'Been a long time! I didn't feel like shoving out a long fic just yet but I still felt like writing so I came up with this while an annoying pop-up splashed across my screen.

-x-

Love 2 Date

Chapter 1: Signing Up

By Louann1

Love is a dangerous game but it's an even riskier business. With love, there is no such thing as sealing a deal or getting a refund. Most of the time love doesn't make sense and when it does, it can be heartbreaking. That's why dating agencies eliminate some of the risk, people are checked, and interests are matched and so on. But what about the people who run dating agencies? Love 2 Date has a full staff of dedicated people who spend their time looking for the right people for their clients. It doesn't matter who the person is, what they look like, what they believe in or where they live. Love 2 Date does it's best to find a suitable match for any person.

So why is that most of the staff can find love for everyone but themselves?

Dating agencies usually run from office building with their employees typing away at computers checking databases and so forth. Love 2 Date was nothing like that. First, there was no office building. Love 2 Date ran out of an internet café, which had an extensive amount of resources. That café was the home to a large number of computers, the base of Love 2 Date and the manager who ran it all. Secondly, Love 2 Date had the laziest workers.

" We're not lazy… 'Just on an extended break."

" Well then, take this as the official end of your break!"

It only appeared that they were lazy when in fact there was just a lack of clients. Love 2 Date was in fact a very successful business, their success rate in finding the right matches for people was extremely high but there was just a lack of people looking to find love through an agency. That was the case until the temporary worker came in to fill in.

" Right you lazy slackers!"

It was the usual Monday morning talk from the 'head. It was sonorous and needlessly extended but the workers knew that it was the only time in the week where their stressed out employer had the chance to express her qualms of future and so on. There was nothing unusual about that Monday morning except the coffee machine having a little malfunction. Everything was right on schedule, as soon as work begun everyone was gathered around and found their own ways to get through the arduous speech from the ever-anxious Samantha Kytori.

" As you can see, Jasmine is absent today and she will be for the next month. In that time, we will be joined by Syaoran who's from the temp agency," Samantha announced.

The workers gave a few 'hello's, 'how ya doing's and 'welcome to the worst job ever's. Syaoran was just ordinary. There was nothing about him that seemed to be strange or special. To the present workers he would just be a filler inner for a month and that would be it.

" Syaoran's just gonna be here to do Jasmine's usual job of filing and organising meetings but he'll also be on the PR team. We need to get more clients if we still want to have a job here in the next month so this month it's all about promotion. Promotion, promotion, promotion!" Samantha ordered around her workers after the speech was done.

Syaoran sat at a desk and began to sort through the papers that had been carelessly piled. He sighed, not because the work was strenuous but because he was a temp. Syaoran found that there wasn't a particular job that he really wanted to do so being a temporary worker allowed him to move from job to job. That way, he could see what different jobs were like and he hoped that he would find an interest in one of them. He had never worked in a dating agency before and the whole system was very new to him.

" Uh… Excuse me?"

Syaoran was quick to have a problem and it seemed as though people despised just for being new. Syaoran was just treated like a ghost that just went around asking questions. If it was any other day, at that job, he would ask Samantha but it wasn't, it was his first day and he wanted to make a good impression. A good impression means not asking for help within the first 5 minutes of a job.

After scooting around the employees for guidance, he found help in a fellow member of the PR team. It seemed strange to Syaoran that she would be working in a place like that because she just seemed so different, then again, he wasn't one to make quick judgements. Let's face it, he was the one who agreed to take a job at a dating agency.

It was on the far corner next to the window, where the light seemed to be shining at it brightest. That's where she was, sitting at a computer typing away and humming along to the music that blasted through her iPod white headphones. As Syaoran approached she immediately pulled at the wire and exerted all her attention to the new comer.

" Hello," Syaoran began shyly averting the gaze of the worker who seemed more than pleased to see him. " I was wondering if you could tell me where the finished application forms go?"

She looked at him from head to toe, noting his quirky mannerisms and the stiff yet sweet tone in his voice. There was no doubt in her mind about helping him, in fact she would help anyone who asked her depending on the task. Glares of impending doom came from the other workers but she couldn't just ignore him, even if it did mean that she would be shunned for all of 10 minutes.

" Once you've finished inputting the answers on the forms just place them in your outbox. Someone will collect them, actually for the next week just give them to me," She had quickly forgotten that she hadn't introduced herself to him yet. " I'm Sakura. It's nice to meet you."

" You too, but are you sure that it's alright to leave them with you?" Syaoran was a little curious about her willing attitude to help him.

" Don't worry, it's fine with me!" Sakura smiled one of her 'trust me' smiles and Syaoran couldn't help but believe her.

" If you're sure…" Syaoran turned to leave but was promptly stopped by Sakura's request to join him for lunch, which was quickly met with Syaoran's, " Absolutely."

First days never seem to go right for many people. The first day at school, the first job interview, the first time buying a TV and finding out that you have to buy an aerial cable that wasn't included in the box. For Syaoran, it was nothing like the TV thing; it was more like there was some vendetta against him for being the new guy and Syaoran found out the reason from the ever helpful Sakura.

" It's not that they don't like you. It's just… How can I put this?" She pondered a little while munching through her lunch. " It's what you said in your application form."

" My application form?"

" Yeah, the one you wrote for the temp agency," Sakura replied hoping to move onto another topic soon.

" What could I have- No!" Syaoran's eyes widened as he suddenly the fatal flaw that he had made. " You can't mean- No! That was years ago."

" I know," Sakura smiled. " Don't worry about it. People will get over it… Eventually."

" I guess," Syaoran shrugged his shoulders. " Anyway, it's not like I'm here forever."

" Exactly," Sakura thought that it was the appropriate moment to add a agreeing comment and welcome him officially. " Well, since no one else has said so… Syaoran, welcome to Love 2 Date!"