On Santa's Lap

"Damn!" Li Syaoran grunted as he struggled to put on the glossy but stiff boot. Why the hell did I sign up for this stupid Santa job, anyway? The boot wasn't cooperating. "Why- won't-you-pull-on-you-stupid-piece-of-crap?!" He strained between every word. Finally, he flipped the shoe upside down. "God this is—oh…" several balls of ivory tissue dropped to the floor in a heap of crumpled paper. Li sweatdropped. Stressed.

"Oh, Liiiiii" a muffled flirty voice purred from outside. "Can I come iiin?"

Li sighed. "Coming Meilin." He hardly got to the door when a girl with two pigtails of black threw herself at him. "Liii, you look SO adorable!"

Li looked away awkwardly as she clung tightly onto him. Meilin seemed to sense it, for she pulled away hastily. "So," she looked brightly up at him. "Ready to go?"

"I'm only trying on the costume…" Li said impatiently. "My part's not until forever. I have the right to watch the other performances, you know."

"Course you dooo…" As Meilin scampered ahead, Li caught himself thinking about who COULD of came to his door, but didn't. He thought about…

"Sakura!"

Fourteen-year-old Sakura Kinomoto turned and smiled at Tomoyo, her best friend.

"Can you not film right now," Sakura pointed at the camera. "I'm not ready yet." She was wearing a red Santa clause outfit which hugged her slim, curved figure. The ashen cotton collar made her neck itch, and she tugged at it impatiently. The slit cut at the bottom showed her long legs, and a pair of cottoned black leather boots tied the whole look together. "Here, you can film my Santa Claus hat." She playfully thrust it at the camera. "I'm not gonna put it on until the last minute."

Tomoyo paid no attention.

"So...where are you off to?" she questioned sarcastically, pointing the lense at Sakura once more.

"To see the play…" Sakura answered slowly.

"And?" a smile played at Tomoyo's lips.

"To perform a cheer and a dance solo…"

"And…?"

"To get—free candy?"

Tomoyo sweatdropped. "I mean who's IN the play?"

"Oh! Oh, loads of people." Sakura counted on her fingers. "You, me, Rita, Chelsea—"

"AND…?"

Sakura gave an exasperated sigh. "And Li, but you know he's not really IN the play, I mean not IN IN the play, yeah he's doing something else, which he won't tell me about.. not like I wanna know or anything—"

"Sakura?"

"I mean really, why even bother explaining—"

"Sakuraaa…"

"He is being such a jerk these days it's so—"

"SAKURA!"

"Huh?"

"You're talking gibberish again."

"Oh."

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Toyomo said soothingly. "Tell him how you feel about him!"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Sakura said hastily. "Li and I are just friends."
"Uh huh, sure." The other girl looked unconvinced. "If you say so…"

"I do say so." Sakura said fiercely. Seeing Toyomo's face, she walked ahead. "Why does everyone say that? I mean we have NOTHING in common!"

"You're both good at everything—"

"Well that's—"

"Brown hair—"

"Right, But—"

"You're both stubborn—"

"When you put it that way—"
"You guys are the same age—"

"Er, yeah—"

"And you talk about him constantly—"

"Sure, I d—"

"And he's shown interest a couple of times—"

"Gee, you think—"

"You'd make such a cute couple with him—"

"Kinda—"

"And face it you like him—"

"Maybe just a bit—" Sakura halted, morified at her own confession. "Hey! You—you…" she sputtered, crimson in the face. "You did that on purpose!"

Toyomo looked proud. "It's my job."

"C'mon, BEST FRIEND, we're gonna be late for the show!" Sakura stalked ahead, fuming, with a giggling Toyomo hurrying behind her.

"Ladies and Gentleman," the principle boomed into the microphone. "Welcome to our 2004 annual Christmas Assembly!" The microphone screeched, sounding an echoing sound throughout the auditorium, causing a ripple of "Uhhh"'s throughout the grade 9 to 12 students of Cherry Tree Grove High. The principle adjusted the mic to it's normal volume. "Uh..we ask you to overlook that momentary lapse… Ahem. Without further ado, please give it up for the spectacular cheerleaders of Cherry Tree, who will be performing a routine to the tweaked version of "Jingle Bells Rock!"

Applause broke out.

Curtains opened. Sakura winked at Chelsea and led on. "One, two, three, four!"

Jingle bells jingle bells jingle bells rock

Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time—

Sakura let her body sway to the music.

Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun

She twirled around, her flaming pom-poms jingling with mini bells. Li better be watching. She told herself, then shook her head with fury. What the hell's wrong with me? Stop thinking about him!

--To rock the night away

Jingle bell time, is a swell time to go a-ridin in a one horse sleigh

Chelsea did a flip, signaling Sakura's turn. She was behind. All the other cheerleaders looked her way.

"What are you doing?!" Rita whispered frantically. "That's not the routine!"

Li watched from the audience. Good thing he got front row seats, too.

"Hey Li," Eriol whispered. "I think your girlfriend's having some trouble."

Although Li remained calm, he couldn't help noticing Sakura's facial change from smiling to troubled as she struggled to keep up with the steps.

Meilin giggled from her seat beside him. "Hope she can pull that off…" she said with enough ooziness to make Li want to smack her across the face.

--in a jingling beat

Sakura had an idea, suddenly. "Play along," she mouthed to Rita and Chelsea.

--that's the jingle bell

She flipped

--that's the jingle bell

She flipped once more

--that's the jingle bell

Flip, flip, flip

--ROCK! She, Rita, and Chelsea shouted together as the song came to an end.

The crowd went wild. Whistles and thunderous clapping came from every direction.

Sakura finally caught her breathe. Good thing she practiced for those extra flips. Her fellow cheerleaders thought so, too.

"Wow, Sakura!" One of them exclaimed. "I had no idea you could do that!"

"We would have been toast!" said another, giving Sakura a high five.

"Great work!" Rita commented.

"Yeah, keep it up for your second one." Chelsea said. "Your solo, remember. You know, the one right after this one?" she added with a wink.

Oh. Right. Another performance. Sakura sweatdropped. She hurried into the changeroom, pulling on another costume; all leather, all black. Curtsey of Toyomo. For a finishing touch, she added Christmas bracelets of jingling golden bells and fixed bright hollies in her chestnut hair. She swiftly took her tambourines of hollies and golden bells (matched with her outfit). All the while, she listened for her cue.

The cheerleaders were doing another dance outside, and soon it'll be her turn to come out.

--A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walkin' in a Winter Wonderland

The music melted into a faster, upbeat music.

Sakura walked out.

At first she felt out of place in black, but as the cheerleaders backed away, she felt less nervousness. You're practicing at home, you're practicing at home, she repeated to herself.

She opened with a combination of somersaults, causing the audience to go wild again.

Sway, sway… she banged the tambourines above her head.

--gone away, (I say) is the bluebird (oh yeah)

--in it's place (in it's place) is the new bird(woo)

Li watched, not taking his eyes off her. She was good. No, she was more than good. She was—

"She sucks," Meilin said coldly.

Li jerked around. "She does not." He said just as coldly.

Meilin seemed taken aback by this blunt accusation. "Well…well, I can do that."

Eriol snorted. "Okay sure, we'll use you as an understudy."

"HEY!"

Li returned his attention to Sakura, just as she did a flawless spit, that ended her performance. Great. He thought as the stands erupted with cheers. Damn Meilin to hell. If she hadn't been bickering, he wouldn't of have missed so much.

-Later-

"Now, ladies and gentleman, as a closing treat... we have hired the old man himself. Right from the North Pole and everything, to wish us all a Merry Christmas!

"Ho, ho, ho." Li said through a mouthful of cotton from his fake beard, as cheerfully as he can muster. "Merry Christmas."

"Okay…" the principle was clearly disappointed by Li's lack of enthusiasm, but caught himself. "Er, Okay! Thankyou Santa! Now, just for fun, how would everybody like to line up for a sit on Santa's lap, eh?"

Li sputtered. The hell is he talking about? This was not part of what he bargained for.

"What about the guys?!" a guy shouted.

"Er… the guys…. Just get their treats…"

"YEAAAAHHHH!"

Before the principle could continue, a thick mob of guy students raced for the giant bag of sweets, while the girls lined up for Santa.

"OUTTA MY WAY!"

God help me. Li thought as Meilin rushed to a stop in front of him, and jumped on his knee.

"Er… Ho, ho, ho, what would you like this Christmas?" Li said gruffly, trying not to let his annoyed self take over.

"Oh… I've got a list here somewhere…"

For the next 46 minutes, Meilin rambled through her list. From sweets to CD's to money to a pair of fluffy bunny slippers.

"Meilin sure is getting in the spirit, huh?" Toyomo observed as she and Sakura stood in the unmoving line.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed.

When Meilin was FINALLY assured away by the principle himself, a few other people went.

As the line moved up, Sakura got a closer look at Santa Claus. He looked oddly familiar… but Sakura just couldn't put a finger on it. ((--;; smart, huh?))

"Thankyou, and a very Merry Christmas to you." Li drawled as yet another girl jumped off his knee and ran into the crowd. He was becoming very bored. What a Christmas this is turning out to be. Hope I don't fall asleep anytime soon.

"Um, hey…"

Li looked up to see someone he'd been wanting to see this whole time. ((WOW…guess who it is!))

"Hey," he replied as casually as possible. "I mean, um.. Ho, ho, ho!" Real smooth. He gave his knee a pat. "Care to sit down?

Sakura hesitated. She had wanted to sit on a guy's knee for who knows how long. But she imagined the guy to be somewhere along the lines of…Li Shyaoran. But there in front of her was an over-puffed pretend Santa. Not her dream prince, but… "Um..sure." She sat anyway, and as she did she felt an unexplained warm feeling come over her.

"So, what do you want for Christmas?" Li avoided her eyes for awhile, but when he finally mustered enough courage to look, he could never look away. So beautiful.

"Well." Sakura said. "You see…" Should I tell him… He wouldn't care… He doesn't even know me! "Ahem. I want a kiss."

"Say what?!" Shyaoran snapped into attention. "I mean, pardon?"

"A kiss." Sakura stated.

He stared at her.

"From a guy."

He stared at her.

"That I like"

He stared at her.

"Under the mistletoe."

He stared at her.

"Stop staring at me."

He looked away. "Sorry. U-UM. Who's the lucky guy's name?"

It was Sakura's turn to stare. It wouldn't hurt to tell him… after all he's just a guy playing Santa…

"Li Shyaoran."

Li's heart skipped a beat. Thank-you, Santa! He thought to himself. Then he turned back to Sakura. "Well… I have a feeling that guy likes you too. Your wish would come true.

Sakura's eyes bulged.

"Want a candy cane?" He pulled one out of his half empty stocking treat bag. She took it with a smile. "Merry Christmas, Santa." With that, she was off.

-One Hour Later-

"You enjoyed the show?"

Sakura whirled around. "Oh, hey Li." She twirled a strand of her hair absent-mindedly. "Yeah, it was fun."

"Wanna go for a walk?"

"We're walking" she pointed out.

Li shoved his hands into his pockets. "You were really good." He mumbled into his jacket.

"Thankyou." Sakura said with a smile. They walked throughout the gymnasium, out into the great hall.

"I thought you said you were going to do something in the play." Sakura said.

"I was." Li said simply.

"You were?"

"Yeah."

"Then how come I never saw you?"

"You saw me."

"No I didn't"

"Yes you did."

"If I saw—"

"Shh…" Li pulled Sakura's arm, making her stop.

"What?" Sakura's eyes traveled up to the ceiling, where decorative Christmas hollies dangled in a repetition of green and red. In the center there was a larger holly specially decorated. Sakura's heart pounded as she realized…

"Mistletoe." Li said, smiling at her.

"Li…I don't think…" People were stopping to watch.

Kiss, kiss, kiss—they chanted.

Li lifted her chin. Slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers. Sakura was unaware of the cheering throughout the whole hall. All she could think about was Li. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back with all her heart. Li lifted Sakura up. When he put her down, she was breathless.

"What took you so long?" Li asked.

"What took YOU so long?" Sakura shot back, grinning.

"What took BOTH of you so long?" Toyomo held up her camcorder proudly. "I got it all on film."

Sakura looked back at Li. "How did you know?"

"Hm?"

"How did you know about—"

"Your Christmas wish?"

Sakura froze as all events clicked into place.

"Three words. Ho. Ho. Ho." With that, he ran.

Sakura stood dumbfounded. When she regained her senses after a couple of seconds, she ran after him. "LI SHYAORAN YOU GET YOUR SORRY ASS BACK HERE!!! I SWEAR I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS!!!"

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!" Li's laughing voice shouted from outside. "YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME!"

Sakura did, eventually, and shoved snow down his shirt. The both of them laughing, they slumped onto the snow and lay there, side by side.

"You mad?"

"No."

"Good."

"I'm pissed off."

Li sweatdropped.

Sakura burst out laughing. "No, no I'm not. How could I be? You made my wish come true, after all."

Li smiled at that.

"You… did mean what you said, didn't you?"

"Every word." Shyaoran pulled Sakura up and kissed her once more. "C'mon, I'll walk you home."

They walked hand in hand down the road.

"By the way, Merry Christmas."

Sakura giggled, swinging his hand back and forth. "Merry Christmas!"

Snow began to fall.

Omg, I just realized this is the only fic I've actually completed! Anyway, thought it up just for this little holiday season , Enjoy REVIEW!!! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year people!