Butterflies

Chapter Thirty-Six

Some Things Are Hard To Take

Kinomoto Sakura had no idea that she possessed so many things. In fact, by the time that she and Tomoyo had finished boxing up all her belongings in preparation for her Big Move, Sakura solemnly vowed never to purchase another item for as long as she lived.

To which Tomoyo replied, "ha!"

…

The packing had started well, with both Tomoyo and Sakura enthusiastic, ready to get to grips with this unpleasant task and determined to be finished within a few hours.

The problem was that, although they began at three P.M. that afternoon, they were not finished until eleven P.M. that night.

This was down to a combination of things. A) Sakura and Tomoyo had underestimated just how much stuff Sakura had, B) they had got increasingly sentimental as they went on and kept having to have breaks to reminisce and cry and C) due to all the painful reminiscing, they got stinking drunk which slowed their progress somewhat.

However, they eventually completed their task and slumped, exhausted, into a heap on the floor, snoring in an alcohol-induced slumber.

…

They were to receive a rude awakening the next morning in the form of both Syaoran and Eriol arriving at the same time in the morning and proceeding, (with what Tomoyo and Sakura considered to be unnecessary cheer and vigour) to awaken Sakura and Tomoyo.

"Oh my God," Syaoran muttered as he and Eriol walked into the girls' living room to see Tomoyo and Sakura sprawled on the floor.

"Yes, what the hell happened here last night? Why aren't you two in bed?" Eriol demanded, and with his hands on his hips in indignation, he looked disturbingly like his own dear fiancée when she was on the verge of a fierce lecture.

"Wha'?" said dear fiancée intelligently.

Sakura appeared to be incapable of articulating anything, intelligent or not, as she blinked sleepily and rubbed at her eyes.

"I think somebody got spectacularly smashed last night," Syaoran said to Eriol, nodding meaningfully in the direction of the girls. Eriol rolled his eyes.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," he sighed, and walked over to Tomoyo, extending a hand to pull her to her feet.

"Ugh," she said succinctly as she wobbled unstably on her feet.

Eriol wrapped an arm around her waist and steered out of the room.

"My head hurts…" Sakura complained as she clutched her head.

"Copious amounts of alcohol will do that," Syaoran said cheerfully as he pulled Sakura to her feet.

"Oh…" she moaned, still clutching her head. "The room's spinning… I feel so dizzy…"

Immediately, Syaoran looked panicked and moved away from her a little.

"Do you feel like you're going to throw up?" he asked, glancing at her warily.

"No, but I feel pretty gross," she said, making a face. Syaoran instantly brightened again.

"Nothing that a shower, some breakfast and some alka-seltzers won't fix!" he chirped as he led Sakura downstairs, extremely slowly.

…

Sakura walked downstairs after her shower, towel-drying her hair vigorously as she went. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs when she saw Tomoyo standing at the doorway to the kitchen, peering in at something going on in the kitchen that Sakura couldn't see.

"Tomoyo-chan, what –" Sakura began, extremely confused. Tomoyo turned quickly around and put a finger over her lips, shaking her head frantically and laughing helplessly. Sakura raised a quizzical eyebrow, but Tomoyo just continued to shake her head and began to beckon Sakura towards her.

Sakura crept towards Tomoyo, and her best friend pointed to the scene going on over the threshold of the kitchen.

"Eriol is trying to make breakfast," Tomoyo whispered for Sakura's benefit.

Sakura peered in through the small gap in the door to see Eriol wearing a black apron and frowning at a pan and a box of eggs in turn. On the counter was a big bowl, with dollops of egg dotted around it.

"He's not succeeding," Tomoyo pointed out the obvious. "But you missed the best bit – he was cracking eggs on the side of the bowl with the funniest look of concentration on his face!"

At that moment, Syaoran walked up behind Eriol. And stopped.

"What on earth are you doing?" he asked. Eriol jumped and whirled around, clutching his chest.

"You scared me!" he said to Syaoran, making it sound like an accusation.

"Sorry," Syaoran replied as he walked past Eriol to examine the mixing bowl. "But, really, just what are you attempting?"

"Pancakes!" Eriol said, more than a tad defensively as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Syaoran raised a deeply skeptical eyebrow.

"Really?" he asked, extremely unimpressed. "You call this mess pancakes?"

Eriol grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck embarrassedly.

"No, not exactly… More like valiantly attempted pancakes," he amended.

Syaoran rolled his eyes.

"Well, I can see that," he said, then his expression softened. "For the girls?"

Eriol nodded.

"Of course. I thought a good breakfast might help them feel better," he explained.

"Well, then," Syaoran said, "you should have asked me to help. Hand me an apron and I'll gladly assist in fixing this blatant mess."

"Thanks, Syaoran-kun," Eriol said gratefully as he rummaged in a drawer for an apron. "You're a real lifesaver!"

"Mmm…" Syaoran replied distractedly as he inspected the mess of eggs, clearly trying to gauge if any of it could be salvaged. His hand was held out in anticipation of the apron.

For a few seconds, Eriol looked at the last apron in the drawer and tried to decide if he should hand it to Syaoran despite the possibility that he might get it thrown back in his face. He finally decided that it was worth the risk, and Syaoran felt a piece of material be put into his hand.

He simply held it for a second, not looking at it, then shook his head and declared that he would have to throw the entire contents of the mixing bowl into the bin. At that point, he turned his attention from the bowl to the apron in his hand.

And couldn't speak.

He gaped at it for a moment, and then looked up at Eriol.

"Are you serious?" he asked the other man. Eriol shrugged and tried desperately not to laugh, but Syaoran noticed the corners of his mouth twitching uncontrollably. And he didn't like it.

"It's the last apron in the drawer," Eriol said bravely.

Syaoran sighed and looked up at the ceiling of the kitchen.

"Only for Sakura," he said, and proceeded to pull the frilly pink monstrosity of an apron over his head.

At the doorway, Sakura and Tomoyo looked at each other.

"Did he just say," Sakura began, then shook her head.

"Do you know what?" she began again.

"What?" Tomoyo asked.

"Let's just forget it," Sakura said, then paused to let a devious grin spread over her face, "and enjoy this!"

…

Sakura and Tomoyo proceeded to watch the goings-on in the kitchen for a further fifteen minutes. Syaoran was doing his best to show the klutzy Eriol how to make the pancakes, and he was successful for the most part, if one overlooked the splatters of egg everywhere (including on the two men) and the fact that Eriol, Syaoran and the kitchen were pretty much covered in flour.

When Eriol and Syaoran had put some of the pancake batter into two pans and sat down at the kitchen table to give them freedom to cook, Sakura and Tomoyo decided to enter the kitchen together.

"Oh, hi!" Syaoran said brightly when he saw the two of them.

"Hi, Syaoran," Sakura said, then gave that devious smirk another airing, "pink really suits you."

Immediately Syaoran colored and smacked his forehead.

"I forgot the stupid apron," he exclaimed, and got up to take it off, "I was actually hoping to have it off by the time you two came down."

But Sakura placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, and he paused to look at her.

"No, don't," she said, grinning now, while her tone of voice became thoughtful, "I always hated that apron, but it actually does look kind of good on you."

Which made Syaoran color so badly he was the exact fuchsia of the garment in question.

"Is she serious?" Eriol asked Tomoyo. Tomoyo grinned.

"Don't forget Sakura's incredible attraction to a man who can cook," she said.

At that, Sakura turned around immediately.

"What?" she asked defensively. "Don't you think there's something sexy about a man who can cook?"

Tomoyo grinned again.

"Oh, absolutely…" she purred, looking Syaoran up and down. "And there's definitely something to be said for a man who looks sexy in a pink frilly apron."

She looked back at Eriol.

"Of course, there's something undeniably sweet about a man who's completely hopeless in the kitchen, too," she said, and Eriol looked appeased.

"And I never get to see you in an apron…" she continued. "It's extremely…"

"Okay, okay, I don't want to hear the rest of that sentence!" Syaoran interrupted. Tomoyo grinned.

"I'm taking the apron off now," he said, reaching around to untie the strings, "so let that be the end of it!"

Sakura made a definite noise of disappointment.

…

"This is actually quite exciting!" Sakura exclaimed after breakfast as she helped Tomoyo heave another box into the back of Syaoran's car.

"It actually is! I'm surprised," Tomoyo said as she dusted off her hands. "But we're definitely lucky to have weather like this. If the weather was horrible then this would be a completely awful task."

As it was, it was a gorgeous, clear September morning, the sun was shining beautifully and although there was a decidedly crisp, clean feeling to the air, it was certainly not cold.

"When is the moving van supposed to be here?" Eriol asked Syaoran as he closed the trunk of the car, now completely loaded with Sakura's belongings. Syaoran frowned.

"Already," he said. "I don't know where they've got to."

"Perhaps they had trouble finding the place?" Eriol suggested. Syaoran shrugged.

"Possibly. In fact, it might be better this way – if we take the first load in the car and try to find the place, then we can ride with the movers and direct them later," Syaoran admitted.

"Okay, girls," he called to Tomoyo and Sakura, "let's go!"

…

"This is absolutely marvellous!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Somehow," Syaoran said dryly, "I don't think we really need the moving van, after all."

"I can't believe I didn't realise after reading the address!" Sakura exclaimed.

Sakura and Syaoran's new address was number five, Weston Avenue, a lovely, friendly-looking street with plenty of children playing happily in it (no doubt a subtle hint from Yelan and Fujitaka). Their house was spacious and modern, with a neat front garden planted with roses, hydrangea and primroses. Ivy was growing up the red brick of the house, curling attractively near white windowsills.

Around the back of the house was a fully-grown Sakura tree, bare at the moment in the September sunshine. It wouldn't bloom until spring.

The house was beautiful, but there was one odd thing about it…

It had only taken them three minutes to drive there.

The house was only a few streets away from Sakura and Tomoyo's current home.

"Well, I won't have to miss you!" Tomoyo exclaimed cheerfully.

"I really can't believe it!" Sakura laughed as she helped Syaoran, Tomoyo and Eriol with the unloading of the numerous cardboard boxes.

…

As it turned out, the moving van never arrived, and Sakura, Syaoran, Eriol and Tomoyo spent a thoroughly enjoyable day ferrying boxes from Sakura and Tomoyo's house to Sakura and Syaoran's new one.

When all the boxes had been safely moved, the four had looked around the house, which, as it had just been built, had completely bare, simply painted white bedrooms. The kitchen was fully-fitted and very beautiful, all in light wood. There were two wooden chairs in the living room that Sakura had brought with her, and, along with the two single beds in two of the four bedrooms, they were all the furniture in the house.

"We'll have to get all our wedding presents in here," Sakura said at the end of the day, when the four of them were sitting in the living room, all of them deciding to sit on the floor as they balanced their takeaway dinners on their laps.

"I'm not sure the house will be able to hold all three hundred of them," Syaoran pointed out dryly. "Especially with all our clutter as well."

"Oh, that reminds me," Sakura said as she wiped her sauce-stained mouth with a paper tissue, "we didn't move your stuff!"

Syaoran waved a hand.

"I'll get a moving van to collect my stuff, and we'll be able to do it all in one go. It's all sitting in boxes in my apartment."

"But does that mean you'll have to sleep in your apartment tonight?" Sakura asked worriedly. "Because your stuff is there?"

Syaoran shook his head.

"Don't worry, I came prepared – I brought a box of essentials with me."

Sakura looked relieved.

"Good, I didn't want to be here by myself tonight," she said.

Syaoran tossed her a sly look.

"Why? Afraid?" he asked teasingly.

Sakura nodded vigorously.

"Terrified!" she exclaimed. "I mean, there could be ghosts!"

Syaoran sweatdropped.

"Really," he said to Sakura and Tomoyo, "you'd think she'd be embarrassed, wouldn't you?"

"Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said patiently, "there couldn't be any ghosts in here, this is a brand new house!"

Sakura considered this for a second, then she said triumphantly, "but Tomoyo-chan, you don't know that! This place could be… B-built on an ancient Indian burial ground or something!"

"Actually," Eriol said, a glint in his eye, "I heard that…"

"Shut up, Eriol!" Tomoyo said. Eriol sighed, deflated, and closed his mouth.

"Yes, dear," he said obediently.

…

"Thanks for all your help today," Syaoran said to Eriol and Tomoyo as the four of them stood on the doorstep.

"Oh, it was no trouble, we were glad to help!" Tomoyo assured him.

"Well, I guess we'll see you tomorrow," Sakura said, and Tomoyo had a funny feeling that the newlywed was… Oh, she didn't know what it was. But there was just something about Sakura's smile, something… Uncertain, perhaps? Nervous, possibly?

She shook her head and bid Sakura and Syaoran goodnight, and walked with Eriol down the path and away from the house.

Sakura watched them leave from her position on the doorstep with Syaoran.

She stood there with him long after the other couple had disappeared, until finally she closed the door, and she was alone in the hallway with Syaoran.

She stood there, still, for a second and regarded the boxes piled in the hallway. Syaoran stood silent and motionless with her for a second, and the only sound was their breathing.

Sakura was deeply embarrassed when she felt a tear trickle down her cheek.

She heard Syaoran sigh and his arms were around her in a heartbeat.

"I wondered," he said softly, "when all of this was going to catch up with you."

"I'm sorry for crying," she apologised as she ruthlessly dragged a hand across one of her eyes. "God, I feel so stupid!" she said, chuckling weakly.

"No, no," Syaoran said, shaking his head, "it's okay to cry. You've had an awful lot piled on you in the space of a day. You're not living with Tomoyo-san anymore, and I can only imagine how startling that must be. Some things are hard to take."

Sakura silently nodded her agreement.

"But, you know, everything will be okay," he promised.

And, as Sakura stood there, despite the bare, unfamiliar hallway and the darkness falling gently outside, she could feel his heart beat steadily and comfortingly against her own skin, and she found herself believing him.

…