The joys of Christmas break from school:
(Giggles) Man am I in a giggly mood. Writing something in this chapter gets me like that. I would of had that part done sooner if I would of stopped blushing and laughing at myself for wirting some stuff. Buuuuut I'm kinda proud of it. (Hears a yell "Aila's a hentai!") Am not! Its still PG 13! Opps, said too much. ^____^' Well, hope you like this chapter (or at least up to a point) Oh I gotta stop, I'm leaking too much stuff out. Don't forget to review on this chapter. I REALLY want to know what you think of this one. Sorry that it's short.
Thanks for the reviews, they where great and had me so proud of myself, grinning away...
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"Yes. Now go. I don't know how long you have." And with that Eriol sent them off.
Shaoran nodded in agreement. He stood, picked up his sword, and offered his other hand to Sakura. She still seemed to weak to walk on her own.
She nodded and took his hand, but her legs seemed to break out beneath her. She stumbled slightly, and he offered his arm to hold onto. It was either that or he would have to carry her, and he didn't think his other arm was up to that right now. She hesitated a moment before taking hold of his arm and leaning against him as they walked.
He began leading them outside to one of the horses that waited for them. He only took one look behind him only to see two cheerfully smiling people. Correction, the old woman look like she was probably smiling too. Dammit, why did they do that?
If he looked at Sakura at that instant, he would of seen her face hot red at having to cling on to his bicep to walk.
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Cherry Blossoms and Magic
Chapter 12
Lessons on Playing
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The sun was just starting to appear over the horizon and over the mountain that was their goal, and the sense of apprehension returned. Shaoran Li was alone in a foreign country, his most trusted companion left back in a foreign village, and a quest that had to be continued on a frigid looking mountain with no known outcome. He was utterly alone. Or was he?
The girl who was using is back as a pillow stirred slightly, and mumbled a few words. She had nodded off to sleep some hours back when the horse slowed from a run, and he had kept most of his interest in making sure she didn't fall off. He learned from experience that it happened occasionally with her.
Maybe he wasn't completely alone, but could he trust? She hadn't given him reason not too, but it was drilled into his head to not count on people. No matter how much you think you knew a person, they could still stab you in the back. Nevertheless, he had no choice. He had to trust her. She was the only person let with him, and he hoped he wouldn't regret it.
Sakura began to move again, and this time her hold of her arms around his waist tightened. A few seconds latter he sensed a bit of awareness from her. She was waking up.
"Did you sleep well?" he asked.
Sakura sat strait up, eyes round when she saw where her arms where, and immediately loosened them as best she cold, she still had to hold on to him in order to stay balanced on the horse. If Shaoran could see her face at that moment, he'd see it red.
"I... I'm sorry for falling asleep on... on..." She stuttered.
"On me?" He suggested in his usual, 'casual' self.
"Ummhmm." She nodded, even though he couldn't really see it.
He smiled a little, knowing she couldn't possibly see it. She thought he'd be upset with her falling asleep on him. How cute. Did he just think cute? What was wrong with him? "Don't worry about it. Anyone who went through Zhou Yi Chi would only be expected to sleep a lot afterwards. In fact, you should get as much rest as possible so you can get your magic back up."
"Hoee?" That funny sound again. He hadn't heard it from any other Japanese girls, so he now assumed it only came from her.
"Your still tired, aren't you?" She didn't answer, but he took it as a yes. He knew she was. "Get back to sleep. It won't do you any good when you need to use your magic and you don't have enough energy. I'd say we have about two more days before we reach mount Fuji."
She looked to the mountain in the distance, a base of her culture, one that right now she dreaded. However she couldn't help but admire how pretty it looked in the sunrise coming up behind it. She loved sunrises and sunsets.
Shaoran was right, she was still tired. Her eyes drooped heavily, and her arms felt like weights. With this, and Shaoran's new permission, she leaned forward, wrapped her arms around him again, and rested her cheek against his warm back. Unknown to her, he was blushing, possibly regreting the privileges he had given her.
"Thank you, Li-san." She murmured, already falling asleep.
He looked over his shoulder at her, and the smile came back to him. What would his mother say seeing him like this, not only about the amusing image he made with a girl falling asleep on him while he rode, but he actually giving her permission, not to mention him smiling. Some of the elders of the Clan would probably frown on it. He didn't know what his mother would think, but it didn't matter. None of them where here to see it.
The last thought Sakura had before she fell into complete sleep was how nice Shoran smelled. She couldn't really figure out what it was at the moment exactly, but whatever it was, it was comforting.
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"Your not going to ride all night again, are you?"
"Why not? We're making good time like this."
"But you have to sleep too. Its been more than a day since you last slept." Sakura pointed out. She wasn't going to give up on this anytime soon. It was night again, and Shaoran asumde that they could continue riding on.
"I can go days without sleep."
"You say that like its a good thing."
"It is, depending on the situation." And in case she didn't get it, he went further on to prove his case. "Lets say your in the woods or something like we are now, and if you don't stay awake your enemy could sneak up on you while your asleep."
Sakura wasn't convinced. "That is why you take shifts."
"Does that mean your volunteering to ride the horse while I sleep on your back?" He asked in a teasing manner.
Sakura blushed picturing it. She didn't think she could handle that, and the little bit she could picture of Shaoran like that she couldn't really expect to see in real life. She shook her head of the image. "Come on. What are you going to do if the so called enemy sneaks up on you when your too tired to fight back. You should sleep whenever you get the chance. That and I do believe our horse is exhusted"
He had to admit with her there. It wouldn't do them any good if he killed the horse with overexhustion. "All right. Well set up a camp near the road, but out of sight."
"Good!" Kero suddenly announced. "I want some cooked food!"
Shaoran started to lead the horse off the road and into the woods. "Is that all you think about?"
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They had set up a little fire for the sake of Kero to be able to have rice for dinner. Shaoran only gave into it because the smoke wasn't visible from the road from all the tree coverage.
"If you put poison in this, I'll still be alive long enough to kill you." Kero was glaring at Shaoran as he propped the bowl against his little yellow body.
"How ungrateful did Clow make you?"
"A lot." Sakura answered Shaoran's question while she glared at Kero. She thought it was very nice of Shaoran to cook the dinner, and now Kero was here being a jerk again. Oh well. Kero will be Kero. She took in a mouthful of vegetables and rice, and automatically began to savor the taste. Sure Shaoran had looked like he knew what he was doing while he had cooked it, but this was good. No, correction. This was great. As soon as she swallowed it, she didn't hesitate in voicing her opinion. "This is great, Li-san. Better than anything Tomoyo ever cooked."
At this Shaoran just made a little "thanks" to show her heard her, and continued to polish his sword, or maintain it, or whatever they called it. He had finished a bowl of plain rice while the vegetables cooked, and now "wasn't hungry."
Kero had begun to dig madly into the bowl, and looked up, cheeks bulging like a squirrel. "Its all right, but Sakura could do better any day."
"Whatever Kero, you know I can't cook anything compared to this." Sakura finished her food, set down the bowl and chop sticks, and hugged her knees to her chest as she watched Shaoran begin to polish the sword. He was doing so with extreme care, making sure that every smudge was off it's blade, as well as every speck of blood from the tenju.
"Li-san?"
"Yes?"
"What is it like in China?" She finally asked. It had been a question on her mind for a while.
"China?"
"Umhmm."
He hesitated for a moment, thinking about it. "Well, that's kind of a broad topic. The best I can do for one word though would be... different."
Sakura thought about it for a moment. "Ok then. What's your home like?"
He finished with the sword, and it returned to a pendant. "My home huh?" She didn't think it was really a question so she waited. "Well on a big hill near the ocean. There's a village, farmland, and of course the house. It's pretty gigantic I suppose, but it would have to be to hold most of our Clan."
She took this in, pausing before going onto the next question. "What are your parents like?"
He didn't really answer, and Sakura assumed that he didn't want to talk about it. She was about to apologize, but then he finally answered it.
"My father died when I was very young from some kind of sickness. My mother, well some would say she's the very image of a queen." He smiled slightly, eyes glimmering as he remembered her. "Beautiful, commanding, always doing what is best for the clan."
"I barely remember my family." She said after he finished. There had been a long pause as each of them recalled what they could remember. "I can only recollect bits and pieces. But what I can always has them smiling, and they where very kind. I don't really have any bad memories about them, only good ones." she paused again, and went on to asking another question. "So what was it like growing up with the expectations of becoming a ruler?" She asked this a bit jokingly, grinning as she did so.
He didn't hesitate on this one. "A pain and the rear."
"Hoee?"
"Everyone always has high expectations of you, and they never really give you a break if you do something wrong."
"Any kid raised in the Li clan grows up to be a stiff, insensitive, stuck up know it all. The poor brat raised to be leader gets it the worst. They train all their kids that emotions are weak, and drill all kinds of crap in their heads. Clow hated it. Poor kids where never even aloud to play games like tag." Kero went for another helping of food as he said this. "That whole Clan has never really had a day of real fun in their life."
"Mou Kero, stop lying. No one would stop a kid from playing games like that." Sakura threw a sharp gaze at him.
Sakura was surprised when Shaoran actually supported this. "He's not lying. We where never aloud to really play. And I guess a bunch of us do grow up to be a bunch of insensitive, stuck up know it alls."
"I don't think they did a very good job on you."
He looked at her for a moment, and a small lopsided smile formed on his lips. "You know, I can actually start agreeing with that."
"Where you really serious about never being aloud to play games when you where younger?"
"Totally. The future clan leader had to be stern and serious. No time for games for him." He pulled his bag up to him, and a small, circular object fell out and rolled to Sakura's feet.
She retrieved it, and it was a plat circular piece with a ying and yang design on it. "What's this."
"Oh that!" Kero managers to look at the object in her hands. "The Lasin board. Clow left it at his mothers a looong time ago. Never saw it again after that."
She saw Shaoran looking board as he began to rummage through his bag, and she began to sand up. "Want it back?" she asked tauntingly.
He looked to her, eye brow raised at the sudden suggestion. "What do you think."
She leaned against a tree and began to toss it into the air. When it came back to her hand she almost dropped it when it began to take on a square shape in her hands. "Nani?" It had writing in kanji at each points, and they looked like the elemental symbols.
Shaoran took that second to get up and attempt to retrieve it from her, but at the last moment she saw him, and twirled behind the tree.
"What are you doing?" he asked he looked around the tree.
She grinned at him and began walking back, further into trees. "Teaching a boy deprived of his childhood how to play."
"I never said I was deprived as a child." He begins to pursue her as the runs behind another tree.
"Bakas! I am surrounded by bakas!" They hear Kero yell as he watches them go deeper into the woods.
Sakura ducks behind a new tree just as Shaoran made it to the last one. He looks around but can't see her. Suddenly behind him he hears running, and he starts running after her fleeting figure.
"Well, I'll leave the two immature kids, who have the fate of Japan in their hands, to play! I'm going to sleep!"
Sakura began to slow down when she noticed Shaoran was no longer behind her. She turned around and begun to feel uneasy. He wasn't anywhere. "Where is he?" She whispered.
Suddenly she heard a sound of a twig breaking behind her, and she begun running in the opposite direction. She was actually quite surprised he hadn't caught her yet. She was better than she thought. She began looking behind him, but still didn't see him. Odd.
If she was looking where she was going, she would of seen him, as she rounded the next tree. But she didn't, and ran right into him. The momentum rent them both reeling back and falling to the ground. Sakura winced as she fell on her side. She'd probably have a bruise there. When she opened her eyes, she met his looking down at her.
"Are you ok?"
"Yeah." She begun to sit up, and Shaoran sat down across from her. "You have leaves in your hair."
"So do you."
She begun to look around the ground and found the lasin board next to her.
"No you don't." He said as he begun to lunge forward, but not fast enough. The board was already in her hand. He reached for it, but she hid away behind her back. It was the only thing she could do because she couldn't move while sitting, and him so close. His arm went behind her back, but she switched hands and brought the board around the other side and waved it above her head, unaware to how close he was. He saw the location of the board now, and quickly snatched the wrist of the hand it was in with his other hand. At that moment they suddenly became very aware of there being no space between them whatsoever. She looked up at him, and he looked down on her, slight surprise on his face. They where like that for a while, a soon his look softened. Shaoran begun to slowly lower his head, and Sakura saw instantly that this was diminishing the inches between them. She tilted her head, lifted her chin to meet him.
As soon as his lips brushed hers, she felt a warmth rush through her that went all the way down to her very bones. She opened her mouth, deepening the kiss.
She feels his hand let go of her wrist, and both of them moved to her waist, pulling her tighter against him. A low tremor coursed through her, or maybe it was him. She couldn't tell. She could feel his heart beating wildly, and she knew hers was too. The warm wave continued to flow through her, tingling her skin where he was touching her. She thought she could stay like that forever.
It was unknown to her how long they had kissed, but it felt too soon when she felt his lips slowly leave hers. She opened her eyes and saw his slowly begin to open and look to her with a softness she loved. She did hesitate as she begun wrapping her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her again. She closed her eyes once again anticipating to feel his lips on hers, but instead he begun to kiss the side of her neck. This unexpected sensation brought at gasp from her as it sent an electrifying shock through her spine with each kiss. She stretched out her neck welcoming it.
"My, my." Sakura opened her eyes wide hearing his voice. Shaoran slowly let go of and stood up and faced Mahoutsukai with a glare. "Sorry to interupt such an... intimate mmment, but you see, I felt a giant surge of magic from here and came to investigate. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be exactly who we're looking for."
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Short, yes, sorry, gomen. Ohohohoo! I'm soo evil. I don't know why, but I HAD to have Mahoutsukai come into the picture at that very momment. Wait a minute, now I rember, theres a VERY good reason why he interupted. Still, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Kero interupted, or Eriol... I found out Sakura and Shaoran get along soo much better without Tomoyo and Eriol. S+S need to be alone to disover their feelings. ^_^ Sorry if it's a bit of a cliffhanger, but hey, it's something. Besides, I'm not too sure what I'm going to write next. What I had already witten out was stupid. I got to make it better. Hey, maybe I'll have another chapter up within a few days. But, did you like the kiss? I liked it. Sometimes I wonder where I get my imagination. ("henatai!") Suddup. I am not. Did you all expect Mahoutsukai to interrupt it? Tell me about it when you review. I am so sinister to Sakura and Shaoran. I'm actually kind of mad at myself by sending that nasty surprise to interrupt such a "intimate" moment. But hey, what would happen if Mahoutsukai didn't come by? Now that's something to think about. ~_^ Still, they where able to have a little thing in Titanic and it still remain PG 13... Ok, I am not going to push the limits here. Nope. I'm a "good girl" ^_^ Really I am. Aw, who am I kidding, wait till you guys find out whats in the sequel. Laughs evilly.
I'm kinda mad at fanfiction.net I can't see where they say my chapters are updated. They're ignoring me!
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