Author's Note: Hallo:) Yes, I am back, after about 3 weeks of no updates. GOMEN NASAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII! Well, anyway, here is the last chapter.:( I was originally going to make it 10 chapters, but then I thought I'd better end it soon, just because this was meant to be a bit short, and also because I really need to put up my new story, Turn Left, Turn Right.
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura.
Switched Valentines
By: Wings of Jade
Chapter 8: Mystery Solved
"Lastly...Daidouji Tomoyo, for the part of Kyoko." Tomoyo nervously approached the stage. The drama teacher looked at her. "From line 124, where she yells at Ken and finds out about his role in Yukiko's accident."
It was time for the last audition for the main character Kyoko. Thankfully, Sakura and Tomoyo were on time. More than half of the audition was over before the drama teacher had moved onto Kyoko.
Tomoyo scanned her script, and then began. She stood facing an imaginary blond jock, her face twisted in anger.
"You were responsible for my best friend's accident? No wonder you wanted to get closer to me - you wanted to get closer to Yukiko! You bastard, you wanted to hurt her! Don't you think she's been hurt enough? Don't you think she's had enough to go through without you trying to kill her? Do you even have aheart? Yukiko is struggling with school, her ex-boyfriend, her family, and herself. What, do you care more about your image than a person's safety?" Tomoyo looked nervously at the audience, then after a moment's pause, inclined her head slightly, and walked off the stage. The drama teacher was impressed.
"Well...now that we have finished Kyoko, it's time for the parts of Yukiko." The drama teacher flipped through a list of people. "Fujimoto Aiko, you're first."
Syaoran watched without much interest. The girls auditioning for Yukiko were mostly quite terrible, none of them being able to portray a heartbroken and struggling girl. Sakura was around the middle of the list. She walked up on stage, her green eyes searching for Syaoran. When she spotted him, a big smile broke out across her face, and she gave a little wave. He returned the smile with a grin.
"Please read line 26, whereYukiko is talking to herself."
Sakura made her shoulders slightly droopy, and slipped her hands in her pockets, her eyes seeming as if they were glazed and staring off into a far off place. Now...how am I going to be sad? I can't be! I can barely stop smiling!
Then, she got an idea.
"Kinomoto-san..."
"Hai, sensei." She cleared her throat and her voice became slightly shaky. "I'm alright...I'm okay...just because I have no proper family doesn't mean I can't survive...I can live without Taku...bastard...selfish bastard...I...I don't need him to live..." Her voice seemed to break down. "Who am I kidding? I can't go on without him! He was...he was...everything."
Then, Sakura gave a small bow and left the stage. Applause followed her all the way to her seat beside Syaoran.
"That was great, Sakura," he whispered. "How the hell did you get it to be so good?"
Sakura opened her mouth to reply, and then Tomoyo hurried over, chastising her about not sitting beside her. She smiled hopelessly at Syaoran. "I'll tell you later, 'kay?" she mouthed.
I'm looking forward to it, he thought. (A.N.: And he will.)
Unfortunately, to ease their nervousness of the aftermath of the audition, Tomoyo had dragged poor Sakura shopping, and she didn't get to see Syaoran all day. The only time she contacted him was after Tomoyo had cleaned out half a mall, and she called to make sure he wasn't mad at her.
"I'm sorry," she whispered into the payphone, "but she's kind of high right now, and she still has a lot of gusto. She wants to go to another mall and - " she sighed, " - clean that one out too."
"But you've been at the mall for practically six hours already!" cried Syaoran, amazed.
"I know," said Sakura in a pleading voice. "I promise, tomorrow Tomoyo will be all exhausted from all this shopping, and I can spend a little more time with you."
He brightened at the idea. "Okay."
"SAKURA-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAN!" shrieked Tomoyo. "YOU HAVE GOT TO SEE THESE JEANS OMIGOD THEY ARE SO CUTE THEY WOULD LOOK SO ADORABLE ON YOU AND OOOOH SEE THIS HAT IT'S LIKE SO CUTE WITH THE LITTLE THINGY ON IT AND WAAAAAAAAAAH LOOK AT THIS TOP IT'S SO NICE AND PRETTY AND KAWAII AND - AND - "
"I think you'd better go," commented Syaoran. "You know, before Tomoyo dies of...um...whatever gets girls so hyper about clothes and things."
Sakura laughed. "Yeah. I should calm her down. Bye, Syaoran-kun!"
"Bye, Sakura." Sakura hung up and rolled up her sleeves.
"Tomoyo, you must calm down..."
"GAH BUT IT'S SO CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTE AND - " Before Sakura could protest, Tomoyo had dragged her into a dressing room. "Try it on!"
"No! Tomoyo, we've been here long enough, we have to go home now, my parents will kill me - "
"Just this one!"
"No."
"Just this one outfit."
"Then it's going to be another one, and then another one, and then another one, and then you'd want to try on this one and that one and that one until you want to find something matching for both of us."
"No no no no no no no no, not this time, Sakura-chan," insisted Tomoyo. "Just this one. I promise. I know you still have a lot of homework to do, and that homework is your top priority, so I am only going to ask you to wear this one."
"And why this one?" Sakura held it up.
"Because it's the best one here!" Tomoyo winked at her. "Plus it might impress Syaoran."
"Shut up," growled Sakura, taking a playful swipe at Tomoyo. "How would you know that I'm with him anyway?"
"Well...it's kinda obvious after I saw you automatically go to him after auditioning, calling him at the mall, and I actually did hear Syaoran-kun, so - yeah."
"Am I that obvious?"
"Perhaps." Then Tomoyo shoved her into a stall. "Start dressing now, young lady."
"Okay, okay," Sakura shouted. "Sheesh."
When Sakura finished changing, and came out of the stall, Tomoyo squealed. "It's looks great!" she said, giving her best friend a hug. "Let's buy it."
"Along with the other things?"
"Why not? Come on...it looks fine. Now we just need a hat to go with it."
"Tomoyo, onegai..." pleaded Sakura. "Spare me. No hat. NO HAT." Ignoring Sakura's protests, Tomoyo plopped a black beret onto Sakura's head. "There." Tomoyo looked proud. "Perfect. Parfait. Perfettamente. Perfekt."
"What's with all the European languages?" Tomoyo pointed to the hem of Sakura's top.
"I'm only reading what it says there. Apparently the brand name is Perfect, and it seems to translate into French, Italian, and German."
"But not Japanese?" Tomoyo shrugged.
"Beats me. Now go change, and we can buy it."
Syaoran sat on the park bench, waiting patiently. Sakura had called him to meet him there, so they could spend time together. It's always the parks. Still, he didn't mind.
"Syaoran-kun!" He turned.
"Hey Sakura - " He froze.
"...chan."
Sakura had on a black tank top with a low-cut pink off-the-shoulder cashmere sweater tossed casually over her shoulders. Her jeans were fitting, with random rips and tears and whatnot, but with a slit at the bottom, revealing brand-new white running shoes. A belt hung loosely at her waist, and to top it off, a black beret.
"Wow, what's with the outfit?" said Syaoran, astonished.
"Like it?" asked Sakura.
"Yeah, it's really creative." She sat down beside him, and he flicked at her hat playfully. "And you look very French with the beret." She snuggled into his chest.
"I'm kind of cold." In return, he wrapped his arms around her, breathing in her scent.
"Yeah, same here. Until you came, of course."
They sat there for a few moments, in silence, until Syaoran suddenly thought of something.
"Hey, you still haven't explained to me how you pulled that sad face off at the audition."
"I...I didn't?"
"Nope. You are going to tell me, right?" he teased.
"Yeah." She shifted her head so she was looking at him directly in the eye. "And just in case you're wondering, I did get the part for her." Her eyestwinkled.
"Wow, congrats, Sakura!" Then he frowned. "Hey, stop changing the subject."
"Fine, fine..." She took a breath. "When I was up there...I thought of something that would make me as sad as the character of Yukiko would be."
"Oh?"
"Mm-hmm. And then I imagined myself...all alone. By myself. But without you. I imagined that you had left me forever, and that was how I pulled off that stunt."
"Really?"
"Really." Syaoran kissed her on the forehead.
"Well, you know that's not going to happen soon."
"I hope not."
"I promise," said Syaoran solemnly, "to never, ever hurt you."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Pinky swear?" She held out her pinky. Syaoran interlocked it with his own, and then as an afterthought, kissed her on the lips. A sweet, long kiss.
When they broke apart, Syaoran spoke again.
"You know what, Sakura?"
"Nope."
He frowned. "Takashi contacted me a couple of hours ago."
"Isn't he and some other people on a three-day trip?"
"Yeah. He called me from the ski resort. Interestingly, they asked me if I had gotten a valentine from you. I told them I had gotten a valentine, but it was signed anonymously. Then he said that it probably was from you, because he came upon that valentine himself."
Sakura frowned. "But I only sent one valentine! And that was to Li Kanaye, and - " Suddenly it dawned on her. "Kami-sama. I had written Li-san on it! And your last name is Li!"
"Yes, and my locker number is 108."
"But Li Kanaye's locker is...801."
"Flip that number upside down." Sakura's eyes widened.
"Holy crap..." she whispered.
"And then," continued Syaoran, "I had sent a valentine to a certain girl named Hana, and you know what her last name was?"
"No. Freaking. Way."
"Way. It was Kinomoto, and I had addressed her as Kinomoto-san."
Sakura blanched. "You don't think - " Syaoran was nodding. "You cannot - possibly - think that - somehow - we ended up with the other's valentine?"
"What's your locker number?"
"169."
"And upside down that number is 691. I also bet that you were in a hurry when you were writing Kanaye's locker number, right?"
"Hai..."
"There we go." He sounded triumphant. "We may have accidentally written the numbers upside down on the valentine, and then when Takashi and the others were sorting through it, they thought we were sending it to each other. And, that was also probably why it was only me and you under the peach tree."
"Is that possible?" Sakura sounded worried.
"Hey, I'm not complaining. If it weren't for the valentines, we would never have met each other. And frankly, I'm quite glad to have met you. And so, I'm pretty grateful for that mistake." A smile appeared on Sakura's face.
"I am too."
And they kissed again.
YAY! Finally finished! I actually don't think I screwed up the ending as much as I Choose Sakura. Well, hopefully not...I personally think this chapter had a lot of nonsense in it, but even though I worded it pretty crappily, I still like the storyline. And yes, I came up with ALL BY MYSELF. MYSELF. MYSELF. BOW BEFORE ME! ...Hehe. Only joking. But seriously, the plot is mine. Well, enough rambling, thanks for coming this far with me, and REVIEW!