A/N: Sorry for the wait! My family closed on our new house, so we're in the process of moving, with the painting and the boxes and all (yes, my hair will be a different color in spots for a while). It might be a while before the next update or so, but please hang with me for a while. Moving won't take too long, I hope. Anyway, here's your next chapter, and yes, I'm shutting up now.

Sakura's POV (yes, again, finally!)

I sighed, swerving to avoid another gang member. I saw my friend Meilin's black-bunned hair not too far away, and moved to stand next to her.

"Morning Meilin."

"Good morning Sakura!" she beamed back.

"Hoe, I wanted to build the defenses . . . why do I have to have a swords-idiot teach me?" I've already got Syaoran for that . . .

"Hey, will he be a cute swords-idiot?" Meilin asked hopefully.

"Meilin, don't you have a fiancé or something?" I raised an eyebrow. "I don't think he'd like you checking out other guys. Besides, the swords-idiot's probably gonna be old an' grey an' snappy an' mean an cree—"

My rant was interrupted by Meilin squaling. "Oooh, there's a real hottie!" Without another word (mostly some unintelligible shrieks and squeals) she ran off into the crowd. I swear, she's got radar or somethin' . . . anyway, I took off after her to drag her back.

"Stupid woman, get back here already." I didn't even spare the poor guy a glance.

"Aha, so now I see your grumpy side." A familiar voice chuckled over Meilin's protests.

"Grumpy side?! Ugh, the nerve . . ." I trailed off, staring. " . . . uh, oops?"

"Well, nerve is one name for it." Syaoran's dazzling (ooh, don't go there . . .) amber eyes glinted with amusement. "Others might simply choose 'bad mouthing'. But then again, you aren't one for the simple."

"Hoeee, Syaoran, I'm sorry!"

He laughed as Meilin pouted "Syaoooooraaaaan, you know Sakura?"

"Yeah, she assaulted me with a broom, oh-dear-cousin mine." Syaoran blinked at her.

"Can't you call me Meilin? We are fiances, after all!"

"Only until you find an actual boyfriend."

"But you're the best anyone can get!"

"Waitaminnut, waitaminnut . . . you two are cousins?" I asked, completely and curiously baffled. Yeah, I was a few sentences back. Shut up already.

"Yep, even though there's not much of a resemblence." Syaoran shrugged. "Ying Fa, why are you here, anyway?"

"Swords training for the raid. Some old geezer's gonna teach us. " I waved a hand dismissively.

"Old . . . geezer?" He chuckled. "Nice, I'll remember that for when I get revenge on you someday."

"Why are you here then, if you're second-in-command and all? Shouldn't you be busy organizing something or other? And whaddya mean, revenge?!"

"I'm your 'old geezer', psycho woman." Syaoran laughed as he walked into the crowd.

"Hey, what about my last question!" I yelled after him, but the # ignored me. I huffed, then turned to meet Meilin's red glare. Whoa! Where did that come from?!

"Stay away from Syaoran." She glared at me. "He's my fiance, so keep your grubby mitts off him."

Fiance? That's new . . . "Hoe, I don't even like him like that, Meilin! I didn't even know you two were related, not to mention engaged! No way am I getting involved with your man." I reassured her. Still . . . that chocolate hair was just perfectly messy, and he is pretty cute . . . looks fit . . . not to mention that slight accent, and those god-damned gorgeous amber eyes . . . hoe! Sakura! Bad thoughts, bad thoughts, and right after you just told Meilin you didn't like him! But I don't like him! AAAAAAAAARGH!

"Yay!" Meilin's angry look disappeared as fast as it'd come, and I sweatdropped. Okay . . .

Syaoran jumped up on a table,looking formidable at his oh-so-tall six feet. "Oi! Can I have your attention?"

No one really paid attention,except me and Meilin of course. I was simply standing there, whiloe Meilin was all gaga-eyed. Eww . . . why did Syaoran propose to her again?

"OI!!! I need your attention so we can get started, people!"

Eh, a couple people looked up this time,but then went back to chatting with their friends. I sighed when Syaoran left his little makeshift 'stage', but blinked in curiousity when he jumped up with something hanging over his back. It looked kinda familiar and kinda stick-shaped . . .

I understood when his sword thudded loudly into the table. It boomed, echoing in the hall and catching everyone off-guard. About half stared up at him in surprise. However, the other, more important half still managed to ignore him. To this day, I still don't know how you could ignore such a boom.

He janked the sword out (cool . . .) and swung it around his head. It swiped theough the air, over and under in an impressive display of flashing silver (ooh, I like that phrase). Soon, he had everyone's complete attention.

It thudded into the poor table again, louder than before. If anyone hadn't been paying attention to his eye-catcher, they sure were now. Syaoran leaned on the hilt of his sword, looking pretty irritated and annoyed, not to mention pretty scary . . .

"Do I have your attention now?" he snapped. Everyone nodded a fervent yes. He gave them all a bright smile. "Good."

"You're all probably wondering what you're doing here. Well, I'll give it to you straight . . . there is a high chance of a raid." Syaoran had to re-thump-boom-bang-whatever his sword several times when excaimations burst out. Everyone calmed . . . eventually. "That's why you are here, and why I am here. Eriol, Futomaki and I all agree that every one of you need to know how to fight, both defense and offense."

"So we'll be training every day?" someone asked.

"Technically." Syaoran's reply was slow and thoughtful. "Humn, you're the morning group for me, so on Monday through Saturday you'll train in the morning. In the afternoon, you'll build the defenses. Understand so far?" Everyone nodded, so he continued. "I'll train you in swordson Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Futomaki will teach you hand-to-hand combat on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Sunday is rest day. After training, you get an hour for lunch and then you work on building defenses. Good?"

Everyone nodded. He was being pretty clear, and speaking loudly enough that everyone could hear easily.

"Good. Um, length is from the ground to your thigh, I guess. They're on the right wall . . ." Syaoran pointed, and everyone swarmed over to go get a sword (except for me, seeing as I had my sword already on my hip).

I ambled over to him as he jumped down. "Syaoran."

He hadn't noticed me yet, so he jumped in surprise. As soon as he saw it was me, he smiled. "Hey! Whatcha need?"

"Two things."

The sword slid over his head and into the sheath, an action I translated to mean he was listening. Cool.

"First, I wanna know: are you and Meilin really fiances?"

Syaoran . . . grimaced? Huh, wierd, normally someone would be happy to be engaged to their love or summat like that. "Yeah, really, but I keep hoping she'll find a good boyfriend so it'll be off." At my apparently confused face, he elaborated. "See, I'm the heir to the Li clan, which means I have to get married before I turn eighteen. There's a stupid rule that my 'wife' has to be pefectly suited for me and all that junk, so the elders chose Meilin."

"You . . . don't love her?"

"Not really. Maybe as a sister, but nothing more." He shifted his weight, obviously uncomfortable. "Um. What was number two?"

"Just don't die in the raid, okay?"

I think I'd just surprised Syaoran, because it took a minute for him to respond. He blinked, then grinned and put a hand on top of my head (shows you how tall he is and how short I am . . . ARGH, why can't I be TALLER?!?!).

"Promise."

All of a sudden, Meilin whammed into my side at a dead run. "Syaoooooorannnnnn, is this right?" she cooed, showing him an elegant sword with jewels all over the hilt.

"My mom bought you that, didn't she? No, don't answer that." Syaoran remained invulnerable to her . . . whatever you wanna call it. "See ya Ying Fa."

Meilin hissed at me. "What did I say about staying away from my man, Sakura!"

"Hoe! I was just asking him about the engagement!" Okay, so it wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't a whole lie either.

"Okay! But still,, you better watch it." Meilin's glare didn't lessen.

"I'm serious Meilin! We're just friends!"

"Hmmm . . . ." Meilin inspected me. We were interrupted by Syaoran remounting his table.

"All right, that was . . . somewhat organized. Anyway, see those colored squares? One for each person." He gestured to the colored square tile pattern on the floor. I shrugged and moved to stand in one. Meilin took the one directly next to me.

Thus, our training started.

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"Sakura, wasn't training fun?" Meilin collasped on her bed after building the defenses. "Building stuff was exhausing . . . but training was fun! Right Sakura? Right?"

"If you say so." I yawned. "So sore . . . Eh, I'll see you tomorrow Meilin. Too tired . . . "

"Later!" Meilin waved, then started crooning over Syaoran or something like that. It's hard to repress a scared shiver from going down your spine when she does that. It's really pretty creepy . . . I shrugged the thought off and went to my room.

In bed, I mulled over my day. Training, I had to admit, really had been fun. True, I was really, really, really sore, but the trainning had still been pretty fun. Futomaki and the defenses building had been a little . . . rough, I guess. There'd been no breaks, and he'd barked out order after order after order after order after order . . . I think it's a wonder Eriol made him his left-hand man. Futomaki was the opposite leader of Syaoran, who'd been among us and helping us as he trained us.

And yes, my thoughts now turned to Syaoran and my feelings concerning him. He is pretty handsome, and his smile is almost sweet. I turned my head, looking at the plush panda he'd won for me just yesterday. When around Syaoran, everything becomes a blur of events and time passes too quickly. I reall had no idea how I felt about him, and hoped it would stay as a friendship sort of thing.

I groaned and threw off the blankets. All this thinking was giving me a headache. Now we know why I suck at math . . . I need a walk. Yeah, a walk will help . . . I think.

This time to save my poor blanket from being forgotten in mud or who-knows-what, I actually got re-dressed.

Five minutes later, I was ambling calmly past the beginning of our defenses. It was almost peaceful, until I encountered a large thud.

I jumped, startled, and started feeling the wall for a broom. I stopped myself, paused, and almost started giggling. Why was I searching for a broom when I've got a sword right next to me? Hand on the hilt of said sword, I peeked around the corner and consequently froze.

Syaoran sighed, looking at his dirt-covered hands, then at the object of his rapt attention. "Damn board, why don't you behave?" On 'behave', he rammed his shoulder against a large wooden board. It stubbornly refused to break.

He wiped his forehead clear of sweat, then looped his fingers under said board. With a grunt or two, he pulled it away from the pile of wood and metal and junk. He drew his sword, which was laying not too far away on the ground and sliced through the board (no surprise there, eh?). With another grunt, he heaved the two peices into place. Big surprise that he was sweating again when he was done.

"Damn you, you damn board. Cauase me more trouble than your worth." He panted, glaring proudly at the board. After a minute of no response from said board, he sat and . . . took off his shirt?!

His skin was evenly tanned, and completely unblemished. Muscles rippled underneath when he moved, even if he was pretty slim for a guy of sixteen. His chest was somewhat muscled, and he had a very clear six-pack. His arms were muscled a little more than his chest. Even though he wasn't hugely muscular, he looked like he was bursting with hidden strength.

I gasped, then slapped a hand over my mouth. Lucklily, he hadn't heard either, so my hiding spot remained undetected. I flushed waaaaaay deep when I caught myself complimenting his figure in my mind.

I turned and fled back to my room, face burning. Oh my god oh my god oh my god oh my god . . . I slammed the door, and leaned against it. Sliding to the floor, I panted and covered my face with my hands. I was bright red, and the blush stubbornly refused to fade.

Eventually, it did fade, but I stayed breathless.

Oh god . . . I understand why Meilin isn't even bothering to search for a new boyfriend . . .