Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ All That She Is ❯ The Start of A Little Problem ( Chapter 11 )

All That She Is

By Crow Skywalker

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Disclaimer - Don't own CCS, nor will I ever. Although I wish I did...because playing around with Syaoran and Sakura is fun ^_~

Author's Notes - One more chapter to go and there will be a long wait for the next chapter, in which I haven't finished ^^;

For Latest Updates On Crow's Fanfiction - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crowskywalker/

Pairings - Sakura/Syaoran (eventually), Tomoyo/Eriol

Summary - Sakura gets her math tutoring, and everything's great until they hear a noise upstairs...

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Syaoran managed to make it through the rest of the school day without anything else going wrong. However, after school was another case. Miss Mizuki had suggested after math class that Syaoran start tutoring as soon as possible, as in right after school. He didn't like the idea very much - but he knew this was his chance to get the Cards.

"Kinomoto! Wait up!"

Sakura turned around, picking up her back pack that lay next to her locker, and absently closed and locked her locker as Syaoran made his way towards her.

"Miss Mizuki told me to make a study..date with you."

"Today?" She asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"Yeah," He smirked silently at her awkwardness around him, "You must really need the help, huh?"

This got her attention, and she glared furiously at him. "I may need help but I certainly don't need your help!" She spat, turning on her heals and heading down the hall.

This is great, he thought, if she's mad at me then there's no way she's going to let me in her house to get the Cards. I guess I'll have to be nicer. Making up his mind, he hurried through the halls to catch up to her.

"Kinomoto! Slow down!"

"I will not!"

Sighing, he grabbed hold of her arm and swung her around to face him. "Listen..I'm sorry."

She continued to glare at him for a moment, her green eyes flashing with dislike, but it soon faded. He...apologized? She thought, confused, he's disliked me from the start...and now he's being nice. He's so confusing...he can be nice one moment, and mean the next...

"What?" He asked, seeing the conflicting emotions in her eyes.

"N..nothing," She said, snapping out of it, "I just...never expected you to apologize." She sat down for a moment, putting on her skates.

Neither did I, he thought, but voiced, "So do you have your math stuff?"

"Yeah."

"Good." He gave her a smile, "So we'll go to your house?"

She gave him a suspicious eye, but nodded. "Touya has an interview for a job today, so it'll just be me and you - and Kero." She turned and continued, him following close behind.

That's right, he reminded himself, I totally forgot about cotton fluff. How am I going to get around him? I guess I'll figure that one out when I get there.

They walked in silence for what seemed like forever, and Syaoran found himself sneaking peeks at the girl in front of him. She roller bladed slowly, enabling him to keep up with her, but to him, secretly, it was torturous. She even bladed graciously, her long bangs blowing softly in the wind, and she kept a even distance between them.

He frowned slightly, mentally kicking himself. Stop it!

"We're here!" She skidded to a halt in front of him, and he looked up to see the house she was indicating to. "Home sweet home." She smiled slightly, skating the rest of the way to her door before she stopped to pull off her skates.

Syaoran stood his ground, staring at the house. This is it...no turning back once I enter.

"Are you coming?"

He snapped out of it to see her enter the house, holding the door open for him and staring at him with curious eyes. He adverted his gaze, suddenly feeling a bit guilty. He couldn't look into her innocent eyes, not when she had no clue what his real purpose here was. He nodded, silently following after her and stepping in to the porch of her house.

"Kero-chan! Kero! I'm home!" She called, setting her things down. She hadn't finished before the small Guardian zoomed down the stairs and latched on to her in a hug.

"Sakura-chan! It's about time! I've been waiting all day for you to get home and get me some pudding - I can't really get the fridge open in this state!"

"Oh Kero-chan," She giggled. Only when she finally pried him off did he notice that she had company.

"You!" He pointed at Syaoran, "What are YOU doing here?"

"I was invited, stuffed animal." Syaoran smirked at him, and Kero's fur bristled in anger.

"Stuffed animal? Why you!" He launched himself at the boy.

Sakura grabbed Kero by the tail before Kero could do anything drastic, and apologizing, dragged the Guardian of the Seal up the stairs and into her room for a talk, leaving Syaoran staring after them curiously.

"Calm down, Kero-chan! He's here to help me with my math - Miss Mizuki assigned him to be my tutor."

"But," He protested, "He's after the Clow Cards! It's my duty to protect them and my Mistress from harm!"

"I'm not in any danger, Kero." She pointed out. "Besides, what can he pull in my own house? I'll even leave the Cards up here, okay?" She took off her trusty pouch and laid it on her bed.

"Hmph." Kero crossed his arms, still mad.

"Still up for some pudding?" She asked, and his anger quickly faded.

"Yeah! Lets go!"

Sakura giggled, following him back down the stairs.

"Sorry about that." She apologized again to Syaoran, motioning for him to follow her. He soon found himself in what seemed to be their living room.

Kero flew across the room, settling down on a armrest of a chair and watched Syaoran like he was going to try something at any moment. Sakura disappeared in the kitchen for a moment, before her head popped back out. "Did you want something to eat, Li?"

He shook his head, settling down across from Kero, ignoring the puffball's small glaring eyes. Sakura returned to the kitchen to get some things, leaving the two of them alone.

"So what're you really doing here?" Kero asked, breaking the silence.

"Tutoring math." The boy smirked as he sat down.

Kero growled in frustration. "I know that's not the real reason! You're here to steal the Clow Cards!"

"Believe what you want," Syaoran said distractedly as he pulled out a few books, "But I'm here to tutor Math."

Both looked up as Sakura came back carrying a few cups, plates, half a cake and a jug of Kool-Aid. Syaoran blinked at this - how could such a petite girl carry all this? But then he remembered this wasn't any ordinary girl. She was the Card Mistress. Either way, he reached out and offered to help, hiding the small blush as their fingers touched briefly.

"Sorry Kero, there's no pudding left." She said, before smiling at Syaoran, "I brought extras just in case you decided to change your mind." She said, taking a seat next to Syaoran.

Kero didn't seem to mind about the pudding, and was now drooling over the cake as Sakura cut him a big piece and laid it down for him to eat. He dug in, stuffing his mouth with chocolate, crumbs flying everywhere.

"Does he always eat like this?" Asked Syaoran, watching in amusement.

Sakura nodded.

"You're not a stuffed animal - you're a stuffed pig!" He finally said to Kero as the last bit of cake disappeared into the Guardian's mouth.

"Hey!" Kero glared, licking his paws.

"Would you like a piece?" Sakura offered, cutting herself one.

"After what I just witnessed? Maybe later."

She shrugged, setting down and taking out her books.

"So when do we start?"

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"No! You times the matrices by each other column by row, and add them together to get the answer!" Syaoran explained again, letting his annoyance show.

Sakura sighed, letting her head fall to the table. "I'll never get this!"

They had been at it for hours now, and so far they hadn't made much progress.

Syaoran stared at the girl for a moment. I knew she was bad at math...but I never knew she was this bad!

"Oh, come on Kinomoto," He said, "If you give up now you'll never understand it."

She groaned, sitting up straight. "I guess you're right. Where were we?"

"Matrices. Multiplying them."

"Okay," She said, picking up her pencil and resuming her math.

Syaoran watched as she did so, noting that she was getting it right up until the last bit.

"No, no, no," She said, taking her pencil and leaning in to show her, "Like this."

She watched as he showed her, and smiled as he finished for her. "I understand now!" She grabbed the pencil from him and started the next question, finishing it and handing it to Syaoran. "Is it right?"

He looked it over, and nodded in approval.

She suddenly jumped up, happy that she finally figured out how to do the math they were doing. Before she knew it, she was hugging a very surprised Syaoran. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said happily, "You've been such a great help!"

Syaoran sat motionless, letting her hug him and taking in her warmth. He was blushing furiously, unsure of what to do or how to act. His heart was beating wildly but he ignored it. She's the enemy...I'm on a mission...we're done and I haven't even got the Cards yet...

With those thoughts in mind he went to push her away, but a crash upstairs stopped him. Sakura, who was still hugging him, suddenly went quiet.

"What was that?" She whispered, noting that Kero was asleep not far away. "There's nobody else here except us...and Kero's downstairs with us..."

Another crash came from upstairs, and Sakura jumped at the sound, hugging Syaoran closer.

"Maybe we should go check..." He managed to say, watching as the smaller girl buried her head in his chest.

"What if it's a ghost?" She asked in a small voice.

"You're not afraid of ghosts, are you?" He laughed, and became silent when he realized she was. "There's no such thing as ghosts, Kinomoto."

Blushing, she let go and glared up at him. "Don't make fun of me! I can't help it!"

He was mildly disappointed that she had moved away from him, but there were other things to worry about now. He rolled his eyes at her, "You're sixteen and you still believe in ghosts." All past emotions gone, and the tutoring over, he once again returned to himself. He no longer had to be nice to her.

Sakura crossed her arms, frowning. He's such an asshole. And here I thought he was actually kind of nice for once. "Then why don't you go up there and see what it is? If it's not a ghost then it's something else!"

"It's your house. You should go check." He imitated her by crossing his arms. This is going nowhere...I'll never get those Cards now. Maybe next time.

"But what if it's a burglar?"

"I'm sure you can handle it." He said, picking up his things. "Oh, look at the time, I should be going now."

"Argh! You're such a gentleman, Li!" Sakura said sarcastically as she made her way over to the closet and started searching for something. She soon found it - her brother's old baseball bat. Taking it out, she swung it for good measure. "Good enough."

"You have fun swinging bats at those ghosts of yours." Li laughed as he put his shoes on, receiving another glare from Sakura.

"Oh, go play in the streets Li!" She yelled, slamming the door behind him as he left her alone in the house. A great silence followed, and she felt a shiver of fear go up her spine as she made her way to the stairs.

All was silent upstairs as she made her way down the small hallway. Stopping outside her room, she peered in. It was empty. Good, she thought, making her way to her bed and picking up her Cards, These might come in handy. Now, where did that sound come from..?

Turning around, she came face to face with the culprit. She screamed as something hit her, and the floor came rushing up to meet her.

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"Kinomoto?" Syaoran, who had been waiting outside just in case something or someone really was in the house, heard the scream from outside. Sticking his head in and peering through a crack in the door, he found the house silent once more. Opening the door, he stepped back in and dropped his things on the floor. "Kinomoto? Are you okay?"

Finding a set of stairs that he guessed led to the upstairs part of the house, he slowly made his way up.

"Kinomoto?" He peered into the first room, which appeared to be her brother's room. The room was empty.

Looking into the second room, he found it more girlish. "Sakura?"

There was no answer. He shrugged, preparing to go to the next room when it suddenly came to him. He was standing in the doorway of Sakura's bedroom...with Sakura gone only god knows where. It was the perfect time to get the Cards. He smirked. Now if only I can find them...

He entered the room, his gaze searching for a hint of where they could be. He found nothing.

"Now...if I were a girl, where would I hide them?" He whispered to himself, his eyes catching on a big wooden dresser not far away. "Aha!" He started to move towards it, and opened one drawer It contained nothing but...

Underwear. Syaoran blushed furiously, and closed the drawer quickly.

A noise behind him made him turn around, but as his eyes searched the room he found nothing. Shrugging, he went to go for the next drawer...and that's when it attacked. A ball of color. All it did was touch him, and he felt a strange change in himself. He was suddenly growing smaller, and soon he was so small it seemed everything loomed over him.

A Clow Card...he thought, looking up, I should have known. He jumped as he heard a voice behind him.

"Well I hope you enjoyed yourself!"

Syaoran turned to face Sakura, who stood with her hands on her hips and a frown on her face.

"Huh?" So this is where she went...she's been here all along. Which means...

"Did you see anything you liked? Picking through my underwear drawer! Really Li, I didn't know you were such a pervert!"

"I-I did not!" He blushed furiously. He had been caught. But it wasn't his fault! How could he have known what was in that drawer!

"I've grown small, not blind." She said nastily. "Don't think I didn't see you!"

"Whatever, Kinomoto. I was looking for something else, and I just happened to open the wrong one, okay?" He shot back, trying to regain his composure.

"Looking for this?" Sakura flashed the Cards at him, and he frowned, "Too bad Li, because you're not getting them."

He growled in frustration, and lunged forward.

"Wanna bet?" He said, wrestling her to the ground, sitting on top of her and holding her arms so she couldn't struggle. However, she did her best not to make it easy for him. She tried kicking out at him, but failed.

"Let me go!"

"Not until I get the Cards!" He smirked at her, suddenly realizing this was it. She couldn't escape, and had no friends, family or Guardian to protect her. The Cards were his at last. Holding her arms together tightly, he reached for the Cards...

"Don't you dare Syaoran Li!" She cried out, struggling harder.

A noise stopped him, and he strained to hear it. She noticed this, and took advantage of his pause to free her arms. He didn't seem to notice.

"What're you-"

"Shh!" He quieted her, putting his hand over her mouth. "Do you hear that?"

She heard nothing, and biting his finger, she jerked free of him, getting to her feet and putting some distance between them. "You're crazy!"

"Just listen!"

She sighed, and did as he said. It was then that she heard it. It was the sound of wings flapping, and it was coming this way..

"Oh no..." She groaned, "It's Kero-Chan!"

To Be Continued...