Essence of Blood
He had met girls throughout his life but never had he met a woman as unique as her. Not only did she defy him in an erratic way but her blood held an essence that differed from everyone else. Her blood was special…her blood made her, his.
Chapter Eleven
Essence of Infidelity
.xx.
-Tomoyo-
August 3rd, 2001 – 5:45 pm
When did we decide to go shopping?
When Sakura attacked me telling me to put on proper clothing because the Li sisters were taking us shopping. I was both happy and shocked—primarily because I thought Sakura and I weren't supposed to be seen in public. Should one of our family members see us, everything would be in so much trouble since we were presumed to be dead.
Fuutie slid in behind the wheel as Feimei called shotgun, I was squished betwee Sheifa and Sakura in the backseat. Fuutie expertly reversed out of the indoor parking lot that housed a dozen or so vehicles. Glancing over my shoulder, I noticed that a black car backed out of the parking zone behind us and followed us.
"Who're they?" I pointed as Sheifa and Sakura turned over their shoulders to see, indeed, a black car licensed X Lang follow us. Sheifa grinned, giving me a wink.
"That's Syaoran's car—Eriol, Syaoran, and Takashi are supposed to follow us, for extra protection, you know?"
Raising an eyebrow, I glanced at Sakura who pushed back her denim jacket slightly, revealing a black holster with a gun securely in place. My eyes widened as I looked up at her. So they were bringing extra protection and my cousin had a gun on her? How much danger were we going to be in for merely going shopping?
Trying to shake the thought out of my head, I began conversing with the Li sisters and my own cousin, trying to lighten the situation with mindless gossip and chatter amongst us girls. I was beginning to learn a lot of things about the gang, primarily the latest make-up and break up and unplanned pregnancies and such.
"Did you know Yasui and Eriol were in an arranged marriage?" Fuutie piped up as she pulled up, rather safely, at a red light. I raised an eyebrow. Earlier that morning I met Yasui Hiiragizawa—a rather tall and femmeish woman who introduced herself as Hiira—Eriol's wife.
"Never knew," Sakura murmured as I shot her a glance. Obviously we didn't know—I just met her this morning and Sakura met her two nights ago.
Sheifa laughed. "Yeah—it was rather tragic, as far as I remember. Eriol didn't want to but he kind of had to, you know? Gang obligation and family bullshit—the all inclusive works for our group of people."
"He didn't want to?" Sakura repeated as Feimei sat up in her seat and looked back at us.
"Oh yeah. That boy was ready to run out the day of his wedding—he actually planned with Ryu to disappear on his honeymoon night and actually crash with the guys at our Hong Kong base…quite serious shit that happened last year," Feimei explained as I found this news rather amusing. I thought that Eriol was the kind of guy that married for love.
I mean, look at him. He had this fetish for following me the nights I couldn't sleep. Fuutie, who glanced at her rear-view mirror, began speaking as she accelerated when the light switched to green. "Yasui had an abortion too, about three months ago."
Sakura's eyes widened and I could only imagine. Both Sakura and I were heavily and rather religiously against abortions. It was an epic sin in our books.
"Why?" Sakura asked, boldly. I found asking the question of why was a little too pushy, seeing as what they did with their private life was, well, private. But, needless to say, I was glad Sakura pressed. I was kind of interested.
Sheifa shrugged. "We don't know for sure. It was between Eriol and Yasui. A lot of people said that since Eriol is wing man for Syaoran he probably feels that bringing a baby into this world so early on in our mission was a bad idea."
"But," Feimei cut Sheifa off, "the majority of the collective gang members across our several bases think that since Yasui normally is at the Hong Kong base and Eriol stays here in Japan, that the baby actually wasn't his."
My eyes widened. "No way…"
Fuutie nodded, "Yeah. It was big drama, guys. This all happened in the past three months. Eriol has been married to Yasui for just about a year now and they've only ever been in the same country together for about a month within that year. Normally Eriol stays in Japan and Yasui in Hong Kong, with that sector of our gang. Rumor within the gang—shhh, don't you dare let Xiao Lang or Eriol hear about this." Fuutie shot us a look through the rear-view mirror. "This is gossip, keep it between us." Sakura and I nodded slowly and Fuutie continued. "Rumor has that Yasui was being an infidel bitch and was impregnated by another guy in Hong Kong."
"So?" Sakura was on the edge of her seat as Feimei decided to speak the next part of the story.
"So? So maybe Eriol had her abort but never divorced because it was his familial obligation?" Feimei shrugged. "Our mother made Eriol marry her. Nobody knows why Yasui aborted but only that she did."
"Your mother?" I raised an eyebrow. "Why her?"
Sheifa laughed. "Oh you have to meet mother. She can scare God Himself! She raised Eriol since he's an orphan and Eriol respects her as much as we, her own kids, do. Mother's in Puerto Rico now—yeah, I know!" Sheifa chided as she saw the look of amusement in my eyes.
"The old woman's on vacay while we're busting our asses here!" Fuutie laughed in good humor as she pulled into the parking lot of the mall. "But whatever we said stays between us. Eriol doesn't need to know he was the topic of Girl Talk today—neither does Syaoran for that matter."
I nodded as Sakura slid out of the car. Hipping the door shut, I followed Sakura and Feimei into the mall as Sheifa and Fuutie lagged behind us.
.xx.
August 3rd, 2001 – 6:03 pm
Truthfully, I couldn't stop staring at Eriol while the guys followed us in the mall. You know that feeling of I need to look at you because I know something about you and you don't know that I know? Yeah, I was feeling exactly that right about then. At one point he gave me a look and I had to look away. After that moment, I didn't look back at Eriol.
Neither did I have the time to, in all honesty, because Sakura spotted her boyfriend, Yue.
"Who's he?" Fuutie nudged Sakura who kept glancing at Yue and hiding behind us. The guys were unaware of the entire hide-and-seek escapade happening since Sakura so smoothly weaved between shoe and lingerie stores, where men normally didn't venture into.
"My boyfriend," Sakura murmured. "I don't know if he thinks I'm dead or not."
Fuutie, all-in-all, snorted and mumbled something like, but you belong to Xiao Lang now…which could be a mistake on my part and she could've meant something totally different. Frowning, I kept an eye on Yue who was standing around at center court.
"What is he doing?" Sakura hissed as she glared at Yue from within a shoe store. Fuutie and Feimei suppressed a chortle of laughter as Sheifa gave Sakura a sympathetic look. We hadn't planned on playing games in the mall.
Hell, Yue never even wanted to shop with Sakura when they were going out—well, technically they still are going out, but that's beside the point— then why was he in the mall right now? Eventually, Li, Yamazaki, and Eriol walked into the shoe store that Sakura was hiding in.
Li looked the most pissed. "I thought you girls needed to shop, not hide behind shoe stands."
Sakura glared at him and I raised an eyebrow. Was I missing something? When did Sakura glare at the man that can obviously shoot her brains out? Well, then again, they're some reincarnation things from the past—at least, that was my assumption. I had no idea who or what the book people were in accordance to the people I knew in the twenty-first century.
"Shh!" Sakura held her fingers up to her lips. "I'm hiding!"
Li raised an eyebrow in amusement as Yamazaki's hand flew to his holsters. "You see baddies?"
Sakura shook her head at Yamazaki. "No—worse."
Sheifa burst into uncontrollable laughter as Li crossed his arms, a look of annoyance crossing his eyes. I eyed the muscles flexing in the man's arms and praised God for giving Sakura such a man to be destined for.
Minus the fact we were kidnapped, are playing a much larger role in life, and are deemed dead to the majority of the population that we are related to.
"What?" Li snarled as Sheifa ushered towards Yue.
"You see platinum sliver boy?"
I wanted to laugh.
Wouldn't be appropriate though.
"What about him?" Li inquired as Fuutie held up a rather sexy stiletto. Eying her brother from between the space of the heel and arch, she spoke.
"Sakura's boyfriend."
I couldn't tell if Li had a look of shock, hatred, anger, amusement, or a mix—but I did quite evidently see that he gripped Sakura by the wrist and yanked her up from her crouching position. Li's sisters all backed up immediately as Eriol took a step towards Li.
"Dude, you're gonna hurt her...!"
But Li seemed deaf to the whole world but my cousin.
"You're still with the same sex-fiend you told me about at the club?"
Sakura glared at him, in a rather defiance-y attitude. I could only watch my heart racing in fear for Sakura. I hadn't realized that my hands clenched into fists for her. "Well obviously! You expect me to be a single woman my whole life? I just don't know if Yue thinks I'm dead or not—I'm hoping he does…" The last part was meant to be an afterthought for Sakura's ears alone, but we all heard it loud and clear.
"Why."
It wasn't really a question. Li stated it more like a statement. Sakura continued to glare at him.
"What do you mean why? I want him to think I'm dead—anything wrong with that?"
"Everything is wrong with it, beautiful, if he's your boyfriend." Li drawled out. Glancing to my left, I gasped seeing Yue walking in our direction; Sakura and Li's outbursts had attracted Yue's attention. Taking a step towards Sakura, I wanted her to notice Yue heading in our direction, but she was way too into her banter with Li.
Everybody was.
"Uh—Sakura?" I hissed but she, blatantly, ignored me.
"I'm not a bloody possession, Li!" Sakura shrieked, now. "I just met you less than a month ago and you're acting like you're—you're…my husband or something!"
My eyes shot wide open, never expecting Sakura to say something like that to somebody like him. I glanced around, my heart racing, and saw that Yamazaki, Eriol, Fanran, Fuutie, and Feimei had the exact same expression that I assumed was plastered on my face. Quickly looking back, I saw Yue squinting his eyes and rushing towards our group now.
"Sakura!" I said more urgently, but my words were still ignored.
"I'm probably more to you than a husband will ever be, Ying Fa." Li whispered in a deadly voice. "And it's Xiao Lang, do not refer to me as Li."
"Make me." Sakura squared her chin and I was getting annoyed.
"Yue at nine o'clock!" I burst out and all heads turned to Yue approaching us. Closing my eyes, I took a few steps back and felt somebody push me back slightly. Peeking an eye open, I saw Fuutie and Feimei take their positions in front of me and Eriol in front of them. They were hiding me. I glanced over their shoulders to see Li glaring directly at Yue.
"Who're you?" Li raised an eyebrow as Yue continued staring at Sakura.
"Sakura…?"
Sakura looked between Yue and Li before taking a step forward. "Uh…"
"Excuse me." Li cut in. "I suggest you stop imposing on strangers." Li was about to turn and grab Sakura's arm, but Yue grabbed his shoulder instead.
"Strangers? Buddy, I think you're yelling at my girlfriend there!" Yue's voice was rising as Li looked at Yue's hand on his shoulder and then his face.
"Girlfriend? Buddy, you're sorely mistaken—this is my wife."
Sakura had a look of shock on her face as, I assumed, the rest of us did as well. Yue's hand didn't release Li's shoulder and, in all obviousness, he was getting pissed. He planted his fist into Yue's face. Before Sakura had time to react, Yamazaki caught her and covered her mouth with his hand. It was to prevent her from calling Yue's name to call Li's bluff.
"YUE!"
All heads turned to a short blond woman rushing towards Yue. My eyes widened drastically as Li frowned.
"Who're you?" Yamazaki barked as the woman glared at him.
"His girlfriend! Why are you punching him? Who are you?"
Everything else failed as Li looked at Sakura. My cousin's eyes were wide; staring at the woman kneeling over who we thought was her boyfriend minutes ago. I had to strain to hear what Li said, but it was slightly easier due to the fact that all customers and sales associates were quiet.
"Girlfriend? Then what were you?"
My world stopped as I saw tears leak from Sakura's eyes and her making a break for the exit. I moved to make a run for her but Fuutie caught me.
"If Yue sees you, he'll recognize you—stay behind me."
I could only watch as my heart clenched for my cousin. I knew she was attached to him. She didn't love him, no, but she was attached to him. We always assumed that he was cheating on her in some way, but an assumption was always easier than the truth…
Always.
.xx.
Special thanks to my beta-editor, Sakura-chan Master of the Clow
Edited/Updated: September 25, 2011
Re-edited: February 02, 2013