Chapter Two
Syaoran glanced at the door to the dining room for what must have been the hundredth time that morning and sighed anxiously.
"You know that they say that a watched pot never boils?" Kurogane said gruffly from his place at the table. "Kid, if you just wait patiently she will be down in a little while. Girls do take a while to get dressed, you know?"
Syaoran blushed and hurriedly sat down at the table just as Fai walked in with the breakfast. "How did you know that I was waiting for Sakura?" he asked faintly.
Kurogane's snicker was interrupted as he pushed away Fai's offering of a chocolate croissant. "I don't eat sweets for breakfast!" he growled at the beaming magician.
Fai grinned and waved the offending food in front of Kurogane, before placing it on Syaoran's plate with a chuckle. "At least some people appreciate my hard work."
Kurogane grunted and turned his attention back to Syaoran, "It's obvious that you were waiting for the princess, since, for one you came home looking incredibly happy last night so I guess that the Valentine date thing went well, and two, if you were waiting for Fai or the manju bun, you would have been looking at the kitchen door on that side of the room." He gestured towards the kitchen with a knife, and then deftly speared a piece of bread of the bread board.
"What's this?" Fai asked clutching his hand over his heart dramatically. "My son no longer cares about me! Daddy, what am I going to do? Soon the children will be leaving the nest and I'll only have Mokona left."
Kurogane chose to simply ignore Fai, while Syaoran begun stuttering that he was grateful that Fai was looking after him and that he did care about him. "It's just that… you know…" Syaoran trailed off as Fai began laughing at him.
"I'm just joking with you, Syaoran." Fai said grinning, "Don't worry, I was hoping that Daddy here, would react, not you."
"Oh," Syaoran looked down at his plate. "I thought you were being serious."
"Well, I wasn't but," he paused to take a bite of his breakfast, "I am now." The magician was no longer smiling and was now looking at Syaoran over intertwined fingers.
Nervous, although he wasn't sure what he had done, Syaoran shifted in his seat. His eyes darted to Kurogane, hoping that he might gleam some clue from the brooding ninja. His glance was returned with a blank stare. "What is it?" He asked nervously, feeling the weight of their looks. "What?" he asked as the silence lingered on.
"What did you and Sakura get up to yesterday?" Fai asked gleefully, picking up his knife and fork. "Did you have fun?"
Syaoran slumped in relief as the tension eased and Mokona started giggling from next to the coffee pot. "That was very dramatic, Fai. Almost as good as Mokona's Secret Dramatic Tension Technique #56."
"Thank you Mokona." Fai said grinning proudly. "Although I could never be as good as you." He turned to Syaoran, "Well? What happened?"
"Well," Syaoran began, as he fiddled with his napkin. "We walked around for a bit." Fai nodded impatiently, "I bought her that rose that I handed to you when I came in last night, we had dinner and then we went dancing. Then we got the feather back and she passed out so we came back home."
"And you kissed her, didn't you?" Fai asked, slyly. "Oh you did!" He exclaimed as Syaoran turned blood red.
"About bloody time." Muttered Kurogane from his silent place at the table.
"What!" Exclaimed Syaoran, startled by Kurogane's statement.
The princess is coming down," Kurogane muttered as he turned to look at the door, leading to the bedrooms. "I can hear her footsteps."
"You do?" Syaoran said blankly. He was sure that wasn't what Kurogane was referring to. Especially when Fai nudged Kurogane and rolled his eyes at him. Kurogane simply grunted and took a bite of his meal as if he had said nothing strange.
However, Syaoran was put off trying to figure out the enigmatic ninja out, as Sakura entered the room.
"Good morning Sakura," Syaoran said smiling and standing up. His greeting was echoed by the others.
"Good morning everyone." Sakura said, with a faint smile that did not quite reach her eyes.
Puzzled by her false happiness, Syaoran walked over to her and smiled down at her. "Did you sleep well?"
Sakura's eyes darted down, avoiding his gaze. "Not really." She said softly as she sat down at the table, her fingers twisting together.
Syaoran returned to his seat slowly, pondering her sudden withdrawal from him and her lack of enthusiasm that she usually had. 'Or was the memory in her feather, that unpleasant?' He wondered. 'Is she embarrassed because of what happened between us yesterday?
"What's wrong, princess?" Fai asked as he placed her breakfast on the table in front of her. His hand brushed against her forehead, checking for a fever. But since he did nothing more, Syaoran assumed that she wasn't ill.
"I got a memory back last night and it's a little… well, it was… " Sakura said, as she picked up her knife and fork, still searching for words. "It was a little unpleasant. I remembered my brother and I fighting about something or someone and..." Her eyes darted to Syaoran's face and she looked away. "And I'm just a little confused. I just don't know how to explain…" She trailed off forlornly and stared blankly at her motionless hands, which were clutching the cutlery tightly.
Syaoran felt a stab of pain as she avoided his gaze, but not before he realised that her green eyes were dark with confusion and… pain? Instantly he wished that he had woken her up the night before just to allow her to escape what was tormenting her.
"You don't have to tell us, if you don't want to." Fai said soothingly, trying to ease her distress. "I mean, you can if you want, but you don't have to force yourself. We are here for you if you need us."
Kurogane and Syaoran both nodded, in total agreement with Fai. Mokona floated over to the princess and hugged her hand. "We are all her for you Sakura." He said, the worry clear in his eyes.
"Thank you, Fai-san." Sakura said faintly. "Thank you, Kurogane-san. Thank you, Mokona." She directed a smile and a bow of her head to each person as she thanked them. "Thank you Syaoran-ku…"
Syaoran tried to hide his distress which he knew had flashed on his face. For one short moment, he thought that everything had returned to how it was before, when she thought of him as just a travelling partner and that the previous day's event had meant nothing to her.
She flushed, her eyes darkened with resolve and corrected herself. "Thank you Syaoran."
He almost sighed with relief when she corrected herself. 'Just a slip of the tongue. Just like I was in the beginning. He thought fondly as he recalled his life in Clow when Sakura had all but demanded that he address her by her given name.
Syaoran watched Sakura gather a hold of herself, watched her hide her pain and worries behind a smile and tucked into the meal as though the unpleasant memory had never happened. She chided Mokona for trying to eat off Kurogane's plate; she tried to persuade Kurogane into eating some of the croissant, and beamed when he grudgingly ate some.
Clearly he is as weak to her charm as me.' Syaoran thought smiling faintly.
She also asked Fai and Kurogane about their celebration of Valentine's Day. Fai was very happy to inform them all about his, Mokona and Daddy's day. In no time at all, Fai's story and Kurogane's reactions had everyone smiling happily and laughing, just like normal.
And Syaoran. He chided himself for worrying too much about something he had no control over. There was nothing, he knew, that could change any of Sakura's memories. Be it the one's she had received or the one's she would not.
Eventually, it was Kurogane who broke up the morning meal and he looked regretful for having to do.
"As much as I'd like to keep stuffing my face and listening to this fool's stories, the kid and I have some training to do. I want to test him on unfamiliar terrain and the beach we found yesterday is the perfect place for that. After that we'll come back up to the house and we can all head out to see if we can find any clues on possible locations of the princess's feather, since the manju says that he can still feel the presence of a feather."
"Yip! That's right!" Mokona squealed from his place next to Sakura. "We were very lucky to come to a world with two of Sakura's feathers. All we have to do is find the last one and Mokona thinks it is nearby."
"Can you tell where it is?" Syaoran asked, eager to find another piece of Sakura's soul, which hopefully would be as easy to retrieve as the last.
Mokona's ears drooped. "Sorry Syaoran. The power is partly obscured. Mokona knows it is out the somewhere, but I can't find its exact location."
"Well, we will just have to keep an eye and ear out for it then, now won't we?"
Fai said. "And I know the perfect place. Kurogane and I found this really interesting market yesterday. It's fascinating. They sell everything there and when I say everything I mean everything. They have the usual things like food and clothing, but they also sell magical wares. Apparently if you speak to the right people you can even buy information. And with a little luck we might be able to buy some information about the princess's feathers." Fai stood up and began clearing the breakfast table. "So while Kurogane and Syaoran are training, Sakura, Mokona and I shall head out to the market for supplies and information."
Kurogane nodded in agreement as he passed his plate to Sakura who was holding out her hand to collect it. Taking the plate from him and receiving a muttered, yet heartfelt thanks from the ninja, Sakura smiled faintly as she headed to the kitchen.
Syaoran had to bite his tongue to keep from asking if he could go with Fai to the market, especially when he knew that he had training to do. However Kurogane took pity on the boy and muttered gruffly, "If you do well on the new terrain we can always finish up early and head out to the market a little later."
"Thank you Kurogane-san." Syaoran said bowing slightly from where he sat.
"Well, I suppose you want to start as soon as possible then." Kurogane said standing up and picking up his sword. "Go get your sword and we can head out."
Syaoran scrambled to his feet and headed to the door to the passage which led to his room. He grabbed his sword as he recalled his promise he had made to himself - that he would get Sakura's memories back for her and that he would protect her.
His mind immediately darted to the fact that Sakura was upset and he decided to check if she was okay before he started training. Clearly the memory that she had received the night before had upset her. 'Perhaps as an 'outsider', he grimaced, 'I might be able to help her in some way and explain the problem.' Besides he knew that he would be distracted the whole time he was training which would irritate Kurogane.
And besides he had another promise to keep. Syaoran's face turned red as he recalled his brazen promise he had made to Sakura when he had returned her feather to her the night before. If possible he was going to collect on his kiss.
It was with these thoughts that he returned to the dining room and told Kurogane that he would catch up with him after he had spoken to Sakura about something.
The ninja smiled knowingly and with a smirk reminded Syaoran not to take too long.
Syaoran walked to the kitchen where Fai, Sakura and Mokona were busy cleaning up. He hesitated at the entrance to the kitchen and smiled as he watched them. His smile slipped from his face as he watched Sakura move around the kitchen with a little less enthusiasm than usual. To someone who had watched Sakura as much as he had, it was clear that she was upset and hurting about something. "Sakura, can I please speak to you?"
Author's note:Cliffy yes I know – but I felt that the chapter was getting too long so I decided to stop there. And 'cause I decided to be evil. :D
I really struggled with Sakura in this chapter – if anyone has any suggestions for where I can fix her or anyone else for that matter it will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you to all you awesome people who reviewed. It made me smile and try and find some time to get this chapter out.
I've also decided that if I don't get at least six reviews for this chapter – it's not worth continuing this fic if no one likes it.
So please read and review and let me know if I should continue with it.