Transformations
Chapter 11: The Needle and Thread
By AutumnIllusion
Authoresses Note: Whoooo!! 10 freakin pages! =)) I'm back! I think I got my humor back too, at least more than the last month or so where I was stuck…-- so anyway, here it is! Oh yeah, one more thing though! I need HELP! Yes, the story is not over, but it has reached its turning point. I need suggestions on what happens now! if anyone has any, they're encouraged! Tell me!
DISCAIMER: yaaahh…CLAMP owns it all except the storyline of this story! Heheeheeeeee don't sue.
Syaoran had a blank look in his amber orbs, like a fire burning dim. He didn't want to do this. He didn't want it anymore. But he had to, it was for the best. He looked at the white painted door in front of him, deeply concentrating on each and every little carve in it. Not that it meant anything to him anyway though. He drew his eyes away from it with a blink, and knocked on the door.
"Syao!"
Syaoran now held Jenny in his arms, from a leap she had greeted him with. If there was ever a time he would feel sympathy for Toya when Nakuru hung on him, this would be the time. Glomp…
Jenny stepped back, and brushed her shirt, straightening it out. "Hehe," she grinned. Closing the door behind her, she tugged Syaoran alongside her. "Where to? You said you had a surprise…"
"Well I was thinking…"
"Minature Golf!"
Syaoran raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger at himself. "Me? Golf?"
Sakura flashed some kind of advertisement in front of Syaoran, "Yup. But more like: You, Jenny, and golf! And it's minature golf," she corrected him, waving the golf flyer around. "It'll be fun, now that you've gotten back together,"
"Hmm…" Syaoran crossed his shoulders. "I'm not too much of a guy who does golf and sports, I'm just REALLY good at them, that's all," he smirked.
"Shuddup Syaoran, bragging is something I wouldn't recommend," Sakura coached. "and it'll be fun, I'm sure. Couples always go there!"
"That's what I feared," he muttered under his breath but cleared it away. "Well okay then…" Syaoran held his hand out until the flyer was placed in them. "hey, 20 bucks each?!" he gaped at the information. "What, do I have to pay for this?!" he glared at Sakura.
"Hehe, yeah, that's the catch," Sakura smirked. "Don't be a cheapskate," she suggested again. Seeing Syaoran's glare remain, Sakura added, "Fine, no it's not a catch. Just joking. I got some free passes to it."
Syaoran sweatdropped, and felt for money in his pocket. "…minature golf."
"Oooh, really?!" Jenny's face lit up. "How did you know? This is gonna be so much fun!"
Sakura
"Hey, Tomoyo, are you busy tonight?"
"Hmm? Nope, not doing much. How come?"
"Can I…come over? Can we have a sleepover?"
"Oh, of course Sakura-chan! I gotta take measurements for your new clothes anyway! Ohohoho…"
Sakura fell over anime style- oh wait, no she just tripped over her backpack. But then again, she would have fallen over anime-style anyway.
"Hey, did I just hear something?"
"Ahh, I'm okay…I tripped, Eheheh," Sakura assured and rubbed her head. "I was told my mother was clumsy too, so I guess I've gotten those genes passed on," she smiled. "Anyway, can I come over now?"
"Yeah, that's fine. You sound rushed. Are you sure you're okay?"
Sakura plastered on a fake smile, although Tomoyo wouldn't be able to see her try anyway. And if she was, Tomoyo would shake her head at it, and see right through it. "Yupyup, I'm fine. Just a little jumpy or something. Bored I guess. Toya's the only one home tonight, Dad's working late…well I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Okay, bye."
The call ended, and Sakura stuffed a duffel bag with her pajamas and sleeping things. She just wanted a distraction…she couldn't bare to think of Brendan. Brushing the thought of him away, Sakura told Toya she was spending the night at Tomoyo's and left quickly. Outside the air was pretty thick with the humidity of summer. Although Sakura wanted to walk faster to get to Tomoyo's, she slowed down a little.
Sakura rang the intercom and was let into the mansion easily. She swung her bag at her side, feeling a little better after a walk…a little.
Tomoyo stood at the front door, prepared in her battle suit: A measuring string circled her forehead conveniently, while in one hand rested a fully loaded pincushion and thimble, the other with a spool of thread. Very dangerous to approach indeed. Must do so with caution. "Hi Sakura! Come on in!"
The two best friends walked through the long hallways that surely any normal person would get lost searching. At least Sakura had about fourteen years of experience. (lets say they met in kindergarten ;P)
"Oh, hello Sakura!"
Sakura cranked her neck to see Tomoyo's mother Sonomi aka Sakura's second aunt (something like that….e.e) while also tagging behind Tomoyo as she led her to her room. "Oh, hi Ms. Daidouji!" Sakura nodded her head. She stumbled a little as she was yanked up the stairs.
"Tomoyo dear, slow down a little. Sakura's about to fall over," the business looking woman commented. Sonomi was head of a very successful toy company. Lets think Martha Stewart big. Well, not exactly Martha Stewart, if you know what I mean. Sonomi trailed behind the two friends, and they all ended up in Tomoyo's gigantic bedroom.
"So you're staying the night Sakura?" Sonomi flipped her short straight hair.
Sakura tossed her duffel bag over by Tomoyo's bed before plopping down onto a lavender colored rug. "Yep. That's okay, right?"
Sonomi nodded. "Yes, of course it is. I just wanted to make sure that you asked your father Fujita—" she paused, thinking over her words. "Fujita—dmn that little pompous windbag who took away precious Nadesiko! She was so young! That little…!" went on Sonomi. She sure held a grudge against Sakura's father and the marriage. Finally stopping the ranting outbreak, Sonomi sighed, taking deep breathes. "One Mississippi…" she muttered. Looking up at Sakura, Sonomi added, "But your mother said he was a good person so…" she pouted. "I'll just say nothing to that. Heh, not that I care if he wanted you here or not. We'll take you in!"
Tomoyo, who had been listening to Sonomi calmly, was obviously used to the complaints. Now at the part of taking Sakura in, she seemed to glide over to her mother and they high fived. "Yeah!" they chorused with an almost evil look in their eye.
"Phwee…" Sakura was dizzy from all ranting. "Err, yeah," he sweatdropped at the mother daughter alliance forming.
"Well, I'll go check on how the cooks are coming along with dinner," Sonomi finally decided. She stood up business like again and smiled. "Tomoyo, did you tell Sakura about your summer project?"
"Not yet," Tomoyo admitted, checking out her needles with a poke in the pincushion. "Well Sakura, it is…" she started. "To make a complete set of Sakura-wear!" she exclaimed. Now the pincushion would be substituted with Sakura's sweatdropping face. Construction. Major construction this summer.
"Phwee, really?" Sakura laughed at her friend's goal, which would include a lot of trying on things and measurements from the one and only cherry blossom.
"Hehehe, yes really," Tomoyo repeated in agreement. She held up the measuring tape. "And I'll start taking measurements now!"
Syaoran
By the time Syaoran and Jenny had arrived, the golf course was pretty filled with young couples working their way around the course. That didn't exactly calm the nerve in Syaoran's stomach.
"Hey Brat,"
Syaoran cringed. That couldn't be…
"Two, I'm guessing." The figure that stood in a booth by the entrance of the golf course was…
"Yeah Touya, two." He looked behind him to see Jenny looking around. "Here, i got free passes," he emptied them out for the man when Jenny wasn't looking. If there was the opportunity, don't let the date know how cheap you really are.
"Okay then, here's two golf balls, two clubs…" the two men paused, thinking over the meaning of a 'club' and what you could do with it. You could play golf with it, in closer meaning you could hit a ball with it, you could hit a person with it, or even better hit an annoying brat who's a friend of your sister/an annoying overprotective brother with it.
The possibilities stung in each other's minds, and they very gallantly overcame them for the sake of Sakura. Without harming each other, Touya handed Syaoran the lethal weapon aka golf club, in which Syaoran merely nodded in silent truce not to physically do harm to each other…tonight anyway. "New job?"
Touya dipped his head in a bored fashion. "Yeah, pays okay."
Syaoran let his nod from before carry on faintly until it died down when he felt stupid when he noticed it.
"Those free passes were from Sakura, weren't they?"
Syaoran shuffled his feel boyishly. "Yeah,"
"Thought so," Touya finished and let Syaoran think about it. "Gopher Golf, may I help you?" Touya turned his attention to his next customer. Touya's bored face was no longer bored, it looked more like a state of horror and shock in the time passing of one second. Syaoran actually wished he had a camera with him to replay the expression change…gee, sounded like Tomoyo was rubbing off on him.
"Hello…Naku-ku…" Touya stumbled over the dreaded words.
"HIII TOUYA-CHAN!" Touya's gopher on his hat must have been knocked off in fear, as Nakuru jumped on him, quite a task to do, going in a way, over the front of the booth. "AWW, YOU MADE A NICKNAME FOR MEEEE!!!! IT'S SO CUUUUUTTTEEE! CAN I CALL YOU…"
"No Nakuru, I wasn't giving you a nickname, I just—"
"HOW ABOUT TOUYAYAAAA?!"
"No, don't you dare call me—"
"IT'S PERFECT! TOUYAYAYAYAYAAAAAAAA! YOU CAN ADD AS MANY 'YA' AS YOU WANT, AND THE MORE 'YA' THE CUTER! DON'T YOU THINK?"
Carefully avoiding the horror scene going on by the booth, Syaoran joined again with Jenny. "Here you go," he attempted a smile, truly attempted one, and handed Jenny her golf club. The thing is though, he hadn't been successful.
Sakura
"Uh Tomoyo, sorry to be short on patience, but are we done yet?" Sakura sighed and dropped her shoulders a little. Her arms had been outstretched to her sides for way to long without a rest.
Tomoyo mumbled something like, "miighealmoddugh," and pinned a piece of experimental cloth around Sakura's waist like a skirt. She slipped one of the needles held in mouth out and pinned.
"Huh?"
"I'm almost done," Tomoyo repeated once she had emptied out the needles.
"But you said that before," Sakura objected.
"Yes, but now all I have to do is…" Tomoyo lost her thread of conversation in focusing on the measurements.
"Okay then," Sakura quieted down. Today she just felt a little…
"Sakura, can I ask you a question?"
She snapped out of her thoughts, "Hmm? Sure,"
Tomoyo reached for her measuring tape and unwinded it. "Are you okay?"
"Wha?" apparently Sakura had been caught off guard by such a general question. She sighed and considered it. "Kinda…"
Silence waited, urging her to go on. Tomoyo had a way with those things.
"I miss Brendan a little, to be truthful."
Still not a direct word of response.
"Well, more than a little. I'm mad at him too, but I can't do anything about it,"
Finally Tomoyo was satisfied with the answer she knew had been waiting to be told. "Really?"
Now it was Sakura's turn, and she just nodded to let Tomoyo lead the conversation.
"Maybe you need someone new," she scribbled something down onto a piece of paper.
"Or just not to have anyone," Sakura added with a tinge of bitterness.
Tomoyo laughed at this sweetly and shook her head. "No," she unhooked the cloth, "You're better off being with someone. That's the type of person you are."
Sakura bit her lip. "Really?"
"Yes, eventually it'll get better," Tomoyo cooed. Sakura's innocence in not seeing what was around her, who was around her…was an amazing strength and fault.
"Okay then," Sakura triumphantly put on a grin. "I'll try to be happy," she tried her best to give a thumbs up while still holding her arms out to be measured.
Tomoyo beamed and patted her best friend on the head. "And I'm finished measuring," which was responded with a heap of 'yay!'
Syaoran
The actual minature golf was going pretty well for Syaoran. He had gotten some kind of technique down, and very proud of it. Jenny was doing well too. Syaoran was just relieved he wouldn't have to spend the whole game standing behind her like some pervert 'helping' her skill. She already knew how exactly to swing a golf club and get the ball in the hole.
On the other hand, the environment if you'd say, around them was a little strange. The whole time he could feel Touya's eyes on his back, watching him. He was still overprotective, even when Sakura wasn't even there. Then tailing behind Syaoran and Jenny were Nakuru and Eriol. Eriol he had gotten used to his 'creepy' like presence, and had eventually created some sort of friendship or alliance with him. None the less, he felt this strange aura around him. A creepy one. He always had this smirk on when he looked and saw Syaoran and Jenny together like a couple. Syaoran could take a pretty good guess that he knew something. Maybe he had spoken with Tomoyo. Put them together and they'd trample all over Syaoran's hidden feelings about Sakura. A very dangerous thing. Syaoran could always see that smirk in the corner of his eye. Eriol and Nakuru seemed to be behind them through the whole course.
When Syaoran and Jenny were at the windmill, Eriol and Nakuru were behind them waiting for it.
When Syaoran and Jenny were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Eriol and Nakuru were at the windmill.
When Syaoran and Jenny were at the Egyptian Pyramids, Eriol and Nakuru were at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
When Syaoran and Jenny were at the Eiffel Tower, Eriol and Nakuru were at the Egyptian Pyramids.
When Syaoran and Jenny were at the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Eriol and Nakuru were at the Eiffel Tower.
And so this had continued, and Syaoran tried his best to ignore Touya's glare power from burning him down, Eriol's smirk, and Nakuru's constant cheering and squealing. He just tried to focus on making the most of his date with Jenny. It was strange though, not to mention Eriol or Nakuru never missed a shot in one stroke. It was like they were doing something magical…creepy. He shrugged it off and took his turn at the Statue of Liberty, where the ball rolled slowly, stopping right before the hole.
"Oh, so close Syao!" Jenny cheered. She applauded him and took her turn, finishing with three strokes to get it in.
Syaoran nodded and just went for it. He leaned in, and gave Jenny a kiss. He was going to try to be happy, even if it wasn't with Sakura. Jenny was a nice…friend. He inwardly sighed with that failure. He'd have to try harder to be happy with her. Suddenly he felt maximum glare power on his back, no more aimed on his head. He hoped it didn't explode. Eriol was most likely grinning his ass off, and he saw to his relieve that at least Eriol at slammed his hand over Nakuru's mouth to keep her from screaming something.
A day later
"So how was it?" Sakura reached for the remote control across the coffee table of Syaoran's living room. Her fingers brushed against it, knocking it closer until in better reach. "Did you kiss her?" she inquired with an evil grin. Fun to mock her 'student'.
"Ahh…" running his hand through his hair loosely, Syaoran then paced around the room. "Eheh," he laughed a little nervously. "Wait!" he exclaimed. "You didn't tell me your brother worked at the golf place!"
Sakura shrugged simply. "Yeah, he always has these changing jobs,"
Syaoran glared at the memory of their encounter the other day.
"So did you kiss her?"
"Yeah. You're kinda nosy, you know?"
Sakura went for some channel surfing, and yanked Syaoran down next to her. He was caught at a most unexpecting moment, toppled over. "Phwee!" he landed inches away from being directly 'on' Sakura, hyperventilating. How dense she really was.
"Hey, you stole my 'phwee!' saying!" Sakura remarked. "Tsk, tsk," she shook her head sarcastically. "And you almost crushed me!"
Syaoran was still frozen in the position of falling, his arms holding himself above her safely. "I was not going to crush you!" he stammered.
"Suuure, coughfatsiecough," Sakura joked. Of course she knew he wasn't anything near that. He looked pretty good…Not that I like him or anything, Sakura tapped her head.
"Hmph," Syaoran snorted arrogantly, and stood up, and- "Gah!"
"There, is that so hard?" Sakura now had Syaoran sitting next to her on the couch, watching TV.
Syaoran slumped down, recalling the measures he had taken in that split second to make sure he fell down right. Slow motion: Syaoran yelled "Gaaoaahh!" (this is slow motion, remember stretched out) and eyes went all swirly spinny. He used his use of martial arts body awareness and propelled himself forward enough to not collapse on Sakura, and sort of 'leap' over her to twist onto his behind and sit down…and this is all in mid-falling.
"Well at least you didn't take my 'phwee!' this time," Sakura patted Syaoran on the head, grinning. "Okay, TV time now!" she reached again for the remote control, and at the same time so did Syaoran.
Durfff… Syaoran realized immediately that his hand was on top of Sakura's. Something must be wrong with me, he sweatdropped. That is, after he yanked his hand off of Sakura's in embarrassment.
Sakura triumphantly waved the control. "Tee hee, I got it! Letsee, maybe some SpongeBob Squarepants today?" She clicked the remote down… "Ooh, I love this movie!"
Syaoran noticed Sakura's beaming face and followed her gaze at the screen. Looked like some chick flick or something…at least he knew it wasn't Josie and the Pussycats. He didn't know if he could handle that.
"She's All That!" Sakura squealed. "It's such a cute one! Freddy Prince Jr. is soo…" she cheered.
No, I don't think I can handle this either. Syaoran decided, watching Sakura drool. "Can we switch to something else?" he asked faintly.
Sakura pouted, but switched the channel again, jellyfishing for channel with SpongeBob. "Okay then. But the plot is so cute! Know what it's about? It's like this guy who fixes up this geeky girl to make her look pretty, and then he starts to fall for her but…"
Syaoran blushed. Situation reminding him of something else...Sakur-
"Ohhhhh…who lives in a pineapple under the sea?!"
Syaoran mentally glared at the TV, disturbing his thoughts.
"SpongeBob Squarepants!" Sakura chorused with the television. Sad for Syaoran to admit, he had remembered the lyrics to the song too.
"SpongeBob Squarepants!" Sakura chanted with the TV. Syaoran shrugged. What the heck, he opened his mouth, "SpongeBob Squaaarreeepaaants!" all three cheered quite loudly.
Then a knocking sound was heard from his door. "Xiao Lang?"
Syaoran's mouth stopped in the middle of the next roll of "SpongeBo-" and he turned off the television. Scrambling over to answer the door, he straightened his hair as mush as he could, though it wasn't much. He opened the door, mentally trying to prepare for the worst.
"Hi Xiao Lang! It's us, your sisters!"
Syaoran clenched his eyes shut, knowing what would come next. GLOMP or maybe more of a TRAMPLE. He tried to keep breathing through the four full grown females practically suffocating him in their embrace. "Hey Sis…"
"Aww, is this your girlfriend?!"
"What's her name?"
"She's adorable!"
"Way to go Little Wolf!"
Suddenly he was of release, literally dropped to the floor. Now the one he was going to hope had health insurance was Sakura. Aaahh, they think SAKURA'S my GIRLFRIEND!
Authoresses Note: Yes. Syaoran singing SpongeBob Squarepants. Imagine that. ::rolls over laughing insanely:: very weird. Either completely kawaii or a lil disturbing…works both ways for me, but in a good way so tell me your suggestions! I might not necessarily use them, but they're all appreciated so much! I need to know what you want to happen to your beloved Sakura and Syaoran!
Touya! In his bunny costume! Yes, now he has a gopher costume too, at least a hat anyway. Yes, I had fun torturing him this chapter…