Love Doesn't Have a Price- Chapter Three

Love Doesn’t Have A Price

Chapter Three – Business Deals

“Come on, where’s my next opponent?” the auburn haired man demanded, panting slightly. His hair plastered to his forehead.

Shaking heads followed this remark, quite exuberantly in fact.

It stood to reason that no one would want to challenge him any more. The first few wins had been thought a fluke. After the fourth or fifth it was decided that he actually knew what he was doing, and the twelve after that had challenged him merely to do either one of two things, make him eat his arrogant words or to get revenge for a friend. After that the few stragglers who had come along had been MUCH larger and beefier and had wanted to try their luck against him. Now of course the disillusionment had worn off and he had NO competitors.

“Didn’t know you were lacking for competition Gaki.” a voice behind him said, “Should have sent me a message.”

He turned, a smirk on his face. “Hello Touya, forgot you existed actually.”

He hadn’t seen the other man in four years since the last Martial Arts tournament in China which they had both participated in.

Although they had managed to piss each other off far more than they should have and become avidly competing rivals they had also formed a grudging friendship as both boys had never encountered someone worthy of battling against until that point. It was the reason that Syaoran had actually given up fighting in tournaments and merely going to the halls to take out his frustrations.

As they got themselves prepared to fight Touya asked him goadingly, “So what’re you doing here Gaki, thought I got rid of you last time we fought.”

“Business.” he replied, refusing to take the bait.

They circled each other before lunging, Syaoran’s fist connecting with Touya’s face. Touya responded by punching him solidly in the gut.

Twenty minutes and countless bruises later both men had decided on an uneasy truce and were cleaning themselves up.

Syaoran had to grin at the black eye he had given the other however. It had already begun to show a nice black/blue colour. At least with a long sleeved shirt on none of his injuries were visible.

Sakura balanced the child on her hip as she entered the room, her eyes scanning over its occupants.

“Hey Tara, what’s up?” she queried as she went over to the stressing woman.

“Oh Sakura, thank god your here we’ve-” she broke off, forehead creasing in confusion, “Why are you holding a baby?”

Sakura cocked her head to the side in confusion before grinning, “Oh you mean Kouichi, he’s a friend of mine and Tomoyo’s, we’re taking care of him for now.”

“Oh, ok then.” Tara responded, “Anyway, we’re launching the new range of clothes for the latest issue of Cosmo as you know and the pictures you took yesterday weren’t exactly right we need to try them again.”

“Alright.” Sakura replied shrugging, “Alright but I’ll need to be out by 11:30 I have a lunch to go to.”

“Did you talk to Sakura last night?” Eriol queried, glancing over Tomoyo’s shoulder as she sketched the newest design that had come into her head.

“Yes, she’s being difficult.” Tomoyo responded distractedly, erasing one of the lines that she had drawn and replacing it with a better one. “Stop doing that Hiiragizawa.”

Eriol who at that moment had been preparing to steal a snack from the picnic basket turned to look at her again, the very epitome of innocence and asked, “Doing what?”

She glanced up from her drawing and smiled saccharinly sweet at him, “I’m sure you would never dream of taking something from that basket Hiiragizawa-kun, so why don’t you give it to me and then go off and find out where Syaoran is.”

Eriol frowned, sighing, “One bite?”

She shook her head slapping his hand away from the basket without looking up from her sketch, “Get gone.”

“Please?” he queried, his bottom lip protruding in an attempt at looking meek and docile and exuding an aura of ‘How mean of you to take away my food when I’m hungry.’

Realising that it was useless when she refused to answer once more he instead walked away in time to see Syaoran coming into the park. Satisfied that he didn’t need to do anything he turned back and found Sakura standing over Tomoyo and talking to her with a young child nestled in her arms.

Coming back to where Tomoyo sat he flopped back down to the ground unceremoniously and greeted Sakura smiling cheerfully at her.

“Weren’t you going to find out where Syaoran-kun is?”

He winced at the acidic tone to Tomoyo’s voice before turning to her and smiling cheerfully, “There was no need he’s already-”

“Here.” Sakura cut in, glancing at him with a slight tinge of red to her cheeks.

Eriol stifled his chuckles as they both watched Sakura greet Syaoran nervously before sitting gracefully on the ground opposite to him, next to Tomoyo.

“I see you found your way here eventually Syaoran.” he commented smiling brightly at him causing Syaoran to pause.

Syaoran stopped, wondering what exactly it was that Hiiragizawa had up his sleeve.

“No thanks to your directions.” he replied sourly.

Hiiragizawa blinked innocently, something that was not a good sign for those surrounding him before responding slowly, “Really?”

Syaoran merely snorted beneath his breath at his cousin’s attempt at innocence, one of the things that he had learnt very early on about Hiiragizawa was that he was an accomplished liar.

“Hello Li-kun.” Sakura murmured from where she sat next to Daidouji, her eyes downcast while his own settled on the baby boy in her arms.

He merely nodded in acknowledgement of her greeted, eyes flickering to her face before coming to rest on Daidouji, “I assume we have some sort of business to attend to for this meeting.”

Her ebony head nodded in confirmation and her demeanour changed to the business-like version one would expect of this astute young lady who had managed to do so much at such a young age.

“You communicated to my mother last night that you would not have enough time to conclude any lengthy bargains as you were forced to return to China at the end of the week. Correct?”

He inclined his head slightly at the question, wondering what it was that she had cooked up to present to him.

“As such your cousin Eriol has offered to stay here and work on the agreement with myself while Sakura has agreed to go to China with you and take care of the business on that end as is the standard practise.”

Sakura had agreed to no such thing and her facial expression exposed her surprise at such a remark.

“Do you agree to these terms Syaoran?” Daidouji queried, handing him a contract.

He realised with a degree of surprise that she had addressed him by his first name as if they were equals and covered his smile of approval quickly. It was no wonder that she had survived since she was 15 in the harsh world of businesses. She knew how to manipulate people, and from the look of it she knew how to manipulate people well.

Still the idea of having the young model at his beck and call in a place where she would know none did have it’s possibilities.

“Very well, I agree to your terms.” he replied diplomatically, leaning back against the tree behind him, content to watch them for the time being.

Sakura almost released a groan of despair at the confirmation of the decision.

At this moment she could find herself very happily hating Tomoyo for the position she had put her in. To refuse now would seem churlish and besides, she owed her cousin quite a bit for all that she had done.

Tomoyo knew that she would not refuse.

It was also becoming quite unnerving to have Syaoran stare at her while she attended to the baby and ate.

“What day exactly are you planning to leave?” Sakura asked, directing the question to the air instead of looking at him in the eye.

“You have two days to prepare if that’s what you’re worried about.” he replied instantly.

She nodded, thanking him quietly before turning her full attention to the conversation Tomoyo and Eriol were having. Or she should say the argument that they were having.

“But Tomoyo, I wanna go see Syaoran make a fool of himself!” Eriol was complaining in a pathetically childish whine.

Tomoyo merely scowled at him and replied snappishly, “Well you can’t Eriol, you’re staying right here where I can keep an eye on you and make sure you don’t do anything to screw this up.”

Sakura looked at the scene unfolding before her naively, turning to see Syaoran had leaned back against the tree trunk and was watching this fight with great amusement. It seemed Eriol got on his nerves a bit.

Actually, it seemed that he rubbed Tomoyo the wrong way a bit as well, however unlike Syaoran she had complete control over him.

There was a moments blissful silence while they just enjoyed the cool breeze shifting through the air before Eriol broke it by his stomach grumbling.

“Tomoyo,” he whined gazing at her pathetically, “I’m still hungry.”

Scowling Tomoyo stood up, pulling the man with her, his blue-black hair glinting in the sun.

“I’m going to go buy him some ice cream at the vendor I saw earlier, you two stay here.” she said, pulling him away while he continued to complain loudly.

Sakura looked up to find herself alone with Syaoran once again and blushed lightly again in remembrance of it.

She supposed she would need to get used to be at such a close proximity to him all the time. After all, she was going to be dealing with him in China, and she would be alone then.

Eriol leaned comfortably against Tomoyo as they watched the two below talking.

“So how did you like my performance dear?” he inquired, playing with a long stray strand of her pure ebony hair.

She rolled her eyes, “It was a bit much don’t you think?”

A smile broke out on his face as he replied with deep amusement, “No, not at all actually.”

He moved his hand away as she attempted to slap it away from her hair, his grin widening.

“How long do you think it will take?” Tomoyo asked watching them with a small smile.

He shrugged, releasing her and instead leaning against the tree, eyes gleaming with cold calculation that very few people, including Tomoyo ever saw.

She had not noticed then and as she turned to glance over at him all traces were wiped from his face leaving it inscrutable.

He had his own private reasons for wanting to get the two they were watching together.

He had not known that they had been quite good friends in primary school for the year or two that Syaoran went to school here however what he had known was that the young woman had been the only person he had ever met who would have even had a possibility of tempering Syaoran’s harsh nature.

Predominantly in his mind was the fact that Syaoran was running out of time, the others who belonged to their clan had begun to lose faith in the fact that Syaoran would be a competent leader as he had not yet found himself someone he could carry on their line with.

Not only that but Syaoran’s cousin Fujin was pressing to be the true successor, already having a wife and two children, all as nasty as he was, he was a more able candidate apparently.

Eriol had always thought that he was an incompetent leader and to a lesser extent a general plauge on humanity and could not see himself living with the man as clan leader.

He was a master of manipulation, and always had been, it was one of the reasons his Aunt had called him and asked for his help. The other being that she knew he hated Fujin as much as she did.

He was going to see Syaoran married in the next three months to Sakura or there would be hell to pay.

Syaoran watched as the young woman deftly handled the child, love and tenderness shining through on her face.

Even if she was promiscuous she would make a good mother.

He had the strongest urge to lean forward and taste her lips again.

Remembering full well what they had tasted of last time. Vanilla and raspberries with just a touch of something else. Something solely her own and was indescribable.

And as suddenly as that thought entered his mind he was tasting her again, holding her head with one hand and pulling her and the child in her arms onto his lap so that the other arm could circle about her waist with ease.

His hand left her head as she to got caught up in the kiss to trail down her cheek, holding it tenderly.

He broke the kiss of and looked at her partially in surprise.

How did she make him abandon all control like that? No woman had ever made him lose control before.

The child in her arms began to whimper and he picked him up, soothing him with soft words, unaware that she was watching him with something akin to amazement.

“So, did you two have fun?” Eriol asked, walking up with a towering ice- cream in each hand.

Syaoran ignored the question and felt Sakura shift from his lap quickly as she noticed the other two, blushing scarlet.

“Eriol, what did I say about taunting people?” Tomoyo queried sweetly.

He scowled slightly and nodded.

“So, what were you two up to?”