Chapter 2: Syaoran

Ayumi walked in, leaning towards Sakura with a sneer, 'Those eyes of yours aren't like you at all,' she pulled her fist up, 'let me fix them for you.'

Sakura closed her eyes as Ayumi's fist closed in.

She was sweating, waiting for the impact...which never happened. Her fist was in the hand of a brown-haired stranger, facing away from Sakura.

'Who the fuck are you?' Ayumi screeched.

'Who are you?' the figure questioned coolly, 'you're certainly no friend of her's,' he added.

'Well what do you want? You don't even know her,' Ayumi said quickly, wanting to get back to what she was doing.

'I know enough to stop you beating her up,' he growled, mouth forming a sneer.

Ayumi, clearly not wanting to get beat up by a guy about a foot taller than her, backed off, like a spoilt child who's source of entertainment disappeared.

'Well, at least she had brains,' he said once she had left, turning to look at Sakura with chocolate coloured eyes.

Sakura, who had been holding her breath, finally let it loose, and blushed at being saved by a cute guy she'd never seen before.

'Are you all right?' he asked her, concerned.

'Y-yeah, she's g-gone now...' Sakura stuttered.

'Has this happened before?' he questioned.

Sakura looked away, ashamed.

'Shit. Well, she's not about to give up,' he scowled, 'what's your name, anyway?'

'S-Sakura...' She stuttered, still slightly nervous, 'w-what's your's?'

He grinned, slightly, 'Syaoran, at your service,' he completed with a bow, making her blush and giggle slightly.

'So, are you new?' she asked as they walked and sat on a bench.

'Yeah, fairly. Wanna show me around?' he asked jokingly.

'Are you sure you'd want to be seen with me?' she asked quietly.

'What's wrong with being seen with you?'

'Um... I'm not exactly popular,' she reasoned, 'at all.'

He rolled his eyes, 'like I care. Anyone that gives you a hard time about it'll answer to me!' he exclaimed.

She laughed, her mood lightening.

Sakura went back to class, already missing Syaoran, her new friend.

She sat daydreaming through maths, which she was already failing, so she couldn't get worse.

As the bell rang, she automatically pulled her bag on and stepped out of the classroom, and was instantly noticed by Ayumi and her gang, who began to approach then stopped, walking in the opposite direction. Sakura let out the breath she was subconsciously holding, and looked for the source of the strange behaviour.

Syaoran walked up to her, 'looks like I'll have to come straight to your classroom every break,' he gestured to the giggling group far away.

'Sorry,' she said quietly.

'Don't be sorry,' he insisted, 'Are you free tonight?' he asked, then answering to her expression, 'no, no, it's not a date, it's more of a... meet up.'

Reassured, Sakura nodded, asking if it was a sleep over.

'Yeah, do you need to tell parents or something?' He noticed her flinch at the word.

'Yeah, something like that... Where is this 'meet up'?'

At the answer, she looked thoughtful.

'It's not too far from my house.' She explained the whereabouts.

'Oh, right, I'll come with you,' he added, 'as long as you don't mind?'

'Yeah, its fine, come,' she said, 'you're good at warding off "bad spirits".'

He grinned, and they set off for her house.