Warning!! This chapter contains things of a sexual nature. This is a warning, if you are not comfortable with such scenes or have no clue what sex is, then what you need to do is read the chapter then close your eyes at the barest mention of sex. This should keep you safe. I'm NOT changing my rating. I refuse to. I think it's not that bad. Please don't slap me fanfiction.net, I love you guys. I do.

Notes: I'm a bit nervous about this chapter, for reasons the warning noted. I'm really tired and I'm so sorry for the long wait but everything has been flying. I was having a life and was really happy with it. But I'm gonna be responsible. The next chapter could be a little bit late; I'm just so piled down with homework. I'm also sick of being taken advantage of. But that's a completely different story and has nothing to do with ff.net or the people on it.

Dedications: Dedicated to everyone reviewing, or who has reviewed, or who might review. Also to Zenin who unfortunately needs to get her ass into gear. I still love her though.

--*--

I Dare You to Dance

Chapter Six: Thoughts in my Head

By Emmy

--*--

Sakura was feeling lonely.

It had been two long weeks, one without Syaoran in her home. He'd moved out, but he was a regular visitor, sometimes staying over, sometimes accompanying her to dinners held by Natasha. Natasha adored him, inviting them over every chance she could. Jake and Syaoran had done the manly bonding thing and were friends now. Sakura felt sheltered, warm, but lonely all the same. When she went home, she sometimes forgot that Syaoran wasn't going to be there. She'd open the door and sweep inside, calling out a hello, then she'd see the dark inside, the blank screen of the TV, and the lonely kitchen and she'd feel a sense of loss.

She saw Syaoran at the many Salsa practices they attended. And what with the competition happening, Sakura gulped, tomorrow, she was nervous. She wished he was here, with her, telling her to stop being so silly and that it was just like a practice when they were to be dancing at the performance. Sakura rotated her ankles and prayed for the best whenever she could. Still, she was lonely, even with the super close contact that she'd been involved in with Syaoran and dancing.

But why? Why did she feel this way? She was friends with him, sure, and with enough champagne in her, she could easily blur that old-age line between friends and love, or lust. It wasn't that she didn't want to, but she was sure it was nothing. Syaoran was a handsome guy; it had to be an animal attraction, nothing more. She had better thing to focus on, like when that prize money was coming. Mrs Lackerly had been ignoring her a little, as the rent wasn't due until the end of the month. But Sakura knew that evil woman would pounce at any chance to kick Sakura out.

She had enough in her savings to stretch over this month's rent, but anything after that, she'd be struggling. Especially since if the prize didn't come soon, she was going to starve. And she was close to getting into Teacher's College; a good chunk of the prize money was going into that. She was keeping two thousand for her savings, and three thousand for the books, courses and tuition for the first year, then the other five was being kept for rent, food and bills. School was expensive stuff, as was living in a city like this.

Sakura leaned back into her lumpy couch and sighed, she wouldn't be able to buy a mobile, or go on a massive shopping spree, she'd like to, but Sakura was practical. She hated being that way but she knew what would happen. She looked around her apartment, 'I don't want to lose this place. It's my home.'

She looked out at the windows, and noticed that a light rain storm had started and she groaned. Sakura felt that bad stuff always happened when it rained, always. She remembered back to a few weeks ago, and that awful day with Syaoran and the dancing practice. Sakura put her head in her hands, she was so embarrassed. She had almost died when Lisa had asked her whether she had come out of her slump, her answer had been brisk, but to Sakura, it didn't cover her embarrassment.

Sakura leaned back; she was certainly doing a lot of pondering today. She looked out onto the rain, cursing it for all it was worth, the rain always did this to her. Made her all…thoughtful, and as deep as the ocean. It wasn't like Sakura was normally as deep as a puddle, she was deep, just not that deep. She sighed, Syaoran was deeper. He was a thinker, she'd noticed that. He kept his thoughts to himself most of the time, but when he got deep with her, as he had done a couple of times in the last two weeks, she saw these genius-like thoughts come pouring out of nowhere. And then he'd go silent again, and lock himself away in his head. 

'He deserves something more then a journalist job at some bad paper as the bastard reviewer', Sakura affirmed to herself.

A sharp ring pierced the quiet apartment, Sakura leapt up for the cordless phone that lay on the kitchen bench, she pressed the talk button, "Hello, Sakura speaking."

"Miss Sakura Kinomoto? This is the contest organizer for the contest you entered, where you won ten thousand dollars."

Sakura pushed him on, "Yes, I remember. About that-"

He interrupted, "The man who drew your entry out said the name wrong, he thought it said 'Sakura', when it was 'Sarah'"

Sakura found herself in disbelief, "Kinomoto is a Japanese last name, and is not that common."

She heard him sweat over the phone, and stumble over his words, "Well, Miss, uh…we don't have the money."

Sakura felt the world crash onto her shoulders, "You're joking?"

The line went silent for a while, before he spoke up, "Uh…no. I'm not."

Sakura shouted, "Well, where is it?!"

"It was stolen by some employees."

Sakura began pacing, "Some employees took the prize money? I don't understand…how did this happen?"

"Well, um, they unlocked the door late at night and took the cheque, and skipped town."

Sakura made her way over to the couch, and slumped down feeling all the world like crap, "I was counting on that."

"We're very sorry Miss, and we're sending an apology basket of fruit and other goods."

"And how is that going to help me? I might have to move!"

The line crackled, "Once again Miss, we are very sorry." 

Sakura believed the apologetic note in his voice, "Alright, thank you for informing me."

She hung the phone up with a click, and put her head in her hands, and allowed some tears to fall before getting up, and going over for her jacket and a scarf. She was going see a man about her job, her new job. She had just put on her coat when she heard a knock at the door, she opened it, and Syaoran stood there, looking as stressed as she felt. But she didn't have time for hugging and hearing about his problems, she wanted to, but she couldn't.

She opened the door wide and allowed him in, "You want to hang out here for a while? I'll be back in about two hours; I'm off to do some grocery shopping."

Syaoran shrugged, and then nodded, "Yeah, whatever."

"See you." Sakura called out and she closed the door.

Syaoran went over to the fridge and found one of the beers he'd left there; he opened it and gulped it down, before uttering "Whatever…" and walking over to the couch and slumping down on it, switching on the television.

--*--

"Miss…Kinomoto, was it?"

The loud booming voice hurt Sakura's ears. She was standing outside a small restaurant, the insides decorated with cheesy running bulls and hats and Spanish knick-knacks hung off the walls, and a large sign outside proclaimed, rather proudly, 'Red Flag.'. 'Red Flag' itself was quite popular, and a much nicer place and so far the hope-soon-to-be boss seemed really nice.

Sakura nodded quickly, hoping her toes wouldn't freeze off, "Yes, I'm Sakura Kinomoto. I called before."

He ushered her in, the restaurant was closed to the general public, as it didn't open before five-o-clock, but the boss was always around. She'd dug around in her pockets and had found the piece of paper with the number of 'Red Flag' on it, and got some loose change and called to let Fredrick, the owner, know she was coming in. He guided her past the main restaurant part, through the kitchens, and into his office and sat her down, "Now, Sakura, I did say I had a job for you. It's a waitress-ing and entertaining job, if I remember rightly."

Sakura nodded again, and looked down, "I'm sorry sir, but I forgot my resume. But I can honestly tell you I've only ever worked at 'Little Arabia'."

He smiled and leaned back, leering at her, "Yes, and I've seen you dance. I must say, Sakura, you are very talented."

She laughed nervously, "Thank you, my friend received free belly-dancing lessons and forced me to go. I picked it up easily. I'm glad I did them though."

Fredrick kept his large grin on his face, Sakura not feeling all-together safe, "Sakura, will you show me some of the Salsa? As part of your interview, of course."

Sakura stood and laughed, "This is going to look a little silly, me doing it all by myself."

He stood, he was strong looking, Sakura noticed, and lean, but defiantly had muscles. He was attractive, but the way he was looking at her made her feel disgusting. Like a piece of meat. He came a little to close to her, "I know the Salsa, and may I partner you?" 

Sakura backed away a little, wishing she had a cellphone on her so she could pretend to receive an urgent message, but he was going to be her boss, the worst thing she could do is piss him off. 'It's just one dance.'  Sakura desperately tried to convince herself. She accepted the hand, and he brought her close to his body. He immediately put his hand far to low down and Sakura felt the warning bells go off in her head, to hell with the job, she wanted out of this position.

She struggled but that only made him grip her tighter, she winced and put her palms on his chest and pushed, "You're hurting me."

He laughed and gripped her even tighter, making tears come up into her eyes, and his knee was squashed in-between her legs, making Sakura feel almost violated, "You want this job?"

Sakura shook her head and pushed again, "Please let me go, please?"

He stared deep into her eyes, madness glinting in his own, "No, you're happy where you are, bitch."

Then he back-handed her and Sakura got mad. She wasn't a wimp, and wasn't going to take that kind of shit. She wrestled out of his grip and drew back her arm and his attention focused onto her fist, allowing Sakura to knee him in delicate places, none to delicately. She then punched him hard, a decent uppercut learnt from her brother, and one he would be proud of, then she made a break for it, running as fast as she could, while he screamed after her, "Stupid bitch, get back here!!"

But Sakura knew he wasn't going to be running, much less walking, with such a groin injury. She tore through the kitchens and dining area and hailed a cab, once she had climbed inside; the full gravity of what had almost happened hit her like a tonne of bricks. She shakily said, "SuperFoodMart, please."

And she drew her jacket a little tighter, refusing to let the inevitable tears fall, and coming to realization of just how crappy this day was going to be.

--*--

Sakura looked in her wallet, her card had thirty dollars on it, and there was a dollar left for the bus home. She had given that cabbie her ten dollar note, and now had no cash. She blew some hair out of her face and grabbed a basket, determined to be as cheap as was humanly possible.

When Sakura went to pay, the check-out lady said the exact thing that Sakura didn't want to hear, "That will be thirty dollars and 70cents please."

She grinned nervously, her mind running over anything that could be put back. No, everything was a necessity in that particular basket. She handed over the card and the dollar, almost sobbing from the sheer frustration of the day. Her bill was rung up, and sure enough, she heard the rain begin to hammer down even harder onto the plastic, fake roof that she hated so much. She hated this entire supermarket. She hated it because it was reminding her of just how broke she was. 

Sakura picked up the plastic bags, all four of them, filled to the brim, and sighed heavily. She trekked out of the front of the store and stared out at the heavy rain. She stepped out into the rain, and saw her bus go past. She didn't have any money for it anyway. She began the walk home, thanking the lord that she hadn't given into that urge to buy that ice-cream.

--*--

Sakura threw open the front door of her apartment, Syaoran was sitting on a chair, four empty bottle of beer on her dining table, and one half-empty in his hand. He looked up from staring at the cracked, wooden surface and onto to the soaking wetness of her jacket, and the four gigantic bags of groceries in her frail hands. She dropped them on the ground, not caring about it. He could see it written on her face, Sakura was pissed off. Sincerely pissed off. And when he looked a little closer, he could see frustration, and even a little self-doubt.

He could see everything on her face, everything, he knew her so well. She left her emotions on her face for the world to read. Today she was a dark cloud, a dark cloud that hid a gigantic storm. He looked at the beer bottle, and cursed its existence. But then he praised it, because it gave him these kinds of thoughts. Deep thoughts, deep thoughts like the deep ocean that lay at the city limits, limits that separated their godforsaken spit of land called home, from the ocean.

The depth of the ocean and how far away it was didn't seem to bother Sakura to much today. She stalked over, and he spun round in his chair, facing her, legs open in only the way a boy would dare. She peeled off her jacket and threw off her scarf, and Syaoran noticed with much glee that Sakura's shirt had become wet too and was sticking to all his favourite bumps of hers. He focused on those bumps, but was rudely interrupted when she straddled his lap.

This took Syaoran by complete surprise, but none-the-less, he was a male, and when she shifted, he still felt certain bits of his anatomy respond. She allowed a self-satisfied smirk at how much her obvious wetness and movements were bothering him, then she grabbed the beer out of his hand. She took a deep swig, and he placed his hands daringly on her hips, she made a face, "I was right, this stuff tastes like crap."

He took it away and hugged it a little, "Then don't drink it!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, "Why the hell do you need it?"

He glared fiercely at her, taking a sip of his beer, and then quietly said, "I wrote an article. It was passed around the office and laughed at."

Sakura wrapped her arms around his neck and played with the hair at the back of it, "Poor baby."

He became focused on her bumps again, so focused he put the beer down, "Yes…poor me."

Sakura didn't notice how pre-occupied Syaoran had become and she looked off into space, "I was almost sexually assaulted this morning, I'm broke, I hate all supermarkets, and I had to walk home with the groceries. In the rain, of course, because this day had to get worse."

The sexually assaulted bit made Syaoran snap out of it, "Sexually assaulted? Who…I'll smack the guy. I know Karate, you know."

Sakura smiled affectionately at him, "I already smacked him."

He patted her hip, "Thatta girl."

Sakura suddenly got serious, sticking out her bottom lip in a pout "But Syaoran, do you want to make it all better?"

Syaoran smirked, she wasn't being serious, and she was being down-right seductive. Who was he to argue? He's play along, just to amuse her, "And how could I do that?"

She kissed him viciously, and he mumbled on her lips, "That could work…"

But it wasn't long before they were both kissing extremely hard and with furious abandon, the obvious becoming obvious to them. They moved so well vertically, he wanted to find out what she was like horizontally. Sakura was whispering sweet nothings into his ear, something about a shower, and steam and not seeing enough. It was driving him crazy, so he picked her up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist, feeling extremely hot because he was carrying her as if she was nothing but a feather, 'He's so strong!'

He lay her down on the table, missing the bottles entirely. He began on the buttons of her shirt before she leaned up and whispered in his ear, "Bed."

He picked her up and she threw her arms around his neck, kissing him madly and with animalistic tendencies at times, causing them to stumble blindly towards her bedroom. He smirked on her lips and threw her down on the bed and they made quick word of each other's shirts, he fumbled a little with her bra straps before their bare top halves were pressed together and Sakura moaned his name, and off came their pants.

Syaoran put his fingers on the waistline of her underwear, and looked at her deep in the eye before asking, "You sure?"

Sakura nodded, it was all she could do, she was paralysed from the whole situation, but it was good paralysation. She liked this paralysation. And it was only affecting her voice anyway, her body was moving of its own accord.

She wrapped herself in Syaoran, every inch of his delectable body becoming hers.

---*---

Zenin, please, for the love of all things good, when I send you the chapter, please please please do it. I need it as soon as poss. I adore you, you know that, but I need this. I know you're busy and I know stuff has been happening, I understand, believe me, but please do the chapters I send to you.

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