"I am a nakoudo. I hate seeing lonely hearts. I want to see everybody happy. Got a problem with that?"
Chapter 3
Dedicated to the reviewer who needs an email buddy ^^ Gomen if I wasn't able to email you. I tried once, but Mailer-daemon said it doesn't like the host. Another email addy perhaps?
Eriol was reading his daily dose of scholarly text when he heard the doorbell ring.
"Answer it, Nakuru," he ordered, not looking up from his literature.
"Aaw," she said grumpily. She was feasting on the remnants of the Chocolate ice cream he bought two hours ago. Ice cream and its relative sweets wouldn't last more than three hours in the refrigerator, not when the kinds of insatiable Nakuru live in the house.
Spinel rolled its eyes. "Don't expect me to answer the door. People are not really used to flying felines."
Nakuru marched out of the living room grumpily, but not without taking the gallon along with her. She didn't trust flying felines, especially those named Suppi.
The cat watched the girl go. "Lately, our doorbell has started to get busy. Really strange, considering that you are not the type to have people coming over to your home to pay a social call."
"Must be the milkman," he said with ill-concealed boredom.
"At noon?"
Eriol shrugged.
Nakuru returned to the living room, skipping happily.
"Quite an abrupt change of mood," he remarked.
"Being weird is an Akizuki Nakuru specialty," pointed the smirking feline out.
Nakuru showed them what was behind her back. "Lookie, Master! Someone sent you flowers!"
"Sent what?!" Spinel looked like it just heard the Pope join an atheist club.
Eriol frowned. "Are you sure the flowers are for me?" He looked at the three white roses tied together with a blue bow. There was a card attached to it, and out of curiosity, he peeked at it.
I'm sorry, Hiiragizawa-kun. Let's try to put things behind and be friends again.
Kaho. Hope rose within him, but it quickly disappeared when he saw the signature.
Daidouji Tomoyo Tomoeda NakoudoHe crumpled the card suddenly, his force enough to bend even a metal alloy, surprising his servants.
"What's wrong, Master? You didn't like the card's contents?" asked Spinel.
"You didn't like the card's design?" asked Nakuru.
"Throw away these…these things right now," he said, his voice rising. He flung the flowers on the floor as if its germs would contaminate his skin.
Nakuru's jaw dropped open. "M-Master!"
"Get them out of my sight right now!" Eriol was about to turn his back on the scene when he heard a familiar laugh.
Tomoyo Daidouji emerged from the front door, giggling merrily. "And I thought my mother is the worst case of menopause that I've ever encountered." She looked at the flowers, shaking her head. "Poor roses…they were only trying to cheer you up, and they had to die like that."
Eriol glared at her. "How the hell did you get here?"
To which, the nakoudo smiled back sweetly. "Love, if you intend to ask your guests such questions, then pray tell, why did you have to build a front door?"
Behind him, his servants snickered. Only a few can do solid rebuttals against their master.
Eriol rolled his eyes. "Alright, so what were those roses for?"
Tomoyo blinked innocently. "Why, a peace offering, Love!"
That was the second time she used an endearment. Eriol exhaled sharply. "And why do you keep on calling me 'Love'?"
"Because it will sound awkward if I call you 'Hate'," she laughed, sending the servants snickering too.
He bridged the gap between the two of them with two solid steps. He stared down at her with what he hoped was a fierce look enough to shut her up. To his dismay, she met his lethal gaze with a saccharine smile.
"Look, Daidouji Tomoyo-san. Tell me already what's your ulterior motive for the flowers so we can stop wasting time," he said, punctuating every word with heavy emphasis.
Tomoyo smiled as she wiped her nose delicately. "Hi-kun, may I interrupt? Your saliva is going on an excursion on my face."
His face burned, and he took a step back. "OK, is that better?"
"Much better," she smiled. "So you were saying?"
"Tell me why you suddenly gave me white roses and why you apologized and why you are here," he ranted in one breath.
Tomoyo shrugged. "To your three questions, I have three words for a reply." She looked at him in the eye. "I'm courting you."
Eriol felt as if an atomic bomb exploded near him. The confession was short of an apocalypse shocker.
Daidouji Tomoyo- the Daidouji Tomoyo who took the love of his life away from him- was going to court him?
Spinel and Nakuru looked pretty astounded too. "Why the sudden interest on Master Eriol?" asked the feline, who recovered first.
"Because I think he needs a love life," she shrugged.
Nakuru smiled slowly. "I agree."
"Who asked you?" snapped Eriol. "Why the hell do you care about my love life?"
"Because I'm a nakoudo," she explained. "I hate seeing lonely hearts. I want everyone to be happy. Got a problem with that?"
"I'm not lonely," he barked. "I'm angry!!! A-n-g-r-y at you, dammit!"
She smiled, unaffected. "Angry and lonely, then."
He groaned, then crossed his arms. "OK, tell me what you intend to do about it, Nakoudo. How sure are you that you are the divine solution to my quandary? Can you guarantee that you can make me happy if ever I let you in my life?"
"Life doesn't give warranties, for life itself has an expiry date." She flipped her hair. "But I'll do my best. They don't call me the love doctor for nothing."
Nakuru's eyes grew big. "Doctor Love? As in that doctor I hear on the radio who tackles problems on ejaculations and dog-style positions?"
Tomoyo blinked, then laughed. "Er…no, that's a different Doctor Love."
"I wanted to call him because I have been meaning to ask how topical anesthesia is used in bed but I don't know his number," admitted Nakuru.
"I got it!" Eriol suddenly said, eyes lit up.
Tomoyo looked at him, amused. "Doctor Love's number or the answer on topical anesthesia?"
He turned to her, eyes twinkling in mischief. "Make me fall in love, Daidouji Tomoyo. I dare you."
She paused, looking at him cautiously. A hint of the old Hiiragizawa Eriol with his sneaky plans for Li and Sakura was reminiscent in the gleam in his eyes. She had to admit, she was a little curious. She nodded. "Deal!"
Tomoyo was long gone when Spinel and Nakuru interrogated him.
"Why did you do that?" asked the feline in disbelief. "You practically said awhile ago that she is the vilest woman you've ever met. Why did you agree to play her game?"
"I told you, Spinel, I want JUSTICE!" He raised his fist for emphasis.
The two sweatdropped.
"How will you achieve JUSTICE then?" asked Nakuru, puzzled.
Eriol smiled gleefully. "Daidouji Tomoyo-san is the staunchest advocate of true love. I wonder how she will feel if she gets broken-hearted…"
"You'll smash her ribcage?!" Nakuru was horrified.
Eriol rolled his eyes- an act he was getting used to courtesy of Nakuru Akizuki's astounding perception.
"If I hurt her emotionally," he said for simple Nakuru's sake, "then she would stop believing in love. She would understand that love is not all a bed of roses, for it has thorns too. That love is not pure heaven, because love hurts like hell too." The Clow Reed reincarnation grinned wickedly. "Cupid not believing in romance. Ah, what a beholding sight!"
Spinel and Nakuru looked at their master as if he had gone crazy. It was alright for him to get depressed when he was jilted, but to be obsessed on wrecking romance?
"Isn't that a bit too much?" asked Nakuru, breaking the silence.
"It's barely enough!" said the Londoner. "If she is really a promoter of love of mankind, then why did she ruin me and Kaho? It's not fair."
His servants could only sigh.
"So what are you planning to do?" asked Spinel.
"I'm going to be friendly with her…really friendly. I'll make her fall for me hard, then I'll drop her like a hot potato." He smiled satisfactorily. "That should give her some real insight on the other side of romance."
"That's cruel!" protested Nakuru immediately.
"As if she was considerate enough to take my feelings into deliberation when she matchmade Kaho and Touya." Eriol nodded to himself approvingly. "That's right. That would teach her a lesson."
Nakuru raised her hand. "I have a question. Don't you think Ms. Tomoyo would find it weird that you suddenly would act sweetly towards her? I mean, she's smart. She's Daidouji Tomoyo, you know."
He waved a hand dismissively. "People in love lose reason, although for the life of me, I can't imagine why they let that happen. Talk about the ultimate stupidity." He ignored the little voice telling him that he was one of the people who possess the 'ultimate stupidity'.
"You make it sound like a foolproof plan," remarked Suppi.
"Even more than that." He smiled. "It's nakoudo-proof."
"We'll see about that," said Nakuru, who was all-support for Tomoyo.
Tomoyo raised her fists in victory. She really did it! She now has access to the inside of the Hiiragizawa mansion!
She patted herself in mute congratulation. She was on her way to penetrating into Akizuki Nakuru's heart! Now all she had to do was warm her up to the idea of Mr.-Hey-I'm-Emotionally-Constipated Yue asking her out to a rock concert.
Piece of cake.
It was a stroke of genius- since she couldn't think of any other girl who could deal with his issues and abnormalities; she decided to pick herself for the supply-your-own-adjective girl to matchmake with the Royal Reincarnation.
Although at first she had doubts as to how Eriol would react when she presented herself to him, she was glad that he was making things easy for her.
But that didn't mean she could rest on her laurels- Hiiragizawa Eriol did NOT give in; he merely played along, maybe out of boredom or out of curiosity.
"No matter," she told herself. "I'm ready to face him too."
She laughed when she remembered her encounter with Eriol awhile ago- he looked like he was really ready to kill her.
"Did I really do the right thing? Maybe he really did love Kaho," she said slowly.
A minute later, she grinned. "Nah! I can feel true love when I sense it, and I don't feel the sparks between him and Mizuki-sensei. It was just his wounded ego."
But she had to give credit to where it was due: a furious Hiiragizawa Eriol could be totally sexy too. Enough to drive women into their primitive animalistic instincts and say "Grr. He's the mate for me! Get your claws off her, you bitch!"
She smiled at the thought. "Next time, I'll annoy him again. But I'll bring my videocam this time so I can capture his face, then I'll post the clip in the website." Her eyes twinkled. "Fifty thousand hits, here we come!"
Eriol was about to get up and stretch before he plunges to his music session when he noticed once more the white roses that were left on the floor. Nakuru had not bothered to clean the living room yet, because she and Spinel were engrossed with cooking lunch.
He knelt down and looked at the roses. Kaho Mizuki loved red roses, that was why when she left him, he vowed never to look on another rose again.
But to his surprise, looking at the roses could only remind him of Daidouji Tomoyo's laughing face, her teasing eyes twinkling with child-like naughtiness. The persona he knew was hidden beneath her smooth, elegant exterior back when they were in fifth grade, or how else could have she made her first matchmaking success?
He sighed, annoyed to the superlative degree. "Ah, why am I thinking of her anyway? Talk about a waste of electrical nerve impulses!" He got up.
"Master, you're talking to yourself again?" teased Nakuru from the kitchen.
"Yeah, I just discovered what a great conversationalist he is compared to you," he said dryly, resisting the urge to take one more lingering look at the smashed roses.
Just like what he said, Daidouji Tomoyo-related thoughts were futile ways to spend mental energy. He would rather have engaged in debates on the right color for nail polish.
Right.
tsuzuku