Notes: Oh my goodness! Chapter 3 already? Maybe I should just combine my chapters into longer ones...but that would be bad for my self esteem. :)
Only three reviews so far! Oh so sad! Please, if you could find it in your heart to tell me what you think, I would really really REALLY appreciate it.
Reveiwers:
ss-cherryblossom: I'm working on it! :) Thanks so much!
I will be going out of town for a week starting on the 21st so it will be a little while before I update again probably. I'll do my best but I won't have internet access where I'm going.
Once again, I have no beta reader, so please, if you find any mistakes, tell me! Arigatou!
Chapter 3: Some Kind of Family
What the heck am I doing here? Li Syaoran wondered dazedly as he stood in front of Sakura's house. Why did I agree to this? But he knew. He'd been so blinded by Sakura's charm, that he'd just nodded stupidly in assent to whatever she had said. Unfortunately, now that he had arrived at their destination, he wasn't so sure.
"Oi! Li-kun! Are you coming?" Sakura called to him. She was standing in her doorway, a smile on her face.
Sakura's house. I'm standing outside her house. I want...I want... "Hai," he answered and began walking towards the entrance. As he stepped across the threshold Sakura led them towards the living room.
As they entered the living room, Li noticed a handsome silver-haired man sitting in a chair, reading. Yukito-san? Why is he here?
"Yuki-san!" Sakura called cheerfully. He raised his head, his eyes twinkling.
"Sakura-chan! How was your day?" he asked putting his book on the table next to him.
"Great! I brought Tomoyo-chan and Li-kun for dinner," she replied.
"Li Syaoran?" Yukito said glancing at the youth behind her in surprise. "Li-kun! How are you? You've grown so much!"
Sakura smiled as Li politely answered his questions. She should have known that Yukito would be fine with Li.
"Ano...," she interrupted quietly, "I'll go tell my brother that you're here."
As she exited the room, she caught Yukito's eye and he winked at her and flashed the V-sign. She knew that he was wishing her good luck...and she knew that she'd need it.
Sakura sighed and stepped into the kitchen.
"NANI?!" Touya yelped.
"Shhh!" Sakura admonished him glancing over her shoulder to make sure that Li, Tomoyo, and Yukito hadn't heard.
"There's no way I'm cooking dinner for that gaki. What the heck is he doing here anyway?"
"I invited him," Sakura answered evenly. "Onii-chan, onegai? Please do this for me? I know that you don't like him but...just, can you do this for me? Onegai!" she begged.
Touya sighed. "Look, I know you two went through a lot with each other," Touya ground out, "but I don't like how that gaki treats you." He turned around to stir the pot of soup on the stove. He's not good enough for you, Touya thought. Not by a long shot.
"I know," Sakura replied understandingly. "But he helped me a lot when I was little. I know he's hard to get along with, believe me I do. But I owe him. The least I can do is to attempt to be his friend. After all, he's here by himself. He doesn't really know anyone except for us and Tomoyo-chan. He hasn't really had a chance to make friends with any of the other students since he's only been here for a couple weeks and it's not exactly easy for him. Onegai Onii-chan!" She clasped her hands underneath her chin and made her best puppy-dog face.
Turning back around, he looked at Sakura's pleading expression and Touya's resolve crumpled.
"Oh alright. But that gaki better not piss me off. Now get out of here." Flicking his spoon dismissively at her, Touya shooed her out of the kitchen.
"Arigatou Onii-chan," Sakura said beaming up at him and before Touya could respond, she reached up on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. Patting his face with her hand, she ran out of the kitchen.
With a silly smile on his face, Touya went back to stirring the soup.
At first, the sight at the dinner table was somewhat grim. Touya and Li had spent the first ten minutes staring each other down before Touya had stretched, smirked, and begun to eat. With a puzzled look on his face, Li too, had started to eat.
Yukito, Sakura, and Tomoyo kept up a steady stream of chatter...well, Sakura and Tomoyo did anyway, with Yuki contributing when he wasn't eating.
Li mostly listened and answered the occasional question. Why is Yukito-san here? He wondered. Yuki was so easy and confident around Sakura. It was intimidating. Where does he fit in? What is he to her, to her family? He looked at the ever-eating figure across from him and decided to keep an eye on him.
"Yukito-san, what are you studying at the university?" Tomoyo asked him.
"Ano...well, currently I'm majoring in theological and mythological studies demo...after moving into the Kinomoto's house and reading some of their father's books, I'm thinking that I'm going to take a more historical angle," he replied thoughtfully.
"You live here?"
Everyone looked up, startled at Li's first question of the evening. Only Yukito seemed unsurprised.
"Hai!" he said smiling. "After my grandparents passed away last year, Touya, Sakura-chan and their father were kind enough to invite me to stay here."
Li was envious. No, he was jealous. Yukito, his main rival for Sakura's affections when he was younger, was living under the same roof as hi— as Sakura. It just wasn't fair.
"Demo, Li-kun," Yukito started, his brow wrinkled in puzzlement, "Where are you staying?"
Li shrugged. "In an apartment building about a mile from here." He'd picked it because it was closest to her house, but he didn't feel the need to disclose than information to anyone.
"By yourself?" Yuki asked.
"Hai."
"Demo...is that okay?" Yukito asked quietly.
He shrugged again. "It's fine."
Yukito responded with a thoughtful "Hmm." And Li saw the corners of his mouth turn up ever so slightly. Whatever, he thought as he returned his focus to finishing his dinner.
"'Ah! Li-kun!" Sakura interrupted his thoughts and he turned his gaze toward her. "I almost forgot to thank you for the ice cream! Dakara...arigatou!"
"Oh my!" Tomoyo said raising her hand to her cheek, obviously flustered. "I forgot too! Arigatou gozaimasu Li-kun!"
"Nani? A gaki like you bought my sister ice cream?" Touya asked darkly. He began to lean over the table towards Li. However, he was halted by a swift under-the-table kick to his shins from Sakura and a hand on his shoulder. "Yuki..." Touya stared at the silver-haired man.
"It's fine Touya," Yukito said softly and squeezed his shoulder. "I know if I had two such kawaii girls with me, I'd have bought them ice cream too!" he continued with a chuckle and watched as Li flushed just a little bit.
Sakura smiled. Arigatou Yuki-san. Yukito always knew how to salvage a situation.
Touya grumbled bit more before rising from the table. "Oi kaijuu. Since I cooked dinner and Yuki cooked lunch, you get to do dishes," he said jerking his thumb towards the kitchen.
"Hai!" Sakura said jumping up and starting to carry dishes to the kitchen. Tomoyo and Li rose and headed to the kitchen as well.
"Oh no," Sakura protested. "I can do it by myself, really! You're guests and..."
"Don't be silly Sakura-chan," Tomoyo interrupted. "You invited us, so we'll return the favor by helping you clean up, ne Li-kun?"
"Sure I guess."
Sakura rolled her eyes at him. "Well, then. Since you're both," she stressed the word both with some amusement, "so eager to help, I would be very grateful if you would help me wash the dishes."
They quickly cleared off the table and brought the dishes into the kitchen.
"Okay," Sakura said surveying the mound of dirty dishes. "I'll wash. Li-kun, you rinse, and Tomoyo-chan, you dry. Here are your instruments," she said handing Tomoyo a dish towel and showing her the dish rack. She put on her pink apron and handed her father's apron to Li who shook his head.
"'S'ok," he said rolling up his sleeves.
"I don't want you to get your school uniform dirty," Sakura protested still holding out the apron.
"I have to do laundry tomorrow anyway," he replied and turned toward the sink. He reached out and turned on the water, beginning to fill up her side of the sink. Sakura replaced her father's apron and grabbed the soap.
Sakura was elbow deep in suds, washing furiously when suddenly Tomoyo's phone went off. "Gomen," she said apologetically. "It must be my mother. Could you wait a second?"
"Hai! We'll just stack the dishes on the counter and you can dry them when you're done." Sakura said smiling.
"Arigatou Sakura-chan!" Tomoyo said as she ran out of the kitchen to get her phone.
"Tomoyo-chan's so wonderful," Sakura sighed wistfully. "She's the nicest, prettiest, and kindest girl at our school." She flicked her hair back behind her shoulders as it was falling into the soapy water. "I'm lucky to have her as a friend."
Watching Sakura stand over the sink doing dishes in her frilly apron, her eyes shining as she talked about her best friend, he asked, "You think so?"
She turned her face toward him while her hands kept washing. "You don't?" she replied. Her eyes held a warning.
Li felt himself beginning to blush so he tilted his head downward as if he were concentrating very hard on rinsing the dishes, but really it was so his hair would hide his face from her view. "It's just that...some of the guys at school...they think that you're the...nicest...prettiest...you know," he mumbled trailing off as he rinsed the dishes. He didn't want to see her reaction.
"Hontou? Hontou ni?" she asked and he glanced up. She was amused. "They must be stupid then," she stated matter-of-factly. "I mean, I'm clumsy, unfocused, and immature. I'm not nearly as pretty as Tomoyo-chan and I'm a kaijuu. You'll set them straight, ne Li-kun?" she asked winking at him.
His mind raced trying to come up with an acceptable answer Kuso. This is like the stupid 'Am I fat' question! Either way I answer, I'm screwed! he thought. He stalled for time. "Eh...ano—
"Gomen ne Sakura-chan," Tomoyo said as she entered the room and Li breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God for Daidouji-san!
"What's up?" Sakura asked her curiously.
"My mother asked that I come home right away...demo the dishes," she said worriedly.
Sakura waved a soapy hand at her causing some suds to fly through the air. "Daijoubu! The dishes are almost finished anyway. We're fine, ne Li-kun?"
"Hai."
"See?" Sakura said smiling at her best friend.
"Hontou ni arigatou Sakura-chan! Please thank your brother for the wonderful dinner! I will see you at school!" Tomoyo offered a little wave and walked out the door. A few seconds later, Sakura and Li heard the front door open and shut as well.
"Well, I guess it's just the two of us now!" Sakura said turning towards Li. "Let's hurry up and get these finished!"
Tomoyo congratulated herself while she waited outside Sakura's house for her limousine to arrive. That was clever pretending that it was my mom telling me to go home instead of Yamazaki-san asking for the math assignment. This way they can be alone and hopefully... Tomoyo looked up at the darkening sky with a self-satisfied smile. Good luck Sakura-chan!
End Chapter 3
Notes: Yes, I know that this is slow. I'm thinking of ways to speed it up a little. I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it.
