SeiSei: Well here I am again! Thanks so much to those that reviewed!!! I'm so glad that you guys are confused. Never fear, though, because the pieces will now start to come and fall into place. For those of you who worry that the baby will upstage the romance between our heroes, don't worry about that either—it'll scarcely be able to talk for most of the story!

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS, but I do own Gatz, Thom, and Trei.

Chapter 9

"I regret that—no, that's pompous…"

Syaoran crumpled up another page of parchment and tried again. The waste basket in the corner of his office was already full to the brim, and his last attempt bounced feebly off the rim.

Unbeknownst to him, Sakura crouched outside his office, listening to his mutterings and waiting for a ball to roll near enough to the door…

"Aha! Oh no no no no no…"

Sakura was merely glad to hear his voice. He didn't speak to her now, only looked at her with a bemused sort of expression. He seemed amazed by her very existence. Of course this made his night-time visits boring to the point of agony.

It was bad enough that her stomach had been plumping—she was eating like a cow now, disgusting—but he didn't seem remotely aroused by her, which contributed to her falling self-esteem. No, he was content to lie beside her, hand on her stomach, marveling at what he had created. It was all well and good for him, he wasn't throwing up every morning—although it had cleared up after another month or so—and getting fat and getting fits of anger and tears.

A groan was heard from inside the office. Syaoran flung his most recent attempt at a letter exceptionally hard at the wall, and it bounced out into the hall. Sakura grabbed it and, before she could suppress it, she let out a sound of triumph. Syaoran abruptly stopped muttering.

"Who's there?"

When he was met with no reply, Syaoran got up towards the door, but it was too late—Sakura had already had enough time to sneak into her room and pretend to be sleeping as he walked further down the hall, and then in to check on her. He patted her stomach, muttering under his breath, and then left.

As soon as he had gone, Sakura reached under her pillow and smoothed out the parchment. Sakura's face fell. She couldn't read it. It was in Chinese. Sakura sighed, stuffed it back under her pillow and lay down to sleep. She was already unconscious when Syaoran entered the room an hour later, but in her dreams she heard him say,

"I must keep you safe, my Sakura, even if I have to leave you with someone else."

Sakura woke up extremely hungry. Typical. Syaoran had left already. Also typical. She thought about her strange dream, where she and Syaoran were at a great palace, and he was a knight, going off to protect her…

"Now now Sakura, if I didn't know better I'd say you were happy to see me."

She looked up into Trei's broad grin. She didn't realize the dreamy expression she had when she thought of Syaoran. He moved on past her, but she stopped him, suddenly remembering the night before,

"Hey Trei? Do you know Chinese?"

Trei looked puzzled. He glanced shiftily at Syaoran's door before whispering,

"Nope, but Gatz does. Picked him up in Jakarta, we did."

So Gatz was Indonesian. Sakura didn't even thank Trei and ran to her room to grab the parchment before heading up to find Gatz. However, her stomach did not let her forget the most important meal of the day, and so Sakura headed to the galley. Gatz wasn't on deck anyway.

Sakura found him stirring his porridge angrily, as though it had offended him in some way. He scowled at it with deepest loathing and didn't notice her until she was seated right next to him. He looked up angrily, and for a terrifying moment she thought he might try to stir her as well. When he realized who it was, his face softened.

"What is it?"

"Trei told me you know Chinese."

"And if I do?"

His eyes searched her face for some kind of answer, his black eyebrows looked odd against what remained of his bleached hair. Sakura fingered her own pale locks ruefully as she answered him,

"Can you tell me what this says?"

She thrust the parchment at him. She knew that he would not tell Syaoran, just as he hadn't told Syaoran that Sakura was pregnant from the very first sign. He read it slowly, and then aloud:

"Meiling—as you are surely aware, our cousin is now pursuing a new target to bring me home. However, this target will expose you as a liar, which you most certainly are you…it ends there."

He finished darkly. Sakura became dimly aware that her last spoonful of porridge didn't quite make it to her mouth, but as to where it was, she was totally clueless.

"Anyway," he said curtly, wiping porridge off his lap (so that's where it got to!), "We shall discuss this further this afternoon at three, try not to act differently towards Syaoran—"

"—like he notices anything except my stomach these days—"

"—and for God's sake, close your mouth!"

Sakura closed it abruptly as Gatz stormed off, scowling harder than before, if that was even possible.

The day had crept by slowly, but now she and Gatz were nestled cozily in a corner of the deck. They were sailing quickly North through the Indonesian archipelago and Gatz stared longingly out at the islands.

"Listen, if the rumors are true, the cousin of which he spoke was Eriol."

Sakura only nodded. She wasn't that stupid.

"And the target, by my calculations, is you and your baby."

He put a strange emphasis on the word your, intending it to mean only Sakura, and not Syaoran.

"He's going to leave me with her, isn't he? This lying Meiling woman…"

"Yes, but you must understand what made Syaoran a pirate."

Sakura sat up a little straighter, suddenly excited.

"Now I only know the rumors that came to my home before he arrived, but I think they may be true…"

His brows knit together. Sakura leaned closer, eager to hear more. Something at the back of her mind was suspicious—Gatz was too eager to betray his captain. Her curiosity got the better of her though, and she said nothing.

"Syaoran was once part of a powerful Chinese family. He was the only son and his father had passed away…"

"He ran away because he was impotent!"

"Yes but it seems odd to me…how could they have found out?"

Sakura wracked her brains. All she knew was that Meiling had lied to him, but that could have been about anything…

"Oi! Sakura!"

Thom was grinning at her and waving her over. She bid Gatz a hasty goodbye and got up to meet him.

"Got some work for you…"

Unfortunately, Thom always had some work for Sakura after that, and she never got another chance to speak to Gatz away from Thom and Syaoran. Sakura was slightly irritated, but strangely happy that Syaoran would be so jealous.

Sakura had never been to Hong Kong. She wouldn't have known it was even called that but for Syaoran's talking in his sleep. He didn't seem to notice that she was not surprised at their arrival in two more months' time. Now five months pregnant, Sakura had begun to show quite a bit more. Syaoran had remained as silent as ever.

A servant met them at the door of a lovely manor house. Sakura had packed her things without being told. He and Syaoran spoke only Chinese, and she wondered what they were saying about her.

They finally came to a beautiful drawing room, where a gorgeous woman sat waiting for them. She had long, silky black hair done in two buns on either side of her head. Her eyes were mahogany, but in the odd light of the drawing room they looked almost red.

"Ah, Xiao Lang," She began, but when she saw Sakura her eyes narrowed and she quickly switched to Japanese, "So glad to see you."

Sakura glanced at Syaoran, worried for a moment that he could not speak to her.

"The feeling is not mutual Meiling. Now I sent you all my instructions in my letter—"

"—which I received one month ago. Not to worry, I'll take good care of her."

Her smile when she looked at Sakura was not genuine. In fact, the sight of Sakura in her pregnant state seemed to horrify her.

"I will return in six months. If Eriol dares show his face here, tell him I'm in India."

Meiling said nothing. Syaoran turned to look at Sakura. Sakura, without thinking, gave him the most simpering, loving look of despair that he was leaving her. She looked rather like a puppy begging its master not to go.

In the months to come, Sakura would hate herself for that look she gave him, hate herself for how taken aback he seemed, for the malevolent glee in Meiling's expression when she saw it. She would hate herself for thinking that he would save her, all the more after what happened next.

As soon as Syaoran left, Meiling picked up a letter opener from a desk and pressed the point to Sakura's stomach.

"You will do as I say, whenever I say it, or Syaoran's child will die."

Sakura was horrified. She had never felt this scared in her life, not even when the pirates had come to Tomoeda. Meiling smiled darkly, turned on her heel and left.

SeiSei: Uh oh!! I'm sorry that Sakura and Syaoran are separated, but it's for their own good!! And don't get me wrong about Meiling, she's one of my favorite characters actually… Anyway I hope some things are starting to get clearer!! Please review, I'd like 15 before I update again. Thanks so much!