I really don't think it's bad enough to be R but it goes to the deep end of PG-13. I changed my mind and decided to post it with the rest of the story. This is the second version of the last chapter. It's pretty much the same except for the ending. I don't know if I'm going to do the third version anymore since I discovered that I'm not cut out for writing stiff like that just yet.
Zachary, Li and Sakura belong to Clamp. So does the idea of card captor Sakura (If you don't know this by now, then there is something very, very wrong.)
Chapter 7
One…two…three…four…Zachary counted the snowflakes that fell from the sky and landed in his eyes as he walked to school. It was wet snow and there was already a layer of slush on the ground, turning everything into a grubby mess. Just the way his brain felt sometimes. 'What a great November,' he thought, not in a sarcastic way. His watch beeped to signify that it was eight o'clock.
"Crap!" He began to run, and after running for about three minutes, He collided with somebody at the corner who was also running and they both fell on their butts.
"Zachary!"
"Huh? Oh, Torako! You're late too for once eh? So much for being the model student."
Torako shook her head. "Come on, let's just go." Zachary held out his hand to hoist her up but as soon as he started to pull his centre of balance was knocked off and, slipping on the icy slush, he fell over on top of her. "AH!"
They both sat there for a minute and eventually started laughing at each other. They repeated this action about four times before they finally gave up.
"Torako, do you believe in fate?" he asked, still laughing.
"Sometimes. Why?"
"I think that it's our fate not to go to school today. Somebody up there wants us to be someplace else today."
"Really? What makes you think that?" Torako said with a chuckle.
"Well, what are the chances that on the same day we would both be late, we'd crash in to each other on the corner of the street, and fall on our asses five times in a row in one inch of slush, and still be sitting here talking about it instead of bootin' it up to the school?"
"What are you suggesting?" Torako quirked a curious eyebrow.
"I am suggesting, dear lady, that we skip school today."
"Zachary no, I-" but he interrupted her.
"Come on. Who's going to get you in trouble, your brother? He's probably skipped a gazillion times. What's one little time? To celebrate our truce. Come on, you know you want to." He sang.
"Well…" She mulled it over, "Okay!" Her eyes glittered with excitement.
"Great! What will we do today?" they struggled to their feet.
"Yech. Well first of all, I want to go home and change into something dry." She squeezed some icy-cold water out of her skirt, which had enough water in it to drown a herd of prairie dogs and was sticking to her behind uncomfortably.
"What about Saruko? Will he be gone yet?"
"I thought you weren't worried about him?" she teased. "Anyway, you're right. He doesn't leave for another hour and a half. What do we do?"
"Hmmm, I guess we could go to my house. But we'll have to be careful and make sure my mom has already gone to work."
Torako nodded and followed Zachary back towards his house. They walked for about five minutes and then Zachary let out some weird noise, grabbed her and dove into a hedge.
"What?" she whispered.
"My mom just drove by. I guess that means the coast is clear." He poked his head out of the hedge, waited for the car to turn the corner, and then they started walking again. "Pretty exciting, huh?"
"Yeah." Torako said breathlessly. Her heart was beating so fast she couldn't believe it. She had never done anything like this before. Her mother wouldn't allow it, and punishment by her mother was harsh.
"Here we are." Zachary rummaged through his backpack for a minute and found his key, unlocking the side door.
Torako followed him inside and he shut the door behind her, kicking his shoes off so far that they hit the wall.
"Nice shot ace." She commented, and stepped out of hers without untying the laces.
"What a pro, eh?"
"Your feet smell horrible." She waved her hand in front of her nose.
Zachary shrugged without a care and led her up a small staircase that led to the main part of the house. Everything was decorated in blue and white. They came in through the kitchen.
"Hungry?" He skidded to a stop in front of the fridge on his soggy socks and opened the door to survey its contents.
"Not right now. Just really wet." She held her skirt out at the sides and let gravity pull it back down with a dull 'Floop!' against her legs.
"Oh, right. I wonder how I forgot. Come on, I'll get you something to wear." He took her to the laundry room where there was a basket of his mother's clothes and held up a pair of pants. Torako looked at them sceptically. They were maroon dress pants about a foot too long. Zachary's mother was a tall, very lean woman by the looks of it.
"Erm, I don't think that will work for me, in case you haven't noticed." She took them and held them up to herself.
"I guess not." He surveyed her curvy figure, then jogged up the steps with her following and went into his room. When he opened the door you could hear faint snoring from inside his closet, which is where Quan slept.
Torako looked around his room. She expected that Zachary would be a bit of a slob, but except for a pair of pyjama pants on the floor and the unmade bed, it was actually pretty clean. "Bat man bed sheets?" she giggled.
"Wha-at? It's not like it matters." He blushed a little bit in spite of himself.
"True, true." She trailed off.
"Here." He handed her a stack of clothes. "You can change in here."
She took the clothes and motioned to the closet where the snores had turned into mutterings of "Cupcakes! More cupcakes!"
"Oh, don't worry about him. He won't be awake until Jerry Springer comes on."
"The Guardian Beast watches Jerry Springer?" She wrinkled her nose.
"Yeah, well, that's Quan for you." He got some dry clothes for himself, walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
When she finished changing she took her clothes to the laundry room and threw them in the dryer, and went into the living room to wait for Zachary, looking around the place. A huge China cabinet stood on one side of the room with (obviously) all the good China in it, and a bunch of collectable figures. Sliding doors led out to the back porch. The couch was against the wall closest to the kitchen and their TV was against the opposite wall with two shelves full of DVDs on either side, and the front window was between the couch and the TV.
Torako curled up on the couch and waited. If his mom's clothing was too small, his was exactly the opposite. The sleeves of his sweater drooped over her hands and the pants were a bit too long and wide, hanging on her hips, but she didn't really mind. It was warm and dry, even if it did belong to Zachary, which she somehow found herself admitting that she didn't mind either. She never wore clothes that belonged to a guy before, not even Jared's.
"Comfy?" Zachary poked his head through the door and she nodded. "Be right back. She heard him stomp downstairs to throw his own clothes in the dryer and then start it, and then run back upstairs.
"Know what I just realized? If any of the neighbours see us I'll be in a lot of trouble." He proceeded to shut all the blinds, leaving the room fairly dark. "Now, what do you want for breakfast? I haven't had mine yet, so I'm going to make it really good. How do pancakes sound?"
"Good."
"Great. You can turn on the TV. I don't think there's much on at nine A.M though." And he went into the kitchen and started banging pots and pans around. The first thing Torako saw was Pokemon. "Dumb show." She flipped through all the channels twice, and finally ended up watching a rerun of Dark Angel. When it was half over, Zachary brought out two plates of chocolate-chip pancakes and gave one to her.
"Mmmm, my god Zachary those are SO good!" she took a huge bite.
"Yeah, I know," He teased.
They ate the rest of the time in silence.
When they were done Torako turned to him.
"What are we going to do now?" she wondered. Their celebration wasn't going to be too great. They couldn't even go out of the house.
"I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it."
"You haven't skipped before?"
"Neither have you."
"I thought you did."
"I didn't."
"Oh. Well, we could…um…play…truth or dare?"
Zachary wrinkled his nose. "That's a girl's game."
"What are you, twelve? I don't here any better ideas from you."
"Okay fine. Who goes first?"
"You. Truth or dare?"
"Truth."
"You're boring. Ummm, okay, how about…boxers or briefs?"
"I'm boring? Boxers. Truth or dare?"
"What do you need all that extra room for? Truth."
"Hey, that's not cool! Do you have your eye on anybody at school?"
"Nobody in particular. You?"
"Well, I did like Chelsea."
"I could tell. Don't you anymore?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because she doesn't like me for who I am. She always shuts me down, and when I told the truth for once she wouldn't believe me, and it's been weeks now and she still won't believe me."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Truth or Dare?"
"Truth."
"Are you a virgin?"
"Are you?" Torako made a weird face and they both started to laugh.
"I get it, I get it."
"Truth or dare?" Torako asked him.
"Mmmmmmmmmmmm, dare." He finally settled on.
"Oooh, adventurous. Okay, I dare you to…crank call the school."
"Done." Zachary picked up the phone, found the school's number, dialled it, and waited for the secretary to pick up.
"Hello?"
Zachary put on a really phony accent with a high-pitched voice. "Allo? Ees theese Tomeda Distreect Aye School? Dees is Meesees Vander tramp callink. Yeas, mye son Jeb will nat be comeink. He has da diarrhoea today. Okay bye bye honey. I told you already dees is Meesees Vander tramp! Buh bye."
He hung up the phone and Torako finally got to let out the laughter that had been making her eyes water the whole time Zachary was on the phone. When the two finally stopped laughing Zachary sat up.
"Okay, now it's your turn."
"Oh no, you're not getting me to do something like that. She stood up and walked to the window, peeking between the closed blinds.
"Okay Torako, here's your dare. The first guy you see, you have to pretend to be trying to seduce him like your life depends on it."
She made a sound like air escaping a beach ball. "No way! What if it's…some homeless guy?! What if he smells like pee?!"
"Too bad. Are you going to back out of it? Chicken? I don't think you can do it." he teased, stood up and crossed his arms smugly.
"That's not a fair dare. I should have known you'd come up with something gross like that."
"It was your idea to play this. A dare is a dare."
Torako seemed to be thinking it over for a minute, and then she walked over to him and stood beside him. He looked at her a second, and then she threw her arms around his neck and started playing with his hair, which if you think about would be a very funny scene, considering how far her sleeves hung over her hands.
"Torako?" he quirked an eyebrow.
"You said the first guy I saw." She pouted.
"Riiight. Um, okay." He looked down at her as she leaned against his chest.
"Ooh, you smell so good." She sighed.
"I didn't mean ME." he pulled away from her touch and slouched down on the couch just as Xena: Warrior Princess came on the TV.
"A dare is a dare." She mocked, and snuggled beside him.
"Did you loose your mind somewhere in the past five minutes?" he looked at her seriously.
"You're better than a homeless guy."
"Gee, thanks." He plastered on a fake grin.
"Oh come on Zachary. Just play along."
"What do you mean play along?" he lost his grin.
"Go…with…the flow." She said slowly, tracing the line of his jaw.
"Where is this flowing?" he asked her as she re-applied her shimmer lip-gloss.
"Why don't you tell me? Upstream maybe, if you get my meaning?" something changed in her tone. Zachary couldn't tell exactly what it was, but it was very sexy. Maybe it was the feeling of her warm breath on his neck. Maybe it was the way she was whispering now. He was determined to put up a fight and not let her know how good she was.
"Nice Torako, real nice. I wouldn't have even guessed you would be the type of girl…"
"Mmmm, like that do you? How about this?" she put an arm around his neck and tickled him lightly behind his ear and across he back of his neck, her fingers barely touching his skin but still sending shivers down his spine.
"Okay, I have to admit, that was first-rate." His voice wavered a little. With her spare hand she reached across him and grabbed the remote control, turning off the TV and then the lamp beside her.
"There. Now that I have your full attention…" she trailed off.
"What?"
"How do you feel about this?" She pushed him over gently and straddled his hips, her behind sticking up in the air as she leaned over him. "Oh, it looks like I was wrong earlier. It looks like you do need all that extra room." She breathed in his ear.
"Mmmhmm, you know it girlfriend." Zachary said in his best normal voice. "Nice move."
"And this one?" she came within an inch of his lips, her hair brushing his face lightly as its golden ringlets fell from her shoulders. "Well?" she looked into his eyes from under half closed eyelids in the dim light, and then kissed his neck softly.
"My God…" now he was whispering too.
"Ahhh, I knew it. I suppose you'll like this then." Torako went in for the kill with a sweet brush of her lips on his. Zachary very nearly whimpered. "Again?" she asked.
"Mmhm."
This time the kiss was deep. Zachary groaned as Torako's warm lips pressed against his. She separated her lips, allowing him to slip his tongue inside her mouth, where he tasted chocolate. He couldn't get enough. As their kiss deepened, Torako lowered her rear from the air until her whole body was against his and she was running her fingers through his hair. When they finally parted, gasping for breath, she dropped kisses all down his neck, coming to stop at his shirt collar. She put one hand between them and unbuttoned his shirt, pushing it aside to reveal his nicely tanned skin underneath. At that point, she paused, and neither of them did anything. Zachary remained motionless as she pulled her shirt over her head and cast it onto the floor, leaned over him and licked his chest. Suddenly he grabbed her wrists.
"I don't know which card you are, but I know you're not Torako. She wouldn't go that far for a dare."
She looked up at him and for the first time he saw that her eyes had taken on a dull grey colour.
"But it pleases you master." It pleaded in a ghostly voice.
"Master? Wa…"
"My only wish is to serve you."
Zachary groaned and propped himself up. "In that case, tell me your name so I can seal you." He commanded it.
"I am the Submission card. I have the ability to control people's bodies and minds so that they do your bidding."
"All right then, reveal yourself in your true form." He called out his sword, and as the spirit floated away from her body it took the form of a fox.
"Return to your power confined, Rahn card!"
Once it was fully sealed, Zachary tucked the particularly dangerous card into his back pocket and went to help Torako, who had slid onto the floor somewhere in the whole process. He lay her down on the couch with her head propped up on a pillow and went to get some water to splash on her face.
"Hey, come on, wake up." He shook her gently when the water didn't work.
Eventually her eyes fluttered open. "What…happened to me?"
Zachary made an odd noise. "You're prone to fainting I guess. You passed out again. The Submission card possessed you, and I guess it took the dare. I just sealed it."
"Oh. Thank you. But Zachary? It was me who took the dare."
He looked surprised. "How long were you in control?!"
"How long till you realized it wasn't me?" she left both questions hanging in the air with a smirk while Zachary's mouth hung open.
"Oh my god!" she realized how far it actually went when she shivered and moved to pull the warm shirt around herself.
"Zachary you jerk! What did you do?!" she hissed, not wanting to wake Quan up.
"Um actually, you did it all." He gave her the strangest look just before his eyes strayed to her nearly bare chest.
"Oh…well don't just sit there, get my shirt!" she yelped, and whipped a blanket over herself.
Zachary shook his head and chuckled to himself as he retrieved her shirt and handed it to her. Apparently it was break time at school, because that very minute there was a knock on the door, but Torako didn't even acknowledge it. When he looked through the peephole he saw Sakura and Li standing there. He opened the door a crack and poked his head out, letting cold air rush in.
"Yeah?" he looked to both their faces.
"Uh, would it be okay if we came in?" Li asked him.
Absentmindedly, Zachary let the door drift open as she rubbed his eye. "Uh, I guess. Just hang on a second guys…guys? What is it?" he puzzled at their amused/shocked expressions. Li's mouth opened in an O of surprise, and Sakura's jaw slowly dropped with a gasp. Zachary followed her gaze as it flickered between him in his un-buttoned Hawaiian shirt, and what he thought was the door. He looked up the stairs to see Torako facing away from them, pulling the shirt over her head through the wide-open doorway. Sakura began to giggle, drawing Torako's attention.
She gasped in surprise, and then got pissed. "Zachary! I'll kill you!" she yelled, then stomped off into the kitchen.
Zachary groaned. With the whole house completely dark he knew what they would think.
"Ho! Now I see why you two weren't in class this morning Zack-man." Li grinned.
"Oh my god." Sakura tried to suppress her giggles by pressing her hand against her mouth.
"It's not what you think." He leaned on the doorframe. "Just get in here. I'm getting cold and I don't want the neighbours to catch us."
"Obviously." Sakura laughed.
"You might want to do up that shirt then sport." Li pointed at him as they went in with a grin.
~*~*~*~
A/N: How was this one?
