Agent08 Reporting for Duty!

"..." - talking
italic font - thoughts

Now...on with chapter sixteen!

Of Bathing and Singing

The events of that morning still rattled Sakura to the bone. She had never seen her brother so angry. There always was a first time for everything.

"One...two...TEN!" Touya had bellowed, as he lunged for Syaoran's neck.

"Touya! No!" Sakura screamed, as she stepped infront of Syaoran. "It's not what you think!"

"Move out of the way, little sister," Touya hissed. He watched in disgust as Syaoran took his opprotunity to grab the fallen clothes off of the floor and put them on as quickly as possible. Syaoran thought that the longer Touya saw him only in his boxers, the image would stick in his mind with him in bed with Sakura.

"Touya, I said it's not what you think!" Sakura shrieked. She took a few deep breathes to calm herself, and she began to explain. "I...I was being childish again, and was jumping on my bed. My bed springs broke, and Syaoran, being the gentleman that he is, offered me his bed for the night. That's all, Touya! Really!"

Touya narrowed his eyes, and they shot back and forth from his little sister, to Syaoran, who was now fully dressed. He seemed to be a lot more restrained than when he first came into the room, which helped ease Syaoran's thoughts. Not a lot, but just slightly.

"Why didn't he sleep on the floor then?" Touya asked suspiciously.

Sakura's eyebrows came together, forcing wrinkles to appear on her forehead. She looked at Syaoran for help. Why hadn't he slept on the floor? Syaoran wondered the same thing also. Was it because he wanted to be in the same bed as Sakura? Or because he wanted to be comfortable that night also? Whichever answer it was, Touya wasn't going to like either of them.

Sakura swallowed the knot in her throat. She hated it when Touya interrogated her. "B - B - Because I wouldn't let him!" she finally answered.

Touya looked at her with a confused face. "You wouldn't let him?" He repeated.

Sakura nodded. "He was being so generous, I thought that the least I could do was leave some room for him so he could sleep comfortably also...Please, Touya, don't tell Father! Nothing happened, really!"

Touya thought some things over in his head, without removing his eyes from Syaoran. He probably thought that if he ripped his gaze from him for just a second, he'd try and do something else with his sister. Not on his watch though. No, sir.

"Is this true?" Touya asked.

"Yes - " Syaoran began, but barely finished the "S" sound in "YES" when Touya cut him off.

" - I didn't tell you to speak!" Touya snapped.

Syaoran automatically closed his mouth, and nodded for his life.

"Alright," Touya said calmly.

They stood in silence for a moment, thinking of what to do next. Either just continue on sleeping, which was what both Syaoran and Sakura had planned to do, or get dressed, and do housework, just so Touya wouldn't expect anything else to happen because they were too busy. They were still making up their minds when Touya had began to leave the room.

Then Sakura wondered. Why was her brother there in the first place?

"Touya, wait," Sakura said, as she grabbed her big brother's shoulder. He turned. "Why are you here?"

Touya put on a face, as if just remembering why he had come. "Oh. Well, Father gave me an assignment to go to Villanda, and he made me check on you guys earlier since I won't have the chance to at the end of the month...But, it seems to me that you two are doing fine around here,"

"Villanda?" Sakura questioned, with a confused look on her face. "Why on earth would Father want you to go to Villanda?" Villanda was the nearest village to Tomoeda.

"It's a business thing," Touya answered, as he made his way out of the room.

"Okay...Well...Bye, Touya!" Sakura said after her big brother.

He blew a kiss to her, and she blew one back. "By the way," he hollered, "Get your damn bed fixed, kaiju!"

You could practically see the lava steaming out of Sakura's ears.

It was in the afternoon when Sakura and Syaoran began to fix her bed. Touya had disturbed them so much in the morning that neither of them felt like sleeping anymore. He basically shook all the sleepiness out of each of them when he had screamed the way he did.

Sakura sighed in boredom, as she watched Syaoran fix her bed. It was what she had been doing for the past twenty minutes, and she was already bored. She sighed again, and blew her auburn bangs from her emerald eyes. She crossed her arms on the table, and drooped her head on it. What was she doing inside on a day like this? The weather was perfect outside, and not one drop of rain was seen. Why waste her time watching Syaoran?

She sighed again for about the hundredth time. It took her at least two hundred more for Syaoran to snap. "Sakura!" he said quite forcefully. "Will you PLEASE stop sighing like that? It's distracting me...Not to mention annoying,"

Sakura pouted. "Well is it my fault that you're taking such a long time?"

"Is it my fault that you broke your stupid bed springs?"

"Is it my fault you didn't stop me from eating too much candy and getting hyper?"

"How was I suppose to know that I was supposed to?"

"I don't know!" Sakura said, as she got up and walked to the other side of the room. She looked longingly at the forest, and the bright sun. She wanted so badly to run through it like a little girl, and let herself be swallowed underneath the mean glare of the sun, so she could soak up all of it's light.

Syaoran sighed also, and walked over to her. "How about you spend your afternoon however you like, while I work on your bed?"

Sakura looked over to Syaoran with beaming eyes. "You mean it?" she asked quite eagerly. She was wringing her hands together quite harshly. If she weren't so excited, she would've shrieked in pain because she was wringing them so hard.

Syaoran smiled, and nodded.

Sakura squealed like a little girl, and threw her arms around her neck. She lifted her legs from the ground, and wrapped them around Syaoran's waist, and hugged him tightly. Almost tightly enough for him not to breathe. She must've thought that that was exactly what she did, because when she removed her head up from Syaoran's shoulder, he was a bright tomato red, and he looked quite nervous.

"Oh my gosh!" Sakura said, as she immediately let go of him. "Did I hug you too tightly? Did I - "

" - No, no. It's fine," Syaoran replied, rubbing his neck with the middle part of his index finger and his thumb.

"Sorry..." Sakura said apologetically, as she eased herself out of the room.

Truth was, Syaoran wasn't tomato red because of that. It was because Sakura had hugged him in such a..."dirty" way. If he ever picked Sakura up and held her in that position, she would've straight up slapped him. But after all, she DID do it by accident. She had never meant to hug him in such a way. But he was glad that she did.

Sakura stepped out of the front door. She flung her arms out, and stuck her nose high in the air, making sure she took a big whiff of everything.

"Ahh..." She breathed. She took one longing glance at the forest, and with a burst of adrenaline, she was off, running towards it like a mad man. And then, WHAM. She stopped right in the middle of her tracks. Not exactly, because she fell flat on her back in a brown puddle of mud.

"Agh!" she screamed. She lay in that position for a while, in minor pain.

She groaned as she brought herself up into a sitting position on the mud. Her eyes were squeezed shut, and so she brought her hands up to her eyes, and began to rub at them. As if she were just waking up from a nap, she rubbed her hands all over her face, trying to rid herself of sleepiness. She ran her hands through her hair, and all over her body, checking for any bruises or cuts she had gotten in the process of falling on her back. When she realized she had none, she slowly and cautiously got into a standing position. She felt the brown mud ooze between her toes. She loved that feeling.

And then it hit her. She looked at her hands, and saw that they were filthy. Absolutely covered in brown mud. There wasn't one part of her hand that she saw that wasn't an icky brown colour. Then she realized she had put her hands everywhere on her body. She knew in an instant that she was filthy, just like her hands. Being covered in all this dirt only meant one thing.

She needed a bath badly.

So she roamed around the forest aimlessly, searching for the clear and perfect river that she had once seen when she first arrived at the cottage. She began to hum as she searched for it, not knowing where in the world she was heading. All of a sudden, she felt herself step into cold water. She glanced downward, and saw the river, just as clear and beautiful when she had seen it last.

Then an idea struck Sakura. It was a beautiful day, and the sun was awfully bright. She looked from side to side to see of the coast was clear. Realizing that Syaoran would probably be fixing her bed for a long time, and that no one ever stepped into their part of the Kingdom except for Touya and few others that wouldn't be there, she slowly and cautiously, she began to remove her clothing garments.

When everything on her body was removed, she dipped her toes into the river, to see if it was too cold still. The sun had heated it up slightly, making it just right for Sakura to take a bath in. So, she slowly inserted herself into the water, smiling as she did so. When she was fully into the river, she dunked her head in and out, rubbing at her hair and every other body part.

Even though she had basically rubbed herself clean, Sakura just began to loaf around, taking and enjoying her time. She splashed the water in every way, and loved the tickling sensation she felt whenever a fish swam past her legs. She began to sing...It was what she tended to do whenever she was having a good time.

xxxxxx

In the cottage, Syaoran was just finishing up fixing Sakura's bed. When he stood up to admire his work, he called for Sakura to come and applaud him for it. He called for her again when he didn't get a reply. He called her a few more times until he actually figured out that she wasn't anywhere near the cottage. So he went out to look for her.

xxxxxx

Singing, singing. Just keep singing, singing.

Sakura shut her eyes closed tightly, and enjoyed the feeling of the summer sun rays beating down onto her back. She figured that she needed a tan, so why not start now? She lay folded her arms on a nearby rock, and let her head fall. That's where she continued to sing.

Sing it all out.

xxxxxx

Syaoran made his way into the forest. He thought he must've been crazy, because he could've sworn that he heard someone faintly singing from a certain distance. He stuck a finger in his ear to make sure that he was hearing right. He was, because when he took his finger out and walked a few more steps, the singing became clearer and clearer.

xxxxxx

Sakura sang her heart out. Loudly, yet gently. Like in a Disney movie, the animals began to gather around her, adoring her fantastic vocals. Sakura never once opened her eyes to notice this. She never noticed the birds singing along, she nevern noticed the scampering bunnies halt to a stop. She never even heard footsteps coming closer and closer to her and her rock while she was singing.

xxxxxx

With every step that Syaoran took, he could tell that the singing person was Sakura. It wasn't a man, because no man would have such beautiful vocals. He'd never heard Sakura sing before, but he knew for a fact that it was her. Maybe he knew it was Sakura because he'd known her for such a long time? He didn't know. But every time he got closer to her, his ears became enticed, and he wanted to hear more and more. Who knew Sakura had such an incredible singing talent?

xxxxxx

Syaoran became so close to Sakura that he could see her bright auburn hair, sticking up above the tall grass and plants. When he came closer, his eyes widened in shock when he saw her clothes, scattered all over the other side of the river, and Sakura, laying on a rock with a bear back. He thanked the Lord that she was lying on the rock so that certain body parts were covered. He didn't know what Sakura would do if she found out he saw things he wasn't supposed to.

He waited for her to rise up in anger and yell at him at the top of her lungs. When she didn't, he understood why, because her eyes were closed. He took this opportunity to listen, and watch her in silence as she sang. He brough his arms up and let his elbows prop up onto the rock beneath him. His hands cupped his chin with both hands, and he watched Sakura until she finished.

Stay quiet, stay down.

Just keep listening to her beautiful voice.

Sakura paused to take a breath. During that slight pause, Syaoran sighed in admiration. Hearing it, Sakura's eyes snapped open, and she automatically threw her arms over her chest. She got into a sitting position, and saw Syaoran with a surprised look on his face. A look that kind of said, "Oh no, I got caught!"

"Oh my, GOODNESS!" Sakura shrieked, as she turned around and walked to the other side of the river. Her hands were still over her chest, and her lower part of her body was still sunken deep down into the water. Sakura was grateful for that. She only had two hands. Not enough to cover ALL her private parts.

"What in God's name are you doing here?" she shrieked, grabbing her clothes and covering herself with them. "Turn around!" she screamed.

Syaoran did as he was told, and began to explain while he was turned around. "I - I didn't mean to! Well, I mean I did - b - but I -"

" - But you what?" Sakura yelled, as she threw on her dress, and picked up tiny pebbles. " - You just accidentally happened to stumble in on me while I was taking a bath?"

Syaoran turned red. "W - W - Well...Yes!" he answered.

Sakura threw a pebble at his back. "LIAR!" she screamed, making her way back to the cottage. Her cheeks were a bright pink colour, not only because she was angry, but because she was embarassed. She stomped her way to the cottage, and threw the door open as hard as she could. Syaoran ran after her, screaming and yelling his explenations.

"I didn't see anything! I swear!" Syaoran said, as he followed her. She was going into the bedroom, and he watched her enter, while he stayed outside. He didn't know whether or not he was welcome to be in the same room as her at the moment.

"You better have NOT!" Sakura replied angrily, slamming the door shut in his face.

Syaoran groaned, and turned around. He slid down onto the floor so his knees were pulled up to his chest. She was angry at him, yet AGAIN. Well, he couldn't possibly blame her. If that ever happened to him, and he was a girl, he would've done the exact same thing.

Syaoran chuckled when he thought about the whole idea. If this was happening to a friend of theirs, they would be laughing their butts off. So that's how Syaoran thought of it. Just a funny situation. They would both get over it sooner or later. They always did, no matter what.

"You have a great singing voice," he said, as he walked away from the bedroom door with a smile on his face.

He heard Sakura say something, and walked back towards the bedroom door. He knocked twice. "What did you say?" he asked, with his forehead to the door.

Sakura opened it up just a peep. "I said thank you," and she closed it once more.

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Signing Off,
Agent08 - My life as a secret agent xD