Disclaimer: CCS does rightfully belong to me... CLAMP STOLE IT!!! That's what I wish anyway... oh well.
Sorry for leaving you on such a cliffhanger last time. I'll be stealing some ideas from Inuyasha in this.
Today this chapter will be a special one... one for reaching over TWO HUNDRED reviews! It'll be longer than normal.
EVERYONE!!!! I have a brand NEW story going on now. It's called Surfacing Hearts!!!! So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE check it out!
Ice Queen
Chapter Nineteen
"It's ok everyone. Don't panic. It's ok. It'll be ok," Tomoyo shrieked as she ran around the kitchen wildly. "Just because some fiend ate or threw away all our food, we still shouldn't panic!"
The girls who had been cooking were crying. They had left the room just one minute, and when they returned the room was like this. In shambles.
The door slammed open, "What the heck is going on in here!!!!" It was a very scary Sakura, "With you guys like this I can't study my lines!!!!!"
"The Ice Queen is in the play?" a small wisp of a phrase floated across the room. Immediately, the poor girl had the Ice Queen and Tomoyo glaring at her.
"So what's wrong?" Sakura put her hands on her hips. She'd have to help them all out if she wanted peace and quiet to memorize some of her last lines.
Tomoyo's eyes were suddenly watery, "Oh... Sakura... it's awful!!!" She pointed at the tables, stoves, and ovens, "Someone destroyed our food!!! We can't have a festival without food!!!!"
"Baka," Sakura poked Tomoyo on the forehead. "Use this. This is called your brain. Just go to the twenty-four-hour convenience store and buy all the food you can find."
"You'll do it for me?" the puppy dog eyes won Sakura over again. That's two times in a row.
She sighed and rain a her fingers through her auburn hair, "Fine. Get about five more girls. I'm driving."
Tomoyo yelped happily and called a few reluctant girls over and handed her car keys and wallet over to her best friend, "Thank you so much, Sakura!"
"Yah. Yah. Whatever," Sakura and the girls hopped into Tomoyo's shiny, black convertible. "Be back in fifteen minutes."
Tomoyo smiled and waved, then she had a thought and turned white, "SAKURA YOU GET BACK HERE!!!!!"
The emerald-eyed girl smirked when she heard Tomoyo screech her name. "Ano... Kinomoto-sama..." one of the girls looked over at her nervously. "Do you already have your license?"
"Nope."
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" the girls screams were loud and very high pitched, giving poor Sakura a head ache.
"Oh shut up!" there was silence... a terrified silence. "Don't worry, I know how to drive."
A breath of relief swept through the car. The Ice Queen was known to be honest... she was famous for it. The only Ice Queen that is cold but fair.
"Here we are. You've got ten minutes to grab all the food you can get."
The signal was out and the five girls charged into the store, scary shtloads out of all the customers. They were grabbing and filling baskets with things like instant ramen and cakes and drinks and such.
Slowly sauntering into the store, Sakura leaned against the counter table and talked with the semi-frightened worker.
"They're really dedicated I guess," the man smiled when Sakura finished the story about why they were here. She raised an eyebrow in response, "Really? I just think they're nuts."
But as she looked over at the girls, the man looked at her and he grinned when he saw a twinkle of respect in her eyes.
"What?" Sakura turned to the man. "Do I have something on my face? What's so funny?" She didn't mean to, but her voice had gone into icy mode. It was instinct. "S-Sorry! It was n-nothing!" if the cashier hadn't been scared of her before, he definitely was now.
Sakura just sighed and waved the girls over.
"And the total comes to..." the poor cashier was having the hardest time scanning all the products as fast as he could, it would take a while.
The Ice Queen just leaned over the counter, "Look. I'm in a hurry, so I'll tell you what. This is what you call a credit card. I'll slide it, punch the numbers in, and you put in the total when you figure it out. There's twenty boxes of ramen, seventeen bottles of 7up, eighteen bottles of coke, .... And when you get the total you can put it in."
"But," Sakura stopped as she reached the door. "If you even try to rip me off by putting in the wrong numbers... let's say you'll just have a rather... untimely death."
Her voice had a deadly edge to it as she waved and walked out of the store, watching the girls loading all the food onto the car.
"Sakura!!!! Arigatou!!!!!" Tomoyo was hugging Sakura. "Thanks to you the festival is saved!!!!!!!"
"Can't breathe... Tomoyo..." Sakura gasped in breaths of air as soon as her friend released her. She was receive odd looks from the girls in the room, but she just glared them down.
She left and walked into the empty piano room, where she had been practicing her lines before. Sakura sighed, "Why in the world do I let her talk me into these things?"
"Because you're nicer than you seem," Syaoran walked into the room, smiling good naturedly.
Sakura glared up at him, "Want to say that again?" If looks could kill, well let's say Syaoran would be dead.
He grinned at her and put his hands up in defense, "In think I'll pass... besides, you shouldn't stay in this room the whole time. You know your lines well enough. Come on out, the festival has begun." Syaoran held his hand out to her.
"Ugh. Fine," Sakura took the offered hand. "What do you want to do?"
As the two walked along the hall Syaoran looked around, "I don't know. The play is at the end of the day so I guess we can just hand around until then... huh?"
"Help me!!!!" Syaoran turned and sweatdropped as he saw Sakura be dragged away by Tomoyo.
"Sakura. Our solo singer caught a cold. You have to fill in for her," Tomoyo suddenly had stars in her eyes. "And I'll make you a last minute costume too. Ohohohoho."
"No way," Sakura began backing up out of the room. The rest of the choir was there and they watched, slightly amused. "No way in hll am I going to sing. I'm already acting for you, I am NOT singing."
"I can't believe I'm singing," Sakura moaned as Tomoyo swiftly did the girl's hair. Syaoran was standing leaning against the wall, trying to comfort her, "Aw... don't worry about it. If anyone talks about it afterwards, you can kill them."
Sakura turned and her eyes shot daggers and the amber-eyed boy, "I have to sing First Love by Utada Hikaru. FIRST LOVE!!!! Can you imagine ME singing FIRST LOVE?!?!"
"I will be able to after you sing it," Syaoran ran out of the room, as Sakura chased him, ready to kill.
Taking a deep breath Sakura turned around and looked at a mirror and gasped, "Tomoyo... I don't think I can wear this... I'm the Ice Queen"
"So what? You look pretty in it," Tomoyo added last adjustments before batting her on the back. "There. Perfect. Now go, I hear the choir finishing their song."
Sakura sighed and began walking towards the stage, but turned around, "Tomoyo. I have an idea."
Loud whistles and cheers were heard as a mysterious, but beautiful girl stepped onto the stage.
She wore a long, baby-pink dress that flowed down in an overlapping motion. The dress was sleeveless, but on the girl's arm was a ribbon that went from her elbow to her fingers, tied like lace.
On her face was a small, pink mask that went around her eyes, and in her hair was a sing, solitary pink rose.
"Sakura?" Syaoran rubbed his eyes and looked again. It was Sakura but it was very hard to tell, because of the mask. The entire audience probably thought is was someone else, but since he knew her best, he knew it was her.
The music started playing and Sakura opened her mouth to sing.
"Sai go maru...
.....................
.....................
Ashita no imagoro ni waAnata wa doko ni jibun re dare wore
Omotterun Darou
You were always gonna be my love
Itsuka Darekato mata koini ochitemo
I'll remember to love, you taught me how
Now and forever you are still the one
Ima Wa mada kanashii love song
Atarashii uta utaeru made
........................
......................."
The audience didn't cheer or clap as the song ended. As Sakura held her breath, scared of how awful her singing must have been.
She was wrong though; the room wasn't silent because of her awful singing. They were silent because they were mesmerized. Mesmerized by her beautiful signing voice, drifting through their ears.
All of a sudden there was the sound of clapping. One person, Syaoran. Immediately, the people burst into applause shouting, "Bravo!" and "Encore!!"
Sakura smiled in surprise as someone through a bouquet of roses at her. She picked it up, bowed, and left the stage, smiling in delight. But as instinct would have it, as soon as she took off the mask, her smile disappeared. She had to maintain her image, after all.
"Oi! Sakura!" Syaoran ran into the room. "You were great. Here." He handed her a bowl of ramen and grinned, "I don't have roses like that other guy, but I have instant noodles!"
Smirking, Sakura sat down and began eating, "I think I like your present better."
"SAKURA!!!!"
"Oh no. Not Tomoyo again," Sakura sighed and stood up. "I've been doing things all day. Why can't she give me a break?"
The older woman raced into the room and smiled, "Oh Syaoran. You're here too. Perfect. You two have to get ready for the play. It's about to start!!"
Heero (Syaoran) smiled at the audience when the curtains opened. All the girls gasped and blushed. He was wearing a black gi with the sleeves torn off. His hakama was also black, but they were much less baggy than traditional samurai attire. His entire image screamed "Cool."
Heero made his way across the stage towards two students dressed as adults, "Mother. Father. You really can't be serious about his."
"We are dead serious," his father's voice boomed. "You are the sole heir to the Kishimoto Clan. You must abide by the rules."
"But a wife? You want girls to go into a competition to find the most suitable wife for me?" his voice was filled with disbelief.
"Darling," his mother's eyes were gentle and more understanding. "You two won't be married right away. You can wait until you get married. This competition will decide your fiancée."
His father's eyes were hard, "You were never very interested in girls anyway. You don't love anyone so it doesn't matter. You should care less. We just need to secure the family line. We are the most powerful family in this part of Japan, after all."
"Fine," Heero sighed.
-- (Scene Change)
"Father!" Suzuka (Sakura) screamed. "Why in the world do I have to do this. Just because she was Mother's friend doesn't mean I have to marry her son!"
"Honey," her father's tone warned her to be quiet. "She promised her friend before she died, that you would at least try in the competition. See, you don't even have to win. Just attend. Besides, they want the chosen wife to be able to fight. The competition teaches you and allows you to train. Didn't you always want to be a fighter?"
"Fine," Suzuka sighed.
-- (Scene Change)
Walking down the hall of the Kishimoto residence, Suzuka bumped into someone, causing her to fall down, "Oi! Watch it."
"What did you say?" Suzuka looked up into a pair of amber eyes. They belonged to Heero.
"I said WATCH IT," Sakura hissed at the boy as she stood up, brushing her clothes off. "You obviously don't know who I am," Heero smirked at her, waiting for the stupid girl to recognize him and apologize non stop.
Sakura just raised an eyebrow at him. Heero stared at the insolent idiot who didn't show him respect, let alone know his name, "My name is Kishimoto Heero."
"Does this face look like it cares?" Suzuka smirked at him. "You're trying out to be my wife aren't you?" Heero frowned. "Most girls would be bowing down to me by now."
Suzuka smirked and jabbed her thumb towards herself, "Oh. But I'm not most girls. I'm Suzuka the Ice Maiden. I show respect only to those who deserve it."
"Che. Don't be so FULL of yourself," Sakura hissed and smiled maliciously, taunting Syaoran. "I'm doing this as a favor for someone. Who'd actually want to go through this stupid process of yours... and for that matter... who'd want to be YOUR wife anyway?"
"Why you little..." Syaoran raised his hand to slap her. Sakura just smirked coldly, "What? Aren't you going to do it? Hit me! But I must warn you... I might retaliate."
The two jumped a few feet away from each other and got into fighting stances.
To be continued...
I'll continue and finish the play in the next chapter. So... what do you think? I used the lyrics to Utada Hikaru's First Love.
Ano - um