Cherish

by zenhir

A simple story about coffee and perhaps something more.

3. moment

'moment'

Syaoran came by the next Saturday. A week before Christmas. I remember because the windows were frosted with winter grace.

He was wearing a black coat over his usual white dress shirt. It seemed as if he had just attended an important errand and looked rather tired.

I gave him a welcoming smile, wishing to ask him about last week, "The usual?"

"Yes." He answered simply.

I happily handed him the cup and was about to ask him a question when he suddenly left the counter without a word and made through the front door. I watched in confusion as he disappeared from the glossy window view. There was a car waiting for him outside. Someone opened the door for him. Only when the next customer, an elderly woman, politely asked if she could order did I come back to my senses.

Was it something…did I say something…

I switched shifts with Nami for the rest of the day. I didn't do much but wipe the counter even though Yukito just cleaned it this morning. All I wanted to do was push my hand along the ragged cloth over something nice and smooth.

I was frustrated, I admitted. I thought after our last conversation, things were going to be at least a little different.

When I came home Touya asked me why I looked ready to claw my hair out. He told me not to think so much about my next math test. He said it was winter break and to use it to relax.

I lied to him about the math test. I didn't have one.

>

To: sakurablossoms

Subject: Hi. Hi. HI.

Dear my favorite Tomoeda girl,

Its Eriol, you've probably been wondering where the heck I was this past month. This might surprise you but I'm out on vacation with my family. I know I missed finals, but don't worry, I've got it all covered. I wondered if you knew how Tomoyo is doing. She hasn't been replying my emails. Is something going on? You don't think she's mad at me do you?

Best Early Christmas Wishes,

Eriol

>

I was reading Eriol's email when Touya's loud voice shouted from the sofa about something on the news. I wasn't half paying attention but I'm sure he was going about the soccer games again. He used to play.

"Little jerk's gone and went on another stupid vacation again."

Well that didn't sound like the next close goal kick.

"Touya…" I said warningly from my seat. Dad never liked bad language. I tried to enforce it upon my brother when dad wasn't home.

"Not my problem! They deserve all the damn trash they get from the media…holding up all their openings just because of one…" He rambled off as the reporter sped in to retaliations of the economy drop.

I sighed.

>

To: HiirigizawaEriol

Subject: Tomoyo

Dear Eriol,

I think Tomoyo deleted her email account. Or changed it. I don't have much news about her family and how she's doing. I can't reach her either. I'm actually really worried. But please don't let that ruin your vacation. Have fun!

Early Christmas to you too,

Sakura

>

After I closed the computer I realized I'd forgotten to ask him if he knew Syaoran. It had just slipped my mind.

Besides.

I didn't have to ask Eriol about a complete stranger.

It was December Twenty Five. Touya bought me a new hair clip. I rarely put my hair up but just to please him I did so. My ears were red because it was so cold.

I was quiet when Syaoran walked through the door. He was wearing a brown coat and a white dress shirt. The speakers were dazzling with carols and cherry singing. The customers were smiling and beaming at one another. I bet this was the only café open in the entire neighborhood block. Yukito always enjoyed Christmas, besides I had the evening with Touya. But this was one Christmas where I was numb. Was it because my hair was up, I don't know.

I handed him the cup without him even asking to order. He didn't object and immediately veered off towards a direction that was unfamiliar to me. He walked over to Yukito and started talking. I helped the next customer with a corner of my eye glued to their strange conversation. Yukito kept smiling and nodding, then shaking, then nodding, and smiling.

What was going on?

After what seemed like an entire line of Christmas frostbitten customers all with the same smiling cheerful expression glued on their faces, Syaoran and Yukito finally separated. Syaoran walked to the door. Yukito came towards me, wiping his hands on his apron, and smiling his sneaky smile again.

"You have the day off, starting now."

I stared at him, "What?"

"You heard me," He chirped, "Get out of here."

"But – today's so busy – and half the staff isn't – "

"Hey!" He said, looking at Sakura with a serious look, "I'm in charge here, and I just gave you an order to stop working and get out there and enjoy today okay?"

Knowing I couldn't argue with his point, I untied my apron amidst my loud vocal grumbling and left the counter. Yukito quickly took over.

I nearly knocked in to the person behind me. Two warm hands grabbed the sides of my arms to keep my balance and I nearly screamed.

"Hey."

"Syaoran?" I breathed.

"Would you like to take a walk?"

Before I could say yes or no, he led me out the door, in to the frosty Saturday morning air, and out on to the wet streets. I exhaled a breath of hot air and it floated upwards. He let go of my arms once we were sufficiently away from the coffee shop.

Syaoran stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at me, "I thought you might have wanted a break from work today."

"That was you?" I said.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Its Christmas, and we haven't talked in a while."

I looked at him in disbelief, "You mean you haven't been talking in a while…where have you been? You didn't even say hi or – "

"Sorry…I was on a tight schedule…and…they were already…I mean…and plus…I was…" He started muttering more and more until I couldn't hear what he was saying.

"You were…" I helped him along. He looked a bit uncomfortable for once.

"Nothing…I had to go out of the country for a while. That's why I wasn't here two weeks ago…and last time…I was late for a flight."

"Its okay."

"Hm?" He looked up.

"I said its okay, as long as you weren't…" mad at me… My ears turned red. I worried too much. He was just busy.

He gave an awkward smirk, "Missed me?"

I jerked at him, "I – " There he went again. Switching my thoughts around so fast I could barely catch up.

He caught my elbow and started forwards down the crowded streets crammed with families and people off from their jobs.

"Let's take a walk, I have somewhere I want to show you."

I inhaled sharply as we went across several streets. We were both lost in our thoughts but nonetheless, I could say I enjoyed the unfamiliar company. I usually worked all Christmas morning with Yukito. I haven't really experienced what it was like outside during all the noisy holiday commotion.

It was warm. Even though I couldn't feel my nose and my eyes watered from the icy air. It seemed so warm inside. Everyone was laughing, hugging, smiling, and even singing as they crossed the crosswalks or walked down the side.

Had I really missed all this when I was inside the coffee shop?

Every year?

I felt as if I was visiting a foreign country. Even though I've been a resident for more than six years.

He was taking me to the park.

I've never been to the park during the winter before.

Touya would sometimes take me during the summer when he had days off. But we wouldn't do much but walk around once and head home. When we were younger, I remembered we used to chase the birds. But that had always been during the summer. When the trees were full and green. And when there were birds in the first place. So why now? Why? The trees were bare. The ground was wet.

In my opinion. The park was rather gloomy in the winter.

But there wasn't a falter in his step as he strode up the steps towards the gate, his hand still behind my elbow.

He led me deep in to the center. A place I didn't really recognize. However some parts of it seemed so anciently familiar to me.

And he came to a gradual stop, right in front of a small gray bench, twisted and worn from many people using its strength to rest their poor feet.

He sat down.

I looked around myself. There were trees everywhere. Leafless trees. I stared at him.

"Sit down, Sakura."

I gave him a skeptical look and he sighed, "Please?"

I sat reluctantly. The bench looked quite cold.

"How does it feel?"

"Hm?"

"To be taking the day off?"

I leaned stiffly back in to the bench. It wasn't that comfortable, "Different."

He was looking off somewhere in the distance. I tried to see what he was looking at, but I couldn't find what was so interesting.

"Where is this place?"

"The park."

I stifled a small laugh on my part, "Yes I know, but where in the park…"

"Oh, that." He looked around, "Can't you guess?"

I tried to. Somehow I had a gut feeling I had been here a long time before. But it was still unfamiliar.

"…its hard."

He nudged me in the shoulder gently, "I'll give you a hint."

I looked over at him; he had his eyes towards to me in a mischievous grin, "Sakura Kinomoto."

"Hm? That's a hint?" I said, rather confused.

"Sure."

I rubbed my nose, it was numb. Or my hands were numb.

"I don't know. I give up."

He hummed loudly and stretched himself across the bench. He looked comfortable.

Syaoran gave me a sidelong glance, "Then I won't tell you."

"That's not fair."

"Its very fair, Sakura."

I stuck out my chin, "You do realize I came out of my way to leave my job, an annual routine for me and my Christmas, to spend the morning with a person I barely know and who refuses to tell me anything?"

His face held a funny expression, "What do you think of this place?"

Changing the subject.

"It's a park. I've been here before."

"No, what do you think of it now. Not before."

I looked around. The trees looked old. The branches were empty. There was no green. I couldn't find the warmth in the people anymore because there were so less.

"Its…kind of….plain." I said, trying to not sound offensive.

He grinned, "Exactly why we're here."

"Huh?"

He pointed at the tree in front of us, "Look at that. Describe it in one word."

"Tree." I said the first thing that came to mind. Even inside my own head I knew it sounded lame.

He shook his head.

"Fine, mister smarty Li, you describe it one word."

"Wisdom." He lowered his finger; "Think about how many people this one tree has seen sitting on this bench. If you look carefully, you notice that the other trees form a semi ring around it, this one gave birth to all the other ones nearby, it's the oldest one in this grove."

Now since he pointed it out to me, I did notice how the one tree in front of us stood out slightly more. But still. It was a tree.

"Now that," He said, pointing at an ordinary looking rock covered in melted snow.

"One word?"

"mhm."

"Um…" I tried to think harder this time, "Solitary?"

He smiled, "That's good, now describe this place in one word."

"This entire place?" I said.

He nodded.

I thought for the longest time, twisting and turning in my seat. Bringing my finger up to my chin and to rub my head. It was like he was playing with my mind. Making me think so hard on Christmas, and there wasn't even a right or wrong answer.

The place that came off to me at first was "plain." But sitting there on a simple bench for more than a few minutes now, I've come to look at my surroundings more. Sure, it differed from the usual coffee shop. The usual counters, and the usual tables. This was a secluded place somewhere else. It was different. Different? I just noticed that there was frost covering the trees. At first I had thought someone had the crazy idea to throw sprinkles over the entire grove but then I realized the sun was reflecting every single dew as it slid in and out between the white cotton clouds that painted the sky. Every single moment seemed to warm me a little more. The bench wasn't so cold anymore. I almost forgot where I was. What I was doing. Why I was here. I couldn't take my eyes off an imaginary place somewhere in the distance.

"Beautiful." I breathed at last.

Syaoran startled me and knocked me out of the current daydream. I forgot I was sitting on a bench. I forgot he had been next to me.

"You know what I think?"

"What?" I said quietly, my eyes moving towards him.

"If you shout out that word again, I'll shout out what this place is called, and what I think of it at the same time."

"Shout?"

"Go ahead."

"Why shout?" I said even more softly.

"Because, you'll feel more alive. Trust me, no one can hear it, there's more than a mile off in any direction. According to the city, we're in the middle of nowhere."

I took a deep breath in. This had to be the craziest thing I've ever heard.

"Go on."

"Are you sure you'll do it with me?"

"I will."

"This feels weird."

"It always does the first time."

"Do you do this a lot?"

"Yes."

That surprised me. Syaoran was always wearing nice dress clothes. He always seemed so mature and professional. It never seemed to come to my mind that someone like him could possibly walk to the middle of nowhere and shout things to nothing in particular.

"Go on." He said again, nudging me in the elbow. I glanced at him.

"You sure?"

"Yes."

I took another deep breath. This has got to be the weirdest Christmas I've ever spent.

"Oh…kay…"

I waited until the hard thud in my chest slowed to a reasonable tempo. This was just a strange dream.

I took one last deep breath.

"this place is…BEAUTIFUL!" I yelled as loud as could. My voice resonated much bigger than I had ever expected, it bounced off all the trees, moved the snow, stirred the icy breeze, woke up a flock of migrating birds, and came back to me ten times as shocking.

I inhaled sharply and breathed, "That was me?"

"Good first time, now listen. This place is…"

Syaoran took a huge breath and placed his hands around his mouth then screamed, "SAKURA!" His voice made me dizzy. The wind picked up right after the last "a" blew past all the trees and made several remaining leaves drop to the ground. The frost on the trees even moved for him.

"Sakura?" I asked him.

"These are Sakura trees silly." He laughed.

"Cherry…" Old black and white photos of a smiling woman and a certain tree flocked with pink flowers swarmed my memories.

I smiled breathlessly, my fingers numb but I hardly noticed, "I want to do that again."

He leaned forward on to his knees and grinned, "Go for it, by the way, your hair looks nice that way."

I pretended to ignore that comment. But my ears turned slightly red. Because it just got windy. Of course.

>

"I'm so tired now." I laughed.

He fell against the back of the bench and watched me laugh, "How did that feel?"

"Alive. I feel so awake." I was a little light-headed from all the screaming. Passerbys would've thought we had escaped the mental institution.

"Good, just don't pass out."

"I won't." I kicked his foot playfully and laughed again at his amused expression.

"Hmm…"

"What are you thinking about?"

I pulled my legs on to the bench and hugged them, "Its just…so different this year…every year…I always spent Christmas at work. It feels…different to be outside."

"I know how you feel."

"Hm?"

"I come here every so often to escape. No one knows about it but me."

He paused.

"And you."

I breathed in slowly. I was getting light-headed.

I smiled quickly to catch the moment, "So tell me where you went last last week?"

He stared at me, "Well…it was a…personal trip I decided to take."

"Really? Was it fun?"

"Sort of." He looked straightforward, "I had things to do."

I nodded.

We stayed in a long period of content silence, both of us enjoying the simple pleasure of a small simply old bench and a grove of bare leafless trees.

He was the first to say something.

"Tell me how you met your friend, um, Daidouji was it?"

"Oh! Tomoyo?" I giggled, "Its rather embarrassingly."

He sighed, "I'm sure my story is worse."

"You mean Eriol?" I laughed. I could imagine all the scenarios I could concur with Eriol Hiirigizawa in the picture. That boy could make anything happen.

"Okay," I said, "Only if we trade."

"Hm."

One day, we had a neighborhood party and I wanted to tell daddy something so I went around the room trying to find him. When I found where he was I raced towards him and was just about to wrap my arms around him when he suddenly side stepped to help my brother with a large package from one of our neighbors. I ran head on in to a small girl about my size and we went crashing in to one of the banners that released all the streamers on the ceiling. They ended up falling decoratively across every guest in the room and everyone had been completely silent. I was wearing my mother's sweater. It was fairly new back then. And it was too big for me. I ripped the sleeve when it got caught on the table's corner. I apologized profusely to the girl I had run over. She was so pretty, I felt bad for messing up her very nice dress. Her name was Tomoyo Daidouji. We became inseparable friends soon afterwards. She helped fix my dress.

I smiled when I finished. I hadn't heard myself relay a story for a long time.

"That's always a nice way to meet someone, knock them over."

I laughed at it but missed the irony in his voice because that's how we met. I looked at his shirt. I remembered the heavy coffee stain he left in that morning.

"Now that's nothing." He said, "Nothing at all."

"Let's hear it."

He put on a thoughtful look and stared up at the sky, "Letsee…there was Me, Eriol, and my sister's open dresser…"

From that one beginning I could predict a million things that could happen next. I listened to his story with wide eyes and more than once I burst out laughing.

>

"Wow…" I said breathlessly.

Syaoran stretched his arms, "Its been a long time…I think we passed two."

"Two?" My stomach growled. I had forgotten about lunch.

He got to his feet skillfully with perfect balance and control, his hands never leaving the sides of his hips. That triggered a pressing question of mine.

"Did you happen to dance when you were little?"

He looked at me a surprised look, "Dance?"

"You're always so well postured, and you're very flexible for a guy."

"Oh, no, Not dance, "He laughed," I took martial arts."

My eyes widened, "That's why you have so much balance," My understanding look changed to a suspicious one, "So…why did you lose your grip the first time we met?"

Syaoran shrugged quickly, "Don't know…just slipped." He turned to his side and started walking away. I hurried to catch up. He sounded nervous talking about it. So we walked in momentary silence.

It was strange when we left the coffee shop.

Now it felt strange leaving the warmth of the bench and the welcoming freshness of the Sakura grove.

It was ironic, how much could change in a morning.

And I had thought this place was plain.

The leaves on the floor stuck to the pavement and scuttled away as my sneakers pushed past them. Syaoran's pace was very even and each step seemed to have been perfectly planned and well positioned. My pace was quick and light as if I had too much energy in my feet and needed to get more stuff done in as little distance as possible.

While we walked, Syaoran would sometimes hum something and look around. I put my hands in my sweater pockets. My fingers felt cold again.

"Are your hands cold?" He asked suddenly and then even more quickly he asked, "Have you ever had your fortune read?"

I shook my head to clear my thoughts from the sudden changes, "Um…no…"

"Let me see your hand." He laid out his right hand and I unwillingly slid my left out of the warm pocket. I put it in his palm and he stared at it. We were still walking. I could see people now, which signified that we were getting closer to the exit.

With his other finger he traced the lines on my palm and stared at it inquiringly. I was curious, "What do they mean?"

"This one," He said, pointing at a longer line, "Shows how naïve you are, see how long it is? It means you are really naïve."

I stared. Hm…Touya always said I was naïve…

"This one," He said again, tracing one finger down a shorter line, "Is your luck, according to it, you have horrible luck."

I blanched, "My fortune sounds bad."

"No, I'm not done yet," He held on to my hand a little tighter and pointed at my pinky, "This one, is half an inch shorter than your ring finger meaning you'll have a very short boyfriend. And your first child will be really tall."

"A short boyfriend?" I cocked my head. That sounded unconvincing but he sounded really serious.

"Your index finger is slightly crooked so it means you'll have trouble managing your quintuplets in the future."

"Quintuplets?" I cried in shock.

So far, my future sounded rather bleak. I was getting more and more nervous. The noise around was getting louder now. I glimpsed the sidewalk and cars once more.

He placed his right hand over my entire palm so my hand was sandwiched between them and closed his eyes. He looked deep in thought.

"What? What's wrong?" I asked.

"Your palm is U shaped, it means you'll live in a farm with your ten kids and a short husband."

I quailed, "Well…"

"Your chickens will die the first year," He interrupted out of the blue. Chickens? Oh…on the farm. Of course we'd have chickens.

"A wolf will kill one of you cows. Another you'll lose to a storm."

My heart went out to the cow who got killed by a wolf.

But if the wolf had to eat.

"You'll get a dog but one of your kids will eat it for dinner when you aren't looking."

That was just slightly disturbing.

"Your husband will become so vertically challenged that he'll combust due to the gravitational pull."

I gasped. Somewhere in the back of my mind, his words were becoming more and more unbelievable and yet I clung on to every sentence. He had a very convincing and entrancing voice.

He opened his eyes and took me by surprise. We had stopped walking entirely.

He kept a very straight expression with the next few words, "I'm sorry, but all I've said about your future was a lie."

I started, "What?"

He gave me a funny look, "And you are rather naïve…"

"Wait, why? You were so – so – serious!"

I suddenly noticed the weight of his hands over mine. I just realized my fingers weren't cold anymore. In fact, they were quite warm.

He gave me a small smile, "I just wanted to hold you hand."

I forgot how to talk.

He helped me along.

"Merry Christmas, Sakura."

I was still opening and closing my mouth like a dying fish. How graceful was I.

He laughed at my expression and tugged me along towards the crowded street, "I won't make Yukito worry, I said I'll have you back before three. Since we have an hour, how about some coffee at your favorite café?"

There was a chill at the back of my neck where my hair was lifted.

"Sure."

I finally found my voice. A little late, but just for the moment.