A/N: I know that it's been a long time and I know that this is the total opposite of right now, you know. No one expects a Christmas chapter in the middle of the summer, right? But that's where we are in the story and as long as I update it, there shouldn't be any complaints, right? This is what happened if you forgot: Sakura and Syaoran had to take care of a baby named Miko. When they were just about to go to sleep, they found the tape that Tomoyo made with them kissing a month ago at dinner. The next morning, they kissed.
Chapter 15: Home Again
Start POV Sequence:
Sakura: I never expected anything to happen that way. I mean, when it did I was head over heels, complete 180. I felt so dizzy and happy. In all honesty, I almost dropped the baby. I felt lightheaded and woozy. I felt sick and bubbly. I wanted more...
It ended too quickly.
Syaoran: I felt so amazed at how little it takes to kiss someone. I have been kissed before (once by Sakura actually, when we were younger) but I had forgotten what it was like to truly feel connected to someone. For once in my life, I forgot that Sakura had problems of the heart, that I was engaged and had a psycho family or the fact that Kero was somewhere in the vicinity glaring daggers at me.
It ended too quickly.
End POV Sequence.
December 21st
9:30 am
After such a sweet kiss, one would expect a nice, quiet breakfast with the person that you loved and a baby that you adored. But if you are part of the Card Captor business, then you were out of luck because you have friends such as a smart-talking stuffed animal, a reincarnation of the person who originally made your cards and your best friend, who is crazy as it is.
Sakura and Syaoran didn't mention the kiss, but Kero obviously had to bring it up because he would just be out of character if he didn't.
"So Sakura, what does this mean for you and the gaki?" Kero asked as he put three pancakes into his mouth at once.
Eriol and Tomoyo, who had decided to come over after smelling the omelets and pancakes wafting through the bottom of their door (They are college students after all), looked back and forth between Sakura and Syaoran.
"Ooh, so did something happen?" Eriol asked the pair causing both of them to turn beet red.
Sakura rocked baby Miko. "I don't know what you are talking about."
"Sakura you're blushing."
"Shut up."
Kero piped up. "I saw them kissing by the window soon after they woke up."
"How romantic is that?" Tomoyo sighed. "That's so cute!"
"So, what was it like?" Eriol egged on. "Was it anything that you expected?"
Tomoyo playfully hit him. "Eriol, you shouldn't ask questions like that... especially when you know they kissed each other before."
"Yeah, but that was like a month ago and I forgot to ask. Now it was an hour ago and I want to know the details."
Syaoran kept his head down, blushing furiously. Sakura looked up and blushed just as hard.
"Hey." Syaoran said, looking up for the first time since they got there. "We didn't ask you what happened when you two got together."
"Well that was because as soon as we realized that we liked each other, things happened. You two aren't like that and are just too cute to pass up." Tomoyo answered.
Sakura pouted. "That's not fair."
"All's fair in love and war." Eriol nodded.
"What's the war?"
Tomoyo grinned. "Yourselves."
This remark caused Sakura to shut up and tend to the baby. She stroked her hair, which was showing the few hints of a curl to every lock.
Kero floated up to the baby and nudged her cheek with his little paw. Suddenly, he sniffed her. "She smells funny."
"Does she need to be changed?" asked Syaoran.
Kero shook his head. "That's not what I meant. She smells... different."
"How so?" Sakura sniffed the baby and didn't smell anything. "Is something wrong with her?"
The room became silent as everyone went up to Miko and sniffed her at once. The reaction was instantaneous. The idea of four big-eyed idiots plus a stuffed animal peering at her scared her and she burst into tears of fright.
"Oh, Miko." Sakura stood up and rocked her in her arms. "It is okay, no one will hurt you." She glared at Kero for instigating the crying.
Syaoran stood up as well, coming up behind Sakura to look at Miko. "Is she okay?"
"Yeah, it was just a sudden fright." Sakura cooed to the baby. "Don't cry, little one." Syaoran stroked her head, causing her to relax in Sakura's arms again.
Eriol and Tomoyo exchanged glances and sighed.
"Someone please tell me why you and Syaoran aren't together!" Tomoyo asked, nearly ripping out her hair. "That moment was so beautiful!
'And you just broke it.' Syaoran thought, eyebrow twitching. Embarrassment suddenly flushed the pair's cheeks but they were saved from answering when the doorbell rang.
"That must be Miko's mother." Kero looked at the door then lifelessly plopped into Tomoyo's lap, pretending to be a toy. It wasn't bad if a baby saw him because infants and small children can believe in anything. They have imagination. But an actual adult would probably go crazy if they didn't understand the story behind it.
Sakura opened the door with Syaoran standing behind her again. "Hello, Ms. Mitsuki."
Ms. Mitsuki, who was a beautiful woman with long, straight black hair and blue eyes, smiled at the young adults.
"Ma!" Miko yelled out, reaching out for her mother. Ms. Mitsuki grabbed her, cooing at her child.
"Mommy missed you, Mimi!" she said. "But mommy had to go on a trip and couldn't take you!"
"Sy! Sa!"
"Yes, Syaoran and Sakura took good care of you, didn't they?" She turned to them and beamed at them. "Miko looks so happy. Normally, she hates when I go somewhere overnight, but the smile on her face told me that she had fun."
"Oh yes, she was adorable the whole night. Not one fuss." Sakura patted Miko's head again.
"We both had fun with her, right Sakura?" Syaoran looked down at Sakura with a small, hopeful half smile. Sakura flushed a bit and slowly nodded.
"Well, I should let you know that you passed." Ms. Mitsuki said, bouncing Miko in her arms.
Syaoran's brows furrowed. "Passed what?"
"Oh, you don't know? I could have sworn..." the woman with the raven black hair frowned a bit. "When I told Mr. Unmei that I was leaving on a short business trip, he told me that he was going to give one of his groups a pop quiz with Miko. He said that it had to do with the Home Economics project he just assigned. He said that he would call in the morning before I came to tell you that it was a test... funny, he must have slept in."
Sakura and Syaoran exchanged glances. The fact that they were being tested overnight with out knowing....
Miko leaned over and kissed them both on the cheek. "Bye Sy, Bye Sa, Bye Tomo, Bye Eri... Bye Key!" She waved toward the vicinity of Tomoyo and Eriol, who both facevaulted.
Ms. Mitsuki craned her neck around the two young adults and frowned. "Silly Miko, there is no Key here."
Miko pouted. "Key, Key!"
"Oh," Sakura recovered first. "She means Kero. Kero's a stuffed animal that we had her play with."
The mother smiled. "Oh, I see." She kissed them both on the cheek as well. "Well, you'll probably be seeing Miko again if you don't mind being my babysitters sometime? She's always liked you Syaoran, but I've never seen her more happy unless the two of you were together."
"Oh, well Sakura's always been a fun person to be around. I guess she brings out the better side of me."
Sakura looked at Syaoran, who was trying his best not to look back or blush.
Ms. Mitsuki blinked. "Are you two a couple?"
"No, but they should be!" Tomoyo yelled from the living room. This time, both of them turned shades of red unknown to man.
"Oh, I didn't mean to embaress you but you seem so comfortable and cute together!"
This only caused them to blush harder, of course.
Ms. Mitsuki looked at her watch, which was shaped like an hourglass. Sakura turned her head to the side and still couldn't figure out how to read it.
"Trying to read the watch?" She showed it to her. Small sand grains were leaking from the top to the bottom and numbers were placed in and fell through the same way. "When a number falls, that's the hour. It's not so hard when you get the gist of it." She looked at it again. "I must be on my way. Thank you for looking after Miko!"
"She is a very interesting woman, Ms. Mitsuki." Syaoran said, trying to get rid of the red hue over the bridge of his nose.
Sakura closed the door, sweatdropping. "Was that really necessary Tomoyo- chan?"
"Yes, I must say it was." She looked at her own watch. "Well, we have to get to the airport by four in order to catch our plane at six." She grabbed Sakura's wrist. "Come, we have to get you into something nice for when you see your family again."
Eriol turned to Syaoran. "When is your plane back to China?"
Syaoran coughed. "Actually, Mei-Lin and I are coming back to Japan for the holidays."
This surprised everyone... or maybe no one. It was too predictable.
"Why do you suppose?" Tomoyo asked. She had stopped dragging Sakura to their room for clothes.
"Well I think it has something to do with the Clan business relations in Japan otherwise known as how-can-we-get-more-money." Syaoran rolled his eyes. "I dunno."
Sakura smiled. "It'll be nice to have us all in Japan again for Christmas."
Syaoran knew immediately what she was thinking of and he smiled at her across the room. "It would be nice, wouldn't it?"
Tomoyo and Eriol exchanged glances and shrugged.
December 22
2:00am
Sakura looked out the window of the plane, the city lights of her hometown underneath her. She yawned. Being on a plane for eight out of the fifteen hours that they would spend in total there had resulted in everyone becoming lazy and stupid. Even Eriol, who was sitting next to Tomoyo and Mei-Lin, had given up on tricking them with small gags. Currently, they were flying through clouds, which was always exciting. Better still was the fact that once in a while a patch of green would show up in the dark world and the city lights would cover it.
"Are you okay?" Syaoran asked her. She was wedged in between him and the window. Every hour that she was awake, he would ask her if she was all right. That was his way of beating around the bush about their kiss yesterday morning.
"I'm fine, just a little bored." She turned her head and looked at Eriol and Tomoyo.
Tomoyo had placed herself into Eriol's lap and pulled the seatbelt around them both. Sure it might be a safety hazard, but the couple didn't seem to mind. In fact, they had fallen asleep in that position and the hosts weren't lurking around this late at night.
"Aren't they cute?" she asked him.
"They make a good couple." Syaoran looked at them enviously. The fact that they could make their relationship work was beyond him.
Sakura noticed his face "I just have one more thing to do, Syaoran."
"And then we can be together."
"If the answer is correct, then we can be." Syaoran wasn't about to ask what would happen if it wasn't correct. 'I just have to pray that it will be' he prayed. She pointed out the window at the stars and the lights.
"Isn't the world beautiful at night?"
"Yeah, it is." He tentatively put his arm around her shoulders the best that he could; the first move he made since that morning with the baby. She responded by placing her head on his shoulder.
"It's times like this when you wonder if there are really angels out there, you know?" Sakura looked up at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, whenever I see something like this or from a cliff that looks down upon the cityscape, I try to figure out who's protecting it. Does this place have a guardian angel? Things like that. And I wonder if they know that they play a big role in the lives of others because of who they are."
He wasn't looking at her anymore, just outside of the window. She looked at his profile, watching the young man gaze outside at the flickering lights.
"I wonder where the angels could be, you know?" she asked, finally breaking her gaze from him.
"Angels could be anywhere." He raised the armrest so he could firmly put an arm around her waist.
"Like where?"
He looked down at her pointedly. "Anywhere, Sakura-chan."
She blushed and looked away. "Do they have wings?"
"Not necessarily. Some angels have found other means of flying." He whispered in her ear. "Some fly just when they are walking down the street. Others fly when they see someone smile. Some can even be spotted early in the morning on airplanes just to see their family and make them happy."
He looked down at Sakura, who had fallen fast asleep in his arms. He leaned over and brushed his lips over her forehead, holding her closer. "And there is always that one special one who never knows that she is an angel just because she fell asleep in my arms."
He looked around. The other three had fallen asleep against each other. He looked back to Sakura and smiled. Leaning over again, he brushed his lips against her mouth and was quite surprised when he got a response to his kiss. Sakura's mouth moved along his for a moment, her hands grasping for his shirt. It seemed as if the kiss from yesterday morning was too short and simple. Then, just as suddenly as it had happened it was over.
Sakura pulled away and gave him a look, but smiled. "That was a cheap trick."
"You do what you can do."
"I was asleep. I had dozed off to find you kissing me." She mocked glared.
Syaoran chuckled. "Was it that bad?"
"Terrible. I've never experienced anything more horrible in my life."
"Allow me to rectify the situation." He leaned in again to a willing Sakura then stopped, scowling. "Or not."
In Sakura's lap appeared a pissed off Kero-chan.
"You don't have the right to kiss Sakura when she's unguarded." Kero spat. "I mean, the first time she was half drunk, and then you kiss her when she has a baby in her arms and now, she was asleep! What's wrong with you?"
Syaoran felt his eyebrow twitch. "My problem is you, Kero-chan." He grabbed the guardian beast and pitched him into the overhead stowaway. Sitting back down, he wrapped his arms around Sakura again and sighed in annoyance. She had fallen asleep.
9:45am
Touya, Yukito, Fujitaka, Tomoyo's entourage and the most of the Li family all waited for the plane to land. The plane was due almost two hours ago, but due to slight turbulence, baggage claim and it being the busiest time of the year slowed everything down.
Syaoran almost fainted when he saw the big group of people all waiting together in the least patient fashion. Manoa, Mei-Lin's mother, was barking on the phone about business in China, Touya was looking royally pissed off for being at an airport so early, Syaoran's sisters minus Xiefa were parading around said pissed off Touya about how handsome he and Yukito were and Tomoyo's group of girls were waiting, looking like something out of the Matrix. The only somewhat sane people there were Fujitaka and Sanori, parents of the children who weren't suppose to be together due to political and magical reasoning and Xiefa, who looked like she was planning something evil... or maybe she was just tired.
"Look, there they are!" Xiefa pointed out. Suddenly, said group of people were rushing towards the five college freshman.
"What the hell happened?" Touya asked, glaring at Syaoran.
Syaoran looked down and sighed. "Sakura was sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to wake her up, so I just carried her here." Indeed, Sakura, who was clad in pink and purple and looked like a baby doll Lolita thanks to Tomoyo, was sleeping peacefully on Syaoran's shoulder, her legs in his other arm. Needless to say, it wasn't only beneficial for Sakura.
"That was very thoughtful of you." Fujitaka smiled at the young Li. "Sakura obviously has very caring friends."
Yukito linked arms with Touya. "Sakura seems well cared for, don't you agree?"
Touya's eyebrow twitched. "Too well cared for, if you ask me."
"Well no body's asking, so it doesn't matter, now does it?"
"What's wrong with the young miss?" Tomoyo's entourage walked over to her as she was being held up by both Mei-Lin and Eriol.
Tomoyo laughed. "It's nothing serious. I'm just not use to being on a plane for so long. My legs don't want to move."
"Can you stand?" Mei-Lin asked. She was getting death glares from her mother, who didn't think very highly of this group.
"I think so."
Suddenly, Sakura woke up and saw Syaoran's amber eyes looking down at her. "Hoeee...."
"Sakura-chan," he whispered slowly. "We have to stop meeting like this."
Sakura laughed. "Indeed." She looked around the airport, her eyes finally resting on her family. "Tou-san! Oni-chan! Yuki-san!" she bubbled.
"Sakura, you may want to leave Syaoran's arms before he drops you." Fujitaka said kindly. Touya still had a skeptical look on his face but Yukito seemed to be keeping him calm enough.
Her face turned red again. "Right." She almost tumbled out of his arms but he caught her and slowly placed her on the floor. She hugged everyone in turn, smiling happily.
"So, what have you been up to, Sakura-chan?" Yukito asked her, smiling.
She blushed harder. "Nothing too much out of the ordinary." She looked to Syaoran. "Right?"
"Right." He smiled back at her, not blushing nearly as hard.
"Eh?" Touya asked. "Like what?" S
akura sweatdropped. "Can't this be settled somewhere else, other than the airport? We seem to be blocking traffic."
Sanori walked over to the Kinomoto family and hugged her son. "It's good to see my only son again."
"It's good to see you too, mother."
"You seem so close with your friends; I would hate to part you. Why don't we invite everyone to dinner tonight so we can all catch up on what you five have been doing in college?"
"I'm fine with it." He turned to Sakura's family. "Are you?"
"Dinner?" Yukito perked up.
"You just had breakfast, Yuki." Touya deadpanned.
Fujitaka smiled at Syaoran's mother. "Dinner would be wonderful, Sanori."
"Splendid. We will be having dinner at the Athena." (Play on Wild Wisdom)
"The Athena?" Sakura asked. "That's a classy restaurant, isn't it?"
"Well, I only want to give the best for Syaoran and his friends. You especially, Sakura-chan."
"Me? Wh-" But before she could ask why her, Sanori had grouped herself back with the rest of the Li family.
"I should be going as well." Syaoran smiled. "I'll see you tonight?"
He looked around fleetingly for a moment to make sure no one was looking at him from his family, then bent over and kissed Sakura's cheek. Before she could reply, he had scampered away.
This caused at least half of Touya's face to twitch. "What was that all about?"
Fujitaka looked around and shrugged. "I seem to have gone temporarily blind for a moment. What just happened?"
"I don't know." Yukito grinned. "I didn't see anything out of the ordinary."
Touya glared at Sakura, who was grinning like an idiot. "You just better be following the Commandments." He said as they walked out of the airport.
End Story Mode
Start POV Sequence
Sakura: They way he presses his lips on mine and whispers that I'm an angel hurt my heart so much. I just wish that I had all the answers.
Syaoran: I wasn't expecting her to wake up but I didn't feel the least bit sneaky kissing her in her sleep. I felt as if that was what I was supposed to do. When ever I see her, I think of her being an invitation for me to sweep her into my arms.
Kero: Watch the baby and the mother. They smell like...
End POV Sequence
A/N: It's 8 Friggen pages long!
Chapter 16 Teaser: Everyone goes to dinner with the Li family and all chaos ensues.