Chapter 7
I Talk To The Rain
The first few days of their stay found the travelers mostly indoors, not because any were afraid to venture outside, but because they had changed climates so quickly they found themselves exhausted from the heat very quickly. However, in this span of time they managed to procure a change of clothing- which helped dramatically with the acclimatizing- and find a vendor whom sold food from many different nations of this world; some of it actually recognizable.
After they felt themselves mostly ready to travel about and really begin searching for Sakura's feather, they split up. Kurogane and Fai went to check the taverns as Sakura and Syaoran had been turned away at the door for looking too young (a rule they all found odd, but would not argue. This wasn't their world after all), while the two teenagers and Mokona browsed the bustling marketplaces before Sakura got the idea to head toward the temple.
The crowd around the temple was thicker even than that in the marketplace, but was of the same mix of humans and the strange furry not-quite-humans. The temple was as impressive as the rest of the buildings of the world, a good four or so stories tall, with a pair of pillars in the front that seemed the guide the sun as it made its way up into the sky. The whole place was open, airy, and very well-lit, while the scent of incense and other spices hung in the air, making the presence of so many people bearable to the nose. They made their way through the throngs of people and as deeply into the temple as the priests would let the humans go- apparently the inner sanctum was reserved for high-ranking members of the clergy and nobility.
Sakura looked down at Mokona. "Do you feel anything around here?"
The little creature cocked its head. "I feel... a lot of magic... there's so much magic around this place... this whole world in fact, it's hard to pinpoint yourmagic." It thought harder, then looked towards where a pair of low-ranking priests guarded the doors to the inner sanctum. "But there's an awful lot of it coming from in there."
"Perhaps we should try to gain access to it?" Syaoran suggested, edging closer to Sakura and Mokona.
Mokona shook its head. "That power... it's not Sakura's- you should be able to sense it. It's just... really powerful. I don't know what to make of it."
The crowd shifted, jostling the princess and forcing Mokona from her arms. Syaoran dove forward, nearly being stepped on by several people to rescue the creature, but caught it just before a foot suddenly slammed down where the furry creature would've landed. Coming back up, he jerked his head toward the entrance. "Well, if we are going to investigate, perhaps it would be better to come back when there aren't as many people."
Sakura nodded in agreement and they took their leave of the crowded temple, seeking out the marketplace instead. Though there were still many throngs of people, the wide thoroughfares made navigating fairly easy; it didn't feel quite as claustrophobic.
They took their time browsing the stalls, partially out of curiosity for the type of foods these people ate, and partially eavesdropping for any information. They saw many strange things for buying, but the one that caught Sakura's attention was a stall full of a particularly strange type of fruit- green for the most part though fading to yellow in the middle with bright green striations, it looked to almost be in the shape a spinning octopus might look like. Sakura spent long moments staring at the strange fruit, until the vendor, a barrel-chested man with black hair leaned forward.
"Would ya like one? If'n ya only buy the one, I'll give ya a discount. Try it out. What's ta lose?" his voice was deep, gruff, but kind in the way a grandfather's might be.
Sakura frowned, and placed the fruit back. "Oh, I'm sorry, our older companions have all the money, and they're not-" A jingle interrupted her, and she turned to find Syaoran tossing a small leather pouch, coins within jangling against each other every time it impacted his palm.
"Did you want one, princess?" He asked, and smiled at her. Sakura's face lit up and she nodded enthusiastically, excited that she'd get to try the strange, new food. They each picked one (and an extra for Mokona) and Syaoran handed the vendor a pair of coins. The man informed them they'd have to peel the fruit, it was apparently of the citrus variety, and so they found a place to sit in the shade and enjoy the almost too-sweet products.
"I wonder if Kurogane and Fai found anything out," Sakura pondered, watching the crowd as it bustled to and fro before them.
Syaoran, still smiling for no apparent reason, shrugged. "Even if they didn't, there's always tomorrow."
Sakura turned back to the amber-eyed teenager, and felt herself smiling along with him. "You're certainly in a good mood today."
He blinked, and the smile faltered for a moment before he laughed. "I guess I am. I think it's the energy of this place: Even if we are looked at a bit strangely sometimes, everyone here seems genuinely happy."
Sakura nodded and turned back to the crowd. "I wish all the worlds we're going to end up in could be like this."
"Yeah," Syaoran agreed.
The two teenagers headed back to the hotel-like building they had been staying at, only to find Kurogane and Fai already there, and with a large bottle filled with some sort of acidic green colored liquid.
"We figured we'd splurge and buy something to help us loosen up and get into the mild temperament this world seems to have," Fai explained at Syaoran's inquisitive look.
Mokona squealed and leapt for the table, only to hit it sliding on face-first as Kurogane snatched the bottle from its path.
"I don't think so, furball. You're not drinking all of this; it's for us to share," the ninja growled, and Mokona whined piteously.
The drink itself was almost sickeningly sweet- and Syaoran soon discovered the primary flavoring of it was the same fruit they'd eaten earlier. If nothing else, however, he was grateful it completely hid the bitterness of the alcohol, and was rather easy to drink quickly.
The group split off into their rooms after several hours had passed and the bottle had been emptied, the mood around them all much lighter than it had been in a long time. Though, even with his head spinning pleasantly, Syaoran found himself unable to sleep in the stifling humidity.
He stood from his bed and traversed outside; He would wait until the nightly rainfall cooled the air off some before attempting to fall asleep again, he decided. He opened the living room's one large window and stepped through, not surprised that the outside air was beginning to become cooler than that on the inside of their quarters. The outside windowsills of many of the buildings in this world, they'd discovered to their confusion, were almost like mini-balconies, just large enough to stand on and observe the outside, with a low railing to prevent falls.
He sat in front of the railing, dangling his legs over the edge, and looked down into the city. The crowds from the day had mostly dissipated, but there were still a surprising number of people out. From somewhere nearby, a musician troupe was performing a sort of rhythmic music that just begged to be danced to, and Syaoran felt his feet begin tapping in tempo. Out in the distance, a loud cheer arose and then died down like it was swallowed by the night sky. He tilted his head back and gazed at the stars, surprised that even in the middle of the city, he could see so many of them.
A flash of white caught his attention, and he leaned back a bit farther, looking straight up the side of the building, and into Sakura's eyes.
"Syaoraaann-kuun!" She whispered loudly, her voice thick with the alcohol. "Come up to the roof if you wanna stargaze."
"How did you get up there?" He asked in return, and she giggled.
"There's a door at the end of the hall, leads right up here. Come on!" And her head disappeared beyond the edge of the roof.
Quietly, Syaoran stood and padded out of their room, into the hall and finally up a steep staircase built in to the building's structure to a wooden hatch. He pushed it open, and immediately felt drops of water begin to land on his head. A glance at the sky, and he noticed clouds beginning to edge in slowly from the east and north.
"I love the rain," Sakura said, standing near the edge of the roof, back facing him. "So I came up here to wait for it!"
Syaoran felt himself smiling as he closed the hatch, and took a step forward, but the princess stopped him with a wave of her hand. "Sit down, Syao. I wanna show you something."
The amber-eyed young man couldn't help himself, he chuckled and sat down where he was, wondering what it was exactly his companion had to show him. Silence reigned for a short period of time, only the hiss of the increasing rain and the distance sounds of the musical troupe keeping the world from complete silence.
"You hear that music?" Sakura whispered finally, barely audible. "It kinda makes you wanna dance, doesn't it?"
Syaoran closed his eyes. "I think there's magic in it to make you feel that way..." He swayed slightly for a brief moment, then his eyelids slid open, and immediately he found himself watching the princess before him dancing. It was beautiful, he noted, strangely graceful for a drunken girl with a bad leg. She twisted and turned, teasing the limits of her balance with an almost professional approach, using her bad leg as a counterbalance and the rain-slicked roof to aid her spinning. If he didn't know any better, Syaoran would've thought nothing to be wrong with her.
Sakura's lips moved, and he thought he heard her whisper 'heavy...' before she turned her back to him, still swaying in tempo with the music. Her arms crossed, and before Syaoran's alcohol-addled mind could even process what she was about to do, her shirt was off, sent sailing through the air and landing with a splat in a puddle on the roof.
"S-Sakura!" He cried, making an attempt to stand up too quickly, and ending up doing nothing more than faceplanting. He heard her giggle, and he stood up again, only to be caught in the face by another article of clothing, one that took him so by surprise he fell all the way over backward and landed on his rump.
He fumbled with the cloth for a moment- and oh god it was Sakura's pants- trying to figure out how to unwrap the wet material from his head. When he finally did manage to get it free, he could do no more than stop and stare, stare at Sakura, pale, lithe body fully uncovered, hips and arms and chest and legs swaying and bending, twisting and writhing with the tempo of the music. The rain cascaded around them, someone somewhere screeched either in joy or horror, but all the young man could pay attention to was the princess before him, dancing naked in the downpour; even the tightening he felt low on his body wasn't enough to pull his eyes away.
She stumbled, nearly fell, and finally his thought process began to reform, and he snatched the opportunity for coherent thought enthusiastically, standing up so fast he nearly fell back down, and carrying Sakura's pants with him. "Sa-Sakura, look you have to get dressed and we need to get out of this rain and-"
And he didn't get a chance to say anymore as she lunged at him, grabbing him off-center as she seemed to forget her bad leg and put too much weight on it. Her weight bowled into him, and in his inebriated inability to balance, they both fell to the ground.
"Syaoran-kuuunnn..." Sakura whispered, eyes closed, moving so she straddled his hips, and Syaoran's discomfort rose dramatically. "Syaoran-kun, tell me..." And her emerald eyes snapped open, looking down into his amber ones, searching even as he blinked rapidly against the rain falling on him. Her hands landed on either side of his face, and she leaned forward until their foreheads touched.
Syaoran drew a sharp breath at the look in her eyes; he could see the worry, the stress, and deeper down, the most heart-wrenching of all- a hopeless, desperate loneliness that told him exactly how deep his clone's betrayal had hurt her.
"Syaoran-kun, tell me... why is it I can't... love you...?" She whispered, voice tight, strained.
He closed his eyes, unable to meet her gaze any longer, and reached up, cupping her face. His answer was delayed as he debated it several times in his mind, but finally decided that it was the only real answer he could give her. "Because... because I'm not your Syaoran."
She gasped, then let a sob so pained it caused Syaoran's stomach to do a slow flip. The princess collapsed atop him, burying her face against his shoulder and crying, her voice pathetic and so soft whimpering next to his ear it hurt him to listen to; but he could do no more than fold his arms around her, pull her closer to him and gently rub her back until she stopped, too exhausted to go on. As the last of the shuddering hiccups faded, Syaoran heard a soft voice in his ear, and it took him a moment of contemplation to realize Sakura had even spoken.
"The person in your world who was... special to you... who was she...? What... was her name...?"
It took Syaoran even longer to formulate a response, one that wouldn't end with the princess confused, but by the time he had an explanation ready, her breathing pattern had changed, her weight suddenly limp atop him. She'd fallen asleep.
He smiled, and sighed shakily.
"Sakura," He said finally, knowing that no one but he and the rain would be able to hear his confession. "Her name was Sakura."
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A/N: Release your inhibitions... feel the rain on your skin.
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