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Troubling Attractions -- Chapter 13

+++New York (early morning)+++
Once they reach the apartment, Sakura immediately takes a shower, changes her clothes, brushes her teeth, hugs her brother, and goes to sleep. Touya does the same only at a far slower pace since he seems distracted with the thoughts of a certain woman…

Unknown to these peaceful people, un-welcomed guests, both of whom with feminine features seen in the slight moonlight, have decided to eavesdrop on their late evening activities. They are smirking eerily.

Many hours have passed, revealing the bright and lustful morning sun rising over the New York horizon. The two women have seemed to vanish along with the night, and Touya is the first to wake up at the sound of the doorbell. He did not sleep well with his mind wandering everywhere and the sudden heat of the apartment did not help him, so much so that he gets up with his toned-upper body bare (no shirt on). He groans and treads groggily over to it. He quickens his pace as the ringing grew more and more urgent every millisecond.

His temper rises and he yells, "ALL RIGHT! I'M—!" He stops mid-sentence as he opens the door, gawking at the piece of a woman before him. "Meilin?" he inquires.

The woman looks absolutely confused. She appears to have almost the same features as Meilin except for her purple eyes, brown-highlighted hair and smaller size. She stares at him innocently while slightly blushing from embarrassment, "Um, I'm sorry, did I disturb you? Is Meilin home?"

An eyebrow rises on Touya, "Uh, Meilin doesn't live here. Are you a relative of hers?"

She smiles from relief, "Yes! I'm her sister. Whew, I'm so glad that I met someone who knows her. Strange…the manager downstairs insisted that Meilin lived here. Does this mean that she comes by here often?" She asks suspiciously but in a playful manner.

Touya obliviously replies, "Yeah, she does. She's best friends with my little sister."

Best friends…those words play through the woman's head, having a strange ring to them. She grins lightly when she realized that she had been frowning, "Oh, I see. Well, my name is Min-li. Do you mind if I borrow your phone to call my dear sister who had failed to give me her correct address?"

Touya chuckles, "Well, I'm not surprised. She tends to leave things last minute, even notifying people of important events and places." Min-li nods and walks into the apartment as Touya gestures her in.

After she calls Meilin who was 'grievously sorry' and announced that she was on her way, Sakura comes out after a nice shower. She wistfully walks by them, mumbling a good morning to both as she makes her way to the kitchen. Right when she disappears out of the room, she pops back in and almost runs into Min-li.

The next second, Sakura burst out laughing. Min-li frowns disdainfully, rude…she thought. Sakura sees this and quickly composes herself, "I'm sorry. You look so much like one of my friends. I was laughing at my own stupidity. I didn't mean to offend you."

Min-li inwardly smirks, you have no idea how stupid you are…She insincerely smiles, "Oh no, it's all right."

After this, the two women go to sit on the couches as Touya goes to the kitchen for refreshments. Min-li explains to Sakura that Meilin, her sister, had said for her to go the address of the apartment and that Meilin would be here waiting for her. Min-li also questions why Meilin didn't tell her the real address of her home. Just as Sakura shrugs and chuckles a bit, Touya comes back with juice drinks. After he puts the drinks on the coffee table, he rushes off to put on a shirt.

However, before he gets to his room, the doorbell painfully rings…again. Touya scowls knowingly. Just as the door cracks open, he is met with a strong force and jumped on by none other than Meilin. His back slammed into the floor, and their faces almost collide, being about 2 inches away from each other.

"Aw, shit-aki mushrooms, Mei! You scared the crap out of me!" exclaimed Touya while resting on both his elbows against the floor with Meilin on him and her arms around his neck. He is blushing furiously from the massive body-contact with his current infatuation.

Min-li's eyebrows furrow in speculation, shifting from the "interesting" scene to Sakura's amused yet disgusted facial expression. Very interesting…she thought.

+++Kyotashi's House in "Happy" Japan+++
Eriol is astounded with all the "detective" rooms and equipment that Kyotashi had. There is a dark room (for photo developing), forensics lab, and a whole bunch of other rooms with "secret" police/military/detective things…they were hardcore stuff, things that Sherlock Holmes did not have, not that he needed them anyway.

They had arrived at a two-room, one side compiled with file cabinets and the other looked like a war room with geography items.

Kyotashi is amused further with Eriol's face of wonder and awe. He laughs, "Hey, Hiragizawa, this isn't heaven or anything like your girlfriend, so stop gawking."

Eriol quickly reacts while changing the subject, "Where are Touya and Sakura?"

The red-black haired guy shakes his head, "Time to test your skills, man." They trot over to the maps on the walls and tables. "If you were running from the Japanese Mafia, you would choose to live…?"

"…in a REALLY big place where it's hard to find me." Eriol sounds like a kid in his exaggeration of the word 'really'.

"Okay," Kyotashi, "Using this map of the world, which countries would you live in?"

Eriol examines the map through and through and points to Russia, China, Antarctica, and the United States. He reasoned that those were pretty big. He eliminated Russia and China because they were still too close to Japan, and crossed out Antarctica because…well…there wasn't really anything there and Touya and Sakura wouldn't even survive out there. Of course, the U.S. seemed more likely because it was the furthest away from Japan and what not.

Both begin to investigate and explore the maps to reduce the possible places for Touya and Sakura to reside. They concluded that those two would live in a state that was very urban. They make a list of states from most probable to least, the first being California…unfortunately for them, they are quite a bit off.

Now, that they both know approximately where the two missing people are, they posed to find the "why" of the situation. Why was the mafia after them in the first place? Well, it applies mostly to Sakura.

Kyotashi reveals some gaps, "According to my research, it has much to do with their father."

"But Kinomoto-sama is dead."

The other man inquiringly raises an eyebrow, "Or is he? Some divisions of the mafia are very twisted…like some Communists."

"What do you mean?" asks Eriol, his worst fears edging over.

"Well…simply put, they are very stubborn and don't play by the rules. If at first they don't succeed in whatever they are doing, they lie, cheat, steal, and definitely murder. However, I found out that Kinomoto-sama was-is too important for them to kill…at least not immediately."

Kyotashi watches Eriol's innocently bewildered face, smiling at how kawaii it looked. "Okay, let's try this again. If you were in the mafia, what is the most important thing to you…stereotypically?"

"Oh! Money!" Eriol smiles cheekily only to frown at the realization. "Kinomoto-sama owes the mafia money…and I bet a lot of it too if he really isn't dead yet. But, why make him fake his death, making his children pay? Why Sakura and not Touya? It doesn't make sense!" The blue-haired one scuffles his hair in frustration.

"Ah," notes Kyotashi, "Now you are understanding the demented organization even more. You see, the man in charge wants Fujitake-san to suffer for not returning the owed money…I'm assuming. What better way for him to suffer than to not only keep him alive for torture but also let him watch his most beloved people suffer? He is tormented physically, mentally, and emotionally: the best way of punishment."

Eriol is horribly disgusted, "GAH! That's just sick."

"Oh-noz sir, it is absolutely dandy," retorts Kyotashi sarcastically, giving Eriol the 'sparkle fingers'.

Eriol rolls his eyes. This guy is as complicated as a girl…he thought amusingly. "Anyway, how are we going to search for them in the U.S.? We don't have enough time to investigate the…" Eriol turns to the list and counts, "10 states that we guessed."

Kyotashi shrugs nonchalantly, "Pick the top five."

"You, punk, how can you do that so easily? How do you know they aren't in one of the next-top 5?"

"I don't." Kyotashi watches Eriol's head fall in exasperation, "We'll get nothing done if we don't take chances. Risk, that's part of the business, Eriol. You have to harness your courage, mold your instincts and trust your intuition. At this point, that's all we've got…with my brain, of course."

The other man still looks at him disbelievingly. For the rest of the day, they plan their route and connections for the United States: flight times, international passports, transportation within the states, etc. Everything seems to be in order after the blue-haired man left the older man's house, nearly midnight. Everything would be ready in a matter of hours. Something seemed to be missing though…

+++Happy Japan Airport, the next morning+++
"I can't believe you made me do this!" yells the first voice, giving a female attendant flight tickets to board.

"What?" asks the second voice innocently although he was smiling inwardly.

"You know exactly what," glares the first, motioning his eyes to his right as he took his seat.

"Say, Eriol, is something the matter with your organs of vision?"

The blue-haired man stays silent until…"Is something wrong with your eyes, Eriol-kun?" adds a third voice, concernedly.

He sighs, "No…I'm all right, Tomoyo-chan."

"Then what was it that Kyotashi-san sa—"

"I assure you it's nothing!" Tomoyo flinches a bit, looking over to Kyotashi as if to ask "why is he upset" only to have the red-black haired man shrug in reply as he stuffs his carry-on into the upper compartment before taking a seat next to Eriol.

Eriol sighs again. He did not know how, but somehow the man to his left convinced him to bring his girlfriend (to his right in the window seat)…with them. Kyotashi did not even fill Tomoyo in on anything other than "we've found them." That alone made the woman jump in anticipation and she had her duffle bag ready in 10 minutes flat. Eriol and Tomoyo missed their night together (with either Italian or Chinese food since they never quite established it in their conversation the morning before…common occurrence) since she was "informed" that morning. Kyotashi was gracious enough to drive to their house.

Another quality Eriol loved about Tomoyo: she was not the typical superficial girl who had to carry one luggage for clothes and another for accessories. In fact, why bother when she can easily make her own clothes, if needed; the essential make-up necessities were always in her purse. Her good nature scored her 2 months of "vacation", unknown to her boss that she was doing otherwise. Of course, she swayed herself to believe that sightseeing in the U.S. was technically touring…and that was equivalent to vacationing. She could not bring herself to think of completely lying to her employers.

First stop: the state of California in the United States of America

Destination of the LAX airport reached after about 13 hours of "Tomoyo-Eriol-Kyotashi-ness Time". Readers' imagination needed to fill in for that.

"Kyotashi, I think you forgot something important," states Eriol, grabbing their luggage from the moving ramp and almost falling into it because he caught one too late.

"What?"

Tomoyo chips in, "We don't know how to speak fluent English."

Kyo sighs, "Oh, c'mon you two! You haven't learned to have enough faith in me and my abilities?"

Eriol crooks an eyebrow, "What?" Kyotashi's last statement made no sense to him…was it even in Japanese?

"Oh! So, in other 'understandable' words, you understand and speak English!" exclaimed Tomoyo excitedly.

Eriol rolls his eyes. Kyotashi not only made his blood run cold from his scary 'abilities', but also boil for showing him up in front of his girlfriend…more than once. It is not that Eriol was worried or anything. Tomoyo would not cheat on him and Kyotashi apparently still clung to his deceased wife …yet that does not mean his mind cannot wonder 'what if'.

"Show off..." mumbles Eriol under his breath as he catches the last of the bags from the evil-silvery-mechanical ramp of the inevitable-death-of-him-someday. He is half-wondering how and why he was the one getting their belongings. Then he remembered he volunteered and threatened Kyotashi. Oh yea…

Each person grabs his or her possessions and follows Kyotashi out of the airport, blinking from the strong glaring sunlight.

+++Sad Japan+++
BRIING…BRIING

"You better have good news…" said a gruff and angry voice.

"Oh, believe me, step-father, it's all good. It seems everything here is established perfectly…with a few perks."

"Hm…what 'perks'?"

"I haven't been watching long, but it seems your daughter was correct…Sakura's brother has been definitely falling for her. I'll find out if Sakura has a lover. Is there anything from the ones in Japan?"

"They've moved…"

"What?"

"We've lost trace of them here…"

+++New York+++
"You piss me off!" Syaoran yells as he tries to punch Meilin again who giggles humorously. Suddenly, her face becomes stern. She knees him in the stomach and then hits him across the face. He goes flying.

This fight has been going on for a while now. Why doesn't Meilin just finish it already instead of toying with him, thought Touya, I want a piece of him.

Right when Syaoran gets off the ground, Meilin does her finishing combo: two round-house kicks, a knee-up, and a slam down with her elbow.

"K.O. Player 2 wins!" screams the automated announcer for the video game Marvel v. Capcom.

Everyone (Sakura, Touya, Meilin, Min-li, and Yukito) laughs at Syaoran's defeated expression, noting that he looked cute in doing so. The other gamers in the arcade stare over, wondering what is so comical about a fighting game.

TBC…

Thanks to the people who reviewed! Yeah...took me a very long time for this. I really appreciate those who are still interested in reading this fanfic.