Day 127

"What do you mean he doesn't do the birthday thing?" Sakura asked incredulously. She was sitting across Tomoyo and Eriol in the University Cafe on a sunny mid-afternoon.

"He just doesn't." Eriol responded with a half shrug, not as bothered by the notion as the student in front of him.

"But…" Sakura seemed as if unable to comprehend such a concept. "why?"

Eriol shrugged again, holding both his palms out this time, "maybe it's his little quirk, I don't know. I asked one time, 'cause Takashi's birthday came up. He didn't even give up the date until I annoyed the hell out of him."

Intrigued, Sakura leaned forward, her chin cupped in her palm, "How'd you manage to do that? Syaoran doesn't seem like he gets annoyed at much. He's just so…" Sakura's eyes wandered to the ceiling as she thought about her partner. Tomoyo and Eriol exchanged glances. When Sakura looked back at them, she had a thoughtful expression on her face, "...reserved." She finished her thought.

"Yeah, I wouldn't say calm either," Eriol agreed, as if reading her mind, "I claim to be his best friend and half the time I don't even know what he's thinking. And," he added in response to Sakura's question, "it took me a week."

Tomoyo's jaw dropped, interrupting, "Did you turn on full annoy mode?"

"'cause Tomoyo snaps in like two seconds when you do that." Sakura finished Tomoyo's sentence for her.

Eriol nodded gravely, "Syaoran, not surprisingly, has high tolerance."

"Respect." Tomoyo nodded in awe, commenting, "I need to talk to Syaoran about that."

Eriol turned to his current girlfriend (never know what'll happen next week) amusedly, seeming as if about to say something back.

But Sakura was not to be distracted. "So when is his birthday?"

Eriol looked back down at his notes , avoiding the questioning stares of the two ladies. He mumbled something along the lines of, "I don't think he'll want me to tell you."

"Eriol," Sakura dragged out his name, pouting, "pleeeeease?"

Eriol scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, "you know, I gotta study for that history of architecture exam."

"It's not 'til wednesday." Sakura responded quickly, "When is it?"

"oh look at the time," He checked his nonexistent watch, "I gotta peace out -"

"You said you didn't have anything for the next two hours. Tell me."

"I…" Eriol was running out of excuses, "might've forgotten…"

"You don't forget anything." Sakura stated faithfully. "C'mon, pleeasee?"

Eriol grumbled something under his breath.

Sakura leaned closer, her head tilted so that her ear was closer to him, "what was that?"

"Might'vebeentoday." Eriol mumbled a little bit less quietly.

"It's TODAY?!" Sakura nearly screamed, making half the cafe jump and glance at her. She shrunk in her chair, muttering sorry's.

"What a good day to bring it up." Tomoyo looked at Sakura in slight awe, "if it had been tomorrow-"

"It'd still bring him something." Sakura concluded confidently.

"Didn't you hear me? Syaoran doesn't do the birthday thing." Eriol spoke in slight exasperation.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can't do the birthday thing for him." She was stubborn.

Eriol nearly face palmed. He glanced at his girlfriend for help. She gave him none, giving him a 'she-does-what-she-wants' look.

"When he gets annoyed, or I don't know, whatever he does, don't say I didn't warn you." Eriol raised his palms in surrender.

Sakura grinned, her mind already perusing gifting options for her partner.

Five hours later, she had found the perfect gift with a triumphant grin that didn't seem to be wiping off her face anytime soon.

In the library, Syaoran barely moved nor reacted when soft footsteps treaded quickly towards him. He neither looked up nor acknowledged his partner when she plopped herself in the seat in front of him.

She waited a few beats, mostly to see if he'll ever look up, and somewhat to watch him. Not in creepy way - she was just fascinated by the way he's so concentrated. He seems to be working on some engineering stuff, she assumed, because of all the complicated equations.

Syaoran's mop of hair was a mess, as if he's run his hand through it many a time, and just now he's done it again. His forehead is creased in concentration, as if the wrinkles could help him solve the problem. A frown lingered on his lips, and his hand moved rapidly, squeezing out equations and computations one after the other. Occasionally, he'd pause, his forehead would gain a few more wrinkles, and he'd run his hand through his hair again.

It took five minutes, which was a lot for the impatient Sakura, before she spoke. Or more accurately, called out. "Syaoran!"

Her partner jumped, his head snapped up. Then he looked around, seeing the other students glare a little at them. His frown didn't leave his face. "Sakura, we're in the library."

Sakura was too excited to be meek at the moment, she grinned, blurting out, "happy birthday."

He stared at her, blankly at first, then, looked back at his work dismissively. "Eriol told you." He responded curtly.

"Don't blame him," Sakura defended quickly, "I had force it out of him."

"And why would you do that?"

Sakura gave him a weird look, in which he didn't bother to look up and see. She pouted at his lack of interest. She took out the neatly wrapped box from behind her back and plopped it on the table.

Syaoran didn't respond.

Sakura frowned, shoulders slouching. Almost childishly, she pushed the box towards him. Only when she pushed the box so far it was almost on top of his papers did Syaoran look at the box with furrowed eyebrows.

He then looked up at her, again, blankly. "What is that?"

"That's a present." Sakura's grin was back on her face.

He stared at it for a long moment, causing Sakura's smile to wane a little.

"Oh." He finally let out. "A present." He repeated as if the word was foreign to him.

"Yeah," Sakura pushed the box at him some more, "you know, that thing you should open when it's right in front of you?"

Syaoran nearly smirked. "Subtle," he commented. But he was too busy staring at the box. Slowly, he dropped his pencil, picking up the box and looking at it oddly. He then glanced at Sakura, who nodded encouragingly and enthusiastically.

With dramatically tentative movements, he opened the box.

Carefully unsticking the tape - in which Sakura sighed exasperatedly at his delicate movements and stated, "I didn't put that much effort into the wrapper! Just rip it apart!" - Syaoran finally unveiled the box. It was from a department store. He gingerly lifted the lid to reveal a majestic watch.

His face wasn't blank anymore, but it wasn't full of expression either. It was shocked, a little softer, and still puzzled.

Sakura waited eagerly, for more words or any more reactions.

But he only looked up at her dumbly, uttering out a, "Why?"

Sakura frowned, "Why? What do you mean why? Why not?"

"You didn't have to buy me this."

"Do you not like it? You always wore a watch." Sakura recalled with stunning accuracy, "and you had a collection but they were all stolen."

"I do - yeah - I like it." Syaoran glanced down at the object in his hands, but he looked up at her still confused, "I don't know why you'd waste your money on me."

"It's not a waste." Sakura responded, almost in offense. "The proper response is a thank you."

"Thank you." Syaoran repeated, sincerely. He wasn't done arguing with her, however. "Did you use the money you earned? How much was this?"

"I'm not telling you." Sakura shook her head furiously, "that's the point of presents, Syaoran. Have you never gotten presents before?"

Without answering the question, Syaoran frowned, "I don't do the birthday, christmas, whatever thing. Seriously, how much was this?"

"It's okay," She nearly laughed if she wasn't so annoyed and confused at his reaction. "Syaoran, it was only a couple bucks, just accept it."

"This watch does not look only a couple bucks, Sakura." Syaoran responded with the same seriousness.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine, you can make it up to me by getting me a birthday present when my birthday comes. Just take the present, Syaoran." Sakura let out an exasperated sigh, "you are so difficult sometimes."

Syaoran accepted the truce reluctantly, gingerly putting the box and wrapping back together and into his backpack. He took the watch out, of course, and wore it.

Sakura, easily distracted, grinned, "it looks good on you."

Syaoran smiled, a full smile, but it had only been brief - prompting Sakura to blurt out the next statement. "That looks good on you too."

Taken by surprise at the sudden attack, he blinked blankly, "What?"

"Your smile." Sakura clarified, having already gone down this path. "You should smile like that more."

Syaoran seemed to have withdrawn, looking away self-consciously. "Thanks." He spoke, though his voice was neither grateful nor sarcastic. It was just listless.

"Not that you don't normally look good or anything," Sakura almost slapped herself. Why does everything just come out so awkwardly? She rambled on, "I mean, you normally look - I - uh - not that you don't smile - you're not cold or anything, nor untouchable, just reserved. Um…" Sakura faded awkwardly, "right, I was talking about your smile. It just makes you look better - not that you only look good - I -" Sakura sighed, giving up on her attempts.

Syaoran was half-smirking, half-chuckling in amusement at her failure to form coherent thoughts. "I got it." He saved her from further blushing. "I know I'm kind of an introvert."

"Borderline," Sakura corrected. "Because you speak up when you feel the need to, and you don't care what others think, and you're friendly in a polite way, and you smile sometimes."

Both of Syaoran's eyebrows rose. At that moment, he felt as if a piece of glass. Of all the years he's known anybody, Sakura had defined his person the most accurately - next to Eriol of course.

"You respond, but you don't let people know you." Sakura finished. She bit her lip, "I guess, some, to a certain degree, like Eriol. But not deeply."

At Syaoran's lack of a response, Sakura felt as if she had prodded too far. That was she was talking about, she thought to herself, if she just tries to get to know him on a more personal level, he begins to withdraw into himself.

"So what are you working on?" Sakura changed the subject. Her progress, for now, was good enough.

"Complex Differential Analysis." Syaoran finally responded.

Ignoring his clipped tone, she gasped in awe, "I heard that was the hardest math course!"

Syaoran lifted a corner of his lips, shaking his head, "Applied Maths is the hardest."

"But that's pretty close, right?"

He shrugged.

Sakura leaned forward, trying to read his work upside down. Jokingly, she suggested, "I can help you, Syaoran, don't you wrinkle your face up too much."

"Really?" His light smile was back.

"Yeah," Sakura grinned as she pointed out some number. "That's an integer and, see, it's right next to a summation, so then, you find the sum."

Syaoran watched her with a pleasantly occupied smile, he responded sarcastically, "good insight."

"I know I should've been a math major, right?" Sakura played along.

"Too bad you had to settle with architecture instead."

Easily distracted, Sakura leaned back enthusiastically, "speaking of architecture, I've got an idea."

"Uh oh." Syaoran groaned teasingly.

"Hey!" Sakura pouted. Lifting her chin huffingly, she pretended to be offended. "Fine, you don't get to hear it!"

"I was kidding."

"Hmph."

"Don't make me beg."

"What was that? I don't think I heard an apology."

"Sakura."

Instead of responding, Sakura childishly stuck out her tongue.

"Real mature."

"You're probably not any better if only you'd show it."

There was that prod again, and as expected, Syaoran didn't respond.

"I figured out where to put the labs." Sakura stated, just to fill the suddenly awkward situation.

"Oh, where?" Syaoran put aside his mathematics, pulling out a new piece of graph paper to jot down notes.

They discussed Sakura's idea well into the night. However, neither forgot Sakura's adamance to get to know Syaoran deeper, and Syaoran's adamance to withdraw into himself.

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Author's sense of humor:

SPOILER ALERT SYAORAN AND SAKURA ARE GONNA GET TOGETHER.

-insert angry Josh-

oops, too soon?

(just humor me and pretend to laugh please)

A/N: As a halloween treat, I put up two chapters today. :)