sunday morning

Sakura Kinomoto sat up in her bed, stared for brief seconds at her clock and then yelped, "Late again!"

She scrambled.

It always happened this way. And her brother was no help whatsoever, giving her nothing but scathing comments every morning. And Kero did nothing - he'd sleep for a good hour or so yet. She dashed down the stairs, grabbed a still-frozen piece of toast from the counter, stuffed some lunch money into her satchel and darted out to the doorstep. She barely sat still long enough to get her roller blades on before she was out the door.

Yukito and Touya, who had been sitting at the kitchen table quite peacefully before Hurricane Sakura had swept through, stared at the front door for a little while. Eventually, Yuki said, "Shouldn't we tell her it's a Sunday?"

Touya shrugged. "Her fault. Besides, we'll never catch her now."

"But... she'll be exhausted by the time she gets there, and she'll be upset." Yukito reasoned lightly. "I don't know if you've ever done it, but I've seen little kids burst into tears when they accidentally go to school on the weekend. You feel really embarrassed..."

Touya quirked an eyebrow at his best friend and folded his paper in half. "You talk like you know, but it never happened to you."

Yukito's kind face fell into a similar expression to that of a kicked puppy. Touya let out a quick sigh and leaned over the table to kiss his friend's forehead. "Come on, then, we'll go get her." Yukito, significantly cheered, trotted after Touya as the taller boy readied his bike.



Sakura skidded to a halt outside the chained and locked school gates and thought, Oh. My. God. I'm an idiot.

She brushed her hair out of her eyes and sank in a nerveless pile of quivering flesh to the footpath. She couldn't believe it. She'd never skated so fast, she was sure of it. She had to have broken some sort of record. But it didn't matter, because she was too silly to realise that it was Sunday and there was a reason her clock was set for eight-thirty.

She started laughing. And then, as the adrenaline seeped away, she began to cry.

Touya and Yukito found her there five minutes later, her long legs pulled up to her chest with her arms wrapped around them. Yukito held Touya's bike while the dark-haired boy scooped up his little sister. Sakura looked up in surprise at her brother's face and burst into tears all over again. "I'm such an idiot!"

"Nope, just a lazy monster." Touya said, voice off-hand. Then he said, "Well, yeah, you are an idiot. But we all are sometimes."

Yuki said, "I'm notoriously idiotic on Tuesdays. You were two days early." He paused. �We�d better get back to the French toast.�

Sakura giggled despite herself. "No, I was five days late. Is there French toast for me?"

"Nope. We ate it all." Touya dead-panned. Yuki flicked him in the shoulder and rolled his eyes.

"By that he means, 'No, we made you pancakes'." He informed Sakura with a smile. The girl grinned and tapped Touya's shoulder.

"Thanks. You can put me down, now, I'm okay to skate home."

"Good thing, too. I'm a soccer whiz, not a weight-lifting champion..."

Yuki and Sakura glared at him.

"Touya!"

The dark-haired boy grimaced, but he knew his way out of this one. He scooped Yuki up and flung them both onto his bike, much to the silver-haired boy's delight. "Last one home has to do the dishes!" He took off. Sakura's shocked expression dissolved into a blur.

"Touyaaaaa!"

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