Chapter 3
"What?!"
Sakura stopped dead in her tracks so she could devote her undivided attention to glaring at Syaoran. "You didn't tell me your family is out of town and you can't get into your house. Where are you planning on sleeping?" She had just been clued in on that one important fact after Syaoran also informed her that Love's Future Psychic House was closed by that hour.
Syaoran didn't know why, but this girl Sakura made him feel nervous. He was almost afraid to say his next sentence but it had to be said and he was no coward. In theory anyways. "At your house, of course."
"Of course NOT!" Sakura shrieked, walking again.
"Do you have a better idea?" Syaoran asked, his exasperation mounting.
"Yes. I think I still have a dog house in the yard."
"There's no way I'm sleeping outside," Syaoran said firmly.
"Then you better try your house again." Sakura picked up the pace, glancing at Syaoran with an evil scowl on her face.
"There's no way in. Believe me, I tried everything." Syaoran repeated.
"Fine."
Syaoran wasn't exactly sure what she meant. Fine, he can sleep in her house? Or fine, he's going to be stuck outside with the mosquitoes and ants? It probably wouldn't have done him any good to ask her, so he didn't bother.
The rest of the walk to her house was in silence. This seemed to please Sakura and she didn't break the silence until they were standing outside of her front door.
"Listen," she said sharply, "My dad and brother are home so you need to be absolutely silent. When we get inside, be quiet and follow me." And with that she swung open the door and walked in. Syaoran was a couple of steps behind her so she had to hold the door open for a second.
"What are you doing?" A masculine voice asked from the sofa in the living room. The owner of the voice had dark hair and looked too young to be Sakura's father, so Syaoran just assumed he was her brother. "Trying to let all the bugs and pests in?"
"Yes," Sakura answered bluntly. Her double meaning may have been lost on her brother but it wasn't lost on Syaoran. Too bad he didn't really care what she thought. "Where's dad?"
"In his room."
Sakura sighed inwardly in relief, glad that she didn't have to sneak Syaoran past her father at the moment. Her gaze flickered backwards and clashed with Syaoran's. Quickly, she turned away and started walking down the hall.
Syaoran watched where they were going so that later he would know his way around the house. The walls in the hallway were white and the carpet felt nice and spongy through his pretty pink slippers. All in all, not a bad place to live.
The hostile girl disappeared into one of the rooms and Syaoran was about to follow her, but something caught his eye.
On the door there was a sign that said 'WARNING' and then a long description of what it was warning about. Basically, it was saying what a mess the room was going to be. It kept going on and on about safety procedures and why he shouldn't go in. Syaoran rolled his eyes at the over exaggeration of it all and entered the room.
Syaoran visibly flinched when he saw the disaster zone. Clothes (including bras and underwear) were strewn around the room as well as blankets, backpacks, and anything else imaginable to man. "I guess the sign on your door wasn't an exaggeration."
"Nope," Sakura said and almost sounded proud.
Syaoran didn't know how long he would be able to stay in that room. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to get out of there and never return. He really hated messy rooms.
"Is there a problem?" Sakura asked evilly while she removed her shoes and threw them into the closet. "If there is, the doghouse is still available."
"No," Syaoran said quickly. "There's no problem."
"Good." She waded her way through the mess over to her dresser and dug around for some pajamas. That accomplished, she expertly skipped around the junk on the floor to get to the door.
"Where are you going?" Syaoran demanded, not wanting to be left in that room if it were at all possible.
"To take a bath. Don't follow me." She said it firmly enough so there was no room for argument.
"Why would I want to?" Syaoran muttered under his breath after she shut the door. She hadn't given him enough time to say it to her face.
Sakura almost moaned aloud when she sank into the steaming bathwater. As soon as she was surrounded by heat she could feel her muscles relax and some of the day's stress seemed to melt away.
It had definitely been a long day - between tennis practice and finding out that she had an invisible STALKER. Okay, so maybe he wasn't exactly a stalker but he certainly seemed as bad. In fact, she was wondering if she would prefer a stalker at this point. At least then she would be able to call the police.
Her mouth was underwater and, when she thought about calling the police to report an invisible stalker, she snorted and made bubbles.
It was only later when she was drying off and happened to glance at the clock, that she noticed she had been in the bathtub a lot longer than she'd intended.
Hurriedly, she put on her pajamas and went back to her room. The sight that greeted her made her gasp in shock.
"What did you do to my room?!"
"Cleaned it," Syaoran answered simply. Sakura's jaw dropped but he just pointed to a large pile of clothes. "I just put all of the clothes on the floor in that pile, regardless of whether they were really dirty or not. However, I didn't think it would be good if your dad or brother saw a floating pile of laundry, so I left that for you to take care of."
"W-why…" Sakura stuttered; it had been a long time since she'd seen the carpet. Had it always been that color?
"I have to have a place to sleep." Syaoran glanced at her with a mischievous expression. "Unless you want me to sleep on the bed with you?"
Sakura's face turned a nice rosy shade of pink in outrage. "Of course not!"
"That's what I thought."
"I've been looking for these!" Sakura said happily, flipping through the pictures in a shoebox that Syaoran had unearthed from the wreckage of her room. From what Syaoran could tell from the few glimpses he got over her shoulder, it was mainly a bunch of pictures of Sakura and Tomoyo. The two girls were of varied ages in the photos.
Sakura stopped and laughed at one particular photo where she and Tomoyo were about six years old and perched on top of an extremely hassled looking Touya. He was on his stomach on the floor and looked roughed up, as if it had taken a lot of effort on the girls' part to get him that way.
"Ah, this brings back memories," Sakura said, running her finger along the edges of the photo.
Syaoran was almost afraid to ask. "What kind of memories?"
Sakura smirked slyly. "We wrestled Touya to the ground because he was teasing us and then Tomoyo held him down and I farted in his face. My dad thought he would get a commemorative photo."
The edges of Syaoran's mouth turned down. "Lovely."
"Isn't it, though?" Sakura giggled and moved on to the next picture.
Syaoran sat back and leaned against the side of her bed. "So, I guess you've known Tomoyo for a long time?"
"Yea," Sakura said fondly. Syaoran was surprised by how normal and sweet she seemed in that moment. "We've been best friends since kindergarten, the kind that tells each other just about everything. My dad, Touya, and Tomoyo are the most important people in my life. She's like family to me."
"What about your mother?" Syaoran asked, not really thinking.
Sakura set the box down and looked at him. "She died in child birth." Horrified that he had asked such a personal question so lightly, Syaoran opened his mouth to apologize but Sakura interrupted him. "Don't worry about it. You didn't know. And it's not like I know what I'm missing. I feel worse for Touya because he actually has memories of her."
"Still," Syaoran said, trying to imagine what his life would have been like without his mother. "I'm sure it was hard to grow up without a mother, especially since you're a girl."
"Yea. Sometimes," Sakura admitted and shrugged. "But it could have been a lot worse. At least I have my dad and brother."
Syaoran nodded and leaned his head back against the bed. Sakura titled her head to the side and studied his profile. "What about you, butt sniffer?"
"Come again?" Syaoran asked, sitting up. He decided to let that 'butt sniffer' comment slide.
"What's your family like?" Sakura clarified.
"Oh." Syaoran laughed and then considered it for a moment. "I live with my mother and four sisters. I'm also pretty close to my cousin, Meiling."
"Wow," Sakura said, her green eyes wide. "That's a lot of estrogen."
"You're telling me," Syaoran muttered darkly. "I can't even count the number of times they held me down, painted my nails, and dressed me like a girl. My mom never stopped them either because she said I made such a pretty girl."
Sakura snickered at that particular image. "Six against one. Those aren't very good odds."
"No," Syaoran agreed. "They're not."
"And your father?" Sakura asked, uncharacteristically timid. Syaoran had to appreciate her tact.
"He's alive, but otherwise pretty much out of the picture," Syaoran answered, figuring that she had answered his questions so it was only fair. "He knocked my mother up for the fifth time and then left her when she was pregnant with me. The judge wouldn't let them divorce until after I was born so it would be easier for my mother to get child support. But once they did, he got married to another woman a few months later."
"Do you ever see him?" Sakura asked, curious.
Syaoran shrugged. "Every now and then."
"So your mother raised five children all by herself?" Sakura's voice was incredulous. She couldn't even imagine how difficult that must have been.
"She had help from her parents until they died."
"She sounds like an amazing woman," Sakura said in awe.
"She sure is." Syaoran smiled fondly but it was brief. "But she never remarried. She almost did once but that crashed and burned. He didn't get along with me or my sisters. After that, my mother said she was done with those types of relationships because we gave her all the love she ever needed."
Sakura didn't say anything while he told her all of that. She just listened to him talk and Syaoran found that he felt better just saying those things out loud. So he continued. "That's why I find it hard to believe in a romantic love between a man and a woman. It might exist, but I think it's really rare. I seriously doubt I will ever experience it."
"I think I know what you mean," Sakura finally said. "The genuine thing is hard to come by."
They fell into an uncomfortable silence where neither one of them knew what to say. Sakura started fidgeting nervously and Syaoran was finding it hard to figure out where put his eyes. Like most males, he was uncomfortable with such talks.
They were thankfully saved by Sakura's father calling out to Sakura. "Dinner's ready!"
"Okay!" Sakura called back, relieved. She jumped to her feet and was at the door before she paused. "Um, thanks for cleaning my room I guess."
"No need to thank me. I will make you pay for it." Syaoran said, flashing her his teeth.
Sakura curled her lip at him. "Like hell you will. I think me helping you with your invisible problem is payment enough." And with that, she walked out of the room and shut the door.
"Make sure you bring me back something to eat!" Syaoran called out to her. There was no response.
"We need to make a plan for tomorrow," Syaoran said from his makeshift bed down on the floor. Sakura had stolen some of her brother's pajamas for him to sleep in and was generous enough to surrender one of her blankets to him so he wouldn't freeze to death. Only after about an hour of his bitching had she given him her spare pillow.
"We?" Sakura quirked an eyebrow even though she knew he couldn't see her in the dark.
"Yes 'we'. Stop acting like that. You know the only way you're going to get rid of me is by helping me." Syaoran shifted around, trying to get comfortable. Her carpet was awfully itchy and the hard ground was relentless. He wondered why the carpet was different in her room than it was in the rest of the house. Probably because they knew it would just end up buried, he thought grouchily.
Sakura could hear him tossing around and felt a twinge of guilt. "Comfortable?" she asked. She hadn't meant it as a jab, but he took it that way.
"No." His reply was short and crisp. The day was really starting to get to him. Finding out that he was invisible was stressful enough, but the knowledge that Sakura was the only girl who could help him was giving him an ulcer. He heard her covers move and was suddenly blinded by the light from her bedside lamp.
"Look." She said, leaning over the edge of her bed so she could see his face. "My bed is really big. If the floor is that uncomfortable, you can sleep with your head by my feet."
Syaoran was taken aback. Here she had been accusing him of being a pervert all day and now she offering him a place on her bed. "You trust me?"
Sakura snorted as a response. "I trust you to know what would happen to you if you try anything. Besides, if I didn't trust you, would I be letting you sleep on the floor? It's just as easy for you to get up from down there and molest me as it would be for you to roll over and do it."
She made a valid point and he wasn't about to argue. Her bed looked nice and cozy, especially compared to the floor. He had been dreading an awful backache anyways. Without needing any more persuasion, Syaoran dragged up the blanket and pillow she let him borrow and threw it by her feet. "Thanks."
"No problem."
As soon as they were both settled in Sakura turned off the lights again. Her eyes remained wide open in the darkness, staring blindly at the ceiling. Despite what she told him, it was VERY unnerving to have him sleeping in the same bed as her. He was putting out a lot of body head and she could almost feel his breath on her feet. It was strange, but not entirely bad. She forced herself to suppress a groan. She had no idea how she was supposed to get any sleep.
"Do you have any ideas?" Syaoran's voice broke through her little reverie.
"Huh?" Sakura said articulately.
"For the plan." There was a tinge of impatience in his voice, but not enough for her to care.
Sakura chewed on her lower lip. It was a bad habit that she had been meaning to quit for some time. "I was thinking that I'd go to that Psychic House and talk to Madam Marie."
"Mirai."
"Whatever." Sakura waved her hand flippantly even though he couldn't see her do it.
"That won't do you any good."
"Do you have a better idea?" Sakura snapped.
"Nope. By all means, go ahead."
Sakura wasn't so sure that it wouldn't be a waste of time, but didn't want to hear that from him. It wasn't like she had any other ideas anyway. Instead of continuing the conversation, she rolled over and said, "Goodnight."
"Night."
When Syaoran awoke the next morning, it was to the soft click of the door closing. Still groggy from sleep, he sat up in the unfamiliar bed and slowly looked at the girl who had just entered the room.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Did I wake you up?"
"Not really." Syaoran yawned and stretched to get the stiffness out of his muscles. He glanced over Sakura's appearance and noticed that she was already dressed for the day. "How long have you been awake?"
"Not long," she lied. Actually, she'd been in and out of sleep the whole night and as soon as the sun rose, she had been unable to fall back to sleep. Unwilling to toss and turn some more, she crawled out of bed and got dressed.
It was odd getting out of a bed with a guy in it. Even if nothing happened, it still felt like forbidden territory. Sakura blushed deep crimson at the thought of what Tomoyo would say if she knew.
"Is something wrong?"
"No. Nothing." Sakura shook her head violently to get the bad thoughts out. "You should get dressed. If my brother saw his pajamas walking around on their own, I don't think he would understand." A thought suddenly occurred to her. "How long have you been wearing your clothes anyways?"
Now it was Syaoran's turn to blush. "Just a couple days." Sakura's nose crinkled in disgust. "Hey! It's not my fault. I don't have anything else to wear and I don't even know if the clothes I'm wearing right now are invisible or not."
"I didn't say anything!" Sakura had to nibble on her lower lip to keep from laughing.
"Sure. I know what you were thinking."
Sakura raised an eyebrow in challenge. "So now you think you know what's going on in my head?"
Syaoran could have laughed out loud. Yea right. "Nope. Definitely not." She was one of the few people that he just couldn't figure out. He would never live it down if Meiling even found out. Speaking of which… "I just hope that we can get this whole mess straightened out before my family comes back."
"How long do we have?"
"You don't need to worry," Syaoran assured her. "They're going to be gone for a week."
"Good. That's one less thing we have to worry about."
"Unless it takes us more than a week," Syaoran pointed out. Sakura grunted.
"I really wish I had a change of clothes," Syaoran whined. "These are really starting to stink."
"Yea, I know. I can smell." Syaoran was about to respond, but she interrupted him. It seemed to be another habit of hers, one that he had every intention of correcting. "Be quiet." They had finally made it to the Love's Future Psychic House. The walk there was long, but Sakura hadn't wanted to involve her father or brother in their predicament by asking for a ride.
Syaoran felt dread looking at the small building. If it were up to him, he would burn the stupid thing to the ground so he would never have to look at it again. It would serve Madam Mirai right.
Sakura wasn't intimidated by the building in the slightest and entered without hesitation. Syaoran followed, a little less sure of himself. Without missing a beat, Sakura walked up to the same clerk that had been there both times Syaoran visited.
"Yes?" the clerk asked, smacking her gum.
"I'm here to see Madam Mirai."
"Do you have an appointment?"
"No, but it involves one of her former clients," Sakura answered truthfully.
The clerk frowned slightly. "I'm sorry but-"
Madam Mirai herself interrupted her. "It's okay," she said, coming out of her room that smelled like smoke. She then addressed Sakura. "I assume by 'former client' you're talking about the young man who is standing behind you?"
The clerk glanced behind Sakura before throwing a confused look at Madam Mirai. Her confusion was ignored.
"Yes, ma'am."
Syaoran almost fell over at the sickeningly sweet smile Sakura directed at Madam Mirai.
"By all means, come in. You too, Syaoran," Madam Mirai said, a hint of a smile on her painted lips.
Every part of Syaoran's brain told him not to, but his legs disobeyed and he found himself in the dreaded room once more.
Madam Mirai sat down and gestured for them to do the same. "So, what can I help you with, dear?"
Sakura continued to smile and her voice sounded like liquid sugar when she answered. It reminded Syaoran of a little girl who wanted her parents to buy her an expensive toy. "I was wondering if you would be so kind as so tell us how to get Syaoran back to normal?"
Madam Mirai had obviously been expecting that. "Sorry. I can't tell you."
Sakura's impeccable smile faltered. It was only a split second before it was plastered on her face again. "Excuse me?"
"I can't tell you."
Sakura's chest moved up and down slowly like she was trying to control her anger, but her face remained the same. "Why not?"
"Several reasons." As she talked, Madam Mirai ticked the reasons off on her fingers. "It's not in my nature, this is something you need to figure out on your own, and… he insulted me."
Syaoran swallowed nervously. He really wished the old hag hadn't said that last one. Sure enough, Sakura glared at him with all the fire of Hades.
"You seem like such a nice girl," Madam Mirai continued. "Smart too, I'm sure. You'll be able to figure it out."
Sakura's grin seemed more like a grimace and it seemed to Syaoran that her smile was showing a lot more teeth than was necessary.
"Thank you for your time," Sakura managed to growl and stood up sharply. She turned on her heel and exited with Syaoran close behind her.
He was dying to say 'I told you so' but figured it wouldn't be a good idea. After all, he didn't have a death wish.
"What a crock of shit!" Sakura shouted as soon as they were out of Love's Future.
"That's exactly what I said," Syaoran offered timidly. It was kind of funny that they thought the same way. "I noticed that you can really turn on the charm when you want something."
"Naturally." She brushed off the compliment with a wave of her hand. She sighed with much effort when she remembered that it still hadn't done them any good. "I guess you have to come back to my house with me."
"Yup."
Sakura's eyes turned heavenward. "If I make it through this week, I'm going to be very surprised."
