Charm
Chapter One: Eyes Wide Shut
by perinces-in-wayting
****
She brushed her hair aside and quickly jotted down one last sentence before standing up and grabbing a nearby schoolbag on her left. With swift steps she called out a quick good-bye over her shoulder to a seemingly empty bedroom, before jetting down the stairs and towards the kitchen.
"Sakura, you're up a little earlier than usual." Kinomoto Kujitaka's eyes were wide with surprise as he watched his daughter clamber down the stairs. The surprised look, however, was quickly washed away and replaced by a kind hearted smile. Looking over at his youngest, he couldn't help but picture another woman with similar features, a woman he still met sometimes in his dreams. Sakura's hair was a bit shorter perhaps...her eyes a rich green instead of her soft velvety brown...but in his mind stood the picture of the goddess-woman, and he knew they were the same. Sakura and her mother....his deceased wife....they were both beautiful.
It startled him to realize it, as he stood there watching her. Without him noticing, his daughter had grown up.
"Yup! Kero--er--I mean the alarm clock--woke me up this time."
"Good for you. You can have breakfast sitting down for once."
"Er... sorry Otou-san, I can't." The girl known as Sakura smiled apologetically. Her high school uniform was a bit mussed, her brown locks loose and shinning under the florescent lights of the kitchen. "I wanna drop by the post office before school starts." She quickly leaned over and kissed her father on the cheek, while grabbing a piece of toast and stuffing it in her mouth. "Say g'bye for Onii-chan for me!" Waving goodbye over her shoulder, she grabbed a muffin for the road and was gone before he could say another word.
Her father looked on, watching the door slam shut. Quietly, he sighed.
A voice broke through the silence. "Mornin'." Standing on the last step of the staircase was a dark haired, gray and black cladden boy, his eyes a bit bleary, hair a bit tussled, and a set of dark bags sitting squarely under his shadowy brown eyes.
The boy made his way down the last step and yawned. He glanced over at his father and suddenly frowned. "Hey, somethin' wrong?"
"Nothing." Shaking his head a little, Fujitaka placed a new smile on his face for his oldest child. His voice was chipper as he spoke. "Late night last night Touya? I didn't hear you come in."
Touya shrugged noncommittally and sat down. He reached over and placed a couple of eggs on his plate before answering. "I was just watching a movie. There was a late night marathon at the Cineplex."
"Hmm... Well, next time you see Yukito mind if you say 'hi' for me? I haven't seen him in a while with him being busy with college."
Touya paused, stopped chewing, and looked up. He seemed taken aback for a minute. Finally, she simply shook his head, a shadow of a grin on his face. It seemed even as a college student he couldn't fool his father. "Will do."
There was a moment of comfortable silence as the father and son continued eating their breakfast. The silence ended, however, as Touya glanced up at the stairs. "So the kaijuu's still not up yet? What is she, a junior in high school? And she still can't wake up on time? "
Fujitaka laughed. "Well, usually I'd have to say yes to you on that, but today she headed out a bit early."
Touya paused, placing his fork down slowly. "You're joking."
"Not in the least bit."
"What, did hell freeze over while I was asleep? Any other miracles that might have occurred while I was away you might want to tell me about?"
Fujitaka laughed. "Oh, your sister's not that bad Touya." He shook his head. "You just love teasing her, don't you?"
"Hey, can I help it if the little kaijuu has too many faults I can't keep them all to myself? She's never up past twelve o'clock if she can help it. And she's always running late for school." His voice held little sign of annoyance however, and to trained ears it might have even sounded endearing.
Fujitaka nodded. "Well, it's true that Sakura can be a little tardy sometimes."
"I remember when I still went to high school with her....The earliest she arrived was five minutes before the final bell. She never got there early. And I remember when she would always want to hitch a ride with me. I always ended up late!"
Fujitaka didn't respond and stood to go to the counter and pour himself another cup of coffee.
From the table, Touya's brows suddenly furrowed. He seemed to be thinking about something. "Come to think of it, I don't remember her ever going to school early, even as far back as grammar school...."
Fujitaka didn't answer.
"Sure, once in a blue moon she would wake up on time if she was lucky, but early....?
From the counter, Fujitaka was looking out the window. "I think our garden needs a little watering. I'm not really a good gardener myself, your mother was the one who loved to do that. Perhaps I'll go out there tonight and try to do a few things...."
"Dad, where was Sakura going this morning?" Touya's voice was low.
Fujitaka began whistling a little tune.
There was a bitter sound in Touya's voice. "She wrote him another letter, didn't she?"
No reply.
From behind, Touya scowled. He stopped eating and threw his fork angrily across the checkered table cloth, causing it to fall haphazardly to the tiled floor. It's shrill sound ricocheted against the heavy silence between the two Kinomoto men.
Touya's angry voice soon followed. "I should have known! Damn it, how long has this been? She can't wake up on time when she has a Math final first period, or an English exam worth fifteen percent of her semester grade, but to mail a letter to that little--"
"Touya." His Fujitaka turned. There was a warning in his voice.
"Well it's true isn't it?"
Fujitaka didn't respond.
"Damn it! Damn it say something Otou-san! I know you never said anything when she was alone in her room on Saturday nights writing him another damn letter, or when you heard her sobbing sometimes through the walls of her bedroom, or when you saw her staring out the window whenever the mail man was coming, looking so damn hopeful thinking maybe today he'd have a letter for her from that little bastard--"
"Touya!"
" --but damn it you're going to say something now!"
"Touya, that's enough."
"Enough? Why is it enough? Sometimes I think she's like a ghost waiting for that Idiot to return. And you don't even care!" Touya's face was angry and accusing. He was standing, his hands clenched tightly to the top his chair with the muscle of a man ready to explode.
Fujitaka looked on at his son with a face of deep crimson. He didn't need this, didn't need to defend himself like a common criminal in his own household . "Care? Of course I care! You don't know how much! You don't know what goes on through my head when I see your sister staring off into space with that hopeless look across her face, you don't know what I think when I hear her crying! Times like that I wish your mother was around, I wish I knew how to be the perfect father for her. But damn it, there's nothing we can do Touya!"
Touya growled. "Damn it there isn't!"
"What, you think we could just stop making her love that boy? Just like that?" A challenge.
Touya's voice was determined. "Yes."
Fujitaka stared. "It's not that easy Touya." Fujitaka's voice was low. "How do you make yourself stop loving Yukito? How do I make myself stop loving your mother? If the answer was that easy to find I would have found it long ago. Both for your sister....and for myself." He laughed harshly. "You don't know how long I've loved Nadesiko. How much she meant to me...still means to me. And sometimes those feelings hurt. The lingering pain of all these years...it never seems to go away. And every so often I wish it would. At times I think...being apathetic would be easier than to feel this grief. That perhaps it would be easier to forget." His face softened. "And then I remember her face...and I realize remembering is better than forgetting."
Fujitaka suddenly felt very tired. Moving forward, his shoulders sagged and he sighed softly, taking a seat and running his hands through his hair. He looked weary and worn, and for the first time a thought crossed Kinomoto Touya's head: his father was growing old.
For a long time there were no words. Finally, Touya spoke, no qualms in his voice even if there were stirring within his heart. His face was resolute. "Sakura is my sister." It were as if those four words explained it all. "I'll find a way."
****
Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptors, Card Captor Sakura, Syaoran or Kero-chan. The very existence of this fan fiction is because of that mere fact. Hah.