Hearts from Aries
What happened to the happy young girl with the video camera screaming "kawaii" every other second?
That had been Syaoran's first thought when Tomoyo entered the dojo that night, wearing a gi like the rest of them and looking slightly lost and out of place. Most of the others gawked at her. The few girls who were there in the dojo rarely accepted newcomers, especially one like Tomoyo, who stood out immediately in her white belt and quiet demeanor. The guys snickered at her because she so obviously looked like a pansy—or because she was cute. Or sometimes both.
"Hey Li, check it out," said one of the guys. "Fresh meat."
"She's my girlfriend's best friend," he said warningly. "Be kind, you guys, or I'll break every bone in your bodies. She's a newbie."
Cries of "Aw, Li, you spoil everything!" and "Be a sport for once; don't sell us out just because of your girlfriend!" and "Man, you are so whipped!" chorused from the guys, who were laughing and punching each other like the baboons they were. "You're no fun at all. She's pretty cute, though."
He folded his arms across his chest, glaring at them menacingly. "What part of 'my girlfriend's best friend' do you not understand? I have to watch out for her." They snickered, knowing out the part that he left unsaid: Sakura will definitely kill me if I don't. "You break her heart and I'll break your ass. Got that?"
"Yeah, yeah. Just tell that to the girls." They pointed over at the few girls who were part of their regular practice team. They were good; even Syaoran had to admit that. They would probably kill Tomoyo in one of their constant attempts to prove to the guys how tough they were.
"Hey, Tomoyo, over here," he called over to her quickly. She lit up with obvious relief and walked over to him immediately, and he introduced her to the others. "Guys, this is Daidouji Tomoyo." He smiled at her. "I'm glad that you came."
"Yeah," she agreed, self-consciously tucking back a strand of hair that had come out of her ponytail. Everyone was staring at her, like she was some actress in a play or something. She ignored them; for once, she was glad that her years of being up on stage had given her so much poise under pressure. "Well, I did say that I would. And I wasn't busy tonight, so I decided to give it a try."
"Which is great," said another guy, grinning at her. Syaoran gave him a warning look, and he quickly backpedaled. "Now we've got more sparring partners."
Even worse. Syaoran glared at him, and the guy who spoke up cringed at the dead-eye he was getting. "Uh… I'm pretty much a beginner," she said. No one else was wearing a white belt—or even yellow, for that matter. "I don't think that I can really match up to the rest of you right now."
"Oh, come on," said one of the girls. Syaoran vaguely remembered her—Aoi something or another, he supposed. She made it no secret that she hated girls who couldn't defend themselves, as though they were a bane to society. Besides that, she liked Syaoran and hated Sakura, whom she thought was an airhead. And she had unfortunately heard Syaoran's remark that Tomoyo was Sakura's best friend. "Take me on, Daidouji. I promise not to kill you."
"No, that's okay—"
But Tomoyo just barely avoided the fist that came slamming out of nowhere. "Aoi, stop kidding around," Syaoran growled, then winced as Aoi managed to land another punch on Tomoyo's cheek. He moved towards her, ready to grab her if necessary.
"But I'm already going really easy on her!" Aoi protested as she followed up with a high kick that flew dangerously near Tomoyo's head. "Let her take care of herself, Li." The words were barely out of her mouth when Tomoyo twisted to the side to avoid the kick and dropped herself to the floor, then squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed Aoi by the other leg, yanking it upwards.
Aoi fell to the floor with a screech and a crash, slamming hard on the mats so that she wouldn't be injured. She pushed herself up to a sitting position shakily. "I thought you said that you were a beginner," she hissed at Tomoyo.
"I am a beginner," Tomoyo said shakily, pushing her hair out of her eyes and standing up. She held out a hand to Aoi, who ignored it and got up herself. "A very desperate beginner who did that out of nowhere to avoid getting squished. You'd be surprised what adrenaline can do."
"Lucky shot," Aoi grumbled. "I'll spar you for real next time."
Tomoyo nodded with all the coldness that she could muster and turned to Syaoran. Her face was white, and a purplish bruise was blooming on her cheek where Aoi had managed to hit her. "Was that the ritual hazing?" she joked nervously. "What's next, the typical tarring and feathering?"
"I'm so sorry, Tomoyo," he said gently. "Those girls can be really horrible sometimes, especially Aoi. She hates Sakura, so you kind of got caught in the cross-fire. Let me get some ice for that bruise."
"Oh no," Tomoyo moaned when she saw the mark on her face, examining the bruise in her compact mirror. It wasn't that big, but it was obvious even from a distance. She winced when she touched her cheek. Syaoran hurriedly gave her the ice pack to hold to the bruise. "My mom's going to kill me when she sees this. I'm supposed to have a concert soon." Nothing that I can't hide, God and makeup willing. "So, when's your teacher coming?"
"Teacher?" he repeated blankly. "Oh! Well, he's not coming tonight, I think. They only come sometimes, to see how far we've gone in our training or maybe to give us some tips. Usually we practice on our own, because our teachers have other work. This place is free, after all, so it's generally just a place where kids who've already learned this stuff put in some extra practice. But I could teach you a little if you like."
"Thanks," she said, smiling at him. It hurt to grin. She ignored it. "Does that mean I have to call you 'sensei' now, Li-kun?" she teased.
His cheeks flamed. "Oh come on. That's so—"
Then he caught the mischievous smile on her face. She was teasing him, and he stopped sputtering. Back before he'd gotten together with Sakura, he would have been a lot slower to catch on, but now he was a little bit more knowing about such things. "Well, it isn't all that far from the typical Li-san or Li-kun you call me anyway," he said with a grin. "You never really call me Syaoran."
"I thought it would be presumptuous," she said, sobering up now.
"Hey… of course not," he said. There was something about the way she said it that made him wonder why she was hurting so much… and why she wouldn't say a word to the rest of them, not even to Sakura, her own best friend. "You don't have to worry about things like that, Tomoyo. I've pretty much loosened up now, back from the time when no one except Sakura and my family were allowed to call me Syaoran. And anyway, we're friends."
She looked up at him through her long eyelashes and for a moment, in that sea of purple, he sensed a light being kindled behind them. "Thanks… but it would feel weird, since usually it's only Sakura who calls you that in the classroom. Or sometimes Eriol, although he calls you Li-kun as well."
He scowled. "Hiragizawa has no right to call me by my first name, even if we are related," he said menacingly. "Although," he added as an afterthought, "it's a big improvement over 'my cute little descendant', now that I think about it."
Tomoyo laughed. "Do you mind if I just call you, uh, Xiao Lang?" Her cheeks reddened as a line appeared between his brows, as though he was trying to scrutinize her suggestion. "I mean, the name 'Syaoran' is kind of… well… Sakura's thing. She told me all about that time, you know; when she first asked you whether she could call you that… so I wouldn't really feel comfortable calling you by that name." She wondered whether he would laugh at her or maybe feel offended. That was even more presumptuous than asking him whether she could call him Syaoran…
"Yeah," he said without missing a beat. "Sure, I'd actually like that." He smiled at her evident surprise. "What? I kind of missed being called Xiao Lang… only my family back home ever does that, and I don't exactly talk to them everyday." Oh stupid. Did he really have to mention family and not seeing them? He saw her eyes cloud for a moment, but she kept on smiling.
"Thank you, Li-kun. I mean, Xiao Lang," she said brightly.
"Okay, do you want me to teach you a little? It won't be much. I mean, it'll be hard since it's only the first session." After what Aoi did, does she really plan on coming back? That had to be really nasty.
"It's okay," she said, as though reading his mind. "Don't worry." Her fingers brushed lightly against his. "Will you teach me?"
Hearts from Aries
"I can't believe you're freaking late!" Meiling scolded, rapping soundly on his head as punishment. Xiao Long chuckled from behind them. "What's wrong with you anyway, Syaoran? Still pulling the whole jet lag excuse? That's so not enough of a reason to keep two incredibly hot women waiting!"
He came up for air, ducking Meiling's punch. "Give me a break, Meiling."
She put her hands on her hips. "I have better things to do than argue with you. And besides, I just had a manicure done and I really want to keep it this way. But if you keep annoying me, I won't answer for the consequences. You got that?" Before even giving him a half-chance to reply, she quickly changed topics. "Come on, let's just go before my stupid cousin does something else to hold us up," she said to Xiao Long. With a huff, Meiling grabbed Syaoran's arm and pretty damn near broke it dragging him to the car that was waiting for them.
"What happened anyway?" Meiling whispered to Syaoran when Xiao Long suddenly had to take a call from her agent. "It's not like you to be late."
"I was talking to Hiragizawa," he mumbled.
"You did what? And he actually talked to you? I'm impressed," she said. "I'm glad that you're starting to talk to them again. Does that mean that next time you'll try talking to Sakura…?" She trailed off, seeing the pain in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, Syaoran. I shouldn't push you. I'm just happy that you and Eriol have made up."
"Hiragizawa has every right to hate my guts," he said, staring out the window.
The day after Tomoyo's first lesson with him at the dojo, she had shown up at school as usual, with no mark on her cheek and her usual semi-chilly air wrapped around her. She'd avoided Eriol and gone straight to her chair, but smiled when she got to him and Sakura.
"Ohayo," she said happily, setting down her things.
"Hey, Tomoyo. You're looking lots better now. I guess you're sleeping all right now. Have you been cutting down on the coffee?" Sakura asked jokingly. Tomoyo simply nodded and pulled out a notebook and her pencil, putting them neatly in the center of her desk in preparation for the teacher's arrival.
"Glad you managed to cover up the bruise," he whispered in her ear. "What did your mom say about it?"
"Nothing—I put cover-up on it straight away," she answered softly. "And mother still isn't home yet. I meant that I was afraid that she'd see the film of the concert and get mad at me afterwards. But don't tell Sakura; I don't want her worrying about me. Or charging in there to tear Aoi apart limb from limb. Besides, Aoi would probably crush her."
"Understood," he murmured, just as Sakura said, "What are the two of you muttering about?"
"Nothing," they answered at the same time. Tomoyo shrugged. "I meant to say nothing all that important. Just… more stuff about my lesson tonight at the dojo."
Sakura quickly swallowed the lie, never doubting a single word. Tomoyo was smart enough to concoct a lie that actually held a grain of the truth. The dojo was involved in a way. Syaoran wondered where Tomoyo had learned to lie so well—the delivery was smooth and practiced, slipping off her tongue naturally. "Oh, so you went? What was it like? Are the other students friendly?"
Syaoran winced at Sakura's last question, but Tomoyo merely said, "The others are all right. Xiao Lang taught me a lot already." Syaoran smiled at the new name, but Sakura seemed to think that Tomoyo had said 'Syaoran', not 'Xiao Lang', and had dismissed it as something she'd just misheard. Tomoyo smiled a little at him before going on to say, "But I'm definitely going to have trouble catching up with the rest. They're all really good. I'm the only beginner there, so I really want to hurry it up as much as I can." She looked out the window instead of at her friend. "I want to be able to hold my own against them." In case Aoi tries something again.
"Don't worry, I'll teach you," Syaoran murmured reassuringly in her ear.
"Hey," Eriol said, suddenly appearing in front of them. "What's up?"
Tomoyo jumped a little. She and Eriol had been avoiding each other ever since what she referred to when talking to Sakura as 'a misunderstanding between two friends'—in other words, the incident yesterday at the stair landing. "Not much," Syaoran said casually. Sakura felt horrible for Tomoyo, but she was also dying for them to be friends again. For all appearances, Eriol liked Tomoyo, even if the 'frost queen' wasn't exactly up to it. She just had to set them up!
"Kawaii," she whispered to herself, giggling madly at the thought. The other three exchanged looks.
"Syaoran," Eriol said conversationally, "is your girlfriend just laughing for no apparent reason?"
"Yeah."
"Crazy people do that."
Sakura flushed, and Tomoyo giggled. "I'm not crazy!" she wailed. She put her hands on her hips and glared at the two of them. "Honestly, Eriol. I thought you were the perfect gentleman, but no, you've turned into a Syaoran-type baboon."
"Hey!" Syaoran protested.
"Just kidding," she said sweetly, kissing him on the cheek and getting glittery peach lip gloss on his skin.
"You ought to wipe that off before the teacher sees," Eriol said.
Tomoyo avoided looking at Eriol, whom she knew quite well was staring at her. She conveniently hid behind a curtain of her shiny hair while pretending to rummage through her schoolbag for something. "What are you looking for?" he said, bending down to face her. "I'll help you look for it."
"Thank you Hiragizawa-san, but I'm all right, please don't bother—"
"Could you come with me for a second? Just to talk."
Hearts from Aries
"I seriously don't know why I'm doing this," Tomoyo said, hugging herself as she sat with him on the stair landing, ignoring the million and one lectures of Sonomi raging in her head about how dirty a place like this was—and here she was, sitting on the second-to-the last step on the stairs with a guy she seriously didn't want to be with right now. He had arranged for the teacher to be late again, although she was pretty sure that she really didn't want to know how he was doing that. She realized that she was only here because she didn't want to watch her best friend smearing lip gloss all over Xiao Lang's cheek. "What is it that you wanted to say to me, Hiragizawa-san?"
He hesitated before replying, the light flashing off his glasses. "Look, Tomoyo. Please. I know that something's wrong. And I really want to help you out." The reason why he'd liked Mizuki Kaho so much was because he could talk to her—really talk to her, about serious things. And then when he found Tomoyo, he'd realized that he could do that with her too. And that he liked her for a lot of reasons other than that. And that was why he'd broken it off with Kaho.
But Tomoyo wasn't talking to him, damn it.
"Hiragizawa-san…"
"No, stop it. I don't want to hear any more of the 'there's nothing wrong with me' spiel that you seem to know so well. Especially when you're being so absurdly formal with me." He looked at her, but she was trying to avoid his gaze. "I already know that something's wrong. I just want to hear it from you."
"If you think you know me so well, why don't you just tell me what you think is wrong with me?" she said, finally losing her patience. God, what was his problem? She'd tried to let him off as nicely as possible, but it just wasn't working.
He was glad that she was getting mad at him. It was better than talking to ice.
"You're lonely."
She stared at him, flabbergasted, as those two words settled heavily on the two of them in momentary silence. "That's all you can say?" she hissed. "I'm lonely? That really simplifies things, doesn't it?"
What was it about her? He couldn't charm her as easily as he had charmed so many others, even without meaning to. He was Clow Reed, for God's sake. But she remained out of his league. "Tomoyo, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to come out like that."
"What is your problem, Eriol? Do you want me to want someone like you—Clow Reed? Do you think I even can when…?"
He stared at her in shock. She was swiping lightly at her eyes as she spoke and she ducked her head. "It's so much easier for me to love someone whom you can't ever reach. If I know that it's hopeless from the very beginning, then I don't have to hope… and I don't have to worry whether I might destroy my friendship or not. At least I can just look away… why won't you let it stay that way?"
"Is that how you feel?" he asked her, tilting her chin up so that he could look fully into her face. He had wondered, for a long time, whether she was in love; he got that feeling sometimes when he was near her—that she was crazy about someone, deep down. He hadn't imagined that it would turn out to be like this. She was afraid. He felt his arms involuntarily enveloping her and for once she didn't push him away or make some excuse. "That's all you think of me as—Clow Reed? I thought I'd made it abundantly clear how I feel about you, Tomoyo."
She didn't answer, and he honestly felt that he didn't need her to.
"I'm Clow Reed. Big deal, Tomoyo. More than that, I'm just Hiragizawa Eriol. I can't be what I used to be. That's all in the past now. Clow was… I don't know… I feel that maybe he was wrong, making me this way. I'll never be like him. And even he wasn't infallible, Tomoyo. He predicted… he… well, he was sure that I would…"
"Miss Mizuki," she said clearly.
"Yes. But I couldn't. That's why…" She said nothing more.
"Are you all right?" he asked her. She was so cold in his arms. He wondered whether he should try to read her mind. It was only with difficulty that he restrained himself from doing so. Syaoran and Sakura were right. He'd been abusing his magic a lot lately, but he would be damned before he'd use it on her for something as personal as this.
She nodded, almost violently, but stayed in the embrace. "Yeah, I am. Sorry for causing you so much trouble, Eriol. I guess I've just been in an emotional funk these days." She sighed, brushing the hair out of her eyes. "I don't know what to think anymore, Eriol. I just don't feel that it's right to do this. It just isn't fair." She turned eyes that still glistened with the remnants of her little crying jag up to him. "I just wish…"
"Tomoyo. Will you be my girlfriend?"
She stared at him. The question just came suddenly out of the blue. Even he looked surprised. But he didn't take it back.
"KAWAII!"
Amazingly enough, it didn't come from Tomoyo. They both looked up to see Syaoran and Sakura racing down to meet them—Syaoran looked sheepish, while Sakura had stars in her eyes as she dragged him down along with her.
"You guys were spying?" Tomoyo said in disbelief.
"Spying is such an ugly word," Sakura said breezily, although a flash of guilt tempered her words. "I'm sorry, Tomoyo. It's just that—"
"—you guys were getting kind of late in coming back, so Sakura and I decided to come searching for you," Syaoran finished smoothly, although he flinched as he said the words. He looked uncomfortably at Tomoyo, trying to conceal his embarrassment at being caught in a situation like this. "Uh… we didn't really expect to interrupt… so, uh, we were just going…"
Sakura planted a mischievous kiss on his cheek in the middle of her giddy hyper high for her best friend. "You're so kawaii when you blush. You guys better finish up," she added to Eriol with a smile as she dragged Syaoran back up the stairs towards the classroom.
Eriol's face was red when he looked back at Tomoyo, although he hadn't allowed it to show when Syaoran and Sakura had been there. She looked just about ready to faint, and he half-cursed in his head at their friends' sudden appearance. She looked as though she wanted to die.
She turned to him with a hopeless sort of face that quickly rearranged itself into the usual nonchalant façade.
"Yes, Eriol."
Hearts from Aries
"You're being extremely rude." Meiling interrupted his thoughts with her comment and by the way she set her knife down with a metallic noise onto the table. "Syaoran? I bet you haven't even heard one word that I've said."
"Sorry," he said, abashed. "I was just… thinking."
"Goody. That doesn't happen very often, so let's forgive him this one time," she told Xiao Long with a snort and an eye-roll. Xiao Long looked at him with a frown on her face.
"You were like that when you woke up too," she said softly. "Um, the first time you woke up, I mean. Is there something wrong, Li-kun?" It was the first time that she addressed him by the more familiar honorific rather than the typical 'san'.
"It's nothing," he said.
Tomoyo had appeared in the dojo again that evening, her face scrubbed free of the cover-up and defiantly displaying the bruise on her cheek. She smiled sweetly at Aoi when she walked past the girl but Syaoran could feel the frostiness radiating from her eyes. Aoi blanched but continued warming up.
"Hey, Xiao Lang," she said, her face splitting into a smile when she saw him. "Ouch," she muttered aside, touching a finger to her cheek for a nanosecond.
"Still hurts? You didn't show any sign of it at all earlier," he commented, examining it closely. "Most of the swelling's gone down though. I was surprised that you could grin like that in class with the bruise, but you're a lot tougher than you look."
"Yeah," she agreed, grinning even wider when she looked at Aoi, who flinched again under Tomoyo's penetrating gaze—of the kind that she used to give Sakura when she had another costume design dancing in her head. This was a side of her he'd never seen before. "So, ready to teach me, sensei?"
"Oh God. Li-san was bad enough," he complained.
She smiled as she dropped into a fighting stance. They'd both agreed to warm up on the way to the dojo instead of doing it while they were with each other to avoid wasting time. She had confided to him over the cellphone that she really wanted to catch up with the rest of them, or at least go up a belt. Everyone else was on the other side of the dojo, and besides, they had made sure to pick out a deserted corner all to themselves. She picked things up quickly and he had already managed to teach her a couple of techniques, although she was definitely going to have to work a lot harder if she wanted to catch up with the rest, let alone him. "I feel the need to take out a little energy first."
"Oh really?" he said, raising an eyebrow. To tell the truth, he was apprehensive about taking her on, if only because he was concerned that he would hurt her. "Even considering the fact that you barely know two moves?"
"So?" she returned.
"Have it your way."
He made his moves gentler than he would normally have, controlling them so that his punches became light taps. She knew that he was holding back but didn't complain; he was just trying to protect her, and he would probably have killed her anyway if he used his full potential.
"So," he said, noting the misty sweat the beaded her forehead even as he administered another gentle tap onto her right shoulder. "Tired?"
"Nope," she lied.
"Good. So let's have a little chat while we're doing this," he said with a grin. He was teasing her, and she raised her chin defiantly back at him, as though daring him to say another word. He decided to push her buttons a little. "I'm sorry I interrupted your little lovey-dovey fest awhile ago."
Wham!
The next thing he knew, he was staggering back, and Tomoyo looked with astonishment at her raised foot, which had caught him squarely in the base of the throat. She wasn't the only one staring; their other classmates had stopped training to see him choking and straining for air. "Did I just do that?" she said, stunned, proud and scared in the same moment.
"Yes," he managed to gasp out, clutching his neck. "That was… good. Very good."
"Sorry," she said guiltily. "I didn't mean to hurt you. You okay?"
"I'll live," he said with a chuckle. It had fazed him for a moment, but he quickly brushed it aside. "Killer kick, though."
She went closer to inspect his face—partly to see whether he was hurt and partly so that she could tell whether he was lying or not. Satisfied, she moved away leaving only her delicate fragrance of lavender. "I hope I didn't do any lasting damage."
"Like I said, I'll live."
"But I won't, because Sakura will kill me when she finds out—ack!" And with a sweep of his foot, she was sent tumbling to the floor. She remembered to slam on the mats to protect herself just in time and looked up at him with something between amusement and irritation.
He laughed and extended a hand to help her up. "There, now Hiragizawa will kill me too. That'll be fun; we can haunt them from the afterlife together." She took his hand and gave it an almighty yank, driving him down to his knees beside her. She had had the advantage of surprise—again!—when otherwise she would never have been able to budge him an inch.
"Don't tease me about Hiragizawa-san," she managed to say, breathing hard from his right side.
"You call your boyfriend 'Hiragizawa-san'?" he snorted, not bothering to get up from his position on the mats. It was actually quite comfortable, just lying there. He ignored the stares that he was receiving from some of his companions and just listened to Tomoyo's slowly steadying breathing. "I thought you would call him something like 'sweetheart' or 'babycakes' or 'kissy bear' or maybe 'honey pie' or even 'honey dumpling', but then you have a flair for the elaborate so it would probably be something like 'smoochums-coochums baby-poo—"
"Eriol, then," she amended. "And I still can't believe that you guys were listening in on us!" Her cheeks turned pink and she sat up, the ends of her long hair tickling his skin as she turned to look at him, the dark ponytail falling like a river brushing his face. "That was a low blow. Do I ever tease you about all the horrendously naughty things that Sakura tells me about?"
"No, because she doesn't tell you."
She looked stung at that last comment but the expression quickly slipped away as she recovered her typical relaxed face. "Yeah, well, I'm kind of glad; I don't really know what I'd do if I had to listen to all that mushy stuff about the two of you ogling each other and doing 'you-know-what' at 'you-know-where'." She winked at him.
It worked; he flushed. "You—I…"
"Don't get all bothered, Syaoran," she said dismissively. She acted so much older than she really was, and she was actually effective at playing that part too. "What I don't know, I can guess, and guess very accurately at that."
"Then tell me, do you really love Hiragizawa?"
She blanched. "I'm not… I don't really know," she reflected, one finger idly twining a strand of her hair around it, winding it into a thick cylinder around her pinkie. "I could learn to, if I so decided to."
"So you don't?"
"It's really complicated."
"Then you do."
She reddened noticeably, the crimson blush staining her cheeks like wine spilled on snow. "I don't think that you know what you're talking about here, Xiao Lang. There are people like you and then there are people like me. You're the kind that would never get my philosophy on love."
"I heard it," he said casually. "You think that it's safer to just hide whatever feelings you have. To just squash them and be happy when the person that you love is happy. Kind of like being a guardian ghost, watching them from afar but never being able to act on what your heart says." You were talking about Sakura, weren't you?
"It just so happens that I love differently," she said. You're kind, Xiao Lang, but there's no way that I can tell you what I'm feeling. "Isn't it easier, never having to wake up and wonder whether I'll get hurt or whether I'll be the one hurting someone? The way things were was perfect. But it's all one big complicated mess now." She sighed and hugged her knees to her chest.
"If you really believed that, why did you encourage me to tell Sakura the way I felt?"
She looked maddeningly amused. "I thought it was obvious, Syaoran. You would either have told her or gone mad."
"And isn't that what's happening to you?"
"… Yes."
Hearts from Aries
Why does she stay when it's sheer madness? He fumed inwardly. In some way he had become sort of like a guardian angel, always watching her like a hawk. Especially when she was with her so-called boyfriend, Eriol. It didn't help that Valentine's Day was just a week after the two of them hooked up. And unfortunately, the dreaded event was already here.
He hated Valentine's. The girls, squealing and giggling over the balloons and streamers and the other pink-and-white nonsense hanging in the classroom because their fool of a teacher was a romantic type. The boys bragging about how many girls gave them stuff. The girls comparing who they would give chocolates and cards to. The boys mumbling about what a hassle it was to have to confess their feelings. Chiharu hitting Yamazaki. Rika's face red as a tomato when she came back from the faculty room, clutching an enormous bouquet after dropping off a box of sweets that she'd made herself. And Naoko substituting her typical mystery books for a romance novel, for once.
"Is something wrong, Syaoran?" Sakura asked, brow furrowed as she squinted at him. "You have a really weird expression on your face. Almost like you're in pain or something. Don't you feel well?"
He dropped his scowl immediately. "I'm fine," he said with a tight smile. That was one thing that he had to keep reminding himself about: never ever show his bad side to Sakura.
Tomoyo and Eriol were talking by themselves in one corner of the classroom, looking absurdly like an advertisement for romance. The good-looking pair was already one of the 'it' couples of the school. A rare breeze came in and stirred their hair, blowing it dramatically so that Tomoyo's lavender-black locks gently brushed against Eriol's shoulder. He muttered darkly to himself. The wind rarely ever came in the classroom windows; it was like even nature was on their side or something.
Sakura followed his gaze. "Oh, them. Aren't they the sweetest?"
"Ugh."
"You just hate Eriol, that's all."
As though she'd sensed them looking at her, Tomoyo suddenly turned and caught his eye. She smiled, and then turned back to Eriol and said something that made him laugh. Then she stood up and made her way over to them.
"Hey," she said. "Having lots of fun drinking in this hormone-charged atmosphere?" Even as she said the words, Chiharu threw a book at Yamazaki. They giggled nervously. "At least it looks like that couple is having fun."
"Um… yeah," Syaoran agreed. Suddenly Rika stopped by and engaged Sakura in conversation, leaving the talking to just the two of them.
"I take it that Valentine's Day isn't really your thing," she offered. "That's okay. I'm not really interested in all this romance-blah-blah either. It gets kind of dead, after a while. I understand falling in love with a person and all that, but…" She just shrugged. "You get my point."
"Yeah. I mean, it's okay, the whole present thing, but it's just… I don't know. Too commercialized, I guess. It kind of loses the meaning."
"True. Of course I still give and take the gifts—it would be rude not to—but… well, that's just it." She bit her lip, glancing over at Eriol pensively. He smiled back at her, and Syaoran frowned. He noticed the expensive box of chocolates on Eriol's desk.
"Godiva. That's a lot of cash, Tomoyo."
She snorted. "You act as though you aren't even wealthier than me. But that's neither here nor there, Xiao Lang." Tentatively, she placed a box of chocolates on his desk. "I hope you like them."
He was taken aback for a moment. "Thanks," he said, reddening slightly. He had received lots of presents from different girls, and it had pretty much embarrassed him. But Tomoyo was his friend—the other girls were just trash waiting for him to dump Sakura. "I'm sorry, I don't have anything for you."
"It's okay. I didn't give it to you because I expected anything in return. Besides, I know that you don't like Valentine's Day all that much. The only reason why you put up with it is Sakura, right?"
"Yeah. I got her flowers and chocolates and stuff."
"What did she get you?"
He flushed and mumbled something inaudible.
"Hmm? I didn't quite catch that."
"A teddy bear."
She let out a laugh. "That's just like Sakura, isn't it?"
He changed the subject quickly. "Do you mind if I try these chocolates?"
"No, go right ahead."
He tore apart the purple wrapping paper with a grin as he uncovered a plain black box. "What, no Godiva?"
"No, sorry. You're not on that level."
"So on what level am I?"
Her smile this time was a little sad. "A bad one." She shrugged. "I just ran out of pocket money before the end of the day, so I ended up making yours by myself. I hope you don't mind."
He got flustered. "You didn't have to go through all that trouble—"
"Don't be silly," she said. "You really are an impossible person. It wasn't anything much. I'm going to go back to Eriol now, okay? Enjoy the sweets."
"Uh, okay. Thanks."
Sakura turned back to him. "Rika and I were just talking about this really cute tradition called White Day where you're supposed to return Valentine gifts to the people whom you love. Do you guys have something like that in Hong Kong?"
"Not really," he said.
"But since you gave me those flowers and stuff, I guess White Day isn't really applicable," she sighed. "Oh well. It was a nice thought, though."
"Hey, did you go shopping with Tomoyo for her present for Eriol?"
"Uh-huh. She got stuff for me and her mom too."
"She really shouldn't overspend like that."
Sakura let out a laugh. "Overspend? Are you crazy? Tomoyo had more money than what my dad makes in a month even after she finished shopping. She could have bought out the whole candy shop if she'd wanted to."
"Really…" He opened the black box. Inside were eight chocolates, each painstakingly carved into different shapes: a wolf, a sword, the yin-yang symbol, a cherry blossom, the Li family crest (now how in the world had she thought that up?), a phoenix, a dragon and lastly, a forget-me-not—the only symbol that had no direct link to him or his Chinese heritage. He glanced over at her and saw her purple eyes watching them, although she was too far away to hear their conversation. She cocked her head to one side questioningly and raised an eyebrow.
He just shook his head slightly so that Sakura wouldn't notice while she babbled on about all the things that they'd picked up at the mall—a gold bracelet for Sonomi, a new dress for Sakura, and so on.
Then Sakura lit up as the bell rang. "Oh, thank goodness school's over. Are we still set for our little dinner plan tonight?"
"Yeah, but afterwards I still have training at the dojo."
"Tomoyo said the same thing to Eriol," she said. "Even if they are going to some fancy restaurant and all that. I'm almost tempted to stalk them." She giggled. "Just because they're a really kawaii couple, and I think that the two of them really make each other happy."
For the first time since the two of them had become a couple—perhaps even the first time since he had fallen in love with her—he stared at her in disgust. Did she really not see what was going on with her own best friend? He just couldn't believe it. When they were younger, she and Tomoyo had been basically inseparable.
"Come on, let's go," he muttered, picking up his bag and the chocolates—so preoccupied in his thoughts that he didn't even notice that he had unintentionally left behind the teddy bear that Sakura had given him and she had to remind him.
MAA-chan: Happy birthday Sakura! April 1, 2007. Okay, that was a REALLY long chapter that I edited over and over again... the whole Valentine's Day/White Day thing just suddenly popped up, because it was originally not supposed to be there; in fact, this chapter was only supposed to be the first bit plus the last parts of the next chapter.
Can someone please tell me whether I got the whole White Day thing right? Because honestly, I have no idea. We don't have customs like that in my country. Valentine's Day is one big shebang with cheap roses and chocolate. Heck, some of the girls here even buy flowers for themselves. Kind of embarrassing, but true. I hate Valentine's Day.
Plus: I'm working on an extension of this fic called "Between Midnight and Dawn", but the lack of readership for "An Unexpected Love" is discouraging. Should I discontinue it?
I reply to all reviews. Yes, ALL reviews. But please be a little more in-depth than "Nice" or "Update please" (although I've been guilty of that too). I like to incorporate my reader's ideas into my story, although I don't always.