Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Card Captor Sakura or anything else related to the anime. But the new character and the storyline are my own, of course.

11/21/10

Author's Note: This would be my second working fic until I try to fix my ideas on my other fic, "Discord". I've been imagining this kind of story since I wrote my very first fic years back. Well now, I thought of just typing it down already before I forget the details in my mind again. Hope you like this one ^^ And please leave a review if you like it so that I'd be able to decide if I'm gonna continue this.

~ Pai Shunn :3

Character Description: (I will update this whenever I will insert new characters in the story)

Latest Update: 11/25/10

Ryu – has dark blue hair; length of hair reaches the shoulders but it is usually neatly tied (low pony); has gray/silver eyes; a friend of Syaoran; a mischievous type of guy

Chen – the trustworthy butler of the Li family who served them since the time of Syaoran's father (meaning that he's old already; probably in his 60's); he is a bit strict but has a kind heart; has gray hair; wears a moustache; he would always wear a traditional Chinese knee-length dress matched with a pair of slacks, both made of fine black silk

...

Chapter 1

Dodge Away

...

It's another morning. Sakura had been awake since the passed hour. She was lying on her bed, consciously thinking of how her new day would write itself down once again. For some reason, she was quite nervous of what she had to encounter that day… of who she had to encounter, that is.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Hurry up you little—"

Sakura twisted the knob and abruptly pushed the door open before her brother could even finish his sentence, and accidentally hit his head. She noticed what she had done and was about to say sorry when she realized that it was only her annoying brother.

"I AM awake, grumpyhead," she said, getting back on him. She hated being called names.

"Then what are you waiting for? Get a shower and eat or I'm gonna have to leave you, slowpoke."

"Alright…" Sakura hurried back to her room and took her towel and headed towards the bathroom. As she was opening the door to the bathroom, she mumbled, "Mister Bossy…"

"What did you say?" Touya quickly reacted after hearing Sakura's muttered words.

Sakura turned around to face her brother and showed him a sweet sisterly expression. "I just said how much I adore you for caring for me this much."

Her brother rolled his eyes and looked away in irritation. "Whatever. Just take your shower already." As soon as Sakura went inside, Touya quickly checked on the bump on his forehead. "She did that on purpose," he muttered.

After Sakura finished grooming herself, she immediately went downstairs. And just like as usual, she would meet Yukito sitting on a sofa in the living room while he waits for the Kinomoto siblings. Sakura forgot that morning that he would be stopping by for them. If only that hit her mind earlier, she would have moved much faster. She was very embarrassed.

Yukito noticed her walking downstairs. He therefore stood up and greeted her with a gentle smile. "Oh! Good morning, Sakura!"

"Good morning, Yukito-san." She was blushing red as she greeted back. She knew she was over him because she believed she wouldn't have any chance over someone like Yukito. But be that as it may, she couldn't avoid getting flushed whenever she would see him smile.

"Well, have you eaten yet?"

"Uhmm… No, but there's no need. I'm not really hungry. And besides, I might get late for school." She regretted saying those words. She was actually starving at that very moment, and the more that she felt it when her stomach made rumbling noises. Truth is she was just truly embarrassed of her sluggishness that caused time to run much faster.

"Let's get moving then," Touya cut in as he rushed outside while putting on his coat.

By the time he reached his car, he was franticly searching his pockets for the keys. Just then, Sakura approached him and watched as she acted like she was pretty concerned. She later grinned and finally showed him what he was looking for.

"Looking for these?" she playfully asked as she was holding the keys up to his eye level.

Touya took them swiftly with a slightly heated look on his face. "Thanks," he said quite roughly, as if he was just forced to say it.

Touya and Yukito took the front seats while Sakura seated at the back. On the drive, the two best friends were cheerfully chatting with each other. One would joke. Another would tease. The other would be annoyed. But both would end up laughing. Sakura, on the other hand, remained quiet. She couldn't help but think about what was going to happen that day. I'm going to meet him again, she thought.

When the car stopped before the school gate, Sakura quickly got off but before she could make a step beyond the gate, her brother called her.

"Hey, Sakura!"

"Huh? What is it?"

"Just come over here."

Sakura walked ahead and stood beside the car window. She bent her head a little bit to see Touya inside and asked, "Why did you call me?"

Yukito handed to Touya a brown paper bag with two sandwiches. "Take this," Touya said as he gave the paper bag to his sister. "Eat it before your classes start." He gave a small smile right after.

"O-oh! Thank you… onii-san." Sakura was almost speechless. She wasn't expecting her brother to do anything like that at all. But then again, she knew just how much her brother could easily read her, and he must have known that she was starving to death that morning.

Inside the car, Yukito couldn't resist smiling at Touya's effort of preparing the sandwiches for his younger sister. Touya could sense his friend staring at him while he was driving.

"What are you looking at?" Touya asked as he was still concentrating on the drive.

"That was really sweet, Touya. And I thought all you could ever do to Sakura is annoying her," Yukito laughed. "Sakura must be really lucky to have a brother like you."

"Teasing her is my number one source of joy. But still, she is my sister after all. I still have to look out for her—" He smirked before continuing, "—no matter how clueless she can be sometimes."

...

Tomoeda High School…

The moment Sakura entered the classroom, Tomoyo immediately welcomed her with a tight squeeze. She didn't let go of Sakura until her friend begged her to take it easy. "Sorry about that," she giggled. "Anyway, how was your break, Sakura-chan?"

"Break?"

"When you were in the hospital, silly!"

"Oh, right… It was only two days. The doctor said I'm going to be fine now."

Just then, Chiharu came in after Sakura; and just as how she was as happy as Tomoyo to see her friend back, she quickly ran to Sakura and hugged her from behind.

"Sakura! We missed you so much!"

"T-thanks… But I'm here now," Sakura said as she tried to smile despite her difficulty to breathe because of the way Chiharu was hugging her.

"So, the brat is back," a male voice from inside the room suddenly interrupted.

Chiharu had let go of Sakura once they heard the voice of the guy. She then looked at Tomoyo who seemed a bit worried. And both their faces carried the expression uh-oh.

The guy stood up from his seat on the front row. He then turned his feet to the opposite side and dramatically walked towards the person he had been anticipating the most. And when he was only a foot away from the person, he came to a stop and gave a sneer.

"How's my favorite classmate?" he asked.

"And since when have you been concerned about me, Li?" Sakura asked firmly, emphasizing on the name Li. She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow as she did so.

"Nah… I'm not at all."

"Why you—" Sakura was getting ready on giving Syaoran a taste of her punch when suddenly he cut through.

"What's been really troubling me is this." He showed Sakura a full list of quizzes and homework that she missed while she was away.

Sakura nervously took the paper from him. Her eyes widened as her eyes read every single activity the class had done in just two short days. Her hands began to shiver as she continued reading. This is so impossible!, she screamed in her thoughts.

"I took the effort in listing every single detail just so that you'd be informed," he smirked. "Now, what really bothered me is trying to guess on how your grades would recover from all that."

He put both hands in his pocket then passed through the side, hitting her shoulder. And before he left the room, he voiced out an encouraging or perhaps mocking statement, for Sakura, that is. "Goodluck then, Sakura-chan."

"Did you guys hear that?" Sakura felt really furious and pointed at where Syaoran had left as she was looking at both Tomoyo and Chiharu. "How dare he add chan to my name! I'm going to show him… Just he waits!"

...

Gym class…

And the whistle blew. Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt!

"Alright! That's enough! Team A wins this round!" Their gym teacher, Prof. Terada, ended the first round of the dodgeball tournament within the class. It would determine their grades for their practical exam.

"Woohoo! Go Sakura!" Chiharu cheered. "The team's lucky to have you!"

The rest of the team approved of what Chiharu had said and praised Sakura as well. Sakura reddened to her embarrassment and hurriedly shook her hands in disagreement.

"C'mon guys! It's because we worked together that made it work!"

The professor blew his whistle again to catch everyone's attention. "Cut the noise, people! There's still a second round! The second set, step in right now. We got time to chase."

When Chiharu saw Syaoran entering the second round for Team B, she hurried back beside Sakura and rushed her to take a break outside. She felt Sakura might do something reckless once her friend finds out that her rival would be playing next. But her plan to avoid the situation turned out a failure when one of their classmates shouted that Syaoran was in.

"Idiot!" Chiharu shouted at their classmate.

Sakura turned to her back and found it true. She clenched her fists as she passed by Chiharu and hurriedly walked back to the center. She approached one of the players of their team for the second set and humbly begged him to give her the part instead.

"S-Sure… If you say you're still good, then I guess that's fine."

Tomoyo was about to head for the locker room after she was done playing for the opposite team when a teammate suddenly touched her shoulder to call her attention. The girl pointed out Sakura who was going to play again for the other team causing Tomoyo to worry a lot. She just knew why Sakura entered again, and she was worried that things might turn out bad.

"Okay, teams! Settle down! I'm going to repeat the rules for this round. I don't want anyone violating it again like what happened in the first one."

As Terada was explaining the mechanics of the game, Syaoran's friend Ryu, who would play with him in Team B, hit him with his elbow.

"What was that for?"

"Look," Ryu said as he was focusing his eyes on Sakura who was on the other side. "Looks like she'll be playing again."

"Whaaat? But that's unfair! She already played during the first round!"

"I think she's getting back at ya, man. I heard you annoyed her this morning."

"Ughh... Fine. We'll see if she can still play well in this round."

After Terada blew his whistle, the game finally started. It was Team A's turn to hit the other team on the first phase. Everyone was tensed, including the audience, as the game was running. When only Syaoran was left standing on their team, the game became tenser. Syaoran himself was nervous of Sakura. He knew she would always take the ball and try to hit him with it; and to his unfortunate soul, he was correct.

"Hey, Sakura! Take it easy, will you? — shit! I'm talking here!"

"Well, stop talking and keep playing!"

It's useless trying to talk to that monster! Shit! Another ball! —Phew… That was close…

And when the time ran out, Terada gave out another loud blow on his whistle to end the first phase of the second round. Ryu walked towards Syaoran and laughed on his shoulder.

"You should've seen the look on your face! Hah! She really hit hard on you!"

"At least she didn't hit me literally or I could have been sent to the hospital."

"Well, it's our turn to throw the balls now," Ryu smirked.

The whistle was blown again. Thus, the start of the second phase. Team B was excited to get their revenge on Team A but after the half of the time limit, they realized that they had hit only one of the members of the opposite team.

Ryu knew that Sakura was behind all of it. The method. The strategy. She was the brains of the team. She was their winning charm. And he knew he had to end their happy little fleet for Syaoran's payback and, naturally, for victory.

He watched Sakura carefully, her movements and her tactics. And just when he was finally able to understand it all, he was able to point out a single moment when he could make a perfect hit. He could have thrown the ball hard since the beginning of the second phase, but he was saving all that energy for that certain moment… when he could finally bring her down for good. And at last, he made his move.

"Sakuraaa!" Tomoyo shouted from afar as she watched her friend fall down and injure herself badly.

The voice of Tomoyo caught everyone else's attention. They saw the scene. A commotion had occurred at the middle of the game.

Once Syaoran saw Sakura crying in pain of her broken ankle, he immediately ran to Ryu and grabbed him by his shirt.

"W-Whoah! Put me down, Li!"

"Why did you do that?" Syaoran yelled furiously.

"I was just trying to help you out!"

"I didn't ask for that kind of help!"

When he saw Tomoyo coming closer, he suddenly let go of Ryu who was abruptly slapped by the girl. Tomoyo didn't leave a word but the expression on her face could already tell more than what she could have said. She then hurried to assist her friend.

Syaoran watched Sakura as she cried on Tomoyo's shoulder while she was being comforted. He felt sorry for what happened but he couldn't express it in words. He instead kneeled down before her and offered to help her.

"…I don't need your help…" Sakura spoke softly. Her eyes couldn't take a look at him.

Syaoran was greatly taken back. He never saw her acting that way towards him since long before. It was the second time he saw her truly mad at him. He refused to remember the first time she did.

Just then, when Terada couldn't wait much longer for the assistance of the medic department, he decided to carry Sakura himself and bring her to the clinic.

"Game has ended. The rest of you may leave the class. And Ryu, I'll see you in the principal's office."

...

Kinomoto Residence…

"She's fine now. She's sleeping soundly in her bedroom."

Touya was having a phone conversation with another close friend of his, Kaho Mizuki who was also teaching in Tomoeda High School.

["That's good to hear."]

"I saw the Li kid this afternoon when I came to pick up Sakura. Sakura didn't tell me if he had anything to do with it, though. All I know is that they have always argued with each other."

["I know Syaoran. Yes, I hear they quarrel oftentimes but I don't think he could ever hurt anyone."]

"Well, if you say so. But I hate that kid, to be honest. Still, I do wish the two of them would get along soon. My ears are just so tired hearing Sakura complain about him every single day."

[*laughs softly* "Don't worry… I'm sure they'll learn to understand each other soon enough."]

"Haha… Right. How come you sound so sure?"

["Let's just say something will be cooking up tomorrow."]

(…to be continued…)

That's it for this chapter. I know it's pretty long compared to my other working fic. But I do hope you appreciate this one xD And please leave a review if you do like it ^^ It would really encourage me to continue this story :)