CardCaptor Sakura Remastered IV Episode 3 (10)

CardCaptor Sakura Remastered IV Episode 3

Meilin seemed quieter tonight than usual. This worried Xai greatly as
she looked on silently.

“Is dinner alright?” Xai asked, looking for any sign of reaction from
Meilin. She hadn’t said very much at all tonight, and she ate slowly
as if deep in thought. Obviously something was bothering her, though
as Xai prodded she only smiled and shook her head, picking up her pace
slightly yet still looked quite bothered. “What happened at school
today? Did something upset you?”

The room suddenly became even more silent as she stared at her food.
For long moments she only stared, the sound of breathing filling the
space between them, until she finally spoke in a soft whisper,
“Nothing.”

“Meilin I know you, and this isn’t nothing, please --” (her hand
gently touches Meilin’s, bringing her face up as they stared into each
others eyes), “--please?”

“Li showed up at school today. He--- he---”

“He did it, didn’t he?” Xai finally finished, to which she nodded her
head meekly. “I thought you were mistaken. When I arrived and he
wasn’t here yet I thought maybe he would have changed his mind.”

“Guess not.” she noted, smiling weakly. At this Xai scoots herself
over, and came to sit next to Meilin as she urges her to eat, arm
wrapped around her shoulder. “Do you still have -- feelings for him?”

“No -- but --” she mutters, her voice trailing off. It takes a few
prods, but shortly she’s speaking again in soft whispers, “---but I
can’t forget how he left me alone. How he went off to discover himself
without even thinking of my feelings -- how I felt being all alone --”
Suddenly she slams her fork down on the plate and screams “WHY DIDN’T
HE LOVE ME THE WAY I WANTED HIM TO LOVE ME?!?”

Xai gently grabs the now struggling Meilin, and drags her into a
strong hug, holding her tight as she yelled again, “WHY DID HE ABANDON
ME WHEN I NEEDED HIM THE MOST?!? WHY??? WHY???”

“I don’t know.” was Xai’s only answer, her head resting against
Meilin’s shoulder as she held her tightly, until finally she stopped
struggling and collapsed into Xai’s strong grip, “I didn’t ask for
much. Why didn’t he return my affections for me? Why didn’t he love
me?? Why???”

All Xai could do was comfort her, holding on as she cried. Finally,
with strength borne within her heart over the years she asked, “Do you
love him more than me?”

Meilin’s eyes flew wide, her mouth suddenly dropped as she realized,
“NO! NO! I -- I love you -- but --”

“But?” Xai repeated, making Meilin blush as she realized what she had
said. With great resolve she straightened up, wiped her tears away,
and clenched her fists. “BUT NOTHING! I’m not going to let him get to
me anymore! From now on--” (looks into Xai’s eyes) “---it’s you and
me. Now and forever.”

As they kiss the two feel the warmth in their breasts growing, their
feelings growing even stronger as they held each other. Finally they
released, slowly Xai allowed Meilin back into her seat as she smiled,
“Just you and me now. I want you to depend on me as much as I depend
on you, Ok?”

“Does that mean you want to be on top tonight?” Xai kidded, to which
Meilin smiled, “I haven’t been there before. Would be nice to see you
at my “mercies” tonight. And I‘ve never got to play with the “toys“
before so maybe tonight‘s the night---” The two kiss one more time
before eating, words failing to express at times what they felt they
depended on their bodies to do it for them with gentle kisses and soft
carresses. Still, one thing to Meilin was abundantly clear and certain
in her heart of hearts.

“This is Hamburger Helper.” she noted, poking her food. “I can’t
believe this is an old Transylvanian pasta dish. Do you believe that?
It‘s Hamburger Helper.”

“Definitely.” Xai remarks, going back to eating her food, “But it’s
good anyway. Eat your food, dear.”

“I’m eating, I’m eating. Still, it’s Hamburger Helper.”

“Yes, precious, I noticed.”

* * * * * *

Li laid on his back in his new apartment staring at the ceiling.

His music was playing and yet it didn’t provide him with any solace
whatsoever.

The first day at school today? It seemed as if nothing could go right
for him at all. If it wasn’t for Eliza he probably would have just booked a ticket back to the Shining Star and forgot his orders.

“I thought you left town to rub your big old bedmate in your rivals faces, not to lay about like a dweeb.”

Li’s eyes narrowed. That annoyingly bossy voice could only be coming
from one person. “Karen.” he muttered as he turned his headset off,
sitting upright to see her. She was as arrogant looking as she was
when she lectured him at the mall in Hong Kong, only now she was
floating to one side in holographic form (projecting her thoughts to
him). “Don’t tell me your boyish good looks and witty charm have
Finally failed you when you needed it the most.”

“Eliza is out doing the shopping for us.” he grumbled, falling back down into a lying position as she watched, her holographic eyes narrowing as she glared at him. “You can be such a wet blanket at times. Real men go shopping with their sextoys… I mean lifemates.”

“You didn’t come “here” just to find out about my sex life.”

“Or lack theroft.” she pointed out, looking about the room. “Nope. I’m
calling because we got a call from a very irrate 7th Judgment over
here. You might be familiar with who I am referring to, by the way, since she probably already threatened to kill you. She isn’t the slightest bit happy about us assigning a SpellThrasher to her sector, let alone one who assigned himself without anyone asking him.”

“Somebody had to take responsibility and help Sakura capture the
cards.”

“And it had to be you, didn’t it?” Karen scoffed, huffing her breath
at him as she did, “Arrogant little bastard. No wonder she hates you
as much as she sounded like she hates you from her commlink message.”

“She hated me long before I showed up here, I can assure you of that.”
Li retorted.

“Oh don’t go assuring ME of anything!” she growled, “I figured you
were unlikable from the get-go.”

“So then---” he muttered, looking up at her from his lying position,
“Why do you hang around me if I’m such an unlovable individual?”

“Somebody has to. Your life would be shitty if I didn’t brighten it
with my presence each and every day.”

“Of course.” he sighed, lying back down again.

“Don’t get me wrong. We Spellthrashers would like nothing better than to snub the Judgments, no questions about it. Still, this IS Yamanaka we’re
talking about here.” (makes a wide motion with her hands to show the
immensity of it all) “THE Keiko Yamanaka. The freakin’ 7th Judgment
for God’s sake! And for some reason you really had to piss on her the
first day out and get her to call us to tell us how truly evil you
are.” (silence) “Not that I didn’t already know you were evil, so she
was pretty much saying things I already knew about our favorite antichrist member.”

“Anything else?”

“Yeah.” she muttered, looking at something out of “sight” (rifling
through her “memory” in her mind to see what she had yet to say) “Got
a comm from the senior female Destiny over here from the Amazonian homelands. She says she’s pleased with your relationship with her daughter, and she has only best wishes for you two.“ (whistles) “That’s stepmoms for you, always so supportive.”

(Karen) “Also I have this red banner from Command, looks like somebody may be irritated with the Clow cards enough to organize a Black Ops “anti-Clow” unit to try and beat Sakura to tbe punch on the remaining cards… as if. Anyway all the same would all of you SpellThrashers on the field keep your eyes open and report any suspicious activities or goings on in terms of known Black Ops agents or facilities in ties to Clow-card capturing. Of special importance is the Black Ops station located on Crystallyia.*” (* - Crystallyia, also known as the Dream Continent of Antarctica)

“What importance is that to my “mission”?” Li asked.

“Your self appointed mission? Some if they try to “recruit” Clow humans to help in the round-up. Whatever you do? Don’t let that happen. If you run into any Black Ops trying to recruit from Sakura’s house or the fewe roaming free cards like Fight or Power (from what Lt. Kotobuki has reported)? Stop them. But whatever you do? Don’t tell Sakura or the others. Keiko already knows and she’ll warn the cards about this possible “recruitment” tactic. Remember, however, the cards probably don’t like you since they see you as a rival in trying to steal Sakura away from Tomoyo so they won’t speak to you (and whatever rogue cards won‘t trust you because they think you‘ll try to dominate them). Let Eliza handle that aspect of it and just wait for instructions to aid her in case a Black Ops team shows up to try and “muscle” them. OK?”

“Anything else?”

Karen thinks for a second, then nods her head, “I know she’s Amazonian, but damn what is sex like with her anyway! How many times do you end up doggie style beneath her again?”, and with that she vanishes leaving Li alone once again. Without waiting for an answer to her “question“.

“…”

* * * * * *

The touch was gentle, yet present.

It started at her forehead and came down to her cheeks, and then to
her lips.

So soft it was barely noticeable, but Tomoyo felt it.

She smiled as she felt Sakura’s fingers gently touch her face,
obviously meaning that the girl was still wide awake. As she opened
her eyes she saw that Sakura was still up and looking worried.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, Sakura fidgeting as she realized she woke
Tomoyo from her sleep. Tomoyo smiled, sensing Sakura’s unease at
waking her and whispered, “It’s alright. Please, tell me.”

“I had a strange dream -- I mean vision -- I--”

“Tell me.”

For a few seconds she didn’t seem to want to, but a little more
prodding helped her along. As she spoke she seemed very nervous, but
slowly the images of what she saw in her vision started to come
together.

She saw the tower again, but this time it felt different. Tokyo Tower
was the same, yet different somehow. It was then that she realized
that there was a moon in the sky, and the stars seemed odd somehow.
The oddest being this object which seemed to be the sun, only
eclipsed. An eerie ethereal glow surrounded the strange object, but
what it was Sakura did not know. She only knew that it was strange to
see this in the sky.

On the tower she saw seven figures, male and female, standing. She
could feel their eyes staring, and wanted to join them but then she
felt the ground beneath her fall away dropping her into darkness.

It was then that she saw the city fall away, then darkness, then the
“sphere” floating in space above fall away into darkness, then
nothing.

That’s when she woke up.

Tomoyo didn’t know what to make of the vision, she only could hold
onto Sakura and comfort her. For now whatever sense could be made of
the vision would have to wait until they knew more of what the world
above them meant, and what awaited within. But in Tomoyo’s mind a
strange idea came.

Was that world a mirror image of their own? Was there another Tokyo
waiting within it’s hull?

Another Sakura maybe?

She shook those thoughts away and smiled, hugging Sakura tightly. One
Sakura was enough for her.

As they fell back asleep she dreamed a happy dream of the two of them
together, something she had been doing for abit now ever since Sakura
freed her of her bad memories.

She wished in her heart that Sakura was dreaming the same dream, and
that even in their sleep they would always be together.

Sakura, dreaming the same dream, made the same wish.

* * * * * *

The next day came, and it was back to school again.

More students returned to class. While it was not the full class yet
they were slowly coming back in as the school was kicking into full drive lessons wise.

As for Syaoran Li’s “critics”? Keiko, Rebecca, Nina and Meilin kept their distance from Li, while Sakura/Tomoyo gravitated towards him. It
didn’t help those who wanted to keep Li as far from them as possible
that Sakura (who they were assisting with the recapture of the Clow
cards) was gravitating towards the very person they were trying to
keep her away from, but there was nothing they could do about it.

As for Eliza? She seemed to hover at a distance but managed to not interfere unless she felt it was necessary. Most likely she was watching from the shadows from the command center, explaining why command felt it was necessary for Nina to spend time in class instead of the command center where the situation might have been rather awkward.

Catherine Picadello? “Anyone seen her since the last time we saw her? I lost track of her comings and goings.” Keiko asked, to which everyone either shrugged or shook their heads. It seemed Catherine Picadello was MIA, and she wasn’t the only one. Ms. Mitsuki was also missing, a new math teacher taking her place. Stranger and stranger.

Still, life went on and they had school to go through. Studying for
final exams at the end of the school year was already underway, this
to make it to the next grade, and since November they had been
gathering up for “Study Buddies” (a concept coined by the Sailor Moon
Dub and picked up as a “theme” concept for group studies sometime
ago). Another study buddies, another chance for many awkward moments.

The first one was always the hardest to plan, but Tomoyo made it easy.
“Let’s study today at our place.” she remarked, which everyone agreed
to. When they asked Li to join them there was some obvious dissent,
but he agreed and they had to live with it. Still, that didn’t mean
they had to like it.

As the day dragged on it was slowly becoming clear that this was a
situation that none of the “critics” could change. The situation couldn‘t be more awkward than it was right now, but nothing could be done to eliviate it in the slightest. What was done was done.
The first day of Study Buddies for the new year that had to include Li
only made things worst for them.

As they all walked home together one rampant thought kept racing
through Nina’s head.

‘If I push him into the pond as we go through New King Penguin Park he
might drown -- maybe if I shove him in front of a bus on the way home
-- or push him into a wood chipper in the park -- maybe down a man
hole into the mouth of a large reptile in the sewers -- or perhaps --’

However it was in the park that Sakura suddenly stopped, her senses
keenly picking up on something,

“There’s a Clow card nearby.”

Everyone’s attention turned towards her, watching, as she looked
about, until she finally pointed into a set of bushes and whispered,
“It’s in there, but---”, before she could say another word Li was off
dashing into the bushes. “WAIT!“ Sakura yelled, “It could be
dangerous!!“

Everyone was shocked/appalled at this, Keiko growling at Li‘s retreating form as he leaped into the bushes, yelling “THAT’S NOT YOUR JOB!!” Seconds later he came out, and gave everyone a shock. He was
foaming from head to toe in bubbles with the most very embarrassed
face (which could barely be seen beneath the bubbles) staring out at them. “It’s not dangerous. Just curious.” he muttered in disgust.

Nina suddenly burst into laughter looking at him, followed by Keiko,
Rebecca and finally Meilin. But Sakura was very serious as she drew her
staff and sealed the card, taking it in hand, she then tapped the card
and whispered “Bubble”, putting the card away. She then turned and
glared at everyone laughing which quickly silenced the mood. She them
smiled, and started laughing herself. For no reason she was laughing
and they didn’t understand.

Tomoyo takes hold of Sakura’s hand and leads her and some of the
others away, leaving the four behind, who were only now realizing that
they were slowly being covered in bubbles.

“Really mature there, Sakura. Really.” Rebecca noted as she began
brushing away the ever growing bubbles, “Somebody’s got a stick up
their butt being so touchy about Li’s “feelings”.”

* * * * * *

The minute they got home and Sakura announced the capture was the
minute Li became popular to the Clow girls. They all wanted to use
Bubble, and they all suddenly had a big change of heart about Li.
After all, he brought home Bubble (the card) by helping Sakura capture
it, so he was their hero.

Keiko was miffed about this turn of “events”, as was the other
“Critics” of Syaoran Li. Only Nina seemed to be partially accepting of
Li, and that was only because Eliza insisted on it.

Still, he did “help” to capture a card, and was pretty OK with being
embarrassed like that in front of everyone so maybe he could be given
a chance.

Study buddies went off without a hitch, except for the occasionally
mis directed Clow girl almost walking in on the group bare naked
(except for strategically placed bubbles) giggling like crazy and
looking for their own bedrooms.

Today was the first full day that Syaoran was part of the group, and
it seemed to go off rather well.

He broke the ice, and made some friends. He still had someway to go,
but for now it seemed he was settling in. For now.

That night Sakura decided to use the bubble card for herself and
Tomoyo to celebrate the capture.

But that’s a lemon story.

To Be Continued
(6 posts remain...)