Disclaimer: I do not own CCS, its characters and plot and animé storyline. However, I do own the few names I will be using later on.
A/N: This is actually my third series (chaptered work) since Mommy's Girl (which Idiscontinued & eventually deleted after its 8th chapter… Gomen nasai). Please bear with me and my crazy rants and ideas after each chapter, since I don't have time posting new items on my blog, I don't know if I should go on and continue or delete all my files and die since a week before / school started. But, hey, I'm here, happy as fluff.
Full Summary:
Ever since Li Syaoran's daughter made friends with a rebellious boy (a punkie, in other words), things were never the same. As a conservative Li clansman, he disapproves of the lifestyle that his daughter's friends have, especially her best friend, who was slowly showing his affections for her. What if his whole family agrees, will his overprotective-ness get in the way? And what about the comeback of the great sorcerer to Tomoeda? But what if they are all related to his past, or the Li… or should we say, Read clan's future?
He realizes that fatherhood is the best thing to ever happen in his life.
Given Few But Bad Choices
By: Hiiragizawa, Ao'jiro
Prologue:
A Father And His Daughter
A brown-haired man adjusted his reading glasses up his nose before turning the newspaper page. No, he just needed something to occupy him, not that he was also interested in sports and entertainment. He simply slumped his aching back on his large office chair, exhausted from all those meetings, giving talks, reading reports and graphs and making tough decisions that could either cause the company's loss, or cost him his already numbered leaves. He smelled of coffee and his tie was in a loose knot, as always, since he did not want to choke in the very office looking tired, which means a lot like a house to him. The 42-year-old Li Syaoran sulked and looked up to the opposite wall clock. "Four thirty," he thought aloud, "She should be here by now."
There were no emergencies or extended reports and meetings he had to attend for the rest of the afternoon. Since his new secretary filed everything in place, and no buzzing offers, hasty decisions to make, keeping employees settled in their desks and no solicitors around, the Li clansman was lucky to have the rest of that afternoon off. Syaoran was about to lift the handset of his office phone. She must have been stuck in class or detention, really depends on the situation, but he was hoping she did not land into trouble again.
And with a loud slam on his door, she finally arrived.
"Daddy! I'm here!" his daughter, who was turning 16 in the next three months, chimed in and panted. Her emerald eyes gleamed in the afternoon sun's light from the window, looking very anxious at him almost seeing through newsprint.
With his eyes jumping from an NBA article to the world cup and more of Tiger Woods, Syaoran scolded his daughter though not looking at her, trying hard to keep his cool, he blurted out, "you're lucky I'm on afternoon off, or you would have had taken the bus going home!"
She still had the energy to giggle at her father's statement and his office, which to her was a messy sight. Her fatherwould never let her go home alone, not until leaving him a short messagewith the secretary that she'snot going to wait for him.Placing her satchel on one of the chairs in front of her father's desk, she skipped behind him and gave him a warm hug, sweetly cooing to her father's ears, "guess what just happened, daddy…"
"Hmm… did you get another A on your paper?" from behind, she could see a lopsided grin, Syaoran trying his best to sound interested. His daughter gets A's all the time, like he used to when he was in school and still proud of it! Definitely the Li trademark.
His daughter shook her head, making her elbow length hair in a high ponytail, the same color as her father's, flip side to side. He simply arched a brow, put down the newspaper, and faced his once little angel, who was going to be a grown up two years and three months later. "I see," hoping to deceive her ears, sounding fascinated in the subject, "you have a school ski trip, and you need money- again?"
"Nope. I'm late today, haven't you noticed?"
Both father and daughter's eyes twinkled in mischief.
"Well," he paused shortly. She would usually come right after class, which is at three thirty. Suspicious about her, Syaoran sat his baby girl on his lap, as what he used to until she was ten, and patted her head. "I'm sure my little Mayumi did not do anything bad, did she?"
But Li Mayumi replied with only a smile… that made her father drop his grin and slap his forehead. "All right," he said, letting her stand up to explain what caused her tardiness, "tell me you did not-"
But she just stood up, beaming proudly…
"I BEAT UP BULLIES AGAIN!"
All he could remember was being in the principal's office during her last semester, 'tied' to his chair from strangling the grouch who stole his daughter's one chance at having a flawless high school record by his (oh, thank Kami-sama!) patient and loving wife, who simply calmed him down with a "hoe". The complaint? Three boys were injured after being hit on their faces on the newly painted walls, which, according to the rulebook, was damaging of school property and not an injury offense against other students. He had to admit, as a teenager, he too became reckless when people hit a wrong nerve, especially when it had to do anything with Sakura. The so-called bullies only took (and read) her diary, which Mayu herself misplaced in her left-open locker, without consent. But for his little girl, the situation was getting out of hand.
Since Holly Hill High was near the Li headquarters –er, office, Mayu would only have to cross two streets and wait for her father.
"Why must you, amongall people," he puffed out hot air, pausing for breath thus aiding him from not exploding, "beat up those annoying boys? Remember what I told you, that's mine and the Li family's friends' job!"
"But I wasn't alone then-"
"Your mother did not do such things before, I know I did not," what can we all say? A grown-up loves to lie. Until that last line caught his ears, "What was that again, Mayu-chan?"
"I didn't beat them up alone. And I was out of the school grounds already!"
"Then," he sighed, thinking to himself she and her brother both took self-defense, but this is worse than I thought. He tried to suppress the steam coming out of his ears, and looked at his little lady with readable concern and his face red hot, "Where were you?"
She paced back and forth, keeping herself occupied from having eye contact with her father. "I was about to cross the street when the guys from last semester chased me. And then this awesome guy with a skull necklace, who was also cute (pointing an index, a matter-of-factly), shoved them away with his bike!"
"Shoved them away? Wait a minute, with his bike? And SKULLS?"
The concerned father figure started to take over Li Syaoran, worrying at every single word that came from his precious daughter's mouth. Though in the Li family, the women were never given special attention, who was he to do the same? After all, he is now the new Li clansman; it was about time to make changes and listen to his wife and daughter. But with his last line, the thought of skulls made him squirm inside.
"Yeah, yeah!" Mayumi nodded, animatedly, "he was really nice and gave me a ride going here!"
First, having boy friends. Then, boy bullies. Now, boys on bikes? AND SKULLS?
The business man and clansman with unruly hair took off his reading glasses, placed them in his pocket, took his and Mayu's belongings, took their coats, and dragged his bemused daughter outside the office. It was about time they settled things and went home. Headaches are 'fun'. Li can't help but agree with his conscience.
A/N: yes, people, this is only the prologue. Kinda shorter than what I expected. Tell me what you think, and I'll keep on writing. Hopefully, this gloom will remain and help me with being inspired.
