DISCLAIMER: I don't own any CCS characters, they belong to CLAMP.
That look! it tore at my heart! I didn't want her to look at me like that. I wanted to wipe that look off her face and replace it with the smile I loved so much. "I...I..." She stormed off to her room, leaving me behind. I wasn't sure whether to be amazed or saddened.
I kind of moped around most of the morning and part of the afternoon, until I realized that moping wasn't going to get me anywhere, so I went out side and took a walk. When I came back a few hours later, I couldn't find Sakura. I didn't look in her rooms though, I never went into her rooms unless she asked me to, so I assumed that she was either gone or still angry.
She came back down later that day though, and apologized. "I shouldn't have left you like that this morning. I'm sorry."
"There's no need to be sorry, Sakura. I know you want us all to let you deal with Kaiba, but...you have to undertand that this is my house, and I can't - I won't get you be hurt like that, not under my roof."
She sighed. "I understand. I hadn't meant for this ever to come to your place, and I guess I was angry and Kaiba and some of the anger got tacked on to you."
I nodded. "Are you going to eat something now? You used to always go find something to eat when you were upset," I teased.
"No," she smiled. "I have a stash of junk food in my room."
I wanted to know what she was going to do now, but when I turned around again, she was gone. Just then though, one of my servants came to tell me Hitas was here. She was looking flustered, so I invited her in for something to drink. "I'm a curious goddess, Syaoran," she said.
"Oh?" I said, "how is that?"
Hitas looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Rumors, my friend, are flying."
"About?"
"You and Sakura of course!"
"Me and Sakura?" I repeated, not really interested, but dying to know all the same.
"You do have a rather precarious living situation here. I'm pretty sure I know what's going on though. You just have to tell me if I'm right," she stated.
"All right," I agreed, "tell me what you think is going on."
She nodded. "Everyone knows that Sakura thinks of you as an older brother, so no matter what people are saying, it can't be true, because Sakura is also rather stubborn; unless you did something remarkable to make her fall in love with you, and I don't think that happened, she still thinks of you as just an older brother."
"You have that much right."
"And since she has her own house, which is absolutely gorgeous by the way, it's rather odd that she should be staying with you."
I shrugged, remembering that I had never seen her house before. I made a mental note to go visit her next time she left. "So...what?"
"Is she running from something?"
I stared at her. "Her reason for being here is for her to tell, not me. But there really isn't anything between us except friendship. Really."
"Hitas?" Sakura's voice sounded from behind me.
"Sakura!" she exclaimed in genuine surprise. "I haven't been able to find you in a long time! So this is where you are."
"You must coincidentally visit when I'm 'on vacation' then," she joked, pulling up a seat at the table. "So, why are you here?"
"Oh, well, there's just this rumor going around, oh, you know, about feelings between you and him," she waved her hand in my general direction, "and I just came to see if they were true even though it's really none of my business."
Sakura laughed. "I can't believe it. This place is such a rumor mill. I know this'll sound strange, but I still get homesick a lot, even though I've been here for a while now. Syaoran is like me, he came from the mortal world, so when ever I feel homesick, I'll come stay here. Besides, he a good talker. After all, he did grow up with four sisters."
"Oh, yes, I remember," Hitas laughed. "Well, I should go now. Do, tell me when you're at home. You should come over for a nice lunch sometime, Sakura dear."
"I'll show you the door," I volunteered, seeing that Hitas was giving me an odd look.
At the door, she whispered to me. "Syaoran, I'd watch Sakura's health if I were you. Her aura doesn't look so strong. Must be all the homesickness stuff," with that, she stepped out the door, closing it behind her.
I walked back to where Sakura was. "Hitas bought your story about the homesickness thing. I didn't think you remembered about my sisters; I didn't think you were listening," I added.
"I remember everything I hear and I listen to everything I hear, that's why I'm such a good goddess of love," she replied, smiling up at me. I felt my face heating up, so I quickly turned around, pretending to straighten up a shelf.
"Syaoran," she said softly. "I think I'm going to go home tomorrow."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do? After what happened this morning?"
"I don't want Kaiba bothering you too much, so I'll try not to come as often too." I felt like a lead weight was dropped on my heart. I wouldn't be seeing Sakura as much because she was afraid of my safety.
"Sakura. You really don't have to be worried for me. I can take care of things," I insisted.
"And I don't want you worrying for me. Besides, Kaiba is in a relatively good mood, there's a civil war going on on some planet or other in the mortal realms. He likes civil wars the best," she exlained, making a face. "I think it's disgusting."
She held out the house key I gave her oh so long ago. "No," I said, pushing it away. "You should keep it. You never know when you might need it again."
Sakura laughed and then sighed. Even her slightly sad sigh was music to my ears. "You're so good to everyone you meet Syaoran," she laughed again, "if you ever settle down, who ever is with you is going to be one very lucky woman."
If you only knew how much I wish you were willing to be that woman I thought, but out loud I said, "I think the day I settle down may be a long way off. There's still a lot of wanderlust in me," I lied.
Right after Sakura left the next day, Kaho stormed into my house. "Do you know what you just did?" she asked me quietly, which was a lot worse than her yelling.
"I just did a lot of things. Which thing would you be referring to?"
"What did you say to Sakura last night?"
"Nothing much....oh...we did have a conversation about Kaiba. But that was normal."
"Well, you must have said something to make her want to go on a journey."
"A journey?" I thought. "Oh, I lied and told her that there was still a bit of wanderlust left in me. She can defend her self pretty well. Whenever she fights me, the matches come to a draw."
"Probably because you're too busy staring at her," Kaho muttered, "but that's not the point. If she was going to the mortal realms, she would have no problem. But she's decided to go exploring out world."
"Kaho, I was under the impression that our world is fairly safe."
Kaho coughed. "Yes, well, in general, it is. But, um, our realms...they didn't exactally come that way. This place, came with bad things too. Horrible, awful creatures that make up the nightmares of the mortal worlds. Umm...if Sakura wanders her way into where those creatures were confined...she's dead meat."
I could feel the anger slowly bubbling up within me. "Why didn't either of you teach us about this? This is insanity. I've got to go tell her to stop and go home."
"Ahh, there's not really a need to do that anymore either," she smiled a little half smile that resembled Eriol's.
"If she's dead, you're toast."
"Number one, gods can't die. Number two, a god can't kill another god. And number three...he...he (those were giggles)...I already sent Eriol after her....in the form of a little puppy dog. He was very cute if I may say so myself. He was so cuddle-able, you should've seen him Syaoran."
I narrowed my eyes and looked at Kaho, who now sported a rackish grin. "I will never understand the way you do things."
"I'm the goddess of wisdom. You aren't supposed to understand what I do." Her grin grew even wider.
A sudden thought occured to me. "Why did you come in here acting like the end of the world? You already sent Eriol after her."
"I wanted to impress into your mind the fact that the Realm of the Gods is not safe everywhere."
"Well, you did a good job of it, I'm certainly never going to forget the day I thought we were all going to die."
Kaho sighed romantically. "If only Sakura wanted to be loved."
"You can say that again," I responded, joining her mood.
"Did you know that Kaiba was rather gentle with her at first?"
"Come again?" I was quite shocked. If Kaiba had been good to Sakura at one point, why did she not accept him?
"I said he was gentle with her in the beginning. But then she didn't want him, so he got angry. I guess he just never cooled down."
I stared. "But, Kaho, why didn't Sakura want Kaiba? He was gentle and he's good looking and they were friends."
Kaho looked at me pointedly and sadly. "Sakura was very poor as a child. Her parents only wanted what was best for her, but they didn't consider her own feelings. I think she left something or someone behind that she loved very much."
"How do you know all this?" I mused outloud to myself. Kaho took my spoken thought as a question and answered it.
"The Fates told me the first part, and I wouldn't be the Goddess of Wisdom if I couldn't infer."
"Is Hitas friends with everybody?" I asked, randomly changing the subject. I had been wondering this for a long time. Everytime I saw her, she was always going on about other gods and goddesses. She also always seemed to know exactally what was happening; one would think that she was the the patron of busybodies and snoops if the superficial Hitas was all one saw.
"Well...yes. It's kind of part of her job. She's like our local doctor, so everyone is on friendly terms with her," Kaho shrugged. "That's why she knows so much about everyone. She goes visiting to check on people and they talk. She's very likable, neh? And pretty too," Kaho added, obviously hinting.
"Hel-lo, you're speaking to one of the men who's fanatically in love with the Goddess of Love."
"I know, geez," she said, turning around, "I was just stating as a fact that the Goddess of Health is very beautiful. Do you have any of those cherry preserves Sakura's so fond of making?"
"Umm...yeah. Did you guys run out?" Sakura's house was surrounded by cherry trees. Every spring, when the cherries were ripe, she'd go into a frenzy of baking and preserving. Especially preserving. Cherry season was actually the one time of the year Kaiba didn't dare disturb her. None of us dared to actually. Sakura would temporarily petrify anything moving within twenty feet of her; no bird or mouse was going to get any of her precious cherries. Unfortunately, if any of us were visiting, all she'd see was something moving and boom, there would be a temporarily petrified god. I always thought it was rather a cute habit. Dangerous, but cute.
She's still like that too. I always make sure to stay in the other end of the house when she's in the kitchen in the spring.
She laughed sheepishly. "I told Eriol that I'd have his favorite food waiting for him when he got back. In exchange for his being turned into a dog."
"You make it sound so permanent," I accused.
a/n: I liked this chapter. What about you? Talk to me folks!
