Author's Note – Here's another CCS short fic, two-shots with one story plot! I think I'll start continuing Wounded after the fictions I've planned to write. So while waiting for a continuation of that story, enjoy yourself with my planned stories! ...If that made any sense at all. (laughs)

Disclaimer
Touya and Sakura belongs to CLAMP.
This story, however, is mine. So hands off. (death-glares)

Summary
Sakura's beginning to doubt her brother's love for her due to his non-stop teasing, which gets her really riled up sometimes to the extent of much dislike. (Hate's too strong a word here...) Thus, she stopped reacting to his teasing, just for one day, to see his reactions. Touya's nature is not to be sweet and mushy, to his girlfriend (if he had one) or especially to his sister. However, when Sakura didn't react to his morning routine teases one day, he began to worry about her. And one thing, leads to another... In Touya's case, pride-swallowing.

Night

"Ne, Kero-chan. Does Touya really like me at all?" Sakura, now 11 years old, sat on her bed and questioned the Guardian Beast of the Sun who was in his borrowed form, playing video games. As usual.

Keroberos, who hadn't expected this question coming from Sakura because she was Touya's sister, hit pause on his game and flew towards her, hovering in the air in front of her face with a confused look. "Why would you ask that question, Sakura-chan? Of course Touya likes you."

Sakura frowned, still feeling doubtful about her brother's affections for her and tried to reason with her guardian. "But Kero-chan. All he ever does is tease me and my habits. It's not my fault that I can't get rid of them. And no matter how much he knows I dislike him calling me 'kaijuu', he still does it endlessly!"

Kero sighed and stood on two legs on her lap. "Sakura. Touya only teases you because that's the only way he knows how to show you that he cares for you. Don't think too much about it, alright? Trust me on this one. Your brother is very prideful. It would hurt his pride if he showed his affections openly."

"Mou..." Sakura sighed, knowing he was right. "But I'm still doubting it..."

Kero groaned in exasperation, before an idea popped into his mind. "Well then, Sakura-chan. Why don't you test him? Ignore his teasing tomorrow morning, and watch for his reactions. If he worries, he cares for you. And if you still doubt him, question him after school, alright?"

The Card Captor thought over his idea, and smiled, nodding in agreement. "Thanks Kero!" She grabbed the toy looking beast and hugged him tightly, until he cried out, "Sa-a-ku-ra! A-air!" She released him with a sweat drop and grinned sheepishly, before tucking herself into bed with a goodnight said.

Morning, Next Day

+Sakura's POV+

I yawned as I got up from bed, surprising myself when I saw that it was only 7am and school started only an hour later. Shrugging carelessly, I walked over to my closet and dressed myself in my school uniform. I turned around when I heard the drawer that Kero's room was located in opened and saw the guardian beast yawn as he rubbed his eyes. "Morning." He turned to look at my alarm clock and questioned, "Sakura? What are you doing up so early today?"

"Morning to you too, Kero-chan and I don't know," I replied, shrugging my shoulders. Kero nodded sleepily before returning inside his room while I walked out of the door, with my bag slung over my shoulder and my school cap in one hand.

I dashed downstairs, the plan of not reacting to Touya's teasing in my mind. It's going to be hard... But I really want to know! I thought as I headed towards the kitchen, where I greeted father, "Ohayo, otou-san." I then turned to the picture of my mother on the dining table and smiled, saying an 'ohayo' to it as well. "Morning, Sakura. What are you doing up so early?" Fujitaka, my father, questioned me curiously.

"I don't know. I just did." I grinned, receiving a chuckle from her father. Just then, Touya entered the room with a, "Whoa!" I raised a brow questioningly at his reaction. Touya grinned when he saw me. "Is the end of the world coming soon? The kaijuu's actually up early!" His grin faltered when I did nothing and this small reaction made me wonder with slight amusement. Even my father seemed a bit shocked when I did nothing but sit down at the table and began on my breakfast, but not before I said, "Ohayo, onii-chan."

I was a bit annoyed when Touya came over to me and put a hand on my forehead as though to see if I had a temperature while saying, "Are you alright, kaijuu?" Well, he cares... Somehow. But... I think I still want to ask him about his teasing after school, I thought to myself, before shoving his hand gently away from me. "I'm perfectly fine, onii-chan. I don't have a temperature running, and I don't have any symptoms of any illness. I'm finished, and I'm going to school now." I pushed my chair away from the table, picked up my bag and placed my school hat on my head. That done, I walked calmly away from my brother and father towards the door and strapped on my roller blades. I left the house, shouting, "Ja ne!"

I didn't see my father and my brother glance at each other. My father's eyes were holding an emotion of amusement while my brother's
was confusion.

Later that Afternoon

School's over. Today breezed by pretty fast. Tereda-sensei was even nice enough to cut down on today's amount of homework. Syaoran Li, my partner and best friend in card capturing and my best friend, Tomoyo Daidouji, walked with me towards home before we reached the cross junction where our paths separated. "See you at school tomorrow, Li-kun, Tomoyo-chan!" I shouted towards them with a wave as I continued on the path towards my home, hearing a faint, "Ja ne, Sakura-chan!" from both of them.

I was surprised when I reached home, to see two pairs of sports shoes by the door, and assumed that my brother had brought Yukito over again. Yukito Tsukishiro was my brother's best friend and he attended the same high school as he did. I had a crush on Yukito once, but it had gradually faded away when I realized that I just liked Yukito a lot because he was like another older brother to me. A nicer and more expressive one anyway.

"I'm home!" I shouted into the house from the doorway as I took off my roller blades and placed them aside. I heard faint murmurs in the living room before Touya's head popped out in the corridor, grinning at me as he said, "Welcome home, kaijuu." I surpressed my annoyance and urge to shout at him that I wasn't a monster and merely walked up to my room. I didn't see Touya's confused expression nor hear him say, "See, Yuki? I told you, Sakura's acting weird! She doesn't even react to my teasing! But otou-san says she's fine! What do you think is going on?"

I placed my bag by my desk and my school hat on the table itself before falling onto my bed. "How was school today, Sakura-chan?" I heard Kero ask as he continued playing his video game. "It was fine. We have lesser amount of homework today, thanks to Tereda-sensei." I smiled. Just as Kero was about to say more, someone knocked on my door and Kero hurriedly hit pause on his game while rushing to my hands and turning stiff as though he was really a stuffed toy. "Sakura-chan?" I heard from the other side of the door. "Sakura-chan. This is Yukito. Can I come in?"

"Sure, Yukito-san!" I replied. He entered my room with a worried expression on his facial features before sitting in front of me on my bed. He chuckled at the sight of me holding Kero before sobering. "Sakura-chan. Is something wrong? Touya says you've not been reacting to anything he said."

I looked over his shoulder, to see if Touya was there before rushing over to shut the door and talking to Yukito in a softer tone. "Iie, Yukito-san. I just want to know if onii-chan really cares for me. I'm beginning to see that he does, from the way he seems to stop functioning for awhile when I don't do anything when he teases me. But then again, it could be temporary, so I just want to make sure."

Yukito began to laugh before I joined in with giggles. "I see. Just don't do take too long. He might turn to drastic measures if you keep it up." I grinned at his words before he walked out of my room. I followed soon, thinking it would be easier for Touya to answer my questions if Yukito was around. I searched for them in the living and found no one around. So I retraced my steps and headed for Touya's room instead and knocked on the door. Yukito answered it and he smiled at me with hidden amusement twinkling in his grey eyes. "Sakura-chan! What are you doing here?"

I laughed inwardly at the skills of his acting. They were convincing, but not very if you knew that he was acting. I just played along, wiping the grin off my face. "I came to talk to onii-chan. Can I come in?" Yukito wordlessly opened the door wider and I entered. Textbooks and papers were all over Touya's desk and some piled on the floor. "What do you want, kaijuu?" Touya raised a questioning brow at my presence while I swallowed the rising urge to kick him for calling me a monster again. "I want to ask you something, onii-chan." I walked over to his bed and sat cross-legged on it before staring at him intently with the innocence of a three-year-old. "Ne, onii-chan. Why do you always call me kaijuu?"

Touya looked at me as though I was joking when I asked him this, which I wasn't. So he grinned and answered, "That's because you are one." I wasn't as amused as him, however. But I continued. "Why do you always tease me?" His answer for that question was even more stupid than the first one. "Cause it's fun." It seemed that I was wrong when I thought that he did care about me. So I fired him my last question, "Onii-chan, what am I to you?" Touya raised his brow as though he thought that it was unbelievable for me to ask him that. But I did. And his reply sent me out of his room with tears streaking down my face. "A kaijuu."

I didn't cry aloud. The tears just seemed to work their way down my cheeks. I ran towards my room and slammed the door shut with a loud 'bang' and sat on my bed, hugging my pillow tightly as the tears continued falling. Kero paused his game again and flew towards me, asking me what was wrong. I didn't reply. All I did was grabbed him tightly to me as I began to sob softly. Kero didn't struggle, instead he began to pat my knuckles, trying to comfort me in any way he could.

Suddenly, he went stiff. And that only meant that he felt someone at the door. Soon enough, Touya came into my room with a solemn expression on his face as he watched me cry. I turned away from him with a muffled, "Go away." My voice was hoarse from crying, and it added to the effect I had on him. It made him cringe like he was in immense pain but he was holding in his cries. "Sakura?" He beckoned to me in a soft voice. He did it to try to make me stop crying, but instead it made me twitch as though I was annoyed. "Go away, Touya." I demanded in a louder voice.

He didn't listen. Instead, he came over to me and sat on my bed, making me turn away from him again. But when I did, he hugged me from behind. I stiffened, as though I was uncomfortable to his touch. In fact, I wasn't. I hadn't felt him hug me this way since the last time I cried when I hurt myself from roller blading. I heard Touya swore softly before murmuring into my ear, "Gomenasai, Sakura."
(A/N – Unbelievable! The tough Touya Kinomoto actually said sorry to his own little sister! It's a miracle! (laughs))

I froze entirely when I heard him. It was a first, actually, that he really said sorry to me. Other times, he wouldn't say anything but put on an apologizing expression on his face. I was always 'nice enough' to accept from his look that he was sorry for whatever he did. Never once in my entire life did I actually hear him verbally apologize to me, or to anyone. "What?" I muttered in shock as my tears stopped falling. "What did you say?" I questioned him, as though I wasn't believing my ears. I did though. I just wanted him to say it once more. Just once, because I knew the next time, he wouldn't apologize to me this way again. "I said gomenasai, Sakura." He obliged to my unspoken request and hugged me tighter.

"Do you really mean it, onii-chan?" I questioned softly. It was not like me to distrust anything anyone said. People said I was too trusting or too naive. But in truth, I was neither. I just never wanted to see the bad side of anyone or anything. I believed that in everyone, there was a shred of humanity and humbleness in them. No one was purely 'evil', just misguided and misunderstood. Then again, that was my belief.

"I do, imouto." He seemed really patient now, as though he was trying to prove to me that he did care for me. "Sakura, you're my little sister. As your older brother, it's my job to annoy you with teases. Don't take everything I say about you seriously," He continued softly and waited for my reaction. Unable to hold it back, I turned around and hugged him with my arms around his torso. "That's all I wanted to know, onii-chan. But you always said bad things about me, I thought you never really liked me at all."

I heard him chuckle softly as his embrace tightened around me again. "You're really silly sometimes, kaijuu." I could see that annoying smirk on his face as he said so. And just this once, I decided to let him go. Well, I did planned to, until I remembered how many times he had already called me a monster that morning and whacked the back of his head. "Sakura no kaijuu, baka onii-chan!" I grinned with satisfaction at his pained yelp, "Itai!" before the both of us began to laugh. Now I was sure that no matter what happened, I had a brother that I could always count on and that his care for me was hidden, but not non-existent.

+End of Sakura's POV+

Yukito smiled as he watched the Kinomoto siblings hold each other in their arms from Sakura's doorway. It was a rare sight, to see the constantly bickering siblings to hug each other, though having them agreeing on something together is already rare enough. Yukito wished that he had a camera to capture the moment, because though it was short, it was ever-lasting to the siblings. However, after reconsidering his wish, he decided that it was best this way, that only the siblings knew of the moment, because that alone made it even more precious to them. He left them alone, whistling a merry tune as he headed to the kitchen to prepare a small (A/N – If that's really Yuki, prepare to overstuff yourself. (laughs)) snack for them.

Where did Kero disappear to? Kero had silently crawled towards the shelf where Sakura's other stuffed toys lie when Touya hugged Sakura and sat stilled there. He watched Sakura and Touya with a smile on his face, happy for his mistress and her brother. Everything will be all right.

Author's Note – Okay, that was really short. ..; Then again, it's only about Touya and Sakura, so you can't really expect anything long. Unless you want it long-winded... (laughs) And that ends Sakura's half. Next chapter; Touya's POV. The ending part after Sakura's POV ended will not be included in Touya's chapter. Too lazy. (grins) And yep. The last sentence is Sakura's invincible mantra! I think it's called a mantra... (sweatdrops)