Author's Notes: I'm trying to work on my own things again, which of course means that nothing is getting done. About this...I've been sitting on this one for a while now. After I wrote it, I hung onto it so I could post it later if I didn't have anything new and then...Japan...and I didn't want to post it in the aftermath of that so I hung onto it some more...
Anyway, my recommendation: don't read this if you're having an exceptionally good day or a bad day.
Sakura in the White Room
"Let's have a tea party!" Mokona declared.
"Ok!" Sakura agreed happily, her frilled pink and white dress puffed out behind her as she leaned down to smile at the small white creature below her, white gloved hands resting on her knees.
"Tea?" Fai perked up, straightening from his prior position leaning over the back of the plush, white couch to watch Kurogane read his newspaper over one shoulder.
On the front page, facing away from Kurogane, the headlines read: Nuclear Threat Confirmed.
"Do I have to wear that stuffy red coat?" Kurogane grumbled, folding the paper and laying it on the glass coffee table in front of him and Sakura shook her head.
"Nope! I know how much you hate that coat."
Kurogane stood up and Fai hurried around the couch to capture his arm, snuggling close to him blissfully.
"May I pour the tea for you, princess?" Syaoran asked, bowing at the waist in his tailored green and gold suit, a hand held out for her.
Sakura blushed as she placed her hand in his. "If you please." she answered him shyly.
"It's my pleasure." Syaoran answered, a faint blush staining his own cheeks in return.
Syaoran led her to her pink cushioned chair, clearing away a book upon the table's white surface before guiding her down onto it and pushing the chair up to the tea table.
Syaoran took a moment to set the book, entitled Case Studies Concerning SCID, on the white bookshelf in its place while Kurogane and Fai took their seats either side of Sakura at the tea table. On his way back, Syaoran pressed the play button on the music generator set into one of the white sections of wall so that its programmed soft, classical music could provide a backdrop to their social event.
"Fai," Sakura asked, turning to the tall, blonde at her left "isn't there any of your wonderful cake left?"
"Of course." Fai waved his hand over the space before them with a smile, manifesting the cakes magically.
"Yay!" Mokona cheered, reaching for a saucer of cake. "Fai's cakes are delicious!"
"May I pour your tea?" Syaoran offered, holding the tea pot over Sakura's cup, awaiting her approval.
"Please!" Sakura exclaimed.
"Here." Kurogane said, passing her a slice of cake. "You should eat more. You're getting thin."
Sakura blushed as she accepted the plate from the dark haired man.
"I'll bet Kuro-pon would rather have steak, isn't that right?" Fai asked, resting his chin on one hand as he gazed across the table at Kurogane with half-lidded eyes.
"That's right." Kurogane agreed.
"It's too bad that I only made cake." Fai lamented, his sly grin betraying his regretful tone.
"Why you…" Kurogane growled back.
Fai quickly leaned over the table, never upsetting Syaoran, who continued to pour the tea over him, only a bit higher over the cup as he rose up on tiptoe.
"Don't worry, I put a little nip in your tea." Fai whispered and, in spite of himself, Kurogane grinned.
"Mokona wants French cream!" Mokona cried, hopping across the table underneath Fai to retrieve it from the other side.
"Oh!" Sakura exclaimed, straightening suddenly. "My favorite song!"
It was playing on the speaker just now.
"Shall we dance?" Syaoran asked her, coming around the table and Sakura nodded, taking his hand once more.
It wasn't long before the swaying motions of the dance made Sakura dizzy and she laughed as she fell back on her large pink and white bed, pulling Syaoran with her.
"I'm a bit tired now." Sakura said, closing her eyes. The bright, white lights shining down from overhead didn't bother her a bit.
"Should I turn the music off?" Syaoran asked but Sakura shook her head, smiling.
"Let it run." she murmured.
-oOo-
"Do you hear something?"
Fuuma cocked his head, listening for noise but heard only the sounds of his own radiation equipment. "Like what?"
Kamui frowned deeply. "I hear music."
Fuuma laughed. "You do realize that we're the first people to set foot here in forty years, right?"
Kamui threw his partner a glare. "Shut up. I think it's coming from up there."
He pointed out a door, blocked by debris.
Fuuma shrugged and followed.
Standing in front of the door, Fuuma realized that Kamui was right. The faint sound of music was coming from the other side.
Shoving fallen beams aside, Fuuma cleared a path to the door and pulled it open, only to be assaulted by a brilliant white light.
Slowly, the two men entered into the room. The classical music playing inside crackled and caught and repeated itself in an endless loop above the steady hum of machines lining the walls, all doing their jobs endlessly.
But neither of them noticed that.
At the center of the room was a large enclosure and inside it, a girl's bedroom, like a small world, captured and preserved for eternity. To the left, a tea table where a stuffed animal lay on its side and two dolls lay one upon the other, abandoned in mid-play and upon the bed was a third, encased loosely in the grip of a child's corpse.
A hand flew to Kamui's mouth as he turned from the sight into Fuuma's open arms.
Neither could speak as the music crackled again and the song's final notes repeated, replaying the ending endlessly.
Post whatevers: This was kind of inspired by Kerli's Tea Party music video. I started writing it with the dolls in mind and I really didn't know what I had until I was done. This is really the first thing I've ever written that could be called tragedy.