A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update this second chapter, I've been très
busy, well I hope you enjoy and please Read and Review.
Chapter 2: The Arrival
~*The Story*~
"I don't think this is such a good idea," Syaoran told Sakura as she went back down the hall towards her office.
"And why not?" Sakura stopped walking and turned to face Syaoran, in doing so Syaoran almost ran into her.
"Well...you wouldn't be able to keep your secret forever, and you will probably be there forever." Syaoran stated trying to veer her away from going to the ranch.
"Nonsense," Sakura said. "We can escape the same way you got out this morning, oh and the longer you stand there trying to stop me from going, the longer it will take to get to the ranch."
"Fine, how long will it take you to get ready?" Syaoran heaved a big sigh, giving into her was easier fighting her. And she did have a point that they were wasting time.
Sakura went into her office, told Tomoyo that they were leaving for a few days. "Give us twenty minutes." Sakura said as she passed him in the hall.
On their way up to Sakura's bedroom, Tomoyo asked, " What do you think of Syaoran?"
"Well he seems shy, but he doesn't know us that well. He seems very devoted to his friend," Sakura responded.
"Yeah, I got the same basic impression. I think he's cute."
"Tomoyo! Is that all you think about?" Sakura said shocked.
"Don't tell me you didn't notice how nicely his bottom fit in his jeans?" Tomoyo gave her a look of disbelief.
"Well, you'd have to be blind not to notice how cute he is. He has the most gorgeous brown eyes." Sakura sighed, with a dreamy look on her face. She removed the scissors and started chopping her shoulder length hair. After making her hair even she stepped back to admire her handy work. She still had a feminine look to her, but her hair was sticking out in a few places and at odd angles. The new haircut made her look more like a fourteen-year- old boy than a twenty-year-old woman. She handed the scissors over to Tomoyo; she cut her hair to about the same length.
Sakura went to her closet and started digging around. "I know our breeches are in here somewhere. Ah, here they are." She pulled out two pairs of pants, threw a pair at Tomoyo and told her to change.
After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Syaoran was getting impatient and called up to them, "are you guys ready?"
As soon as he finished calling up to them, two "guys" exited Sakura's bedroom. Syaoran was shocked that a haircut, a change of clothes and a hat could change two women into two young men.
As Sakura and Tomoyo descended the stairs Sakura asked, "so how do we look?"
Syaoran cleared his throat and replied, "Well, as long as you don't stay too long. You guys will never grow whiskers." Syaoran smiled slightly at the look he received from Sakura.
"How long do you think it will take you to treat Eriol?" Syaoran asked.
"Well, it depends on how bad his wounds are and if infection has set in." Sakura responded while putting her boots on.
"How are we getting to the ranch?" Tomoyo asked to no one in particular.
"Well, we have two horses in the stable out back. We could take them." Sakura thought out loud.
"Yeah, it would be a good idea if you two had your own horses. It might persuade Doma into letting you stay." Syaoran stated.
"Okay. Syaoran, you and I will ride double, while Tomoyo rides the pony single."
Syaoran blanched. "I have to ride double with you?" He looked at Sakura with a frightened look on his face. "I mean, no offense, but." his voice trailed off, not having a reason not to ride double.
"Your too big for the pony we have and if you walk beside us, it will take us three times as long. Do you have any problems with that?" Sakura asked, a note of impatience in her voice.
"No ma'am." Syaoran muttered.
"You can call me Sakura, and I don't think Tomoyo will mind if you called her by her first name, right?" She looked back at her assistant.
"No Sakura." Tomoyo said with a full-blown smile at Syaoran. "No problem at all."
"If your going to be guys there's no point in me calling you by your girls names, so we have to find you some guy names." Syaoran stated.
"Good point, do you have any ideas?" Sakura asked.
"Actually, I do," Syaoran said with a note of satisfaction. "While you two were getting ready I thought about it. I thought that the names should at least begin with the same letter as your name so the you don't have to change much."
".And the names you came up with are?" Sakura asked. She wanted to leave as soon as possible. "Why don't we saddle the horses while we talk."
They made their way to the stable and began saddling the horses, while listening to the names Syaoran had come up with.
"I thought, Sakura, you could be Saji, and Tomoyo you could be Touya. So what do you think?"
"I think they're great. I like the name Saji already." Sakura said with a smile that could melt ice.
But it wasn't aimed at ice, it was aimed at Syaoran, he almost collapsed by the sheer brilliance of it. 'And imagine I have to ride for an hour behind that fine body of hers.' Syaoran thought to himself.
Once the horses had been saddled, and Tomoyo had mounted. Sakura mounted first on the tiny gelding. She scooted forward to make room for Syaoran behind her. He placed his left hand on the horn of the saddle, right in front of her, his other hand just behind her bottom and his left foot in the stirrup. With that he hoisted his right foot over the saddle and sat directly behind Sakura. He placed both of his arms behind her waist.
For a second Sakura couldn't think of anything but the pair of arms wrapped around her tiny waist. She could feel the heat that emanated from his body and seeped into hers. Finally after getting herself under control, but not completely adjusting to the feel of Syaoran's arms around her waist, she kneed the horse and started for Bokusha Ranch.
During the hour it took to get to the ranch, Syaoran was thinking once again, how good Sakura felt in his arms, it felt so right. The feeling of her tiny waist surrounded by his arms, how her breasts brushed up against his forearm every time she breathed in. He was only aware of her and the way she smelled of lilacs and vanilla, that he didn't realize that they had arrived at Bokusha Ranch, and had stopped about fifty feet from the Iron Gate.
Syaoran dismounted and told Sakura and Tomoyo, "go to the front gate and wait to be noticed. You'll have to meet with the boss first. Don't forget to make your voice deeper so he doesn't suspect that you're girls."
Sakura and Tomoyo watched as Syaoran rounded the back of the ranch.
"It's a good thing he reminded me to lower my voice, or else Doma definitely would have pegged me as a girl." Tomoyo said as she nudged her horse forward toward the gate.
"Well let's get this first meeting over with." In the silence around them, Sakura started to worry. "What happens if he doesn't need us? What if he lets us stay, but than finds out that we are girls and never lets us leave?" Sakura was having second thoughts.
"Don't start worrying now. It's too late we've been spotted. I believe they are alerting Doma." Tomoyo pointed to a man running to the main house.
"Oh, no. What are we going to do?"
"We are going to exactly what we planned." Tomoyo said in a soothing voice, trying to calm Sakura down.
"Do you think we can do it? Do you think we can actually pull it off?"
"Sakura, do you actually Syaoran would put the future of his best friend in our hands, if he didn't think we could do it?" Tomoyo asked instead of answering Sakura's question.
"No, I guess not. But we were the only doctors around." Tomoyo shook her head at this comment.
"I don't think that was the reason, but lets not argue about this anymore. I think I see Doma." She said after a moments pause.
She was right. Approaching the gate was a short, balding, stocky man in his late forties with biceps the size of tree trunks; he was holing a shotgun aimed directly at Tomoyo's head.
"State your business." Doma said in an angry tone.
Tomoyo spoke in a stern voice that was deeper than her own. "We are here to work for you for a period of time. We were in the village and they said this was the only ranch around for miles. So we decided to check it out. My name is Touya and this is Saji." Tomoyo pointed to herself and than to Sakura, just in case the man was too stupid to realize whom she was talking about, Sakura just tipped her hat and nodded.
"Ah. looking for a job, are you? Well you've come to the right place. We are short a few hands. I'll have Hooku show you to the bunkhouse." With that taken care of. Doma walked back towards the main house.
"Follow me." A tall lanky man, with a head of shaggy blond hair and a hooked nose motioned with his hand for Sakura and Tomoyo to follow him. "Give your horses to Bunbu, He'll unsaddle them and rub them down for you." Sakura figured that this must be Hooku; she figured that he was at least ten years older than her twenty-one years.
Sakura and Tomoyo both dismounted and handed the reigns to Bunbu. Hooku than led them to a long building with a green shingled roof.
Once they entered, they saw Syaoran leaning over an unconscious man with shocking blue hair. The man was lying on his stomach and Syaoran was cleaning the wounds on his back. Sakura couldn't hold back the gasp of surprise when she saw his back.
"Oh. don't worry about him. He got what he deserved." Hooku said with out much remorse. I'll leave you to get settled in but you better be ready to work by lunch time." Hooku gave them a malicious look.
As soon as he left the bunkhouse, Sakura rushed to Syaoran's side, dropped to her knees and placed a hand on Eriol's feverish back. I'm glad you were quick to get me, had you not, infection surely would have set in." Sakura looked up into Syaoran's amber eyes. "He's very lucky to have a friend like you."
Syaoran looked down at his best friend, "he's the only family I have."
"I'll do my best, but it may get worse before it gets better." Sakura told him.
"Just do your best." Syaoran kneeled next to Eriol and spoke to him softly, "Eriol, Eriol, wake up, there is someone here to see you."
Eriol slowly opened his eyes. "Hey Syaoran, where have you been."
Syaoran didn't have to answer because Sakura did. "Hi, my name is Sak. I mean Saji. Syaoran came to get me so that I could fix your back." Sakura gave him a brilliant smile.
"Well, thank you Saji." Eriol gave his friend a look that told him that he wanted to speak to him after the girls left.
"Alright, but after Saji is done." Syaoran said answering Eriol's silent question.
Sakura began by cleaning Eriols wounds. Tomoyo sat next to Eriols head and placed all the instruments on Eriols bedside table. Eriol turned his head to get a better look at Tomoyo, he looked long and hard at her profile, trying to get a good look at her eyes.
Sakura was done setting up he stuff and cleaning Eriols back. She had the needle and string ready to close the biggest wounds in his back. She sterilized the needle. "Hold still this is going to hurt." As she lowered the needle to the biggest wound and poked it through on one side of the opened flesh, she heard a muffled cry of pain as Eriol bit back the cry.
Tomoyo smoothed away the hair on his forehead. She placed her other hand on top of his fist that was clenching the pillow in a death grip. She unconsciously began moving her thumb in slow circles on the back of his hand, trying to ease his pain.
Eriol was shocked at the heat her hand generated. He was concentrating so hard on the feeling trying to guess its source, that when Sakura told him she was almost finished he was surprised.
After a few more minutes, Sakura was done, "all finished" she announced cheerfully.
"Thank God." Eriol muttered.
"All that's left is the bandage. We will have to clean them every night. And you are going to have rest and take it easy, nothing to strenuous." Sakura told Eriol.
"If you guys don't mind, I'd like to talk to Syaoran for a little bit." Eriol looked at each of the girls in turn.
Sakura shot Syaoran a disapproving glare, but when she turned to Eriol, all trace of the glare was gone. The only thing on her face was tenderness. "Not to long, you need to rest."
With that said, Sakura and Tomoyo exited the bunkhouse. Syaoran's gaze never left Sakura until the door was closed behind her.
"Wow what a woman." Eriol said to Syaoran.
"Yeah, I know, she always." Syaoran realized his mistake too late.
"I knew it, I knew it. There was no possible way that those two were men." Eriol was smiling up at Syaoran. Who was glaring down at his friend.
"I should have let them kill you." Syaoran muttered. "How did you know?"
"Well at first I thought the were men, but as soon as I saw the way you looked at the good doctor, I started having doubts. But my final tip off was her assistant. She calmed me down using her hands. No man would ever touch another man like that. Also, she didn't have any calluses on her hands."
Syaoran was still in shock over Eriols first comment. "What way did I look at her? There was no way." Syaoran fumed once he was over the shock.
"I saw you looking at her while she worked on my back. And when she entered the room, you could almost see the spark between you two. You kept looking at her like she was a piece of cake and you were one hungry man."
"I did no such thing," but even as he said it, Syaoran knew that Eriol could tell that he was lying. They knew each other too well. "Okay, okay, I am attracted to her, but there is nothing there. I met her this morning. How could there possibly be anything after knowing her for only four hours?"
"No one knows exactly how the mind or the heart work." Eriol said with a thoughtful look on his face. "Now, you are going to have to leave before Saji gets angry at you for depriving me of my rest."
A/N: So what did you think please read and review, I don't know when my next chap will be up. Sorry. Check out my good friend Beloved's story, titled "Destined Love," She also has a new one called "Conclusions" check them out they're both wonderful CCS stories.
Chapter 2: The Arrival
~*The Story*~
"I don't think this is such a good idea," Syaoran told Sakura as she went back down the hall towards her office.
"And why not?" Sakura stopped walking and turned to face Syaoran, in doing so Syaoran almost ran into her.
"Well...you wouldn't be able to keep your secret forever, and you will probably be there forever." Syaoran stated trying to veer her away from going to the ranch.
"Nonsense," Sakura said. "We can escape the same way you got out this morning, oh and the longer you stand there trying to stop me from going, the longer it will take to get to the ranch."
"Fine, how long will it take you to get ready?" Syaoran heaved a big sigh, giving into her was easier fighting her. And she did have a point that they were wasting time.
Sakura went into her office, told Tomoyo that they were leaving for a few days. "Give us twenty minutes." Sakura said as she passed him in the hall.
On their way up to Sakura's bedroom, Tomoyo asked, " What do you think of Syaoran?"
"Well he seems shy, but he doesn't know us that well. He seems very devoted to his friend," Sakura responded.
"Yeah, I got the same basic impression. I think he's cute."
"Tomoyo! Is that all you think about?" Sakura said shocked.
"Don't tell me you didn't notice how nicely his bottom fit in his jeans?" Tomoyo gave her a look of disbelief.
"Well, you'd have to be blind not to notice how cute he is. He has the most gorgeous brown eyes." Sakura sighed, with a dreamy look on her face. She removed the scissors and started chopping her shoulder length hair. After making her hair even she stepped back to admire her handy work. She still had a feminine look to her, but her hair was sticking out in a few places and at odd angles. The new haircut made her look more like a fourteen-year- old boy than a twenty-year-old woman. She handed the scissors over to Tomoyo; she cut her hair to about the same length.
Sakura went to her closet and started digging around. "I know our breeches are in here somewhere. Ah, here they are." She pulled out two pairs of pants, threw a pair at Tomoyo and told her to change.
After about fifteen minutes of waiting, Syaoran was getting impatient and called up to them, "are you guys ready?"
As soon as he finished calling up to them, two "guys" exited Sakura's bedroom. Syaoran was shocked that a haircut, a change of clothes and a hat could change two women into two young men.
As Sakura and Tomoyo descended the stairs Sakura asked, "so how do we look?"
Syaoran cleared his throat and replied, "Well, as long as you don't stay too long. You guys will never grow whiskers." Syaoran smiled slightly at the look he received from Sakura.
"How long do you think it will take you to treat Eriol?" Syaoran asked.
"Well, it depends on how bad his wounds are and if infection has set in." Sakura responded while putting her boots on.
"How are we getting to the ranch?" Tomoyo asked to no one in particular.
"Well, we have two horses in the stable out back. We could take them." Sakura thought out loud.
"Yeah, it would be a good idea if you two had your own horses. It might persuade Doma into letting you stay." Syaoran stated.
"Okay. Syaoran, you and I will ride double, while Tomoyo rides the pony single."
Syaoran blanched. "I have to ride double with you?" He looked at Sakura with a frightened look on his face. "I mean, no offense, but." his voice trailed off, not having a reason not to ride double.
"Your too big for the pony we have and if you walk beside us, it will take us three times as long. Do you have any problems with that?" Sakura asked, a note of impatience in her voice.
"No ma'am." Syaoran muttered.
"You can call me Sakura, and I don't think Tomoyo will mind if you called her by her first name, right?" She looked back at her assistant.
"No Sakura." Tomoyo said with a full-blown smile at Syaoran. "No problem at all."
"If your going to be guys there's no point in me calling you by your girls names, so we have to find you some guy names." Syaoran stated.
"Good point, do you have any ideas?" Sakura asked.
"Actually, I do," Syaoran said with a note of satisfaction. "While you two were getting ready I thought about it. I thought that the names should at least begin with the same letter as your name so the you don't have to change much."
".And the names you came up with are?" Sakura asked. She wanted to leave as soon as possible. "Why don't we saddle the horses while we talk."
They made their way to the stable and began saddling the horses, while listening to the names Syaoran had come up with.
"I thought, Sakura, you could be Saji, and Tomoyo you could be Touya. So what do you think?"
"I think they're great. I like the name Saji already." Sakura said with a smile that could melt ice.
But it wasn't aimed at ice, it was aimed at Syaoran, he almost collapsed by the sheer brilliance of it. 'And imagine I have to ride for an hour behind that fine body of hers.' Syaoran thought to himself.
Once the horses had been saddled, and Tomoyo had mounted. Sakura mounted first on the tiny gelding. She scooted forward to make room for Syaoran behind her. He placed his left hand on the horn of the saddle, right in front of her, his other hand just behind her bottom and his left foot in the stirrup. With that he hoisted his right foot over the saddle and sat directly behind Sakura. He placed both of his arms behind her waist.
For a second Sakura couldn't think of anything but the pair of arms wrapped around her tiny waist. She could feel the heat that emanated from his body and seeped into hers. Finally after getting herself under control, but not completely adjusting to the feel of Syaoran's arms around her waist, she kneed the horse and started for Bokusha Ranch.
During the hour it took to get to the ranch, Syaoran was thinking once again, how good Sakura felt in his arms, it felt so right. The feeling of her tiny waist surrounded by his arms, how her breasts brushed up against his forearm every time she breathed in. He was only aware of her and the way she smelled of lilacs and vanilla, that he didn't realize that they had arrived at Bokusha Ranch, and had stopped about fifty feet from the Iron Gate.
Syaoran dismounted and told Sakura and Tomoyo, "go to the front gate and wait to be noticed. You'll have to meet with the boss first. Don't forget to make your voice deeper so he doesn't suspect that you're girls."
Sakura and Tomoyo watched as Syaoran rounded the back of the ranch.
"It's a good thing he reminded me to lower my voice, or else Doma definitely would have pegged me as a girl." Tomoyo said as she nudged her horse forward toward the gate.
"Well let's get this first meeting over with." In the silence around them, Sakura started to worry. "What happens if he doesn't need us? What if he lets us stay, but than finds out that we are girls and never lets us leave?" Sakura was having second thoughts.
"Don't start worrying now. It's too late we've been spotted. I believe they are alerting Doma." Tomoyo pointed to a man running to the main house.
"Oh, no. What are we going to do?"
"We are going to exactly what we planned." Tomoyo said in a soothing voice, trying to calm Sakura down.
"Do you think we can do it? Do you think we can actually pull it off?"
"Sakura, do you actually Syaoran would put the future of his best friend in our hands, if he didn't think we could do it?" Tomoyo asked instead of answering Sakura's question.
"No, I guess not. But we were the only doctors around." Tomoyo shook her head at this comment.
"I don't think that was the reason, but lets not argue about this anymore. I think I see Doma." She said after a moments pause.
She was right. Approaching the gate was a short, balding, stocky man in his late forties with biceps the size of tree trunks; he was holing a shotgun aimed directly at Tomoyo's head.
"State your business." Doma said in an angry tone.
Tomoyo spoke in a stern voice that was deeper than her own. "We are here to work for you for a period of time. We were in the village and they said this was the only ranch around for miles. So we decided to check it out. My name is Touya and this is Saji." Tomoyo pointed to herself and than to Sakura, just in case the man was too stupid to realize whom she was talking about, Sakura just tipped her hat and nodded.
"Ah. looking for a job, are you? Well you've come to the right place. We are short a few hands. I'll have Hooku show you to the bunkhouse." With that taken care of. Doma walked back towards the main house.
"Follow me." A tall lanky man, with a head of shaggy blond hair and a hooked nose motioned with his hand for Sakura and Tomoyo to follow him. "Give your horses to Bunbu, He'll unsaddle them and rub them down for you." Sakura figured that this must be Hooku; she figured that he was at least ten years older than her twenty-one years.
Sakura and Tomoyo both dismounted and handed the reigns to Bunbu. Hooku than led them to a long building with a green shingled roof.
Once they entered, they saw Syaoran leaning over an unconscious man with shocking blue hair. The man was lying on his stomach and Syaoran was cleaning the wounds on his back. Sakura couldn't hold back the gasp of surprise when she saw his back.
"Oh. don't worry about him. He got what he deserved." Hooku said with out much remorse. I'll leave you to get settled in but you better be ready to work by lunch time." Hooku gave them a malicious look.
As soon as he left the bunkhouse, Sakura rushed to Syaoran's side, dropped to her knees and placed a hand on Eriol's feverish back. I'm glad you were quick to get me, had you not, infection surely would have set in." Sakura looked up into Syaoran's amber eyes. "He's very lucky to have a friend like you."
Syaoran looked down at his best friend, "he's the only family I have."
"I'll do my best, but it may get worse before it gets better." Sakura told him.
"Just do your best." Syaoran kneeled next to Eriol and spoke to him softly, "Eriol, Eriol, wake up, there is someone here to see you."
Eriol slowly opened his eyes. "Hey Syaoran, where have you been."
Syaoran didn't have to answer because Sakura did. "Hi, my name is Sak. I mean Saji. Syaoran came to get me so that I could fix your back." Sakura gave him a brilliant smile.
"Well, thank you Saji." Eriol gave his friend a look that told him that he wanted to speak to him after the girls left.
"Alright, but after Saji is done." Syaoran said answering Eriol's silent question.
Sakura began by cleaning Eriols wounds. Tomoyo sat next to Eriols head and placed all the instruments on Eriols bedside table. Eriol turned his head to get a better look at Tomoyo, he looked long and hard at her profile, trying to get a good look at her eyes.
Sakura was done setting up he stuff and cleaning Eriols back. She had the needle and string ready to close the biggest wounds in his back. She sterilized the needle. "Hold still this is going to hurt." As she lowered the needle to the biggest wound and poked it through on one side of the opened flesh, she heard a muffled cry of pain as Eriol bit back the cry.
Tomoyo smoothed away the hair on his forehead. She placed her other hand on top of his fist that was clenching the pillow in a death grip. She unconsciously began moving her thumb in slow circles on the back of his hand, trying to ease his pain.
Eriol was shocked at the heat her hand generated. He was concentrating so hard on the feeling trying to guess its source, that when Sakura told him she was almost finished he was surprised.
After a few more minutes, Sakura was done, "all finished" she announced cheerfully.
"Thank God." Eriol muttered.
"All that's left is the bandage. We will have to clean them every night. And you are going to have rest and take it easy, nothing to strenuous." Sakura told Eriol.
"If you guys don't mind, I'd like to talk to Syaoran for a little bit." Eriol looked at each of the girls in turn.
Sakura shot Syaoran a disapproving glare, but when she turned to Eriol, all trace of the glare was gone. The only thing on her face was tenderness. "Not to long, you need to rest."
With that said, Sakura and Tomoyo exited the bunkhouse. Syaoran's gaze never left Sakura until the door was closed behind her.
"Wow what a woman." Eriol said to Syaoran.
"Yeah, I know, she always." Syaoran realized his mistake too late.
"I knew it, I knew it. There was no possible way that those two were men." Eriol was smiling up at Syaoran. Who was glaring down at his friend.
"I should have let them kill you." Syaoran muttered. "How did you know?"
"Well at first I thought the were men, but as soon as I saw the way you looked at the good doctor, I started having doubts. But my final tip off was her assistant. She calmed me down using her hands. No man would ever touch another man like that. Also, she didn't have any calluses on her hands."
Syaoran was still in shock over Eriols first comment. "What way did I look at her? There was no way." Syaoran fumed once he was over the shock.
"I saw you looking at her while she worked on my back. And when she entered the room, you could almost see the spark between you two. You kept looking at her like she was a piece of cake and you were one hungry man."
"I did no such thing," but even as he said it, Syaoran knew that Eriol could tell that he was lying. They knew each other too well. "Okay, okay, I am attracted to her, but there is nothing there. I met her this morning. How could there possibly be anything after knowing her for only four hours?"
"No one knows exactly how the mind or the heart work." Eriol said with a thoughtful look on his face. "Now, you are going to have to leave before Saji gets angry at you for depriving me of my rest."
A/N: So what did you think please read and review, I don't know when my next chap will be up. Sorry. Check out my good friend Beloved's story, titled "Destined Love," She also has a new one called "Conclusions" check them out they're both wonderful CCS stories.