Disclaimer: I don't own CCS, Clamp does. But I do own this story.
Pairings: Syaoran x Sakura, Eriol x Tomoyo
Eep! I updated! Writing that Omake a few days ago kind of inspired (or rather, forced) me to write a chapter or two. Woohoo!
Now, for a few replies~
SakuraYuukii: Yes, I watched Sword Art Online. I really enjoyed it! Now I'm keeping an eye out for the second season. ;D
Xing: I ended up searching it out of curiosity. LOL. And as much as I admire that author for managing it, I really want to complete this story in less than 10 years! xD
I also want to thank everyone else who read and reviewed! I always read them all and I'm always eternally grateful to you guys for leaving them!
That said... without further ado, here's a new chapter!
Chapter Twelve
"Aggravated"
"Mmmmm…"
Sakura moaned, mostly in satisfaction. It was good to sleep in her own bed again. Well, in Syaoran's bed again with the man in question next to her. She didn't even realize how used she had gotten to their sleeping arrangements until now.
She had only gotten to pushing herself off the sheets when she felt a pair of strong arms hold her down around her navel.
"Where do you think you're going?" Syaoran murmured from behind.
A giggle escaped her as he pulled her back against his chest and planted a kiss at the back of her neck.
"It's quite late to still be in bed," Sakura said although she too pushed herself even further into his embrace.
"What time is it?"
"Nearly eleven."
"Well damn."
Sakura giggled yet again. Considering the kind of work they had, especially Syaoran, getting up an hour before lunch felt really foreign.
"I'll go take a shower first," she said as she turned to give him a quick peck on the lips.
Syaoran smiled at this and watched her take her leave before pushing himself up, yawning as he did.
That was one of the best sleeps he's had in a while. Not that it was entirely surprising. He always did feel good after spending a good amount of time with Sakura the day previous. Add that to thoroughly making love with her right before bed and it basically means a perfect night that keeps the smile on his face all the way until morning.
Thinking about the night's activities brought back a grin on his face which was unfortunately interrupted by a vibrating sound coming from the night stand on Sakura's side of the bed.
Seeing the vibrating phone with the screen blinking, Syaoran rolled himself over across the bed and took Sakura's phone.
'Tomoyo?' he thought, seeing as she was the only person he knew regularly corresponded with Sakura.
To his surprise however, the name flashing on the screen was a name unfamiliar to him.
"Naoki Morita," he read out, wondering who that could be. Sakura has never mentioned the name before.
A few seconds more of ringing, the call was dropped and to Syaoran's surprise, the missed called logged on the screen after three unread messages which were all sent from the same name.
His brows furrowed.
Was this guy some relative of Sakura's or something? Was there an emergency for him to be sending texts to Sakura and calling her?
Before he could ponder on it further however, his own cell phone had begun ringing as well and he had to roll over to his side of the bed.
Sakura walked back into Syaoran's room feeling refreshed, wide awake, and hungry.
"Syaoran, I-" she cut off seeing him on his cell.
He held up a finger indicating he'll be with her shortly.
She nodded and proceeded to take out one of his shirts form his closet and wearing it over her damp hair after throwing the towel and bathrobe onto the edge of the bed.
Syaoran cleared his throat, catching her attention.
Wordlessly, he flicked a finger in her direction, motioning for her to come over to him, which she did with a questioning look.
"Yes, have the original copied before filing it. I'll scan them through tomorrow morning," he told whoever it was on the other end of the call before swiftly pulling Sakura onto the bed by the waist and letting her fall across his lap.
She had to stifle her yelp of surprise at this.
Syaoran merely smirked down at her, earning him a smack on his arm.
"I'll deal with that tomorrow… Yes… Yes, schedule it for three in the afternoon."
Smirking at the sudden idea coming to mind, Sakura held herself above Syaoran and starting trailing kisses from his neck and heading south in a slow and sensual manner.
Understanding full well at what she was planning to do however, he immediately held a hand over her mouth, stopping her from going any further than his navel.
To his surprise however, Sakura bit him.
It wasn't a forceful bite enough to leave marks on his skin, but it surprised him enough to let go of her.
In silent laughter now, Sakura quickly moved downwards and away from his reach unless he planned to grab her by the hair.
"I- Yes, I'll give him a call later," Syaoran responded, unable to maintain the complete seriousness in his tone of voice. "I-"
He cut off. Sakura has found her target.
Hearing his loss for words also made her giggle out loud.
Syaoran cleared his throat yet again.
"No, nothing's wrong," he reassured into his cell before looking down at Sakura just as she looked up at him from where she was. "You're in big trouble," he mouthed at her.
She raised an eyebrow at him and tightened her grip.
Syaoran pursed his lips.
This woman will be the death of him. And judging from the smug look on her face, she seemed to know that too.
With a new glint in her eye matched with her widening grin, Sakura was just about to act on her new plan on Syaoran if it weren't for the sound of something vibrating that caught her attention.
Looking over at the night stand, she sighed and reluctantly moved away from Syaoran to take the gadget.
'Naoki,' she read in her head, hardly surprised. 'Why would he be calling?' Not that she planned on answering. Although he had been contacting her ever since her visit to Tomoeda a couple of days ago, it had increased lately and it was hardly unnoticeable. She felt bad enough spending the kind of time she did with the Moritas when she was away from Syaoran, it would only make her feel worse if she were to answer a call from the man in front of him.
She let her cell vibrate a few more seconds until it finally dropped. And to her surprise, there were a number of logged unread messages and another missed call as well.
Sakura stole a glance at Syaoran and found him already looking at her.
Smiling, she shook her head before turning off her cell phone and putting it back on the night stand.
A lot of good it will do for her if Syaoran found out about the Moritas or how and why she knew them in the first place.
"Tai, I need you to look this name up for me."
The older woman held her hand out to Syaoran as he handed her a small piece of paper.
"Should I do a full background check, sir?"
Syaoran thought about this for a few seconds before shaking his head. It was bad enough he felt suspicious of Sakura, if this turned out to be nothing, he'll just end up cursing himself.
"No, just the usual. It's nothing official, just a personal interest. Once you have the data, hand it to me personally."
Tai bowed in understanding. "Will that be all?"
"For now," he said and settled onto his desk chair.
It had been weeks since Syaoran read the name "Naoki Morita" from Sakura's cell phone and since that day, he'd caught Sakura on her phone more than what he thought was usual for her. He wasn't exactly suspicious of anything, but he was, however, very curious.
He shrugged off his long coat and took off his scarf and threw them over the back of the couch in his office. It was getting really cold since winter had officially come. His office felt even colder now without Sakura next to him. It was unnerving but not in a bad way, in Syaoran's opinion. He spent almost every single free moment of his time with Sakura that it felt almost natural to have her next to him whenever and wherever. He can't even imagine what his life was like before they got together. They had been together for roughly half a year now and he really can't imagine losing her. Nor did he want to even think about losing her.
"Marriage, huh…" he muttered under his breath rather unconsciously as he recalled his conversation with Eriol in this very office months ago.
His family had been pestering him over the years about marriage. Whenever they catch it in the news or from gossip magazines about him and any other lady rumored to be with him, they'd always meddle in and hint on the prospects of marriage. Actually, this was the first time they hadn't been hounding him about it. Probably they knew that he was actually serious with Sakura? She was, after all, the only girl regularly reported to being around and with him. Even the paparazzi have died down the past few weeks from nothing newsworthy to report. After taking shots of him and Sakura at events and shot of them entering his home, they've grown tired. They can only do so much with the same type of photos after all.
Syaoran couldn't help but smile.
"Marriage," he found himself muttering yet again.
"Sakura?" Tomoyo said yet again, this time in a louder voice.
Sakura finally snapped out of her blank gaze to look at her best friend. "Yeah?"
"You've been out of it for the past few days. Are you okay?" she inquired worriedly and handed her a fresh cup of tea before sitting next to her on her sofa. Sakura had opted to spend time with her in Tomoyo's apartment after they got off work.
"I'm fine," she said somewhat unconvincingly before her cell phone vibrated.
The two women turned to look at it.
Sakura almost winced as she took the small gadget from the coffee table.
"Naoki," she announced rather exasperatedly before tossing the phone back onto the table.
Tomoyo giggled. "You don't like him, do you?" she asked, making the brunette look back at her with a guilty expression. "Its fine, I understand. I mean, you're with Syaoran after all. It's only natural to not find the company of other men enjoyable, especially men who are quite obviously vying for your attention."
"He's been messaging and calling me even more frequently lately. It's been weeks since we got back from Tomoeda but he's only gotten more persistent," Sakura sighed. "He's even been hinting that he wants to come to Tokyo."
"Oh? Does he even have a reason for coming all the way here?"
Sakura shook her head. "But somehow, I won't be surprised if he can come up with some reason or another."
This made Tomoyo somewhat guilty. Her conversation with the older Morita was still fresh in her mind. She had never told Sakura of what Nao told her and she figured it was unnecessary seeing as she couldn't even imagine Sakura agreeing to it. Just looking at how tired she was of dealing with Naoki at the moment was proof enough of that.
"So what do you plan to do with him?"
"I honestly have no clue. I've just been humoring him mostly. I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm not faking or anything. He's a decent guy, our conversations are quite engaging, it's just the way he approaches me. I can't exactly say I'm comfortable with it, you know? But it is true, I'm still kind of hopeful that he can get his father to reconsider if I get close enough to ask that kind of favor. It's not getting any easier though. Naoki's making everything so difficult. I really have no intention of being any else than friends but he just keeps on pushing."
"Maybe you should j-" Tomoyo cut off as, yet again, Sakura's cell phone vibrated. This wasn't the usual double pulsing which occurred from a text though. The cell phone on the table was rattling against the wood continuously.
"There it is," Sakura said in an unsurprised but tired voice. "He's been calling me once a day on weekdays and at twice on weekends lately," she informed Tomoyo before resignedly picking up her cell and moving to the entryway of the apartment to take the call. "This won't take long."
"Don't worry about it," Tomoyo told her and went back to the bathroom. She probably didn't spend more than five minutes in their before she came out and already Sakura was back on the couch and this time her face looked even more troubled than it had been earlier. "Sakura?"
She looked at Tomoyo desperately. "He's coming to Tokyo!"
"Ehhh? What in the world for?!"
"You can't come? Why?" Syaoran asked, surprised. This was the first time Sakura had ever turned him down. There was a scheduled dinner party the day after tomorrow and he had already confirmed his and Sakura's attendance more than a week ago.
"An old friend of my dad and his son are coming to Tokyo. They'll only be staying for two days and I agreed to accompany them while they're here. They don't come to the city often so I thought it was only right. They were really nice to me when I went to visit Tomoeda too," she explained.
"I see. Well, I understand I suppose. It's just that this is all short notice."
"They only told me about their visit yesterday. I wanted to tell you last night but you made it difficult for me to tell you anything," she said with a raised brow.
Syaoran couldn't help but grin cheekily back at her as he held her closer against him under the sheets.
"Hey, you should be getting ready. Snow's started piling lately. We can't afford to fool around in the mornings anymore," Sakura scolded although halfheartedly. "We only barely got into the office in time yesterday."
He merely shrugged at this. "I'm my own boss and I say its fine."
"Well, I'm not my own boss."
"I'm your boss and I say its fine."
"You own the company, but my boss is a forty nine year old woman by the name of Hizumi Iwa. So, shoo shoo!" With that, she swatted Syaoran to let her go.
"That hurts."
Sakura looked at him pointedly but he maintained his hurt expression. If other people saw him now, they'd probably keel over in shock. The great Li Xiao Lang, the CEO of Li Corp. was putting up a face like that was something between a hurt child and an abandoned puppy.
Sure she had seen it a handful of times before when he and Syaoran were goofing around. That doesn't mean she's immune to it though.
She rolled her eyes but an undeniable smile was on her lips.
"Let's shower together to save time," she suggested.
This made Syaoran chuckle.
Sakura rubbed her palms together to generate heat before stuffing them back inside her coat pockets. It was her mistake. She should've chosen a meeting place elsewhere, anywhere with a heater. But when she left the office earlier, it hadn't been all that cold. Now it had started to snow albeit lightly and the temperature had also dropped along with it. She was about to just call Naoki to tell him they should meet up elsewhere but his voice cut into the cold air before she could even take out her cell phone from her purse.
"Sakura-san!"
The sound of her first name being called startled her. Naoki had insisted on her calling him by his first name as opposed to "Morita-san" since it confused him with his father and had also since decided (by himself) to use her first name in return.
But at that moment, Sakura didn't much care. She was actually quite relieved. She had arrived a couple minutes early than originally planned but he was here so it didn't matter. When their eyes met, he started jogging towards her… alone.
"Huh? Where's Morita-san?" she inquired, referring to Naoki's father. Although she hadn't heard from the older man personally, Naoki had told her that the father and son pair was visiting together since they intended to meet with a business friend of theirs in Tokyo.
Naoki grinned sheepishly at this. "He couldn't make it. Work was piling up and we can't both be away together so he's holding up the fort while I'm gone."
Sakura didn't say anything to this. Personally, it didn't matter to her that she ended up with just Naoki as a companion but what immediately went to her head was Syaoran. Sure she knew nothing was going on between her and Naoki, but no one else knew of that. She has had her photo taken enough and had been researched often enough by the paparazzi in the past months for them to know who she was down to her quirks. If they somehow see her with Naoki alone together, nothing good will come out of it for sure. And what would happen if Syaoran found out that way?
She bit her lip.
"Sakura-san?"
"Ah, it's nothing. We can talk about it later," she replied hastily. "Let's just go ahead into one of the restaurants. I chose this place to meet because there are quite a lot of popular ones in this street alone."
"I actually passed by a nice looking restaurant on my way here."
"Lead the way."
It wasn't a long walk.
Apparently the nice looking restaurant Naoki meant was actually a very classy traditional Japanese one. Although they were indeed in Japan, the boom of Italian, Thai, French and other restaurants which boomed lately meant that Sakura hadn't had a traditional Japanese meal in a while.
There were several tables scattered about the main room but there were also a lot of sliding doors that Sakura only assumed lead to larger and more private rooms.
Naoki was talking to one of the attendants wearing a kimono for a while before they were finally led to a table. The table, unfortunately, was one of the corner ones. It wasn't exactly private, but it had a degree of seclusion to it compared to the other tables she had seen upon entering the restaurant.
Resignedly, Sakura took a seat. It was only dinner. What harm could it do really?
"Soooo…" Eriol said, somewhat teasing. "It's just you and me again tonight, eh?"
Syaoran ignored him and instead nodded to the man on his left who had poured saké into his cup. He raised it in thanks before downing it.
"Dr. Hiiragizawa, have a drink too!" said the man on Eriol's right.
"This place is known for their saké you know."
Eriol politely held up his own cup and went on to pour some for the man as well before he turned back to Syaoran. The dinner party had flown past rather quickly that night. They were in a very large room with four tables connected to form a square with its occupants (almost entirely men save for three or four women) situated around it. Most of them were also partially drunk. They may be businessmen with much higher ranks than those of regular people, but that didn't mean they were barred from life's simple pleasures. And that included getting drunk on a Friday night after a long week of work. This especially held true to the older gentleman in attendance.
Inwardly, Syaoran was slightly grateful that Sakura couldn't make it. Only slightly though. The main reason why he couldn't fully enjoy himself at the moment was because of her lack of presence.
"Syaoran, lighten up already," Eriol said and nudged him lightly.
"You were sulking more openly just minutes ago," Syaoran finally said.
Eriol shrugged. "It's because Tomoyo never comes to these kinds of things with me. We dated far longer than you and Sakura but Sakura's been to more functions than Tomoyo. It's depressing."
"Doesn't she go with you often to gatherings with your colleagues at the hospital?"
"Yeah, those are mostly the only ones she willingly goes to. That's why she and Sakura still haven't found out about us. I rarely come to these kinds of parties where you're around and when I do, she isn't interested. It's like she has Syaoran-senses or something and she purposely avoids it," he said very exaggeratedly. "I'm about to just tell her outright to get things over with."
"You do that," Syaoran said unhelpfully.
It didn't matter much to him.
If anything, it would probably more convenient. If the girls found out the nature of their relationship, it would most likely just bring them closer… of course, after the initial shock and betrayed feelings of not knowing the truth. This was what- Syaoran was sure –the reason why Eriol never outright told Tomoyo. He had been waiting for an opportunity to make a "believable" scenario happen where in they all uncover the truth as if they were all clueless and that it were all an act of fate.
"So why's Sakura not here tonight anyway?" Eriol asked as a change of topic from the previous far more depressing one.
"She has visitors from home."
"Visitors? Didn't you tell me before that she almost had no one else to talk to besides Tomoyo?"
"They're friends of her dad."
"And you're okay with that?"
Syaoran raised a brow. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Well, you were the one who was completely paranoid about her and a certain male senior when she went back to her hometown."
This surprised Syaoran. He hadn't thought of that. But that was only because Sakura specifically told him it was her dad's friend and that friend's son. She never said anything about a senior so the possibility never even crossed his mind. If anything, what he envisioned was an older man and his kid who probably wants to sight-see around Tokyo.
It was Eriol's turn to raise a brow at him. "I'm amazed," he said in an exaggerated and awed voice. Syaoran looked at him in question. "Sakura must have returned your faith in women. I never thought I'd see the day where you'd trust a woman to this degree ever again."
Syaoran snorted.
"It's true. No way would you think calmly about this situation if it was the old you. You were always suspicious about something or another."
No reply.
Eriol still had a rather smug look on his face but he didn't comment on it further to save his friend's pride. He didn't want to shake Syaoran's resolve for being with Sakura either. Regardless of the many suspicions that roused him in about her, he still found her existence to be an indispensible one for Syaoran.
"I'm going to the toilet."
"Thanks for the announcement," he retorted sarcastically, making Eriol laugh.
This was not good. Was God playing a trick on her? Or did she just have the most rotten luck in the world?
Sakura blinked probably around a gazillion times now, as if willing her eyes to change what it was seeing.
But it was undeniable. The man not a long ways away from her was indeed there and he was now grinning and heading his way over to her.
"Sakura!" Eriol called out over the noise of the other patrons in the busy restaurant.
She raised her hand slightly to wave at him in a rather meek manner.
"So you came after all?"
This question didn't do her nerves any good. The way he phrased it meant that the dinner party she was supposed to be attending was in this very restaurant.
Eriol gave her a wondering look as she visibly paled before his eyes landed on the empty table behind her filled with empty plates and glasses.
"Oh? Did you dine here?" he asked, surprised.
"Err… Yes. A family friend came to visit Tokyo and I accompanied him tonight."
"I see. Well, don't let me hold you up from your-"
"Sakura-san, sorry to keep you waiting. I've got it here," Naoki had reappeared and this time was holding up a paper bag filled with food he intended to bring back for his father. "Oh, hello?" he added when he spotted Eriol looking at him.
"-date?" Eriol finished, his brows raised and his head cocked to the side as he looked at Naoki curiously.
Author's Note:
Okay, so things are gonna progress faster from here on in. All for a reason of course.
I hope you enjoyed this- very late -update! The next chapter is also already written. It just lacks a little something but I should be able to upload it soon.
Also, if you guys are readers of my other story Lies and Love and are bored out of your mind, feel free to join the challenge I just started. The details of which I just put up in the last chapter of that story. So go ahead and check it out. :)
See you guys soon!
Raeny