Summary: Songfic from 'Bird of the Summer' by A Fine Frenzy.
She fell in love with a tourist during summer vacation, knowing that he would fly away once fall began. But what was wrong with a little summer fling? Who knew it was so hard to let him go?
Bird of the Summer
One-shot
You came with the season, as the first swallow sang
A brown headed stranger, with a four-letter name
Doo doo doo...
"Oh, Tomoyo, I'm soooobored! There's nothing to do!" whined the auburn haired beauty to her cousin. It was the start of summer vacation, and Sakura had nothing to replace her school activities. Heck, she was even starting to miss their Algebra 2 class! And math was never her forte.
"You could have always taken summer classes or sports conditioning, Sakura," replied the equally beautiful, raven-haired girl. She, on the other hand, was fully occupied with coming up with a new dress design for Sakura to model.
"I'm not that desperate, Moyo!"
"Yes you are, Kura," she shot back with a know-it-all tone. Unable to think of a good comeback, Sakura just stuck her tongue out in reply. "Why not find a boyfriend then?"
"No way; I'm much too busy." It was Sakura's usual reply, and she had forgotten it didn't make sense now that she was out of school.
"Not anymore. Just think of it as a... summer fling! Who knows? Maybe he might end up being your true love." She noticed Sakura started thinking about it and grinned eagerly. "Oh! I know! Eriol can hook you up with someone. I heard his cousin's coming to town tomorrow." She said the last sentence suggestively.
'Oh boy. Tomoyo and her matchmaking ideas. Poor Eriol; she doesn't even realize his feelings for her and is dragging him into her harebrained schemes.' Sakura began to get lost in deep thought that she didn't notice Tomoyo waving her hand in front of her face. Tomoyo then tried snapping and when that didn't work....
"SAKURA KINOMOTO, I WILL MAKE YOU WEAR AN EXTREMELY PROVOCATIVE OUTFIT TOMORROW IF YOU DON'T WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO. I've seen your ideas of provocative outfits, and I am NOT going to wear them to see Eriol's cousin!"
"So you're going then? Yay! I'll go call Eriol right now!" Tomoyo skipped out the room to phone their friend.
"Oh.. Oh, God."
The next day...
Eriol was thoroughly informed of Tomoyo's plan, but deemed it unnecessary. "They'll probably fall in love at first sight. Trust me, Tomoyo, I know my cousin." Tomoyo was going to protest but decided to trust her equally mischievous if not more, four-eyed comrade.
And so the trio found themselves waiting for the mysterious cousin to arrive. Sakura was tapping her foot in impatience as the flight ended up delayed by a ten minutes. "When is this guy gonna show up? I could be watching the latest episode of 'Suki Da Yo!'" (AN: I don't even remember what that phrase means. Someone please inform me if I wrote nonsense so I could change it.)
"Calm down, Sakura. Those stupid TV dramas are pointless anyways." Tomoyo heard Sakura grumbling and just shook her head. "Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Tomoyo lightly sang.
"I did not!"
"Both of you shut up. He's here." Eriol waved and gave a man hug to one of the people coming out. "Syao, good to see ya, cuz."
"Same here, Eriol." Sakura's eyes popped out of their sockets. He. Was. HOT! All her complaints flew out the window. Tomoyo laughed, which caused the brown-haired stranger to notice there were others. "Ah, Eriol, you didn't tell me you weren't coming alone."
"Ah, yes. These are my friends, Tomoyo Daidouji and Sakura Kinomoto." Syaoran looked at Tomoyo first. Well, she seemed very pretty; no wonder his cousin was infatuated with the girl.
"Nice to meet you, Miss Daidouji." He kissed her hand, leaving her sighing and his cousin fuming. That's what you get for not telling your favorite cousin.
"Miss Kinomoto," he said to the other as he did the same. His amber eyes then looked up to see captivating emerald ones. Yup, he knew his cousin well alright; Eriol mentally started laughing his guts out.
We planted our kisses where the wild berries grow
My feet sprouted wings and I flew all the way home
Doo doo doo...
"I'm home!" cried Sakura as she closed the front door. Her cheeks were bright pink and found it hard to not stumble through the hallway. She rushed up to her room to find (surprise, surprise!) Tomoyo sitting on her bed. Sakura sat down next to her and laid her upper body down, face still flushed as though she had a fever.
"Ohohohoho! It seems that someone had a fun time with Syao." Tomoyo giggled with delight.
"I'm sorry, Tomoyo, but sometimes I swear you sound like Santa Claus," replied Sakura, earning a playful slap.
"Tell me all about what happened!" Damn, the plan didn't work. Sakura opened her mouth to speak, but instead it came out as embarrassed giggles as her face turned completely red.
"I... I think I love him, Moyo."
"Oh my gosh! This is so great! Your first boyfriend, all thanks to me."
"All thanks to Eriol, you mean." Tomoyo was about to stick out her tongue out and object, before seeing her friend's mood change. Sakura whispered in a small voice, "And he's not my boyfriend..."
"What do you mean? You two are PERFECT for each other. Besides, you've been going on dates since June. It's already TWO MONTHS. How can you not call each other boyfriend and girlfriend? Both of you are only dating each other, right?"
"Exactly, TWO MONTHS. That's the whole problem." Sakura tried fighting the tears welling up in her eyes but lost the bitter battle. Tomoyo got her to sit up in order to give her a hug and tried to comfort her, which ended miserably. Sakura's sobs just got louder and louder until she started coughing from her chokes and eye ducts went dry. Eventually, she fell asleep.
"Dear, Sakura, what on earth do you mean?"
And so poor Eriol woke up at two in the morning to meet an emotionally unstable, determined teenager that needed answers right that second before she exploded.
My cheeks red like fire engines racing
Straight to the heat of your skin
And I know our days are numbered
Early bird of summer
You'll fly south just as the fall begins
There was an awkward silence as the date was reaching its end. Both of them knew what was coming but just couldn't face the truth. Neither looked at each other so Syaoran couldn't see the tears about to fall from her eyes.
"Well," he tried to break the tense atmosphere, "I'm going back to China tomorrow."
"I know," she whispered, making it barely audible for Syaoran. She looked around. The leaves were starting to have brown and orange tints, a sure sign that the seasons were changing.
They both got quiet again, each unsure what to do. Then, Syaoran heard hiccups, Sakura's failed attempt to cover the noise of her sobs. "Kura, face me."
"Bu.. but.. but, Syao." He grabbed her shoulders and faced her towards him. She looked like a mess. The makeup Tomoyo put on her was starting to run down her chin, and her hands faced palm-out over her eyes.
"Sakura, that's not even the way you cover your eyes." What he tried to turn into a joke ended up with a worried tone.
"I don't care! Just... Just go back to China already so I could get over you!" she spat. Still covering her eyes, she didn't see Syaoran's obvious shocked expression. His eyes were filled with regret, and then he gave her a sad smile, which she still couldn't see.
"I'm... I''m sorry, Sakura." He kissed her tenderly on the lips and then let go.
Sakura couldn't hear anything after he kissed her. Finally, she felt the autumn breeze make her auburn hair fly off her shoulders and into the air. "Syao?" She moved her hands and opened her eyes. He was gone...
"Huh," she thought aloud as she looked up, "migrating birds." And she stopped crying.
The leaves changed their colors
And the schoolyards were filled
My coat with the patches barely keeps out the chill
Doo doo doo...
Sakura sighed. They were back to school. First, she had to push through the crowds of lost freshmen trying to figure out where the hell their rooms were AFTER their second week. Then, after having to point out where classroom 510 was, which was actually relatively hard seeing as it was one of the three classes with their doors at the back of the north building, at least twenty times, she had to go to her first period. Math. Yay! Note the sarcasm.
She sat down, freezing in her thin coat. Stupid math building just had to have their god-damn heaters screwed up in the middle of fucking autumn. As she was internally cursing everything she felt needed to be cursed, Tomoyo and Eriol looked at her with worried eyes.
"She'll be fine, Moyo," said Eriol as he squeezed her hand.
"I hope so. I guess it isn't a good time to tell her that we're dating, huh?"
"Mmm..."
You sent me a postcard from a town out of state
I wish it were warmer and I hope you're the same
Doo doo doo..
A week later, Tomoyo noticed Eriol was in a bad mood. Instead of his usual charming behavior, he ended up snapping at the third freshman girl asking for directions and stomped all the way to his seat between Tomoyo and Chiharu. Chiharu got really scared, but Sakura, who was on the other side of Tomoyo, didn't notice a thing.
"What's your problem, Eriol?
"This," he showed her an envelope with much hatred in his voice, "came in the mail today."
Tomoyo took out the contents from the ripped open letter to see a letter from Syaoran. It said he was fine, the trip went well, and he hoped that Sakura was feeling better ever since he left. There was also a picture of him waving at the camera with his one of his sisters, who happened to be very pretty. Of course, Tomoyo didn't know that it was his sister.
"That unfeeling bastard," she snarled.
"Who's an unfeeling bastard, Tomoyo?" asked Sakura, oblivious to the situation. Tomoyo tried hiding the note, but Sakura's faster reflexes beat her to it. Sakura happened to snatch only the photograph and looked in horror as she saw her Syao's smiling face with another woman.
She raised her hand, disturbing Miss Azuno's art lecture—which no one was paying to anyways. Seriously, an ART lecture? Not to mention their homeroom teacher wasn't very interesting...—and asked to go to the nurse's office, claiming that she wasn't feeling well. Tomoyo saw a stray tear as she grabbed her bag rushed out the room. It was obvious that she was planning to give Eriol a fair yet undeserved beating during break.
The fields where we wandered were golden
Now only muddy my boots
And I know I should recover
You're a bird of the summer
I was wrong to try and capture you
At Syaoran's first talk about leaving at the end of the summer, Sakura was downhearted. "Why? Can't you stay here... with me?" She knew it was a selfish request but didn't want him to leave with the regret of not trying to stop him.
"You know I want to, but I can't." Sakura cried a lot in his arms, saying how everything was so unfair. He silently agreed, but there was nothing he can do. Not while he was the only male heir of the Li clan.
Flight, flight, flight, flight...
I met someone walking and I parked by the lake
It don't fly like we did but it don't fly away
Doo doo doo...
Sakura then was able to meet a nice enough boy. Kind, thoughtful, sweet, rather handsome; everyone thought they were a perfect match, except for Tomoyo and Eriol. They and Sakura realized that the sparks weren't flying as much as they had with Syaoran. But, Sakura was determined to prove herself wrong and, technically, led the poor guy on. She made herself try to love him; after all, he wasn't going to leave her.
However, they ended by the end of winter; each decided that they weren't going to find the one within each other. So they went their separate ways.
"Hmm... winter and summer love. Decided for a romance every other season, eh Kura?" joked Eriol. Tomoyo glared him to be silent, as he didn't know it was still a sore topic. Sakura turned her head away and got up. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to bring up the past."
"I know you didn't, Eriol. It just.. It just," she looked at him with sadness clear on her face, "hurts. Really bad. Excuse me." With that, Sakura walked out of the café, tired of being the third wheel and tired of having to rely on their unhelpful company.
Gone is the pale hand of winter
Here is the first flush of May
And soon I will discover
Whether birds of the summer
Fly in circles or just fly away
And now, my readers, the ending is up to your imagination. Do birds of the summer "fly in circles or just fly away"?
Notes
1. The song wasn't written by me, but the very awesome Allison Sudol, the sole member of A Fine Frenzy.
2. I substituted "five" with "four" in the second line of the song. If it was five, I would be writing about my life, not a Sakura and Syaoran fanfiction. Wait.. Too much information. If you know me in real life, zip it. Forget it. I'm not gonna say a word.
3. I may make a sequel, depending on how well this one goes.
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And we all know how badly love is needed in the world.