Sorry about confusing Eriol…but he's supposed to be. He in some ways can't stand Tomoyo, but that's only because he feels draw to her for reasons he has not yet revealed. And the reason he changes from POV is because Tomoyo doesn't understand his real "purpose". She too is confused by him and sees him in a different light then she sees herself, or as Eriol sees himself. I hope that clarifies some things.
Chapter 7: Lonely Kisses—Eriol
For days after the "incident", as I liked to call it, Tomoyo avoided me. She found all kinds of reasons to not sit with us at lunch, to not speak with me both in class and out, and she most definitely avoided working at my house. The incident occurred on Monday, she didn't speak to me until Friday.
When she did speak, I found it quite humorous because she stuttered, or she stuttered as much as Tomoyo ever would. She confronted me in the halls before school. "Umm, Eriol, about that kiss, it didn't mean anything, did it?" I leaned against the locker and stared at her. "I mean, why did you kiss me?"
"You told me I kissed by the book, my manhood was insulted and I had to defend it. Was it not—" I sent a dangerous look her way and Tomoyo backed up. "—not stimulating enough for you?"
And then she gained her composer, took a few steps forward, and whispered in a husky voice. "Stimulating is not quite the word." Her eyes darted towards the clock. "But I don't have time to share with you a more accurate term." As she walked away her hand dared to caress my face.
A groan flowed up from the depths of my soul. She hadn't really spent the last week recovering from me, but rather formulating her own attack. War had been openly declared, weapons chosen, and the first fight begun. Only one problem, I still had no idea what I was up against!
"Oh, hello Eriol!" Tomoyo smiled brightly at lunch and set all my nerves on high alert. "Tonight I'm hosting a lock-in for the Fencing Club. I do hope you'll come!"
By this point both Sakura and Syaoran had caught on to the sickly sweet tone of her voice. They looked at me strangely, as if they knew Tomoyo had something up her sleeve (which she did, obviously) and wondered how I would react. But of course I had only one choice, unlike some other poor fool. "I wouldn't miss it for the world Tomoyo-san."
"Oh good!" She clapped her hands together. "Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun, you can come too, if you want! It's going to be wonderful! I have all these wonderful movies and everyone from Club is coming!"
I stared down at my delicious and nutritious school lunch. It looked like pig slop, which pretty much describe the current state of my stomach. Another party at Tomoyo's house really did not appeal to me, especially one with a bunch of other people.
"I can't go Tomoyo!" Sakura whined. "Touya is having dinner with dad and me tonight and you know how he gets it I skip something like that."
"Me neither, Tomoyo-san." Syaoran said sadly. "I have to call Mother tonight, and then my sisters will probably want to talk."
Tomoyo laughed. "Okay, you guys are off the hook this time for family related issues. It's just you and me and the club Eriol!"
Oh shit.
The lock-in started at seven, but Nakaru kicked me out at six, saying I needed to socialize more. So I spent an hour walking around the park near her house before watching the first poor victim as she showed up. Only then did I dare to enter.
"Oh good!" You're here Eriol, I'd like you to meet Ai. She came to my last party and is interested in joining club so I invited her. Ai, this is Eriol."
Double shit.
Ai held out her hand. "Very nice to meet you Eriol-san." She sounded just like Kaho. Oh this was not going to be a good night, but at least there was no alcohol.
"Good to meet you too, Ai." I tried to be gently, but staring at a miniature Kaho caused an uproar of emotions to overpower my heart and mind.
"Ai, why don't you show Eriol around my house, perhaps you can stop by the editing room and see some of my newer videos?" She suggested pleasantly and completely unaware of my disgust for this task.
Under any other circumstances I would have given both Tomoyo and Ai a scathing response and stomped out angrily, but I had rules to follow. "I was hoping to see some of your work from the last few years." I ground my teeth together. "I sounds like an excellent idea to me, what do you think Ai?"
The poor girl just glanced between Tomoyo and me, instinctively aware of the tension between us. "Alright." She said slowly. "I can take you to the movie room; I do know where that is."
She hesitantly stepped away while I glared at Tomoyo, but she just continued to smile serenely. We walked up the wide, sweeping stair case, one that really shouldn't belong in a house, up to the second floor. I immediately recognized it as the hallway from her last party, the one with the room I slept in. "Whose room is this?" I walked towards a partially opened door.
"That room? Umm, we can't go in there; that's Tomoyo-san's room." She said nervously.
Now that was food for thought. I slept in Tomoyo's very own bedroom, a place probably no other male had even dared to dream about. Why would she do something so scandalous?
"You seem to know a lot about this house. Does Tomoyo invite you over often?" I asked, attempting to make conversation.
"Oh no, everybody who comes to Tomoyo's parties knows not to go in there. That's the only room forbidden to people. She got only two rules, don't get drunk and don't go in her room." She paused between two doors farther down the hall. "It's one of these two, but I can't remember which."
"Well, let's just open one and see." I rolled my eyes behind her back. "This was Tomoyo's plan, eh, to drive me insane?
"Oh, yea," Ai opened the door on our left and luckily it was the correct one. "Umm, this is the room."
A book case filled with video cassettes covered the left wall. A lovely, brand new, imported, Macintosh computer sat in the corner along with more editing equipment then I thought existed. Tomoyo had a large TV on the right wall and even more tapes on a shelve in front of us. "Well, she certainly gets a lot of use out of her camcorder." As if that wasn't the understatement of the year.
Ai didn't say anything, but she did go over and finger the cassettes. "Tomoyo-san works really hard. Some people are afraid of her; they think she has no heart but for her work. But if you look really hard, you can see that Tomoyo cares almost enough to rival Sakura. Tomoyo-san just cares about things in a different way."
"I agree." I moved to stand next to her. "Most people just don't understand her." As I glanced over the tapes, I noticed one very important fact; every one of them featured Sakura.
"Most people don't realize it on their first visit in here, but all the tapes are documentaries on Sakura-chan." Ai admired then as avidly as I did, rather as if she idolized Tomoyo. "I think she has a crush on Sakura."
"What makes you say that?"
"Well, its obvious isn't it? Tomoyo has never dated anyone and she's had plenty of good offers. What other girl would turn down the single hottest guy in school? But Tomoyo told his point blank that she had no interest in dating and that he ought to try asking Chidori. He was put out for a bit, but—" Ai shrugged. "Not many people have seen it, but I have. Tomoyo gets a certain happy glint in her eyes when she looks at Sakura."
Maybe all high school students weren't stupid; this girl certainly had some brains. "Hmmmm."
"You caused quite the scandal by taking her out for coffee. A lot of guys got jealous."
The next few hours passed by slowly, but with a fair bit of information learned. In those six hours I spent watching movies, the depth of Tomoyo's love became apparent. She managed to get only exceptional shots that showed Sakura only in the best of lights. Many of the edits required hours of work and exceptional skills.
Tomoyo then stepped into the room. "I came to check on you. Everyone else is watching a movie downstairs. How's Ai?" She smiled as if she didn't plan the whole horrible evening.
"She fell asleep about an hour ago. She and I have spent the evening talking about various things. I've learned a lot, especially about the time that I was gone."
"Good," She smiled, but unhappiness showed through.
"Tomoyo," I touched her shoulder. "Tell me." But she shrugged me off and shook her head.
It took only a small touch to get her to turn around. At first I merely wanted to confront her about Sakura, to make her feel what I felt. But when I saw the tears streaking mascara down her face and clouding her eyes, it changed.
"Sometimes Tomoyo it helps to talk about it." I told her gently.
She looked over at Ai and I knew that while she might share this information with me, no one else would receive the same privilege. "Follow me." I whispered.
Her hand in mine, together we walked down the hall to her room, the forbidden room. The moment I closed the door, she threw her arms around me and burst into loud sobs. Her face rubbed strangely against my chest and somehow it felt right to stand there, holding her, smelling her soft scent. Even though she cried and her whole body trembled, it felt good.
Eventually she pulled back and looked at me. "Sorry," She wiped the tears. "I guess I'm just a little lonely tonight."
I blinked in surprise. Somehow a lonely Tomoyo didn't fit at all with her other images. But then she always showed such a strong side; she always hid her weaknesses. "Who do you miss?"
Indecision clouded her eyes and I recognized the signs of 'to tell or not to tell'. I didn't resist as she pulled away to pace the floor. Tomoyo needed time, time and space to think through her actions just as I often did, And then she started talking.
"Lonely, I spent all evening lonely, missing her. But I could handle the pain because no one else downstairs could relate to the loss I felt. Until I saw you up here with Ai and I understood that you could appreciate that loss too, that I wasn't alone." The tears fell again. "Mother's gone for this whole month again. She's in America for a business trip and Sakura-Sa-Sakura—" Let the waters fall; and they did.
In seconds I crossed the room and pulled her against me. She clung to my shirt as if I was her only connection to reality, her head and chest heaving. There was nothing to do but hold her close and give her what small comfort I could.
The embrace remained comforting for a very short amount of time. Before long, Tomoyo twined her hands up around my neck, and unconsciously pushed her body closer to mine. This was different and my body liked it.
"Don't do this Tomoyo, you're lonely, you don't want me." I tried to keep my voice normal but failed.
Her hands caressed my back as her breast brushed against my chest; I groaned. But her eyes didn't see me, she had lost herself in a world of the unreal. And my body flat out refused to make her stop. With her eyes closed, moving up and down rhythmically, the temptation was too great.
I kissed her, not the chaste, innocent kind either, but a full, open mouthed one. My tongue delved in, tasting her sweetness. She moaned softly and opened her mouth a little more. If this sort of thing carried on much longer neither of us would have the ability to stop.
No matter that my mind knew this was wrong, my body still refused to back away.
And then someone knocked, jarring us out of our little tryst. "Umm, Tomoyo? I can't find Eriol. I know you wanted me to stay near him and all, but I lost him."
"Don't worry about it Ai. Why don't you go join the others downstairs and I'll be out in a minute."
She smiled softly and listened to the receding steps. "You can leave a few minutes after I do." And she left.
Why did she invite me to kiss her? Why did she admit to feeling lonely? Was I missing something?
Well, aren't things between them heating up just nicely? OKay, I need a little more feed back on Romeo and Juliet. Do you guys think it fits with the story line? And if so, Why? Do you guys think I used it in an original/unique way? If not, how can I make it more so? And of course, do you want more?
Thanks for the help!