"Kyo?" Toru knelt next to the boy at the table. Yuki had told him about Kyo's defeat, but unlike the boy Tohru knew, Kyo didn't mutter one word about it. She half expected him to come to dinner with a black cloud over his head. But he just sat, calmly, and started eating the cod dish she prepared knowing it was one of his favorites.
"Oi?"
"Are you feeling all right?" Tohru placed her hand on his cheek, feeling for a temperature. Since this was one thing that the girl was forever obsessing about Kyo took it that she was just confused and tried to ignore what her skin next to his made his stomach do. Flipping about as it was, he put his chopsticks down and patted his belly.
"I'm fine." he smiled to let her know he wasn't lying, "I'm just trying to understand how she got me."
"What did she say Kyo?" Yuki asked, not looking up from his plate, "you were talking to her, it distracted you."
"Something about the bet we placed."
"Bet?" Shigure tittered, "so young and already gambling away his life. Oh woah is me."
"Why you?" Kyo snapped, "it doesn't have anything to do you with you! God you just like listening to yourself talk!" Tohru leaned back and sighed. Everything was right with her little world as Kyo threatened to staple his cousins lips shut.
"You know, I wish we could have a simple dinner without all this fighting for once."
"Rat-boy." Kyo poked his chopsticks in Yuki's direction, "Meilin bet me that we couldn't be in each others company for more that an hour before we start fighting."
"That was why you lost?"
"Shut it! You have to help me with this."
"I don't see how this is my problem Kyo."
"Just do this, I'll never ask you for another thing as long as I live. And you know I hate asking for this now."
"How do we prove it?"
"Meilin suggested dinner."
"Dinner?"
"Tomorrow night, at the Okonomiyaki place. And to make sure I'm not cheating, she'll be there too."
"I don't know how this should make me change my mind." Yuki took a bite of rice and shook his head in denial.
"I'll pay ok? Tohru, you wanna come, right?"
"Ahh…" Tohru blinked, suddenly invited into the conversation.
"You're not working?"
"No, I'm not, Kyo…"
"Then it's settled." Kyo sneered, knowing that his cousin wouldn't let him go on a date with Tohru by himself.
"You're paying Kyo." Yuki finished his dinner and got to his feet. "I have homework to finish, excuse me, Tohru, Shigure."
"Yeah, yeah, and a nice night to you too." Kyo replied as Yuki left the room. He told himself he should be smug at tricking Yuki so neatly.
"Kyo…" Shigure smiled devilishly. "What was that?"
"Shut up."
"I'll find out eventually."
"Not if I have anything to do about it." Kyo muttered.
"So you were lying?"
"Kyo?" Tohru clenched her hands together nervously, "Whats going on?"
"Meilin and I made a bet for the outcome of our match."
"So what did you loose?" Shigure took a sip of tea and leaned back into his padded cushion chair.
"I have to set her up on a date with Yuki." Kyo sulked, which caused tea to shoot from Shigures nose as he coughed in shock.
"Kyo!" Tohru grabbed a napkin and flung it at Shigure without any of her usual decorum. She grabbed Kyo by the shoulders and shook. "I can't believe you bet something like that!"
"What? Its not like I bet for him to fall in love with her or anything!"
"So if we take this part of the circle, and move it over here…" Sakura and Li sat with a diagram between them on the floor of Syaoran's living room.
"No, if we move that part we'll make a negative where we need a positive." Syaoran wiped his mouth and pulled on his lower lip. "We need someway to make the negative flow out of the circle while keeping the positive in it." He erased part of the diagram and completed the circle. "Opposite ends…"
"Keep a positive Pole on one side, outside, and a Blank on the other side." Meilin fluffed her hair at the entrance mirror after bouncing down the stairs.
"Where are you going Meilin?"
"On a date." she smiled when Sakura tipped her head and muttered her adorable, "Pwee?"
"Tell Yuki I said hi, and tell Kyo we're still working on it." Syaoran muttered as he played with the drawing, putting in Meilin's suggestion.
"How is it that nothing I do surprises you?" Meilin huffed.
"I'm the most powerful mage in our family and you question how I know you bet Kyo that you could beat him in exchange for a date with Yuki?"
"Really?" Sakura laughed, "that's clever Meilin!"
"Glad you think so. So I'll pass on your little message to Kyo, maybe he'll want to talk to you about it." Meilin stuck her nose in the air, playfully being a brat, and sailed out the door in a majestic sweep.
"He'll have to put in some information sooner or later." Li looked up at smiled at Sakura, and tapped the paper with the end of his pencil. "With this solution, I think sooner, don't you?"
Meilin walked into the restaurant and scanned the tables for a gray haired head. When she didn't see one she went to a table and sat. The waiter brought her a soft drink while she waited. She didn't wait long, she heard them well before she saw them.
"Stupid rat!"
"Then don't walk so close to the curb."
"You didn't have to move into the middle of the sidewalk!"
The doors opened, Meilin smiled when she saw Tohru in the soft pink slip dress that Yuki's brother had made for her. Meilin stood to greet her, ignoring the boys who where growling at each other.
"Kyo…" Meilin hugged Tohru and patted Kyo's arm in warning.
"What?" he glared down at her, then remembered where he was. "Oh, sorry."
Yuki blinked, usually the only person Kyo was so immediately apologetic with was Tohru, he guessed that his defeat must have temporarily scrambled his brain. Either that, or there was something about the girl that made Kyo comfortable enough around that he didn't want to alienate her. Though he had been seeing a marked tendency in his cousin to defer to the group of friends that had suddenly sprung from nowhere. Yuki was more wary of the team than he let on. From the first moment he saw Meilin, especially, he felt like there was something pushing him into a situation he wasn't prepared for.
"That's ok Kyo. Its good to see you, Tohru, Yuki." She hugged Tohru and held out a hand to the gray haired boy. "Thanks for treating Kyo." she kissed Kyo on the cheek, smiling mischievously when he blushed.
"Its nothing." he scratched the back of his head and he steered Tohru into the booth and sat next to her, leaving Yuki the seat next to Meilin after she sat. Tohru noticed the blushes and looked down at the menu with more interest than it really deserved. Meilin smiled up as the waiter returned and the others ordered before Kyo really looked at the man.
"Toya-san!" He yelped in shock after ordering a coke.
"Just order already kitten." Sakuras older brother drawled, too used to having people recognize him on the job to really care that he may have shocked the teenagers sensibilities.
"Damn it Kyo!" Yuki growled, "Does everyone know?"
"Oi!"
"Boys." Meilin reminded Kyo of his fake bet. He grumbled a little, but ordered Tonpeiyaki as Meilin gloated over her double victory. Not only did she get to boss around Kyo for an evening, but she was sitting next to Yuki. She didn't know what it was about him that made her want to know more, but she was getting her chance to ask.
"Meilin?" Toya wrote down the boys orders and smiled gently at Meilin, "What would you like?"
"Tohru and I will have Modanyaki." Meilin shut the menus and handed them to Toya, who folded them under his arm with the ease of practice.
"Hai." Tohru agreed. "Thank you."
"Just be careful with these guys. Their auras are weird." he glared at Kyo as he said it, who glared back. Yuki just sighed and shook his head.
"She is perfectly safe with us." Yuki mumbled. Tired of the evening already.
"She better be." Toya left them and Kyo went back to muttering under his breath.
"Its not my fault. It's not like it was my stupid magic card that complicated things…"
"Oh, by the way, Kyo…" Meilin tilted her head, "Li asked me to tell you something."
"Fine, Do you mind Tohru?" Kyo excused himself from the table when Tohru shook her head.
Yuki scooted out and let Meilin leave.
"Syaoran asked me to tell you that they think they know how to reverse the curse. They just need to talk to you and get some specifics before we can work out when and where." Meilin revealed when they were far enough away from the table. "I didn't know if Yuki knew what we were doing and I didn't think you'd want Tohru to know if we ended up wrong about it."
"Meilin." Kyo patted her shoulder, which was as close to a heart felt hug as he could get, "thank you, all of you for helping me with this…" he looked back at the table with the other two. Yuki was looking at Tohru while she was just looking at the table, her hair hung down so even if she did look up she wouldn't meet Yuki's gaze. "But whats up with your sudden interest in Yuki"
"I don't know Kyo." Meilin watched Yuki with a sadness that Kyo knew was a form of female expression he would never understand. She was sad, but not upset, not crying, and happy at the same time. Maybe it took ovaries to be able to feel like that?
Toya came back, plopped some ingredients onto the flat metal placed in the center of the table, turned the heat on, turned around, glared at Kyo and Meilin and stalked off again. As he walked away he shouted, "If you try and flip those yourselves you die!"
heehee! ok, so if you've been reading or watching Tsubasa or you know how Toya has a marked tendency to be working where ever Sakura goes then you were giggled right along with me for this scene. by the way, if your not watching/ reading Tsubasa, then you should! Li has some awesome fight scenes! and the art is just amazing!
anyway, sorry for the lack of updates, but thanks to every one who reviewed! please keep it up!
Tanka! (by the way, a little while ago i passed one hundred reviews! ahh! and i didn't do anything to celebrate! I feel like such a cheap date!)
