DM: Hey guys! Sorry it's taken so long. I just recovered from the stomach flu…ick. I'm so glad you guys like Nakatsu!
Disclaimer: I don't own CCS
Curses!
Arc One: Clow Land
Chapter Ten
Baby in a Bubble
Life with Nakatsu was…
Not easy.
He was always clinging to Sakura, and calling her 'my hero', and he ate a lot and played soccer with pinecones, once accidentally hitting Syaoran in the back of the head. Syaoran hadn't seemed to think it was an accident, but Sakura couldn't imagine what Nakatsu could have against Syaoran. He and Kero both got along great, seeing as they both spoke with Osaka accents and were absolute gluttons. He was a really nice guy, but his presence was nonetheless awkward. When they had asked him how he had entered Clow Land, he had only replied, "I was walking, and then I was in a cave."
The image was laughable, but it seemed to worry Kero. To him, it revealed that they were running out of time.
Remembering all this, Sakura sighed and sank lower in the water. They had been lucky enough to stumble across a hot spring as they traveled. In the interim she had caught the Cloud and the Glow having a party together, which she had been very sad to break up. Nakatsu had really just gotten in the way the whole time, and she had had to use Windy to save him when he accidentally walked off a cliff.
Nakatsu and Syaoran were constantly glaring at each other, though Sakura had no real idea why. She just shrugged it off as too much testosterone.
"Okonomiyaki…" Kero sighed, next to her in the hot spring. Sakura smiled. She didn't know what she would do without Kero to guide her.
She scratched the back of her head, adjusting the towel in which she had wrapped up her hair. The steam from the hot spring rose up in gentle spirals in front of her. Luckily it was in a rocky area in the middle of the woods, with a large rock separating her from the boys.
"Hey, Sakura…d'you see what I see?" Kero said sleepily.
Sakura looked up.
"That depends, do you see a baby floating in the sky?"
"Yeah, in a little bubble."
"Oh, ok."
The two looked at each other and shrieked, "A BABY?!"
Yes, a baby. A blonde one by the looks of it, though they couldn't see it very clearly from their distance.
Syaoran and Nakatsu came running from the other side of the hot spring, wearing only little towels. Sakura shrieked and attempted to cover herself.
Syaoran got a nosebleed and Nakatsu tripped and fell into the hot spring.
Standing up, Sakura ran and got dressed and took off after the baby using the Fly, leaving Nakatsu practically drowning and Syaoran lying on the ground. Kero followed close behind.
"Those kids are such idiots."
Sakura blushed furiously. The little baby looked happy enough, despite the fact that it was about 100 meters from the ground.
"It's a Clow Card!" Kero growled. Sakura only nodded.
The baby came to the top of a plateau, and Sakura stepped off her staff and began running after it. However, something strange began to happen.
The ground beneath her feet was disintegrating. Not good.
"Sakura, watch out for that green stuff!" Kero shouted. Sakura looked down. A green mist was dissolving the ground. She released fly and took to the sky once again.
"What should I do?" Sakura cried desperately. The baby was getting further and further away.
"You have to trap it with something it can't dissolve!" Kero yelled back. Sakura thought quickly, and the perfect card came to her mind.
"Shadow! Capture the mist!" The shadow came out and swallowed up the green mist.
"Return to the form you were meant to be in, Clow Card!" The Mist was captured.
"Let's go, Kero!" Sakura yelled, and the two of them were in pursuit of the baby and the card once more.
"What card is it, Kero?"
"It feels like two cards to me. If we catch up to them it will be easier to tell."
However, it seemed impossible to catch up with the speeding bubble. Sakura thought hard about how she could slow it down. Bubbles...bubbles… Sakura thought back to her childhood, when she and Tomoyo had often blown bubbles in the park. The wind would carry them away or bring them back…
"That's it!" Sakura shouted, "Windy, bring the bubble to us!"
The wind blew the bubble towards them and Sakura raised her staff again.
"Return to the form you were meant to be in, Clow Card!" Two cards materialized in front of her: Bubble and Float. Sakura sighed with relief.
Until she realized that she and the baby were now plummeting to Earth.
"Sakura!" Kero shouted, diving after her. Sakura tried to raise her staff, but it was hopeless: the air resistance was too much and she could hardly moved. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the impact. The baby seemed to be enjoying itself.
Suddenly, she felt something catch her. The baby gurgled happily. Sakura cautiously opened an eye. Several tree branches had wrapped themselves around her waist and were gently lowering her to the ground.
"Woody!" Kero shouted happily. Sakura looked up, puzzled.
"It's a Clow Card?" she asked, more accustomed to mischievous and mean cards. Kero laughed.
"Woody is one of the most gentle cards. It doesn't like to see people hurt."
"Ah," Sakura patted a branch, "Thank you very much."
"Seal it away, Sakura!"
Sakura looked scandalized, "But it's a well behaved card!"
"Yes, but we have to be fair and capture them all," Kero said sagely. Sakura sighed and sealed the card away, finding it much easier than usual
"See? It wanted you to seal it."
Sakura smiled and held Woody to her chest. The baby gurgled again.
"Oh crap. What are we going to do with this baby, Sakura?" Kero asked, flying near it.
A small squeak was heard as the baby grabbed Kero tightly with a chubby hand.
"Wanya!" he shouted happily, laughing. Kero was quickly turning blue.
"Ah," Sakura stepped forward and grabbed Kero out of the baby's hands, "That's Kero! Be nice to Kero!" The baby immediately began to cry.
"Crud. Sakura, make it stop!" Kero attempted to cover his ears, which was futile, seeing as his paws were much too small for that.
Thinking fast, Sakura used Create to make a look-alike Kero doll for the little baby, who then proceeded to squeeze it almost to death.
Sakura picked the little guy up and began walking.
"Where was that hot spring again?" Let's face it; Sakura's never really had a great sense of direction.
"Sakura!"
"My hero!"
Syaoran and Nakatsu appeared, fully clothed this time, waving frantically at her.
"What the hell happened?" Syaoran growled, looking quite silly with the bit of tissue shoved up his nose.
"Are you alright?" Nakatsu asked, stepping closer. The baby practically leaped out of Sakura's arms and into his.
"Papa!" the baby squealed. Nakatsu turned bright red as everyone else stared.
"I didn't know you were a father, Nakatsu," Syaoran said quietly, smirking. Sakura stared at him. Why did he look happy?"
"Uh…Psych! I've never seen this kid before, and I'm definitely not a dad," he paused and looked pointedly at Sakura, who smiled obliviously, and then added, "yet."
Syaoran looked ready to kill. Sakura only looked puzzled by this.
"Say, what's your name, kiddo?" Nakatsu continued, ignoring the fumes coming out of Syaoran's ears.
"Ruu!" the baby squealed happily.
Sakura laughed, "He's so cute!"
"He? How can you tell?" Syaoran asked, his anger dissolved due to the extreme cuteness of the baby in question.
And boy, was he cute. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, a chubby little face and a button nose.
"Maternal instinct," Nakatsu said. Syaoran stepped on his foot.
"Well, we'll know for sure soon enough, judging by that smell," Kero said sullenly, still upset about Ruu's prior attempt on his life.
"Good luck with that, Papa," Syaoran said, patting Nakatsu on the back. Nakatsu gulped and looked at Sakura for help. She smiled helplessly, shrugged, and then followed Syaoran, leaving Nakatsu to his own devices.
"So what happened?" Syaoran asked, not looking at her. He was clearly still embarrassed about the hot spring incident.
"Sakura caught four cards, kid!" Kero said proudly. Sakura looked like she was about to faint.
"Hey, are you alright?" Syaoran asked, touching her shoulder gently. Sakura looked at him and smiled. He blushed a little.
"I'm fine…"
Syaoran watched her carefully as they continued walking. She seemed to be wearing fewer clothes than he remembered. He shook his head to clear it, thinking it was just his perverted memory messing with him. But when he looked again, she was just in her underwear.
"Hey! Someone help me get back to camp!" Nakatsu's voice rang out in the forest.
"Coming, buddy!" Kero shouted back, and he flew back into the forest without even glancing at Sakura.
If he had, he would have noticed that she was no longer wearing any clothes.
"Oi, pervert girl! Keep your clothes on, for goodness' sake!" Syaoran said, blushing and covering his eyes. Sakura looked down, puzzled and then…
"HOEEEE!"
"It's probably a Clow Card, so please just seal it away!" Syaoran said, turning his back to her.
"Return to the form you were meant to be in, Clow Card!"
The Erase. What a prankster.
Sakura then fainted, and Syaoran had to carry her back to the campsite. However, her last thought before she went to sleep was that Syaoran thought she was ugly, because of what he had said. The thought filled her with a strange sadness.
Of course, what she didn't notice was the kiss he planted on her forehead after he set her down in the cot.
DM: Ok, so that's it for now! If any of you have ever seen Daa! Daa! Daa! you will recognize Ruu, whom I love! Anyway, Sorry that this chapter was mostly Clow Card capturing, but I hope you at least thought it was funny. Next chapter will be funny but will mostly center around Sakura and Syaoran. I already have most of it planned out.
Next Chapter: Fight!