Special thanks to:

LiL DuDeTtE: Well, here I am updating, and I hope you like this chapter. ^_^ Enjoy!

demi-kaijuu: Yay! And the guardian angel thing might be a good idea... I'll have to see how it goes. Anyhow, enjoy this chapter! ^_^

CronoCat: I thought Roka was pretty cute too. I based him around my six-year-old cousin, who is a real pain in the ass, but he's adorable and it's hard to say no to him. As for TOuya, I based him around my brother. --;; Touya's the older brother I never had. I only have a younger one. --;;

K a w a i i - S y a o r a n: It's a little thing called the 'rumour mill'. It happens in most places. ^_^;; Yay, I got the day right! Enjoy! ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. I never have and I never will.

Summary: By day, she's a host on the local radio, by night, just another waitress at a café in downtown Tomoeda. Life's hard for Kinomoto Sakura, and it's about to get even harder. Especially when he shows up again... AU

Notes: Frankly I think that last chapter was a little rushed, but hey, that's me and I'm always fussy with whatever I write. I didn't think that there would be such a reception for this fanfic, so I'm happy! ^_^ I was feeling kind of down earlier after writing Miss, but everything is alright now. I have another angsty one-shot songfic in mind, using Delta Goodrem's Lost Without You. It seems that I write a lot of angst now... and lots of one-shots. Hm... I think that maybe it's time to stop with the songfics. I already have two, and most of my other ones are already done... Oops. I better let you get on with reading the fanfic, right? I have a really bad habit of rambling on...

Footprints in the Sand

Sakura opened her eyes, saw daylight, and felt shooting pains through her head. Her instantaneous reaction? "What the hell am I doing here?!" she yelled. "And where's some painkillers when I need them?! My head hurts!!" Sakura tried running her fingers through her short hair, but found that their progress was stopped by a bandage that wound itself through her hair and around her head. "I'm wearing a bandage on my head too! Great, just great!" Sakura thought. "What else could go wrong?"

"The nurse will be here soon," a quiet voice said.

Sakura jumped. She hadn't expected that there would be someone in the room with her. She was about to yell again, but seemed to think better of it when another sharp wave of pain coursed through her head.

"How are you feeling?" the voice asked again.

"I have one hell of a headache, but apart from that, I feel okay. I'm a bit dizzy too," Sakura said. "Who are you?"

"That seems to be the general consensus. I'm Syaoran, you met me last night."

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Back up. Last night?!" she practically screeched. "I met you last night?!"

"You were at the pub, drank too much, bumped your head, and wound up in hospital. That's all," Syaoran said. "I got the bartender to call the ambulance, and you should be able to be discharged from the hospital today."

"I guess I should thank you," Sakura grumbled. "I always repay my debts."

"I didn't do it so that you'd owe me, you know," Syaoran replied, brown eyes hard. "I saw someone who needed help and I complied. I'm happy that you're feeling better."

"Thanks," Sakura grumbled again. "Can you give me the phone? I need to ring my brother and tell him where I am."

"All taken care of, already. He knows and he said that he would be here to pick you up when you were ready to leave. He said that you'd be staying at his place since you owe a ton of rent at your place and you've been given an eviction notice," Syaoran stated.

"Oh great, just great," Sakura mumbled again, burying her head in her hands. "I try to do things right and I just end up screwing them up even more. What else can go wrong?"

"A heck of a lot more."

"Shut up, you. I was talking to myself."

"First sign of madness you know."

"I'm already mad. Mad at you that is. Go away."

"No."

"What!?"

"No."

"Why?"

"I'm here until your brother gets here."

"Oh geez... this sucks..."

"Welcome to my world."

"Oh great."

"A bundle of joy and laughter aren't you?"

"Right."

"I was being sarcastic."

"I knew that."

"No, you didn't."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"Wiseass." Sakura poked her tongue out at Syaoran. "What are you going to be doing here anyway?"

"I have to get into work soon. Your brother said that he would be here in less than an hour, so that gives me time to kill." Syaoran looked at his watch. "We've got twenty minutes of enjoying each other's company."

"Oh yay..." was Sakura's sarcastic answer.

+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+

"And remember monster... no more alcohol, okay? Bad tempers and alcohol don't mix."

"Yeah. Remember that, auntie Sakura," Roka said, wagging a finger at her in a way that an adult would to a disbelieving little child. "No more being bad girl, okay?"

"Okay, Roka. I'll do that just for you." Sakura managed a wry half-smile.

"Bye byes, auntie Sakura!" Roka crowed triumphantly. "Dad, come on!! We have to gosies!"

Touya's eyes went to Sakura and he arched an eyebrow. "Have you been teaching him baby talk?" he asked.

Sakura just groaned and shut the door in her brother's face.

"Cute kid," a voice commented.

Sakura nearly jumped out of her skin for the second time that day. "How can you just appear out of nowhere like that? It's freaking me out."

Syaoran shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I just do it, because I do."

"That's one way of putting it."

"Yeah."

"Go away."

"Is that any way to speak to your saver?"

"Just go away." Sakura pointed stiff-armed at the door. "Out."

"No."

"What?!"

"I said no. You know, starts with 'n' and ends with 'o'. Is there anything about that word that you don't understand?"

"Yeah. The first and second letters. Now out."

"No."

"I'm warning you, Li Syaoran. Get out of my house now."

"No."

"'No' seems to be your favourite word right now."

"I guess."

"Just go now, I'll deal with you in the evening," Sakura groaned. "I need to pack right now."

"Sure. I'll be back in about three hours to pick you up."

"What are you, my baby-sitter?" Sakura asked. "My brother put you up to this, didn't he?"

"No, as a matter of fact, he didn't."

Sakura was looking at Syaoran with a slightly suspicious facial expression. Ever since she'd met this guy in the bar, he'd been interfering with her normal life on a big scale. It was like he was some sort of big over-protective dog that refused to go away. And speaking of dogs...

"Li, I suggest you stand aside," Sakura said.

"Why?"

"Don't say I didn't warn you..." Sakura grinned and moved out of the way.

Syaoran had a confused expression on his face, but he soon realised what she had meant when a big animal raced out from underneath him. His legs gave way and he landed on the ground hard.

"I told you..." Sakura smirked, looking like the cat that had the cream.

"What was that?" Syaoran asked, getting up off the ground, only to slip again in a huge pool of slobber.

Sakura laughed, pure glee in her eyes. She shook her head, watching Syaoran try to get up again, only to fall over. "That was Kero, the next door neighbour's dog. He runs through here on a daily basis."

"Don't they have a leash for him? Dogs are meant to be controlled around this area."

"Okay, Li, let me get this straight for you. In this part of town, we don't give a damn about the law, okay? If a dog wants to run free, he runs free. I don't object. That's why you're meant to watch out for yourself. The other people around here know my brother and nephew, because they're over here so often, but since they don't know you, they don't care about you." Sakura put her hands on her hips. "Don't think you know everything, okay? Because you don't. I'm not the best person around here either, but I'm a damn sight more known around here than you are. So you better watch out for yourself, because I'm not going to."

"I take it that you want to stay here then," Syaoran stated.

"Yeah, but I've been evicted, so that might be a bit of a problem."

"I'll take care of it. You stay here, and I'll sort everything out."

"Wait, hold on a minute." Sakura went to go after Syaoran, but he'd already left. "Stubborn mule..." Sakura mumbled under her breath before going to get a mop to wipe up the pools of slobber left by Kero.

+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+

"Roka, wait up!" Touya called.

"Daddy, what's wrong with auntie Sakura?" Roka asked, his six-year-old face scrunched up in confusion.

"Auntie Sakura has issues," Touya said bluntly. "She needs to get a life."

"But doesn't she have one already? I mean, she wouldn't be alive if she didn't have a life, right?" Roka asked, even more confused than he originally had been.

A wry smile came over Touya's face. "Kid, you keep that and everyone will be falling over you."

"Keep what?" Roka asked.

"Don't worry."

"Why does everyone say 'don't worry' to me? It gets me so confused. Auntie Sakura, she, she says that all the time." Roka sniffed.

"You shouldn't worry about auntie Sakura. Leave Daddy to worry about auntie Sakura. Daddy already has enough problems with her anyway. One more won't hurt."

"Daddy," Roka said, changing the subject completely, "can we get a dog?"

"Back to that, huh? Roka, it's all a case of wait and see."

"Aw... I wanna know now though!"

Touya grinned. He knew just where that tone of voice had come from and it wasn't from him. "Come on, Roka. We better get home. Auntie Sakura should be home from hospital now."

"Hospitable?!-Auntie-Sakura-was-in-hospitable?!-Is-she-okay?!" Roka said in alarm, jumbling all the words into one whole big sentence.

"She's fine, auntie Sakura just took a bit of a knock to the head. Give her a few days and she'll be as good as normal."

"Is she going out with that guy that we saw her with?" Roka asked.

"Rest assured, Roka, if she is, before she can get to him again, I'll have him bound, gagged, strangled and left out in the dumpster."

"Daddy's violent," Roka stated.

"No, Daddy just takes care of family."

Roka looked dubious. "Okay, if that's what you say it is..."

+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+*~*+

A few hours after Syaoran's brief visit, Sakura was sitting at the table, eating a sandwich while flicking through a magazine. Her face was looking worse for wear after last night and she still had the bandage around her head. There was a knock at the door. Sakura couldn't be bothered going up and getting the door, and she felt really dizzy if she moved too suddenly, so she just yelled out, "It's open!"

The door clicked open and shut again. Sakura was ready with a fire poker if it was that Li Syaoran person again, but it was just Tomoyo. She put the poker away again.

"What's with the poker?" Tomoyo asked, faint puzzlement on her face.

"I have a stalker."

"You do?! Oh my gosh! Can I film him?!"

"Is that all you think about?"

"I haven't had anything to film since we finished high school."

"Wouldn't work be keeping you busy?"

"No, not so much lately. I'm happy to be around town a lot more."

"You travel too much."

"Yeah, I do."

Sakura waved a hand at a chair. "Sit down, Tomoyo."

Tomoyo obliged. "I want to hear more about this stalker person," she said, smiling.

There was a knock at the door.

Sakura sighed and went to open the door, saying on the way, "You're about to. Tomoyo, meet Li Syaoran, the stalker."

To be continued...

Well? Good? Bad? Ugly?

As for Roka's run-on sentence, you know that how sometimes little kids say something really fast without taking a breath? That was what happened there. And he said 'hospitable', instead of 'hospital'. I'm basing Roka around my six-year-old cousin who is utterly adorable but totally crazy.

Anyhow, any comments or questions, please tell me.

Review if you want to.

--Kaiwawata

AKA Karisa Temura