Thank you for all your comments and support to this story. The plot of this story has actually changed a lot since I started with the first chapter, so many things that I had planned were actually taken out. Many of you left reviews with questions that I hope will become clear by the end of the chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the card captor Sakura characters... everything else is mine.
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Long 9 Months
Chapter 8 : Where's the Bastard!?
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Syaoran groaned, his hand coming to cover his eyes as he blinked profusely. He rubbed his temples, a light buzz continuing to present itself as he lifted his upper body from the cooling floor. His hands fingered the material that was under him, finding himself over part of his pants and covered by a very slim material.
He'd been covered with a light sheet, which had fallen bellow as he'd moved in his slumber.
He was disoriented. It took him several seconds to recall what had happened in the last hour. Syaoran looked around the room, trying to spot any clue as to Sakura's location.
There was nothing in the room that would pertain to her. His eyes caught with the light pink color that was prevalent on a corner. He narrowed his eyes, trying to concentrate on the object. It was a flower. It was one of the flowers that Sakura had been wearing earlier.
Sakura wasn't anywhere to be seen though.
A knock brought him out of his wondering thoughts. Syaoran looked down, knowing that he was stark naked.
"Can I come in?" Syaoran relaxed somewhat as he realized who was behind the door. "I don't care if you're decent."
Syaoran decided to at least slip on his underwear and start dressing. Eriol didn't even wait for an answer before opening the door and entering the room. He quickly took the appearance of his friend and of the room, his eyes taking in every little detail that was available.
"You disappeared over two hours ago," Eriol decided to start the conversation with something akin to normal chatter. "I decided to look for you and see if you hadn't been abducted by aliens."
Eriol grinned as his cousin sent him a glare. It was the normal bartering they sustained. It was a safe pattern that they followed to come into facts with something that was constraining them.
Syaoran blushed, he pulled on the turtleneck, the scent of sweat, mingled with Sakura's fragrance playing with his nostrils.
"Do you know where Sakura is?" Syaoran decided to ask. He didn't actually know how long it had been since he'd been out and it was a safe bet to know that Eriol would know. Sakura always stayed beside Tomoyo in these things and Eriol in turn was always in their company when not with him.
"She left a half an hour ago with Chavela," Eriol informed him as he picked up the flowers that had littered the floor. "It's close to two thirty in the morning."
Syaoran searched for his watch, finding it over the sink and confirming his friend's statement. He didn’t even know how much time they’d spent in the bathroom.
“Where are you going?” Eriol asked as Syaoran washed his hands, dried them and proceeded to pull his turtleneck over his head. He was walking to the door of the bathroom as he managed the task.
“It’s late and I’m tired,” Syaoran grimaced as his left knee tried to give out on him. “With Sakura gone, I have nothing to do in this place.”
“Syaoran,” Eriol released a deep breath as his cousin paused by the partly opened door. “We need to talk.”
Eriol didn’t know if Syaoran would choose to open the door further or turn to him. He was just standing there, completely still. There were no response to his words.
“What about?” Syaoran asked as he decided to close the door and lean against it. He crossed his arms, his eyes partly closed as he gave his attention to his cousin. It was then that he noticed that Eriol was agitated.
It wasn’t really obvious to see. To the casual observer, Eriol’s body seemed to portray his usual stance, the smile at his lips the same with the expression he always wore. But, to Syaoran’s eyes who had watched him throughout the years, the wavering of his eyes and the light tremble of his fingers gave away his agitation.
“There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” Eriol began. It was hard to find the right words to get to the topic of conversation he wanted to steer them to. The words failed him. There was no right way to say what he needed to say.
“This seems to be serious,” Syaoran pointed out as the silence kept the atmosphere of the room.
“Syaoran,” Eriol said his name, finding the direct approach to be the only way to actually be able to get what he needed out of his chest. “I lied to you.”
Syaoran’s eyebrows rose at the statement. This was the first time he had heard those words come out of his friend’s mouth. Over the years, he knew that there had been numerous times in which Eriol had told him a lie for some type of hilarity at his expense. But, he had just laughed it off in the end and clapped his back instead of apologizing.
It must be something that he hadn’t realized had been going on. “What exactly have you lied about?”
“Do you remember that night when I found you and Sakura at your birthday party in Tomoyo’s house?” he waited for Syaoran to assent. His companion nodded as his eyes narrowed at the memory. “I didn’t exactly tell you the truth when I said that you and Sakura wouldn’t be able to make love.”
Syaoran’s head snapped to his cousin. He had gotten the complete attention of his subject. Eriol tried to read his cousin’s eyes and expression. It was stone set; although, if looks could maim or kill, Eriol was sure that he had been well on his way to the other world.
“What didn’t you tell me the truth about?” the steel behind the words alerted Eriol’s senses. This wasn’t going to be easy. If only he hadn’t let it progress this far, then he wouldn’t be in this predicament. If only Syaoran hadn’t taken it so seriously that he’d refused to bring it up then this wouldn’t have happened either.
Eriol knew that he was party to blame, but Syaoran was also partly to blame for this debacle. “There was nothing wrong with you having sex with Sakura after your birthday.”
“Why would you tell me such a thing then?” Syaoran kept his temper in check. It took a lot of control to keep his body against the door when it wanted to sprout into action and punch Eriol as hard as he could.
“I wanted to see what your reaction would be,” Eriol opted to saying the truth. There was nothing else that he could say that would actually make anymore sense anyhow.
“You just wanted to get your kicks from me, is that right?” Syaoran wasn’t shouting, but he was close to it. Little images of the past torments he’d had to endure the past three months sprung to his mind.
He’d been pulled through hell and back again each time Eriol’s words had screamed inside his brain when in Sakura’s presence. He wanted to rave, he wanted to spit, he wanted to wring his friend’s neck.
“Do you know what you put me through!” Syaoran demanded as he took several steps in his cousin’s direction. Eriol kept himself still, ready for any type of reaction as Syaoran kept coming closer.
They stood eye to eye, Syaoran’s anger raging in his gaze and a scowl on his face. Eriol brought one of his hands to his glasses, taking them off as the proximity of his friend started to make him uncomfortable. He decided not to answer Syaoran’s demanding exclamation. He’d caught a glimpse of what his friend had passed through when they had talked over the roof of Tomoyo’s house.
There were also no words to diffuse the situation from where it had to come through. He didn’t know what to say to make things alright.
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” Syaoran opted to ask as he saw that Eriol refused to answer any of his reprisals on his conduct. He grounded his fingers against his palms, as they shook beside his body.
“I kept stalling,” Eriol tried to explain. “I honestly thought that you would have figured it out by the first week. All you had to do was research the subject and you could find all of the information that you needed. I then got swallowed up in my own problems and completely forgot about it until you mentioned it some weeks ago.”
Syaoran growled low, a painful gripping force in his throat as he tried to get words out of his vocal cords. It felt as if someone else was controlling his body. It was hard to breath, his vision clouding as deep rage and hate started to fill his stomach.
“Why not then you bastard!?” Syaoran demanded as he recalled how he started reacting with Sakura after that party. He’d started distancing himself from her, as each time he touched her, he had started to feel a creeping anxiety all over his body. He had taken the easy way out of the situation by avoiding her and making excuses not to be in her company. At least not to be alone with her.
It wasn’t that he didn’t think he could control himself around her. But a very dark and pressing weight seemed to fall over him every time she smiled at him and he could only grimace in return.
“I was going to, but we were interrupted. After that I just couldn’t find myself in the right place to say what I needed to say, and you started to cut my attempts short.”
“These past months have been a nightmare Eriol,” Syaoran decided to describe what he’d been through. “And you tell me that because you wanted a laugh at my expense, I risked screwing up my relationship with the girl I love?”
Eriol merely took all of Syaoran’ shouting reprobation. If this was as worse as it would get, Eriol would consider himself very lucky. “I’m sorry,” he said the only words that he could say under the circumstances. There was nothing else that he could offer to stave the anger that he could see swirling around his friend’s soul.
“That’s all you have to say, isn’t it?” Syaoran said in contempt as he grabbed Eriol by the clasp of his cape that was around his neck. He felt a bit of satisfaction when Eriol brought his own hands to cover his. Maybe then he’d be able to further justify his need for violence.
“There’s nothing else I can say that will change anything,” Eriol supplied as he decided to give a straightforward answer to Syaoran’s question.
“No, it won’t,” Syaoran agreed as he let him go brusquely. It was a sudden move in which Eriol was pushed backwards and against the sink of the room.
“You screwed me well over this,” Syaoran walked to the door of the room, not looking back. “It makes me wonder what sense of satisfaction would possess you to screw over people’s lives. That’s a sick way to get gratification from the world.”
“Don’t lay everything at my doorstep,” Eriol snapped back as Syaoran reached for the doorknob. He was getting pissed as well. “If you hadn’t decided to keep this to yourself and not taken this so serious, then you wouldn’t have mounted this many problems over it.”
“You’re right!” Syaoran turned to his friend once again, his eyes dark and in violent torment. “I was stupid enough to think that my best friend,” he accentuated the last words, injecting as much disdain as he could. “My best friend would use me to get his jollies.”
“I already said I was sorry,” Eriol walked forward, ready to give as much as he took. There was only so much that someone could take before snapping back. “Stop acting like a moron and get over it!”
“Eriol,” Syaoran said the name, his tone laced with a warning as his temper kept rising. “Don’t push me.”
“I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”
“And look where that took you,” Syaoran accused as his temper flared. There was no going back. “You’re a bastard who uses his best friend as a guinea pig for your jokes. That’s a great way to keep the relationships you have with the people around you Eriol. If this is they way you treat your family, then how the hell do you treat those who aren’t even your friends.”
“Stop being an ass Syaoran,” Eriol said as he stood in front of his friend, his own expression annoyed at the turn of the conversation. He clearly read the tick and movements of his friend place to know that he was close to bloodily harm. Maybe that would diffuse the situation enough so that they could get over this problem.
“Don’t provoke me Eriol,” Syaoran direly said to Eriol’s taunt. He knew that he was being prodded into something that he didn’t want to do. Or maybe he just wanted to keep himself in check as not to reach for his friend’s neck and kill him. “I’m serious.”
“How about this then,” Eriol proposed as he pushed Syaoran backwards. “Get off this crap you’re spouting about and do something about it.”
Syaoran’s eyes flashed as his breathing increased intensely. Eriol saw the fuming expression on his face, and the dark set of his features. There was only one way for Syaoran to let out part of his anger that would satisfy him deep down. It was the only thing that Eriol could think of to make Syaoran release the growing feelings inside of him.
“If you want to punch me, go ahead,” Eriol placed his hands beside him, inviting his friend’s wrath as he scowled deeply. “It’ll make you feel better.”
“Don’t mind if I do,” in a split second, Syaoran’s fist connected with Eriol’s face. The force of the blow brought Eriol off of his feet. He still managed to keep himself outright, his hands against the sink for support as his face began to throb. He should have gone with the blow, but hadn’t had enough time to actually see that Syaoran’s temper would be too much for him.
“Satisfied?” he asked as he massaged his jaw and the sensations of pain that it communicated to the rest of his body.
“Not by a long shot,” Syaoran replied as he closed and opened his hand to alleviate the discomfort it now possessed. “Make sure you’re not around me for some time Eriol, or that offer will be extended to even worse consequences.”
Syaoran shifted, opened the door and slammed it closed behind him. He wanted to shout to the world, but mostly to himself. How could he have been so stupid as to believe anything that Eriol managed to say.
He should have learned his lesson the hundred of times before that he’d been snared in one of Eriol’s schemes. He’d have never believed that his friend would actually go as far as to play with Syaoran’s own mental states for his own satisfaction.
It had been too far.
If he couldn’t trust his best friend, then who could he rely on in the world?
Sakura. Her face came to him as he stumbled at the last step that lead to the kitchen. He needed some fresh air. Her accusing eyes followed him as he gasped loudly to grasp the eluding air.
His heart constricted as her recriminating words filled his ears. Something deep inside him told him that she had known. It had been in the way she had reacted to their contact a few hours before. The first time, when he’d taken her over the sink, it had felt as it usually was between them. But, after she had taken the reigns, something had felt wrong deep inside.
He was in so much trouble in so many fronts. Everything came crashing inside his mind, he started hyperventilating uncontrollably. There was going to be hell to pay.
“Come on Sakura,” Sakura’s eyes opened lazily as her brother shook her. She groaned, a buzzing sensation taking over her senses. “It’s already after noon.”
“Go away,” she managed to say as she turned to the side. Her hands grabbed for the blanket and covered her head.
Touya merely clicked his tongue as he reached for the closed windows on the room and brought them open. In a similar manner, he went to the bed and stripped the blanket from his sister’s figure.
“Rise and shine monster,” he smirked as Sakura responded to the taunt. He only had to breathe or say the word to get a reaction out of the girl.
“Don’t call me that,” she growled lowly as her tired eyes opened.
“Come on,” he pulled her from the bed as she just lay there. “Yukito made his special breakfast just for you.”
“He should have just gone ahead and made lunch,” she muttered under her breath as he lead her to the bathroom.
“We all got up just an hour ago,” Touya said as he closed the door behind her. “We decided to make breakfast and then wait for dinner.”
Touya leaned against the door as he heard the water running. “You gonna take a shower?” he asked as he heard the clothing drop to the floor.
“Yes, so go snoop on someone else,” was her retort as the curtain closed.
“Alright,” Touya grimaced as he walked from the room to the kitchen. At least she’d come to him when she was fully awakened.
“How did it go?” Yukito asked as soon as Touya entered the room.
“Amazingly enough, she let me herd her to the bathroom and didn’t swear at me once,” Touya opened one of the steaming pots over the oven, his stomach growling as he smelled the cooking. “That smells nice.”
“You should,” Yukito promptly hit the side of Touya’s hands, making him drop what he held. “It’s also one of your favorite breakfasts.”
“I knew there was a reason I keep you around,” Yukito scoffed at the words, yelping as he was pulled into Touya’s embrace in a sudden manner. His hands held for dear life to his companion’s shirt as his glasses came a bit askew from focus.
“Would you stop groping the poor guy,” Sakura said as soon as she entered the room. Yukito sprung apart from Touya’s embrace as soon as the words were heard. Touya grinned unabashedly to his sister, running his tongue over his wet lips.
“Did you sleep well Sakura?” Yukito asked, changing the subject in his own way. He started placing the food on the plates, signaling to Touya to do the same. Sakura merely sat on one of the seats of the table while she watched them work together.
They reached for different things, their gazes meeting as they finished things for one another. They were much in sync from others she had ever seen before. They were used to one another in the setting. She guessed that if you shared an apartment with someone, you had no choice but to attune your senses and responses to that other person.
“I dropped dead.” She grinned as Touya turned her way as she used the expression. “I was so exhausted that I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.”
“And what would be the reason for that?” Touya asked as he opened the fridge and took out the sweet orange juice they had just prepared from fresh oranges.
“She’d just spend the last few hours at a party with loud music and dancing,” Yukito soon provided as he took a seat by her side and started filling his plate. “You know how exhausting that can be.”
“I don’t think she meant it that way,” Touya remarked as the table was enfolded in silence and they ate the offerings. There were the usual quips and discussions in between the siblings, Yukito merely smiled and grinned as they tried to involve him on their conversation. He knew enough to know that he didn’t need to get involved.
“Then, how was the party?” if she was going to start giving cryptic answers, he might as well shoot for something that she would have to be concrete about.
“It was good,” Sakura stood from her seat, she took her plate to the sink. “Thanks for the great breakfast Yukito. I need to look for something in the attic.” She excused herself from their company and went on her way. Yukito understood her question.
He nodded her way as she looked their way at the last stairs. “Since I cooked, the dishes are all yours.”
“Where are you going?” Touya asked, his head bent backwards as Yukito walked to the door and up the stairs.
“Get to work you slouch,” was the response he received as the sounds of his steps faded altogether.
Yukito turned to the corner stairs that lead to the attic and the outer balcony at the roof of the house. He walked to Sakura’s figure as she sat staring to the outside sky. It was the first day of November, and autumn was turning into the fierce temperatures that signaled the start of winter.
“What’s wrong Sakura?” Yukito asked as he sat down beside her.
“I wanted to ask you something Yukito,” she started, turning her gaze to him. “I don’t think I can ask this question to anyone else that I know.”
“What is it? You‘re not pregnant, are you?” he asked, smiling while a bit of alarm filled his insides.
“No,” she promptly answered. “Why would you ask me that?”
“I figured I might as well just get it out of the way,” he smiled apologetically at her while putting his arm around her shoulder and letting her rest her head over his chest.
“Why do you think that someone you care about won’t confide in you when there’s something bothering him?” she had no plans to actually tell him what was going on, but she clearly needed to open herself to someone else’s take on things.
“This has something to do with Syaoran, right?” Yukito asked, not expecting an answer as he stated the obvious. “I guess that there are things that you don’t feel comfortably discussing with your significant other.”
“Even if it’s something that would clearly affect her?”
Yukito tried to gear the conversation to clearer grounds. There was nothing like trying to give advice on something when you didn’t have a clear idea of what you were talking about. “Is it something you’d feel comfortable talking to me about?”
“Probably,” she answered a few minutes after he posed the question. “I don’t think you’ll go straight to Touya and tell him.”
“It’s not something he’d like to hear, is it?” Yukito grinned as Sakura lay herself in a sleeping position on the hardwood floor and rested her head in his lap. This brought back memories of years gone past. He was the one she always confided in when there was something bothering her. He’d always listened patiently, never belittling her problems or thoughts and providing a different perspective to the problem.
“You’re like the brother I never had,” she said as they burst into laughter.
“You mean like the one that doesn’t get on your nerves and tries to get on your nerves as much as possible,” he clarified as he calmed himself.
“Exactly,” Sakura leaned to his hands, the wandering fingers going through her hair and caressing her. It was something he used to do for as long as she could remember.
“What happened Sakura?”
“The bastard Syaoran let himself be talked into a bout of celibacy by his asshole of a friend Eriol,” she said, satisfaction dripping through each of the adjective words she had chosen to accompany the names. “It pisses me off that Eriol gets it into his head to mess with Syaoran in such a manner.”
Yukito cleared his throat before he tried to contribute to the conversation. “You mean to say that Eriol played one of those weird jokes he’s always pulling.”
He waited for confirmation as Sakura scowled and nodded. “I see.” He couldn’t do anything else than to clear his throat once again. To be blunt, he felt the same way that he did for Sakura that Touya did. He didn’t take it to such extremes, but Sakura was like the little sister he had never had in his life.
“I think what’s truly bothering me is the fact that Syaoran decided to keep this information to himself while I was nothing more than a bystander in this little charade,” Sakura closed her eyes, one of her hands going to her face. She rubbed each little bit, as she gazed pensively to him.
“I think you’re also mad because he played along with it,” Yukito replied, as he turned his eyes to the world outside on the balcony.
“Of course I am,” she replied, a hardness in her tone that signaled a spiraling on her emotions as her temper rose. “How could Syaoran had been stupid enough to believe anything that Eriol told him in that regard. At least he should have looked for information instead of just playing with me.”
Her voice cracked at the last syllable, but Yukito noticed that she wasn’t collecting moisture in her eyes. She wasn’t going to cry. “Because that is exactly what happened. He started to change his behavior with me. It looked as if he couldn’t bare to touch me, or be in my company.”
“That’s what hurt you the most, wasn’t it?” Yukito sighed as he toyed with the idea of telling Sakura something he’d never said to anyone else in his life. “He was pulling away from you and you didn’t know what was going on around you.”
“It sucks to not be on the know.”
“You know, there are many times that your brother drives me crazy.” Yukito grimaced as he recalled one such incident. “There are actually a lot of similarities in between your brother and Syaoran deep down. And if he ever hears me say this he will skin me alive.”
“Why is he still on Syaoran’s case?” Sakura asked, deviating from the subject.
“Because he took you away from him.”
“Isn’t that what my father’s supposed to think about the guy I marry?” She asked incredulous of the statement.
“Your brother took his responsibility seriously when your mother passed away Sakura. Also, since he’s eight years older than you, there was an age gap that clearly reflects this. You didn’t date or seem interested in other boys until you entered high school and met up with your current friends.”
“I’d been crushing on you for the past four,” Sakura blushed a bit as she recalled her feelings for the man that was cradling her head in his lap while she tried to make sense of the world.
“I was way too old for you,” Yukito laughed as he’d placed the clues together one afternoon and Touya had just looked at him as if he didn’t know what else was going around in the world.
You just noticed! Touya had looked at him as if he didn’t know what creature had been standing before him. Everyone else in the world realized that years ago. Yukito hadn’t like that condescending tone at all.
“I think that’s the reason I fixated on you,” Sakura explained.
“Touya felt safe. But it all changed after you started coming home from school with stars in your eyes and talking about ‘The Li Kid’ in how he referred to him,” Yukito groaned out loud as he remembered the conversations he’d had to endure in the countless months after that. “Your brother growled every time he talked about him. He was so used to being basically the only guy in your life, that you maturing and noticing everyone else that was around you made him realize that you were growing up.”
“You should have seen his reaction when I asked him what sex was,” Sakura said devilishly, garnishing all of Yukito’s attention.
“Do tell.”
“Let’s just say that I was nine years old and I was starting to read science books that dealt with the human body and other things. Touya was seventeen years old and almost crapped his pants when I dropped that bombshell on him.” Sakura giggled as she recounted the very embarrassing talk and intervention her father had done.
“I think to Touya you’re always going to be the four year old girl that knocked on his bedroom door when she had a nightmare. You’re always going to be the ‘little monster’ that would curl against him to drive away the loneliness and hole your mother’s death produced.”
“I love Touya, I really do,” Sakura said. “But his handling of my feelings and our relationship as siblings leave a lot to be desired. I couldn’t believe that he took on dad’s role when I brought any boy-friends over.”
Touya leaned against the opened stairway to the attic. He sat on one of the steps as the voices of his lover and his sister emerged from the room. He knew it wasn’t right to listen into their conversation this way, but he felt as if he had no other alternative. Sakura wasn’t about to tell him anything, and if she asked Yukito to keep silent, he would out of respect for her.
Some things started to make a bit of more sense now though. As Sakura had grown, she had pulled away from him. She started confiding on her friends and started watching the subjects in which she would converse with him. She’d also started using Yukito as the brother shoulder to lean on whenever there was a problem. It was something that had bothered Touya to some degree, but not too much. At least then he knew that if there was something that he had to know, Yukito would let him in on the situation.
“I think you have a right to be mad at him,” Yukito said to Sakura after she recounted all of the details of what took place after Syaoran’s birthday party. “But there’s also the fact that all of us hide things from one another for many different reasons. I’m sure that Syaoran saw a need to hide this fact because he was trying to come to grip with the fact that a crucial part of your relationship was impacted upon it.”
“I know that,” Sakura agreed to some extend. “Syaoran has too much control over himself sometimes that drive him to do many stupid things that get on my nerves. What hurts me the most about this though is that he made the decision to keep quiet while I was left empty concerning on the information.”
“Like I said, you’re right,” Yukito quietly replied. “You just have to remember that since we can’t really know what’s going on inside a person’s mind, no matter how much we actually know them, we can’t really judge them in any way completely. I’ve known your brother since we’ve been children, and there are many things he does that make me want to pull the hair off my head.”
A light cramp started to form in his lap, being in that position with her head digging into the same place wasn’t something that was comfortable to the muscles. Sakura caught sight of his wince and lifted herself from her position. He took her hand in his as he asked her this question.
“Do you love him with all your heart though? Has this problem actually changed in any way how you feel about him?” he was sure of the answer, but he still had to ask to get to the point he was trying to make.
“You could even say I love him a bit more,” she paused though, a light smile hovering over her lips. “Just a smidge though. The bastard’s too cute for his own good, and in the end I managed to see that in his own way, he was trying to ‘protect me’.”
“Then that’s settled,” Yukito brushed his pants before he stood from his sitting position and extended a hand to help her do the same. “I rented a couple of movies yesterday, do you want to see them with us?”
“Sure,” Sakura took his hand, wincing a bit as an uncomfortable feeling shot up through her.
“Something wrong?” Yukito asked concerned as she wavered a bit on her feet.
“No,” she brushed his concern away. “It’s just the aftereffects of last night.”
“Should I ask?” Yukito clearly inquired as his brain made the connection to what they had been just discussing. Her sex life and the lack of for the past few months.
“I kind of jumped him last night,” she supplied as a light blush settled over her cheeks. “Numerous times.” She laughed at his chagrinned expression and embarrassment that was clearly visible. “See, if I had said that to Touya, the world would have entered the apocalypse.”
“I agree,” Yukito looked around for signs of other human beings in the house as he accompanied her to the sitting room. “Touya?” he called as they both looked around the house.
“He must have gone out then,” Yukito informed her as he popped in the DVD in it’s player. They both shrugged, their attention going to the drama that had just started on the television screen.
“Sakura,” Yukito called her from the door to her room. She had decided to lie down at the end of the movie, she had felt so tired that she had dozed off quite a few times in the crucial moments of the plot.
“What is it?” she asked as she rubbed the sleepiness out of her eyes.
“Syaoran’s here,” the words managed to awake her completely. She rose from her sleeping position to a sitting one before Yukito could even finish his breath. “He’s asking to see you.”
Yukito waited patiently as Sakura mewled over the facts. They had gotten to an understanding before the movie, and had further discussed what she wanted to do as he had led her to her room to lie down. She was still put out by the fact that Syaoran hadn’t tried to come clean when she had placed the opportunity the day before.
“Tell him I’m still sleeping,” she laid down once again, burrowing into the warmth of the covers. “I think that if I talk to him today I’d just shout at him. I’d probably smack him too.”
“He’d deserve it,” Yukito answered, winking in her direction and starting to close the door.
Shouts from downstairs grabbed both of their attentions. “Oh no,” Sakura whispered as she shot to her feet, slipped into her slippers and ran to the door. She was in Yukito’s wake, both racing to the kitchen.
“You bastard!” Syaoran shouted as he launched himself at Touya who was growling and ready to take him on.
“What the hell is going on!” Yukito inquired as he stepped in between the ready combatants.
“This bastard hit me,” Syaoran announced as he brushed away a bit of blood that was trickling from his lips. Sakura went to his side, concerned over the amount of red liquid that was trailing on her boyfriend’s face.
“You made her cry,” Touya declared. Sakura glanced to her brother in amazement, wandering what the hell was going on. “She was crying last night. It didn’t take long to figure out that you were the cause of it,” he made to go after him, to come in contact with Yukito, who stood in his way. “I told you what would happen if you ever made her cry. You‘re the bastard here.”
“Touya, stop it,” Sakura ordered as she grabbed a paper towel from the sink and proceeded to wipe away the blood to its source. Syaoran winced as the paper came in contact with the open split in his lower lip. He’d bitten it when Touya had thrown his punch. He hadn’t had enough time to react to it. He hadn’t even known he was in the room while he waited.
He grabbed her hand as she pulled away. “Sakura, we need to talk,” he almost grimaced as he saw her expression. She was mad. She was angry. And it was all directed at him.
“Not today,” she pulled away from his hand, discarding the paper towel onto the trash and walking pass the still spitting mad Touya and his restriction Yukito.
Syaoran made a move to follow, reaching for her so that she would have to stay and listen to what he had to say. His hand was almost taken off as Touya placed himself in his way. Syaoran’s eyes narrowed as he started at the obstacle. Dealing with this problem would delay him further, wasting precious time that he clearly needed. He looked to Yukito who looked apathetic to his cause, but who stayed out of the way.
“Don’t even think it,” Touya warned as he saw the calculating eyes of the younger man. “She doesn’t want to see you, and I’m pretty sure she’ll let me trash you if you try to get near her.” Touya couldn’t help but play a malicious grin as Syaoran flinched at his words. “Just give me a reason.”
“Syaoran, go home and wait until tomorrow. Trust me on this,” Yukito took the younger man by his shoulder and led him to the door. “You don’t want to talk to her today. There could be serious consequences to anything she might say because she’s seriously pissed about what happened.”
“She told you!” Syaoran’s voice strangled at the last syllable as he looked into the older man’s eyes. He saw concern and understanding.
Yukito merely nodded as he smiled at Syaoran. “Tomorrow is another day.”
Syaoran paused as he looked back to the stairway that lead to Sakura’s retreat. Touya stood his ground, glaring at him with his arms crossed over his chest at the start of the stairs. “Damn it,” he swore before leaving the house and the accusing stare that Touya was directing his way.
“I should have knocked a few of his teeth loose,” Touya growled as he rubbed his right hand with his left. There were imprints of Syaoran’s blood on his skin. He’d only been able to graze him, the bastard had some quick reflexes. Touya couldn’t help but respect the kid a bit because of it.
“You’re in enough trouble as it is,” Yukito walked to him, taking his hand in his and examining for any problems. Having found none but a bit of blood, he whirled away. “Sakura’s not going to forgive you from hitting him.”
“She’s the one that’s pissed at him,” Touya rationalized, knowing that it was partly true.
“Yes, but she didn’t want you to throw a punch at the guy.”
“It was the only chance I had at taking a swing at him without getting her riled up in his defense. I’ve been wanting to do that since I met the little bastard.” Touya couldn’t conceal his grin as he recalled the satisfaction he had felt at seeing the surprise in the kid’s face when he had appeared.
“Hopefully that will satisfy you for the rest of your life,” Yukito replied to his partner’s explanation as he looked to the ceiling and the steps he heard from above.
“It’s better than nothing.”
Sakura opened the vibrating cell phone she had placed by her bed. She shook her head vehemently as she saw the name of the caller.
“Sakura,” he clearly stated before she could even answer. She should have just let her machine take it and turn it off. That was exactly what she was going to do as soon as she terminated this call. “I need to talk to you.”
“I’ll see you at school tomorrow,” she told him right off. “I’m so mad at you at this moment that I’d probably say something I’ll regret. Don’t call, I’m going to turn this phone the instant that I hang up.” She informed him as she interrupted each of the times he tried to get in a word edgewise.
“Please, just tell me we’re alright,” he begged as soon as she had stopped. A minute of silence greeted his statement. Syaoran breathing stopped as he heard nothing but her breathing on the other end. “I love you Sakura.”
“I love you too Syaoran,” she replied, her heart thudding inside of her slight frame. “Let me cool off for today,” she said before sending him a kiss through the waves. “You have a lot of explaining to do at lunch tomorrow.”
The line went dead. Syaoran stared into the phone for a few moments before closing it and shoving it into one of his pockets. He had a sudden urge to get into a brawl and wipe the floor with the other guy. Eriol’s face came to mind, which pacified him somewhat on that end.
There was nothing to do but wait for tomorrow. He had a lot of thinking to do. Sakura was going to be the accuser, jury, and executioner on the coming day. Still, his anxiety calmed somewhat as he recalled her words. She might be mad, but nothing serious enough to cause a permanent rift in their relationship.
That’s all he had to keep believing in before the next day arrived.
XOXO
Seriously, I had no idea it would take me too much to actually figure out what to write into this chapter, or the way it would actaully turn out. I believe that there’s only one more chapter to go and probably an epilogue. One of my readers presented a question in the review which I hope to answer now.
One, Sakura is mad because Syaoran decided to keep quiet about what Eriol told him and in his own way had pulled away from their relationship. Two, Sakura has been taking the pill since the first chapter, so I don’t think she’s going to end up pregnant. You never know though, abstinence is the only way to be sure that no pregnancy will occur because nothing else is 100 percent accurate.
Thank you for reading this chapter and my other one-shots. I’m flattered by the responses that I garnered from those stories. Office Extracurricular will get a second part, I just don’t know when it’ll be ready. I already started it, so it’ll be there sometime. As for Leading the Blind, I’m thinking of doing a second part as well, but I might not.
Review button is here…
MS
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