Hey! Reader! I have to tell you a few things:
1) This pitiful little one shot was partly inspired by the great Alicia
Blade's Sailor Moon 'fic entitled "Next Time Take the Elevator." It's a
wonderful Usagi/Mamoru fic, you can find it here:
www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Spa/4410/alicia.html
2) I fudged the real storyline to fit my various needs because,
well....because I can! And there's nothing you can do about it! HA!
3) The characters have also aged a bit so my little tale can make more
sense.
4) Any input would be greatly appreciated, feel free to e-mail me at
Sheeplvr85@aol.com
5) I do NOT, in any way shape or form, own Card Captor Sakura or any of
it's characters. If I did, do you honestly think I would spend my time
sitting at my laptop writing S&S mush? Not a chance! =D

Anyway, I'm rambling again. On with the story!
-Sheep-on-a-Stick-

***

I sighed and shoved a folder, notebook and a heavy textbook into my
already overflowing backpack. I had stayed after school to finish some
homework and couldn't stand to be in the stuffy, silent classroom a moment
longer. I pushed hair out of my eyes exhaustedly so I could see my way down
the shadowed hallway. I had stayed much longer than I had planned to and the
sun had nearly set, hindering my vision. I silently cursed my Science
teacher for giving everyone so much work as I stumbled under the massive
weight of my bookbag and continued down the hall.

I was in the middle of cursing the architect who stuck the only elevator
in this lousy prison in the opposite end of the building, forcing me to use
the nearby stairs, when I caught a flash of color in the corner of my left
eye. I turned and squinted into the dim room beside me. I could vaguely see
the form of a person in the shadows. Curious as to why someone would sit
alone in the dark, I went in to investigate. Upon closer inspection, I saw
that the person was fast asleep, sprawled out on a table across an assortment
of papers and books. I debated as to whether or not I could just leave the
kid there, but decided that it would be best if I didn't. As I walked closer
the form became clearer, and by the time I was about five feet away, I could
identify the sleeper.

Sakura.

'Oh, God, no. Please, anyone but her!' my mind screamed. 'This is some
sick joke Fate is playing just to torment me. I don't think I can take being
*alone* with her right now, I'm too tired. I'll probably break down and
confess my undying love to her, or something equaly humiliating,' I thought.
I was inches away from just turning around and walking out the door, but that
perfect angel of a girl picked that moment to shift in her sleep and sigh out
a single word...

"Syaoran..."

I quivered ever so slightly as a delighted tingle ran up my spine. I
could feel a blush appear on my cheeks. *She* was *dreaming* about me. 'Get
a grip Syaoran, dreams are irrational,' I told myself. Shaking my head
quickly in a vain attempt to clear my thoughts, I got down on my knees beside
my little flower and gently shook her awake.

Almost immediately those dazzling emerald eyes fluttered open and fixed
thier gaze upon me. I truely wished that she wouldn't look at me like that.
She had no idea what those perfect, green jewels could do. Luckily, she took
her gaze away and looked around the room in confusion.

"Mmmm...what the..." she began drowsily. I managed to find my voice,
sort of.

"Um...Sakura, you fell asleep and... well... I thought that-"

"Oh no, look at how late it is!" she cried, looking out the window. She
swiveled back around in her chair and embraced me quickly saying: "Oh, thank
you for waking me Syaoran, I need to get home before Touya has a fit."

I stood up and helped her pack her bookbag, knowing from the burning
sensation in my cheeks that my face was bright red. Finally, she slung her
bag over her shoulder and strode off down the hall, with me struggling to
keep up with her. We reached the stairwell and our feet pattered down the
steps to the ground level. Sakura was still slightly ahead of me so she
happened to reach the ground level door before me. As I traveled down the
last few steps I could see and hear her struggling with the doorknob.

"Uh-oh..." I heard her whisper as a feeling of despair washed over me.
She confirmed my fear by turning toward me and saying, "I think it's locked."
I pushed past her and tried the knob myself, wishing that it would open for
me. Unfortunately, Fate was against me from the start, and I didn't get what
I wanted.

"Come on," I said to the angel beside me. "We'll go back upstairs and
use the elevator on the other side of the building." She nodded and we
climbed back up to the first floor and tried the door.

It had locked behind us.

I cursed softly and repeatedly banged my head against the solid oak door
that was in my way. A small hand on my shoulder convinced me to stop my
self-inflicted pain.

"Syaoran, I don't really think you're going to be able to break that door
down with your head," she told me. She got me to laugh just a tiny bit. I
turned to look at her and she smiled at me, making my stomach flip. Finally,
I slipped my bookbag off my back and set on the ground.

"Wait here," I told her and ran up another flight of steps. I tried the
second and third level doors before I headed up to the roof where I exhausted
my last hope for freedom.

"Any luck?" Sakura called up to me. I sighed.

"No, they're all locked. I'm sorry Sakura." I shouted down to her.

"Okay. Come back down then," she told me, sounding much calmer than I
was. I ran a shaking hand through my hair as I told myself, 'Okay, all I
have to do is last a few hours alone with Sakura without doing anything that
I'll regret. No problem.' I reached the first floor landing where I had
left my little flower and saw her smiling at me reassuringly.

'I'm doomed.'

***************************

We found ourselves sitting on the ground level landing trying to amuse
ourselves. I was on the floor with my legs stretched out in front of me and
my back against the wall tugging at a loose thread in my shirt. Sakura was
perched on the bottom step inspecting her nails.

"It could be worse, you know," she said suddenly. I turned and looked my
question at her. "Well, think about it," she continued, "this place could be
crawling with rats or something." I laughed and she grinned at me. We were
silent once more.

After a few minutes of stillness I heard her sigh ruefully. I looked up
at her and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I should've brought the Clow Cards. I could've gotten us out of here,"
she said sadly. I stared at her, startled. After wondering what possessed
her to blame herself for our predicament, I found my voice.

"It's okay," I reassured her. "You couldn't have known that this was
going to happen. I mean, if I had brought my sword here I could hack that
stupid door into tiny pices and-" I was interuppted by the sound of her
laughter. "What's so funny?" I demanded. She just shook her head at me.

"Thanks, Syaoran."

I shrugged and turned my attention back to my little thread. We had a
few more minutes of silence before she started rumaging in her bookbag,
creating enough noise to wake the dead.

"What are you doing?" I asked hesitently, not sure if I actually wanted
to know. She grinned at me and pulled out something small and bright orange
which she promptly tossed at me, bouncing it off my nose. I gazed down at
the thing now laying in my lap and saw that it was a tiny, fist-sized Nerf
football. "Where did you get this?" I inquired, holding the object up.

"Kero found it a few years ago. I keep it around for good luck," she
told me. I laughed and tossed it back to her. She threw it back. Soon we
started a harmless game of catch that escalated into an all-out-war rugby
match. Sakura took it upon herself to be the corny sports announcer, calling
out play-by-play action.

"Sakura passes to Sakura who dodges and passes back to Sakura who sneaks
past Syaoran and-"

"Gets tackled from behind," I laughed as I hugged her around the waist
and gently knocked us both to the floor.

"Hey! That wasn't fair!" the girl pouted. That got a chuckle out of me.

"So life isn't fair, get over it," I smirked. She continued to pout, her
bottom lip quivering in a bad immitaion of someone on the verge of tears. I
would have noticed how unbearably adorable she look if it weren't for the
undeniable fact that that exact moment was when I finally noticed the
position we were in. Sakura was on her back on the floor with me on top of
her, unintentionally pinning her down. Our faces were scant inches apart. I
once again felt that familiar burning sensation and knew immediately that I
was blushing fiercely. I laughed nervously for a moment before pushing
myself away from the angel beneath me. She sat up slowly and looked at me
for a minute before turning red as well.

"Um... maybe we should stop..." she began quietly.

"...Yeah..."

We moved back to our previous spots and sat in silence for a long time.

*******************

I eventually had to give up on my little thread after I managed to
unravle a good-sized chunk of my shirt. I then entertained myself by trying
to figure out how many different kinds of knots I could invent with my
shoelaces. I was doing everything in my power to keep my mind off the girl
sitting not five feet away.

In fact, I was busy counting the tiny hairs on my left forearm when I
heard her sigh, "I want to go home now." I stopped somewhere around four
hundred and lifted my head so I could see her. However, she was no longer in
her spot on the bottom step. I glanced around and found her leaning against
the cursed door... crying. My heart twisted in my chest. I hated to see her
cry. I stood up nervously and stumbled painfully over to her as my leg
muscles stiffened and cramped.

"Sakura? Are...are you okay?" I asked softly. What little control she
had seemed to snap as she beat her little fist against the immovable door.

"No! I'm not okay! I'm cold and I'm tired and I'm hungry and I want to
get out of here!" she shouted before bursting into frustrated tears again. I
took a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Sakura...it's going to be all right. *Please* don't cry," I begged.
Suddenly, she whirled around and hugged me around the waist, startling me.
She buried her beautiful face in my shoulder and began sobbing in earnest.
Not knowing what else to do, I wrapped my arms around her shaking form and
did my best to comfort her.

After a few minutes she stopped crying, but she kept a tight grip on my
waist, her hands holding fistfuls of my shirt in their grasp. I wanted to
keep holding her, but I felt that if we stayed that way much longer I would
end up doing something incredibly stupid. So, I took a deep breath and once
again forced my voice to work.

"Are you all right now, Sakura?" I asked my angel softly. I felt her
nod. "Good," I continued, "you know I hate to see you cry."

"Thank you, Syaoran. I'm feeling much better now," she whispered softly.

"Okay," I whispered back. She loosened her grip on me and I took a step
away from her. However, I grossly overestimated exactly how *far* I stepped,
because when I looked down at her and she looked up at me... well... let's
just say that you wouldn't have been able to fit a sheet of paper between our
noses.

I immediately felt my cheeks burn when I saw our position, but
suprizingly, Sakura didn't blush at all. A spell seemed to come over her as
she stood and gazed at me thoughtfully. I quavered under her gaze. Then,
agonizingly slowly, she leaned towards me and gently brushed her lips against
mine ever so slightly. Suddenly, my angel gasped and pulled away, as if
finally realizing what she was doing.

"Syaoran, I-" she started, but I didn't let her finish. I was detemined
not to let her get away this time. So, overwhelmed with emotion, I pressed
my mouth to hers fiercely, effectively cutting off her sentence. <AN: Saw
*that* one coming from a mile away =P>

She seemed startled at first and stiffened, but I soon felt her muscles
relax as she removed her arms from my waist and wrapped them around my neck,
burying her fingers in my hair. The world disappeared as I sank into the kiss
and heat washed over me. I pulled her closer, pressing her body against
mine. I was suddenly very aware of all the places where we touched, from my
hands on her back to her legs, stomach and chest pressed against mine. My
heart pounded upon my ribs as all of my love and passion poured itself into
that one perfect moment when our lips touched. I pulled away from her mouth
to trail kisses along her jawline to her ear and down the side of her neck,
delighting in the salty-sweet taste of her skin, before coming back in order
to lightly carress her perfect lips once more.

When I finally broke away, she was trembling in my grip. "Wow," I heard
her whisper. Her eyes remained closed and I waited patiently for her to come
back to reality, a smile playing on my still-tingling lips. When those
emerald pools finally opened, they shined with such love that my insides
turned to jelly and my knees shook. When I regained some control over myself
I smirked at the dazzling girl in my embrace and said, "I'm sorry, I
interrupted you. What were you going to say?"

She giggled softly and planted a kiss firmly upon my grinning mouth.
"Nothing," she assured me, "nothing at all." I chuckled at her before lfting
her up off her feet and carrying her to my previous spot on the floor where I
sat down, cradling her in my lap. She looked confused. I smiled down at her
lovingly and kissed her on the nose.

"Now that I've got you," I explained, "I'm not plannning on letting you
go." She gazed up at me wonderingly before sighing contentedly and resting
her head against my shoulder.

We sat there in silence for quite some time. After a while I craned my
neck around so I could see my little flower's face. She looked like she was
asleep. I exhaled slowly and kissed her forehead, breathing in the scent of
her hair, before whispering, "I love you, Sakura."

She scared the living daylights out of me by laughing, nuzzling my ear
and saying, "I know. I love you too."

I stared at her for a long time after that. However I know that at some
point I must have fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes I saw a very,
very angry Touya staring me in the face. I glanced wide-eyed around the room
to see not only Touya, but Sakura's father, one of the school's janitors and
an excited Tomoyo with her ever-present video camera staring at me. I turned
my attention back to the older boy in front of me.

"Li Syaoran, you are incredibly dead," he told me calmly. I laughed
nervously and prayed that Sakura would wake up soon so she could save me.

*Fin*

So... um... what did you think? Reading back over this I think that Syaoran
and Sakura got a little OOC, but I'm really too lazy to go and fix it.
Anyway, don't forget to e-mail me!

-Sheep-on-a-Stick-
Sheeplvr85@aol.com