A/N: Sky here! Second chapter in one day! XD Woohoo. Just to let you know, I didn't write these chapters today. Who knows? If I manage to write the third chapter today, I might post it.
Disclaimer: I still don't own Cardcaptor Sakura. Do you think that I could own it if I wait long enough?
Chapter 2: But they didn't see the little sadness in me
Sakura POV:
I don't say a word.
I can't feel anything.
My body is numb and I can't think.
"Congratulations," I chirp. I sound like an idiot.
"Sakura…" Syaoran whispers, panicked and clearly upset. "You said that you-."
"Syaoran," I smile, winking at him. "I was joking about that. You know best how much of an idiot I am."
His face is blank, his eyes staring into my soul.
Don't show your weakness…don't show your weaknesses…don't show your weaknesses…
"I'm sorry," he whispers, before walking away from me, his shoulders slumped. I watch him go, his back seeming cold and narrow as he turns the corner and out of my sight.
With a soft sob, I slip to the ground. I was not expecting that as soon as he got back. I'd had my doubts about him still loving me and I'd always hoped that they weren't true. Now my worst nightmare has come, stabbed me in the heart and has left.
Syaoran, you moron!
Wiping my tears away, I trudge all the way home, kicking my shoes off when I literally fall through the door. Without greeting Toya or checking to see whether or not Dad is home, I drag myself up the stairs and I chuck myself onto my bed.
"Ow," a small voice squeaks from under me. I jump up with a gasp, turning around to see my best friend fly out from under the covers. "Sakura, you sat on me!"
"I'm sorry Kero," I laugh, watching my yellow cat-like ("I'm a great big lion! Not a puny cat!") friend hovering in the air as he puts on his adorable pouty face. He grins back immediately, jumping down to my school bag.
"Anything new in school?" He asks, looking through my stuff, pulling out my pencil case to look for his favourite drawing of himself. He likes me keeping it there, though he won't admit it. I huff at his question, trying not to sound too upset.
"I don't know about new, Kero," I reply. "I'd like to think that an old friend of ours is back."
"The brat's back!?" He whoops with delight, doing a mini summersault in midst air. "That's great! Now you two can go and become the most magical couple in the whole world! Ever!"
"No…it's not…" I sniffle, tears pricking my eyes. "It really is not."
Kero stops flying around, dropping his picture in shock. He flies towards me, sitting down on my shoulder and patting my cheek.
"What did that puny little brat do to you, Sakura?" He growls, a low, threatening sound. It's quite frightening when you know what his true form looks like; he is, indeed, a magnificent lion that can fly. And he's also the guardian of the Clow Cards ("Sakura, they're Sakura Cards now, remember?" "Oh yeah.").
"Did he hurt you? Did he attack you? Did he turn out to be a gangster? Did he-?"
"Kero!" I yell, appalled at the little guardian's rude assumptions. "You really need to learn manners."
"You're starting to sound more and more like Tomoyo," he huffs angrily, holding his head up high. "So, why are you so upset?"
At this, I start bawling again. I admit it. Ever since I was a kid, I have always been a cry-baby.
"H-he's engaged, Kero!" I wail as Kero hides under the pillow to cover his ears.
"Oh Kami! My prayers be with you!" He yelled, before letting out a long sigh. "Sakura! Have some backbone will you?"
I stop crying immediately, responding to his order by sitting straight. I can't help the smile spreading across my face while I watch him wriggle out of his hiding place. He's so cute!
"Sakura," Kero says.
"Yes, Kero?"
"Sakurasakurasakura…" Kero mutters to himself. Noticing me grinning at him, he looks away, embarrassed. "Don't smile at me like that."
"Why not?" My grin grows wider. I can just feel how stupid I look.
"'Cause you're kinda creaping me out." He fidgets, uncomfortable under my stare. At this, I make a show out of smiling even wider, feeling as though my face is being stretched so that I will turn into a giraffe.
"Oh, really?"
"Sakuraaaaaaaaa…" he whines, hiding his face in his paws, trotting away to cower beneath the pillow again. I laugh. I can't help it. Imagine a cat walking on its hind legs, covering its face with its paws and whining. Cute, huh?
But when I stop laughing, the pain eases its way back into my heart. I stop, not making a single sound, as I slump down to the floor. I don't cry. I can't cry. I think I'll feel sick if I cry.
"Is it over?" Kero pokes his head out again, looking cautiously around him. I manage a weak laugh before subsiding into silence again. I yawn. The silence is making me tired, my eyelids feeling heavy, making Kero look blurry.
"Ooh! There are two Kero's," I chirp.
"Sakura?" Kero flies over to me, confused. "Are you sleepy? It's only three o'clock! Sakura!"
"Just five minutes, Kero. I promise." I yawn, slipping to the floor, supporting my head by folding my hands underneath. I curl up into a small ball and drift off.
The last thing I hear before I slip into the darkness is Kero's voice:
"Oh, Sakura. Syaoran loves you and you know it. In fact, I'll prove it to you. I'll-."
"Thank you, Kero," I whisper, stroking his soft head. "Good night."
Syaoran POV:
"Mei Lin! What do I do?" I moan, pacing around my room.
"For starters, stop walking like that. It's making me dizzy." I glare at her. Naturally, she ignores me. "Secondly, how on earth did she find out?"
"She asked me why I couldn't be with her," I mumbled, embarrassed. Mei Lin stares at me, bemused.
"So, you told her, did you?" I nod. "Let me guess. You apologised to her and literally ran away like the wimp you are, coming back here to hide from facing her, and you didn't bother telling her the back story."
Nowadays, my cousin is so smart that it makes me want her to be the old, clingy girl I used to know.
"Basically, yeah," I say weakly. "Is that bad?"
""IS THAT BAD?!" She screeches, chucking the book in her hand. Is it me or do women really like attacking me, or what? "To a girl, what you said to her, means "I don't love you anymore", you useless idiot. You just broke her heart. No, forget that! You smashed it in with a hammer, ran over it with a bulldozer and then chucked the remainders into an ocean!"
"Shh, Mei Lin," I say, nonchalantly. "They might hear you in America."
"You're impossible," she groans, her head in her hands as she tries to stop herself from whacking it against the wall. "Do you want my help or not?"
I hesitate. Let's think about the pros and cons…
"And don't think about the pros and cons, Syaoran."
The woman can read my mind. It seriously disturbs me.
"Please, help me," I beg, just as I hear a shrill voice calling my name.
"Oh, Syaooooooooooooran! Come down and play."
Mei Lin and I gape at each other in horror.
"Hide me," I manage to squeak. Without another word, Mei Lin shoves me into the cupboard, just as it walks into the room. Through the small gap between the cupboard doors, I spot my fiancée, her hair bleached blonde and her face covered in make up. Actually, the amount of make up on her face makes her look more like a troll than anything else. A very sparkly, pink and creepy troll. Best known as…
"Kagayaki san!" Mei Lin yelped, as she twisted around to face the thing.
"How many times have I told you to call me Kanari?" It asked. I stifled my laughter as Mei Lin fidgeted under it's stare. "Have you seen my fiancé anywhere? I seemed to have misplaced him." That stopped me. But that's what made Mei Lin start.
"No," she replied, giggling hysterically. "I don't really know where you might have misplaced him. Maybe in the garden, perhaps?" The innocence is Mei Lin's voice is killing me. In fact, I think I really want to kill her right now.
With a small gasp, Kanari runs out of the room and I open the cupboard door, flopping lifelessly to the ground. Mei Lin finally lets herself laugh properly, the sound filling my mind.
"Stop that," I moan angrily. "Why did it have to be Kanari of all people? Why, Mother, why?!"
"It's because Kanari is willing to give our family a lot of money through business links," Mei Lin replies, becoming more serious due to the topic. "But I definitely know that it's nothing compared to Sakura's love."
I nod, unable to actually say anything.
"But we have to make Auntie see that," Mei Lin says, slightly panicked. "How on earth are we supposed to get Auntie to see that?!"
"Love is invisible," I shake my head, a strange image of invisible love making its way into my brain.
"I noticed that, Syaoran, darling," Mei Lin snaps, her eyes narrowed at me, disapproving my joke. "And you shouldn't be messing around. You've only got another month before you have to go through with the marriage, you know?"
Way to bring someone back down to Earth, Mei Lin.
"What do we do?" I'm back to pacing around the room, holding my head in my hands. "I'm seventeen, dammit! I don't want to get married!"
"Darling!" Mei Lin yells at me, her hands on her hips as she glares. "Yelling at yourself like an idiot ("forget that, honey, you are an idiot") is not going to help you or Sakura, right now."
I mumble a response, grumpy that she had yelled at me. Mei Lin rarely yells at me. In fact, the old crush she used to have on me may be the cause for her softness. To other people, she's the devil. Not a devil. THE.
"Syaoran!" She yells. With a yelp, I straighten my body, my hand raised in a salute. (Yes, I am so scared that I immediately turn into a soldier when she yells.) "Look at me." I raise my eyes and almost fall backwards. She is right in front of me, holding a book over my head threateningly. I close my eyes as she slams it down. I don't make a sound. "If you dare to let Sakura go, Syaoran, I will murder you. And that's no euphemism. I will literally tear you to shreds, burn them to ashes and through the remainders into the sea."
I can't help but smile.
"Nice line," I grin at her. An honest grin. "Isn't that from that movie? The Nutty Professor or something?"
"Yeah," she softens, dropping her guard. For now. "It's fun to use. Try it out on someone. Maybe Kanari."
I laugh. Mei Lin is great like that. She can change the atmosphere in less than a second.
"But seriously, if you do…" Her eyes darken and she lifts the book up again.
"I get it! I get it! Just don't hurt me!" I'm still laughing as she chases me around my room.
When we finally wear each other out, I watch my cousin. I'm grateful for the fact that Mei Lin is her with me. She can see the pain in me that others can't.
I grin thinking about it.
Maybe…just maybe, Mei Lin can see the invisible love.