Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura belongs to CLAMP, not me.

Sensei, I Love You

Chapter 6

Sakura sat on the swivel chair with her head on the writing desk as she stared at her family picture in front of her. Damn it! Why did the guy have to be so sweet? It was bad enough that he had bribed the picture out of Tanaka's hands. Why did he have to buy a freaking sweet looking photo frame for her? The thought of it made her heart swell again and she felt the sting of tears on her eyes. No one had done something like this for her ever since her family died in the car crash. It was a peculiar feeling that was somehow reawakened by Syaoran.

She buried her head into her hands and let out a groan of frustration. She thought she kept these feelings tucked away safely into the recess, so that she won't be reminded of the fact that there was no one else on Earth who would care about her.

"Damn him!" she muttered softly. It was already way past midnight and it seemed that she won't be getting any sleep since she was plagued with thoughts of her own family. With another curse, she pushed herself off the chair and trotted down to the kitchen with the intention of getting something to drink.

She was surprised to find that the lights in the living room were still on. Shouldn't Syaoran be sleeping? She tip-toed down the stairs, not wanting Syaoran to know that she was still awake. She came to a stop at the bottom of the stairs and took in the scene before her—Syaoran was sitting on the by the coffee table on the carpeted floor, busying typing and clicking away on his laptop. He had his headphones on and Sakura presumed he was gaming. "Typical guy," she whispered. With a nonchalant shrug, she ignored him and proceeded to the kitchen to make a warm drink for herself.

She rummaged his kitchen and only managed to find hot chocolate so she made that for herself. She also made another drink for Syaoran since he was still up. She might as well stay up with him since she had nothing to do. He didn't notice her presence until she placed the mug beside his laptop. She smiled when he jerked back in surprise, obviously not expecting her. He slid his headphones down to his neck immediately and looked up at her inquiringly. "Aren't you sleeping?"

Sakura pointed to the steaming mug in her hand. "Obviously not," she replied and proceeded to sit down beside him on the carpet. "What are you doing? Gaming?"

Syaoran snorted. "Those are for kids. I'm working."

"Working? It's already so late."

Syaoran shrugged and took a sip of his drink. He let out a contented sigh and carefully placed the mug back on the coffee table. "I need this for tomorrow's lesson. You don't think I actually teach whatever crap that I have thought out of thin air in lesson, do you?"

Sakura flushed crimson and tried to hide her face behind the mug in her hands. Syaoran's eyes narrowed at her. "Um… Not really…"

"What kind of answer is that?" Syaoran asked and resumed his typing. He seemed to be creating some English passage and listening to some reference at the same time. Sakura leaned over to have a better look as she was curious. Syaoran did not object and just let her watch as she sipped her drink. "So, why are you still up?"

"I can't sleep," Sakura admitted with a sigh.

"Because?"

"I don't know. I just can't sleep," Sakura replied, not wanting to tell him the truth about what was keeping her awake. She didn't want to spill her deepest thoughts to anyone; she didn't want to be comfortable to anyone, not when they could be taken away from her brutally.

"Well, it seems that I won't be sleeping any time soon," Syaoran remarked, sending her a grin. "You are most welcome to join me, of course. I don't mind a company as long as you don't interrupt what I'm doing."

Sakura snorted. "Do you think I'm that inconsiderate?"

"Who knows? Probably you can't help yourself but to steal a kiss from me, the oh-so-charming prince."

Her eyes widened in surprise. "What?" She was lucky she wasn't drinking when he said that—she would have spilled her drink all over his laptop. "You must be joking!"

Syaoran shot her an injured look. "What? Can't I think that I'm some character in a fairytale? I thought you girls like to fantasize yourselves as some princesses from a faraway land?"

"I'm not some damsel in distress," Sakura said plainly, irked that he would think so. "And I don't need any prince charming. I'll be fine on my own."

"Right…" Syaoran drawled out, his tone suggesting that he didn't believe her. However, she was thankful that he remained silent after that.

Sakura scooted nearer to him to see what he was doing clearly. She read alongside him and was immediately bored by the long passages. She wondered how he was able to stand reading long text for so long. Sitting beside him was a pleasant experience. His sudden quiet demeanor charmed her. Moreover, he did not put his headphones back as if he wanted to listen to her in the event that she did talk. Sakura smiled at the thought alone. It was a long time since any one was really interested in talking to her. Her eyes widened in surprise when Syaoran suddenly slid the headphones onto her ears and soothing piano music filled her ears. He grinned at her before turning back to work on his work. She leaned back against the sofa and closed her eyes to enjoy the selection of music that he had chosen. This was a pleasant feeling indeed.

Sakura knew it was morning the moment she woke up from her slumber but refused to open her eyes. She'd rather sleep in than go to school and face her classmates seeing the way they reacted to her when she went back the day before. No one even bothered to speak to her but she knew they were all talking about her behind her back. Besides, there was no reason for her to attend classes, not when working outside provided her with the funds she needed. She snuggled further beneath her cover and froze when she felt a movement beside her.

Her eyelids flew open and did a double take when she found herself staring at Syaoran's chest. To her horror, she was actually hugging him around his waist loosely. They were slumped against the sofa with her head cushioned against his broad shoulder. She gasped when his hand tightened on her waist, pulling her closer to him.

His eyelids fluttered open slowly and Sakura suddenly marveled at how long his eyelashes were. She was mesmerized. "Good morning, muffin," he greeted with a slow grin, causing her pulse to spike. Why did he have such an effect on her? He was her teacher, for goodness sake!

"G-good morning," Sakura stammered, feeling a little self-conscious as she scooted away from Syaoran. "I'm so sorry I fell asleep!" she bowed her head from her seated position. "It must be very uncomfortable for you to sleep in that position." Sakura's face burned at the thought of sleeping in her teacher's arms all night. How could she fall asleep like that?

Syaoran chuckled as he stretched himself, wincing slightly as the feeling of pins and needles rushed through his arm, the one which Sakura was laying on for the whole night. "Don't worry about it. It feels good to have a human bolster for a change anyway. Want to do it again tonight in the comfort of my bed?"

Sakura gaped. "Are you crazy?"

"I assure you that I am a hundred percent serious," Syaoran replied. "I will be happy to oblige."

"I can't believe this," Sakura muttered. The urge to whack him was so great that she had to retreat back into her room so that she would not be able to do him bodily harm. "Idiot."

"You better hurry or we'll both be late for school!" Syaoran called out as he walked past her room to get to his. "You wouldn't want everyone to see the two of us walk in together."

Sakura's face paled at the thought of being found out. Actually, it was no big deal for her. So what if she was staying with her teacher? If she was ever found out, she could just quit school totally and that would be ideal for her. Syaoran, however, was a totally different thing altogether. She couldn't implicate him in whatever she was going through. She couldn't let him quit his job because of her—she would never live down to that.

She changed into her school uniform in record time and adjusted her ribbon bow frantically as she stepped out of the room. She almost crashed head on into Syaoran. "Cereal for breakfast?" he asked as he dragged her downstairs as if she would run away if he didn't do so. "I'm afraid I only have that for today."

"Anything's fine."

He deposited her on one of the dining chairs and proceeded to the cupboards to pour some cereal for her. She watched as he opened the fridge and poured some fresh milk for her while he brewed some coffee for himself. She thanked him as he placed the bowl of cereal in front of her and passed her the glass of milk.

"So… for the remedial class…"

Sakura groaned. "Aren't we over this already?"

"Obviously not! You have missed your lessons with me and so you must make up for them."

"The other teachers didn't make me go for remedial classes!" Sakura protested.

"Well, I'm not them. I insist that you have remedial classes with me."

Sakura pouted and shoved another spoonful of cereal into her mouth while she contemplated her retort. "Isn't it good enough that I'm attending classes now?"

Syaoran tilted his head a little to the side as he eyed her suspiciously. "And today is only the second day that you are going to go to school. What if you decide to skip classes again for work?"

Sakura bit her lips. How did Syaoran know her so well? She still hasn't given up on finding another job so that she could look for a room to rent and not stay with him. Satisfied with the guilty look on her face, Syaoran pushed himself away from the table and grabbed a cup of freshly brewed coffee from his coffee maker. She waited until he was seated before asking, "So… If I promise not to work, you'll let me off from this remedial class?"

"Maybe?"

Talking to him was exhausting when he refused to go straight to answer her question directly. Sakura scowled. "You are not answering my question."

"And you didn't answer mine too so that's fair."

"Fine. I'll not work when there's school," Sakura said, trying to reach a compromise. At least she would have some income if she worked on weekends, rather than not working at all. "Is that fine with you?"

"Hmm… That's sounds… good to me but don't think it will be easy." Syaoran smirked as he leaned forward. "You will have to keep up with your grades or I'm going to pull you out from your job again and even break the secret to the principal."

Sakura gulped. She didn't realize that Syaoran would be making demands in exchange for allowing her to work over the weekends. "Keep up with my grades? What kind of grades are you looking for?"

"An A for all subjects."

"Impossible!" She had missed a lot of classes for other subjects and she needed to work really hard to keep up with the classes. Keeping up with English class was pretty easy because she was exposed to the language since young. Her father often bought her English books in the past since she enjoyed reading them. She can't say the same for the rest of the subjects.

"Well, in that case you can forget about working," Syaoran stated. "Low grades and you'll be exposed."

"No chance at all? I've lagged way behind for the rest of my classes. Please?" Sakura pleaded.

"I'm not that heartless, muffin," he said. "A month should be enough for you to catch up. We'll see your results for the next examination period."

One month. One agonizing month of hellish catching up she had to endure. "Fine." Say goodbye to beauty sleep.

To be continued

How's the surprise update? I will be really busy next week so I'm not sure if I'll be able to update. I've uploaded this chapter just in case I can't make it next week. Hope you enjoyed it!

Thank you so much for reading!