Some Kind of Magic

Chapter 5






Chapter 5

"See, I TOLD you it'd work," Eli announced, tone
smug, tying the last knot around the white bandage criss-crossing over and
around an unconscious Spinel Sun's head. Neither had taken very well to being
called hentais, but Spinner would be up and about in a few hours and little
worse for wear, other than a splitting headache. "Those stupid little
notes you insisted I create were a waste of breath, too. Seems I won't be
needing them."

Ruby just crossed her arms with an offended air, nose tilting up slightly.

"And what would you have done if they hadn't given in for several days?
Get your butt kicked by one very irate Yue and Kero, that's what. Not to mention
her older brother Tori. He DOES have magic you know, and a very large and
unhealthy tendency to seriously hurt all those who threaten his younger sister.
He might still yet gut you like a fish when he finds out about you being behind
all this. And that's not even mentioning what the Li boy's gonna do to
you."

Eli, however, waved away her worries.

"You don't think I'm gonna leave them in there or just let them walk on
out of here do you? Ruby, have a little more faith in my abilities, please.
You're starting to hurt my feelings."

"So what ARE you gonna do then?" she questioned blithely, and then
watched as her Master carefully turned the magic mirror back around to show the
two lovebirds now fast asleep. The young magician closed his eyes for concentration,
motioning somewhat with the staff he'd recovered, and then began to murmur the
words to his transportation spell.

Much like they had come, the two teens disappeared in a violent flurry of
light motes; Li Syaoran back to his mansion in Hong Kong, China, and Sakura
Avalon back to her home in Tomoeda, Japan. Eli toyed with the idea of dumping
Li somewhere in the middle of the street buck naked, but decided against it,
since having him locked up for indecent exposure would ruin his genius plan.

Ruby frowned.

"You sent them back home? What was the point of bringing them here
then?!" Elihed hed and reopened his eyes as his spell was complete.

"I just wanted to give them a taste of what they could have if they'd
stop being so dense. It's up to them to come together. I've done all I can
do."

~~*~~


Sakura was slow to wake, deeply asleep and not wanting to rouse from her
wonderful dreams. Unknowingly her hand reached out to touch him . . . and kept
reaching. With a gasp and a wrench she sat up then, eyes wide. She was back in
her own room. At home. Alone.

Confused, Sakura stared around at her surroundings in the late morning
sunlight that filtered in through her window. Had it . . . all been just a
dream? Sakura lifted the sheet that covered her, blushed furiously, then
brought it carefully back around her. If it'd been a dream then it had been one
very REALISTIC dream, to manage to discard her gown and incorporate the faint
streaks of dried blood now on the insides of her thighs.

She could only surmise that for whatever reason, the person that held them
had released them again. Sakura bit her lip. What should she do? Now in the
morning light, she could look at everything that had happened in a more
logical, rational way. There were no guarantees that what had happened between
them last night had not just been the stress of the situation. There were no
guarantees that Li Syaoran had really, REALLY meant those things he'd said to
her, "in the heat of the moment" so to speak.

Unsure, Sakura carefully rose and bathed, then dressed and went about her
normal routine. She decided she'd wait and see what happened. She waited one
day. Then two. Then three. On the fourth day she was packing her bags and
preparing to get on a plane to Hong Kong.

Of coarse, her family and friends had problems with this. When she had told
her father everything that had happened and what she planned to do, he'd been
understandably upset and concerned. And plus, he didn't believe a word she'd
said. Neither did Tori or Julian, of whom her father had called to help him
when he couldn't seem to convince her himself. Julian had called Madison just
before he and Tori left the apartment they shared, and now all four of them
stood in Sakura's doorway trying to change her mind as she stuffed the last of
a months' worth of clothes into her suitcase.

Dressed in a pair of jeans and a white halter-shirt with bright, pastel
whorls of color spattering randomly, Sakura Avalon faced off with her group of
avengers and scowled firmly, doing her best to appear grown-up and in control.

"You're not changing my mind," she announced, snatching up her
suitcase and marching to the door.

"Sakura this is insane!" Tori protested loudly, the most vehement
of the protesters. "You can't just pack up just like that and go off to
HONG KONG!!"

"I'm eighteen years old, Tori!" she snapped as she shoved her way
through the throng and began down the hallway toward the stairs down into main
of the house. "I've saved the world, what? How many times? When I was how
old? I THINK at eighteen I can handle getting on a plane to China by
myself!"

"Sakura, just give yourself a little while to calm down and think about
this," Julian encouraged gently. "You must realize how all of this
seems to us."

"It seems like you've flipped your lid, to be perfectly honest,"
Madison helpfully inserted, blinking innocently when Julian shot her a faintly
annoyed look.

"Look guys, I'm sorry but I'm not waiting another minute," Sakura
announced, tone firm as she came out onto the landing. "Syaoran might be
in trouble anam Nam NOT going to sit around here and convince you guys that I'm
telling the truth! If he isn't going to come to me then by God I'm just going
to have to go to him."

"That won't be necessary."

Everyone gasped and whirled to the deep voice that sounded out below them.
This revealed the door to the Avalon home ajar, with tired looking Li Syaoran
hastily dressed in a black pair of pants and a silver, sleeveless, chinese
style shirt, standing just inside of it. His appearance was ragged, worn, as if
he'd not slept well in days. He then gave Sakura, who was staring at him like
she'd just seen a ghost, a somewhat crooked grin.

"Sorry I'm late. Would have been here sooner but the stupid flight got
delayed."

With a loud shriek Sakura dropped her suitcase and then went tearing down
the stairs and straight for him. The rest watched, mouths falling open, as the
girl leapt up into Syaoran's embrace, arms flying around his neck and legs
locking around his waist, who caught her solidly and held on just as fiercely.
This wasn't what surprised them, though. What REALLY flipped them out was the
fact that the two then started kissing like crazy as soon as they managed.

"Eh, Waf all e commofen?" Kero questioned, hovering in from the
kitchen with a mouthful of cookies and two in each hand.

He gazed, confused, at the gaggle of stunned onlookers first, then followed
their line of vision until he saw what they were staring at. His mouth dropped
wide open, then, shamelessly revealing the half-chewed cookies inside as he
promptly dropped the ones he held as well.

Reactions were varied.

Sakura's father, after he'd managed to get over the row, merely sighed and
smiled slightly, murmuring about young love under his breath. Julian's response
was somewhat similar, just shaking his head in silent wonderment. Madison
grinned outright and called out something about a Kodak moment before whipping
out her trusty camera and snapping a few shots. Tori, however, went livid.

He started forward, fists clenched and intentions deadly, but his father
grabbed his shoulder and held him back.

"Let them be," he murmured and Tori gaped.

"DAD!!! How can you SAY that!"

"She's eighteen, Tori," Aiden murmured, smiling slightly.
"Let her be." Tori was having none of it.

"Dad, eighteen is no where NEAR old enough for that sort of
thing!" He was interrupted by a gentle clearing of throat and another hand
coming to rest on his other shoulder. Tori turned slightly in that direction to
see Julian giving him a mischievous look.

"Tori, remember what YOU were doing at that age? Namely with me."

That caused the overprotective man to blush scarlet. He then mumbled
something about making mincemeat of Syaoran's face if he ever hurt his baby sister,
but otherwise quieted down and didn't say anything else, giving Julian's smug
face a petulant glower.

"Hey guys, what's up?"

Syaoran dropped Sakura back to her feet and whirled to stare at the tall Eli
Moon standing now in the doorway, face bright with a grin. This didn't last
long when, with a low growl, Syaoran hauled back and punched him square in the
jaw. Several outcries went up at that, some in shock and some in protest, as
Eli went stumbling back on the front step and on his rear, his glasses falling
off in the process.

"What the hell was that for?!" he demanded incredulously, a hand
coming up to massage his wounded face.

"You know damn well what that was for you sneaky little bastard!"
Syaoran snapped, fists clenching. Sakura grabbed his arm andd hid him back,
preventing the steaming teen from doing any more damage. "I know you're
the one that trapped us in that room last night, don't even try to deny
it!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Eli demanded, blue eyes
wide with a convincing amount of confusion and anger. "What room?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Eli!" Syaoran snarled. "How in
the hell did you know to come over here in the first place if you're so
innocent?"

Eli glared.

"I sensed that everyone had gathered here and I thought something might
be wrong," he ground out, looking quite offended and upset. Syaoran didn't
seem to have a reply for this, and eased back slightly, a hint of doubt
crossing his features.

"Sorry Eli, Syaoran's just a little peeved, that's all," Sakura inserted,
coming forward and reaching out to help the much taller man from the ground,
his head rising well over Syaoran's even. She then bent and recovered his
glasses and handed them to him as well, never noticing her grumpy lover's
faintly jealous scowl behind her, though Eli did, and smirked.

They all came back inside and sat down, trying to puzzle through the
confusion of the past twenty-four hours. They didn't have much success.

"I just don't get it!" Tori complained, voicing everyone else's
thoughts aloud. "Who on earth would do something like that? And what would
be capable?"

Eli merely smirked, adjusting his glasses with that mysterious and crafty
gleam in his eyes. "I dunno," he murmured, "some kind of magic,
I guess."

~~*~~


The End.