Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Visible To You ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 7 )

Kitty Neko: YAY! It didn't take me a month to update it this time! Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Oh, I have a special question for the guys that reviewed my story (if there are any): Will you bear my child? WAIT! Wrong thing to ask! Let me try that again: Will you let me bear your child? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! You can tell I've been watching too much Inu Yasha. Miroku is the best!

Anyways, onward with the story!

Disclaimer: Me no own CardCaptor Sakura. But, I do have lots of Halloween candy. Or, actually, I DID. Heh.

"Yes. That's great." Syaoran said.

"Yes. That's great!" Sakura repeated into the receiver, examining her cuticles boredly. Tomoyo had been going on and on about her date with Eriol for 30 minutes now. After the first ten, Syaoran had taken up the position of listening and telling Sakura what to say so it would seem like she was paying attention. Surprisingly, he had offered. He would never tell her, but it pained him to see her faking enthusiasm for something that was quite obviously eating her inside.

"And then…" Tomoyo's voice was so excited and Sakura almost felt bad about blocking her out. She couldn't help it though.

Her thoughts wondered back to a scene that had transpired that morning around the breakfast table with her father and brother. Strangely, they were both quiet but she couldn't get the energy to enquire about it.

Finally, her father had to say something and he did it with a smile on his face, "So, who's Syaoran?"

Unluckily for her, she'd been taking a sip of orange juice at that precise moment (of course) and had started choking. Touya reached around the table and pounded on her back until her coughing subsided. "E-excuse me?"

"Syaoran. You know: `the smartest and cutest guy in the entire world'."

Sakura could feel a bead of sweat trickle down the side of her face, "Huh?" she said stupidly and unbelievingly.

"You yelled it loud enough for the whole town to hear." Her father still had a smile plastered on his face, finding the whole situation highly amusing. Sakura, however, did not. But, if her father found it `amusing', Touya found it `extremely entertaining'.

"I don't think I want to know what was going on in your room." He commented and snickered.

Sakura tried to hide her embarrassment with a witty quip, "More than you'll ever experience." Up until that point, Syaoran had chosen to remain silent. His familiar laughter rumbled through the kitchen and Sakura found it sad that she was the only one who could hear it. But, then again, if Touya heard Syaoran laughing at his expense, he might end up castrated. Tearing her attention from her invisible companion, she looked back at her brother (who was gaping at her) and father who still had that smile on his face.

"Syaoran is a figment of my imagination," insert another hoot of laughter from said guy, "he would have to be; everyone knows that the cutest and smartest `guy' is a woman." That made the laughter stop.

"What about me?" Touya asked, pointing at himself with his index finger.

"Are you a woman?"

"No."

"Then you must not be as cute as you think you are." Sakura inwardly patted herself on the back. Normally, she would have made a jab at his intelligence, but she knew that he was smart. Hit him below the belt: also known as his ego.

"And me?" Syaoran demanded interrupting. While her family wasn't looking, Sakura pointed at her head and mouthed the words `not that smart'.

"Since you don't think I'm smart, does that mean you think I'm cute?"

Sakura chose not to answer that question, pretending like she was concerned with getting caught talking to him. Later, Syaoran forgot the question completely.

"How corny." Syaoran's voice reminded her that she was still on the phone.

"How corny," Sakura repeated. There was silence on the other side of the line.

"You think it's corny that Eriol said my eyes were beautiful before giving me a peck on the cheek goodnight?"

Yes.

Tomoyo's voice sounded hurt and Sakura shot Syaoran a dirty look. "No! Not at all! I must have misheard you! I thought you said `ice' not `eyes'!" Syaoran arched his eyebrow and, since she couldn't say anything at the moment, she settled for flipping him the bird.

"Well, Tomoyo, I'd better go. I'll talk to you later." Sakura said, not wanting to stick her foot in her mouth again if it were at all possible. At the rate she'd been going, her toes were getting wrinkled.

"Ok, bye."

"Bye."

Sakura set the phone in the cradle gently and slowly raised her face to glare at Syaoran. "I trusted you."

"Well, that was a stupid thing to do." He grinned at her cheekily, and she couldn't help but return it. "Are you mad?"

"No." Sakura admitted. "It WAS pretty corny."

"I thought I was going to gag." Syaoran put his finger in his mouth to emphasize his point.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad. It's actually kind of sweet." Syaoran just laughed again. It was starting to grate on her nerves. "Oh shut up."

*****

Syaoran drummed his fingers on the carpet silently; the sound drowned out by the blasting music, and shifted his weight. His bottom started to get numb and he shifted again. Quickly tiring of that, he flipped over so that he was lying on his stomach and practically making out with the carpet. He took a deep breath and gagged. They needed to get their house steam cleaned!

"What the heck is taking you so long?" he finally shouted. For several moments, there was only the loud music before it cut off abruptly.

"Did you say something?" Sakura's voice sounded exhausted, like she'd just run a marathon; probably from the heat of the bath water.

"I asked what's taking you so long? You've been in the bathtub for almost thirty minutes!" There was a splash sound as Sakura lowered herself back into the water and made a rude noise.

"It takes girls longer to take baths." She stated simply.

"Obviously," Syaoran propped his head on his hands and stared at the door that was separating him from the brunet. "But why? Is it because you get dirtier than us?"

Sakura snorted. "Yea right. It's because we have to shave and our hair is longer."

Why hadn't he thought of that? "How much longer are you going to take?"

"Keep your heart boxers on. I'm almost done." There was more splashing, "See? Now I'm just drying off."

"Actually, I can't see." Syaoran pointed out, adding, "And I'm not wearing those boxers anymore! Remember, you cleaned mine."

Her voice chose not to answer. Instead, the door opened and Sakura stood with steam billowing around her, clad in only a towel. Well, a towel and underwear. Syaoran could tell from his position on the floor. He had to blink several times.

"Forgetting something?" he asked, pushing himself into the seated position.

"Maybe." Sakura answered, trying in vain to hide the flush. Quickening her pace, she moved towards her room to get dressed in the clothes she had stupidly left on her bed. "Stay there," she commanded and turned her back to him.

"What if I don't wanna?"

"Then do it anyways." He was beginning to feel like he wasn't in control of himself anymore. Sakura was thinking something along the same lines but a little worse; she'd always wanted a puppy that followed her around and obeyed her commands. Well, not really, but you know what she means.

When she was fully dressed, she opened her door to see Syaoran sitting there and staring at her. It was kind of creepy. "I thought I told you to stay by the bathroom." She said teasing, but it was really to hide her surprise. The way he was looking at her made it hard to breath.

"Puppies, even trained ones, don't ever listen. So, why should I?" he asked and rose to his feet. Sakura's eyes followed him and she had to crane her neck slightly.

"Puh," her mouth was so dry she couldn't have said anything else if she'd wanted to.

"Something wrong?" Syaoran asked sounding concerned all of a sudden. "You don't look so good. Are you sure you're up to this date? If it's because of Tomoyo and E-"

Sakura quickly cut him off. "No! I'm fine." Truth be told, she wasn't quite sure that was accurate. She knew the Eriol thing was still bothering her, but that wasn't the problem at the moment. She couldn't put her finger on the exact-

"Sakura?"

"What?"

Syaoran frowned slightly, "Are you SURE you're ok?" he brought his hand up and placed it on her forehead. Sakura jerked backwards and laughed nervously.

"Positive! I must just be getting butterflies. Akira was awful nice and cute. I'm just afraid I'll screw up." Where had that come from?

"Uh huh."

"Well," Sakura eased past Syaoran slowly and smiled, "I've got things to do. You know, blow-dry my hair, curl it, put make-up on and… yea." She practically ran out of sight.

"What was that all about?" Syaoran asked himself and shook his head slowly. She just kept getting weirder.

Sakura flipped the switch to the hair-drier and started the long task. Her locks were still soaking wet and this would take forever. Normally, she would let it air-dry for a while but she needed an excuse for not talking to Syaoran at the moment. One question rolled around in her mind over and over.

What the heck was going on with her? Ever since Syaoran had spent that night comforting her, she'd felt funny when she looked at him and it was increasingly getting worse. It was getting to the point where it was difficult to hide. It wasn't what she thought it was, was it? But then again, she hadn't felt like this about Eriol, so it must be something else… but… what?

Sakura swung her hair over her head and stayed in the bent over position so she could dry the underside. Her eyes slid closed so she could try and block out the world. It might have been her imagination, but she could almost hear a piercing sound.

When a hand placed itself on her upper back, her eyes flew open in surprise and she jerked upwards; dropping the blow-dryer at the same time. It slammed into the back of her head (thus turning itself off) and a flash white erupted in her vision. Falling to the ground, she grabbed her aching noggin and hissed in pain.

"Sakura!" Syaoran exclaimed and knelt by her side. "Are you ok?"

"Just be quiet," Sakura grit out, "I've got a headache." Syaoran complied and the only sound left was the shrill ringing of the phone. It soon quit and she stayed in that position for several minutes.

When the pain had subsided to a dull ache, she looked at Syaoran with annoyance, "You make speak now," she said, irritated.

"Um…"

"Please tell me you had a reason for scaring the crap out of me and, thus, causing me to injure myself."

Syaoran winced. "I- you're not going to like it."

"Try me."

"I was ganna tell you the phone was ringing." Silence.

He was right; she didn't like it. She was just having a lovely week. Hopefully, it wasn't anyone important on the other side of the line, because there was no way she was getting up any time soon.

"I'll be right back." Syaoran muttered and she felt his presence disappear, leaving Sakura by herself to brood for a total of 71 seconds (trust her, she counted). Gently, he lifted her wrist off her head and replaced it with something cold.

"I couldn't find any baggies," he explained, "So I wrapped some ice in a paper towel."

"Thanks." He continued to hold it to the forming lump until she realized she was supposed to take it from him. "Well," Sakura rose to her feet unsteadily and half-smiled at him. "I'd better finished getting ready. I hope the blow-dryer didn't break." Syaoran watched as she walked away, a smile absent from his features.

*****

"I'm getting an annoying sense of deja-vu." Sakura whispered, barely moving her lips. They weren't the only people on the bus.

"Yes, I think we've been to the mall several times too many this week." Syaoran agreed.

The bus came to a halt and most of the people got up and headed for the door; Sakura and Syaoran included. Together, they made their way to the place Sakura and Akira had agreed to meet. It was getting close to 6:00 and he wasn't there yet.

Sakura seated herself at the same booth as the previous day and Syaoran sat down opposite of her. He could tell she was nervous; she was fidgeting. He had the strongest desire to make conversation and ease her worry, but didn't want her to be talking to him when Akira showed up. You know, didn't want to get them off on the wrong foot.

Sakura continued to stare at her fingers, so Syaoran just observed her. She looked really nice today. Her hair was tied half up/half down and she'd even decided to wear a skirt: not that she wouldn't have looked just as good in jeans. He loved the way the denim would hug her- WOAH!

Time to change his direction of thought. As a distraction, he glanced at his watch: ten minutes past six. Where the hell was that guy?

"Sakura!" Akira walked up, grinning like a Cheshire cat, "I hope I didn't make you wait long." He said, by way of greeting.

"Not at all." Sakura replied, sliding out of the booth so she was closer to eye level. There was something unnerving about having someone standing and talking to her when she was sitting.

"Are you ready?"

"Sure." Sakura reached for her deposited purse and made quick eye contact with Syaoran to follow.

She didn't have to tell him twice. He hopped up and was a step behind them the entire walk to the theatre located close to the exit in the mall. Walking up to the ticket booth, Akira asked for two tickets for a movie neither Syaoran nor Sakura had ever heard of before.

"$8.37." The girl said, obviously bored. She leaned over, exposing a large amount of cleavage and waiting for the money.

Akira stared at her a little too long for Syaoran's liking and finally reached in his pocket. A `shocked' expression came over his face, "Oh shit!" he cursed, "I forgot my wallet. I'm sorry, Sakura."

The girl in the booth rolled her eyes and retracted her hand before Sakura said, "Wait! I brought some money. I'll pay." She dug around in her purse for a second before pulling out a wad of cash to exchange for the tickets. Akira took them from her hands and led her to the theatre.

They took a seat towards the back barely in time for the commercials to start. Syaoran made sure he was directly behind them so he could watch their progress.

The movie sucked.

Sakura and Syaoran had lost interest long ago, but Akira was practically glued to the screen. As far as Sakura could tell, it was just a lot of profanity, violence, and sex. Normally, those things didn't really bother her, but this was ridiculous. There didn't even seem to be a plot.

Sakura yawned hugely and glanced at the screen. Right now, things were really heating up between the two main characters… or was it the main character and some girl he just met? Oh well. Didn't really matter. Pretending to stretch, Sakura twisted her body to look at Syaoran and give him a distraught expression.

"Maybe it will get better." The invisible boy said, quite unhelpfully in Sakura's opinion.

Facing the front again, she let out a breath of air slowly and tried to fixate her attention on the screen again. Eh… what was this movie rated?

She was brought out of her musings quite abruptly by a large hand resting on her knee. She stared at it for a long time, not really comprehending, before it dawned on her and she jerked away discretely. It must have been a mistake- her leg was awfully close to his.

Or at least that's what she thought at first.

Her heart accelerated (not in a good way) as his fingers replaced themselves and slowly crept higher. They reached the hem of her skirt - why, oh why hadn't she worn jeans? - and lifted it so he was still touching her skin. Sakura jerked away again and hissed, "Quit it." Akira scowled at her and retracted his hand.

Sakura glanced over her shoulder and was stunned to realize that Syaoran hadn't noticed. He caught her eye and smiled, "Is the date getting any better?" Sakura didn't answer and turned her head. Syaoran frowned. What had he missed? Deciding to completely abandon the movie, he watched Sakura like a hawk.

Not five minutes later, the steamy scene was still going and Akira's roaming hands found his date's leg again. Sakura tensed and Syaoran could feel his face start to burn with anger. His fists clenched.

Deciding she'd had enough; Sakura sprung to her feet and tried to pass Akira to get to the middle aisle. Quickly, the strange boy blocked her path. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"I told you to stop. Goodbye." With a sudden burst of strength, she shoved his legs away and passed him with ease. She walked through the theater quickly, wanting to get out - she was feeling extremely claustrophobic at the moment. She was completely out of the theater before Akira and Syaoran had time to react.

Syaoran got to the end of his row and waited for Akira to pass him. As the unsuspecting boy was doing so, he stuck out his foot and watched, satisfied for the moment, as he landed on his face. Not bothering to hide his snicker (since no one could hear it) he jumped over the body on the floor and followed Sakura. He couldn't help noticing that a lot of people were giving Akira dirty looks for disrupting their movie.

Outside the movies, Syaoran caught a glimpse of Sakura walking out the mall and quickened his pace to catch up with her.

The sun had already gone down and the air was slightly chilly. Sakura stood at the bus stop and waited impatiently, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to make them warm. That only caused her to remember Akira touching her leg and she shivered, wanting to get a bath. No one else was around, so when Syaoran joined her, she could talk freely. Not that she was offering any conversation starters.

"Hi," Syaoran muttered. She didn't respond. "I'm sorry," he added after a moment.

"It's not your fault." She whispered, "You can't help it if I attract the wrong kind of people." Syaoran was about to retort to that angrily but was interrupted by a pissed male voice.

"Sakura!" Akira stomped up to said girl, almost running into Syaoran who jumped out of the way in time, "What the hell was that all about?"

"I told you to stop and you didn't. I left." Sakura stated the obvious, staring at the floor.

"What? Was I going too fast for you?" Akira sneered, grabbing her upper arm roughly and pulling her towards him, "What did you expect: that I was going to take time out of my life to take you to the movies and expect nothing in return? You're living in a dream world, girly." Sakura tried to turn her face, but he held it in place so she couldn't.

Syaoran was livid. He could feel his blood boiling and knew that nothing good could come of it. Without a second thought, he jammed his knee into the guy's side, causing him to release Sakura. Akira spun around to find the culprit but, of course, didn't see anyone.

"What the f-"

The rest of his sentence was cut of as Syaoran landed another blow, this time making him to fall to the ground. Sakura backed away from them instinctively.

"Do tell me how cement tastes," Syaoran said, placing his foot on the fallen guy's head and pressing it against pavement. Akira wiggled away and stood, whipping his head around frantically. Syaoran was on him again in a split second.

Sakura had never seen a fight so close before. Well… there was that time in P.E. but that was a wussy fight. I seemed more like they were trying to hug each other than beat one another up. This… this was so much different. It seemed a little unfair for Akira since he couldn't actually see his opponent, but it wasn't like she cared.

Akira held a hand up to his bloodied nose, looking more confused than ever, before finally wising up and turning tail to retreat. Despite wanting to chase after the coward, Syaoran remembered that Sakura shouldn't be left alone and stayed put. She looked distraught so he didn't try talking.

The bus appeared soon after and they piled on, Sakura pausing momentarily to pay her fee. As soon as they reached her stop, Sakura practically flew from the public vehicle and sprinted the rest of the way to her house, Syaoran not too far behind.

The home was empty, and the duo suspected that her family had gone grocery shopping or something. That actually worked out fine.

Without waiting for Syaoran, she ran the rest of the way to her room and slammed the door behind her. It was an obvious clue to stay out, but Syaoran had never been much for taking hints.

Trying not to make a sound, he gently pried the door open and was surprised at the sight that greeted him; Sakura was sprawled on the bed, her face buried in a pillow, and shoulders shaking violently. "Sakura?"

She replied with something that sounded suspiciously like `go away'. Alas, he was not one to be deterred and locked the door (just in case her father or brother came home) before sitting next to her on the bed.

For the second time that week, he watched as she cried. If he didn't know better, he would have thought she was a crybaby. Still, he knew that she was just having a very bad week.

She wouldn't stop and he didn't know what to do. His arms ached to hold her but he wasn't sure if it would be a good idea. After some serious debating, he lay down next to her and pulled her back to his chest. She paused, her breath catching in her throat. The stiffness left her shoulders and she relaxed, once again crying, but a lot less violently.

When it got to the point where the hot tears were just sliding down her face, she wiggled until she was facing him. Surprisingly, he didn't remove his arms from around her waist.

"I'm sorry," her voice was raw from the crying and she tried to swallow saliva to sooth it.

"It's not your fault. That guy was just a jerk that didn't deserve to even lay eyes on you."

"I'm such a loser." Sakura rasped, the tears welling again, much to Syaoran's dismay, "first with Eriol and now Akira."

"You are NOT a loser." Syaoran said firmly. Sakura just ignored him.

"I'm so sorry Syaoran. Because of me, you're probably going to be invisible FOREVER. There's no way that anyone will ever love me," Her voice was hysterical again, "they'll either see me as a sex object or notice that my best friend is much more attractive." She scrunched his shirt in her hands and buried her face, most likely trying to smother herself.

"Sakura!" Syaoran said sharply, shoving her away and forcing her to look at him, "You are NOT a sex object! You are NOT less attractive than Tomoyo! You WILL have someone that loves you! And I WILL NOT be invisible forever because of you! We weren't even a hundred percent certain that I was supposed to help you! The problem could very well lie in me! And-" his voice faltered looking into those amazingly green eyes, a brighter shade than usual because she was crying. When he spoke again, his voice was much quieter: barely above a whisper.

"And I wouldn't mind being invisible for the rest of my life as long as you could see me."

For the longest time they stayed in that position, Syaoran's arms wrapped around her and both of them staring.

"W-what?" Sakura tried to swallow the lump in her throat that felt like it would be lodged there permanently.

"It's true. As long as you're with me, I'll be ok."

Sakura blinked, slowly and deliberately, trying to decipher what exactly was going on. Just when exactly had this conversation taken a turn like this? "What do you mean?"

And then, he was kissing her.

Mostly from shock, Sakura's mouth opened slightly. He didn't take advantage of that and instead, his mouth pressed gently, not demanding anything. He wouldn't force her to do anything.

With a start, Sakura realized that this was what she wanted and she closed her eyes, pressing firmly against his mouth. She could feel the tension drain from his body and his mouth slowly part open. It was strange at first, both of them unsure of what to do, until Syaoran finally took charge slowly inserting his tongue in her mouth. Sakura moved closer to him, molding her body to his and melting in the kiss. Her hands snaked around to the back of his head and gathered his locks in a fist. They broke apart, and Sakura leaned against his chest breathing harder than usual.

"I mean," Syaoran started. It took Sakura a moment to figure out that he was answering her earlier question, "That I certainly like you and could definitely get to love you; if I don't already."

"Fair enough." Sakura snuggled as close to him as possible, smiling genuinely. "You know," she added, almost as an afterthought, "that was my first kiss."

"Mine too." Syaoran answered honestly and inhaled deeply. Sakura couldn't contain the evil little smirk that popped on her face, almost on it's own.

"I could tell."

Kitty Neko: HA! Sakura just always has to have the last word, ne? Oh, BTW, I'm sorry if that kissing scene seemed awkward. I've never written one before and I'm a kissing virgin! WAH! I'm seriously considering going up to a cute guy and saying, "Excuse me, but would you mind helping me do research for this story I'm writing. You see, there's a kissing scene, but I have no idea what it's like to be kissed." Well, I wasn't SERIOULY thinking about doing that, but Ongaku suggested it. You wanna know something weird though? I'm getting the feeling that my friends are trying to find someone to hook me up with since they found out I've never kissed. Me scared.

Anyways, there's only one chapter of this story left, and then: THE EPILOUGE! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Ja!