Revised version. Please R+R. I don't own these characters.

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Wild Dreaming
by animefreak

"A-a dream...about m-me, S-Syaoran?" she stammered, blushing uncontrollably.

"Yes. About you...and me" he kept going, feeling somehow that if he stopped he wouldn't be able to blurt out the whole thing.

If there was anything like having an embarrassment fit, Sakura was on the verge of having one. Syaoran couldn't help but notice her effort to control the spasmodic movements of her knees, her face buried on her shoulders, her short auburn locks barely covering a furious blush, her hands folded on her lap, squeezing one another...he was embarrassing her.

"I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, Sakura. But I-I really need to--to tell you" he breathed, lowering his eyes to his now fiddling hands.

"It's okay" she managed to reply so softly he could barely make her out.

He waited a moment before he continued. This was so hard...what if what he had thought was wrong? What if the only thing that induced that dream was the fact that he was in love with her and wanted her even though he wouldn't admit it? He was a guy, after all. He'd never thought about her like this before, but what if this was only a normal development of the feelings he had for her? But...if this was normal, then why did it feel so wrong? Maybe because everything Sakura was screamed innocence? Did this mean he was only a pervert, unworthy of her? He couldn't live with the idea that he had to abandon every hope of ever being with her, of holding her knowing that she was his...not that he was ever planning on letting her know that he loved her that much, but...it was the hope what kept him going on.

"I had this dream the night we arrived on the mountains...and like you said...it kept me up all night. When thinking about it, I remembered you had told me you'd had a weird dream too..." he looked at her, and noticed her growing more restless with every word he said, but decided to continue. He had already gone this far "It occured to me that...maybe that thing that you saw was manipulating us. It gave us both strange dreams to make us reel...and we complied"

"I-I thought about that too" she said, a little surprise in her voice from the realization that they had reached the same conclusions.

"Now, tell me, Sakura" he whispered, not daring to look at her "What was that dream of yours about?"

*****

Sakura's eyes went wide in disbelief. The dreaded question had finally been asked. Her breath locked in her throat, not allowing her to even attempt to articulate a single word. She wished for the earth to open and swallow her whole, for anything to happen that would free her from having to answer that question. This time, Syaoran wasn't about to give up. She would have to answer.

"I-I uh...must I...I mean..." she stammered, finally finding her words.

"Sakura, I have this hunch" he said, firmly "I need to know..."

"But I-I just can't--" her voice trembled. She wasn't going to get off the hook this time. She would have to face him and tell him, and maybe then run away and hide under her bed until she died. Suddenly, he reached out for her hand. Her head jerked up in surprise, but she just relaxed and let his hand slowly slip into hers, squeeze it. He was obviously trying to get her to trust him. He'd never been this gentle before.

She then noticed he wasn't so much trying to give her confidence, but to find his own. He was about to blurt out something so big it would make her fall off her chair. And him too, probably. She then knew he was mirroring her feelings, all the embarrassment and the shame, and the realization dawned on her.

"You and I, we had the same dream, didn't we?" she said, astonishment present in her gentle voice.

"You--and I--" he began, nodding slightly.

"Together. As in..." she blushed at this "Really together" Sakura finished, averting her gaze from him.

He nodded in understanding, a mortified look crossing his handsome features, his amber eyes fixed on her emerald ones.

"You felt dirty...embarrassed. You wished we didn't have to see each other. You wanted to be..."

"As far away from you as I could" he completed.

She sighed, feeling her confidence return. So their minds had been manipulated into this unlikely dream. A subtle way of making them drift apart, so simple she felt like banging her head against a wall for not having known from the beginning.

"Tell me something else, Sakura" he whispered.

"Yes?"

"Did you...I mean, when you woke up...when you remembered about this...this dream of ours...could you still feel...I mean..." he stammered clumsily.

"Yes" she answered faintly knowing exactly what he meant, a blush burning her cheeks yet again "And...I still can"

He tried to pull his hand from hers, in an attempt to conceal his trembling, but she firmly held on to him. This was the part that drove him crazy. The trails left by her soft fingers on his skin were impossible to erase, as if the fictitious encounter had actually happened. His line of thought was disrupted by Sakura's abrupt movement. She'd violently jumped up from the swing, clutching the key of Clow that hung around her throat, adopting a defensive posture. His senses had been dulled by the engrossing feeling, but just by looking into her eyes, so full of fear, he understood what was going on.

"It's here" Sakura whispered, shivering, confirming the warrior's thoughts.

Syaoran nodded, pendant already in hand. If that thing wants to touch Sakura, he thought, setting his jaw in determination, it will have to kill me first. And that won't be happening today. He called forth his clan sword, back to back with the beautiful sorceress, waiting. It seemed like a lifetime until a blurry female figure took shape in front of them. He tightened the grip on the hilt of his sword, and just observed.

"What are you?" he finally growled, protectively pressing his back against Sakura's. She had released her wand and was just waiting to see what happened. "Stay close to me, Sakura" he hissed "Don't leave my side"

She nodded, slightly surprised at the unfamiliar intensity in his voice. It was like he didn't worry about himself so much as he worried about her. She couldn't believe herself right then. All she could think about was his amazing smell now that he was so close to her, even when exposed to extreme danger as she was.

The shadowy figure lunged at them, not leaving them any other chance than jumping apart from each other. Then in a swift movement it attacked again, making it clear its target was Sakura. She could barely escape this last attack by rolling on the ground. Syaoran ran to her rescue, but it easily whacked him against a tree before he could do anything, so hard it took him a while to get up from the ground. In the meanwhile the shadow wasted no time, and it attacked Sakura time and time again, not giving her any time to recover or strike back. She cast an exhausted glance to a battered Syaoran, who gritted his teeth in horror: he had to do something before this thing got her killed.

He took a deep breath, as if bracing himself for what was coming, and charged straight at the thing, sword in hand. It realized what he was about to do and turned around with every intention of liquidating him before he caused any more trouble. Syaoran let it get bare millimeters away from him and then jumped, making the shadowy figure fall down and crash down into the ground.

"Sakura!!" he cried, urging her to take quick action.

"Sword Card! Release and dispel!" she voiced, wiping a trickle of blood from her chin with her sleeve.

With one clean swing she cut the shadow in two. With a chilling howl, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Sakura fell down on her knees, now taking in the full impact of the blows she'd taken. Syaoran ran towards her, and kneeled by her side.

"Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

"This isn't over" she coughed "It was too easy. It'll come back"

"Shhhh, don't talk" he said, lifting one of her arms to check for wounds "Let's go to my place. You can't go home looking like this"

She nodded and took the hand he was offering her. He helped her up and gently put her arm around his shoulders to help her walk. She was right, though. This couldn't have been the real thing. All it had taken was one single blow to take it out...only one. On the other hand, it was really strong. Sakura couldn't possibly have beaten it up by herself. He didn't even want to think what could have happened if he hadn't been there to help her.

He had to physically drag her into the apartment and on to his bed, for she was so badly beaten up she couldn't walk on her own.

"Wait here just a second" he whispered "I'll go get the first aid kit"

Sakura nodded and watched him go out the door. It was amazing what he had done for her. He had risked his life to protect her, and she felt like she would never be able to repay him for that. It was pretty obvious that whatever this thing was it was after her. So he didn't have to put his life on the line for her again. All she had to do was...lie to him. She winced at that. That was going to be difficult to pull off, but...she loved him. And only because of that, she couldn't allow him to pull another stunt like today's.

"What's on your mind?" Sakura didn't hear him come in. She jumped ever so slightly, for the pain hardly let her move.

"I want to call Kero" she said "He might know what I'm...what we're up against here"

He'd caught the correction. It deepened his scowl.

"You're not thinking of going after this thing by yourself, are you?" he asked, a sudden twinge of despair on his voice.

She lowered her head. She couldn't do it. Lying to him was the most difficult thing she had to do.

"You're not, you hear me?" he began, his tone of voice becoming more and more exasperated by the second "We're in this together, Sakura. You can't leave me out"

"But you...you risked your life...Syaoran...I don't want you to..."

"That's not your decision to make!" he near yelled at her, making her flinch. He realized what he had just done, and heaved a long sigh "I don't want anything to happen to you"

"If it's supposed to happen, Syaoran...you won't be able to stop it"

"I won't let it happen"

"But..."

"I don't want to hear another but. I told you, we're in this together" he repeated, calmer this time "And that's the way we're getting out of it" He began cleaning her multiple wounds, trying to be as gentle as possible "Maybe your stuffed toy can help you"

"He doesn't like to be called that" she pointed out, a grin tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"I don't like to be called a brat any more than he likes being called a stuffed toy" he shrugged.

Sakura smiled at that. She would never get them to get along, no matter what she did.

"Sakura..." Syaoran called, shyly.

"Yes?"

"About that dream..." he hesitantly began, making her blush immediately. She hastily averted her eyes from his, wishing he would drop the subject.

"I--I didn't...quite dislike it"

Sakura chuckled under her breath, and looked briefly up to him.

"Me neither"
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