Konnichiwa Minna-san! ^.^ Here's chapter 7 for you (I was hoping to get it out sooner than this, but I had a writers block, gomen nasai!) As a reply to vaydra97, Sakura and Syaoran are about 16 in this fic. I'd also like to give a HUGE arigato to: cherry blossoms little wolf2, ashley-chan, vaydra97, Woobaby, Syaoran-kun, Evil Karyta, ~*~kokimiyoi~*~, CherryBlossom Angel, E.B.(Su Pei), angelwings2001, Alicia, and ram mahir, for reviewing chapter 6 (that's the most reviews I've gotten for one chapter so far!^^)!

Dedication: Chapter 7 is specially dedicated to the twelve people above, who reviewed my last chapter! You guys ROCK!^^ ARIGATO!

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. If you want to try and sue me, all you're going to get is my little brother (trust me, you DON'T want him).

Without further adieu...on with the story! ^^

The Forbidden Clow Chapter 7: Getting Too Attached

"We're...WE'RE STUCK!!!"

Syaoran and Sakura stood side by side near the door to the bedroom, shoulder-to-shoulder, arm-to-arm. Their eyes were wide with shock, desperately searching for some form of comprehension from the other party.

Sakura suddenly pulled away with all her weight, hoping that the attachment may at least loosen if she pulled hard enough.

No use. The more she pulled, the more her injured arm would scream out in pain, and the stronger the bond seemed to become. Whatever bonded them so closely was magical in nature, which was apparent from the earlier display of purple light. But neither of them had any clue what to do about it.

Sakura sighed heavily in new frustration and fell to the floor, momentarily forgetting that she was now jointed with her young warrior friend, who toppled onto her lap in an unorderly heap.

Finding his cheek against her smooth, bare leg, Syaoran's face heated up to a dark red of unimaginable intensity. He quickly used his free arm to pull himself off of her, while his strength in turn startled the Card mistress to the extent that she fell onto him. Sakura gasped, suddenly realizing that her head was slowly sliding down against the cottony fabric of his shirt. Mirroring his shade of embarrassment, she heaved herself off of him, being careful not accidentally pull him with her as he had just done.

Now that both were calm, each was also silent. Slight shades of red still flushed their embarrassed faces, causing them each to look opposite ways.

Realizing that this wasn't going to help anything, Sakura coughed once and spoke up. "So...ano...what do we do now?" she inquired quietly, still not being able to meet his eyes.

Syaoran silently wished he had at least some sort of idea, but he came up with nothing, just a large blank that sat empty in his mind. "I-I don't know." he admitted, searching his head for a breakthrough, "I don't think I've ever come across a problem quite like this before."

"Maybe it's the 'superglue' card?" Sakura suggested dully.

"Only if Clow Reed has a weird sense of humor." Syaoran replied almost mechanically, still deep in his thoughts.

Lightening the tense mood, Sakura chuckled. "I guess it isn't really something that happens in everyday life." she added, daring a glance at his handsome face.

She tilted her head in growing fascination of his silent contemplation, slowly taking in every aspect of his well-structured profile. She stopped when she met the cloudiness in his honey-amber eyes, seeming to block out the world around him as he engaged in deep thought. Sakura felt content just to watch him like this. The seriousness of his face at this moment was very attractive to her. 'Baka!' her mind chided, 'He's always attractive no matter what he does.'

Sakura smiled whimsically at the thought, still unable to tear her gaze away from him.

He broke out of thought unnoticeably, sighing at his loss of solutions, and turned toward her in hopes of her having come up with something. His eyes opened a little wider as his eyes met hers. She was looking at him almost as if... 'No...' he thought sourly, 'Why would she be looking at me like that? She said we were just friends.'

"Sakura?"

She blinked first, and then looked at him in growing realization before she turned away, glowing the color of a ripened strawberry. Syaoran didn't miss this and it surprised him somewhat.

'Caught red-handed...' Sakura thought, timidly playing with the hem of her dress, 'Or rather, red-faced...'

"I've been thinking..." Syaoran started, trying to ease the awkward tension with conversation.

Sakura quickly turned to him with a pleading grin. "You've figured it out?"

He shook his head slowly, faltering at his next words from the look of disappointment that immediately crossed her face. "Iie, I haven't. But I'm pretty sure it's a black Clow Card."

"Oh." was all she replied, looking at the carpeted floor.

Syaoran's expression softened and he placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at him. He smiled. "We'll figure it out, Sakura." he assured, gently rubbing her shoulder in an attempt to relax her, "We always do."

She lifted her head to meet his eyes. "Hai." she agreed with a smile of her own. She stopped for a moment, before the smile turned into a frown. "Demo..."

"Nani?" Syaoran asked, giving her shoulder a light squeeze.

"It's my turn to make dinner at home tonight." she answered sheepishly, "Otousan and Ni-chan will be expecting me home around four o'clock."

Syaoran couldn't help as a slight panic took over his voice. "Can you cancel? Is there another way? Maybe take over for Toya another night?"

"I don't know." Sakura replied sadly in response to his pleading, "I suppose I can try."

Syaoran nodded his head in understanding and lead Sakura up off the floor by her free hand, being sure to not cause another spontaneous fall. "Then we'll go downstairs and you can give him a call."

She nodded as they headed for the stairwell, slowly beginning the descend. The new sensation of being so close was causing a strange awkwardness between the two. It was hard to keep your eyes focused on the stairs while you were practically glued to your crush, fingers brushing against fingers as a regular occurrence.

"This is going to take some getting used to." Sakura voiced, carefully stepping down another stair with her bad ankle and receiving support from Syaoran.

"A lot." he agreed, as they finally reached the bottom.

They walked/hobbled to a finely crafted wooden table, where a forest green colored phone lay in the wait. Sakura picked up the phone with the hand that hung from the linked wrists and leaned it against their joint shoulders, keeping it steady with her head. Then she took her other hand and slowly pressed the buttons on stationary piece still on the table (it's not like the phones with the numbers on the receiver).

'It would be a great help if I were ambidextrous.' she thought dully, continuing to push the buttons one by one, 'Then this wouldn't be so challenging.'

As she was listening for someone to pick up on the other line, she felt Syaoran's fingers start to mess with hers playfully. Tugging, rubbing, caressing, squeezing...kami, he was making it hard for her to concentrate on the phone call! She gave him a pleading look, but he simply smiled innocently in response.

'Big help you're being.' she thought mentally, half-frowning, half-smiling at her dark-haired companion.

"Moshi Moshi, this is Kinomoto Toya."

Sakura snapped out of her previous thoughts and brought her attention to the receiver.

"Ni-chan?"

"OI! KAIJUU!" Toya roared.

Sakura took the receiver from her ear as the angry voice soared through the telephone connection. "Nani?" she asked, slowly bringing her ear back to the phone, just in case he erupted again.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING AT THE GAKI'S HOUSE?!" he screamed, causing Sakura's green eyes to bulge.

"N-Nani?"

"This new caller ID works like a charm." Toya replied.

"We were studying." Sakura replied matter-of-factly.

"Whatever, Kaijuu. Just get home. It's your turn to make dinner."

"Can't I do it some other night, Ni-chan? Please?"

"Iie."

"Doushite?"

"I'm not putting your chores on hold so you can spend quality time with the gaki."

Sakura reddened slightly at his comment, but didn't deny it. "O-okay. Demo...can I bring Syaoran-kun with me?"

"NANI!?!"

"You heard me, Ni-chan." she replied calmly.

"....Just this once, BUT-"

"Arigato, Ni-chan!" Sakura interrupted, and quickly hung up the phone before her brother could finish.

After placing the receiver back with its counterpart, she turned to Syaoran with a remorseful expression. "We're going to have to go through with it."

He nodded slowly and offered her a small smile. "Daijoubu. We'll live."

"I hope you're right, Syaoran." She stopped and thought for a moment, before turning back to him. "How are we going to pull this off?"

"I wish I knew." he answered regretfully, "We'll have to figure something out, hopefully something that can dupe your brother for the time being."

Feeling a little better about the situation, Sakura smiled up at him. "I guess we'll figure out something on the way there then, ne?" she asked with a wink.

"H-Hai." he responded, flushing pink in the cheeks.

She took his hand (on the attached arm) and tugged him toward the door. "C'mon Syaoran, Ni-chan won't be happy if we're late."

Syaoran gave her a lopsided grin in return. "He won't be happy anyway."

Sakura placed her hands on her hips. "Well, he'll just have to deal with it."

Syaoran reluctantly followed her out of the apartment. "I have the feeling this is going to be a disaster..." he mumbled.

Sakura frowned, having heard him, and re-placed her hands on her hips. "Mou, Syaoran! You're so pessimistic!"

He shrugged, accepting the comment. She sighed irritably and started walking in the direction of her house.

***************************************

"How about if we tell him that it's...another project for school?"

"We could try that, but I doubt he'll buy it for the third time. We've used that excuse for just about everything else."

Sakura and Syaoran were nearing the Kinomoto's house, heatedly discussing what to do about their "problem", that is, regarding Toya Kinomoto. So far, no definite answer or excuse was found, so they continued to mull over the possibilities.

"A superglue accident?"

Sakura thought about his suggestion for a moment. "That might work." she agreed with a nod, "Maybe first we can tell Ni-chan that it's a project for school, and if he doesn't except that, we can use the superglue as a cover-up."

Syaoran couldn't help but smile. "Y'know, I always thought you were kind of dense, Sakura. But you really have a good head on those shoulders."

He patted her head with his free hand to flaunt his comment. Sakura frowned at him. "I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment."

"Hey! There's nothing wrong with being dense." Syaoran defended for her, "But it you weren't dense, I wouldn't recognize you. You just wouldn't be the same Sakura."

Sakura used her free hand to punch his arm none too lightly. "First it sounds like you're defending me, and then you insult me again!"

He used his un-joined hand to rub the spot of impact on his arm. "Whoa! You've got it all wrong!"

She quickly jumped in front of him, facing him angrily. "Do I?!"

Syaoran wasn't used to seeing this side of Sakura, it put him at a loss of words.

Sakura's frown deepened to a scowl. "I may be dense, Li Syaoran, but I could easily kick your ass."

A playful grin touched Syaoran's lips at this. "No you can't." he chided.

"HAI, you AND that large ego of yours to boot!"

His grin grew just a teeny bit larger. "I'll remember you said that."

"Please DO!" she spat, turning her head away from him in anger, "Let's just see how much honor you have when you find your butt on the floor."

He chuckled, noting how cute she looked when she was angry. Sakura grunted. "Men!"

"Oi, Sakura."

She reluctantly looked toward him, a small scowl still present. "What?"

"We're here." he reported, pointing toward the quaint-looking yellow house, "We should go in now, if you're ready to. Are you still mad at me?"

No answer.

He sighed. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier," he apologized, "I didn't mean it that way, okay?"

Sakura started going up to the door, dragging Syaoran with her. "Everything's fine." she spoke casually, "I guess I forgive you." She stopped for a second before smirking at him. "But I'll still kick your ass later."

Syaoran smirked right back at her while entering the house. "You wish."~

At first, the inside seemed vacant, virtually untouched. But they both new that Toya was lurking somewhere. Syaoran was amazed at how clean and orderly everything was. Sure he had been there many times before, but he didn't really bother to notice details until now.

While Syaoran was busy marveling at the cleanliness of the room, Sakura decided to hail her brother. "Ni-chan! Are you home?" she called, cupping her hands around her mouth for added voice range.

Toya's dark-haired head peered out from the kitchen, looking the two over before speaking. "Kaijuu and gaki." he acknowledged simply, turning back to whatever he was doing.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Hello to you too, Ni-chan." she said dully.

"Kaijuu!" he called, "Get in here and get started. Have the gaki go sit down in the family room, he's not needed."

'Problem one.' they thought simultaneously, glancing at each other.

"Ano, I would feel better if Syaoran came with me."

Toya peeked out from behind the post again, eying them both once again, getting the feeling that he was missing something. "What do you need him for?" he asked suspiciously, "And why the hell are you two standing so close together?"

Toya's hard stare was making Sakura nervous and she was having trouble coming up with an excuse. "Ano, ano..."

"We're, uh, going out!" Syaoran blurted suddenly.

After realizing what he had just said, he had to resist the urge to slap his free hand over his mouth.

Sakura's eyes were wide with shock, a completely dumbfounded expression painted across her features. 'Did Syaoran just say what I think he did?'

Syaoran's face was slowly beginning to register shock as well, along with a deep, almost burgundy blush. 'Did I just say what I thought I did?'

Toya's face was more of an angered shock than anything, his hands clenched tightly over the dishtowel he was holding, as if he might rip it in half. "What did you say, gaki!?"

Syaoran swallowed the lump in his throat and stood tall. Now that he had said it, there was no use in backing out. "You heard me, Kinomoto." he replied evenly.

He and Sakura both faked large smiles and entwined their fingers with one another.

Toya gave them another once over. "Why do I get the feeling you're hiding something?" he asked, narrowing his dark brows.

Sakura shrugged and Toya grunted, going back to his business. As soon as he was out of sight, Syaoran and Sakura sighed audibly, almost slouching to the floor in relief. It seems they would live...for now.

"Nice going." Sakura reprimanded, "You couldn't have possibly come up with anything that would have pissed him off more than that."

"Gomen, it was the first thing that came to my mind!" Syaoran explained, "You seemed stuck for a reply, so I had to come up with something quickly to cover for you."

"Well," Sakura started, changing the subject, "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Handle what?" he asked, unaware of what she meant.

Her smile turned smug. "Pretending to go out with me."

Syaoran mirrored her smile almost perfectly. "You'd better be prepared." he stated in a whisper, "I'll lay it on so thick that Toya will never doubt it for a moment."

"Well, let's go then, SWEETHEART." Sakura said, batting her eyelashes fakely.

"Lead the way, HONEY." he replied.

As they entered the kitchen, Toya looked up from washing the dishes to give them both another glare. Both Sakura and Syaoran ignored him.

"What am I supposed to be making for dinner, Ni-chan?" Sakura asked, rummaging through a few cubbords.

"Can you handle making 'Chicken Curry', kaijuu?" he quipped.

"Hai." she answered, grabbing a box of curry out of the cubbord, "Syaoran SWEETUMS, could you please help me get the fresh vegetables out of the fridge?"

Sakura winced at how lame that sounded, then shrugged, remembering that they were supposed to be lame, since they were just pretending.

"Sure thing." he replied, nuzzling the crook of her neck affectionately.

Sakura felt goosebumps erupt over her skin from his close proximity. 'Kami...' she thought, 'this is going to be harder than I thought...'

Syaoran was definitely enjoying this. 'An excuse to be up close and personal with Sakura? How could I possibly pass up a chance like this?' he thought, doing nothing to stop the grin that was forming on his lips.

"Vegetables, gotta get the vegetables..." Sakura repeated over and over again, trying to make her way to the fridge, while trying desperately to ignore Syaoran's antics at the same time.

After all the vegetables were cleaned, Sakura handed Syaoran a knife and some carrots. "Can you cut those, please?" she asked, stopping her lame attempts with pet names.

"Anything for you, my sweet blossom." he said in a charming voice, beginning to chop away at the orange vegetables.

Sakura blinked. 'Blossom?' she thought, a pleasant chill going up her spine, 'That doesn't sound so lame...is Syaoran taking this seriously?' She glanced up at him in question, only to find him gazing back at her lovingly. She couldn't help but smile. 'Now if only this wasn't pretend...' she thought sadly.

"Is something wrong?" he asked in a near whisper, brushing a few strands of her auburn hair from her face.

She shook her head, lowering it slightly so he couldn't see her newly flushed pink cheeks. She turned to her left and began dumping hers and Syaoran's cut-up veggies into a waiting pot. "I-Iie...not really." she stammered.

"That's good." he said huskily in a deep voice, tracing her face with his free hand, "Beautiful cherry blossoms should never be upset."

*CRAAAAAAASSSSSSHHHHHH*

The young teen Cardcaptors nearly jumped three feet into the air at the sudden shattering of glass. They turned around to see Toya bent over the glimmering mess, his fist shaking at his side. "Just slipped my grip." he mumbled.

Sakura and Syaoran sweat-dropped, knowing full well what caused him to drop the fragile ceramic dish.

'Is that laying it on thick enough, Syaoran?' Sakura thought, giving him a reprimanding look, 'You've got Ni-chan on his last nerve already.'

****************************************

Toya glared at the food before him, sniffing it as if it might give off toxic fumes. "The kaijuu and gaki made this...will I live through the first bite?"

"The choice is yours, Ni-chan." Sakura shrugged, taking another forkful of her steaming curry, "I think it tastes pretty good."

Syaoran chewed thoughtfully and swallowed, turning his head to face Sakura. "Of course it tastes good!" he readily agreed, placing a hand beneath her chin to face her toward him, "It was made by an emerald-eyed angel."

Toya slammed the silverware down that he was currently holding, alarming the connected duo. "THAT'S IT! I can't put up with any more of this, gaki!" he bellowed, forcefully rising from his chair, "Get the hell away from my little sister!"

The teen Card mistress and Chinese warrior exchanged panicked glances, but stayed seated. The other young man tromped over to them, putting a hand on each shoulder.

"That's enough of this 'going out'!" he seethed, "If you won't move apart yourselves, I'll force you apart!"

Sakura gasped and let out a wail as he tried pulling them away from each other. Syaoran gritted his teeth and held Sakura's hand with his, to comfort her with what little he could. "STOP IT NI-CHAAAAANNN!! THAT HURTS!"

And he did stop, dumb shock apparent on his features. "Y-You won't come apart!" he realized, "WHAT IN THE HELL!?!?"

Taking advantage of his confusion, the jointed-couple withdrew themselves from their seats and headed for the door. "See ya later, Ni-chan!" Sakura called, heading out the door, "Don't forget to leave some chicken curry for otousan when he gets home!"

As the door shut, Toya Kinomoto was left staring wide-eyed at the two now-empty chairs. "How the-what the...were they? But that's not possible..." he mumbled. He slapped a hand against his forehead and sauntered into the living room. "I must be going crazy..."

**************************************

Sakura and Syaoran laughed and high-fived each other.

"We pulled it off!" Sakura exclaimed, "Did you see the look on Ni-chan's face?!"

Syaoran tried his best to imitate Toya's expression, causing Sakura to burst into a fit of giggles.

"He's probably tearing his hair out right now." Syaoran chuckled.

"Yeah," Sakura agreed, then frowned, "I guess I'm not staying at home tonight."

"Is there a problem with my place?" Syaoran asked, giving her hand a light squeeze.

"Iie...I just feel like I'm intruding on your privacy." she explained.

"Nah, it's nice to have company. It can get kind of lonely being by yourself all the time. Having you around adds a little bit of sunshine."

Sakura tilted her head, smiling up at him. "Syaoran, that's so sweet."

"I can be sweet when I want to be."

Sakura gestured toward the wooden door. "Well, why don't you be sweet and open the door so we can go in."

"I suppose I can do that." he replied, placing the key in and opening the door, "After you, 'lil blossom."

Sakura put her hands on her hips. "Little?" she pouted.

"Compared to me, anyway." he said, following her inside.

"Oh yeah?" She smirked coyly, "Well this 'lil blossom is going to teach the 'little wolf' a lesson."

"Won't that be a little tough, with us being connected and all?"

"Feh." she quipped, tossing her short hair over a shoulder with a flick of her head, "You're just afraid to lose."

He mimicked her smug expression. "Like I would lose to you?" 'This ought to be fun.'

"Be ready to lose, wolf boy."

"You first, LITTLE blossom."

That did it. Just the way he emphasized 'little' broke Sakura's last string, like he knew it would. She grabbed a handful of his shirt and tried to force him down, without much luck. He just stood there, struggling not to laugh at her futile attempts. So far, the worst he would get out of this scuffle was a stretched green tee-shirt.

She pried on; mustering up all the strength she could to at least MOVE him a little. But it seemed hopeless. "You're making fun of me!" Sakura pouted, seeing the laughter in his amber eyes, "You're not even fighting back!"

He raised an eyebrow at her, smiling. "Are you sure you want me to?"

"Of course!"

He shrugged. "Have it your way."

In the blink of an eye, Sakura found herself pinned to the plush beige carpeting, Syaoran smirking down at her amusedly. He leaned his face down to just a few inches from hers. "You wanted me to fight back, didn't you?"

Sakura struggled to break free, but he had a good grip. "You must have cheated!" she accused, receiving a laugh from him.

"No, you just don't want to admit that you're losing." he corrected.

"Wait a minute...no rules, right?" she asked slyly.

"Iie, I guess not." he decided.

She gave him an apologetic look. "You asked for it."

*SLAM*

Without giving it much thought, Sakura rammed her knee between his legs, causing him to keel over with a low, painful growl. Now that she was free (well, sort of free, she's attached to him by the shoulder, so she would be almost down too), she got to her knees, using her free arm to push him down the rest of the way.

"Now THAT was foul play." Syaoran choked out, slowly rising back off the carpet.

"It doesn't matter." Sakura stated matter-of-factly, "I won."

Syaoran levitated himself up the rest of the way and faced her with mischief present in his amber eyes. "Who said this was over? You just got a lucky break."

"There's not much we can do with one arm each anyway." Sakura reasoned.

Syaoran smiled devilishly. "You can still tickle someone with one hand."

Sakura froze. "Syaoran, DON'T!" she pleaded, "You win! Just don't tickle me!"

Syaoran shrugged. "There aren't any rules."

Before she could coax him out of it, he shot forward with his right hand, tickling her all around.

"Hahahahahahahaha-c'mon stop-hahahahahaHAHAHAHA-Kami, that ticlkes!!!-hahahaHAHAHAHAHA-okay already-HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA-enough with the-HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH-not there-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-KAMI-SAMA STOP ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!"

He finally halted his assault, leaving her still giggling slightly and breathing in short gasps.

"Now all you have to do is admit that I won."

"NO WAY!"

Syaoran dangled his fingers in a teasing sort of way, warning her that he would start tickling again.

"Okay, okay. I give. You win." she admitted grudgingly.

"Now that that's over with, what do you say we pick our butts up off the floor and go sit on the couch?"

She sighed, accepting his helping hand up. "Sounds like a plan."

"Any movie requests?" he asked, digging through his video collection.

Sakura shuddered as he picked up a horror film. "Anything but a scary movie."

"Aww...and I wanted to see "House on Haunted Hill" too..."

"What's down here?" Sakura questioned curiously, pulling him downwards with her arm.

She pointed to the large, polished oak doors on the cabinet, noting how his eyes seemed to get a little wider.

"There's nothing special in there," he insisted, quickly rising back up and taking Sakura with him, "Just some old home movies and junk."

Sakura clapped her hands together in a Tomoyo-like way. "Home movies?!" she exclaimed, kneeling quickly to open the cabinet (and taking Syaoran down in surprise), "This I've got to see!"

Before Syaoran could do a single little thing to prevent the inevitable, she swung the two doors open, and tapes flowed out onto the floor like a river. Sakura gasped in shock at the sea of tapes, recognizing the labels immediately.

"Syaoran, where did you get all of these?!"

Syaoran scratched his head nervously, a large sweat-drop forming on the side. "Daidouji-san gave them to me." he blurted.

Sakura turned to look at him with a shocked expression, quickly changing to a wide, cheerful smile. "I never knew you liked watching our cardcaptures!" she spoke, amazed, "I mean, look at how old they are! This one is..."

Sakura examined the tape closely before looking back up at his slightly pink face with a perplexed expression. "I can't believe she gave you this!"

Syaoran dared a glance at the tape cover, and almost gasped himself, turning the color of an overripe red cherry. The cassette was labeled, "Sakura-chan's Most Kawaii Moments".

'Actually, I practically begged Daidouji-san for that one...' he thought shamefully.

"Gomen, she must not have noticed which tapes she was giving me." he covered, hoping that she would buy it.

Which, of course, she did. "Oh, I understand. I guess that's why you have all the tapes of my first cardcaptures too."

He nodded quickly in agreement, his blush finally subsiding.

Sakura studied more tape labels, eyeing each carefully. "Did you actually watch these?" she asked, gesturing toward the mess of tapes before them.

"H-Hai." he choked softly.

Sakura picked a random tape out of the pile and stood up, pulling Syaoran up as well. "Why don't we watch one, Syaoran? We have all night."

"S-Sure." he agreed with a small nod, taking the tape from her outstretched hand, then searching for its label, "Which one is this?"

She shrugged and he popped it in the VCR, having failed at finding any type of label on it. Syaoran then led her to the couch where they plopped down together, facing the TV with some interest.

'I wonder why there was no label?' Syaoran thought.

He was soon answered. Within moments, in big bold pink and green letters, were the words, "Sakura and Syaoran: The Kawaii Moments" They both felt there faces heat and were suddenly glad that the room was so dim (the lights were out). However, though shocked, neither was willing to shut the video off. The title had sparked just a little bit of curiosity in each of them; both silently eager to see what Tomoyo had taped (as well as fearful of what Tomoyo may have caught them doing ^^).

About fifteen minutes or so into the movie, Sakura desperately wanted an excuse to get out of the room. It was really awkward and uncomfortable to be sitting with the person you were with on the screen, and watch a bunch of clips of the two of you blushing, talking, laughing, etc. But because of the bond they shared, she couldn't just get up and leave. She would have to take him with her.

However, in the depths of her mind, she had a few questions about Syaoran. She was dense, she knew that, but she could tell that in ninety-nine percent of those shots on the screen, Syaoran's face was red. He couldn't have been running a fever that much, could he? Perhaps it was possible...

She also distantly wondered if Syaoran suspected anything about her. He wasn't nearly as clueless as she was, so he may have already caught on about Sakura liking him. But he hadn't said anything...so maybe he hadn't figured it out yet. Then again, maybe he just didn't want to tell her. Or he didn't know. Or... 'Arg! This is so confusing!!!'

Syaoran snuck a peek at the cherry blossom, his new suspicions gaining more ground. She was always so flustered when she was around him, and usually a shade of pink or red inhabited her face. That had to mean SOMETHING.

'Could there be the slight, teensy-weensy, tiny, itty-bitty chance that she likes me more than a friend?' Syaoran thought hopefully.

'Or maybe she's just embarrassed about being on camera.' his conscience butted in.

He sighed, at a loss for the time being. He couldn't tell just yet, but he had to smile at the thought of the possibility. It gave his heart just a little more fire to burn in hope; that maybe, just maybe her heart was edging toward him.~

'Oh...Kami...no...'

Sakura panicked silently. She had wanted an excuse to leave the room, but she was hoping she wasn't going to have to deal with something like this. Things couldn't get much worse.

She had to go to the bathroom.

At first, she tried to ignore it, but that didn't help. She tried crossing her legs, shifting position, countless things. But to no avail. She still had to go.

"Syaoran?" she asked weakly, lowering her eyes to the floor.

He turned his head toward her. "Hmm?"

'How am I supposed to say this?' "..."

Syaoran watched her foot tap rapidly on the carpeting, as if she were nervous about something. "Are you alright, Sakura?" he questioned, placing his right hand on her shoulder, "Is something wrong?"

"I-I..."

"Hai? You can tell me."

"I-I-I have to go to the bathroom." she said softly.

His eyes bulged at the news, but he kept himself under control. "Okay, just let me pause the movie."

He pushed the button on the controller and placed it on the armrest, then led Sakura to the bathroom. Upon reaching the door, he took a familiar long green sash out of his right pocket and tied it around his head, to cover his amber eyes from view. With a nod of his head as a silent 'go ahead', Sakura timidly walked into the little bathroom. It felt weird as Syaoran walked in after her, but she had to ignore that for now.

Syaoran blushed crimson when his fingers accidentally brushed her bare leg. He couldn't help it, they were only following suit of what her fingers were doing. He knew somebody up there in the clouds was torturing him with this and probably laughing their butts off about it.

But in the end, they both survived. They exited the bathroom and went back to continue watching the movie, pretending that nothing happened. Both teen Cardcaptors sat through the whole rest of the movie (or clips, or whatever you want to call it). Neither said a single word to the other, gazes fixed solely on the glowing TV screen the entire time.

Once the screen was black and pictureless, the young Mistress and the Li Clan warrior sat in an uncomfortable silence. They obviously weren't going to talk about the movie, that would just make things between them even more awkward than they already were.

Though unnoticed by each other, the young Cardcaptors slowly started turning their heads in toward the small space between them. Looking up at the exact same moment, their eyes met.

As spring emeralds met rich sunset amber, they amazingly didn't turn away. Surprisingly, they sat there like statues, gazing into one another's eyes instead of turning away in a blushing frenzy (like they normally did).

Undetectable by the eye, they inched closer ever so slowly, entranced and fixed by the other's haunting gaze. Time seemed to halt, just leaving the two coming ever nearer in the dimly-lit room. Just a few inches or so from his face, Sakura's thick lashes closed in anticipation, as Syaoran's did shortly thereafter.

They were too deeply embedded in their fantasies to stop now. Though the other didn't know, they had both secretly dreamed of this moment many times. Now it was becoming reality, a dream-come-true.

It would be impossible to describe how they felt as their lips touched for the first time. The hesitation in each was apparent, but quickly overcome. It started softly, but then Syaoran pushed forward a little, forcefully deepening the connection. Then…

Realization flooded their senses all at once. Audible gasps were issued and they pulled away as quickly as they could, scooting to either end of the couch. They could only stare at each other in shock, still feeling the tingling sensation on their lips.

'We just.......kissed.' they realized.

'But wait a minute...we're on opposite ends of the couch!' Syaoran thought.

Sakura looked at her arm in a mixture of disbelief and surprise. 'How?' They looked at their arms, each other, back and forth.

"We're...we're free..." Syaoran breathed.

…To Be Continued???????

That's it for Chapter 7! Sorry if it wasn't worth the wait. I've been busy with school and I just got over the flu. Gomen Minna-san, I'll try my best to have the next chapter out by next weekend. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it. Gomen about the kissing scene, it just came to my mind. Ah yes, I have two people I would specially like to thank for their insight-giving reviews! Normally I would choose just one, but I had to include both of these. ^^

These are the two reviews I chose that deserved a very special arigato:

ram mahir's review:

the best chapter yet! i guess it's high time there's some dangerous action,ne? ^.^ just joking, the other chapters r really awesome read, i've enjoyed them all. so what will happen next? what happened to them? what's the disaster that Eriol knew about? has Kero awakened yet? how will Touya deal with his sister in love with that gaki?!! ooh..so many questions....

Arigato very much for the kind review ram mahir! ^^ I'm glad you like the story so far. You'll find out about the disaster later on in the story (I'm saving it for later). Kero has awakened; he can change to Kerberus if he needs to. I'd have to say that Toya doesn't know his sister is in love with Syaoran yet *Eriol-like smile* I'll save that for later. Thank you again, and I hope you continue to R&R, I appreciate it!~Manda-chan

Evil Karyta's review:

Excellent work as always. Your series is one of the most interesting and entertaining one a ever read! I wonder what is going to happen now. What is this new card that decided to show up? Please write the next chapter soon. I really want to know what will happen next and I'm sure I'm not the only one. So keep writing....please (get down on her knees and beg) Write the next chapter soon.

Thanks a ton for your supportive review! ^^ I'm so happy that you like the story so far. I haven't actually named the card yet (I'll do that next chapter), but I think you get the general idea. Arigato for giving me the will to keep writing (no one has ever really praised my work like that before ^.^)! I hope you stay tuned for the next chapter, arigato again for your esteeming review!! *sob* You are just too kind to a fanfiction writer...~Manda-chan

Thanks to everyone else who reviewed! I appreciate ALL reviews; I just give special credit to the ones that give me a little insight on how I'm doing. It's important to an author to get feedback, so you deserve thanks! ^^ Arigato for reading, spare a review if you can, and I'll be back probably next week with the next chapter! Oh, and check out my new fic "Alone in the Woods" if you get the chance! ARIGATO AGAIN MINNA-SAN!!!~Manda-chan (If you have any questions about Japanese terms, e-mail me or ask about it in a review and I'll get back to you.)