RECAP: Alright last chapter Syaoran was very cool- he finds where the band’s staying in a roundabout way (This is the band he suspected the card was being used on), and he ends up filling in for their lead guitarist. While on stage he pulled Sakura up there and signed an autograph (shhh she doesn’t know it’s him!) and then he captures the Song AND the Voice card, finding out that he can in fact seal his own cards. So here we are.

Chapter 23

"I cannot beleive you Kinomoto! You make me so jealous!" Rika wailed.

"You and every other girl in Japan." Chihura said jealously, looking at the autographed picture Sakura was holding.

"He was so amazing." Sakura said dreamily.

Syaoran was about to choke on his food, but he forced himself to swallow. Somehow in destiny’s cruel humor he had ended sitting next to her in lunch, and now was stuck listening to her tell her story about Komai, over and over. Now he was near tears trying to stifle the hysterical laughs that were trying to escape. He glanced sideways at the picture, biting his lip as he looked at the marker scribbles he had done just the night before.

"Isn’t that awesome, Li-kun?" Sakura asked, holding the picture for his veiw.

"Yeah, um, that’s really amazing." Syaoran said, quickly leaning over his food to keep her from seeing his red face, one red from holding in laughs.

Sakura sat back on the lunch bench and admired her picture once more, then went back to picking at her food. She hadn’t had much of an apetite since the previous night, she felt as if she had been walking on clouds. "You didn’t happen to get that on tape, did you Tomoyo?"

"Heheh, even the law does not hold me back." Tomoyo said devilishly, adding a sly glance at Syaoran, who had turned horribly pale.

Syaoran sat back on the seat, his head going horribly dizzy. If she finds out that was me...Holy crap, I’ve got to destroy that tape! Syaoran forced down the seemingly solid pudding. I’ve got to tell her that I found I can seal a card.

"...It was so strange. The lights and sound and everything just went out all the sudden. Then they came right back on." Sakura said, Syaoran hearing this part of the story for about the fourth time that day, though Sakura found a different way to word it every time. "But man, we are so tired, the concert ended so late, then all the traffic..."

Syaoran knew what she meant. He hadn’t gotten to sleep until about two thirty, and his eyelids were weighing horribly today. Tamakazi looked over and noticed Syaoran’s sleepy expression. "Are you alright?"

Syaoran blinked and looked up. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I’m fine." He said, going back to shoveling in more pudding.

Mark, across the table, was comparing heigths. "Trent you can’t be even a half inch taller than me, don’t brag." He glared across the table at Syaoran, who wasn’t in a particulary agressive mood, not really wanting conflicts because of his slow sleepy mind.

"I’ve got to be at least four inches taller than Li."

Syaoran looked up from his food, glaring. "No you aren’t." He said, looked down at his food. Syaoran was well aware that his heighth comparitive to his schoolmates was starting to be a little on the short side, but he had full confidence he’d spurt up one of these days.

"How tall are you, anyway? Five three, five four?"

Syaoran glared, but then dropped his eyes back down. "Five eight." He muttered, though he knew he was closer to five seven right now, but he figured a week and he’d be right on the eight mark.

Mark grinned. "I’m five eleven." He said proudly.

Wooptidoo. Syaoran decided to avoid any fist fights for now, he wouldn’t want to be suspended just before he left, and honestly he didn’t feel very tough today, he felt it would be immature to get started up over such a senseless confrontation. He just gave Mark a fake smile and nodded. "Wow."

Mark was more annoyed with this response than anything, and his glare turned into a dark glower. He changed the subject to shaving, and Syaoran went back to looking at his food. Tamakazi was talking to Mark about some stupid lotion, so Syaoran just went along eating his food.

"...Of course I’m sure Syaoran doesn’t have to worry about that." Mark said.

Syaoran looked up, frustrated, from his food. "Is there something you want? Or do you just want to try and make me mad because I can guarantee you that you’re not gonna win-"

"I was just pointing out that some of don’t need to shave yet, some of us haven’t hit puberty yet, that’s all." Mark said simply, feeding off the snickers he was getting from the kids sitting next to him.

Syaoran had had enough. With a glare that would have sent most kids running he set down his spoon and was about the jump across the table and get full grip around Mark’s throat, but a soft hand on his knee startled him, and Syaoran stopped. Syaoran sighed, trying to release some of his annoyance, and, without looking sideways at Sakura who was holding him back, he calmly addressed Mark once more. "The people on this half of the table would really appreciate it if you would shut your mouth up while you’re eating, some of us find it repulsive, but that might just be because it’s you whose talking, you son of-"

Sakura jammed her elbow into his side, seeing the sensei making his way over. Syaoran sighed and sat calmly, glaring straight across at Mark, who glared back. Mark mouthed some bad words across the table, and Syaoran wished badly that Sakura wasn’t holding on to his arm, or else some of the pudding would be making its way across the table. Seeing the sensei pass, Syaoran flipped him off, though Sakura quickly pulled his hand down, scolding him.

"Syaoran don’t fall to his level!" She whispered, trying to unsuspciously let go of his arm as the sensei walked by again.

"He’s a..." Syaoran sighed, Sakura’s green eyes were watching him carefully. "He just is insecure and is trying to lift himself up the only way he knows how." Syaoran said, though rather loudly, hoping Mark would hear it.

Sakura patted his knee. "Good! And we would never hit someone below our level, right?"

Syaoran sighed. "Right." He said, though he threw a glare over the table.

"Anger management classes, Sakura?" Rika called.

Sakura looked over from where she had been looking. "Heheh, yes." She said, smiling.

The bell rang, and everyone got up, collecting their trash, and heading out of the cafeteria. Syaoran threw his stuff away and looked after Sakura, watching her walk away, laughing and talking to her friends, clutching her picture. He sighed, then started making his way out of the cafeteria. If only I didn’t have to leave, I’ll be ruining everything. Kaoto’s lyrics to their closing song started running through his head. They hadn’t gone away all night, despite the loud radio Syaoran had turned on that morning. I’ve got to talk to her about Moondust.

- - - - - - - - - - -

Sakura sat down on the piano bench. "Tomoyo I have this great idea for a song! I was playing it on my little keyboard, but I could only fit one hand at a time, I don’t know where it came from, but..." She started playing the flowing melody of the left hand, then began the melody line with her right.

The large chords and flowing melody of the melancholy tune made Sakura feel a type of sadness, but she didn’t know why. It was a beautiful song, but there was something behind it, and Sakura was sure if she could remember where she heard it, she’d know why it was so sad. She finished it and turned to look at Tomoyo, who was watching her, stunned.

"That’s beautiful!" Tomoyo exclaimed, clambering over the bench. "Amazing! It’s so deep, you put so much emotion in it! Wow! You’ve got to write it down, Sakura!"

Sakura smiled and blushed from the compliments. "Thank you, I dunno, it just....came to me." She said, grinning. Sakura walked over to the music stand that had blank sheets of musical staffs that she could write out the song. Sakura took it back to the piano she and Tomoyo were playing on and then picked up her pencil, leaning the paper on another seat so she could write on it. Sakura began writing it out, having to stop and think about the notes every so often. Sakura spent a good half hour of the hour class thinking and writing out the song, then found herself staring at the blank box for the title.

"What could I call it..." Sakura wondered, chewing on the end of her pencil.

Tomoyo had been trying to make corresponding parts, coming up with some nice little things, but it was obvious Sakura had managed to come up with this one. "You are thinking of a title?" She asked.

"Yeah." Sakura said. Melancholy. That’s the only way to describe it. Why not put that in the title? "How about chords of melancholy? No...that’s not right..." Sakura bit her lip thinking.

"Ivory keys in Melancholy?" Tomoyo offered.

"Good, but not the mark..." Sakura stopped and thought for a while. "How about Strains of Melancholy?" She asked, the title working in her mind.

"Perfect!" Tomoyo said, smiling. "We are sure to get an A on this!"

"When’s the concert?" Sakura asked.

"Hmm...I’m not sure." She looked up at Chihura, who was having a hard time hitting a low note on her clarinet. Another squeak filled the whole room, and Tamakazi cringed next to her. "Chihura! Do you know when this concert’s gonna be?"

"Next Tuesday!" Chihura called back.

"That’s right, thanks!" Tomoyo said.

"That’s in a week!" Sakura exclaimed. "But this song is so pretty, I’m not nervous like that last time." I wonder if Syaoran will come to this concert? Probably not. He thinks he has better things to do. If Syaoran wasn’t so arrogant...Oh well. Maybe if I invite him, he’ll come.

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

Syaoran sat furiously on the bleachers edge. He was in gym, and they were now playing field hockey. The problem was, the sensei was very strict on rules like ‘high sticking’, and the second Syaoran had accidentally let the tip of his stick go even with his waist, he was sent to the ‘penalty box’ for two minutes. Right now he was watching furiously as Mark was completly taking advantage of the body checking rules, pushing Syaoran’s poor teamates down as he drove the puck across the gym floor.

Syaoran glanced up at the scoreboard where his time had been keeping check and stood up, seeing that his time was up. Syaoran ran onto the gym floor again, greeted by a grateful smile from Tamakazi, who was breathing hard from chasing the puck across the floor. "Go to it, Li!" He said, walking back to his defensive position and giving Syaoran back his offense.

Sakura sighed from where she was sitting on the bleachers. She hadn’t gotten to play yet, she was stuck sitting out until the first five minutes where up and she along with three other girls would trade in for fellow teamates. She watched Syaoran jog back onto the court, death written on his face as his eyes were glued to Mark. Sakura had to grin to herself, Syaoran’s natural agression was very humorous sometimes. She looked up brightly as the bell rang on the score board, and she and the three girls ran out onto the court on their own teams. Sakura’s team was blue, everyone had blue hockey sticks, opposing Mark’s team, the yellows.

Sakura decided she would help out Syaoran on the offense, and she sprinted to the goal he was trying to score at, where presently the puck was ricocheting around the defense of that team. Sakura waved at him. "Pass, here!" She called.

Syaoran glanced up from where he was trying to get the hockey puck away from the defense and around to the goal. He was looking up at her through his hair, one of those looks that always made Sakura sit back and think about just how attractive he really way, but she wasn’t thinking about that right now, she was concentrating on stopping the puck with her stick. Sakura moved it around by not picking her stick up, but pushing the puck along with it, moving around the defenders. Syaoran watched her with a frown, not sure of how she was able to keep such control, then shook his amazement off, running around the people in his way to the goal, waiting for Sakura to pass to him for the perfect shot he had.

Sakura prepared to pass, but hard weight went against her, and Sakura slammed her side into the hard bleachers next to the goal. Sakura cringed temporarily with pain, then looked up at the mean culprit. Mark was running the other way now with the puck. Sakura glared furiously after him, competition starting to burn. Sakura sprinted after him, finding Syaoran running at her side, looking just as angry.

Mark had just scored, and he smiled gloriously, then turned and jogged over to Sakura. "I am so sorry, Sakura-chan, are you alright?" He asked, putting his hands on her shoulders.

Sakura guiltily pushed away her look of fury. "I am fine, thank you." She said politely, though she still wasn’t convinced he was sincere. He had, after all, asked her if she was alright after he had scored.

Syaoran angrily brushed past them, hating Mark more and more than he ever thought possible. He pushes Sakura into the bleachers, he’d better be praying for his life right now. The sensei set the puck in the middle and the game started again. Syaoran swung it around and began taking it to the goal he was scoring on, keeping the corner of his eye on Sakura who was running ahead, opening herself up for a shot.

Syaoran slowed to a stop to pass to her, but he didn’t stop, because Mark was pushing him back, trying to get the puck. He slammed Syaoran into the bleachers, and Syaoran cringed as his head slammed into the hard wood, Mark’s weight crushing him against it. Syaoran caught his breath as Mark let off his ribs and quickly stopped the puck from going anywhere by stopping it with his stick, trying to hit it to Sakura to have at least a little victory against Mark here. Mark angrily pushed against it. Syaoran came around from where he had been pinned back and pushed against Mark with his shoulder as he hit the puck away, though he couldn’t use his hand, because that was illegal.

The short break gave Syaoran a chance to put his hand on his head, finding that a bump was already on the back of his head. Syaoran saw that Mark was running at Sakura, who was trying to score, so with his blitzing speed he ran and checked Mark hard with his shoulder, knocking him away from Sakura, who was watching this happen in front of her with wide eyes. Mark, full of frustration, swung at the puck, sharply nailing Syaoran’s fingers with the side of his stick. Syaoran was getting very fed up with being victim, though there wasn’t much he could do. Chihura, who was on defense, looked towards the sensei, waiting for him to call something. "Hey, I think there’s some unnecessary roughness going on here." She called. No one acknowledged her, so she just went back to watching Syaoran and Mark battle it out.

Sakura was sick of watching them, so she went to aid Syaoran, taking the puck away from them, and before they knew what was going on, she took it around Chihura and Tomoyo, who were defense, swinging it swiftly into the goal, right between the goalie’s legs. Sakura grinned as her team cheered, Tamakazi yelling something at Chihura about his team winning. The sensei whistled, and everyone went to the center. Sakura walked over to where Syaoran stood next to Tamakazi, smiling at him. He looked at her, then looked down, embaressed.

"We’ll finish that game tommorrow!" The sensei called. "Go get dressed."

The crowd scattered and walked their way across the gym to the doors. Sakura looked sympathetically at Syaoran. "Is your head alright, Li-kun?"

Syaoran had no problem talking to Sakura out of school, but in groups of people he knew, it was still strange, and he was not sure how to deal with her attention while other people watched. "I’m fine." He grumbled, glaring up at the back of Mark’s head.

Sakura put her hand on the back of his head, making him grimace. She smiled and shook her head. "Fine, huh? You should be careful, your head is only so hard."

"Nice shot, Sakura." Mark called back, smiling.

Sakura smiled proudly. "Thanks!" She called, unaware of the dark glower Syaoran was giving them.

______________________________________________________________________

Sakura looked around. She realized that she was looking at two cats. One was pink and one was green. She frowned, trying to understand what the meaning of this was. "What?" Sakura said, looking with confusion at the two felines.

Sakura opened her eyes, Kero was pulling on her shoulder, and Bob was fluttering his wings against her face, pushing wind on it. Sakura opened her eyes wider with alarm, but was able to keep from screaming or falling off her bed. "Can’t you guys ever let me wake up by my alarm?"

"Come on, you slept right through it!" Kero said. tugging on the edge of her blanket.

Sakura looked over at the clock next to her and shreiked. "I’m gonna be late!" Sakura threw her blankets off and ran to her closet, pulling her school uniform out of the closet. She quickly switched clothes, hardly aware of the cry Bob gave as he noticed she was changing. Sakura ran down the stairs, still buttoning the vest over her shirt, then hurried by her father, who had already had her lunch out. Sakura took it from him gratefully and then hurried out the door, grabbing her rollerblades on the way by.

Sakura put them on quickly, then began skating her hardest down the road, adjusting her bookbag tightly to her back so she could move freely. Sakura tore around a turn and hurried to straighten up. She swung around another turn but turned into something solid, and Sakura quickly tried to gain her balance as she was falling. Two strong arms caught her, and Sakura steadied herself with their aid gratefully. "Thank you, I’m sorry, I’m in a hur-" Sakura looked up, and found herself peering into bright fiery eyes.

"Me too, you’re alright, right?" Syaoran said, gazing at her and enjoying the breif moment of closeness before Sakura had stood up and stepped back.

"Yeah, thanks, we’ve gotta hurry, the bell’s gonna ring!" Sakura said, turning and starting to skate with her hard momentum.

Syaoran started sprinting along side her, pulling the straps of his bookbag tight again. "Homeroom sensei was going to talk about the spring dance for the first fifteen minutes." Syaoran said breathlessly as he forced more endurance into his system as he ran hard to keep up with Sakura’s eight wheels.

"We’re not missing anything, then." Sakura said, swinging around the corner, pushing Syaoran into a wide turn. "Sorry, I’m not the greatest at turning." She said.

Syaoran grinned but said nothing more. He was very happy to see she didn’t like dances either, though he didn’t think he would even be in Japan when it was going to be. Syaoran was glad to see the school parking lot, he was getting very tired of this full force running. Syaoran and Sakura slowed at the door, both breathing hard, and Sakura quickly pulled off her rollerblades, shoving her shoes on and jogging after Syaoran. They both hurried down the hall to their lockers, which were isolated.

Sakura opened hers and shoved her stuff in, glancing sideways at Syaoran, who was a few lockers down. "Is your head very sore today?" She called.

Syaoran had to kick his bag into the locker, finding that either his locker was shrinking, or his bag was expanding. "Not too bad." Syaoran said, fighting with the last few straps of the bookbag.

"Maybe you should clean that out." Sakura said, getting her books out for homeroom and shutting her own locker.

Syaoran just continued to push that bag in and then searched for his books amongst the rest of his stuff. Sakura shook her head, walking over to him. He keeps his house clean, but his locker is an awful mess! Sakura stopped her thoughts, frowning. I sense something. Sakura looked down the hall cautiously, gripping her books.

Syaoran shut his locker, holding his books breathlessly, then looked at Sakura, who was concentrating, looking down the hall. "What is it?" He asked, ignoring the fact that they only had a few seconds before the bell would ring.

Sakura blinked and looked back at Syaoran. "Huh? Oh, I, uh..."She concentrated more deeply, not wanting to disturb Syaoran for some nonsense that was just in her imagination. Her mind strobed stronger. "A card." Sakura said, looking around with her green eyes solemn.

Syaoran looked around cautiously, kicking himself for not having his lasin board. "Can you tell where?"

Sakura closed her eyes and concentrated. "It’s...it’s.." Concentrate. "Follow me!" Sakura said, turning and heading down a remote hall in the school.

Syaoran ran after her, following her through a maze of hallways and knowing the only way she was finding directions was through her sensing abilities. I didn’t sense anything. Again. Figures. I may be able to seal cards, but I can’t even sense their presence. Syaoran stopped abruptly behind her as they reached the school mechanics room. The floor was swirling blue, the center being the darkest shade.

"I-wow, I had a dream about this!" Sakura said.

"What is it?" Syaoran asked.

"It was..." Sakura tried to remember the dream, but she couldn’t remember. "I just remember some cats." Sakura said.

Syaoran looked at her with critism. "Cats?"

Sakura called out her staff and held it tight. "Here goes." She was about to touch her staff to the swirling blue, but a shot of light crossed the room. Sakura jumped back, bumping into Syaoran. He held her arm back and watched carefully.

"It’s the Shot card, protecting whatever that blue is." Syaoran said. "It doesn’t want us to reach it, but we’re gonna have to."

Sakura nodded, though she didn’t really want to leave Syaoran’s side. She put her hand on the one he had on her arm and closed her eyes, forcing magic out of herself and into him. "Call out your sword, it probably can’t hit both of us at the same time." She said.

Syaoran was just getting over the tingly feeling of Sakura’s transaction of magic, but he nodded. He called out his sword and gripped it with one hand, though Sakura was still hanging on to his other. Sakura tightened hold of her staff determinedly and stepped to Syaoran’s right. She ran around to the right, hopping sideways over a shot of light and quickly making her way around to the Blue swirling floor.

Syaoran dodged one shot by rolling, then deflected another with his blade. It seemed the cards liked to gang up on him much more than Sakura, though he was grateful that that’s the way it was. Syaoran was almost able to reach the blue with the edge of his sword if he could just get a little closer...A wall of fire spurted out of the furnace abruptly behind him, starting to enclose in on him. Syaoran gathered his legs under himself and threw himself up and backwards, completing a full back flip over it, landing solidly on his feet on the other side.

Sakura glanced up breifly from where she was ducking under the shot’s range to see Syaoran’s wonderful deceivance of gravity, but her attention quickly was taken away again. She rolled sideways under a shot of the fire, then rolled backwards to avoid definite collision with the Shot. With Syaoran out of the Blue area, Sakura seemed to be getting all of the Shot’s rage. She ducked down and held her staff over her head. She had read on a spell of a temporary sheild- nothing to the clow card’s capability, but still usuable. Sakura shouted out some Chinese words, but nothing happened. She shouted them again, but she remained fixed in her ducking position.

Syaoran watched Sakura anxiously, she was shouting something, it sounded like a spell, but the words she spoke made no sense. Syaoran could see the Shot collecting energy to come at her again, and she was completly unprepared. Syaoran swiftly dodged the furnace’s flames and reached Sakura’s side, picking her up and rolling her out of the way just in time. Syaoran held her out of the way as several shots hit the spot she had just been at. "It’s Fondu, not Fondai." He said to Sakura, who was just gathering what had happened.

She smiled weakly and was about to try the spell again when more shots came, and Syaoran pulled her out of the way, always keeping himself between her and the danger. The problem was Syaoran hadn’t realized how close they were to the swirling blue flooring, and as he threw them to the side, his full-of-magic-blade touched the blue stuff, and light shot around the places of contact. Sakura and Syaoran both looked at it with wide eyes for a second, Syaoran holding his sword nervously with one hand, his other hand gripping Sakura’s shoulder.

Suddenly a rush of blackness came over both of them. Sakura tried to open her eyes but she couldn’t. She tried to struggle, but she was unable. Another jolt of energy sent her mind reeling for a second, and Sakura felt unbalanced. She found that she was now able to open her eyes, and as she did she saw a dim gray mechanic room, nothing strange about it, no blue swirling floor. Sakura was bent over someone, had she really ended up in this position with Syaoran? Sakura blinked and looked down, peering into green eyes. Wait a minute...Sakura thought. She was holding....herself!? Sakura jumped back shreiking, quickly finding that her voice was fimiliar, but it wasn’t her own.

"YOU IDIOT!" She wailed, forcing herself to stand up.

Syaoran had known immediatly after seeing his own amber eyes looking back at himself that something was wrong. He stood up and looked with terror at his slender arm, then up at Sakura, or at least the personality of Sakura, he was really looking at his own body.

"YOU IDIOT! You SWITCHED us!" Sakura wailed again, charging over to him and picking up her own arm from Syaoran, looking at it with distress. "You should never touch a blue swirling floor! When I had a dream...when I had a dream....about cats switching identities!"

"You just told me it was cats. Not cats switching identities. All I got was ‘cats’." Syaoran fought back, though he felt sheepish yelling at her through her own higher pitched voice.

Sakura slid to the floor, sitting down, tears at the corner of the amber eyes she had. "You made me a boy." She said softly, staring hopelessly off into space.

Syaoran sat down quickly beside her. "Don’t cry! Please, you can’t cry like that!" Syaoran said, referring to his own body.

Sakura glared at him. "Maybe if you hadn’t been so stupid as to switch-"

"Please I just saved your life. How was I supposed to know the damn cats switch places? All you said was you dreamed about CATS!"

Sakura just stared furiously at him, not able to come up with anything else. He did have a point, if she had remembered her dream, it might have been alot more helpful. Slowly Sakura started to get over the initial shock and fury, the humiliating situation starting to sink in. "Wha-what...what are we going to do? I mean, we can’t stay like this for...for very long,...you know?"

"Of course I know, I’m not stupid, we have to hurry up and get it to appear again so we can switch back..." Syaoran said, though he knew they were powerless to do that.

"HOW WILL WE GET THROUGH GYM?" Sakura wailed again, thinking of the horrible class that they had to change clothes.

"Relax, if...if worst comes to worst we can skip." Syaoran said, playing with the end of the long chesnut hair he now had.

"I can’t just skip class!" Sakura whined.

"You’re not helping!" Syaoran said, irritated.

"If we’re going to skip one class, we might as well just go home now."

"We’ve got to stay here if we want to switch back." Syaoran reasoned.

"Well that presents some complications." Sakura said. "I don’t know if I want you walking around all day in my body, I mean if-"

"I am not enjoying this anymore than you are Sakura. What do you take me for? I’m not going to go sneak away to the bathroom and-"

"Pervert!" Sakura interrupted him, horrified that even that thought would cross his mind.

"Am not, I was just trying to point out you are capable of doing just as much as I-"

"You didn’t have to let me in on your private thoughts, I thought you a better person than that to be thinking up such perverted schemes-"

"Kinomoto you could do just as much, how do I know you won’t do anything, you can’t be as innocent as you try and act-"

"Syaoran! You know I would never do anything like that-"

"This situation has never presented itself before you before, how do I know temptation won’t get the best of you, I mean-"

"STOP! Okay, just stop! This isn’t getting us anywhere!" Sakura said, glaring at him for a second, then weirding herself out as she was glaring at her own body.

"I’m sure we can get through the first few classes just fine." Syaoran finally said, much more calmly. "We can try and figure out what to do during lunch."

"Fine." Sakura said, though she was still being short with him.

"Remember, who everyone sees us as." Syaoran said, standing up. He was amazed at how light he felt in Sakura’s body, he felt so flexible, though he could feel the lesser amount of muscle and thus loss of strength that was part of being a girl, and he didn’t like it at all. Syaoran glanced up at Sakura to see how she was faring; it was obvious she was thinking the same things. Syaoran had never been an exstremly self conscious person, but having Sakura in his body was definitely something that made him nervous. She looked at him with his own amber eyes, and both of them quickly looked away, seeing their own eyes staring back at them was definitely a scary and weirdo thing.

They walked down the first hall, each getting used to each other’s system of balance. Sakura was surprised that for the amount of strength Syaoran had, she didn’t feel that heavy, nor tremendously tall, but certain changes were made. It was strange to have a completly flat chest again, like when she was little, and she glanced nervously over at Syaoran, who hadn’t said anything yet on that subject. He better not. Some thoughts started to cross her mind. "What if I have to-"

"Hold it." Syaoran answered, cutting her off before she had completed the question, obviously reading her mind.

"This is the weirdest and most humiliating thing that’s ever happened to me." Sakura said as they turned down the main hall.

"I’m glad you feel that way." Syaoran said dryly.

They reached the door to their homeroom class, already in session, and Sakura glanced at Syaoran, surprised to see she was looking down on herself, instead of up into his amber eyes. Even though he was in her own body, Syaoran had a way of minipulating her green eyes into his personality. "Just be quiet and glare straight ahead. When the sensei lectures you about being late, just nod and say ‘yes sensei’."

Sakura nodded, though she had already known all this- she had watched Syaoran enough on her own accord to know how he usually acted. Sakura pulled the door open and stepped inside, her face- or well Syaoran’s face I guess, however you want to put it- hot from all the eyes watching her.

"Late again, Li Syaoran? Did your lunch sentences not prove a worthy punishment?" The sensei looked with surprise and Sakura stepped in. "Kinomoto, also?" A group of snickers and laughs came from a few of the kids in the back row. He sighed, then walked over to his desk, writing them detentions. Sakura trailed behind Syaoran, and he stopped at his normal seat. Sakura pushed on him with her hand, trying to remind him he was in her body, and he sat one seat up. Some kids noticed this, but most were already looking around their own way. Sakura sat down behind her body, finding it strange to stare at the back of her head. She looked right to expect to see Tomoyo and her sympathetic smile, but instead only met the glare of Mark. She quickly looked forward again, finding this switched identity to be quite a frustrating ordeal.

"Absent yesterday and late today, both of you?" The sensei asked suspciously, getting a snicker or two from some other students.

Sakura frowned. Syaoran was absent yesterday as well? I was at the concert, I wonder where he was? She frowned at the back of her own head.

"Also, Syaoran, do you have any idea where your cousin Meilin is?" The sensei asked.

Sakura was looking off into space, oblivious for a second. Syaoran looked over his shoulder, praying that Sakura would realize the sensei was calling her name. Sakura looked up, startled. "Huh, oh, uh...she went back to Hong Kong." Sakura stammered, getting more suspcious glances from the kids in her class.

"I see." The sensei said, marking something. He handed them their detention slips then went back to the front of the class, going back into his lecture. Sakura opened their book to the pages he said, staring at them blankly as thoughts raced through her head. I am going to still have my old handwriting. What do I write on my paper? Sakura or Syaoran? If they see my handwriting and stuff, they’ll wonder what’s going on...But if I get caught writing the name Sakura on a paper while being Syaoran, that’ll get me in trouble...

After an endless eternity, class ended with the bell’s final ring. Sakura quickly got up from her seat, banging her lower belt area on the edge of the desk, making her wince with pain. "Ow!" She said, though was quickly dragged along by Sakura’s hand.

"Watch it." Syaoran said, glaring at her for hitting herself there.

"Sorry." She said defensively. "Syao-I mean, um...Kinomoto, I was thinking." She said, seeing Tamakazi watching them suspciously.

They rushed past him to Sakura’s locker, though she realized she shouldn’t be here doing the combination. "What name do I put on our math papers? I mean, my handwriting will be all different..."

Syaoran though hard on this. "You’re right, um...let’s put our own names on them and just hope no one sees it."

"What - our body names? Or our-our names?" Sakura asked.

"Our-our." He clarified, then turned blankly to her lock. "What’s your combination?" He asked.

Sakura quickly went through a mental check that nothing embaressing was in there, asides from maybe a very unflattering picture Tomoyo had taken of her in a cat costume. "Twenty, twelve, eleven." She said. "And yours?"

"Fourty-four, four, thirty-eight." Syaoran said.

Fourty-four, four, thirty-eight. Sakura ran through in her head, leaving her body at her locker. figures, it has to be hard. My combination is easy. She glanced up at the locker number to make sure she had the right number, then put in the combination. The locker was jammed, not to her surprise, so she kicked it and pulled until it opened. She was quickly met with a coat trying to fall out, and she caught it with her free arm, pushing it back in. He really needs to clean this. Sakura looked around for the red lining of their algebra book and finally spotted it near the bottom. She pulled it out inch by inch, almost toppling over once she had gotten it all the way out.

Sakura met up with Syaoran as they walked to math. "Thought of anything brilliant yet?" She asked as they stepped into the room.

"Nope." Syaoran replied, then went to the appropriate seat this time, which was luckily next to each other.

The class started quickly, and the sensei instructed them to take out their homework to grade. Sakura fished through Syaoran’s book and finally found a page with answers scribbled sloppily across it. She looked nervously to her own book with the homework she had done after the concert, around two in the morning. He will think I am stupid, I probably missed every single one. And he probably got them all right.

The sensei started listing off the answers, and Sakura found herself bored of grading as all his were correct, despite the sloppy writing, the half finished work on the side. Sakura wrote down the percent and passed it forward, trying to lean over and see what she had gotten, but not able to. She sat miserably back in her seat, not liking that her heigth was a little taller when she sat, because now she felt out of place.

The sensei started teaching the next lesson with her monotone voice, and Sakura yawned and rested her head on her hand. Something pink caught her eye, and Sakura took her hand down for better inspection. She looked across the palm of her right hand and found a long scar, a scar coming from a blade. When Syaoran tried to pull me out of the water holding the end of his sword. Sakura put her left hand down and saw an identical scar. She glanced over at her own body, and saw that Syaoran was watching and listening intently to what the sensei had to say. Sakura forced herself to pay attention.

After a few moments, Sakura’s attention was abruptly disrupted as a peice of paper landed in between her hands and the notes she was taking. She looked around, bewildered, then looked down at the note, pulling it out of its crumpled state.

Sakura quickly figured out what Syaoran meant and turned the peice of paper over, writing out her answer. You got 100, I have music fifth. Sakura tossed it over to him. Syaoran only blinked and glanced down before shoving it into Sakura’s girl’s uniform pocket. Sakura looked around, bored, not wanting to take anymore math notes. A sharp noise caught her attention again, and Sakura looked up, seeing that the sensei was staring at her. "What?" Sakura asked, bewildered.

"Pay more attention, Li, I asked you for the answer of problem number two."

Sakura looked up palely at the board. She would hate to make Syaoran look stupid, but she wasn’t sure if she knew how to do this problem. Sakura knew Syaoran was generally a calculator and could do a simple problem like this in his head, but knowing that she had no hope of doing a problem fast and correctly, she carefully went through it. "Does X equal three?" She asked uncertainly.

"Very good, Syaoran, but I asked the answer for number two." The sensei said.

Sakura looked up at the board with a burning face to see that number one was already finished, and X=3 was written at the bottom. She looked sadly over at the next problem, though she knew she didn’t have a hope of answering it.

"Does anyone else know the answer to number two?"

Syaoran’s hand went up, though it was Sakura’s arm he held up.

"Yes, Kinomoto?"

"The circumference is 130 meters." Syaoran said through Sakura’s sing song voice.

The sensei looked surprised, but tried not to show it. "Very well done, Kinomoto. Do you understand how we derived that answer, Li Syaoran?"

Sakura looked miserably up, well aware of the glare her own green eyes were giving her for making Syaoran look so stupid. "Yes sensei." She muttered, looking down with shame at the papers in front of her. Geez he knows I am thinking about stuff, he shouldn’t look at me so mean.

The bell finally rang again, and Sakura- more carefully this time- got out of her seat and hurried after her body, which was already to the door. "Sorry." She mumbled to Syaoran as they squeezed through the doorway.

"You were just thinking about the cards, I understand." Syaoran replied.

Sakura was surprised for Syaoran’s sudden merciful attitude, but she kept her mouth shut. "Fourty-four, four, what?" Sakura asked, not remembering the combination that wasn’t her own.

"Thirty-eight." Syaoran said, turning and heading to Sakura’s locker. Sakura parted with him, looked sadly at the locker she was going to have to open again. Literature. That should be a peice of cake.

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

The first three-fourths of literature had went by in a breeze, though Sakura didn’t sit next to Syaoran in this class, she hadn’t had any problems, well aside from a paperwad Mark threw at her. Sakura had just glared at him, avoiding any fist fights. She had almost shouted ‘ow’ when she went to scratch her head and she had hit the sore spot from yesterday’s gym class.

Syaoran didn’t like this, sitting beside Tomoyo in every single class, but he couldn’t really complain. "Is Chindra still complaining?" Tomoyo asked as they were working in groups on worksheets.

"What? Oh, ah...no..."Syaoran said, clueless to what they were talking about. Rika looked at Sakura’s body with an amused smile.

"You seem very flustered today, Sakura, is it because you are still trying to catch up on sleep?" Rika asked.

"She isn’t the only one." Chihura said, looking at Syaroan and Tamakazi.

"You seem much more tolerable to Mark’s antics today." Tamakazi commented to Syaoran.

Sakura smiled sheepishly. "Do I?" Think like Syaoran. He wouldn’t have said that. Dang it. "I decided I don’t want to waste my time being annoyed with him." She said, hoping that sounded a little more Syaoran-like.

Syaoran was watching from the group of girls with nervousness, but was glad to see she handled herself alright. He looked back down at the paper in front of him. He was still yet to write his name on it, but he couldn’t decide. If he did write Syaoran on it, he had three girls sitting around him that would protest.

Syaoran pounded the end of the pencil into his paper, then looked up. "I’ve gotta sharpen my pencil, ‘scuse me." He said through her polite voice, walking over to pencil sharpener, which was right by the table his body was sitting at. Syaoran nodded Sakura over to the pencil sharpener, and she quickly got up from her chair, wincing as she hit herself yet again.

"We can’t write our names on them, they’re sitting right next to us." Syaoran said.

Sakura nodded, still trying to get used to looking down at herself. "I know, uh, we’ll just try hard at each other’s handwriting." She said.

Syaoran nodded. He quickly sharpened his pencil like he said he was going to, then walked over to the table of girls he so longingly wanted to leave. He sat down again, Tomoyo smiling at him. "We’ve gotten the answers for the first five." She said.

Syaoran readied his pencil to write and wrote down what she told him, then looked over their answers. "Number five is not the pig - he’s the one trying to take over." Syaoran contested their answer about Animal farm.

"What? you think so?" Rika asked.

"Look, he’s already trying to establish classes-" Syaoran pointed to a paragraph. "And make it into a society, so of course he wouldn’t try and bring back the old pig, he was the one that wanted equality."

Chihura looked down at the paper for a few moments, then up with impression at Sakura’s body. "Amazing, Sakura, you’re right, I never even noticed he was trying to take over." She said, looking at the story with new eyes.

Tomoyo smiled suspiciously at Sakura’s not smiling face.

Syaoran worked hard to make his handwriting more neat, not the long wispy strokes he generally had. He glanced over his shoulder over at his own body, which had been relatively quiet. It seemed Sakura was getting along with Tamakazi and Trent well enough.

The bell rang, and Syaoran jumped up, quickly pulling his desk back into the row it was supposed to be in, grabbing his books, and heading after Sakura in his body, who was walking stiffly. Syaoran couldn’t beleive her, could she not get out of a desk without hitting herself? "You should be more careful, Li-kun." He said to Sakura.

Sakura noticed him and smiled. "You lead a very painful life." She said through her teeth. Sakura bumped into a smaller girl, and she quickly recognized her. "Sorry, Nataly!" She called sincerely after her.

Nataly looked back with surprise for a second, before waving it away and continuing down the hallway. Syaoran glared through her green eyes at Sakura for being so polite, but kept from saying anything. "I’m sure I have something about this in some books at home. We’ll have to there right after school."

"What about gym?" Sakura asked again.

"It’s at the end of the day, we’ll think of something." He said.

They parted ways for their lockers again, then headed to science.

____________________________________________________________________

Nothing happened in science class. Sakura found that no one thought it unusual if she said completly nothing through the whole class, so she did that and kept herself out of trouble. Syaoran made Sakura’s body look a lot more intimidating and unfriendly than she normally did, but he hadn’t said anything that would make her friends mad at her. Sakura was sure Tomoyo suspected something, but she wasn’t sure if she could put her finger on it yet. I could ask Tomoyo why she kissed me! I’m in Syaoran’s body, it’d be perfectly okay, though Syaoran might be mad at me for a little while.

Sakura headed back to homeroom with Syaoran, both holding their detention slips. She stepped in to find the sensei wasn’t even in the room, though he had written out instructions on the board. "WHAT?" Sakura wailed, seeing the instructions left for Syaoran. Her body was supposed to do three hundred of those ‘I Will Not Be Late" sentences. She looked at Syaoran. "You better do those, I can’t get your nice handwriting down very well."

Syaoran rolled his eyes but took the task, knowing the triple duty was because he had been late so many other previous times. Syaoran started scribbling them down on the board. "Do you know any duplicating spells?" He asked.

"Ugh, no, you?"

"I can’t remember all of it." Syaoran said.

Sakura continued scribbling down sentences. "Do you think there’s a spell for provoking a card out? We’ve gotta find it fast, I mean, I don’t know how long I can last."

"Listen, for gym, we can just say we don’t have our clothes and take a ‘no dress’."

"But that brings your grade down a whole letter!" Sakura said, though that was a good idea.

"So does skipping, if they find out." Syaoran reasoned.

"What are you suggesting?" Sakura asked him with wide eyes.

"N-nothing! I was just, that seems like the best idea so far." Syaoran stuttered.

Sakura sighed and left the subject alone for now. "Where do I go fifth? Is it geography?"

"Right." Syaoran said. Crap! "You’re going to have to give a report over Benin." Syaoran said, remembering the report he had written out the night before.

"Benin? What’s that?" Sakura asked.

Syaoran scribbled hopelessly on the board. "It’s a country. In Africa." He said dully.

"Oh, yeah, I- I knew that." Sakura said.

"All you have to do is read what I wrote." Syaoran said, thinking about where he had put that report. "I think I put it in my geography book, it should be in the front. What do I have to do in music class?" Syaoran asked, making Sakura’s happy voice sound very sad.

"Uh...we are making songs, um...Tomoyo’s your partner, we made up a song on the piano, oh my, you can’t play can you?"

Syaoran could obviously read music, but he wasn’t the best at playing piano, and he didn’t want Sakura to know he could play. "Not really."

"Oh shoot, I didn’t think about that. Um...I’m sure you can stall out of it, tell Tomoyo you don’t feel good or something. We’re ahead of everyone else, we’ve got our song all written out, we just need to practice for the concert." Sakura said.

"Great." Syaoran said sarcastically.

"Psst!" Sakura and Syaoran both turned from the board, seeing Tomoyo in the doorway. She snuck in quickly, holding a cookie. "I got you a cookie from lunch, Sakura-chan."

Syaoran took it, hating this, knowing he was supposed to be her friend, but having a hard time acting that out. "Thanks Tomoyo." He said as nicely as he could.

"Sorry, Li-kun, I didn’t think of you. Do you want me to go get you one?" Tomoyo asked.

Sakura looked with longing eyes at the cookie in her own hand, then at the empty hands she was in control of. Syaoran would say no. "No thanks." She muttered.

Tomoyo smiled. "If you say so! See you in music!" She said, hurrying out of the room.

Without question Syaoran broke the cookie in half and handed Sakura half, which she took gratefully. She chewed on it thoughtfully, thinking through what they would do in gym class. I still have the tank top on from my pajamas, and I mean, it’s not like he’s never seen me in swimsuits, there’s no difference between those and underwear, right? Sakura sideglanced at Syaoran, who was writing with furious concentration, almost to his two hundredth. She looked down at the body she was in, taking a break after her seventy fifth sentence. And I’ve seen him without a shirt on, but...he seems very self conscious. Sakura continued writing, speeding up as she could see the end in sight.

"Done." She finally said, stepping back. Syaoran glanced over through Sakura’s green eyes at the word she had done, then looked back to where he was writing. She took a deep breath before launching into the proposal she had in store. "I am still wearing my pajamas under my clothes, and I mean, you’ve seen me like that so-"

Syaoran turned around from the board and looked at Sakura who was sitting on the end of a desk. "What are you suggesting?" He asked with narrow eyes.

Sakura looked plainly back at him, not answering.

"You want me to trust you changing clothes in a boys locker room and..." He studied her carefully, though he was looking at his own body.

"I’d have to trust you just as much." Sakura said back. They looked at each other for a moment, then looked down, blush going across both of their faces. "Listen, you’re wearing shorts right?"

"Well...well yeah, but..."

"So we’ve got nothing to worry about. After all that badminton our grades in gym can’t be that good, and with another letter grade down, ...we’re just changing into gym clothes for goodness sakes, this isn’t a big deal." Sakura said, a bit frustrated with her own embaressment.

"If you say so...but I don’t want to hear anything about it afterwards. Nothing! If you say one thing about me being a pervert-"

"I promise, as long as you don’t say anything."

Syaoran just gave her a mean look.

"Then that’s settled. I’ll see you after, uh...geography." Sakura said, standing up from the desk. "Good luck in music class."

Syaoran watched her go. "Yeah, don’t screw up my report!" He called after her.

Syaoran hurried through his sentences, worried that the sensei would see him writing out the three hundred in Sakura’s body. "This is worse than being switched with Kero." Syaoran said to himself, still finding it funny to hear his words come out in Sakura’s sweet voice.

______________

Sakura stumbled through Syaoran’s report, he used the biggest words and hardest sentences she had ever seen a middle schooler use, but she made it through, and his good writing got her an A. Sakura had narrowly missed another fight with Mark, and Tamakazi seemed to be catching on, Sakura wasn’t very good at acting out Syaoran’s personality, she knew how to, she just had a hard time being that mean.

Sakura was now sitting horribly nervous, gym class was next, she didn’t know how she was going to handle it. What about the other guys in the locker room? I can’t just close my eyes, they’d think I’m a freak. I’ll just hurry down there before most of them are in there, then hurry into the gym. No problem. The bell rang, and Sakura jumped up, hitting herself again. This time it was hard, and Sakura cringed before getting her books and hurrying out of the room. She practically jogged through the hall, rushing past her body, which was talking to Mark. Sakura slid to a stop.

Wait a minute...Sakura swiftly turned around and peered around the wall.

"I didn’t mean-" Mark was saying, stepping nervously back as Sakura’s body was stepping forward, her green eyes blazing with rage.

"I don’t want you to ever talk to me again! If you say one word, just one, I will personally pound your face in, don’t think I’m joking, I won’t even hesistate to demonstrate-"

"Sakura you’re being a little, um, exstreme aren’t you-?"
Sakura’s fist nailed him sharply in the chest, getting a grimace from Mark. "Everyone is sick of you. Everyone. I don’t know why I ever tolerated you in the first place." Sakura’s voice said, though Syaoran’s anger was positively streaming out of her mouth.

Sakura glared at Syaoran with the meanest eyes she could muster. How dare he mess up her social life! Syaoran had turned and left Mark looking bewildered, and was charging down the hall, holding Sakura’s head high, letting her hair fall behind her. Sakura furiously stomped away, looking for the first chance at revenge. She spotted it, just down the hall, where a mean friend of Mark’s had just tripped Nataly, sending her and her books sprawling across the floor. Sakura quickly charged over, grabbing the boy’s arm. "Do you have a problem?"

The boy had a hint of nervousness in his eye as he was looking at the most fighter proned boy in school. "Hmm? Ah, no, I was just minding my own business, how about you do the same?"

Sakura took full advantage of Syaoran’s added strength and reputation, glaring at the boy. "When people are being tripped randomly in the hallway, I consider it my business. I don’t think you’d appreciate if someone just went like-" Sakura had seen Syaoran do numerous footsweeps, and she had come along to watch her brother practice judo occasionally, so she had a basic idea, so using the boy’s arm for leverage she swung her foot under him and sent him falling to the ground, getting some laughs from people walking by.

The boy got to his feet quickly, glaring at Syaoran’s satisfied eyes as he did, but remained silent. He walked off, then leaving Sakura do her other part of this revengeful act. She walked over to where Nataly was collecting her stuff angrily, and stooped down next to her, piling up some papers at her side. "Don’t let him get to you, he’s just trying to be a better person, he doesn’t know he should be taking advice from you instead of the idiot he’s trying to copy."

Nataly glanced up, surprised at Syaoran’s second act of politeness today. "Thanks, I’m used to it, most guys are..."

"Jerks. I apologize on our behalf." She said, putting the pile of papers on top of Nataly’s books and giving her a full out genuine smile. Nataly looked at him with wide eyes, her along with most of the school not use to seeing Syaoran smile like that.

She stood up, and Sakura stood up next to her. "Thanks." She said unsurely, smiling at him.

Sakura held her smile, but was abruptly interrupted as Sakura’s body brushed by her to her locker, giving her a look that meant death - obviously not too happy that Sakura had been so overly kind to Nataly. Sakura leaned on the locker next to the one Syaoran was opening. "I see you decided to take care of Mark for me." She said cooly.

"I didn’t like what he said." Syaoran said simply, putting his notebook away.

"You didn’t sound very Sakura-like." Sakura said, glaring at him.

Syaoran pulled out out her gym clothes, forcing himself to exhale and keep down the blush that was so persistently trying to make its way up to Sakura’s cheeks. "What did I get on my report?" Syaoran asked, shutting his locker and continuing to walk down the hall with Sakura.

"An A. What’s your gym locker number?" She asked.

"Two hundred seventy-eight. Yours?"

"Twelve.How did music go?" She asked, stopping at her locker to get Syaoran’s gym clothes out. She looked up to see Syaoran mumble ‘fine’ as he continued down the hall, leaving her at his locker. She glared at the back of his head a moment before pulling the gym clothes out of his locker and shutting it. He could have at least stopped and waited for me.

Sakura sighed and hurried to the locker room, realizing that her plan to get there early was no longer able to be put into play. She would be lucky to get there without being late! Sakura hurried into the boy’s locker room, preparing herself for the most awful five minutes of her life.

Like the girl’s locker room, it was kept hot, for people who would come in from swimming. She walked quickly found her locker, and set her clothes down. Tamakazi came flying around the corner chasing Jun, who were both in their boxers, Tamakazi holding his hands together as they were filled with water. Sakura watched it with wide eyes, ducking as Tamakazi launched the water at Jun, splashing his bare back. He smiled triumphantly as the other boys were yelling and laughing loudly.

Sakura was scared to death, boys roughhoused a little too much for her taste. She jumped sideways as Tamakazi tried to splash her with the last of the water in his hands. "Come on, Li, help out!" He said, running to the sink again.

Sakura stepped unsurely sideways, accidentally bumping into another guy, who roughly pushed her over. "Watch it!" He spat.

Sakura quickly ignored everything else and concentrated on the task in front of her. No different than seeing him in a bathing suit. Sakura pulled her shirt off, trying to look inconspicuous, though her eyes were failing her and begging to look down. Sakura pulled her shoes off and then went to her belt, a bit nervously to say the least. She took her time on that, not wanting to follow through with the next step.

He’s wearing boxers, it’s not like I haven’t seen him in shorts before, what am I worried about? Sakura looked up with alarm as Tamakazi flew past her, being chased by Mark, who was yelling that he was going to give him a wedgie. Sakura looked with wide eyes back down at her gym clothes in front of her and hurriedly pulled off her pants and stepped into the long gym shorts, then pulled her shirt over her head. Sakura threw his school clothes into the locker, shutting it, and hurried to get her shoes on, sprinting out of the locker room as Jun was coming after her yelling something about an alliance.

- - - - - - - - - -

Syaoran knew that most boys would give up ten years on their life just to get into the girl’s locker room, but probably not for these circumstances. He couldn’t beleive how quiet it was in here, he was sure poor Sakura was about to die in the constant shouting and roughhousing of the boy’s locker room. Syaoran walked over to his locker and was soon greeted by Tomoyo next to him. "Hey Sakura." She said brightly.

"Hi." Syaoran mumbled, fidgeting his fingers in the gym shirt in his hands.

"Syaoran seems strange today." She said, casually taking off her school uniform.

Syaoran stared straight ahead with a look of panic, trying to ignore the fact that Tomoyo stood so exposed next to him. "Mm." He answered.

"He helped me pick up my books and fought away Mark’s friend in the hall just now." Nataly said, pulling her shorts on from another row of lockers.

"Sounds like you’re in love." Rika joked from the locker she was at, switching shirts.

"That’s ridiculous!" Nataly said, though her face was burning red.

"Hey Sakura, do you still have that appley smelling stuff?" Naoko called.

Syaoran glanced up, then quickly looked down to his locker, his eyes seeing what he had been trying to keep them from so disrespectively seeing. "No, I, uh, I left it at home, sorry!" He called. Syaoran breathed in slowly and started his task by taking Sakura’s small shoes off. Syaoran then started undoing her belt, nervous panic trying to set in. Just get through with it. Sakura’s probably done changing. Syaoran pulled the pants off, quickly reaching for her shorts. But she does have really nice legs...God you sicko. No wonder she thinks you are a pervert. Syaoran scolded himself as he unbuttoned her vest. Just get on with it, she said she was still wearing her pajamas under her clothes, but...she didn’t exactly have pajama shorts on. Just exactly what does she wear when she goes to sleep?

Just keep going. Syaoran pulled the bottom of her shirt up just a little. Nothing. Just skin. She told me she had her pajamas on! Syaoran shut his eyes and pulled her shirt off, only opening one to find the gym shirt in front of him. He pulled it on and found that Sakura did indeed have a tank top on under her clothes, it was just very small, it didn’t cover half her stomach. He sighed with releif once he had the shirt on, all danger passing. She cannot call me a pervert, I did about all I could to keep from being disrespectful. She probably had her eyes open the whole time. Being completly honest with himself, Syaoran wasn’t sure if that completly bothered him. Maybe it’s because she thinks you are good looking?

"Sakura look at these new socks I got." Tomoyo’s voice said from beside her.

Syaoran looked over and hopped backwards, his eyes meeting Tomoyo who stood so casually in only a bra and shorts. She frowned, wondering why exactly Sakura had just yelped and jumped sideways. "Are you alright?" She asked.

"Heh, I just, uh, forgot you were standing there, sorry." Syaoran said, gluing his eyes to the floor. She was holding up one foot for him to see, her socks with matching pigs. "Yeah, um, those are really neat." He said, shifting on his feet nervously.

"I got them inspired by the Animal Farm in literature class." Tomoyo said.

"Those are cute Tomoyo!" Chihura called.

"I’m uh, I’m going to the gym." Syaoran said, pulling her shoes on and hurrying out of the locker room. Once out in the hall, Syaoran leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. I wonder if Sakura had as hard a time? How will I ever face her again? But I have to, right now. Syaoran forced Sakura’s legs to walk to the gym, and he stepped in, shyly looking up at the kids that were already practicing hockey.

Sure enough his body was already out there, wearing rollerblades to his surprise. He realized that everyone was wearing them, and saw that there was a big line up of every size of rollerskate. Syaoran started walking over there, watching Sakura out of the corner of his eye. He reached the skates and look cluelessly at the sizes, having no idea which one Sakura would take. Syaoran pulled his left shoe off and found the tag. Six...six...Syaoran walked down the skates, looking for the right ones. He found them and tried one on to make sure, then pulled both on, setting her shoes where the skates had been.

Sakura’s balance was excellent on these skates, and Syaoran felt very natural on them. Sakura seemed to be having his body going along on the rollerblades she was wearing. I wonder why she gets rollerblades and I am stuck with skates? Syaoran skated onto the gym floor, taking the elastic he had on Sakura’s small wrist and attempting to work her hair into a ponytail. Sakura skated over to him, stopping with a perfect circle. "You better have a way to get us changed back." She said seriously.

From the way she was talking Syaoran was worried about what had happened in the locker room, but he was too shy to ask. "Only one class left." He said with as much optimism he could manage.

The sensei blew the whistle, and Sakura and Syaoran skated over to the center circle. "We will be finishing yesterday’s game. I know we don’t have an ice skating rink with ice skates, so rollerskating was as close as we could come. If you don’t already have skates on, hurry over and get them on."

The game started, and Sakura was amazed at the little effort she had to put into her skating to make Syaoran’s legs move. She glided after Mark, who seemed evenly matched in skating. They skated evenly down the floor towards Sakura’s defending goal. She tried to hit it away from Mark, but it was hit back by another one of his offense.

Sakura watched Syaoran skate in, using Sakura’s flexibility and agility to his advantage, ducking around some of the bigger players and fighting for the puck, sending it sailing safely away from their goal to Tamakazi. "Nice pass, Kinomoto!" Yelled one of her teamates.

Syaoran just smiled inwardly and chased after it, determined to beat the crap out of Mark, even in this girl’s body. Mark was very angry at him right now- actually he was angry at Sakura, but Syaoran was presently her. He banged into Syaoran angrily, and Syaoran didn’t mind, he only took the chance to use the opportunity to his own amusement, and ducking, Mark went sailing over his back.

Syaoran grinned to himself and finished the big play by charging the defense of the opposite team and whacking the puck into the goal, getting a shout of cheers from his teamates. Syaoran glided back to his side, Tamakazi skating next to him. "Nice move, Kinomoto!" He said.

Tamakazi went forward and skated to Syaoran’s body, where Sakura shook her head as she watched Syaoran’s agression shine through her body’s playing. "Kinomoto is very agressive today. Maybe she is finally getting Mark back for that bleacher incident?" He said.

"Maybe." Sakura agreed.

The rest of the game went along like that. Sakura had accidentally patted Tomoyo on the shoulder after a shot she had blocked amazingly, getting alot of suspicious looks from the other kids, a particularly dark one from her own body. The class went by too fast for Sakura’s taste as she knew she had to change back, but at least it was the end of the day, and she could go with Syaoran and possibly finally get their bodies back.

Sakura hurried to the locker room to beat the rush of boys and immediately changed, not hesitating, finding that only prolonged the embaressment. She had Syaoran’s normal clothes on in no time, and rushed out into the hall. She met up with her own body, which had a burning red face. "The girls too much for you, Li-kun?" Sakura asked, knowing no one else was in the hallway to hear.

Syaoran glared and walked next to her, staying silent as more kids got out of the locker rooms and were walking behind them. "Can we eat at your house?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah." Syaoran answered.

"Kay." Sakura said, starving after spending her lunch writing sentences.

They broke apart to get their bookbags, then walked out of school amongst the rest of the happy to leave kids. Once a safe distance away from the school, they switched bookbags to their own. Sakura pulled out her handphone and started dialing a number, then stopped. "Wait, you have to call her. Call Chindra and tell her I need her to cover for me, tell her to tell them I’m at Tomoyo’s or something." She said, holding the phone out for Syaoran.

"I don’t want to call her!" He said stepping a little further away from Sakura.

"Come on, I can’t- ugh. Fine. It’s your reputation, not mine." She said, finishing the number she had been dialing. "Maybe she can help us, anyway." Sakura said to Syaoran. The phone rang for a long while, then finally Chindra’s accented voice answered the phones.

"Hi Chindra!"

"Who...who is this?" She asked, not recognizing the voice.

"Listen, this is really confusing, but this is Sakura, I’m just...well...magic switched me and someone else, do you get that?"

"Like Clow’s Change card?"

"Exactly!" Sakura exclaimed happily. "But see, I can’t go home, because I’m not myself, right? So could you do me a big favor and cover for me? Tell them I’m at Tomoyo’s or something?"

"Yes, of course. You switched with Li friend? Is that whose voice this is?" She asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately." Sakura said, side casting a glare at Syaoran in her own body before looking forward again. "Thank you so much! And if you’d do me a second favor, I’d really appreciate it if you would inform Kero in on this."

"Of course! Good luck, um...fixing, then. See you later?"

"Yeah, bye!" Sakura said. She clicked off the phone. "We’re really lucky she helps us out. I need to talk to her once things get fixed again..." Sakura said. She unzipped part of her bookbag and pulled a granola bar she had stored away forever ago and broke open the wrapper, eating it hungerly.

"Some spells take time to work." Syaoran said, kicking a rock off the sidewalk.

"Yeah." Sakura said over a mouthful of food.

An alarm went off in Syaoran’s head. He smelled something, but he didn’t know what, or where it was coming from. Syaoran looked at Sakura for a second before his eyes went large. He pulled the half of the granola bar she was still holding right out of her hand, ignoring the bewildered look of shock she gave him.

"What is it?" She asked.

Syaoran was looking rapidly for the ingredients on the wrapper. "What’s in that?" Syaoran asked.

"What?...uh...granola stuff- like oats, um...it’s got fruit; pineapple, coconuts..."

"Coconuts?" Syaoran asked, looking through the list of ingredients, then spotting the word in the list of foods.

"Yeah, coconuts, do you not like them or something?"

"I’m allergic to coconut oil." Syaoran said through his teeth, glaring at her.

"Your...um...how allergic?" Sakura asked worriedly.
Syaoran tossed the rest of the granola bar into a trash can they passed. "Very. In a little while you are going to start sneezing, your eyes will get all watery, you’ll get a fever, ....I can’t beleive that you managed to eat-"

"Well how was I supposed to know?" Sakura asked, his symptoms he just listed running through her mind.

Syaoran was only silent, turning into the parking lot of his apartment complex. They walked silently into the lobby, took the stairs (both of them were thinking to themselves it would be embaressing to go in the elevator by themselves - we all know what happened back in sixth grade), and tromped to Syaoran’s apartment. He unlocked it and walked in, leaving the door open for her to follow. Sakura walked in and shut the door.

Neither of them were going to dilly dally, and they both walked straight to the den where all the many books of spells and spell information sat, some dusty and old, other new and shining. Syaoran sighed, looking at them all. "I’ll take this half, you take that." He said, giving her the right chunk of books, and himself the left.

Sakura took the first large book and began the long process of skimming for it, leafing through page by page. After no luck through all five hundred pages of that book, she moved on to the next. About halfway through her phone went off, and Sakura answered it. "Hello?"

"Brat! What are you doing answering Sakura’s phone, you should even be with-"

"Kero it’s me, I’m Sakura! Didn’t Chindra tell you we were switched?"

"Oh yeah, right..." Kero said sheepishly. "So now the brat decided to try out a girl’s body?"

"With this atitude, Kero, I’m going to switch you and Bob and keep you in the jar! I need help Kero, not ridicule."

"Right, right."

"So what do we do? How did we undo you guys when you were switched a couple years ago?"

"Hmm, ah....Well there’s several spells to use, but they are all kind of risky, let’s see...without being able to use a card....BOB! GET THOSE LEAVES OUT OF MY DRAWER!"

Sakura cringed and held the phone away from Syaoran’s extra sensitive to sound ears. She slowly brought it back.

"Sorry, hmm, have you tried looking through some of those books that brat has? I’m sure there’d be something in there."

"Kero there’s thousands of them!" Sakura complained.

"I don’t know, you’ve gotta keep looking or something, I can’t stand talking to you when you have that brat’s voice."

"Kero!" Sakura said irritably. "Stay focused!"

"Right." Kero said. "Tell bratface to look under the older spells. Changing souls is a very old problem, it’d probably have an older solution."

"Right. Thanks Kero!" She said. Sakura hung up her phone and tossed it in her bag, then looked up at Syaoran, who had her green eyes flying at incredible speeds over the pages. "He said to look for old spells." Sakura said.

"Yeah..."Syaoran agreed, setting the book he had down and picking up some more. He walked over to Sakura’s pile of books, picking through. "Some of these have old kanji, if you can’t read it, just give them to me." He said, handing her a healthy stack of books.

Sakura nodded and started going through, skimming the pages.

After about four books, Sakura’s eye lids started to weigh, and she was getting very hungry. "Can we eat something?" Sakura finally asked, perring around a tower of books to see Syaoran.

He blinked and looked up from the book he was looking in. He, with much frustration, pushed back the long strands of Sakura’s hair out of his face. "Sure." He said. "Take some books with you, we don’t want to be reading these all night."

Sakura nodded and got a pile in her hands. She followed Syaoran into the kitchen, noticing with distress that certain obstacles were going to make their way to attention soon. I haven’t gone to the bathroom all day. I can only hold it for so long. We better get this spell before tommorrow.

"Ramen alright?" Syaoran asked, holding a book in one hand as he pulled out another hand with the other.

"That’s fine." Sakura said. Just as she completed her sentence, Sakura sneezed once. She thought she was alright, but she sneezed three more times after that. Sakura cringed and looked sheepishly at Syaoran, who was shaking his head as he went through the book. He walked over to a couch and sat down while the water was heating, and Sakura walked over and sat on the couch across from him.

Her eyes were starting to water, she notice, and they burned as she forced them to go across the pages. Sakura about screamed with joy as she reached a spell titled ‘switching souls back’. She quickly began reading through. It completly described their problem, and Sakura’s eyes quickly darted to the solution spell.

She about choked on her own spit as she read it, coughing once. Syaoran looked up at her curiously for a moment before going back to his own reading. Sakura read through the words and forced herself to swallow. It said to switch back, the ‘soulmates’ as the book referred to them as, would have to kiss. That alone might not have made Sakura refuse it, but it went on to describe exactly the motions they would have to go through. Sakura sighed. There’s got to be another spell that has a better solution, right? I mean, yes, I guess we have almost kissed before, I suppose, at least I think that was what we were going to do, in Hyrule, in that mountain, if it hadn’t been for that stupid dragon... but that was different. It felt...right. This is just wrong.

Sakura looked at the page number and memorized it, then memorized the book title, figuring that for a last resort, they might consult that spell. Sakura picked up another book, seeing that Syaoran was looking at her.

"Find something?" He asked.

"No, nothing yet." Sakura lied, looking into her book.

Syaoran got up and fixed the noodles, letting them sit in the hot water. He walked back to the couch, then stopped, wondering if some music could help in their search. He walked over to the stereo and turned it on. "What do you listen to?" He asked, turning the tuner off the hard rock station he had it on.

"Anything." Sakura said, looking up from her book. "And Shiro-Ame, of course."

Syaoran turned so she couldn’t see him grin and started going through the stations. After going through the stations he liked, he switched it to CD, putting in one of his favorites he had burned off his computer.

He walked back over to the couch and glanced over at Sakura to make sure she wasn’t making an expression of protest before sitting down. "Who is this?" Sakura asked, sneezing once.

"Uh..."Syaoran said, trying to finish the interesting sentence he was reading about making a kiss spin with electricity. "Uh this is my....my oldest sister’s boyfriend’s band. They had some songs on the internet a while ago." He said.

"Wow, cool!" Sakura said.

Mentioning his family made Syaoran feel guilty, problems in Hong Kong started to rush back again, and Syaoran remembered he needed to talk to Sakura about that. Not now, not while you are using her voice. He continued reading on the page he was on, then set that book down, seeing it would be any help. He walked over to the kitchen and finished fixing the food. He balanced the two plates and two cups in Sakura’s slender arms. She looked up from her book and quickly ran over to help, taking the cups from him. They walked over and Syaoran set the plates down. Sakura sneezed again, and she tried to sneeze on her shoulder.

Syaoran looked at the cups of tea half between iritation and amusmant. Sakura handed the cup that had been furthest from her sneeze to Syaoran, taking the other one. "Sorry." She mumbled, sitting down. She sipped on the steaming tea and looked up with surprise. "Wow, this is really good, Li-kun."

Syaoran looked up with his green eyes for a second before looking back to the book. "Thanks." He finally muttered.

Sakura put the plate of food on one knee and ate off it while resting the big book on her other knee. Sakura chomped on the food and read tirelessly, the music going in the backround. After going through three more books and finishing her food, Sakura found her bladder going very full. Finally not able to hold in the complaint any longer, Sakura spoke. "I need to pee really really bad." Sakura said.

Syaoran glanced up from his book, trying to calm his panic. "You’ve got to hold it." He said, glaring at her.

"But...!"

"No, hold it!" Syaoran ordered, looking back down at his book.

"Syaoran you haven’t been very sympathetic." Sakura whined.

"Well it’s not like I have it easy either." He said, looking up.

"You seemed to be enjoying yourself as you ruined my social life. Just because you don’t like Mark doesn’t mean I can’t. You don’t know what he’s been through, his family doesn’t care about him-"

"I know all about family- don’t tell me that. You don’t know anything about me, I support my family, but you wouldn’t understand about that, huh? You only sympathize for those who willingly take your sympathy, just because I don’t show my feelings on the outside doesn’t mean I have it easy too! Maybe if you’d get your head out of the clouds and realize that you can’t help anyone, you’d finally start to understand why people treat you the way they do!" He yelled.

Sakura pushed her teeth together, glaring at him. Lost with a response, Sakura compiled a plan. She undid the belt she was wearing and jumped off the couch, sprinting for the hall. Syaoran watched her with wide eyes as he realized what she was doing and sprinted after her, quickly tackling her to the floor. Sakura knew she had Syaoran’s strength now, and she should be able to wrestle him and win, but she didn’t know how to use his strength. She got one of her legs around him and struggled to get up, but Syaoran quickly grabbed her ankle and pulled her back down. "Quit being so difficult!" He shouted, almost pinning her down, but Sakura’s better arm strength winning.

"You are being-" Sakura had to stop for a second, struggling and almost getting to her feet, but he swiped her balance right from under her. "A jerk!"

Sakura lost her concentration as she was talking, and Syaoran quickly took this advantage and pinned her down, arms and legs, and looked seriously into his own amber eyes. "I am just trying to tell you the truth." He said more carefully.

Sakura glared at her own face, it being very strange to have her own face only four inches away from the one she was looking through. She was about to respond when another cold voice broke their wrestling match.

"I see I am interrupting something terribly important here." Kero’s cold voice said as he hovered at the entrance to the hall.

Syaoran glanced once more at Sakura then stood up quickly, giving Kero the most annoyed look he could through Sakura’s green eyes. She stood up next to him, frowning still, not meeting his eye. "Did you find something out, Kero?" She asked.

"I thought up a list of books to help you, though it looks like you were having much more fun without my help..." Kero said.

Sakura sneezed twice in a row, then looked up at Kero again. "Do you have the list here, Kero?" Sakura asked.

Kero flew over and handed a peice of paper to her. "Well I’ve gotta run." He said, swiftly flying across the room and out the door, leaving Sakura and Syaoran standing side by side in the hallway.

Sakura glared at the peice of paper in her hand. "We better go look for these books." Sakura said through her teeth, still quite a bit angry.

Syaoran looked at the list and led her into the den. He pushed the piles of books over until he found each and every one of the books on the list, splitting them equally between them. He wordlessly left the room back to where he had been sitting on the couch and began searching through them.

Sakura looked into the first one and then set it down, not able to read it. She opened the second, the third, the fourth, and finally the fifth one, and found that they were all in a form of Kanji she couldn’t read. "I can’t read any of these." She said reluctantly, not wanting to admit a weakness to Syaoran when she was still mad at him.

Syaoran looked over and then got up, picking up all the books. "Look through the rest of those and make sure we didn’t miss something." He said, starting to search through the huge books. Sakura picked up the other books with a sigh, knowing that this was just a scheme to keep her busy and quiet.

Maybe I can find some better spells on other stuff. Sakura thought. She flipped through, page after page. Her eyelids started to weigh, and her body started to ache from sneezing so much, but she kept going. It was dark outside, but they just turned on a lamp and kept going.

Sakura was drinking her second cup of tea before Syaoran finally spoke to her civilly. "You shouldn’t be drinking so much." He scolded.

Sakura looked at him with a glare that had anger behind it, probably because she knew he was right. She finally sighed. "Yeah." She finally acknowledged, looking back to her book. "I don’t like fighting with you, Li-kun."

"Mm." Syaoran answered, absorbed in the book he was reading. "Are you apologizing?"

Sakura didn’t like the haughty way he had put that. "No." She said simply, looking back down at her book. Sakura sneezed again, the stomach muscles of this body starting to ache from all the contractions.

She looked back to the page, having just seen the word ‘change’. She looked around the page wildly and spotted the bold print reading ‘how to unchange a change spell’. Sakura read it excitedly. It described the problem much like the other book had, and she looked with hope at the solution spell. Have to be touching in their sleep. She about spit her tea back into the cup. Syaoran glanced up from his book breifly. What’s with these spells? They all say something about soulmates. That’s crap. Well...at least it’s not kissing or anything like that- this one is tolerable. She looked up at Syaoran, who had her green eyes concentrating on the pages.

"I think I found something." Sakura said.

Syaoran looked up hopefully from his book. "What is it?"

"Um...it doesn’t have a name. It just says ‘How to Unchange a Change Spell’." Sakura read.

"What’s the reverse spell?"

"Um.." Sakura thought about how she could put this. I could just say tie our hands together in our sleep. That way our hands can be touching, and it doesn’t sound weirdo. "We have to tie our hands together and fall asleep-it says when we wake up, we’d be switched."

Syaoran set the book down off his lap and stood up. "Sounds good to me, I’ll get some rope."

Sakura smiled weakly and set her book off her lap. Great. This will be fun. Sakura looked up as her body walked back into the room, holding a very long peice of rope. Syaoran walked over to her side and roughly took his own hand up, tying a peice of the rope to that hand, then further down, tying one to the hand he was using. Sakura looked at the long rope with dismay. "It’s got to be alot tighter than that." Sakura said.

"What do you mean?" Syaoran untied his hand and looked up at her. "What exactly did it say?"

"Well, we’ve got to be touching." Sakura said, rather quickly as she did whenever she didn’t want to say something outloud.

"Oh." Syaoran said, looking at the rope blankly, then starting to understand. "So our hands have to be against each other." He said outloud, quickly working the rope around both of their wrists. "Are you tired?" He asked.

"Um...kind of." Sakura said. She didn’t really feel like sleeping, honestly.

"We both have to fall asleep, right?" Syaoran asked.

"Right." Sakura said, sighing.

Pulling the rope tight so the back of their hands were touching, he pulled on her arm, getting her to stand up, and dragged her over to the stereo, shutting it off. Where should we sleep? Of course we’d sleep best on a bed, but...that’s not right. "Let’s go get some blankets." Syaoran said, sighing.

He dragged Sakura into his own room, not bothering to turn on the light, and ripped the bedding off his own bed, then grabbed all the pillows off it. They split the load and carried it out into the living room. Not very good at working with one connected arm, they very slowly spread the blankets out across the living room floor. As Sakura once said, ‘be professional’. "Alright." He said, taking Sakura’s arm up to set her watch on an alarm. "We fall asleep, and in another hour and a half, we’re switched." Syaoran said.

Sakura grabbed the book and called her staff out with her free hand, then looked to the Chinese wording. She said the words in the best pronunciation she could make, then flipped her staff around in several half turns as directed. She finished and set the book down.

"That’s it?" Syaoran asked.

Sakura nodded, holding in a sneeze. They both sat down, finding that it took a surprising amount of cooperation between them, then were laying down, staring at the ceiling, both of their faces healthy shades of pink. Sakura finally couldn’t stand the lamp glaring in her eye. "I can’t sleep with a light on." She said.

Syaoran sighed and got up, but his tied arm pulled him back down, and he landed with frustration on his back. Sakura got up with him, this time, and he reached the lampswitch and turned it off. They laid back down, only to find it more awkward. Sakura sneezed three more times, the nervousness provoking the allergic reaction.

Syaoran stared at the ceiling for a while, thinking. This would be a much better situation if she wasn’t mad at me. Figures. Something always spoils our time together. Sakura sneezed again. "I could fall asleep much more quickly if you’d quit doing that." Syaoran said. You idiot! That’s exactly why she’s mad at you.

"I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were allergic to coconut oil, gosh." Sakura said irritably, having no luck trying to sleep, instead finding that as she laid next to him, Syaoran’s stomach had a similar flock of butterflies in it that presented themselves in close situations such as this.

"Well maybe if you didn’t go stuffing your mouth before-"

"I didn’t get to eat lunch! I was hungry!" Sakura complained.

Syaoran sighed slowly. "We should probably be careful, alot of spells don’t work when the magician is angry, unless it’s dark magic."

"It’s kind of hard not to be."

"I hate it when you’re made at me." Syaoran said.

"You sure don’t act like it." Sakura contested.

"I’m not very good at showing my feelings." He dared to say, hoping a little openess would resolve this stupid conflict.

"I’m sorry, Syaoran. I think all this stress is getting to me, I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings." Sakura finally said after a while.

Syaoran smiled, knowing the dark would keep anyone from seeing it. That sounded much more like the Sakura he knew. "Of course not." He said.

"I...I wish you would tell me about your family. Maybe then I could understand you." Sakura said.

Syaoran was quiet for a while. Just say it. I’m going back to Hong Kong. No, you can’t say it now, not during this spell, she could get mad at you again. "Maybe sometime when I have my voice back, okay?" He said.

Sakura laughed. "Right." Sakura sighed with content, finally in ammends with Syaoran. "Goodnight." She said, shutting her eyes.

" ‘Night." Syaoran said.

- - - - - - - -

Sakura looked around. She was in the dark again. She looked around, then spotted a boy. She looked down at her own hands and found her girlish fingers, her long slender arms, they had all returned. Sakura walked over to the boy’s side, looking at him curiously as he looked ahead expectantly, his hair waving around from the wind in this dark place. Sakura tapped him on the shoulder. "Are you part of my dream?"

Sakura blinked her eyes open. Was she in her own body? What was that noise? She slowly realized what was going on, and she turned her head. "Syaoran, your watch alarm!" She said, shaking his arm with the one she had tied to it. She squeaked with happiness as she heard her own voice speaking her own words. "Syaoran! Syaoran! Wake up!"

Syaoran’s eyes slowly flickered open, and he found himself peering into large emerald eyes. His sleepy face turned into a smile. "We changed!" He said quickly hitting a button on his watch to stop the alarm.

Sakura pulled him up with the arm that was still tied and hopped up and down once, remembering quickly her old body, then threw her arms around Syaoran, who was still waking up. He had a basic knowledge of what was going on, and he loosely hugged her back, though one arm was bent at an odd angle as Sakura’s tied hand was pulling it.

Syaoran realized that what Sakura had been complaining about before they had fallen asleep was indeed true. He didn’t want to interrupt this joyous moment though, because anytime he was hugging Sakura, everything else should be able to wait. When she finally stepped back, her green eyes glowing happily, she looked down at their hands. "We better cut that before we get rope burn." Sakura said.

Syaoran nodded and walked to the kitchen, looking through the drawers for his only pair of good utility scizzors. He finally found them, and cut it off with his free right hand. Sakura took her hand back and flexed out her fingers. Syaoran walked over to the trash can and tossed away the rope, then muttered ‘be right back’ as he headed for the bathroom.

Sakura grinned and nodded, happy enough just to admire being herself again. Wow, and that was only one day. Not even a full day, it’s only... Sakura looked over at the clock. Only twelve at night. Syaoran amazingly walked back in wearing completly different clothes, which how he was able to change so quickly Sakura would never know, it was just one of those things she accepted. "I suppose I should go home." She said, glancing at the clock.

"You can’t just walk home at midnight!" Syaoran said.

Sakura looked back over at him across the dark kitchen. "I guess, but...I’m not bothering you?"

Syaoran looked outside, glancing at the full moon that was shining down on the balcony outside. He looked back to Sakura. "Come on, I have something to tell you." Syaoran said.

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

Ahh! What kind of a person am I to leave you on a cliffhanger? A mean one, that’s what. Sorry, I just didn’t want another fourty page long chapter. So this is a flat out thirty one, not bad, not bad....Hmm, not alot to write in the author’s note. This is still me writing at the hotel of my wicked awesome spring break. I skipped out a trip with my parents to the Pancake Man to write you this. Woah boy. Well next chapter isn’t gonna be funny, I don’t think, I mean I’ll do my best, but it doesn’t have these past chapters story lines.

Well hoorah, katie’s written out twenty three chapters! Oh no, now you know my name! ahh!

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Hope ya’ll liked another one of my chapters!

~* Syaoran Fan 4 Life *~