One Week
A/N: Once again, thank you to the reviewers! I'm glad you still like this even though it is a bit short and drabble-esque. And I'm glad it's a bit different, too … I like to be unique! I'm really happy people said I was keeping them in character, because that's what I was aiming for. I'm struggling a bit with the ending – I don't know whether to make it happy or sad. I have two scenarios in my head, and I thought I'd decided, but … well, we'll see what happens! Any preferences?
Since this one is SO short, I'll try to get 'Thursday' up in the next day or two. Probably tomorrow. 'Saturday' will be the one that's long (I hope you can stick with me 'til then!), so the next two should be up really quickly.
Wednesday
She was behind the till today, and he guessed from the smile on her face when she saw him that she'd been expecting him to appear.
"Good morning!" she greeted him brightly, gracing him once again with that beautiful smile. He'd spent ten years without it; now the thought of not seeing it every day tore him apart.
"Good morning," he replied dutifully, hoping he didn't sound too eager. "Um, I'll have –"
"A plain black coffee and a croissant?" she asked almost hopefully, and for some reason he couldn't help but smile at her.
"That would be great," he agreed.
She beamed, happily punching numbers into her till. "You have a nice smile," she announced randomly.
"Excuse me?"
"You've always looked rather sad before. I was just thinking yesterday that you'd look so much nicer if you smiled," she commented, as though it were appropriate for them to be having this conversation. Ten years ago, it would have been. But not now.
"I, um …" He was blushing. He could feel it, and he hated it, but something told him he was going to have to get used to it.
"To have in or to go?" she asked.
"Uh … in. Have in. Please," he managed to get out, realising the girl had no idea of the effect she had on him. Then again, she never did before.
She was just handing over his change when an older gentleman appeared at her shoulder. "We've just had a delivery – would you mind sorting it out in the stock room for me?" he asked her.
He found himself hating the man. She'd already been taken from him once, and now this man was denying him a few more minutes with her?
"Not a problem," she beamed at her boss. She tugged her hair out of the half-ponytail it had been in and scraped it all off her face before turning to one of her colleagues. "Hana-chan, can you make sure this gentleman gets his coffee?"
He couldn't deny he wasn't happy, but at least he found the sense to smile at her before he turned away to find a seat.
"You know, I don't know your name."
He turned back to her, a questioning look on his face.
She smiled back shyly. "If we're going to be seeing each other every morning, I feel like I should at least know your name."
For the love of God, give her your family name …
"Syaoran. My name's Syaoran."
She didn't question the inappropriateness of his actions. She just smiled, waving over her shoulder. "Bye, Syaoran-kun."
Extra A/N: I know that most people reading fics here know the basics of Japanese customs and culture, but for those who don't, let me explain the last part. In Japan, people generally address each other by their last names. You usually only call someone by their first name if they are family or a good friend – which was why in this case it was inappropriate for Syaoran to give his first name to Sakura. Especially for someone like him, who didn't call Sakura by name for TWO AND A HALF SEASONS. Oy vey …
P.S. Thanks to an amazing plot suggested by dreamschemer, I've decided there WILL be a proper long fanfiction version of this. Details will be posted later when I've worked out the kinks!