I Am Not My Sister's Keeper
Summary: Sometimes trying to keep two people apart is the very thing that brings them together.
Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura. I do own certain key phrases such as 'sister loving bastard' but not in a legal/enforceable sense. I just thought it was a really good phrase and felt like mentioning it twice.
Last chapter:
A voyeuristic Touya deplores his sisters growing feelings for a certain amber eyed gaki.
I Am Not My Sister's Keeper – Interference
Back at the Kinomoto household, Touya received his gifts from those present. He graciously accepted the magical items from Kaho and Eriol with a tight smile – they all knew that this sort of thing was useless to him now, but it was the thought that counted, right?
Yukito's thoughtful gift received another tight smile. It was a scrapbook of their various outings, and Touya couldn't help but notice that Yukito had included a disproportionate number of photo's including Nakuru given that he had known Yukito a whole three years more than he had Nakuru. He also wasn't the least bit pleased to find that many of the pictures that included Sakura, also included a certain chocolate haired gaki.
"This is from great-grandfather," Tomoyo said warmly, handing him a red envelope branded with the Amamiya crest.
'Such lineage will surely bode well for the Li clan,' Touya couldn't help but think to himself. As if her being the card mistress didn't deem her a suitable wife for their clan leader, she would always have her mother's well-to-do family to fall back on when their father's magical heritage wasn't enough.
Since they had been reunited with their mother's estranged grandfather, it was always the same gift every year – a ticket for Touya to come to country cottage at his leisure. He did not hide his surprise at finding two tickets and not one inside the branded envelope and uttered words to that affect.
"Great grandfather said it was so you could bring 'someone special' with you," his second-cousin responded ever so innocently. She caught the eye of her co-conspirators, sharing a longer glance with the equally evil Hiragizawa-san.
'Damn that evil camera wielding she-devil,' he thought reproachfully. 'Damn them all.'
"Does that mean I'll get two tickets for my birthday too?" Sakura asked curiously, a dreamy smile pulling at her lips. "Does that mean I get to have someone special?"
As if Touya wasn't in a bad enough mood already, the hopefully glance she sent in the gaki's direction at the mention of 'someone special' was enough to make him want to kill. And not just anyone. If that stupid gaki dared to look in Sakura's direction right now, he wouldn't hesitate to commit the most gruesome murder that anyone in Tomoeda had ever seen.
Moving along from Touya's murderous thoughts . . . Fujitaka, always the practical one, bought him the software upgrade he had sort of being harping on about since news of it leaked onto the internet. Yes, Kinomoto Touya was now the proud owner of a licence to Snow Leopard OS X (packaged with iLife '09), which only went to prove how much of a geek he was. Daidouji-san gave him a shirt, which was . . . nice of her, he supposed. At least it was until he noted that the colour matched Nakuru's eyes and immediately had to rid himself of such thoughts.
"This is from the kids at the hospital," Nakuru told him as she handed him several bound pages filled with children's drawings. He was about halfway through his rotation in paediatrics, and surprisingly, got on quite well with the kids there. He guessed that Nakuru had mentioned something to them.
Next came the gaki's gift. This did not bode well with Touya. Not the fact that he had got him a gift per se- as Touya was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, even if that gift horse was a snotty nosed Chinese brat with a thing for his sister – but rather the gaki's reasons for giving him a gift. It was clear that this was done only for the sake of Sakura.
"Do I have to give it to him?" the sixteen year old asked his friend, sending her a pleading look that Touya be damned if it didn't cause a blush to streak across his imouto's face.
"Yes, Syao-kun," she replied ever so sweetly, the name grating upon Touya's nerves the same way it had the first time he heard her speak it. Even Tomoyo and Yukito didn't receive such a familiar address. "Your mother and sister's would be very disappointed if you didn't."
With a sigh of acquiescence, the gaki handed over the package, disclaiming any part of it with the words "it was my sisters' idea."
Touya grimaced as he accepted the gift, politely opening the card first which had been kindly crafted by the gaki's four over-enthusiastic sisters. He still shuddered a little at the thought of the Li women, including the matriarch who was frightening in an entirely different way.
Unfortunately for Touya, he understood enough Chinese and English to understand the foreign sentiments randomly dispersed between words in his native tongue. He suddenly wished he had dropped Cantonese and English much earlier in life, and bemoaned his father's insistence that learning a language (or better yet, two) was a mark of character. Trust the Li sisters to find the optimal way to annoy him – as though having the Li heir around his sister wasn't enough.
The birthday card/letter read as follows: (1)
Néih hóu super kawaii sekushi tanrei Touya-kun!
(Touya cringed at their description)
We hope you are well and looking after xia lou and his precious Ying Fa.
(That one made him curse aloud. Sakura was in now way 'his' and never would be if Touya had anything to do with it)
We wish you gambatte kudasai in your hok yip, and hope that you come and visit us again soon in Hong Kong.
(That sentence alone seemed innocent enough, however, the phrase that followed it brought up all sorts of evil connotations that sparked Touya's anger once again)
Perhaps for a fan lai!
('Over my dead body,' was all Touya could think at that suggestion. Like he'd even let that gaki come close enough to his sister to put a ring on her finger, let ask her the question)
Sang yat fai lok, Touya-kun!
(Finally a sentence he could find no qualms with, well other than the use of Touya-kun)
Love from Fanren, Fuutie, Feimei, and Shiefa Li.
P.S. Please send Nakuru-chan our love!
Touya couldn't help but groan as he finished reading. If he and the gaki were on better terms, then Syaoran might have said something along the lines of 'be happy that you're not related to him' or Touya might have offered some sort of condolences for having to live with the four hyperactive women. Instead he moved on to opening his gift from the Li family rather begrudgingly.
'Crap,' Touya thought, trying his best to look at the present in an uninterested fashion. It was just his luck that the best gift he had ever received in all twenty-three years of his life (bar the 'gift of life') just happened to be from the stupid, no-good bakayarro. It was a hardcover, first edition of 'On Diseases and Injuries of Arteries, with the Operations Required for their Cure' first published in 1830– a book so rare that Touya didn't even care that it was in English and so in order to read it he'd probably need the aid of an English to Japanese dictionary as big as the book itself.
He knew exactly what the book was worth, and he knew how hard a find it was. He had secretly been watching one be traded away on ebay, his heart breaking when he saw the figure race up to the English equivalent of half a million yen.(2) And that was a freakin' reprint! Here in his hands was one of the original thousand copies of the book, in mint condition, and it was all thanks to that stupid, sister-loving bastard!
"Isn't there something you wanted to say to Li-kun?" Nakuru asked sweetly, giving him a pointed look.
"Thank you," he said stiffly, trying not to sound like he actually meant it. He'd be good and send a thank you note to the Li sisters later, but for now he would be damned if he showed the brat even a morsel of gratitude.
A scoff escaped the brat's lips, before Sakura promptly elbowed him in the ribs and sent him a pointed look of her own, forcing him to emit an insincere "you're welcome" before pouting under Sakura's harsh gaze. They already acted so much like a couple that it made Touya stew in his boots.
For his birthday, Sakura had sweetly made him a pencil case to bring with him to class, decorated with all the markings of his sister. Touya watched as the gaki leaned towards his sister, making some comment about chopsticks that made both of them blush, and Sakura giggle like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard.
'Great,' Touya drawled sourly to himself, 'now they have their own little jokes. I swear I'll kill him the next time he so much as smiles in her direction.'
And then he did it. For a full ten seconds (Touya counted) the two glanced at each other with a sort of dreamy smile as though they were in their own little love bubble. Quite frankly, Touya had had quite enough of that.
"That's it!" he yelled jumping to his feet, and forcing the two to look in his direction, thus deflating said bubble. "Out of my house!" he yelled while glaring at the Li brat and pointing sternly in the direction of the door.
The gaki just raised an eyebrow in his direction, while giving Touya a superior look. Had Touya not been so busy glaring at the aforementioned gaki, he may have noted several figures in the room desperately trying to withhold laughter. These figures were Fujitaka, Nakuru, Yukito and Tomoyo. Sakura, on the other hand, was less than amused.
Sakura immediately jumped to her feet, meeting her brother in a defensive stance. Her diminutive figure made her no less intimidating as she glared frostily at her elder brother.
"'Nii-chan, I can't believe you!" she fumed at him, her anger so strong that she didn't even care about the show she was putting on for their visitors. "This is Otou-san's house, not yours. You haven't even lived here for the past two years. You have no right to kick my friends out of this house!"
"I can and I will!" Touya fumed back, leaning forward threateningly. He felt Nakuru move to his side, trying to calm him down, but the affectionate glance sent furtively in the gaki's direction only sparked him on. "How can you call him a friend after what he did to you?"
For a moment Sakura looked at him with a confused expression, but her eyes narrowed as she realized what her brother was talking about. "That was more than six years ago, Onii-chan. Syaoran-kun apologized, and he has more than made up for it in all the ways that he has helped me since. If I can forgive him, then so should you."
"What he did was unforgivable," Touya muttered back, no longer referring to the event six years ago. It was now quite apparent from Sakura's display of anger that Touya's worst fear had come true – Sakura was in fact in love with the gaki, and Touya would never forgive him for that.
Li Syaoran had made Sakura fall in love with him, and that for Touya, was absolutely unforgivable.
"Well, on that note I think we should all call it a night," Fujitaka called abruptly, smiling pleasantly at everyone present. With such a warm disposition, people couldn't help but wonder where Sakura and Touya both got their fiery tempers from. "You're all welcome to stay the night if need be."
Eriol, Kaho, and Tomoyo immediately dismissed his offer, as he knew they would. Sonomi still wasn't quite comfortable with her daughter being out of the protection of her numerous bodyguards for long periods of time, and any overnight visit had to be scheduled in advance, where as Kaho and Eriol just didn't feel close enough to accept the offer.
"Li-kun?" Fujitaka questioned, turning to the boy his own son had just attempted to remove from the premises. "I know Wei-san is out of town, so you are welcome to stay until he returns. My office doubles as a spare room, and I give you full permission to go through whatever's down there."
With a grateful nod he accepted the offer, the promise of whatever the office beheld merely sweetening the deal. Kinomoto Fujitaka was not a stupid man, and as long as Syaoran remained more interested in his office than his daughter's bedroom, then the boy would be welcome to stay in the Kinomoto house. The second that changed, the boy would be out on his ass and probably defenseless to any punishment Fujitaka thought fit to let Touya dish out.
Touya began to protest, but was silenced by a stern look from his father. "Yukito-san? Nakuru-chan?" Fujitaka questioned warmly, turning to his two friends/roommates. "What about you two?"
Yukito declined the offer as he had an early start the next morning at the bakery, and didn't want to wake anybody when he got up at four in the morning. Touya and Nakuru tended to sleep through his early wake up calls, but he knew for a fact that Fujitaka was a light sleeper and suspected that Syaoran was the same.
Like Syaoran, Nakuru accepted the offer, and Touya could have sworn he heard her whisper a quiet "domo arigatou, 'Tou-san". Whatever she said seemed to make his father smile very warmly, and for her to blush slightly. Touya didn't think he had ever seen Nakuru looking so shy in the five years he had known her.
Touya had never been more grateful in his life that his sister's room was the furthest away from the stairs. Any attempt made to get to Sakura's bedroom would be heard first by him, and then by his father. Ok, so mostly it would be heard by Otou-san, but Touya would endeavour to ensure that no one got near his sister without his knowledge.
Nakuru shook her head at him as she settled herself down upon his old bed. Touya had long since given up on trying to stop her from doing such things. There was only the couch as an alternative, and as much as Touya liked the fact that it would mean an extra obstacle between the gaki and his sister, Nakuru seemed to be dead set against.
"Touya-kun, I am very disappointed in the way you acted tonight," she told him sternly as he sat down on the bed. "You should apologize to Sakura-chan. Not to mention Li-kun."
Touya scoffed at the name of his arch-nemesis.
"That's it, Touya," she said, crawling towards him so she was kneeling opposite him. "Repeat after me," she commanded in a voice that told him there would be hell to pay if he didn't do as she said. "I, Kinomoto Touya . . ."
"I, Kinomoto Touya . . ." he repeated after her, choosing to humour her rather than have to argue with the burnet. He rolled his eyes all the same, and Nakuru narrowed hers.
"Am not my sister's keeper . . ."
"Am not my sister's keeper . . ." he admitted grudgingly.
"And do solemnly swear . . ."
"And do solemnly swear . . ."
"On my undying and everlasting love for Akizuki Nakuru . . ." she said wistfully, holding her hands to her chest. "Say it," she commanded before he could protest.
Touya raised an eyebrow at her, but repeated after her all the same. Nakuru's smile widened at the words, ignoring the fact that they were spoken upon her instruction. In her mind, they were no less valuable.
"Not to interfere in my imouto's love life," she finished. She gave him an even sterner look with those final words.
"Not to interfere with imouto-chan's love life," he finished tiredly.
"Good," she finished, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him down with her to lie on the bed.
Touya immediately struggled out of her grasp. "You know the rules," he answered sternly when she pouted in his direction. "I let you sleep in here, and you promise to keep a distance of at least a meter."
Nakuru just smiled at him innocently. She never once told him that it was the other way around; that really it was she that let him sleep in her bed, and not as he supposed. As if Fujitaka would expect his guest to sleep on the couch while his son was all cozy and warm in a bed. Fujitaka was nothing if not hospitable.
With a sigh, she made herself comfortable, pulling the blankets around her as Touya lay down on the opposite side of the bed. She took one last glance at him before turning on her side, noting the crease in his forehead and the grim line of his lips.
"You're already planning something, aren't you?" she asked, already knowing the answer.
"Go to sleep, Akizuki-chan," he deadpanned in reply.
'At least it's progress,' she thought as her eyes began to close. 'Five more years, and maybe he'll finally call me Nakuru on purpose, and not just because he's too flustered to stop himself.'
And as Nakuru drifted into a sombre sleep, Touya was in fact plotting a devious scheme to rid his sister of the clutches of the gaki, breaking the very promise sworn upon his love. He ignored the slight pang of guilt that accompanied the breaking of said promise, trying to tell himself that you couldn't be held to a promise made on a thing that didn't exist – you needed consideration for a promise, and that consideration had be real.
It was a scheme tried and true. It was practically a classic. And if it worked, then it might just be enough to protect his sister from the one person she least needed to be protected from, and probably the only person capable of causing her incomparable pain.
But he would protect her all the same. She was his imouto-chan, his precious little sister, and it was his duty to keep her form harm.
"I am my sister's keeper," he whispered into the night. "I am."
Elsewhere in the Kinomoto household . . .
Kinomoto Fujitaka smiled as he felt his wife's presence drifting nearby. He couldn't see her, but it was enough for him to know she was there.
"Sakura-chan is certainly growing up, isn't she?" he asked, sensing his wife's assent rather than actually hearing or seeing it. "He's a nice boy, and before you say anything, it's not just because he likes archaeology. He'd be nice even if he was into sociology of all things." He shuddered at the mention of his department rival.
He sensed a giggle.
"Poor Nakuru-chan," he continued gently. "I do wonder how we managed to raise a son so dense. I always figured Sakura would be last one to work out her feelings like this, but it doesn't hurt to be wrong sometimes.
"It's nice," he said softly as he drifted off to sleep, "to see your children with the ones they love."
Touya was in the Med School library the next day, sitting across from a young man of about nineteen years in one of the seminar rooms. Signing up for the mentoring programme had been Nakuru's idea, not his, but he was unexpectedly glad that he had agreed as it seemed to be the perfect means to his end.
"Are you seeing anyone, Ishikawa-san?" Touya asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had settled between them.
The young man across from him, Ishikawa Heero, began to choke on his own saliva, spluttering as he glanced at his mentor with eyes the size of dinner plates. "Don't you have a girlfriend?" he gasped, hardly catching his breath. He typed discretely on the open laptop where he had an open chat window – Shit! I think Kinomoto Touya just asked me out!
Touya frowned at the response, not really understanding the relevance of the question. "No," he said plainly, looking him sternly in the eye.
Heero desperately turned his eyes away, glancing at the screen where the reply awaited him. Doesn't he have a girlfriend? Such a shame. Kinomoto-san is totally hot!
He says no.
You sure he's not dating Nakuru-san? They seem really 'couply' – everyone thinks so.
With a sigh (because he knew he'd get in trouble if he didn't ask) he turned to Touya. "Aren't you guys dating?" Heero asked, pointing to Nakuru who was sitting on the other side of a glass pane in the next cubicle with her own mentee. When she noticed them glancing in her direction, she waved animatedly. The girl sitting opposite her mouthed the word 'well?' in his direction.
It was now Touya's turn to splutter, and he immediately became red in the face. "Me and her?!" he asked, seeming completely outraged by the possibility. "What on earth gave you that idea?"
Heero shrugged nervously, scooting a bit further away from Touya. "It's just you guys seem to spend a lot of time together, and not just in class."
"We live in the same apartment," Touya replied frostily with narrowed eyes. "It's because we're always going the same direction."
"Okay," Heero said quickly, pretending that it was an acceptable answer. He typed another message into his chat window – the action seemed a reasonable one as he was technically supposed to be typing out the changes that Touya had helped him with on his latest assignment. Touya would never know that he had spent most of his time flirting with the girl in the next cubicle via instant messenger.
He says no.
He noted the girl in question rolling her eyes. Denial much! Did you see how red he got? Oh he so has the hots for her!
Then why is he asking ME out!?
Why don't you ask him?
I can't ask that.
Well, ask something. Neither of you have said anything in the last four minutes. I guess you should just let him down gently.
Thanks, Ayame-chan. Thanks for your help.
With a deep breath, Heero attempted to follow Ayame's instructions. "Look, Kinomoto-san," he began apprehensively. "I'm really flattered and all, but I just don't think of you that way. I hope we can still be friends."
"What the hell are you on about, you baka?" Touya asked condescendingly. "Please don't tell me you thought I was asking you out. I'm not into guys, and if I were I'd go for someone better looking." (A/N: Like Yuki-kun LOL)
Heero felt both relieved and insulted by Touya's admission.
"I want you to go out with my sister," Touya said suddenly before Heero had the time to settle himself.
"So I'm not handsome enough for you, but good enough for your sister?" Heero asked sceptically, wondering if Kinomoto Touya had always been this crazy.
"She has questionable taste," Touya replied nonchalantly, although the twitch at his eye suggested that he had someone in mind. Perhaps a certain Chinese gaki, who Touya had to admit was probably reasonably good looking for a brat. Stupid kid was all exotic looking and lean from his martial arts. He probably made all those high school girls swoon when he walked down the hall, and sadly that included his precious imouto-chan.
"Uh . . . well . . . thanks for the offer, Kinomoto-san . . ." Heero began awkwardly.
"It wasn't an offer," Touya replied darkly, eyes narrowing.
"Kinomoto, I-"
"You'll pick her up from here at seven," Touya said, pushing piece of paper across the table. "I think we're done for the day," he said standing up. "I'll let you get back to your chat with Tajir-san."
And with that Kinomoto Touya was gone, leaving a startled Ishikawa Heero trying to work out what the hell just happened. He suddenly regretted signing up for the mentor programme.
~ to be continued ~
Hehe . . . scary Touya. And so 'Operation Keep Sakura-chan Away From Chinese Gaki' has begun. How will Sakura and Syaoran's love survive against such insummountable odds AKA Touya? You wanna find out, you're just gonna have to review.
Notes:
(1) These are the relevant translations in the Li sister's English/Japanese/Cantonese letter:
Neih hou: Hello (Cantonese)
Kawaii: Cute (Japanese)
Sekushi: Sexy (Japanese)
Tanrei: Handsome (Japanese)
Xia lou: Little Brother (Cantonese)
Ying Fa: Sakura (Cantonese)
Gambatte kudasai: Best of luck/Try your best (Japanese)
Hok yip: studies/education (Cantonese)
Fan lai: Wedding ceremony (Cantonese)
Sang yat fai lok: Happy Birthday (Cantonese)
(2) That's over £3000 and over US$5000, which is pretty damn expensive for a book even though medical textbooks are pretty expensive anyway. The book described would probably be worth upwards of £200,000.
Next Chapter:
"He's never going to accept him, is he?" she asked suddenly, tears filling her emerald eyes with the sad realization. "'Nii-chan's always going to hate him."