya got a glass of water.
Sakura took out a pint of ice cream from the fridge. "You want some?"
"Why are you getting ice cream at… What time is it now?" Touya asked.
"Midnight snack. Well, not exactly as it's only eleven." Sakura said casually. "Do you want any or not?"
"Might as well." Touya finally said.
Sakura scooped the ice cream into two bowls.
"You have one hell of a security system." Touya said as they walked back upstairs.
Sakura agreed. "Yes, that's why I'm not scared. I have no reason to be."
Sakura walked Touya to his room and bid him good night. "Oh, one more thing." She said. "The light switch is over here, if you need to go out." She showed him.
"Okay. Thanks." Touya watched Sakura walked away in the dark and disappeared around the corner.
Sakura went back to her room and found Eriol waiting for her in bed. "Everything ok?"
"Yes, he was just lost, but of course, he didn't want to admit it." Sakura smiled. She hadn't wanted to get ice cream, but she knew Touya would feel bad if she said she was just accompanying him. "I got ice cream."
"Nice." Eriol smiled. He wouldn't say no to midnight snack. "Give it here."
They ate the ice cream before going to sleep.
"You expect me to believe that not a single ghost or spirit lives at your place?" Touya asked Eriol the next day. Sakura was talking to Fujitaka and Yukito.
"None. There has never been. The magic of the house is designed to repel them." Eriol paused. "Well, Clow's spirit is still around and he drops by every now and then, but that's different."
"I thought you're not scared of ghost?"
"I'm not and I don't mind their presence, but it doesn't mean I want to share my living space with them. As you know, some spirits could be very… troublesome. And now, with Sakura in the house, I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable."
"That's true. Does Sakura know about Clow's spirit hanging out in the house?"
"She does, but she doesn't mind. Seeing that technically we're the same person and our souls are tied to each other's."
Touya chuckled. "Can't have one without the other, huh?"
"Correct." Eriol nodded.
"It's an old house though."
"It's a few centuries old, yes. It was built even before Clow's time. It has belonged to Clow's family for generations."
"It's in a good state though." Touya said. The house looked like a brand new house, with no sign of deterioration whatsoever. "Magic?"
"Magic." Eriol confirmed.
"Why are you two whispering like a pair of gossiping girls?" Sakura asked. "Let's go!"
"Coming, dear." Eriol went to her dutifully.
They were taking their family to Hyde Park Wonderland to watch the circus and check out the Christmas market.
"How nice!" Yukito said happily as he sipped on a cup of hot chocolate. "England is really something."
"It's quite different from Japan, yes." Touya agreed, holding his own hot chocolate in his hands.
"I love it here." Sakura said. "There was a culture shock at first, but now I really like it."
They explored the market before watching the circus. Once the show was over, they just walked around to enjoy the atmosphere before going back to the house.