All is Fair in Love and Hate

By PrEeN and hyperactive cookies.

Chapter 4: A Good Time With Friends

Onerous; (oh-ne-rus) adjective.Burdensome.

Onerous. Mr. Syaoran Li is completely and utterly onerous. It is now official. He is also pig-headed, possessive, an idiot, insulting, very easily detestable, irritating, immature, quite frankly disgusts me, and is a really good kisser.

Hang on, where did that come from?

Well in order for you to get some understanding of what made me come to this conclusion, albeit grudgingly, but still willingly, I need to re-count the events of Friday night, when I went out Kilik. Let us begin.

I got to the restaurant we were meeting at 15 minutes late, cursing myself and my inability to choose my own wardrobe, as well as my tendency to not wear a watch. Looking through the window I saw Kilik sitting at a table near the entrance, partly obscured by a pot plant. That made me giggle for some reason. Gawd, I'm retarded.

Anyway, just as I was about to go inside, a certain brown haired and amber- eyed baka caught my eye. Sitting in a cosy little booth, he was, with some blonde woman with big boobs. That awful, arrogant, chauvinistic individual just had to have the last word about everything. Argh! He makes me so mad!

I walked into the restaurant feeling significantly less amiable than I had before, and sat down in front of Kilik with a mumbled, "Hi."

He wasn't the slightest bit put off, which, looking back, I'm grateful for, but at the time it infuriated me.

"I'm so sorry about rushing off earlier, Sakura," he said with a charming smile, which pacified me slightly, "I was on the way to a meeting. But allow me to make it up to you," he reached for my hand and kissed it. The nerve of that guy! I snatched my hand away, and he gave me a puzzled look.

"I'm so sorry I'm late," I replied with an apologetic smile, "I really need to get myself a watch, don't I?" He gave me a tight smile, obviously feeling slightly uncomfortable now, but I pretended not to notice.

"So, tell me about what you've been doing over the last couple of years." I flashed a dazzling smile, determined to have a good time this evening, even if it was just to spite Li. I mean, honey-darling-buttercup-pumpkin. Ick.

"Well, Kimiko and I went to law school together…" his voice sounded strained, "but she pulled out when we broke up." he gave an ironic smile at the next part, "It turned out that she had cheated on the exams to get in, and had been taking my notes and duplicating my assignments, using a thesaurus to re-word things."

He made a funny face, screwing up his face and grimacing at the same time. I placed my hand over his and patted it in what I hoped was a friendly, comforting way. I didn't want to give him any more ideas, and I hoped that he had gotten the picture from my earlier, um, response.

Suddenly a tall man with an imitation Hitler moustache and fancy waiter uniform walked over to the table, cutting off the conversation.

"Are you ready to order?" he asked us in a nasally voice, giving us a bored look.

Grabbing the menu, I quickly glanced at it and pointed to something. Kilik took his time, and the waiter and I shared exasperated looks while he wasn't looking.

"I'll have a glass of your best white, too, thanks," I added before the waiter left. He gave me a small smile and nodded. "Certainly, ma'am."

"So where were we?" Kilik asked with a smile. The interruption had restored his confidence.

"We were talking about what you've been doing over the last couple of years."

"So we were! Well, that was really all that I've been doing. I'm a lawyer now, so I'm living pretty comfortably. Just need to put in a bit of hard work," he told me with a smile, "What about you?"

"I'm working at Dad's company at the moment. I went to university and everything before that. I'm living with Tomoyo and Eriol, remember them?" I wasn't planning on telling him about my latest adventures. He scowled when I mentioned Eriol's name. They had never gotten along, those two. I've never understood why.

"Yeah, I do. How are they?"

"Great! I could never ask for two better friends! Tomoyo has her own business set up now. Designing clothes. She's amazing."

"That's fantastic to hear. I'm happy for her."

We sat in uncomfortable silence for a few minutes then we both began talking at once.

"You first," I motioned for him to repeat what he had said.

"I was going to ask if you had heard about the latest event in the social world."

"Which event is this?" I asked him innocently, praying it wasn't anything to do with my current situation.

"Apparently Syaoran Li, heir of the massive Li company, and our fellow ex-high school student, is engaged. The identity of the 'lucky'," he made inverted commas with his fingers, "woman is yet to be revealed." There was a certain twinkle in his eye that made me feel wary, but perhaps he was more relaxed now, and was just being cheeky.

The waiter deposited my wine and a beer for Kilik on the table without a word.

"I was aware, actually." I told him coolly, but with a shrewd grin. He grinned back, but looked questioning. I took a sip of my wine and continued. "Since our families are close friends, I was one of the first to know."

Okay, so the family friendship wasn't the reason I knew, but I wasn't lying. Just bending the truth and omitting a few things.

"So do you know who the lovely lady is?"

I nodded and smiled, but refused to reveal 'her' identity. "But I can tell you one thing, it isn't the woman he's sitting with." He looked over to where I was pointing and grinned at me. "I'd never thought of him as the type to settle down, anyway."

I gave a laugh, and then looked over at Li. "I've known him my whole life, but I've always hated him. Odd, isn't it?"

Kilik shrugged. "What were you going to say before?"

"Oh!" I said with a smile, "I was reading the newspaper the other day, and I saw your name. You've got the case of the biggest scandal around here in a while."

Kilik gave a grim look, "I'm thinking about going into a different area of law after this case. Maybe a judge? Taxation lawyer?" he snorted as he said the last one, obviously holding taxation lawyers (whatever on Mars they did) in contempt, "All these murder cases and stuff are getting on my nerves."

I gave a look of sympathy. "I honestly don't think I could do that kind of thing. Too much pressure."

He laughed.

Suddenly the Hitler look-a-like returned with our food. He placed it on the table with a nod to me, and then recited to us in a bored tone, "The dessert menu will be brought out after you finish your meal. We hope everything is to your liking, and that you enjoy yourselves. Please don't hesitate to ask myself, or any of our other waiters or waitresses, if there is any problems."

After he was out of earshot, Kilik and I burst out laughing.

I looked down at my plate to discover that I had ordered sushi in my haste. I hate sushi. Groaning, I began pushing a piece of it around my plate.

"What's wrong?" Kilik asked me.

"I hate sushi…" I muttered.

"Then why did you order it?"

"I didn't look at what I was pointing to." I replied. Gawd, I was embarrassed.

Laughing, Kilik pushed my plate and the salt, pepper and vase of flowers in the middle of the table out of the way. He pushed his plate into the middle instead, motioning for me to share his food. It was tempura, my absolute favourite.

"Thanks for the gesture, Kilik, but I can't-"

"Eat," he told me. And that was that.

We ate in a somewhat comfortable silence, but we were still hungry when the dessert menu came. We both ordered a slice of cheesecake and a coffee.

"Do you have a ride home?" Kilik asked me as we walked out of the restaurant. At this point I was panicking internally, because there was no way I could just let him drop me off at Li's house… I mean, mansion.

"Um, I'll be fine. I ordered a cab!" I added brightly with a smile.

"Are you sure? I could-"

And then the obnoxious voice of Syaoran Li rang in our ears.

"Sakura, honey!"

I ignored him, and willed him to go away with every atom in my body. But nothing could stop that man on his adventure to ruin and destroy my life.

"Honey-blossom! Sweetheart? Darling, stop ignoring me!"

I wanted to crawl into a dark corner and die. I looked at Kilik then finally turned around.

"What, Li," I said in the harshest voice I could muster.

"Why, love, that's no way to speak to your fiancé!"

I could feel myself going red, and out of the corner of my eye I noticed that Kilik looked considerably paler.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," I replied with mock sincerity.

"It's okay, love." And he leant down and planted a kiss on my lips. And I can't say that I didn't feel a spark, but it isn't my fault I have hormones, just like everyone else. Pfft.

"Did you have a good time with your friend?" he jutted out his chin, pointing to Kilik with it.

"I did, thank you. Did you have a good time with your friend?"

"I did. But its time for us to go home now, darling."

"Kilik can drop me home."

"Now, Saku, we don't want him to go out of his way for us. It would be much more convenient for everyone if you just came home with me. We do live together."

Kilik jumped in at this point, interrupting us. Thank gawd.

"I wouldn't mind dropping her home at all." What a sweet man.

"But I do," Li hissed. Mood swing, or what? Then, the bastard, grabbed my wrist and started pulling me towards the car. I tried to get free, but his grip is a lot stronger than it looks.

"What is wrong with you?" I screeched at him. Well, if he wanted to make a scene, who was I to stop him? "One minute I'm having a perfectly delightful evening with an old friend who I haven't seen in years, next minute I'm being manhandled by a, dare I say, jealous excuse for a human being, who seems to find it entertaining, and his frigging duty, to ruin my life! Get off me!"

Turning around quickly, Li looked at me. "Go say good bye to your friend," he muttered, releasing my wrist, "but I'm still taking you home."

I flounced over to Kilik, with an angry expression on my face. He gave me a worried look, but I forced myself to smile at him.

"I'm so sorry I didn't tell you. It's an arranged marriage. For our parent's companies, and I guess our companies, after a while. It's a business merger of sorts, more than a marriage."

"Its fine, Sakura. I understand."

I smiled, "Thank you." I reached up to hug him, then walked back to Li, waving as I went.

As I arrived at Li's side, I turned around to make sure Kilik had left. He had. I opened my mouth to give Li a piece of my mind, only to have Li cover it. With his mouth. I pushed him off me, which is not an easy task, then started to walk home. He didn't try to stop me, or come after me.

Onerous, pig-headed, possessive, idiotic, insulting, detestable, irritating, immature, disgusting, good kisser...

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I'm so sorry I took so long with the update! I was on holidays, and I had no motivation. But I worked on this for two days, and it's possibly the longest chapter I've ever written. Which is quite sad, really.

I hope you liked it, and the next chapter is back to Hayles!

Luv Ami and Li