Dear readers! Thank you so much for your reviews, following and favouriting… Now, I'm back with chapter 2. I hope you like it….

It has been four days after the lunch Touya had with Tomoyo and he found himself browsing through the pictures she took of Sakura on his laptop. They were contained in the CD she gave Sakura, which he thieved from his sister's room. The CD also contained a few pictures of herself either alone or with Sakura. It must have been snapped by the brat, Syaoran. Then, he found himself doing the most despicable thing. He was copying all the pictures that contained Tomoyo in it into a folder in his laptop. The evil side of him convinced him by saying that he was only researching the resemblance between her and his mother. But his conscience was aware that his act was nowhere close to decency and Tomoyo might not like it if she found out. But he also knew that she might never know unless he disclosed it himself.

He opened the images of his mom which he had digitized years ago, from the family album. He collaged many images of his mom and Tomoyo together just to see how close the latter is to the former in terms of looks. It was then, his dad knocked on his door and said, "Can I come in?"

Touya panicked for a moment. But he did nothing to hide what he was doing for he felt no need to. "Yes"

In came the elder man and said as he placed the tea cup on his son's table, "Here you go. Your favourite"

Giving him one short glance, he made a small smile and said, "Thanks"

The older Kinomoto made a teasing whistling sound when he saw what was on his son's screen.

"*CHUCKLE* I thought you were on your research on the transfer of net assets from the transferor to the transferee" his father teased.

Touya smirked and said, "I am". He was hinting the apparent transfer of assets/ qualities from his mother who was the transferor to the transferee who was Tomoyo. Fujitaka was an intelligent man, he caught the tip-off quickly. He merely raised a brow in amusement.

The son sighed and pointed at the screen. "The resemblance is amazing… Did you ever notice this…?"

Fujitaka leaned forward, scanned the screen and after few moments of silent deliberation, he said, "I've never contemplated having pictures of both side by side like you, now, have…." He paused before going on, "The semblance is indeed incredible" he muttered as if talking to himself.

After a moment he straightened up and said, "But I must admit that I already saw that coming when I first saw Tomoyo when she was but a mere five year old. I had thought that she must have been born by mistake to the Daiduojis instead of to me and Nadeshiko"

"Meaning, Sakura should have rather been born to the Daiduojis…?" Touya said with an evil smirk.

Fujitaka chuckled at that and said, "Now you're being nasty with you little sister, again". Then went on, "All the while I've been seeing her grow up gradually over the years that, probably did not leave me stumped as you are. I suppose you have seen her after what? Five years…?"

"Six and a half" Touya pointed out as he inwardly regretted not having seen her often over the years, his gaze fixed on the screen. He felt as if he had wasted years of youth without the camaraderie of the lass.

Fujitaka looked at the serious look on his son's face, then at the screen and then back to his face, in surprise. "Your tea is getting cold" said he in order to snap him out of the dream world.

"Hn" hummed Touya as he took his cup for a sip.

Curios about his son's feelings, he made a random statement, "If only she wasn't the sole heiress of the Daidouji empire, I would have considered adopting her, although chances of Sonomi giving her away was clearly zero"

And that would have made her my sister?! Yuck! Touya's nose scrunched for a split second, confirming his disgust to the elder Kinomoto.

"Where did you get these photos…? Of Tomoyo, I mean" Fujitaka could not help his curiosity.

Without any eye contact, inwardly praying that his face should be as expressionless as ever, he said as he pointed out to the empty plastic case that was on his table, "The CD". He did not want to lie to his father nor did he wish to admit that he 'borrowed' it from his sister's room without even telling her.

"I see". From his super short answers, Fujitaka noted that his son does not wish to reveal more that what he felt was necessary. So he took his leave without another word. Touya felt that his dad could not help his intelligent mind from analyzing his son's actions but the investment banker could care less.

One Friday evening, Sakura brought home, the cookies made by Tomoyo. At the mention of the girl's name, Touya grabbed the box from her and started munching them much to the annoyance of his little sister.

"Hey! Don't be selfish! It's meant for sharing, you know!" Sakura argued.

"Sakura's right! Don't you dare empty my share. Take Sakura's instead" Kero demanded.

"Kero!" an angry Sakura started chasing the little plushie around the house.

This girl has an amazing talent in cooking and baking…. She sings too…. I wonder if she'd be interested in taking her mom's place and look after the business….or live as a simple wife…. Either way, Touya would not mind as long as she was his. Wait what?!

As if thoughts of the beauty were not haunting enough for Touya over the past few days, she made her visit to his house the very next day and brought more cookies after she came to know that Touya had cleared off more than half of the stock. Once she delivered one batch of cookies to Sakura she went and knocked Touya's door. He, who was standing with a book in his hand did not expected her in the least at his door he said, "come in"

In went the girl, closing the door behind her. His face immediately broke into a surprised expression which, in few seconds became soft with a gentle smile. Keeping up a steady gaze, Tomoyo approached him at an unhurried pace and noticed how his lips were stretching into a wider smile and his eyes were dilating over every step she took towards him, pooling in a ray of hope in her heart. Touya was too surprised to keep his facial expressions in check and to note that the girl has noted them all well.

"Here" said as she held out a box before him. Surprised yet again, Touya received and opened it to find a batch of chocolate chip cookies.

"Wow…." He said lifting his gaze to meet hers and asked dumbly, "Is this for me…?"

"Mmhm!" She hummed in agreement, "I have made a separate batch for Sakura which I just gave her"

"Thanks" he said, as he took one and nibbled, "But you just gave one yesterday"

"Sakura was not very happy about not having been had even one bite" she said as she made a sweet giggle that made the young man skip a beat, "Kero seemed to have had the rest of what was left" after what you had….

"Mmm…..Yum" mumbled he, which almost sounded like a moan making the hair on the girl's neck stand, "This is really good. Better than yesterday"

The compliment earned a blush from the teen.

He teased, "But I can't promise that I won't touch that monster's batch, mind you"

"Touya! Don't be wicked!" Tomoyo teased back.

"Being wicked with the wicked"

"Sakura is NOT wicked! She's the sweetest thing I've ever known"

"Really? I've seen better"

Tomoyo blinked in shock. Who could Touya think as sweeter than his beloved sister?

"Who"

"You"

Touya was smiling his trademark smile that always reminded her of why she fell in love with him in the first place. She went wide-eyed and blushed even more. Does he regard so highly of her….?! Tomoyo dropped her gaze to the floor, unable to maintain the eye-contact.

Touya shifted his legs with a little bit of uneasiness due to the girl's sudden silence. May be he shouldn't have said what he just did. It was only moments after which he realized that the way he said it, could give the wrong idea. He managed, "Not even Sakura would bake me so many cookies within two days in a row"

The humour lightened her mood and she smiled at him. "You could ask for more whenever you want"

"And trouble you?"

"It's not trouble. I love baking"

"But still…"

"I know you love strawberry cheesecake. I'm baking it so that I can bring it here tomorrow"

"You're spoiling me" he complained playfully.

"Nope, rather I'm spoiling myself"

Touya raised a brow wondering what she really meant by that. Tomoyo's faintly painted cheeks did nothing to clarify him.

"Only if you let me return the favour"

"You really don't have to"

"I could say the same to you"

"Umm…", Tomoyo blinked in forethought. What could Touya possibly give her that she would want. May be he could cook me some lunch…? Or dinner…?

Having lost control on his thoughts and mouth, he blurted out, "There is this carnival on the outskirts and I was wondering if we could-"

"I'd love to!" chirped the pretty bird in excitement.

Touya blinked. Before he realized that he actually asked his little sister's best friend out, she agreed. That was pretty fast even for Touya.

"Well, it's a" date then! "a…settled!" Touya almost bit his tongue before he stopped from saying the word 'date'.

"I'll bring home the cake tomorrow morning and store it in the fridge"

"And I'll take you to the place right after. We'll spend the whole day there and get back in the evening"

"Then we'll cook dinner"

"And have the cake for dessert together with dad and Sakura"

"Perfect!" said the lass in ecstasy as she lifted her hands up and held them together entwining her fingers. Unbeknownst to herself, she made a small but all the more graceful bounce. She turned around and as she made her way out, she said, "I'm so excited!"

A soft chuckle rumbled under his breathe. But he was left confused whether she was excited about the carnival, the cake and dinner or about being with him. As much as he secretly wished that the latter was the case, he highly doubted if that would be so.

It had been ages since Kaho had dumped him and this happened to be his very first date after the break up, if at all this could be called as one. He felt that he looked forward to it every bit as much as Tomoyo.

I know the pace is a bit slow…. But I'll make sure you'd enjoy the read….

Please drop a review…. :) :)