"Sakura isn't a monster!"  Sakura complained, stepping hard on his foot.

 Touya bit his lip, trying not to spill any of the water that was in the pot he had been holding.  "Yuuu~kiiii..."  he called out weakly.

 "Hello again, Sakura-chan."  Yukito smiled at her and she jumped.

 "Yu..Yu..Yuki..to-san..!"  she tried her best to smile back.  "Um..nice to see you again.."

 "You seem surprised."  he said lightly.  "Did you forget that I would be here?"

 "N..no.."  she shook her head.  "I..I.."

 "Oh!"  he took out a bag.  "Um, can I ask a favor?"

 "Of..of course!"  she exclaimed eagerly.

 "Um..."  he smiled sheepishly.  "Since I thought that those pancakes you made last time were really good, I wanted to know if you would be able to make some more?"  he handed her the bag.  "I think this should be all of the ingredients...this was what I was going to give you before."  he blinked.  "Oh, you don't have to if you don't want to, though, I don't want to trouble you-"

 "Thank you!"  she grabbed the bag and flew to the kitchen.

 "Um...thank you...?"  he blinked again, confused.

 "That monster's weird, isn't she?"  Touya questioned.  "Don't mind her."

 "Uh...sure..."

 "I'm not a monster!"  Sakura re-entered the living room and scowled.

 Yukito smiled.  "No, you're not a monster."

 "Seeeeeeeee~!?"  Sakura beamed at the boy.

 "Then why'd you come in when I mentioned the word 'monster,' hmm?"  Touya grinned.

 "...because."  she pouted, not able to think of a comeback for her brother's statement.

 Yukito walked over and placed his hand on her head.  "Don't worry, you're not a monster.  And if you were, you'd be the cutest monster I've ever seen."

 She turned beet red and stammered a quick,  "Thank you,"  before she rushed into the kitchen to sort out the ingredients.

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

 "Aaaaahhhhhh~!"  Sakura glanced at her watch.  "We're /late!\"  the clock read nine-thirty.  She ran into her room, picked up Cerberus and rushed over to the door.

 "Monster, where do you think you're going at this time on a school day?"  Touya asked suspiciously.  "(And with that stupid doll of yours...)"

 "Sakura-san, wasn't today your day to do the dishes?"  her father reminded her good-naturedly.

 "Touya-onii-chan!"  Sakura glanced hopefully at her brother.  "I'll do the dishes tomorrow!  Promise!"

 Yukito entered the kitchen, smiling.  "I'll do the dishes if Sakura-chan won't."  he glanced at the clock.  "Sakura-chan, you'd better go where you need to, come back quickly, though, okay?  None of us want you to get hurt. It's getting late, and it's dark outside..."

 "Thank you sooo~ much, Yukito-san!"  she hurried out the door after putting on her roller blades.

 "Oh, and thank /you\ for the pancakes!"  he waved.

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

 "Tomoyo-chan!"  Sakura rushed over to her friend.  "Tomoyo-chan, sorry that I was late-"  she blinked.  "Tomoyo-chan..where's Li-kun?"

 Tomoyo shivered.  "I think he left a while back..."  she smiled sheepishly.  "I was about to go to your house because I thought that I had been too late.  You see, I came about five minutes ago.  I needed to get my equipment ready."  she produced a new dress from the car behind her.  "This is what you can wear today!"

 Sakura fell over.  "So you mean that you were late, too?!"

 "Yes."

 "Aww~."  she sighed.

 "Oh well, who cares if he doesn't come?"  Cerberus shrugged.  "No big loss."

 "Heeeey~!"  a familiar voice called out and the two girls beamed as Syaoran ran over to them, panting.  "You weren't waiting long?"

 "Nope.  I just came."  Sakura said guiltily.

 "Darn.  He's here."  Cerberus sighed to itself.  /Gee.  And he asks if they were waiting long as though he wanted them to wait.\

 "Okay."  Syaoran sighed in what seemed like relief.  /So I wasn't the /only\ one late.\

 "KERO-CHAN!  Stop acting like you don't want him here!"  Sakura was saying.

 "Well, I /don't\ want him here!"  the creature retorted angrily.

 Syaoran blinked.  /I wonder why /she's\ sticking up for me all-of-a-sudden, too...\

 "Let's hurry up, though."  Sakura said anxiously, changing the subject.  "Yukito-san might leave my house soon, and I want to get home before he does."

 "Yukito-san's at your house?!  Why?!"  Syaoran blinked again, leaving his thoughts to ponder on in a later time.

 "Mmm-hmm."  she blinked back at him.  "He came to study with Touya-onii-chan."

 "Ooh..."  he glanced away.

 "Well, anyways, let's go!"

 "Yes!"  Tomoyo agreed, taking her video recorder out of the bag she was carrying.  "OH NO!"  she suddenly exclaimed.

 "Hoeh~?"

 "Here!"  she handed the girl the dress she had made and pushed her into the car.  "Change!"

 Syaoran blinked again, eyeing the car in suspicion.  Tomoyo quickly turned him the other way.

 "Don't look!"

 The boy turned a light shade of red.  "Who said I wanted to see /that?!\"

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

 "Unknown!"  Sakura called out, her knees shaking.  "C..come out..!"

 Nothing happened.

 "Baka."  Syaoran got in front of her.  "There's no point in trying to coax or call it out.  It only comes out when it wants to."

 "How..how do you know that?"  she looked around and jumped as the bushes rustled.  "And how do we get it out then?"

 Tomoyo stuck her head out of the bushes and Sakura yelped, clinging to the annoyed boy.  "Li-kun~!"  she whined.

 "Baka."  Syaoran repeated, pulling her off.  "Oh!  Look!"  he pointed at the window of the church bells.

 "C..church bells..?  Not..again.."

 Tomoyo smiled.  "This reminds me of when you had to repeat your day over and over again."  she said helpfully.

 "Hoeh~!"  she shook her head.  "No~!  Not again!!"

 Syaoran took out his sword and whispered something that none of the others could hear.  There was a faint shade of green that appeared on the bells, but nothing else seemed to happen.

 "What..was..that..?"

 "The unknown is probably going to be a ghost."  he informed her importantly.

 "G..g..ghost..?!"  she hid behind him, shaking uncontrollably.  "Anything but ghosts!"

 "Don't tell me you're afraid of ghosts..."

 She nodded slowly.

 "Great."  he scowled.  "Big help you're going to be this time."

 "What do you mean, big help she's going to be!?"  Cerberus glared at him.

 "Sakura!"  a familiar and unwanted voice rang out in the distance.

 "Oh, no!"  Sakura's eyes became almost twice as big as usual and Tomoyo was afraid that they would fall out of her friend's head.  "Touya-onii-chan's coming!  Kero-chan, Tomoyo-chan, Li-kun, hide!"

 Touya found her as soon as the others had gone back to the bush.  "Sakura, what were you doing here?  (And where'd you get those clothes?)  Are you hiding something behind your back?"

 "N..nothing..I..I'm not doing anything.." she stuffed the rod into the bushes where Syaoran grabbed a hold of it.  She showed her brother her empty hands.  "See, I'm not hiding anything, either.."

 "Come on, we're going home."  he grabbed a hold of her arm and began to drag her off.

 "Wait a second!"  Syaoran handed Tomoyo the rod and got out of the bushes.

 "/You...!\"  Touya glared at his smaller rival.  "Sakura, you weren't with-"

 "She's /not\ going back.  Not until later."  he glanced at the clock on the church.  "Not for...another hour!"  he said, defensively.

 "Sakura, was he teasing you again?"  Touya glanced at his sister.

 "N..no.."  Sakura took a step away.  "I'll..I'll..be home in less than a hour..I promise..just leave me alone until then.."

 He turned back to Syaoran.  "Bastard, what did you do to her, now?!"

 "He didn't do anything!"  she stepped in the middle of the glaring two.  "Touya-onii-chan!  I /promised\ that I would be back-"

 "Get out of the way."  he growled fiercely.  "And get home.  Your dad has something he wants to say."

 "Is Y-"

 "Yuki left a bit after you did."

 "Oh.."  she dropped her eyes to the floor.

 "Okay?  Get out of here.  I'll /talk\ with you later."

 Sakura's heart sank.

 "/Get out of here.  Now.\"

 "..sorry, Li-kun.."  Sakura bowed slightly and hurried off, wiping away the tears that had started to trickle down her cheeks.

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

 "Stupid nii-chan.."  Sakura bawled into her pillow.  "Now I have to do the dishes tomorrow and I haven't even gotten the Clow card..and I even got daddy angry.."  she bit her lip.  "..and I got Li-kun in trouble..oh, I /hope\ nothing bad happens to him.."  she sat up.  "Oh, no!  I left Kero-chan and my magical rod..and..and..nothing good has been happening at all, today.."  she buried her face in the pillow.  /Li-kun..\  she pulled her face away and blinked, wondering...  "Why did Li-kun just come out in my mind?  /Why\ Li-kun..?  Well, of course, because I got him in trouble..he'll never speak to me again, and he /definitely\ won't ever help me ever again..oh, why did Touya-onii-chan have to come..why?!"

 "Sakura-chan!"  there was a knocking at the door.

 "Leave me alone!"  she paused, then added,  "Please."

 "Touya said that I should check up on you, though..."  the door opened slowly and the girl saw Yukito's concerned face gazing at her.  "Are you okay?  Should I leave?"

 "I..um.."  she sighed.  "Well, I..um..guess you can stay.."  she turned back away, unlike what she had usually done when he was around, which was give him her undivided attention.

 "I could go if you want me to..."

 "No!"  she shook her head.  "I mean..um..I want someone to talk to..could you.."

 "Listen?"  he smiled at her.

 "Mmm..hmmm.."

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

 "I'm /telling\ you that I didn't do anything to her!"  Syaoran was still arguing and exchanging glares with his classmate's brother.  He was also deeply regretting getting out of the bushes in the first place.  He mentally noted to avoid Sakura for a while after this incident to teach her a lesson.  Then he quickly erased the note, wondering if Sakura would actually /care\ if he began to ignore him.  He guessed not.  He sighed out loud.

 "ARGH!  If you don't tell me what in the /world\ you did to my sister, I will beat you to a pulp!"  Touya growled in annoyance.  "And I /will,\ too."  he added under his breath.  "Gladly."

 "Um..."  Tomoyo stuck her head out of the bush.  "Um..."  she repeated, turning red.  She was glad that it was dark out so the older boy couldn't tell.

 Touya sweatdropped after finding the girl staring at him.  "Yeah?"

 "He really didn't do anything to Sakura-chan."  she said helpfully, producing her video camera out of the bushes surrounding her.  "I have it on tape."

 "Oh, really.  Let's see, then."

 Syaoran sighed in relief, but then thought about what Tomoyo was about to do.  "WAIT!"  he rushed over, plucked the camera from her hands and pulled out the tape.  He then threw it into the bushes.

 "Li-kun!?"  Tomoyo blinked in confusion.

 "That's not something you can show the public!"  he said, his face red.

 "O...oh!"  Tomoyo blinked again.  "O...oh yeah.  Sorry..."

 "I see."  Touya snickered.  "That's not something you can show the public..."  the first thought that popped into his head was one of his sister kissing Syaoran, or rather /being\ kissed by the boy and he quickly pushed that thought aside, disgusted by it.  "I wonder what it could be, then."

 Syaoran turned even deeper red.  "NOTHING!"

 "Oh, really."  he grinned, teasingly.  "I'll have to ask Sakura about this one."  his grin grew wider.  "Or maybe I should just never let her out alone again."

 While this was occurring, Cerberus had taken the rod from Tomoyo and was flying back to Sakura's house.  When it reached the house, it was surprised to find the window shut.  "SAKURA!"  it called out.