Konnichiwa!! Welcome to chapter 2! Sorry this took as long as it did ^^" I went back to school and I also kinda have a writer's block (yeah, I know, already). Just so you all know, there's a description/flashback of what happened b/w Sakura and Ryu; I didn't really wanna put that in here, but I feel that the story would make more sense if it was in there; please don't flame me TOO BADLY! Ok, on with everything!

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"..." Spoken Words

*...*(w/ italics) Thoughts

~~~~~~~~~ Scene Changes/Flashbacks/change in P.O.V

[...] Authors Notes

Disclaimer: The CCS characters DO NOT belong to me, ok! They belong to © Clamp...so please don't sue me!! ^^'

~No Strings Attached ~

Chapter 2: Confrontation

Syaoran continued to console Sakura, while Tomoyo watched on helplessly as her best friend cried her little, emerald eyes out.

Slowly, but surely, Sakura's massive break down was subsiding to short hiccups and quick gasps of air as Syaoran stroked the back of her auburn head.

*I'm gonna kill that jack ass for doing this to Sakura....he's gonna wish he'd never even met Sakura...or me.*

"Sakura?" Syaoran asked gently.

Sakura raised her head slowly and looked into Syaoran's concerned face.

"Yes?" she responded, wiping her tear-stained face on the sleeve of her school jacket.

Syaoran blushed a little at how close she was, but then quickly remembered what he wanted to say.

"P-please tell me what happened." he said with a gulp.

Sakura cringed slightly and turned to look at her injured left arm.

"O-Ok...a-as long as you p-promise not to get....m-mad," she responded, tightly closing her eyes.

Syaoran smiled weakly.

"I promise, Sakura."

"Ok..." she said, as she unwillingly remembered what had happened the night before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ryu, I don't want to...if you loved me, you wouldn't make me!" cried Sakura as she back away from the man in front of her.

Ryu became red-faced and stepped a little closer toward her.

"If I loved you? What kind of a thing is that to say to your boyfriend? Of course I love you! But, Sakura, I don't want you around him! That kid is trying to take you away from me!"

Sakura's face contorted into a puzzled look.

"What are you talking about, Ryu? If you trusted me, this wouldn't be a problem! You may not trust Syaoran, but you can at least trust me! I love you; there's absolutely no reason why you could think that I would cheat on you! I'm NOT going to stop being friends with Syaoran and there's NOTHING you can do or say that will make me give into your request!" she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Ryu became even angrier and stepped closer; close enough to where his nose was touching hers.

"That wasn't a request, Sakura...It was a DEMAND! Either get rid of him, or face the consequences!"

Sakura stepped back farther away from him with a horrified look on her face; all the way to the wall behind her.

"W-what consequences, Ryu? You wouldn't h-hurt me....w-would you?"

Ryu followed her every move and basically pinned her up against the wall; and suddenly, his glare softened.

"Of course not...I'd never hurt you; I love you. Why would you say something like that?" he asked, a little confused.

Sakura's face reverted back to her puzzled look as she stood, speechless in front of him.

"But...you just said that if I didn't ditch Syaoran, then I'd suffer the consequences...why did you say that, if you didn't want me to think you'd resort to hurting me?"

At the mention of Syaoran's name, Ryu became red faced and hit Sakura across the face. [AN: GOMEN SAKURA!!!! MINNA-SAN!!!]

Sakura rolled across the floor from the power of the hit and sat up, holding her face where he had hit her.

As Ryu drew closer, Sakura began to hyperventilate, and blacked out before she could see anything else that happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~END OF FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't remember anything else, except waking up on someone's couch; after I woke up, I jolted out the door before the person there came back into the room...Eventually I got home...and got the third degree from Kero."

Sakura cringed as she remembered what happened and opened her eyes to look at Syaoran's reaction; He was furious. His usually soft, kind amber eyes were full of hatred and resent and his tan-skinned face was flaming crimson; full of anger.

Sakura mentally slapped herself for telling him.

"Syaoran, this is why I didn't want to tell you! You promised not to get mad!" she cried on the brink of tears.

Syaoran stopped flaming, and turned to Sakura, who he saw had tears in her eyes. He embraced her again and apologized.

"Oh Sakura, I'm sorry; I did promise that, please forgive me."

Sakura smiled slightly and looked up at him.

"I forgive you Syaoran...thank you for being here for me."

Tomoyo, who was still standing near the hugging couple, suddenly squealed. Both teens looked in her direction; she was holding a camcorder in her hands pointed right at the hugging adolescents.

Sakura and Syaoran sweat-dropped. (-_-')

Tomoyo moved her eyes out from behind the camera lens and smiled brightly.

"Hmm...Oh sorry! Did I startle you two? Just continue your conversation; I won't bother you again!"

Sakura and Syaoran do the Animé fall. (*-*')

Tomoyo laughs girlishly and continues taping.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Downtown...

Sakura, Syaoran and Tomoyo walked slowly down the sidewalk, going no where in particular; Syaoran had changed and was now in a forest green t-shirt and a pair of well worn jeans. He was walking next to Sakura with Tomoyo trailing close behind.

"SAKURA!!!!!" cried a somewhat manly voice full of excitement from behind the group.

Sakura stopped dead in her tracks and turned pale at the sound of her name being called. She turned around slowly and spotted, none other than, her boy friend: Ryu.

Syaoran suddenly became jealous and turned bright red with anger, knowing that he was Sakura's boyfriend.

Sakura waved weakly.

"Hi, Ryu..."

Tomoyo glanced toward Syaoran to see if he had was about to lunge after the guy and beat his brains in; he looked like he was going to.

"Syaoran," Tomoyo whispered, "control your anger please! Do it for Sakura..." she pleaded with a sad, poutty face.

Syaoran raised an eyebrow and reluctantly agreed, he'd control his anger; that is, until Sakura got uncomfortable.

"Hey Sakura...." he greeted before pausing as he looked in the direction of Syaoran and "examined" him: his chestnut hair was messy and sticking out every which way possible, he wore a pretty nice forest green shirt and faded jeans.

Syaoran was examining Ryu at that moment as well: he was tall, well taller than Sakura was anyway, with his midnight black hair combed up into a sort of spiked look. His intense blue eyes shown with a sort of suspicion gleaming in them.

Ryu looked back at Sakura.

"Who's this kid, Sakura?" he asked, pointing in Syaoran's direction.

Syaoran flamed up at the question but was quickly slapped on the back of the head by Tomoyo.

"Control Syaoran....FOR SAKURA...."

Syaoran rubbed the back of his head while glaring at Tomoyo, before turning back to Sakura and her evil boyfriend.

Sakura began to sweat as scenes from the previous night played over and over inside her head.

"Uh...R-Ryu...t-this is my VERY good friend, S-Syaoran....Don't you remember him?" she managed to stutter out before backing away from him a little.

Ryu narrowed his eyebrows and looked in the direction of Syaoran.

He stuck out his large, thick hand.

"Nice to meet you......Syaoran" he said skeptically.

Sakura stood dumbfounded as Syaoran raised an eyebrow at Ryu's hand before firmly grasping it.

"Yeah, you too..."

Syaoran and Ryu released their grip on each other and stepped back once.

Ryu turned to Sakura.

"Uh, I gotta go Sakura...see ya," said Ryu before walking through the group.

Syaoran eyes followed him.

"Wait Ryu!" cried Sakura running past Syaoran and Tomoyo.

Ryu turned around.

"Yeah?"

"Can I talk to you for a minuet? Please?" she asked sweetly.

Ryu smiled.

"Sure"

Sakura led him into a near-by convenient store and looked halfheartedly back at Syaoran and Tomoyo.

"Ryu...I...I want to talk to you about the other night..."

Ryu looked puzzled at Sakura.

"What about the other night...what happened?"

Sakura slowly told him what she remembered and looked sadly into his blazing blue eyes, which were full of bewilderment.

"I-I don't remember anything like that happening, Sakura....But I've been meaning to ask you something about that; were you tired or something?"

"Huh?? Tired? Where'd you get that?" she asked.

"Well, right after I let you inside, you fell on the floor...I guessed you were unconscious, so I put you on the couch and ran to the kitchen to get some ice, but when I came back in, you were gone....But what I don't understand, is how about an hour passed from when you came inside, to where you were on the floor."

Sakura looked at him with confusion.

"Ryu...I think you need some help..."

~ To Be Continued ~

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Ok, yeah, I admit, it was kinda weird and hard to understand at certain times, but remember I'm making this up as I go....So.....

If you've got:

Comments? Questions? Suggestions or Advice?

Email me: silverserenity2000@yahoo.com or silvr255@bellsouth.net

Please R+R!!

Storyline © -:+:- Misty Showron -:+:-

Character © CLAMP

Story name © JC Chazes of *NSync