Author's Note: This is my very first Sakura and Syaoran fic ever. It also has hints of Tomoyo and Eriol romance, and Rika and Terada romance. For the most part, though, it's Sakura and Syaoran romance...NOT Touya/ Yukito. Perhaps I could have written something about their relationship, but I chose not to. However, if I get enough requests like I already have from many of my friends who are also great fans of Card Captor Sakura, maybe I will throw in something about it in a revision of this fic. There is, though, merely a hint of love between the two that I mentioned a couple times, but other than that, there is nothing intimate. I like to satisfy all believers of all the romances in Card Captor Sakura, and wanted everyone to enjoy this fic.

"Only for You" is tragic, funny, romantic, and is in a fair amount of detail. All the characters are in ninth grade, and therefore are around the age of fifteen. Syaoran Li has not admitted his feelings for Sakura Kinomoto. Yet. *smiles* No, all the Clow cards have not been captured; at least ONE of them is wreaking chaos and destruction...

Like I said before, this is my first fic, so don't hate me! I worked really, really hard on it, and therefore hope you enjoy, "Only for You".

*Feedback is appreciated at pikachu336@excite.com. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own Card Captor Sakura, Cardcaptors, or any of the characters in the series. I never plan to, nor ever will. This is merely a story written by a great fan of the anime, and has not ever been seen by the CLAMP company. Do not sue me, for this is only a story written for my own and other's enjoyment. Thank you.

Card Captor Sakura:
Only for You

A series fanfic written by Pikachu 336; Typed January/ February 2001

"An Unexpected Encounter"
Chapter Two:

Sakura waited for Li to catch up with her at the end of the hall in front of the huge, solid doors of the school's entrance. In no time at all, though, Li was at her side. He heaved the door open and held it ajar for Sakura. She felt the color rising in her delicate cheeks. "Thanks," she muttered, quietly.

"You're welcome," he replied, very sophisticatedly.

The two sauntered down the numerous cement steps to the green, lush grass at the bottom very casually. On the last step, Sakura plopped herself down and pulled off the left half of her pair of Mary Jane school uniform shoes.

Li was quiet for a while, watching her apply her roller blades to her feet, until he turned around and observed, blushing, "You know, I didn't plan on staying at school so late."

Indeed, the sun was just slightly lower than when he usually left school, and was already creating shadows on the luxuriant lawns of the school grounds. He turned back and looked at Sakura for a moment. She, though, was strapping on her knee and elbow pads with a flourish, but looked up at him with a suddenly hurt expression on her face.

"You're mad at me...aren't you, Li-kun," she stated, simply, her bottom lip quivering slightly.

"Oh, no, Sakura," he reassured her. "I...," the blush was reappearing, "I like being with you."

He had his hands behind his back when he said this, a sheepish look growing, along with the color, on his face. He turned around again, though, when he got no response from Sakura.

She looked flabbergasted. He actually liked being with her?! It was too good to be true!

Li began walking down the short cement path to the sidewalk laid in front of the school. He was plainly hurt. 'WHY DID I SAY THAT?!' he kept asking himself, over and over again in his mind.

"Wait!" called a pleasantly familiar voice, like that of an angel. "Li-kun, wait!"

Sakura easily rolled down the path to where Li stood, frozen to the spot. However, she surprised both of them when she skid to a stop with her hands clasped tightly around Li's waist. He stood stock still as she remained in a hugging position behind him, snuggling her chin into his back. The now seemingly ever-present blush rose once again into the depths of Syaoran Li's usually pallid profile.

"Oh, Li-kun," she sighed into his shirt, which smelled nicely like fresh peonies, taking in it's wonderful fragrance. "Promise you'll never be mad at me," she cooed into his back. Sakura snuggled deeper into his shirt and squeezed her hands in front of him.

"S-Sakura?" he asked, unsure of how to interpret her behavior.

"Take me home, now, Li-kun," she breathed into his shirt, still hugging him tight, "and I'll give you a surprise."

"Whatever you say, Sakura," he told her, still a little confused, but really quite pleased, by her choice of actions. "Are you going to let go of me now?"

"Do you really want me to?" she asked him flirtatiously. "Can't you just pull me along?"

"Uh...." Li was speechless, and not for the first time that day. There sure had been a lot of physical contact today, Li thought. Why? He yet had to figure that out, and that's what he planned to do before the weekend was over....

"So...Sakura," he started. Li wanted to talk to Sakura. He wanted to say a lot of things. And, since she was in such a good mood, and so close, he decided that he should at least try to talk to her.

"Am I being a problem?"

Li started walking down the sidewalk to Sakura's house, having regained most of the feeling in his legs, and answered her question. Of course she wasn't being a problem, and he told her so, but they looked quite the sight from passing cars: a high school boy pulling a girl of the same age, though on roller skates, and being hugged around the middle.

Sakura squeezed her arms tighter still around Li's middle as they crossed the street, quickly, but awkwardly.

"I want to talk to you about our report," Li told her, though he faltered ever so slightly when he mentioned the word "our".

"Mhmm," Sakura breathed. Clearly, the air of the dreamlike presence still had her under its spell; she passed into a state of complete bliss, still thoroughly enthralled with being so close to the one she loved.

"Well," he continued slowly, blushing ever more at the thought that she was hugging him, and her hands kept sliding lower with every step he took toward her house along the paved sidewalk. "What do you want-"

"Our," she continued for him, slyly.

"...Project to be, Saku-" He had to stop in mid sentence, for her hands were sliding way past "low" on his body, though still clasped tightly together. 'Oh, God!' he thought, biting his lip.

Gingerly, with his thumb and forefinger, Li grasped her hands, and tore them apart. The result was that Sakura went flying out in the sidewalk, but Li, who still had her hand, reeled her in, enabling her to do a sort of twirl on her blades.

It was, genuinely, very romantic, and he dipped her after he caught her, her scant skirt flinging with the breeze. Li blushed. Really though! What else was he supposed to do after he saw where her fingers were lingering?

"Sorry, Li-kun," she muttered, blushing insanely. "I really don't know what...what came over me. I just-"

He pulled her up, placing a finger to her lips, sweetly. "Shhh," he whispered. "Let's just get you home. It's getting late, and I'm sure your brother and father are-"

Sakura gasped. "Li! Touya; he'd be furious if," she paused, "...if he sees me with...with you...even though we're not seeing each other, really, he'll still be very angry!"

A terrified expression lit her face, which was illuminated, beautifully, by the setting sun. Li couldn't help but think how extremely pretty she was as he stood there watching her, still grasping her hand tightly in his. He blushed, once more, in her near presence. "Come on," he muttered in an undertone to the breathtaking female standing in front of his own rigid body. "We really need to get you home."

"Y-yes," Sakura stammered. They were quiet for the rest of the walk to Sakura's home, although Sakura once again placed her hands around Li's waist, resting her fragile weight against his well-built physique.

"Why...why are you back there again?" he asked, hesitantly, though half teasingly, to the blushing girl attached to him.

"Mmmm, It's just...you're so warm," she sighed into his shoulder blades. Sakura was exhausted from her very interesting day.

"Oh," Li replied, still slightly perplexed at her behavior, but taking a final step around a curb, his destination appeared in his range of vision. Her house loomed into view before him. Sakura sailed effortlessly behind him, trailing like a balmy breeze on a spring day on her trusty roller blades.

"Sakura-Chan," Li whispered gently to his drowsy partner, stopping abruptly in front of her dwelling to wake her from a sort of trance that had claimed her in the pleasure of being in such close quarters with her special friend. He twisted his torso around, and gently blew in her face, tousling her hair and snapping her back to the current situation.

Sakura reluctantly released her embrace with Syaoran Li, and skated around him, lingering in front of his face with the sweetest, most innocent looking smile on her face that Li had seen yet.

"I...," she began, shifting the wait of her massive school bag to her left shoulder and daintily holding her hands folded in front of her, "I...had a good time...Li-kun. Thank you," a blush emitted itself from the depths of her cheerful, lighted face, and she continued, smiling, "for walking me...home."

Li had to admit; he, too, had had a good time walking the sweet, smart, funny, cheerful teenager at his side home. He also felt a familiar red blush rising in his ears and cheeks.

Sakura began skating backwards up the short pathway to her front door; the remains of a mad blush still evident, outlining her cheekbone as she glided along. "I had better go now. Toya will want to be leaving for Yukito's early in the morning, and I don't want him to be angry at me if he has to wait up late." She shuddered; the chill night breezes were beginning to pick up, though the sun was still shining dully on the edge of the horizon.

"Wait!" Li called to her back as he watched Sakura carefully make her way up the cement steps to her front door, as she was still in her blades. She turned, suddenly, a puzzled look creasing her features. Li ran up to her at the base of the steps. He looked up at her, hopefully, and felt a flow of words escaping his dry and cracked lips: "Can we get together and work on our project?"

Sakura looked at him for a moment, then said, timidly, "I...I'd like that, Li-kun. Can...we get together tomorrow...tomorrow morning?"

"I'd like that...Sakura-Chan," he breathed, suddenly finding that it was very hard to keep from sweeping her into a passionate kiss and a loving embrace.

Sakura, too, was experiencing these same feelings...for Syaoran Li...and only for Syaoran Li. Just imagining his lips caressing hers was making her long for him more and more.

"Great!" she exclaimed, cheerfully, crashing the moment like a brick smashing glass. And, indeed, the silence had been so intense at the moment when each were experiencing new emotions for each other, that one could almost hear the break in time. "See you then!"

With that, Sakura gave a jovial wave to her close friend, and gingerly opened the door, secretly stealing a last, passing glance at the boy...one that had love written all over it....

Syaoran Li grinned at the shutting door...only thinking of the girl it concealed: Sakura Kinomoto.

Li turned his back to the house, his school bag very heavy upon his shoulder, thinking that he, too, should probably be heading back to his own apartment complex. He slowly began heading down the walkway in front of her house, thoughts flowing like a waterfall inside his mind.

'She was so close to me," Li thought, blissfully. 'She touched me!' His smile widened at the thought; the familiar blush, returned, too.

"Li!" came a voice behind him, echoing blankly in his mind. In such a state of ecstasy, he could do but little to place the beautiful tone.

"Li!" came the voice again.

Li spun around on his heel, searching wildly around for the source of the voice on the darkening horizon...

...But he didn't have to look far. Not much farther than past his nose, anyway. As he had turned around, his lips had been caught by a pair of very feminine, rosy, and extremely soft lips, belonging to none other than the melodramatic Sakura.

Li's eyes were huge; he could have sworn that they could have popped right out of his head any moment. He also knew that the heat rising in his cheeks had reached an extreme for the day at that very moment: the moment where he was hit with the full reality that Sakura was sliding her svelte arms around his neck...and deepening the kiss.

He didn't have a chance to say anything about the impassioned actions of the girl, though his mind was bursting with questions; he could do nothing but be drawn into the embrace. Her lips were as soft as the petals of a peony, the kiss sweet, yet provocative. He let his eyelids fall upon his lashes, savoring the salty taste of her gorgeous lips against his, and pressing her closer to his own body by encircling his strong arms around her slim waist. Li could hear Sakura's breathing, soft and low, and felt a tingling sensation running up his spine at her presence.

Instantaneously, Sakura slipped her tongue into the now very thunderstruck Syaoran Li's mouth, drawing a shuddering gasp from the depths of his throat and tearing his lashes apart.

'Oh, my God,' Li thought as her tongue tenderly probed his mouth. The gentle breezes of dusk sifted through his hair, and sent Sakura's skirt gently rippling beneath Li's hands. The relaxing spring drafts felt very pleasant against his warm, pink face as he caressed Sakura's lips with his own.

"Mmmm," Sakura breathed into his Li's mouth, in a state of sheer ecstasy.

Li eventually let Sakura take him to a new level of bliss, closing his eyes and once again giving in to her swift physical movements.

They remained in that state, one of utter pleasure, for several seconds more, though to Li, those seconds seemed to pass like an eternity. Very reluctantly, however, Sakura made the move of breaking the romantic kiss. For a moment, she simply stared into his beautiful eyes, taking in their shine, longing, and satisfaction. She then smiled, and sweetly whispered, her face still incredibly close to his, "Thank you...Syaoran...."

Li couldn't believe what he had just heard. She had said his name, moreover, his full name.... 'She's never said it before,' he thought, in awe.

He was speechless. The only thing that came to his mind at that moment when her beautiful emerald gaze met his was, 'Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God."

Sakura slid her arms out from behind his neck, an affectionate, devoted look still blazed in her gemlike eyes. "I liked walking home with you," she told him, playfully, still eying him with a tender, gentile, lighthearted stare.

Li attempted speech, only to emit a small, tensed gurgle from the depths of his throat. This got a giddy chuckle out of the girl.

"Thank you," Sakura said again, rushing back to her dreamlike state again as she bid her farewell to Li for the night. "I can's wait until we can work on-"

"Our," came a high-pitched squeak from the still extremely flabbergasted, red Syaoran Li.

Sakura smiled, and finished for the both of them, "...Project tomorrow. At your house," she added, surprising Li even more by taking one dainty step toward him and landing a very small kiss right on his lips again. 'Only for you," she thought as she parted their embrace, and headed back up the walkway to her front door.

Li simply stood there, as though petrified. "Thank you, too...Sakura," he whispered to her departing figure, not thinking that there was even the slightest chance that she had heard him.

Sakura, however, smiled when she heard this diminutive statement, and, turning the doorknob, she thought that maybe Li just wasn't so bad. 'He does have some smooth moves, after all,' she concluded, smiling to herself.

She stole on last look at the still completely shocked Syaoran Li, and then disappeared beyond the threshold.

A smile etched itself across the still perplexed, but very pleased Li's face. 'How is it that she can chill my shadow like a soft dream across balmy breezes wandering the sky through dark?'

This idea played across his mind his entire way home, though it made his head spin even more with that thought added to the sensation of Sakura's surprising, yet quite pleasing kiss. He stopped wracking his brain about how she made him feel sometime after he disappeared around the bend at the intersection of First and Third Avenue....

"SAKURA?!"

Far from thinking romantic, blissful thoughts like her secret love, Sakura was met by an extremely unpleasant and very loud torrent of sound when she set one roller blade-clad foot inside her abode the second after she said her goodbye to Syaoran Li. None other than a very angry Touya caused the reverberation.

"Sakura Kinomoto, how exactly do you plan to explain yourself after what just happened?!" boomed Touya, who was very red in the face. He pointed one shaking finger at his little sister, his jowls aquiver as he bore down upon the innocent looking cherry blossom.

"Well?" he questioned again, maliciously, when he saw the perplexed look emblazoned on her face. Toya still stood, shaking with rage, pointing one accusing finger at his sibling.

"I don't know what you mean," Sakura told him innocently, settling herself down on the smooth wood floor and beginning to remove her blades and protective gear.

"You know damn well what I mean, Sakura Kinomoto!" Touya swore in fury at his sister's airy attitude. He loomed over her, drowning her delicate body in shadow, and continued, fiercely, "Damn well indeed!"

Sakura had never heard her older brother curse before, let alone in front of her. However, it was all she should have expected if he had-

Sakura halted as though she had suddenly become petrified. She stopped removing her kneepads as her body was claimed by a terrible thought: 'Toya must have seen...it was the only way...otherwise, why would he be so angry?'

"Sakura, if I ever see you within one foot of that Chinese brat ever, ever, EVER again," he paused to let this punishment sink into the girl, "you will be severely penalized!"

"W-what?!" Sakura exclaimed in terror. "What do you mean, 'Chinese brat'?!" Sakura jumped up as though the floor had suddenly caught on fire. She had never been angrier in her entire life. She, Sakura Kinomoto, had just shared a wonderful, beautiful piece of life with the boy whom her brother was calling a 'Chinese brat', and he was asking, no, making her throw that all away. Tears began to gather in her glassy, emerald eyes as she began pleading with her stubborn brother.

"Touya," she whispered. "Please...please try to understand...please."

Sakura clasped her hands together in front of her face, which was labeled with a pleading expression that matched her tone. There was nothing she could do under her brother's livid, piercing gaze but to beg for mercy. She felt hot, salty tears begin to roll down her pale cheeks. Toya, however, held his ground.

"Why?" he asked, stubbornly. "Why should I give him the chance to hurt you? You're my only sister and I'm never going to let anyone nor anything hurt you as long as I'm around, let alone a Chinese monster!"

"He's not like that! You've just never taken the time to get to know him! You wouldn't know what he's like unless you took the time to be with him!" Sakura screamed. She had never felt more disgust for her brother than she did now. Never in her life could she remember a time when she had gotten this angry with anyone. It was like something inside her had snapped. Her face was reddening in anger and her fists were now clenched into balls at her sides.

"At least I don't stick up for fat little perverts like you do!" Toya retaliated. "I saw how you two were at it down there, and if you even mention that boy's name in this house again, I will personally exterminate him..."

That was the final straw for the girl. Despite all, she tore down the hallway faster than a speeding bullet and ran up the stairs to disappear into the sanctuary of her room.

Toya stood, still breathing like a mad bull, at the door; still looking at the spot where his young sister had, a second before, been standing during their fearsome argument. His face was a deep crimson with fury, and his rough, anguish breathing was rapid.

"Touya," whispered a soft, gentile voice from behind the enraged young man. A reassuring hand came down to rest upon his shoulder. The incredible tension was lifted like a weight off his back; he lowered his arm from its frozen position and stood there with his shoulders hunched in shame.

"I was way too hard on her, wasn't I...Yuki."

"In a matter of speaking, yes, you were," replied Yukito, knowledgably. Toya hung his head. "Touya, there comes a time in everyone's life where we just have to accept what happens. It's obvious that your dear little sister has found someone she hopes to spend the rest of her life with..."

Toya was bathed in shame as Yukito's words poured over him. He really had been too hard on Sakura, and now his lover was confirming that realization.

"You should be happy for Sakura-Chan that she has found someone whom she has set her heart on, not push Syaoran Li and Sakura-Chan away from any possible relationships they may have in the future. It's not how your mother would have wanted it for her only daughter."

Toya cringed at hearing Li's name, but swung himself around to look into Yukito's brilliant hazel eyes. Yukito withdrew his hand from its resting position on Touya's shoulder and smiled at his mate.

"Should I go talk to her? Apologize?" Touya asked, worriedly, making a violently fast movement towards the corridor down which Sakura had disappeared moments before. Once again, Yuki grasped his shoulder to restrain him.

"I think she just needs some time alone right now. It's late, though, and if she falls asleep we should probably wake her up for dinner. Would you like me to help you prepare it?" Yukito asked, warmly.

"Yeah," Touya answered, still gazing down the hallway with a preoccupied glaze in his worried eyes.

Yukito, sensing this preoccupation, landed a swift kiss on Touya's lips. "Let's go," he whispered, soothingly. "Sakura will just need a little time."

'I hope so,' Toya thought as he reluctantly followed Yukito to the kitchen. 'I really hope so...'

Meanwhile...

Hot, brackish tears were soaking the cotton pillow cover of a young, troubled girl upstairs in the Kinomoto residence. The girl was lost; she had nowhere to turn or run to for help or comfort. She was lost in a dimension of her own where it seemed no one else existed that she could turn to for that help she needed so very badly now.

Nothing but the quiet sound of tears rolling down her cheeks to take her mind off her brother's harsh words, Sakura simply laid there on her bed thinking of the moment where her lips had caressed Syaoran Li's, to when her brother had swore at her for the first time in his life.

"W-why?" Sakura stammered between sobs. "W-why c-can't h-he understand t-this f-feeling inside m-me?"

As she said this, Sakura suddenly felt a new rush of pain tear through her heart. All she had ever wanted since she first realized her intimate feelings for the proud, strong, Syaoran Li that day was for him to love her back. Now she had to not only wait for him to give her an answer of love in return, but somehow convince Touya that he was merely an innocent boy searching for someone to return the love he needed.

Fresh tears filled her eyes as she punched her pillow in vain, trying to vent the mixed-up feelings that wracked her body. Sakura just couldn't believe Touya's ignorance.

Suddenly, the young Cardcaptor felt a unexpected breath of warmth against her neck.

"What's wrong, kid?" asked a pleasantly comforting voice in her ear. The voice had a familiar Osaka accent that she could only place with only one close friend....

"Kero?" exclaimed a very surprised Sakura, straining to lift her head from the collapsed pillow to look at the friendly beast. "Kero..."

"Whoa, Sakura; you've been crying for at least ten minutes, now. What's up?" Little Kero asked kindly, hovering near her ear to pat her head tenderly. A worried expression creased his tiny features.

"T-Toya," Sakura whispered meekly, fresh tears flowing anew from her beautiful emerald eyes. "He...he..." Sakura just couldn't bring herself to repeat what her brother had tried to make her do: give up and abandon the most precious thing in her life. The person that was closest to her heart: Syaoran Li.

"I did hear a ruckus downstairs, but I never would have guessed that it was you and your brother that were caught up in that row. What-"

Kero stopped talking abruptly when he saw Sakura's bottom lip begin to quiver uncontrollably. Not wanting to start a new bout of tears for the poor, already ruffled girl, he settled on continuing to pat her head in a motherly way until, eventually, she managed to stop crying; her fountains of tears soon melted down to sniffling, which was accompanied by an occasional hiccup.

'Must've been bad,' the Guardian Beast of the Seal thought, sad for his good friend. 'She hardly ever gets all sentimental like this.'

And, indeed, Sakura had swept the furry Guardian into a tight embrace; she had never been more appreciative of his company than she was now. It felt good to have someone near her when she was in this state. She would tell him everything latter: from Tomoyo's romantic getaway to Paris, France, to her kiss with Syaoran Li; she would tell him everything....

However, back in the Kinomoto kitchen, well, it was bursting with a wave of good aromas. Led by Yukito, who was bustling around the kitchen adding salt to the sushi and baking the peach buns, the smells danced annoyingly in the nostrils of a still very upset Touya, who was toying unenthusiastically and absentmindedly with the leftover dough Yuki had used to create the buns.

'Why did I have to be so hard on her?' Toya thought hopelessly as he twisted the warm dough into grotesque shapes. 'That Chinese brat...I understand, now, that Sakura likes the boy, but I don't know why I feel so...unsure of him.... Yuki said that he may not feel the same way for her as she does for him; that must be stressful on her part, too, I guess. I was such a jerk earlier....'

"Toya?" Yukito's voice seemed to jog Touya back to his senses. The young man grunted in response. Yuki sighed as he carefully prepared the sushi for their dinner.

"The peach buns are almost ready; do you...wanna go tell Sakura-Chan it's mealtime?"

"I guess," Touya muttered, getting up from his station at the kitchen table. He hastily wiped the grime the gooey dough trailed on his hands on his pants. Yuki looked up from his masterpiece of sushi just in time to see this scene; he smiled when he saw the sheepish look on his close friend's face. Toya smiled, too, before he set off for Sakura's darkening bedroom....

"Oh, Kero it was amazing; I've never felt anything like it! It was like...it was like I was on a cloud far away...where only Syaoran and I existed..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah; so, what did you do after you "caressed his lips" and all that jazz?"

"Well, that's when I remembered Toya, and I decided I'd better go, so I said goodbye to him and...oh...the look in his eyes...beautiful eyes...."

"Uh...yeah...."

"Sakura?"

Touya had arrived outside his sister's door just in time to hear her retelling of the day's events to Kero. He had a very puzzled look on his face; "Kero"? Who was Kero? He did not know, but let it slip past his mind without putting too much thought to it.

"Sakura? Are you all right in there?" he asked again, making sure she wasn't passed out in ecstasy or something. From the sound of her voice when she was talking, he wouldn't have put it past her.

A sound of light, pattered footsteps reached Touya's ears as he stood outside his sister's room. When it opened, he saw a starry-eyed Sakura timidly holding the door ajar.

"Um...can I come in?"

Like Yuki's voice, the sound of another human being seemed to crash the girl back to reality. The next second, her dreamlike state was halted...only to be replaced by a very hurt expression.

"Y-yes," Sakura stammered, hesitantly.

"It's time for dinner, and Yuki always says 'sushi isn't sushi served cold!'" Sakura had to try extremely hard to stifle her giggles at these words. She quickly turned her back to her brother so he wouldn't see, covering her mouth with her delicate hand; it just wasn't like Sakura to stay mad at anyone for long, if at all.

"Look, squirt," Touya started, sighing and running one firm hand through his tousled midnight black hair. "I'm really, really sorry about this afternoon. I should have paid more heed to your feelings." He paused here to let these words of regret sink into Sakura. Slowly, she turned to look at him.

'He's really sorry,' she thought, gaping at him in awe.

"It's just-"

His voice trailed off, as though sorrowfully, but he regained control once again and continued, "It's just that...when I saw you down there, Sakura, on the sidewalk with that Li kid, I mean, I saw...a woman...not my little, sweet fifteen year-old sister...."

Touya couldn't continue; his eyes had filled with silent tears and his fists were clenched as though to restrain himself in his pride from breaking down. He looked at the floor in a mad attempt to hold back tears.

Sakura understood why her brother had been so upset now, too: he had seen her growing up. She, Sakura, Touya Kinomoto's little sister, was growing up before his eyes. She knew how he must have felt; like one trying to hold water in their cupped hands...like she was slipping away from him...to see her sharing such intimate feelings with someone. And, now that she was older, she could understand those feelings. She had the maturity and emotions of a women now, and that was painful for Touya to accept.

"Oh, Toya!" she bawled, throwing herself onto him, drawing him into a tight hug. He was caught off guard and she nearly knocked the wind out of him.

"Whoa, take it easy, squirt!" he wheezed, prying her off him, gently.

Her eyes were glistening with tears. "I'm so sorry, Toya," she wailed. "I never thought you felt that way. Please forgive me, big brother. I'm so sorry."

"I forgive you, sweet cherry blossom," he whispered soothingly to his sister, holding her out at his arm's length to take in her full being. 'Maybe that Li kid's not so bad if he thinks Sakura's hot,' he thought, slyly.

"C'mon; dinner's ready and I'm sure Yuki's getting anxious," Touya smiled. "He made your favorite appetizer: peach buns topped with almond bean curd."

"Mmmm, that sound good!" Sakura exclaimed, happily licking her lips. "Let's go!" She grabbed her brother's wrist and dragged him out of the room and down the steps where both dinner, consisting of cold sushi, and Yuki were waiting....

Author's Note: It wasn't very exciting, I know, but the next part will be much more enthralling! I promise! Feedback is nice: comments, questions, requests are nice; flames are not so much appreciated. In any case, you can reach me at pikachu336@excite.com. See you reading part three!

-Pikachu 336