"How the hell do you do it, Sakura?" Syaoran asked as we sat in the kitchen the next morning eating breakfast.

I smiled at him and shrugged my shoulders, already knowing what he was speaking about. "You become used to it after a while."

Syaoran slouched in the chair and sighed. "I didn't get any sleep last night thanks to this little munchkin." Syaoran pinched her rubber cheek gently.

I smiled at the sight and shook my head. "She likes you more than she likes me, so she will let you get sleep after a while," I told him after swallowing down the rest of the pancake.

Maki started crying suddenly and I rolled my eyes. It was like this little rascal existed to have attention all the time.

I picked up the bottle and started to feed her.

I looked up to see Syaoran staring at me. My cheeks warmed a little before I looked back down at Maki drinking the 'milk'.

"You actually fit well in this role—being a mother, I mean. It fits you."

I didn't say anything and continued to feed her, ignoring his compliment.

"You could fit the role too if you saw her as a baby and not just a doll," I explained after taking the bottle out of Maki's mouth.

"I know, but I'm just having a harder time wrapping my head around the fact that she isn't real. I don't call her an 'it' anymore so that's a plus, right?" he asked hopefully.

I smiled as I started patting the baby's back to burp her. Syaoran really was adorable how he was all oblivious to this parenthood stuff. Weren't his parents ever around during his childhood?

"Yeah, you're right. If you interacted more with her then it'd become easier to see her as a 'person' rather than an object."

"I know, I know. I'm going to get better before the week is over. I promised that I'd do better, remember?"

I nodded my head after the baby finally burped. "Yes, I do. Now, the baby will poop soon so you're going to change the diaper."

He raised a brow confused. "Are you serious?" he asked incredulously.

"Yes. Don't tell me you don't know how to do that either?" I teased.

I looked up at him and saw his cheeks color. "Yes, I do!" He glared at me and pushed his chair back from the table, standing up.

I giggled and looked up at him standing. "Really?" I raised a brow.

He groaned and stormed out of the kitchen with that blush staining his cheeks. Why couldn't I get enough of that look on him?

I looked down at Maki and ran a finger across her head. "Let's go and watch something on the TV together then, huh? Your 'Daddy' just had a small temper tantrum," I said before picking her up and heading to the living room.

I sat Maki down on the couch before sitting down beside her. I picked up the remote control and switched the TV on.

I started flipping through the channels to find something to watch. I turned to Maki beside me and sighed.

Did I really fit the role of a mother? I wasn't even sure how to be a mother. I never even had the chance to experience having a mother of my own.

My mother had died so early on in my life that I couldn't even remember anything about her.

How did she used to treat me or Touya?

Was being a mother really something that could be considered common sense? Like, you just know what to do to be a great mother.

I'd always thought that mothers were good to their kids because their mothers were great moms to them and the list would go on like that of good mothers.

If that was the solution to how there were great moms, then who was the first great mom? It could be considered an instinct maybe.

I smiled at Maki before noticing a piece of paper beside her.

I reached over and picked up the paper beside her and started to examine it.

It was Syaoran's answers to the questions for the project. He'd already answered half of the questions in full blown paragraphs.

Would it be appropriate to read his answers without his permission?

My eyes skimmed over the papers, trying to figure out which answer I should read. The answers were just so damn long that it was hard to choose!

I felt the papers being snatched from my hands and I looked up to see Syaoran standing above me, glaring at me.

"Do you not know how to keep your nose out of everyone's business?"

My cheeks burned and I looked down. "I was just looking! I wasn't trying to read it or anything. Besides, it's the project," I attempted to reason.

"Oh, so I can go through your stuff without your permission? How would you feel if I went upstairs in the room you stay in and go through your underwear?"

I gasped and glared at him. "You pervert! You know that's different. Why didn't you tell me that you were doing the project without me?"

"I thought we were doing this on our own then comparing the answers with each other's?" He asked looking at me confused.

"I…we should work on them together!" I exclaimed stupidly. I just wanted to read those answers that he had since he said that he couldn't even answer some of those questions yet a few days ago!

He raised a brow at me before tucking the paper in the back of his pants pocket. "What are you trying to get at? We agreed on doing the answers separately, Sakura."

"What do you have to hide anyway? I'm going to read them anyway. Just let me read them now." I stood up to reach behind him.

He moved back and looked at me weird. "No, you're not reading my answers now."

The more he refused to let me read them, the more I wanted to read them.

"I'm going to read them anyway. Let me read them now." I reached behind him again and tried to grab the papers from his back pocket.

He dodged me though and grabbed my wrist. "You're not reading my answers, Sakura. What the hell's gotten into you?"

"Why? I'm going to read them anyway, aren't I?" I pulled my hand back and tried reaching for them again.

"Yes, but not now." He dodged me again.

I let out a huff and sat back down on the couch. "Fine..."

He raised a brow before turning to walk away. My eyes lit up at the opportunity he'd just given me.

I stood up and grabbed the papers from his back pocket and took off running with them.

I started to run up the stairs until I felt a hand grab my wrist, pulling me back down the steps and onto the floor.

A loud groan was heard under me.

I opened my eyes to see the ceiling and feeling my back pressed against a chest. I sat up, resting my bottom on a lap.

I turned my head around to see Syaoran under me with his eyes closed tightly. I turned my head back around and looked down at my hand to see the papers still in them. Smiling widely, I started to get up from him, but felt a hand grabbing my wrist, pulling me back down.

"Let me go!" I struggled against his firm grip on my wrist.

"Let my damn papers go then woman."

My fingers tightened around the papers subconsciously. "You're hurting me," I tried, but his grip only tightened around my wrist more.

"That's a damn lie; now give me back my papers."

"No!" I tried getting up, but he somehow turned me over so that I'd straddle him. He kept his grip tightly around my wrist so I couldn't get up.

I stared down at him wide-eyed and tried to pull back but he held onto it. "Sakura."

My struggling stopped at his tone of voice and the way he was looking at me suddenly.

My cheeks started to warm a little and my eyes shifted to another direction away from his.

"Let the papers go," he said seriously.

My hand let go of the papers slowly before my eyes shifted back over to his after they fell flatly on the floor.

Why the hell did I always get myself into compromising positions with this guy?

"Thank you," he said, his eyes never leaving mine.

We stared at each other for a few more moments before he sat up causing me to slide down a little but remaining in his lap.

His eyes changed to a darker shade as he began to lean into me slowly.

My cheeks burned, knowing exactly where this was going. He was going to kiss me and I was going to let him even though I didn't want him to.

My eyes started to close when I felt his hot breath brush against my face. It was only going to be for this one time, so it was alright for him to.

His lips brushed against mine lightly before we both heard wailing coming from the other side of the room.

It was Maki.

I snatched my hand back from his and hurriedly stood up from his lap and ran over to her on the couch, picking her up.

Syaoran walked up beside me and sat on the couch beside me.

"Okay, she's crying because her diaper needs to be changed. Are you ready to learn how to change a diaper?" I asked teasingly. I was surprised that I could still act normal after that little exchange we almost had. Ten points for me!

He rolled his eyes at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"Go and get the diaper bag where the wipes and pampers are," I instructed for him to do.

He left for a few moments before coming back with the diaper bag in hand.

I took it from him after lying Maki down on the couch. "Okay, changing a diaper is pretty self-explanatory to me, but for your sake, I'll give every little detail," I said mischievously.

He glared at me and I laughed evilly. "Well, I know that her diaper needs to be changed because of one or two things. Number one, it smells obviously. Two, you can feel the diaper at the bottom and see how heavy it feels and it'll often have a warm feeling to it," I explained.

He nodded his head thoughtfully and I smiled, knowing that I was being of help to him.

"How can you tell when the diaper needs to be changed again?" I asked teasingly.

He looked at me dumbfounded. "I'm not a damn child, Sakura."

"Shh! No cursing in front of the children," I joked as I covered Maki's ears.

His expression changed to a blank one. "I'm sorry, dear." He put emphasis on dear.

"Anyway, once that's found out, you need to make sure that your hands are cleaned so that you won't get any unwanted germs down there that could cause a rash or something." I opened the wipes and cleaned my hands.

Syaoran raised a brow at me and I smiled at him. "Next, you open a new clean diaper before placing the back half with the tabs on the sides of them until it reaches the baby's waist." I showed him what I was talking about.

"This is ridiculous, Sakura," he said with a monotonous voice.

I giggled and shook my head. "It's not. You need to know this for the future too if you plan to have an heir for the Li Clan," I said giving him a pointed look.

He scoffed and folded his arms. "I could always get someone else to do this for me."

"You want to experience this too though. It's a part of parenthood."

I cleared my throat and continued. "After this is done," I motioned to the clean diaper under the baby, "There's protection there to make sure the couch doesn't get dirty from the baby's mess. If it's a bigger mess, you might want to use something bigger like...a cloth or something," I explained.

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. I didn't even have to turn around to see him doing it because I already knew.

I pursed my lips, feeling slightly irritated that he wasn't taking me serious. "Do you want to learn how to do this or not?" I asked a little frustrated.

"I mean...no—"

I stood up from the couch angrily and was getting ready to storm off, but he grabbed my wrist gently and pulled me back down beside him.

"But I'm willing to learn for you," he whispered in my ear, causing goosebumps to run throughout my entire body.

My cheeks warmed a little at his hot breath on my skin. I turned back over to the baby and felt him lean over my shoulder to watch me.

"A-anyway, the next thing you do is unfasten the little tabs here," I showed him the tabs, "on the dirty diaper. Then you're going to pull down the front half of the dirty thing," I instructed as I followed along with my instructions.

"Since there's poop, I'm going to use the half of the front part of the diaper to wipe the substance of it off her bottom." I performed the task while talking.

For some reason, it didn't feel like Syaoran was watching the task anymore. I could feel his eyes on me now and it began to make me feel uncomfortable.

I didn't like not being able to see him in front of me. It was always so nerve-wrecking for me.

"U-uh…next I'm going to fold the dirty diaper in half under her while lifting her little bottom up to make sure that the crap doesn't get on the clean diaper," I said while holding up Maki's bottom by her two little ankles.

I cleaned her front with the wipe from front to back, explaining to him why I did that. I took another wipe out and cleaned her bottom specifically.

"You do know how weird this is, right?" I felt his hot breath on my neck and my cheeks warmed a little.

"Shut up and just pay attention, idiot." I gently scolded before proceeding on to the next thing.

He chuckled and tapped my shoulder lightly. "Yes, mother."

I grabbed out a small cloth from the bag and gently patted her dry. I finally removed the dirty diaper and handed it to Syaoran after wrapping it.

"Why the hell do I want this?"

"You don't, but I thought you deserved to get it placed in your hands." I giggled.

He scoffed before sitting it on the floor. "Now I'm going to pull the front half of this clean diaper to her tummy." I did as I said I would before tickling Maki's stomach, causing her to giggle.

I fastened the diaper on both sides with the tabs. "And we're done!" I held Maki up after finishing.

I heard Syaoran 'hmm' lightly before I felt his lips on my neck which caused my body to freeze.

He started to kiss up the side of my neck slowly and my skin tingled under his lips.

He reached his hands over me and took Maki out of my hands and sat her on the couch beside me. All the while, he kept his lips attached to my neck. He licked up the length of it and I almost moaned, but held it in.

"Stop it, Syaoran," I said weakly and turned around towards him.

He was staring at me with this dark look in his eyes that caused my cheeks to burn. "Is that all you think about? Getting into my pants?" I asked, glaring at him.

"No, Sakura. I swear it's not the only thing that I think about. I just…" He leaned in towards me and my eyes widened at how bold he was being suddenly.

"You just what? You're just a pervert? I think so too." I rested my hand on his chest, stopping him from getting any closer to me.

"No, I just can't help myself around you," he said weakly grabbing my hands on his chest, removing them.

"Well stop it then. I'm tired of feeling like I'm one of your little objects."

"I swear you're not. You know that you mean more to me than that."

I rolled my eyes and stood up from the couch to get some space between us. "Whatever Syaoran. I still hate you and refuse to be one of your—"

"Sakura," he said sternly.

I looked at him confused by the seriousness all of a sudden. "What?"

"Loving couple in front of the kid, remember?" He stood up from the couch with a twinkle of mirth in his eyes.

I bit my lip, trying to contain the giggle that wanted to escape at that statement. How in the world was this guy trying to throw my own statement back in my face?

"You're right. Most children don't like to see their parents display such affection in front of them either though," I played along with him to ease the tension in the room.

"Well, Maki doesn't necessarily like to see her parents fighting all the time, so I'm sure she'd rather see us making up, instead of fighting." He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me to his body.

I giggled and rested my hands on his chest and pushed against him gently to get a little space between us. He kept his hands loosely wrapped around my waist though and I didn't even bother to remove them.

"Well, I wouldn't want to see my parents tangled up in each other's arms or limbs, so let's cut her some slack," I said and he chuckled before letting my waist go.

We both sat back down on the couch beside Maki and I picked her up, holding her in my arms. "So, what should we do today? It's still early in the day so we should do something," I said, running my fingers through Maki's hair. It had become a habit of mine since I'd started staying with Syaoran. Her hair was also soft too, so that may have been the reason too.

"How about we just sit home today? I mean, we've been out almost every day since you started staying here. Wouldn't it be nice to just sit in the house all day and spend time together?"

My heart beat picked up its pace at the mention of us spending time together. It wasn't like we hadn't been doing that, but to hear him say it made me feel a little weird inside.

"Besides, I feel like we could bond more with 'our baby' and not feel weird," he added.

That was true…

"Alright." I smiled and sat Maki down between us so we didn't have to remain so close to each other.

Syaoran raised a brow at me questioningly. "Are you always going to use your 'babies' to get space between us? After so many years, you're still doing the same thing."

I giggled and shook my head at the memory he was also thinking about. "I did not used to use Kero to get space between us."

"You definitely did, Sakura. Whenever you'd get mad at me but wanted to be around me, you'd just put Kero between us to let me know that you didn't want to be near me."

"Well, it's different now. You can't seem to keep your hands to yourself."

He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, "What can I say? You're just so addicting," he said teasingly before poking my side, causing me to jump on reflex.

My cheeks warmed even though I knew he was joking.

Get it together Sakura!

"Oh whatever, Syaoran," I said, rolling my eyes.

He chuckled and the stupid smile wouldn't leave my face. It was beginning to feel like old times and that wasn't a good thing. He had hurt me and didn't even bother to give an explanation why he did. He still hadn't till this day and he was acting as if what he did never happened.

"Syaoran."

He looked at me with that smile still on his face. "Yes?"

"Why did you shut me out?"

His smile instantly dropped and his expression changed to a serious one. "It was reasonable at the time, but you'd probably think that it's stupid now," he said looking away.

He wasn't going to tell me like he wouldn't before. I knew that if I pressed on about it, he would start to become distant and stop talking to me again. I didn't want that though even though I should've.

I didn't want to get hurt again, so why was I trying to get all comfortable with him anyway?

I nodded my head and swallowed the huge knot that was preventing me from breathing.

"Well, where's Meilin? I haven't seen her since the first day I got here. She was almost unrecognizable when I first saw her." I forced a short laugh out. I had fallen off so badly with Syaoran that I didn't even recognize her anymore. Her name didn't even sound familiar the day I'd first came here.

"Yup, she's…she's still the same. Surprised that you couldn't tell by the way she was acting," he said, running a hand through his hair.

He rested his back against the couch and sighed after I didn't respond to him. "Sakura…"

"I'm going to go and think about the project for a bit. I think I know the answer to some of those questions now," I said before hurriedly standing from the couch. "You don't mind watching Maki for a bit, right?"

"I'll watch her," he said quietly.

"Right. I'll be downstairs later to help you with dinner," I said before leaving quickly so he wouldn't be able to respond.

The moment I closed the door to the room I'd been staying in, my back rested against the door and I slid down to the floor holding my chest.

The ache wouldn't go away and I didn't know what to do to get rid of it. It wasn't fair at all to me to still feel hurt by the jackass. It had been years since that happened so why was I still hurting because of it?

If I had answers, the pain would probably dissipate. I didn't have answers though and I probably never would.

Did that mean I'd never be able to get over the asshole?

"Did you come up with the answers to some of the questions?" Syaoran asked while cutting up the onions.

"I came up with some of them." I sat the noodles in the pan that was boiling water on the stove.

"Which ones?" he asked nonchalantly.

I turned to him and gave him a skeptical look. "Oh, now you want to share?"

He shrugged and put the onions in the pan with the frying meat. "I just didn't want to be the only one sharing. It wouldn't have felt right, you know?"

"No, I don't know and I'm not sharing anything with you right now." I walked over to the table and picked Maki up and the bottle.

"Fine, we can wait it out if you want to then," he murmured under his breath and moved over to the counter and began cutting up the peppers.

I began to feed Maki the milk while watching him maneuver his way around in the kitchen. "That is what I want," I said with a smile on my face.

"My mother's doing a little better than she was the other day. Still not doing well, but she's better than she was. She needs a kidney because hers is failing. She's on the top list to receive one though." Syaoran said as he continued to cut the peppers.

"That's good that she's doing better than she was before. I'm sure they'll find her one—"

"Don't, Sakura. I don't think your positivity is needed in this situation."

I frowned and held onto Maki a little tighter, but not too tight as I fed her the milk. "You should want all the positivity that you can get, Syaoran. Your mother is very strong; she deserves that much from her son. Believe a little. She's made it this far for you and all your sisters."

He didn't say anything for a while as he put the peppers in the pan to let them fry with the other food. "You're right, but it's stupid to get your hopes up then get them crushed. That's why most people lack faith in anything."

Syaoran was finally opening up to me freely, but I didn't like the way he was viewing things one bit.

"It's not stupid. What's wrong with believing in something that you desperately want? Don't you want your mother to get better? Don't you want her to be healthy?"

"Of course, I do. What kind of stupid questions are those?"

"Then try to believe that she'll get better. Try to believe that she'll find a kidney. Try to believe that once she gets better this time, she'll never have to suffer again. What's so wrong about doing that?"

His shoulders dropped down and a sigh escaped his mouth. "Can I ask you a favor?"

"Of course, anything you would like," I offered, feeling desperate to make him feel better.

He turned to me, looking me straight in the eyes. "Could you come to Hong Kong with me when I visit her? I…I don't think I can do it alone. You're the only person who knows about this, aside from family. She asks about you every single time I visit and she would be happy to see you," he said, looking at me pleadingly with those amber orbs.

My eyes were widened at his absurd question. Out of all the people, he was asking me to come to Hong Kong with him? Had he lost his mind?

"Syaoran…you know I can't do that. My Dad wouldn't even feel alright with me going all the way over there—"

"Well, ask him then. Explain to him what's going on and I'm sure he would understand and let you. Please Sakura…? I can't do this alone anymore. I need you."

My cheeks warmed at the last statement even though he had whispered it. "Okay…I'll talk to him about it."

He smiled sadly at me and nodded his head. "Thank you, Sakura. This means a lot to me. I'll do anything you ask me to."

I smiled at him before taking the bottle out of Maki's mouth because she had finished drinking the milk. I patted her back gently until she burped.

"Well, you're going to be the one to change her diaper this time," I said teasingly to lighten the mood.

"Oh goodness, this again?" he said exasperatedly.

I giggled before sitting her on the table and standing up. He walked over to the stove and checked on the noodles in the boiling water to see that they had melted.

"Yes, this again. This is only lesson one and there's a lot more that you have to know within the next few weeks we do this project. Changing diapers was just something that I wanted you to experience for my own pleasure though."

He glared at me and dropped the knife down on the counter.

I giggled and took the noodles out of the boiling pan and placed them in a big bowl. "You're going to have many more nights with her staying up late too so that is part of the parenthood lessons. You'll learn, honey," I teased.

His entire face turned red and I burst into a fit of laughter at the adorable look.

I was playing along with this a little bit too much, but what could I say? I was making the most of it while I could because after this project, there would be no more Syaoran.

"Alright, Syaoran. Remember what I told you earlier, right?" I said as we both sat down in the living room with Maki lying on the couch.

Syaoran was getting ready to change her diaper after dinner because she had pooped, like I had known she would.

Syaoran nodded and began to pop the tabs on the pamper open. "Wait! You forgot the first step," I stopped him before he could go any further.

He gave me a skeptical look before proceeding to doing it before I stopped him again. "Wait! You didn't wipe your hands."

I stopped him a few more times before he let out a huff and turned to me frustrated. "Can I not do this on my own? You taught me, now let me do it on my own to show your great teaching skills," he said annoyed.

I held up a hand in defense. "Okay, okay, you're right. I'll let you have at it."

He continued to do it until he forgot one more thing and I stopped him.

"God damn it, Sakura! Her diaper needs to be changed because of the way it smells obviously and you can feel the diaper at the bottom and see how heavy it feels and it'll often have a warm feeling to it. After that, you need to make sure that your hands are cleaned so that you won't get any unwanted germs down there that could cause a rash or any type of bacteria. You open a new clean diaper before placing the back half with the tabs on the sides of them until it reaches the baby's waist. This allows protection to be there to make sure the couch doesn't get dirty from the baby's shit. If it's a bigger mess, you might want to use something bigger like a damn cloth or something. After that, I unfasten the little tabs on the dirty diaper then pull down the front half of the dirty thing. Since there's poop, I use the half of the front part of the diaper to wipe the substance of it off her bottom. I'm going to fold the dirty diaper in half under her while lifting her little ass up to make sure that the shit doesn't get on the clean diaper. I clean her front with the wipe from front to back, to make sure that I don't get any shit on her front part then I take another wipe out and clean her bottom specifically to make sure the shits out of her butt. I use this cloth here to pat her little bottom dry then remove the dirty diaper. Next, I pull the front half of this clean diaper to her tummy and fasten the tabs on the diaper."

I sat dumbfounded at his performance and explanation of it all. He didn't even skip one detailed explanation or performance.

"Are you damn happy now, woman? I get it; I know how to change a damn diaper. It's self-explanatory, now can you stop pestering me about it?" He stood up from the couch and stormed out of the room.

A smile crept to my lips before shaking my head, not believing what just occurred here.

He really was impressive and very slow to anger, in my opinion.

At least a few lessons were learned today.

Too bad there was a lot more where that came from.

It's getting pretty late here, so I will have to end the chapter here since I have to work on my other story. Let me know what you guys thought of it in the reviews!

Ja ne!