Hello! This is the sequel to "Yard Work"-hence the title. It is strongly suggested that you read (and review)"Yard Work" first. Some of these jokes will fly high above your head if you don't. This is mostly humor with a bit of Li and Sakura romance in the end. Enjoy! R&R!
Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptors or Card Captor Sakura.
Yard Work II
By: KZerina
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"Geez! It's already 12:45!" said an auburn haired boy, looking at a clock across the food court. He turned his attention to the two girls sitting with him at the table in front of the McDonald's Express.
"Yeah, yeah we've been sitting here for half an hour because someone had to be here early, even if he knew his date would be late," the ruby-eyed girl chided.
"It's not a date, Meilin," Li retorted quickly. "If this was a date, you two wouldn't be here." Li paused. "Scratch that, you would be here, but you would be trying in vain to not be discovered."
"I hope nothing happened to her," the blue-eyed girl said, totally ignoring the argument across the table from her. "I know she's always late, but she's not usually this late."
Li's eyes widened slightly, but went back to normal before either of the girls noticed. "Maybe we should go see if she's okay," he offered. His two companions nodded and the three stood up and walked out of the mall doors.
******
A while later, the three teenagers arrived at a yellow two story house. They saw Mr. Avalon mowing the front lawn.
"Hello, Mr. Avalon," Madison greeted. "Do you know where Sakura is?"
"Of course," Aiden replied. "She's around back raking leaves."
"Thank you!" Madison said as she ran around the house with Li and Meilin behind her.
"Tori! Come over here and help me! I was supposed to have left an hour ago! And I was going to take a shower and clean up!"
"Tori!" Mr. Avalon called from the front. "Get to work! You aren't supposed to lounge around while your sister does all the work!"
"Hey, Sakura!" Meilin called.
Sakura turned her head to look over her shoulder. "Hi, guys," she said as she ran over to them. "Sorry, I got stuck doing the yard work because someone over there decided he wouldn't help," she added motioning toward Tori who sent a glare back at his sister.
"Don't worry about it," Li said grabbing the rake that Tori was supposed to be using. "We'll help you. Besides, it's the least we can do after you helped us with our yard."
"Even if it is a lot smaller," Meilin teased as she grabbed the rake out of Sakura's hands.
"Hey, Meilin," Li said, gaining the girl's attention, "you rake like this right?" Li began tapping the ground with the handle of the rake. Meilin scowled and threw a stick which Li easily dodged.
"Sakura, you do the dustpan!" Tori yelled across the yard. "I am not working with that brat!"
"Then go take over for Dad, so he can start trimming the bushes or something," Sakura replied as she picked up the dustpan sitting on a small garden table next to Tori. "Do something!"
"Fine! Geez, Squirt." Tori stood up and walked away into the front yard.
The four kids watched as Tori disappeared around the corner of the house. "Well, he doesn't seem to be too happy, does he?" Sakura joked.
"Hey, Sakura?" Madison asked. "Is there anything I can do?"
Sakura looked up and thought a minute. "Over in the garage, there is a bottle of winter fertilizer. You can spray the bushes with it after Dad cuts a few."
"Okay!" Madison trotted off to retrieve the spray bottle.
"Sakura!" Meilin hollered. "Where's your fire barrel?"
"We don't have one," Sakura replied. "Just keep raking the leaves into piles, and I'll show you what to do with them in a minute." Meilin nodded.
Sakura bent down and put the dustpan on the ground. Li raked a portion of the pile of leaves into the dustpan. Sakura took the leaves over and dumped them into a large, brown paper bag in the middle of the back yard. She then had Meilin do the same.
On her way back to Li, Sakura saw Madison get ready to spray the bush Mr. Avalon had just finished trimming. "No! No! No! Madison!" Sakura shouted dropping the dustpan, waving her arms in the air, and running towards Madison. "That's…not…the fertilizer! It's…the…weed killer," Sakura managed to say between puffs of air.
"Really?"
"Yeah. You wanted the other bottle of spray stuff."
"Oh, it's a good thing you stopped me then," Madison said. "That and I probably should have looked at the label before I started using it." Madison smiled and returned for the other bottle.
"Get your eyes off my sister," Li heard from behind him. Li had been leaning on the rake and watching Sakura dash across the yard. Tori's voice snapped him out of his daze.
Li arched an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder. "My eyes aren't on Sakura," Li retorted. "They are right here in my head where they are supposed to be, and I think they'll stay there thank you very much."
"You are such a smart mouth, you little brat!" Tori yelled angrily. Tori crouched into a martial arts stance. Li only looked at Tori like he was an idiot.
"Oh, Tori, go away! Leave him alone! He's helping," Sakura scolded her older brother. "Live with it. He's saving you the work."
"Fine," Tori grumbled. Then he turned to Li and hissed, "And don't go around eyeing my sister." Li arched his eyebrows and rolled his eyes as Tori went back to the lawn mower.
"Don't mind Tori," Sakura reassured Li. "He's not very fond of you, but if I'm around he's not going to do anything."
"Thanks, Sakura," Li said as he gave her a little smile. Sakura smiled back and sat back on the ground to begin picking up more leaves.
"Whatever happened to 'music makes it faster'?" Li asked Sakura. "It did help you know."
"I know, but this time Tori's in the way. He can't stand our music," Sakura replied. "Usually, I just use headphones, but then I'm the only one who will be able to hear it."
"Why don't you use a stereo, like you did at my place? We controlled my sisters didn't we?" Li pointed out.
"Good point. I'll talk to my dad. He'll help keep Tori in his place. Be right back." Sakura began running over to her dad and Madison.
"What are you doing, Sakura?" Meilin asked from across the yard. "I need a pick up over here!"
Sakura doubled back to Li and pushed the dustpan at him. "This is your idea. You take over my job while I carry out your plan." Li gave Sakura a friendly glare and trotted over to help Meilin.
"Sakura! This bag is full!" Li called after he went to dump the first dustpan into the bag.
"Then get a new one!"
"Where?"
"On the table."
"Which one?"
"The round one."
"They're both brown!"
"No! Round!"
"Oh! Thanks!"
Sakura smiled and shook her head as she turned back to her dad. "I'm going to get some music," she said. "I was hoping you could help keep Tori…" Sakura turned around to see her brother. "TORI!" Sakura stormed over and pushed Tori out of his glare at Li. "Tori, leave him alone. He didn't do anything," Sakura reprimanded. Then she grabbed Li's sleeve and dragged him into the house away from her brother. "Let's go get the music.
Li gratefully followed Sakura into the house. "Thanks your brother is really starting to confuse me. What's his problem?"
"He is way too protective of me, especially when it comes to you being anywhere near me. If he hadn't caught you trying to beat me up for the cards the first day you were at school, there probably wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem," Sakura explained. "Come on. Let's go get the CDs and ignore Tori. He's just plain annoying sometimes."
"You appreciate him being around don't you?"
"For the most part." Sakura bent down and searched through a cardboard box. She picked out a large leather case and tossed it at Li. "Here, take these."
Li blinked and took the CD player from Sakura, and Sakura took the CDs from Li and the two walked down the stairs and outside into the back yard.
Li set the CD player on a small square table on the back patio. Sakura plugged it into the socket on the wall. Madison and Meilin ran over to look at the CD selection. "This one's a mix of a bunch of my CDs," Sakura suggested. "It has a bunch of different songs on it." The four friends agreed, and they placed the CD into the player. No sooner had the music escaped the speakers, than Tori was in the backyard pressing the stop button.
"You weren't kidding when you said Tori couldn't stand that band," Li commented.
Sakura smiled a little smile, and Li couldn't help but to watch Sakura until Meilin waved a hand in front of his face.
"You have more important things to worry about, Li," Meilin warned, "like Tori." She pointed across the patio at Sakura's glaring brother. "See?"
Li looked along the invisible line from Meilin's finger until his eyes hit something solid. He smiled nervously and started inching away from Sakura, trying to look entirely innocent as though he had not so much as said 'hello' to her.
"Tori!" Mr. Avalon shouted from another side of the house. "Put your sister's music back on or you'll have to do the rest of the yard by yourself, no questions asked!"
Tori stopped glaring at Li. He looked from the stereo to the yard and back to the stereo. Sakura and the others watched him as he shifted his gaze. Tori stared at the stereo and pushed the play button. He gave one last glare at Li and stomped back to mow the lawn.
"I guess he'd rather listen to our music than do the yard by himself," Sakura said, returning to her work with the dustpan. "Not to say I'm surprised or anything."
Li smiled and followed Sakura with the rake. The teens continued working, and Tori continued stomping around mowing the grass and glaring at Li who was uncomfortable under the unpleasant gaze.
With everyone working, the only thing left to do was cutting up the clipped branches from the trimmed hedges. Li and Sakura started and finished the job in twenty minutes or less.
Li wiped his forehead with his sleeve and leaned against the house. Sakura leaned next to Li and slid to the ground. She sat there for a short while before Li sat next to her and sighed.
"I'm tired," Sakura said. "Thanks for helping, Li." Sakura gently put her head on Li's sweaty shoulder.
"No problem," he replied, looking nervously at Sakura and hoping Tori wasn't anywhere nearby, watching them.
Sakura lifted her head and smiled a small smile. Li couldn't help but to smile back to the one that made his hard outer shell of introversion shatter like cold glass when hit with a hammer.
Meilin walked over with Madison close behind. Li and Sakura looked up at their two dark-haired friends.
"We're going to have to get out of here if we're going to get home on time," The ruby-eyed girl told Li.
Li nodded and replied, "Go on ahead of me. I'll catch up to you in a few minutes."
Both raven-haired girls said goodbye to Sakura with hugs and ran to the sidewalk and disappeared around the corner of the house.
Li stood up and held out a hand to Sakura to get up. She took it and when she was standing on her own two feet, she began fidgeting with her long sleeves, wondering why Li stayed behind a little.
Li hooked his right hand behind his back to grasp his left elbow. He twisted the ball of his foot on the ground and looked down nervously. "Um...,Sakura," he said hesitantly. Sakura looked at the nervous auburn-haired boy in front of her. "You think, um, maybe you'd like to, um, go to a m-movie, tonight?"
"Li Syaoran, are you asking me out on a date?" Sakura asked, mocking force and failing horribly because of the shock that hit her when he asked.
"Um, yeah, I guess so," Li replied, thinking she was going to hate him even for asking.
A wide grin spread on Sakura's face. She took Li into a tight embrace and said, "I'd love to! Just let me ask Dad if it's okay."
Li stood in shock as Sakura dashed into the house.
"Hey, Dad," Sakura called. She looked around for signs of Tori before continuing. Finding none, she asked her question. "Li asked me if I wanted to go to a movie with him tonight. May I go?"
Mr. Avalon smiled broadly and hugged Sakura lightly. "Of course, Sakura. Maybe he could come a little earlier and have dinner with us. About five-thirty, I guess."
"All right! Thanks, Dad!" Sakura exclaimed, kissing her dad's cheek before running back outside to Li. "He said yes and invited you to dinner, five-thirty."
"All right, I'll get here probably about ten minutes early then. Is that okay?"
Sakura nodded. Li said goodbye and turned to leave.
"Wait a minute," Sakura said. Li turned around to look at her. "I'll walk with you to the gate."
Li smiled and waited for Sakura to catch up to him. The two teenagers walked slowly to the end of the lawn. Sakura put a hand on Li's shoulder, reached up, and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Li blushed heavily, but smiled nonetheless. Li pulled Sakura into a gentle hug before saying goodbye.
Li jogged to catch up to Meilin and Madison, a smile on his face and a daze in his eyes. After a few minutes he caught up to his friends, and they noticed the unusual expression that lay upon Li's face.
"What are you so happy about?" Madison asked.
Li blushed furiously, as he broke out of his unconscious stare. He looked at the ground and fidgeted with the hem of his t-shirt.
Meilin winked at Madison, and Madison smiled her reply.
"Oh, is that all?" Meilin joked and smirked knowingly.
******
So did you like it? Please feel entirely free to review.
Thanks,
KZerina