This chappie happens to be a Christmas pressie for you all! I felt so bad about leaving it where I did last time with hardly any Saku or Syao in it, so I wrote another one for you! I sat down and just… wrote.
I'll try to get another chappie out before New Year, but I'm not making any promises!
Something of Yours
Chapter 8
So Close, Yet So Far
Exams were over. They were free!
Sakura was looking forward to flopping with Tomoyo under the big cherry tree in the park the day after their grade was released. Tomoyo seemed to be floating through the air, while Sakura was dragging her feet along the ground as if they were made of lead.
"And oh my God! He is so sweet!" Tomoyo was gushing. Sakura was only half listening to her friend as she watched the scene to the right of them. She had to raise an eyebrow at what was going on.
"'He' would be over there." She pointed toward the fiasco. Tomoyo looked over towards the large group that Sakura was pointing to and frowned.
There was a large group of girls surrounding two men on the left side of the oval. Most of them were cheap, easy girls that'd been around the block a few too many times, and they were trying to get the attention of the two young men that they had ambushed. Eriol and Syaoran.
"Well, we'll see about th-oh… Never mind." Tomoyo looked sheepishly at Sakura, knowing she didn't want to go near Syaoran if she could avoid it. Sakura waved her off with a shrug.
"I'll go home on my own. You go sort out the mess Eriol's gone and gotten himself into." She chuckled dryly. Tomoyo gave her friend a swift hug.
"Want me to rescue Li too?" She asked with an evil glint in her eye. Sakura looked at he levelly, clutching her binder to he chest harshly. She winced. That area had become particularly sensitive in the last few days due to her pregnancy, and if she wasn't careful she could put herself in real pain.
"Nah." She attempted to laugh it off. "Let him suffer." She turned to go.
"Who's suffering?" A deep voice alerted them to the presence of others. Tomoyo and Sakura spun around and gasped. Eriol and Syaoran had somehow managed to separate themselves from the, now disbanding, horde, and had come over to them.
Syaoran looked like he'd give anything to be anywhere else in the Universe than right there. Sakura herself was having a similar feeling as she willed the heat in her cheeks to go away. She was sure she was as red as a beetroot. When Syaoran's eyes brushed over her, taking in her figure, she felt the heat in her face intensify. She was so into this little spell that she didn't hear Tomoyo talking to her.
"…Sakura? Sakura!" Tomoyo pinched her. Sakura started with a jump and shook her head.
"Sorry, what?" She blinked. Tomoyo was staring at her with a twinkle in her eyes and Eriol was watching her rather strangely. Syaoran was just glaring at her as usual.
"Eriol and I are going to go get ice cream, so I'll see you later, ok?" She said in a strange voice. Sakura knew that voice. That was the voice that Tomoyo used when she was containing immense excitement. Sakura smiled her first true smile in weeks. She loved seeing her friends happy.
"No problem!" She grinned evilly. "Just call me later, ok?" Tomoyo nodded vigorously and waved as she and Eriol left Sakura and Syaoran alone.
"Kinomoto." He acknowledged her with a nod.
"Li." She murmured, not meeting his eyes. She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself. Her next words came out of her mouth before she could stop herself. "Li," She murmured softly "We ne-"
"Here." He shoved a piece of paper into her hands, not hearing what she was saying. Sakura sighed, eerily relieved and distressed at the same time that he had stopped her from telling him about the baby. "Mother asked me to give that to you to give to your Father." She turned over the paper to find that it was an invitation.
"'The Li Corporation Christmas Ball'?" She read aloud, gaping at the paper. Only the richest and most important people in the world got invited to that Ball. She frowned up at Syaoran, daring him to say that it was a joke. However, he simply sighed and ran his hand through his hair in frustration.
"My father's representatives called four days ago to confirm it was in Tomoeda. My mother invites you and your family along as her guests." He grunted, before turning on his heel and leaving. "Oh," He stopped suddenly and threw her a glance over his shoulder. "And I wouldn't worry about inviting Daidouji either. Eriol's already confided in me that he plans on inviting her as his date." He sniffed derisively, and was gone.
It was then that Sakura was reminded that Syaoran and Eriol were cousins. That had been an… interesting development, to say the least.
As Tomoyo had gradually begun spending time with Eriol and getting to know him over the week, she had discovered their relationship quite accidentally. Of course, she put the pieces together in her head on the spot. Eriol had told her that he was related important people; Li was the surname of a very rich Chinese man; Syaoran was Chinese; he and Eriol were cousins. It was simple.
They had forbidden her to tell anyone, lest the media discover them. Tomoyo had sworn secrecy from everyone except Sakura. They had relented in that, after assurances from Tomoyo that Sakura would keep their secret.
Sakura re-read the invitation as she began walking home. It was in five days. She sighed. Her father would be pleased when she gave it to him. She briefly considered not giving her father the invitation, but reasoned that Yelan would eventually call to make sure that he had received it. No, there were only two ways to get out of going. Flat out refusal, or faking illness.
Since Sakura's father had a profound ability to tell when Sakura was lying to him, she decided to go with the refusal method. It had never worked before, but the last time she had tried it was when she was fourteen.
Sakura sighed again as she reached her front gate, clutching the paper tightly. She opened the gate, climbed the stairs, and opened the front door.
"Dad?" She yelled out, ignoring her growing headache. "I have something from Mrs Li for you!"
OoOoOoOoOoO"Did you give it to her?"
"Yes, Mother."
"Good boy." Yelan nodded, going back to cooking. Syaoran glanced over her shoulder into the pot.
"Soup?" He asked, reaching for a spoon to taste it. It was a peculiar habit he'd picked up somewhere along the line, and his mother's cooking was always flawless. He'd use any excuse he could to try it before it was ready. Yelan slapped his hand away from the utensils without even looking away from the pot. Syaoran grunted in pain. It was the hand that he'd sent through the wall four days previously.
"Sorry, Syaoran!" Yelan gushed, going over his hand and making sure that she hadn't opened up any of the healing wounds. Luckily she hadn't.
"It's ok." He grunted, going towards his room. A shuffling and the opening and closing of drawers and zippers in the room next to his alerted him to someone else in the apartment. Curling his hands into fists, he cautiously approached the door and pushed it open.
Two gasps.
One indecipherable squeal.
One roar of the word; "MEILING!"
In the kitchen, Yelan chuckled.
"I probably should have warned him beforehand that Meiling was arriving today for the Ball." She murmured to herself, inwardly laughing at the yelling and squealing coming from the hall.
OoOoOoOoOoOTomoyo and Eriol were window-shopping at the Mall, chatting away about nothing in particular. Eriol kept sneaking glances at Tomoyo out of the corner of his eye whenever she gushed over an article of clothing, or a puppy at the pet store.
He couldn't deny that he liked her – a lot. It wasn't one of those teenaged hormonal things, either. Tomoyo was… she was too special for those types of… of thinking about her like that. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he approached her from behind.
"Hey, Tomoyo?" he spun around to look at him. "Uh… would you… uh… like to get something to eat?"
"Sure!" She piped up, abandoning the adorable little Golden Retriever puppy that she was playing with through the glass in the pet store window. They went to a nearby deli and Eriol bought them both sandwiches. Tomoyo protested that she could pay for her own, but Eriol was having none of it.
"So… what are you doing next Wednesday?" Eriol asked as they sat by the giant Christmas tree in the plaza. Tomoyo shrugged.
"I spend most of my time with Sakura these days." She said, starry eyed. Eriol rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Well… Uh… I was wondering…" He spluttered, "If you'd… uh… like to go to the Li Ball with me next Wednesday?" He gushed, face burning.
"I'd love to!" Tomoyo's faced was as red as his. "I'll just have to tell Sakura I'm not coming over is all."
"Oh, Auntie already invited her and her father." Eriol gave a small cough. "She should be going too."
"Oooh, yay!" Tomoyo squealed, bouncing up and down. "Now I get to take Sakura shopping for materials so I can make our dresses!" Eriol gave her a funny look.
"Two dresses in five days?" Eriol looked at her like she was crazy. "Won't that be a bit tight?"
"Not two whole dresses, silly!" Tomoyo scoffed. "I have the basic designs at home – it's just alterations and decorations!" And she began a detailed explanation of what she thought Sakura's dress should look like.
Eriol hung on to her every word, as she weaved an image in his mind of Sakura in one of the most beautiful dresses he could ever possibly imagine. Not that she could ever compare, in his eyes, to the raven-haired beauty beside him.
OoOoOoOoOoO
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" Sakura scolded herself that night, hitting her head against the pillow. "How could you even think of telling him about the baby?" She screamed into the pillow. "Why did you even try?"
Sakura couldn't argue with herself. She'd been thinking it over throughout the week; she'd come to realise that she did want Syaoran there for her and their baby. But at the same time, she didn't. She would have to deal with telling him about it.
Plus, telling him about the baby would ruin his life, and she reasoned that ruining her life was enough. There was no sense in ruining his too. And besides, even if he was there, it would only be on the sidelines. Sakura was very hesitant about the whole thing.
Sighing, she dialled Tomoyo's number. It was already eleven, but Tomoyo would forgive her when she told her why she'd called.
"Hello?" Tomoyo's groggy voice came through. "It's eleven, Sakura, what are you doing calling me at this hour?" Sakura briefly forgot that Tomoyo had caller ID. Sakura gathered her wits before trying to speak. Her floodgates broke down before she had even begun to utter the first word.
"I'm so confused!' Sakura wailed into the phone, sobbing.
So, what'd ya think? Just for you guys, and because its Christmas, here's a sneak-peak of Chapter 9!
"So, what do you think will happen this year?" she asked lightly. Syaoran blinked.
"What?"
"Well the Li Corp Christmas Ball is infamous for changing the life of at least one Li a year… don't tell me you forgot?" She sounded as if the idea were laughable.
"No, Meiling." Syaoran scoffed. "I did not. And I doubt very much that there will be anything drastic this year, considering the only Li's attending tonight are you, me, and my parents."
"Whatever." Meiling shrugged. "I just have a feeling something's gonna happen."
There you have it! It's not very long, but I don't have much of Chapter 9 yet. I hope y'all have a Merry Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate)!