Hello Everyone!

It has been SUCH a long time since I wrote anything. Thank you for your patience!

Chapter 9

Sakura and Syaoran went downstairs. Syaoran couldn't stop himself from reaching out and touching her shoulder as they descended. She lightly touched his hand without looking at him.

Touya was in the entrance hall, hanging up his jacket. "Oh, Sakura, I thought you had cheerl... Who's that?" He spotted Syaoran behind Sakura. He looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened in recognition. "What? Is that that Chinese brat?" Touya swiftly grabbed Sakura and dragged her out of Syaoran's reach. Before, Touya would have pinned him to the wall, but now, they were much the same height and Touya could see that Syaoran was more muscular. He decided to just block the two of them.

Syaoran could tell that Touya wanted to throttle him. "Wait, I can explain, Touya, I'm not..."

"Not what? Not here to break my sister's heart again? As if I believe you. Get out of my house before I call the police for trespassing." Touya was livid, and thrust open the front door much harder than he meant to, and it hit the wall with a loud bang. "Get Out!"

"Touya, please..." begged Sakura.

"No, if you want to see him... Well, you can't." He pushed her towards the kitchen. "Your turn for making dinner tonight, shouldn't you get on with it?" It was only quarter past 3.

"It's alright, Sakura, I'll leave. I'll call you, ok?" Syaoran sighed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to stick around any longer. He left quietly and closed the door without slamming it.

Touya rounded on Sakura. "Now, would you like to explain to me what is going on here?"

Sakura sighed. "He came back, Touya. I was just sitting in class then he was a new transfer, I didn't know what to do so I came home."

"So you skipped school? Stupid. But that doesn't explain why he was coming down the stairs with you, does it?" Touya pointed up the stairs as if he wasn't making any sense.

"He came over to see if I was alright, he did kind of startle me this morning."

"And what about Michiya? I thought you two were going to start dating or something?" Touya smirked.

Sakura blushed "Who told you about that? I don't know, I am really confused." She looked away, then back with new fire in her eyes. "And furthermore, it's YOUR turn to do dinner, don't lie about it and expect me to go along with it! I'm going out for a bit. If Tomoyo shows up, tell her she knows where to find me."

Sakura quickly picked a coat to wear and slipped some shoes on. She didn't care that she was still in her uniform; she just wanted to get out of the house. She headed straight for the park. It was such an obvious place to find her, Sakura didn't know why she was surprised when Syaoran was there, sitting on her favourite swing.

"Sakura." He said her name with such emotion Sakura couldn't help but quicken her step and fall into his open arms. He smelled slightly different but still like she remembered. They stayed like that, just embracing, not talking, for a few minutes.

They were interrupted when Tomoyo showed up. Kero popped his head out of her bag and then exploded into his true form roaring in Syaoran's face "What are you doing here?"

Tomoyo stood next to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "I explained this to you, Kero, pipe down!"

"I know you did, I'm sorry, I just got so angry when I saw him, I couldn't help myself!" Kero looked sheepish, then spotted Tomoyo's bag in tatters on the floor, contents everywhere. "Oops."

Sakura removed herself from Syaoran's arms, feeling foolish for seemingly forgiving him so soon. She had nothing to say.

Syaoran tried to grab her hand but she let it fall. "Sakura, please..."

"Syaoran, maybe you should let her be for a while," Tomoyo interjected. "I'll talk to her. I guess we'll see you tomorrow in class?" She shooed him away, and he walked slowly, and kept looking back to see if Sakura was looking at him. She wasn't.

"Sakura" Tomoyo whispered. "What do you want to do?"

Sakura just stood there for a minute, not talking. Tears started to roll down her cheeks, silently. "I don't know..." She finally mumbled. "I want him so badly, and he's here for me, but what if he's not the same person and we're just kidding ourselves? What if I just get hurt again?"

Tomoyo sighed. "I don't have an answer for you. Why don't you just see how things pan out over the next few days? Nobody's saying it's going to be easy but why don't you just get to know each other again?"

Sakura nodded, then shook her head. "Michiya..."

"You've only just started paying attention to him, who's to say that he's not all wrong for you?"

"He kissed me." Sakura said quietly. "He came over and I woke up and he was in my room, he pinned me and kissed me... My first kiss."

Tomoyo gasped. "He made you kiss him?"

"I didn't kiss him back. I just wanted him to leave. But then he did, and Syaoran arrived, and he kissed me too, and I couldn't help myself from kissing him back. It felt so right with Syaoran but I felt so bad for rejecting Michiya. Syaoran is the only one who was in my head."

"Well, maybe that's the answer then. You should tell Michiya that you're going to see how it goes with Syaoran, and that he shouldn't wait around." Tomoyo summarised. "Anyway, let's go home. Your brother was pretty worried about you you know!"

"Good idea. I am suddenly really hungry too!" Sakura laughed. She took Tomoyo's hand. Come on, you're coming over for dinner. Want to sleep over?"

Tomoyo disengaged her hand. "I'll tell you what, I'll come over later. I need to grab a few things, like a change of clothes and stuff for tomorrow. Alright?"

"Sounds good. See you in a bit." Sakura smiled and made her way home, with Kero sitting silently on her shoulder.

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Michiya didn't know what had possessed him to kiss Sakura like he did. He was now wandering aimlessly around downtown Tomoeda. He felt like a horrible person, and that he had now ruined his chances. "So stupid." He said to himself.

He found himself outside the school again, where cheerleading practice was in full swing. Aya was coping very well at being Cheer captain in Sakura's absence. She saw him, though, and called a break. "You alright?" She asked when she reached the fence.

Michiya didn't answer, just shrugged. "Were you with Sakura?" Aya asked timidly. She didn't really want to know the answer. What if he had, and something happened?

"I went to see her, yeah." Michiya answered vaguely. "She was pretty upset by the whole thing. I tried to kiss her." He put his face in his hands and sat down by the fence separating him and Aya.

She crouched down next to him and put her fingers through the chain link. "Did she kiss you back?" Aya's heart was racing. Please, no

"I don't know. Kind of, but then she started crying, I didn't know what to do with myself." He sighed.

Aya reached towards him and touched his face. It was difficult through the chain link but it was gentle enough for Michiya to look at Aya, and he could see the tenderness there. "I'm sorry Aya, unloading on you like this. I just don't know what to do. I want Sakura to love me so much; I just don't know how to act any more. Before, I didn't have competition and I was just breaking down the barriers. Now, I feel like I've pushed it too far and messed up everything."

Aya felt her heart beating against her chest. She was short of breath she was so angry. How could Sakura do this? She thought that they were friends: Aya had confided in her, Sakura had reassured her that there was nothing from her side at least, but yet the two of them went on a date, they kissed, and Sakura had the nerve to make Michiya feel bad about it?

"Michiya." He looked up and at her. "We need to get even."

He just looked confused and defeated. "Really, she can't make us feel like this!"

Michiya thought 'us?' but nodded vaguely, the hurt he felt turned into anger and blame at Syaoran for messing everything up.

"You're right. We need to get him out of the picture." Aya smiled.

"Good good. Look, I'll come round after practice." She winked at him, stood up and jogged back to the cheerleaders, her blood boiling with anger and excitement about what they were going to do.

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Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. I hope the next chapter will be up soon, I just hate that I have so much other stuff to be doing :-(

Please R+R!

love B-L