Hello again! Welcome to Chapter Two of In too Deep!
Recap: Sakura is late to a photo shoot and does not make a good impression with Syaoran Li.
Sakura reached out to grab on to the railing to keep herself from falling over from the force of the shaking. She tried to keep herself up right, but she lost her grip from the railing sending her body crashing to the other side. Sakura closed her eyes as she prepared for the impact of the wall but it never came as she hit something soft and a hard all at the same time as two strong arms wrapped around her frame. She opened her eyes to see that Syaoran had managed to catch her to prevent her from the crash. She could feel face start to burn as she studied his eyes for a second and felt as if she could just snuggle in the chest, but pushed back the thought.
"What's happening?" She gasped as pieces of the ceiling began to fall to the around them as Syaoran pulled her closer in to him lowering them to the ground to shield her from them. The lights in the lift flickered before going out completely as it let out a loud screeching noise from the gears as it came to a complete stop as the shaking and rumbling began to subside.
"I think it was an earthquake," said Syaoran as he lifted his head to assess the damage. "Are you okay?" He pulled back his arms from her as he began to look her over for any signs of injuries.
"I'm fine," She said turning her jade eyes to him and lifted her hand to the side of his face. "You have a cut right here." She reached into her purse to pull out a soft tissue and wiped at the scratch wiping away the blood. "I don't think you need stitches are anything, but it wouldn't hurt to get it checked."
"Thanks," he said softly taken back by her sudden act of kindness. In all his travels he had never seen just a raw act of it and it made him smile. He snapped out of his trance and carefully stood up and walked over to the doors and forced them open only to find a great big slab of gray concrete on the other side. "I think were are stuck."
"What?" cried Sakura as she stood up and went to the doors to see what he meant. "That is just great."
"I think we are in between floors," said Syaoran as he took a step back.
"You think? Mr. What-the-worst-that-can-happen," said Sakura bitterly running a hand through her hair as Syaoran threw an annoyed glance before a worried look came across it.
"Meiling," he said reaching into his pocket playing with the screen before holding it to his ear. Sakura watched as his shoulders sagged in defeated as he ended the call. "No signal."
Sakura pulled her phone out and sighed. "There's no signal on mine either. What are we going to do?" Sakura could feel the rush of panic enter her body.
"We'll just have to wait for the power to come back on," said Syaoran as the emergency lights kicked on giving them enough light to see each other.
"I hope it's soon," she shivered at the thought of being stuck in an elevator for several hours crossed her mind and that her stomach would cooperate as it became uneasy as the temperature inside was beginning to rise which was not good for her side of things.
"My company can't be all that bad," Syaoran joked trying to lighten the air a bit, but she didn't appear to hear anything he said as she lowered herself to the ground with her back against the wall. She had a sickly green tint to her pale complexion that slightly worried him.
An hour later, the complete silence was started to prickle its way through his skin as the had not spoken one word to each other. She was doing her best not to look at him or draw any attention to herself which puzzled him and saw out the corner of his eye that she was rubbing her stomach again for the umpteenth time. "Are you okay?" He got up as concern flared up as her head dropped into her hands and crouched in front of her.
"It's just hot in here," she whispered so softly that he could barely hear her. He reached up and pulled her soft hands away from her face. She was sweating some and the green tint had gotten worse.
"Is this why you were late this morning?" He asked as he waved his hand trying to fan her face and she nodded as he eyes closed in relief.
"That feels good," She smiled softly and that smile jolted his heartstrings. It when he got an idea and reached inside his discarded hoodie and got out his water bottle.
"Is this why you were so late this morning?"
"Yeah," She nodded as her eyes closed again. "And to think you were worried about missing an appointment only to get stuck with me with."
"At least your not some crazy fan girl kissing all over me," He chuckled as he undid the lid and held the bottle up to her. "Here drink."
"That's okay," She shook her head. "I am feeling better now. It comes and goes."
"Maybe you just have a virus or something," said Syaoran noticing the green tint was starting to fade a bit. "If so, you need plenty of liquids."
"It's not a virus," She said turning her green eyes up to his. "And don't worry you can't catch what I have."
His eyes widen as the thought as only crossed his mind as she said that. "How did you know what I was thinking?"
"How can someone not?" She chuckled. "I know you are a rock star or whatever, but that doesn't make you immune to illnesses and you have a busy scheduled I am sure of so naturally it would worry you."
"I wasn't worried," He huffed. "How do you know I won't get what you have?"
"Because men don't get morning sickness," She said and instantly regretted her words as soon as the escaped her lips. What was she doing telling her problems to a complete stranger.
"Morning sickness?" He asked confused before the light bulb in his head went off. "Ohhh. You're-"
"Yeah," She nodded not meeting his eyes wanting just to melt back in to complete invisibility. She needed something to break awkward silence when the lift started to shake again making them jump. "Not again!" She cried as she could feel the lift getting lower and lower until the doors the doors were forced open making them flinch from the sudden brightness of light. Syaoran stood up at firemen entered the space firing questions at them ushering him out to be checked.
"Sakura!"
She slowly got to her feet as Tomoyo ran over to wrapping her arms tightly around her in a tight embrace. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that her best friend and cousin was safe from harm.
"Are you okay?" Tomoyo pulled away as she looked over the girl's figure checking for anything marks or scrapes.
"I am perfectly fine," she assured her friend as they made their way out. Sakura looked around seeing that there were many windows broken meaning there was glass everywhere as well as more tiles from the ceiling that also littered the ground. She could hear the sirens of many ambulances and fire trucks race by on the street outside the door. The air was filled with many voices of concern with many people on phones trying to get in touch with loved ones. It was a horrifying scene.
"How bad?" asked Sakura turning to Tomoyo.
"They are saying a 6.5 on the scale and there have been reports of 5 fatalities as of far across the city and no word on any tsunami warnings as of yet," Tomoyo answered.
"Wow," Sakura sighed at the quick turn of events of her day. "Is your mom okay?"
"I don't know," Tomoyo looked down at her phone. "I haven't been able to get through to her yet because a lot of the cell towers are down due to the power outages."
"She's fine," said Sakura placing a hand on her friend's shoulder to offer her some comfort.
"What about you?" Tomoyo turned her attention back to Sakura. "Did you get jostled around a lot in the elevator? Do you need to be checked?"
"No," Sakura shook her head. "Nothing bad happened to me. Syaoran got a cut on his cheek. Where did he go?"
She scanned the crowd, but he was no where to be seen and she hoped that he was getting medical attention.
"I didn't see where he went," Tomoyo sighed. "I don't know if we will be able to get back to the office for the day because of all the traffic, so we can head over to my mom's office."
A massive earthquake has hit Japan, hundreds of injuries and 10 fatalities-
Click
Japan left in rubble after quake pummels the nation-
Click
The names of the victims that perished in yesterday's quake have not yet been released-
click
Syaoran set down the remote as he turned to the television off completely before reaching for the steaming cup of coffee to his right and lifting it to his lips blowing on it before taking a sip. He stood up walking over to his ceiling to floor windows gazing out the broken city. The sun was shining brightly as if nothing had ever happened. His heart was broken for the families who had lost a loved and was wanting to something in their honor. His fingers brushed against the butterfly stitch across the gash on his right cheek bone.
Draining the rest of the bitter liquid, he reached for the keys hanging up on the wall heading out the door to the garage. He was meeting Meiling in about an hour to discuss more details of his upcoming tour and other things, but he had something on his mind that he wanted to bring to attention as well.
He put the keys into the ignition before firing up the car and pulling out the space driving around a few curves before coming to the exit where he waited for a few cars to pass before turning left on the street. As he was driving, his mind wondered to the female who was with him yesterday in the lift. For some reason he hadn't been able to get her out of his mind. Sakura was her name? He had wanted to find her to check up on her after getting out of the elevator, but Meiling ushered him to nearest paramedic to have him checked over.
He remembered how sick she was presenting and it worried him a bit, not that he had a right to be worried, he just hoped that she was alright. Soon, he was pulling to the parking lot of his destination and groaned at the sight of reports standing outside the door. Somehow, they had managed to get word of his impending arrival and was not in the mood to play round and round with the media circus, but had no other choice so he parked his car and took a deep breathe before exiting the car when he got slammed with questions and after questions about his life, his relationship status, the quake, his music.
Syaoran kept his head down so that he would not get blinded by another flashing of the cameras that were going a mile of minute. He left out a sigh of relief when he heard his cousin screech out.
"Really people?" She said harshly to the crew. "Can't you let the poor man breathe? You should be ashamed of yourself." He had to fight back a chuckle when he noticed that she had started pushing people out of her way to meet him pulling him inside locking the door behind him.
"Vicious as always," He said as the walked down the hall to the conference room where everyone was waiting.
"Well someone has to be," Meiling scoffed shaking their head. "You are too nice for your own good."
"Do you blame me? If I did something to the media, they would have field day and spin it around so many times."
"True," She sighed as they entered the room where there was a board with stuff writing all over it and the head of his record label, Junichi Takado, sitting at the head of the table where he was currently on the phone appearing to trying to wrap it up.
"I know honey," he said rolling his eyes pretending to be annoyed, but Syaoran knew the difference because he knew how much Juni loved his wife. "I just have this meeting and I will meet you and the kids for lunch."
Syaoran took seat next to him opening a folder taking out the first sheet of paper going over it when his eyebrows shot up to his hair line and looked over to Juni who had his finger up at him telling him not to lose his cool as he ended his call.
"What is this?" asked Syaoran looking back down at the paper.
"We had to make some changes to you tour dates," Juni started slowly.
"Why?"
"Because we were able to add three more shows which caused us to change around the dates of some of the locations. All is good, we just have to push the start of the tour back another 2 weeks." He explained.
"What shows?" asked Syaoran as he leafed through the papers until he found what he was looking for and his eyes widen. "We got Kyoto, Singapore, and Seoul!?"
"We sure did," Juni smiled.
"When did you find this out?" Syaoran looked to his manager and label head.
"Two days ago." Meiling answered smugly.
"You knew for two days and didn't tell me?" Syaoran's jaw dropped opening because Meiling could not keep secrets if her life depended on it.
"I told her I would fire her if a word got out," said Juni. "Are you okay with the changes?"
"Completely," Syaoran nodded when a thought came back into this mind. "I want to do a benefit concert for the victims family."
"Hmm," said Juni rubbing his chin. "I think we can do that and a nice way to give back and give your image some brownie points after that stunt with Akiri."
"Hey," said Syaoran lifting his hand defensively. "I was not that one who told her to go fuck her costar in the male bathroom when someone could walk in on them and that person happened to be me."
"I know, I know. But the public doesn't see it that way. She made it out for you to look like the bad guy," said Meiling with a tone. She never did like that girl since the day she met her.
"You never did like her," said Syaoran.
"I know," Meiling nodded. "And now you know why. I could see through her sweet little innocent act when you were too pussy whipped to see it for yourself."
Syaoran did not say another word as the thought of his ex made his gut twist in pain as his mind faded as he listen to he meeting drone on and on.
Sakura sat on her couch in the living room with the television on for background noise with her laptop on her the top of her legs. She was moving her delicate fingers along the mouse pad she worked. She was touching up the pictures up that she had taken earlier during her stroll on the beach she had taken after getting off from work. She had a lot on her mine, mainly the baby, as she worked out what she was planning to do. She looked up her eyes trailing from wall to wall trying to imagine what it would look like in a few months and wondered if she needed to get a big place. She glanced behind her where she could see through the door way that led down to her kitchen.
Sakura hated the thought of leaving this place because it had been her home for since she was nineteen. She decided then that she would make it work. She turned her gaze back to the living room and she could envision little toys scattered around or her sitting in the chair next to the window as she whispered her child to sleep. She smiled as she lowered her hand to still flatten stomach. It was the first real notions of attachment she had ever felt ever since she had learn that she was expecting.
It would be nice to have someone else here with her in the apartment, maybe all the years of loneliness would finally be over. She was imagining holidays being different as she would finally have someone to decorate it for.
"We'll make it little one," She said to her stomach. "I promise you."
Sorry this one was a bit shorter than the last and I hope to make up for it in the next chapter.
Thank you for reading and see you for the next chapter.
Also hop over and check out my other CCS fic: Selfless Soul. I am currently going back and revising that story and will be updating it shortly as well.
Until next time. Cheers!