Solitaire
by nylanalily
Summary:
After confessing his long time love for Sakura and obtaining no answer from her, Li Syaoran had lost almost all of his hopes. And without nothing else to do, he bet all that was left into a game of solitaire..
Genre: Romance/General
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura nor the game of Solitaire but the plot came from my insane mind.
Author's Notes:
This is a slight AU fic. If you do not have an idea about the game of solitaire, then I suggest u refer to a dictionary or encyclopedia or anything before reading this story. And if you see any kind of errors, please forgive me for I am not that good in English, and feel free to tell me those errors too. Thanks!
In the small town of Tomoeda stood a big grand mansion surrounded by large trees and wonderful gardens. The mansion, the Li mansion to be exact, is indeed in its quiet and peaceful state as always. I mean, the birds are happily chirping and humming soft tunes as they nest themselves into the branches of those trees, which were swaying in the gentle breeze. Quite a paradise, won't you agree? So what could possibly go wrong?
"ARGHHH!!"
A loud frustrated shout disturbed the whole mansion, breaking the quietness and peacefulness of the surroundings. The frightened birds hurriedly flew away into a safe place. All of the servants, butlers and maids were surprised. You don't hear that kind of shout in the mansion everyday...
Pfffftt...
So maybe something IS wrong that day...
The shout came from the mansion's small living room ( if you call a half-size basketball court small ). The said room is gorgeous. Anyone can tell that almost everything in the room is antique. The wall is colored light brown, there hung different kinds of weapons – swords, spears, bows and arrows, shields – you name it, they have it. On either side of the room were shelves of books, mostly ancient ones and lots of it are written in chinese. There's a large centerpiece narra table facing a flatscreen television, surrounding it is a light green couch.
Two young and ravishingly handsome men are currently in there, the first one sitting comfortably at the couch. He has navy-colored hair and mysterious dark blue eyes covered with round glasses. He is staring amusedly at the other one, who, is walking back and forth in an informal, or rather, frustrated way. He, on the other hand, has chestnut brown hair, some strands covering his gorgeous amber eyes. No wonder he's a heartthrob on their campus.
"What's wrong, Syaoran?" the first man asked.
Syaoran ( the man walking back and forth ) stopped, turning around to face the man sitting at the couch. He glared at him with his blazing amber orbs.
"What's wrong, Eriol? You are asking me WHAT IS WRONG?!" he yelled.
Eriol ( the one sitting ) didn't even flinch, instead, an evil grin slowly appeared upon his face.
"Yes, and if you don't mind me repeating, I am asking you what is wrong, my cute little descendant. And I bet it is serious, considering the fact that it made you shout earlier," he answered with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
Yes, you heard him right. Syaoran was the one who shouted earlier.
"You know the answer to your question, Eriol. And stop calling me that!"
"Oh... so I assume it's about your love confession to Sakura yesterday. And the fact that she didn't give you an answer made you a little...uhh...disturbed."
"Hell YES!"
"So you expect her to give you an answer right after the confession?"
"Of course!"
Eriol sighed. He is now definitely sure that Syaoran is a full-pledge beginner in the field called love.
"Syaoran, Syaoran, Syaoran... you really don't know anything about girls, do you?"
"What do you mean, Eriol?" Syaoran asked, confused. He leaned on the wall for support.
"I mean you should give her some time to think. Girls need to think about their feelings too you know. This is not a joke to them, nor a game. So it would be better if you spare Sakura sometime."
"Where do you get this things?"
"My girl is an expert in terms of this things, and the more time I spend with her, the more I learn from her," Eriol answered, a thought of Tomoyo came to his mind.
"Then would you mind telling me what to do?"
"Err.. well.. it's up to you."
"DAMMIT!" Syaoran yelled, his hand hitting the wall, making all things hanging in there shake and tremble. "I am in serious need of advice here and that's the only thing you can say?!"
He then marched into the door but the moment he touched the knob, Eriol called him.
"Where do you plan on going, my cute little descendant?"
"I told you to stop calling me that! And for your information, I am going to your girlfriend's house. You say she's an expert? Then maybe I'll get some better advice from her than you, dimwit!"
"Tell her I said hi."
BAM!
The sound of a door shutting is Syaoran's only reply.
Eriol sighed. His grin grew into a wide smile. He leaned on the couch, traces of amusement is still visible in his face.
"Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Well... goodluck my cute descendant..."
Syaoran finally reached the Daidouji mansion, panting. He stood at the mansion's door and began to knock.
No one answered. Syaoran knocked again.
Still, no one answered. Syaoran, now pissed, knocked continuously at the door while shouting.
"Daidouji-san! Daidouji-san! TOMOYO!"
Suddenly, the door came BAM! and before the amber eyed boy stood a furious, very furious girl. She has long wavy purplish hair and innocent amethyst eyes. But her eyes wasn't that innocent anymore, as she look at the boy in front of her.
"What took you so long?" Syaoran managed to talk, but deep inside, he's trembling. Besides, you don't see a very angry Tomoyo so often..
"Li Syaoran, heir of the Li Clan! You have been trained since birth to be the best clan leader, then how can you be so dumb?!"
Tomoyo then walked at the left side of the door. She raised her hand and pointed to a small button on the wall.
"Li Syaoran, do you know what this is?"
Syaoran sweatdropped.
"Err... yes?"
Not taking it anymore, Tomoyo exploded.
"No! I don't think so, Mr. Li. And I would be sooo glad to explain it to you. This is what you call a doorbell, you heard me? A DOORBELL!"
Tomoyo pressed the button several times as if demonstrating. She then continued.
"You use this when you want to enter a house or to call someone's attention to open the door for you! Do you understand now?!"
Syaoran just nodded, not wanting to talk anymore. He's afraid to say something for it might trigger the purple-haired lady's anger even more. He would not like to take his chances.
"Good, now tell me, what exactly are you doing here?" she said, slightly calmer.
Relieved, Syaoran carefully chose his words, "Well, I need some advice."
"For what?"
"Uhh.. you know, the confession thing..."
Then, to the amber-eyed boy's surprise, Tomoyo's eyes became starry.
"You mean, your romantic confession to Sakura? So KAWAII!!" she squealed, unknown to the fact that she makes her visitor deaf.
Syaoran shrugged and sighed. He always wonder how girls can change their expressions so fast, just like a flick of a finger. 'I mean, she's angry a while ago, but suddenly she's happy?'
Suddenly, Tomoyo grabbed his hand and literally dragged him inside the mansion, to the living room. She pushed him into the couch and then sat on the couch opposite to him so she could face him.
"Now tell me Mr. Li, do you love Sakura?" she asked, her fierce amethyst eyes looking directly on him.
Without second thought, Syaoran replied, "Of course! Why do you think I confessed my love to her?"
"Right, screw that. Anyway, here's the deal Li, you break Sakura's heart, I'll do something drastic that you would wish you were never born, understood?"
Syaoran gulped. He knows she means that, knowing what Tomoyo is capable of doing. He can now imagine how miserable his life would be if he does break Sakura's heart..( which is highly unlikely ).
"I will never ever do that to your bestfriend, I love her and you know that," he assured her.
But before Tomoyo could answer back, a loud crashing sound disturbed them.
BLAG!
"Err..Tomoyo, do you have any other guests?" Syaoran asked.
"No! Ehehe...I have no other guests. What you heard is my...uhh...CAT! Yeah, that's my cat!" Tomoyo answered in a rather nervous way.
"Since when did you have a cat?"
"Well... yesterday! And Syaoran, I forgot to tell you that I need to go up to my room and...uhh... wash my cat, yeah, I need to clean her from time to time so...wait here okay?"
She didn't even wait for him to answer as she hurriedly ran up to her room, leaving him alone in confusion.
Syaoran took the opportunity to glance around the room. It was equally gorgeous as his, but unlike in the Li Mansion, the Daidouji Mansion's living room is modern and sophisticated. The walls were colored light blue, there was also a flatscreen television. The couch is colored purple, surrounding a glass table. In the walls there hung lots of frames in different shapes, sizes and colors. Some of them were pictures of Sonomi Daidouji ( Tomoyo's mom ) and Nadeshiko Kinomoto ( Sakura's mom ). Others were Tomoyo's photos. But the rest, to Syaoran's surprise, were all Sakura's pictures!
-Syaoran's POV-
Okay, so what would a normal man do when he is left alone into a room surrounded by pictures of the girl he loves? Surely he will examine the photos one by one, while thinking of her having a date with him in a very romantic place. But in my case ( since I am certainly not normal ), it's different. I maybe thinking of the opposite... its just that, when I see her in this wonderful pictures with her smiling, I can't erase the thought that these 'happy Sakuras' are now sad and confused because of me.
I looked at the left side, I saw Sakura in her usual pink cheerleading outfit, happily jumping and cheering...
Damn!
I looked at the right, she's there in her light pink cherry blossom gown, smiling as she made it down the aisle...
Double Damn!
Oh please! I need something to make myself busy. I need something to do... ANYTHING!
And seems like the Gods have heard me ( hail Kami-sama! ) for I noticed a small box lying innocently at the corner of the table in front of me. I picked it up, only to find that it wasn't a box, but a deck of ordinary playing cards.
A thought came into my mind, and I began to shuffle the cards. After almost 5 minutes of dividing here and shuffling there, I stopped and held the cards tight.
It's decided. I will bet all my hopes and dreams in the future with Sakura on this cards. I held a deep breath, then whispered.
"I wish Sakura and I would end up together. If I fail to complete this game, I would forget all of my hopes and dreams with Sakura, and promise to never disturb her again."
I boosted up all my remaining will and confidence, then started the game.
I flipped the first card, it was the King of Hearts...
( A/N: Mini flashbacks of Syaoran's thoughts of Sakura will be written in italics... )
-oOo-
There I was, standing in front of the class. Today, I will be officially one of the students of Tomoeda Elementary. But of course, that is not my real intention. I am purely here to find the card captor and to retrieve the Clow Cards...
I glanced around the room, ignoring the squeals of "boy, he's cute!" and "I am soo in love with him" from girls and death glares from guys. I looked left and right until my eyes caught upon those emerald green orbs.
An evil smirk grew into my face as I whisper, "Found you..."
-oOo-
After putting out seven lines of cards, I began placing the cards in their respective spots.
Queen of Spades over King of Hearts... 8 of Spades over 9 of Diamonds... Ace of Clover set aside... ( black over red... vice versa ).
Seeing no other cards can be placed anywhere ( meaning no more consecutive cards with different colors ), I gazed upon the cards left on my hand, then I decided to flip it...
1..2..3 flip! nope, nothing to place. 1..2..3 flip! Aha! Jack of Diamond is better over that Queen of Spades.
I continued doing this, 1..2..3 flip! 1..2..3 flip! 1..2.. flip? Hey, I thought they were always 3 cards to be drawn, but why are there only 2 cards left? Uhh..nevermind... It's been a while since I played this anyway.
-oOo-
We'd been constantly competing with the capturing of the Clow Cards now, and I realized that she isn't that bad after all.
I felt a strong magical force nearby – a Clow Card? To be sure, I dressed upon my usual capturing outfit ( green chinese robe ) and hurried to the source of force without being bothered to look back at Meiling who's apparently following me.
We climbed over a building and saw the source of magic. A Clow Card! The Cloud Card to be exact. And to my horror, it rapidly grows bigger... uhh... this means trouble...
Then I saw something, or rather, someone approaching us from the sky. It was that little plush toy – Keroberos, and the card captor – Sakura.
But why is she here?! She's sick for God's sake! I walked up on her and asked.
"Why are you here, Kinomoto? You're sick!"
She just smiled at me and said, "I can't just sit back and watch as the card threaten Tomoeda now, can I? I accepted this job as a card captor and I will do everything to capture the cards, no matter what it takes."
Seeing the determination in her eyes, I just shrugged, there is no stopping her now.
We managed to capture the cards without being injured, and the card fell into my hands. But I felt like the card doesn't belong to me. There's this urge that tells me to give the card to its rightful owner...
Sighing, I walked to Sakura and handed her the card. I heard Meiling say, "What are you doing, Xiao Lang?!" and Keroberos say, "The gaki is insane!" but I really didn't care.
"Why are you giving me this, Li-kun?"Sakura asked.
"I just thought that this card is for you. But don't get me wrong, after all, the Clow Cards will be mine at the end."
She looked at me with her emerald eyes, and I can't explain why my cheeks suddenly reddened.
"Arigatou, Li-kun." she said, smiling.
-oOo-
I already revealed the four Aces ( hearts, spades, diamond, clover ) and the majority of the cards are already open. Also, the cards on my hands decreased in number.
I continued the game. 10 of Clover over the Jack of Diamonds, 2 of Spades placed on the Ace of Spades, so on and so forth...
I smiled... this is going to be easy..
-oOo-
There was it again, Clow Reed's aura surrounding us. And yet, here we are, me and Sakura, trapped inside the elevator. The only thing giving us light is my fire magic.
Then I heard out a scream. I looked at her, and to my horror, I saw her side of the elevator disappearing, and Sakura falling...
I tried to grab her hand, but it was too late... she had already fallen.
"SAKURA!!"
I felt my whole world collapse. Why didn't I save her? Why?
I heard my inner voice saying, 'She's gone, and that is all your fault Li Xiao Lang!'
Yes, it was my fault. And when there seem nothing else to do, I fell on my knees and cried...
"Li-kun?"
Confused, I looked up, wondering if my ears were playing tricks on me. But no, it didn't, because then I saw Sakura in front of me, sitting on that pink fluffy ball that was floating in mid air.
"I used the float card to come back here... are you alright, Li-kun?"
I didn't reply, instead, I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and pulled her into my chest, too afraid that she might disappear again.
-oOo-
1..2..3 flip! Uhmm.. nothing. 1..2..3 flip! 7 of Hearts? Yes! That goes better over that 8 of Clover.
Alright! Now to remove that 6 of spades on that closed card. Opening up... Yeah! 3 of Spades to set aside with the 2 of Spades.
This is going smoothly...
-oOo-
I decided to walk Sakura home after that fair in her brother's school. Well, I was also the one who accompanied her into going to that event, and she was really excited. But now, she seemed sad...what the heck did happen in that fair?
"Syaoran-kun, could we please stop by the park for a little while?" she asked.
I just nodded. We ended up to the swing, but we merely moved our seats, we just remained sitting straight. Then, she started to talk..
"You know, today, I had finally told Yukito that I love him."
My shoulders stiffened. I gazed at her with my eyes widened. Sakura Kinomoto, the mi ultimo person I know that will not show her feelings unless forced had finnally admitted her love for Yukito? Whoa! Now that's new...
She continued, "... but he told me that my love for him is just like my love for my father..."
I held my breath as I saw her tears run down to her cheeks. I can't believe what I am seeing. The cheerful Sakura is crying? I stood up and approached her.
"Sakura..."
She raised her head and I saw complete sadness in her eyes.
To my surprise, she stood up and cried on my chest.
"...he told me that... when the time comes, I will meet the one who will truly love me..."
I tried comforting her. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her closer to me. God, why do I feel like I am affected?
"You will, Sakura... you will definitely.." I said, secretly sobbing.
-oOo-
So where are we? Hmm.. 2 lines of cards left. Almost all cards are open now.
1..2..3 flip!, 1..2..3 flip! Queen of Spades over the King of Diamonds... then there goes the 5 of hearts over that 6 of spades. 5 cards left closed.
Yeah! This game will be finished in no time!
( A/N: This flashback is not in the series, besides, this IS a slight AU fic.. )
Do you want to know what happened yesterday? The confession thing which I keep on mentioning from the start of this story? Well, here's the real flashback on what happened...
-oOo-
I am walking Sakura home that day, well, I do always walk her home since we started attending junior high, so it isn't a big deal. Almost everybody knows that me and Sakura are best friends ( so much for Touya's frustration ) but only Eriol, Tomoyo and Meiling knows that I feel something for Sakura that is more-than-friends.
You see, I lo.. like her! ( Spit it, Syaoran! ) Okay! Fine, I love her. But I haven't had the courage to tell her... until now...
"Sakura, could we stop in the park for a while?"
She looked at me and smiled, "Sure, Syaoran!"
We sat on the swing, she kept rocking her seat while I remained still. I held a deep breath and sighed. This is now or never.
"Sakura, I want to tell you something.."
She looked at me and casually and asked, "What's up?"
I looked at her, eye-to-eye. Gathering up all my will, confidence and morale, I answered..
"I love you, Kinomoto Sakura..."
I saw her eyes widen, her mouth gapping.
"What did you just say..?"
"I said I love you, Sakura. I've been inlove with you since Grade School but only now I had the courage to tell you.."
I saw her shocked ( pretty ) face looking expectantly at me. Now I felt like I just committed a crime.
"I..uhh..need to think about it first," she said, then she ran home, leaving me in confusion.
-oOo-
"DAMN!"
There are still 2 cards closed under that 3 of Hearts. The 4 of Spades is already covered with the 3 of Diamonds and I assume that the 4 of clover is one of the uncovered cards.
I need the 2 of diamonds or the 2 of hearts, but where the hell are those cards? I mean, there are 2 cards left close and 3 cards are still missing! I have no cards left on my hand...
Okay, maybe it's faith. Maybe we aren't really meant for each other. Maybe she doesn't love me, or she does have somebody else to love. My heart stopped, I felt the whole world crash upon me..
I sighed, defeated. It's clearly decided, I lost...
...
...
...
"Here."
I nearly jumped on my seat when I heard someone talk. Wait a minute... I recognize that voice.
Just to be sure, I slowly turned around to see if my ears ate just playing tricks on me... my heart is reviving slowly.
And when I had fully turned 180 degrees, I saw a face of an angel, the most beautiful girl I have ever laid my eyes upon on in my entire life. She has shiny auburn hair and gorgeous emerald eyes...
"Sakura..."
"Here..." she said while extending her arm on me.
I looked at her hands and I saw a card. I reached it and held the card to open. It was the 2 of Hearts!
"I accidentally picked it up after I played the game earlier. I heard you knock and shout so I hurried upstairs, then I decided to bring it back here..."
"So you were here at Daidouji's Mansion all along..." I asked.
"Yeah.."
"I see.." So she's just here to give the card back...
My heart, once again, died. 'She's just here for the card, Syaoran... just for the card... just for th-'
"Syaoran, about yesterday..."
For the second time around, my heart revived. I looked at her face, she seemed uneasy avoiding my stares. I saw her shut her eyes and sighed. I gulped. Okay, this is serious...
Then, she opened up her eyes... and made contact with mine. She smiled – the sweetest smile that I have ever seen in my 17 years of living.
"Syaoran, I think I love you too.."
I had that smirk plastered on my face, then it grew into a huge smile. I rose, dropping the card I was holding and made my way into her, not breaking eye contact. I stood infront of her and held her hand, ignoring Tomoyo's squeals of "KAWAII!" at the corner with her videocam.
"Say it again..." I pleaded.
Sakura held a deep breath and smiled.
"I love you, Li Syaoran..."
I smiled then wrapped my arms around her shoulders, pulling her closer to me. I rested my chin on her shoulder and whispered at her ear.
"I love you too, Kinomoto Sakura..."
I raised her head so that our eyes met, then I gathered up all my confidence and eventually, I kissed her.
There is no need to finish the game of solitaire. After all, I already won.
- END -
Notes about the Game:
It is typical in our place to wish for something before a game of Solitaire. It is said that if you manage to complete the game, your wish will come true, but if not then your wish will fail. But that's just a belief, so don't feel bad if you failed to complete the game. And another thing, we do the game manually, I never wished anything into a game of Solitaire in a computer.
Well, that's it! Tell me what you think!