MS

Summary: AU... Sakura knows that Syaoran hates the kitchen. So why is he actually trying to prepare a meal this particular night? She watches in mixed horror and amusement as he strives forward and manages to rise to the occasion. It wasn't perfect, but it was something she was never going to forget.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the CCS characters.

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Exquisite

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Sakura stood by the doorway of the kitchen, her hand swirling the wine he had served her when she had arrived minutes ago. She observed him, her eyes narrowing in certain aspects of the different dishes he seemed to be preparing.

To say that she was astonished was not enough. She was speechless. She was confused as hell.

Sakura had worked for his family for too long to not know of their aversion to the kitchen and its utilities.

He hated to cook. It was a family thing. They all despised any type of work that involved cooking and here he was, preparing her a meal. Although she had to ask herself, did he share the trait of being disastrous in the kitchen? He seemed quite competent in how he used the various devices. There were different things that looked out of place, but he looked relatively at ease at that particular corner while putting some lettuce under the faucet to clean it.

It didn't mean that she didn't catch the grimace in his expression. Maybe he didn't look out of place, but he probably felt it. She bit the urge to giggle, knowing that he would only look her way and she would have to explain herself. He always wound up winning all of their stare downs and this one would be no different.

Or at least trying from what she could discern. Which brought a question to mind. Why was he preparing a dinner himself?

She was sure that if she made sense of that, then everything else would fall into place.

He avoided her questions. That had her puzzled, but only had her giving up in the end. It wasn't characteristic of her, but she was sure that her curiosity would be abated soon enough. If he didn't want to tell her what was going on, then she wasn't going to push him. He would do it sooner or later.

She laughed at some of the antics in the kitchen, swearing at many of the appliances. Still, her eye could not help but catch that he really did know how to move around the kitchen. And at the same time, she could very well see that this was not a place he spent too much time in. He was inexperienced in how to use some things, and while she offered her help, he refused her vehemently. It was as if he had something to prove to himself.

At last, he let her help set the table. It was an intimate dinner with only the two of them present. That had her wondering what he did with Tsumi, his dog. His companion was always around the house, bow eyes and tail thumping whenever there was food around. But tonight, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Tsumi?" she finally inquired as Syaoran placed the last plate of food on the table and motioned for her to sit down.

"I left her with one of my sisters," he didn't elaborate. He was sure that she was starting to wonder why the dog wasn't around since it had always been in his home every time she had been in it.

"Well, let us see how the fare goes," he tried for a lighthearted atmosphere as he reached for a plate and served himself. Sakura just smiled in return, reaching for another herself and getting a nice sized helping. Syaoran prayed with all his might that the food was good.

He wanted to dazzle her. She knew everything that everyone else knew about him, and then some, but he wanted to keep her guessing. Just like she always did him.

A more sensible person than Sakura, he was sure to never find again. But, she was also a woman that captivated him in many aspects. It was for that reason that while their relationship had grown throughout the months of working together to keep his family's business out of the red, he had fallen for her.

He had admitted it to himself almost immediately after he had realized it. He was nothing if not truthful to himself. To her though, that was another matter. They had never been friends he realized. Their relationship had jumped from employer to employee to an attraction that had driven him insane. The more he got to know her, the more he understood that she was a woman that he would never meet again even if he lived eternally.

The first time he'd kissed her, he had wondered if she would just slap him away and was quite surprised when she had answered the kiss. The tranquility he had tasted in that meeting of their lips had thrown him out of his mind. It hadn't been long before they had explored and found that with their acceptance of their attraction, they were happy in each other's company.

It was then that they had begun a friendship of sorts, with the knowledge that there was more underneath. In truth, friends didn't look at each other the way they did when they were alone. They didn't also take every opportunity to keep physical contact with one another.

"Not bad," her slight praise warmed him. He knew that she was probably just being nice, as he himself bit into the meal. It clearly wasn't what he'd hoped for.

Sakura set her fork down as she saw his grimace. A dark cloud was forming, she could see it clearly. Syaoran was so easy to read sometimes with his emotions clearly displayed for all to see. At least, that's how it felt when he was nowhere but in the office.

"You don't need to lie to spare my feelings," he told her, looking down at how the food itself was presented. The meat was a bit charred, he noticed, with the potatoes and other things having their own problems. Also, the salad had a tang taste that did not rightly belong with the rest of the offerings.

"I've eaten my share of great cooking and this isn't it," his statement was something she could not refute, but it did have an alarm set up at the back of her brain.

Why was he beating himself down? "I would say that for a first effort, you did quite well," she placed a piece of the potatoes in her mouth and strained her hand as her taste buds were assaulted. It was a bit salty. She tried to keep herself from reaching for her drink to spare his attention. He was watching her like a hawk.

Somehow though, he always knew what was going on inside her mind. He glared deep wholes into the piece still in her plate and reached for his own. He swore as he went for his own drink just after taking a bite.

It was a total disaster. Countless thoughts went through his mind, but the main one was that he had failed. He had tried his hand at it and he had failed. There weren't that many things that could be said that Syaoran Li could fail at, but it seemed that cooking was one of them.

There was no rationality as to the fact that this was the first time he cooked anything by himself. Rationality was not part of his plan as he had tried to keep things in a particular pattern that followed careful rules so that things would progress without a hitch.

"You don't have to placate me."

There was only so much a person would take before she would be left with no recourse bar lashing out herself.

"I don't understand what the problem is," she tried to keep her temper in check. Syaoran really was one of the only people that could maker her do so. She wasn't much of a spoiler for a fight, but he was really pushing her buttons. "It's not like I was expecting plates of the highest caliber from a five star restaurant."

He was insulted. Syaoran always strived to do the best when he put his mind and intentions on something. He was tempted to go to the kitchen, turn on the oven and set the whole thing on fire. He had enough money to watch the room smolder in flames and then just hire a contractor to build it up again. Why would he need a kitchen?

There was a weight in his left pocket that bellied the statement. It knew why he needed a kitchen. Sakura loved being in the kitchen. He knew for a fact that while she was not a magician in the kitchen, she could follow recipes and have a good time doing it. It was something that he had never understood. Not since he had met her nor on the many times that he had been in her company while she hummed to herself while preparing any type of food.

He had wanted to share in that. There was a small hope that if he did, then she might extend that love and happiness she had for the past time toward him.

He wanted to shake the table, making sure that she would only look at him while everything else disappeared. He'd had a purpose at making this spectacle of himself and it was going badly.

She took it upon herself to change the subject. "I met with your mother a couple of hours before I came today, and she's worried about those numbers of our western chain that we were discussing this morning," she was sure that the subject of business would be just the thing for them to calm down.

The only thing he heard from the sentence was the word mother. He could very well remember the talks of his own relatives this very morning warning him that Sakura was too much unlike himself to even accept a formal relationship with him.

He had thought them wrong, but he knew as well that she was pretty much ingrained within the family. His sisters adored her and played their cards well to be called her personal friends. His mother had only smiled serenely as he had admitted that he had been thinking of proposing to her this night. And then of course, there were those that kept warning her off of him. They all said that he was too serious and business like to truly appreciate her. No one wanted to believe that he could be seriously interested in her.

It was those that he was playing against he realized as the ring burned against his thigh from its place inside his pant's pocket. "Syaoran," she called his name, a quirk in her expression as she realized that he was not paying attention to her. "Did you hear me?"

"Yes," he prepared himself. She continued on, giving him many clues that she'd been visited by quite a number of people this very day while he had been out of the office for a little excursion at one of their businesses.

It was a fine line to cross when she mentioned a particular name. "And what did she say?" His voice was deceptively low. Sakura caught the edge to it though, preparing herself. Something was going on. Well, she was going to be truthful.

"Actually, she told me that you were about to propose and she wanted to see what I thought about it."

The bottom of his stomach fell to depths that he knew he could never recover. He had been afraid of that. It seemed like the whole damn world knew of his intentions and had decided to butt in. He didn't really appreciate that fact.

"And?"

"And what?" she queried herself, not truly understanding.

"What was your response?" he knew that whatever she said next was going to set the stage for this poorly run production.

"Oh," Sakura managed to smile as she recalled the rush she had felt inside as she had absorbed the words. And then at the same time, she had tried valiantly not to get her hopes up. She'd been burned before to know that men and women sometimes viewed things in such ways that they construed different realities. She managed to laugh as she replied. "I put her to rights don't worry. I told her that there was no such thing to suggest that it would happen."

Syaoran did not like that at all, it was as if he was being doubted. He had to think if there had been something that went on that would leave her with that impression.

All he could see at the moment was her bright expression as she made light of the subject. A subject that had made him crazy the last few weeks.

"Damn it Sakura!" he shouted, taking her by surprise as he saw his plans falling in complete shambles. Nothing had gone according to plan. He swore underneath his breath, his hand clutching his fork in such a way that he was sure the metal would either bend or his fingers would draw blood. He wasn't sure that by the end of the night, the utensil would be stuck in his own hand. "Would you accept or not?"

He wanted an answer though. He needed a yes or no so that his heart would stop going into overdrive as the silence stretched and he died of a heart attack. He had to stop his hand from reaching to his chest and rub it as the left cavity pulled hard and painfully. He hated this. Sakura's blank expression was his only answer. It was complete silence. "Pardon?" it was asked in such a way that one could not mistake the surprising strangling sound at the lone word.

"Are you going to marry me or not!" he knew he was deteriorating the situation further, but he couldn't help himself. Here was Sakura, the woman of his life and the one he wanted to have his children with, and because of his nervousness and irritation, he had resorted to shouting the question. He deserved a refusal.

Nobody had to say it. He was so screwed.

He saw her tip her drink in her hand to one side. It dangerously pooled to the corner, about to overflow before she changed the angle. He wouldn't be surprised if she hurled the contents at his head.

Sakura leant forward, her elbows placed on the table as she rested her head on her hands, her fingers drumming her jaw. Her eyes narrowed, she couldn't help but cringe at the order. Because that's what it felt like. She may be his assistant in his mother's business, but when it came to their personal relationship she did not jump through the same ropes. Just like every step of the way, she wanted to put a rock in his way so that he would trip over it and learn that she was not going to keep bending to his will.

"This is the worst proposal I have ever seen or heard," Sakura was affronted and clearly showing it as she thought of who the person seating before her was. She knew that he agreed with her when he kept his mouth shut and tried to control the tick in his jaw.

"What is wrong with you Syaoran?" she asked him, irked about the fact that while she was jumping in joy inside, he had done it in such a way that any woman on the planet would have to say no in principle. "Am I not worth the romantic niceties that other women get?"

She never gave him the chance to reply as he opened his mouth to retort at her accusation. It seemed like he was getting angry by what she was saying, but she really didn't care. She was the one that had the right to it. "I had expected more from you Syaoran. Everyone in your family, including your sisters, have a better understanding of how to propose to a woman."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Syaoran couldn't help it. But if she was going to say no, and it seemed like she wasn't interested in his question at all, then he was damned if he was going to take this quietly. He was hurting inside, but irritation, confusion, and the indifference were taking over.

"I would have thought that you'd at least get me some flowers. Maybe a romantic dinner at an expensive restaurant in the moonlight in which you would have complimented me and offered me a ring," she stressed the last word, letting all of the letters roll off her tongue. "It's like you didn't put any effort on this at all."

There were a few seconds before he exploded.

"No effort?" he incredibly countered as she finished her long drawn explanation. "You think that I spent the last two days being ordered around by that narcissistic chef of our highest rated restaurant because I wanted to? I spent hours under the thumb of that man that told me there was no way to fail if I followed directions. He is so fired after this," he mentioned with an afterthought as he stood from his seat, towering over the small table. "You don't think there was any effort in my getting out of the office early to come home to prepare this dinner? I spent countless hours slaving over that hot stove to prepare this dinner because I wanted it to be special."

Instead of letting the hurt empower him, he choose the sister emotion. He was going to be damned mad and damn the consequences. Didn't she know just how much of yourself you put out to a person when you cooked for them? Or course he could have done the usual pricey dinner at a romantic restaurant and waited until a walk at a secluded setting to go on bended knee and propose. But, he believed that he had learned a lot about her on the last few months that they had been together. He knew that family and intimate settings meant a lot to her. He had also thought that this effort would count for something.

"I've never cooked for anyone, not even for myself," he stressed the point, making sure she couldn't miss it. "I wanted to cook for you, to tell you that I could share with your love for cooking." He wanted to rip the napkin he held in his left hand to shreds, but was able to stump the irrational impulse. He was not going to act like a complete idiot right then and there.

He was snarling as he saw a smile form on her lips. It seemed like the more he ranted, the more amused she became. His heart was breaking inside by her reaction, and she was just watching him silently. Was this just for kicks for her?

"Oh Syaoran," without any warning, she threw herself into his arms, his scowling demeanor changing into confusion as she laughed out loud into his silk shirt. "You were just trying to impress me weren't you?"

He slumped forward, at least glad that she was pressed against him. If she was allowing physical contact, then at least everything hadn't been lost. She was within reach and he was a very persuasive guy. He had made up his mind, and if it wasn't today, he would be able to wrangle the answer he wanted if he kept pushing. She had to be in love with him. She just had to. He kept telling that to himself.

"You really don't like being in the kitchen, do you?" she asked him grinning, a hand over her mouth to cover it so that he wouldn't be too offended by her reaction to all of his work. "But you seemed to cook well."

"I detest being in the kitchen," he stressed it quite vehemently. He was not going to tell her that he had found being in the kitchen not as bad as he had always thought it would be. It was actually quite nice to work in it, but he would never admit it. Unless of course, she would agree to be in said kitchen with him and working with him on said meal. He was sure that he would enjoy that too much.

Syaoran wanted very much to run his hand through his hair and probably pull it out. He wanted this nightmare to end and prove that this was just a figment of his imagination and not real. He would soon wake up and he would follow his rational mind and go the usual road for what he wanted.

"Alright."

"Alright what?" he was swearing that they would all pay. That bastard chef was getting fired and after Syaoran was through with him would never want to work near a kitchen again.

"I'll marry you," Sakura laughed at the deer caught in the headlights expression that came over his features.

"Are you serious?" he stumbled over his words, rationalizing that it was not in his best interests to probe further. "Scratch that," he kissed her, stopping her reply. He pressed her against the table, coming between her parting thighs as he set his hands by each side. He had her trapped, and sunk into a kiss that would scramble her thoughts. That was what he wanted.

"I'm going to take that answer," he made sure to accentuate each word with a peck at her lips as she seemed to want to say something. He was not going to give her the chance to take it back. She didn't know how it happened, but she wound up with a ring on her finger, which she could scarcely see as he set to devour her.

Sakura giggled as she understood his plan. She let him continue on, loving his nearness, and concentrating on keeping herself in reality as he assaulted her senses. That always happened. No matter where they were, he always managed to make her lightheaded, crazy and alive at the same time.

Maybe she was completely crazy. This was the guy that her brother would have warned her about as soon as he had met him. She had known that he was different from every other guy and easy to fall for when she had met him, and while she had warned herself against getting her hopes up, she had fallen deep.

Well, it was nice to see that he had done so as well. What was life without a few risks? This one had paid off.

"If you keep making those sounds, I'm going to throw you over this table and make love to you," his statement was a warning that felt like a promise as she looked into his caramel eyes. They swirled deep, a smoky haze filled as she was drawn in. He had the eyes of a sorcerer. One who knew his power and used it to his advantage. It had a warming effect on her.

"I would say that was precisely what you were doing right now," she playfully answered, feeling the pressure of one of the dishes pressing against her back. She was half way seated on the table, leaning backwards as he hunched over her form as if to overwhelm her.

Someone should have told him that it wasn't necessary. He just needed to breathe in the same space as her for her to feel overwhelmed.

"Although," she moved her hands from his shoulders, which were her anchors, and wound them around his neck. "I would prefer a bed," she knew what would happen as soon as the words reached him. He grinned. It was the type of smile that made her shiver involuntarily.

She wasn't surprised when he managed to gather her in his arms in one swoop, as if overwhelming her. He started his walk away from the table, pushing against it and made his way to the doorway. Sakura looked back to the table that they were abandoning, smiling to herself. She looked down at the ring that glittered in her hand, tangling it against Syaoran's hair as he cursed at a particular furniture seat that he bumped against.

"I love you," she whispered to him, placing fluttering kisses against his throat. The contact of her soft lips against his skin had him fumbling. He never lost grip of her, but he did start digging into more corners as he finally reached the stairs of his home.

They were words he had scarcely heard before. She had only said them once before, and considering the circumstances, he wouldn't have believed them more that a fancy of his own brain as they had drifted to sleep one night. She whispered them again and again, gaining in strength as he buried his head against her side.

There had been many misunderstandings in both parts, but it had turned out quite wonderfully in the end. They had their own private celebration to take place intimately, and then the rest of the world would matter once again. The dinner lay forgotten, not truly the focus of their proceedings. It was later when the oven started beeping, with the dessert burning that Sakura decided to rescue him from kitchen duties.

He obliged to her promise to not go near the place without her, inwardly glad for it. Being in the kitchen with her would open a whole new venue of opportunities.

Alright, so I was debating on a lemon for here but decided against it. I just wasn't in the mood to write one, even though I started, so it might pop up sometime later. I know, this isn't a masterpiece of literature, but it was fun to write. I hope it was fun to read.

As for October Morning, I am going to write the fourth chapter in the coming days and finishing it up before the month is over. Please look forward to it.

MS

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