Author's Notes – Ten years of fascination and I still can't get enough of CCS!
Disclaimer - I don't own Card Captor Sakura, but I'm saving up to buy them out ^^.
Chapter One
In Need
I sighed and crumbled up another classified add. Everyone wanted experience, how did they expect someone to gain experience if they don't allow them into the door! Stupid society…
I looked around me, surrounded in my tiny apartment with my ratty furniture I had found in the garbage. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for the fact that my son deserved so much better than this. I thought we would be able to manage a more comfortable lifestyle if I just worked two jobs, but after two years of doing this everyday I'm not getting anywhere. Debt is surrounding me.
It was almost noon and I promised that I would help some guy that I would help him start up his dance instruction classes today at three. I didn't really want to but I feel obligated to return the help he had given me last week by driving me and my groceries home and taking me to pick up my son from daycare. Crude what was his name again? I wrote it down somewhere… Oh well, I'm sure it's in my purse somewhere.
He told me to wear something comfortable which I guess is nice; all my clothing is comfortable considering its mostly ratty sweat pants that I found at a garage sale last summer. I grabbed my slightly too big red sweats and a gray tank top on and went to grab my shoes. Kiyoshi was already at daycare, my neighbor said that he was headed that way anyway and it was raining. I offered money and thankfully he declined me, I'm already down to my last twenty dollars.
It was hot, as usual and the bus was either running late or I was early, I don't have a watch of phone to tell the time. I wish I knew exactly what he wanted me to do; I don't know how to dance… Great, now I'm going to disappoint him and I haven't even showed up!
Leaning against the bus stop sign I closed my eyes to try to block out the headache that I felt coming on from all the stress. Stupid, stupid me… I should have told him that I don't know how to dance before I accepted helping him!
A near by car started honking frantically, adding to my growing headache. I looked around for the source and I spotted a shiny black car that looked like it belonged in the early nineties from the shape, but in obvious good condition. He had pulled and stopped in front of the bus stop stopping the traffic that had been following behind him.
"Hey! You're Sakura right?" A male voice called from the driver's side.
Curiosity temporarily killed the headache and I bent down to try to see his face. "Yes?" I recognized him immediately as the guy I was suppose to be working with today and mentally smacked myself for wanting to wait to remember his blasted name!
"Hey! Wasn't expecting to see you until three o'clock! Where ya heading I'll give you a ride!"
His dark eyes glistened brightly and his neatly trimmed black hair shown blue hues where the sunlight hit them. Without another thought I climbed into the car and he started driving again.
"I almost didn't recognize you without your glasses," I said quietly. I felt so small all of a sudden being alone in his presence. Conversation wasn't something that came easily to me as it did for him; I learned that from our first encounter.
He let out a small chuckle. "I where my glasses on days that don't need me to be very active and today isn't one of those days. So where are you headed?" he asked stopping at a red light.
I felt so embarrassed. My clothes were ratty compared to his baggy army pants and form fitting black tee. "I was headed for the studio. Taking the bus would take almost two hours to get there from where I live…"
"I see. Well it's a good thing that we ran into each other then. I was just headed there myself. I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for today. It didn't dawn on me until last night to ask you what kind of dancing you do." The car started moving down the street again.
My nerves were getting the best of me so I started digging in my purse as discreetly as possible in search for his name.
"I should have told you before I accepted your offer, but I can't dance." The confession made me feel somewhat better, but still guilty for getting his hopes up for an assistant. Aha! I found his name; Eriol.
"Really?" he sounded shock, which surprised me. "Please don't take any offense when I say this but your body build is that of a dancer. Are you sure you don't dance?"
Great, he was going to fire me before we even reached our destination!
"No, I'm sorry if I miss lead you in any way. I understand if you don't want me to be your assistant anymore."
"Because you say you can't dance?" Another chuckle escaped his lips. "No, I can work with you in your free time. I still would like you to assist me. Which reminds me… what days are convenient for you?"
"Oh, well I'm currently working two jobs right now, Monday through Friday."
"Oh wow, how are you doing that with a baby?" Already we were half way there.
"Well, I get up every morning at four and get myself and Kiyoshi ready and head out at five. My first job isn't far from his daycare so I get there about six in the morning and get off at two. My other job is just a thirty minute walk away so I get to visit Kiyoshi before being at my other job at three. I manage to pay the daycare a little extra to drop him off at my neighbor's apartment where he remains until I get home around midnight." I closed my purse back up and sat back to attempt to enjoy his company. He was really nice so far the thought of him never occurred to me that he might be some kind of killer and here she was pouring her schedule to him like a running tap!
"Wow, that's tough, I couldn't imagine living on four hours of sleep alone. You must drink a lot of coffee to stay awake." He parallel parked in front of a small brick building sandwiched between an old looking deli and a hair salon. "Well here we are. It's not much now but it'll grow."
I didn't say anything as we got out and watched him unlock the building. We walked in and the smell of dust hit me strong and I sneezed.
"Bless you. I haven't been able to clean up in here either, another reason why I'm early." Eriol smiled sheepishly at me and flicked a light switch. The fluorescent lighting above lit the room to reveal dusty hardwood floors and a completely bare room. The walls were already lined with dirty mirrors, surprisingly still intact.
"Was this place already a dance studio?" The question came out before my brain realized my mouth had moved.
"So you noticed?" Eriol came back inside with a brooms, mops and mop buckets. I didn't even see him leave back out.
"Well, we better get started!" he said handing me a broom.
~*~
It didn't take long, fortunately to clean the giant room, especially with the two of us working together with his radio blaring. The bathrooms were the worst part and instead of cleaning them individually as originally planned we decided to tackle them both together.
The men's bathroom was the worst and ended with both of us losing our lunches and came to the conclusion that we would need to replace the toilet and concluded our day with putting an out of order sign on the door.
"I'll pick out a toilet before I drop you off at home," Eriol said before washing his mouth out in the bathroom sink of the ladies room. Spitting the last of his water out he turned off the faucet and wiped his mouth with this arm.
I glanced at his watch it was ten till three there was no way that I would be able to learn anything he taught me in ten minutes! I began to feel nervous again and that's when it hit me that I would be dancing in front of people. I shouldn't be worried for all they know I could be another student who just happened to be the first one to arrive and not his assistant.
"I don't know about you but I'm starving." Eriol said admiring the work we done.
"Me too, but I'm so nervous about the dancing that I don't know if I could keep anything down," I confessed, I felt a small smile creep along my lips despite my best efforts to not. Not to mention I needed to hold on to the last of my money until Monday, I can't afford to eat out.
"Don't, all you have to do is follow me, step for step. It's that simple. Besides who's to say that they'll even come. It's belly dancing; a lot of people either can't or won't try to grasp it and will either drop out after the first week or will chicken out and not come at all. With that in mind, I say we go next door and grab a sandwich."
He was already heading out the door, keys in hand to lock up while we were out. Sighing I reluctantly grabbed my purse and walked out with him.
The heat rising off the pavement made me breakout into an instant sweat. Eriol jogged up ahead and opened the door for me and bowed. "Before you my lady."
I could feel myself blush and I smiled before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "Why thank you kind sir."
The air conditioning was a welcoming relief and I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. "That feels so much better."
"I bet."
We walked up to the counter to take our orders, my measly twenty dollars still in my mind.
"I'll take your ham and cheese sub, a bag a chips, and a cup of water," he ordered talking his wallet out of his back pocket.
"I'll just have a bottle of water please," I said quietly.
Eriol raised his eyebrows and looked at me questioningly. "I thought you said you were hungry."
I was at a loss of words. I didn't want to tell him I was broke because the last thing I wanted was for him to feel sorry for me, but if Kiyoshi runs out of diapers then I'll be short and will have to settle for the stupid pharmacy brand. Seriously, who sales ultra thin diapers?
"And then whatever she wants." I heard him say.
"You don't have-"
"Please, get something to eat." A smile crossed his lips before grabbing his sandwich and heading to the cashier. I felt so embarrassed but I did has he told me and got a simple turkey sandwich. He paid and we walked back to the dance studio.
It was ten after three and still no one showed up and so we sat the in the middle of the room and at our sandwiches an a comfortable silence.
I heard him sigh and polished the last of my sandwich before looking at him. He leaned back, the muscles in his abs showing clearly through his shirt. I tried not to look but it was so rare that I saw anyone with a body like his this close before, it was fascinating.
"I've never thought of men belly dancing before. What drew you to it?" I asked following his lead.
He laughed, the muscles in his stomach tightening. Dear God Sakura stop looking! "My girlfriend, Tomoyo. She's insanely into it but I think her love for fashion is starting to win over. One day on a dare she made me go belly dancing with her and it turned out that… I like it. Sounds gay right?"
I felt myself give a small laugh, "Yeah, but it shows you're comfortable with yourself. That's more than most straight men can be. "
"Can't believe no one's showed up yet. It's almost four o'clock." Eriol sighed and sat back and looked down at me. "I couldn't help but to keep thinking about you and four jobs and then your acceptance to this one making three. How would you feel about just one job?"
I sat up and crossed my legs. "Are you kidding me? One job? I couldn't think of a happier thing right now. It's just the only jobs who are willing to accept me make as much as I make now at either one of my jobs and isn't worth leaving either one of them for."
"Where do you work?"
I felt my cheeks getting warm again from embarrassment. "I work at a library in the morning and then I work as a bartender at a strip club after that."
"I didn't think strip clubs are open that early."
"They're not but I go in to help set up and get ready for the night." I couldn't look at him, I felt so ashamed of my stupid jobs.
I watched him from the corner of my eyes and tried to get a reading of what he was possibly thinking about. "And you don't dance?" he asked again still shock written clearly on his face.
I felt my mouth start to fall in complete astonishment. It was like he didn't care that I just told him I worked at a strip club and his biggest confliction was that I didn't dance.
"We've got to change that. Come on get up." He jumped up on his feet and started stretching. I had just gotten up and thrown away our garbage when light from outside flooded the inside and closed. "Hey! You showed up!" Eriol exclaimed excitedly.
"Just wanted to check out and see how well your first day of business was going for you," came another male voice.
Again curiosity peeked my interest and as discreetly as possible, I hope, checked to see who it was and suddenly I wish I hadn't. Eriol remembered I existed and waved me over.
"Sakura, come I want you to meet my cousin!"
Reluctantly I walked over and smiled up at the newcomer. "Hi." I think I said hi or I might have imagined it. There was something about his presence that made me feel like I was less than when I was with Eriol earlier. It may have been the way those amber orbs seemed to stare me down with judgment.
"Sakura, this is my cousin, Syaoran Li. Syaoran Li this is my new assistant, Sakura," Eriol introduced.
"Nice to meet you sir," I said nodding my head in acknowledgement.
"Nice to meet you to," he said. "So where's your students?"
Eriol shrugged with an easy going smile. "Guess they chickened out. It is belly dancing after all and I'm not exactly a woman. So I guess it would seem really, you know, weird…" Eriol said with a shrug.
"I see."
They began carrying on a conversation about things that I had no idea about and I wanted to leave. I hate feeling so uncomfortable around people.
"So how's the search for a nanny going?" Eriol asked.
"Horrible. I went through probably twenty applications today and once again they were either too old or just didn't come off as responsible enough. The last one I did hire, Fai drove her into quitting. The kid is one for crying out loud."
I smiled at a thought of chancing Kiyoshi through out the apartment. He had grabbed one of my balls of yarn and I chased after him. He ran into my room and straight into the bed, bouncing off and landing flat on his back. He was having too much fun to notice and I was couldn't help but laugh. I felt the laugh from my memory escape me and blushed.
"Sorry, I was just remembering something my son did a couple months ago."
"Oh yeah, you should see him. Cute and he has the personality of someone who's been there and done it all," Eriol said.
"Oh really? How old is he?" Li asked.
"Two." Then the awkward silence descended.
"You know…" Eriol began and all eyes focused on him. "I was thinking about it will we were eating, Sakura, and well maybe you should get a resumé together to present to Syaoran. Who knows this may be something you're both looking for."
I felt so put on the spot that I wasn't sure how to respond. I looked from one cousin to the other and still no words could come out my mouth.
"I don't know Eriol. Fai probably needs just needs more than just one nanny, you know?" Syaoran asked. Clearly he was just as uncertain as I was.
"Excuse us for just sec.," Eriol said winking to me before dragging Syaoran to the other side of the room.
I don't think it was necessary really. I discovered Eriol's lack in talent when it came to whispering really fast and knew that he was trying to set me up with being his cousin's nanny. Which don't get me wrong I need a job and if I could get just one job and it meant that I could be home with Kiyoshi at night I would be in heaven!
Syaoran seemed to know that he realize that Eriol wasn't good at the whole whispering thing either because he ended up dragging him into the men's bathroom before hurriedly coming back out and into the women's. The bathroom may have been clean but that toilet… I shudder to even think about it.
I stood there alone and got bored. I wished I knew what they were talking about but the last thing I wanted to do was try and ease drop and then get caught. So I decided to go through Eriol's music collection. He had everything from R&B to Heavy Metal music. I selected a Lacuna Coil CD and began to play my favorite, Entwined.
I lay down in front of the radio and stretched out closing my eyes and let the music carry me away. It didn't occur to me that I started singing out loud and that they were apparently done with their conversation.
I got past the second verse and I heard someone else's voice join in with mine and the CD. I jolted straight up and quickly stopped the music. "Sorry… I just really like this band…"
"Relax, Sakura. The music is here for you to enjoy just as much as it is for me to enjoy," Eriol said joining me on the floor. Li sat down with us and I could feel his eyes yet again studying me.
"Eriol tells me that you're looking for a new job," Li began. I almost blurted out that I never actually said I was looking for a new job but I managed to keep my mouth closed. "If you can bring a resumé with you tomorrow when you show up here I would like to give you an interview."
My draw must have dropped. "Really? Just like that? This is the first time you've ever met me." Shut up, shut up, shut it up!
"All of my interviews today were people I had never met until they were sitting across my office desk getting interviewed."
It was so obvious that he didn't want to interview me, but I just needed a new job so bad.
"Alright, I'll make sure to have it ready for you by tomorrow. I really appreciate you giving my resumé a chance."
"Don't thank me yet. There's two interviews you have to go through. The first one will be through me, the second one will be through…" he stopped to rub his temples. "Yu Jie," he added bitterly.
I felt my eyes go over to Eriol who just shook his head as if to say don't even worry about it.
~*~
Five o'clock came and no one showed up and Li had left long before then. We locked up and climbed into his car.
"I want to thank you," I told him after a few minutes of silence.
"For what?" he asked chuckling.
"For asking your cousin about the nanny position. I feel so embarrassed and I have to admit that I'm really nervous…" I fidgeted with the strap of my purse and didn't bother to look at his face. The last thing that I wanted to see was his happy eyes.
"Don't worry about it. You're a really nice girl and I saw your son in the grocery store way before you two noticed me and if you can handle him, you can defiantly handle Fai. He's a good kid, just needs someone to be there for him is all." Before I knew it Eriol stopped outside the front of my son's daycare. "I remembered were it was!"
"You didn't have to do this. I mean any of all you've done," I said not bothering to get out just yet.
"Hey don't worry about it; all I ask in return is that you're mine on the weekends and maybe a couple hours when nanny business is over that is if you're not needed."
"I really appreciate everything you're doing and trying to do for me. I feel as if a simple thank you isn't enough."
"Go get Kiyoshi and I'll take you both home. I'll be by tomorrow around eight and I'll drop him off here and we can get to work.
"Thank you."
