XVI - Persuasion

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Daisuke sat down on the bench with a sigh. He miraculously had some
free time today when Keiji told him to take the day off. He decided
to wait for Sakura to return home.

"Excuse me."

Daisuke looked up to see a man in a black jacket standing at the
other end of the bench. He had dark brown hair and grey eyes. Daisuke
noted a different look to his clothes that he normally didn't see
around campus. The man wore a black jacket that was devoid of any
ornaments except for a zipper and some velcro tabs. It stopped about
mid thigh. Daisuke noted that the man looked familiar, he couldn't
place where.

"Mind if I sit down?" he asked.

Daisuke nodded as he glanced at the other end of the bench in welcome.

The man opened his coat so he could sit. Daisuke noted that the man
liked black as the primary color choice in his clothes, a grey shirt
and pair of black pants, his black boots were very shiny.

They both stared out at the lake. Daisuke watched as a mother duck
and her four ducklings waddled along the water's edge.

"So you know about Sakura's clow cards." the man said after a moment
of silence.

Daisuke's eyes widened. He looked at the man again. He was looking
back at Daisuke.

Silence.

"I'm sorry, I'm Li Shaoran." Shaoran stood up and bowed at Daisuke.

Daisuke nodded, "Niwa Daisuke."

"Want a drink?" Shaoran asked.

Daisuke stood up, "Why not?" he noticed that Shaoran was looking at
him. He wondered what he looked looked like in Shaoran's eyes.
Daisuke was a bit on the thin side, a slight body, the kind that
showed off sculpted muscles due to all the judo and karate he had
learned as a kid. He wore dark jeans and a cream turtleneck sweater.
His red hair fell every which way sometimes falling into his eyes,
which he shook to the side.

'Probably very scruffy and irresponsible looking.' Daisuke thought,
amused, 'not good enough for Sakura.'

"Know any good bars?" Shaoran asked.

Daisuke nodded, "Come with me."

A few minutes later they were sitting next to each other in a dark,
quiet bar. It was in the middle of the day so bar traffic was low.
The only noise breaking the silence was the clinking of glasses and
faint piano music. It was a place Daisuke rarely came to considering
it wasn't exactly a place where college students frequent in large
groups.

He sat at the bar itself, letting his elbows rest on the counter.

Shaoran sat down next to him and ordered a drink.

"I didn't think you were the drinking type." Daisuke said as he
played with the coaster.

"Things change." Shaoran said as he sipped his drink. "I don't do
this often." he said, "But since running the family, I have to do
some entertaining..."

"This would have been the family Sakura would have married into?"

Shaoran nodded as he put the glass down. "We're a family of
magicians." he said. "We go as far back as the days when the Clow
cards were created. The Clow Reed himself is one of my ancestors."

"Ahhh I see." Daisuke said.

"My family has its rules." Shaoran said, "Some may say that those
rules are rigid, but its kept the family going for centuries."

Daisuke turned to the bartender and ordered a drink. He had a feeling
that this conversation was going to last for a while.

"What about your family?" Shaoran asked.

Daisuke shrugged, "We're a fairly normal family."he looked down at
the coaster he had mangled.

"I see." Shaoran said he took a sip of his drink. Daisuke pushed the
small buzz of annoyance that he felt inside him. 'He's judging you.'
He ignored his conscious.

Daisuke took that moment to glance at Shaoran and went on a bit
more. "The Niwa males all have a faulty DNA code that makes us turn
into Dark Mousy when we turn fourteen. He's an infamous thief that
steals various things from museums. Sometimes Dark Mousy would meet
his rival, Krad who comes from the Hikari family. They change in the
same way."

Shaoran rose an eyebrow. "I've heard of him." he said, "He's recently
popped up in the news too."

Daisuke shrugged, "He's gone for the time being."

"So all the males experience this?"

Daisuke nodded.

"I see why she says you understand her." Shaoran said.

"Of course." Daisuke said as he thanked the bartender with a nod. He
noted that the bartender also gave him a new coaster.

"And the Hikari family, they aren't a problem?"

Daisuke shook his head, "Not really."

"Not really?"

Daisuke took a sip of his drink.

Shaoran did not ask any further which relieved Daisuke.

"I won't let any harm come to her." Daisuke said. "My family trained
me in various forms of martial arts. Since Dark was a thief I had to
be trained as one."

Shaoran nodded.

"Have you met her family yet?"

"Not yet." Daisuke said, "We will as soon as midterms are over and we
have some time in the break."

"I'd watch out for her brother." Shaoran said.

Daisuke couldn't tell if Shaoran was helping him or judging him. He
looked down at his drink irritated at the questions.

"So how long have you known Sakura?" he asked.

"Since grade school." Shaoran answered immediately.

"Oh?"

"I sat behind her when I first moved to Japan." he said, "I was sent
to get the clow cards back at any cost." Shaoran said. "I loved her
since then."

Daisuke sighed.

"You won't understand her like I do." Shaoran said before he took a
drink. His eyes lowered.

"You left her." Daisuke said as he pushed his empty glass forward.

"It wasn't my fault, I had family obligations." he said.

"Obligations that weren't as important as Sakura?"

"That's why I came back." he said. "I came back to find her and marry
her."

"I'm sure she's made it clear about her feelings." Daisuke said.

"She has," Shaoran said. He turned to Daisuke, "She says she doesn't
deserve you but its you that doesn't deserve her."

"And you do?" Daisuke asked.

Shaoran sighed, "I'm trying to make up for that."

"You don't approve of our relationship do you?"

"How can I when I still love her?" Shaoran asked.

"So why did you leave her?" Daisuke asked. "Don't you know what it
did to her?"

Shaoran stared at his drink.

Daisuke couldn't even look at Shaoran. "She was so torn up inside."
he whispered. "As if nothing mattered to her."

"I-"

"She talked about you as if you were dead." Daisuke said, "She felt
as if she didn't love you enough. She took all the blame on her
shoulders."

"Listen-"

"I don't know what she was like before, but she's changed. She's
strong, and can be on her own. I'm lucky that she agreed to marry me."

Shaoran sighed, "I know what I did to her was wrong, but I plan to
make things right." he said. "She still loves me, I can tell."

Daisuke pulled out some money and tossed it onto the counter, "She's
chosen," he tried to say around the lump in his throat, "Please..
leave us alone." and left the bar.



Sakura opened the door, "Daisuke!" she exclaimed.

He wrapped his arms around her.

"What's wrong?" she asked as she closed the door with her foot.

"Nothing." he said, "I just wanted to hold you."

Sakura smiled, "I won't object to that."

Daisuke sighed, "Sakura..."

"Yes?" she asked.

"Are you happy?"

She smiled, "What a silly question, of course I am."

He smiled back.



"He talked to you?" Sakura asked later that day. They were sitting on
the couch, a knot of limbs and bodies, their fingers intertwined with
each other.

"Yes." Daisuke said. "He wanted to size up the competition I guess."

"I thought he'd understand. I never thought he'd do something like
this."

"Things change Sakura." Daisuke said, "He's no longer the Shaoran you
remembered when you were little. Nor is he the same Shaoran that
entered college with you."

"Yes but-" she sighed, "I'm going to talk to him, make him see-"

"No." he said.

"No?" she asked.

"No." he said, "Sakura... if you want to break up and-"

"Silly." she whispered, "Just because the guy I was heartbroken over
returns doesn't mean that I want him." she turned to him and kissed
him, "Things change." she whispered, "You're the one I want."

He smiled.

"We're two of a kind." she said, "We belong together."

"I'm the one that doesn't deserve you." he whispered.

"Don't start stealing my lines." she said in mock admonishment.

He laughed.
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1) Okay I'm not sure if this moved the plot but... oh well... I
wanted Daisuke and Shaoran to meet, a sort of old guy meets new guy
thing. Yeah...

2) previous chapters found on fanfiction.net =)

3) Happy Turkey Day Everybody!