A/N: Hey guys!! I realize it has been a really, really, really, long time
that I have updated and I'm so sorry for all of you that has been checking
if I've updated. I will try to update at least once every two weeks, and
every review that is sent keeps me motivated. I already have an idea for
the next chapter, so it shouldn't be to long till I update next.
By the by, I don't think I have said this yet but I don't own Cardcaptors and I never said I did.
Chapter 3: Learning the Ropes
~*Story*~
Tomoyo and Sakura were to start working in the morning and only got a few hours sleep. When they exited the bunkhouse after looking over Eriol, who was doing better, they got their first good look at Bokusha ranch. The ranch looked run down and old as if no one had been taking care of it in a long time. They were directed to talk to Hooku who would show them the ropes. Which is where Syaoran found them when he was done getting ready, only it wasn't just Hooku, Tomoyo and Sakura who were there. Everyone on the ranch had gathered around to see what was going on. When Syaoran approached the group they were in a circle around Sakura and Hooku. Sakura was yelling at Hooku, who looked ready to pulverize Sakura. Syaoran pushed his way into the centre to stand in front of Sakura and give an evil look to Hooku.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Syaoran demanded when he got Hooku's attention. Sakura, who was looking at Hooku from behind Syaoran's back, stuck her tongue out at him. "Why are you yelling at Saji?"
Hooku gave a scathing look at Sakura, "that boy," he pointed at Sakura, "doesn't know a thing about ranching. He lied to Doma yesterday, what good is he to us if he can't do anything?"
"What if I teach him what he needs to know?" Syaoran was so shocked that those words had actually passed out of his mouth that he wasn't sure who was shocked more, Sakura or himself.
"Fine, go ahead and try, I give you all the luck in the world, but that boy is to stubborn to learn anything about cattle. You want to try than go ahead and be my guest. Don't forget that you still have to pull your own weight as well as the brats." With that said Hooku stalked off to go and round up the cattle.
"Well, what are you guys waiting for Doma to come out here to give you crap about dilly dallying? Get lost." Syaoran directed a stare at everyone surrounding them and the crowd dispersed. The only people remaining in front of the barn were Tomoyo, Sakura and Syaoran. Syaoran turned to glare at Sakura, "was he telling the truth that you don't know a thing about cattle?"
"Well.I guess he was," Sakura looked a little shame faced while she was confessing. "The only thing I know how to do is run when they start stampeding. The group we travelled with didn't have as many cattle as you had and we didn't have to take care of them." Still looking down, Sakura let her sentence run on.
"What about you?" Syaoran turned to look at Tomoyo.
Tomoyo looked at Syaoran and told him about her past, "Nope, I don't need your help, I grew up on a farm before I started working for Sakura and since I was the oldest I was out doing the work with my dad as soon as I could walk. You don't have to worry about me. If you want I could try to teach Sakura how to do all the stuff that's needed?"
Syaoran was ready to let Tomoyo do the job, but he knew that if he were to show up to help Hooku and the guys, they would accuse him a being a coward and trying to shirk his responsibilities onto someone else. He sighed, "No it's okay, the guys would accuse me of being a coward if I let you handle it." He sighed again "you go ahead and get to work, hopefully we will join you before the day is up." At this comment Sakura scowled at him.
Tomoyo left, chuckling to herself at their behaviour. It was quite obvious that there was something there even if they didn't want to admit it. She went the same way that the men had gone earlier, after a few minutes she couldn't be seen anymore and Syaoran and Sakura were left alone.
As soon as Tomoyo was out of sight, Sakura stalked off to the bunkhouse. Before she could reach for the door handle, Syaoran had his hand on her forearm and was dragging her off towards the barn. "Let go of me!!" She struggled vainly to be free from his grasp, but Syaoran was a lot stronger than she was. He didn't let go of her until they were inside the barn and safe from being heard by anyone who happened to chance by.
"Where did you think you were going?" Syaoran grabbed hold of her other arm to keep her one place.
"You didn't want to teach me anything, so I decided that I wasn't going to learn from you either." She turned her head to the side, so Syaoran couldn't see her eyes. But it was to late he saw that he had hurt her by telling Tomoyo that the only reason he was teaching her was to keep face with the other men at the ranch.
He softened the tone of his voice, "well, if you don't learn how to deal with the cattle, than Doma will get rid of you, and than who would take care of Eriol?" When she looked back up at him it was to see that his eyes had softened and that he was trying to comfort her.
She gave him a tentative smile that was just a bit wobbly. "So where do we start?" Syaoran had to take a step back from her; her smile was a disarming one that told him she wasn't sure what was coming next.
Syaoran looked around the barn for a lasso, and found one on the hook next to the horse stall. He set up a bale of hay in the middle of the barn and walked back to stand in front of Sakura. "Okay, we are going to start with roping, it's a basic skill that all cowboys need to know." He gave her an example; he raised his arm above his head and started spinning the rope. Once it was at a good speed he let it go, it landed beautifully on the bale of hay. "Now it's your turn." He turned and held out the lasso to Sakura.
Sakura hesitantly took the rope. She did her best to mimic his actions but was having a little difficulty. She raised her arm above her head and started spinning the rope, but when she let it go it landed two feet in front of her. She turned to Syaoran and gave him a look of despair. Syaoran gave her a look and told her to try it again. She did try again, and again and again and still she could never get it to go far enough. Syaoran sighed heavily, "try keeping your wrist straight when you let go of the rope." Sakura tried again and it went a little farther but not enough.
"It's no use, I'm hopeless, I'll never learn." She sat down heavily and refused to get up and try again.
"Get up, I'll try helping you." Syaoran offered his hand to help her up. Once she was up again he put the rope in her hand. He stood behind her and placed his hand on her wrist. As soon as their skin connected heat radiated from both of them. For a second she wasn't sure where she was all she knew was Syaoran, where his hand touched her and everything about him. Syaoran was the first to snap out of it. He raised Sakura's hand above her head, they started spinning the rope until it was fast enough and with Syaoran keeping her wrist straight, she let go. To her surprise it made it! She was so happy; she turned and gave Syaoran a hug. That move halted her movements and his; they were in each other's arms. Sakura didn't know what to do, she tried to pull back, but Syaoran's arms tightened around her. Sakura looked up to try and gauge Syaoran's mood. But that was a big mistake, the look in Syaoran's eyes read desire. Sakura had never encountered an emotion so heated and could feel the heat spread throughout her entire body.
Syaoran was staring at Sakura's lips, he was fascinated with them, as he was watching them Sakura unconsciously liked her lips. Syaoran felt his body tighten, he had to taste her, had to sip from her beautiful mouth, his head moved closer and closer to Sakura's. Sakura was anticipating the moment when Syaoran's lips would touch hers and she wasn't disappointed. Sakura closed her eyes as Syaoran's lips made contact with hers. Upon first contact the heat almost burned them both. What started as a taste soon turned into a hunger that couldn't be sated. Syaoran's lips melded with Sakuras, she tasted better than he had thought, he had to have more. His tongue made contact with her lips, asking permission to enter. Sakura wasn't sure what he was asking but sighed and opened her mouth to him. Their tongues tangoed, creating a heat that was almost unbearable, Sakura was aware of only Syaoran; the same could be said for Syaoran. So they were unaware that someone was standing at the entrance of the barn clearing their throat. When the sound penetrated their haze of desire they sprang apart, panting. When Syaoran had finally caught his breath and had himself under control, he turned to the person at the entrance to the barn. Eriol stood there grinning from ear to ear.
Syaoran scowled at Eriol and demanded, "What are you doing here?" Sakura's head had only just cleared and was waiting for Eriols answer.
"Well, you guys woke me up this morning with all your yelling at each other, and than there was nothing, no yelling, no talking, I thought you guys had killed each other, so I decided to come and take a peak at what you guys were up to, and, well, I was definitely not expecting, well, you know." Eriol seemed embarrassed. "At least it was me that found you and not one of the other men." He finished off.
Sakura couldn't look at Eriol, she was so embarrassed, and she had never, ever done something like that before. And the one time she tried it she was caught in the act, and to boot, she was wearing boys clothes. Syaoran looked at anything but Eriols face. He hadn't realized that him being attracted to Sakura could blow her cover. He turned to Sakura, "I'm sorry Sakura, I didn't mean to kiss you."
Sakura couldn't believe her ears, after she received the kiss of her life, here he is taking it back. She couldn't stand it. She left the barn before she said something she was going to regret.
After she left, Syaoran turned to give Eriol a puzzled look, "What's wrong with her?" All Eriol could do is shake his head at his friend.
"You really don't know anything about women do you?" Syaoran had no idea what Eriol was talking about and his look told Eriol that. Eriol sighed, "You just gave that girl an amazing kiss, maybe the first in her entire life, and than you go and take it back? I'm sure she believes that you were unaffected by that kiss, and I know you weren't. So I think you should go and apologize to her before she leaves. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to bed before any of my stitches open." He left the barn and went to the bunkhouse.
Syaoran was left contemplating what he should do about Sakura, he definitely felt something for her, he just wasn't sure what. He knew he had to go and apologize to her about dismissing her. He knew the general direction in which she went but knew he would have to search for her. And search for her he did. He was about to give up when he heard a rustling of clothing; the thing was he wasn't sure where it had come from. He was standing at a creek bed that was away from everything; there was one big tree and a few saplings around the creek. They were the only trees in view everything else was flat ground. Just as he was about to leave he heard the rustling again, this time from above. He looked up, and there sitting in the upper braches of the one big tree, was Sakura. She was watching him from her perch, "I was wondering when you were going think to look up."
"Can you please come down here? I want to talk to you," Syaoran's voice held a note of desperation in it as he asked Sakura to come down. It took her awhile to decide whether she was going to come down or not, but she finally made her way down the tree. Syaoran kept a hand out to make sure she wouldn't fall.
When she reached the bottom she turned to glare at Syaoran, "You wanted to talk so talk." She sat down waiting for Syaoran to talk.
Syaoran was nervous all of a sudden. "Well.ahhh.I just wanted to say.this is hard.well, I came to find you to tell you that I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of Eriol and I did enjoy that kiss with you," at those words Sakura perked up a little, "But I don't think it should happen again, because next time it might not be Eriol that walks in on us it could be Hooku or worse Doma and than they would know that you are a girl and.I don't even want to think about what they might do to you. The thing is I don't want to see either you or Tomoyo to get hurt, because it would be my fault and I couldn't stand it." He made a frustrated noise, signifying that he didn't know if any of this was helping.
Sakura placed her hand on Syaoran's shoulder, "I understand what you mean and I agree that we shouldn't kiss each other in case someone finds us. But I did enjoy that kiss." With that said she leaned over and gave Syaoran a kiss on the lips, there was no pent up desire in it but it was a sweet little kiss that Syaoran knew he would never forget.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this instalment of Wild Wild West; I will try to update soon, but remember that reviews are always helpful. Oh and I hope this story makes sense to you guys, it makes sense to me, but I've been told that my brain works differently from everyone elses. Well tell me what you guys think. Till next time
By the by, I don't think I have said this yet but I don't own Cardcaptors and I never said I did.
Chapter 3: Learning the Ropes
~*Story*~
Tomoyo and Sakura were to start working in the morning and only got a few hours sleep. When they exited the bunkhouse after looking over Eriol, who was doing better, they got their first good look at Bokusha ranch. The ranch looked run down and old as if no one had been taking care of it in a long time. They were directed to talk to Hooku who would show them the ropes. Which is where Syaoran found them when he was done getting ready, only it wasn't just Hooku, Tomoyo and Sakura who were there. Everyone on the ranch had gathered around to see what was going on. When Syaoran approached the group they were in a circle around Sakura and Hooku. Sakura was yelling at Hooku, who looked ready to pulverize Sakura. Syaoran pushed his way into the centre to stand in front of Sakura and give an evil look to Hooku.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Syaoran demanded when he got Hooku's attention. Sakura, who was looking at Hooku from behind Syaoran's back, stuck her tongue out at him. "Why are you yelling at Saji?"
Hooku gave a scathing look at Sakura, "that boy," he pointed at Sakura, "doesn't know a thing about ranching. He lied to Doma yesterday, what good is he to us if he can't do anything?"
"What if I teach him what he needs to know?" Syaoran was so shocked that those words had actually passed out of his mouth that he wasn't sure who was shocked more, Sakura or himself.
"Fine, go ahead and try, I give you all the luck in the world, but that boy is to stubborn to learn anything about cattle. You want to try than go ahead and be my guest. Don't forget that you still have to pull your own weight as well as the brats." With that said Hooku stalked off to go and round up the cattle.
"Well, what are you guys waiting for Doma to come out here to give you crap about dilly dallying? Get lost." Syaoran directed a stare at everyone surrounding them and the crowd dispersed. The only people remaining in front of the barn were Tomoyo, Sakura and Syaoran. Syaoran turned to glare at Sakura, "was he telling the truth that you don't know a thing about cattle?"
"Well.I guess he was," Sakura looked a little shame faced while she was confessing. "The only thing I know how to do is run when they start stampeding. The group we travelled with didn't have as many cattle as you had and we didn't have to take care of them." Still looking down, Sakura let her sentence run on.
"What about you?" Syaoran turned to look at Tomoyo.
Tomoyo looked at Syaoran and told him about her past, "Nope, I don't need your help, I grew up on a farm before I started working for Sakura and since I was the oldest I was out doing the work with my dad as soon as I could walk. You don't have to worry about me. If you want I could try to teach Sakura how to do all the stuff that's needed?"
Syaoran was ready to let Tomoyo do the job, but he knew that if he were to show up to help Hooku and the guys, they would accuse him a being a coward and trying to shirk his responsibilities onto someone else. He sighed, "No it's okay, the guys would accuse me of being a coward if I let you handle it." He sighed again "you go ahead and get to work, hopefully we will join you before the day is up." At this comment Sakura scowled at him.
Tomoyo left, chuckling to herself at their behaviour. It was quite obvious that there was something there even if they didn't want to admit it. She went the same way that the men had gone earlier, after a few minutes she couldn't be seen anymore and Syaoran and Sakura were left alone.
As soon as Tomoyo was out of sight, Sakura stalked off to the bunkhouse. Before she could reach for the door handle, Syaoran had his hand on her forearm and was dragging her off towards the barn. "Let go of me!!" She struggled vainly to be free from his grasp, but Syaoran was a lot stronger than she was. He didn't let go of her until they were inside the barn and safe from being heard by anyone who happened to chance by.
"Where did you think you were going?" Syaoran grabbed hold of her other arm to keep her one place.
"You didn't want to teach me anything, so I decided that I wasn't going to learn from you either." She turned her head to the side, so Syaoran couldn't see her eyes. But it was to late he saw that he had hurt her by telling Tomoyo that the only reason he was teaching her was to keep face with the other men at the ranch.
He softened the tone of his voice, "well, if you don't learn how to deal with the cattle, than Doma will get rid of you, and than who would take care of Eriol?" When she looked back up at him it was to see that his eyes had softened and that he was trying to comfort her.
She gave him a tentative smile that was just a bit wobbly. "So where do we start?" Syaoran had to take a step back from her; her smile was a disarming one that told him she wasn't sure what was coming next.
Syaoran looked around the barn for a lasso, and found one on the hook next to the horse stall. He set up a bale of hay in the middle of the barn and walked back to stand in front of Sakura. "Okay, we are going to start with roping, it's a basic skill that all cowboys need to know." He gave her an example; he raised his arm above his head and started spinning the rope. Once it was at a good speed he let it go, it landed beautifully on the bale of hay. "Now it's your turn." He turned and held out the lasso to Sakura.
Sakura hesitantly took the rope. She did her best to mimic his actions but was having a little difficulty. She raised her arm above her head and started spinning the rope, but when she let it go it landed two feet in front of her. She turned to Syaoran and gave him a look of despair. Syaoran gave her a look and told her to try it again. She did try again, and again and again and still she could never get it to go far enough. Syaoran sighed heavily, "try keeping your wrist straight when you let go of the rope." Sakura tried again and it went a little farther but not enough.
"It's no use, I'm hopeless, I'll never learn." She sat down heavily and refused to get up and try again.
"Get up, I'll try helping you." Syaoran offered his hand to help her up. Once she was up again he put the rope in her hand. He stood behind her and placed his hand on her wrist. As soon as their skin connected heat radiated from both of them. For a second she wasn't sure where she was all she knew was Syaoran, where his hand touched her and everything about him. Syaoran was the first to snap out of it. He raised Sakura's hand above her head, they started spinning the rope until it was fast enough and with Syaoran keeping her wrist straight, she let go. To her surprise it made it! She was so happy; she turned and gave Syaoran a hug. That move halted her movements and his; they were in each other's arms. Sakura didn't know what to do, she tried to pull back, but Syaoran's arms tightened around her. Sakura looked up to try and gauge Syaoran's mood. But that was a big mistake, the look in Syaoran's eyes read desire. Sakura had never encountered an emotion so heated and could feel the heat spread throughout her entire body.
Syaoran was staring at Sakura's lips, he was fascinated with them, as he was watching them Sakura unconsciously liked her lips. Syaoran felt his body tighten, he had to taste her, had to sip from her beautiful mouth, his head moved closer and closer to Sakura's. Sakura was anticipating the moment when Syaoran's lips would touch hers and she wasn't disappointed. Sakura closed her eyes as Syaoran's lips made contact with hers. Upon first contact the heat almost burned them both. What started as a taste soon turned into a hunger that couldn't be sated. Syaoran's lips melded with Sakuras, she tasted better than he had thought, he had to have more. His tongue made contact with her lips, asking permission to enter. Sakura wasn't sure what he was asking but sighed and opened her mouth to him. Their tongues tangoed, creating a heat that was almost unbearable, Sakura was aware of only Syaoran; the same could be said for Syaoran. So they were unaware that someone was standing at the entrance of the barn clearing their throat. When the sound penetrated their haze of desire they sprang apart, panting. When Syaoran had finally caught his breath and had himself under control, he turned to the person at the entrance to the barn. Eriol stood there grinning from ear to ear.
Syaoran scowled at Eriol and demanded, "What are you doing here?" Sakura's head had only just cleared and was waiting for Eriols answer.
"Well, you guys woke me up this morning with all your yelling at each other, and than there was nothing, no yelling, no talking, I thought you guys had killed each other, so I decided to come and take a peak at what you guys were up to, and, well, I was definitely not expecting, well, you know." Eriol seemed embarrassed. "At least it was me that found you and not one of the other men." He finished off.
Sakura couldn't look at Eriol, she was so embarrassed, and she had never, ever done something like that before. And the one time she tried it she was caught in the act, and to boot, she was wearing boys clothes. Syaoran looked at anything but Eriols face. He hadn't realized that him being attracted to Sakura could blow her cover. He turned to Sakura, "I'm sorry Sakura, I didn't mean to kiss you."
Sakura couldn't believe her ears, after she received the kiss of her life, here he is taking it back. She couldn't stand it. She left the barn before she said something she was going to regret.
After she left, Syaoran turned to give Eriol a puzzled look, "What's wrong with her?" All Eriol could do is shake his head at his friend.
"You really don't know anything about women do you?" Syaoran had no idea what Eriol was talking about and his look told Eriol that. Eriol sighed, "You just gave that girl an amazing kiss, maybe the first in her entire life, and than you go and take it back? I'm sure she believes that you were unaffected by that kiss, and I know you weren't. So I think you should go and apologize to her before she leaves. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to bed before any of my stitches open." He left the barn and went to the bunkhouse.
Syaoran was left contemplating what he should do about Sakura, he definitely felt something for her, he just wasn't sure what. He knew he had to go and apologize to her about dismissing her. He knew the general direction in which she went but knew he would have to search for her. And search for her he did. He was about to give up when he heard a rustling of clothing; the thing was he wasn't sure where it had come from. He was standing at a creek bed that was away from everything; there was one big tree and a few saplings around the creek. They were the only trees in view everything else was flat ground. Just as he was about to leave he heard the rustling again, this time from above. He looked up, and there sitting in the upper braches of the one big tree, was Sakura. She was watching him from her perch, "I was wondering when you were going think to look up."
"Can you please come down here? I want to talk to you," Syaoran's voice held a note of desperation in it as he asked Sakura to come down. It took her awhile to decide whether she was going to come down or not, but she finally made her way down the tree. Syaoran kept a hand out to make sure she wouldn't fall.
When she reached the bottom she turned to glare at Syaoran, "You wanted to talk so talk." She sat down waiting for Syaoran to talk.
Syaoran was nervous all of a sudden. "Well.ahhh.I just wanted to say.this is hard.well, I came to find you to tell you that I'm sorry if I embarrassed you in front of Eriol and I did enjoy that kiss with you," at those words Sakura perked up a little, "But I don't think it should happen again, because next time it might not be Eriol that walks in on us it could be Hooku or worse Doma and than they would know that you are a girl and.I don't even want to think about what they might do to you. The thing is I don't want to see either you or Tomoyo to get hurt, because it would be my fault and I couldn't stand it." He made a frustrated noise, signifying that he didn't know if any of this was helping.
Sakura placed her hand on Syaoran's shoulder, "I understand what you mean and I agree that we shouldn't kiss each other in case someone finds us. But I did enjoy that kiss." With that said she leaned over and gave Syaoran a kiss on the lips, there was no pent up desire in it but it was a sweet little kiss that Syaoran knew he would never forget.
A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed this instalment of Wild Wild West; I will try to update soon, but remember that reviews are always helpful. Oh and I hope this story makes sense to you guys, it makes sense to me, but I've been told that my brain works differently from everyone elses. Well tell me what you guys think. Till next time