Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Prince Charming ❯ Chapter Two ( Chapter 2 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

PRINCE CHARMING
BY
PRINCESSxSHAWN

CHAPTER TWO

SYAORAN'S POV

I cringed as the nurse slapped more flies onto the already large piles tat sat about my desk. Looking up wearily the nurse smiled sympathetically.

“I'm sorry Dr. Li. But you know how busy it gets around this time of year,” she said softly.

“Yeah, yeah,” I murmured, standing. And that is why I hated this time of year. Winter was the worst. Not only was it always snowing and cold, but everyone, whether they wanted to or not, got sick. And about half of them had to come to me.

Jotting a quick note on the charts I had been working on, I pocketed the black pen, my favorite. I picked up the files that the nurse had added to the pile and opened them, peering at some of the contents. “So what are we dealing with today?”

“Two kids are in with what looks like the flu. They're asthmatic and were brought in with severe coughing.”

I sighed and turned out of my quiet office into the busy hallway. The hospital was the biggest one I had ever seen, yet it always managed to be crowded. Doctors, nurses, patients, family, everyone was everywhere, all the time. And although the halls were wide, they were never wide enough. And along with the people moving through the crowded space was all the machinery and hospital beds. Sure it was a nice hospital, hell, it was a nice city. But it was too damn crowded.

“A new patient, Nadeshiko Avalon, is in for her first appointment, and then Fujitaka Reed is here with complaints with his lung,” the nurse behind me babbled on.

At the sound of Fujitaka's name I smiled. Fujitaka Reed was an old friend of my fathers. He had given me a good paying job at his winery during my medical schooling. Although I worked at my father's winery, Fujitaka helped me make more money. When I finally graduated and got a job at the hospital, Fujitaka requested me to do the most complicated surgery of my life.

Fujitaka was the first human to receive an artificial lung. And I had been the doctor who had done the surgery that gave it to him. The surgery had saved his life and made my career soar. I was indebted to him. And after the hectic day I had had, I was happy to see him.

“Mr. Reed,” I said warmly, stepping into the small examination room. Fujitaka sat in the traditional hospital gown atop the large bed. A large smile grew across his face as I entered, a sparkle in the eyes beyond his silver-rimmed glasses.

“Syaoran, so good to see you,” Fujitaka said hoarsely. He held out his hand and I shook it enthusiastically.

“Oh my, that voice of yours doesn't sound too good. So what's going on? How are you feeling?”

The man sighed shakily and I frowned. “This thing just isn't doing the job. I think it's slowing down,” he explained, touching his chest as he did so.

“You haven't been doing any manual labor lately have you? I know it's time for the ice wine to come in, and you know it's time you retired.”

Fujitaka laughed. “No, no, I'm only managing things now. I'm letting the young folks pick those suckers in the freezing weather.”

“Good.” I nodded, scribbling some notes into his file. Ugh. I had always hated my scribble-like handwriting. It was so hard to read, I was amazed the nurses even could. But hey, it's the writing of a doctor.

There was a sudden small knock at the door. Without even looking up from the charts I muttered a “Come in.”

The door squeaked open and I glanced up to see one of my nurses peering in. She was a shorter stature than the one before and had dark brown hair that wrapped itself around her face. She smiled softly at me from the doorway.

“Yes Rika?” I asked. Rika took another small step inside, revealing her slim body in its formal nurse uniform. In her hands sat a small box, flowers and some words decorating the top of it.

“I'm sorry Dr. Li but this cake of yours won't fit in the fridge anymore. Not with all the nurse's lunches,” Rika said softly.

I sighed. The thing was almost becoming a nuisance.

“Just set it on my desk then,” I finally replied. Rika nodded but before she could leave Fujitaka gasped.

“Why, is that cake from The Magic Blossom?” he questioned, a big smile on his face. Rika glanced down to read the writing on the box. She nodded.

Fujitaka turned to me and smiled. “Lucky you Syaoran. That bakery is the best one in town. And the owner of it is a doll! I go over there all the time. Sakura makes the cutest cream puffs.” Fujitaka closed his eyes and licked his lips.

“Sakura?” I asked.

Fujitaka nodded, opening his eyes. “Sakura Kinomoto. She owns the whole place. It's a bakery shop on the bottom floor, and a cute little eatery on the second floor. Course she doesn't work there alone, but she bakes and decorates everything there by hand. I've been walking by there at four in the morning and I've seen her inside, busy working. And every day she closes up shop promptly at nine-thirty. Man... one of those cream puffs sure sounds good...”

I laughed at the cool expression on his face. “Rika,” I said, turning to the nurse, “Put the cake on my desk, and slice out a piece for yourself, and one for Mr. Reed to take home. And then take a look at these charts and send for some of the tests I wrote down here for Mr. Reed.” I stood, handing the file to Rika. “I think you'll be fine Mr. Reed, but we'll do some tests anyway. It was good seeing you again.”

Fujitaka nodded, reaching out and shaking my hand again. “Thank you Syaoran.”

I turned and quickly left, heading back for my office. I needed some quiet, some time, some place to think.

Sakura Kinomoto. So that was her name. That was the name of the woman with the stalker last night.

I had had one of the longest and roughest evenings of my career. I had two operations scheduled for the evening. Both were supposed to be routine but both turned out the complete opposite. The first operation became extremely complicated halfway through when I realized the patient's lungs were in much worse condition than the tests had shown. The operation ended up taking five hours longer than planned. Luckily, the patient lived.

But the other patient wasn't so lucky. He had been in extreme conditions and because he other surgery had taken so long, he had fallen into an even worse condition. Another five, six hour intense surgery was the stress I had to go through. But just as we were finishing up, the patient flat lined, and no matter what we did, he was gone.

So one can imagine my frustration when a stranger walks up to me, speaking as if I was her husband or boyfriend.

The woman... Sakura seemed to be a little younger than I was. She wore a thick brown coat over her small, petite form. In the dull light coming from the hospital I could see her red... brown hair and green eyes.

She was stunning.

But I was tired, frustrated, and a pounding headache kept me from caring.

“Excuse me!” Sakura called to me, and I turned to look t her hurry through the snow. Although one hand held a box, the other held a sheet of paper which she promptly shoved up into my face.

`Please help,' the note read. `Being followed by strange man. Play along till hospital.' Inwardly I sighed, reluctantly playing along. What was I supposed to do? Just say, Sorry sweet-thing, but I'm sick of that damn hospital and there is no way in hell I'm going back after the day I've had. So good luck with that stalker of yours, I hope you don't get ra.ped and mur.dered or something. Yeah, like that would have worked.

“Oh honey I thought it was you! I got you the cake,” Sakura explained hurriedly, stashing the note into her jacket pocket. “C'mon now, let's go. We need to get to the hospital.”

Nodding, I gritted my teeth together at the thought of heading back. “Sure,” I managed to grunt out. Reaching out, I lightly wrapped my arm around her shoulder. To be convincing for the stalker of course.

We quickly walked through the snow that had yet to be cleared. The large flakes were beginning to fall faster now. Damn. More snow was the last thing I wanted. I had never really minded the cold, but the snow was always a pain to deal with. Luckily the sidewalk of my third story apartment was always cleared, but all it caused was trouble. The whole season itself was pretty rotten. My office was always filled with people with colds or the flu. And yet spring had its allergies, the summer was hot and sticky, and fall had hay-fever, and more allergies. Damn.

I felt Sakura turn to look over her shoulder, presumably at the stalker. By now we had reached the hospital doors and as I felt her sigh I went ahead and asked the question on my mind.

“Is he gone?”

As soon as she nodded I pulled my arm from her shoulder. I stuck my hands back into my pockets. I turned to head back out, not wanting to stay a moment longer. She was fine now I'm sure.

“Dr. Li, what are you doing back?” Nurse Rika asked as she spotted me. I hesitated, Sakura stood still, watching us. I shrugged at Rika before turning. I might as well help her once more.

Stopping near the door of a small room, I indicated to the pay phones.

“You can call for a ride here,” I grunted again. I turned back to the main door, happy to finally be heading home.

“Wait!” Sakura suddenly called behind me. I paused slightly. Just a little irritated, I looked back.

“Now what?”

Sakura stood for a moment before walking foreword, clutching the small box in her hands. She bowed slightly and handed the box to me. Curious, I took it, peering inside. A beautifully decorated cake sat neatly inside. The icing was in multiple shades of brown, pink, and red with a romantic Happy Valentine's Day written across the top. Tsch. Probably originally for her boyfriend. But still...

“For helping me... back there,” Sakura explained. “Thank you.”

Trying not to blush, I peered at the a moment longer. Her green eyes looked back at me. They were not an ordinary green, but more of a beautiful, emerald green. Damn they were pretty.

The blinking of her eyes caused me to snap back to reality and I closed the box's lid. I turned back to the doorway before pausing once more.

“Thanks,” I murmured, trying to at least seem sincere for once. And finally I left.

I quickly made a stop in the staff lounge, slipping the cake in the fridge. It would last the night. I stuck a sticky note to the top. The small yellow note simply read `LI'S DON'T TOUCH' and I knew no one would. In my pretty doctor's handwriting of course.

Heading back for the main hospital doors, I glanced back to see Sakura sitting in the lobby, presumably waiting for a ride. She was looking at the famed Wall of Doctor's. Every doctor in the hospital had their picture up there. Including me. Ugh. My picture was so bad.

Brushing past some eccentric woman (was that the famous actress Tomoyo?), I walked back through the snow, heading home. Finally.

That was the night I met her. Sakura Kinomoto.

I quickly scaled the stairs in the back of my apartment, pulling my keys out as I did so. Normally I would go through the stairs in the front, but I was later than usual and the front doors were already locked for the night.

Other than seeing Fujitaka Reed again, the day had been boring. An average day. Two sick kids. One old woman with bad lungs. And a whole bunch of filing and people popping in on me. I was glad to be home.

As I pushed open my apartment door, I smiled happily at the warmth. I quickly stashed away my jacket in the nearby closet before heading into the kitchen. Man was I starving.

My kitchen was small and I loved it. It had one small window overlooking a snow covered park. I had just enough room for two counters and a refrigerator, but that was all I really needed. A small circular table sat in the middle, my dining area. The kitchen connected to the living room which was just as small. A small couch and a matching chair sat in front of a TV. The TV was settled on top of an entertainment center where my collection of movies and cds were. The living room only had two windows, curtains closed over both of them.

Also connected to the kitchen by a small hallway were the two bedrooms and bathroom. The bathroom contained the necessities with nothing more. I had long ago changed the one bedroom into a small, personal office. My computer, multiple book shelves, and a couple of medical files were all that filled the room. And then there was my small bedroom. My bed, queen sized, filled most of the room. The dresser sat across from it and a small TV was nestled on top. Unfortunately, my bedroom window did not contain the pretty view of the outside world, but down the alley between my apartment and the nearby building.

A small meow caught my attention as I poured myself a bowl of my favorite cereal. Smiling, I glanced down from my bowl to see a small white kitten looking back at me. I reached down and picked the small kitten up and placed it in my lap. The kitten meowed again in surprise.

“Here Yue,” I said, offering the kitten a Rice Crispy piece. The kitten chewed it up and I chuckled. Yue was a small kitten, only a few months old. My old cat, Clow, had died just after giving birth to this little guy. Unfortunately, the three unborn kittens died as well. Luckily Yue was in good shape, and he was all I had.

Yue purred softly in my lap, yawning and closing his eyes. It was pretty late. I quickly finished the rest of my cereal. Picking Yue up gently, I set him down in his small basket that took up the corner of the kitchen.

I too yawned and stretched. Damn I was tired. I moved into my bedroom. Slipping out of my shirt and pants, I swiftly threw some pajama pants on before crawling into the big, empty bed.

Sakura Kinomoto.

So that was her name. I was glad Fujitaka had told me. A name to match a face.

A beautiful face. Damn.

Sakura Kinomoto.

CONTINUED

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these characters, CLAMP does.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Woot, so here's chapter two. I think I got more into Syaoran's pov than I did in the first chapter with Sakura. I mean, I think I got more of Syaoran's emotions and actions written better than I had before. So hopefully that goodness with continue into future chapters.

So all done with this one. On to the next one.

Oh, before I forget. Throughout this story I'm going to have references to Cardcaptor Sakura and one or two from Tsubasa. Oh, from the manga and anime. At the end I'll tell you how many there were, and you can see if you noticed them all. I'll add the answers to the beginning of the next chapter. Names, places, and things are included. Oh, and for the record, Sakura, Syaoran, and Tomoyo don't count. If you guess them all and you're right... congrats, no prize for you. So in this chapter, there are seven references, all to Cardcaptor Sakura.

Anyways, that's it for today. Adios, review por favor!