"Fancy seeing you here, Kinomoto. Daidouji." Li parroted back, crossing his arms in front of his bare chest.
Bare. Chest.
I slapped a hand over my wounded eyes, hyperaware of the red alarm lights going off in my head while Tomoyo tactfully ejected the tape from her camera and slipped it into her pocket. I recited the numbers of pi to calm my nerves.
3.14159265...
"What are you doing here, Li?" Tomoyo asked innocently, as if she wasn't aware that minutes before she was videotaping a group of sweaty high school males. "Sakura tripped and fell while I was taping her for my new video production class, the clumsy thing." She looked at me with a pitying face.
... 35897... wait. What did she say?
I squawked in protest and uncovered my eyes, only to immediately turn cherry red at the sight of Li.
Dang hormones.
Tomoyo leaned in conspiratorially. She beckoned to Li, who complied. "Although, I do say, your new outfit is quite becoming. You should wear it more often. Don't you think so, Sakura dearest?"
Glancing at Li's smug smirk, I awkwardly tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. Hurriedly changing the subject, I said, "Tomoyo dearest, shouldn't we be going to... that thing we were supposed to be at five minutes ago?"
She gave me a knowing smile, and for a split second I thought she was going to call me out on my lie. But Tomoyo simply nodded.
"Right! Thank you for reminding me of our shopping trip. I almost forgot."
Li had a skeptical look. We put on our best innocent faces.
Hah. Try calling us out on this lie, you testosterone-driven, half-naked soccer player.
"Why are you guys going on a shopping trip?"
My face fell. Shoot. I didn't think that far. I looked at Tomoyo with my 'ruh roh' face.
Without a glance in my direction, she put on an award winning smile and replied with, "we're going dress shopping."
Brilliant, Tomoyo. I knew you were my friend for a reason.
I nodded vigorously. "Yeah, dresses."
She continued, her smile now becoming devious. "For the homecoming dance next week."
I bobbed my head up and down three more enthusiastic times before stopping short. Fully facing her head on, I repeated, face aghast, "for the homecoming dance next week?"
Tomoyo clapped her hands delightedly. "So..."
"I never like it when someone starts with 'so...'" I muttered to myself, face paling.
So's are like the calm before the storm. Or one of the signs of the apocalypse.
Li and Tomoyo ignored my nonsensical mutterings, the former curious as to what Tomoyo was delightedly clapping her hands about.
"So why don't you invite your girlfriend and Eriol along on our dress trip?"
I stood stiff straight at her proposal. "Wha- Are you nuts? No way. Nuh-uh. I am not agreeing to this."
Li and I locked eyes for a minute, me using my infamous death glare and him becoming more and more scared by the minute; his eyes the color of rich toffee.
"So... what time should we meet and where?"
I finally noticed the scheming glint in his eye and realized that Li was unfazed. I groaned. Oh, he's good. Very good. This is the first time my death glare hadn't worked on anyone. But then again, this is the first time I've used it on someone other than Touya...
"Meet after lunch... So at 1 o'clock in Shibuya?"
He shrugged, bangs flopping handsomely across his forehead. I also remembered that he was shirtless in the warming sunlight. My cheeks reverted back to their seemingly permanent color of beet red, and my hand flew up to my hair and hooked it behind my right ear. A loud buzzing noise reverberated in my head like cicadas on a warm summer day and my hands became clammy with sweat.
"Meiling won't be able to come. She bought her dress ages ago, but I'll bring Eriol along..."
Missing the secretive undertone to his last statement- missing everything he said, actually- I painted on a false smile and stripped off my sweatshirt.
Li was taken aback while Tomoyo gave a low whistle at the thick-strapped tank top I had underneath.
"Sakura, I never took you for a girl who wore tank tops." She commented humorously. "How risqué! What will it be next? Not wearing knee-high socks with your classy running shoes?"
I rolled my eyes at Tomoyo's dramatics and hurled my sweater at Li. "Stop objectifying yourself like a male... scarlet woman... and cover yourself up."
The corners of his lips lazily turned upwards into what I now dub as the 'killer smile.'
And I don't mean that in the good way.
"You were..." He rubbed his drying sweat all over my sweater, much to my disgust. "Objectifying me? I've never felt so flattered in my life."
I glowed cherry red and switched topics at the speed of 299,792,458 meters per second.
"You know, I totally forgot to mention that I haven't finished unpacking all of my normal clothes. I only have my school uniform and this outfit at the moment!" I said with false disappointment.
Technically I wasn't lying... I mean, the rest of my clothes were in the washing machine. I forgot- more like was too lazy- to take them out this morning.
There was a pause as the two earthlings registered what I just said. Li recovered faster than Tomoyo, shooting me another crooked eyebrow expression. Thankfully, he said nothing about my smooth topic transition.
"That's fine, I've been working on a spring dress for you anyways." Tomoyo supplied unhelpfully. She was still smiling, and when Li turned away to pull on my sweatshirt. She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at me.
Gross. And really unnecessary.
Li turned back towards us and I snorted at the sight of Li's muscular figure in my petite, pink sweater, while Tomoyo somehow managed to whip out a camera and snap a photo of him.
"Do you want me to strip again, Kinomoto?"
I soberly shut up at this. Continuing on with our conversation, I asked, "did I also forget to say that I have no money on me?"
Again, I was only planning on going for a run so I only brought my keys...
"That's fine. You can pay me back later." Tomoyo had a scary sparkle in her amethyst eyes.
Screwballs!
I stuck out my bottom jaw like an ape and said, grabbing at straws, "I'm allergic to oxytocin. I get the works. You know- rashes, hyperventilation, closing up of throat, and all that hooplah."
Tomoyo gave me a blank look. "What is oxytocin?"
It was Li's turn to snort. "It's the love hormone. I would tell you 'good try,' Kinomoto, but you're really bad at making excuses."
Out of ammo- I mean, excuses, I conceded defeat. "So..."
"So... When were you going to tell me that you were a billionaire?"
After our illuminating conversation with Li, Tomoyo kidnapped me into her limousine and brought me to her house.
Nay, her mansion.
I gaped at the luxurious rose garden that splayed out in front of us with a running water fountain in the center. I gawked at the royal blue manor that towered over me with its balconies, iron-wrought railings, and numerous butlers and maids. I gawped at the interior of creams, mahoganies, corals, and taupe. I hopped like a bunny on the plush carpet. I squealed all the way up the vintage elevator. And I died at the sight of Tomoyo's lavish wing; complete with a parlor room, a home theatre, a kitchen, a flower garden on the patio outside, and a closet the size of my bedroom.
And then Tomoyo ushered me into her bathroom.
There, displayed like a torture machine, was a hellish collection of makeup on a vanity dresser, and other unnamable objects that would've put the iron maiden to shame.
I knelt down on my knees and beseeched Tomoyo to not give in to the dark side.
She merely smiled a sweet smile and shoved me into the shower as she was singing under her breath Honor To Us All from Mulan.
"I'm not a bride. And I'm not Chinese. Just sayin'."
Tomoyo sang at a louder volume.
"And it shouldn't be the Huns. It should be the Mongols. Fo' yo inf-oh-mation."
It only drove Tomoyo to sing louder, her voice pleasantly swimming through the fog of my shower. In spite of my earlier aggravation, I started smiling to myself.
Waiting until she ended the song, I piped up. "Hey, Tomoyo?"
"Mhmm?"
"Have you thought about joining the choir?"
She was eerily quiet for a while. With concern lining my face, I pushed the shower curtains aside and poked my head out.
"Tomo? You alright?" My eyes sought out for her rippling dark purple hair but found nothing. "Yo-yo? Did you ditch me in this place? Because I will gladly be the substitute for you."
One beat later and she materialized in the doorway of the bathroom, a soft white dress in hand. "Sorry, I was getting your dress. What were you saying?"
Even from a mile away, I could tell that Tomoyo was lying to me. Nevertheless, I shook it off and decided to ask her about it later.
Which, after half an hour, I regretted doing.
"For the love of gadolinium with an oxygen in the middle! I swear, if you try to get that fluoride-ing stick near me one more time, I will get a potassium-nickel-iron weapon and cut it up into sashimi."
Tomoyo blew her bangs out of her face in frustration. "Sakura, what the hell are you saying? And stay. Still." She applied two more coats of mascara to my stubby lashes and leaned back to observe her work.
"Well I've always considered myself to be quite the chemistry aficionado." I chuckled to myself at my brilliance.
I could practically feel Tomoyo rolling her eyes at the back of my head. It is a pity she forbade me from facing the mirror. Something about wanting my new look to be a surprise and blahblahblah...
"Hey, I will dismiss what you just did- 'cause I know you just rolled your eyes at me- and I'll grace you with an explanation of what I just said." I straightened up importantly. "Gadolinium is Gd, and by placing O- for oxygen- in the middle, you get 'God.' And fluoride-ing is my clever way of saying 'effing.' Geddit? Fluoride-ing? F-ing? Effing? As for potassium, nickel, and iron... Well I would think it to be self-explanatory by now for it spells knife."
During my babblings, Tomoyo had actually stopped with her examination and listened. I was touched since no one had ever bothered to pay attention to my chemistry jokes. Not even- I shook my head. Nope, not going there.
Back at the ranch, the mauve-eyed girl was hooting with laughter and slapping her knee like an old man. I swelled with pride, feeling a rush of gratitude towards my friend.
Would it be too creepy to tell her that I love her and that we should be biffles?
Probably.
"So can I see myself now?" I whined, eager to see what thirty minutes, and counting, could do to an average gal like me.
She swiveled the chair around with a flourish and I was astounded. No, amazed. Staggered? Either way, I knew, no doubt, that Tomoyo had the hands of Jesus, l'Hopital, and Chopin combined.
The mirror reflected back a slender girl with radiant emerald green eyes and petite lips. Her wavy auburn hair pooled around the shoulders of a long sleeved white dress that looked like a blouse on top and ended above the knees. An inch long ribbon of cherry blossom pink wrapped around the smallest part of her waist, giving the illusion of long legs and curves, which weren't originally there.
I caught Tomoyo's gaze in the mirror before turning fully towards her. I wrapped her into a hug, to which she returned, and uttered a small "thank you."
I've never had a friend who thought of me as significant enough to make a dress for. Much less a dress that suited my tastes to a T.
"And, for the girl who would probably kill herself in heels..." Tomoyo presented a pair of sensible pale pink ballet flats from behind her back.
Needless to say, I glomped the heck out of my fairy godmother.
We were standing at the base of some random, apparently famous, shopping mall in Shibuya at 1:10 with no Li in sight. Or Eriol, who I completely forgot about until now.
"Tomo-yo-yo?" I rapped, garnering a "hmm?" from said girl.
"Do you know who Eriol is?"
She gave me a strange look. "What do you mean? Isn't he in your chem class?"
My eyes glazed over as I tried to remember an Eriol from my class. Tomoyo seemed to have noticed my pathetic attempt at trying to remember who he was, because she magically conjured up her video camera before I could say "wholakazam."
"We also saw him today at soccer practice. Hold on a sec."
My heart dropped into the pit of my stomach. She can't mean...
"Hey."
I looked up to see Li and nearly snapped my neck off looking for Mr. Hot Pot. I sighed out of relief when I spied no mop of dark blue hair.
"Good afternoon, ladies."
My mouth dried at the sight of his holiness. My heart skipped a beat when I took in his casual outfit of slacks and button down shirt. I practically squealed with glee when I realized that we were matching. Kind of.
Without my noticing, Li was gauging my reaction with a smirk on his face while Eriol and Tomoyo exchanged friendly greetings.
"So... Hiragizawa, Kinomoto. Kinomoto, Hiragizawa." Li introduced casually. He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his distressed jeans.
Turning on the 'ole Kinomoto charm, I stuck my hand out and smiled daintily, "just Sakura. It's nice to finally meet you formally, Hiragizawa."
"Likewise. And you can call me Eriol, only to be fair of course." He returned my smile with a dimpled one of his own.
Can Mr. Hot Pot get any more perfect?
As I was imagining making hand babies with him, an uncomfortable cough form Li broke the silence. "Where do you guys want to go first?"
Tomoyo's eyes became maniacal after that, and she promptly dragged us into the nearest dress store. My eyes bugged out at the price tags. Pulling her to the side, I hissed to her "are you crazy? These dresses are ridiculously expensive. They're as expensive as.. I don't know... a really good calculus textbook!"
But the nut waved away my worries as if they were annoying flies.
"I'm paying, so what's the fuss about?"
I nearly strangled her.
"You are not paying five hundred plus dollar on me for a stupid dress. The day that happens will be the day Li and I become friends."
Tomoyo smiled another one of her knowing grins but relented. "Fine, fine, we'll go somewhere else then."
I heaved a relieved sigh and wiped off imaginary sweat from my forehead, which was followed by Tomoyo whisking us away to at least twenty different shops. In short, this is what happened:
Tomoyo found no dresses that suited her tastes, even though she looked spectacu-acu-lar in everything. Li was being his usual silent, brooding self the whole time. Handsomely handsome Eriol smiled at me whenever our gazes met, complimented me on every single dress Tomoyo forced me to put on, and held the doors open for us like a true gentleman. And Sakura was still dress-less, thanks to Tomoyo and her pickiness.
Oh and she had the same amount of information about Mr. Hot Pot as when the day started.
It was 6:30 by the time we came to the last, unexplored shop. I was dragging my feet by then, too tired and too hungry to complain or whine. But Tomoyo kept trucking on, flashing by the countless racks of dresses at godspeed as I stumbled along with a mounting pile of cloth.
"Halt." She commanded.
I obeyed.
"Eureka!"
My groggy mind couldn't comprehend what she meant. "Come again?"
"I found the perfect dress for you."
I dropped everything I was holding.
"Are you cereal?"
Tomoyo reverently unhooked the hanger and uncovered a thick-strapped, sage green dress that had ruffles cascading down the front. While it did have a v-neck, I didn't mind a bit.
"It's perfect. Let's take it." I announced. "Now, quickly, look for your dress before I turn into a vampire and eat everyone around me."
She scoffed. "They don't eat. They drink."
I shrugged. "Whatevs. Same diffs. Eat, drink, it's all the same to me. Now find a dress, woman! Come on, chop chop!"
She shook her head at my giddy antics and proceeded with her search. It was a mere fifteen minutes and forty three seconds until a victorious 'ah ha!' made me salivate in the mouth at the thought of food.
After Tomoyo made her purchases, Li and I sprinted off, racing each other to the nearest restaurant.
"Think you can beat me, punk?" I challenged, narrowly avoiding a pedestrian.
"I don't think. I know." He countered, not even spilling a drop of sweat.
I rolled my eyes towards the darkening sky. "Please, that's the oldest, lamest comeback in the book."
"At least I won." Li cockily said, reaching the restaurant a hair breadth before me.
"Balls!" I swore wrinkling my nose in his direction.
He playfully mussed up my hair and swiftly dodged my half-hearted hook. Li stared at me with a thoughtful expression afterwards, but I ignored him. Reverting my attentions to Tomoyo and her magical wallet of endless money, I ordered a plate of caprese salad, ravioli, calamari, a bowl of Italian wedding soup, and a piece of tiramisu.
Eriol and Tomoyo gazed at me with respect as I gobbled down my food. I know, I know, how very unlady-like of me! But you would've done the same if you were in my position. Honestly, I was close to dieing from starvation.
The three slowpokes finished after my record time of five minutes, taking their time with their food. It was silent for a bit but the robotic ring tone of my cellular device slashed through it.
"Excuse me, my uterus is singing." I said absentmindedly, getting up from the table without a glimpse of Eriol's curious face or Tomoyo's and Li's varying amused looks.
"Hallo?" I answered, closing the bathroom door behind me.
"Sakura? It's Meiling."
I cocked my head to the side. "I know, Kaho programmed your number into my phone. What's up? Because we just finished dinner and I'm going to be home in a jiffy."
There was silence on the other end, save for the crackling of the background noise.
"Hello? Meiling, you still there?"
Seriously, what's up with people and becoming quiet today.
"Is Syaoran with you?"
I was taken aback by her question. "What do you mean? Didn't he tell you-"
Oh.
Her silence was enough to answer my unfinished question.
"Alright, well come home soon! Kero misses you." Meiling quickly amended, trying to hide her emotions under a layer of cheer.
But I was the queen of hiding emotions, and I could clearly tell that she was hurt and confused. Knowing Meiling, though, she would never appreciate my butting in to her business.
So I resolved the conversation with a, "I'll be home in two shakes of a pepper grinder."
Thus, I took the train and ran all the way back home as if I was being chased by Dementors, shutting the door behind me with a thump. Even though I was heartbroken to leave Tomoyo and Mr. Hot Pot- not so much Li- I felt that coming home right away was the best solution to cure Meiling's anxiety. A soft furry thing wound itself around my legs; I looked down to see Kero rubbing his chubby face against my ankle.
"Welcome back."
I screamed a loud, "d'oh!" before my knees gave out and I landed on the floor. Gracefully, might I add.
He walked over, as calm as a snake about to strike, patting me on the knee.
"Holy crap, Dementor! I mean- how did you get here before me, Li?"
Li shrugged while eyeing Kero distrustfully. "Shortcut."
"Is-" I lowered my voice. "Is Meiling... okay?"
Li shrugged and crammed his hands into his pockets. "None of your business."
For some reason, his reply really irked me.
What a lovely word. Irk. It has such a wonderful... But I digress.
Shoving my index finger towards the spawn of the devil, I said "Kero, I choose you! Scratch attack!"
But the lazy cat sat down on his fat rear and licked his paw slowly.
Li crooked an eyebrow at me. "Pokemon? Really?"
"Hey, I like that show!" I said defensively, subtly scooching back to make as much room as possible between him and me. I held my shopping bag close to me like a security blanket.
Not that being in close proximity with Li made my palms sweat or anything.
No, no, no... It was his... deodorant that was suffocating me. Yeah, man. His deodorant reeks of soap and autumn. I mean, whoever made that deodorant should be fired! What an awful scent. For realsies.
"You hate my deodorant that much?"
Li's question broke me out of my reverie. I chuckled nervously. "I hope you can read minds, 'cause otherwise that means I just-"
"Thought out loud? Yeah, you just did, Sweetheart."
"Screw gun." I thumped the back of my head against the door to avoid meeting his coffee brown eyes.
"So." He said, settling himself next to me and leaning his back against the door. His face, however, never turned away from me once. But I could imagine every single detail in my head, right down to the faint cleft in his chin.
Likewise, I kept my face towards his, but my eyes focused on a spot over his shoulder. "You've been saying that a lot today. It's very irksome."
Li ignored me and continued. "Why have you been avoiding me? Because you don't want to tell me why you hate being a cheerleader?"
I tugged at a random piece of hair that came undone from my ponytail. "Why are you always asking questions?"
He smirked. "Stealing my lines, now, are we." He opened his mouth to say more but was cut off by a dainty cough.
"Good evening you two. It's a little too late to be flirting, don't you think?"
Simultaneously, we looked up to see Kaho with an amused expression on her face.
Thank the lord for pregnant women and good timing.
"We weren't flirting." I retorted quickly. "That's almost as absurd as the area of a circle being pi times radius cubed instead of squared." I chortled under my breath. "How preposterous would that be. Cubed. Hah!"
Kaho and Li gave me similar 'whoa, crazy lady' looks.
"Whatever. I'm going to go to bed."
"Could you also feed Kero, please. He refuses to accept anything we give him."
I brightened up and picked up the purring munchkin. "I'd love to do that, Kaho."
I'd also love to get away from Li...
Which, apparently, is impossible.
"When are you going to answer my questions, Kinomoto?"
"You know, you're never going to get them out of me. I'm as tight as Pandora's box, my friend."
"But Pandora's box was opened."
"Then I'm like Solitaire. You're never going to win, my friend." I scratched Kero in his sensitive spot. He made a deep content sound.
"But I win at Solitaire every time."
I threw my hands up in the air. "You know what, Buddy? You're unbelievable. Like really, really, really, really unbelievable."
"If I had a nickel for every woman who's said that to me, I wouldn't be a working man." He smirked devilishly.
"Ugh. Just unbelievable. Words can't even describe how... how..."
"Incredibly attracted you are to me?" Li suggested sarcastically.
I rose my eyes up to match his and we stared each other down for what seemed like forever.
"If I tell you, will you stop bothering me?"
A/N: Jesus mother of holy christ, it is currently 1:54 AM on Monday. MONDAY. Look at what I do for you guys.
I will edit this later today. Damn, I'm screwed for school.
Enjoy! I'll do my hardest to get the next chapter up by the end of this month.
A huge big heartfelt thanks to all my reviewers, and...
Reviews are as great as having a friend who'll sew a dress for you. Believe me.
