Dear, Dear Diary…
Description: The gifts he had left her with were a diary, a pendant, and a small sliver of hope. Were they enough to last? IN THE PROCESS OF BEING REWRITTEN/UPDATED!
Disclaimer: I sadly own none of the characters. If I did, it would not be as good… (tear)
-Chapter 1-
"Sakura… Sakura are you up there?" Fujitaka Kunimoto yelled up the cream-colored staircase, in their home. "Dinner is ready, and I made your favorite oyako don..." he continued, emphasizing the dish.
Almost immediately, a clattering was heard, followed by the sound of skipping footsteps overhead.
"Coming otou-san!" yelled an excited Sakura. "Just let me wash my hands and I'll be right down!"
Sakura happily took off her headphones and made her way to the upstairs restroom to wash her hands. While oyako don isn't a particularly difficult dish to make, her father usually only made it on particularly special occasions, or to celebrate something good happening to Sakura. As far as she could remember, today had held none of these things. Not that she minded an excuse to eat her favorite dish that her dad made.
Softly humming along to the song she had been listening to previously through the headphones she had the habit of resting around her neck, Sakura dried her hands as she noticed Touya walk past the bathroom to the top of the stairs.
"Better hurry kaijuu, or I'll eat your share too..." Touya said snidely, a lilt in his voice.
"Do it and I'll bury you nii-chan. Or maybe I'll just tell Kaho-sensei about your burning love for her, hmmm?" Sakura said with a smirk as she joined her brother, just behind him as they walked slowly toward the stairs.
Touya frowned and blushed slightly, before smirking and suddenly stopping in his tracks, causing Sakura to faceplant into his back.
'Ah, satisfaction!' he thought silently to himself as he heard her squeak of displeasure.
"Thanks, you giant moron, that was totally necessary!" she yelled as she playfully pushed Touya to the edge of the stairs.
The siblings heard a laugh from the kitchen, and Touya started to make his way down the stairs, but not before pushing his palm into Sakura's forehead with enough pressure to push her back a few steps.
"Ha, you hear that? Even Dad thinks it's funny when I mess with you!" Touya said with a smirk.
"That wasn't me, Touya..." interjected Fujitaka from the kitchen.
Touya and Sakura slowly made their way down the stairs, confused smiles on their faces. They weren't expecting company tonight, were they?
"What do you mean Dad? Who else could it have...?" Touya questioned, before turning the corner to the kitchen and staring at the scene before him, stopping suddenly again, and causing Sakura to once again slam right into his back.
"Touya, seriously, you didn't need to do that again. Now..." Sakura said with a push to Touya's back, "...let me into the kitchen so that I can eat... the..."
Sakura's sentence would stay incomplete as her eyes adjusted to the scene in the kitchen. There was Fujitaka, normally sitting at the kitchen table, smiling his normal, happy smile. What was not normal was that there was another person at the table. Someone incredibly familiar, but who was supposed to be in Hong Kong.
Someone who had gold-flecked amber eyes that were smiling at her green ones.
And someone who was slowly standing up from his chair to walk toward her as she felt herself begin to tremble.
He hadn't changed in the years he had been away. Of course, he had gotten taller, broader, and more mature-looking, but really, he was still-
"Syaoran," Sakura said breathily. "What... w-what are you doing here?"
At this, Li smiled, and Sakura felt her heart clench at the sight. His smile was still just as attractive as before, and she became painfully aware of how self-conscious she was becoming as she watched him form his next words.
"Sakura... Hi..." Syaoran said slowly. Her hair had grown longer, but those green eyes of hers were still just as beautiful as he remembered.
"I came back to Tomoeda because I did what I needed to do in Hong Kong in order to do something very important here," he continued, a curious smile on his face as he spoke.
Sakura tilted her head slightly in reaction to the vague statement, and Syaoran laughed as he stopped a foot away from her.
"You have something important to do here?" she questioned curiously.
"Something incredibly important. Something so important that I needed to go to Hong Kong and get things ready for, years in advance."
She had always been a little bit irked by his tendency to be purposefully vague.
"Syaoran..." Sakura said in a warning tone.
Syaoran breathed in heavily.
"But what I really wanted was to be able to come back and see you, Sakura," he said as he breathed out slowly, waiting nervously for her reaction.
Sakura's face had frozen into one of complete shock. Prior to Syaoran leaving, she had never confessed her feelings for him, and now, here he was, years later, suddenly in her kitchen, and telling her that he came back to Tomoeda just to be able to see her.
Her head was swimming, and she began to blush, madly.
"I... I... Um... Syaoran..." Sakura stuttered.
"AHEM."
At this, the two of them turned and looked at Touya, who was now sitting, arms crossed at the kitchen table, chopsticks in hand, and looking rather peeved.
"While I am simply adoring this heartfelt reunion of gaki and kaijuu, I would really love to be able to eat my freakin' dinner..." Touya said with a glare, causing the two to quickly look down and blush. "So if you both would sit dow- OW! Dad!?" Touya said as he looked incredulously at his father, who had just unceremoniously hit him over the head from across the table with the day's rolled-up paper.
"Rude, also, language..." Fujitaka said with a smile. "But, Touya is right in that we should eat the dinner before it gets too cold. Sit down the two of you, we can catch up over and after dinner as well."
Slowly (and awkwardly), the two went to sit down at the table at the two open seats across from Fujitaka and Touya, and a quiet, "Itadakimasu," was said before the meal started. Sakura gave a little sigh of contentment as the first bite hit her tongue, and she was able to recollect her thoughts before clearing her throat, and trying to sound as natural as possible.
"It's been a while, Syaoran... a couple of years, actually. What was you were taking care of in Hong Kong exactly?" she said, managing to not sound concerned or angry, as she really was curious.
Syaoran chewed his food thoughtfully as he considered the question carefully. He didn't want to tell her exactly what he was doing in Hong Kong, but perhaps giving her a vague description of what he was doing would work.
"Uh, well... I was getting some paperwork and planning in order so that I could bring back an important guest of the family for an event that will be happening in Hong Kong in a few years. Can't really give you all of the details exactly, but that's about it..." he said with a smile as he took another bite of the food.
Sakura smiled. Kind of a vague answer, but if it had to do with some kind of family event that had to be planned years in advance, it must be really important, and so must the guest. Especially since the Li clan was a respected magical family, she supposed a certain degree of secrecy had to be maintained.
"Okay," she said, deciding not to pry any further... for now.
Syaoran inwardly sighed in relief, before taking a moment to compliment the food, causing Fujitaka to beam a bright smile. The rest of the dinner went on in a semi-comfortable atmosphere, with some light and playful conversation (minus Touya, who was brooding). After dinner, Syaoran and Sakura retreated to the couch in the living room while Fujitaka volunteered (and volunTOLD Touya) to do the dishes.
"So I know kind of why you're back in Tomoeda, but I forgot to ask, does anyone else know that you're here?" Sakura asked as she settled into the couch, grabbing a pillow out of nervousness.
Syaoran shook his head slowly. "Not yet. I only just got in tonight, and I wanted to see you first and let you know." At that, Sakura promptly blush a light shade of pink as she looked down nervously at the pillow in her hands.
"Oh, um, I-I see! Thank you, um, for that..." said Sakura, squeaking slightly as she tried to hide her nerves. It was then that Sakura noticed the two green suitcases in the foyer, and turned to look at Syaoran, both in concern and confusion.
"Wait... Syaoran, do you have a place to stay? Is that your luggage?"
Syaoran smiled somewhat nervously, wondering what her reaction to the coming news would be.
"Yeah, that's my luggage... Actually Sakura... I had already talked to your dad, and well... I'm actually going to be staying in the guest room... here."
Sakura's eyes practically bugged out of her sockets, and she heard something shatter from the kitchen, along with Touya's increasingly far-away-sounding voice blubbering nonsense. Syaoran? Staying in her house? Overnight?
"For... for how long...?" she asked shakily.
"...for as long as I need to be here, really. Days... maybe weeks?" he said, eyeing her now with a bit of concern as she seemed to turn oddly pale and red at the same time.
"...maybe weeks?" echoed in Sakura's head before she realized it was too much for her to comprehend all at once, and she felt her eyes roll back in her head before she collapsed back onto the couch.
"Sakura!?" Syaoran yelled worriedly. Fujitaka and Touya had worriedly come out to the living and noticed that Sakura had passed out.
"...you told her that you would be staying here, is my guess?" Fujitaka said quietly as he looked over his daughter.
"...yep. Uh... should we... try to wake her up?" Syaoran asked concernedly.
"Mmmm, nah. Just take her upstairs to her room. She's probably a little tired out from all of the sudden information overload tonight anyway, and I'm sure you two will be talking for a while tomorrow," Fujitaka said with a smile as he made his way back to the kitchen. "First door up the stairs on your right."
Syaoran nodded slightly and carefully started to lift Sakura, placing one arm over his shoulder and putting his arm around her waist.
"Oh, and by the way, Syaoran...?" Fujitaka said quietly.
"Yes, sir?"
"I don't think I have to explain to you what will happen if you try anything inappropriate with my daughter, right?"
Syaoran blanched at the dangerous tone Fujitaka laced the question with.
"Yes, sir. I would never do something inappropriate to your daughter."
"Good. Off you go then."
And with that, Syaoran carried a passed-out Sakura up to her room, leaving Fujitaka and Touya downstairs alone to wash the dishes. Or maybe just Fujitaka. Touya was still standing in the middle of the living room, blank-faced as he processed the information from the night.
'...the gaki... is staying... here?'
It wasn't until Fujitaka threw a soaked rag at Touya's head that Touya broke out of his miserable pity-party. Fujitaka smiled.
This was going to be very interesting.
-Chapter End-
Well hello!
I am back, and with a vengeance. I am a better writer now, and I will be upgrading and bettering the stories that are already here, along with the updates. They may be concurrent, or they may not be, but it will get done.
I will try to rewrite the chapters as quickly as I can, but I've also noticed something...
...a miserable decrease in readership, on the site overall. With that being said, please leave reviews. If not, I can't really tell if I'm taking the story in a worthwhile direction, or if people actually appreciate what's being written, which helps me want to write.
PLEASE REVIEW. PLEASE.
With that said, sorry I've been away for so long, but I'm back!
Machiko-chan
Glossary
oyako don(buri) - dish made with chicken and egg, with "oyako," meaning parent and child. Usually cooked with onions and a sweet shouyu (soy sauce) over hot rice.
(o)tou-san - "Father." Rather formal with the o-, but I used it to denote Sakura's particular deference to her dad.
kaijuu - monster
(o)nii-chan - older brother (note the absence of the o- because Sakura sees Touya as closer to a peer than her father)
gaki - brat