Chapter 22-Sakura
April First was my birthday and I had totally forgotten about it. In truth, I think thirteen year olds weren't suppose to forget their birthdays-it's usually when you're around sixty or so when you absolutely don't want to get older.
Nevertheless, I totally forgot about my birthday, so when I went home that Monday I was met with a huge surprise.
The house was completely decorated, and how they managed to do that without me knowing I do not know. Oni-chan was there with Yukito-san, who was in his true form, as well as Chiharu, Rika, Noako, Yamazaki, Xuyan, Eriol, Nakuru, Spinel, and Kaho. Syaoran was there of course, and when I came home it was almost as if he had the best time of his life.
Birthdays became less important nowadays because I found out many things I use to enjoy were not as interesting anymore. I was perfectly content to sit and talk with my friends. In this case we were talking about old times and Syaoran, blindly, was explaining how we caught the first card together-Thunder.
" She wanted to use Windy." Syaoran poked me, and how he managed to find me I
do not know. " Stupid baka! Windy against Thunder! Luckily, she had the Shadow
Card, and I told her to use it. First I used my own light attack and blew Thunder
back. Then she used the Shadow."
" Now she turned out to be a better card wielder than you are!" Eriol laughed. " So
don't go nuts with that."
" Windy for Thunder." Xuyan laughed at me. " What nonsense!"
" Shizuka ni!" I protested. " I was an amateur!"
" An amateur." Syaoran laughed.
" It's true, you know." Tomoyo pointed out. " I'd say Sakura did a pretty good job,
coping with your personality."
This caused Syaoran to blush and we all started laughing at him.
" Yeah, you can't forget about that!" Oni-chan laughed. " I never did get back at
you for hurting my imotou!"
" Oh that again!" Syaoran huffed. " I would challenge you to a glaring contest yet
again if I still have my glare."
" Trust me," Eriol suddenly looked like a naughty child. " Your eyes are painful
enough to look at without that glare."
" Oh really? Maybe I should get contacts. Then at least I look like a sight-seeing
person."
" Hai, right, and make your glare more noticeable? What color would you get?"
Xuyan played along.
" Red. To scare your guts out."
" Yeah right, I wouldn't be scared!"
" Would too!"
" Would not!"
" Would too!"
" Would not!"
" Stop it you two!" Kaho was laughing very hard now. " You're acting like five
year olds!"
Syaoran pulled his legs underneath him and hopped up. " What's wrong with acting like a five year old?"
We laughed yet again.
" Seriously," Yamazaki wiped his eyes, " You need to calm down. Your voice is
getting hoarse!"
" It's been hoarse all this morning." Syaoran smiled. " Don't worry about it. What
time is it? I'm for food. Where is Otou-san and Oni-chan?"
" Where else?" Oni-chan poked his head out from the kitchen. " We're the ones that
are cooking!"
" I would help, if the oil doesn't splash into my eyes." Syaoran muttered.
" I'll go."
" I'll go."
" Iie, you stay, I'll go."
" Why are you arguing with me now?" Eriol asked Xuyan. We all laughed.
" I'm for snacks then. Where are all your snacks?" Syaoran called into the kitchen.
Something got tossed out and Eriol caught it.
" Ah...weird chips," Eriol blinked. " Here you go."
" Elgh, chips." Syaoran shook his head. " Oh well."
" You don't like chips?"
" I use to. I don't like them anymore. They use tons of oil and salt and yucky stuff."
All of the sudden, I don't like chips anymore.
" I'll get some water." I said.
" Sure." Syaoran answered. I went to the kitchen and got the pitcher, then brought
it to the living room.
How it started I have absolutely no clue, but both Nakuru and Syaoran
started to make fun of Kero.
" Cerberus was a three-headed dog! Haha! Now we have an eagle winged cat!"
" I'm not a cat! I'm a fierce lion!" Kero tried his best to look dignified.
It didn't work very well.
" Harry Potter stole that idea from the Greeks." Eriol laughed. " What was that
dog's name anyway?"
" The dog whose mouth waters?" Syaoran blinked. " I forgot. What was that dog's
name?"
" Fluffy." Kaho answered, and we started laughing.
" Kero fluffy-chan!" Chiharu joked. Kero did not like it.
" I am not Fluffy!" He cried.
" Is it because of Cerberus that you named Kero that?" Syaoran asked.
" Most likely." Eriol answered. " I kind of forgot."
" You are evil." Kero answered, and we all laughed again. Syaoran rubbed his eyes
a little and leaned back.
" I'm hungry!!" He yelled. Of course, we were all very pleased, considering Syaoran
was once anorexic.
Of course Oni-chan and Yukito did not appreciate that since they were the ones cooking.
The time for opening presents had come after dinner, which was fantastic
because Rika was also cooking and Tomoyo had helped. I started with Chiharu's,
which was also Rika's and Noako's. It was a beautiful picture frame, gold in color
and finely decorated. Inside was a picture of the five of us; Rika, Noako, Chiharu,
Tomoyo, and me.
" Just so when you have some other magician busting," Chiharu chirped, " You'll
remember-"
" The quintet."
" Shut up Syaoran." Yamazaki elbowed him.
" Arigatou!" I laughed, hugging my friends. " This will definitely be on my desk."
Next to the Clow group's, of course.
The next one came from Eriol, Nakuru, and Spinel, which was a locket.
" Hopefully you wouldn't have too little room around your neck," Eriol pointed out
my key. " I think you can spare some, eh?"
Yamazaki gave me a watch. This watch was different from Yukito's watch
because first of all it isn't pink and second it isn't digital. Syaoran wanted to know
what it looked like and of course we had a hard time.
" It's round,"
" It has a nice strap-"
" What color?" Syaoran asked.
" Uh...a mixture of red and purple."
" What shade?"
Not the most exciting.
Xuyan gave me a crystal cube with a small flower inside, ( " Not a real flower, mind you" he said) and a small hummingbird, which wasn't real either. It was a lovely little thing and I thought it was the best out of all things so far, although I didn't say it. It must have costed quite a lot. But Xuyan was sweet.
Tomoyo gave me a dress. It's natural for a tailor like her to give me clothes, considering that it was all she ever gave me the past few years during the card capturing seasons. This dress, luckily, was actually a normal one, not a kimono but something I can wear that looks casual yet " astonishing", as Tomoyo said.
Yukito and Kero gave me an extremely beautiful wooden miniature chest,
which would rightly be called a jewelry box except it didn't say it on the cover.
" You're growing." Yukito pointed out. " You'll find yourself buying a lot of
jewelry."
" She already buys a lot of jewelry." Oni-chan said.
Of course I had the satisfaction of stamping on his foot on my birthday.
Afterwards it was the gift from Oni-chan and Otou-san, my father being ever
thoughtful, gave me this elaborate diary.
" For record." Otou-san said. Oni-chan agreed. " I have a feeling you have a lot to
write about." Indeed, our other book got filled, so this is the book we're writing this
chapter in. And all of the following chapters, of course.
I kept Syaoran's gift for the last because I had an odd feeling about it. It wasn't a feeling that I will absolutely love and adore that gift as most romantic stories tell. It was more of a feeling that this gift will be extremely important to me in the future. I still can't quite put my finger on it.
It was a simple jade. Plain and simple, no curvings, no strings attached, just a
smooth, polished piece of jade. We all looked at Syaoran in confusion.
" Arigatou, Syaoran-kun." I started.
" Don't thank me yet." Syaoran answered suddenly, and he hesitated a long
moment before starting again.
" When I was young I always heard that my father disappeared somewhere. There were no stories about him dying or such things like that. They always told me that he disappeared, that he disappeared. One day my grandmother bought me this jade when I was around five years old. It always had some kind of good luck thing to it-I never was physically wounded by falling or things like that. I took it to every cello competition and to every concert. Every time I train in martial arts I took it with me. At night I'd pray for my father to return."
I swallowed suddenly. This crude jade had so much meaning to it all of the sudden. Yue suddenly looked uncomfortable. He was about to speak, but Syaoran continued on.
" Now that my otou-san is back," His blind eyes looked directly at mine, as if he could see me, " I don't need to pray for him any longer. I don't need that good luck or protection." He took my hand into his and squeezed it affectionately. " I want you to have it. I want it to serve you like it had served me. Make you successful. I want you to keep it safe like I did. You will need it, trust me."
For a long moment I could find no words to say, and even when I did I could not say them because there was too much to say at that time and I could not find any courage to display what little gratitude I could place out of all the gratitude I felt.