Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Haunted House ❯ Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Wee, I love desk chairs! You can go 'round and 'round and... Oh, hi there...

A/N: Yay, my first Cardcaptors fic! I've been meaning to do one forever, but instead of the one that was going to be my first one, it wound up being this one... (sweatdrop) And to think, it was all inspired by one weird thing JessicaKittyDemon said over the phone, right after we were talking about a cute Li/Sakura she'd read... Oh, and for any of you who have had the pleasure of reading Tsubasa, yes, I am poking fun at it with Yuki and Toya's costumes (grin) Oh, and I should warn you - in this fic, everybody is a highly eccentric version of themselves. But that was mostly done on purpose, honest! (nervous grin) Well, enjoy peoples!

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Li groaned. "Oh, come on! Please? Can't I just, I don't know, wear my robes or something?!"

"Uh-uh," Tomoyo said firmly, shaking her head so hard that some of the beads in her hair were in danger of flying off and hurting someone. At which point she began to go a bit starry-eyed, never a good sign. "You just don't understand, Li. You have exactly the perfect hair to be a pirate!"

Li stared. "I... You... You're crazy! Nuts! Hey, what're y-! Let go of me! Sakuraaa!"

Sakura sighed, watching him get dragged off in the general direction of the bathroom. "Poor Syaoran. It's dreadful when she gets like this..." The other occupants of the room nodded in agreement.

The other occupants being Toya, Yuki and Eriol. They had come over to Tomoyo's that afternoon to get the Halloween costumes she had been working on for the last couple months, and now they was almost all ready to go. Toya had only begrudgingly agreed to go as a prince, but even he had to admit he was pleased with the end product, a complex glittering thing of blacks and dark reds and silver. Yuki was a magician - in a theme of purple, gold and white this time, for some reason - and Sakura wore a bright pink and orange genie costume, complete with gold bangles and fringe. Eriol was the only one that hadn't changed yet. For some reason he looked unhappy about this, and the sounds of an increasingly angry and terrified Li filtering down the stairs to them weren't helping much.

He eyed the bag that all the costumes had been in, and that his was presumably still in, apprehensively. "Do you think she'd mind if I... you know, changed right now?" `Without her shouting death threats from the other side of the bathroom door?' he added mentally. `Oh dear; at least, I hope she's on the other side of the door...'

Sakura sweatdropped. "Well, I..."

"Oh, good, thanks! Bye!" He grabbed the bag and fled, in search of a spare bathroom.

A few minutes late Tomoyo returned, a sulking Li in tow. "Doesn't he look perfect?" she gushed, pushing him forward for closer inspection.

Toya `hmph'ed, but the other two nodded approvingly. "You did a great job," Sakura agreed, smiling.

"You're right; he does make a good pirate," Yuki commented, and Toya went `hmph' again. He chuckled.

Tomoyo frowned. "Hey, where'd Eriol go? He was supposed to be next..."

"Here," he called, coming back in. Or rather, sweeping back in. "I, er, changed already; I hope you don't mind... Oh, you look nice, Syaoran."

Tomoyo could have been bubbling over how great he looked or having a conniption fit over him not waiting for her for all he knew; Li was a bit otherwise occupied. He had never thought of Eriol as having any particularly vampiric traits, but for some reason the outfit suited him perfectly... Then his words registered, and Li flushed and looked away. "Yeah, whatever."

To Li's acute annoyance, Eriol's attention seemed to have already shifted. "Well, it looks like we're all ready now... So, shall we go?"

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"Woah..." Li could feel his bad mood melting away, just like that. But then, it was hard to stay irritable, unless you didn't like crowds anyway, when faced with literal acres of Halloween celebration.

Eriol gaped. "Why such a big festival for Halloween?" he managed weakly. This was the first time he'd seen the local Halloween celebration, after all; he'd only been back from England for about half a year.

Tomoyo shrugged, various bits of jewelry jangling - she was going as a gypsy. "Well, you know... It started out as a small local tradition, and it just kind of... kept growing..."

"Oh, Sakura?" Toya whispered, looming up behind her. "Did you hear? They made the haunted house even bigger this year..."

"PWEE!" Tomoyo gave the girl now clinging to her arm an amused look, but chose not to comment.

"Toya, since you just got a raise, why don't we treat everyone to caramel apples?" Yuki said kindly, dragging him away. "And maybe some hot dogs, or nachos - oh, and maybe some cotton candy too - I'm starving..."

Sakura sighed. "Phew..."

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Toya glowered at nothing in particular. "Y'know, I'm the one with the money; I don't see why you should get to suggest I treat everybody..."

The lady at the concession stand beamed, as most people do when they've just sold nearly one hundred dollars of merchandise. "Okay, we have... Six candied apples, six soft drinks, one cotton candy, one large plate of nachos, one burger, one corn dog, one-" She paused, and sweatdropped. "Um, will you two be able to carry all that?"

Yuki smiled happily. "Oh, don't worry, we'll manage." Toya just sighed; he was used to carrying insane amounts of food around by now...

However...

"Maybe we ought to... just stop here for a minute or two," Yuki said, dumping some of his food on a park table. "I'll try to, er, lighten the load a little; I didn't realize how much I'd ordered..."

Toya groaned. "You didn't realize?! You should have, considering you were ordering with my money, ya dork!"

Yuki winced. "Um, sorry, Toya-kun..."

Toya twitched. Eh... Too cute... "'s okay," he grumbled.

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One hour later (most of which was spent calming Sakura down...)

"PWEE!" Sakura screamed, as a half-decayed corpse leaned out of the shadows toward her.

Tomoyo grinned, as her koi suddenly realized who she'd flung her arms around. "To what do I owe the... hug?" she purred, and then promptly broke into a giggling fit. Sakura blushed hugely, momentarily too preoccupied to even notice the swarm of bats flying around their heads.

Eriol, however, did notice. He jumped, grabbing the arm of the nearest random person.

"Erk... Eriol... ERIOL!?" Li nearly choked.

The Englishman in question blinked. `Oh, bugger...' He hurriedly removed himself, dusted his clothes off a little out of habit, and coughed. "I stumbled; sorry."

Toya eyed the four younger children in front of him thoughtfully. Weird kids. Nevertheless, that was not the point. He shot a sly sideways glance at Yuki... who was cheerfully patting the head of a slobbering three-headed hound that had just lunged at him. "I'm glad I got to bring my hot dog!" he commented cheerfully.

Toya could feel that pesky chronic eye twitch coming on again...

Tomoyo grinned knowingly as the two older boys abruptly disappeared from sight, accompanied by a muffled `mmph!' that she was the only one to notice. "Looks like your brother's going to get some," she whispered in Sakura's ear, in a sort of sing-song tone.

She flushed. "Tomoyo! Well... Poor Yuki... A MUMMY!"

After the ensuing panic had calmed down a bit, Tomoyo tugged on Sakura's sleeve. "C'mon, let's film them! I brought my camera and everything!"

Sakura sweatdropped. "You... did, huh?" Then she shook her head. "No, we shouldn't! Don't you think they'd want some, you know, privacy?"

But Tomoyo was in sparkly-eyed mode again. "What they don't know can't hurt them, now can it?" Sakura sweatdropped some more, and was about to protest, but suddenly found herself being pulled off the path instead.

After she recovered her balance - being yanked through black streamers tends to have a disorienting effect - Sakura glowered at her companion. "Tomoyo, I really don't think we should do this! And what will Li and Eriol do when they realize we've left them all alone?"

The gypsy waved a hand dismissively. "Oh, they'll be fine; they're boys. They like this sort of thing. Anyway, I think they might just benefit from some... time alone..." Sakura blushed, but Tomoyo pressed on. "And you know, come to think of it, if you really don't want to go film your brother that is, we might too..."

Sakura gaped and went redder at the same time. "T-tomoyo, you-" She took a step away, but found herself up against the other side of the main passage's wall.

Tomoyo giggle. "Aw, pretty please?"

Sakura gulped - then grinned a little, and allowed Tomoyo to tilt her face up into a kiss...

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Yuki pouted. "Toya-kun, you made me drop my hot dog."

"I'll get you a new one," Toya replied, nuzzling the other's neck, and the way he said it made him shiver.

"Ug... nymphomaniac..."

Toyo chuckled, as he casually reached a hand under his koi's shirt. "Of course I am, with you around..." Yuki rolled his eyes, but he was smiling.

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Li hurriedly clapped a hand over his mouth to muffle a scream as a bloody clown jumped out at them. "Um, Eriol... Are you sure we're on the right path?"

The black-haired boy quickly tore his eyes away from the clown. Freakish... "Of course we are. There wouldn't be anything like that here if we'd wandered off, would there?"

"Well, no... But the others are gone..."

Eriol shrugged, averting his eyes again as a headless man was suddenly illuminated. "Oh, they wandered off a little while ago; didn't you notice? They probably wanted some... alone time..." He chuckled at Li's blank stare. "May I ask you something, Syaoran?" Li shrugged, wondering exactly when Eriol had decided he could call him `Syaoran'. Must be some western thing. "Why did you break up with Sakura?"

Li gaped, completely ignoring the giant spider crawling their way. "N-none of your business!"

Eriol chuckled. "Oh, pardon me. But I suspect it was because at least one of you had realized you were in love with someone else, wasn't it?"

Li was realizing that he simply could not shut his mouth. Some small part of his brain registered that haunted houses were not the kind of place that normal people talked about things like this. "Well, I... I mean... She did, kind of, say there was someone, I suppose... She didn't want to say who though..." Li twitched, realizing he'd said more than he exactly wanted to. Those eyes... He abruptly found himself wondering what Eriol looked like without glasses on...

He smiled. Li noted that his insides were turning to pudding. "Oh, don't worry; she'll tell everyone when she's ready. But..." He leaned forward, mock whispering. "...It's Tomoyo, if you're curious."

Li choked. "Tomoyo?! You're crazy! That's impossible! Well... I suppose, now that you mention it, there was that time... but still... And that time too, really... And Tomoyo always has been kind of..." He shook his head, somewhat dazed. "Huh."

Eriol smiled wider. "You don't seem very upset. But then, I supposed it's partially thanks to you. Sakura must have been able to realize her feelings for Tomoyo... Because she sensed you loved someone else too. Am I right?"

Li was beginning to find Eriol much more frightening than the haunted house. How was he doing this? Was he trying to give him a heart attack?! "None of your business!"

He laughed again. "I'm just trying to prove a theory, Syaoran. No need to get defensive... Here, how about this. If you tell me who you like, I'll tell you who I like."

Li suddenly felt cold. "No! I, I mean, I don't want to know who you like. Why should I care?" `If he's this willing to tell me, it must be someone else...'

`Aw; he's so cute when he's lying...' "But I want to tell you," Eriol purred. "If I'm right, I think you'll be happy with what you hear..."

Li stared. He had never thought Eriol to be the type to make mistakes like this, but it was obvious that whatever his theory was, it was way off. Who on earth might he be happy to hear Eriol liked, if he didn't like him himself? Who knew. But he did know that if it was him Eriol liked, he surely wouldn't be so willing to come out and say it, and he also knew that he wouldn't be able to stand hearing who it really was... "Shut up!" he shouted, and stalked off. Where to wasn't important at this point; he just needed to get away and have a good sulk.

Eriol arched an eyebrow, watching him go. Well. Hmph. One thing was for sure; he was right. That made him feel strangely tingly... But either Li hadn't come to terms with his feelings yet, or he was afraid he was going to say someone else... He could be a bit dense when it came to this sort of thing, really. Eriol sweatdropped, listening to the sounds of him crashing about grow fainter. He didn't have to go off the path though... It wasn't really a smart thing to do, since there were more traumatic things out there then on the path at this point... Resolute, he went after him.

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Within minutes Li was completely, utterly lost. He wasn't even sure how to get back to the path. How big was this freakin' thing?! Off in the distance he could here people screaming and enjoying a perfectly ordinary trip through the haunted house... at least, he hoped that was what they screaming about... He twitched. It was a miracle, now that he actually stopped to think, that he hadn't run into Toya and Yuki... or worse yet, Sakura and Tomoyo... Twitch, twitch. He couldn't believe he'd never noticed before. Eriol was really much more perceptive of that kind of thing than he was. But then, Eriol was better than him in plenty of ways... Suddenly feeling tired, he stopped in his tracks and sat down.

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Eriol sighed as he made his way cautiously though the near-pitch blackness. How big was this bloody thing?! It was almost as if they expected people to go wandering off... Whatever. He needed to think about what he was going to do when he found Li.

The best thing to do, he decided, was to get it over quickly. He was just going to have to walk right up to him and tell him how he felt, before he got a chance to run off again. And in the ensuing daze, he might even get the chance to steal a kiss... He felt himself go red; since when had romantic thoughts made him blush like a schoolgirl? The problem was, at the idea of taking such a plunge, he felt a little twinge of doubt, most uncommon...

He was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the person sneaking up behind him until a hand came down on his shoulder. He got about two seconds to scream before another one clamped over his mouth. Warm hands, some small part of him noted, which smelled nice. The mystery person chuckled.

"Hey, relax; it's just me!" Eriol blinked. Li? When he was released and turned around, he could just make out said boy in some faint, sourceless light; they must be near the path or something...

He was about to speak, but Li beat him to it. "Look, I'm sorry I acted like such a jerk. I'm just not much into the mushy stuff, you know?" He looked like he was smiling, but it didn't reach his voice. "You can tell me who you like if you want."

Eriol felt that little twinge grow huge for a moment. What was this? He never doubted himself! But nevertheless, he just didn't know if he could do this. Maybe he should just say someone else, like... who? Anyone! What had he gotten himself into? Then he noticed the oddest shine in Li's eyes. Was he about to...? Never! That just wasn't the sort of thing Li did; he couldn't picture it. So he certainly didn't want to see it. And before he gave himself another moment to think, Eriol leaned forward and kissed him.

For a moment he experienced the oddest sensation, like his future was hanging on a tiny little string. Then Li buried on hand in his black hair and wrapped the other around his waist, and Eriol was firmly convinced that he was the happiest person in the history of anything, ever.

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Sakura arched an eyebrow. "Hey, what are you - don't do that!"

But it was too late. Tomoyo, giggling, uncover the flashlight the rest of the way and shined it directly at the new couple. At their stunned looks, she gestured at the video camera as if that explained everything. "I needed more light. Okay, go ahead."

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A/N: I think I had far too much fun with this story. Just how big was the haunted house, anyway? But you know what they say; the more fun you have writing it, the better it is. I don't know if I really believe them, personally, but I guess only the reviews will tell... hinthint, nudgenudge... Flames will be put to good use thawing out my nose (it's COLD in my house!), but nevertheless I'd like it if you were kind; this is my first Cardcaptors ficcy :) Latta peoples!