Editor's note: Hey all! I know it's been a long time since I updated, and it'll prolly be a longer time to my next update, so hang in there! Here's my new series, I'm Here Waiting For You. Usual characters, usual pairing. ) Enjoy!
Note: IDA stands for International Detectives Association
Kinomoto Sakura placed her latte on the posh table of a posh cafe in the posh part of town.
It had been seven years. And seven years seemed like the longest time, especially the first year.
She bought the local newspaper from the newsstand and sat down at her table.
At that time, she was only 16 years old. A young, tender age. Too tender for the impact.
The newspaper made a crinkling sound, and she frowned in slight annoyance.
After the incident, she had learned a very important lesson if she were to keep her heart intact: Never trust them.
She didn't blame it on anyone. It was all her foolishness, and that alone.
He had kissed her goodnight, and the next day she saw him with another girl.
From then on, Sakura had stopped believing in love.
She sipped some coffee and ran her emerald eyes over the morning paper. Murder by the sea. The bold headline seemed to scare many civilians with the paranoia of a serial killer, but Sakura highly doubted so. There was simply no tangible evidence to confirm that a string of patterned murders awaited them. It was, after all, the town's first murder since she was promoted to a senior detective in the IDA.
She was only 21.
She scanned through the article, expecting any trace of gossip to spring out at her. However much the Channel was the town's only newspaper; it was no different from tabloid. A body of a woman clad in tattered clothes was found on Carlson's Beach last Saturday… Officers deny the public fear of a serial killer on the loose, yet the townsfolk have been harbouring fixated paranoia, not forgiving the series of murders years before…
Sakura mused at the ignorance of the public. How wrong. How very wrong they were.
… "The police and forensics are giving it some thought," said Officer Sherman Barclay a day after the body was found. "But we cannot conclude much just yet."
The victim has been identified by her fiancé as Hikaru Yamamoto. Her tear-streamed fiance, Yukito Tsukishiro…
Yukito. The very name rang in her ears like a thousand church bells tolling, dragging with them their solemn yore. She had been unable to forgive or forget him, since once upon that winter's night.
… "We were going to celebrate her new job," Tsukishiro stuttered out. "I told her to wait for me by the pier, where we were going to rent a yacht out to sea." The young couple had been married for three months, and Tsukishiro described their relationship to be 'calm as the breezeless night air'.
She couldn't believe what she saw. That was what they were supposed to do the day she received her first paycheck. Her big, fat paycheck. She had just joined the IDA as a novice and was working her way to the top, and on her very first payday he had promised to bring her out on a yacht. In fact, he had assured her a yellow yacht (it was her favourite colour then), complete with its own automatic steering wheel, and they would sail out to sea with a bottle of ice-cold wine and Godiva chocolate.
But he couldn't make it. He gave an excuse about having to rush overseas for a last-minute meeting, and refused her offer to fetch him to the airport.
"They're here to chauffeur me, those rich delegates," he smiled and pecked her on the cheek. Sakura went off without a word, but somewhere in the middle she caught a whiff of perfume.
She had thought it was her, but it was the same as how he smelt.
"Hey, Saks." Sakura looked up from the article just as her partner, Li Syaoran, sat across the table with a cup of mocha in his hands. "What made the headlines?"
"Not much," she shrugged nonchalantly, "Just about the body that Constable Justin found last Saturday."
"Let me see," Syaoran reached for the paper.
"Um – no, it's not much anyway." She folded the paper into half. "It's everything that the Constable said to us."
"You're hiding something." Syaoran raised his eyebrows in curiosity. She gulped nervously, and shook her head violently. She knew how he'd react if he had read the article. Before she could whisk it away, he took it from her hands and straightened it out. Slowly, he saw a frown crinkle his forehead.
"That jerk," Syaoran cursed. "He actually married someone else!"
"Let him," Sakura stammered. "I – I mean, it's not like he loves me anymore –"
"Sakura," he put folded the paper and leaned forward. "It's about time you realised you can't hide anything from a person who's been with you since junior high, y'know."
"… I know, Syao. I'm sorry."
"What are you sorry for?" he quirked his eyebrows up. "I just want you to be brave. Stop thinking of that coward! You have this job to live for. Look, I don't know what we'll be up to next, but what I do know is that we're best friends and detective partners, and you have me to count on, okay?"
Sakura nodded. "Thanks."
He smiled that heartwarming smile and drank his mocha. "So, coming back into question…"
Ring ringSakura fumbled with her pocket.
"It's mine," said Syaoran. He fished out his sleek cellphone and flipped it open.
"Hello?"
"Syaoran, I need you and Sakura to get your butts out of that café pronto. Chief wants you guys handling this case."
"This case –"
"The Yamamoto case."
"But – But I thought he had appointed the novices to it?"
"Initially," stated the voice on the other line. "But since there has been, ahem, complicated evidences of late, I advised the superior to assign my capable, knowledgeable, and not to mention adorable descendant to this job."
Sputters could be heard.
"ERIOL HIIRAGIZAWA!"
"Relax, my lovable descendant. You haven't heard the perks yet."
"How can there be any perks at all?" questioned the steaming Syaoran.
Sakura looked up curiously from her latte.
"First, you get to fly to Europe and spy on the couple's company, Graite & Co., and its world-renown expatriates. There, you will have to build rapport with the manager of Graite, under the disguise of the boss of some high-end association who is looking into 'a good business partners relationship'. Fake visas and whatnot will be supplied, and you'll even have your own Lexus."
"Wheet, now that's a consolation," Syaoran whistled. "But I'm afraid that to get me up and off, you'll have to try harder."
"Ah, you haven't heard it all," Eriol chuckled. "You'll be put up in a villa just off the city centre, and documents containing the latest information will be sent to you via email. You'll go to parties, events, cruises, whatever, but make sure that at the end of the month, you come back to Tokyo with every single top-secret document from Graite."
"Got that. But I have to suffer from the jet lag. And you get to park your lazy ass on that swivel chair in that comfy office while I work my ass off stealing dirty testimonials. I can play with the women expatriates, but I can't play gay with the men."
"Syaoran dearest, you seem to have forgotten something."
"What?" he growled in displeasure at the corny name.
"There is a girl who can fish the men in for us."
"You mean…?"
"Yes, I mean. I know you simply love to be with her. Don't tell me you want this to be an exception?" There was a smirk pulling on the line. "But it's not all fun, y'know; you make sure you get all those dirty papers back here in one piece."
"Not now that I've been missing those times," Syaoran's eyes gleamed. "Hiiragizawa, it has been a long time since you last gave me an assignment, so rest assured I'll get this done and give Graite a run for their money."