Chapter 10: In the Moonlight
"I'm home!" Touya cried from the entrance hallway but his greeting did not receive its usual energetic welcoming. "Guys? I said I'm home!"
"We're in the kitchen, honey!" Kaho called out in response. Touya headed for the kitchen to see what everyone was doing that was so important that they couldn't drop to give him a proper welcome.
Kaho met him half-way as she showed him what it was that they were busying themselves with. "Look sweetheart, Sakura has finally sent us a letter and pictures from France!"
Touya excitedly joined his family making sure to give his son a kiss, who still has not yet regarded his presence as he was still too busy eating. He took a seat at their kitchen table to look at the many pictures Sakura had sent them while listening to his father read about his baby sister's experiences.
"Sounds like she's having a wonderful time in France, huh Dad?" Touya asked. His father answered with a light nod and a proud look in his eyes as he browsed through more of the pictures.
"I wonder if she'll get a French boyfriend…" Kaho mused as she fiddled with one of the pictures of Sakura who appeared to be baking a cake, her working table filled with flour and various ingredients.
"No way! She's definitely not allowed to have any boyfriends while she's there! She's there to study, not to find a husband!"
"Oh Touya, don't be so strict. Besides, who said anything about a husband? I only said 'boyfriend' and I think it'd be nice if Sakura finally got herself one, don't you think so too Dad?"
"Well, I think it's fine. But I just wish we'd meet the person first." Fujitaka answered while clearing the plates. "Oh, sorry Touya. Did you want something to eat?"
"No, thanks Dad. I already ate." Touya's eyes then drifted to another picture of Sakura this time surrounded by her classmates. "I'm just glad she finally wrote to us, I was beginning to worry."
"She was probably busy with transitioning and making friends. You shouldn't worry too much, look at how much fun she's having." Kaho commented as she walked behind Touya to give him a welcoming embrace.
"Finally! I've been wondering when I was going to get my welcome home greeting!" Touya answered as he pulled his wife in for a quick kiss on the lips.
"Eeeww!" Eriol cried out from across the table, but the "disgusting" display didn't seem to affect his appetite as he continued to eat his ice cream.
"How do you think you got here?" Touya answered earning him a light slap on the shoulder from his wife.
The rest of the Kinomoto family continued to talk and banter in the kitchen as they browsed through Sakura's pictures, filling the house with its usual homey noise.
Meanwhile, on a further part of Japan in a large mansion known as the Li Household, two figures were in the living room spending all of their free time looking at the ceiling. Syaoran was currently on his day off and Yukito was already home from his pre-school. Now they were just laying on the newly polished floor of the living room with their heads pressed against each other. One of the maids had commented that they looked like a boomerang laying on the floor.
"Daddy, why does mommy need to go to school? Can't she just always stay here with us? Doesn't she want to be with us anymore?" Yukito's voice gave a slight crack at the thought. Syaoran immediately rolled on his belly and crawled a little bit forward so that his head was directly above his son's face.
"Of course she wants to be with us, but as a student Mommy has to go to school to study and learn things."
Yukito simply looked away with a pout on his face. Yukito has been going through separation anxieties every day ever since Sakura started attending her cooking classes, even though she only went to class in the mornings. But he had to admit that he missed Sakura's presence in the mansion as well and the joy it seems to bring all over their house. Without her, everything just seemed so quiet. Though he really felt apologetic to his son, he had promised to allow Sakura to get a college degree while working as Yukito's mother.
"What if she finds something there that she'll love more than me?" Yukito mumbled, dreading the thought.
"That's not possible. You're the most lovable person in the world Yukito."
"Really?"
"Really. But I really wish your mommy were here right now, then she'd cook something for us and then maybe we could watch a movie, or go to the park. I really picked the wrong day to go on a day off."
Sitting up with his legs crossed Syaoran could only sigh as he took Yukito and puts him in the space between his crossed legs and embrace him.
"I miss mommy."
It's already been such a long time since the deception has started and he was beginning to fear its end. If they were this depressed with Sakura leaving for only a few hours, how will they be able to handle Sakura leaving them permanently?
"I miss her more."
Syaoran disposed of those thoughts as quickly as he had formed them. It was never good to think about such things, they should just be enjoying what they had now and worry about the future later. He looked at the still pouting boy in his arms and a smile spread on his lips.
"Hey, Yukito, do you want to see what mommy's school is like?"
SsSsS
"Okay everyone, make sure to put the canapés in the oven for twelve minutes. Make sure that your oven is in the right temperature. While your canapés are cooking let's go on with the fudge pie."
The students did as told and they began preparing the ingredients for the fudge pie. Hikaru got the ingredients from the cabinet while her partner Dani washed their utensils.
"Enough of this already, when are we going to do the harder recipes?" Dani mutters while keeping her eyes on the utensils so as to avoid any accidents.
"I know what you mean but Chef Andre wants to make sure we clear the basics before we move to the harder recipes." Hikaru agreed as she placed the ingredients on their worktable.
Dani simply nodded as they began to follow the instructions on the board, "Well I'm just glad that next week we'll start on the garnish- oh Hikaru-chan, I think you have a visitor!"
Hikaru gave a questioning look to her lab partner who simply pointed at the door, from the small window in the door she was surprised to find Syaoran and Yukito waving at her. Hikaru gave a small wave back then glanced to see if their instructor has noticed the visitors. From the other side of the window Yukito blew his mommy a flying kiss which Hikaru returned.
"Mrs. Li, I don't know what's wrong with you but please stop sending random kisses to Ms. Kazeko." Hikaru turned to said classmate who only gave her a wink and flying kiss back, Hikaru didn't whether to smile, flinch or hide the shiver that ran down her spine.
"Ah no I wasn't…the kiss was meant for- and she was by the door." Mentally whacking herself for her answer she simply bowed in apology. "I'm sorry it won't happen again."
Mr. Andre raised an eyebrow in response then proceeded to assist any of the other students who were having a hard time with their recipe. As Hikaru raised her head she caught sight of her two visitors bowing their head in apology as well, Hikaru simply waved her hand at them and gave them a smile before returning to her work.
SsSsS
As soon as class ended Syaoran took his family to the college's park and on a picnic table they decided to sample the pie that Hikaru and her partner had been making.
"Mommy, we're choree we got ju in trouble." Yukito tried to say as he tried to eat more of the pie. He always did love his mother's cooking and his mommy always said she loved it whenever he ate them.
"That's okay Yuki. And don't talk while your mouth is full." She replied as she wiped the whipped cream around his lips. "So tell me, what are you guys doing here?"
"Yukito was missing you and was begging me to take him here."
"Nuh-uh! Dad was the one who wanted to come here! I was very behaved while waiting for mommy to come home."
"You were even crying and kicking—"
"Was not! You said you miss her – umph!" Hikaru watched in surprise as a big chunk of pie was shoved in Yukito's mouth. Yukito didn't seem to mind since he happily continued to munch on the pie, getting more cream on his face.
"I said I missed your cooking." He answered as he sat beside Hikaru who continued to eat her pie.
"I wasn't asking." Hikaru replied as she gave Yukito another slice and Yukito gave his mom a big hug in appreciation.
Syaoran continued to watch the two feeding each other, chatting and hugging from time to time. They were almost like a couple had it not been for the age gap. 'I'm feeling neglected.'
That night Sakura noticed that Syaoran was taking longer than usual in the shower and was beginning to wonder what was taking him so long. Normally Syaoran would be in and out of the bathroom so that he could squeeze in as much sleep in his schedule as he can. Thinking that he might take longer Sakura decided to turn off all the lights and get a head start to sleeping since one of them still needed to wake up early for tomorrow.
Just when sleep was finally about to take over the young woman Syaoran went out of the bathroom and quietly getting into the bed. Sakura felt the bed tilt at the added weight and her senses were immediately filled with the wonderful scent of a perfume that was surprisingly light for a male perfume. She may not know the name of the scent but it was definitely the first time Syaoran has used it and the scent was inviting her to move closer to the other body so she could smell it some more.
Very carefully, so as not to alert the other occupant, Sakura turned to face Syaoran so she could sneak closer to him but was stopped when she saw him looking directly at her.
"Hey." He whispered at her as he moved his body slightly closer to the other.
"Hey."
"I was thinking…what do you say we go out for dinner tomorrow night?" The question had taken Sakura by surprise and she couldn't help but stammer in her reply.
"What? Why? I mean wh-why so sudden?" She whispered back as she inched herself closer to Syaoran so that they were both in the middle of the bed. After all, it was getting harder for them to hear one another whispering when they were so far apart.
"Nothing, I just thought it's been so long since we've had time to ourselves. You know just the two of us." Syaoran answered immediately as he brushed his fingers across Sakura's hair, not because they were blocking her face but simply because he wanted to.
"Sure, but Yukito will be sad and –" A finger on her lips quickly silenced her protest.
"He'll be fine. You're always spending time with Yukito, and I rarely get a day off so I think I deserve some alone time with my wife."
Sakura could only nod her head.
"Great, I'll just meet you at the restaurant because I have a meeting with the director some time in the afternoon. I'll have the driver pick you up at around eight?"
"Okay, I'll be here by then." She answered with a nod.
"It's a date." Syaoran concluded with a satisfied smirk. Sakura had expected him to turn around to sleep but was surprised when instead of turning over Syaoran actually pulled her closer and very tightly wrapped an arm and leg around her.
"H-hoe! Wh-what are you doing?"
"I don't know about you, but I'm rather tired of getting punched, kicked and thrown out off my own bed and Wei told me that my father had this same problem with Mom and he solved it by using this technique on her. My dad called it the Koala Binding Hold."
Sakura couldn't really escape from the hold even if she wanted to and even when she knew that she could because she knew that her husband was right. She was well aware of her night habits of "attacking" people sleeping beside her, for Touya, Tomoyo and even her father have experienced waking up on the floor with bruises on them. The habit started ever since she and her brother started training in Wu Shu from their father's friend and he explained that the habit was just simply Sakura's way of integrating the lessons.
So for Syaoran's sake Sakura did not budge from the hold besides it wasn't such a constricting hold. On the contrary it was a rather comforting embrace and it gave her a good opportunity to bask in his wonderful newly-discovered perfume.
"Good night, Sakura."
"Hmmmm."
SsSsS
"Yukito-bocchama, please eat your dinner." Wei pleaded as Nikki tried to feed him another helping of soba but Yukito would have none of it and closed his mouth shut as he moved his head away from Nikki's chopsticks.
"No! How come daddy and mommy left me?"
"Because your daddy has been feeling neglected, since mommy is always with Yuki-kun" Meiling said as she entered the dining hall to join her nephew for dinner.
"But that's because mommy came here to spend time with me!" Nikki, seeing an opening, immediately pushed the noodles into his mouth. Instead of spitting the food out, Yukito actually slurped the rest into his mouth.
"True, but that doesn't mean your daddy wouldn't want to spend time with mommy."
Yukito pouted as he continued to feed himself. Wei and Nikki sighed in relief now that their young master was eating once again.
"Aww, don't worry Yuki-kun. After tonight, mommy's all yours again."
Yukito smiled at the thought and this time continued to eat with his usual vigor. Meiling smiled as she watched him happily slurping and she somewhat felt apologetic to Syaoran, 'Well, it seems like Syaoran will be lonely again once this night is over.'
SsSsS
As soon as Hikaru stepped out of the car she was immediately escorted by the maître d' of the restaurant to the table reserved for her. He seated her by the table set beside the window overlooking the beautiful landscape outside the restaurant. The moon was shining over the small pond that had lilies floating on it.
"Mr. Li has left a message saying that he will be late. Would you like to order ahead or would you prefer to wait for him?"
"I'll just wait for him, but could I please take a look at your menu?"
The maître d' nodded as he called one of his waiters to bring the menu, "This is monsieur John. He will be your waiter this evening, just call on him whenever you are ready to order."
Hikaru gave a nod and decided to browse the menu and was horrified to find that every item was in French. 'How am I going to know what I want to order if I can't read any of these let alone pronounce them?'
But she soon found items that were familiar to her from her cooking class as they were told the French names of some of the food that they will be learning. 'Well at least I'll be able to order something after all.'
Somewhere in the restaurant a happy couple has just received their order and the lady looked excitedly upon the delicious spread on their table. "Is this really alright, Yamazaki? Can you really pay for all of this?"
"Of course Chiharu, they gave me an advance for publishing my book."
'Yamazaki? Chiharu? Could it be?' Hikaru turned to look at the table across the hall and there she found her two friends from high school. Her first impulse was to go towards their table and greet them but then remembered that she was supposed to be in France! 'Oh please don't let them see me!'
Just then Chiharu had looked up and her eyes met with Hikaru's hazel brown eyes. Hikaru quickly covered her face with the menu and hoped that it was only her imagination that Chiharu had seen her looking at them. 'She's probably just looking at this direction.'
"Yamazaki, there's this weird lady who was looking at us weirdly."
Yamazaki turned to the direction of the lady that Chiharu mentioned, said lady still had her head buried in the menu, he shrugged and laughed, "Oh maybe she's just jealous that you have such a rich and handsome date."
'I doubt it.' Chiharu replied in her mind and continued eating; after all, how can anyone ignore a beautiful Herbed Braised Deer Fillet in front of her? But as she ate she would cast the lady a glance and catch her looking at them. "But I can't help but feeling that I've seen her somewhere before…"
'Whew! I don't think they can recognize me with my new look; even I didn't recognize myself.' She thought as she tried to distract herself while waiting for Syaoran and trying her best not to let her eyes wander towards Chiharu's table. She must not risk being discovered but she was finding it more difficult with Chiharu stealing glances at her table, and whenever she did Hikaru would always just hide behind the menu.
After a few minutes or so, Hikaru decided to escape into the powder room. Once she was inside she wondered how long she could stay in there or if it was possible to just cancel the entire date. But one look at her reflection made her disregard the latter choice. She was wearing a silk turquoise halter neck evening dress with understated crystals on the bustier just above the waist.
Meiling had surprised her that afternoon with the dress saying that Syaoran had ordered it for her, wanting to see her in the dress. Now that she was looking at herself she had to admit that the dress looked truly magnificent. Her long hair was pulled back in a loose side pony tail so that her curls were all falling on one side to show off her face.
Her hand caressed the side of her face admiring the beautiful lady reflected in the mirror. 'I don't look like myself.'
"Sakura would never wear anything this beautiful and would never look this amazing." She muttered to herself.
'That's because I'm not supposed to be Sakura. I am Hikaru Li, wife to Syaoran and mother to Yukito. I am not Sakura.' Remembering her character Hikaru walked out of the powder room relieved by her recent realization that there was no way that her friends would be able recognize her. 'I'm here to enjoy my date with my husband, who's late, and enjoy it I will.'
She returned to her seat but as she looked up she was surprised to find someone sitting on her table and eating a delicious looking meal that she didn't recognize. "H-Who are you and what are you doing in my table?"
The man sitting across from her had silver eyes and very long silver-white hair. He gave her a curious stare which was quickly replaced by a haughty smirk. "I believe you are the one who is in my table, Miss."
Hikaru turned to look at the table and around the restaurant and found that she was indeed the one in the wrong table. "Hm? Hoe! I'm so sorry for interrupting your dinner. Please, excuse me."
Just as she was about to stand up a hand over hers had stopped her. "But you are very welcome to join me."
"I'm sorry I can't. I already have a date, he's just very late."
"I see. Well, whoever your date is should know that he should never make a beautiful lady such as yourself wait for a long time." He pulls the hand in his hold up to lips and lightly presses a kiss on its knuckles. "I am Yue Tsukishiro."
"I'm Hikaru Li."
'Li?' Yue kept his gaze at the other figure who was fidgeting in her own chair and when he felt a slight tug at his hold he realized that he was already squeezing the other's hand. He kissed it again in apology before releasing it.
"I really should get back to my table." Hikaru said after the momentary silence that consumed them, Yue rose to help her out of her chair. He kept her in place for a while with his hands lightly on her shoulders.
"If your date cancels, please feel free to join me again."
"Thank you, but I don't think my husband will ditch me." She answered with a slight giggle, "It was nice meeting you again Mr. Tsukishiro."
Yue bowed, his eyes following Hikaru as she returned to her table but halfway back she was stopped by the arrival of her date. As soon as the face of her date came to sight Yue's eyes widened in surprise. 'It can't be.'
"Hikaru! I'm so sorry I'm late!" Syaoran apologized as he pulled his wife into an embrace ignoring the people around them he showered a trail of light kisses on his wife's shoulder up to her neck.
"Syaoran, stop that. It's embarrassing." Hikaru scolded pulling herself from the embrace and was about to head for the table when Syaoran stopped her again by holding onto her hand.
"Let me see you in that dress I picked out for you." The actor smiled approvingly at his wife, as he had expected she would look heavenly in the dress. "You look beautiful."
Hikaru only smiled at the compliment averting her eyes from Syaoran whose eyes seemed to be roaming all over her body. Suddenly she was reminded by the words of her very annoying older brother.
"Listen Sakura, you must never and I mean never accept clothes from another man."
"Huh? Why not?"
"Because a man only has one objective when they dress up a woman that they like."
She may have been too young to understand his words then, but seeing Syaoran right now made her understand everything. Although she'd like to think that Syaoran is a complete gentleman but he has been looking her up and down for a very long time. "Any longer and I think my dress will burn off."
Syaoran blushed at his companion's comment and led her to the table, "Sorry about that, it's just that I knew you'd be beautiful in the dress but I didn't expect you to look so captivating."
"Flattery won't get you that far."
Syaoran had to laugh at her response. He and Sakura have recently developed an odd comfortable friendship around one another. They needed to be physically comfortable with one another seeing as that they needed to hug and kiss often enough so as not to raise any suspicions but he had to admit that this is probably the first time that they flirted. Or rather he's flirting with her and she's playing hard to get.
"The night is still young, I think I can get myself far enough."
"We'll see."
The two of them proceeded to ordering and eating their dinner, talking about things that have happened around them so far.
As for another couple in the restaurant that evening, Chiharu had once again stolen a glance at the weird lady but this time she was surprised to find that she was no longer alone. She was even more surprised when she recognized the person in the table aside from the weird lady.
"Yamazaki, now I know why that woman seemed so familiar to me! She's the wife of Syaoran Li, the actor! Don't they look so cute together?"
Yamazaki turned to look at the direction that Chiharu indicated and saw that it was indeed the famous actor. He watched as Syaoran grabbed his wife's hand and placed a kiss on her knuckles but instead of letting go, he held on and continued to eat with only one hand.
"Yup, but I think the person in front of me is much cuter!"
Chiharu blushed at Yamazaki's forwardness. "There you go with your lies again."
"You're right! I'll stop lying right away." Yamazaki quickly called for their waiter to get them some dessert before Chiharu could say anything else. He had realized long ago that whenever his girlfriend gets into her murderous state it's always best to be surrounded with witnesses.
"So should we order some dessert?" Syaoran asked once everything has been cleared from their table.
"No thanks, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Okay then John, I'll just have a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake and Hikaru, are you sure you don't want anything?"
Hikaru shook her head, "I'm really full and I think Yukito is probably missing us already."
"You know, I'm really beginning to get jealous." Hikaru looked up in surprised at Syaoran's words, "Aren't I your date? Therefore, you should only be thinking about me."
His eyes trained on Hikaru as he waited for her reply, but she didn't give any. In fact, Hikaru did her best not to look at his general direction as she tried to think of something else that they could talk about.
'Work? Weather? Maybe we can talk about the food, rate the service…that's a fun conversation topic, right?' She pondered while unconsciously chewing on her bottom lip.
Syaoran was surprised at the act because he had never seen this reaction from her before and he found it very amusing. Of course he pitied her and the silence between them was getting long enough to make even him feel uncomfortable, but he wasn't going to show her that. Besides, he had a good way of distracting himself.
Hikaru made the mistake of looking up at Syaoran hoping to change the topic with her question about his meal, but as their eyes met the other man simply raised an eyebrow at her expectantly. His entire expression was daring her to speak and she was very much tempted to speak even though she had no idea what it was that she was going to say. However, Hikaru was saved from having to give a response by the arrival of Syaoran's cheesecake.
'Whew! That cheesecake saved me! What was I supposed to say to that?' She thought as she watched Syaoran eat the cake. Watching him eat and looking at the dessert made her want to eat a piece of it as well. Just as she was about to ask for a piece she remembered an advice that Meiling gave her before she left.
"Hikaru, my brother is really selfish. So when he offers for you to order make sure you order because he will not give you a single piece of his."
"Hikaru, is something wrong?" Syaoran asked setting his fork down. "You were looking at me like you wanted to say something."
"Oh nothing, it was just that you were eating it so deliciously—"
"That it made you want to try it?" His date shook her head vigorously slightly embarrassed at being caught in the situation. Syaoran only smiled and dipped his fork into the cake and offered it to his wife. "Here you go."
"Is it okay?" Syaoran only smiled at pushed at the fork a little closer towards Hikaru who gladly accepted the offering. She was surprised by the lightness of the cheese cream and the delicious blend of the chocolate and raspberry. "It's good."
"It's my favorite dessert here. If you want we can share mine."
"You really don't mind?"
With a smile Syaoran simply pushed his plate into the center of the table while Hikaru decided to accept the offer with a happy heart.
SsSsS
"I'm really sorry that I ended up eating the entire cake though…" Hikaru sighed as they exited the car.
"I don't mind it. As long as you had fun." Syaoran answered as he leaned on their car. He had parked it close enough to the entrance so that they wouldn't have to walk that far since they were both tired.
"I did, thank you." Hikaru searched her bag for the keys as she walked towards the mansion. "I'm sure everyone's already asleep…"
"Ne, Sakura." Sakura stopped in her tracks at the mention of her real name after so long a time of always being called Hikaru. "I really don't like it when people eat anything from my plate, did you know that?"
Sakura only nodded slightly fearful that she might get a scolding, maybe he only pretended not to mind it in the restaurant because there were other people. She couldn't help taking a step back when Syaoran started walking towards her.
"So, aren't you wondering why I let you eat some of my cake?"
"Uhm, because you were full?"
Syaoran smiled at the offered answer as he continued to advance towards her, he stopped once he was in front of her. Holding Sakura's gaze, he raised his hand and slowly caressed the side of Sakura's cheek. "Because, I was hoping to trade it for something better."
Syaoran quickly lowered himself to press his lips on Sakura's, his hand on her cheek moving to the back on her neck while the other wrapped itself around her waist to press her closer to him. Syaoran was even more surprised when Sakura actually kissed him back. The kiss consumed them, and unlike their usual chaste kisses this was much more different.
'Yep, this is definitely better.'
SsSsS
Yue stood by the window in his study as he gazed at the full moon outside, a glass of wine in his hand. His eyes were drawn to a magazine on the table which was opened to the page of Hikaru's interview. "So you've remarried, huh, Syaoran?"
Raising his wine glass to the moon and with a smile pressed on his lips he whispered a small word of thanks for the wonderful present his return has brought him. "This will be very interesting."
Author's Note:
Yes, I'm alive. I'm really sorry for the long update and I hope that this chapter was able to make up for it. I 'd also like to take this opportunity to inform you that I now have a new beta!
Her name's Jin, so you can thank her for helping me make this chapter more organized because she helps to keep me in check especially when I go crazy with my ideas sometimes. Complaints may be directed to her as well. XD
Again, thank you for your patience.