Eriol sat in his armchair holding his sun staff and observing a large glowing disc on the floor. Inside the disc was depicted the destruction of the Kingdom of Caring followed by Sweet Heart and Wish Bear combining magic to rewind time.
“So that’s what happened,” Eriol looked up at Ruby and Spinel, both observing while in their true forms, “It seems that things have taken a deviation from my original vision.”
“How did we not see this?” Spinel looked up at his master.
“Because until the moment of her rewind what I saw was accurate.” Eriol dismissed the vision disc, “However upon crossing that threshold the future changed to where we are now.”
“So how does this change our mission, master?” Ruby chewed on a finger for a moment.
“For now, we watch and wait,” Eriol sealed his staff up into a small key, “you don’t need to be so aggressive when pursuing Love Heart anymore either.”
Ruby smirked, “Oh but it’s fun and I won’t hurt him.”
“I’d hope not,” Spinel glared at her, “I’m more concerned with the fact that the Clow Cards and their magic aren’t a secret. It seems Love Heart made no real attempts to hide what was going on with them. I decided to follow and listen to that one fennec, Confidence Heart, for a time and it seems she caught on to Layla and Syaoran the moment they arrived so they may suspect why we’re here, though she doesn’t seem to realize I exist yet.”
“Interesting,” Eriol smiled, “Unless they try to expose us there’s no reason to change our approach. For now, we watch and wait.”
OoOoO
Love Heart was training with Independent Bear. Wooden swords clacked off each other the open mat area of the Care-a-Lot gym as they went through their sparring motions until Indy called a halt.
“You haven’t been slacking,” Indy took a drink from his water bottle, “but what prompted you to spend your limited free time on this?”
“Well, this is still my job, right? Being your sort of deputy as guardian of the Kingdom of Caring,” Love Heart also took a drink.
“Or sheriff as Take Care called me once,” Indy couldn’t help but laugh at the old joke between him and his wife. “But what about Confidence Heart?”
“Oh,” Love Heart sighed, “you heard about that.”
“Heard about what?” Indy took another drink, “It’s not my business what goes on in your love life I was genuinely asking why you weren’t spending time with her. What happened?”
“Well…” Love Heart took a deep breath and sighed, trying to figure out how to word it.
“They got into a fight about these recent magical disasters,” The Jump spirit piped up from where it had been sitting and watching. “He said she was into the danger, she said he was lazy and they left.”
“Hey! Yeah…” Love Heart sighed again, “that’s pretty much what happened.” Love Heart sat down, “I mean… I’m just tired of all this danger, everyone getting hurt and not knowing when something’s going to attack again. Wish and Sweet Heart are in therapy and Loyal Heart doesn’t think he’s a real person anymore…”
Indy set his now empty water bottle down, “You don’t think this is all your fault, do you?”
Love Heart shook his head, “No, but it’s still my responsibility to fix it, just like Take Care isn’t at fault for when we get sick but she still does everything to help us get better.”
Indy smiled, “Right, that’s a mature way to see it. You’re earning your pay for this job.”
“Even though it’s just random emergencies that don’t happen every day?” Love Heart looked over at Indy.
“Stop being down on yourself,” The Jump piped up.
“Listen to the spirit, Love Heart,” Indy nodded, “You’re doing your job well and you’re keeping up with your training like today. As for your argument with Confidence Heart: don’t worry too much about it, all good couples have arguments.”
Love Heart looked up at Indy, “Really? Even you and Take Care?”
Indy sighed, “Yes, even Take Care and me.”
“About what?” Love Heart was keenly interested.
“That’s private and besides the point. The point being that if a couple never argues or fight that either means they are holding things back that will boil over at some point or one is a simp to or victim of the other.” Indy noticed Love Heart was still paying attention so he continued, “You shouldn’t be fighting or arguing all the time but you’re going to disagree because no two people can agree on everything all the time and part of how your relationship is defined is how you deal with down times like this. And you’re young,” Indy stood up and picked up his wooden sword, “Your emotions are running hotter so your disagreements will probably be more volatile. Just take some time to think things through before you try to force anything. In the meantime, we should get back to training.”
“Alright,” Love Heart stood up and grabbed his own sword, “I’m also doing this to I don’t have to deal with Gift Bear today. She’s been more persistent ever since that fight…”
OoOoO
Take Care was reading at her reception desk when she heard a knock on her front door, the one that didn’t lead to the waiting room of her hospital. She sighed and bookmarked her page before she answered, only to find Gift Bear standing there with a far-too-sweet smile on her face (which was saying something in the Kingdom of Caring).
“Hiiiii!” Gift Bear looked up at Take Care, “I heard Love Heart came to visit? Is he alright? Can I see him?”
Take Care glared back at Gift, “Love Heart told me he doesn’t want to see you today now unless someone is sick or injured, please leave.” She shut the door in Gift’s face and returned to her book, waiting a moment before she opened it just in case Gift decided to be persistent. Thankfully not as Take Care was in no mood to deal with the newest Care Bear’s antics.
OoOoO
Confidence Heart looked around the lunch room then sighed and found a seat by herself. Love Heart was nowhere to be seen and hadn’t been all week; she hadn’t tried to contact him or even talk to him in class despite them sitting next to each other in home room.
“Hey, Cassy,” the voice made Confidence cringe. A girl in her grade who had been one who used to tease her before they found out she was a Care Bear.
“What do you want?” Confidence didn’t even both to turn to look at her.
“Just wondering where your boy toy is,” she leaned over on the table, which let Confidence see her dyed pink and blue hair out of the corner of her eye, “Did that new bear steal him or is he sneaking around behind your back with the other green one?”
“He’s just busy,” Confidence tried to ignore her as she stuffed her sandwich in her mouth.
“Yeah, getting busy after that big fight you had, after you almost got his sister stepped on by a giant teddy bear and he dumped you.”
Confidence’s ear flattened slightly as she seethed and was about to respond when another voice cut into the conversation. “Hey, leave Confidence Heart alone.” Confidence looked up to see Love-a-Lot Bear standing there, hands on hips.
“Butt out, not your conversation,” the human girl tried to dismiss Love-a-Lot.
“It is now, runner up,” the voice made the girl cringe as Cheer Bear walked up behind her, “Now leave her alone and go eat your lack of lunch.”
“Or I may have to sharpen my claws on something,” Proud Heart took a sea across from Confidence Heart.
Outnumbered, the girl just grumbled and left. Cheer shouted after her, “And don’t think you can miss practise!” then sat down along with Love-a-Lot, “Sorry about her, she’s still salty she’s not captain.”
Confidence managed a weak smile, “Thanks, but she used to torment me before I found out I was a Care Bear Cousin. Why’d you do that?”
“Because we don’t want to see you torn down by the high school rumor mill,” Love-a-Lot twirled a finger around on the table, “We heard what happened, or at least a few versions and pieced together the real story.”
Confidence sighed and smacked her face on the table, “Everyone’s talking about me and Love Heart behind our backs? I mean did our fight really do that much damage to us? Are we over?”
“Hold on right there!” Cheer pulled Confidence up into a sitting position, “You had one fight, right? Just one?”
Confidence shook her shoulders to force Cheer to let go, “Yeah, so?”
Cheer rolled her eyes, “A fight doesn’t mean you broke up or are ‘over’, it just means you didn’t agree on something.”
“Not every fight leads to a break up,” Love-a-Lot spoke up, “Tenderheart and I have argued before and we’re still together, mostly when he gets too absorbed in his extra-curriculars.”
“Not like Swifty and I agree on everything either,” Proud Heart took a drink of water, “You’ve got to stop taking life advice from sitcoms, Confidence. I mean relationships don’t end because you had one argument and if you were fighting once a week like in a show like that it would be a really unhealthy relationship and even then when you see that you’re just seeing the most ‘interesting’ parts of their lives, not the days of mundane contentedness in between all of that.”
“I guess I get it…” Confidence stared at her mostly uneaten lunch, “so was I wrong about him?”
“On no you’re totally right that Love Heart takes forever to get stuff done,” Cheer laughed, “But he wasn’t wrong either, you sound waaaay to eager to throw yourself at every magical monster that shows up.”
“Just take some time, think about things until you’ve calmed down and then talk to him,” Love-a-Lot said, “right now he’s trying to help Wish and Loyal Heart with their Clow related problems but once he’s done hopefully it’ll be a good time to talk.”
“And what if it’s not?” Confidence sank in her seat.
Proud reached over to take Confidence’s hand, “Trust us, it will be.”
Confidence smiled, “Thanks girls. Wait… where are your boyfriends?”
“We told them you needed some girl talk to help with this, they got it,” Cheer waved to where Champ, Swift Heart and Tenderheart were seated, and he waved back.
OoOoO
“Hey, Love Heart!” Harmony Bear waved as she jogged to catch up to Love Heart, “Going to see Wish again?”
“Huh? Oh yeah,” Love Heart sounded half-interested.
Harmony didn’t seem to catch on and elbowed Love Heart gently, “Be careful, after that fight you had with Confidence people might think you’re cheating on her.”
“What?!” Love Heart jumped, “No! I just I-”
“Whoa! Whoa! Calm down!” Harmony waved her hands, “I was just kidding, though Love-a-Lot’s been going around squashing that rumor. But seriously, why are you going to see Wish so much?”
Love Heart was silent for a minute before he started back on the way to Wish’s house, with Harmony joining him, “Because she needs help. She’s been in therapy for a while now but she isn’t getting any better. Every time I visit her she’s just sitting or lying the dark and talking about how she was trapped in darkness and can’t stop thinking about it. I’m worried that she’s not going to survive much longer…”
Harmony nodded, the thought of that sending a shiver through her, “If only she could forget that part, lose the memories of darkness.”
Love Heart stopped, “Maybe she can. Harmony you just gave me an idea!” Love Heart sped up, heading for Wish’s twice as fast which forced Harmony to jog to catch up.
“What’s the idea?”
Wish heard the door knock and had to force herself up off her bed, turning on the lights as she stumbled to the door.
“Love Heart? Harmony?” Wish stepped back from the open door to let them in, “How are you?”
“Good, in fact Harmony just gave me an idea of how to help you,” Love Heart didn’t take off his winter clothes as he fished a card out of the Heart Book at his side and held it up.
“The Erase?” Wish Bear looked at the card.
OoOoO
Dr Parker looked apprehensively across from her desk at Love Heart and Wish Bear, “So, Love Heart, you want to use magic to try and erase Wish Bear’s memories.”
“Just the part about her being trapped in a void for six months,” Love Heart tapped The Erase where it lay on the desk then turned to Wish.
Wish stared at the desk, “Please, every time I close my eyes I’m back in the void of nothingness where I couldn’t do anything, I just… I can’t handle it much longer even with your help it’s always there, at the edge of my consciousness.” She shivered and grabbed at her own arms, “I just don’t want to be forced back there…”
“Please, I need to do this,” Love Heart sounded almost as desperate as Wish did.
Dr. Parker turned her concerned eye on Love Heart, “I hope you don’t blame yourself for what happened to Wish, Love Heart.”
Love Heart shook his head, “No, but it’s still my responsibility to help her get better, just like you even if it’s with magic.”
Dr. Parker thought for a moment then nodded, “Alright, we can try it, but only once and with my supervision.”
Love Heart smiled, “Thank you.”
A few minutes later they were in Dr. Parker’s exam room and Wish was laying back on the couch like she usually did for her sessions.
Dr. Parker gave Wish a glass of water, “Just drink slowly and relax, I’m not sure about this but if you are then I’m willing to try.”
Wish managed a small smiled, “Thank you.” She finished the water then lay back, took a deep breath and closed her eyes, “I’m ready.”
Love Heart nodded and pulled out his key.
"Key of the Heart With Powers Burning Bright Reveal the Staff And Shine Your Light Release!"
Love Heart grabbed the staff from the air and pulled out The Erase Card.
Dr. Parker just stared, “I’ve never seen this magic up close before.”
Love Heart was to focused to reply as he threw The Erase up and spun his staff around.
"Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall Ancient forces heed my call! Erase Card, discard your former might And draw new power from my light Heart Card!"
The burst of energy that accompanied The Erase changing into a green Heart Card was followed by Love Heat pointing the staff at Wish Bear, “Erase Card, go into Wish’s memory and erase her memory of floating in the dark void as The Wish Card!” The Erase bowed then flew at Wish Bear, turned transparent and flowed into the teal bear’s head as Love Heart whispered something else.
Love Heart and D. Parker watched wordlessly as Wish squirmed, groaned, then let out a sigh and sank into the chair as if she were in deep sleep. A moment later The Erase emerged and became solid again. “It is done,” it whispered.
“Thank you, Erase, now come back,” Love Heart held up his hand and The Erase flowed back into its card in his hand. “I should go before she wakes up, please let me know how it goes.”
“OK,” Dr. Parker watched as Love Heart left, then sat down next to Wish as she came around. “Wish Bear, how do you feel?”
“A bit tired,” Wish admitted.
“Now tell me, what do you remember about the last year, please,” Dr. Parker picked up her notepad.
“I remember… helping Sweet Heart with the Clow Cards, then Care-a-Lot being destroyed and using a wish with Sweet Heart to undo everything… Then I think I fell asleep because the next thing I remember is waking up surrounded by all my friends around Christmas time,” Wish turned to Dr. Parker.
“It seems like you were in a deep sleep for that time, do you remember anything else?” Dr. Parker asked.
“Just that Love Heart took over as the Cardcaptor…”
OoOoO
Harmony waited the hour for Wish’s session to finish and walked her home, Love Heart waiting in a separate room to speak with Dr. Parker in her office.
“She doesn’t remember you helping her either,” the doctor said, “Did you make her forget that too?”
“I wasn’t sure how well it would work, and I was worried that if she knew I erased her memory of that it might trigger a relapse,” Love Heart held up the Erase Card, “the erasing isn’t permanent until a full day passes so I just hope nothing triggers her until then.”
“She does seem calmer,” Dr. Parker looked back over her notes, “I’ll need a couple more times to make sure but she doesn’t seem suicidal anymore. Please let me know if anything else goes wrong.”
Love Heart smiled, “I will.”
The doctor put her notes down, “Though I have to ask, why didn’t she just wish her bad memories away?”
Love Heart folded his arms, “I asked her about that when we were kids: Wish can’t just make any wish she wants anytime, they only work when it’s the only option or things are really desperate like the first time we faced Cold Heart. Everyone got caught by his traps and she wished us all into his castle because there was no other way for us to get there. I remember she was really tired for the next day so I guess it takes a lot out of her to mess with reality like that.”
“I see,” Dr. Parker nodded, “thank you.”
“You’re welcome, now I need to get home,” Love Heart yawned and stretched as he stood up, “I’m exhausted.” He left her office and headed for home.
