The Only Time When Getting a Fever is Kinda Nice

by Jianne

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction (see website). Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author's (rather twisted) imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be constructed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Clamp owns the original Card Captor Sakura characters and everything else is owned by the author, unless stated otherwise.

Dedication

To the very nice (and patient too!) readers of How to Love a Prince.

Juuust Before You Read

Enjoy, you guys!

"You feeling okay? You look a little pale. And tired too." He hung his coat, lightly swatting off the snow that collected on it.

It was winter break, and Sakura and her circle of friends decided to spend their vacation from college at Tomoyo's country house in Kyoto. Syaoran surprisingly came too, but Sakura suspected it was only because a business partner of his mother was spending the holidays somewhere nearby. And she was looking to spend more time with him too…

"Sakura? Are you okay?"

Belatedly realizing that she was staring, she looked away, feeling self-conscious all of a sudden. "Y-yeah…yes! I'm perfectly fine. I'm just…sleepy. I couldn't sleep last night because of the movie I watched before crawling to bed…what was it again? I forgot—"

"Uh huh."

"—the title. What? You think I'm lying? I can narrate the story right from the start if you want. It was about a lady named Kelsey who used to run a missing persons agency but she just got divorced so she decided to help out her former nanny whom she heard was working in an orphanage where—" She turned to him, only to jump slightly, surprised that he was magically right there in front of her. He then laid a large hand on her forehead. "C-cold." She muttered. He raised an eyebrow at her. "No, you're warm. Too warm."

She stepped back. "No I'm not. Your hands are just freezing from the snow." She replied indignantly, all the while trying to ignore that concerned frown on his face. "So yeah, after a lot of research, which probably went on for about 30 minutes, Kelsey found the orphanage and boy, was she shocked when she saw that most of the kids there she recognized as reported missing by their parents who were not only rich but also famous and—" She stopped when she realized his face was suddenly leaning towards her. "What do you think yo—"

It was only for a second—his forehead on hers—but the warmth she left on his lingered for more than a minute. Funny, it was quickly spreading to his cheeks, his ears, then his neck…What in the world did he do that for anyway? He coughed rather distractedly. "So how long have you been feeling this way?"

Ever since fifth grade.

She gaped at him at first, but quickly recovered and bowed her head, her hands becoming more interesting by the minute. "J-just this morning. But I'm fine, honestly I am. Anyway, where was I?" She asked, more to herself, her voice a little louder than necessary, "Oh yeah. Turns out this nanny was a schizophrenic, and the nanny herself doesn't know she was one. If it weren't for Kelsey who outsmarted her and saved all the kids, Evil Nanny would have burned them all alive."

"The end?" He asked, his back turned to her. "Nope, not yet. There's this big twist in the last scene—which was what kept me wide awake last night—and it was really creepy too. Kelsey was there with the kids, hugging them as they watched the sort-of orphanage burn to ashes when suddenly she had this evil look and then she said, Last one to the fire's a rotten egg! Then there were all these flashbacks, revealing that there wasn't really an Evil Nanny, just a burning house, burning Nanny and one big schizophrenic Evil Kelsey."

He finally faced her, several thermometers at hand. "Quite interesting. Now stick a thermometer down your throat and if you give me that I'm-perfectly-healthy crap again I'm going to make you swallow one of these," he then gave a very evil grin (similar to Evil Kelsey's, she thought), "or maybe all."

She snatched one, annoyed at his nonexistent reaction to her brave recount of the scariest movie ever, and did just as she was told, suspiciously mumbling words like 'evil' and 'evil' and 'evil' or something along those words. (Somehow the nouns weren't relevant when she cursed him.) However, she wouldn't have done that if he wasn't looking for something in his bag meters away where he couldn't have heard her. After a few seconds more, with no more than a blink, he nonchalantly carried her bridal-style towards the living room.

She, of course, was taken aback, which he took advantage of by pulling the thermometer from her mouth with his mouth, what with both his hands lifting her and all. He laid her down a little gently before reading her temperature.

40.7 degrees Celsius.

He shook his head and crossed his arms. "And now Evil Me is taking over. You are to stay there until I say so and no—"

"—but—"

"—buts or else." she gulped. Somehow she knew he heard all those 'evil's' she called him earlier or she wouldn't see daggers, metal and fire in his eyes right then. "Fine," was all she said—was all she could say, really.

After a long process of feeding her with porridge (Why the heck are there pickles in it?), making her stay put (Where do you think you're going, little girl?), drinking medicine (Strawberry flavor chewables? That is soo immature.), and playing her lullaby song on the player (And you think Twinkle Twinkle Star is mature?), she slept soundly, with him watching over her.

Now if he could only get Reported Missing out of his head.

Owari

Ooh. The shortest one-shot I know. Anyway, happy Valentine's day, guys! (or happy single awareness day? whichever applies, applies, ne?)