Finally! I finished it. Okay, so about last chapter, I looked back and realized that I forgot to change the section separators. In case that happens in the future, you all should know that those ten x's are the same as the line that usually separates the different sections. I type the chapters in a pages document on my computer, so I don't have the line thing that the website includes. Oh, but if you go back and look now they're already gone. I just went back and reposted the chapter.

Note: I edited this really fast, so if you find errors, that's why. Well, that and I'm not very good at editing to begin with.

Sakura's POV

Thunk. The stack of papers hits the table. "It's official. We've got one week left until midterms."

I allow myself to fall reluctantly into the chair in front of the wooden library table. Ever since I agreed to a fresh start with Syaoran, he's taken the newfound friendliness- if you can even call it that- and used it to his advantage by stuffing my brain full of information for the midterms. He was already doing that before, but now it's just crazy. As if by agreeing to his proposal also meant agreeing to never-ending amounts of work being shoved in my face. He doesn't make me do anything outside of school, thankfully, but last week he gave me math problems to do during lunch then give to him by the end of the day. It's absolute madness. My brain is on overload. Max capacity.

"There's no way I'm ever going to pull this off." It's true. Even if I, by some miracle, manage to pass Japanese, history and science, there's simply no way I'll be able to pass math. No matter how much practice he makes me do, I still don't understand it.

"Well, not with that attitude, you're not," Syaoran says. His optimism is something that we don't share. Maybe he's just so gleeful that I'm not arguing with him anymore that he's put himself in a false sense of security. I almost want to say to him, 'Hey, it's impossible, so just give up', but, at the same time, I don't want to hurt his feelings, as strange as it sounds.

While I sit and ponder over whether or not to crush his dreams of getting me to pass all my exams, Syaoran walks past the seat he usually sits in and continues behind me. Noticing the change, I crane my head to watch him. Where is he going?

My question is answered as he stops in front of the seat next to me, pulls it out, and sits down as if this behavior is nothing new. Thing is, it is new; Very new. Afterwards, he proceeds to reach past me and slide the papers between us.

The entire time I just sit and watch him, totally confused. "What are you doing?"

When he turns towards me, his face is close enough for me to see all of his long lashes as his amber eyes look up at me through them. "Getting you ready for this exam before it's too late."

Lost in his eyes and losing my train of though, I manage to say, "I meant why are you sitting here instead of there?" I gesture to the seat across from me where he's sat every other time we've been in here together.

"Ah," Syaoran sighs in understanding. He looks back down at the papers and flips through them as he says, "It's easier for me to explain when I can just look over your shoulder rather than try doing it upside down."

"Oh." It's all I can get out. Not like there's much else to be said, anyways.

"Yes, oh; Now down to work." Syaoran turns, and amber eyes vanish from sight.

Syaoran's POV

Click, flick, tap. Click, flick, tap. Click, flick, tap. Beside me, Sakura stares down at a textbook and twirls her pen around in her hand. Something about the way she does it makes me admire how adorable she looks with her face scrunched up as she glares at the text.

This is bad. She's already starting to mess with my head, and all she's doing is playing with her pen. Geez, is it really only Tuesday? How am I going to keep on doing this all week?

I don't even notice that she's stopped until she says, "Hey, Li, this doesn't make any sense at all." The sound of her voice effectively pulls me out of my trance.

There she goes using my last name again. I guess it was too much to hope for her to start referring to me by my first name in addition to everything else. Still, she called me Syaoran before, back when she... Alright, focus, Syaoran. Every time I think back to what she said, the words replay over and over again in my head, and I can feel myself getting lost in them.

Sighing, I lean closer to her and determine what the problem is. "What's there not to understand about this? It's history, not math." Seriously, how can history not make sense? It's events that have already happened. It's just a matter of memorization, not understanding.

Scowling, she says, "I thought we learned in class that one of the causes of the war was alliances." Wow, I'll admit, I'm impressed she remembered that.

"It was. A single country went to war, and then, one by one, so did the others."

She points at the book. "But it says here that-"

"That's also true," I explain. "There was more than just one single cause, but all you need to know is what we learned in class. What's in there isn't going to be on the midterm."

Sakura gapes at me. "Then why are you having me read all this?"

"Well, most of what's in there will be on the exam. There are some things that won't be, though."

"What?" She asks, baffled. "So this is all just a waste of time? Why not just focus on the important stuff?"

I groan. Truth be told, the only reason I'm having her do all this reading is because every time I lean over to explain something to her I can feel how close she is to me and it seriously distracts me. I hate losing my train of thought midway through explaining something to her. It's happened to me before, and each time she looks at me as if to say, 'what's the matter with you?'. Very unpleasant.

"Li!" Sakura waves a hand in front of my face. "Are you even listening to me?"

"Yes, I'm listening." Swatting her hand away, I add, "And would you stop calling me that?"

"What? Li?" She leans back and crosses her arms. "Why? That's your name, isn't it?" Now she's just trying to be difficult.

"You know what I'm talking about. You've called me Syaoran twice now. Why do you keep referring to me as Li when we both know that you only do it when I'm around."

"Twice?"

Shoot, that's right. I somehow forgot that Sakura wasn't awake the first time she called me Syaoran. I still remember it like it was yesterday. From the way her lips moved to form my name, to the smell of cherry blossoms that she emitted, but she doesn't have any memories of it having ever happened.

I debate whether or not to tell her. To heck with it. Why not? Her reaction should be fairly entertaining, anyways. "You weren't awake the first time."

Her face turns red. "W-what? When did you-"

"While you were asleep at my apartment," I explain. "You were unconscious on the couch when you whispered my name in your sleep."

She looks beyond embarrassed by what I've said. "You're kidding, right?" Surely she knows I'm not. I simply give her a what-do-you-think look. She turns away and shields her face so that I can't see her.

"T-that was-" Yep. So worth it. She's even cutter when she stutters. Wait- What the hell am I thinking? Snap out of it, Syaoran! "I was... It just... Gah!" She bends over and I wince a little when her head thumps onto the desk. "Cut me a brake, would ya?"

"What would be the fun in that?" I want to tease her about it more, but in the end decide to drop it. "Whatever, call me what you will, but I get to do the same in turn." She looks up, and I tilt my head to the side and ask as innocently as possible, "That sound fair, Sakura?"

When she speaks again, it's sloppy and slurred. "Fine. Do what you like." I chuckle. I said almost the exact same thing when she first asked me if she could call me Syaoran. Sakura looks back down at the book as if she doesn't really care, but her face tells me otherwise. There's a troubled frown pulling her eyebrows closer together, but the reason why is beyond me. Surely she doesn't mind me calling her Sakura when she already agreed on a truce. Isn't that a bigger deal than this? I'd sure think so, but who knows. More than that- why do I even care?

Leaning forward, I rest my head in the palm of my right hand. "You still want me to go over it with you?" Her nod seems reluctant. Taking a deep breath to calm myself, I lean over and begin my explanation.

Lunch today is proving to be rather humiliating. You'd think that after telling one of your closest friends that they're wrong about something enough times, they would just leave it alone, but no. Ever since I accidentally commented on the fragrance of Sakura's hair yesterday at lunch, Takashi has been all over me about it. After I said it, it took me a minute to realize why Takashi was looking at me like I'd lost my mind. He sat there gawking at me with this insanely amused look on his face. I must have asked him a million times why he was looking at me funny, but every time he would just burst out laughing. Eventually it looked liked he was going to suffocate from not getting enough air. Finally, after what felt like forever, he told me what I'd said, and ever since then he won't leave me alone about it. As if I'm not already embarrassed enough.

It's only Wednesday, too. I've got to put up with this torment for the next two days before the weekend. The weekend; It's what I look forward to most every single weekday. Over the weekend, so long as I don't check my phone, I don't have a care in the world. Up until I get back to school on Monday and Takashi starts teasing me about it again. Hopefully, with exams going on, he'll forget about it.

"It's kind of adorable, really. You're totally whipped."

I groan and reach both arms up to cover my face while I clutch my hair. "Oh, just shut up already."

Takashi chuckles. "This is way too much fun. You just got her to stop all-out ignoring you, and you're already falling for her again."

There really is no 'again' about it, but I'm not about to tell Takashi that. To admit that there was never a time when I wasn't in love with her would just be asking for him to never leave me alone. "I'm not falling for her."

"Right, you're just going around smelling her hair and obsessing over the color of her eyes." To be fair, I never mentioned anything about her eyes out loud.

"Hey, I'm not doing that intentionally, it just happens when we're sitting so close to each other."

Takashi gives me a firm pat on the shoulder, and I glare at his hand the entire time. "Sure it does, Syaoran. Sure it does." Ugh, this guy. I swear, sometimes I don't know why I'm such good friends with him. When he's not busy filling me up with lies, he's trying to get under my skin. Probably only does that because I typically manage to stay super calm and collected. Either that, or because I always do the same exact thing to him every time he and Chiharu do basically anything together. Those two are so in love, though. The reason they aren't already a couple is beyond me.

"You're impossible." Giving up, I simply turn away and gaze out the window. What are you doing right now, Sakura?

Sakura's POV

I arrive home earlier than than usual Thursday night. "I'm home," I call out to no-one in particular.

As I bend over to take off my shoes, something catches my eyes. There are two other pairs of shoes sitting in front of the door. Touya isn't usually home this early, is he? Yet as I recall, those are his shoes. Even if he is, why is are there two pairs?

"Touya?" I step into the house. "Hey, what's with the extra pair of shoes? I didn't know we were expecting-" The words die in my throat as I enter the lounge. No way. "Yukito?" Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Sitting there before me on the couch is a very familiar silver haired figure.

"Long time, no see, Sakura," he says.

Unable to contain myself, I run across the rooms and throw myself at him. I haven't seen Yukito in what feels like forever. Surely it's been at least two or three months. Enveloping him in a bear hug, I ask, "What are you doing here?"

The reply comes from behind me. "I invited him over for dinner as thanks for helping with the job hunt. By the way, you should let go before you crush him, monster." Letting go of the silver haired man, I turn to glare at my obnoxious older brother.

"I am not a monster!"

"Sure you aren't, monster."

I'm about to speak when behind me, a chuckle suddenly emits from deep inside Yukito's throat. Touya and I both turn to him. Catching our stares, he waves his hand and says, "Sorry, sorry. I just really missed watching you two going at it. It's pretty adorable. The two Kinomoto siblings constantly bickering."

Touya sighs. "Yuki," he says in a tone that 'why did you have to say that' tone. Yukito just continues to laugh at our behavior.

Quick to change the subject, I ask Touya, "So, how far along is dinner?"

"Haven't started," he says, sounding all nonchalant.

"What?" I yell, not caring how loud I am. He hasn't even started? "It's already getting late! What are you waiting for?" I don't wait for a reply. "Never mind." Shoving past him, I rush into the kitchen. "Get your butt over here so that we can start." Behind me, Touya begrudgingly follows, grumbling the entire time.

"Do you need help with anything?" Yukito stands in the entrance to the kitchen just behind my abnormally tall brother.

"No, that's alright. We've got this covered; Right, Touya?" I give him a pointed glare.

"Whatever you say, kiddo." I decide to let that one slide. Yukito is still around, and it's no use yelling at him, anyways.

"I really don't mind. The more hands, the quicker it'll get done."

I hesitate, but eventually nod. "Alright. I suppose you can chop the onion for now." I pull out the cutting board and put it on the counter. "Touya, you get the noodles ready. I'll take care of the sauce."

"Somebody's being awful bossy." My attempt to stomp on Touya's foot fails when he dodges the assault with great ease. "And grumpy."

Rolling my eye, I get started with the dinner. All three of us spend the next half hour milling around the kitchen preparing the meal. When we finally finish, I set the table while Yukito and Touya bring out the food. After everything has been set, we sit down. Touya and I take our usual spots across from each other, and Yukito sits beside Touya. The seating arrangement makes me cringe in jealousy. It's really not fair that Touya always gets to sit next to Yukito. They see each other on a weekly basis; Sometimes more. I, on the other hand, only get to see Yukito every few months. It's annoying because he's like another member of the family. A family that consists of just Touya and I. Yukito has always been here, so I try to make the best of the few times that I do get to see him.

Not wanting to waste any of the time I have with him, I ask the silver haired boy in front of me, "So, how is the internship going, Yukito?"

"Good. The people are nice, and the work interesting. If the job I actually get ends up being anything like what I'm doing now, I think I'll be just fine there. But enough about that, how is school going?" He takes another bite.

I struggle for something to say. So much has happened in the past few weeks that I don't even know where to start. I'd consider mentioning Syaoran, but Touya is sitting with us. What else is there to talk about? Mental slap. How can I even think that? There's plenty more than just Syaoran. What about... Chiharu! That's right, and then there's Naoko, too.

"Well, I've actually been making a few new friends at school." The words sound childish as I say them. You always hear about parents telling their kids to go out and make new friends. Although, I only ever heard that a few times. Not wanting to sound like a child, I add, "There's a girl who I eat lunch with sometimes who is really nice, and also someone who I meet with in the library sometimes."

"It's another girl, right?" Touya asks with a mouthful of food.

I glare at him. "Yes, you overprotective-" I manage to stop myself before I say something that I regret. Taking a deep breath, I calmly clarify. "It is a girl."

Touya returns my glare, but nods in approval. "Good."

Yukito nervously laughs. "So, you're enjoying senior year then, right?"

I nod. "I mean, midterms are going to be a drag, but, other than that, it's alright."

"That's good to hear." With all the food gone from his plate, Yukito sets down his chopsticks. "I hardly ever see you anymore; It makes me worry."

I feel my heart warm at his words. Yukito is so kind. "I appreciate your concern, but I'm fine," I assure him.

Suddenly the phone rings, bringing an end to the conversation. "Geez, who's calling at this hour?" Touya stands up and walks over to the landline. "Kinomoto residence," he says into the phone.

When the person on the other end speaks, Touya's expression becomes warped. His entire body goes rigid, and his face turns into one of surprise. As the person goes on, the surprise gives way to fury. There's a moment of silence in which I slowly see Touya's face grow darker and darker. I glance back at Yukito and we exchange a look of concern. What's going on?

"Alright, thank you, we'll be right there." The phone slams back down onto the stand. Touya just stands there glaring it until finally he raises one of his arms high above his head. I watch it, having no idea what to expect. Then he brings it down with such force that when it hits the landline, it sends a loud bang echoing through the household. Yukito and I both flinch.

Behind me, Yukito jumps to his feet. "Touya," he says, sounding concerned.

"What's going on?" I demand, my voice shaky.

Touya's fiery eyes never once leave the now broken phone as he says, "That was the police station." Time itself seems to freeze. "Dad's in jail."

Muahahahahahaha! I gave you all a cliffhanger. This chapter was so annoying to write. Mainly because it's late and totally rushed. Speaking of which, seeing how I keep on updating on Sunday anyways, I've decided to switch the updates from every Saturday to just anytime during the weekend.

By the way, once this chapter is up, I'll be officially at 50k+ words! It's so exciting! Well, for me it is. For all of you it just means that you've read a lot. And this probably isn't even halfway over, so expect to be reading a lot more.