Disclaimer: I only own CCS when I'm dreaming.
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Kami-sama Conspiracy
Round One: Fight (Part II)
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Previously
Syaoran could not really believe that a cat just attacked him. And now, anauburn-haired, green-eyed, pink bag-toting stranger had just stomped on his foot and grossly stuck out a tongue at him in less than a day's stay at his new country!
Nobody had ever talked to Li Syaoran that way. Ever. Not that he was having an ego trip, but the Li family is one of the most respectable families in Hong Kong. It was only by his mother's whim that they live now in Japan for a while which finally provided him a much needed break from the limelight. His day was clearly turning up for the worse.
He just wanted to go home.
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Sakura, on the other hand, could not believe that anyone could just be so cruel. She cuddled Kero to her as sprinted away from the chocolate-haired boy who was angrily following her. This guy just doesn't know the true meaning of the word back-off!
Sakura stopped and prepared to launch a stinging tirade at the boy. But to her surprise, the boy went past her. Incensed that the boy ignored her when he knew she was about to say something to him, she called him out. "Why the heck are you following me?"
A vein threatened to pop at the corner of Sakura's forehead. The monkey didn't even bother to answer me! The nerve! she thought, balling her hand into a tight fist.
Syaoran was walking down the street leading to his house when he heard the voice of the stranger.
"Hey."
Syaoran didn't stop but he took a quick glance at his back and saw an unfamiliar male and the razor-tongued stranger. Syaoran walked faster. Clearly, this lady has the habit of picking up a fight wherever she was.
"Hey you!"
Syaoran thought that, apparently, whomever the stranger picked a fight with chose the right decision of not paying attention.
"I asked you a question, you jerk!"
Syaoran stupidly wondered why he turned around, walked back to the stranger, and told her outright, "That's the fourth time you called me a jerk."
To Syaoran's horror, Sakura looked like she was trying to bit back a wayward smile. "It's nice to know that you can count. Convinced you're a jerk already?"
Syaoran opened his mouth for a stinging reply but the stranger beat him to it. "Well?"
"Well what?"
"Answer my question, dammit!"
"What question?"
Sakura actually rolled her eyes at Syaoran as if he was being stupid on purpose. "I'm going this way." She pointed at the street that he was walking at earlier. "You," she pointed at his chest with her index, "go yours. Got it?"
Syaoran knew that Nippongo was just his second language, but he was just as fluent. But somehow, she completely lost him. "What?"
"For Kami-sama's sake, I'll go this way andstop foll—no, do NOT follow me!"
"And what foolish monkey ever told you that I'm ever going to follow a cat-napping parrot like you!"
"That's bull! I lived in this place fifteen years of my life and practically know everyone in here, long enough to know that you do not live here!"
Syaoran advanced in on her and accidentally stepped on her foot. "You are so wrong in that department lady 'coz—"
"Ow!" Sakura glared hard at him before she dug the heel of her toe on Syaoran's foot again. Syaoran was about to retort, but Sakura cut him off as she threw her hand up in the air as a clear sign of exasperation. "Oh for shame! Why do I even bother talking to a dunderhead?"
Sakura started to stalk off but Kero jumped away from her clutches. "Kero!" But Kero ignored her and went to a garbage can at a street corner. "Come back here this minute, Kero!" Sakura shouted with her arms akimbo.
For the first time, Syaoran actually smirked before remarking sarcastically, "Your cat's a great actor. Are you his manager? One minute he's in pain, the next in glee with his fellow trash buddies."
"I heard that!"
"I meant for you to." Satisfied that he finally had the last word, Syaoran started to head back to his home sweet home while thinking of deviously torturous ways of getting back at the strange lady if he ever had the misfortune to meet her again.
Then he heard an ear-splitting scream behind him. This soon? he thought. Then he made another grave—very grave—mistake of looking behind him as he saw a strange orange cat hovering in the air and looked like it was going to land—
"Oh, shit!" he shrieked as the cat landed heavily on his head. He just plucked the heavy cat off his face when he heard the strange lady scream again.
"Run! Kero, run!"
He looked up and saw a group of dogs chasing the female who was running… towards…
Him! "Oh, no!"
She, Syaoran miserably thought as he ran towards the direction of his house with Kero the cat stuck on him, has got to be a magnet for trouble.
The dogs had finally given up after ripping a part of his jeans. Sakura was wide-eyed when he kicked the dog near the jaw so that he could escape. Sakura was still staring at the dog who howled in pain that Syaoran literally had to drag her by the arm before the other dogs rip her dress apart.
"You know, if I didn't know better, you got a nasty birthmark on your right cheek," Syaoran remarked as soon as he regained even breathing, and as soon as they lost the dogs.
Sakura was still clutching at her chest but Syaoran's remark left her mystified that she touched her cheeks unconsciously.
"On the butt's cheek, I meant."
"Why, you perv!"
"Oh, do stop being such a prissy! What exactly did you do to set those dogs off?"
"It wasn't… me," Sakura never thought that she'd actually stammer in front of this stranger. She answered that Kero had found food but the corner was apparently the dogs' territory and that…
"So it was your sweet, sweet kitty that got me again into trouble."
"Well, you weren't actually nice yourself in the first place! You kicked my cat—"
Syaoran rolled his eyes as he butted, "Because—"
"And then you kicked those poor, poor dogs—"
"The poor, poor dog tore my jeans," Syaoran grumbled. "And your poor, poor cat clawed at my shirt!"
Sakura huffed. "I said it wasn't my fault!"
"Did I say it was?"
"No."
"So leave it at that."
"You still kicked those animals."
"Hello? Would you rather let it have my leg then?" Syaoran rolled his eyes again. She must be a staunch supporter of animal rights.
"You could have tried to—"
"Look," Syaoran cut. "I'm tired. I've no time for this idle conversation. Like you said, I go this way, and you go… wherever your way is." And Syaoran turned his back at her and started to walk.
Sakura looked around and saw that they had stopped at an intersection near at her house. Then she stared at the stranger's back who was walking down her street. Sakura had to blink as the most unlikely realization passed through her head. It couldn't be.
Sakura sprinted and shot past Syaoran. She wanted to go back to the comfort of her bedroom to sleep away the remaining hours of the day and forget the awful events of today. Sakura was huffing again when she reached the gates of her house.
"That's stupid of you to sprint after a hell of a chase," boomed a voice behind her.
"Aaaah!"
Sakura looked like she'd seen a ghost.
"Don't you dare creep at me like that!" she admonished as she recognized Syaoran. But she realized how futile her death glare was as she stared at the laughing monkey in front of her. "It wasn't funny," she said in a flat voice, a vein throbbing dangerously at the corner of her forehead.
"I doubt if you'd see what's funny," he said afterwards. "You didn't get to see your face."
"You are the most irritating man I've ever had the misfortune to meet," Sakura stated, her emerald eyes meeting amber.
"Likewise."
An eternity of staring later…
"Well?"
"Well what?" Syaoran asked.
"How about going back to wherever hell you came from?"
Syaoran just arched a brow and inclined his head at the unlighted house on the right.
"You're feeding me cock and bull story again."
"Am not. Now why don't you sashay that bo—" Sakura glared at him. "Body! I was going to say body! Swear!"
"Well, I am home, too." Sakura snapped at him while her eyebrows arched as she looked at the house right beside his.
Syaoran looked at his house. Then at the female's house. Syaoran actually went pale: He's got a neighbor from hell!
Syaoran couldn't believe his unfortunate luck. He actually met a girl from hell and she happens to live beside him! On top of that, his only bedroom window turned out to be facing hers! Which he found out the next day when he opened the window of his bedroom to let some sunlight in.
Then Syaoran saw. He groaned at the sight of Sakura sprawled on her bed. Syaoran stared at his neighbor from hell and realized that looks could really be deceiving. The lady on the bed looked like she couldn't hurt a moth. He grudgingly admitted that besides looking so fragile, the girl was damn cute. With her auburn-hair framing rose-tinted cheeks, she looked so peaceful in her sleep that she could pass for a cherub. But alas, situation's different when she starts opening her mouth.
Then Syaoran saw at the corner of his eye that his neighbor's horrible cat sat on the window sill and was looking at Syaoran curiously. Not again!
To his surprise, the big cat jumped in his direction. Syaoran quickly tried to close his windows but the cat was too swift for him and landed on his chest again. Syaoran prepared himself for a massive clawing at his shirt.
It didn't come.
The cat instead jumped from his arms and, to his complete surprise, curled at the floor beneath his feet and purred at him. Syaoran stared. Syaoran risked another clawing when he crouched on the floor and attempted to caress the cat. The cat didn't resist and Syaoran took the gesture as if the cat had asked for truce. Syaoran smiled. "You're not bad." He gave the cat one last petting before he started preparing for school.
Syaoran arrived at his school with a positive thought that everything would come out right. He glanced at his watched and saw that it was still early. He went to the male's restroom first to freshen up. He intended to make a good impression on his first day at school. He'd already ruled out being neighborly for the most obvious reasons. He turned to the door out as he adjusted his cuffs.
He was glancing around the area when his stomach flipped. He felt like he would throw up the delicious breakfast that he had this morning upon sighting a very familiar figure running in the very hallway that he had trodden. Syaoran let out a groan before finding himself sprawled on the floor with his auburn-haired neighbor from hell on top of him.
(TBC)
A/N: This chapter was supposed to end at school. But I decided to cut it into reader "bite-size". Next chappie's up!