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It’s a nagging feeling, one some would call “precognition,” that calls Tomoyo to the right place and the right time.
She waits patiently. Her limo driver, a thoughtful older woman who has long since learned not to question her employer’s quirks and hunches, will give her as much time as she needs. This will be true well past one in the morning, which it already is, even if Tomoyo takes a spontaneous, hours-long trip out to a specific garden in the countryside, which she has.
A flash of light catches her attention. She smiles. Her reason for coming has finally arrived.
The flash grows, becoming a steady, even strobe. It forms a ball of light, humming with power, and then stretches beyond it into an impression of wings, a familiar-feeling pattern. The light begins to fade, rapidly, but before it does it gently deposits a young woman from its unraveling cocoon.
Princess Sakura catches herself with a few surprised steps, looking around with one concerned fist raised to her chest.
“Welcome, Princess Sakura,” Tomoyo greets warmly.
“Oh!” Sakura turns, surprised. “You… I know you, though we’ve not yet met. Would you be Daidouji-san?”
She giggles. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. You may call me Tomoyo.”
“Tomoyo,” Sakura says, with the refreshing smile of greeting a friend this time. Tomoyo doesn’t expect the complete lack of honorific, the immediate intimacy, but takes it as a pleasant surprise. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well. I… I didn’t expect to meet you so soon, or so easily.”
“Then it must be fate,” Tomoyo replies.
This version of Sakura that the stars have brought her is like and unlike she expects. Sakura wears a simple, yet very finely embroidered skirt, with perhaps a small slit for ease of movement. Underneath she wears surprisingly modern leggings, and incongruently old-fashioned leather boots. Her shirt is also finely embroidered with gold and small cherry blossom petals, with a sweetheart neckline that makes it feel truly fit for a princess. Tomoyo nods, satisfied. Whoever has come before her has done their job well, to ensure that Sakura has such fitting and adorable clothes.
Sakura blushes faintly, tugging at her skirt’s hem. “Is this outfit alright for your country? I wasn’t sure…”
“It suits you well.”
“I’m pleased to hear it. I was told as much, but I don’t think I’m the best judge of such things.” Sakura smiles, looking around. “This place… It’s beautiful.”
“I agree. It’s fitting that you would arrive here.” Tomoyo’s eyes fall on several lovely sights - the cherry trees in bloom, the star-swathed sky, and the little sculptures of birds in birdfeeders dotted around. She waves to the open spot on the bench she’s sitting on.
Sakura smiles, looking around for herself. She fans her skirt out to sit. “What is this place?”
“A garden. This one in particular is open to the public, though not usually so late at night. However, Piffle Company opens doors otherwise closed.”
“Even for gardens? All that your Sakura remembered was the city. I do want to see it.”
“The city is wonderful, but every person still needs ways to find greenery, and escape from it. Even me.” She gazes over in the direction of the city. “So, Piffle Company has invested in gardens, yes, among other measures to improve things. Some years ago, you wouldn’t see the stars from here.”
“Why not?” Sakura asks. There’s a sincere honesty in her voice.
Tomoyo remembers that this Sakura is from a desert kingdom, far from other civilization. “It’s something called light pollution. It used to be that a city with so many lights would dominate the sky, blotting the stars out. However, through careful work involving directional light, shielding, and a few other tricks, we invested in making a change. The cost and manpower was quite expensive.” Tomoyo looks up. “It was worth it.”
Sakura seems entranced as she looks up. “I agree.”
“I’ll admit that I hoped,” Tomoyo continued, in a softer voice, “that it would help you find your way here.”
Sakura looked at her, wide-eyed. “Me? Surely, the other Sakura…”
“No. You, Princess Sakura.”
“You can just call me… Sakura,” says Sakura, with a puzzled frown.
Tomoyo ducks her head to hide any reaction. That’s not the name she wants to call this Sakura by, but Tomoyo shouldn’t know her true name. Tomoyo only knows it because of a dream of a dream. So she shouldn’t say anything. When she lifts her head, her smile is as refined as ever. “Thank you. I’m honored, as I am by your visit to my country. May I have the honor of hosting you while you’re here?”
“No, it’s my honor entirely!” Sakura smiles. “I feel very lucky. I wasn’t expecting any reception at all.”
“It will be a pleasure,” Tomoyo promises, entirely honest. “Stay as long as you like. We can watch Dragonfly races, or I can show you our fashion, or anything else you might like.”
“I’d love that.” Sakura smiles. There’s a hint of something not quite like sadness in her eyes, and Tomoyo, who often knows more than she should but rarely enough to know Sakura’s heart, wishes she knew what put it there. It could have to do with her Syaoran…
Best not to speculate. Tomoyo rises to her feet, holding a hand out to Sakura. “Come with me. I’d be happy to take you to someplace to sleep tonight.”
“Not just yet, if that’s okay?” Sakura takes Tomoyo’s hand, but to gently bring her back down to the bench. “Learning to travel dimensions has taken a lot out of me.”
Tomoyo sits back down. “Of course.”
“What did you mean, that the stars might help me come here?”
Thoughtfully, Tomoyo nods at her. This Sakura is surprisingly direct. “I’ve dreamed of you before,” she says, “and other Princess Sakuras like you. Many of them have powerful magic that connects to the stars.”
“So it might facilitate my travel,” Sakura says, nodding with wide eyes. “That was clever.”
“There were other benefits. But that was my hope, yes.”
“I think it did. Help, I mean.”
“Good.” Tomoyo takes a deep breath, full of calm satisfaction.
It’s a joy to have her here. Her presence brings her such happiness. Tomoyo had hoped and known it would, because she was Sakura, after all, but it was still a wonder to feel it for herself. Even if she also knew her fate, and the fate of every Tomoyo she had met in dreams.
Sakura still seems troubled by something. “But… You wanted to meet me? I’m not the Sakura you met before. I just have her memories. I’m the one that didn’t travel. The one that was frozen… The one that was…”
“Left behind?” Tomoyo supplies.
Sakura grimaces, winding her fingers into the metal bench. “So you know?”
“Not truly, or fully, but I can guess.” Tomoyo puts a hand over Sakura’s. “After all, if you hadn’t been, I think you wouldn’t be traveling alone.”
“I suppose not.” Sakura smiles, but it’s bitter this time, as she bows her head slightly. “I understand why Syaoran needed to go without me. But it still hurts. To love him, and yet, for him to not be able to stand being near me.”
“Someday he’ll come back to you,” Tomoyo promises, because she knows how the story goes, and how it ends. “You’re his most precious person, aren’t you?”
“Am I?” Sakura shakes his head. “I don’t know. That’s why I left Clow Kingdom. I’ll return when I’m well and ready, but I needed to see and do things for myself. ”
“Then I’m pleased you wound up seeing me.”
“Wound up?” Sakura looks up, a little startled. “No, Tomoyo. The other Sakura had no choice of where they went, but with my power fully mine, there’s no such limitation. I chose Piffle country. I wanted to see you.”
“Oh… Oh my,” Tomoyo says, because she can’t think of what else to say. Her heart races.
Until this moment, she had actually forgotten that her hand was on top of Sakura’s. Sakura tilts her hand, winding her fingers between the gaps in Tomoyo’s gloves. “You intrigue me, Tomoyo. The memory Sakura had of you was of someone caring, yet so distant. She met other versions of you on your travels. Each seemed lonely.” Sakura turns to face Tomoyo with a brittle smile. “But you seemed loneliest of all. I thought, why not be lonely together? If you’ll have me?”
Hope isn’t something Tomoyo feels often. Surprise isn’t, either. She barely knows what to do with what she wants, even as it stares her in the face with enchanting green eyes and a gentle smile. “Sakura…” She takes a deep breath. “Please don’t speak carelessly. I would cherish your friendship, foremost. I know you care for Syaoran-kun.”
Because Sakura always did. The two of them were bound together again and again in the threads of fate, and Tomoyo’s thread was only ever woven in to help them meet. There were no coincidences in this world. Sometimes, at the darkest moments, that meant there was no hope, either. Or so she was used to thinking.
Sakura grips her hand tightly. “Fate has not treated me so kindly. I’m not being careless. And Syaoran isn’t here. He chose to leave. Tomoyo,” she pleads, “I don’t know if that Sakura ever knew, but I saw it. I saw your affection. If there’s any fraction of it left for me - if the stars and my power both brought me to you - surely there’s meaning in that?” She shuts her eyes. “Maybe this once, fate could be nice to us both?”
“You’re a little different the Sakura-chan I met,” Tomoyo whispers. She knows better. She should know better. But…
Sakura flinches. “Is it a bad thing?”
“No.” Tomoyo reaches for a stand of Sakura’s hair, carefully. Sakura doesn’t stop her, instead starting to smile again. A charming Sakura-like smile, with growing, brilliant joy. As Tomoyo tucks Sakura’s hair behind her ear, she leans in, and kisses her cheek. Just to dip her toes in, and test the waters.
Sakura’s breath hitches. She looks into Tomoyo’s eyes searching, with a stubborn, endearing frown. And, with determination, she dives in.