Title: The Birds and the Bees

Author: MistyWing

Genre: Humor/Family

Rating: PG-13 because of the topic of discussion

Standard Disclaimer: Yeah, no claim on any Card Captor Sakura material I borrow. Stealing's illegal.

Synopsis: Fujitaka couldn't believe his child of twelve years could ask such a question. Of course it was just an innocent question, "Where do babies come from?" The professor struggles to elucidate the subject of the birds and the bees to his child. He also ends up telling a horrible lie that makes an interloper cackle at him.


A cup of tea and a paper about the findings of a Byzantium trade ship in the bottom of the Indian Ocean were the splendors of this Friday morning. He would have five minutes inside his house, in peace, before he would be reminded of his two unruly, yet wonderful children. They always came into the kitchen to add flavor into his monotonous milieu.

As he settled in his usual chair at the family table he heard his twelve-year-old dragging her feet into the dining area. "Ohayo, Otou-san!" Sakura cheerily greeted him as she sat in the place across from him.

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan." He looked up at her to give her a smile like always and bowed to the paper again.

"Itadakimasu!" There was tinkling of glassware as Sakura went through her breakfast. She ate with vigor all the while watching her father perusing one of those articles he always brought to breakfast with him. Growing up with a professor for a father would bring about the regular placement of books, journals, and papers between their platters. Sakura didn't mind the clutter. At this time, she wondered if the books held an answer to the question that kept invading her thoughts and nesting in the corner of her mind during her boring math classes.

"Otou-san, where do babies come from?" Sakura in the end asked the question that had been weighing on her mind.

Fujitaka turned red as a crab and took a slow drink from his tea cup. "Well, Sakura… That's a good question."

She waited out the pause. Her fascination in her father's expression caused him to stare back and regard her as the curious child that she was. More than a few times, he opened his mouth to begin something he couldn't sound out, let alone finish. It took a full minute for him to settle on a basic idea. "Birds lay eggs and bees land on flowers and pick pollen out of them."

The silver flecks in her emerald eyes danced as she talked. "We learned that in Biology. The bees make honey in the honeycombs. It's sad because the colonies have to die in the winter after putting in a lifetime worth of work to make something so sweet and tasty, but what do bees and flowers have to do with babies?"

"Don't they teach you about babies in school?" Fujitaka asked, softly.

"Sensei never explained where they come from."

I should play it safe and just say that babies fall from the sky when flocks of cranes dropped the babies off in their personal baskets. I'll leave the illumination of the subject to the school. Sure enough, aloud Fujitaka said, "Sakura… When a man loves a woman and a woman loves him back…" Fujitaka stopped short in alarm when he saw his little girl blush. He struggled to maintain his composure by pasting on a complacent smile. "Sakura, do you like a boy at school?"

Sakura tilted her chin and smiled dreamily. "Yes… He wasn't always nice to me, but after some time…"

"You like Syaoran-kun," Fujitaka finished. Noting the blood staining her cheekbones, Fujitaka scrambled to pick up the pieces of his thought to come up with something intelligent to say. It was a difficult task to speak, fully knowing that Sakura's 'like' for the boy was sidling too close to a more intense feeling.

For the past few days Syaoran had walked his daughter home from school. He never seen the act himself, but his son told him that it was the 'new code.' Such an innocent act of kindness and camaraderie was not a sign of love. The true sign of love was in the eyes and the face of his child, who was turning into this fragile china-doll in front of his eyes.

Refraining from falling to the floor on his knees, he gripped the edge of his chair. "When two people love each other they share everything together."

Sakura's head came up a fraction of an inch to look at her father. "So, two people who love each other can make a baby."

"Yes, only if they love each other," he answered in one breath.

"How does that work?"

"Have you kissed Syaoran-kun yet or has he kissed you yet?"

"Otou-saaaan!"

Sorry, Sakura-chan, but I must know before I rattle on. That was what he wanted to say, but he spoke this out loud, "The exchange of a kiss between two people in love starts the making of new life."

Sakura's color returned to normal as she clapped her hands and beamed. "Then, it is true! People make babies when they kiss."

"Yes!" Fujitaka hoped he didn't sound as hopeful as he felt.

Sakura paused, tilting her head to the side and frowned. "You only have two children, Otou-san. Does that mean you only kissed Okaa-san twice when she was still alive?"

"There are other ways to express one's love, either through flowers or other thoughtful gifts."

She puckered her brow a second time. "At my school I see a girl and a boy kiss every morning in front of the gates. Why aren't they dropping babies every year?"

Oh my god! "There's an exchange that goes on. Quick kissing doesn't lead to that…"

"So the exchange of saliva is how the baby gets into the girl."

What?! Fujitaka coughed. "I suppose so." He was frowning so hard he was afraid the gig was up. Fortunate for him, Sakura did not even question his facial expressions ping-ponging between insecurity and respite.

"That makes no sense, Otou-san. I share drinks with you and Onii-chan. How come…"

Darn, he didn't think this far ahead. What was his next move, now? "It has to be through a kiss. Artificial sugar is sweet like sugar from sugar cane, but is it really sugar?"

"No."

"Our neighbor drives a truck to work and it has four wheels like a car, but is it a car?"

She shook her head and answered, "No."

"Can we swim as well as fish?"

"No!"

"So there you go."

Sakura slumped against her chair and looked as devastating as a wilting bloom; There was no doubt that she loved a boy greatly enough to give him a kiss every morning, but this new information from her father put a damper over the idea. She wanted to say something, but nothing came out because her father had sounded as conclusive as he would in one of his lectures at the university. With all the facts laid out, there was no need to question her theory anymore. The theory was not a theory anymore as it metamorphosed into a law; a law that Fujitaka claimed was the law of nature.

Sakura slid dejectedly out of her seat and sluggishly put on her roller blades. Her action time today was slower than most other days. "Jā mata ne!" She called to him when she was ready and set to depart for school.

"Jā. Don't forget your jacket."

Fujitaka released a quick breath after he heard the door shut behind her. Slithering out of the shadows of this noble man was an undeniable hawk. This hawk felt like hawking down the two young lovers, something someone else was prone to do…

"Touya-kun!"

Touya moved from behind the doorframe and walked into his father's view. "I couldn't help overhearing what you were saying to her."

Fujitaka shook his head at the spy. "It's wrong to listen in on a conversation that was meant to be private."

"Really? But, it's not wrong to lie about sex."

At this comment, coming from his son, Fujitaka rubbed the side of his neck. Touya deliberately stared intently at his father as he occupied his sister's seat.

"Itadakimasu," he called before chewing at the new plate of food set in front of him. Fujitaka attempted to draw himself back into the reading again, but the previous talk had left his grip on ancient ship wrecks forgotten. None of his work, right then, could consolidate the hope that his youngest was going to be sensible young woman in the future. The situation with girls on the threshold of adolescence was dismal. Painstaking measures would have to be taken from this day on…

"Tou-saaaan… If it's any consolation to you, I'll tell you now, I'm going to make sure she doesn't know until she's thirty."

"Forty," Fujitaka hastily corrected, burying his nose in the paper once more.

Touya chewed on the matter, positively affected by the circumstance.

Fujitaka is actually an overprotective father even though he doesn't show it like Touya. One would have to be inhumane not to care. She and her boyfriend are only twelve and she's asking questions about sex. CLAMP does a good job of just picking out a trait for their characters and putting a pin in them. Some of them don't seem very realistic to me; one of them being Fujitaka. It's nice to picture this perspective of his character and imagine his POV of his daughter's romance with Syaoran. Just because Fujitaka doesn't carry a gun around, it doesn't mean he doesn't care. I think he cares and I think I summarized it all to the best of my ability. Now, it's your turn to write me a review.

Best,

MistyWing