Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Roommates ❯ Chapter 5 ( Chapter 5 )

Kitty Neko: Hi everyone! (smiles sheepishly) I know it's bee a long time. I bet you're thinking `about time!' and I can't blame you. I didn't mean to take this long. But there is a reason I swear! Well, I've been really busy and exhausted lately and overworked. As a matter of fact, I still have a project that I should be working on but I'm not. I decided that I should be working on this too!

Here's a quick list of reasons it took forever; I got sick and went to region choir tryouts (It hurt so much and I didn't think I was going to make it but I did) that took a Saturday, and then I have a lot of Algebra and other homework and projects, then I also had to go the practice for the Region performance and then actually perform (another Saturday), and a lot more. Ok, well I know that maybe only a couple of people are reading this so I'm going to stop. Enjoy the fifth chapter! And Thanks for all the reviews! I can't believe that I actually got over 100!

Disclaimer: I do not own the CardCaptor Sakura characters.

"Syaoran!" Sakura called as she walked through the front door of the apartment carrying the last of the grocery bags. Tomoyo was following close behind her. "Are you here?"

"Maybe."

Sakura frowned and rolled her eyes. "Stop being a smart ass and get in here and help us!"

Sakura kicked off her shoes and walked toward the kitchen. Soon she and Tomoyo heard the sound of a door opening and then the dull thud of house shoes on the carpet. Not long after, Syaoran appeared in the kitchen. He gave a curious glance at the various groceries strewn across the counter and tilted his head slightly.

"What's all this?" He asked. Tomoyo had done most of the shopping and had picked out things she thought would be good for a pregnant woman to eat. "Are you going on some kind of weird diet, Sakura?"

"I guess you could say that…"

"Thought so." He said triumphantly. "I noticed that you were getting fatter."

Sakura stood, arms akimbo, the perfect picture of injured pride. "I am not!" And it was true, she wasn't. She till had some time before her stomach actually started to get bigger. Besides, by then, she would be wearing baggy clothes.

"My mistake."

"Oh just shut up and help us unpack."

"Yes sir."

Sakura stopped what she was doing so she could look at him with an incredulous expression. "How old are you? You can't be older than five. That's such a juvenile comeback!" He was really driving her up a wall today: kind of hard to believe since they'd only been talking for about 45 seconds. Syaoran only smiled at her.

"Then why are you letting it get to you?"

Sakura chose not to answer and busied herself with getting all the cracker boxes together. She was about to put them in the top cupboard but Tomoyo stopped her. "Sakura, didn't you tell me that you hurt your arm the other day." Tomoyo looked at her pointedly.

"Oh yeah." Sakura glanced at Syaoran out of the corner of her eye. He was just putting some cheese in the fridge and not looking like he was the least bit suspicious. Sakura mused at the stupidity. She would have to tease him about it later when he knew that she was pregnant. That reminded her… she didn't have any idea when she was going to tell him… or her family for that matter.

Sakura allowed herself a small smile. As soon as Tomoyo was gone she was going to get in her pajamas and watch television. She felt a little twinge of guilt at wanting to be rid of her but brushed it off.

Because there were three of them, it didn't take long to put everything away. "So, what cha' going do the rest of the day?" Sakura asked, trying to make small talk. Tomoyo looked at her strangely, she was starting to put her hair in a ponytail with the scrunchie that she always had on her wrist.

"WE'RE going on a run."

Sakura froze. "On the phone, didn't you say that `starting tomorrow' we would start running?"

Tomoyo tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "Did I?"

"Yes."

"Oh, well I meant that starting TODAY we would go for a run."

Sakura wanted to cry right then and there. "Do we have to?" She squeaked.

"Yes." Tomoyo finished putting her hair in a ponytail and took a step towards the door to block her exit. Damn! Sakura cursed to herself. In High School she'd been pretty good at sports and running but that had been years ago. Now she didn't know if she could run down the street without stopping.

Before she knew it, Tomoyo was pushing her towards her room. "You can't be serious!"

"Try me." Tomoyo shut the door to Sakura's room and started digging through her clothes. "Here put this on. You don't mind if borrow some clothes, do you?"

When Sakura made no move to change her outfit Tomoyo sighed out loud. "Do I have to change your clothes for you?" Sakura shook her head and started to undress herself. Once she was changed, Tomoyo forced a pair of tennis shoes on her feet.

The reality of the situation hit Sakura full force when she and Tomoyo walked into the living room. Syaoran was sitting on the sofa watching T.V.; The exact same thing that she wanted to do.

She stopped dead in her tracks. Tomoyo looked at her with her eyebrows creased. "Sakura, what are you doing?"

"There's no way you're making me do this." She said bluntly. Tomoyo rolled her eyes and before Sakura knew what was happening, she had a firm grip on her wrist and was pulling her towards the door.

"Help!" Sakura cried and tried to free her wrist from Tomoyo's grip. It was no use. "Help me Syaoran!"

By now, Syaoran had turned around in the sofa so he could watch. He gave a small shake of his head. All hope that Sakura had was drained. Tomoyo pulled a little harder but was careful not to hurt Sakura.

Sakura did the one thing that she could think of on such short notice; she dug her heels in the floor. "I can't believe this!" Tomoyo cried. She pulled again and Sakura moved a foot forward. Crap! Sakura's mind was racing. In a last minute decision she reached for the sofa with her free hand.

"Sakura, stop acting like a child!" Tomoyo attempted to pry her fingers off the sofa, but in the process, lost her hold on her wrist. Sakura quickly latched on the couch with her other hand. Tomoyo was able to pull it off again but she only had one arm.

"Syaoran, help me!" Sakura tried again. Syaoran moved over and… grabbed her hand that was holding onto the sofa. He easily pried her fingers loose.

"Thank you!" Tomoyo grinned and pulled a shocked Sakura to the door.

"Have a nice run!" Syaoran called.

"You traitor! I'll get you for thi-" The rest of her sentence was cut off by the slam of the door.

*****

Sakura stood with her back against her apartment door and her head bowed. She was exhausted and had to have all of her body weight supported by the door or she would fall over. From where she was standing she could hear the low murmur of the T.V. It was a few more minutes before she gathered up enough energy to stand on her own and open the door.

Syaoran lay, sprawled across the sofa nibbling on a Milano cookie. He glanced up for half a second before returning his gaze to the T.V. Sakura watched with agonizing attentiveness as he opened his mouth and inserted the last of the cookie. She felt herself start to drool. Milano's were her favorite kind! The least he could do was offer her one!

"Did you have a nice run?" Sakura immediately snapped out of her thoughts. There was no mistaking that hint of sarcasm. But if his question was only hinting at sarcasm her answer was absolutely dripping with it.

"Of COURSE! I've never had so much FUN in my life!"

"Dull life." He muttered before reaching into the Milano bag and pulling out another cookie. She was at his side in two long strides. She plopped down (barely missing his legs) and snatched the bag from his hands. Syaoran moved so that he was sitting up and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"You really stink!" Sakura's reply was to stuff a cookie in her mouth. "I used to wonder what a dead animal smelt like and now I know!"

With great difficulty Sakura chewed the cookie and swallowed. "Is my roommate a dick?" She ended the sentence like there was something else she wanted to add.

Syaoran smiled a little. "You got that from `A Beautiful Mind' didn't you?"

"Or just lacking one?" She finished maliciously.

Syaoran's smile quickly vanished and his eyes narrowed. "That's new." He watched as she debated with herself whether or not to have a second cookie. "But I wasn't kidding, you really do smell."

That prompted Sakura to scoot closer and raise her arm up so that her armpit was right by his nose. Syaoran pushed her away, "Stop it! Go get a shower or something!"

Sakura stopped inching towards him and said, "You know, I think I will."

Just as Sakura was to the bathroom door Syaoran stopped her with a question, "Hey! I just realized something. Where's Tomoyo?"

It didn't go unnoticed by Syaoran the way she tensed up. "Um… she decided that she would go ahead and go home."

"Hmm… that's odd."

"Yea, well, I guess Tomoyo's just an odd person." Sakura laughed a little nervously and stepped into the bathroom. Syaoran just shrugged it off.

Sakura hadn't been in the shower for five minutes when the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Syaoran? It's Tomoyo."

Syaoran could feel his eyebrow arch up a little. "Tomoyo? Why are you calling?"

"Because I want to chew off Sakura's head! Can you believe that while I was tying my shoe she ran away! She just left me!"

The edge of Syaoran's mouth was twitching upwards slightly and it was a full minute after he had said goodbye to Tomoyo that he allowed himself to laugh good and hard.

*****

"So, what's your name?" Sakura asked while she shampooed the little girl's hair. "Is the water too hot?" She added as an afterthought.

"No, it's perfect and my name's Unmei." Unmei squirmed in the seat, trying to get more comfortable. Seeing this, Sakura raised the chair a little bit to help.

She put some good-smelling conditioner in the palm of her hand and rubbed her hands together before applying it to the girl's hair. "Unmei. That's a pretty name. It means `destiny' right?"

"Yep!" She chirped.

Sakura shifted her weight on her feet. Her legs were a little sore from the run Tomoyo had made her go on the day before. Not to mention this morning…

Sakura glanced at Unmei and racked her brain for another question to ask. She always liked to make conversation with the customers while she cut their hair, it made the time go by faster. "How old are you?"

"Six."

Sakura nodded and rinsed her hair out. That accomplished, she wrapped it up in a small white towel. The two of them made their way over to Sakura's chair and Sakura told her to have a seat. Because Unmei was so short, Sakura had to raise the chair up quite a bit so she wouldn't have to bend over.

"Your mom told me that you wanted an inch off, is that right?" When Unmei nodded, Sakura started the process of brushing her tangled wet hair.

She had just grabbed her scissors when one of her colleagues came up to her. "Sakura?"

"Hm?" Carefully, she measured an inch with her comb and cut.

"I was wondering of you'd work for me this weekend. I have relatives that are coming for a visit."

"Um," Sakura sighed inwardly. She didn't really want to but she needed the extra work. She was about to ask her boss for more days anyway, "Sure."

*****

"Syaoran?" Sakura asked as she opened the front door. When no answer came she shrugged her shoulders. "Guess he's not here."

After changing her clothes and taking off her makeup she decided to raid the kitchen. "I'm kind of in the mood for peanut butter cookies." She said aloud to herself, for no particular reason. She quickly set to work humming the whole time.

She had just finished rolling them out and was about to flatten them with a fork when the doorbell rang.

"Sakura?" She abruptly stopped humming at the sound of his voice. "Sakura, I know you're there! I heard you humming! Open up!" Her blood ran cold.

She bit her tongue to keep herself from screaming.

"Open up!"

She moved over to the front door so that she could look out the peek hole. Toji stood there with his hands on his hips and an impatient look on his face. "I'm in a hurry and I don't have any more time to waste on you. Open the door!" Sakura squeezed her eyes shut. Where was Syaoran when she needed him?

"You didn't ever call me back and I want my ring." Sakura could tell that her silence was only infuriating him more. She squeezed her eyes even tighter. "You know what? Forget it, you stupid bi-" Sakura clamped her hands over her ears so she didn't have to hear the rest, but it didn't work. He continued on for a minute and whenever it got quiet, she knew he was gone.

She felt her eyes burn and sunk down onto the floor; stunned. Her eyes were starting to flood and she forced herself to stand up and go back to the kitchen. Quickly, she put the first batch into the oven and set the timer for ten minutes.

In a daze, she made her way to the bathroom. Only when she was there, did she finally allow herself to cry. Her small frame wracked with sobs and she collapsed on the floor. It took a while before she collected herself enough that the sobs subsided and she sat up. Whenever she stood her legs were shaking.

Sakura turned on the faucet and rinsed her face off with the cool water. She off with a towel but when she was done her eyes were still a little red. "Oh well…"

"Sakura?" Syaoran's voice rang throughout the two-bedroom apartment.

She cleared her throat a little and tried to make it sound like she hadn't been crying. "I'm in the bathroom!"

It sounded ok to her but he was silent for a second before saying, "I was just checking to see if you were here." Silence. "Are you cooking something?"

"Yea, peanut butter cookies." She patted her face a little trying desperately to make the redness go away. No such luck.

"Sounds good. The timer's about to go off." Darn. That meant she was going to have to come out soon. Sakura took a deep breath and tried to calm down. It wouldn't be a good thing if she broke down in front of him. He wouldn't be the only one to know. Give it an hour and Tomoyo and Eriol would know as well.

Just as she walked into the kitchen the timer went off. She felt Syaoran's eyes on her and diverted her gaze to the floor. She knew he must have noticed that her eyes were still a little red. She gave a silent prayer that he wouldn't tell anybody. When he didn't say anything, she let out the breath she didn't even know she had been holding. She was grateful that he didn't make a comment.

As she pulled the cookies out of the oven, her eyes started to burn again. Because of Toji, she had forgotten to flatten them. Now they were just big cookie balls. She felt a tear fall and quickly wiped it away. Even so, she knew Syaoran had seen it. "They're ruined." Her voice was monotonous.

Without a word he reached over and plucked one off the pan. He immediately dropped it. "Hot!" He smiled sheepishly causing a smile to tug at Sakura's lips. He tried again, but this time, blew on it. As soon as he bit into the `peanut butter cookie ball' he let out a loud "MMMMMM!!!" and swallowed thickly. "They're not ruined at all. Just different." He popped the other half in his mouth.

Sakura's face stretched out into a smile. He had made her feel a lot better. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Nothing."

He gave her a knowing smile and started to lick his fingers. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Your dad called while you were at work. He wanted you to call him back."

"Ok. I will in a minute." Together, they flattened out the second batch and put it in the oven.

Only when the kitchen had been cleaned did Sakura reach for the phone and dial the familiar number. "Hello?" Her dad's voice answered.

"It's me."

"Sakura! I see you got the message. Tell Syaoran thanks for me."

"Not a chance." She teased.

"Sakura…"

She sighed and put her hand over the receiver, "My Dad says thanks." Then speaking into the receiver. "Happy?"

"Um hum."

"Did you call for a reason, or did you want to chat?"

"There's a reason I know it's only October the 20th but I wanted to let you know that your brother and I would be coming down for a visit on Thanksgiving so that you won't make any other plans. Is that alright?"

"Sure! I haven't seen you in a long time, I'll look forward to it!"

Syaoran looked at her questioningly and when she finally set the receiver down, she said, "My family's coming here for Thanksgiving."

"Oh."

Sakura was about to say something else, but the phone cut her off. "Hello?" She answered.

"Hello, may I speak to Syaoran?"

The girl's voice was unfamiliar and Sakura quirked an eyebrow. "Sure." She handed Syaoran the phone. By the look on his face, he was confused too.

"Hello?" A smile quickly overtook his features as the person on the phone started talking. "Hi! I'm fine, how about you? So, why are you calling?" Sakura wondered vaguely if it was a new girlfriend. "Oh. No, that's fine! I'll see you then, bye."

Syaoran clicked off the phone and Sakura smiled wickedly. "What was that all about? A new GIRLFRIEND perhaps?"

"No." He chuckled a little bit. Probably at the idea of the girl being his girlfriend.

"Then who was it?" She knew she was being nosey, but she just couldn't help it! She was really curious for some reason.

"None of your business." He said swiftly.

"Oh yea?" She cried and lifted a fist. "I'm ganna make it my business!"

"I'm not intimidated."

Syaoran walked out of the kitchen and into his room. Sakura waited for a second before following. "Why won't you tell me? Are you just being mean?"

"Maybe." He said and kicked off his shoes. "Do you mind? I want to get changed."

Sakura seated herself on his bed. "Not at all. Do you?"

He rolled his eyes and pulled her off the bed. "Hey!" She protested. He escorted her out of the room but as soon as he shut the door, she opened it again.

"Gah!" He cried and pulled his shirt back down. Sakura started laughing hysterically. "Very funny." He muttered and pushed her out of the room again. This time, when he shut the door, she heard the lock.

Sakura sat herself right next to his door and when he came out she was still there. "Why do you care about who it was so much?" He asked looking down at her.

"I'm bored. So, are you going to tell me?"

He pretended to think about it before saying. "No."

"Why not?" She pouted.

"Because I like to see you beg."

"When have I ever begged you for something?" She stood up. He was pretty tall and it was straining her neck.

"Let's see, the time you wanted the last cookie, the time that your brother was coming for a visit and you wanted me to help you clean, the time-"

"I get the point." Sakura cut him off.

"So…"

"So what?" She inquired.

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "Beg."

"You've got to be kidding."

He shook his head. "Nope."

A look of complete mortification crossed her features. Reluctantly, she got down on her knees. "Please. Would you please tell me who that was on the phone?" She clenched her teeth.

"Umm… no."

"NO?!"

She jumped to her feet and he started running away. "Syaoran Li, if you don't tell me who was on the phone right this minute I swear I'll!"

"You'll what?" He called from across the room.

She walked over to where he was standing. It took him a second to realize that he was backed into a corner. "I'll tickle you?" Her answer was pitiful and sounded more like a question than a statement.

"Ok!" He pretended to act horrified. "It was my cousin Meiling. She's coming for a visit on Thanksgiving too! Happy?"

Kitty Neko: I hope you liked it! I'll see you on chapter 6! Until then, Ja!