RECAP: Last chap was after Syaoran left Japan, he got stuck riding Raion, his dad’s old horse, and pulled a muscle. Sakura looked up spells and ended up in a fight with the Silent and the Voice, then ended up in Hong Kong messing up a Transporting spell. Syaoran’s trying to keep her hidden, and they just went to sleep at the end of the last chap.

Chapter 37 - Hong Kong

Sakura blinked her eyes open, then panicked. She couldn’t see anything, only pure black darkness around her. She went to sit up, but soft things hanging overhead hit her in the face. After a second of thinking, Sakura realized that those things were only clothes hanging in the closet she was sleeping in. But why was she up? It was still night, it was pure dark in this closet.

More noise from outside the closet confirmed her thoughts that Syaoran was awake. Sakura sleepily felt her way down the closet door and carefully slid it open. She saw that Syaoran’s room was dimly lit from dawn’s light. Syaoran’s shadow sitting on the edge of his bed was all she could see. At second glance she saw that he was changing shirts again. Sakura was about to go back into her closet hideaway, but Syaoran had noticed the door open, and stood up, wincing slightly from pulling his leg. "Ohayo." He said softly, afraid to break the silence.

Sakura clumsily stood up and walked out of the closet, brushing through her hair and hoping she didn’t look horrible, having just woken up. She peered at the clock. "Hardly. It’s not even four thirty."

Syaoran shrugged and rubbed his sleeve over his eyes, trying to get the bleariness out of them.

"Why are you up?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran sleepily walked over nearer where she stood and leaned against the wall. "Training. It gets hot later on."

Sakura nodded. "Oh." She thought a moment before working up enough courage to say what she wanted to next. "Can I come? I mean, or is it better for me to stay here?" She added the last part out of shyness.

Syaoran blinked with surprise, then rubbed his eyes again. "I...I guess you can, but I dunno what you’ll do. It’s boring, and the sensei might not like you watching."

"Or you might not like me watching?" She guessed.

Syaoran looked shyly and sleepily at the floor, about to retort, but Sakura beat him to it..

"Well I’d rather see more of Hong Kong, anyway, before I leave." Sakura said as an excuse.

Syaoran shrugged. "I guess." He walked around her to the closet, searching the top shelves for some disguise. He grabbed a baseball cap that was a souvenir from a soccer game and handed it to her. "So no one recognizes you."

Sakura took it from him and pulled it on her head. She grinned. "Am I a die hard soccer fan or what?"

Syaoran smiled back. "Wearing their merchandise even at four thirty."

"But doesn’t Teller know I’m here, anyway?"

Syaoran nodded slowly. "I’ll talk to him."

Sakura smiled at him, feeling that summed up her feelings. "Lead the way, then." She said.

Syaoran grinned. She looked good with a hat on. Had she gotten over her initial hostility? Syaoran hoped so. He carefully looked down the hall before hurrying as best he could towards the stairs. Sakura hurried after him, looking around the shadowy house as they ran down the stairs. It was a beautiful and elegant house, something smart underlaid in every detail of it, speaking highly of its inhabitants. She followed Syaoran out the door and stepped into the hot Hong Kong air.

"Wow, it’s really hot." She remarked as Syaoran shut the door. "Humid, anyway."

Syaoran nodded and began walking stiffly down the sidewalk to the barn. Sakura walked quietly beside him, looking around with bright but sleepy eyes. "How is the weather in Japan?"

"Fine." Sakura said, not thinking of anything extraordinary. "But Tomoyo said something about a hurricane around here. That could delay my flight, right?"

Syaoran hoped that Sensei Wanti was in a good mood today. He didn’t want to fight in front of Sakura. She might be the extra incentive he needed to get himself into deep trouble. "Yeah, I heard something about that too." He agreed, noticing that his leg wasn’t hurting as much as it had lately. It was still definitely painful to put his legs any length apart, though. Good thing we had mounted lessons yesterday. A bruise in his stomach reminded him of his previous day with Raion. Idiot horse.

Sakura was slightly frustrated that he was passing this information off so casually. "Well- well shouldn’t we hurry and get a plane ticket?"

Syaoran sighed. "With whose money?"

Sakura grit her teeth. Money. Always in the way.

Syaoran was about to turn to head to usual training spot when he saw some movement in the distance near the barn. Biting his lip with annoyance, he figured he might as well go check it out. Syaoran and Sakura walked down the path to the barn silently, each thinking about different things. He walked down the barn aisle, looking around at the horses inside. Raion was standing grumpily in a large stall by itself. Serves you right.

Sakura’s eyes widened, recognizing the large black horse standing in the stall. There was no doubt in her mind that she knew this large coal stallion. She had seen it in a dream. It was Syaoran’s father’s old horse. The one Syaoran used to ride with his father.

Syaoran noticed that Sakura was looking at Raion’s stall with large eyes. "What?" He asked. She probably remembers that he was the one I was leading yesterday, the one that kicked me and made me look like an idiot.

Sakura realized she had been staring. "Oh, ah, nothing, that horse is...really beautiful." She said, that also being part of her opinion.

"I guess." Syaoran mumbled. He walked out the other side of the barn and saw that Sensei Wanti was indeed here, and was pulling out Syaoran’s old and previous mission horse.

I’m not having mounted lessons today. What is he doing? Syaoran walked up to the gate where the Sensei was locking it behind him. Sakura was hanging a ways back, not wanting to intrude.

Sensei Wanti glanced sideways at Syaoran, then past him, and handed him the leadrope to the horse. "This is no time to be dragging girlfriends to come watch you. You should never boast."

"I’m not, she had to come." Syaoran lied, hoping Sakura couldn’t hear them. "Why are you here? We don’t have mounted lessons today."

The sensei stopped and glared harshly at Syaoran. "I know exactly what I’m doing, Li-san, don’t question my actions."

Syaoran bit his tongue and followed the sensei while leading the horse down the aisle.

"You might as well go home, miss, there’s nothing to watch here." Sensei Wanti said to Sakura, walking by her on his way to the saddlerack.

Syaoran glared after him, then tried to apologize to Sakura and tell her not to listen to him all in one look.

The sensei handed Syaoran the saddle and continued. "Rumor has it your last mission failed. It seems there’s still something hanging around Lung cave, you’re going to have to go out there and finish it off. And, since I don’t trust your skill with Raion, I’m putting you back on Feng."

Syaoran threw the saddle over the tall horse’s back and frowned. "But that’s like six hours away, I’ve got school-"

"I’m aware of the distance, Li-san, do what you’re told. I’ll talk with your teachers." The sensei glanced over his shoulder with irritation. "And is it just me or is she still here?"

Syaoran hated the sensei so much he could taste it. "She’s with me."

"I’m not having anyone going along and unfocusing you-"

"She’s the Card Mistress. If anything she’ll help." Syaoran said, daring to interrupt the sensei.

The sensei looked slightly skeptical, and turned to look at Sakura. "You are the Card Mistress?"

Sakura nodded unsurely. Inwardly she was beaming. Syaoran had just said ‘she’ll help’. That felt very nice.

"Who taught you?" He asked.

Sakura felt slightly trapped. "Ah...."

"Keroberus taught her." Syaoran finished for her. Sakura half grinned pathetically to show her gratitude.

"How did you find Keroberus with no previous education?" The sensei asked, frowning.

"It was...ah...an accident." Sakura said, knowing that it sounded very lame.

The sensei frowned, then turned to Syaoran. "She accidentally released the cards, and you lost to her?" He asked, his eyebrow raised with skeptism and amusement.

Syaoran clenched his teeth. Even it being Sakura, he didn’t like to think about losing anything. "Yes." He said, ignoring the pain of admitting it. "I’ve got to get her a horse." He said, trying to get away from the sensei’s badgering.

He left his horse cross-tied in the aisle and glanced to make sure Sakura was following, then he grabbed a halter off a stall hook and headed to the pasture. Once they had ducked under the fence, Syaoran sighed. "Sorry, he’s always like that."

Sakura smiled, glad for his sympathy. "It’s alright. It probably does sound suspicious, accidentally finding the cards and everything."

Syaoran shrugged. They approached the large herd of horses and Syaoran looked around. He wasn’t sure which one to give to Sakura. It was a long ride, and he wasn’t sure which one would be good. There was the gelding Meilin rode, but he was pretty slow and sluggish. That was no good. He looked around more.

Sakura had stopped and was looking with star struck eyes at the tall golden palimino horse grazing nearby. When she saw that Syaoran was looking at her, she looked for an explanation. "Wow, he’s, ah, its really pretty."

"Yeah, it’s a gelding."

"What?"

"A, um, I guess ‘it’ is a good description, but it was a boy, at one time." Syaoran said, hoping that made sense.

Sakura grinned. "Ah. Well he’s really pretty."

Syaoran looked at the horse. It was Alexis’s horse. He bit his lip, hating himself for having such a soft spot. But the horse was perfect for the job. And they would be back before Alexis would back from school. "Do you want to ride him?"

Sakura blinked at the offer, then smiled. "Well, is it alright? He won’t try to throw me or anything, will he?"

"No." Syaoran answered, already walking over to the horse. He pulled the halter onto the horse and clucked at him, then led him down the pasture.

"Thanks. I won’t be bothering you, right? Cause I can stay in your room, that’s fine-" She started.

Syaoran shook his head. "No, it’s fine."

"So....what did you mean ‘six hours’?"

"Oh, ah, it’s pretty far away..." Syaoran elaborated.

"Oh..." Sakura answered, obvious uncertainty in her voice.

"I’m sorry, but there’s not much else I can do... I mean, until you magically get enough money to get a plane ticket..."

"No, it’s alright." Sakura said, though that was about opposite about how she felt about it.

Syaoran sighed and walked the rest of the way to the gate silently. He was glad to see that the sensei was gone once he got back, and he tied Sakura’s horse only a little bit away from the large horse he was riding. "Kay, I’ll be right back." He said, heading to the tack room to get her saddle.

Sakura pet the horse softly on the nose, letting it smell her hand. I hope I don’t make myself look like an idiot. The only horse I’ve ever really ridden is Moondust, if you call that riding... But oh well. This might be fun, I suppose. Syaoran will actually have magic when he fights, I wonder if he’s gotten better at fighting? That seems hard to beleive, I always thought he was born being a master. Well, all that aside, I really need to work out getting back home, and fast. Although....

Syaoran came out of the tack room and threw the saddle up onto the palimino’s back, then quickly moved around to tighten it. Once that done, and checking over it to make sure it wasn’t going to go loose on Sakura, he pulled on the bridle, then faced Sakura. "Are you ready?" He asked, though it was a stupid question. She didn’t need to get ready, all she needed to do was get on the horse. Inwardly he was asking himself the same question. He was dreading mounting the horse, pulling out that muscle again, enduring it in silence...

Sakura smiled and nodded, trying to look as optimistic as she used to be. Syaoran walked over to his horse and untied him, then waited for Sakura to do the same. He led all of them out of the barn and out to the start of the trail. Syaoran mounted up quickly, wincing and gritting his teeth as his leg killed, then turned the horse to make sure Sakura had gotten up alright. She was sitting fine and holding the reins, looking natural. Syaoran was glad to see she had gotten good, and led them to the start of the path.

"Taiyang! Hey! Where are you going!? Who is that!?" Alexis’s voice carried as she jogged out of the barn after her horse that was being ridden away.

Syaoran cringed and turned to Sakura. "We’ve got to go faster." He said, waiting to make sure there was no sudden protests before kicking his horse into a canter. Anything faster on these windy trails would be suicide.

Sakura found herself following Syaoran and holding her horse nevously back from any faster as they followed the narrow turns of this wooded trail in the shadows of morning. After a while Syaoran slowed back to a walk, and her horse followed the other horse in the halt and fell into step beside Syaoran’s horse. Sakura was about to ask what that was about, but she decided she didn’t really want to know.

"I’m not sure how long this will take, really, cause last time I ran most of the way." Syaoran said after a while.

"On foot?" Sakura asked.

"No, horseback." Syaoran said, thankful that he hadn’t had to do this on foot.

"Oh." Sakura said. She thought about that for a moment. "Well we can go faster, if you want." Sakura said.

Syaoran shook his head as he pulled the horse around and out into the first open field. "No, it’s dangerous anyway."

Sakura couldn’t help but feel a little annoyed in his distrust of her skills. Whether a surge of self pride or sudden adreniline, Sakura tightened up her reins as they walked into the long open field and leaned slightly forward, kicking her horse back on its haunches. The palimino liked to go fast, and happily obliged by jumping into a sprint that Sakura found breathtaking. She smiled and tried not to forget to ride while she was enjoying the speed.

Syaoran held his horse in a prancing stand, the horse sidestepping and moving around, wanting to run after Sakura’s horse. Syaoran ignored it and watched her go. She had definitely gotten better. Alot better. Syaoran was impressed. He let go of his reins and let his horse spurt after the running palimino. About the time he was starting to catch up, Sakura had started slowing down as she approached the woods. Syaoran pulled his horse to a halt beside her, smiling. "Nice riding."

Sakura blushed from the compliment and shrugged shyly. "Moondust wasn’t a good teacher, but once I learned how to stay on her..."

Syaoran felt slightly bad for her- he wondered if Moondust didn’t like Sakura as much as Raion didn’t like him. "Well, I made a path somewhere here a couple months ago. It’d be easier to follow then trying to hack down another one." He said.

Sakura nodded then let her horse walk forward, searching the dense forest line for a path. She found it hard to beleive there’d be a path anywhere on this path- it seemed pure weeds and trees, and to cut a path through here would be time consuming. She wondered about Syaoran again. He must have a hard time when he came home, doing missions like this. Maybe he really didn’t want to leave Japan? Sakura couldn’t imagine wanting to leave to come to this. She slowed to a stop and looked into the woods where there seemed to be a slight let up in the dense vegetation. She couldn’t see how this was a path, but it did look better than the rest of the forest line. Sakura turned her horse and looked for Syaoran, and saw that he was further down the field searching the woods.

"I think I found it." She called.

Syaoran looked up and then cantered up, spotting the break. "Yeah." He agreed, then took out his sword. "Stay a ways behind me." He said over his shoulder, then began hacking away at the things blocking his path.

Sakura saw what he meant when he started swinging his sword. She rode quietly behind him, seeing through the trees the pinkening of the sky as the sun began to rise. Luckily the trees provided shade as the sun cilmbed into the sky, and it wasn’t horribly hot. Syaoran, Sakura guessed, was probably building up alot of heat cutting down everything with such energy as he did. He only cut down what was necessary, but there seemed to be alot of things that hung down in their way. Time seemed to slow into hours, and Sakura pondered if they’d ever get out of the forest. There were breaks in which Syaoran could let his arm rest, as the trees spread out mercifully, but the breaks were shortlived, and soon Syaoran was knocking things aside with his sword again.

Finally they emerged in a field, and Sakura felt the sun start beating on her for the first time. Sakura felt sweat start on her brow, and after wiping it away with the back of her wrist, she ignored the rest of it and moved her horse forward so she was riding next to Syaoran. "Isn’t you arm getting tired?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran tried to hide the fact that his right arm was hanging limply at his side, having no strength left for the moment. "No, it’s alright. It was worse last time."

Sakura dared to inquire. "Last time...? Was that what that man was talking about?"

"Yeah." Syaoran answered. He wasn’t going to go any further with that subject, but when he glanced sideways at Sakura and saw how nice she looked on the tall palimino, Syaoran sighed and continued, looking back to his horse’s ears. "There was a dragon spirit by this cave a couple months ago. I killed it, so I’m not really sure what could be there now."

"Oh." Sakura said. Sakura wondered if they were going to have to kill another dragon? She had seen Syaoran slay one before, but that had been in a video game. Either way, a dragon was scary. Sakura hoped they wouldn’t have to fight anything terrifying.

She fidgeted, not liking this boring walk through the hot field. Grass tickled the side of her legs and tapped the bottom of her feet, occasionally disturbing a resting grasshopper. "Shouldn’t we try to make better time?" She asked after a little hesitation.

Syaoran shrugged. "On the other side of the field, look for another old path." He said. Without bothering to wait he kicked his horse and sent him into a gallop.

Sakura tensed up nervously as her horse danced around, then tried to relax and let the horse run after. She had to do alot of pulling on the reins to get the horse to turn from Syaoran’s trail- horse’s liking to follow- then slowed to a stop at the next woodline. She had just began walking along it, but Syaoran waved at her and she followed after him.

Syaoran began chopping things with his sword again, but Sakura got an idea. "Li-kun, matte."

Syaoran stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"Let me in the front; I have an idea." Sakura said.

Syaoran was slightly irriated that she would order him, but pushed his horse over with his leg and let her walk through. Sakura called out her staff, then, paused momentarily to calm her horse down. She shouted the fire blasting spell and sent a spinning flame down the path, one that burnt away everything in it’s path.

Syaoran, seeing the dry branches on the sides of the path begin to spark, quickly helped out by sending water after her spell to keep the woods from becoming an inferno. "Seui shourai!"

Sakura had too late noticed the side effects on her idea and was about to panic, but sighed with releif as jets of water originating from behind her cleared away any extra unwanted flames. "Sorry, I...didn’t think that through all the way." She said, hanging her head.

Syaoran shrugged. The truth was he hated himself for not thinking of that before. Sure, Sakura’s little idea could have caused disaster, but it had ended up helping instead. He walked his horse around hers and put his horse into a canter down the long clear path. "It was a good idea." He called over his shoulder.

Smiling at his forgiveness Sakura quickly followed.

- - - - -

After another hour or two of riding silently through woods and small fields, Sakura was starting to lose the thrill of galloping across clover fields. Here running through a particularly large one, Sakura had lost all sense of direction and time. She suspected it was mid afternoon by now, as the sun was bearing down so hard it felt like her hair could catch fire any moment. At least running gave a little breeze. As they approached the next forestline Sakura saw the landscape was changing. Here there was no weeds or tall grass growing through the woods. Instead the ground seemed perfectly level.

As they slowed to enter it, Sakura saw that the ground was actualy almost entirely moss, a soft carpet that the horse’s hooves did not even sound on. The trees were tall - many were pines, some decidous, but all met at the top to make a perfect canopy. The difference in sunlight was so incredible Sakura found that her eyes had to adjust to the quiet darkness. Some patches of sunlight broke through the top and came down like rays, making spots and designs across the moss carpet. She pushed her horse forward again, able to ride in twos even though they were in a forest. "This is really pretty." She remarked, still looking around.

Syaoran grinned and nodded. "Yeah." But the best is yet to come. Syaoran couldn’t wait to get a handful of the stream’s water. He had been dying for a drink about two fields back. "We’re almost there, too. After we cross the stream, the cave will be around there."

Sakura smiled fakely. This trip hadn’t been as fun as she had hoped for. They had ridden most of it in total silence, which had bored Sakura totally out of her mind. She sometimes wished Syaoran wasn’t such a reserved person. She felt slightly apprehensive, as well, about what they were going to meet when they got to this cave.

Looking up ahead, Sakura saw running water. Listening, she could hear it. She smiled with delight. "Can we swim in it?" She asked excitedly.

"If you want to ride around with wet clothes." He said, a hint of disapprovement int his voice.

Sakura sighed and looked at the stream as they appraoched. It was deep for the width it was. "How are we going to cross it?"

"The horses can swim." Syaoran answered, seeing that the stream’s water level had raised significantly from the time he had been here. Slowing to a stop near a tree with a good low branch, Syaoran hopped off and about fell over as he landed on unsteady legs. Grabbing the saddle with one hand he easily found his balance, and was glad that he was on the other side of his horse so that Sakura couldn’t see him. He tied the reins to the branch, then walked over to the stream, collapsing on the soft mossy bank.

Sakura quickly followed suit and sat down a few feet beside him. She dipped her hands in the water and splashed herself in the face, then glanced over at him. "So you’re not going to swim?" She asked.

Syaoran shook his head, letting his hair fall in his eyes. "I might as well get this over with." He said dismally.

Sakura felt pity for poor Syaoran. He looked so depressed. He never plays. Why not? "Do I have time to?" She asked.

"You might want to wait until we come back." Syaoran said.

Sakura sighed audibly, then jumped to her feet. "Alright then. Let’s kill that dragon spirit or whatever it is." She said enthusiastically.

Syaoran turned his head and watched her skip over to her horse, then very stiffly and very cautiously got up. He walked over to Feng and mounted up, then turned to Sakura, who was now mounted. "You can jump it or swim, it doesn’t matter."

She nodded, then held the horse still as Syaoran cantered the huge horse up to it and jumped over it smoothly. Sakura bit her lip, then kicked the horse forward and grabbed alot of mane in her hands. Holding the reins readily in case the horse should back out, she drove him forward until she felt him take off. This was the point Sakura got lost at. She landed hard again on the saddle, getting left behind the horse’s motion, but ignored it, as Syaoran hadn’t seen her. She cantered up to where he was walking with his sword unsheathed and looked around. "Do you see something?" She asked, seeing that Syaoran was concentrating.

"Don’t you sense that as well?" He asked, reprovingly.

Sakura was a little offended by that but pushed it aside and focused. She opened her eyes with a start. She did sense something. "Yeah, it’s....It’s one of my-" She stopped short, as the ground started screaming. The palimino Sakura was on didn’t like the sound at all, and reared up. Sakura nearly toppled over backwards, but hung on. The second the horse had its front hooves on the ground it took off wildly. Sakura, trying to ignore the increasing screams from the ground they touched, knew it wasn’t any good to ride a wild horse in battle, and bailed out. She swallowed her fear and half jumped-half fell to the ground, landing on her feet and then falling backwards. She quickly jumped up and held out her staff.

Seeing that the card wasn’t going to show itself in it’s form without some provoking, Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated deeply. She wanted to use the attack she had used on the giant spiders those months ago. Feeling her powered staff glow within her hands, She slashed it over the ground. The ground screamed louder in return as grass and moss went flying aside. The Voice appeared in front of her; a frilly winged form of a card, singing in a screaming way as the grass continued to sing backup. Sakura watched with bewilderment as they all began singing a fimiliar Gackt song.

Syaoran slashed again at the Silent but missed as she evaded his attack again. The Silent whirled away and disappeared. Syaoran frowned and spun his horse around, looking for where it could have possibly gone to. He frowned even more as the Voice card was giving Sakura a concert, and Sakura, transfixed, held her staff unsurely as she watched the grass sing. A pair of branches that had been lying lifeless on the ground began to move into life and sing the tenor part of the song along with the moss. Syaoran saw the Silent flash again. It was creeping up behind Sakura. And Sakura was still watching the Voice.

Taking it upon himself as his duty, Syaoran clenched his sword, focused deeply, then waited to feel the energy surge through him, down his arms, into the very blade of the sword. He took it up and pointed it to the cards, then slammed it down into the air, it stopping by an invisible force as a great rush of power released out and headed for both sides of Sakura. Syaoran didn’t worry of it hitting her, however, because the attack only hit the targets, and went straight through anything else.

Sakura, who was currently laughing at the hand motions the leaves on the branches were doing, found herself in a great wind, then felt raw power move right over her. The sheer feeling sent her momentarily collapsing to the ground, totally disoriented. As she slowly gathered her bearings and got to her feet, she found that the forms were now turning into cards, and the cards were going to Syaoran. A bit confused, she stood up and looked over at him. Why are they going to him? They’re MY cards, I mean they used to be Sakura Cards, why...?

Syaoran trotted his horse over. "Are you alright? I thought I"d messed up, since that knocked you over..."

She ignored that. "Are you able to seal these cards as well?" She asked, looking almost straight up as he was sitting atop such a large horse.

"Well, ..." Syaoran kicked himself for forgetting about that. He had sealed two cards before- in fact... I thought I already sealed the Voice? Maybe I had an unstable thing going on or something, since I had no magic to keep them sealed? "I...guess, since they’re Clow cards,...." He knew he was caught. "Yeah, I can. I sealed two before."

"What do you mean, before...." Sakura slowed down. She had been missing two cards. And Syaoran had flat out told her ‘I don’t know’ when she had asked him about it. "You mean those two cards I’ve been missing, you had them?" She asked, gaining fury.

Syaoran cringed, and was glad to be up on a horse. At least he was slightly safe. "Listen, I was going to tell you, I just...forgot."

"You just forgot? When did you seal them, anyway?"

"Ah..." This was another touchy subject. "D’you know how the lights went off at the Shiro Ame concert?"

Sakura couldn’t beleive he’d even dare bring that up. She couldn’t bear to talk about that.

Syaoran could see this wasn’t going over well. "Okay, yes, I’m sorry, I should have told you. And I shouldn’t have pretended to be someone else. But I wanted to try and capture a card because I had a theory, and I got a lead on a card and went after it. It just happened to be the same concert, I wasn’t trying to...to..." Syaoran couldn’t find the words. "Anyway, I guess I’m able to seal them, even though I’ve already sealed the Voice once, I don’t know why it got out...But you can have them back, I don’t want them."

Sakura rolled her eyes and kept her arms crossed over her chest. "Oh no, please keep them. You won’t want any cards missing once you seal all my other ones away."

Syaoran sighed. He knew he wasn’t going to get a resolve from her at the moment. "I’m going to go find your horse." He said, turning Feng around before she could say anything more.

Sakura watched him steaming, then turned and sat herself down next to a tree, feeling humiliation start to hit her. Why did he have to embaress her so much, anyway? Sakura lamented and pouted for a while, hoping to herself that Syaoran would get lost and not come back. After she heard hoofbeats approaching, she positioned herself in a sitting style that looked the most defiant, then made sure not to even glance in Syaoran’s direction as she walked around to her horse and mounted up.Without waiting for him she found her direction and canted over to the stream, making sure to keep up with the horse as she jumped. She did, and found that jumping could be smooth, if she could keep herself from banging down on the saddle.

Syaoran watched her hop over, then continued on. Good thing I tightened that saddle when I found him.

_______________________

They arrived back at the stable slightly late, mostly because in Sakura’s haughty moments she had gone down a wrong path and gotten them slightly lost. Syaoran, who had ridden quietly behind the whole way, had not said a thing about it, no implication that he had even known they were lost, though he had. Sakura, however, decided to ignore this act of repentance and continued to stay angry.

Syaoran led his horse into its pasture, then led Sakura over to her own. Sakura was releived to see that Syaoran was staying quiet, and still did not bring up any of their previous arguement.

"Li-sama!" A voice called sarcastically from behind. Syaoran stepped aside to let Sakura by, then turned to see Yundi.

"What?" He asked irritably.

Yundi shrugged. "Sensei’s going ballistic. Sent out search teams to find our male protagonist. So I’ve found you. I wonder if I’ll get promoted to lead tape player guy?"

"What time is it?" Syaoran asked.

"You’ve been out for the elder’s all day?" Yundi guessed. "Well it’s about five thirty."

Syaoran could beleive it. He was dying for food. "I’m skipping practice, tell them I broke my arm or something."

Yundi shrugged. "The sensei will kill you. Honestly. You and your descendants, but..." He peered around Syaoran to Sakura, who was shutting the gate and pulling her hat lower at the same time. "Who’s the chick?"

"Huh? Oh, that’s one of Rana’s friends." Syaoran said, referring to his youngest sister. He hoped he had sounded convincingly.

Yundi slowly nodded. He turned back to Syaoran. "You missed it today, though. Teller wrote out a poem for Mandu and stuck it on her locker, but it ended up Meilin’s. They got in a big cat fight about it..." He sighed, transfixed, then shrugged. "You’re going to get busted big time for this. Sayonara."

Syaoran watched him walk off, then turned to Sakura. "We better go inside before anyone else sees you."

She only nodded in response.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura sighed with content as she sat under a nice cool fan with a glass of lemonade. She still felt grimey from all the sweating she had done, and she was sure her clothes were going to start to rot soon, but at the moment she couldn’t care less. Syaoran sat back in his chair, absently flicking a chip in the air.

"What play are you in?" Sakura finally broke the heavy silence.

Syaoran sat normally in his chair, hopeful that she might be forgiving him. "It’s some Americanized play, I don’t know the title, really. Something about a nerdy guy and this cheerleader..."

"And that’s who you are?" She guessed. She found it hard to beleive Syaoran would play the role of a nerd, but then it was horribly funny as well.

He sighed heavily. "Yes." Syaoran was in the process of flipping another chip into the air, but was stopped by the sound of his front door opening. Syaoran and Sakura both jumped out of their seats. Syaoran directed Sakura right under the table they had been sitting at, which, unfortunately, was made of glass, and provided very little shelter. Syaoran had no time to think about it, however, as Meilin barged in.

"Li Syaoran! Skipping out on play practice, making your friends lie for you..." Syaoran quickly walked over to meet her.

"Yeah, I just, ah, I had to come back to change."

Meilin rolled her eyes. "I’m sure you did. No, you’re just sitting around, eating potato chips and..." Meilin looked over at the bag of chips with curiosity. For one panicking moment Syaoran thought she had seen Sakura, but saw her eyes only rested on the bag. "Those aren’t the new cheddar ones are they?" She asked, walking her way over.

"MEILIN!" Syaoran shouted, seeing that any minute she would spot Sakura, who was watching everything with wide eyes.

Meilin turned around with a start. "We should...we should leave." Syaoran said.

Meilin shrugged. "I’ll bring some chips on the way, I love these." She said, continuing to the table. She was almost there....any second now she would shreik with surprise....Syaoran found no other alternative, so he bolted forward, ignoring the pain in his leg, and seized her by the shoulders. Meilin looked at him with widened eyes as they were face to face.

Realizing he had forgotten a plan, Syaoran stumbled for words. "H-have you done something with your hair?"

Meilin frowned unsurely. "No, why?"

"Because, uh, you-you’re hair just looks different and I, um, I had to see how it felt." Syaoran longed for a good two by four, wishing he could slam his head with it.

Meilin looked at him hard for a long minute, making sure he was keeping a straight face. Syaoran was convinced Meilin knew he was lying, but in a sudden movement she had flung her arms around his neck.

"I knew it was you! I knew! Mandu didn’t beleive me, she said you were on a mission, and I knew that too, but I was convinced you wrote it for me!"

Syaoran blinked unsurely. "Y-yeah..." He said. Taking advantage of the situation he held her in with his left arm and grabbed a free pen off the table, then looked for something to write on around Meilin’s head.

"You don’t have to stay home, Syaoran, it’s not embaressing if you don’t let it be. We can show up and tell Mandu what really was going on...." She continued on.

Syaoran spotted a napkin and quickly scribbled on it ‘be back in hour’. Setting it upsidedown so Sakura could read it through the glass table, he then turned and led Meilin to the door with an arm around her shoulder for good measure.

"...but you are just so sweet and amazing sometimes..."

Syaoran sighed and walked out into the hot outdoors in his still dirty clothes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Alexis pushed her red-orange hair off her face and looked down at the script. "I’m sorry, I’ll do it over." She said to the sensei, who was naggingly complaining that Alexis did not put enough emotion into her role.

"Li-san, go tell the lighting crew to quit horsing around while Chincawau-sama deals with this new problem."

Syaoran was only too happy to oblige. He headed off the stage and looked left and right to make sure Meilin was no where in sight, then continued off to the back of the auditorium. Since the incident at Syaoran’s house, Meilin was worse than usual. Even Alexis had commented that ‘she’s quite obsessed, isn’t she?’. So Syaoran was now running like an escaped convict, hiding from the government.

He opened the door to the lighting room and found Yundi, Ryoto, and Jin- all three from the soccer team- playing with the lights. They looked up and burst into laughter as they saw it was Syaoran who limped in.

"It’s limp-along, the poet!" Yundi laughed.

Syaoran glared. He didn’t even like having these people as friends, let alone tolerate their insults. "What are you talking about?"

"We heard the news, Syaoran, you can’t play dumb." Ryoto said.

"The master behind Teller’s poem. The real poet."

Syaoran darkened, knowing where this was going. "I didn’t write-"

"Your hair is as black as a Raven on the night a new moon.." Yundi said, breaking into laughter with the rest of them. Jin was doubled over he was laughing too hard.

Thoroughly annoyed, Syaoran left the room, wanting to slam the door but controlling himself from doing so. What has Meilin done? No, What have I done? I never said I wrote the poem, did I?

"Syaoran! Scene twelve, come along!" The sensei called. Syaoran sighed miserably and walked stiffly back up.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura sighed as she sat bored in the chair at the desk in Syaoran’s room. She had gone to the bathroom, then been in the process of cleaning off her face thoroughly when a door opening made her flee into the closet of Syaoran’s room for fifteen minutes. After she heard the front door shut again, she very cautiously came out. For a while she sat without making a sound, then, convinced the house was quiet, she called Tomoyo and further discussed plans for the airplane ride.

Apparently the storm was taking a long time in approaching, and was still off the coast. According to Tomoyo, Hong Kong would be getting some of the edges, but nothing serious. Tomoyo had offered to buy Sakura a ticket over the internet, but for some reason that even bewildered Sakura herself, she had declined. Touya was getting supsicious, but her father was on another trip with the university, and didn’t have enough time to worry. For that Sakura was thankful.

She looked around the room, seeing that the sun was starting to set. Syaoran had been gone well over an hour by now. Sakura decided to get up, and she quietly slipped into the hall, then began scouting the house. Seeing no trace of anyone, she began giving herself a tour.

His house was very large, Sakura found, and reminded her of a bright and modern version of a few floors in Uncle Guan’s house. The stairway curved to the airy living room and kitchen, all set spaciously for the best airflow to keep the house cool. There was a large screen television in the living room, along with a complete surround sound system. The kitchen was extra large, with a long island in the middle. She looked around at the walls where many intricate paintings hung in gorgeous frames, all hung strategically through the house to match the room they were in. Sakura couldn’t help but notice that there was a large lack of family photos.

Sakura walked through the kitchen and found a large hallway that led behind the stairs. Another room, most likely the den, with many different bookshelves and couches all centered around a large open fireplace. She began scanning across the books, then noticed a curious looking book laying atop the others, more like numerous pages stapled together. Sakura picked it up and frowned with interest as she looked over the cover.

A child’s illustration showed a samurai fighting with his two swords. It was definitely handmade. Sakura bit her lip, wondering who would have written this. It was wishful thinking to guess that Syaoran wrote it. It was probably one of his sister’s work. She opened it and began to read the sloppy kanji on the first page, but was interrupted with the sound of a door opening. Sakura jumped sideways and quickly replaced the book, then peered around the doorway of the den, then finding it cleared, she moved swiftly behind the stairs.

"You can come out of hiding, it’s only me." Syaoran’s voice carried.

Sakura had no idea how he had already gotten upstairs, especially since she had been standing so close, but she ignored it and walked around the stairs then went upstairs. She leaned on the doorway of Syaoran’s room. "How was play practice?" She asked casually.

Syaoran shrugged. "Normal. You better come in and close the door."

Sakura frowned unsurely, but about that second the front door was opened, and several feet stepped into the house followed with loud voices. Sakura quickly shut his door and walked over to hide around the wall if they should happen to barge in. "How’d you do that?"

"They come home the same time every day. What do you want to eat?" Syaoran asked.

"Um..." Sakura thought. She was horribly hungry. Asides from the small snack they had gotten between the long horse ride and the play practice, she hadn’t eaten anything all day. "Anything."

Syaoran sighed as if not liking her answer, then left the room to go downstairs. Sakura sat down at the edge of closet and leaned on the pillows inside. He can be so disagreeable somtimes. But I’m supposed to be the one that’ s mad, not him. Then again...this is stupid. So he lied, so what. He broke trust, that’s what. But I shouldn’t hold a grudge, that’s not like me. Sighing because she was alone and bored again, Sakura got up and walked around.

I hope I can take a shower or something. This is so gross, these clothes... But I don’t have any clothes to change into. Maybe... Sakura walked over to the door and listened for any near footsteps, then opened it carefully. Seeing that the long hallway was dark and quiet, she slipped across to the bathroom. Not turning on the lights and not shutting the door, she only wanted to get some water to wash the rest of the grime off her face.

- - - -

"I think you should just break up with him, Daikail. I mean, if he’s going to be like that around other people..." Rana said, continuing to cut up peppers.

"I know, I know..." She said, sighing. "Enough about him. How about you, Lai, have you gotten a letter back from the Chinese University?"

"No, not yet." His oldest sister said absently.

"What’s that?" Rana said, looking around as a noise like water in piping was going from upstairs.

"Did you leave something on upstairs, Shao?"

Syaoran glared towards the stairs. "No, it’s probably just the water softener or something." He said, hoping that was convincing.

"I’ve never heard it do that before. Something’s running, I’ll be right back." Rana said, turning to head for the stairs.

"NO! I’ll get it." Syaoran said, quickly running around them to hurry upstairs. Rana watched him run by with bewilderment, then, shaking her head, went back to the peppers.

"He is acting so oddly lately." She said.

"Yeah, really. Meilin was telling me about some poem he wrote. I just smiled and nodded, I don’t think it’s true."

"Maybe he’s finally going lovesick. I’m suprised he went for Meilin-chan, though, I mean he was always so annoyed when she followed him around, I thought he thought of her as a sister or something."

"What about that Japanese girl?"

"Who knows. He probably broke the poor girl’s heart already."

"I don’t know, he seemed to think really highly of her. I mean, come on, he stole money and bought a plane ticket to go see her. I’ve never seen him put anything over our family before."

- - - - - - - -

Syaoran charged down the hallway and found that although the bathroom door was open and all was dark, Sakura, surely enough, was running the faucet. "Kinomoto!" He whispered sharply.

Sakura jumped out of her skin at Syaoran’s sudden appearance and quickly shut off the water, wiping her face with the inside of her shirt. "Nani?"

"You can’t just run water, you can hear it downstairs."

Sakura walked out of the bathroom, looking carefully for any of his sisters before hurrying into his room. "I’m sorry, I just...I suppose there’s no way I could take a shower, huh?"

Syaoran thought on that. "I...Maybe. After we eat, alright?"

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Alright. Sorry, really, I didn’t know."

Syaoran found it slightly amusing that Sakura would feel so guilty over such a little thing. "Don’t worry about it."

"Are you okay, Shao? No water monsters are after you are they?" Rana called. Syaoran cringed. He hated nicknames.

Sakura smiled. It was nice seeing Syaoran dealing with siblings for a change. "Better get back to it, Shao." She said, grinning.

Syaoran gave her a pleading look then left the room, not responding.

_______________________________________________________________________

After having the most delicious chow mein Sakura had ever had, she sat back at the chair of Syaoran’s desk and looked around. Syaoran was laying on his bed, reading the book that had the crystal similar to Sakura’s necklace. Sakura didn’t want to disturb him, so instead she gazed out the window. It was about eight thirty, and she was starting to feel slightly tired from the sixteen hour day. She still, however, felt horribly dirty, and longed to take a nice hot shower, but had no idea how to bring it up.

Syaoran looked up from his book, seeing that Sakura was done.

"That was very good, did you cook it?"

"Me and my sisters." Syaoran said.

Sakura smiled. "It must be a big change from living by yourself to living with all of them."

Syaoran shrugged. "Meilin about equals four of them."

Sakura laughed. "I thought for sure she’d seen me. I was about to get up and run."

"Yeah..." Syaoran agreed. He still was scared to think about what the school would be saying tommorrow. Who knows what Meilin had spread around. I’ve got to talk to Teller about this...But I can’t just embaress the poor kid. That’s the only reason I haven’t made my point in the first place...

"Hullo?" Sakura repeated, having just noticed Syaoran’s blank stare into nowhere.

"Huh?" Syaoran asked. He hated spacing out. That wasn’t part of his personality.

"I was just saying, it’s pointless for me to even bother with a shower, I’ll just be changing back into these clothes anyway." Sakura reiterated.

"No, you can borrow some of my clothes." Syaoran said, sitting up and shutting the book.

Sakura glanced at him unsurely. "Alright..." She agreed.

"Do you want shorts or what?" He asked.

Sakura thought about this, totally unsure. Shorts would probably be best, since it was so hot outside. "Yeah, that’s fine."

Syaoran was already starting to look through his drawers. He looked through his shorts and tried to find a pair that would be alright. "All I have is soccer shorts, is that alright?"

"That’s fine." Sakura agreed.

Syaoran threw a pair of silk ones over, then started looking through his closet for a T-shirt that would fit/suit her. He found an orange one that didn’t look horrible sports fanatic and tossed that to her also. "Well, you obviously know where the bathroom."

Sakura nodded and looked at her clothes, then walked over to the door and slipped out into the hallway, then quickly hurried to the bathroom. Syaoran watched the door for a while to be sure everything was alright, then retreated back into his room.

Sakura shut the door and was glad for the privacy, and quickly undressed and set the shower on. She stepped in and felt better immediatly as the water ran over her. Sakura looked around the large shower after a good rinse and looked at the different shampoos and soaps in the there. She was mildly curious to think of what kind of shampoo Syaoran used. She could hardly picture him using all the flowery fragrant ones that lined the shelves in here. She was looking through some of them when she heard a bang on the door, then heard with terror the door fly open.

"Syaoran, Meilin’s on the phone. She said it’s urgent."

Sakura froze, paralyzed. There was nothing she could do but wait this out.

"Can you hear me? Hello...?"

Sakura continued to stand, huddling by the wall.

"Baichr (idiot). If you were a girl I’d storm in there, spoilt brat..." She grumbled, shutting the door as she stalked away with the phone. "...sorry Meilin, Syaoran’s being..."

Sakura breathed a sigh of releif and slowly relaxed. A second later, the door opened and shut loudly. There was no noise for a second, though Sakura knew someone else was still in here. She wished she could see through curtains.

"It’s only me." Syaoran said.

Sakura about jumped into the tile wall beside her. "Only you!?" She shreiked.

"Shh!" Syaoran said. He quickly reached for the lock on the door just as one of his sisters went to open it.

"Syaoran what are you doing!?" Lai demanded.

"Nothing."

"Please, I know you could never manage to make your voice that high."

Syaoran quickly turned on the radio on the counter. "It’s the radio. Go away."

There was a long pause, then he could hear low grumbling as his sister continued to walk away.

After that, Sakura desperately tried to control her embaressment. "What are you doing in here?" She asked in a hushed but still horribly high pitched voice.

"Do you really want one of my sisters discovering you under these circumstances?" Syaoran asked skeptically.

"But..." Sakura had nothing to go on. Cautiously staying to the far left of the shower, she attempted to put shampoo into her hair. Sakura hated herself for being so uptight, and tried to calm down, but this situation was just too much for her. She looked over the curtain and tried to determine whether it let any sillhouette through or not. It seemed very dark.

"Don’t worry, I’m sitting with my back to you, alright?" Syaoran said as reassuringly as he could.

Sakura sighed and tried to find the comfort in that. At least he was being that modest. "Was there any other bathrooms out of the way that I could have taken a shower in?" She asked.

"No, only this one." Syaoran said, waving a brush around in the steam that was in the air.

"But your house is so big!" Sakura said with confusion. She tried desperately to get the shampoo out more quickly by raking it with her hands. Instead her elbow bumped some soap that went thudding to the shower floor. She cringed and quickly went to pick it up, but instead hit her hip on the bath faucet. Gritting her teeth with pain she quickly picked up the soap and continued to hurry.

"Yeah." Syaoran said. He didn’t say that he always took his showers in the morning before his sisters woke up, and that normally solved the problem. "I forgot to tell you to lock the door." He said, sitting back against the wall.

Sakura had gotten all of the shampoo out, but now found herself in a dilemna. How was she going to get out? She couldn’t just stroll out and get her towel and change. No, now she was stuck in the shower. Sakura tried to remember where she had left her towel. I never got one out. I’m so stupid! She had one choice. She had to talk.

Reluctantly shutting off the water, she swallowed her fear and spoke. "C-can you hand me a towel?" She asked.

Syaoran got up and pulled the closet open, then found a nice fluffy one for her and walked over to the shower. Sakura wasn’t going to hold out her hand for it, so Syaoran held the towel out for her. After she snatched it from his hand, he walked back over to where he had been sitting and turned his back to her again.

Sakura toweled out her hair and brushed through it with her hands, then wrapped the long towel around her. She nervously peered around the curtain and looked to make sure he wasn’t watching, then grabbed the clothes she was changing into, along with all her old underwear (of which subject she didn’t even bother to bring up) and retreated back to the shower. She quickly pulled on everything and breathed a sigh of releif. She looked down at the shorts that reached her knees and sat loosely on her waist and laughed.

"This looks ridiculous." She said.

"Thanks." Syaoran said dryly.

"No, I just mean, well, look." She said stepping out of the shower and looking at the shorts.

Syaoran got up and turned to her. In his opinion, she looked nice, more like an athlete, not ridiculous, but he wasn’t going to say that. "It looks fine."

Sakura sighed, then yawned. Syaoran walked past her and stepped in the shower. Sakura frowned and turned towards him. "What are you doing?"

"Taking a shower, what’s it look like?" Syaoran said, his voice slightly muffled as he pulled his shirt over his head and flung it over the shower rack.

Sakura flushed for no particular reason and turned around. "I’m going to sleep, then." She proclaimed and headed for the door. She started to open it, then felt force on the other side helping it open, and abruptly slammed the door and locked it.

"SYAORAN! Come ON! You’ve been in there for a half hour already!" One of his sisters said.

"Go AWAY!" Syaoran shouted.

She made a scary growling noise. "Fine. The second you come out, you’re going to have all four of your furious sisters bearing down on you!"

Syaoran sighed but said nothing. Sakura sat miserably against a wall, upset that Syaoran could take all of this casually. She remembered when he used to be as shy or shier than her. That had been alright. But now he was so comfortable with things, and Sakura felt so stupid for being so uptight. It’s not fair. Why should I be the insecure one all the time? He’s always making sure he’s stronger than me.

"Can you get me a towel?" Syaoran asked already, shutting the water off for a second time.

Sakura got up and saw the closet half open, then looked for a towel to hand him. She turned and tried not to gawk as he wasn’t afraid of peering around the curtain and showing his whole upperhalf. Syaoran began toweling himself off and then grabbed the clothes he needed and pulled them on. He walked out of the shower and found Sakura looking worriedly to the door.

"What do I do?" Sakura asked, her voice lowered as it was a soft song on the radio that didn’t do much for covering their voices.

Syaoran looked around the bathroom. He spotted the closet. "See if you can fit..." He said, opening the door and letting her in. Sakura carefully ducked in, stowed herself in amongst the towels, then smiled with triumph.

"What do I do?"

"Just wait till she leaves. Make a run for my room." Syaoran said, grinning.

Sakura smiled. "Good luck, then."

Syaoran sighed shortly and shut the closet, then headed to the door. He reluctantly opened it and quickly moved out of the way as his sister swung it open the rest of the way. "That’s it, Syaoran, explain yourself."

Syaoran backed away a little, as Rana and Lai, his youngest and oldest sister, cornered him. "I was just taking a shower." He said confidently, knowing they could easily detect a lie.

"And I love you for it, now be honest."

Rana frowned, looking at something behind Syaoran. She nudged Lai with her elbow. Syaoran turned and saw what it was they were looking at. Somehow Sakura had left behind her tank top. With the shape of it, there was no way it could pass of as a guy’s tank. No, this was going to get Syaoran into some trouble. "I, uh-"

"So is that what you were doing? CROSSDRESSING?" Rana asked, horrified.

"Syaoran what is that-"

"I always said, fourteen years living with only girls, it would do this to the strongest kid’s mind-"

"Syaoran, please, if you have a problem, tell us." Lai said sincerely, looking with deep concern into her brother’s eyes.

Syaoran found it difficult to keep a straight face. "I...I think it’d be best if I could be alone." He said, choking on his own words.

"I understand. Take more time if you need to. Really, we just want to help you."

Syaoran was glad he had turned to grab Sakura’s shirt, because he couldn’t have been able to hide this broad grin. Forcing composure he turned back around and kept his pity-me-I’m-a-troubled-child look. He was able to brush past them to his room, where he quietly shut the door. Syaoran walked to his bed, flinging Sakura’s shirt to her closet, and collapsed, actually laughing for a moment before checking himself.

A few moments later Sakura burst in the room, shutting the door softly, then sunk to the ground, laughing uncontrollably. "You should have seen....through the slots in the door...." She gasped for air to speak. "The look on all your faces...." She broke into a tearful laughter again.

Syaoran smiled broadly. "Yeah, but this is going to wind up being really screwy. They’re going to talk to my mother and..." Syaoran’s voice trailed off.

Sakura sighed, finally catching her breath. She glanced at Syaoran once more and laughed for a short time, then got a hold on herself. "Well, sorry, again. I totally forgot about that one."

Syaoran shook his head. "It’s okay. I understand. And I deserve it."

"What?" Sakura asked, totally confused.

Syaoran grinned at her. "My punishment. For not telling you about the cards." He said, hoping that maybe they could get rid of the stupid arguement.

"I don’t know about that. I was thinking something more large scale." Sakura joked.

Syaoran sighed forlornly and leaned his head on the headboard of his bed. "I said I was sorry." That in itself was one of the hardest things Syaoran had ever gotten himself to say.

Sakura watched Syaoran curiously. Had her forgiveness meant that much to him? She hadn’t even thought he had noticed she was angry with him. But, it seemed, Syaoran proved himself more sensitive than she had realized. "Alright. I’ll forgive you, if...."

Syaoran waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. He sat up and faced her. "If...?" He repeated.

"If you will tell me exactly how you came to be the fake Komai." Sakura said.

Syaoran sighed loudly. At least she wasn’t furious anymore. "I just heard some stuff in the news that sounded like clow cards business, so I went to Tokyo and went to all the hotels and looked through the computer to find which one they were staying at?"

"Isn’t that illegal?" Sakura inquired.

"Yeah. So I ended up running down some hall and I winded up in those two girl’s room."

"Kato and Gatria?"

"Right."

"I don’t understand how you can just ‘wind up’ in someone’s room. You’ve got to have a key, and..." Sakura said.

"Well, a guard was chasing me, so I knocked on their door and they let me in."

"Ah, of course."

"So?" Syaoran asked.

"So go on." Sakura said, amazed at the other details in this story.

"So they said I looked like Komai. And Komai was sick. So since they didn’t want to cancel the concert, they offered to pay me money to do it."

"Bands can’t do that! That’s not fair! Fans go to see the real artists live, not fakes."

"You’re the one who wants to hear the story." Syaoran said with annoyance.

"Sorry, yeah, go ahead."

"Well that’s it." Syaoran said.

"What do you mean, ‘that’s it’?" Sakura asked, frowning.

"I mean that the rest you know. I ended up on stage, I saw the cards start to move and I shot the electrical system, sealed the cards, that’s it."

"Well I’m disappointed." Sakura said, sighing.

Syaoran gave her a questioning look.

"That you’d leave me behind on a clow card mission and then take this much time before you told me about it. It’s sad."

"I didn’t know if you could handle being around Komai that whole time..." Syaoran said.

Sakura darkened and glared at him. "Watch it, I still have time to go back to the large scale punishment."

""Kay, well I’m going to sleep then." He said, getting up and walking over to the light switch on the wall and turning it off.

Sakura stumbled her way over to the closet. "Are you still getting up horribly early?" She asked, trying to slide the door shut by herself.

"Yeah. I’ll have to go to school tommorrow, so you can do whatever here, try and figure out your plane ticket or whatever. You can use my computer if you want." Syaoran said, pulling the blankets over himself. "Watch out for Lai, though, she’s out of school. She normally is at work, but every now and then she comes by to eat lunch here."

Sakura pulled the blankets over herself gratefully, realizing how exhausted she was from the whole day of horse riding. "Alright." She mumbled, already starting to drift off into sleep.

- - - - - - -

Syaoran awoke quickly to the alarm on his watch. He shut it off and blinked, looking around his room sleepily. His dream was still vivid in his mind. He hoped he hadn’t said anything in his sleep that would have been embaressing. He had dreamt of the play, only last minute switches to the cast gave Sakura Alexis’ role, and the play had ended up being mostly a certain scene seventeen. The dream had then been invaded by all his sisters, however, who had chosen to spoil the moment.

Syaoran let a a sigh silently and sat up. He could hear Sakura breathing softly and evenly. She was still out. Syaoran had suspected she would be tired today. He got up as quietly as he could from his bed and found that on top of his pulled muscle he was horribly sore in the legs from horseriding so long the previous day. Syaoran knew that if he felt it, Sakura was sure to be incredibly sore today; her not riding as much as him. He quietly got some clothes from a drawer and slipped out of his room without ever waking Sakura.

After changing, he grabbed an apple off the basket on the table and then went to write a note to Sakura, writing out websites where she could get a cheap ticket. Once done with that, he went softly upstairs and set the note in the crack of the closet door and continued on his way to meet Sensei Wanti.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Your eyes sparkle more than a pair of freshly cut diamonds!" Yundi chided after Syaoran, who was walking away with irritation.

Teller, who was watching this quietly from his spot in the hall, looked down with shame as Syaoran passed by. The boy definitely had been releived to get all the attention off himself, as everyone seemed to be focusing on the new ‘Syaoran Scandal’. Still, Teller looked guilty as a dog as he give his most apolegetic look to Syaoran.

"Your hair waves in the wind like a bunch of cat tails planted along a quiet pond!" Jin added from right behind Syaoran.

Syaoran swiftly spun around and held his fist threateningly in Jin’s face. "Shut up." He said slowly, to give the whole intimidating theme.

Jin held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, I just...we just find this so funny." He said, chuckling to himself.

Yundi walked up, carefully pushing down Syaoran’s fist. "Easy killer. We were just quoting our favorite lines from our favorite poet. Sorry, it’s not humorous, we just had no idea you had it in for Meilin."

"Yeah, it kind of weirded us out at first, I always thought you’d go after the more sophisticated type."

"Like Chang-sama..." Yundi said, smiling wistfully and waving as Mandu walked by. She put her head higher up, if that was possible, and shook her hair out of her face.

"I’m not in love with my own cousin." Syaoran said. He almost added ‘I didn’t write that poem’, but Teller was standing closeby watching worriedly, so Syaoran held it in for his sake.

"Listen, dude, there’s no shame. Meilin’s quite a hottie, it’s just none of us had a chance as all she spoke of night and day was Syaoran Syaoran Syaoran!" Yundi explained.

Syaoran sighed and turned. "Go put your head up someone else’s ass for a change and leave me alone." He said, walking off.

"Yeah, ah, we’ll do that!" Yundi called after him.

"Your butt is like a plush toy I once had...!" Jin shouted. Both Yundi and Jin were leaning on their knees and gasping for breath as they laughed.

- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Syaoran sat boredly at the lunch table, absently pulling his arm away from Meilin’s hand. He wished he had skipped school today, because now as he thought about it, it was incredibly stupid to waste a whole day of Sakura’s ‘vacation’ away from her. Still, he was stuck now, listening to Yundi go on about about more poetic lines while Teller was hiding at the end of the table.

Mandu had blown her cover by accidentally revealing her true feelings about the whole poem scandal. Apparently she had confronted Alexis and asked if her little brother had really written it or not. A large fight emerged from that, in which Alexis was sitting in the principal’s office and Mandu sitting on the edge of a bed in the nurse’s office. Now the whole school knew that Mandu actually appreciated Teller’s attention. Meilin claimed it was because she was so devestated that Syaoran was ignoring her for another woman.

"Hey? Li-kun, you listening?"

Syaoran glared up at Yundi from his sandwhich.

"Are you signing up for soccer this year? Coach says you don’t even have to bother with the try outs."

Syaoran looked back down at his food. "I dunno." He said. He had been hoping that there might be some way he could move to Japan, but the more he looked at it, the more unrealistic it was. Still, he didn’t want to move right in here, but...The elders are totally in control, there’s not much I can do.

"Meilin, are you going to let us use your pool for the pre-play party?"

Meilin shrugged. "You can if you want." She turned to Syaoran. "You have to go. It’s exclusive for significant cast members only."

Syaoran looked up at Yundi. "He’s not significant. He turns the tape player on and off."

Yundi scowled. "Well someone has to do it."

"Alexis is going to go swimming again?" Jin asked, a dreamy look on his face.

"That’s the main attraction." Yundi agreed.

"We’ll have to invite Teller and Mandu for good measure." Ryoto said.

"I don’t know. Mandu’s been pretty sour since she found out the poem really wasn’t for her."

"When is it?" Syaoran asked.

"The night before the play, genius."

Syaoran scowled. "Which is..."

"Tommorrow. Geez you’re really out of it. The play’s Friday night, or have you forgotten?"

"Time probably stands still for him whenever he’s practicing scene seventeen."

Syaoran decided to ignore them for the rest of lunch, and enjoyed the rest of his food in peace.

_______________

Sakura had eaten more than she ever had in her life, after looking through the full cabinents of the Li house. Currently she was chewing on a very good peice of bacon she’d just fried and was sitting comfortably on one of their white leather couches. She knew Syaoran would be home any minute from school, and she could tell him of all the problems she’d had buying an airplane ticket. She yawned and stretched, then sat back in the chair.

The front door opened, and Sakura quickly ducked down and hid the bacon in her pockets, carefully peering over the couche’s side. It was only Syaoran. "Hello." She said cheerfully, getting up from the couch and walking over to follow him around.

"I have another stupid play practice, so I can’t stay long." Syaoran said, throwing his book bag on the table and continuing into the kitchen.

"Oh." Sakura said, crestfallen. She had been so bored and lonely while he had been in school. But what was another few hours? "I can’t come watch, can I?"

"No! I mean, Meilin, everyone else, they’d all see you, it wouldn’t be good." Syaoran said.

"Right." Sakura agreed sadly.

Syaoran took some carrots from the fridge and walked back over to the table. "I’m sorry, but I’m hardly ever home. Are you leaving by Friday?" He asked.

Sakura was more than just a little offended by that. "I’d be gone now if I could but I still haven’t gotten a ticket." She retorted.

Syaoran realized that might have sounded slightly harsh. "I didn’t mean it like that." He said quietly. I just don’t want you to be around during the play.

Sakura didn’t answer, she only stood by the table, sorting things out in her mind. She jumped as the door swung open, then dived behind the couch.

Meilin’s little rotweiler puppy came bounding in, followed by Meilin. "Syaoran! Me and Fuwey are going on a walk, want to come?"

"Get your dog out of my house, Meilin."

Meilin gave him a pouting look. "Fuwa-fuwa’s just looking for some fun. Don’t be so cruel."

The dog had caught the scent of something, and was running towards the couch where Sakura was crouched in hiding. Syaoran cringed and ran after the dog to pick it up before it started a riot. The rotweiler started pawing at the couch, giving sharp little barks. Sakura grimaced and tried to shuffle away but there was no room.

"He’s tearing up that couch." Syaoran said with irritation, going to shoe the dog away with his foot.

Meilin ran over and picked up the puppy. "He’s found something, that’s all." Meilin was leaning over the couch, she’d see Sakura any minute...

Sakura, seeing no other choice, squeezed her eyes shut for one deep moment of decision, then popped up from behind the couch. Meilin’s eyes widened with confusion.

"Ha, you found me." Sakura said weakly, smiling fakely so that it looked like more of a grimace.

"K-Kinomoto-san? What are you doing? Here?"

Syaoran put a hand to his head to try and deal with the stress.

"I...We were playing hide and go seek. And you found me. Ha ha." Sakura had never heard herself laugh more fakely.

"Syaoran?" Meilin asked, turning to her cousin. "What’s all this?"

He shrugged and looked back to Sakura. He didn’t want to try to continue her story.

"Why are you in Hong Kong? How long have you been here?"

"Ah..." Sakura stuttered. Fuwa-fuwa continued to bark hysterically and began pawing at Sakura’s pants pocket. She moved away from the puppy, but it followed and leaped after her, trying to push her over.

"Fuwa, shut up. An explanation, Kinomoto?"

Sakura looked back up. "Just today." She tried to push the puppy away, but that made it more energetic. Sakura knew she had the bacon in her pocket. How would she get out of this?

"Fuwa!" Meilin shouted sternly. The pup ignored her and only more eagerly jumped at Sakura’s pocket.

Sakura pulled the bacon out and smiled sheepishly. Now both Syaoran and Meilin were watching her skeptically. "I, uh, got a sandwhich at the airport today. I didn’t want the bacon, and there were no trash cans around, so..."

"That’s disgusting." Meilin said bluntly.

Sakura nodded weakly.

"So why are you here?" Meilin repeated.

"Um, just visiting." Sakura said.

"You knew she was here?" Meilin asked Syaoran. "You knew she was here and you didn’t tell me?"

"No." Syaoran disagreed.

"So you just showed up at his house suspiciously right when he came home from school and started up a game of hide and go seek?" Meilin asked.

"Y-yes." Sakura confirmed.

"You are the weirdest...." Meilin trailed off. "Why are you in Syaoran’s clothes?" She asked, noticing the long shorts Sakura had on and immediatly recognizing them, even if Syaoran had only worn them once.

"Hola, senoritas!" Rana, the youngest of Syaoran’s sisters, announced her enterance, walking through the open doorway. She looked curiously at Sakura. "New friend?"

Sakura panicked. "No, ah-"

"Hey, I know you...." Lai, Syaoran’s oldest sister said as she walked in, frowning as she studied Sakura. "You’re the Kinomoto girl. How wonderful, are you visiting?"

Sakura smiled weakly, trying to find words. "Yes, um-"

"Oh, you’re Sakura? We’ve heard so much about you, it’s great to finally see the real girl behind the title, I just didn’t pay much attention to you last time you were here..." Rana said.

"Are you staying in Hong Kong long?" Daikal, the second oldest asked.

"You’re perfectly welcome to stay here, we’ve got a guest room that’s totally empty!"

"That’d be great, I-"

"Come on, then, we’ll show you to it!"

Sakura found herself being led up the stairs, away from Syaoran and Meilin. Rana turned and looked after her brother. "It’s not polite to be such a poor host Syaoran, you’ve got to come too!"

Syaoran let out a sigh. "I’m going to play practice." He said, heading to the door.

"That’s it? You’re just up and leaving your guest?" Daikal asked.

Syaoran waved his hand behind himself as a response and left the house full of girls. Meilin ran after him with Fuwa barking at her heels, and they set off towards the school.

"How long is Kinomoto staying?" Meilin asked, slightly grumpy.

"She doesn’t know." Syaoran answered.

"How come you never played hide and go seek with me before?" She asked.

Syaoran let out another sigh. His whole life had been hiding from Meilin. "I don’t know. I never felt like it."

"So is she coming to the play?" Meilin asked.

"I don’t know." Syaoran answered again. He kicked a rock off the sidewalk in frustration.

"You can’t let her go messing up your poem writing for me."

"Meilin we’ve been over this. I didn’t write it."

"But....but......" Meilin sighed heavily. "Why couldn’t you just pretend you did? Just to let me be happy for a little while longer?"

Syaoran felt slightly guilty at the dismal way she spoke. But it wasn’t his fault that she felt the way she did. "I’m sorry, but you know I’m not good at pretending."

"You still like her, don’t you?"

"No, why-"

"You confuse me sometimes, Syaoran. You seem to have such a hard time facing up to certain feelings. I can’t beleive you haven’t grown up talked to her about it yet. Silly procrastinator. You’re going to wind up being too late."

"Don’t talk about something you don’t even have a handle on." Syaoran said darkly.

Meilin sighed with disapproval but stayed silent. She knew through the swift change to defensive tone in Syaoran’s voice meant that she had hit a mark. But even that didn’t help her deal with the pain in her heart. She quickly tried to ignore the childhood jealousy burning inside and refocus. "You just wait until you’re done with scene seventeen and take a glance at the look she’ll have on her face, then you’ll see I’m right."

Syaoran only scoffed in response. His goal was for Sakura never to hear of scene seventeen. She would never set a foot in the auditorium.

__________________________________________

"...And there’s Syaoran with the plastic sword he got for his fourth birthday." Rana continued, pointing to one side of the photo album.

Sakura grinned, seeing the adorable little Syaoran running around with a fake sword and a devilish smile on his face. "He looks like such a trouble maker." She remarked.

"I know. We could always tell by his expression whether he was guilty or not. Oh, ha, there’s a shot where Lai caught the theif at the cookie jar." Rana said, pointing again.

Sakura smiled. Syaoran had his hand half in the cookie jar while hanging precariously on the side of the counter, a look of horror on his face as he saw the picture being taken.

There were many shots of his sisters with boyfriends, playing outside, horseriding. She spotted a couple pictures of Syaoran where he was playing with some type of kite. Two larger hands were guiding his own, and behind him were a long pair of legs that Sakura guessed to be his father. She looked up more solemnly from the book. "I’m sorry for asking, but I was just wondering, why are there no pictures of your father?"

Rana sat back from the book, hit by the hard question. "Syaoran got hit really hard by... by it, he couldn’t deal with pictures hanging and reminding him of it. So we took them all down, hid them away."

"It’s not healthy for a boy to be so disconnected from his father, but, it’s guilt I suppose. Still eating at him from the inside." Daikal said.

Sakura would have liked to ask what they meant by ‘guilt’, but she felt that would be too nosey. "Yeah, I’ve tried to ask him about it before, but he closes up so quickly..."

"Sounds like Syaoran." Rana agreed.

"He seems to really like you, though, you’ve got to see it. I think he may open up to you more than you realize." Daikal said.

Sakura slightly blushed. "I’m not sure about that, I think I just bother him about it enough so he just gives in."

Rana gave a fake laugh that said she wasn’t convinced.

"So are you going to the big play? Our didi (little brother (chinese)) is starring as lead guy. It should be exciting."

"They seem to have enough practices." Sakura agreed.

"Yes, their sensei is slightly psychotic, not that anyone tells her about it."

"When is it?"

"Friday night." Rana answered.

Just coincidence? Or does he just not want me to come see this play? "I think I might be. I’ve got to get a flight out of here really soon, unfortunately, but I might manage staying till then."

"You can sit with us!" Lai said, entering the room and jumping on the couch.

"Speak of the devil..." Daikal said, looking up at the door opening.

Syaoran walked in and took one irritated glance at the photo albums open, then continued annoyed upstairs.

"What are you doing?" Rana called after him.

"Changing." He said grumpily.

"Always so irritable..." Lai said, relaxing on the large leather couch. She turned to Sakura. "How is the picture searching going?"

Sakura smiled. "These are really cute." She said. Sakura remembered the book she had found a few days ago. "I’ll be right back." She said, hopping up from her seat. She hurried around the stairs, and found the bookcases. She quickly spotted the picture of the drawn samurai and picked up the collection of papers. She hurried back into the living room. "I just saw this the other day, I was wondering-"

"I forgot all about that!" Lai exclaimed, jumping up and looking at the papers in Sakura’s hands.

"If you ever want to make fun of Syaoran, here is perfect fuel."

Sakura smiled broadly. "So he did do this?"

"Yep. Illustrations, story plot, all of it." Rana confirmed.

"How old was he when he wrote it?" Sakura asked.

"Five, I think."

"Five? How could he write?" Sakura asked, confused.

"Right after Syaoran could walk and talk, our father was obsessed with making him the smartest kid around. He taught him how to read and write in kanji, even some basic english letters, and he started writing soon after." Lai explained.

"Wow..." Sakura said. Now that she looked at the picture on the front, she was amazed. If a five year old had drawn it, it deserved to be in an art museum. "He was really good." She said. She sat down on the couch and started looking through it.

"It’s the most adorable story, this samurai....

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Syaoran stripped down to his boxers, confident no one was going to barge in since they were so intent at looking at old meaningless pictures, and looked for some better clothes to wear. He pulled out a button up shirt and sat on the edge of his bed, starting on the buttons. He stopped motion abruptly as he heard some suspicious words from the conversation downstairs.

"...and he started writing soon after..."

Syaoran’s eyes widened and he lept up off his bed, grabbing a pair of pants and yanking them on as he ran to the door, tearing down the stairs and completely forgetting his undone shirt. He ran right down the stairs to the living room and stopped behind the couch, grabbing the book right out of Sakura’s hands. "I thought I told you to burn this a long time ago." Syaoran said coldly to Rana, who was looking at him with amusement.

"Come now Syaoran, we were just having a little reading. And honestly, is that anyway to dress when you have a guest over?"

Syaoran glanced down at himself and saw his shirt was unbuttoned and he was half exposed. Flushing but determined not to let them get to him, he just held his head arogantly and kept the book with him. He turned and stalked off quickly, hating the hot feeling on his face.

Sakura watched him go with bewilderment. Rana noticed her expression and laughed. "Syaoran is very embaressed of his writing, I guess."

Sakura slowly smiled. Syaoran was so funny sometimes. She wished she could have gotten further through the story than she had. She was still in the introductory of it.

__________________________________________________________________

Sakura felt strangely empty as she headed to her room to sleep. Syaoran had hardly spoken to her the rest of the evening. Though he wasn’t being unusually short with her, she was still bothered by it, because she knew how much better it could be. She went to shut off the light and then sat back down on the bed. It was much softer than the closet she had been hiding in, but for some odd reason, she almost would have preferred her previous sleeping quarters.

She laid down and tried to sleep, but her eyes remained open. There was a constant noise outside, as she listened, and Sakura got up to see what it was. She walked to the window where there was no moonlight shining through. She could barely make out a sillhouette of some moving leaves. There was a wind blowing around outside. She watched the leaves blow around for a while, then feeling herself get tired, she walked back to her bed and closed her eyes.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura woke up around six and found that the sun still shed no light in her room. She looked around to try and find what had woken her up, but saw nothing. She listened quietly for any noise, but heard nothing. Still, she felt something had woken up and caused her to wake up as well. Sakura quietly got off her bed and walked softly through the room to the hallway. She padded down the hall and saw a dim light on downstairs, so continued down the stairs.

"Did I wake you up?" Syaoran asked softly, not looking up from the breakfeast he was making.

"No." Sakura answered. She found that she was slightly bleary eyed and felt she could sleep longer, but decided to take this opportunity to spend more time with Syaoran while she could. She rubbed her arms to try and warm up and yawned, then walked over to the door where there were large windows and looked outside. The wind had picked up over the night. "Is there a storm coming?" She asked.

"Probably the edge of the hurricane. Hopefully this wind will be all we get."

"How come you aren’t training?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran turned. "It’s too clouded over, there’d be no light." He said. "Why are you up, anyway?"

Sakura took this as an invitation to leave. "I’m sorry, I’ll go back."

"No, I didn’t mean..." How come she’s been twisting everything into an insult? Am I making her that insecure? "I just meant that sensible people would be asleep right now." He quickly wanted to take back his words, figuring she’d take offense at that.

"I guess that means we are both unsensible, then." Sakura said, sitting at a stool that was around the island of the kitchen.

"I’m just doing my duty to protect my family." Syaoran said indignantly.

"By making yourself toast?" She asked skeptically.

Syaoran put the toast on a plate. "Yeah, well, you have to eat. Do you want any?"

Sakura smiled. "Yeah, thanks."

Syaoran silently fixed her some and set the plate in front of her, then walked with his over to the window to look outside. Sakura looked down at the food and then swallowed it down, glancing over her shoulder to see what Syaoran was doing. She gave up hoping he’d come and sit next to her, and instead put her used plate in the sink, washed it, then walked back to the foot of the stairs.

"I think I’m going back to bed. I’ll see you after school." She said, not bothering to hide her disappointment.

Syaoran looked up from the door he had been leaning on to see her going up the stairs. He frowned with confusion. What did I do? "Ah, wait!" Syaoran called after her. Sakura turned around and waited questioningly. "Some kids from my school are having a party at Meilin’s pool. You can come if you want."

"Won’t it be rained out?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran shook his head. "Meilin’s pool is covered."

"I don’t have a swim suit."

Syaoran wondered if these were just excuses about not wanting to go. "Meilin has some extras."

Sakura smiled broadly. "Alright, then. I’ll see you later."

Syaoran smiled back although she had already turned and was going up the stairs. All hope was not lost yet. This weather was on his side for once, and Sakura couldn’t go back until the whole of it blew over. Syaoran looked out the window and almost willed it to come over their region.

______________________________________

Sakura sighed and sat back in the chair that was set in front of the computer monitor. She couldn’t beleive the cold irony that seemed to be bestowed in the world for her. All flights until 11PM Friday cancelled. Delays expected for Saturday flights. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Sakura hated this storm. Stupid hurricane. It just HAD to hit here right when I happened to be here. Sakura tried to think ahead. Should I book my flight now? Or wait? I might as well wait. I’m not even sure, really, how to order a ticket over the internet...

Sakura shut down the computer, then spun the chair in circles with boredom. Syaoran would be home soon, and they would be going to this ‘party’. Sakura wasn’t quite sure why, but she was horribly nervous about the whole affair. There would be all the kids she didn’t know swimming around, and, if they were Syaoran’s friends, she feared they may all be cold and unaccepting. But she couldn’t imagine everyone was like that. It was at Meilin’s house, so it couldn’t be awful. I wonder if I will see Teller? And Alexis?

Sakura got up from the chair and looked around Syaoran’s room. She walked by the desks and tables and surveyed the different things set upon them. Nothing important or of any signifigance were on them, only some old homework, school schedules... She looked over the different spell books and then leaned against the desk, dismal in her lack of findings.

But something caught her eye. The edge of a paper, possibly several, was just barely peeking out from under a pillow on Syaoran’s bed. Sakura walked over and picked up the pillow carefully, as if someone could hear her. She smiled broadly at the value of the papers she had just found. He had hidden his old book with the picture of the samurai on it under his pillow. He obviously didn’t want to get rid of it, else it would have been in the trash by now. Sakura picked up the book and set down the pillow, then turned the page and began reading over the introduction.

Sakura jumped sideways as she heard the front door open downstairs, and instinctively hid the papers behind her back.

"Hurry up, we’ve got to get going, Meilin wasn’t sure which ones would fit you." Syaoran called from downstairs.

Sakura put the papers under her shirt and hurried out of Syaoran’s room. He was looking at her from downstairs, watching her questioningly. "I’ll be right there!" She called, hurrying towards her guest room at the end of the hall.

She quickly put the book under the blankets of the guest bed and then hurried away, feelings the jittery nerves return about the party.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sorry for the crappy ending but this chapter was just getting too long.

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