ZOMG! One day off two months. But… at least it wasn't as long as some authors out there, who don't ever
Something of Yours
Chapter Eleven
And so it is Said…"Guess it's just you an' me now, huh?" Sakura asked her flat stomach. "S'not like 'Moyo's gonna apologise any time soon." She whimpered to herself.
She rolled over and buried her face into the carpet. To put it simply; she felt like shit. It'd been two weeks since Tomoyo's outburst. In addition to her crummy emotional state, she was tired all the time, her boobs hurt, her head was pounding, and she had these ugly little stretch marks appearing on her thighs. She was sleeping less and less too, since Tomoyo's outburst, adding to her rapidly souring mood.
Her brother made a point of avoiding talking to her when he called. He would talk to their father first, always, and then say that he had to be somewhere as soon as it was Sakura's turn on the phone. That left her even more miserable. She hadn't heard from Tomoyo, she hadn't heard from her brother, and she certainly hadn't heard from Syaoran. Eriol and Meiling called her the week previously on a three-way call to tell her that Syaoran had gone back to Hong Kong to graduate, but that was fine with her. If the bastard wanted to leave then let him.
Sakura found that she couldn't handle school, so she had begun to cut classes. The school called her father, who then demanded to know why she was skipping. Her simple answer was that she 'didn't want to go anymore'. Fujitaka had argued with her for three hours to continue school for the last month or so and then relented. It was her future, she argued, and if she wanted to fuck it up then she would, one way or another. Besides, she reminded him, it wasn't like her future wasn't already severely fucked up anyway.
She rolled onto her back to relieve the pressure on her chest. Whoever said that pregnancy was beautiful deserved to be shot in the head and then have a hundred leprechauns dancing on their grave. Sakura didn't know how her mother had handled it. She wanted to cry, scream, break something! Hell, the only good thing was that her morning sickness – which rarely ever happened in the morning – was starting to subside. Her doctor was telling her that her energy should be coming back by now, but she felt more tired than ever. Maybe because she wasn't sleeping well.
She was miserable. Depressed. Anxious. Scared. What would happen to her and her baby? Eriol had told her of Mr Li's plan to take the baby away from her after a paternity test. There was no way in Hell that the man was getting her baby, but how could she take care of it? She might have babysat for her neighbours a few times, but at the end of the night she was always able to give the baby back to her parents. She didn't have to keep it. But this one she did.
"Fuck this." She snarled, standing up, wobbling a little. She grasped her desk to steady herself, her headache making her dizzy. As quickly as the spell had come, it was gone, and she was able to walk downstairs to find a note from her father. Reading it, snorting, and tossing it out, she marched straight to the fridge and pulled out a bar of chocolate. Grabbing her coat and keys, she locked the door behind her as she stepped out into the chilly autumn evening, munching on her chocolate and stuffing the wrapper into her pocket.
She started to walk. She didn't pay attention to where she was going; she just followed her feet. Out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn that she'd seen Yelan, but dismissed the notion. Yelan would likely be back in Hong Kong with her husband and son. Why would she be here in Tomoeda again? But apparently, she had some reason. And, for some reason, it seemed to involve Sakura.
"Sakura, dear!" She yelled out from across the road. Sakura's head snapped up and a cold chill ran through her body. She'd successfully managed to avoid speaking to Mrs Li since the ball, but it appeared her reprieve was over. Tomoyo's words echoed through her mind. 'Sakura, you cant drop a bombshell and just disappear off the face of the planet.'
"Yes, Mrs Li?" She hesitantly turned to the older woman, forcing a smile on her face. Mrs Li had since crossed the road and came to a stop next to Sakura.
Mrs Li gave her a warm smile. "Oh, come dear. Call me Yelan. We are to be family when the little one is here."
The warmth of her tone did little to calm Sakura's chills. Her heart screamed that this was the wife of the man that wanted her baby – she wanted her baby too! But her mind reminded her that this was Mrs Li, her mother's friend. She had never once, in the short time she'd known her, pressed her into something that she was uncomfortable with. However, from the amount of fidgeting that she was doing with her hands, as Sakura had noticed, she was about to ask something big.
"Have you…" she pursed her lips, "…thought much about your future?" She finally asked.
Sakura started. "To be perfectly honest, all I've been thinking about is the immediate future." She found herself saying. "I have no idea how I'm going to look after myself or the baby, if that's what you're asking. But I'll find something."
Mrs Li was silent. "Well, that's all well and good dear, but I think I may have a way for you." Sakura remained silent, awaiting her options. Mrs Li took a deep breath. "Well, as you may or may not know, the Elders are all up in arms over what to do with you, dear. They are calling for abortion, which it is obviously too late for, taking the child from you, which I absolutely forbade them from doing, or marriage between you and Syaoran."
"And you want me to marry him." Sakura finished in a deadpanned voice. She snorted. "I'm sorry, but I feel no inclination to marry a man that I detest. He left me alone to deal with this, even when he found out. He has no rights to me or my baby." She shocked herself with her words.
"I was suggesting that it be in name only." Yelan's soft tone broke the silence a moment later. "You would come and live on the Li Estate, given, and perhaps appear with Syaoran once in a while at public functions, but out of the public eye, you can have as much or as little to do with him as you choose."
"But what kind of example would that set the baby?" Sakura immediately retorted. "Oh, it's normal for Mommy and Daddy to hate each other and never speak to each other. Imagine their marriage when they're old enough. It'd be just as bad. Or they could be emotionally scarred. I don't want to put my baby through that. We'll have enough problems as it is."
Mrs Li laughed daintily. "A sound reasoning. But I'm afraid the alternative isn't pretty."
"So you're trying to blackmail me with taking away my baby." Sakura's voice wasn't accusatory. Merely knowing.
"Dear, you must know that I desire no such thing. It is my husband who is so very set on it." She clucked her tongue. "The entire family has tried to dissuade him, but he will not budge. Even Syaoran's threat of cutting off ties from the family has done nothing to discourage him. Syaoran does not want the child taken from its mother, but there is nothing that he can do either. The way my husband is planning to present it to the courts is that you are young, unwed, uneducated, since it has been brought to his attention that you did not graduate with your peers, and you have no means of supporting yourself."
"As opposed to the billionaire grandfather who, not only still has one of the parents living under his roof, also has the experience with raising children and providing for them." Sakura sighed. "My father and I spoke about this when Eriol and Meiling told me what he wanted. He can't take the baby unless it's what Syaoran wants too. The parent's wishes override anything else."
"The courts can be… persuaded to wave parental rights."
"You mean bribed." Sakura spat.
Yelan sighed. "Yes. Bribed." She paused. "My husband is notorious for bribing or intimidating the court system into making decisions in his favour. He has just never been caught."
"So you're saying it's hopeless." Sakura closed her eyes and counted to ten.
"Not hopeless, dear. Just think of what I told you about the options." She shook her heads. "We will still try to dissuade him, but unless by some miracle he changes his mind, there is every chance that those will be our options."
"Not exactly thrilling." Sakura commented dryly. "Either move to a foreign country and marry someone I don't even like, let alone love, to keep my baby; or stay here and have my baby taken away to a place that I will never be able to afford to go."
"I'm sorry dear." Yelan patted her shoulder. "But I don't think there's anything I can do."
OoOoOoOoOoOTomoyo was having the time of her life.
She'd pushed aside her niggling feelings of guilt for the time being and had gone with Eriol to his Aunt and Uncle's house in Hong Kong. She, Syaoran, and Eriol often hit the town, determined to have a good time. She found that she got on well with Syaoran, strangely enough. She found herself thinking, on more than one occasion, that, if the circumstances had been different, she would not have minded setting Sakura up with him. But, knowing their history, there was little to no chance of that happening.
It had come as a shock when Yelan had announced her return to Tomoeda. She had left swiftly afterwards, heading straight for the airport. Syaoran had confided in Eriol and Tomoyo that he was worried she was going after Sakura. The three of them had listened in on the Li Elder Council meetings in the last few weeks, and they were debating two things; a custody battle or marriage. Some of the Elders were reluctant to pursue a legal battle over such a sensitive thing; they'd likely have Women's Rights Activists banging down the door. So they were all for the marriage if it was possible.
"Come on, Syaoran, maybe it wont be so bad?" Tomoyo tried to console him with Eriol after dinner. "I know Sakura. She's pretty unbearable right now, but she's a nice person…"
Syaoran snorted. "And she's terrified of me."
"Now why would she be afraid of you?" Eriol frowned. "You've never… hit her… have you?"
"Oh, Hell no!" Syaoran rocketed to his feet. "I can't believe you even suggested that! I oughta hit you, Hiiragizawa!"
"Calm down!" Tomoyo rubbed her temples. "We're not going to get anywhere like this!" She slammed her hands down on Syaoran's desk and beared down on them. "You," she glared at her boyfriend, "need to stop antagonizing Syaoran. And you," she turned her withering glare to Syaoran, "need to do something about your father."
"And what do you expect me to do?!" Syaoran demanded. "Look," he cut across her, "you don't know my dad. He gets what he wants. No ifs, ands, or buts about it!"
"No excuses!" Tomoyo shrieked, scaring both of them. He took a deep breath to calm herself. "Now, look. There's got to be something you can do. Anything?" Syaoran shook his head. "Ok, then we're going to have to come up with something together…"
OoOoOoOoOoO"…and we, the Elders of the Li Council, hereby declare that the heir to the Li Clan, Li Xiao Lang, shall wed the woman named Kinomoto Sakura, should the opportunity arise. If, for any reason, this does not come to pass, Li Xiao Chen, current leader of the Li Clan and father of Li Xiao Lang, shall lodge legal action against Miss Kinomoto for the custody of the infant in question."
The gavel fell. Mr Li was grinning like a maniac, knowing full well that his son would not marry that Kinomoto girl. Not if he had anything to say about it.
Yeah, the bar at the side makes it LOOK small, but don't be fooled! It's actually one of the longest chapters I've written for this story! D:
And yeah, I know people wanted and expected Syaoran to disobey Daddy and stay in Japan buuuut… meh. My story.
I might skip a few weeks between this chapter and the next. Oh, and the counter down here is just as much for you as it is for me. -sigh- I keep forgetting how far into it I am. That's what takes me so long once I get started. -wince- Checking details.
Sakura's Pregnancy: 14 weeks.
Questions and comments are welcome.