Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Black Wings ❯ Chapter Ten ( Chapter 10 )

Black Wings

By: Aisaki Sumi

 

Good news: OMFG!! NORTHVIEW PHOENIX WON!! We're going to Atlanta to compete in the F.I.R.S.T. Robotics (World) Championship!! GOO 1814 the Rookie All Stars!!

 

Chapter Ten

 

The vacant art studio was silent, occupied by busts of various statues and other full sculptures arranged very artistically together.

 

There were large paintings hanging on the wall, some were recognized to be copies of the most famous artwork by some of the most well-known and respected artists. Mona Lisa's Smile was pinned firmly in place on the side wall with The Last Supper and the oil painting, Venus, by its side.

 

Sakura surveyed the empty studio for a good place to settle down and spotted the stool by the window. Tightening her hand around the thick strap of the large art binder that was dangling on her side, occasionally clashing into her leg, she headed for the seat which would provide her a good view of the outside if she ever needed to gain inspiration for her artworks.

 

Placing her art bag on the floor, she allowed it to lean against the stool. She then turned her attention to her art kit and started to set up the necessary equipments.

 

Sakura was a very organized person and preferred to begin preparation for her favorite class ahead of the others. Tomoyo had told her earlier the art studio was always open and that she could go there whenever she wanted to work on her paintings.

 

After setting up everything she needed for the class, Sakura stared hazily at the blank page of her school sketchbook that was sitting on the wooden painting stand and immersed herself in the world of arts.

 

The pencil sketch she finished at lunchtime of that dark angel remained in the back of her head as her artistic mind wondered on about what she should draw for her first art class.

 

A part of her felt slightly uncomfortable about the upcoming class. Even though Visual Arts was her favorite, she wasn't still unsure if she could deal with her new classmates alone without having Tomoyo by herself to whisper those assuring words to her ears.

 

This was the only class that differed on their almost identical time table. Tomoyo took Music instead of Visual Arts for her general arts credit.

 

The loud ringing of the bell startled her and pulled her back to the world of reality. It was the declaration of the beginning of her first afternoon class, and to say that she had a love-hate relationship with it would be the greatest understatement of the year. Shifting nervously in her seat, Sakura ran her tongue over her dried lips and gulped.

 

Inhaling a large quantity of air, she tried not to think about anything else. After all, Arts was different from her Japanese Literature class. She didn't need to speak up or voice her opinion. All she had to do was to draw.

 

No self-introduction was required, or at least she hoped it wasn't required. Memories of the embarrassing morning remained fresh in her mind. If it wasn't for that guy, she would be wearing a paper bag over her head right now.

 

Speaking of him, she remembered his name. Li Syaoran…

 

It was a nice name. It sounded pleasant and special.

 

The first time she had met him was in the summer, when she was abducted by his two friends out of the blues and given the label of his “birthday present”. He had saved her once before and again this morning.

 

She wasn't sure of his true intentions. The only speculation she could offer that sounded somewhat rational and convincing was: he only helped her because of his guilty conscience.

 

However it offered no explanation for his sudden approach at lunch. He was practically having a one-sided conversation with himself. Even talking to a tree would be more enjoyable than talking to her.

 

After ignoring him for a few rounds of questions and no answers, she was almost certain that he would give up. But he didn't.

 

Instead of looking irritated by her lack of response, he looked rather amused. His reactions made no sense and everything he did was unpredictable. Sakura wasn't great at reading others' minds and she hated interacting with people.

 

The words believe and trust had lost their meanings a while ago. She could not bring herself to trust anyone anymore after her parents' sudden divorce over the fatal car crash that nearly killed her brother Touya.

 

He was deprived of his ability to move and to enjoy. Instead of anticipating for the arrival of his bright future, Touya was left in a coma for the rest of his life. He was disabled for the rest of his life, and left with an empty shell.

 

Nadeshiko blamed it on Fujitaka. They fought and yelled, their angry voices carrying miles away on the careless wind. Her family was torn apart. The seemingly perfect marriage of Fujitaka and Nadeshiko ended in a great tragedy. The ending was too imperfect.

 

Sakura was taken away right after the divorce and went to Tokyo to hope for a better future, but the trip to Tokyo was only the commencement of her new life—the beginning of the series of inevitable, unfortunate events that happened like a chained reaction.

 

Nothing in her life was going right. Her childish and innocent dreams were shattered one by one. Her life took an unexpected turn, and she could only watch it spin out of control in impotence. There was very little one could do when fate was playing foully.

 

She had kept this silence ever since she left Tomoeda for Tokyo, and throughout her stay at the asylum. People had grown used to her silent presence. They were so used to her silence to a point that they completely forgot about her being there.

 

She was invisible to many's eyes and she liked it that way. It was her quiet lifestyle as a loner—someone who was faded and unnoticeable to naked eyes.

 

The sudden excess attention she received from Syaoran was startling to her at first. They barely knew each other and as far as she was concerned, he was one of the most popular guys at Tomoeda Heights. He didn't need someone like her to be in his life.

 

Tomoyo mentioned his popularity in one of their one-sided conversations and she could see it now, more clearly than ever even though it was only her first day here.

 

Girls in her classes were throwing themselves at him, tossing their hair, showing off their undergarments to him as they desperately attempted to get his attention. Some even went as far as touching his hand and arms.

 

But he seemed so uninterested in them. She wondered why. The girls were quite pretty and attractive, and it was unusual for a guy to be able to resist such temptations. But he did. And Sakura was more than just surprised.

 

But she was more stunned when he approached her today while he could be doing many other things with his life. She never responded to any of his questions and pretended he didn't exist for the duration of the conversation. If she didn't walk away from him today, he probably would have rambled on, babbling away about the most random things.

 

She didn't know what he wanted from her. Perhaps he saw her as a challenge of some sort, for being the first girl who ever ignored him. She knew he didn't have any romantic interest in her. The look in his eyes gave it away.

 

Then what was it?

 

For all she knew, he was a wild gang leader, a motorcycle racer, the most popular and wanted guy at Tomoeda Heights. He was everything that she wasn't. He was the exact opposite of her.

 

He appeared to be such a stereotypical high school prince kind of guy and supposed to be simple to comprehend. Yet she found it hard to understand him. One minute he was doing this and the other minute he was doing something else totally different. It was hard to predict what he plans to do next.

 

He was just that complex. He always managed to surprise her with the things he do, and whenever she tried to sort out the events and find something logical about them, she always ended up confusing herself even more.

 

“Hey Sakura.” The familiar voice intruded upon her contemplation and caused her to jump slightly off her tool. Sakura looked over her shoulder to see who it was, and eyes widened instantly as she recognized who it was.

 

The sight of that rare amber color—the most beautiful mixture of gold and amber and hazel red she had ever seen—tugged at her relentlessly. It was the second time he had appeared randomly next to her with that content, standard boyish grin on his face.

 

He was always happy and she wondered if anything ever got him sad before. The content grin remained unwavering as he took a seat beside her, dumping his backpack on the ground carelessly.

 

“How come you always stare at me like that?” He studied her curiously, cocking his head to the right. After receiving no answers from him, he turned to his bag and went on.

 

“Anyway, what a coincident, we're in the same art class!” The sudden exclamation came out random and abrupt.

 

“I know I'm passing this class for sure.” He muttered to himself happily and Sakura could only stare at in as if he had grown two heads.

 

“I had to choose between the two arts related courses. But since I didn't want to kill off anyone's hearing with my off-tune singing, I thought Visual Arts could be a better choice of the two.” He rambled on as his eyes spotted her neatly placed art kit.

 

“Wow you came prepared.” He looked impressed.

 

Sakura eyed her working site idly and shrugged a little.

 

“Now I don't have to worry about bringing my art kit. Don't have that much space in my bag to carry all those things.” He slung a hand around her casually like he usually did with his buddies and grinned gleefully as if the world couldn't get any better than this.

 

Sakura instantly flinched at the contact and pushed his hand away, looking mortified and offended.

 

He gave her a somewhat puzzled look but shrugged it off as he turned to take out a piece of paper and placed it on his wooden stand, minding none of the looks she was casting at him.

 

“ne Sakura, can I borrow one of your brushes?” He suddenly asked, turning around to face her. He seemed so unbothered by the awkward moment that just fleeted by between them.

 

Sakura blinked a few times and grabbed the paint brush closest to her fingers and handed it to him.

 

“Thanks a lot!” was the only thing she received from him before the teacher entered the class. It was then she realized that the class was about to begin and the previously empty art studio was already filled with students. They must have had stepped into the room when her attention was focused on him.

 

“Good afternoon everyone! I will be your Visual Arts teacher for the rest of the nine months and I hope I'll be able to remember all of your names by the end of this week.” The teacher smiled brightly.

 

He had short honey auburn hair and clear blue eyes like cutting diamonds closed into a line. The corners of his lips were always curved into a graceful, gentle smile. He wasn't like her Japanese Literature teacher. His smile seemed real and heartfelt.

 

“My name is Fuji Syuusuke, and you can address me as Fuji-sensei.” He introduced himself briefly as he ambled across the room, smiling pleasantly at students.

 

“And we'll begin today by sketching this statue…” His soft words trailed off, evaporated into the air as he walked over to pull off the white sheet that was covering the said statue.

 

“The statue of the Dark Angel.” He announced and a few students sitting at the front gasped at the statue of a soaring angel.

 

“I'm sure many of you have heard of the popular legend that one day, when the world is ending, an angel with black wings would come and bring salvation to the dying world. He obeys no one's commands. He belongs to neither hell nor heaven.” Fuji-sensei's voice was even and steady as he explained, eyes looking up at the statue; a flicker of nostalgia shining in his blue eyes.

 

Sakura's eyes traveled down the Dark Angel's face and down to his well-built body and then to his strong black wings. Her mother's words echoed in her ears.

 

“And I thought angels all work for God.” The beautiful tranquil moment was broken by the gruff whisper. Sakura jerked her head to her left and found herself staring into the bright amber eyes full of inquisition.

 

“What? Don't all angels work for God? How come this one doesn't?” He gave her an isn't-it-obvious look and mumbled as his mind pondered, sounding more like he was talking to himself than to her. He reminded her of a child.

 

“I can't see how a black winged angel can ever save the world. I bet when some meteoroid collide with the earth, we'll all be dead before we can even catch a glimpse at this dark angel.” He speculated, offering his rather blunt opinion on the legendary dark angel.

 

“Now class, you may begin your pencil sketch of the statue first. While you're sketching, I will be coming around to every one of you and approve your pencil sketch. After receiving my approval, you may begin your oil painting of the statue and that will be your first assignment for this class.” Fuji-sensei explained and brightened his smile as his way of signaling the commencement of the work period.

 

Sakura took out her pencil kit and carefully picked out the pencil with the right shade and started her sketch. Excitement thudded loudly in her heart as she occasionally spared a few fleeting glances at the statue before her, trying to capture every single detail of the dark angel.

 

She had been drawing images of this dark angel for as long as she could remember. Yet none of her previous work ever appeared right to her. Something was always missing but she didn't know what.

 

The quiet room was surrounded by a pleasant tranquility again. The only sound detectable by their ears was the sound of pencils scratching the surface of papers. Sakura was so focused on her work that she almost didn't near the soft approaching footsteps of Fuji-sensei.

 

“It is a very beautiful and accurate sketch of the Dark Angel.” The compliment caught Sakura off guard. She instantly tilted her face toward Fuji-sensei who was standing behind her smiling cheerfully. “Good work Kinomoto-san.” He looked over his attendance sheet and found her name.

 

“You may start your oil painting now.” He gave her his permission before turning to Syaoran who was sitting right beside her. Fuji-sensei scrutinized the sketch in the making for a moment and looked slightly perplexed. He inclined his head to study the art work from a different angle, but it led him to the same conclusion as before.

 

“Li-kun,” he spoke softly, his voice smooth and velvety. “It is a very nice sketch, but keep in mind that you should be recording down what your eyes see and not what you think you see. But when we get to the next unit, you will be able to use your imagination more and create images using your mind.” Fuji-sensei paused for a moment, letting the words sink into the young artist's mind before continuing on.

 

“The only part that needs to be fixed right now is the right shading of the shadows on the statue's face. Perhaps Kinomoto-san can assist you on that task.” Fuji-sensei suggested, looking down at Sakura. “It is a great sketch nonetheless and you can start the oil painting soon after this.” Fuji-sensei smiled before strolling toward the next student.

 

Syaoran held his chin and gazed at the sketch in front of him, a thoughtful expression gracing his face as he tried to figure out what he did wrong.

 

Sakura sighed silently and leaned forward to Syaoran's side with her pencil and started to add in the right shades to the face of the Dark Angel. Syaoran watched her hand move carefully with delicacy and found himself mesmerized by the slow transition his sketch undertook with her help.

 

She stopped right then and passed the pencil to him, her other hand pointing at the sketch, a gesture for him to follow what she just did. Syaoran took the pencil from her hand prudently and gazed down at it for a moment before shading in the area needed cautiously for the fear of ruining the work she had just done.

 

Sakura watched him imitating her previous movements and couldn't help but frown when she realized that he wasn't using his pencil properly. This stirred the Leonardo Da Vinci in her.

 

Before she could even realize what she was doing, her hand fell upon his as she tried to adjust the positioning of his fingers around the pencil. “Try holding it this way.” The words rolled off the tip of her tongue, sounding foreign to her own ears.

 

She stopped on track as her ears picked up her own soft whisper. She turned around stiffly as she felt a familiar pair of eyes on her. And what came into her sight was a stunned gape from him. His jaws were dropped as he gawked at her with disbelief written all over his face. At that moment, she almost thought it was worth the look on his face.

 

He quickly stopped staring at her like a fish with its mouth open but fell silent for a while. Soon his eyes softened a little as he carefully allowed the words to roll of his tongue. “That was thing you said to me…” Sakura quirked an eyebrow at him, and gave him a yes-I-am-aware-of-that-thanks-for-stating-the-obvious look.

 

The boyish grin was back to his lips again as he shrugged the awkwardness off.

 

“Wow, your sketch is really good!” He complimented as his eyes fell upon her sketchbook, sounding quite impressed by what he was seeing.

 

“Mine looks pale in comparison. I think the only similarities our sketches share are: two wings and the figure of a person, and that's about it.” He laughed softly, pointing out the crappiness of his own work.

 

The corners of her lips lifted slightly at the moment but that was all. The distinction was very subtle.

 

While they continued to work on their sketches, two pairs of eyes were watching them closely. One of the girls sneered coldly, her dark blue eyes revealing disdain.

 

She was the same girl who gave Sakura an exasperated look in Japanese Literature class earlier today and complained about the quietness of her voice.

 

“Meiling, did you see that girl flirting with Syaoran? Your Syaoran! Your fiancé!” She huffed, emphasizing on the last few words.

 

The girl with long, ink-colored hair made no attempt to respond to the question. Rather, she simply watched Sakura with icy, slightly narrowed ruby red eyes, lips thinning into a line.

 

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A/N: I don't plan on making Meiling a bad person in this fic. And this chapter was quite long. I have a very important announcement to make and I suggest you guys read this long note instead of ignoring it and demand for more updates.

 

A Very Important notice:

 

Sakura is quiet because of her past. My reasons for her characterization are clear and self-explanatory and I will be ignoring comments regarding to her from now because they're starting to irk me greatly as a writer. The SxS relationship is different from the ones you're used to perceive. And sometimes, one need to realize that, words and other verbal expressions are not needed when expressing love. Flirting and hate at first sight aren't essential components of a good story. At least I don't see them as important as other writers.

 

While I appreciate all your suggestions, I have a plot and style of my own and prefer to keep things that way. I have a good reason for everything I write in this story since they are pre-planned and thought out before I posted the chapters. I don't make up things on the spot and pulling random things off the top of my mind as I write, at least not anymore. I stopped doing that after the 2 year-long break I took from ff.n and writing. All the metaphors and events have a deep meaning to them and reading this story more carefully from now on might help you understand this story more. I will provide you with a study-guide/analysis at the end of the story like I did with A Black Rose to clarify everything and you'll see that nothing in this story was ever meaningless.

 

Those who tried to understand this story, or understood the story completely… I'm still posting this story on FF.N for you guys. And as for my other stories, I might stop posting them here and post them on my Fic-Journal instead where all the entries will be f-locked (friend-locked) and only the ones on my friends list will be able to see them. They won't be public anymore.

 

Yes long note. And those of you who never read the A/N stuff, well start reading them now because when I take the time to explain things to people, they never read it and ask me the same question that has already been answered in the end and it's really annoying.

 

Reviews are supposed to be enjoyable to read, and 90 percent of the reviews I receive ARE very enjoyable to read. And other ones just make me wanna pull my hair and ask the reader, “you sure you were reading this story correctly?” Otherwise I wouldn't be receiving those questions and comments. At first I was questioning myself if my writing was off and confused people, but after I started getting those really good analytic reviews from a lot of reviewers, I thought to myself “hey, how come those people got it?” The only explanation I can come up with is that people skim through the story just to look for fluffy/happy SxS moments and disregard all other elements that are just as important in life such as family and friends. Many stories in the SxS fandom focus on love only, but I don't because I don't see life resolving one single thing. It's about friends being there for friends; it's about determination and meeting someone who'll be there to provide you support as you try to make through the tough day; it's about one chasing after their dreams and prove themselves to the world.

 

I don't want this to be my goodbye note to you guys, but I might just have to start taking the path many other writers took and that is posting stories on friends-only Fic-Journals. If you don't know what that is. It's basically an online journal thing where people post their stories or drabbles. However, many of these entries are locked. The writers have to approve you as their friend before letting you view these protected entries. I do that with my other drabbles and shounen-ai fics and I might start doing that with my CCS fanfics as well. So people who really appreciate them can read them.

 

The only reason why I'm so reluctant to do that is because there are just too many people who understand this story and I really shouldn't ignore their interest because of the small minority who's irking me to no end. But this is beginning to make me have this love-and-hate relationship with writing which usually results in discontinuation of a story.

 

Wow a long note, very, very long, but I thought I should clarify a few things and give you guys a head up that I might not be posting anything here anymore because I'm not seeing the point of me continuing writing for this fandom. I don't want contributing to my all-times favorite heterosexual couple's fandom to become a pain in the ass.

 

Since they won't let me post a notice without attaching a chapter of the story to it. Enjoy this chapter because it might be the last one from me. But I'll still write the story though, it's just you just won't be seeing the new chapters on this site anymore.

 

To sum up all the crap I just wrote, I'm not planning to post anything on FF.N anymore. From the reviews I've been receiving lately, I didn't see the point of posting things here. But I'm not that sure yet, since there are so many awesome reviewers who actually read this story and enjoyed it. Still need to make up my mind about it… and for now, enjoy this chapter because it just might be the last one I'll post on Fanfic (dot) net as Aisaki Sumi.

 

Now to explain the story a bit:

 

“Sakura is the withdrawn, tortured artist, and Syaoran is the fierce uninterested but intrigued gang leader,” (quote from -Sweeping Shadows-`s review) pretty much sums up these two characters. Just by looking at their characters should give you an idea of how they will fall in love. :P

 

Syaoran is uninterested in girls but is intrigued by Sakura because there is something about her that's really different. And the ones who decided to skip the chapters that had very little SxS interactions and asked me about why Syaoran's interested in Sakura all of a sudden, there's your answer. He's trying to get her talk because girls are always bothering him and it was rare for a girl to ignore him completely.

 

Sakura sees Syaoran metaphorically as her savior, an angel with black wings. Normal people don't think like that. But given her circumstances (being locked up in an asylum after witnessing her mother's suicide), it is only logical that she turns to arts and draw out her feelings instead of translating them into words like normal people would. If you pay attention, a lot of mentally insane or ill people use a different way of expression. That should explain why she doesn't talk to people.