His Warm Smile
by Silent Cynara
Angst- Comfort/Hurt
Summary:All Mei Ling Li wants, when she seeks out Hatori Sohma through his cousin Momiji, is forget about her lost love. But Momiji wants to show her the value of memories, no matter how painful...and about how lost loves can teach you to love the next person even more. CCS and Fruits Basket crossover
Chapter One: The Hurting
Her name was Mei Ling Li, and she was looking down at the blood on her hands. Oh no, she moaned silently. Her temper had run away with her yet again, and someone had gotten hurt. She closed her eyes to deny the sight, even if only for a while.
To think she had just been trying to stopthe fight. Mei Ling had stood between her wimpy classmate Yama and a large, hulking senior. But when the senior boy had tried to kick Yama in a sensitive region after pretending he was walking away, she had snapped. If there was something she hated, it was someone who played dirty. No honor whatsoever; not only was he picking on the weak, he was fighting like a common street thug.
When she confronted the bully about it, he laughed and said, "Yama is so weak, he needs a silly girl to protect him. Maybe I should just rape you two, make you happy." Then he'd dropped his eyes to Meiling's breasts, and made to reach out to squeeze them.
Mei Ling had seen red, and unleashed her full martial arts training on the bully to teach him a lesson. With predictable results; one did not come out of a fight with a Li without serious damage unless they were magical.
And it was just her third week at Kaibara High. She could hear the shouts of the faculty members making their way to the bully, who was spitting out teeth and pretending Mei Ling had started it.
She trudged away, looking for a place to regain her calm before reporting to the principal's office. She was headed there anyway, if not today, then tomorrow.
A handsome blue-eyed boy with tousled blond hair quietly watched her go. Mei Ling's passion, her moods, her beautiful almond eyes that turned every shade between brown and red, her long raven hair, her smooth skin—everything about her fascinated him. Though it had been a year or so since he had lost the only other person who had made him feel this way, he was still optimistic, and willing to lend a hand to those in need. His name was Momiji Sohma, and he was as sweet and gentle as the fruit that had given him his name.
Mei Ling needed someone who cared, someone who knew what it was like to live with pain. He was, after all, a living reminder of pain for his mother. And he had also been wounded when he had forced himself to give up the only other girl who had made him feel.
In Mei Ling's eyes, he could see the same loss he had felt when Tohru and Kyo had finally gotten together. Not that he hadn't seen it coming. Bad enough that his cousin Yuki, whom he admired, clearly had smothered his own feelings about Tohru to make her happy ending with Kyo possible. Yuki had lied, saying he loved her like a mother, then began dating a girl who eerily resembled Tohru.
Momiji could do no less, since he could feel where Tohru's heart belonged. She would never see him as anything other than a baby brother.
But for a while, he had allowed himself to hope. When puberty had finally caught up with him in high school, he'd realized that he had received the Sohma blessing—or curse—of smashing good looks when, after he'd abandoned the girl's uniform he used to wear, girls began to follow him around and stammer in his presence. After summer vacation, which Momiji had spent at Kazuma-san's dojo, even Tohru had been startled when Momiji had returned, looking like a young Greek god, with a tanned, lithe body, chiseled cheekbones, and sensual lips.
Fool.And he smiled bitterly at his own thoughts. She was immune to his good looks because she had already fallen in love with Kyo.
Perhaps someone else could make him come alive again. And he was hoping it would be this fascinating, moody, lively Chinese girl.
He pushed his hands into his pockets, ignoring the calls of the girls who made up his fan club. To think he'd been teasing Yuki about this not so long ago...and here he was now, with his own "Momiji Sohma Super Duper Girlfriend Club". Ugh.
He had never liked shallow girls. He had only been attracted to one type...the type like Tohru: fully alive, happy, gentle, caring. Who are you kidding, there's only been one like her?
Which was why it was so strange to feel this way about Mei Ling Li. She could be bratty, crazy, hot-tempered, even violent. She was beautiful and fiery...and absolutely fascinating.
But her eyes.
She needed to learn to accept her memories, Momiji could see. And he found himself hoping he could be the one to teach her how memories could make her strong.
And so he followed quietly as Mei Ling made her way to somewhere she could be alone.
She felt a painful twinge in her heart. Back at the Tomoeda grade school she had attended briefly with Syaoran, weird events were ignored. She supposed it was something that came with living in a place where dinosaurs appeared out of nowhere, freak storms occurred, and a little auburn-haired girl transformed cards and fought the elements.
Here, however, anything out of the ordinary was noticed, and with her different looks and background, she certainly stood out. People avoided her because of her strange accent, looks, and fiery temper.
Why am I always so angry? She clenched her fists, and bit her lip so hard, she drew blood. I hate being angry. I hate myself for being violent. I hate hating myself. I hate feeling nothing but hate!
It wasn't always that way. Once she had been deeply, desperately in love with her cousin, Syaoran. She'd given him up when he fell in love with someone else...and worse, that someone else was someone she cared about deeply as well. Meiling hadn't the heart to stand in their way, and so she'd broken off her engagement to Syaoran so that he could be free to pursue that wonderful girl, Sakura Kinomoto.
"Hurry up, stupid Syaoran," she'd said at the airport when she'd been forced to leave him and go home. "Tell her how you feel."
And when she'd come back to help Syaoran get the answer he desperately needed from Sakura, she'd told Sakura, "That princess should have answered the prince immediately, I mean, what was she waiting for?"
If only she could have hated them, it would have been easier. But Sakura was so kind, so thoughtful, and just so gosh-darn wonderful that Meiling understood just why and how Syaoran had fallen in love with her.
She couldn't hate Syaoran either. Gruff, calm, yet passionate, he was always, always kind to her, tolerating her temper, her outbursts, her invasions into his personal space. But Meiling knew that while he loved her, it was only as a sister. His passions were reserved for Sakura alone.
The last time she had visited Tomoeda, she had not told anyone, not even Tomoyo, that she was coming. She'd kept out of sight, her eyes hidden behind dark glasses and her hair bundled up under a cap. Mei Ling knew that Penguin Park was special for Syaoran and Sakura, and so she waited, seated on the branch of a tree, for them to arrive.
And Syaoran appeared first. He sat on one of the swings. Now a high school sophomore, he had grown into a devastatingly handsome boy, with his tousled bronze hair fluttering in the wind, his bronze eyes large and dreamy as he waited for Sakura. He was lean, and gave off the impression of power strongly contained.
He'd started, and looked towards the tree where Mei Ling was. She had never learned how to conceal her aura, and she was about to run when he stood up to investigate. But then Sakura skipped into view, and Syaoran opened his arms to hug his girlfriend.
Sakura had also grown into a delicately beautiful girl. She'd kept her hair short but no longer wore it in pigtails. Her emerald eyes flashed, her cheeks were rosy, and when she tilted her head up to accept a tender kiss from Syaoran, Mei Ling felt wetness on her cheek. She had never known what Syaoran's lips were like, and she never would; she'd cut off communication with all of them. And she had ignored the boys who came up to her; no one could compare to Syaoran.
It had been inevitable for Sakura and Syaoran to fall in love. On her first day in Tomoeda, Mei Ling had needed no premonition to know that Syaoran was going to fall in love with the Cardcaptor. It was in his eyes. Though he was gruff towards Sakura, Mei Ling felt her heart sink. It was the fact that she was there, in his home...and Syaoran had never invited a girl into his home. Ever.
Plus, they both were magical beings. Mei Ling was strong and intelligent, but Syaoran was always out of her class. Only Sakura seemed as though she belonged with him—both were strong fighters, and she was a sorceress, as he was a sorceror.
When they had finally gotten together, Mei Ling remembered creeping up to the amusement park's clock tower with Tomoyo Daidouji, and watching as the two kissed for the first time. It was like watching her heart being torn apart, and she had left for Hong Kong within hours.
I wonder what it's like to be special, Mei Ling thought. She passed a tree in the courtyard with large, spreading branches that could hide her from view, and she sprang up into its comforting brown limbs. What it's like to be loved?
Meiling had never been in a real relationship, and pretended she didn't care for boys. But when she imagined herself being touched, hugged, and kissed by someone...that someone would turn around, and he was never Syaoran. She couldn't understand; she could not imagine herself loving anyone but Syaoran.
She was no fool; she'd seen how Sakura had had her prophetic dreams, and she understood that destiny and dreams were never to be underestimated. But she could never see the other boy's face, only his gentle voice, and his words: "There is nothing wrong with memories."
Meiling hugged herself, and fought the urge to cry. She'd been such a crybaby as a grade schooler, and was determined not to cry. She'd made a promise to herself five years ago, when she had wept her heart out at Tomoyo Daidouji's mansion after breaking off her engagement to Syaoran, never to cry again. Not just for Syaoran, but for any reason. Crying was weakness, and she had vowed to become stronger.
I have to forget, she thought. It's less painful, because knowing I care for Syaoran and for Sakura kills me. It weakens me. She threw her long hair, now falling in a curtain halfway to her waist instead of being held up in the knotted ponytails she used to wear them in as a child, over her shoulders, and began to wonder about the doctor she'd heard of when she arrived in the area. In fact he was the reason why she had moved there in the first place. It was not far from Tokyo, but far enough from Tomoeda that she could hide from her old friends.
They say he can erase memories, she thought. Dr. Hatori Sohma. I must find him soon. Then perhaps I can get on with my life, once I have forgotten about Syaoran.
She knew there was a Sohma in her class, a handsome young boy named Momiji. He looked a bit stupid, kind of like Sakura, friendly and with a positive, sunny attitude that made him popular. Idly she wondered why he wasn't already dating someone, but then, that wasn't her concern. He might know this doctor, she hoped, and maybe I can find out the cost of learning how to heal myself.