Title: The Misguided Fool
Foreshadow: "...So, how did you do it?"
AN: Took me long enough, eh? Most of you must either really hate or love me^^; you probably don't want to hear my excuses so please, just enjoy what I managed so far. And no...for those of you wondering. There is no writer's block. This took me 3 hours...
Chapter: 11…
:Previously in Chapter 10...
"I believe that my assumptions are right then. How is the new technician holding up?"
"Cut the act, you bastard. Where the hell are you now?"
"Still New York, I'm afraid. Why? Has anything gone wrong?"
"Nothings wrong with Tomoyo or your precious exhibit."
"Would this has something to do with a certain Miss Sakura?"
Li gripped the cell a little too tightly just then.
"By your silence, I'm taking that as a yes."
"Get me someone else." Li replied curtly. "And make it happen fast. That's the least you can do for hiring me on this stress-load job and dealing with Tomoyo for 2 weeks while your out of commission."
"Again, I must be say, I am working out a business proposition with your company, Xiao Lang."
"Just when are you coming back then?"
"How say you to tomorrow?"
Li snapped the cell back into his pocket.
Eriol was coming back?.... Hmm... this can somehow make my life easier since a pregnant Tomoyo needs her husband...
Wait. A pregnant Tomoyo and Eriol....along with Kinomoto?
Li shuddered at the thought.
"Just what I need. Those three together to mess up my life along with the exhibit. Why am I here again?"
He sighed as he remembered the bonus promised after the next 3 weeks right along side the publicity.
"Right."
The last thing he needed for a reminder.
Ten long minutes of silent cursing, there was another vibration from his left pocket, "What??!"
"....Did I catch you on a wrong time Chef?"
Syaoran sighed as he ruffled his unruly hair. "What do you want, Junior?"
"Ah...well...you know, I could call at a b-better time. I'm sure you don't want to hear about this." Li's brow lifted a bit at this comment.
"Just tell the man the God damn news, Junior!" another voice came from the line.
"What is it?" Li growled, already expecting the worse from the junior.
"We need you to come downtown. The director is with the cheif of police right now and--"
That was all Li needed to hear before he stormed out with a sea of curses.
x x x x x x x
Tomoyo sighed. The officers outside the office were rushing about the hallway trying to calm down a certain tyrant behind the door.
She didn't need to hear his grunt and tense voice to recognize jusft who it was. "Just what I need."
She turned to the chef. "You called him of all people?"
The chef barried himself under his desk trying to ignore the woman's scornful glare with his reports invain... "Mrs. Hiiragizzwa, your husband made it clear to me Mr. Li was to be reported of all issues regarding—"
Tomoyo droned out his voice. Of course Eriol would.
She prepared herself, I need to calm down a certain vexed man.
x x x x x x x
"I don't like it," Li said, slouching in his chair he flew across the room not too long ago as he stared broodingly at a police report lying before him. "This makes three museums robbed within two weeks. This new gang is obviously greedy as hell, and I doubt they'll stop now."
Tomoyo smiled. "Did you really think they would?"
"No. No, I didn't"
It was very early, and they were in the chef's office after he left the two to discuss amungst themselves.
After a moment, Tomoyo said, "None of those museums have the kind of security being installed here. They made the mistake of heavily relying on their guards and simple door alarms. No lasers or sensor and no backup system for electrical failures."
Li shook his head,. "That isn't what's bothering me; I'll grant the museums' security was outdated. What I don't like is the scale. That gang of thieves came in life an army and stole everything they could carry. According to both your observations and police reports, they weren't in a rush, methodical, and very businesslike. Get in, get out. Sleek. No fingerprints or a single trace of hair out of place.
All we have is basic information, and most of that was supplied by you: a dozen men, on named Ed, who very efficiently stole items no self respecting fence would touch. That poits to a major collector, or cartel of them, being supplied by these thieves. And that means nothing stolen is likely to surface again; the police haven't got a hope in hell of finding that stuff."
The Talsman might surface, Tomoyo thought.
Li turned. "What Talsman?"
Tomoyo felt like kicking herself for being caught. "Ah. Did I say—" she paused seeing Li's questioning glare.
Tomoyo cleared her throat and met his eyes again slowly. "The Taiban Talsman. The thieves—the group of thieves—didn't get that. Someone else did."
Li's brow quirked. "Who?"
"Lupin."
Li sat up with a jerk, staring at her. "Lupin? Christ... He was there last night?"
Nodding briefly, Tomoyo said, "He was there. I didn't tell the police because...well, because if it hadn't been for him, that gang would have causght me and probably wouldn't have been nice about it."
"I thougt they didn catch you," Li managed slowly, not trusting himself for the rest.
"No. They knew I was there, and they weren't very happy about it, but they didn't seem too worried either. It was after they'd gone that I was tied up. Lupin did that...I...made a fuss when he decided to steal the Talsman, so he tied me to the displace case"
"Did you see his face?"
Tomoyo sighed wistfully. I wish. "No, he was wearing a ski mask. He wouldn't tell me what he'd come there to steal originally, he just said that when he discovered he wasn't the only thief in the building—and was outnumbered—he decided to stay out of their way."
Li looked at her steadily for a moment, then said, "You seem to have had quite the conversation with him."
Tomoyo flushed a little but continued to meet his gaze. "I can't really explain, except that I didn't feel threatened by him. I mean, I wasn't afraid of him at all. He was even sort of charming—and don't remind me he's no better than the oters. I know that, believe me.
It's just that if I'd told the police, if only would have complicated things and, besides, it sounded so improbable. It doesn't make a difference, does it? The only item he took was the Talsman, and if he fences that it's bound to surface, so—"
"You know better than that, Tomoyo. If the dagger does surface, it could well lead the police off on a wild goose chase. It coult indicate to them that all the other items could be fenced as well, so they'd concentrate on the wrong assumption."
"Common thieves versus collectors." Tomoyo nodded with a sigh. "I know, I know. I obviously wasn't thinking straight."
Syaoran eyed her thoughtfully, then shrugged. "It probably won't make all that mfust difference in the end. The police have to follow standard procedure in robbery cases., which means they'll keep an eye on konwn fences. Not really much else they can do without a solid suspect.
If the Talsman surfaces alone, they'll try to follow that lead as a matter of course—but they won't go off track for long."
He paused for an instant, then added, "If you had blown the whistle about Lupin being there, it probably wouldn't have made a difference in the way the police work the case. If Lupin's in this country, the police'll know about it soon enough."
"I guess out police would know about him, wouldn't they? But they wouldn't know any more than the information Interpol provides on their watch list."
"Porbably not. They'll know his M.O., the alias he uses, the sort of artworks and gems he tends to go after." Li spoke rather absently, his frowning gaze fixed on the desk.
"Wasn't a journalist in France responsible for that alias? I mean, didn't the journalist start using tha name Lupin to describe this particular thief because it meant wise and intelligent, or something like that?"
"If I remeber rightly, the journalist claimed he'd recieved a note from thfe thief after a big robbery, and it was signed Lupin. The police was sure it actually came from him, but the name stuck. It was later on that somebody decided he'd chosen the alias because of what it meant."
"Do you think he did?"
"I doubt the note came from him at all. Stupid to claim responsibility for a robbery and give the police a chance to start building a file on him. And I've never heard he was stupid."
"The journalist—or someone else—trying to get more newsprint out of robbery?"
"Maybe. Probably. In any case, it was the beginning of all the.. smokes and mirrors around Lupin and his activities. I always figured myth got a lot bigger than the man."
Tomoyo wasn't too sure about that, but wasn't about to say so. Instead she said, "He is supposed to be good, though. Very, very good at what he does."
"Being active and at large for a decade, he damned well has to be good."
After a slight hesitation, Tomoyo said, "There haven't been any reported robberies by Lupin in Eastern Asia until now; I checked. He came here, Li. Straight here, to Tokyo. And he knew I was the director of the Eriol's exhibit. I don't know what he was doing at the other museum last night—but I think we should assume the Troy collection is his ultamate target."
"Great," Li bit out grimly. "That's just great."
"Its not a completely an unexpected problem," Tomoyo pointed out.
"We've known all along the exhibit would be a target. And it certainly is a big enough target to tempt even an international thief like Lupin. But it doesn't change anything. You said it yourself; all we can do is make it difficult as possible for any thief, or group of thieves, to get to thef exhibit. And you know Eriol gave us full authority to do whatever it takes."
"Yeah, but I wish he'd consider canceling. I'm more than a little inclined to call him again and try my hand at persuading him to."
Tomoyo smiled warmly. "You know him better than I do," Tomoyo said. "But from all he's said to me, I don't think it's an option."
"No, probably not."
"Besides, he's on a business trip. He'll be back in a couple of weeks, still well before the collection is moved from the vault and long before the exhibit is due to open. Maybe by then we'll have something a little more definite to tell him."
"You saw Lupin, Tomoyo. Talked to him, even. How much more definite could that be?"
"He only told me that's who he was. Maybe he was lying."
"Is that what you think?"
She hesitated, then swore under her breath. "No. I think it was Lupin. But we still don't know for sure that he's after the collection. We can assume, but we don't know for sure. He could decide to take advantage of all the attention being focused on the exhibit to rob somebody else."
"Uh-huh."
"Okay, chances are good he's after the collection."
Li stared at her.
"More than good," she admitted reluctantly.
"I'd say pretty damned certain."
Tomoyo sighed, "Yeah." She gathered her copies of police reports and various notes and stacked them neatly on her case. "Well, I'm getting on the horn to the security company right now. If their bright boys and girls konw any tricks we haven't planned for security here, I want to know what they are. If we have to, we'll turn this place into a regular Fort Knox."
"I hear that."
x x x x x x x
Li stared at her, all content in the leather chair over enveloping her small frame.
For the life in him, he couldn't think of what to say.
Sensing him by the doorway, Sakura turned and smiled slightly. "Hey Li. Did something happen with you and our beloved exhibit director?"
He couldn't help but scowl. And, even more, he knew he was only making matters worse by his outward attitude now. It wasn't as if he was hiding anything. He was in a rotten mood, and everyone knew it.
Part of him wanted to hang on to that mood, because it provided a sort of insulation between his turbulent feelings and the cause of all that chaos—her.
But, as usual, her lazy voice and vivid face had the trick of both facination and irritating him until he found himself answering her taunts and jabs instead of letting them roll off his back.
Like now for instance.
"Little bit under the weather, Li? Get up on the wrong side of the bed? Or maybe you just had a hard time sleeping last night?"
"None of the above" he bit out. "And if that last one was a passing reference to the haunting effect of your charm—"
"It was."
Distracted, he retorted, "Don't you have an ounce of feminine guile?"
"Not even a spoonful," Sakura said with a faintly wistful expression that was disarming.
Syaoran tried not to let himself be disarmed. "Well, cultivate it, why don't you? It's not exactly subtle to ask a man if you gave him a sleepless night."
"Maybe not, but I'm curious. Did I?"
Somewhat grimly, Li replied, "I wouldn't answer that if it was my ticket to heaven."
Sakura smiled at him. "You just did. Why, Li, I had no idea my—charms, did you day?—were so potent."
He drew a deep breath and tried to hold on to his temper, his resolve, and his wits—in pretty must that order. "Look, I didn't come in here to discuss anything except business."
"Chicken," she muttered.
Li gritted his teeth.
He was not going to let her get to him again. He had enough women doing that already. No way. He was completely in control!
"I came in to look at that phone patch."
Sakura didn't respond for a moment, since the computer's beep announced the need for a new CD installment.
She got the machine busily working again in matter of seconds before returing her steady gaze to him.
Between his refusal to admit anything unusual had happened between them and the fact that she'd had way too much coffee, it probably shouldn't have surprised Sakura to feel a rush of dangerous recklessness.
In fact, it didn't surprise her, because she was completely caught up in the impulse.
She didn't get up from her chair. Instead, she pushed it back a foot or so and slightly to one side, leaving just enough room—just barely enough room—for Li to crawl underneath the desk.
She produced a flashlight from a bottom drawer of the desk, set it on top, and then sat back in her chair and smiled, "Be my guest."
x x x x x x x
If Li hesitated, it was only for a second.
He came around the desk, picked up the flashlight and went down on one knee.
"Where is it?" he asked somewhat tauntly.
"Left side, toward the front of the desk," Sakura answered sweetly. "Where the phone lines are run up through the floor."
And closer to her. Li thought absently.
Sakura was pushing it, and she knew it. She had no business acting this way. Especially when shfe had to acknowledge that it was entirely possible that he felt nothing for her except a male's virtually automatic temptation for an attractive and available female.
And, anyways, she had a job to do, dammit.
A job that included lying to him.
Li breathing softly, taking great care not to come in close contact, came out from under the desk briskly and sat back on his heels.
Turning off the flashlight, he set it on the desk and said, "You were right; it does look like it was done in a hurry." He didn't meet her eyes.
They were so close to each other that Sakura's knee was touching the brown leather covering his arm. She didn't want to talk about phone patches but had no choice.
"It wouldn't have taken long. Three, five minutes if they knew what they were doing." She watched a muscle bunch underneath the tan skin of his jaw and wondered if it was due to anger or something else.
Syaoran started to get up, but he turned toward her as he went onto one knee, until they were almost facing each other—and froze when, without thinking, she reached out to him.
Her fingertips touched his dark shirt.
Li turned slowly the rest of the way until they faced each other completely. His hands lifted to her denim-covered knees, the weight of them wam and hard. She didn't resist when he eased her legs apart, or when his hands slowly slid up the outsides of her thighs to her hips and pulled her toward him.
It was a starkly erotic position, and everything female in Sakura responded wildly.
Her inner thighs pressed against his sides just at his waist, and her hands lifted to his shoulders. They were almost eye to eye.
A warm breath clashing against his skin, she whispered, "Did I give you a sleepless night, Li?"
"Yes, dammit," Syaoran breathed, his voice as rough as the surface of granite but not hard at all.
Cutely she turned her head to the side confused, "But I'm not your type. How could I disturb your sleep?"
"You're going to make me admit it, aren't you?"
She managed a smile, "I'm just asking a simple question."
"Then I'll answer it." His head bent toward her, his eyes focused on her lips, and his voice roughened even more. "I'm taking your advice—broadening my horizons."
"It's about time," Sakura whispered, just before his mouth covered hers. She forgotten all about the unlocked door and wouldn't have cared very much if someone had reminded her.
Li had forgotten their lack of privacy himself.
The way she was moving against him sent his already burning desire soaring until he was on the verge of completely losing control.
He probably wouldn have given up the struggle, but the clear tone of the computer's beep, so alien as it intruded on flesh-and-blood passions, recalled him at least partially to his senses. (AU: stupid computer. Just had to break it up.)
The machine was indicating its greedy need for more information—and to Li it was a glaring reminder of where they were.
With an effort that nearly killed him, Li put his hands on her shoulders and eased her back away from him. Trying to control his voice so it didn't sound so rough, he said, "Sakura, we can't. Not here."
"No," she said huskily, "I suppose not." Flushed herself, Sakura very slowly drew her arms from around his neck, letting her hands drop to her thighs.
"We can go somewhere," Li whispered, making it a question, his voice low. "My place is closest."
Sakura looked at hims for a long moment in silence, her eyes clear now, as direct and honest as usual, and the faintly ironic drawl was back when she sighed and said, "You aren't going to like this, I'm afraid."
"I'm not going to like what?"
"What I have to say."
Li released her shoulders and slowly sat back on his heels.
A number of possibilities flitted through his mind, but what they all boiled down to was simple: she wasn't going with him back to his place.
"And that is?"
Sakura didn't flinch at the hardness of his voice, and she didn't look away from his suddenly stony face. "We both know I'm only going to be here a few weeks at most, then I'm gone to my next assignment—probably out of the country."
He nodded slightly, waiting.
She drew a quick breathm the only sign yet that this was more difficult for her than she was letting on. "Maybe to you, the situation seems to be tailor made for an affair. And maybe it is. I can't say I'd be...entirely unwilling. We both know that. But I know something else, Li. I know myself. And I know there's a line I won't cross. An affair is one thing, but what I refuse to be is a one-night stand—or even a three day fling.
I won't be a toy you play with for a while until you see the next one in a store window somewhere. I'm no Barbie doll."
"I know that," he said evenly.
"Do you?"
"Yes." Syaoran wanted to reach out for her again but wouldn't let himself. "So what do you want from me? A promise?"
"No. I just have to know this means something to you, something other than having one more bedmate to add to the list. Once we settle that, I'll never bring up the subject again, no matter what happens between us. But I have to be sure of that must before this goes any further. I have to."
Looking into her grave eyes, he knew she wouldn't back down. If she said there was one answer she needed from him before she was prepared to go any further, then that was precisely what she meant.
He also knew that if he hadn't stopped, she wouldn't have asked for that answer, and the knowledge was maddening to him.
She wasn't asking for very much, but it was more than he was prepared to give (AN: dumbass). He wasn't ready to examine his own feelings about her, and be sure as hell wasn't ready to make any kind of a commitment. Even one lasting only a few weeks.
Li got to his feet slowly and moved away from her, around the desk.
He wished he could have said something flippant or careless, but that was beyond him. Instead, because he couldn't think of anything else, he simply ignored everything except business.
"I haven't made up my mind about using that tapped phone lines as a trap. Am I wrong in assuming it doesn't become any kind of threat to the museum or the new exhibit until the program is completely written and loaded?"
"No, you aren't wrong." Her voice was as calm as his had been. "Anyone with enough expertise to tap into the line would know better than to try and find a hole in an incomplete security system. The holes don't become visible until the entire plan can be studied. There's really no possibility of a threat to the Troy collection until the new system is complete and on line."
"Then leave the patch in place and I'll let you know," he said briefly. Without looking back, Li left the room.
He closed the door behind him, and Sakura gazed at it somewhat blindly as she sat back in her chair. She didn't want to think about much of anything, least of all why she'd issued an ultimatum to Li, but it was impossible not to.
She'd done it out of a sense of honesty, knowing herself too well not to believe that a brief fling with Li would've been hideously destructive to her—and she would've struck out at him in her pain.
So she asked for more than a fling.
That was simple enough, clear and the truth.
What was more complicated, and less clear, was her other reason for trying to stop the headlong rush toward consummated passion.
It also had to do with honesty. Or, rather, the lack thereof.
It had to do with duplicity.
She'd also asked becase she knew it was too soon, that he would draw away—perhaps for good.
She had deliberately used his reluctance to stop something over which she seemed to have very little control.
Not very honest, perhaps, but Sakura was only trying—rather desperately—to avoid a must greater deceit.
If they became lovers, the question of trust became increasingly important. Once intimate, it was likely Li would trust her more and more.
And that was what she was afraid of. As long as he was evenly mildly suspicious of her, or at least a bit wary, she couldn't really hurt him with her lies.
But what would happen if they were lovers when he discovered the truth?
Looking at her silent, watchful cat—who had more or less turned himself into a tactful statue while Li was in the room—Sakura heard herself murmur, "I should tell him the truth, shouldnt' I?"
Kero sneezed, which was his way of expressing a negative opinion, and Sakura sighed tiredly.
He was right.
She couldn't do that.
Too much was at stake.... but it would have been so easy.
All she really had to do was to tell Li camly not to worry about the phone patch; the tap only looked as if it went into a phone line. That was how it was supposed to look.
She should know, after all.
It was her handiwork.
x x x x x x x
millenniumsnow: please please please update!! i REALLY want to read more. XD
AN: I'm glad your enjoying yourself in this story of mine. I just hope this chapter isn't too much of a dissapointment?
Fallen from the sky: LOL syaoran is so confused, its extremely amusing. Now im curious as to what sakura is hiding!
AN: ditto.
Mrs. Radcliffe 13: So many twists. I don't know what direction is out anymore...
AN: Yay!
Freedec12: This must be the first story where we have to guess who the good guys are...well mostly, that is to say...
Best was the the way the dark scenes were projected in a comical way...3 cheers for that...
Update!
AN: Thank you for your pointers^^ I must've been rushing that week or something.
CheeseyCraziness: Ooh, Fallen's got a good point! Kaito... Hehehe.. Great description.f
Hmm... Loving the SxS, hating it simultaneously because Sakura's so upset over it... Still want to know what's up... Grr...
CRAZY!
AN: Ehehehe. My minds ticking away as I think of the end for this story
SnowCharms: I really like this story, and am very envious of your writing style, but am not too pleased with some of your spellings and grammar. Then again it doesn't really matter, since the more important aspect is the writing style and the plot...However, if it's not Eriol I will skin you alive and slice off your appendages with a scapel and feed them to wild bears in front of your eyes and boil you alive for stew!
AN: ^^ every chapter usually is the result of about 3 hours of fast typing so bound to be errors :P oh. and if by some way, Eriol is not Lupin, please do not resort to manslaughter?
