radio star

viii. high

"Where exactly are we going again?" Sakura asked, playing with her fingers as she turned to look at Syaoran.

For what seemed like the hundredth time in the last several days, Sakura had found herself buckled into Syaoran's car on her way to God knew where. She had initially protested, telling him that it was getting late and that she had to go home; but somehow, she'd ended up letting him grab her hand and pull her outside to his car. She'd asked him several times where he was taking her, and he had consistently given her one reply, his eyes on the road the entire time.

"You'll see."

"This is kind of creepy," she muttered.

Syaoran merely smirked in response, much to Sakura's frustration.

"Do you try to provoke people like this all the time, or does it just come naturally?" she said, sticking her tongue out.

"Only around you," he responded in a mock-flattering tone, but his grin grew wider.

To her surprise, Sakura had to fight back a smile, chewing on the inside of her cheek. She lowered her head a bit so that he wouldn't have the satisfaction of seeing.

"Thank you," she finally said. "I know I've been burdensome, asking you for all these favors, and now I've dragged you into my emotional business as well—"

"Why are you always so apologetic? I appreciate that you're grateful and all, but I'm a nice guy. I do what I can for people. It's not a burden. I offered—I wanted to do this."

Sakura stared at him for a while, unsure of what to say back. It was such a casual, normal, comfortable statement that, no matter how she felt about their relationship, she knew in that moment that Syaoran Li was rather certain that they were truly friends.

A silence settled over the car, and Sakura took the time to finally look around at their surroundings to see at least in which direction Syaoran was driving them, hoping to clear up some of the mystery. To her surprise, she found them in the downtown business district, surrounded by towering skyscrapers whose glassy walls reflected the oncoming sunset.

"Are we going to a business meeting?" Sakura asked, both amused and curious.

Syaoran snorted. "I would lose all credibility as an artist if I dragged the likes of you into a business meeting."

Sakura lightly slapped Syaoran on the arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's not in your best interest to slap the driver, you know."

Sakura huffed, crossing her arms, and the glare on her face only intensified when she heard Syaoran chuckling beside her. "Just what is so funny?"

"You get riled up about everything so easily," he said, turning to look at her. "I don't mean half the things I say, but it's fun to see your reaction."

Sakura narrowed her eyes at him, but she found it hard to keep up any sort of hostility towards him when she saw him grinning at her again. She felt her heart pulsating all the way to the palm of her hands for a moment and heard a stopitstopitstopit running through her head. She wasn't quite sure whether she was mentally pleading with Syaoran or herself to do so.

"All right, we're here," Syaoran said, pulling into a reserved parking space parallel to one of the buildings.

Sakura looked up at it; she recognized this one even when she saw the skyline miles away. This one was Hiiragizawa Publications, its top adorned with a gold-wrought pyramid of gilded beams that lit up the whole city at night. She dreamed about working for magazines that this company managed. She'd never set foot inside the building before.

"What are we doing here? It's closed for the day," Sakura said, still craning her head up to stare at the building.

"Can't you ever just not ask questions and wait and see? It's not like you have better places to be or anything."

"How do you know that?" Sakura grumbled, but she followed along as Syaoran headed towards the back of the building.

She watched bemusedly as he selected a key from his key ring and proceeded to unlock the emergency exit, revealing a brightly lit stairwell. How did he have access to this building?

As though he had read her mind, Syaoran finally started to give her some clue as to what they were doing here.

"The Hiiragizawa family is very close to mine," he explained as he led her up the stairwell, his voice reverberating from wall to wall. "Eriol is my closest friend."

Sakura's eyes nearly turned into saucers, and her voice was full of sudden admiration as she spoke. "You're friends with Eriol Hiiragizawa?"

Syaoran paused his climb up the stairs to turn around and raise an eyebrow at Sakura. "I'm trying not to let my ego get the better of me here, but are you really telling me that you hadn't heard of me at all prior to meeting me, and yet you're a fan of someone as obscure as Eriol?"

Sakura gasped, offended. "He's not obscure! They're one of the best companies a journalist could work for in eastern Asia, and Eriol is next in line to run it. So there have been pieces on him that I've read about..." She glanced off to the side, blushing.

Syaoran stared at her curiously before realization dawned on his face. "Oh, God." He narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you're one of his crazy fangirls. Not that there are many of them—but when there are, they're always crazy. And trust me, I know crazy."

"I'm not a crazy fangirl," Sakura said indignantly. "It's perfectly within my right to be interested, since it has to do with my work. And besides, the only thing that could make a person more famous than being the heir to an empire is being the attractive heir to an empire, right?"

Syaoran rolled his eyes before turning around to climb again. "Whatever."

Sakura laughed as they climbed up one more flight of stairs before Syaoran opened a door that led to the glossy main lobby, currently unlit and empty.

"It sounds like you're a little jealous," she teased before taking a moment to look around in wonder at the high ceilings, the marbled floors, the ornately crafted furnishings. The lobby alone was larger than even Tomoyo's mansion in Tomoeda.

"Jealous of what?" Syaoran called as he strolled to the elevator, not bothering to wait for Sakura.

Sakura balked at his immaturity, but without protest, she ran across the lobby to catch up. "That someone finally doesn't know who you are but knows your best friend," she said as she slid into the elevator beside him.

"Please," Syaoran muttered, hitting the button for the top floor. "Don't flatter yourself."

"Can you tell me where we're going now?" Sakura asked, unable to contain her curiosity.

Syaoran merely held a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence and continued to watch the dial indicating the floor level tick higher and higher.

Sakura glared at him before pouting and crossing her arms, inching a little farther away and leaning against the wall opposite him.

He smirked. She really was a child.

They rode the rest of the way in silence until they reached the top floor. Without another word, Syaoran led Sakura through a darkened marble hallway and opened a side door that led to another set of stairs. Sakura knew that she'd just get another snide remark if she asked again where they were going, but her frustration and curiosity were coming to a head as they climbed. Just as she opened her mouth to tell him that she didn't care what his surprise was and that she did want to go home after all, Syaoran opened a door and stepped outside, indicating for her to do the same.

Her mouth nearly fell open at the beauty of what she saw.

They were on the rooftop of the Hiiragizawa Publications building, standing beneath the pyramid structure and looking out at the blazing sky cast over miles and miles of Tokyo streets.

Entranced, Sakura walked as far out towards the edge as she could, unable to contain the grin spreading on her face.

"Sunset's in ten minutes," Syaoran's voice came behind her.

Sakura whirled around, the grin on her face stretched from ear to ear. "This is spectacular!"

He sat down, swinging his legs over the ledge, and patted the ground beside him for Sakura to do the same. She hesitated for a moment—it was a little frightening, as they were fifty-five stories above ground—but Syaoran seemed practiced enough at it and he hadn't fallen to his death yet, and so she gingerly sat herself down beside him.

There was a lot she could have said—wanted to say, really—but the quiet was nice as they watched the dots move around the cityscape so far down below them, and so she waited instead for him to say something.

"Eriol's father used to bring us up here when we were kids," Syaoran finally said, leaning back on his hands and staring out at the sky. "It's always been my favorite place."

"Wouldn't you have been scared of the height as a kid?" Sakura peered over the edge of the building once more and gulped. It seemed a lot more terrifying when she looked straight down, so she forced herself to look back at the sky instead. "Even now, it's a little scary."

Syaoran shook his head. "Not really." He chuckled. "Even if I was scared, I would've acted like I wasn't. Eriol and I were ridiculously competitive, so I'd never have lived it down."

Sakura smiled. "And it's never gotten old, even though you've been coming here since you were a child?"

"Not once." He looked over at her. "Would it get old for you?"

She pursed her lips, thinking for a moment, and then she closed her eyes and shook her head. "Nope. I don't think it ever would."

Syaoran glanced at her again as she watched the cityscape. Perhaps it was just because he always revisited his childhood whenever he got the chance to come back up here, but he saw something so appealingly innocent about Sakura in this moment. Although he was the one who'd brought her here to forget about her troubles for a while, he was reminded again how soothing her presence was, that she was almost doing him a favor just by being around him, even if she reminded him of a five-year-old at times.

Suddenly aware of Syaoran's eyes on her, Sakura self-consciously reached a hand up to her hair and twirled a strand around her finger, although she refused to meet his eyes. "What? You're looking at me funny."

Syaoran smirked as he watched a blush creep over her face and shook his head. "Just thinking." He turned his gaze back to the skyline and exhaled. "Pretty, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Sakura nodded. "Thank you. For bringing me here. I hardly even remember why I was upset," she said with a smile.

"Sure," he said, and then he paused for a moment before speaking again, as though he wondered if he was allowed to say what he wanted to say next. "I'm glad you're feeling all right again."

Inexplicably, Sakura felt something warm blossom inside of her chest, and once again, she found herself unable to meet his eyes. She wondered what was the matter with her and then decidedly attributed it to being starstruck—although she'd always considered herself immune to that. Shutting her eyes and then opening them to clear her thoughts, she forced herself to look back at the sky before Syaoran could take note of how strange she looked. She saw that the sun was starting to set and thanked herself for the distraction.

"Look," she said, and Syaoran followed her gaze out to the sky.

The two watched in silence as the glowing orb began to drop behind the skyline, until more and more of it fell below the tops of the skyscrapers in the distance. Sakura's jaw dropped a little as the once-monumental sun turned into the tiniest pinprick of light before disappearing below the horizon entirely, all against the backdrop of thousands of different hues of pink and red and orange and purple. She had never seen anything like it; in her twenty-two years of living, she'd never actually sat down to watch a sunset, especially not like this.

"That was beautiful," Sakura exclaimed, her eyes aglow with excitement as she turned to Syaoran, although her voice was low—she didn't know why, but she felt the need to speak quietly.

"Wait," he said, nodding towards the cityscape, "it's not over quite yet..."

"Oh?" Sakura curiously turned back towards the view before them and then gasped as she watched the exterior lights of the many skyscrapers turn on, some at once and others slowly following suit.

A buzz sounded above them, and then the click of hundreds of lights flickering on, and Sakura looked up to see that they were suddenly bathed in the light of the pyramid of beams that had switched on as well. Her eyes grew wide in awe and her jaw dropped once more, and slowly, she stood herself up and walked herself towards the center of the roof, beneath the peak of the pyramid.

Syaoran found himself watching her reaction rather than the lights, and he couldn't stop the smile that formed slowly on his face. He stood up as well and followed behind her, eyes entirely on her as she walked beneath the glow of the pyramid, her mouth agape and her head craned upward as she tried to take in the beauty of it.

She'd been undeniably attractive, he thought, since he had met her; but like this, underneath these lights and so carefree, epitomizing everything he liked about her with such happiness etched into every feature of her face, her eyes, her lips, she was...

God, she's pretty.

He shook his head; the moment suddenly seemed all too familiar.

Aside from the Hiiragizawa family and his own family, Syaoran had only ever been up here with one other person: he'd brought Mizuki up to the roof the first night he'd taken her on a date.

"Wow," Mizuki breathed, her face expressing utter joy as she stared out at the lit-up skyline. Her large green eyes seemed even brighter in the radiant city lights. "Syaoran, did you—did you plan this?"

They sat together on the ledge of the rooftop, the illuminated pyramid casting a bright light above them and an empty bottle of champagne—Mizuki had just wrapped her latest film that afternoon—sitting between them.

He chuckled. "I wish I could say I was so smooth that I'd orchestrated it all, but I just know the timing between a summer sunset and the time the lights go on really well. I come up here pretty often."

"Still! This is amazing," she said, and then she shook her head and laughed.

"What?" Syaoran said, frowning.

"I have to hand it to you. I never expected you to put on such a good first date. I'm impressed. Maybe I should've taken my agent's advice and started dating you sooner."

Syaoran laughed. "You're impressed? Did I not appear very cool when we were just friends?"

Mizuki raised an eyebrow. "Are we more than friends now?"

He cursed inwardly at the slip-up when suddenly, he felt her hand on his. He looked at her in curiosity.

Suddenly looking very sober for all the champagne she'd consumed, Mizuki spoke softly, a slight grin playing on her lips. "It's okay. I wouldn't mind, you know."

"Mind what?" Syaoran said, suddenly realizing that her eyes weren't an ordinary green, he was so close to her face...

"Mind being more than friends, silly," Mizuki smiled, and one of her hands reached up to caress his cheek.

"Ah," Syaoran said, and he knew in that moment that he was hers. "Me, either."

He cupped her face with his hands and pulled her closer then, placing his lips over hers and feeling her smile into the kiss.

Jade—they were jade eyes, he decided.

For the first time all day, Syaoran felt the aching in his chest that thoughts of Mizuki tended to bring about, an aching about which he'd so blissfully forgotten.

He had tried actively not to think about it, but he did indeed see some similarities between Sakura and Mizuki—both were quick to laughter and playful with generally happy demeanors and kind hearts. He would be lying to himself, he thought, if he told himself that the similarities didn't attract him to Sakura somewhat.

But the differences were more obvious to him. While both Mizuki and Sakura were so refreshingly themselves around him, Mizuki had initially been able to do so because she was a colleague in the same industry as he was and thereby used to his celebrity, whereas Sakura was not. Sakura was just... Sakura.

But what did that even mean, he wondered? He watched Sakura twirl around beneath the lights, her expression euphoric and her arms stretched out.

What is it about you?

Sakura felt his eyes on her at that moment and stopped, looking over and beaming at him, she looked so happy.

And then, before he realized what was happening, he watched as Sakura's face fell and she walked over to him, her brow furrowed. She stopped only inches away from him, and her fingers reached up to flutter against his face, tracing the space around his eyes. He watched her in surprise, unsure of what to say and even more unsure of how he felt—he was certain he should have been uncomfortable, but oddly, he wasn't—and then she pulled her hand back as though she'd been burned.

"I'm sorry," she breathed, her gaze averting his once more. She hid her hands behind her back. "I just—you just... You looked really s-sad, all of a sudden."

Syaoran was quiet, still not sure how he should respond. Had he really been so transparent?

"I just wondered what had made you that way so suddenly, and I—I really overstepped my boundaries, didn't I? I'm so sorry," she repeated, waving her hands frantically.

Syaoran grabbed one of her hands to silence her, and she stared for a moment at it before looking back at him curiously.

"It's okay," he said, and he opened his mouth to say more, and then he shut it. He guided her hand back to her side and let it go. He smiled at her, a genuine smile, although the sadness hadn't quite left his eyes, and Sakura found herself breathless again. "How about I take you home?"

Sakura nodded and followed him wordlessly back to the rooftop door after taking a moment to get one more sweeping glance out at the brightly lit cityscape, figuring she wouldn't get an opportunity to see anything like it again in her lifetime.


The drive home was quiet, marked only by Sakura's sincere thanks and Syaoran's response of "sure." The mood was a strange one, something Sakura couldn't decipher—not uncomfortable or tense, but almost tired, as though they had reached a physical limit to being near each other for the day. As far as she could tell, he wasn't upset with her, but it bothered her—what had made him look so hurt? He'd always looked a little sullen when he wasn't smiling, but she'd never seen him wear that expression before, or that look in his eyes. It unsettled her.

When they reached the parking lot of her apartment, Sakura was unsure how to say goodbye. She sat racking her brain for different ways when Syaoran cleared his throat.

"Thanks, Sakura."

She looked over at him, not sure what he was thanking her for and yet almost certain that if she'd guessed, she would've been right. She didn't try to guess; she'd save that for later.

"I'm probably breaking some journalistic code of ethics here," she said slowly, "but I feel like that went out the window whenever I asked you to pretend you didn't know I was taking pictures of you." She smiled, and before she could stop herself, she unbuckled her seatbelt, reached over the console, and wrapped her arms around him in a hug.

She felt him stiffen, and then much to her relief, relax beneath her hold, and she ignored the erratic beating of her heart.

"Cheer up," she murmured into his ear, and without looking at him, she unraveled her arms and stepped out of the car and ran up to her apartment two steps at a time.

Syaoran stayed where he was, dumbfounded, until he saw her reach her apartment and shut the door, and then he let out a long exhale that he didn't know he'd been holding in.

All his life, he'd gotten much more than he'd bargained for.


That's the end of chapter eight! I really do hope you guys liked it—I think this is the most SxS fluff I've put in a chapter of this story so far! So, a few clarifications—I modeled the Hiiragizawa Publications building off of a real building, so if you'd like to see what I'm talking about for better reference, it's the Bank of America Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia. Google it—it's so pretty! The pyramid really does light up at night. I'd love to stand beneath it one day, if that's even possible. (Thus, I live vicariously through Sakura, haha.) Also, I know that city lights usually turn on before dusk, but for the sake of the story, I said they turn on right at dusk XD And, just to emphasize a point, I want to repeat that, although Syaoran has noted similarities between Sakura and his ex-girlfriend, he's coming to find that the differences are what really appeal to him. So, is he starting to fall? Hm, I think that's for you to decide. But I think it's safe to say that their feelings are markedly different from what they were when they first met. I wrote and rewrote three or four different scenarios that took place up on that rooftop, and I ended up choosing this one because it was the least rushed regarding their relationship, haha. I know I'm a slowpoke, but not to fear, they'll fall hard soon enough! Anyway, thanks for bearing with my late updates and my long author's notes, and thank you for reading! Please leave a review on your way out!

Love,
boreum dal