"Promises Made"
She was going to do it. That was the ultimate decision and there was nothing that could change it anymore. She was sure she had changed her mind over one hundred times within the last few days, than she had in her entire life. Xing and a place to stay is what had set her answer in stone though.
Syaoran was on his way to the hotel right now to get her final answer and nothing had ever been more nerve-wrecking than this. She wished he had wanted to meet at the park again, but he chose here. Somewhere so private and personal sounded dangerous, but he insisted on finalizing everything here.
She was currently pacing back and forth in the room, trying to calm her nerves but to her disappointment, she was achieving nothing. She knew that the man had to have lost it. What was he trying to do anyway? Did he have something planned that she would not approve of?
Of course not, Sakura.
She walked to the desk and picked up the stack of papers he had given her a few days ago. All of them were read through and signed, agreeing to give him all of her rights, except one page that she hoped he would not notice. Maybe she was the insane one here.
A firm knock on the door caused her to halt in her pacing, already knowing who it was because of the way the knock made her feel. There was not any other person who could make her nervous like this; make her skin burn with desire from a single look. It was Syaoran standing there with a smug look on his face, even though she could not see it now. She thought about pretending to not be here for a moment to avoid the situation all together. However, another knock came to the door, except firmer this time if that were possible, making her debunk that thought.
She sighed, opening the door slowly, only to see a scowl on his face before he pushed his way through the door without her permission. She scoffed and closed the door after he came in, disappointed that he seemed to be in another pissy mood. "You're welcomed to come in. I just thought I'd receive a greeting," she said with a frown.
"You lost that privilege after ignoring the first knock."
Her eyes looked down to the floor, trying to calm herself down. He was the one giving her a place to stay for the past few days, so she could ignore his rude attitude for this one time, she mentally reminded herself a few times.
After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke. "You signed the papers." He held up the papers from the desk, scanning through them.
She bit her lip lightly, unable to speak on it. Her heart was beating loudly against her chest, as she thought about him discovering the unsigned page and what could occur between them in this hotel room. Alone. With the doors closed. She felt a little frightened by that, but thrilled at the same time. She could not help but think if he would do something similar to her landlord.
"Yes," she finally spoke after contemplating. There was always a right and wrong answer when it came to answering him, it seemed.
He set the papers back down on the desk and turned to her.
Her breath caught in her throat as she felt his eyes on her. Neither of them spoke as they stared at each other. She could have sworn the tension between them was nearly killing her if it were not for her rapid beating heart.
She cleared her throat when she saw his eyes drift down from her eyes to some other place she probably did not even want to know. She had nothing inappropriate on, just a green tank top that covered more than enough of her breast and shorts that only came a few inches above her knees.
She released the breath she had been holding when his eyes shifted back to hers. "I…I put a lot of thought into it after reading through everything. I want to do it—this," she motioned to the papers on the desk.
She walked towards him hesitantly where the desk was and picked the papers back up; handing them to him so he could see that she had signed the papers even though he already knew. She just needed to find something to do to distract herself from this feeling. It was beyond awkward and tense in the room. She knew the door was not locked, so if she wanted to, she could escape. The question was, why was she not trying to?
Her heart was drumming against her chest so hard that she was sure he could probably hear it. He took the papers from her hand. She nearly stopped breathing as his hand brushed against hers a little. She pulled back from the papers immediately, feeling something tug at the pit of her stomach. She had never felt a pull to a person like this from a simple touch.
He looked through them again briefly and nodded before returning his eyes to hers. "Everything is settled then. All of your things will be moved in today—"
"Xing's okay with this, right?" she interrupted. He looked at her skeptically, causing her cheeks to warm. "I just want to make sure that he is okay with all of this," she added, to answer his silent question.
"Yes…"
A silence followed after that as they stared at each other again. She began to notice how beautiful and entrancing his amber orbs really were. She realized she never had the chance to look at how beautiful he really is, so her eyes were taking in everything they could. They traveled up to his disheveled, chestnut hair, then down to his forehead where his hair hung loosely over his eyes. His slim, sharp nose even appeared to be perfect and his lips…
Her eyes would not leave the set for a moment, even though she had tried. His lips were so full…red, full lips that looked kissable. She had the sudden urge to feel them against hers.
Her cheeks burned even more at that thought, not believing she actually thought that before her eyes traveled down to his strong-defined jaw. Her eyes traveled back up to his lips until a throat was cleared. She looked into his intense gaze now. He was glaring at her, letting her know she had been caught red-handed.
"We should leave. I will have someone sent here to bring your things to my home."
"W-we're leaving now?"
"Yes, let's go."
He made it to the door immediately, walking out before she could even respond. She slipped a pair of shoes on quickly and ran out behind him. It was hard to figure him out sometimes because now he seemed upset that she had been checking him out.
After catching up to him, he made sure to keep a good distance between them, puzzling her a bit. It confused her a little because she had not even done anything to make him so protective suddenly.
When he reached his car, he went to his side and unlocked the doors. She opened her side and got inside with him quickly. The atmosphere in the car was even more tense than it was in the room a few minutes ago.
He started the car and the tension only grew, so she decided to break the silence, to end both of their misery. At least she hoped so. "Can you turn the radio on, Mr. Li?"
He motioned to the radio for her to turn it on, which she complied to gratefully. She switched the station several times before leaving it on Tokyo's pop station.
She looked over at him for his approval. When he seemed to sense her staring, he shrugged his shoulders as if saying, 'I don't care.'
She smiled and sat back in the seat, feeling relieved for once around the man. She felt glad she did not screw anything else up with her new boss again.
At the thought of him being her new boss, she thought about Xing and suddenly became excited. She could hardly believe that she would be seeing the little boy every day now. She almost squealed in excitement, but held back because she knew Syaoran would not be too pleased with her behavior. She snorted at the thought of him telling her she were acting like a child on Christmas morning.
When she took a look at the serious, bland look on his face, she could definitely see him saying something like that.
A medium-sized white house came into view not too long after that thought.
Sakura stared in awe at the beauty of the house and the neighborhood, having not seen anything like like this since her hometown. There were kids outside playing with their dogs and other pets, parents talking to each other, while keeping an eye out for their kids. And even kids playing with each other.
She had not even known this kind of neighborhood existed in Tokyo since everything seemed so fast-pace and city. Back in Tomoeda, everything felt a lot safer and homey-feeling.
This neighborhood depicted people being more welcoming than anywhere else she had been in Tokyo. Plus, the houses all looked nice and rather on the expensive side, Sakura noted through her observation. Especially the house in front of them.
It was a white-bricked, two-story house that was not too big, but bigger than the other houses around the neighborhood. The drive-way had gray seamless pavements and the grass was a vibrant green with a nice, straight cut around the yard.
Sakura heard a button press and the garage door started sliding up slowly. He drove into the garage before turning the car off. The garage was spacious, but there were a lot of things in it. It seemed as like Syaoran had not had the time to unpack everything when they first moved here, she noticed.
A car door opening interrupted her observations, making her realize Syaoran had gotten out of the car, so she followed suit.
"Tomorrow, you will start the job. When we get in the house, I will go over everything that you need to know about your duties with Xing again." He looked at his watch and nodded before continuing, "Right now, he should be sleeping, so it's the perfect time to discuss everything."
She nodded and followed behind him into the house from the garage door. The house looked even more beautiful inside with all of the portraits on the walls.
They walked through several areas in the house, which she assumed were the living room, dining room, and down the hall way.
He unlocked the door to a room they were currently in front of and then pushed the door open. The room was white with black carpet. There was a medium-sized desk, a few file cabinets, and a mini couch. On the desk, there were mountains worth of papers neatly stacked with a small lamp, a laptop, and a portrait of Xing hugging a teddy-bear tightly. It reminded her of her dad's study.
He motioned to a chair near the desk for her to sit in, which she did. He closed the door before returning to the desk and looking through a few of the neatly stacked papers. She wondered how he could tell the difference between what.
When she realized his close proximity, her cheeks warmed a little as his scent invaded her senses. It was the same as it had been a couple of days ago.
He sat down on the couch and reached over with one hand and grabbed the middle of the chair between her slightly parted knees and pulled the rolling chair closer to him.
She almost melted from the heat of her body temperature rising, feeling the heat of his hand between her thighs before he pulled it back.
"I think it's best Xing remains in the dark about you being his nanny. His room is not far from this one, so we have to speak quietly. The little mischievous thing can hear everything he's not supposed to."
She nodded, clearing her throat to find her voice. "I understand."
He stared at her hard for a minute before looking down at the papers in his hand. "Xing wakes up in the mornings at seven o'clock sharp every single day. When he wakes up, which is early sometimes, you can just watch him, until Ms. Hana comes to feed him. You're expected to have him ready to be for his martial arts trainer. He comes at approximately 8:55 every single morning," he said, looking at her as if this were a serious matter. She nodded before he continued.
"After his training session is done, you are to have him bathed and dressed for the day. He has television time, but only for an hour in the morning. The rest of the time until 12, you can decide that but be sure to give him something small to eat during that time. At 12, his tutor will come by and stay until three o'clock. Within that time, he has lunch at one. He naps after the tutor leaves at three and wakes up an hour later. My original time to get off is at five, but I work late sometimes. Dinner is at six and after that, he has free time until eight o' clock when you will have him cleaned and ready for bed. At nine, he is expected to be in bed and already asleep."
She stared at him incredulously, wondering if he expected her to remember all of that. That was a lot to do in one day. "U-uh…how would you feel if I asked you to repeat all of that one more time?" she asked quietly.
"Here is the schedule." He handed her the papers. "That has everything that you need to know on it. I was just going over it with you first to make sure you understand."
She accepted the papers. "Thank goodness, I don't have the best memory."
He nodded, keeping his eyes on hers. "Your only days off are Saturday and Sunday. Those are the days that I don't normally have to work. However, if I need to go in, I expect you to watch him for me until I get home."
"Yes, sir. What if I'm already out and about at the time?"
He sat still for a few moments, as if he were thinking about her question. "You come home, but if you can't, then I will just take Xing to the office with me."
She thought about the day she met Xing, who just happened to be trying to get away from there. She made a promise to make sure he would never have to do that again.
"Okay…and is there anything else that I should be aware of?" she asked.
Syaoran looked deep in thought as his lips pursed slightly. Her eyes were glued on his lips again with the blush she was beginning to despise since it gave her away so easily.
Look away, idiot!
Her eyes would not agree with her conscious though.
When her eyes left his lips, they went up to meet the eyes that were glaring at her.
Oh no, caught again!
"You know how I feel about your lack of response, Ms. Kinomoto."
Had he said something?
"I'm sorry, Mr. Li, but did you say something?" she asked.
Her body stiffened when he glared at her again. "You need to break these habits now that you're staying here. I won't tolerate your lack of attention span. You are almost 18, so the childishness needs to stop," he chastised, making her eyes shift to the floor.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Li—"
The door burst opened to reveal Xing. She was more than grateful to see him at that moment to save her. "Sakura!"
He ran over to her, tackling her out of the chair by wrapping his arms and legs around her tightly. She hugged him back with a smile on her face, feeling relieved to see him again. "I missed you so much! You're going to be here with me forever now, right? You aren't leaving me again, right? We can play every day now, right? We can watch my favorite shows together and build more buildings! OH! You can drive in my car now, too?!"
Sakura laughed at his rambling, ruffling his already disheveled hair. "I missed you too, Xing. Yes and one thousand yes's to your many questions asked," she said after he had stopped to take a breath.
"Oh, I'm so happy!"
Sakura heard someone clearing their throat and they both turned their heads in the direction of it. "Xing, you know better than to burst through my office doors like that," Syaoran said, looking down at them both on the floor with an amused expression on his face.
"But I heard Sakura's voice and I couldn't stand waiting so long to come in."
She stiffened under him, wondering what he had heard since they were trying to keep the arrangements on the low.
"Xing get off Ms. Kinomoto, so she can stand."
Xing did as he was told while pulling on her hand, attempting to help her stand. She smiled, silently thanking him as she ruffled his hair again. He pouted as usual.
"Let's go to the living room," Syaoran said, looking at her.
She nodded, grabbing Xing's hand to follow Syaoran out of his study.
"Ms. Kinomoto will be staying here from now on, as I told you before. I expect you to treat her with respect and listen to her whenever she tells you to do something, just as you do with me. Is that understood?" Syaoran asked after they were sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Yes sir!" Xing said excitedly as he jumped into her lap, hugging around her neck tightly.
She smiled, gently loosening his arms around her neck because she could barely breathe. Thankfully, he took the hint and loosened his hold around her neck.
"Do you have to get back to work, Daddy?"
Xing and Sakura both turned to him, only to see him staring at her with a weird glint in his eyes.
"No. I took the rest of the evening off."
Xing's eyes widened at that before he jumped off Sakura's lap, standing in front of Syaoran and grabbing his hands. "So I can be with Sakura and Daddy today?" he asked incredulously. Sakura could not help but smile at the adorable hopeful expression on his face.
Syaoran nodded, a small smile tugging on his lip before it disappeared immediately. Sakura concluded that that was all he seemed capable of doing. "Yes, that's right."
Xing jumped in his arms, hugging him tightly. "I'm so happy! This is the bestest day ever!"
Syaoran ruffled his hair and pulled him back gently, looking him in the eyes. "I need to show Ms. Kinomoto around since she's going to be staying here."
"Oh! Can I help? Can I help, please? She's going to love my room!" Xing said excitedly.
Syaoran nodded and stood from the couch, resting Xing on his feet. She looked up at him, seeing a raised a brow.
"Well?"
Sakura stood from the couch, catching the hint from the impatient look in his eyes. She could not understand why he disliked her so much since he is the one who asked her to come around. The glaring and mean comments were starting to make her regret coming here, but hearing the excited Xing changed her mind about that.
She sighed, shaking her head from the thoughts. There was no use in getting upset or down about the man's attitude because she was only here for Xing after all.
Syaoran began the 'tour' of the house with the living room and it went on from there.
After 15 minutes of showing her around, she had the entire house engraved in her brain.
There was the living room, which had been beautiful with all of the portraits on the wall and the Chinese embellishments around the room. The sectional couch was black and there was a table in the middle of the living room with a flat screen television up on the wall. There were a few photos in the living room with Xing and Syaoran together, but she did not get to see all of them because they ended up going to the next room.
He showed her around the kitchen, which was nothing too different from a regular kitchen. From there, he showed her the many rooms that were downstairs, which were guest rooms or rooms that he used for specific things. There were even rooms upstairs that were not occupied by anything and rooms that she was not allowed to go in for whatever reason that he would not give.
Her room was downstairs, down the hall from Xing's. There was a queen-sized bed and drawers with a TV. There was a nightstand by the bed and a door that connected to the room. The color of the room was pink, to her surprise. It made her wonder if there had been any other women who stayed here for that reason, but she quickly rid of the thought. That was none of her business.
They were now in his backyard that happened to be huge in her eyes. He had a pool with a section for the hot tub not too far from it. There was even a place for his garden on the sides. She never thought him to be the gardening-type, but perhaps she did not know the man enough to.
"Isn't the pool awesome? We swim in it every weekend, right, Daddy?" Xing turned to Syaoran excitedly.
"It's not every weekend, Xing." Syaoran gave him a pointed look.
Xing sighed. "Fine, but we do swim on the weekends if Daddy isn't busy?" Xing looked at him questioningly. He was trying to get his approval of his statement.
Syaoran nodded, making Xing grin at that. "Yes! So now you're going to join us, right? You'll get to practice swimming with us now too, right?" Xing turned to Sakura.
She shrugged, giggling at his anxiousness. "I don't know, Xing. This isn't necessarily my home so I can't just come here and invade your family time."
"But…it's your home now too. Isn't it, Daddy? She will live here with us, so it's her home too. Isn't that what a home is?" Xing turned to Syaoran, looking very confused.
Syaoran kept quiet, looking dumbfounded at that question, shocked Sakura to the core.
She had never seen the man speechless in front of her, making her feel happy to see another side of him. The same arrogant, intimidating man was dumbfounded by his own son.
She smiled at Xing before ruffling his hair. "If your dad allows me to swim with you, then I would be happy to join you."
He pouted as usual and swatted her hands away, mumbling something about messing up his hair. "Daddy, will she be able to? Please, please, please say yes." Xing turned to him with the cutest puppy dog eyes with his hands clasped together.
"You're asking too many questions, Xing. Ms. Kinomoto should be the one asking all of the questions, considering she's the one being shown around," Syaoran said.
When Xing's face dropped, Sakura's felt like her heart dropped to the bottom of her stomach. "I'm sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean to be rude," Xing said, looking to the ground sadly as he turned to her.
"You don't have to apologize about anything you didn't do wrong, Xing. Besides, I didn't even have any questions, so in a way, you filled in for me," she said, hoping to ease his guilt.
Before Xing could respond to that, Syaoran spoke first, "Xing, where is Ms. Hana?"
"She's upstairs in one of the guest rooms sleeping. She told me that she was going to nap before I went to sleep. I…didn't necessarily sleep long after I heard you guys come home…"
Ms. Hana?
"She's the one who cooks and clean around the house," Syaoran answered her unasked question.
"Oh…" she trailed off, at a loss for words at that information. It should have come as no surprise to know the man had a maid to do his house duties.
"Your things should be here in a few hours. We can discuss your payments a little later when Xing goes to bed. And Ms. Kinomoto."
She turned and looked up to him questioningly by the seriousness to his tone. "Yes?"
"I don't expect this arrangement between us to get out," he said in a dangerously low tone after Xing had gone over to the pool.
She stared at him, wondering exactly what he meant before nodding her head slowly. "Yes sir," she said anyway to avoid a possible argument.
"Good. I need to finish a few things in my study, so keep an eye out for Xing. Dinner will be at six."
He walked back in the house without waiting for her response as usual. She sighed, shaking her head, not even in the mood to figure out what he meant. She walked over to Xing and stooped down beside him near the pool.
Xing looked in her direction, grinning with his hands still in the water. "We're going to have lots of fun with you living here, aren't we, Sakura?"
She smiled, nodding her head in agreeance. "Of course we will."
Suddenly, he hugged her tightly, getting her tank top wet from his hands. "I'm just so happy!"
Her smile faltered when she felt her shoulders warm and slightly dampen, so she pulled him back gently, only to see tears in his eyes. Immediately, panic rose in her chest, as she wiped the tears from his cheeks, wondering if she done something to hurt him. "What's wrong, sweetie? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" she asked worriedly before glancing back at the door quickly to make sure Syaoran had not returned.
"I'm just so happy that you're here. I thought that I would never see you again."
A sad smile formed on his lips and he buried his face in her shoulders again, tightly holding on to her.
She could feel her own eyes start to water a little for the boy in her arms. She couldn't have left that much of an impression on the boy, she reasoned with herself mentally.
He pulled back a little so he could look her in the eyes. "Promise me that you won't leave me again! You can't leave like everyone else does because I won't allow it! Promise me!"
Her eyes widened, not sure what to tell him. One part told her to just hug the little boy and not comment on that statement, while another told her to make the promise.
When she remained quiet, Xing let out a loud cry, more tears pouring from his eyes. "Promise me, Sakura! Please!" he begged through sobs.
Unable to stop herself, she said, "I promise I won't ever leave you no matter what, Xing." When it came out, she realized how much truth to that promise she had put into it.
She heard him sniffing in her top, so she pulled him back slightly and saw that he still had tears in his eyes. She wiped them away, but they kept falling from his amber eyes. "It's okay to feel what you are feeling, but you have to stop crying, Xing. Seeing these tears doesn't make Sakura happy." She smiled at him sadly.
Immediately, he wiped the tears away. "I promise I won't cry anymore then. Will that make you stay?" He forced a smile on his face, despite the tears still being present in his eyes.
She held out a pinky for him, which he linked with. "It's a deal then. I won't leave you ever again and you won't cry anymore," she finalized.
He nodded eagerly. "Deal!"
She sat him down so she could stand from the ground and help him up.
Xing looked up at her, smiling. "Would you like to see pictures of me when I was a little baby?"
"Now, how could I miss a chance of doing that? Of course I do!" she said, relieved that his mood had shifted to something much more positive.
He grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the house excitedly.
Sakura did not have the slightest clue what could have happened to make him say such a thing, but she knew that she could never leave his life like she had last time. She never wanted to see those tears because of her ever again. She made a promise to herself to do everything she could to make sure those tears were never seen again.
A/N: Next chapter in Syaoran's point of view, which you guys may see a ton of changes probably. I'll try to get it out before the end of the night!
Ja ne!
