Vidya: I swear school was created by bored people who wanted to do torture the annoying kids around them. *ouch* Anyways, sorry for the delay. Writer's block. School. Activities. MTAP. Quarter exams. Projects. It's the usual stuff. I hope you understand. Someone finally told me my stories (take note of the plural) are to long-winded. Well, someone had to say it, and if I did it, then my usual inferiority complex would make me go down the hill faster than Jack and Jill. Yea. Please enjoy! *Too many details, I agree. A weird girl has her weird quirks, and unfortunately, that makes weird – and confusing – stories.*

Disclaimer: If I owned CCS, my story would've been in the anime, but since it isn't – well, you know what that means.

To the reviewers: I LOVE your reviews! Constructive criticism made me realize this is taking TOOOOOO much time with too many details. *someone had the guts, who has the stomach? Wait, what? Eww…*

xoxvidyaxox

Chapter 10:

At Last

Syaoran looked straight up at Tomoyo, Sakura still unconscious in his arms. "Are you saying that Daisuke is the reason why Sakura hates me so much?" he asked after hearing Tomoyo's side of the story.

Unfortunately, for Syaoran, he saw Tomoyo nod. She jumped off the tree and stood in front of him. "Sakura loved him, you know," she said, keeping her face as straight as possible. "A month after Daisuke left, her mom died. She felt that anyone who gets close to her would always end up leaving her. Her friends. Her family. Everyone. That's why she prefers staying alone. You pulling her into this little charade with your mother, I'm actually grateful for that; but don't you dare try to take anything from her ever again. She's lost enough," she tossed two keys of varying sizes to him.

"The smaller key is for the handcuffs. The other is for your car, on the other side of the park. I've got to say, you have a nice convertible, Li. Green, no less," she said, before walking off. "Now, make sure she gets to my place safely. She won't want you barging in on her own house."

Syaoran raised a brow. "I thought she lived with you," he said in confusion.

"Not everything you think is true actually is, Syaoran-kun," Tomoyo said as Syaoran followed her to the edge of the park. "Just because you're from the most powerful clans in the world, it doesn't mean you know everything, especially about my cousin,"

Xoxvidyaxox

Meanwhile, in a corner of the park, a black-haired girl scrambled to get her brother out of her line of vision so she could see Sakura. The camera in her hand was ready to snap a picture. Suddenly, Peter bumped into her hand and the camera fell to the ground.

Angrily, she picked it up. "What did you do that for? Master Fujitaka is expecting proof!"

"Yeah, well, take that for proof," Peter pointed toward a certain dark-haired girl watching Sakura and Syaoran in the distance. A bespectacled boy was coming up from behind her with an amused smile.

Xoxvidyaxox

"That was a nice act, Miss Daidouji," Tomoyo heard a deep, baritone voice say from behind her. She was still standing on the sidewalk next to the park, watching Syaoran carry Sakura's unconscious body into his car.

She turned around and saw a dark-haired, bespectacled guy facing her with an unmistakable smirk. He was one of the many who were now openly ogling the "couple", but for some reason, Tomoyo knew this young man was more amused than surprised.

"Eriol Hiragizawa, I presume," she said, and the boy nodded. "Did you see that black-haired boy who came over?"

"Fuutie keeps tabs on anyone relating to her brother; she just doesn't tell him. That Daisuke boy was one of the first on her list. Sent to England because her brother was jealous, of all things," Eriol smirked. It really was amusing to see his ice-cold cousin flare up in envy. "Jealous of a certain Sakura Kinomoto,"

Tomoyo grinned. "So you know, too." She said. "I just hope that Li doesn't, or I won't have any good material to tape," she pulled out an ever-so-present camera from her bag. "Oh, the Masquerade is going to be absolutely perfect. Well, if mother invited me along,"

"Then, would you like to come with me, young lady?" Eriol smiled, and held his hand out in invitation.

"Well, I guess you're not exactly a stranger, Hiragizawa-san," she said. "Then I accept,"

"Call me Eriol,"

Xoxvidyaxox

Sakura stretched her arms as she found herself on Tomoyo's bed, and was thankful to find them unbound. However, she felt a sudden weight on her hand. She turned her head and gasped when she saw Syaoran sitting on a chair beside the bed, his head leaning on her arm. As she pulled herself free, he awoke.

"Why didn't you tell me Daisuke was the reason you pushed me off the boat five years ago?" he asked, groggily. "You could've just told me,"

Staring at the ceiling, Sakura sighed. "You were the one guy I hated the most, and you have just forced me to act as your little girlfriend for you darling mother," She said. "Why would I tell you anything?"

"I was the one guy you hated the most. Past tense," Syaoran concluded. "So, I'm going to ask you again. Why?"

"Why what?" Sakura asked innocently, to which Syaoran glared at her. She held up her hands in mock defeat. "You're not even my friend,"

"After getting forced by my mother, trapped by Eriol, and handcuffed by Tomoyo, you still don't think we should at least be friends?" Syaoran raised a brow.

"Alright," Sakura smirked. "You do have a point, you spoiled brat," she said, amused with herself.

"Hey, I thought we were friends!" Syaoran complained childishly as he sat on the bed beside her. "That was cruel!"

"Oh, stop acting like a three-year old," Sakura laughed, poking him in the ribs. "Well, you know what they say: 'A true friend stabs you in the front.'," (a/n: If anyone asks, "they" means "ghostgirl". Don't own that book either. T_T)

Syaoran scoffed, though it was clear that he was close to smiling. "Well, so does an enemy," he added, before getting a cold glare from Sakura. He laughed, seeing the queer look on her face. "Just joking. Now, why don't you just tell me?"

"Maybe I don't want to!" Sakura pouted.

She looks so cute when she does that. Wait, what?

"then you should be friends with Ava Rice," Syaoran said, nonchalantly, making Sakura raise a brow in curiosity.

"Is she cute?"

"Why? You want to court her?"

"Ewww. No. I'm a girl for goodness's sake."

"Then I don't know what's stopping you,"

"You. Are. Disgusting."

"Then explain why you asked if she was cute,"

"I thought maybe she could fill in for me whenever Tomoyo needs a model or something."

"I don't know. She's pretty greedy about her time,"

"Really?"

"Yeah. If she was a real person," Syaoran said, exploding in laughter when Sakura pouted again, this time, in pure annoyance.

"Greedy. Ava Rice (a/n: as in Avarice, one of the seven deadly sins. Religion classes just took a bite out of my brain.). Oh, I get it. Very funny, Syaoran," Sakura said, narrowing her eyes, but it was hard for her to deny that she wasn't enjoying herself.

"Well, thank you for thinking it was funny," Syaoran rolled his eyes, smiling.

Sakura opened her mouth to answer him, when she heard her mobile phone ring. She cursed, seeing that it was her brother. She stood up, took the phone, and headed for a corner away from Syaoran. "How perfect timing, brother," she said sarcastically. "I was just about to tell the guy I hated about little Daisuke,"

"Guy?" she heard Touya say in surprise, though there was something in his tone that made her think that he was more amused than surprised. "What guy? Kaijuu, tell me!"

"Oh, so Tomoyo just kept all those videos of us to herself?" Sakura asked. "Doesn't she send them to you?"

Touya chuckled. "Tomoyo-chan isn't keen on sharing," he paused. "But that beside, why aren't you here yet? The Masquerade is going to start in a couple of hours!"

Sakura pulled her hand over the receiver and whispered to Syaoran. "Hey, can you pretend like someone's calling me or something? My brother's not hanging up," she pleaded, which made the boy chuckle softly.

"I know, Touya," she said, returning to the call. She heard a distant doorbell and she looked at Syaoran, who nodded and walked out of the room.

"Hey, Sakura, I think your cousin's outside!" Syaoran said from the hall, for more effect.

Sakura mouthed a "thank-you". "Oh, Touya, I need to get that. I'll talk to you when you actually get home, alright?"

"That's in half an hour. You better be there," Touya said before getting off the line. Sakura sighed in relief, until Syaoran walked up to her with an amused smirk.

"You know, your cousin really is outside," he said, "And she has Eriol with her,"

Xoxvidyaxox

"You could have told me that she brought the dress with her," Sakura groaned at Syaoran when Tomoyo showed up in the room. Eriol followed her, carrying a pink, long-sleeved, medieval-style dress in his arms.

"As your cousin says, 'where's the fun in that'?" Syaoran smirked, amused at the irritated look on Sakura's face. "I wanted to see you annoyed at someone other than me, for once,"

Sakura glared at him as Tomoyo pulled her into the walk-in closet across the room. "Well, god job, Li," she snarled, then lowered her voice to whisper to Tomoyo. "I thought we were supposed to act so he won't go with me to the Masquerade. What are you doing?"

"Hey, maybe your brother got sick and decided to pay me to do this," Tomoyo smiled enigmatically, shoving her into the closet. "Now put that on while I get rid of Syaoran,"

"Get rid of them?" Sakura looked up hopefully. "Can I bury the bodies?"

Tomoyo rolled her eyes. "Not that kind, Sakura," she said. "Besides, if we do that, Eriol's going to make your life hell,"

Sakura paused, halfway through closing the door. "Did you just say 'Eriol'?" she smirked, thinking of some blackmail material to get out of this juicy piece of information. "Since when did you start calling him by his first name? I didn't give you that long to hook up,"

To Sakura's surprise, Tomoyo actually blushed, an act that she tried to hide by closing the door to the closet and locking it from the outside. She sighed in relief when Sakura gave up trying to open the door to free herself. She looked evilly at the two boys that remained in her room.

"Um, I just remembered," Syaoran said nervously, "I need to try on my tux for the Masquerade. We'll be leaving now!" He shouted as he pulled Eriol into the corridor, and into safety.

"Fear the girl, fear her cousin," Eriol smirked, even more amused than Tomoyo was at the moment.

Xoxvidyaxox

"Mother, are you sure Syaoran's going to agree with all the scheming you've been doing?' Fuutie Li asked over the phone as she glared at the silver-haired man in front of her (a/n: it's obvious who it is, right?.

Yelan chuckled. "Dear, even if he didn't, he'd have to." She said. "Let's not forget who has the upper hand here,"

Fuutie smirked, sitting on a couch in Touya Kinomoto's apartment. The man was smiling eerily at her. "That's cruel," she paused, remembering what her mother usuallywas. "Oh wait, you're actually being generous this time, aren't you?"

"Well, yes," Yelan answered. "If he doesn't bring his 'girlfriend' tonight, the elders will be forced to have him engaged,"

"And to who?"

"The daughter of an old friend."

Xoxvidyaxox

Vidya: I wanted a cliffhanger. I don't know if I got it. Anyways, this gets you thinking: who's this "old friend"? *I'm kind of wicked and lazy and busy these days* Anyways, I don't know what made me write that Ava Rice stuff. Just wanted to make them friends, I guess. Lame move, if I must say so myself. I guess, that whole subconscious-psychology stuff Brother put into our brains is bugging me more than I thought. Anyways, it looks like I'm overusing the word "anyways". I might not be able to update within the week other than this. I need to cram my mind for the Math Contest our teacher put me in (what were they thinking?). yeah, again, Vidya, tell yourself two words: INFERIORITY COMPLEX

Oh, before I forget, if you see that little blue button over there that says "Review", can you click it and see what happens? I'm running low of Review Juice ,the stuff that keeps me writing, also the stuff that only exists in my dreams. Wait, i don't have dreams. At night at least. I think I need a little motivation (constructive criticism is welcomed, no flames though) can help me write these chapters faster. Thanks! Oh, and trying to edit some of the chapters. Some parts were just useless. I totally agree (now, why wouldn't I agree with me? Well, there was this one time…)

Vidya's mind is on overload. I prefer Geometry over Chemistry now. Scholars ARE NOT to be looked down upon! (Try looking at them from the side. Some of them will ignore you and spare you the lecture.)