A/N: so sorry everyone. I had almost forgotten I ws supposed to update this week. Anywho, you guys have to wait no more since the promised cuteness is here. Ummm…. I did promise you guys some SyaoSaku cuteness, right?
If I didn't well then… you didn't hear me say anything.
Kuro-toffee popcorn: You have got to be the weirdest person I have ever had the misfortune to meet. And what the heck is it with the *eye twitch* toffee popcorn?
Me: well… see I have recently discovered the newest love of my life and I decided to let you have the honor of being named after it.
Kuro-towel: *eye twitches* my *twitch* name *another twitch* is *twitch some more* KUROGANE!
Me: *points and screams* Aaaa… run for your life. It's the attack of the killer-towel!
Kuro-chocolate: *draws Ginryuu and starts chasing* STOP NAMING ME AFTER INANIMATE OBJECTS, WOMAN!
Me: *as she runs* does that mean I can still name you after food?
Kuro-mad red eyed guy :*shoots a deadly glare*NO!
Me: how about …?
Kuro- :*swings a sword halting the author from typing out the next creatively thought name* Kurogane! My name is Kurogane! K U R O G A N E! Get it right!
Me: *holds up hands whil backing away from the crazed demon* alright. Alright. I get it. Kurogane. You are to be called nothing but that.
Kurone: *calms down and sheaths sword* finally. *blinks and rereads his name while the author makes a dash for the angry-ninja-proof room* Wait a minute…
Me: *slams door and locks it up* ahem… and now as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by our resident slightly unstable, angry ninja, please, go ahead and Enjoy!
Don't forget to tell me what you think once you're done. ;)
"Syaoran?" she called quietly as she stepped down the stairs, her eyes searching for the dark-haired teen.
He did not reply, but she did hear the soft rustle of his clothes as he shuffled to hide behind some crates. "Syaoran, will you please come out of there?" she coaxed gently as she walked towards the back of the room. Her footsteps echoed lightly as she moved closer, but a soft whimper made her stop.
"No." he spoke softly.
"Why not?"
"You hurt," was his guilt-filled response.
"But it wasn't your fault."
This time he did not reply.
"Syaoran, you didn't do it." She repeated earnestly.
"I felt it." Sakura could almost visualize him hugging his legs closer to his chest as he said that. "Always… feel it."
"But that doesn't mean you make it happen." Once again, she began walking towards the crate he was hiding behind.
"You're not mad… at me," he sounded surprised.
"Of course not," She smiled, finally stepping into his view. He raised his head from his knees to look at her face with wide-eyed wonder. Still smiling, Sakura settled on the floor to his right.
"I passed out because I have a curse mark on my shoulder," she explained, locking her gaze with his. "It activates every now and then but a friend put a seal on it so I don't have to worry about it often."
"I…" Syaoran hesitated, looking uncertainly at her face for confirmation to go on.
She nodded, with the gentle smile still on her lips. Still appearing nervous, he unhooked his arms from around his legs, gazing at the palms of his hands with a far off look as he spoke.
"I can feel…" he clasped them together, "what everyone can…" he wrung his fingers; fidgeting in unease, "anger… hurt… sadness…" he looked back up, his beautiful amber-eyes dulled with unfathomable emotions, "…pain"
"Are you…" Sakura couldn't help but gasp as her eyes widened in shock, "Are you trying to say that you could feel what it did to me?"
Quickly, as though afraid she would hit him for it, he averted his gaze.
"Oh my God… I'm so sorry," her whispered apology made him look back up, his gold-flecked orbs silently questioning her.
The image of a dark room enshrouded in a suffocating haze flashed in her vision, a young boy thrashing against the bonds that held him. A shudder ran down her spine as his screams of pain reverberated in her mind. She couldn't remember who it was or where she saw that happen, but a feeling in gut told her that it had been the same boy who sat before her.
"No one should ever have to feel that, let alone someone like you… You've already been through so much. You don't deserve to suffer like that."
Her thoughts drifted to what Tomoyo and Kurogane might feel knowing what their adoptive brother went through, but before she could delve any deeper, Syaoran's voice cut her train of thought.
"They… don't know…" He was now looking outside the small porthole in the wall that the two of them were facing.
"Why didn't you tell them?" she followed his line of sight and saw the stars spread across the night sky like diamonds on black velvet.
The teen remained silent for so long that Sakura wondered if he had even heard her question. Still not looking at her, his right hand reached out for hers. He closed his eyes as his fingers closed around her tiny hand which he then lifted and brought to the left side of his chest.
"I can't," he uttered softly, before placing her hand above his heart. A jolt of magic rushed through her arm and spread out into the rest of her body as soon as she touched him. She took in a sharp breath as she felt emotions that were not her own fill up her heart.
Irritation, and anger. Why did Kurogane have to hit him so hard? That hunter had no right to talk about Syaoran like that but did Fai have to be so rude while talking to him?
Bittersweet joy. At least Syaoran opened up a little. He even fixed the ship. Maybe… Maybe he is finally recovering from that trauma?
Worry. But whatever happened last night is making him go back to hiding from us all. I'll have to ask Sakura about that.
Concern. I wonder what made her have that fit. I hope she doesn't have a relapse. It was heartbreaking, seeing her go through all that pain. Fai said it wasn't the case but why do I get the feeling that somehow her tattoo was responsible for that?
There was a lot more but before she could decipher what they were, the emotions shifted like a sheet of water and new feelings rushed into her heart.
Annoyance. Stupid, blond mage. Did he have to go do… God knows what in God knows where? I'll wring his scrawny little neck and then glue his ass to this chair. Then… I'll go check on the kid.
Worry. The kid is hiding again. What happened last night? He didn't have another panic attack, did he? But Tomoyo would have told me about it if he had. He had been fine while she had been treating that girl.
Irritation. Why did Tomoyo have to stop me from hitting that bastard? That hunter would be singing like a canary if she'd just let me have a go at him.
More worry. She's tending to him all by herself.
Anger. Where the fuck is that blond bastard?
The emotions rippled again and a torrent of sensations rushed through her body. Joy. Exasperation. Fear. Anxiousness. Confusion. Guilt. Terror. Glee. Pain. Amazement… all those feelings entered her body at the same time and she felt like she was going crazy. She was having trouble distinguishing between what she felt herself and what those around her were feeling.
Soon the line that distinguished her own emotions from everyone else's blurred and completely vanished, leaving her to experience it all at once.
And then all of a sudden, everything was gone, leaving her feeling hollow and empty. Sakura blinked. Once. Twice.
"I can't," Syaoran repeated his earlier words as quietly as he could, his intense amber-eyed gaze boring into hers. Slowly, the feelings that she knew as her own returned to her.
"I won't tell them if you don't want me to." She spoke softly, her mind beginning to race. Syaoran had to feel that every single moment he was awake?
Feeling the absence of a pleasant warmth, Sakura looked down, realizing that he had released the hand that he had placed on his heart.
"I did that." He told her simply, turning his head to avoid looking at her as she raised her eyes back to level with his. Still feeling overwhelmed by what she had just discovered, it took a while for Sakura to remember what it was that he was admitting to having done.
"No" she answered firmly, "You didn't." refusing to meet her gaze, he once again caught her right hand but this time, instead of moving it to his chest, he guided it to her own heart. Magic rushed into her body from the spot and Sakura found herself falling in darkness.
She was chained to a wall. The room she was in was cold, damp and dark. She could hear water dripping somewhere nearby. Quiet footsteps approached her, a man stepped into her view but his face remained obscured by the darkness.
"This is her?" he asked softly.
"Yes," a heavy, gravelly voice answered, its tone colored with a twisted sort of pleasure.
"But she's so young." The man protested weakly.
"That doesn't matter. The younger, the better I say." The owner of the heavy voice laughed and the man standing in front of her cringed.
"You have dallied enough." The heavy voice stopped laughing abruptly, taking on a harsher tone. "Now start working or you know what the consequences will be."
The man standing before her fisted his hands, shaking in silent rage, but stepped closer to her anyways.
"Please," her scared voice echoed off the walls, "let me go." She cried as tears streamed down her face. Unable to look at her kidnappers, she lowered her face.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way," he apologized, bringing his hands closer to her temples as he forced her to lock her gaze with his own. His eyes, the color of a stormy, blue ocean, were the only distinguishable feature of his face.
Another spark of magic went through her body and the scene changed.
Sakura reached around, grabbing the hunter who had tried to sneak up on her by the front of his shirt. Enhancing her strength with magic, she heaved him as far as she could across the street, wincing mentally at the crash that sounded when he flew through the front window of a small shop. Turning around, she prepared to start running again.
"Aiyah!"A voice shrieked from inside the shop she had just sent a hunter through.
Sakura paused. True, the hunters asked for it by coming after her, but if there was someone else in that shop who had gotten hurt…Deciding to take a quick peek, she hurried over.
She peered in over the dead body of the hunter. Standing behind a counter a few feet back into the store was an elderly man. The colour of his skin was indiscernible, due to the fact that his face, the only part of him she could see, was rapidly turning bright red.
"Are you ok?" Sakura asked, glancing about for any sign of her pursuers.
The man looked up, noticing her for the first time. "You! Did you do this to my shop?"
However, Sakura's attention had already focused itself on the objects hanging on the wall behind him. "Hey, can I borrow one of those?" She asked, pointing to the hoverboards on the wall.
If it was possible, the man's face turned even redder. "You break my shop window, and you want to know if you can borrow some of my merchandise?"
"I-" Suddenly, she heard shouts, and reacting instinctively, jumped into the building, huddling against the wall underneath the broken window as several magical blasts flew over her head.
Standing up, she asked the shop owner, "So can I have one or not?"
Tearing one of the still-intact boards off the wall, he threw it at her with a strength that did not match his small frame. "Take it! Take anything, just get out of my shop!"
"Yeah, poor guy." She said offhandedly, feeling relieved when she heard Syaoran's quiet chuckle, "I think I might have given him a heart attack."
A small laugh issued from Syaoran's mouth as he let go of her hand. It dropped to her lap as she looked at him in surprise. He had just laughed.
"Oh, so you liked that one, huh?" she grinned, glad to have been able to take his mind off of the thing that bothered him enough to make him hide down here. "Alright then, how about I tell you about the time I singlehandedly managed to demolish the entire FWR spaceport?"
He offered her a brilliant smile in return, his amber-orbs shining with mischievous delight.
"Or maybe," she spoke in a contemplative tone, "I could tell you about the time I blew up the Reed fleet ship?"
He shrugged, as though giving her the choice to decide.
"Hmm…" she tapped her chin in mock-thoughtfulness, "you know what? I'll tell you about them both, but first you have to do something for me."
His eyes expressed the question that he could not voice.
"You'll have to block off those emotions for me. You're not going to feel what the others are feeling, just what you are feeling. I know you can do that." For some reason, she knew that the magic that helped him feel those emotions worked only when the person was using it willingly.
So Syaoran could choose not to feel that, if he wanted to. Why she knew that, she didn't know. And she couldn't bring herself to care about it either.
Hesitantly, he nodded.
"Good," she encouraged him with a smile. "You do that, and I'll tell you all about it, okay?"
"Okay." This time, he bobbed his head with a lot more enthusiasm. Just like a little kid agreeing to do their homework to get a treat. He caught hold of her hand and closed his eyes. A small frown made its way to his face as he concentrated on doing what was asked of him, but Sakura did not feel his aura flare up to life which meant he had everything under his control.
"Done?" she asked once he opened his eyes again.
"Yes," was the reply she was looking for, and that was what she got.
"Alright, so, I'll start with the time I blew up the fleetship…"
-0-
"… and that is how I single-handedly decimated the entire spaceport." She finished with a grin as she looked at the teen sitting next to her. Syaoran's grin was a perfect replica of her own, his eyes shining brightly as he returned her gaze.
Her stomach rumbled loudly, making her laugh, "Oh, boy. After all that talking, I sure am hungry." She climbed to her feet as Syaoran's face transformed into a look of disappointment. "I wonder what Tomoyo cooked for dinner tonight, don't you, Syaoran?"
The chocolate-haired teen looked uncertainly towards the door that led to the corridor before looking back at her.
"Let's go see, hmm?" she offered him her right hand and he brightened immediately.
Together, the two made their way towards the viewing bay, passing the glass window that displayed the brilliant sky outside with the gas clouds shining beautifully with the light of the twinkling stars. However, it was not the beauty of the sight that made Sakura freeze when she glanced outside.
No, it was the back vessel that bore the crimson insignia of a bat that had her going pale with fear.
"Syaoran," she breathed, her voice nothing louder than a hoarse whisper.
Kishimu
That was the name of the ship.
"Hide…" she told him, letting go of his hand.
"But…"
"Now!" she almost yelled. "Go, hide! And don't come out till I come and find you."
Wide-eyed and trembling a little, the chocolate-haired teen raced back towards the cargo hold. Once satisfied that he would do as he was told, she turned her attention back to the ship.
"You fucking bastard…" she hissed in anger, realizing it a little too late how that man had found her.
Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath, releasing her aura into the ship to search for the one person she was looking for.
We've got company. Was all she said in the telepathic message since the next second a loud boom resonated inside the small freighter as the Kishimu docked the smaller ship.
A/N: there you have it. I revealed a bit more of Sakura's past to you all. Who do you think is the mysterious man with stormy blue eyes? Why did he do what he did to Sakura? And how does Sakura know about Syaoran being able to shut off the emotions of others? And who could be onboard the Kishimu?
To find the answers to a few of these questions, you'll have to tune in two weeks time. ;P
Or… you could guess and tell me your answers via review. *wink wink*
-Nims