VictorianPearl: They're coming up slow, but the point is that they're coming up.
Syaoran: So I take it I'll be starring in this one-shot, ne?
VictorianPearl: Actually, this one-shot has our favorite sweet-loving bear/lion/thingy as the star.
Syaoran: What! The stuffed animal gets to star in this one?
VictorianPearl: You bet, enjoy!
Rating: Pg-13
Type: Humor
Title: Kaput Kero
"But Sakura, I don't want to!"
"Mou, Kero, you've beat The Legend of Zelda three times in a row. It would do you some good to get out and put some new knowledge in your head."
"But Sakura-!"
"No buts, you're going to come with me to school and that's that!"
Kero crossed his arms and pouted. What did she care about if he was playing games or not? He was the Sun Guardian of the Seal for Clow's sake! He was already extremely knowledgeable, but he had to do as Sakura said. She was mistress after all.
Kero felt himself being thrown into Sakura's book bag. He didn't see how "getting out" would do him any good since he had to remain in her book bag.
Soon, Kero could hear Sakura's feat thumping down the stairs. He was set down on the ground with the book bag as Sakura put on her roller blades. He then began to be thrashed around the book bag as Sakura set out for school.
Kero wasn't sure how much of his head being banged against books he could take. Just then, Sakura slowed down. He only felt relieved for a few moments before he felt very angry.
"Hello Sakura,"
The gaki was here! He actually went out of his way to walk Sakura to school, as if she needed protection. Kero grumbled the rest of the way to school. At least once they got to school he would be able to take naps during class. That thought was squashed with Kero as he painfully got squeezed in between two of Sakura's books. The pain intensified as Sakura dropped her book bag onto the hard tile.
Kero managed to free himself from between the books as Sakura pulled out her binder. He lay panting on top of the books. He wasn't gaining knowledge, he was gaining survival techniques!
"At least I can get some sleep now." Kero muttered to himself.
Sleep overcame the fuzzy beast as the teacher's monotone voice droned on. He had the best dream ever; he was chasing a fat cake around Sakura's room. He almost caught it in his paws when an annoying ringing sound woke him up. It took a few moments for him to remember that he was in Sakura's book bag.
The cover of the book bag opened as Sakura dropped her binder back into it, directly on Kero's tail. His cry was muffled as he fell between two books and the air was squished out of him. Who knew that school was so painful?
After three more painful periods, lunch finally arrived. Kero had never been so happy to see food in his lifetime. It was almost like heaven coming down when Sakura put his lunch down to rest on the tops of her books.
The sounds of Sakura and her other four friends giggling was the sound that Kero fell asleep to. He, unfortunately, would not hear the next few conversations held.
"Ah, I almost forgot!" Sakura exclaimed. "I need to go and give Syaoran his shirt that he left at my house. Will you come with me Tomoyo?"
"Of course," Tomoyo said, smiling oddly.
"He left his shirt at you house?" Chiharu asked disbelievingly.
"Umm-well, you see…"
"What exactly were you doing?" Naoko asked slyly.
"Nothing, we didn't do anything!"
"Sure," Chiharu said, "that's why you're returning his shirt, hi just randomly took it off and left it at your house."
"We all know that Li-kun does his own laundry." Rika supplied.
Sakura grabbed Tomoyo's arm and walked off while shouting back, "It' was nothing!"
The three girls all giggled. They now had some serious blackmail on Sakura-chan and Li-kun.
"You don't thing that they really…you know, do you?" Rika asked.
"No way," Chiharu remarked, "I wouldn't be surprised if Sakura didn't even know what it is."
"Yeah," Naoko agreed, "she's so innocent that she still carries that stuffed animal around." She pointed to Sakura's half open book bag where Kero could be seen.
"She still has that?" Rika asked, almost believing that her eyes were lying.
"Who agrees with me that Sakura needs to take the next step to growing up?" Chiharu asked.
Both Naoko and Rika raised their hands.
"Alright, I say we toss the thing."
Naoko gaped. "I agree that the animal is too 'little kid', but is it really necessary to throw it away?"
Chiharu suppressed a groan. "We all know that Sakura will be able to lead a normal life and have a successful career without that fuzzy bear. It's not going to hurt her."
Rika looked between the bear and Chiharu. "I agree with you, but I think that you should be the one to throw it away."
"I'm with Rika." Naoko said hastily.
"Fine," Chiharu said, reaching in Sakura's book bag and grabbing Kero, "say goodbye fuzzy bear!" With that, Kero was chucked into the garbage can.
Chiharu brushed her hands together on her job well done. She was about to sit down when she saw Takashi approaching her.
"Hello Chiharu-chan dear," Takashi greeted, "Sakura-chan came over to give Li-kun his shirt and it reminded me…" He pulled out an object with a tag that had words that suspiciously flashed Victoria's Secret.
Chiharu grabbed wildly at the item, trying to hide it from view. "Why did you bring it to school?" She seethed.
Takashi just kept smiling. "I figured that you'd want it as soon as possible. You'll e coming to my house after school again right?"
Rika and Naoko gaped at what they heard. Nobody noticed a custodian coming by and dumping the garbage can with Kero in it.
Kero shifted in his sleep. That's odd; it didn't feel like he was still on Sakura's books, maybe he was back at home. With this thought in mind, Kero stretched, he would go and get some food.
Kero opened his eyes and was dumbstruck. He was not at home. He was in a place way more gross and smelly to be home. He flew upward and through a small opening of the place he was in. When he emerged into the light and fresh air, he found that he had no idea as to where he was.
"Oh boy, how in Clow's name did I get here?" Kero asked to nobody in particular.
He was trying to think. He had eaten his lunch and then he decided to take a nap. When he woke up, he was in this dumpster behind a large building. Was this whole "day at school" just a plan to get rid of him? No, it couldn't be, Sakura liked him way too much to do that. He must have somehow fallen out of her book bag while she was asleep. Yeah, that must have been what happened.
Kero flew to the cover of some trees a distance away. It didn't look as if there was anyone there, but you could never be too safe. He reached the tree and flew up into the highest branches to get a good look around.
Kero looked strait, left, right, behind…but this was a place he had never been before. He didn't even know that a place like this existed in Tomoeda, although he was quite sure that he was still in Tomoeda. He could very faintly feel Sakura's aura. She was a ways away, but not too far away too act apprehensively.
Well, the only thing to do was to go in the direction that Sakura's aura was coming from. That shouldn't be too hard, should it?
He had no idea.
"Mommy, I want a stuffed animal!"
"No Kiki, I told you already, not today."
"But mommy-!"
"No buts, we're not going to get a stuffed animal and that's that!"
Kero wondered why this conversation was sounding vaguely familiar. That was right; he had just had this conversation this morning. It was only a few hours ago, it felt like much longer than that.
Kero was acting his stuffed animal impression at the bottom of a tree. He had been flying low to the ground when this mother and her little girl rounded the corner. He barely made it to the cover of these weeds that he was in. He was waiting for them to pass, then he would be on his way.
The pair was walking right by Kero when the mother's cell phone rang.
"Just a second darling," the mother told her little girl.
As the mother stopped to chat with whoever was on the other side of the line, the little girl went running about the trees. Kero was trying to edge around the tree when he was spotted.
"Oh, lookie, a stuffed animal for Kiki to play with!" The little girl squealed.
"Apparently she talks in third person." Kero thought dryly as he was picked up in a death grip by the little girl.
Kero felt himself being twirled around in circles and tossed up into the air. Every couple of tosses, she would miss catching him and he would painfully come in contact with the earth. He had to suppress a groan, how would he ever get out of this?
"Eek, Kiki, what it that thing?" The mother shrieked, looking at Kero like he was a disease infested object.
"It's a stuffed animal for Kiki!" The little girl replied, giving Kero a good squeeze.
"NO Kiki," the mother yelled, knocking Kero out of the little girl's hands into the sewer drain where he disappeared.
"MOMMY, YOU KILLED KIKI'S ANIMAL STUFFY!" Kiki screamed, making a dive for the sewer drain.
The mother caught Kiki up by the wrist. "No, Kiki, that thing could have been infested with rabies. You don't know where it's been."
The sounds of the little girl being dragged off, kicking and screaming, were vaguely audible from inside the sewer. Kero was there, covered in slime. It was bad enough that he had even been in a garbage can. But now he was completely covered in some type of foreign substance that could not be hygienic.
Kero looked down the sewer tunnel. It seemed to be going in the direction that Sakura's aura was coming from. At least he could fly down her without having to worry about being seen. So with that, he flew off down the sewer. He had never been to such a place before. He had seen the Ninja Turtles, sure, but this sewer was much different than the sewer in that show.
Eventually, there was another drain which Kero flew up through. As soon as he flew up though, he wished he hadn't. He came up, face to face with a vicious looking dog. Kero gulped as the dog growled. It only took one sniff on the dog's part and it was chasing after Kero like mad.
Kero gave a scream and shot off. He wished he could have transformed, but he couldn't risk being seen by anyone. Then again, he did need his life, it was very important to him. He was going to transform when he saw something that changed his mind. At the end of the street he was flying down there was a car wash. He could fly through it, get clean, and loose the dog, all at once!
In a flash of gold light, Kero sped right into the entrance. Nobody even noticed him because they were so focused on the dog that was running strait toward them. Kero felt good at first, being in the cold water, but soon, he felt soap being sprayed into his eyes. He was then caught in one of the spinning sponges, sending him flying strait into the wall.
Once Kero managed to pass all of the dangerous spinning sponges and brushes, he gratefully flew through the rinse and then into the heating area. It was warm and fuzzy and felt really nice, until he caught his reflection in one of the big metal vents. It looked as if he had been stuck in the dryer. His fur was completely spoofed out, making it look like he was a large, golden, dust bunny.
Kero didn't even know where he went flying to next. He was too busy trying to smooth out his fur. He kept licking his paws and smoothing, then repeating the whole process all over again. When he had time to look up, he couldn't believe where he had managed to end up. He was right in front of the high school, oh happy day! Even better, it didn't look as if school had gotten out yet.
Kero flew over to the football field. He knew that Sakura had cheerleading last, if he judged his timing right, it should have been sixth period right about then. He looked over into the foot ball field to see all of the cheerleaders on the field. Oh happy day, he was so relieved he could hardly do anything else but stare down on the field.
Gaining his wits, Kero flew down to the empty locker rooms. He managed to squeeze himself (painfully) through the vent of Sakura's locker and into her book bag. When he got there he collapsed out of pure relief and exhaustion. When the bell rang and Kero felt himself being taken home, he almost cried. He had never thought he would have enjoyed being thrown around Sakura's book bag, and he certainly never thought he would be happy to hear the gaki's voice.
When they finally got home and Sakura opened the top of her book bag, Kero wearily flew out and collapsed on his bead. He would take an extremely long nap and then he would enjoy a large cake.
"See Kero, school wasn't so bad was it?" Sakura asked.
Kero ignored her; he had to refrain from throwing great magic fire balls at his mistress.
OOO
VictorianPearl: And there it is, I'm already working on the next one-shot. It's going to be awesome.
Sakura: Do you want to give plugs?
VictorianPearl: Sorry sweety, no plugs for one-shots. But I will tell you that the first chapter of my new AU fiction will be posted in a couple of days.
Sakura: Until then, ja ne!