By SibylSofiana
Chapter Six
A Compromising Situation
Eriol tried to concentrate on the rest of his papers, but the husky voice in his head kept distracting him. kept ringing in his head:
"Are you trying to get me drunk, Eriol-kun?"He never took advantage of people by using alcohol. Well, okay, sugar then, in Spinel's case. Other than that small detail, he was a nice guy, right? He didn't think Tomoyo believed otherwise, so he took her question as a joke.
"I wish. Now, get into bed."
Her teasing rejoinder nearly blew him away --
"That's an invitation if I ever heard one."
Oh, gods – the ultimate temptation. He was so stunned by it that he was speechless, and then Tomoyo had huffily declared it was just a joke before she went straight to sleep. Oh, but the thought of holding her close to him...
Eriol finally gave up and put his pen down. There was still time enough tomorrow to finish grading the papers if Tomoyo wasn't up for their plans.
He stood up, yawned, and made his way to the sofa beside the bed. As he came near the sleeping girl, he was alerted by the restless movements Tomoyo made on the bed.
Tomoyo suddenly bolted upright, screaming, but he quickly crossed over the bed and immediately reached for her shoulders.
"Tomoyo, shhh....it's alright, you're safe," he spoke soothingly, and he could feel her relax as she recognized his voice.
"E-Eriol?" Tomoyo shuddered, waking up from her nightmare.
He held her close for some time, telling her in a reassuring voice that she was safe. When he could feel her body stop shivering, he asked, "Are you alright now?" When she nodded, Eriol guided her back onto the pillows.
"Go on, rest. I'll take you back to your rooms tomorrow." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. But as he made to move away, she touched his shoulder lightly, uncertainly.
"Eriol...please stay," she said in a small voice.
Eh!?!After only a moment's hesitation, where a quick jump of anticipation was promptly smothered, Eriol replied. "Of course, sweetheart. I'll be right here. Now sleep..."
He could hear her sigh softly as she snuggled closer to his side of the bed. Stealing a glimpse at her, he saw that she had immediately fallen asleep once again.
She was so beautiful. His dark-haired angel, safe in his arms.
Eriol yawned again. The day was catching up with him, and his eyelids felt heavy.
I'll stay here just a little bit longer till Nakuru comes back.Just for a little while...
000
The moment Tomoyo opened her eyes, the memory of what she had said came back to her, and she almost groaned. She had never been so brazen in her entire life!
She almost did groan because of the terrible soreness she felt all over her body. She probably had some cuts and bruises under the shirt she was wearing, but thank goodness nothing worse had happened. Thank goodness Eriol had been there...
She could feel the blush on her cheeks as she finally remembered where she was. Eriol's arm was around her, and she was lying against him. She couldn't see his face, but she could feel his warm breath tickling her nape.
Eriol smelled clean and crisp, with a faint hint of something old-fashioned. Whatever it was, she liked it. She could also smell his scent on the shirt she wore, and it was nice, sleeping with him.
Oh, God, that's sounds so illicit.
It was a nice feeling, period. She sighed. Hmm, I could get to like this very much. Last night's events seemed so far away, but it was only an hour after dawn, if the watch on the nightstand was anything to go by.
She was wrapped up in listening to Eriol's heartbeat that she failed to register the commotion outside the room until someone barged in and nearly tore the door off its hinges.
"H-I-I-R-A-G-I-Z-A-W-AAAAA!!!"Tomoyo was startled, and she instinctively drew herself closer to Eriol as someone she thought she recognized barged into the room.
And then Nakuru herself gamely followed the slightly crazed man into the room, finally pointing toward the bed where Tomoyo lay wide-eyed.
"See, she's alright, Touya-kun!"
000
Touya was pacing frantically in Tomoyo's hotel room with a worried Anne by his side. He was dialling Tomoyo's cellphone for the thousandth time when Nakuru showed up with a smug look on her face.
"Akizuki!" He bounded over to her. "Where is she?!?"
Oops. She had spent too much time with Ted and had completely forgotten about Touya. It was already dawn, and the weariness was showing on Touya's face and Anne's. Nakuru waved her hand in front of his face in apology.
"Neh, neh, Touya-kun – she's alright! She just had this slight accident..."
"With that creep Whitaker?!? I'll kill him!!!"
Anne was attempting to pacify him. "Touya, I'm sure there's an explanation for this..."
"Calm down, Touya-kun. I already took care of him, and believe me, she's alright." Nakuru patted his shoulder. His neck looked a bit stiff, but judging from the look on his face, a neck massage would not be welcome at that point. She pouted at that.
Touya counted to ten and tried to breathe. He finally calmed down somewhat, to Anne's relief, who set about to get him something to drink.
"So, where is she?" He was already running the list of the nearest hospitals in his mind.
Nakuru said blithely, "Oh, Eriol just brought her to his room."
Silence. Then ---
"WHAT?!?!!!"
000
"Touya!" Tomoyo had forgotten all about him.
"Are you hurt? Are you ok?" Then, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HIS BED?" and "WHAT ARE YOU WEARING!?!" This from an obviously frazzled Touya.
"Touya-kun, calm down! I'm alright....shhh, I'm alright," she tried to calm down her very distraught cousin. If things weren't so serious, she'd be laughing just about now – but her ribs hurt, so better not.
She carefully moved away from Eriol and gingerly made her way to the edge of the bed where her cousin was smoldering before he sat down at her urging.
"I'm okay, Touya-kun," she assured him again. "My clothes were all wet, so Eriol gave me a shirt to wear. And Nakuru's bed was a little, um, full of stuff," she gave a quick smile to Nakuru, "so Eriol offered me his bed. I guess he fell asleep watching over me."
Touya wanted to pursue that line of thought, but seeing as Tomoyo was matter-of-fact about it, she couldn't possibly be hiding something. He narrowed his eyes and asked her, "What exactly happened last night, Tomoyo?"
"Well, Eriol brought me here – I'm not exactly sure what happened. All I remember was that Mr. Whitaker was driving and...oh, my God!" Tomoyo suddenly stood up as she remembered all the events that had occured in the past few hours. "What happened to Mr. Whitaker?"
It was Touya's turn to calm her down as he pulled her back to sit on the bed. "He's alright," he said. "Akizuki took care of him. Didn't you, Akizuki?" glaring at the Moon Guardian, as if everything was her fault.
Nakuru only sniffed.
"Were you following them? What happened?" Touya demanded.
Nakuru wanted to recover her bruised dignity – really! She had been only doing her job! But a quick glare from the Card Mistress' brother told her that he was in no mood to be nice. So sighing, she gave them a quick rundown of the night's events.
000
All this time nobody had been paying attention to the other person on the bed.
Eriol had awakened at around the same time Tomoyo did, but he just lay there savoring her closeness. And she smelled so good. When someone burst into the room, he instinctively tightened his grip on her shoulders. As soon as he realized that it was only Kinomoto-san, he kept his eyes shut and pretended to be still asleep. He listened as Nakuru told Kinomoto and Tomoyo what had happened last night, and he clenched his fists at the mention of Whitaker's name. He'd get all the details from Nakuru later, and he decided, he'd finish what Nakuru started with Ted Whitaker.
"Oh, come on Touya, don't be so paranoid. This is the 21st century – he just slept beside me, what's the big deal?" Tomoyo was soon exasperatedly explaining to her cousin how she ended up on Eriol's bed. Eriol could barely hold back a chuckle.
When things had quieted down after a while, Eriol decided it was safe to open his eyes, and so he opened them carefully.
Kinomoto Touya was glaring at him hard-eyed.
"Wondered how you could sleep with all this ruckus," he said sarcastically.
Eriol only gave a small smile before stretching his arms up and giving a yawn.
"Well, I was tired, Kinomoto-san." He picked up his glasses by the nightstand. "Haven't been doing magic for some time – and translocating is always hard work." He stood up and directed a quick look at Tomoyo, who stood at Touya's side with his arm protectively around her. "Daijobou, Tomoyo?" Touya didn't miss the first name basis, and glared at him, but he had eyes only for Tomoyo.
"I'm feeling better, Eriol-kun. Arigatou." A tinge of pink was on her cheeks. "I suppose I better get dressed and get back to my rooms. Anne will be worried." She left the room with Nakuru in tow. Nakuru probably would have wanted to stay and watch the two males fight it out, but Tomoyo had taken her firmly by the arm and dragged her out of the room.
As the two girls left the room, Touya looked at the younger man appraisingly.
"Is there anything I should know about, Hiiragizawa-kun?" he grated out.
Eriol pretended to think deeply, then shrugged his shoulders. "I think Nakuru just about covered everything." He pretended to misunderstand what Touya was really asking, and he grinned as he watched the slightly older man turn a shade of purple.
He soon relented. "Relax, Kinomoto-san. I am hardly the type to take advantage of helpless females." Touya was in the mood to disagree, but he kept quiet. "I just gave her a hot bath – alone," he added as a nerve twitched in Kinomoto's face, "— and offered her the bed. And no, nothing happened."
As Touya's face was about to settle in relief, Eriol added mischievously, "A kiss of gratitude would have been nice, though."
Kinomoto was about to splutter in indignation when Tomoyo timidly popped her head into the room, dressed in some of Nakuru's clothes.
Did she hear that last statement? Her face was red with embarrassment.
"Um, Eriol-kun – we're still on for the museum later , right? Oh, stop it, Touya – I'm perfectly fine." She turned to address her cousin. "We can talk shop once we get back to my rooms, but I'd like to take some time off for sightseeing before we leave New York. Eriol-kun?" She looked at him expectantly, waving aside Touya's mutterings.
"Let's forget the museum," Eriol said regretfully. "Touya's right – we should have a doctor check you out." He raised a hand when she was about to object. "Then, if you're up to it, we can just hang around here instead -- " a quick glare from Touya – "or not..."
"Tou-ya..." Tomoyo's voice was exasperated. "Well, how about hanging around in my rooms then? Anne will be chaperone – alright, Touya-kun, you can drop the glare now – and we could just talk. Nakuru can come along, too," she added as Nakuru came into the room.
Eriol smiled. "Okay. I can probably bring along my papers to check during a dull moment." He grinned impudently at Touya. "Tame enough for you, old man?"
Touya harrumphed, then pushed his cousin out the room. "Come on, Anne needs to know you're alright." A discreet cough from behind stopped them halfway across the room.
"What is it now?" he glared over his shoulder at the Weasel guy.
Eriol pointedly looked at his bedroom door. "What about that, Kinomoto-san?" The door was hanging crazily on its hinges, and splinters of wood were scattered on the carpet.
Touya only shrugged. "You did say you were out of practice doing magic, Hiiragizawa – you can practice on the door. " He then waved nonchalantly as he led his now-properly-dressed cousin out the door. Tomoyo also waved back before being herded out.
Eriol briefly considered turning Kinomoto-san into a toad, but decided it was too much effort. He glanced at Nakuru who was standing by quietly.
"Foiled again," Nakuru grinned cheekily before heading to her room.
Authors' Notes: Sorry this update took so long. Sibyl was wondering where all this is headed ;p