Interlude:
Dinner
It was dinnertime. The Card Mistress, Videographer, and She-Warrior had just finished furnishing the room; it looked like they'd lived there forever!
The walls were an inviting lavender, which complimented Tomoyo's eyes; there were a few decorative pieces in black (a Bust of Paellas, a few ornamental art pieces), which fit Meiling's hair; and the bed was beautiful; a statement in color scheming. However, there was only one; they would have to share it.
Currently, Sakura examined her beautiful blue china bowl: it had a lovely pattern; a picturesque place in a faraway land, screened across the entire interior of the bowl. Her brow furrowed, then relaxed, as the lovely scene playing before her relaxed her onerous mind. She was so tired; she'd been lifting things in Tomoyo and Meiling's room for them, moving the items as they sat on the bed. She shuddered, remembering it.
Flash
"NO! TO THE LEFT! LEFT, LEFT!"
Sakura cringed at the high pitched squeal as it erupted from Meiling; to think that those same vocals could chill one's blood with a war cry, and here they were, employed in a petty squabble. Huh. She and Tomoyo had been arguing heatedly about the positions of many a thing in their room; leaving Sakura to do the actual lifting, "So we can get a better view of how it looks from different angles," they had insisted.
"RIGHT! The LEFT makes it look UGLY! Besides, I can't see my PICTURES when it's to the LEFT!" Tomoyo was fuming, clenching her fists at her sides as she ticked off the "Valid reasons that it looks uglier on the left than the right".
"Hoeeeee." Sakura held a fully loaded little bookshelf; on its own it would have been no inconvenience, however, coupled with Meiling's extensive collection, it was a considerable burden; her arms ached with the effort.
"LEFT! LEFT LEFT LEFT!"
"RIGHT!"
As the two continued their shouting match, occasionally throwing pillows in order to place emphasis on their points, Sakura slowly put down the loathsome bookshelf. She promptly sank to the floor, her bared legs crossing; Click, click click, clickclickclick!
The muted sound was noted somewhere in Sakura's subconscious, her animated mind withdrawing into her own robust senses.
Somewhere, near, a warrior of magnitude, competent in sorcery, was slowly unloading his cargo. Sakura could sense his aura, like a physical presence, niggling at her awareness, tugging at her attention.
She smiled.
'My warrior… my love.' Her fingers curled into the downy carpet, her eyes closing; an unconscious response to the pleasantness of such unbidden, traitorous thoughts.
Her reverie was broken by an insistent "CLICK!" She sat up, releasing her grip on the warm carpet. Her smile fell away from her face.
Her senses told her that the Videographer and Warrior had duked it out; the videographer had won. Sigh. She would have to leave the tenderness of her aura's interaction with Li to lift the ponderous thing.
She stood and turned to face the two combatants.
"So, right, then?"
Meiling steamed, crossing her arms over her chest and flipping her hair to one side; Tomoyo cast a triumphant smile at Sakura.
"Yes, please."
Sakura slowly bent to pick up the offending article. (Click click Click CLiCK)
'HOE! What is that noise!?!?!?' Sakura tried to shrug the away the feeling of impending… something. But still, that noise really did irk her. She put it down to the side effects of having such a long trip, being plunged into new surroundings, et cetera. A shaking of her head and the sensation had passed. She set the bookshelf down where Tomoyo had indicated.
"Now, if we could just figure out where to put this Key board," Tomoyo said, stretching her limbs as though she'd done something physically taxing; hey, _you_ try arguing with Meiling.
"Well, the obvious course of action would be to stick it there," Meiling pointed at an inconspicuous corner of the room, her distaste for Keyboard music evident in her countenance.
Flustered, Tomoyo replied, "Well, no one will ever SEE it there."
"Exactly!"
The videographer indicated a more open area of the room, "It should go here." Her display of obstinacy seemed almost orchestrated.
Meiling and Tomoyo stared daggers at one another; suddenly, in a whirl of sheets and hair, both had leapt from the bed and rounded on Sakura.
""Where do YOU think it should go!"" They demanded simultaneously.
Sakura looked helplessly from one to the other, and with a ringing
"HOEEEEEEEEE!"
She bolted from the room.
A sound akin to giggling followed her down the hall.
Flash (That was rather long, ne? ^.^)
Sakura frowned again, grasping for a topic to distract herself. Small talk. That was always safe.
"These plates are quite lovely, Ms. Malaya-san," Sakura ventured. She smiled genially at the chaperone.
"Oh, do you really think so? I thank you, and my friends call me May-chan." The woman smiled, her countenance radiating warmth throughout the room. The youngsters were all the more at their ease, returning her smile.
The companionable air, however, was not to last.
'Li-kun is sitting right next to me…'
'I am sitting right next to Sakura… oh… my… goodness…'
These thought were punctuated by temperature elevations, and seen as pink running across the cheeks of both Li and Sakura.
"C-c-- Could you p-pass the… uh… potatoes… please?" Li asked. It was a simple question; there was no excuse for the sharp flow of blood to his cheeks that attended it.
"Y-yeah… sure," Sakura complied.
As Sakura was leaning over to get the mashed potatoes, she heard a quiet 'click'.
'Hoe?'
She shot a glance at Tomoyo, who was looking suspiciously innocent. Tomoyo's manner did not waver in the least as Sakura picked up the glass bowl holding the mashed potatoes, slowly straightening in her seat and solemnly handing them to Syaoran. She would have been commended for exerting such reign over her face later, had her hand not brushed Li's…
Both froze:
'Ohmygod.'
'Oh… My… God…'
Sakura snatched her hand back, as if his touch had burned her. Li however, was left in an awkward position; he tried the same action, but his motions were made difficult because of the mashed potatoes he had to contend with. Sakura leaned away from Li in her seat, crossing her legs in the opposite direction, turning her furiously red face away.
(Click, clickclickclick)
Sakura heard the discreet noise, shooting her friend another glance.
Tomoyo was idly toying with her hair, innocuously gazing at the ceiling. When she met Sakura's piercing gaze, she simply smiled, a display of her top row of teeth; a fake smile.
"Oi, Sakura, why are you looking at me?" Tomoyo questioned; widening her eyes slightly, she continued with "Do I have something on my face?"
With her eyes opened so wide, Tomoyo looked like a doe, caught in the headlights of a poacher. She added to this farcical display;
"Oh, oh my goodness, is there cheese on my nose?!?" She quickly covered her nose with both hands; what Sakura didn't notice was that she was holding her breath; Tomoyo turned red with 'chagrin'.
Meiling, on the other side of Tomoyo, was turning red also, though her hands were over her mouth.
The chaperone looked frantically back and forth, trying to discern the situation; 3 of her charges were red; 2 were covering their mouths; 1 was scuttling away from the other; and she herself was simply lost.
"Oh my god!" Tomoyo exclaimed, rising from her chair with such force that it clattered to the floor; Meiling's eyes widened from behind her hands; she slowly began to tip to the side. She finally landed on the floor, resulting in a loud "THUD". She was writhing on the floor, hands never leaving her face.
As Tomoyo ran out of the room, yelling "Oh my God! Oh my God! Omygod omygohd oooooo my gahd!" Meiling shot after her, uttering forth some unintelligible nonsense.
Through this entire ostentation, Sakura had had her hands placed on both her carmine cheeks, shaking her head vigorously, reiterating "Hoe! Hoe! Hoeeeeee!"
May-chan, feeling it was her responsibility to placate all of her guests, was torn between assisting the equivocal Sakura, or rushing after the two mercurially fitful teens.
"OHHHHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHDDDD!" With Tomoyo's screech, Malaya's mind was decided for her.
She gave a hasty "I'm so sorry, but I've got to attend those two, please, continue eating, I'll be back in a moment, don't eat all the food, bye!" and took off after Meiling and Tomoyo.
"Sakura?" Syaoran asked. He and she were the only two left at the table, he realized; as the realization hit, his heart beat slightly faster.
"Hoe…" Sakura was completely… zonked, for lack of a better word.
"Sakura?" He tried again. His eyes restlessly searched the room for a topic; what to talk about? 'I got all my unmentionables hung up?' 'My tighty whities are in the second drawer?' Yeah. Right. But he couldn't just sit there and watch her. 'Not that I would actually mind it,' came his contumacious thoughts.
"Hoe… Hoe…" She was shaking her head from side to side now, looking
"Sakura!"
"HOE!" Sakura finally snapped her head up, removing her hands from her face, and looked at Syaoran. She looked into his eyes, his normally brooding eyes, and was stricken by the concern in them.
"Sakura…"
He didn't know what to say. He'd just gotten her attention because… because…
"Hai?"
He timidly raised his fingers, still gazing concernedly into her bright eyes; he touched her hand, the softest brushing of skin over skin. She blushed a light red, a pleasant shiver travelling up her spine. He didn't give her much time to contemplate this, however; he quickly snatched his hand back, looking away sheepishly, reddening.
"I… I think I'll go check on Tomoyo… do you think you can handle being here by yourself?" She asked him. She needed a change of pace, she thought.
"Y… Yeah, yeah, go ahead," he complied, still not meeting her eyes.
"Well…" Sakura was at a loss for words, so she just said
"Bye."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh HOHOHO!" Tomoyo was gleefully laughing, jumping around the room, as she and Meiling reveled in the success of their plan. Meiling was in the center of the room laughing, as the chaperone looked confusedly about at the two hysterical teens.
"Eh… am I interrupting anything?" She questioned perplexedly.
Both girls finally stopped laughing. The She-Warrior then stepped forward to explain.
"See, they're our friends, right?"
"Yes…" May-chan drawled.
"And they need help getting together, ne?"
"Mhmm…"
"So we've put a plan into action; earlier, Tomoyo and I staged a few arguments while Sakura was lifting heavy objects."
Tomoyo cut in. "Whenever my precious Sakura-chan is tired enough she always puts down whatever she's carrying and sits down, and she looks so kawaaaiiiiiii!"
Meiling continued, unfazed (that's a real word!). "So Tomoyo used her hide-a-V8-camera to take some risqué photos while Sakura wasn't looking."
"Oh, yeah!" Tomoyo exclaimed. "If you were wondering what that clicking was at dinner… well… Lemme put it this way. When Sakura-chan was leaning over, you saw how her shirt went, right?"
"Yes…" Malaya said, still skeptical.
"Well… Let's just say that Li-kun's reaction to such a view could be… priceless." The ambivalence of the statement was not lost on the good-natured Chaperone.
"You mean…?"
"Black mail!" Tomoyo squealed happily.
"ToMOyoooooo." Sakura was calling after her friend, an earnest note of worry evident in her voice.
"But you're not gonna stop us are you, May-chan?" Meiling's eyes professed the unspoken appeal in this earnest plea.
May-chan looked at them both worriedly then, with a last glance, left the room. Both girls turned to each other simultaneously, wondering if their plans would all come to naught.
"_Shit_" said Meiling. "Shit shit shit," She continued.
Tomoyo didn't bother to rebuke her; she could use colorful language when she chose, and this she considered an appropriate time.
They were sitting-- slumping on the floor of the room when they heard.
"Sakura-chan, I think we should leave those two alone for a bit."
"Hoe?"
"Tomoyo is just a little… high-strung right now, and Meiling is feeling a little ill." She paused for a moment. When she continued, her voice was lowered; "You should take this opportunity to pack your… ahems?"
The vague statement, amazingly, was not lost on our dense heroine. She promptly blushed, but smiled nonetheless.
"Arigatou!" Sakura said jovially. Then, with a flash of white soles, Sakura took off down the hall.
*************************
Did you think May-chan was going to be evil? She's so cool, I luvver! anyway, did you understand any o that? I hope you did…
If you wanna explanation just put a 0 at the end of your REVIEW.
Oh, yeah, I wrote a poem, for you guys:
Tap. tap. tap.
The computer's soft fulmination.
Click. click. click.
I turn in the culmination.
Wrrr. wrrr. wrrr.
The seconds pass so slow.
Crank. crank. crank.
My frantic mind must know.
Check. check. check.
Is "xing@fanfiction" in lieu?
Yes! yes! yes!
Responsible readers DID review!
This is dedicated to all of the GREAT people out there who reviewed! Even the ones who threatened my life! Seeing those messages gives me a HUGE sense of satisfaction!
Thanks, guys!
~!Ada!~
Did you notice that I never wrote the word Disclaimer in here?
Dinner
It was dinnertime. The Card Mistress, Videographer, and She-Warrior had just finished furnishing the room; it looked like they'd lived there forever!
The walls were an inviting lavender, which complimented Tomoyo's eyes; there were a few decorative pieces in black (a Bust of Paellas, a few ornamental art pieces), which fit Meiling's hair; and the bed was beautiful; a statement in color scheming. However, there was only one; they would have to share it.
Currently, Sakura examined her beautiful blue china bowl: it had a lovely pattern; a picturesque place in a faraway land, screened across the entire interior of the bowl. Her brow furrowed, then relaxed, as the lovely scene playing before her relaxed her onerous mind. She was so tired; she'd been lifting things in Tomoyo and Meiling's room for them, moving the items as they sat on the bed. She shuddered, remembering it.
Flash
"NO! TO THE LEFT! LEFT, LEFT!"
Sakura cringed at the high pitched squeal as it erupted from Meiling; to think that those same vocals could chill one's blood with a war cry, and here they were, employed in a petty squabble. Huh. She and Tomoyo had been arguing heatedly about the positions of many a thing in their room; leaving Sakura to do the actual lifting, "So we can get a better view of how it looks from different angles," they had insisted.
"RIGHT! The LEFT makes it look UGLY! Besides, I can't see my PICTURES when it's to the LEFT!" Tomoyo was fuming, clenching her fists at her sides as she ticked off the "Valid reasons that it looks uglier on the left than the right".
"Hoeeeee." Sakura held a fully loaded little bookshelf; on its own it would have been no inconvenience, however, coupled with Meiling's extensive collection, it was a considerable burden; her arms ached with the effort.
"LEFT! LEFT LEFT LEFT!"
"RIGHT!"
As the two continued their shouting match, occasionally throwing pillows in order to place emphasis on their points, Sakura slowly put down the loathsome bookshelf. She promptly sank to the floor, her bared legs crossing; Click, click click, clickclickclick!
The muted sound was noted somewhere in Sakura's subconscious, her animated mind withdrawing into her own robust senses.
Somewhere, near, a warrior of magnitude, competent in sorcery, was slowly unloading his cargo. Sakura could sense his aura, like a physical presence, niggling at her awareness, tugging at her attention.
She smiled.
'My warrior… my love.' Her fingers curled into the downy carpet, her eyes closing; an unconscious response to the pleasantness of such unbidden, traitorous thoughts.
Her reverie was broken by an insistent "CLICK!" She sat up, releasing her grip on the warm carpet. Her smile fell away from her face.
Her senses told her that the Videographer and Warrior had duked it out; the videographer had won. Sigh. She would have to leave the tenderness of her aura's interaction with Li to lift the ponderous thing.
She stood and turned to face the two combatants.
"So, right, then?"
Meiling steamed, crossing her arms over her chest and flipping her hair to one side; Tomoyo cast a triumphant smile at Sakura.
"Yes, please."
Sakura slowly bent to pick up the offending article. (Click click Click CLiCK)
'HOE! What is that noise!?!?!?' Sakura tried to shrug the away the feeling of impending… something. But still, that noise really did irk her. She put it down to the side effects of having such a long trip, being plunged into new surroundings, et cetera. A shaking of her head and the sensation had passed. She set the bookshelf down where Tomoyo had indicated.
"Now, if we could just figure out where to put this Key board," Tomoyo said, stretching her limbs as though she'd done something physically taxing; hey, _you_ try arguing with Meiling.
"Well, the obvious course of action would be to stick it there," Meiling pointed at an inconspicuous corner of the room, her distaste for Keyboard music evident in her countenance.
Flustered, Tomoyo replied, "Well, no one will ever SEE it there."
"Exactly!"
The videographer indicated a more open area of the room, "It should go here." Her display of obstinacy seemed almost orchestrated.
Meiling and Tomoyo stared daggers at one another; suddenly, in a whirl of sheets and hair, both had leapt from the bed and rounded on Sakura.
""Where do YOU think it should go!"" They demanded simultaneously.
Sakura looked helplessly from one to the other, and with a ringing
"HOEEEEEEEEE!"
She bolted from the room.
A sound akin to giggling followed her down the hall.
Flash (That was rather long, ne? ^.^)
Sakura frowned again, grasping for a topic to distract herself. Small talk. That was always safe.
"These plates are quite lovely, Ms. Malaya-san," Sakura ventured. She smiled genially at the chaperone.
"Oh, do you really think so? I thank you, and my friends call me May-chan." The woman smiled, her countenance radiating warmth throughout the room. The youngsters were all the more at their ease, returning her smile.
The companionable air, however, was not to last.
'Li-kun is sitting right next to me…'
'I am sitting right next to Sakura… oh… my… goodness…'
These thought were punctuated by temperature elevations, and seen as pink running across the cheeks of both Li and Sakura.
"C-c-- Could you p-pass the… uh… potatoes… please?" Li asked. It was a simple question; there was no excuse for the sharp flow of blood to his cheeks that attended it.
"Y-yeah… sure," Sakura complied.
As Sakura was leaning over to get the mashed potatoes, she heard a quiet 'click'.
'Hoe?'
She shot a glance at Tomoyo, who was looking suspiciously innocent. Tomoyo's manner did not waver in the least as Sakura picked up the glass bowl holding the mashed potatoes, slowly straightening in her seat and solemnly handing them to Syaoran. She would have been commended for exerting such reign over her face later, had her hand not brushed Li's…
Both froze:
'Ohmygod.'
'Oh… My… God…'
Sakura snatched her hand back, as if his touch had burned her. Li however, was left in an awkward position; he tried the same action, but his motions were made difficult because of the mashed potatoes he had to contend with. Sakura leaned away from Li in her seat, crossing her legs in the opposite direction, turning her furiously red face away.
(Click, clickclickclick)
Sakura heard the discreet noise, shooting her friend another glance.
Tomoyo was idly toying with her hair, innocuously gazing at the ceiling. When she met Sakura's piercing gaze, she simply smiled, a display of her top row of teeth; a fake smile.
"Oi, Sakura, why are you looking at me?" Tomoyo questioned; widening her eyes slightly, she continued with "Do I have something on my face?"
With her eyes opened so wide, Tomoyo looked like a doe, caught in the headlights of a poacher. She added to this farcical display;
"Oh, oh my goodness, is there cheese on my nose?!?" She quickly covered her nose with both hands; what Sakura didn't notice was that she was holding her breath; Tomoyo turned red with 'chagrin'.
Meiling, on the other side of Tomoyo, was turning red also, though her hands were over her mouth.
The chaperone looked frantically back and forth, trying to discern the situation; 3 of her charges were red; 2 were covering their mouths; 1 was scuttling away from the other; and she herself was simply lost.
"Oh my god!" Tomoyo exclaimed, rising from her chair with such force that it clattered to the floor; Meiling's eyes widened from behind her hands; she slowly began to tip to the side. She finally landed on the floor, resulting in a loud "THUD". She was writhing on the floor, hands never leaving her face.
As Tomoyo ran out of the room, yelling "Oh my God! Oh my God! Omygod omygohd oooooo my gahd!" Meiling shot after her, uttering forth some unintelligible nonsense.
Through this entire ostentation, Sakura had had her hands placed on both her carmine cheeks, shaking her head vigorously, reiterating "Hoe! Hoe! Hoeeeeee!"
May-chan, feeling it was her responsibility to placate all of her guests, was torn between assisting the equivocal Sakura, or rushing after the two mercurially fitful teens.
"OHHHHHHHH MY GOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHDDDD!" With Tomoyo's screech, Malaya's mind was decided for her.
She gave a hasty "I'm so sorry, but I've got to attend those two, please, continue eating, I'll be back in a moment, don't eat all the food, bye!" and took off after Meiling and Tomoyo.
"Sakura?" Syaoran asked. He and she were the only two left at the table, he realized; as the realization hit, his heart beat slightly faster.
"Hoe…" Sakura was completely… zonked, for lack of a better word.
"Sakura?" He tried again. His eyes restlessly searched the room for a topic; what to talk about? 'I got all my unmentionables hung up?' 'My tighty whities are in the second drawer?' Yeah. Right. But he couldn't just sit there and watch her. 'Not that I would actually mind it,' came his contumacious thoughts.
"Hoe… Hoe…" She was shaking her head from side to side now, looking
"Sakura!"
"HOE!" Sakura finally snapped her head up, removing her hands from her face, and looked at Syaoran. She looked into his eyes, his normally brooding eyes, and was stricken by the concern in them.
"Sakura…"
He didn't know what to say. He'd just gotten her attention because… because…
"Hai?"
He timidly raised his fingers, still gazing concernedly into her bright eyes; he touched her hand, the softest brushing of skin over skin. She blushed a light red, a pleasant shiver travelling up her spine. He didn't give her much time to contemplate this, however; he quickly snatched his hand back, looking away sheepishly, reddening.
"I… I think I'll go check on Tomoyo… do you think you can handle being here by yourself?" She asked him. She needed a change of pace, she thought.
"Y… Yeah, yeah, go ahead," he complied, still not meeting her eyes.
"Well…" Sakura was at a loss for words, so she just said
"Bye."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh HOHOHO!" Tomoyo was gleefully laughing, jumping around the room, as she and Meiling reveled in the success of their plan. Meiling was in the center of the room laughing, as the chaperone looked confusedly about at the two hysterical teens.
"Eh… am I interrupting anything?" She questioned perplexedly.
Both girls finally stopped laughing. The She-Warrior then stepped forward to explain.
"See, they're our friends, right?"
"Yes…" May-chan drawled.
"And they need help getting together, ne?"
"Mhmm…"
"So we've put a plan into action; earlier, Tomoyo and I staged a few arguments while Sakura was lifting heavy objects."
Tomoyo cut in. "Whenever my precious Sakura-chan is tired enough she always puts down whatever she's carrying and sits down, and she looks so kawaaaiiiiiii!"
Meiling continued, unfazed (that's a real word!). "So Tomoyo used her hide-a-V8-camera to take some risqué photos while Sakura wasn't looking."
"Oh, yeah!" Tomoyo exclaimed. "If you were wondering what that clicking was at dinner… well… Lemme put it this way. When Sakura-chan was leaning over, you saw how her shirt went, right?"
"Yes…" Malaya said, still skeptical.
"Well… Let's just say that Li-kun's reaction to such a view could be… priceless." The ambivalence of the statement was not lost on the good-natured Chaperone.
"You mean…?"
"Black mail!" Tomoyo squealed happily.
"ToMOyoooooo." Sakura was calling after her friend, an earnest note of worry evident in her voice.
"But you're not gonna stop us are you, May-chan?" Meiling's eyes professed the unspoken appeal in this earnest plea.
May-chan looked at them both worriedly then, with a last glance, left the room. Both girls turned to each other simultaneously, wondering if their plans would all come to naught.
"_Shit_" said Meiling. "Shit shit shit," She continued.
Tomoyo didn't bother to rebuke her; she could use colorful language when she chose, and this she considered an appropriate time.
They were sitting-- slumping on the floor of the room when they heard.
"Sakura-chan, I think we should leave those two alone for a bit."
"Hoe?"
"Tomoyo is just a little… high-strung right now, and Meiling is feeling a little ill." She paused for a moment. When she continued, her voice was lowered; "You should take this opportunity to pack your… ahems?"
The vague statement, amazingly, was not lost on our dense heroine. She promptly blushed, but smiled nonetheless.
"Arigatou!" Sakura said jovially. Then, with a flash of white soles, Sakura took off down the hall.
*************************
Did you think May-chan was going to be evil? She's so cool, I luvver! anyway, did you understand any o that? I hope you did…
If you wanna explanation just put a 0 at the end of your REVIEW.
Oh, yeah, I wrote a poem, for you guys:
Tap. tap. tap.
The computer's soft fulmination.
Click. click. click.
I turn in the culmination.
Wrrr. wrrr. wrrr.
The seconds pass so slow.
Crank. crank. crank.
My frantic mind must know.
Check. check. check.
Is "xing@fanfiction" in lieu?
Yes! yes! yes!
Responsible readers DID review!
This is dedicated to all of the GREAT people out there who reviewed! Even the ones who threatened my life! Seeing those messages gives me a HUGE sense of satisfaction!
Thanks, guys!
~!Ada!~
Did you notice that I never wrote the word Disclaimer in here?