Cherry: Mou, I'm so disappointed in myself. I haven't written in so long. You must all be annoyed, I'm so sorry.

Disclaimer: I think I may have mentioned it to someone that I owned Card Captor Sakura once… but, apparently just saying it gets you thrown in jail too…

Chapter 8: Clue 2

To say she was only a little excited would be an understatement; she was euphoric. Though she had hoped she knew what he wanted to tell her, she couldn't hold back her response. She had squealed so loudly that a couple nurses came in to check on her. Though embarrassed and insisted that she was fine, Eriol could not stop laughing at her.

"It's not funny!" she exclaimed and covered her blushing face.

"I suppose I can take that as a yes though, right?" Eriol asked.

Tomoyo put her hands down. "Yes, you can," she replied, smiling brightly at him.

For being so much later in the morning, Sakura and Syaoran hit a lot of traffic. They did not reach the copy shop until fifteen after.

Syaoran pulled into the small parking lot and got out of the car, followed shortly by Sakura.

The building was plain and simple. The sides were white, and it had one window in the front.

Sakura pushed the glass door open. There wasn't anyone inside but a woman, obviously the cashier behind the counter reading a magazine.

"I'll talk to her," Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded as they both walked over to the counter.

"May I help you with something?" the girl asked as she put the magazine down.

"We're with the FBI, and we were wondering if we could ask you a few questions," Syaoran said, rather than asked.

The girls face paled slightly and she nodded. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked.

"No. It's concerning the death of Hayate Wakaouji," Syaoran replied.

The girl nodded again.

"Can you tell us what you remember from two days ago?" Syaoran asked.

"It started out just like any other day. Hayate was already here when I got to work, he was always the early one, never later for anything. I saw a folder lying on his desk in the back when I set my jacket down with a sticky note on it. I think there were directions on it. Anyway, I came back out to the front and Hayate said that he was going to have to go out for a little while, but that he should be back before noon," she said.

Syaoran h ad a small notebook out and he was scribbling down what she was saying.

"He went into the back to get his coat and he walked out with the folder in his hand. The last thing I saw was him driving off," she finished.

Syaoran finished writing what she said down and put the notebook away. "Would you mind if we looked at his desk?"

The girl shook her head and led them to the back room.

Sakura pulled two sets of gloves out of her purse and handed one pair to Syaoran.

After pulling her gloves on she opened on of the desk drawers. Everything was perfectly arranged; pens and pencils on one side, rubber bands ranging in sizes on the other. She frowned and closed the drawer, moving to the side of the desk and opening another drawer.

Syaoran on the other hand, walked to a small filing cabinet labeled "Hayate" and was fingering through the files.

Sakura closed drawer after drawer with no luck of finding anything useful.

"Sakura…" Syaoran said slowly, pulling out a file.

"Yes?" she replied, her heart skipping a beat as he said her name.

"I think I found something," he said as he walked over to her at the desk.

He set down a file folder on the desk. It was labeled "FBI: Confidential."

Sakura looked at Syaoran then reached to open the file folder.

Inside were dozens of pictures.

"It looks like our friend Hayate had two copies of everything he gave Kinomaka," Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded. "We should get this back to headquarters."

Syaoran closed the folder and picked it up. "Let's go."

They both walked back to the front, and after saying both thank you and goodbye to the girl they left.

They climbed back into Syaoran's car and sat there. Sakura looked at him.

"You saw them too?" she asked softly, barely above a whisper.

Syaoran nodded, looking in his rearview mirror. A dark brown van was parked a little ways down the street behind them. There were two men sitting inside, completely dressed in black, dark sunglasses covering their eyes.

Sakura reached for her cell phone slowly. Trying not to make it obvious of what she was reaching for. She turned her head slightly as she dialed Tomoyo's cell to have her call for backup. Placing on her right ear that was hidden from view, it started ringing. But Syaoran reached over and, his hand grabbing the back of her neck, and pulled her close, whispering almost inaudibly in her ear.

"My car could be wired. Hang up the phone," he said, his warm breath tickling her ear.

She nodded, blushing fervently, as she closed her phone and stuffed it into her purse.

"Oh my God…" she thought, feeling her skin tingling and burning from his touch.

Her heart was racing a mile a minute and she hoped to God that he could not hear it. Syaoran swallow and turned away from her. His heart was beating faster than normal, and he had no idea why; well, he had one idea, but he tried to ignore it. He looked at the side mirror. The van was still there.

"Fuck," Syaoran mentally cursed. "We have to get a message out somehow…"

Sakura typed quickly, and quietly, on her phone, and then tapped Syaoran hand that was resting on the gearshift and handed it to him.

"Can I at least text message Tomoyo?" read the small print on the illuminated screen of her phone.

Syaoran smiled at her, and typed back. "Good thinking."

Sakura's face flushed and smiled softly back. Taking her phone back and quickly typing a message to Tomoyo.

The small purple phone vibrated, causing a buzzing sound against the wood side table next to the hospital bed.

Eriol looked up at Tomoyo from the chair he was sitting in. She had fallen asleep about a half an hour early and he did not want to wake his sleeping angel. He debated with himself as to whether or not he should look at her phone. He looked between Tomoyo and the phone a few more times before picking it up and reading the message.

"Shit…" he quickly dialed the phone number to the headquarters on his phone, reading the message again and again.

The phone rang on the other end over and over again.

"Pick up the fucking phone already," Eriol said under his breath.

"Hello, FBI headquarters, how may I direct your call?" the voice of Ms. Izu said on the other end.

"Mr. Kinomaka, please," Eriol said quickly.

"May I ask who is calling?" her voice asked.

"It's Agent Hiirigazawa, it's concerning the case that Agents Kinomoto and Li are on," Eriol explained briefly.

"Alright, just a moment," Ms. Izu said and place Eriol on hold.

"Mr. Kinomaka, I have Agent Hiirigazawa on the phone, he says it's something about the case that Agents Kinomoto and Li are on," she said.

She nodded her head and connected Eriol to Mr. Kinomaka's office.

"Hiirigazawa?" Mr. Kinomaka's voice asked.

"Yes, it's me. Tomoyo just got a text message from Sakura saying that they are sitting outside of the copy shop, but they can't go anywhere. There is a van parked behind them with two men dressed in black and they don't know whether or not Syaoran's car is bugged and or rigged to blow up if they start the ignition."

The other end of the phone was silent.

"Sir?" Eriol asked.

"I understand. I'll get another team out there as soon as possible. Tell them to keep calm, and do not let them get out of the car unless completely necessary," Kinomaka said sternly.

"Yes, sir," Eriol replied.

He hung up his phone and looked down at Tomoyo's phone and quickly typed the directions that Kinomaka had given him.

Sakura's phone vibrated in her hand and she jumped, letting out a small squeak. Syaoran glanced at her and then into his rearview mirror behind him. The men had looked at each other. Yes, his car was bugged. Those fucking idiots had messed with his car.

He reached over to Sakura again and grabbed her neck again, bringing it to his face, where their lips met. Sakura's eyes were wide with shock and her face was burning; she had definitely not expected this. She looked at his eyes, and they communicated to her to play along. Slowly her hand made its way up to his hair and she closed her eyes, tilting her head to the side. Her heart was racing, but she tried to remain calm; this was after all, a ploy to get the two men to leave; but she could get rid of the fact that she felt something spark inside of her. Syaoran opened his right eye and glanced behind him. The two men were looking at each other again, and were visibly uncomfortable. Syaoran smirk into the kiss and closed his eyes again. Sakura's other hand went to his mess of chocolate hair and she ran her ringers down his scalp. It was his turn be surprised; he hadn't thought that she'd play along so well, and truth be told, he felt pretty damn good.

The broke apart, both of them panting slightly from the lack of air. Sakura's face was bright red, but Syaoran's matched her; so they were even.

Syaoran glanced at the mirror again; they were still there. Fuck. He looked at Sakura again and tilted his head ever so slightly towards the van behind them. Sakura nodded back, and they met in the middle. Sakura's hands dove back into his hair and one of Syaoran's grabbed the side of her face, his other wrapping around her leg. Both of their bodies were tingling with the sensation that there was more than just work in this kiss; but they both threw it off.

Syaoran opened his eye again; and they were still there. Syaoran groaned in frustration, but it could easily be mistaken for a groan of satisfaction as well. He broke from her lips and moved to her cheek and towards her ear where he whispered to her. Sakura nodded, whispering something quickly back to him.

Without breaking their lip-lock, Syaoran started to climb to the backseat, Sakura following him. They stretched out on the backseat, Syaoran on the bottom, Sakura sitting on his stomach. Sakura started to stretch her arms out to straighten out her shirt when she broke from Syaoran's lips in a cry of pain. She had stretched her arm farther than she should have.

"Are you ok? Did I hurt you?" Syaoran asked, forgetting about his car being bugged.

"No, no, I-I'm alright," Sakura replied, her eyes filling with tears that she tried to fight the pain as her arm throbbed.

"Let me see it," Syaoran said.

Little did they know, but in the van behind them, the two men were red themselves, red with the embarrassment of listening to this, or at least what they thought, intimate moment between the two.

The driver quickly started the engine, turning off the microphone that was in the car and drove off; it was more than he could take.

Sakura looked up as the brown van drove by, and between wiping the tears from her eyes, she started to laugh.

Syaoran sat up so they were both sitting in the back seat.

"Now I'm serious, let me see your shoulder," he said.

Sakura nodded slightly, thanking God that she had thought to put a white camisole underneath her long-sleeved shirt.

She opened her mouth to say something, but hesitated.

"What?" Syaoran asked.

"You'll…" she swallowed what felt like a lump in her throat. "You'll have to help me get my shirt off…"

Syaoran blushed, but quickly recovered. "Alright."

Sakura's face flushed as he helped her pull her shirt off, revealing her black and purple shoulder.

"What the fuck Sakura? That's on the brink of being seriously dangerous to your health," Syaoran burst out.

Sakura flinched and Syaoran shut his mouth. "I'm sorry," he said.

Sakura shook her head. She knew down inside that he was right.

The sound of the cars that belonged to the FBI pulling up around them and both of their eyes widen.

"Quick, help me get it back on!" Sakura said

Syaoran slipped her shirt back on and they climbed out of the car.

They were surrounded by FBI agents.

"Are you two alright?" one of them asked.

"We're fine. They left a few minutes ago," Syaoran replied.

"Did you do anything to get them to leave?" another asked.

And that is when the realization hit them. They figured out what the men must have been thinking.

"Oh shit," Sakura thought as her face and almost all skin visible turned red with embarrassment.

"Uh, not…not really," Syaoran replied, looking down at the ground as if something of interest had suddenly appeared there.

"Ok then…" another agent said. "We'll check your car for any bombs and then you two can follow us back to headquarters."

Sakura and Syaoran nodded silently.

The agents did a quick, yet thorough search of the car, removing the bug and verifying that there were no bombs anywhere on the car.

Sakura and Syaoran got back into his car and began following the vans and cars back to headquarters.

There was an awkward silence that filled the car.

"If… if it makes you feel better, that was strictly business related back there," Syaoran said after clearing his throat a few times, knowing that he was lying to both himself and Sakura.

Sakura nodded. "Strictly business, I understand."

Neither of them said anything, but they were both thinking hard about what happened.

"That was one hell of a way to get to know each other," Syaoran thought.

When they returned to headquarters, they were quickly called into Kinomaka's office.

"I see that you two are perfectly fine," Kinomaka said, with a huge look of relief on his face.

"Yes, sir, we're fine," Sakura replied, taking a seat.

Syaoran set the manila folder in front of Mr. Kinomaka and took a seat next to Sakura.

"Ahh, I see that your search of the copy shop was not in vain," he replied, picking up the folder and slowly opening it.

"It looks like our victim kept a separate copy of everything," Sakura explained.

"Hayate was never a fool," was Kinomaka's only reply.

Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other and then looked back at Kinomaka.

"Kinomoto, you should go visit Daidouji. I'm sure you've wanted to this whole time. And Li, take the rest of the day off," Kinomaka said, closing the folder after flipping through the images and documents that were in it.

Sakura nodded. "Thank you, sir."

Kinomaka smiled softly at her, and then shooed both of them out of the room.

Sakura walked over to her desk and grabbed her coffee mug and then her jacket and purse. "I really hate to ask you this, but, could you give me a ride to the hospital? I mean, I understand if you'd rather just go home. I can take the bus," she said, her words meshing together as she said them so quickly.

"It's fine with me," Syaoran replied, with a small smile playing on his lips.

Sakura hurried into the room that Tomoyo was recovering in; she was sitting up, reading a fashion magazine.

She looked up.

"Sakura! Eriol told me what happened. Are you alright?" she asked, worry in her voice and written on her face.

Sakura nodded, smiling at her friend.

Eriol, who had just woken up from his uncomfortable nap on the hard plastic chair, adjusted his glasses before standing. "I'll leave you two be for a few minutes."

He smiled at Tomoyo before leaving the room.

"I have something big to tell you Sakura," Tomoyo said.

"What? What is it?" Sakura asked.

Tomoyo patted her hand on the bed for Sakura to sit down.

"Eriol finally asked me to be his girlfriend," she said calmly, though one could plainly see that she wanted to squeal in delight.

A bright smile spread across Sakura's face and she took Tomoyo's hands in hers. And with that, Tomoyo could not hold it in any longer. They both squealed in delight.

"I'm so happy for you, Tomoyo!" Sakura said, hugging her friend. "I was beginning to wonder when he was going to ask."

Tomoyo laugh. "So was I."

Meanwhile, Eriol found someone he had not expected to meet.

"Syaoran?" he asked, incredulously, but not without a hint of amusement in his voice.

Syaoran looked up from the chair and his eyes narrow as he saw who had called his name. "You," was all he said.

Eriol laughed and sat next to him. "What brings you here cousin?"

"I work for the FBI here," Syaoran replied, shifting in his seat. Eriol had always given off this weird vibe, almost as if he knew everything. And that glint in his eyes really did not help either.

"Really now, so do I," Eriol replied, a mischievous smile crossing his face.

Syaoran glared at him in response and Eriol laughed.

"What brings you to the hospital?"

"My partner needed a ride to visit her friend," Syaoran replied, turning his gaze to the floor again.

"Sakura?" Eriol asked.

"Yes," Syaoran replied, a small smile playing at the corner of his lips.

Eriol nodded. He was definitely going to have to talk to Tomoyo about this.

"How's Meling doing?" Eriol asked, trying to pass the time.

"She'll be here by the end of the week," Syaoran answered, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms across his chest.

Eriol nodded again, the wheels in his mind were turning, and Syaoran glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. Syaoran knew he was up to something, but, he never could guess what that something was.

"Well, we'll just have to celebrate when she gets here," Eriol said. "I'm sure Tomoyo will want to go celebrate getting out of here, and Sakura will want to celebrate getting a new partner."

Syaoran nodded dully, he had stopped listening to him speak.

Sakura walked out of the room, a broad, bright smile on her face. Eriol stood up, hugged Sakura briefly and then went back in.

"You never told me you know Eriol," Syaoran said, standing up.

"I didn't think you'd know him," Sakura replied.

"He's my cousin," Syaoran replied, frowning.

"When most people talk about their family their happy," Sakura commented, looking at him cautiously.

Syaoran shrugged. "He just bugs me, that's all."

"Then why did it matter if I told you about him or not?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran opened his mouth, but closed it. She had caught him.

"Ha," Sakura replied and started walking down the hallway towards the exit. "How about I treat you to an early dinner, to repay you for breakfast this morning?"

"Alright, but, let's stop by the bar after that. I need a drink," Syaoran replied, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Sakura smiled. "Damn straight."

Ok, so, there's chapter 8. I hope you all liked it, and sorry you all had to wait so long... Sadly, this would have been uploaded on Valentine's Day, but, the internet here at school was being an ass and decided to not work on my computer only. Yeah, I'm a bit pissed off. Anyway, read and review. I could be cruel and not upload the next chapter until I get at least 20 reviews… but I haven't really decided yet. So… yeah… Alright then, I guess I'll see you all next chapter, hopefully. Oh yes, thank you to all the readers who have patiently waited for this update. I will try far harder next time to get the next chapter out as soon as possible. One more thing, Happy/Merry any holiday that I missed between this and my last update.