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Disclaimer: I don't own CCS
Curses!
Arc One: Clow Land
Chapter Eleven
Fight!
CRASH! BOOM! RAAWR!
Sakura stood face to face with none other than the…
"Lightening Card!" shouted Nakatsu.
"Goo!" shouted Ruu.
"Thunder Card!" shouted Kero.
The three paused and looked at each other. Nakatsu rubbed his chin.
"But it makes lightening, so why is it the Thunder? What a stupid name," Nakatsu said running a hand through his hair.
"Goo goo!" Ruu affirmed.
Kero only sighed and turned back to the battle in time to see Sakura flung on her back after a huge roar. The wolf/lion/large angry predator form of the Thunder growled as it took a step nearer. Sakura's prone body lay still.
"Sakura, you idiot! Now is not the time to be sleeping!" Syaoran yelled, jumping and pulling her out of Thunder's path as it charged by. It roared and glared at Syaoran. However, Syaoran didn't notice, because he had noticed a small streak of blood coming from Sakura's hairline.
"Why do you make me worry about you like this?" he muttered, placing his hands on either side of her face and feeling the familiar warm tingling as he healed her minor head wound. Her eyes snapped open.
"Gah! Where's the card?" She looked around wildly, only to come nose to nose with the Thunder as it growled menacingly.
"Oh dear," Syaoran mused, as Sakura blindly used Windy to get some breathing room. Her relief was short-lived; however, as Thunder became even more pissed and began to charge.
Crap…crap…What can I use to contain it?
The light bulb went on in Sakura's head, so to speak and she called forth the Shadow. Shadow obligingly gathered up Thunder into a ball, and she was able to capture it. She let loose an enormous sigh of relief as the card floated to her hands. She looked over her shoulder at Syaoran, who smirked up at her.
"Thanks," she said, smiling. She then proceeded to give him a light whack with her staff.
"Hey! What was that for?" Syaoran growled, rubbing his head. Sakura giggled.
"Don't call me an idiot so much. I'll start to believe you." Syaoran said nothing, but got up and followed her as they walked back to Kero, Nakatsu and Ruu.
"Great job, Sakura! You looked so lovely out there!" Nakatsu exclaimed, reminding Sakura awkwardly of Tomoyo. Kero gave her a high-five, or something like it, as Ruu attempted to grab the staff out of her hands. Nakatsu glared at Syaoran over the top of Sakura's head.
"What? You got a problem?" Syaoran asked raising an eyebrow. Nakatsu motioned him away, handing Ruu to an oblivious Sakura, who was deep in conversation with Kero regarding dinner plans.
"You have some nerve yelling at her like that when she's injured," Nakatsu said, crossing his arms over his chest. Syaoran calmly regarded him from his lower vantage point, thinking of the best way to set him straight.
"I healed her, didn't I? I do a lot more for her than you, cheerleader boy," Syaoran said, smirking. Nakatsu looked angry at the double meaning of the second statement.
"So what is your relation to her, exactly?" he asked, attempting to control his anger. The result was that his face had begun to go a little purple.
"Wouldn't you love to know," Syaoran said, enjoying his advantage. He and Sakura hadn't switched bodies since before Nakatsu even arrived, so he still didn't know about the curse. Syaoran didn't even think he'd believe it.
"Don't be so smart, kid. You're only about her height, anyway. She needs someone taller and older. Besides, according to Kero, she already likes someone," Nakatsu said proudly. Syaoran's ears turned red.
"Don't just assume that I like her, cause I don't! That's just you, idiot," Syaoran said, raising his voice a little bit. Nakatsu smiled. Sakura glanced uneasily in their direction. While her attention was diverted elsewhere, Ruu made another attempt on Kero's life by hugging him too tightly. Sakura turned back to the two, briefly forgetting about Nakatsu and Syaoran as she pondered how to give Kero CPR.
"You're so defensive. I think you do like her," Nakatsu said, smiling down at the now fuming Syaoran. He struggled desperately to control his anger and could only choke out a small" I don't" as a result.
"Oh, I see," Nakatsu drawled, "Well then I guess you don't mind if I take her for myself. She looks so beautiful today, too—"
Syaoran didn't hear the rest of Nakatsu's blathering, because he suddenly found himself in possession of Ruu and Kero, some ten meters away. He looked down and noticed that he now had cute pink Keds on, and thus deduced that he and Sakura had switched bodies.
He stared over at Sakura, now in his body, as she sent him a puzzled look. Nakatsu was currently outlining all the obscene things that he and Sakura could do behind the bushes just to their left, making Sakura, still dizzy from the body switch, very uncomfortable.
"That's enough," she said softly, embarrassed beyond belief and surprised to hear Syaoran's low voice issue from her mouth. Nakatsu looked puzzled, but then shrugged and ran over to where Syaoran (in Sakura's body) was standing.
"Sakura! I'm sorry, we were having a man-to-man talk over there." Syaoran nodded, biting back the urge to say it looked more like a man-to-baboon talk. Sakura's staff went back to its key form, and Syaoran slipped it to Sakura behind their backs as Nakatsu chatted with Kero about the virtues of modern-yaki, their favorite dish.
"What's going on?" Sakura whispered as the two of them hung back.
"Nothing," Syaoran said, looking away from his own inquiring eyes, However, Sakura was a little more persistent than he had anticipated.
"Go apologize to him," Sakura said firmly. Syaoran shook his head, causing Sakura to stop in surprise.
"Don't you want to switch back?" she asked. Annoyed that he had kept walking, she grabbed his arm.
"You heard what he was saying about you!" Syaoran finally replied turning and facing her. It was weird to look at yourself like that. Sakura's eyes widened.
"He was only doing that to tease you, because he knew you'd get—hey, wait a minute. What gives you the right to be mad on my behalf?" she said angrily. Syaoran glared back.
"You're an idiot," he said simply, and turned away. She grabbed him by both shoulders and spun him around.
"You go and apologize to him right now, or I'm gonna tell him about the curse and he's going to tease you like there's no tomorrow!" she said, with the appearance of all the authority that she lacked.
"Like he'll believe you," Syaoran said haughtily, "He thinks you're me, idiot!" Sakura let him go and stared at the ground.
"But if I catch a Clow Card, then he'll know. It will be ok—"
"—No, it won't, because he doesn't know what powers I have," Syaoran said, smirking. Sakura took a step back. She had never seen herself look so evil before.
"B-but Kero will tell him—"
"Not if Kero thinks I'm you!"
"But—"
"No buts. I want to have a little fun with Nakatsu over here," Syaoran said, grinning. He turned and began jogging to catch up with the others.
"Syaoran," Sakura said calmly. He turned around.
"I hate you," she said, staring at him coldly. For some reason, that hurt Syaoran a lot more than he thought it would. But, being a guy (though at the moment he was actually a girl), he shrugged and turned away, pretending that he didn't feel that funny pain in his chest.
What he did, feel; however, was a sharp pain in the back of his head. He turned around and saw the magic key on the ground. Sakura continued to glare at him.
"Let's see you try to be Sakura for a while, asshole," she said. She then walked right past him.
All through dinner, Sakura didn't look at him. He pretended to be interested in what Nakatsu was saying, but kept one eye on her at all times. She sat sullenly staring into her food, trying to ignore Syaoran's concerned glances. She had never been so pissed in her life.
Syaoran didn't understand her anger. Didn't she see that Nakatsu needed to punished? How dare he be so interested in her! How dare he stare at her like that, and compliment her like that, and be attracted to her like that!
"Are you ok, Sakura?" Nakatsu asked, leaning forward. Syaoran noted with relief that Sakura's body was not attracted to Nakastu's the way it was to his own. He smiled sweetly.
"Nakatsu, do you have someone you like?" he asked, batting his eyelashes innocently. Sakura almost choked on her food. Syaoran smiled flirtatiously as Nakatsu mumbled something incoherent. His face became as red as his hair and he stared down at his food, utterly embarrassed. Sakura glared at Syaoran, who winked back.
"What was that? I couldn't hear what you said, Na-ka-stu." Sakura made a face at the way Syaoran was behaving, but it only egged him on. He brought his face close to Nakastu's, causing the latter to turn even redder.
"I do like someone," Nakastu finally managed to say after he turned away from Syaoran, "But he likes someone else."
Awkward could not possibly be enough to describe the atmosphere at that point.
"H-he? What's his name?" Sakura asked suddenly, mildly happy that Syaoran was now speechless and utterly uncomfortable.
"Mizuki," Nakatsu replied, blushing again. Syaoran turned to stone and then fell over. Well not literally, but you get the idea. Sakura started laughing.
"Hey you asshole, don't laugh! You like someone who likes someone else, too!" Nakatsu yelled at Sakura. She suddenly remember whose body she was in.
"W-what do you mean? Who do I like?" Sakura asked, smirking at Syaoran, who looked absolutely mortified at the way things were going.
"He likes Meiling!" Syaoran blurted, grasping at straws. Sakura and Nakatsu both stared at him.
"W-what? She's his fiancée, after all," Syaoran said, flipping his hair and prying Kero out of Ruu's clutches. On contact, Kero stiffened.
"Hey, Sakura? Are you feeling alright? Your magic power feels much weaker than usual," Kero said, flying up to feel her forehead. Syaoran backed away so quickly he fell over. Very suspicious. Nakastu ignored them and focused on Sakura.
"Is it true, Li? You have a fiancée?" he asked, determinedly.
Sakura, ignoring the funny pain in her chest, nodded.
"See that's funny, because to me it seems more like—"
"A Clow Card!" Sakura yelled, standing up. The tingly feeling hit her as strongly as ever and she instinctively reached for the key—that wasn't around her neck, because she was still in Syaoran's body.
She glared at him, and he threw his hands up in surrender.
"Nakatsu, I'm sorry," he said, and the world spun out of focus.
Ah, it was good to be home! Sakura quickly released the seal and took to the sky. It had begun to rain, and a lightening bolt barely missed her as she flew up.
Back on the ground, Nakatsu turned to Syaoran and smirked, "See, that's funny, because to me it seems more like you like Sakura."
Syaoran shoved him aside and ran after her, not responding. Nakatsu smiled and nodded at his retreating back. Kero flew up after Sakura and Nakatsu picked up Ruu and followed.
"What the hell kind of card is this?" Sakura asked, dodging hail and lightening at the same time.
"The Storm!" Kero called out to her, before a rather large piece of hail sent him tumbling backwards.
"Kero!" Sakura shouted. She looked around. She could barely see anything—it was like a hurricane.
"That's it!" Sakura flew up and broke free of the clouds, looking all around her. If her science teacher was correct when she was in middle school, there was always an eye in a hurricane: a place where everything was calm. She flew up a little higher.
At last, there, a little ways away, she saw a girl who looked a lot like Rain and Cloud sitting happily in the eye of the storm. Sakura flew over to her and took her by surprised.
"Return to the form you were meant to be in, Clow Card!" Sakura shouted, and the Storm was caught. She paused to breath as the storm around her cleared up.
Syaoran and the rest waved at her from the ground. She flew down to them and stumbled off her staff. Her leg hurt from where the hail had battered it.
"Hold still now, kid," Syaoran said calmly as he healed her leg. Nakatsu covered Ruu's eyes from the blood and Kero congratulated her heartily on figuring it out all on her own.
Syaoran's hands rested on her leg even after it was healed. The two stared at each other. Syaoran mumbled an apology and Sakura smiled.
"You didn't call me an idiot," she said happily. Syaoran blushed and then quickly recovered.
"Well I decided that you're not so much idiotic as oblivious." Sakura's smile faded and she flicked him in the forehead.
"And what exactly am I oblivious of?" She asked, pushing past him and walking back to camp. The rest of the group followed, but Syaoran hung back.
"I don't even know," he said quietly to himself.
DM: Wow that chapter was really long compared to my last like four! Thanks so much for reviewing guys and happy holidays! Hopefully you'll hear from me again really soon!
Next Chapter: Elemental