Dear Koi-chan
By wicherwill
Edited by Miss Qui Chen
Disclaimer: With all the junk floating out there, I highly doubt Nelvana is going to swoop down on me from their almighty Throne of Indescribable Evil. Not to be confused with Eriol's Throne of Evil. But just in case, I don't own any of this. My drawings are horrible.
Chapter Three
Sakura grabbed the issue of the Herald and started flipping through the pages. When she came to the page with her article, she paused. Taking up her cup of tea in her left hand, she picked up the paper with her right. Aware that Tomoyo was standing in the doorway, waiting for the verdict, she sped up.
Quickly scanning the article, she blushed when she noticed that someone had changed the names of the senders, and noted that Yuhara-sensei had written 'In the future, please refrain from using your real name'. The rest of the article went smoothly, and it filled up the space required.
Taking a deep breath, she turned the page to the editor's section, where the editor of the Herald would go over events, the paper, and new articles. Her eyes picked up the word 'Koi' right away, and she read aloud to Tomoyo,
"Dear Koi-chan is the newest article that this newspaper has to offer. You write in your problems with love and our resident Dr. Love will answer them – quite promptly, I might add.
"Dear Koi-chan has already met with favourable reviews. Not two hours after its anonymous author mailed me her letters, I received mail from readers who asked whether the Herald had spies trailing them – the replies seemed to be exactly what they needed!
"It's unanimous here at the Herald – Dear Koi-chan is a hit, and it's definitely staying."
Sakura put down the paper and her tea. Almost in sync, the two girls squealed in delight.
"Wai wai wai!" Sakura jumped up and bounced around the room, her short pigtails hitting her shoulder repeatedly. She ran over to the door when the doorbell rang and immediately hugged the person standing outside. That is, until a familiar scent of peppermint enveloped her.
"When my fortune said I'd be in a squeeze today, I didn't know it was so literal…" The deep and familiar voice jolted Sakura, and she let go with a squeak.
"Syaoran! Oh… gomen nasai!" Her face heated up.
"Are you okay?"
"Hai! Of course! Why are you here?"
"T-to pick you guys up. Go to school. Early, you. I mean, you're early."
Sakura felt herself heat up at the cute little grin on his face. "Tomoyo-" Sakura shook her head. "I'll go get. Her. I mean, I'll go get Tomoyo." She smiled as she walked backwards towards the door.
"Oi! Watch… out." Sakura winced as she tripped over an umbrella stand and went sprawling.
"Daijoubu!" Sakura smiled and turned around. Baka, that really placed you on The Top Then Most Graceful, she berated herself.
~*~
Sakura bounded up the stairs of the Journalism Wing, still happy over the recent events.
"Kinomoto! Very good job."
Sakura smiled at her teacher. "Arigato." Her eyes immediately flew towards the envelope that her teacher was holding, and she frowned.
"The editor was so impressed that he decided to pay you right away. Better keep that trust, ne?"
Sakura took the envelope and pulled out the check.
"Hey! Kinomoto! You're suffocating me!" For Sakura had launched herself on her teacher, joyous about the amount written down.
She walked out, content. Two people stood at the bottom, tapping their feet. Gemmei spoke first.
"Who ran off after class without telling us?"
"And why is she so damn genki?"
Sakura put an arm around each of her friends and starting walking off campus.
"Who cares? Let's go out somewhere, and it's on me!"
Gemmei and Ume looked at each other.
"Sakura," began Ume, "no offence or anything, but you weren't exactly in the position to pay anything like a week ago…"
"And now you are…you haven't stolen anything, have you?"
Sakura laughed. "I just got myself a job in writing, and it pays very well. I'm financially secured!"
Gemmei and Ume clapped their hands. "Oh, I just remembered…" Ume stopped. "I'm dancing with my mother and a few other retired geishas and their daughters. Would you two like to come? I've been practicing a while, and it's a really nice piece…and the place we perform at is a restored tea house, with a door that opens into a modest hall with a small stage and these gorgeous gardens in the back with tonnes of trees and flowers and-"
"Of course we'll come!"
Ume nodded slowly. For those who knew her, like Sakura and Gemmei, that was her equivalent of a smile.
"Arigato. Tonight, seven."
"No problem."
~*~
Sakura sat down at her computer, dragged up her started homework assignments and began typing. A page or two later, she noticed that her e-mail icon was flashing. Clicking on it, her eyes widened.
Ninety-six emails. And it was only Wednesday.
Saving her work, she stared at them. There was no way in the world she'd be able to finish all of these! The joy and flattery that she had felt before vanished. Resting her head in her hands, Sakura moaned.
"Hey, kiddo, what's wrong?"
Sakura looked up to see Kero, looking worried.
"Look at all these e-mails! I'll never be able to answer all of them!"
Kero clicked and opened the first one. "I see…" He looked thoughtful, and Sakura had to stifle a laugh. When you've seen Kero looking serious, you don't think of anything else. Suddenly he snapped… uh… rubbed his paws together.
"I got it!" He floated two Cards from the deck in front of him: Hope and Mirror. Taking Hope, he tapped it. "Hey, give me your heart." And true to his word, a small red heart with wings appeared in his hand.
Next, he went to Mirror. "I need a mould." Mirror shimmered, and a replica of her hands appeared. Kero took the heart and cracked it, like and egg, over them. A gooey pink liquid absorbed into the hands, and they cracked their knuckles. Without a word (how could they – they're hands) they hovered over the keyboard, and began typing answers to the e-mails. Kero nodded his approval.
"You needn't worry that they won't do a good job. The same reason, the same knack of things that Clow had, is the Hope Card. Of course," he reminisced, "it took Clow over two hundred years to figure out that Yue's feelings for him were… ah… more than platonic. You, on the other hand, picked it out within an hour, and no one even gave you any clues. It's your knack, and that's where most of your magic comes from – the Cards' love for you. Hey, I made a speech!" Kero flew out of the room, doing loop-de-loops.
Sakura shook her head. "Ano…hands-san…? Oh, never mind, homework can wait." Sakura turned around and came face to face with Tomoyo.
"…Wow."
"Cool, isn't it?"
"Put some cute little gloves on them… with a few bows and tucks…"
Sakura sweat dropped. "Hey, are you free tonight? Want to come with me to Ume's dance?"
Tomoyo clapped her hands. "Oh, I can put you in my latest kimono!" She ran out of the room just as the phone rang.
Sakura looked apprehensive as she picked up the phone. "Moshi moshi, Kinomoto and Daidouji."
"It's me, Syaoran."
Sakura blushed, thankful he couldn't see her. "Konbanwa, Syaoran."
"So, Eriol and I were getting bored, and we were wondering if you were doing anything for the long weekend of studying hell…"
"Actually, tonight we're going to a traditional dance that Ume… Ii Ume? Yes, the one with brown hair and brown eyes. Yes, her mom used to be a geisha, and so a bunch of them do a dance every year, and she decided to actually perform this year… really? You'll come?"
Tomoyo stuck her head near the phone. "I have two yukatas for the two of you! Get over here now!"
~*~
"Hey, where's Sakura?"
"Syaoran, she's just changing in the other room… unless you want to join her, of course?" Tomoyo didn't wait for an answer, dumping bundles of clothing into the arms of both men. "Change in here, I need to help Sakura get ready, and get ready myself."
~*~
"Man, they take forever…" Eriol looked at his watch for what had to be the fortieth time.
"No, it's Daidouji that takes forever."
Eriol nodded. "Of course. Although from the sound of it, it seems like she's getting Sakura ready ("Hey! What's that stuff? Didn't you already put stuff on my eyes?"). Shall we check on them, dear descendent?"
"Shaddup."
"It's the perfect set up. She's asked you on a date, so you have to ask her!"
"It's not a date. We're platonic. She doesn't like me."
"Oh, and the moon is made of green cheese."
"How would you know, have you been there?"
There was a shimmering, and he disappeared.
"Show off."
When he arrived a moment later, he shook his head.
"Nope, definitely not cheese."
Syaoran grunted.
"And… ta-daa…" Kero came out of the room, looking extremely bored and holding up a red curtain, "Presenting the Belles of Tomoeda. Here's… Daidouji Tomoyo. Voila."
Syaoran could practically see Eriol's jaw drop to the floor when Tomoyo came out in her red-gold concoction, hair done up and wisps flying everywhere. He nudged him in the side.
"Take a picture, she'll realize it's you pretty soon."
Eriol glared at him and looked at her. "You look beautiful."
Tomoyo nodded in thanks, pulling out a video camera from her minuscule bag. "Look, look at her!"
When Sakura came out of the curtain (which collapsed, breathing heavily), Syaoran's jaw did hit the ground.
She was wearing a navy blue under robe, with a shimmering over robe upon which were embroidered hundreds of little silver dots that started clumped together at the bottom and then spread out as one travelled up. Her obi was a blue-silver silk, and her hair was done up into two little buns.
Tomoyo smiled.
"You know, I could put her in a mud brown sack and he'd sit there for an hour describing the wonders of the outfit. Come on, we'll be late if we don't hurry!"
Syaoran shyly put out his hand, and Sakura accepted, blushing heavily.
"And," added Eriol, "we have to go through the one person door pretty soon, so they'll have to let go of each other anyhow."
~*~
Sakura, kneeling on the mats, clapped furiously. When Ume came down from the stage and approached them, she ran over to her friend (Thankfully, platform sandals had been abandoned at the door).
"Wai! Honto sugoi! Ume, you were really good!"
The girl nodded slowly and deeply, acknowledging the praise. "Your kind remarks mean a lot to my personal gratification, but your support lifts my soul." She turned when an older woman called her over. Bowing, she excused herself.
Sakura looked puzzled at her, until Syaoran came over and whispered in her ear, "She's a geisha for the night. She can't take your praise, or acknowledge the bond between the two of you." Sakura smiled.
"Seems like fun, right? I'd like to try being a geisha for a day."
"It's a lot of work…daughters of geishas generally start training as young as three in traditional entertainment. Even so, it takes them most of their childhood and adolescent life to go from an apprentice to a full geisha, even with the help of an accomplished older sister."
"Wow, you know a lot about geishas!"
Syaoran turned the other way, flushing at the comment. "Mother. She trained as a geisha, but had to drop out when she nearly killed a customer due to her lack of magical training. He made a snide remark, and his tea erupted in his face.
"Oh. What happened then?"
"The customer trained her, fell in love with her, married her."
Sakura smiled teasingly. "I see. And where is he now?" Syaoran's face lost the playful grin.
"He died when I was five."
Sakura lost her nerve at her tactlessness. "Oh…I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You didn't do it."
She backed away at the harsh tone in his voice. "I… I think I'll go outside."
Sakura walked into the quiet backyard, feeling guilty. Why hadn't she remembered that Syaoran's father was dead? That he had died in the view of his only son? She was sure that he had mentioned it at some point; if not, then Meiling had.
Preoccupied in her musings, she didn't notice her visitors until she heard a sharp cry followed by the sound of breaking glass. Walking as fast as her kimono and shoes could take her, Sakura turned the corner, where she saw Ume surrounded by a gang of guys.
"Hey, kireii. How much for a night?" The first one leant back, his lackeys leering at the impressive complete sentence.
"I… I don't know what you're talking about." Ume appeared scared, and Sakura could see she had good reason. Small and lithe at only 152 centimetres, any one of the imposing men could easily hurt her.
"Oh, come on. Like we don't know what a geisha does." A second black clad figure stepped out of the darkness. "Tell me, why do you need to go to a geisha school? How much teaching does it take to learn to sleep with someone?"
"I… geishas aren't prostitutes. We are refined women, trained in the classical arts of," she gulped, her voice becoming weaker with every syllable, "dancing, singing, and the tea ceremony. Geishas are also well versed in the shamisen, a traditional Japanese guitar that - get away from me!"
Sakura gasped as the man ignored her and pulled her towards him. Finding a fist sized rock, she chucked it as hard as she could at his back. It appeared to work, as he dropped Ume. Sakura gulped when he turned around to face her.
"Leave her alone! I'm warning you, I'm trained in aikido!" Sakura put up her fists and steadied her breathing.
The man just smiled. "I don't think that that will be very helpful in the kimono you're wearing… wonder if you'd take it off to properly fight? And…"
He made a motion with his fingers, and Sakura felt someone grab her from behind. She started to raise her hand when she realized that the man was right. Her attacker had grabbed her sleeves, and her hands were pinned to her side. Sakura screamed, punching her attacker in the stomach. When he fell, she chucked off her shoes, forming a spell in her mind. Two others rammed into her from the sides. She kneeled over as pain shot through her chest. Taking a painful breath, she felt something dark, warm and liquid. She held her breath, hoping to pass out soon…
Except that nothing happened. Sakura could hear something that sounded like Ume's bracelets jangling, and realized with a lurch that they were taking her body. Sakura chanced a glance up – she had to do something – and saw what looked like a blue and yellow blur attacking the men. Her vision focused, she recognized Syaoran. When the last of them fell, she saw him run over to Ume.
"Daijoubu?" When the pale-faced girl didn't respond, he levitated her and floated her over to Sakura. "Sakura, daijoubu?"
Sakura was about to get up and say yes when another sharp pain accompanied her breath. "Iie… I think I broke something…" A further pain confirmed that, and she put her head back on the ground. She could hear footsteps coming, and she moaned.
"Sakura-chan! Li, what's wrong?"
Tomoyo…"From the looks of it, she's broken a rib, and Ume here is just in shock- no wait, she's hit her head. Ouch. Um… anyone around? There, that's better."
Eriol…
"Sakura… Sakura, can you hear me? Damn, she's even more hurt. Sakura, make some sign if you can hear me."
Sakura lowered her head slightly, stopping when she heard everyone's sigh of relief.
"It's me, Syaoran. Now, if I'm going to… ah… patch up your rib, I need you to turn around and let me see it."
Sakura smiled fuzzily, the pain lessening as he gently applied numbing layers.
Funny, she noted hazily, his voice goes all doctor-like when he's working…
"The bastards…" Syaoran sounded like he was containing his anger, "That's some break for just a ramming. Then again, she also fell on top of that…oh, that's internal rupture and bleeding."
Was it just her, or were his hands heating up?
"I'll need to be able to actually see the rupture, as the bone's poked out of the skin…sorry Tomoyo, the dress needs to be cut open."
As his hands slid across her chest and knocked the bone, a fresh wave of pain overcame her, and she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.
Wait…see the rupture…?~*~
Sakura could hear voices, but she was too warm and sleepy to move.
"Oi! She's waking up!" Sakura opened her eyes at Syaoran's voice and looked across, to where Ume was also stirring. The other girl looked at her with questions in her eyes, clearly not as comfortable to be waking up in Li Syaoran's bed.
"Where are we?"
"In our apartment."
Sakura looked around the room. Why hadn't she ever visited? Syaoran and Eriol lived in a full-fledged suite, goodness! Sakura looked up at Syaoran, who looked slightly embarrassed as he came back with two cups. Stopping at the other bed first, he made his way to her bed and delivered the cup.
"Milk and honey! How did you…?"
Syaoran smiled. "I remembered someone giving that to me some ten years ago…"
Sakura took a sip and nearly swooned. Sipping the rest of the drink slowly, she watched Syaoran walk in his tight shirt. Kami-sama, martial arts really trained him up well…
Finishing her drink, she jumped out of bed and immediately regretted it. Apparently, so did Syaoran, who immediately turned his tomato-face away and pulled out a pair of pants from the closet.
"Here, these were Meiling's."
Sakura took them, grateful. "I… I have to go now, I have some homework left. What time is it?"
Syaoran glanced at his wrist, and Sakura noted the way his back muscles moved… "It's ten."
Sakura yawned. "Mou, it's late."
Syaoran shook his head. "Iie. It's… well, it's late, but not in your way." He pointed to the window, where light was streaming through the window.
"Oh… Tomoyo already left for Tomoeda, didn't she? I was going to go too…but that means…my keys…" Syaoran felt his body temperature rise an unhealthy amount as the other option immediately presented itself to him.
"Well, she left the keys here since she thought you might forget yours."
"Mou, Tomoyo is always one step ahead of me… hai then! Ja ne, and I'll return this once I wash it." Sakura turned to Ume. "Unless you would like me to go with you…?"
Ume shook her head. "That's okay, Li has volunteered to go with me. It's funny, I could have sworn that I hit my head really bad, that second time, cause I remember blood. But then I woke up here, and it's been only twelve hours, and I feel fine, and there's no cut…"
Sakura flushed more and turned the other way. "Um… you see, it's like…"
Syaoran cut in, his face perfectly blank. "If there were a cut, then I would assume it was very small and or it was in a spot where a lot of blood could gush out. In any case, we found no such injury and the wonders of modern medicine are unlimited. Now, if you excuse me, I have to go accompany my guest out…" Syaoran stood up and stretched, following Sakura out the door. The minute that the door closed, she turned around.
"What was that? The Syaoran I knew couldn't lie to save his life!"
He looked the opposite direction, taking a step forward. "Well, I used to get in a lot of trouble for using magic, so I got good at lying to conceal it…"
He turned around, only to come face to face with the pretty brunette. Sakura's breathing cut off as she stared at him and him at her, and she could almost swear that he was staring at her with… longing? and their heads were coming closer…any moment they would touch…
"Uh… I have to go. Thank you again. Ja!" Sakura ran off through the door, berating herself as she went. Sakura no baka, how could you?
Sakura ran down the street, running as fast as she could. Not watching where she was going, she stumbled on a tree root and fell, twisting her ankle. Cursing, she glanced around then levitated the foot, to relieve the weight.
Opening the door into her silent apartment, she limped in. Sitting on the couch, she whimpered as she poked her now swollen ankle. She had plenty of experience with sprained ankles, being Kinomoto Sakura, and this one looked bad.
Just when she thought her day couldn't get any worse, a hand tapped her on the shoulder and she jumped about a foot.
"D… dare?" She looked down to see a pair of hands and screamed. Almost immediately, Kero came shooting out from his room.
"Sakura, daijoubu? What's wrong? Come on out, I'm Kerberos, guardian of the seal!"
Sakura shook her head, pointing to the hands. "Nandemonai, just the hands scared me a little. Mou, arigato gozaimasu Kero-chan, now I'm scared of ghosts and animate hands. What do they want?"
Kero looked at them, and then almost fell out of the air in surprise.
"Hey, hey, would you look at that! They have rudimentary speech skills! Try listening to them on the same wavelength you would use to talk mind-to-mind."
"But I can't talk mind-to-mind!"
"Damn, I wanted to be organized and teach you magical skills you needed…well, try listening to the portion of your brain that sometimes tells you what you think other people are saying about you."
Sakura closed her eyes, concentrating hard.
"No, no, no! Relax!"
Sakura let go the breath she was holding and tried to relax. After what felt like eternity, she was about to tell Kero that the %&#@# hands could just leave her alone, her ankle was hurting, when she heard something.
'…Help… letter… hand… not… answer…'
Sakura shrieked with joy, hitting her ankle on the table.
"Ouch! Kero! I heard something!"
The plushie clapped his hands enthusiastically. "Can you remember the feeling?"
Sakura thought for a second.
"It's like when I first get into bed, it's all comfortable and warm and I'm sinking in and feel all relaxed… then I remember that I'm in college, and there is no such thing as relaxing."
Kero snorted. "Clow used to say it was the feeling of egging on Madoushi, before he realized that he was trying to befriend the lady. Bloody stupid, he was. In any case, what do the hands want?"
Sakura looked at them. "Something about not being
able to answer a letter?"
The hands clapped, then zoomed back to the room and came back with a print out.
Sakura took it, her eyes scanning it quickly.
"But… this is just a letter. From some random IP address. Why couldn't they answer it?"
Kero took it, looking surprised. "They should be able to answer anything you could, and with your magic that should be- oh."
"What?"
Kero looked at her strangely over the top of the paper. Waving his hands over the top, he shrugged.
"Nandemonai…this person hid their email, so now maybe you'll get it…" Handing it back to her, he bopped himself on the head and floated back into his room. "And if you need me, I'm playing Street Warriors, and I don't care!"
Sakura took it. "Hands, can you tell me why you can't answer it?"
The hands clenched their fists in obvious frustration.
"Oh, you can't express it?"
They waved up and down in what she assumed was a nod. Holding up the paper, she read it aloud.
From: xiao_lang@li.com
Sakura looked up.
"It's from Syaoran!"
To: koi_chan@hatakeyama.edu
Dear Koi-chan,
I've liked this girl for a long time now, and I need some advice to finally confess. She's got the nicest and sweetest personality, brown hair, and the most expressive and gorgeous eyes I have ever seen and a great body, but she's not one of those people who spend hours and hours at the gym. I don't think she realizes how attractive she is. My friend says she likes me, but I'm not sure… I mean, he messed up big time on his first love, and he's marrying his second.
I'm slightly desperate…I don't want to lose her before telling her (I'm in college). Could you help me?
-- Crushing Inside (and Extremely Dense – his friend)
Sakura folded up the paper, and limped to the computer.
To: Automated Reply 465.86.7.8
From: koi-chan@hatakeyama.edu
Dear Crushing Inside (and Probably Not That Dense),
My advice to you is to just say it in the most romantic setting possible; there's no way you can go wrong with that! If you feel anxiety, that's perfectly normal. Try asking her friends about her; you'd be surprised how much of a romantic streak lies in every girl!
Make sure that she doesn't feel like she's taking you away from anyone she might know, since she seems like a nice girl. And make sure that she knows that you have 'someone in mind' whenever your friends tease you about other girls. No girl hits on a guy her friend likes!
Hope that helped.
Koi-chan.
Sakura pressed the send button and hobbled back to the sofa. She'd had a small glimmer of hope…and then…
…What…wrong…
Sakura smiled through glassy eyes at the hands, which were currently looking up (in a hand sort of a way) from bandaging her ankle.
"Nandemonai, hands-san. It's really nothing…oh, why am I crying?" Sakura blinked hard.
Kero was there almost instantly. "Sakura, what's the matter?"
"Just that Syaoran likes…" she sniffed a little, "…Ume." She bowed her head down, wiping her cheeks on her knee. The shirt still smelt faintly of his scent, a faint peppermint mixed with the cologne that she had given him a year ago…
I was wrong; he only wears it around me to be polite…
"Sakura…" Kero said her name slowly, drawing out the syllables in his peculiar way, "I think you need to go to sleep a little more. From what I heard, you had a pretty bad rib break, and it took a lot of magic to heal…"
Sakura nodded as she made her way to her bed. Sinking slowly into the bed, she closed her eyes to try and relax, but all she could think of was how this Koi-chan business was a horrible idea. If not, she could still be wallowing in her fantasy world, the one in which he liked her.
Still sobbing, Sakura fell asleep.
~*~
In his apartment, Syaoran jumped and dropped his bowl of oil. His roommate woke up, concerned.
"Li? Are you okay?"
Syaoran nodded, waving his hand to make the bowl rearrange itself. Eriol walked over and waved a hand in front of his face, and then waved his hand over the spilt oil, which flew itself back into the bottle.
"You're a bit distracted…you forgot about the oil. What happened?"
Syaoran ran a hand through his hair, thinking.
"I got the most vivid images a second ago… Let me remember…" He closed his eyes. "There was someone, not long ago, that was sad because of a heart-chan? Right. In any case, cherry blossoms surrounded this someone…" he looked up, worried, "You think something bad might have happened to her?"
Eriol shook his head. "Seems more like she didn't harness her mind-to-mind channel, and you picked it up because," his smile widened, (Syaoran was certain it would disappear into his ears any moment) "someone seems to be very in tune to what happens to our young cherry blossom, hmm? I mean, I'm the almighty reincarnation of Clow Reed, and I didn't hear it…"
Syaoran waved him away. "Very funny. But really, does she know how to talk mind-to-mind?"
Eriol appeared thoughtful, but Syaoran knew he was poking around in her head. "Obviously not, because she's never tried it, so I'm assuming Kerberos taught it to her all of a sudden. So irresponsible, not teaching any mental wards means that any demon could hack into her mind right now with relative ease…"
Syaoran was half way to the door at 'demon'. "What are you waiting for? Let's go!"
Eriol tsked. "Sorry, I already put up parameters of protection… seems like you'll use any excuse to get to her house, will you?"
Syaoran glared at him. "But, seriously, what happened?"
Eriol shrugged. "But don't go now…she's sleeping."
Syaoran look at him sceptically, then continued on his dish. Eriol walked to the computer room and sat down, clicking on the email icon, idly browsing for an email from tdaidouji… koi-chan?
Eriol clicked on the letter, and it popped up. He quickly scanned it, his eyes widening as he deftly put two and two together.
"Damn," he cursed softly as he closed the letter and made it appear that he had never read it. Opening up a new message, his fingers began to fly over the keyboard. There was only one person he could think of that could help him with damage control, and she was currently in Tomoeda attending a formal dinner where she was getting extremely bored.
~*~
Miles away, Daidouji Tomoyo checked her portable e-mail device, her perfectly lined eyes opening wider and wider by the moment. Moving swiftly through the crowd and managing to portray 'I'm terribly sorry, and I'd normally be delighted to meet you, but I have urgent business', with just one look, she reached her mother.
"I'm sorry, but I have to go now. Something came up at school, and they need me. May I be excused?"
Sonomi smiled, her eyes expressing her envy that her daughter still had ways to get out of dinners. "Yes dear, say bye to our guest of honour first…"
Tomoyo signalled to her bodyguards, talking all the while in rapid-fire French to Yves Saint-Laurent, apologizing for leaving and whatnot. Why on earth was he the guest of honour? Oh, of course. Daidouji Co. was probably interesting in monopolizing yet another sector of goods.
Tomoyo smiled, ending their conversation and bowing her way out of the room. She snapped her fingers, and almost immediately, an entourage of ladies in black appeared behind her. Turning to the one in the middle, she started taking off her gloves.
"Sata-san, I need every one of my tapes that include Li Syaoran packed and ready to go in an hour, and I'll need the jet to go back to Hatakeyama. Oh, and all my advanced video editing software."
"Right away, Tomoyo-sama."
Tomoyo started pulling bobby pins out of her hair as she quickly made her way up one of the staircases. The minute she entered her room, a maid ran forward to help her pull off her dress. Yanking at the lacings holding her body erect, she groaned in frustration at her cousin.
Trust Sakura and Syaoran to mess things up.
Damn.
~* to be continued *~
AN: It's betaed, but don't blame my beta (Miss Qui Chen) if it's not perfect: I just corrected myself, so any mistakes are pretty much mine. And I finally realize how much work it is to beta. Sheesh.
I got my Tomoyo is rich scene, etc. etc. etc…I don't feel like an author's note right now. The next one has a more detailed bio type thing on my beta, sorry…sleepy…
wicherwill ^_^