Agent08 Reporting for Duty!

"..." - talking
italic font - thoughts
- ... - - scene change/flashback/exaggerated words
(A/N: ...) - my interruptions

Now...on with chapter four!

Remember When?

Sakura packed up what was left in her bedroom, and went outside. Her silky summer dress trailed behind her, and the summer sun beat down onto her auburn hair. She sighed, and entered the horsedrawn carriage, and kept her eyes glued onto the scenery. Syaoran came trotting up to her, and entered the carriage also. He looked at her in disgust, and turned his head to keep his eyes looking at anywhere but Sakura.

Sakura's Father, and Syaoran's Mother went on either side of the carriage, and poked their heads through the opened carriage window, to try and speak to their children. Yelan slid her index finger through the window, and moved it back and forth, gesturing for Syaoran to move a bit closer to her so Sakura wouldn't have to hear what they were saying.

"Son," Yelan said, keeping his face very close to hers so he had to hear every word she had to say. "I want you to be nice to her. If I hear any complaint of disrespect from Sakura, Fujitaka and myself will gladly extend your months together!"

Syaoran glared at his mother, and nodded.

Fujitaka was now talking to Sakura, and her face was also very close to her Father's. "Sakura, dear," Fujitaka said. "I know you must hate me for forcing you to live with Prince Syaoran, but you must understand it is for your own good. You'll see when you two have lived with each other for the full six months,"

Sakura smiled at her Father. "Father, I'd never hate you...although, I am finding this whole situation hard to process through my head."

Fujitaka smiled at his daughter in turn, and both parents took a few steps back from the carriage. "Oh! Before we forget," Yelan said, coming over to Fujitaka's side of the carriage so that Syaoran had to lean forward a bit to hear what his Mother was saying. "Your brother, Touya, has agreed to visit the both of you at the end of each month, to ensure that neither of you have been...disrespectful," Sakura smiled, but Syaoran only sank lower in his seat, knowing that at the end of each month, he'd have to see Sakura's monstrous older brother.

"BUT," Yelan continued. "He can only stay there for the afternoon, and inspect what the both of you have done...for example, the both of you must have decorated the house, and it must not be in a large mess, whatever else...understood?"

Syaoran and Sakura nodded, and waved goodbye to their parents. Fujitaka hugged Yelan tightly, seeing the worry in her eyes. "Yelan, calm down...our children will get along one day, and everything will turn out for the best,"

Yelan nodded slightly, and did not stop waving until Syaoran and Sakura's carriages had gone out of sight.

Meanwhile, Syaoran and Sakura's heads were glued to their window, looking at anything but each other. They were in an uncomfortable silence, and neither of them could take it...so, after the ten minutes' silence, Sakura had gathered up enough guts to try and talk to Syaoran without insulting him. "So..." she began, turning away from the window, and looking at Syaoran. Syaoran turned his head, so he was looking at her also.

"So...what?" Syaoran asked.

"Er - D - Do you - um, h - h- how long is this trip going to be to the cottage?" Sakura asked, feeling stupid because she was stuttering for absolutely no reason. Syaoran shrugged.

"Ask the guy whose leading us," Syaoran said, beckoning to the old man in front of them that was whipping the horses to go slightly faster. "He should know,"

Sakura nodded, and bent slightly forward, to try and get the man's attention. The man was almost asleep...Sakura couldn't possibly disturb him, could she? She tapped him lightly on the shoulder. "Sir?" Sakura asked, tapping him just slightly harder. "Er - Sir? A - a - Are you awake?" Sakura bent forward a bit more, and saw that what she thought was his hand whipping the horses, was his hand on his knee, going up and down because of the numerous bumps that the carriage was riding over.

"Uh..." Sakura said. "He's asleep,"

Syaoran shrugged once more. "Wake him up then,"

Sakura looked at him and put on a sarcastic face. "Don't you think I would've tried that already?"

Syaoran returned her sarcastic face, and bent forward also, and began to tap the man on his shoulder. When that didn't work, he took hold of both the man's shoulders and shook him wildly. "Wake up! Wake up old man!" He shouted.

"Li, stop it," Sakura said, getting hold if his shoulders and pulling him back onto the seat. "He's obviously not going to wake up."

"And how would you know that, Miss Know-it-all?" Syaoran asked.

"Well, seeing as how you practically screamed in his face, and that you shook him half to death and he still didn't wake up, don't you think that was enough evidence to show that he wouldn't be waking up any time soon?"

"Ugh, there you are again! Always correcting everyone who she sees has made a mistake!"

"First of all, I was just stating the truth. Second of all, I've never done that!" Sakura said, folding her arms across her chest once again. "Name one time!"

Syaoran smirked, and lay back in his seat, his hands behind his head. "Gladly,"

Sakura lay back in her seat also, wanting to hear what Syaoran had to say. She looked at him with interested eyes, and he began to speak. "Remember when we were studying? Our parents forced us to be home-schooled together, and Professor Owen was in the middle of teaching us a lesson. He was teaching us about flowers, and he pronounced 'sakura trees' as 'sakuwa twees.' "

"Well, I had to correct him, didn't I? He said my name wrong!" Sakura explained.

"You moron, I don't know how you ever got good grades in class if you never paid attention,"

Sakura put on a confused face. "What?"

"You don't remember him telling us that he had a funny accent, and that if he said any words wrong, he was terribly sorry?"

Sakura screwed up her face as if she were trying to remember something, but then her mouth turned into the shape of an O. "Oooh! That's why I never understood a single word he said!" Sakura said in realization. She hit herself in the forehead with the palm of her hand, and stared at the carriage roof.

She heard Syaoran chuckle, and sat up straight, glaring at him. "Oh yeah? Well...remember when we were out in the gardens again? We were about seven years old, and you were chasing me again?"

"Yeah, so?" Syaoran said, staring hard at her, trying to figure out what she was trying to recall.

"We had a maid looking after us that day because our parents were having a 'discussion' again," Sakura stopped halfway, and shaped her hand like a duck's mouth and opened it and closed it again, trying to imitate her Father and Yelan's mouths chattering away, "She stopped you when you were just an inch from getting hold of my dress, and you thought she was so pretty, that you - that you - t - t - that you - " Sakura could not continue. She remembered it so well, and for some reason she just couldn't forget about how Syaoran...had an accident.

"I was seven years old! Can you blame me?" Syaoran asked, blushing madly.

Sakura was laughing so hard now that she was finding it hard to breathe, and she had to cover her mouth with her hand so that she wouldn't sound like a crazy maniac. "You were seven years old and you still didn't know how to NOT pee in your robes?" Sakura asked, trying to surpress her giggles as much as she could, but with no avail.

Syaoran glared at her, and began a new topic, so the attention would be driven to Sakura, "Oh yeah? Remember when we were at the Spring Ball? My Mother and your Father forced us to waltz with each other...again, might I add, and when we finally finished, you ran off to the actual guy you wanted to dance with so fast, that you spilled your punch, slid on it and landed face down right infront of him? That was hilarious!"

"I didn't mean to! That was our SIXTH waltz together! I couldn't bare to dance with you again!" Sakura complained.

"Yeah, I felt the same, but did you see me run off as fast as you did!" Syaoran countered.

Sakura pouted like a dog, and tried her hardest to think of a new memory that would embarrass Syaoran just as much as the Spring Ball memory had embarrassed her. She tried her hardest to try and remember an old memory, but it wasn't until Syaoran had beat her to it, and began telling the story of the embarrassing moment Sakura once had, "Okay," he began, clearing his throat of any more chuckles he had to get out of his system, "Remember when you were telling that girl - ? What's her name again? Tomboy - Tocoya -"

"Tomoyo," Sakura said solemnly.

"- Right, her. Anyway, you were telling her how much of a crush you had on dear old Jeremy, and he was RIGHT behind you! He heard everything!" Syaoran said, imitating a girl's voice to get Sakura even more embarassed. He said exactly what she said when she was fourteen during that summer. "Oh he's sooo romantic, Tocoya -- !"

"TOMOYO!" Sakura corrected, a hint of anger in her voice.

" - Yeah, whatever. Oh he's sooo romantic, Tomoyo! I like him sooo much! If only he felt the same way as me! I don't know what he sees in Mary Ann! Oh he's so handsome! Oh he's so polite! Oh he's so..."

Sakura let him continue. She couldn't believe that he actually remembered what she had said about her ex-crush, Jeremy! And she remembered it also...Mary Ann never spoke to her for a week after the little incident.

Sakura's face began to turn different shades of red. Not only because she was embarrassed, but because she was angry. That was one of her worst memories of all time, and she never wanted for someone to recall it ever again...especially not Syaoran. You could practically see the steam coming out from her ears. She began to breathe quite heavily as if she had just ran a marathon. Suddenly, not expecting to do this herself, Sakura let out a loud yell. "UGH!"

Syaoran stopped laughing immediately, and looked at her with surprised eyes. "How dare you recall that memory in front of me? You know how much it hurt me! I cried for a week! And you knew that too! Jeremy never spoke to me again, and Mary Ann only spoke to me unless it was necessary. How can you be so rude as to make me relive one of my worst memories? You're so - so - UGH!" Sakura cried, getting ready to strike.

Syaoran threw his hands up infront of his face. "Hey! Hey! I was only trying to embarrass you! Calm down, Kinomoto!" Syaoran said. Sakura could've sworn that she heard a little bit of panic in his deep masculine voice.

"Calm down? You're an idiot, Li! And idiot's don't get the best out of me!" Sakura cried, and raised her hand to slap him. Her hand was coming down on his face so fast, that Syaoran had no time to react. When her hand was just an inch away from his face, the carriage stopped abruptly, as if it went over a huge road bump.

"What the...?" Sakura said, practically forgetting about what she as about to do. She leaned forward in the carriage, and tapped the man on the shoulder once more, to see what went wrong. "Excuse me, Sir? Sir...? SIR!" Sakura said, annoyed of how he wouldn't wake up.

"Zzzz...Zzzz...Ne? Huh - what?" the man said, waking up. He looked around him, to try and see where he was.

Sakura coughed, to get the man's attention. The man looked behind him, and almost fell out of his seat, as if he was surprised to see a young lady and young man to be sitting behind him in the carriage. "Oh! Prince, Princess! My apologies! Er - we have arrived! Please, let me handle your luggage,"

Sakura smiled politely, and stepped out of the carriage. Almost in an instant, Sakura nearly stopped breathing, because the scenery of where Syaoran and herself were to live for the next six months was absolutely breath taking! Even Syaoran stood still, and stared wide-eyed at the beautiful sight in front of him. "Wow..." Sakura breathed, taking in every detail of her surroundings. "This is - this is - it's absolutely gorgeous..."

Syaoran rolled his eyes, as if the beautiful environment had no effect on him, although it did, and helped the old man carry their luggages into the cottage.

The trees were tall and sturdy, and they surrounded themselves around the cottage. Flowers of all kinds grew in the most perfect spots, and the red-ish, yellow horizon only made things a lot more beautiful than they already were. The river that flowed just a few feet away from the cottage, hidden behind some rose bushes, was still and clear. You could see anyone's reflection just perfectly if you stared into it.

Sakura was so dazzled by the beautiful scenery that she wandered far into the forest. She picked flowers and smelled them with great big whiffs, and ran her hands along the river, and got them just a little bit wet. Suddenly, Syaoran's booming voice rang through out the whole forest. "Kinomoto! Get back here! We have some things to sort out!"

Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes, and skipped her way back to the cottage. She walked onto the porch, and noticed a hammock, gently swaying with the breeze, and an old rocking chair doing the same. She stepped inside the cottage, and saw Syaoran pacing, as if inspecting the whole house of bugs.

There were exactly two rooms, a bathroom, and one bedroom. The kitchen was very spacey, and it had all the supplies in it that you needed to make a good meal. Like a spatula, pots, pans, etc. The living room was cute and cozy, with two couches facing each other, and a coffee table in the middle. Two nightstands stood on either side of both couches, and a night lamp. Although Sakura had never lived in one of these type of things ever before, she looked at it with adoring eyes, and thought that it was perfect...even for a Princess like herself.

"There's only one bedroom!" Syaoran said out of the blue, and pointed to the bedroom. "How are we suppose to deal with that?" he asked.

Sakura shrugged her shoulders. "Did you ever think that there were two beds in there?"

Syaoran opened his mouth, as if to say, "Of course I have!" But he didn't say that. He closed his mouth, and stomped over into the bedroom, stuck his head out, and scowled at her. "...There are two beds," he said. He hated it when he was wrong, and when Sakura was right.

Sakura grabbed her luggages, and dragged them into the bedroom. There were two beds placed just a few feet away from each other, and a dresser on both sides of the beds for them to place their clothes. Sakura hastily threw her stuff onto the bed which already had covers on it, and said, "I'll take this one,"

She began to unpack, and place stuff into the dresser. She had a certain way of placing things, and said them aloud to herself, as she unpacked. "Underwear, and any other clothing I wear underneath my clothes go in the top drawer," Sakura mumbled. "Formal gowns second drawer..." She said, and placed her shirts and pants in the second drawer. "Seasonal gowns in the third drawer," and she took out some lovely designed dresses and placed them in the third drawer. "And finally...home clothing in the last drawer!" And put everything in the last drawer, since obviously there were only home clothing left.

Syaoran however, just chucked everything he had into various drawers, and said, "I'm done!"

Sakura rolled her eyes, and looked over at Syaoran. He looked back at her, and gave her a face that said, "...What did I do...?"

Sakura sighed, and mumbled to herself, "This is going to be a hell of a first month,"

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There you have it. Hope you enjoyed.

Wishing You A Safe And Enjoyable Christmas Holiday,
Agent08 - My life as a secret agent xD