Chapter 11 of I Found A Puppy

Composition, storyline, and original storyboards: cherri

Cursing, editing and proofreading: crystal

The dark morning sky shed it's skin from midnight blue to amber. A dark presence moved toward the King Penguin slide. Tap. Tap. Tap. Footsteps grew louder and louder. We all don't want you hurt, and we simply care for you. We don't want you dead. Those words stayed etched in his mind. I wonder, he thought sadly, is she worried about me? Does she even know I'm gone? His sad thoughts ran through his head, as his cheeks grew numb from the bitter cold.

He had loved Sakura more than anything, but he thought 'Was it a good idea to leave? Midako would get worried.' He also learned to hatefully love his guardian. Midako treated him as a little brother, bossing him around, but still protecting him. He owed it to her to stay out of trouble. He told himself silently to think about something ELSE!

'Fruits. That's it fruits. That has nothing to do with them!' he said mentally. 'Apples pomegranates, oranges...' he thought... but just then someone had come to invade. "Yeah. We have: apple, banana, grape, orange, pomegranate, grapefruit, umm..."

"ARGH! Get out of my head!" he yelled, taken aback, by… him! He was being stupid. He was yelling to a pile of sand and a slide for goodness sake!

Just then, a car had halted beside the park's trashcan. A shadowed person rolled down his window and called out to him, "Hey kid. What're ya doin' out here in this time a night? Ain't your parents going to go looking for ya?"

"I don't have parents." Syaoran muttered flatly, trying not to remember anything more. As Syaoran's words met the man's ears, he drove away without a second glance. 'They obviously,' he thought, 'thought 'Oh, poor orphan kid!'' "Stupid people, you don't even know anything about me and they think that they have the right to feel sorry for me?"

Just like that, a person from a nearby apartment started to rant over Syaoran's loud declaration of the stranger's pity. "SHUT UP, YOU IDIOT! SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO SLEEP!" Syaoran leapt from the slide and ran into a deep forest. (Ooh! Deep Forest! Fukai Mori! It's that Inuyasha second season song! Okay, back to business.)

He knew very well he was being an idiot, wallowing in his own self-pity. He was never going to go anywhere like this. 'At least,' he assured himself, 'Sakura will be safe. That's all that matters... right?' Just then, something inserted itself in his head. 'You just want to act like a big hero and if you die, you know it's me who'll be crying at your funeral! Why can't you just stop protecting people and protect yourself.'

His guilt... no, his SORROW was making him do all this. If he were to die right now, he'd be hurting so many people. And he'd hurt them, because he was being reckless and ignorant. Maybe if he stayed, he would at least make them feel worth SOMETHING. By running off, he's just worrying more people.

His head started aching from the thoughts he err... thought! A speeding bolt of light shot him across the chest.

"Damn. What hit me?" he moaned, lying on the grassy turf.

"YOU FREAKING IDIOT!" roared a familiar voice. Syaoran's eyelids fluttered, then meeting the sharp purple eyes of an angel. "Damn it! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?" Midako was floating on a purple feather. "Would you like to guess who has been worried sick after she woke up and is STILL worried?" she bellowed. Syaoran's head rose slightly as he frowned miserably.

"You think she's mad?" he whispered idly. "What do you think?" Midako spat flatly. "Please tell me that you hate her, because that is the ONLY single explanation that you would do something THIS stupid."

"I don't want her to worry about me anymore." He sighed. "Oh yeah, sure. Sakura would NEVER worry about you if you ran away and got yourself killed. WHAT WAS I THINKING? Maybe next time you'll say, Oh, yes. I'm going to smoke weed and drink while driving at the age of THIRTEEN. Don't worry. I just did it so she wouldn't worry about me!" Midako nettled furiously.

"Why do you care so much, damn it? It's not like you're my mom or anything!!!" he yelled, temper rising. "Are you saying that I am butting in?" "It took you THAT long to notice? You treat me like a little kid, just because I'm young and an orphan! You know what? I think you should just get out of my face! No, more like, get out of my life!" he roared furiously, staring at her crossly.

Midako bowed her head solemnly and smiled wryly.

"Hehehehehe. What was I thinking? Of COURSE I'm not your mother. Ha! What should I care? He. Anyways, what's it matter to me? I've just lost my job, my position, my family, my friends, my dignity, my reputation, and the only person I've guarded in a century." She squealed hysterically. "HA! Now, I've lost my life! Why should I butt into anyone else's life? I should just leave. Anyway, here." She held out to him, hands shaking furiously (Probably with stress shrug), a slender box with a great letter "L" emblazoned on the top.

"It's supposedly ... yours. E...en...j...joy it. Hehehehehe." She said as she raised her head, exposing her eyes. Everything was no longer purple, white. Her face was gaunt and her nose was red with crying. Her brown, bloodshot eyes filled with tears every 8 seconds as she flipped her long white hair out of her face and smiled that same wry smile. "I am sorry if I BOTHERED you." She whispered as she dropped the box and cried even more. "WAI!"

"I thought you really liked me! But I guess you don't! Sakura loved you, so you obviously hate her too! I really thought saving you might have been a good idea." She screeched hysterically. "And, you ... k...know... I was an ... orphan... t...too. You know. D... don't say... I... d...don't understand p... pain... 'cause I d...do! M...more than… you think!" She disappeared with a whimpering "Hehe." And a small POP

Syaoran sat motionless, trying to take in everything that happened the last few minutes. He lost his guardian and he may as well have lost Sakura. Once that thought ran into his mind, he dashed across the street and ran out of the intercity.

Sakura wept loudly as she tapped on her bedside windowpane. She stared down and saw a dark figure. It was coming closer, and closer, and closer, but her tears blurred her vision. She wiped them away and stared at an anxious Syaoran, squatting on the roof. The moment she laid eyes on his amber eyes and chocolate hair, she flung her arms around him, causing him to sway slightly, but still stay atop the landing.

"I thought you left me, baka yarou!" Sakura said sadly. "I just don't want you to get into my own business. You can get hurt." Syaoran said, smoothing out Sakura's hair. "You're always like that! Why don't you trust that I can take care of myself?" she squealed hysterically, pushing away from him. "You just love playing the hero!"

"Why does everyone say that?" he asked furiously. "Do you think I like it?" "Well, that's the impression I'm getting!" Sakura squealed again. "I don't want to keep "playing the hero". I want you to be happy." "Then stop protecting me and we have to work TOGETHER. Don't act like you're the only one suffering from this." Sakura croaked, drying her tears.

"Fine with you?" she asked. There was a definite silence between the two, but Syaoran had enough of running about feeling sorry for himself. "Yeah." Syaoran said, hugging Sakura tightly. "What happened to her?" Sakura asked, pulling away slightly. "Who her?" "That angel." The words "That angel " rung in his head as guilt flooded him. Midako was gone because he was being stupid. She lost her job for his sake, but he shunned him.

"She's gone now."

"Well now. The girl is too close to her. We must destroy her. Kyotori my boy, would you like to do it?" a cold sneering voice asked. "It would be my pleasure... Master Nuriko."

Syaoran sat at the foot of Sakura's bed as Sakura sat up. "Oh, that girl left this with me. She said to hold it, because it's too valuable to lose." Sakura held out a red box with a phoenix carved onto it. He opened it eagerly and nothing was in it... but a black tape with a piece of worn in 18th century parchment attached.

Syaoran-sama,

here is something you may find interesting. You were to be the last bit of the Li family anyone could find, but the ending of the tape could tell you much different. It'll help you fill in some blanks. Anyways, enjoy. I have a Pusoy Dos (Never knew how to spell that TTTT) game at 3:30.

With love,

Midako Yukina

Arch Angel of the First High Court of the West District

(P.S: Good luck with your you-know-who. Wink, wink)

He frowned slightly, feeling his heart weighing more and more with guilt. "What is it?" Sakura pondered. "It's a tape, I think." "Want to see it?" He thought long and hard, wondering of what could be so top secret. "Yeah." Sakura clicked the television on and pushed the tape into the VCR, setting the TV to channel 3. (Oy! Well, here, whenever we use the VCR or DVD player, we set it on channel 3... dunno why. XD)

Static

A man sat with a woman in a crowded airport. She was crying as she held her baby. The camera flashed to a shooting scene where the earlier couple laid, sprawled on the marble floor. The baby was staring, bewildered, at the sights. It whimpered and started to cry. His mother and father stirred pointedly and dashed off with him. He cried more, thinking his parents were going to leave him. His mother jumped into a vent and watched out. She was stabbed in the back and before he knew it, the baby was taken an unmistakable face, Akira Kusa.

Midako's face flashed past and she simply smiled and said, "If you think that's it, you must be a big moron. Flip the tape over and see the end."

As a surge of guilt passed through him, Syaoran flipped the tape over and played it again.

More static

"This is Yelan Li speaking. Umm... we're, and "we're" as in my husband, my son, and me, here in Beijing. Our house just burned down, but we are still looking for Syaoran's brother. We hoped for long he is not dead and... Hiss"

Nothing more came out as Syaoran sat, envisioning him with a brother. Why is it that nobody had ever told him? (Note: The first half of the tape... never mind. Want to keep you in suspense!

"What the heck? I have a brother? I just remember Kusa. I don't know that lady or that guy!" he said. He buried his hands into his empty pockets and looked up at the ceiling.

The quiet hissing of Sakura's buttermilk pancakes were the only things that had resounded the whole room for about two hours. Sakura hadn't tried to talk to Syaoran, in small thoughts that he'd get upset. All throughout breakfast, Sakura stared anxiously at Syaoran at the corner of her eye from time to time. When both had finished eating, Sakura attempted to break the silence.

"Umm... do you want to go to the park... with me?" she asked, taking his half-cleared plate. 'He has to say something now.' She thought, washing dishes. She whirled around to check on him and saw him express a distinctive nod. Sakura walked to the door, abandoning the dishes, and watched Syaoran follow. They walked through the small, suburban street as Syaoran counted lampposts. 12, 13, 14... (Yeesh.) When they got to the trees, the couple settled at nearby bench.

"Are you going to talk to me at all?" Sakura asked, with a trickle of impatience. "What about?" he asked half-heartedly. "Anything! Say anything!" she said, pouting and huffing indignantly. "Gomen. I... I was just thinking... about things." "Okay then." Minutes passed with the pair remaining silent. All that could be heard was the chirping of birds being fed by an old man. As more minutes passed, Sakura decided to stop the silence.

"Are you..." she was cut off by the sound of the old man (from the scene above) dropping to the ground. Sakura and Syaoran took to him and Syaoran yelled at him. "Hey, old guy! Are you all right? Wake up, damn it!" He shook the old man violently, but he stopped. "What the hell?" He didn't make his arm stop... the old man did. "Hehe. You stupid fool, putting your guard down so easily! Well, let me show you what you get for being so lax!" the man changed into a 16 year old boy with black hair and deep blue eyes surrounded by horn rimmed glasses.

"Stand up like the true coward you are, Syaoran Li!" he bellowed. He grabbed Syaoran's collar and held him high above the ground. "Lemme go, freak! What the heck did I do to you?" "Good question! Why don't you let me tell you? Well, here is the answer. You were born. That is what you did to me. I used to be the heir to the fortune! But then YOU just had to come in. You filthy little traitor, going over to this dump and falling for a wench like her!"

"First of all, I do not know who the hell you are. Second, you can't poke fun at Sakura! IF you do that ONE MORE TIME, I will kill you." Syaoran said, freeing from his grip. "Last, what the hell are you talking about?" "You seem to act as if you do not know me." "That's cause I don't, idiot." Syaoran nettled.

"Fine then. Let me remind you. I am Mao Rai Li... Little brother.

Crystal: Holy shit that was long. Or at least it was to me.

Cherri: The quote from CH. 10 will appear in the 12th and I will not be updating until about July. That is mostly because I will be in the Philippines for a while… about June 30. Summer vacation, you know? Anyways, we hope you liked it. Remember, R&R!

Cherri and Crystal: Have a nice summer!