Author's note:
Hello again! I'd like to thank dbzgtfan2004, iceKhari and JennyKim319 for reviewing. Thank you so much. Please remember to R&R! Thank you and God bless.
Chapter 2
By purewingz
The Night World… Love was never so scary.
The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us. It's a secret society of vampires, werewolves, witches and other creatures of darkness that live among us. They're beautiful and deadly and irresistible to humans. Your high school teacher could be one, and so could your boyfriend,
The Night World Laws say its okay to hunt humans. It's okay to toy with their hearts, it's even okay to kill them, there are only two things you can't do with them.
1) Never let them find out the Night World exists.
2) Never fall in love wit one of them.
These are the stories about what happens when the rules get broken.
"Sakura!" Sakura could hear her mother's voice, but she couldn't see anything. Dancing black dots obscured the kitchen floor.
"Sakura, are you all right?" Now Sakura felt her mother's hands grasping her anxiously. The pain was easing and her vision was returning.
As she straightened, she saw Syaoran in front of her. His face was almost expressionless, but Sakura knew him well enough to recognize the worry in his face. Her was holding the milk carton, she realized. He must have caught it on the fly as she dropped it – amazing reflexes, Sakura thought vaguely. Really amazing.
Touya was on his feet. "Are you okay? What happened?"
"I – don't know." Sakura looked around, then shrugged, embarrassed. Now she was feeling better she wished they weren't all staring at her so hard. The way to deal with pain was to ignore it, to not think about it.
"It's just this stupid pain – I think it's gastrowatchamacallit. You know, something I ate."
Sakura's mother gave her daughter a little shake. "Sakura, this is not gastroenteris. You were having some kind of pain before – nearly a month ago, wasn't it? Is this the same kind of pain?"
Sakura squired uncomfortably. As a matter of fact, the pain had never really gone away. Somehow, in the excitement of end of year activities, she'd managed to disregard it, and by now she was used to working with it.
"Sort of," she temporized. "But –"
That was enough for Sakura's mother. She gave Sakura a little squeeze and headed for the kitchen telephone. "I know you don't like doctors, but I'm calling Dr. Kaho. I want her to take a look at you. This isn't something we can't ignore."
"Oh, Mom, it's vacation…"
Her mother covered the mouthpiece of the phone. "Sakura, this is non-negotiable. Go get dressed."
Sakura groaned, but she could see it was no use. She beckoned to Syaoran, who was looking thoughtfully into the middle distance.
"Let's at least listen to the CD before I go."
He glanced at the CD as if he'd forgotten it, and put down the milk carton. Touya followed them into the hallway.
"Hey, buddy. You wait out here while she gets dressed."
Syaoran barely turned. "Get a life, Touya," he said almost absentmindedly.
"Just keep your hands off my sister you deve."
Sakura just shook her head as she went into her room. As if Syaoran cared about seeing her undressed. If only, she thought grimly, pulling on a pair of shorts out of the drawer. Syaoran was her best friend, her best friend, and she was his. But he'd never even shown even the slightest desire to get his hands on her. Sometimes she wondered if he realized that she was a girl.
Someday I'm going to make him see me, she thought, and shouted out the door for him.
Syaoran came in and smiled at her. It was a smile that people rarely saw, not a taunting or ironic grin, but a nice little smile, slightly crooked.
"Sorry about the doctor thing," Sakura said.
"No. You should go." Syaoran gave her a keen glance. "Your mom's right, you know. This has been going on way too long. You've lost weight; it's keeping you up at night - "
Sakura looked at him, startled. She hadn't told him anything about how the pain was worse at night, not even him. But – sometimes Syaoran just knew things. As if he could read her mind.
"I just know you, that's all," he said, and then gave her a mischievous sideways glance as she stared at him. He unwrapped the CD.
Sakura shrugged and flopped on her bed, staring at the ceiling. "Anyway, I wish mom would let me have one day of vacation," she said. "I wish I had a mom like yours. Mine's always worrying and trying to fix me."
"And mine doesn't really care if I come and go. So which is worse?" Syaoran said wryly.
"Your parents let you have your own apartment."
"In a building they own. Because it's much cheaper than hiring a manager." Syaoran shook his head, his eyes on the CD he was putting on the player. "Don't knock your parents, kid. You're luckier than you know."
Sakura thought about that as the CD started. She and Syaoran both liked trance – the underground electronic sound that had come from Europe. Syaoran liked the techno beat. Sakura loved it because it was real music, raw and unpasteurized, made by people who believed in it. People who had the passion, not the people who had the money.
Besides, world music made her feels a part of other places. She loved the differences of it, the alieness.
Come to think off it, maybe that was what she liked about Syaoran, too. His differentness. She tilted her head to look at him as the strange rhythms of Burundi drumming filled the air.
She knew Syaoran better than anyone, but there was always something, something about him that was closed off to her. Something about him that nobody could reach.
Other people took it for ignorance, or coldness, or aloofness, but it wasn't really any of those things. It was just – differentness. He was more different than any of the exchange students at school. Time after time, sakura felt that she had almost put her finger on the difference, but it had always slipped away. And more than once, especially late at night when they were listening to music or watching the oceans, she'd felt he was about to tell her.
And she'd always felt that if he did tell her, it would be something important, something as shocking and lovely as having a stray cat speak to her.
Just now she looked at Syaoran, at his clean carven profile and at his wave of dark, brown hair on his forehead, and thought, He looks sad.
"Syao, nothing's wrong, is it? I mean, at home, or anything?" she was the only person on the planet allowed to call him Syao. Not even Jacklyn or Michaela had ever tried that.
"What could be wrong at home?" he said, with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Then he shook his head dismissively. "Don't worry about it, sakura. It's nothing important – just a relative.' Then the smile did reach his eyes, glinting there. "Or maybe I'm just worried about you," he said.
Poppy started to say, "oh, as if," but instead she found herself saying, oddly, 'are you really?"
Her seriousness seemed to strike some chord. His smile disappointed, and sakura found that they were simply looking at each other without any insulating humor between them. Just gazing into each other's eyes. Syaoran looked uncertain, almost vulnerable.
"Sakura – "
Sakura swallowed. "Yes?"
He opened his mouth – and then he got up abruptly and went to adjust her 170-watt Tallboy speakers. When he turned back, his amber eyes were dark and fathomless.
"Sure, if you were really sick, I'd be worried," he said lightly. "That's what friends are for, right?"
Sakura deflated. "Right," she said wistfully, and then gave him a determined smile.
"But you're not sick," he said. "It's just something you need to get taken care of. The doctor'll probably give you some antibiotics or something – with a big needle," he said wickedly (A/N Sakura's is afraid of injections here… Haha).
"Oh, shut up," sakura said. He knew she was terrified of injections. Just the thought of the needle entering her skin…
"Here comes your mom," Syaoran said, glancing at the door. Sakura didn't see how he could hear anybody coming – the music was loud and the hallway was carpeted. But an instant later her mother pushed open the door open.
"All right, sweetheart," she said briskly." Doctor Kaho says come right over. I'm sorry, Syaoran, but I'm going to have to take sakura away."
"That's okay. I can come back this afternoon."
Sakura knew when she was defeated. She allowed her mother to tow her to the garage, ignoring Syaoran's miming of someone receiving a large injection.
An hour later she was lying on doctor Kaho's examining table as her gentle fingers probed her abdomen. Doctor Kaho was tall and had a kind, gentle and understanding face with red hair. Somebody you could trust absolutely.
"The pain is here?" she asked.
"Yeah – but it sort of goes into my back. Or maybe I just pulled a muscle there or something…"
The gentle probing fingers moved, and stopped. Doctor kaho's face changed. And somehow, in that moment, sakura knew it wasn't a pulled muscle. It wasn't an upset stomach; it wasn't anything simple; and things were about to change forever…
Well, that's all for this chappie. Please please remember to review! I'd really appreciate comments. Thank you and God bless.
Purewingz
