~~Author notes are in these little do hickys. ~~

No Time But The Present
By: Aserena_Usagi

"Sakura! You are late for school." Tori yelled up the stairs.

"I'm coming Tori! Hold on!" Sakura ran down the stairs pulling her socks on. She sat on a chair, pulled her roller blades on, raced out the house and down the outside steps. "Tori wait!"

Tori was already a block down the street with his friend. She caught up with them easily.

"Hi FRIEND."

"Hi Sakura. How are you?" FRIEND asked.

"I'm fine. Tori I'm going over to Madison's house after school. So I'll be home late." Sakura said.

"Oh come on Squirt. It's your turn to cook. Just because Dad left for a while it makes you think you can go gallivanting off with your friends and leave your poor big brother hungry." Tori whined.

"So lets go out and eat. I'll invite some friends and well go eat pizza. You can come to FRIEND. Besides, Tori's paying. Here's my stop see ya later." Sakura turned off the road and raced into the school. *No time to take my skates off.*

She skated very fast into her classroom. *Oh no I'm going too fast!* Li grabbed her arm as the bell rang for them to be in their seats. "Yikes!" Sakura screeched as she slammed right into her desk.

"Thanks Li." Sakura said sarcastically rubbing her side. "Owwwww... That hurt." She moaned.

"Meilyne."

"Here! Morning Sakura. You sure made an entrance today."

"Hey are you still on for tonight?" Madison asked.

"Yeah. Oh everyone is invited to pizza. And you better come to Li. We are ordering and the best thing is... My brother is buying."

"Fine I'll be there." Li said.

"Li! Sakura!" The teacher yelled.

"Here!" They yelled in unison.

"I know you are here! You are making enough racket the whole school can hear you." He hollered. "Now we are changing seats. First line front from back, Li followed by Sakura, Madison, and Meilyne."

"Oh... Now I gotta look behind me to talk to everyone." Sakura said. "Oh well."

"That was the idea Sakura. I know Li won't be tempted to turn around and talk to you. So therefore our classroom might be a tad quieter."

"Humph!" Sakura started doodling on a piece of paper in the middle of her notebook. She draws a few lines then writes a few words. Sakura looked at her finished piece. *Man I can't even draw him.*

"Nice hamster!" Madison said.

"Oh! You know perfectly well it's not a hamster." *She saw Li's name under his picture and she knows how I feel about him.* Sakura was too busy glaring at Madison that she didn't see Li turn around.

"Hm... Who is that?" Li asked. Then he started to turn the notebook around.

"NO!!!!!" Sakura yelled really loudly and grabbed the notebook away from Li. "You--"

"Children! Settle down. What am I going to do with you? Give me the notebook Sakura." The teacher said and took it out of her grasp.

"I'm sorry." Madison mouthed as she moved back to her seat. She had gotten up to sharpen her pencil when she felt she had to tease Sakura, after all that is what friends are for. Sakura just stared at the chalkboard.

"Li; The one person I feel can understand me. The only one I love. There is no time like the present to say how I feel. Yet I'm scared. By Sakura." the teacher read off the paper. "I'm sorry Sakura. I really didn't mean to.." But he didn't get to finish for Sakura ran out of the room.

All Sakura was aware of was her feet pounding on the ground as she crashed through the school doors. *No, how can this be happening to me?*

* * * * * * * *

Sakura's school had been done for the day for about two hours before her teacher actually thought. He thought he probably should tell her brother Tori whom she always talked about. He knew she adored Tori so maybe he would be understanding.

He knocked on the door. "Yes?"

"Tori? I'm Sakura's teacher. I need to tell you something."

"Well, come in. Yes I'm Tori. What has the little squirt done now?" Tori asked.

"Well it isn't what she has done. It is kinda what I have done." The teacher said.

Tori paused at this. "You better be explaining what you mean or I'm going to be thinking the worst and then I'll probably beat you up."

"No no no. Nothing like that. Here it all started with this." He handed the picture over.

"Well she is definitely not an artist. Oh. I see." Tori said after he read the words under the picture.

"Well they had been arguing profusely over this notebook so I thought reading its contents out loud might make them behave. And thats what I did. Then she ran out of the school and we can't find her."

"You thoughtless bastard! Why didn't you think? I'm going to look for her. Find your own way out." Tori said.

* * * * * * * *

*I hope she's all right.* To Li it felt like he had looked everywhere in the town. "Oh Sakura. Kero you can't pick up anything at all?" Li asked.

"Nothing. I don't think she wants to be found. What happened that was so bad for her to run away?" Kero asked.

"Well lets just say our teacher blurted out how she felt about me and she obviously didn't want anyone to know. The picture says she loves me and I didn't get the chance to tell her how I feel." Li explained.

* * * * * * * *

"Oh I know one place I didn't look." Tori said. He was very worried because it had been raining all day. "Oh Sakura. Why did you have to run away?"

Tori threw his bike down in his yard and ran three blocks to a tiny forest of evergreen trees. The one he was looking for was in the middle in a clearing that was almost bare at the bottom. You could tell there used to be a wall of pine boughs. Sakura built it when she went into hiding to keep the rain off of her and it had long since fallen over. Tori saw a lump next to the tree trunk.

"Sakura!" Tori ran over to her. "Sakura wake up!" He felt her forehead. It was literally on flame. ~~ @_@ Thats me. I've got glasses.~~ "We gotta get you home." Tori picked her up and carried her all the way home.

* * * * * * * *

"Tori... Help! Li. Oh my Li. Where are you? Tori... Tori!" Sakura awoke.

"I'm here Sakura. I'm here." He stuck a thermometer in her in her mouth. "101 still to high. Here Sakura. Eat this. It might not taste the best but it's something. And you need something in your stomach. You haven't ate for... Well you didn't eat at all yesterday."

"How did you find me?" Sakura asked. "And why does my throat hurt?"

"How am I supposed to know. That is what a doctor is for. I just know that you have a very bad cold and a high temperature. I guess I just somehow knew where you were. Now eat this soup and rest. If you are good I'll let you have a couple of visitors this afternoon."

"Not Li. I want to talk to Madison though. But not Li." Sakura said.

"I'll call Madison and tell her to come at two o'clock." Tori said and walked out of her room.

"Sakura are you sure you are o.k?" Kero asked.

"I never said I was O.K. Kero." Sakura said.

"Well rarr! I don't see what the big deal is." Kero announced huffily.

"You don't even know what happened." Sakura starred into Kero's eyes. "Who told you?"

"Li. He came to get me after school yesterday to help him find you. The Lasen board didn't help. We couldn't find you."

"He probably hates me now. Oh I hate my life!" Sakura exclaimed laying all the way back on her bed.

"Oh Sakura. You are so dramatic. You better get well soon. There is bound to be a clow card somewhere pretty soon." Kero said.

"Got it."

* * * * * * * *

KNOCK! KNOCK!

"Hello Li. Sakura says she doesn't want to talk to you." Li's face fell. "But her window is open. Second story window. There is a way to get in though." Tori walked away and closed the door whistling. Then he ran up the stairs and opened Sakura's window.

"Thank Tori. I need some fresh air to lull me to sleep. Madison really wore me out. Especially since we talked about L... Nevermind." Sakura drifted off to sleep.

* * * * * * * *

"Hm... Wide holed lattice. Interesting. This will be easy." Li said. He started climbing and finally got to Sakura's window. "of course it has to be a small window. Oh man she's asleep."

Li walked over to her bed and sat down on the edge of it.

"Li. Oh Li. I do love you. I may be young but I know what I feel." Sakura murmured in her sleep.

"Well that's good to know." Li said. He leaned over her and said, "Sakura. Sakura wake up."

"Leave me alone Tori!" Sakura flung out her arm and smacked Li in the face.

"OW! You didn't have to hit me!" Sakura's eyes opened and she sat up in a flash.

"Li! What are you doing in here?" Sakura asked. "Why are you in my bedroom?"

"I need to talk to you. And I'm not your brother. A brother would not do what I'm about to do."





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Tori thought he had better come to help poor defenseless Li. But as he was about to enter Sakura's room everything went quiet. Tori looked in her room. They were sitting on the bed kissing.

*Looks like he has it under control. Of course now he is going to get Sakura's cold.*

* * * * * * * *

They parted. "Listen Sakura. I have something to tell you. I really like you. More than a friend. It might be love, it probably is but I don't know. Why don't we try it out?" Li said.

"All right. I'm still wondering how school will be on Monday. That is if my fever is down by then." Sakura said.

"It's all right. Listen everyone has been worried sick about you. Sure they are going to tease you. But as soon as they see we are together they will stop gossiping." Li announced.

"Oh I don't really care about them. I know my true friends will stay by me. Meilyne thats a different question. She's gonna kill me."

"I'll talk to her. You know what?" Li asked as he leaned closer to her.

"What?" She asked as their foreheads touched.

"You are the first person I've ever kissed other than my family." Li said.

"Really? Same here. You know what? Tori is probably spying on us." Sakura said. "Let me look." Sakura got up. She had gotten dressed in a red tee-shirt and a blue skirt before Madison had come over. She heard someone running down the stairs. Sakura shut the door.

"Your brother is the one who told me your window was open." Li announced.

"You climbed up here just to talk with me?" Sakura asked. "Up the lattice? Oh my."

"I had to tell you how I felt and plus haven't you ever heard the saying, 'No Time Like The Present'?"

"Oh Li." They came closer and started a kiss neither of them wanted to end.

END

~~ Can you tell I have only seen about five dubbed episodes? I also don't think I spelled Meilyne right. Or did I? I like my little smiley @_@ I've wrote at least five fan-fics this vacation time and I've put three on here. See ya later, ya all probably think I'm a looney and need to find a room with padded walls. ~~