Chapter 17: Catch My Breath

Ring, ring.

Touya sighed frustratingly, putting his brush down.

SEVENTEENTH TIME ALREADY.

Three guesses who that is, why don't you? In fact, you probably don't need to guess, you most likely know already –

"Hi. I'm –"

Touya gripped the receiver hard, not giving the caller another word in. "Yeah yeah yeah, you're Syaoran Li, the brat who's dating my sister, and I've told you god-knows-how-many-times: no she isn't ready yet, yes she'll look beautiful, no I don't approve, but if Sakura likes you, I'll have to accept it, don't I? Oh, and for another thing: if you hurt her in ANY way, Mr I'm-All-That, you will regret it GREATLY, do you hear me? You got that, Syaoran Li? It's only been two hours too, and how dare you interrupt my painting! My room needed a good makeover, and now it's your fault that I dumped more black into the blue paint and now my room is gonna look like it's from OUTER SPACE which is way childish, so if it turns out as crappy as it looks like it's going to be, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"… Touya?"

"Oh. Hi, dad."

Fujitaka frowned from the other line. What was up with his son? "Is there a problem?"

Touya cleared his throat uncomfortably, clearly embarrassed to have mistaken the wrong person. "No, not really. Why?"

"…"

"… So Dad, when're you coming home?"

Fujitaka stifled a cough from the other end, the frown still plastered on his face. "It's hard to tell, so Touya, please… keep your mind and take care of Sakura and the house, alright?"

"Sure."

"And don't forget to turn off the stove after you finished making your dinner, I don't want the house to burn down."

Touya flushed furiously. "I don't burn down houses! That's the kaijuu's job!"

"It seems like you're doing her job for her, then."

"DAD!"

"Yes?"

"… I… argh, never mind. Have fun digging."

Fujitaka smiled in triumph. I win! "Bye, Touya."

Ding dong.

Hanging up the phone, Touya irritably made his way downstairs, stomping with every step he took.

Why did he ever let his daughter date that idiot? That Syaoran Li brings bad luck! Too bad I can't throw him away like I did to that piece of Berlin Wall my dad brought back last year… all my good luck came back that time!

Swinging open the door, he glared at his guest, who just happened to be, Syaoran.

"I'm here to see your sister."

"I kinda know that," Touya growled back, not happy at all. "You just happened to remind me about… I don't know, sixteen times?"

Syaoran sneered. "I'm here to pick up your sister, get the hell out of here, and get the hell out of your presence."

"I'd do anything to have YOU out of MY presence, but I refuse to let my sister –"

"She's a grown woman, Touya."

"It's Kinomoto to you," Touya managed to shoot back.

Eyebrows raised, Syaoran gave him a little smirk. "I wouldn't want to call my future brother-in-law 'Kinomoto' now, would I?"

"What –"

"Are you going to let me in, or let me freeze to death out here?"

"It's not even cold. You can stay here."

Syaoran looked at him. "Easy for you to say. You're wearing a jacket, a turtleneck, and – fluffy bear slippers?"

Flushing with embarrassment, Touya kicked them aside and glared at him. "They're not bears, they're bunnies!"

"Right. Bunnies. Okay. Can you let me in now?"

"No."

Syaoran sighed and shifted his feet. "So there's a secret password, is it?"

"Hmm. Yeah."

"Is it 'chocolate'?" he began questioning, thinking hard.

"No."

"'Blossoms'?"

"No."

"'Touya sucks'?"

"NO!"

"'Sakura is the most –'"

"I DON'T EVEN WANNA KNOW. AND NO."

"THEN WHAT IS IT?"

Touya glared at him hard before taking in a deep breath and blurting out, "It's 'Syaoran Li is the arrogant, idiotic, cocky, stupid, childish, annoying, pathetic, egotistical, pigheaded, conceited, self-centered little moron that is dating my poor baby sister whom we all pity'."

"… that's thepassword?"

"Yep." Touya smirked smugly. Surely no one would memorize it that fast!

"Fine. 'Touya Kinomoto is the arrogant, idiotic, cocky, stupid, childish, annoying, pathetic, egotistical, pigheaded, conceited, self-centered little moron that is dating my poor baby sister whom we all pity'."

"It's 'Syaoran Li'! And I'm not dating your sister, whether you have any or not!"

He frowned. "What, you mean we can't change the name?"

"No!"

"Argh. Alright then! 'Syaoran Li is the arrogant, idiotic, cocky, stupid, annoying, childish, pathetic, egotistical, pigheaded, conceited, self-centered little moron that is dating my poor baby sister whom we all pity'. CAN I GO IN NOW?"

Touya leaned against the doorframe, frowning. "You mixed up 'annoying' and 'childish'."

"SO?"

"Tomoyo."

"Yeah?"

"Why are you painting my toenails?"

"Why not?"

"No one looks at my TOES."

Tomoyo frowned at Sakura, who rolled her eyes back at her. "Syaoran will. Don't you want to look good for him?"

"I thought you said I couldn't get anymore better."

"Yeah. But what about your toes?"

Meilin had gone home early – somewhat mysteriously, I might add – and left Sakura defenseless against Tomoyo. Capping the nail polish brush back with its bottle, Tomoyo beamed with pride and yanked Sakura up, letting her look at herself in the full-length mirror. She wore a simple elegant black dress with straps on her shoulders, which Sakura had complained about. Apparently she thinks the straps will snap any moment and she'll be dancing naked with Syaoran.

Tomoyo had only one reply to that: "At least you're wearing your underwear and your heels. Syaoran will love you, in and out of that dress."

Well, you can only imagine Sakura's reaction.

Anyway, back to the scene.

"No one will look at my toes!"

"I look at people's toes."

Sakura gritted her teeth and gave her best friend a very Syaoran-like glare. "You're not Syaoran!"

"Ooh, caring about what Syaoran thinks now, do you?" Tomoyo smiled innocently at her.

"Don't you care about what Eriol thinks?"

But before Tomoyo could answer, they heard Syaoran roar, "THEN WHAT THE HELL IS IT?"

"Looks like lover boy can't wait any longer, gotta get you down there. Now move it!"

"'…conceited, self-centered little moron that is dating my poor baby sister whom we all pity.' WELL?"

Touya ignored Syaoran, who was getting frustrated. "Never mind, I've decided to change the password, so now it's 'my sister is currently dating the world's b –'"

"Let me in right now," Syaoran growled out threateningly, "or I'll tell everyone I know about your fuzzy bear slippers!"

"THEY'RE BUNNIES!"

"I DON'T CARE! THEY'RE PINK!"

"THEY'RE NOT PINK, THEY'RE RED! DAD JUST WASHED IT TOO MANY TIMES!"

"PINK! PINK FUZZY BEAR SLIPPERS THAT TOUYA KINOMOTO WEARS WHEN HE THINKS NO ONE IS –"

"I'M TELLING YOU, THEY'RE BUNNIES!" Pissed, Touya grabbed one of his slippers and shoved it – well, not literally – in Syaoran's face, who didn't even bother to budge.

Except to pinch his nose and hold his breath.

"DO THESE LOOK LIKE BEARS TO YOU?"

"Their ears aren't long enough to be a bunny's, it doesn't have whiskers, and it's ugly, so yeah, a bear."

"SYAORAN LI, IF YOU-"

"What's going on here?" Tomoyo chirped in, grinning happily and tugged a frantic looking Sakura into the hallway. Her smile, if possible, grew wider as she saw Syaoran's jaw drop at the sight of Sakura.

On the other hand, Touya turned back towards Syaoran and glared at him. "Get your eyes off my sister."

Sakura, sensing an argument coming on, quickly put on her heels and rushed to Syaoran's side, roughly pushing Touya aside.

"Oof! Watch where you're going squirt! And you, brat, take your eyes off my baby sister!" Touya yelled after them as Sakura pulled Syaoran quickly to his car.

"Touya," Tomoyo frowned, "he won't do anything stupid."

"Are you sure?"

"Hmm…"

"Never mind that I asked."

"Whatever."

Pause.

"Tomoyo?"

"Hmm?"

"Do these look like bears to you?"

Sakura beamed. And beamed. And beamed.

I don't know what exactly she's beaming at, but it seems like… at everything. The decorations, the food, the nice people, everything.

Now, if Syaoran could only let her go for two seconds to take it all in.

"Can you please let go of my arm?"

"No."

Sakura squirmed under his protective glare. "Why not?"

"Why should I?"

"Syaoran."

"Those guys over there look fishy to me."

Sakura glanced at where he was glaring at. When they say who was glancing at their direction, the two guys blushed, smiled stupidly and waved. Sakura beamed – again – and waved back, but Syaoran quickly caught her arm.

"Don't!"

"What? Now I can't wave at people?"

"… nope."

Snorting, Sakura jerked her hand away from Syaoran's firm grip and held her head high. "For your information, waving back is considered polite. A word that's not in your vocabulary, I'm sure."

"I'm the politest man you've ever met!"

"HA!"

"What's so 'ha' about that, eh?" Syaoran towered over her, a playful grin tugging at the corner of his lips.

"If you're polite, than I'm a monkey."

Clearing his throat pointedly, Syaoran hid a smirk. "Actually, I think you –"

"Fine, a giraffe then!"

"I've always thought you had a beautifully long neck."

"Syaoran…"

"Hmm?"

"If you don't shut up soon, I'm taping your mouth shut."

"Ooh, kinky."

Sakura replied to that by frowning and whacking his head, then stomping away in search for her friends. Syaoran merely grinned stupidly and followed her while planning on more ways to annoy his little Saku.

"Yes Touya, I'm fine. Yes, Syaoran stopped at all red lights. Yes, Syaoran helped me out of the car. No, he hasn't harassed me. Okay. Sure, whatever. Bye Touya, remember to wash those bear slippers of yours, they're starting to smell."

Before Sakura hung up the phone, Syaoran could hear her brother yelling "THEY'RE BUNNIES!" from the other end of the line, making Sakura deaf in one ear.

Okay, so maybe that was a bit exaggerated, but who cares?

"So," Sakura sighed as she shut off the phone to avoid a fourteenth phone call from Touya, "got that camera fixed?"

"Nope."

"Did you bring your own?"

"My phone has a pretty cool camera installed."

Sakura growled, crossing her arms. "Remind me to never be partners with you in anything."

"Aw, not even partners in life?" Syaoran pouted as she looked back at him in disbelief.

"Life? No thanks. I don't want to die young."

"Who said you'll die young?"

"You'll frustrate the living hell out of me."

Syaoran popped a few Skittles in his mouth – green, just like always – and stared at her amusingly. "When you marry me, at least we'll die happy men. I mean, you'll die a happy woman and I'll die a happy man. Wouldn't that be fun?"

"Fun? Fun? No, thank you. And hey, do you know anybody from the Snowball Dance Committee?"

"Yeah, why?"

Sakura shrugged at the surroundings. "Who in their right mind will play 'Hit Me Baby One More Time' in the twenty first century?"

"… well, you see –"

"Thank God they have the volume way down though. Imagine everyone running for the exit if they had it at the highest volume. We only have two exits! What're we going to do, start jumping out of the windows?"

"Actually, the –"

"We're seven stories high!"

Syaoran sighed, frustrated. He decided to change the topic, "Got any pictures yet?"

"No. Let's go borrow someone else's!"

"Who would lend their camera to you?"

Looking over her shoulder, she thrust her bag in his arms. "Watch me."

Syaoran glanced at the direction she was glimpsing at and immediately frowned. "I'm not letting you anywhere near them."

"Why not?"

"They'll kidnap you the moment they see you and place you at the back of their pick up truck and drive to St. Petersburg and drag you into a small, dark, unoccupied alley and –"

"You can't drive to St. Petersburg from Japan, you idiot."

"Too bad. I'm not letting you ANYWHERE near them, we'll just stick to this crappy camera," Syaoran growled, holding her hand tightly. "Though now that the topic's brought up, I heard they have some really amazing buildings in St. Petersburg, all gold and big and elegant and –"

"Hey look, cake!" Sakura pointed gleefully at a table at the other end of the room, where a big cake stood.

Syaoran instantly knew what was coming. "Uh, I see Tomoyo and Eriol over there, so I think I'll just… er, slip away…"

"Syaoran…"

"Argh. Fine."

Sakura beamed at him and gave him a peck on the cheek before reaching up to pat his shoulder and say, "I want a big one, okay? You know that, right? A super big one, and maybe this time you won't eat it all by yourself –"

"What's that supposed to mean, this time?"

"Shut up Bun-Bun, and go get the stupid cake."

Grumbling, Syaoran dragged his feet slowly across the floor, wishing for a miracle.

"I'VE SEEN MOSS GROW FASTER, SYAORAN LI!"

He quickened his pace slightly – as in, SLIGHTLY – and prayed. "Please God, don't make me go wait in that huge ass line, I'll miss all the fun with Sakura and I won't get to protect her from the people who'll kidnap her to St. Petersburg, and then I haven't even finished teasing her yet, please, please, please –"

"Where are you going, Mr Li?" a voice snapped and Syaoran looked up sharply. He didn't know whether to weep in happiness that he didn't have to get the cake anymore or if he should turn around and run away as he saw the video camera in Tomoyo's hand.

"Oh God, why her?"

Tomoyo looked at him oddly and decided to ignore him. "What're you talking about? Never mind, come on!"

Syaoran felt himself being dragged away by his girlfriend's friend's girlfriend – in other words, Tomoyo – as he listened to her chattering nonstop. "This dance has started for fifteen minutes and I've only got ten minutes of recordings! AND I haven't gotten any of you two lovey-dovey couple over here, come on, strike a pose! Oh hi Sakura, I found your boyfriend out there, here he is –" Tomoyo shoved a disgruntled Syaoran to Sakura, who nearly toppled under his weight and height as she held him up.

"Ouch!" Sakura gasped in surprise, and started to bark at the person who bumped into her. "Watch it, you big baboon! Is it so hard to look straight ahead while you walk – or in your case, stumble? Next time, try to – oh, hi Syaoran," she added sweetly, her voice suddenly filled with sugar and dripping like syrup.

"There you are! We took CENTURIES trying to locate you!" Tomoyo barked at Sakura, peeved. Sakura merely raised her eyebrows and replied, "And how old are you again, Moyo?"

Tomoyo bristled, ignored her best friend's comment and positioned her camera. The red light came on and she squealed happily. "This is going to be great! Now Syaoran, if you can just put your arm over –"

"Look, it's JOHNNY DEPP!"

"WHERE?" Tomoyo and Sakura gasped, looking around frantically. Syaoran rolled his eyes and took the chance to grab Sakura's hand and led her outside, fast.

"Johnny Depp, Syaoran! I want to see him, stop dragging me around –"

She kept on rattling on and on as they went out

"Ah, the quiet."

" – have you evenseen Pirates of the Caribbean?"

Syaoran grunted in response before taking in a deep breath of the chilled air. They were standing outside the building, the music somewhat muffled behind the closed doors…

… but when someone opened them to enter or exit, it sounded as if someone turned the volume up several notches up.

… I don't even want to write down the lyrics of the song they're currently playing.

"– and then there's Brad Pitt! What've you got against him?" Sakura barked at Syaoran, rattling on. "You always – oooooh," she smirked, realization hitting her in the face, "are you jealous, Syao-baby?"

"Wh – what?" Syaoran spluttered. "Why should I be jealous of some eighty-year-old?"

"BRAD ISN'T EIGHTY!"

"Not yet. Soon."

Sakura glared at him for a moment while Syaoran continued to smile wickedly sweetly at her. She shook her head and turned away, presenting her back to him.

"Aww, Kura," he pouted, leaning over her shoulders to peer at her face. "Stop it. What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Should I make it up to you?"

Sakura narrows her eyes slightly, staring at the garden before her. She focused her attention on a little yellow flower, trying her best to ignore the man behind her. "Depends on your method."

Grinning slightly, Syaoran placed his arms around her waist, leaning in and placing little kisses on her jaw.

"You could do better than that," Sakura said lazily, biting back a sigh.

Syaoran growled a bit before removing an arm from her waist and used his hand to tip her chin in his direction before brushing his lips against hers, then giving her a sensuous kiss.

As the need for air was becoming necessary, they pulled back a bit. Syaoran twirled her around to face him, resting his forehead on hers.

"How about that?" he asked, grinning against her lips.

Sakura huffed and broke from the embrace. "Not bad for a B.F.E. like you."

"I shall take that as a compliment."

"Shall? Shall?" Sakura stared at him, incredulous. "Since when does Syaoran Li say 'shall'?"

Syaoran looked at her in amusement, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "What, you think I'm uneducated?"

"Just because one doesn't say'shall' doesn't mean one is –"

"'One'?"

"What is this, an English contest?" a voice drawled over, breaking their little argument. "I'd hate to see you wasting your time during the Snowball snapping retorts at each other – especially about English grammar."

"Actually, it's Engli – Rei?" Sakura turned to the source of the voice and her jaw dropped.

Rei and … Meilin? Hand in … hand? Togther? Them?

"So YOU'RE the unlucky guy!" Sakura exclaimed, clapping her hands together. "All this time, you could've said something! Why keep it a secret? Huh? HUH?"

Syaoran blinked again before turning into over-protective-older-brother-mode, his expression stern, narrowing his eyes at Rei. "If you hurt Meilin nin anyway – and I mean ANYWAY – I will know about it and I will make sure you help me dig a grave before I put you in it. Got that, mister?"

"Got it," Rei chuckled. "I'll never do anything to hurt your baby cousin, Syao, you've known me long enough."

"Yeah," Syaoran mumbled under his breath. "Way too long."

Before Meilin could come up with a retort to Skura's comment about Rei being an "unlucky guy," she was interrupted by a: "HEY! YOU FOUR!" Immediately, 'those four' started to panic.

"Quick," Syaoran grabbed Sakura's hand and started to lead her back into the building. "You guys can try to hide behind those two trees, we'll find somewhere to hide ourselves –"

"You mean those two wimpy trees that can't be more than two inches in diameter?" Meilin snorted, looking at the trees he was gesturing to.

"Hmm. Good point. Try that boulder thing there then, go and –"

"SYAORAN LI!"

"Oops."

All four of them watched as an angry-slash-excited Tomoyo catching up on them, panting heavily as if she just ran across the globe just to find them. "DON'T – YOU – DARE – RUN – AWAY – FROM – ME!"

When she caught up with them, frozen in between deciding whether to run for it or not, she squealed happily, "Look at what Eriol-pie gave me!" As she held her brand-new camera up, Sakura and the others groaned inwardly.

Fantastic. Another camera.

This must be the, what, eighth this year?

Stupid Eriol.

But of course, being great friends as they are, they complimented it anyway.

"That's great! you're so lucky you have Eriol. Look what I got for a boyfriend."

"Excuse me? Wait 'til I buy you something that'll make Tomoyo's camera look like a squashed can – I mean, yeah, what Kura said. Great camera."

"That's cool, I'm thinking about getting something for Meilin too, maybe I should ask Eriol for some suggestions –"

"Great. Awesome. Another thing we have to escape from."

Tomoyo ignored Meilin's comment and said, "I want the first shot to be of us six, all together! Come on, let's go stand over there, we need to – oh, Eriol's finally here. You'd think it'd take him one quick minute to get a piece of cake, but nooooooo –"

What's it with people and cake in this story?

"You know, this is actually kind of nice," Sakura smiled, gripping Syaoran's arm. "It's not often we get to be together as a group, what with Meilin and Rei with their chips addiction and Tomoyo running after us with a cam and Syaoran hitting his head with a ball –"

"For the nineteenth time," Syaoran grunted, "it's a soccer method!"

"Whatever you say, but if you ask me –"

"I didn't ask!"

"– you're already dumb enough, so –"

"I love it when you flatter me," Syaoran sighed, pulling her close.

"You should be flattered," Sakura pouted, tilting her face upwards to his. He couldn't help but grin and kiss the tip of her nose when a flash … well, flashed.

"That was so cuuuute!" Tomoyo clapped her hands – tried to anyway, with the cam still in her hand, red light on. "I know I said I wanted the first picture to be the six of us, but hmm. That was worth it!"

"Hey!" Meilin glared at her. "You promised it was going to be for all of us, not just Saku and Syaoran!"

Rei patted her shoulder, trying to soothe her, "It's alright, we can take the second picture, just pretend Tomoyo never took that picture and she still has the first picture reserved for us –"

"GIVE ME THE CAMERA, YOU MAD WOMAN!"

"Hypocrite," Eriol grumbled as the four of them – himself, Sakura, Syaoran and Rei – watched as Meilin chased Tomoyo around.

"C'mon," Syaoran whispered in Sakura's ear, "let's go back in." He nodded goodbye at Eriol and Rei – who were still watching on amusingly – before taking Sakura's hand and leading her into the building, up the elevator, and back to the seventh floor. A slow song had just begun to play as he led her onto the dance floor, hugging her close.This is nice, he thought, smiling a little. Having someone you love close beside you, no worries for the time being, no crazy mad woman running around, trying to catch you on her camera –

"Syaoran."

"Hmm?"

"Where's my cake?"

And once again Syaoran was forced to get the cake his beloved desired – after that dance. And another. And another.

Maybe he was drunk on champagne, or he was just so happy he was giddy with glee. As Syaoran watched Sakura's face light up at the sight of him – or maybe it was the cake, it was hard to tell – his breath caught in his throat.

She's mine, Syaoran thought as his trademark smirk appeared across his face, taking a sip of champagne. Mine!

He choked.

A/N:

My personal opinion? The ending sucks. Not exactly my best work. LOL.

It took me months to write this – on and off. So if you see something odd, sorry. Heh. But yeah, sorry too about the late update.

Epilogue coming up sometime in the future. x) LOL I'm not making any promises this time! But I'll tell you, for sure, I'll be making two epilogues.

Thanks for all the reviews! Wow… never thought it'd go this far. A big sorry for all those who've waited this long, and a big thank you to all the reviewers.

And yeah, a review submitted by the person below pissed me off. It's been months since I wrote this, so … I don't exactly remember. Two words: writing style. And this is mine. Random, pointless, sarcastic, and non-serious. I enjoy writing useless stories to amuse my readers; this happens to be how I write. Hey, it's fiction – I like adding a little fun (even if it seems odd) into things I write. Humor's what I write for. Thanks for your review anyway, however unhelpful and useless it was.

REVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEW!

bunniPOP