Author: I'm back! Well, actually I've been meaning to get around with typing the next chapter of this story, but this year was hectic, so everything finally slowed down after the End of Year Exams. It's the end of the school year now, so I'm taking it easy with writing! Oh yes, and thank you for your encouraging reviews! I'm sorry if this chapter's a bit sloppy; my writing's a bit rusty.
Disclaimer: I, sadly, do not own CCS. If I did, there are a bunch of fanfictions I would love to buy and see turned into anime!
"I'm telling you, 'Moyo! That guy was Creepy with a capital 'C'!" Sakura lifted the fork she was holding and guided the strawberry impaled onto its prongs into her mouth. "Shupah chweepy!" she mumbled while chewing the juicy fruit.
The cordless phone expertly clamped between her left ear - Sakura had a belief that having phone conversations with the right ear subjected her to many times more of radiation - and shoulder tilted dangerously as Sakura fidgeted in the chair she was sitting on. It was only a few hours after the eccentric Li Syaoran had left, saying the overused phrase of "I'll be back, Kinomoto,"after Sakura had flatly given him a refusal for his proposition.
Straight after work, Sakura had shed her work clothes in favor for her striped cotton shorts and a plain colored tee and grabbed the bowl of chilled strawberries from her refrigerator, thumb expertly jabbing the long-memorized phone number of Tomoyo's.
"Well, Sakura, it's not like he asked you to marry him," the soft, lilting voice of Tomoyo drifted into Sakura's ear, "All he did was ask you to be his ice-skating partner,"
Emerald eyes widened. "He basically confessed to stalking me!" she shrieked into the phone as the fork-wielding hand stabbed the fork into another strawberry, "I mean, how can you just go up to some person whom you have no connections with and tell her a blow-by-blow of everything that happened on a random day of her life?"
Sakura could see the wince on her best friend's face in her mind's eye as she heard a reluctant sigh from the other end. "Sakura, he probably asked the manager of the rink for your name," the level-headed fashionista reasoned, "And there are people who happen to have excellent memories,"
"Such as yours, I suppose," Sakura grudgingly accepted Tomoyo's explanation, "But still! Just coming in and letting his mouth run away with stupid ideas is just-!"
"That's what I'd label as passion," Tomoyo interrupted with a firm tone.
"Passion?" Sakura blinked in surprise at Tomoyo's assertion. What did passion have to do with Syaoran's disturbing and unfathomable words? "Didn't you say he's not in love with me?"
Sakura pulled the phone away from her ear by a little distance as a heavy sigh of exasperation crackled from Tomoyo's line. "I did not say that. I said- never mind. What I meant was, Sakura, is that you said that he was banned from the singles skating events or something like that, right?"
Sakura nodded. "Uh-huh."
"Well, correct me if I'm mistaken, but his going to great lengths to search and ask for somebody to be paired with him for the pairs skating event is a clear show of his love for ice-skating, isn't it?"
Sakura chewed on the tip of her thumb thoughtfully, the fork abandoned in the half-empty bowl of strawberries. "Don't ask me," came the half-hearted mumble, "I'm not passionate about ice-skating,"
On the other end, the raven-haired woman was shaking her head dejectedly. Sakura could fool everyone else, including herself, but when it came to pulling the wool over the person who had recorded almost all of Sakura's escapades since she was a little girl in the first grade, it was an impossible task.
"Sakura, just think of it as a chance of a lifetime. Experience life to its fullest, you know?" Tomoyo's tone was encouraging; almost pleading, but Sakura didn't catch on to it. "Don't stay chained to the profession that you had no choice but to take on. Forget about everything that has happened, and look forward for golden opportunities,"
A satirical look passed over Sakura's face at her friend's assertion. "At this point, Li's proposition seems more like an eenie-meenie-minie-mo pick. I happened to be the poor tiger caught by its toe but when I hollered, he never let go," she said drily, "The man probably has a stack of proxies somewhere in the drawer of his desk, just in case I happen to die or something."
Tomoyo made a loud noise of disapproval. "Don't say such despondent words, Sakura!" her tone was berating, "Didn't you say so yourself? He didn't let go, when you hollered. That means he's set on making you his partner, 'Kura,"
"Oh yippee," Sakura mockingly threw her free hand up in the air and waved it around.
"Yippee what?" a deep baritone voice startled the young woman.
Sakura's eyes shot up to see a dark-haired man standing in front of her, holding a briefcase in one hand and an olive-green coat in the other. "Touya!" she pulled the phone away from her ear to get a better look at the man. "You're back!"
"Sakura?" Tomoyo's voice was soft and distant as Sakura hastened to pull it back to her ear.
"Tomoyo? Sorry, but I gotta go now. Touya just came home,"
"Touya? Tell him I said hi!"
"Gotcha," Sakura ended the call and placed the phone back into its cradle and stood up.
Touya's cognac eyes narrowed and a corner of his mouth curved up into a teasing smirk. His hair was mussed from the chilly winds of autumn; his tanned cheeks bitten to a slight pink hue from the signs of an early frost. Despite his not saying anything, it was clear, as a look passed between the Kinomoto siblings, that Touya was in his Mock-Sakura mode. Sakura's upper lip curled into a snarl.
Touya lifted a dark eyebrow; the smirk still on his face as he unwound his scarf from his neck. "I see you haven't lost the skill to make that ugly expression while I was gone," he commented, "How many times a day do you practice it? Four? Five? Maybe even ten?"
His words grated painfully against Sakura's nerves. For the past six months, Touya had been away abroad, doing work in a hospital in a foreign country, so Sakura hadn't been on the receiving the brunt of Touya's teasing and mocking. Now the titian-haired woman clearly remembered why she'd been in a partially celebratory mood when she had last seen him strolling into the airport terminal all those months ago.
"Only a few minutes back and you're already being a jerk?" Sakura growled through clenched teeth.
Touya shrugged, still smirking. "Well, it's not like anyone can help 'being a jerk' when they see you," He made sure to air-quote as he purposefully strode into the living room, Sakura trailing after him.
"You're the only one with that opinion!" Sakura shrieked as she stomped towards the sofas and plopped down on one, arms defiantly folded across her chest.
"Don't stomp; Japan has enough natural earthquakes as it is," Touya grinned sadistically as he joined his sister on the sofa, placing his briefcase on the coffee table and leaning back into the plush furniture.
The younger woman made a move to stomp on her brother's foot, but Touya's reflexes smoothly moved the limb out of harm's - in the name of Sakura - way, and the older man gave his sister another smirk. Sakura made a snarling noise as she seethed, shooting her brother with pointed glares.
If looks could kill, Sakura wouldn't hesitate to off her brother at this point.
A moment's silence passed. Albeit words weren't exchanged, it wasn't the least bit uncomfortable. Both Sakura and Touya, although they didn't want to admit it, enjoyed each other's company, and often sat together in silence, thinking about nothing and merely staring off into space, having a moment's peace together.
"So, what were you talking about with Tomoyo? It sounded pretty serious from the way you were grousing like a half-dead pig,"
Leave it to Touya to ruin the atmosphere. "I. AM. NOT. A. HALF. DEAD. PIG!"
"So, what was the conversation about?" Touya chose to ignore Sakura's indignant words.
This time, Sakura chose to think before saying anything. Telling him about the Chinese ice-skater was a definite negatory, because Touya would definitely grab the nearest kitchen knife and go on a manhunt to chop the other man into millions of tiny pieces once he got Li's name and address.
Sakura preferred boring headlines about political delegates visiting foreign countries to make yet another peace treaty on the newspaper instead of homicidal big brothers slaughtering disgraced ice-skaters, thank you very much.
"How PMS sucks and how it's worse when you work with animals," Sakura lamely replied, averting her eyes away from the intense look in Touya's sharp eyes. "It's an old woman's myth; supposedly it's bad feng shui or something," she added as an afterthought, remembering Touya was well-versed in the inner workings of the human body, being a doctor.
If Sakura had difficulty lying to Tomoyo, it wasn't even worth attempting to do so when it came to Touya. Having watched over his sister from the distance, Touya was also well-versed in the ways of Kinomoto Sakura, if not better than Tomoyo.
Also, it didn't hurt that it was basic knowledge that Sakura wouldn't look you in the eye if she was lying.
Touya sighed. "You always did like to talk about stupid things," he gave her a lopsided grin as he got up from the sofa, "Especially when you believe in them. Too naive, I say,"
Sakura poked out her tongue at her brother, making a face. "You suck!"
"Not as bad as you."
xxxx
RenegadeWolf says: Hey Cherry!
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Wolfie! (:
RenegadeWolf says: How was work?
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Some creepy dude came in today and started spouting random rubbish.
RenegadeWolf says: :O What did he say?
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Details aside, he basically admitted to stalking me.
RenegadeWolf says: Whoa. That's just… illegal. It is illegal, right?
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: I have no idea x.x How was your day? Better than mine, I bet?
RenegadeWolf says: Hardly. D:
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Too bad. ): What went wrong?
RenegadeWolf says: I tried recruiting someone, but she blatantly refused all of my offers.
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: …Are you sure you weren't just trying to pick up some girl?
RenegadeWolf says: I'm hurt that you would actually consider me doing that! ;-;
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: JKJK! Why were you recruiting her anyway? What for?
RenegadeWolf says: This career-oriented project - more of an idea, really - that I came up with.
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Oh! Looking to jumpstart your dead career again?
RenegadeWolf says: I've been warming the seat up too long.
-WhimsicalxCherryxTree- says: Well, good luck! I'll be rooting for you!
xxxx
A gentle breeze stirred, making a solitary amber-coloured leaf snap off its branch and float down, landing in between the pages of a file. Sakura plucked out the leaf, setting it aside as the other hand reached up to her neck to adjust the scarf. She sighed despondently as her eyes rested on the filed papers again.
A day off work usually found the animal doctor either in the food district trying out new desserts with Tomoyo or at the zoo, visiting past patients for the fun of it. But today, Sakura had no time for either, as she was seated on a wooden bench in the empty Tomoeda Park, worriedly staring at the various work-related complications on the papers her secretary-receptionist, Hitachi, had given to her.
"Sakura, the accountant just finished and left. I'm afraid that the balance for this month doesn't look too good…"
"What? Let me see!"
And they had barely raked together enough money to be called a profit. Any less and they would be seeing an overdrawn account.
The reason why Sakura and Hitachi were the only employees at the clinic was because there wasn't enough in the budget to hire more people and the overhead maintenance required for the vastly expensive equipment as well as medicine didn't come cheap, either. It also didn't help that the clinic didn't receive more than two or three visitors a day; five, if they were lucky.
Sakura let out another gloomy sigh, and a soft whimper from beside her alerted the young woman. Sakura looked at Kohaku with a smile as her canine friend nosed her palm, clearly concerned about its owner's lack of exuberance.
"You know, my mother always did say taking up animal medicine is career suicide," a disturbingly familiar baritone spoke, "She likened it to the only profession that has people who sincerely love it; not because they need the money and the job doesn't require a doctorate,"
Sakura jumped in her seat, visibly startled. She whipped her head around, narrowing her worried expression into an irritated glower.
"Li."
The cocky eccentric from two days before stood behind her, a corner of his lips curved into a smug smile. It made Sakura wonder if Syaoran was a man who found many things to be ludicrous and saw the need to make a mockery out of everything, or the cocky smirk was his natural smile. She was willing to bet on the former, but the latter didn't look to bad, either.
"Kinomoto," he regarded the younger woman with a nod, "I see you're out enjoying today's beautiful weather! Hardly a ray of sun, a horrendously close-to-icy temperature with a promise of a light blanket of early snow. Lovely!"
The former. Definitely the former.
"Go away. I don't have the time to be entertaining foolish athletes like you," Sakura growled. She nudged her dog. "Kohaku, chase that horrible man away,"
The wolfhound paid no heed to its mistress's words as it bounded towards the chocolate-haired man, barking in happy delirium as Syaoran bent down to pet its head. Kohaku saw this as an invitation to slobber the man's hand with its doggy drool, possibly sniffing out invisible dog treats from his person. "Hey there! Your owner's not as friendly as you are, huh? PMS, you reckon?" Syaoran grinned at Kohaku as it continued to sniff into his coat pockets.
Sakura's mood worsened at the sight of her supposed best friend betraying her peace for a few pats on the head. How dare he talk about feminine matters that didn't even concern him!
"Some man's best friend you are," Sakura muttered as she shot the canine a dirty look, who in turn merely barked in a joyful response.
"You're no man, are you?"
Syaoran grinned as he stood up straight again, shoving his hands into his pockets. "So, I've been told that I have exceptional sight," he commented brightly, "And I am a believer of what I see."
"I'd expect no less from a self-absorbed narcissist like you."
"Well! You speak as if you know me well!"
"Hardly," Sakura snorted, "I'd prefer to not know you at all, thank you very much,"
Syaoran seated himself beside Sakura, requiring no invitation to do so. Sakura shot him a glare as she possessively stuffed the file back into her tote bag, cradling it protectively with palpably hostile suspicion.
Seeing the woman's distrust of him, Syaoran rolled his eyes. "I see you have never learnt the art of subtleness."
"I saw no need for it the past, and I see no need to do so in the future."
"Athletes do get paid decently, you know. There's the appearance fee, sponsorship contract fee, endorsements - which I bet we'll be vied for - and allowance from the AA when we're deemed championship material - which, with proper training from me, you will be,"
Sakura's head turned so fast, her neck nearly snapped off. "Don't peg me as some avaricious person that can be bought out by money! I'm not that cheap!"
"And yet, you're making a money-related form of expression to yourself," Syaoran mused, an expression of quiet interest on his face, "But, that wasn't what I was insinuating. I happen to know that your'e having financial difficulties, and a side-job like ice-skating would be good leverage for a while until your clinic gets back on its feet,"
Red. Sakura saw red. She was extremely livid now. Did he really have to poke that abnormally large nose of his into what didn't concern him? "What I say is not in your place to correct," she seethed, clenching her teeth together.
"Then think of it as an act of random kindness for a stranger. You help me get into ice-skating again, your karma points will get a definite bonus!"
"I said no the first time, and I'm saying again! I don't care if I'm going to Hell!"
"But I doubt that's what you should be saying when your clinic is in the red zone, don't you thi-?"
SLAP!
The sound echoed faintly in the park, then was drowned out by the slight rustle of the wind picking up. A red mark in the shape of Sakura's hand appeared on Syaoran's cheek. Surprise was written all over the Chinese man's face; his liquid brown eyes wide open in shock and his lips slightly parted upon the impact. His lips moved to speak, but no words formed on his tongue.
He had been rendered absolutely speechless.
"If you want a goddamn partner then go look elsewhere!" Sakura screamed, her face red from the anger of her boiling blood, "I am not going to provide charity for some insensitive bastard who doesn't know how to keep his nose out of other people's business!"
Grabbing the whimpering Kohaku's leash and her bag, Sakura began to angrily stomp her way out of the park. With the full intent of not turning back, it was a surprise when six quiet words made the woman stop in her tracks.
"I just wanted to skate again."
Author: Yikes! Sakura loses her temper with Syaoran! Syaoran utters unexpected words! What will happen next? (I've always wanted to do that! :D) Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!
Luv,
sakura-pichu16296