A/n: Heys its Julie again!! Whoopie I hear you say! Hehehe. Well thanks for the reviews from some very nice nice ppl!!! I've personally thanked you guys near the end of the chap! Thanks again for the reviews!!! I love you guys!!
Read and Review ppl!!! TT Enjoy this chap!!
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Chapter 3 : At the Li Mansion
"Hi! Can I please borrow this book? Thanks"
While the librarian scanned the book for Touya onto her computer, he looked around the vast library. Shelves after high shelves stacked with all kinds of literature surrounding the library's walls. Here and there students were scattered among the tables provided either studying or catching up on homework.
"Here you go young man!" The old librarian looked up at his tall form and handed the 'Physics Advanced' text book to Touya. (A/n: good luck for Physics test g!)
He graciously thanked her again and showed himself out of the library where he was bathed in the warm sunlight.
It was once again another beautiful day where the skies were blue and hardly any clouds were seen. Though it was a nice day, hardly anyone noticed as their end of year exams were due very soon. It was important to them as these exams are essential to their future careers.
It was now in the early weeks of June where it would be just a few more weeks till summer vacation. Some students did appreciate the warm sunshine as several had taken their studies outdoors and onto the wooden benches.
Touya made his way towards his locker which was still quite a distance.
He hasn't figured out who Akizuki Nakuru was to him yet. It had been a couple weeks now that he had been trying to answer that question. Touya just decided to give up, even though it did pop up sometimes in his mind when he really wasn't concentrating on his thoughts. Touya found it awkward that he would just sit there and think about her facial features when he should really be trying to find the answer.
'Actually you shouldn't really be thinking about Nakuru at all! You have your exams to think about!' His mind mentally kicked itself. Touya found that his conscience was right as he does have his upcoming exams to stress for.
Touya's dark chocolate-coloured hair gently moved as he continued to walk under the veranda of the Tomoeda High School building. His eyes were looking straight ahead and didn't take much notice on the passing giggling girls that greeted him.
He didn't realise yet that his mind has been focusing on Nakuru for the last couple of weeks instead of Kaho. He didn't even have a clue that each time he would think about Nakuru that his lips would curve a little and that his eyes would become a soft brown. Her long brown hair swished into his mind along with her smiling face.
As Touya finally arrived to his locker which was up on the second floor of the grey building, he began sorting out his books before the end of lunch bell rang. His mind was on Nakuru again without him even realising it.
"Hey! Touya! Help!"
The voice was behind Touya and it sounded like the person was struggling with something. He turned around to meet Nakuru who was trying hard not to let the large amount of books resting on her arms to collapse.
The thoughts of Nakuru immediately dispersed in Touya's mind as if they were never there in the first place as he helped himself with some books off of her pile. He chuckled at her figure as it still was struggling under the weight of the heavy books. Touya took some more.
"Why do you have so many books?"
Nakuru looked up at his brown eyes before answering. "Well Mr. Ureda asked me to bring all these English books down for him to the library as he was busy. I couldn't be stuffed to do two trips considering the library is a fair distance from here. I decided to risk it and take it all at once!"
Touya looked behind Nakuru and sweat dropped. He allowed the English books to balance on one of his arms so he could have a free hand to point at the classroom door behind Nakuru.
"Well you didn't get very far did you, Mr Ureda's classroom is just there" He cheekily grinned at her blushed face.
"Shut up! They were heavy!" Nakuru tried to hide her reddening face but it was hard as both of her arms were used to carry the books. She pokes her tongue out at the now laughing figure of Touya Kinomoto.
It took Touya a while for his laughter to subside. By the time it did, Nakuru was already walking away towards the library. After closing his locker door, Touya caught up with her and they were on their way back to the library. He had a smile clearly plastered on his face.
:::::::::::Tomoeda Primary School::::::::::::
It was now after school and Sakura had cheerleading practice. She went along with Naoko, Rika and Chiharu to the court grounds where their practice was held.
As they first did warm ups with twirling the baton, Sakura caught a glimpse of Tomoyo and Eriol walking out of the school gates together. She smiled.
Recently the two of them have been spending a lot of their time together but it didn't bother Meilin or Sakura. They love to see Tomoyo all happy especially with that beautiful smile on her face.
Everyday after school, the two of them would always walk home together being next door neighbours as they were. It wasn't usual for Tomoyo to walk home as her mum usually organises a limousine to drive her safely home. Her mum is the president of a large toy company so it was often to have Tomoyo surrounded by men dressed in black suits.
'I guess her mum wants to see Tomoyo happy as well' Sakura's mind answered for the absence of the tall bodyguards and black limousine. With her mind concentrating on other matters, her baton slipped out of her fingers. She quickly retrieved it before her fellow classmates noticed.
Syaoran and Meilin walked together passed the cheerleading squad. Sakura saw the two and smiled at them. Meilin waved while still talking heartily about her dinner last night to Syaoran. He was hardly listening.
It was a week after the day Syaoran and Eriol had started at Tomoeda Primary School that he and Meilin both discovered they were long distance cousins (A/n: typical eh?). Ever since then, Meilin had included Syaoran within the group to hang out during breaks. Even though she did, Syaoran still carried the negative vibe from his very first day and hardly talks as always.
He looked over at Sakura and saw her spinning the long narrow object. If he was amazed, Syaoran wouldn't have shown it. He kept his chestnut eyes on Sakura as he continued to walk past with his on-going rambling cousin.
"...what else did I have for dinner? Hmmmm...well moving on! For dessert I had a choc nut sundae and..." As Meilin continued to talk, she didn't fail to notice that Syaoran wasn't quite with her. Her eyes followed his eyes and she saw Sakura now doing practice cartwheels. She had a very cheeky grin playing on her lips, just like the Grinch who stole Christmas. Her voice didn't falter a single bit as Meilin's mind was thinking these new thoughts.
"Hey Sakura! Should we go over our routine again for the end of year presentation?"
Sakura nodded to Naoko's question and being leader of the squad, Sakura began ordering the girls into their places.
:::::::::Later in the afternoon::::::::::
It was 5pm now and Sakura had just bid her friends a farewell as they finished practice. She was exhausted after jumping and twirling, jumping and twirling that Sakura just wanted to get home as quickly as she can. She knew the moment her body makes contact with her bed, she would fall in a deep sleep, giving no regards to her dinner or homework.
The sun was barely seen beyond the horizon as it slowly made its way down so the moon can come out. The blue sky earlier on has now become shades of red and purple mixed together.
Whatever the sky held, Sakura barely cared except for her tired body.
'Must get home! Must get home!'
The more her mind went over this statement, the more Sakura quickened her pace towards the Kinomoto residence. Her mind was too focused on getting home that she didn't notice the shadow from around the corner becoming larger.
CRASH
The next thing Sakura knew was that her face was just inches away from crashing into the cement pavement. She also felt something hairy beneath her legs and it was making an awful lot of whining sounds.
"Shigure! Are you okay boy?!"
Sakura looked up at the figure, whose voice it belonged to.
It was Syaoran and instead of his usual serious face, it held no doubt fear. His voice was panicked.
"Sakura! Would you mind getting off of my dog PLEASE?!" Syaoran snapped. His dog was in pain and it was obvious that this was a serious matter for him. (A/n: I guess it would be a serious matter for all dog owners...my bad! Sorries! )
Sakura quickly stood up, trying hard not to crush the brown shaggy dog. She was also taken back by Syaoran's sharp voice.
Syaoran quickly rush to aid Shigure. He checked all over for any signs of damage or harm to his pet. After a thorough check, Syaoran calmed his dog down by gently rubbing Shigure's belly and humming a little bit.
Sakura stood there watching the whole time. She was surprised and amazed at the Li Syaoran she is seeing before her now.
He was like a totally different person from who he was at school. At school he was quiet yet intimidating and right now he wasn't anything like that. His chestnut eyes held a sense of caring while he continued to rub his dog's stomach. It was clear he and his dog have a very close bond they share between them.
Sakura smiled at the scene. Her body was numb from the warm feeling that she didn't feel the scratches that marked her palms and knees.
Syaoran was glad that Shigure held no harm and wanted to apologise to Sakura for using such a harsh tone on her. Still his mind couldn't help but blame her for not looking where she was going.
He looked up to see a pair of emerald eyes staring straight at him. They held such beauty that Syaoran was lost in them for a few seconds. He quickly looked down hoping Sakura hadn't noticed his staring.
"Ummmm...well Shigure seems fine so I'm sorry...Oh my god! Look at your knees!" Syaoran pointed at Sakura's legs with the same face of fear she had seen earlier.
"...What?" Sakura looked down towards her knees and saw that it was scratched and some of it was bleeding quite badly. Suddenly she felt pain in her palms as well. They were scratched too from the accident before.
Sakura began to feel weak; she doesn't like the sight of blood, especially if it was oozing out of her own body. Her form started to sway and her eyes were slowly going out of focus. Sakura was blacking out.
Syaoran immediately took note of this and quick as a flash caught her small form in his arms before she collapsed to the ground.
'Whoa! For a small girl, she's pretty heavy!' Syaoran's mind once again began to panic. 'What do I do? What do I do?'
He looked at unconscious figure of Sakura and felt himself calming. He was reminded of a sleeping angel. Her breathing was felt on Syaoran's neck and he felt tingles going down his spine. Her auburn short hair was soft against his skin as he stood there holding her. He noticed that her wounds weren't giving in from bleeding. He had to do something.
Abruptly his knees gave in from under the weight of Sakura and he slumped onto the ground.
'Great! Now what do I do?' Syaoran looked over at Shigure hoping he would magically give Syaoran the answer, as if that would ever happen. Shigure just cocked his head to the side and gave a little bark.
"You're great help Shigure!" Syaoran sarcastically said. He looked at Sakura again. 'Man this bites!'
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"Who's this Syaoran? You're girlfriend?"
"Ohhhh Syaoran she's so cute!"
"Our little brother is growing up too fast!"
"So what's her name?"
Awoken by the chattering of female voices, Sakura slowly opened her eyes and allowed them to adjust to the light. She realised that she'd been lying down and quickly sat up and what she comprehend was a leather couch. She looked around and saw many pairs of eyes on her small figure. 'Where was she?'
As this was the cue, one of the tall girls answered her question.
"Welcome to the Li Manson!" It was a tall girl with short brown hair. Her taupe coloured eyes were twinkling and her smile broadened as she looked at the figure behind Sakura.
Sakura smiled and looked behind her to see who this nice girl was making eye contact with.
It was Syaoran who was a beetroot colour which didn't suit him at all. He had his eyes stuck onto the ground.
"So what is your name?" It was a girl with shoulder length hair this time. She also had a grin plastered onto her face. She had azure eyes that reminded Sakura of the blue skies.
"My name is Sakura Kinomoto! It's very nice to meet you!" Sakura looked around at her other company within the living room. There were two other girls who also had their eyes fixed on Sakura. All four girls had the same brown coloured hair as Syaoran and were all very attractive. She looked behind her again to catch a glimpse of Syaoran's face but it was still looking at the ground.
"So are you one of Syaoran's friends? I'm Fuutie!" The girl with short hair smiled.
"My name is Sheifa!"
"I'm Fanren!"
"And my name is Fei-Mei! We are all of Syaoran's older sisters and we are pleased to meet you!" Fei-Mei finished off their introduction. She had long brown hair that she had let down and very beautiful crystal olive eyes.
Sakura nodded and smiled at the sisters. She had never learnt that Syaoran had any siblings since he hardly ever talks.
Sakura took a look around her surroundings and noticed that the furniture was very traditional. The couch she was settled on was green leather that had timber bordering the edges. (A/n: suck at describing! ) Sakura also took note of the outfits that the Li sisters were wearing. They were all traditional Chinese outfits but each with a different design. Beautiful dangling earrings hanged from each pair of ears of the Li sisters.
Suddenly something struck Sakura in the back of her mind causing her eyes to become small.
"...Ahhhhhhh!!!!! I should be home by now!! What time is it? Why am I here anyway? How did I get here?!! Man!!!! Fujitaka is gonna ground me!!..."
All of the Li siblings sweat dropped as their guest continued to ramble on. Syaoran finally spoke up for the first time since Sakura became conscious again.
"Well, you kinda...ah...fainted on me when you tripped over Shigure..." Syaoran could feel all of his sisters' eyes were on him. He hated when they did that, especially if they were wearing big grins too.
"...I tripped?" Sakura looked at her palms and knees and saw that both were bandaged. She gave a small forced laugh to hide her clumsiness. "heh heh! I'm sorry. Is Shigure okay?"
Syaoran nodded whilst still giving no eye contact to anybody but the floor boards below.
"Ah...that's good to hear! I'm so sorry for blacking out on you Syaoran! I usually get weak at the sight of blood..." Sakura had tints of red appearing on her face. She didn't like to mention that she was feeble at the presence of the red stuff. She felt embarrassed.
"Ohhhh! You're so cute Sakura!" Fuutie exclaimed and soon all four sisters were all over Sakura, pinching her cheeks and stroking her short auburn hair.
Sakura obviously wasn't used to so much attention as she just sat there with a goofy smile on her face as the sisters continued to coo her. Syaoran groaned.
:::::::::Later on:::::::::
"Yes Fujitaka! I'm safe so don't you worry...'Please don't ground me!'...I'm sorry again for not coming home yet. Okay, I'll see you soon!" Sakura put the phone down back after having to calm her father down. He was very worried of her absence at home.
She walked back into the living room where the Li sisters' babbling was heard. Sakura was beginning to like the sisters. They were very nice to her, even though every so now and again they can't restrain themselves from fussing over her.
All of them before had asked many questions about her relationship with Syaoran. These cause their little brother to nearly lose balance from standing. Sakura just smiled and disappointed the sisters with her answer, "We're just friends."
"So do you have any siblings Sakura?"
"I have one older brother. His name is Touya and he's in high school."
"Oh! I would like to meet him! I bet he's just as cute as you are!" Fanren said with a dreamy look on her face.
The sisters laughed as shades of red formed on to Sakura's face. Syaoran remained quiet.
As if someone pressed a button, the laughter died almost immediately. All of the Li sisters' eyes were on the figure that stood in the doorway. Syaoran had suddenly straightened out his form as the figure walked past him through the large doorway.
It was a lady with long dark hair that was fixed up into a high ponytail with fine-looking hair pins. Her skin was of a creamy colour and her hazel eyes looked directly towards Sakura. She wore a traditional kimono that carried many layers of soft silk fabric. The lady looked very young as she slowly approached Sakura, who was in awe of such a beautiful lady. She was reminded of an olden day Japanese princess.
"Hello Miss Sakura Kinomoto! I'm Yelan Li, Syaoran's mother."
This surprised Sakura. Yelan looked too young to be a mother of five children and yet she just said it. Sakura quickly composed herself and bowed to the mistress.
Yelan smiled at Sakura before looking at Syaoran who was still just standing there keeping to himself. She sat herself down onto one of the vacant chairs before speaking again.
"Xiao Lang! Why are you being so quiet over there? Come over here and join us!"
Sakura was in for another surprised as the person Yelan was referring to was her son, Syaoran. He settled himself down onto one of the sofa chairs, looking at no one even though everyone was looking at him.
"So Sakura, what brings you here?" Yelan gently asked the young girl.
"Ummmm...well I fainted but I'm not so sure how I got here..."
"I carried you here." Syaoran spoke up. He remembered having to piggy back her to his house. He didn't know how he got Sakura to lean onto his back, especially with her weight on his arms. Shigure just tagged behind the two, allowing his tongue to just hang out of his mouth. Syaoran was ignoring the memories of the feelings he felt with Sakura's breathing on his skin.
Sakura blushed and mumbled a thankyou.
"You fainted? Are you okay now Sakura? Sheifa! Please order William to bring some Chinese tea for our guest!" Yelan ordered her oldest daughter. Sheifa's hair was flying behind her as she walked out of the living room.
"Oh there's no need to Mrs Li! I'm completely A-Ok! So please don't bother!" Sakura spoke with her hands waving all over in the air.
"Of course there is need! It'll be good for you!" Yelan exclaimed and that was the end of that subject. Sakura didn't want to worn out her welcome yet she didn't want to trouble the Li family after them being so nice to her.
"Don't worry Sakura! This is good stuff!" Fanren reassured Sakura. She just smiled meekly.
The Chinese tea soon arrived after a couple minutes of uncomfortable silence. The tray of the tea with cups and saucers were placed down by an old man. He wore round glasses and had a large moustache beneath his nose. He smiled at Sakura before heading off out of the room.
"I hear that you are good friends with Miss Meilin Rae, is this true?"
Sakura was being hypnotised with watching Yelan pouring her some tea that she had to shake her head before she answered.
"Oh yes! We've been friends since we were very young!"
"Mother, do you mean the girl with the long black hair, our cousin?" Fuutie asked as her mother nodded. "Seriously that girl talks too much!"
Sakura giggled at this which just gave another chance for the Li sisters to clobber her with pinches on the cheeks as to why Sakura was so cute.
Yelan shook her head for her daughters' behaviour while Syaoran just groaned again.
Someone knocked at the door of the living room and everyone turned to look. It was William again and he bowed towards Yelan before addressing her.
"Ms Li, there is a boy in his teenage years that is at the door. What should I do?"
Sakura's ears perked up and she started waving her hand around in the air.
"Oh that would be my brother who is picking me up! I should probably go now..." Sakura stood up and started to make her way towards the door where the figure of William still stood. Yelan held her back.
"But dear, you haven't drunk any of your tea yet! William! Invite the young man in for tea!" Yelan gave a shake of her hand and William was gone.
Sakura made her way back to her seat. She didn't want to debate over her stay at the Li mansion. Fei-Mei handed Sakura a cup of a delicious smelling tea.
Touya was seen in the doorway moments after William had gone to fetch him. He looked pretty calm and collected which seemed strange to Sakura as she imagined him to be all pissed off for having to pick her up. Something good must have happened to him.
The presence of Sakura's brother set off an enormous reaction among the Li sisters. They were all over Touya within seconds, which didn't surprise their family. Touya was a fine-looking young man with very nice brown eyes.
The victim just gave a weak smile as the four girls continued to stroke his short hair and pinch his cheeks. 'Who are these girls?'
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A/n: Julie here! So did you guys enjoy it?? Were there any problems? I'm really sorry if there are any grammar mistakes or spelling ones too. I was never good at tense! TT Well please REVIEW and tell me wah you guys think ks??? I don't care if you wanna criticise or wahever, just give me your opinion on me story! I'll definitely personally thank you like I promised!!!
ThankUs for RevieWers!!
Jedibubbles( ): Thanks so much for your review! I was really happy that you like my story!! oh yeah! FRUITS BASKET ROCKS!!! And I totally agree with you! Kyo is hot stuff! Hehehe. Please continue reading! Thanks again! ï