Misconceptions
Author's Notes: A tad bit on the bland side, this chapter, but I really didn't want to skip this weekend for updating.
I believe the angst in the first parts of the chapter was alright, but I think I also overdid myself. I've separated the torments of Syaoran and the other events by a course of asterisks so you could skip that (Whoops…a little character abuse…) and I also separated the angst and present moments with Sakura and Syaoran with double 'enter' keys.
Luckily, I've managed to lengthen this entry. So, enjoy.
Dedicated to reviewers c o o k ii e, Yanzhu and missioner of anime…thank you for inspiring me to update this week! To Yanzhu: I appreciate that you enjoy reading Misconceptions. I hope this chapter would satisfy you as well!
(( Additional Author's Notes, August 20, 2005: I only now noticed that the formatting didn't come out correctly! The double enter keys didn't manifest themselves, and the asterisks are MIA. So now, I just put the angst-elements in italic to separate them from Sakura's worry. Eeep. ))
Summary: It looks like Sakura isn't the only one with family problems…when Aunt Chiisana calls on her cell phone, things are bound to get mixed up again.
Chapter Ten: Lament of the Wolf
A week after those two eventful days Sakura Kinomoto accompanied the Li's to the airport. She was surprised at the fact that they were able to pay for that many airport tickets…
That aforementioned week was terrible for Syaoran. He now didn't have any fears of the supernatural ("It's Sakura who knows my address and my phone number…Sakura, okay Syaoran?") but if Sakura was aching from her injuries then he was yelling out in frustration of himself.
"You got drunk. Gods of fire and water! You got drunk! I got drunk! I actually drank liquor..." he told himself over and over. He would sit down in front of any random mirror in the house, and then hold a staring competition with his counterpart.
"And as if that wasn't enough," he would shout at his seemingly indifferent image, "you actually tried to kill her. I hurt her using my own magic and power, and while she might have tried to fend me off…" he sometimes continued, "…she cared too much to use her own abilities to keep me away."
Most members of his family would ignore him out of respect and politeness (which, thankfully, included San Yu) but Meilin and his sisters at times would attempt to comfort him.
"Oh Syaoran…it was just a mistake."
"Brother, you didn't do that on your own free will."
"C'mon Syao! Cheer up. Sakura's a nice girl, she'll understand."
"Are you feeling alright? We still have cookies, if you want some…"
But all they got in response were twin glares from both real and reflect.
If the day was so maddening then the night proved to be hell for the twenty-one year old. As the sun set all happiness went with it and nothing short of a call from Sakura could break him from his self-hating face and state. Just as the moon began to peek from behind the branches of trees in the garden Li Syaoran would stealthily walk up the stairs and disappear behind his door for another evening of solitude.
The only thing that anyone would have heard from him for the next hours was a click. The locking of the door.
No one dared to knock.
"Hey Syaoran, are you okay?" inquired a now healthy Sakura. Her voice snapped the brunette out of his reverie, but his own words came out mildly distant. "Yes, Sakura, I'm alright…" he replied in the small space of reality, yet was quickly drawn back to his raging sea of thoughts.
In the moonlight the clan heir would sit, facing the window, opposite his translucent sullen character in the glass. The wolf inside of him howled out for his recent crimes, asking the silver celestial light for guidance, but all he was given were flashbacks and memories he wished to lose.
Sometimes he was a little bit more fortunate. The first three guilt-ridden days were dry and clear, but the next five had nights of torrential rain. It poured like it never did before, the noise drowning out even his heavy breathing. For this he was very much grateful; he could scream out all his accusations at the man he saw in the mirror and disguise his pained whimpers when a ghost Sakura came to haunt him in half-dreams.
And still yet, no one heard or saw Li Syaoran's anguish.
Sakura was deeply worried. In the past seven days, she could feel a hollowness in herself. The bruising she had gotten wasn't too unbearable, but that pulsing agony somewhere in her heart was enough to bring a slight wetness to her eyes. She could feel inside the walls of her heart a broken soul…but all she could do was guess.
His brown hair would plaster itself across his insipid face when his judgment would manifest itself in perspiration and tears. No matter how loud his wails they were no match for the cries of the battering wind and precipitation.
Hands that carried that involved clan sword pounded against the walls, window and white bed. Bruises of blue would materialize on the ivory skin and throb relentlessly, sometimes enough to add crimson liquid to the puddle of tears on the floor. Similarly-hued gashes would form on his fluid-stained cheeks from his dissatisfaction of himself, and still yet none could notice those blood-curdling moans that forced themselves out of his throat.
The Card Captor noticed the fresh red lines and tan gashes that stood out from Syaoran's normal features. "What happened with those, Syao?" she asked, concerned with this new happening.
Syaoran came out from his blank trance for a few seconds to say, "Nothing, I was just careless."
In those moments when the storms had died down temporarily he would whisper instead of shout. "You were so careless Syaoran. You didn't do anything to stop these mistakes, you let yourself get closer to a love you might never achieve then hurt her in both physical and emotional ways."
"I was just careless."
The drizzle would grow in power once more; clouds deepening in black much darker than the patches of sky themselves. Gusts would whir past the glossed leaves in the foliage, sometimes sighing allegations in the convict's ear and mind. Lightning would fly past first, reminding him visually of what he had done, and then thunder would rumble as if to announce the sentence of which Li Syaoran was at fault.
Later he would fall roughly upon the floor in fatigue and soreness, leaving whatever happy nothings to occupy the bed. He would be forced to watch the shadows on the ceiling and wall, dancing a tragic play that he himself had written and performed just dates ago.
When the silent act had ended his own silhouette would have joined those on the walls before he took his place on the uncushioned seat. The staring competition would then again occur until the sun dawned and he was forced into a nightmarish slumber.
( End of Angst ) ( End of Angst ) ( End of Angst ) ( End of Angst )
He was again brought out of his daze by an incessant ringing. A girl sought to remedy this and answered her phone.
'I know that girl.'
"Hello, it's-"
'That's Sakura Kinomoto, right?' he told himself.
"SAKURA-CHAN!" blared out the receiver which completely rescued him from yet another tsunami of angst. His drooping eyes snapped wide at the outburst, but Sakura jumped nearly three feet in the air.
"Great-aunt Chiisana? Wha-"
Apparently, it was that overly high spirited relative in Beijing that Sakura had. Great-aunt Chiisana Kinomoto was an unmarried 47 year old, and a very wealthy one at that.
"Hey, hey Sakura-chan! Wazzup? Hey, hey, I have this plan. Your daddy approved of a field trip, so I sent for a helicopter to Tomoeda to pick you up. Imagine, a get-away in old Peking!" came the happy intervention.
Syaoran was shocked. Sakura had a great-aunt?
"But Chiisana-chan," Sakura tried to persist, but was cut off by a sudden loud buzzing sound. At first she thought it was a bee or grass-cutter, but it turned out to be something much, much bigger.
"Sakura-chan!" she heard her great-aunt shout, but this time it wasn't from the phone. Rather, it was from above her.
There was a look of terror…or at least discomfort…etched into Sakura. She could only watch as the helicopter grew larger and larger against the azure sky. The small hurricane of air swelled around the two as the large thing finally landed right in the middle of the parking lot.
Syaoran wasn't sure of what fact he was surprised of; Chiisana's existence or the helicopter right in the middle of an airport's car parking space. There was a fat lady who jumped heavily out of the door and alighted not-so-featherlike on the cement. He thought he could see a crack forming on the ground.
"Sakura-chan! Nice to meet you again, huh?" the woman said giggling and smiling like a pot of gold just landed on her head. "And who is this? Is this the young man you said you've 'fallen in love with'?" she continued.
This time it was Sakura's turn to change color. Her skin swiftly changed from fair to pale to red at that comment, as she didn't expect her great-aunt to talk so openly about their one-time conversation.
"Don't look so bothered Sakura, he can come along too! Right, Xiao Lang?"
Sakura turned even deeper scarlet, but Syaoran could easily see that her eye color changed too. From the bright green she usually had, he observed as a wave of darker forest viridian came over. Observed that change like he did in his own eyes, only from auburn to mahogany.
Sadness.
Syaoran was shocked by this. Sakura was sad because he couldn't come. He could see Chiisana's ('Wait…Chiisana? Little? This lady's enormous!') mouth moving, Sakura's half-hearted protests then the two clambering into the helicopter. Before the latter did though, he saw her lips move in what were probably just one or two words.
He couldn't hear anything else other than the chant that said,
"Sakura still loves you, even for what happened and what you've done."
He was somehow frozen as the helicopter started lifting off the ground. The only things that he could move were his pupils, which looked up to the shrinking object.
"Goodbye Syaoran." read one cherry blossom's lips.
The next thing he could hear was the sound of his name being called out by his cousin.
