You know, I would just like to point out that I really need to stop taking nice naps in the middle of the afternoon. It turns out to be very good for you, my adoring readers, but very bad for my sleeping patterns. The current perdiction is I will not be in bed until 2 am...I already finished the Fifth Harry Potter book, numbers 8 and 9 of Ceres, and this chapter...I'm about to start working on the next one... Like I said, good news for all of you...

Chapter 10

Iniquitous—Tomoyo

Eriol had turned my world upside down ever since he arrived a month ago. At first I just felt sorry for him, but as my own problems cam into the light it changed to kinship. I never expected to feel that way about him. In just a short amount of time my friendship with him had grown to mean so much more to me then even what I felt for Sakura.

Thoughts continued to buzz around my head as I walked the halls at school.

He told me to forget the motorcycle, but the exhilaration of the ride still pounded through my veins. The look of horror on the little girl's face still plagued me. How could something that felt so good reap so much damage? I risked a lot on that ride and it almost got out of hand. Almost. We didn't. We didn't hit her. It turned out all right in the end. That risk wasn't worth it, but that didn't make all risk bad.

"It's really bad!" A voice carried down the hall. "Please, I really need her to help me!" I caught a glimpse of Nakaru farther down the hall. "You don't understand. He's really sick!" She pleaded loudly enough for the whole hall to hear.

"I'm sorry Miss, but without a note from her mother, I can't excuse Tomoyo from class." The teacher glanced at all the students in the hall. "And could you please keep your voice down?"

"FINE!" Nakaru shrieked and stomped her foot. "If he dies it's on YOUR head!"

Dies? I started pushing people out of my way in an attempt to catch her. "Nakaru, Nakaru!" She tromped down the halls at a click no one could match. "Please tell me what's going on!" I yelled after her.

She whipped around and I almost crashed right into her. "Master Eriol is sick, very sick and he keeps asking for you." She stuck her hands on her hips. "But your stupid teacher won't release you from class, so you'd better stay here."

"Are you kidding?" I demanded. "I have to help him! Let's go!" I grabbed her arm and plowed forward. One guy did a nose dive to get out of our way.

"Thanks Tomoyo." Nakaru said as we reached the doors outside.

"What kind of friend would I be if I left him hanging?" I smiled, "Now, let's get to the house."

We hurried down the road to the house. "He's upstairs in his room." Nakaru gestured.

The stairs creaked as we walked up.

"Nakaru! Nakaru!" Eriol called, stomping around! "Get up here this instance!" He yelled.

"Master Eriol!" She cried, rushing in the room. "You shouldn't be out of bed! How are you feeling?"

He looked healthy to me.

"I told you, I'm fine. I just have a little cold." He insisted as she tucked him into the very large bed.

Nakaru ignored him. "I brought Tomoyo just as you requested and Suppi is downstairs, hopefully making some soup for you. I'm going to go check on him." She smiled, leaving us alone.

"What are you doing here?" Eriol said softly the moment the door shut.

I sat on the bed and looked him carefully over. "Nakaru said you were sick and needed me, so I came." Somehow the answer didn't sound adequate. "I was just a little worried. She made sound like you were dying."

"You don't have to defend yourself to me." Eriol laughed. "I'm glad you came; this house can be kind of lonely.

He smiled and my stomach tightened. The distance between us shrank, but everything else appeared farther away. His challenge from the other day rang through my mind and now seemed as good a time as any other to fulfill it.

"Eriol!" Nakaru screeched in the room. "Suppi refuses to help me make some soup!" She wailed.

"That's because YOU want to slip a love potion in it." Suppi hovered just outside the door. "I refuse to play a part in that!"

Eriol hung his head for a moment and then looked up, a twinkle in his eye. "Nakaru, I believe I expressly told you NOT to look through my spell books again. For that I ground you from the kitchen." He said sternly. "And Suppi, I believe that puts you in charge of cooking for the next two years."

"Whaaat?" They both cried. "But Master, you—you can't!"

"I told you this would happen last time." He tried not to laugh. "Now, please, go somewhere."

Both of them marched sullenly from the room and Eriol broke out in peals of laughter. "Suppi's an excellent coo, but hates it and Nakaru has trouble boiling water but I can hardly get her out of the kitchen!" He said between fits.

Soon both of us were rolling around laughing, unable to contain ourselves. Well, that is until my head landed in his lap, then the laughter ended. How many times would my mouth go dry?

"S-Sorry!" I jumped up from the bed, absolutely positive my face couldn't get any more red. "Sorry!"

Eriol coughed and stood. "Perhaps we ought to go downstairs for a time." He suggested.

And I, after sensing the danger of staying in his bedroom, of course agreed. "The living room sounds cozy."

"Alright, the living room it is." The two of us walked down there in silence. Eriol opened the door and showed me in. "This is it."

Immediately I made a bee line for the piano and Eriol frowned. "It's a beautiful instrument! But I bet you haven't played in a while."

"No," He said icily. "Not since Kaho." But he fingered the keys with such love that I found it hard to imagine him never playing again.

He continued to stare at the piano and I took the opportunity to look around the room. An unfinished chess game lay on the coffee table next to several empty beer bottles. It wasn't a very well light room, but everything gave off a warm sort of glow. A shiver shimmed up my spine. Something about the dust and lack of cleaning told me only Eriol entered this room.

"Tomoyo," He stood right behind me. "I saw you last night." His voice came closer and closer, crawling across my skin. "At the club. I thought you didn't do anything scandalous?" His fingers brushed against my skin.

"Eriol," I took a calming breath. "Eriol, please don't touch me." I avoided his original conversation. "Who were you playing chess with?"

"Why do you work at a club Tomoyo?"

"It's a way for me to not be me for an hour, a chance to step into someone else's shoes."

A grin as wicked as if he stole it from the devil spread across his face. "That's not what I saw. I saw the real Tomoyo for the first time last night and you know what I thought?" He stepped closer. "I thought about how much I wished every man in there suddenly gone, about how beautiful you looked, how are alive you were."

I twisted out of his reach. "I don't know what you mean."

"Oh come on Tomoyo, that's a lie. You can't tell me you didn't feel more alive singing then any other time yesterday. I could see it, the other costumers could see it. And you were beautiful!" He insisted, following my movement with his eyes.

"No, no, you lie!"

"Do you really think so? I guess I'll just have to tell you how ravishing you looked up there. I'll just have to proof to you how wild that dress made me for you."

"Stop!" He has snuck up on me, leering in my face.

"How fabulous you look now in that short school skirt and top." He grinned.

"Eriol, you're—you're—" His nose touched the tip of mine, "—Iniquitous!"

He leaned back, "Iniquitous? Wicked? Come now, you can do better than that. Tell me what I really am!"

"You're a demonic angel sent from hell to torture me! I make me confront all the facts about life in the most gruesome way possible and then pick up the pieces that I've shattered into and put me back together. You've never left me hanging or in any way unsatisfied. If only every other girl in the world could see what I do." I whispered biting my lip.

"What?"

"You've been so-so-I don't know the word, but whenever I needed someone you either stood by me or came running. When you first came I wanted nothing more than to help you, but it ended up the other way around. You taught me something Eriol when I thought I understood everything. If I don't risk something I'll never gain."

"And what are you risking now?"

"Everything." I kissed him.

The moment our lips touched a charge ran through our bodies, melding us together. Time ceased to exist as the kiss lengthened. The first little touches and kisses could not compare to this moment. Our passions didn't so much burn as they incinerated us. No longer did we exist, but a new creature was created.

And created again each time he touched and each time I kissed. There was no need for desire to bloom for it had existed long before either of us ever realized it.

Together anything was possible.

For those of you who understood this scene: I was attempting to make an accurate description without too much Henti (however you spell the word that means too much sex)...did it come across well...I've never written a scene like that and I didn't want to show the physical aspect so much as a more emotional one...Did it work? Thanks for your input, you have no idea how much I appreicate it! mucho luv--your enamored-with her-readers-author Allychi6!