Card Captor Sakura Fan Fiction ❯ Verisimilitude ❯ 1.Coffee Beans and Tea Leaves ( Chapter 1 )

VERISIMILITUDE

Chapter 1: Coffee Beans and Tea Leaves

By: Elle Chant

Disclaimer: CCS is not mine.

 

***

 

It was chaos.

 

Tomoyo closed the door of the newspaper's club while a mile list long of the upcoming festival necessities imprinted themselves on her mind. She almost came to resent school events as responsibilities and work continued to pile after every each day filling her planner with the needs of the Kendo club, the Chess club, the Theatre club, a play on today's youth protests by the more violent members of the school… All dumped on the Tomoeda High school's 2nd year batch representative, Daidouji Tomoyo.

 

She glanced at the window and saw the soccer club build a booth for their annual bake sale. She had once asked Sakura why the club that was prone to have more male members chose something… baking.

 

Sakura had shrugged and said that Syaoran-kun said that it was always like that ever since he joined the varsity when he came back to Japan. It didn't bother the team's male sensibilities at all.

 

She heaved a sigh and walked down the hall, faltering a little in her usual head drilled elegance because of exhaustion. Three more clubs to check then she could finally have lunch.

 

“Daidouji-san!”

 

She turned around and saw a boy from her Physics class run towards her.

 

“Daidouji-san,” he said and Tomoyo was suddenly handed with a thick pile of papers.

 

“I ran into Terada-sensei on the way to the courtyard and he asked me to give you these. They're proposals that have to be approved by the student government before being processed into the administrative team.”

 

She groaned inwardly but smiled at him. “Of course, thank you for your trouble.”

 

He smiled at her before dashing into the opposite direction again.

 

She shook her head and changed her route on the hall in the corner making her way to the student government's office. The world suddenly turned itself on from her musings and she was aware of the rapidly running students around her shouting for ink, more paper, someone to fix the printing machine and the documents needed for three-A's live musical performance. Any second now, someone will recognize her and pull her to another classroom, pleading for her to fix another problem.

 

She dashed down the hall arriving at the office door in ten seconds flat.

 

She opened the door and the first thing that greeted her was a neatly cleaned room with papers stacked carefully under label on one corner of the room. Desks were cleaned of clutter the cork board and the white board that was usually filled with notes and pinned notes was arranged.

 

And the room wasn't noisy, contrarily; piano music filled the air creating a big contrast to the events outside.

 

Someone was sitting on one of the open office cubicles, a small portable piano on his desk while his pale fingers touched the keys with obvious familiarity. The compute next to him was turned on, a sheet of paper on the printer and a paper cup of latte sitting on next to it.

 

Probably sensing her presence, he turned around. His eyes widened slightly before he smiled. She found herself momentarily seeing things in his eyes and how the same smile was reflected on her face. The expected, courteous, well-mannered customs for people like them, people soaked in the well versed culture of polite strangers that it flowed in them like blood.

 

Then she was back to herself looking at Hiiragizawa Eriol with his dark hair and dark eyes framed by glasses that glinted in the sunlight.

 

“Daidouji-san” He said, his voice expectedly pleasant. If he noticed her haggard appearance, he didn't comment on it. “I didn't hear you come in.”

 

“It's okay Hiiragizawa-kun” She said. “I was just here to finish reviewing some proposals. I hope I didn't bother you.”

 

“Of course,” He stood up. Aside from her, Eriol was another representative in the student government who was handling his fair share of student affairs committee. They had worked together in school to organize events in a few occasions and she found out that he was strangely like her in a way. Pale with dark hair and dark eyes, quiet and polite, their families were very financially stable and currently, both of them were head to head topping the class.

 

Oh what a gentleman! So courteous, so polite! From England! So handsome too!

 

These were the exact words she remembered Li-kun muttering to himself wondering what the hell was wrong with this school's female population.

 

She didn't realize there was a sudden pause of silence and her eyes were staring blankly on his cup on the desk. She coughed.

 

“I'll just be on one of the desks near the computer terminals.” She said and turned to move away.

 

“I was just done with my work,” He said. “Do you want me to help you?”

 

English gallantry sprouted from medieval chivalry. Cute, really.

 

“Oh no that's fine.” Tomoyo said, trying to keep him at a polite distance. “I'll be able to handle it.”

 

“Please, I want to and you probably haven't eaten lunch yet.” He got a pen from the table and a couple of papers. He looked at her and the familiar mischievousness flickered in his eyes. “Besides, English gallantry commands me to. It will be awfully un-chivalrous of me if I let you do all the work alone.”

 

Mind reading. Damn it.

 

She smiled sweetly at him shedding courteous Tomoyo and moved to the more conniving aspect of her personality. Something she and Eriol, apparently, also shared in common. “Oh if you insist” She waved the pile of papers in her hand. “How great of you to know that I actually need help. It's like you read my mind.”

 

Eriol smiled that heavily reminded her of the Mona Lisa. The infamously secret amusement

 

“I'm not sure if I still have food here,” He said and looked at the desk behind him. “If you're really hungry and I think…”

 

Tomoyo waved a hand in dismissal. “It wouldn't be necessary. Your offer of help is more than enough…”

 

Her stomach growled.

 

“…That there is some of the Grande lattes and croissant left from the Café Mocha Princess when I went there earlier for lunch.” He glanced at her his eyes twinkling. “Just sit down while I go get them.”

 

Tomoyo nodded meekly hoping her face was not flushed red from embarrassment. “Of course.”

 

 

***

 

 

Lunch with Hiiragizawa Eriol was interesting.

 

She had always thought of him something of an extraordinary existence. He was there. She saw him everyday. He was a constant presence behind her in class. He showed up in the same student council meetings as she did. They were thrown together to work hours on end for school events. He wasn't like Sakura-chan and Li-kun but more like herself who keeps most people in polite distances. Everyday, he would smile at her in class and she would smile back but that was it, a custom that both of them were used to doing.

 

But she never sat down and spent time with him and hung out. So today was pretty peculiar.

 

She sipped the latte that he had heated while biting daintily into a croissant. He had ended up getting all the documents from her and finishing them himself, his fingers signing then with lazy flourish. He had commented she looked “a bit tired” and insisted on doing everything.

 

“Sakura-chan looks happy.” He said. “The happiest I've ever seen her.”

 

“I'm happy for her too.” She said and felt an old twinge of pain her chest. She looked at Eriol and found his head bent on his work and realized he didn't mean to hurt her. Just a statement of something he observed that he wished to share. “Li-kun came back.”

 

“Yes,” He said softly as if he was suddenly aware of her pain. “He did.”

 

Silence

 

“What was that you were playing earlier before I came in?” She asked.

 

“Just a piece I've been dwindling at for the last couple of weeks,” He said as he stacked another document in his finished pile. “It isn't finished.”

 

“You wrote it?” She said. “It was beautiful.” She took another bite off the croissant.

 

“Thank you,” He said. “I'm flattered. I heard you do not give away compliments easily Daidouji-san”

 

“Only if they paid me or offered to help me finish documents for a school festival.”

 

He grinned.

 

She found herself sipping a large mouthful of latte and stared at it. “This is delicious.”

 

“Mocha latte, no-fat milk and green tea syrup,” He said. “Best of both worlds” Then he looked thoughtful, “It was Nakuru actually who dragged me into that coffee shop demanding that I take a sip of their yummy larger than life strawberry milk shake with mountains of whipped cream and chocolate shavings as I myself won't go in.”

 

“Café Mocha Princess?”

 

“It hurts my sensibilities.”

 

She tried to stop herself but she laughed.

 

She smiled a lot but usually out of courtesy but laughter was something she forgot a long time ago. It actually felt good.

 

“Here you go Daidouji-san, all finished.” He handed the papers to her.

 

“Thank you,” She meant it. She really did.

 

She stood up and he stood up as well. She took the left over trash from her meal and placed it in the waste basket. Eriol was right behind her.

 

That moment she felt the moment was gone and they were back as they were. Her smile was placid as was his as he accompanied her to the door.

 

Thank you for your help. It was no problem. I'll be seeing you around. Yes, of course.

 

Right to the dot

 

Tomoyo walked out and slid the door behind her close.

 

 

***