The Price Of Emotions By Lady_Ethiwen

Chapter Two: The Gift

"Spring is my favorite time of year!" Sakura said as they looked for a park

The sun was shining, birds were chirping beautiful melodies...it was a perfect day. Each of the trees were filled with blossoms of all varieties, including cherry blossoms. Sakura opened her bag to get a bottle of water. Her mouth felt a little dry from the pancakes she ate in the morning. As she pulled the water bottle out, she couldn't help but notice that the bottle was becoming lighter and lighter. She also heard faint gulping sounds as well. Sakura pulled the bottle out quickly and stared at the bottom of the bottle. There was a straw sticking out of the side of the bottle and at the other end, there was Kero, drinking happily away.

"Man, that was some good stuff," Kero said as he drank the last bit of water.

"KERO!" Sakura yelled angrily.

Li, Madison and Meilin ran to see what was the matter. Madison gave a faint giggle, while Li and Meilin stared.

"KERO!" Sakura yelled again, "I thought I told you to stay home!"

Kero gave a small belch and looked up.

"And miss this?" Kero asked and pointed at the picnic basket, "I am NOT going to miss the wonderful lunch your father made."

"Figures..." Sakura muttered, "now what am I going to drink? Dad put way too much flour in his pancake mix..."

Li held out a bottle of water beside Sakura. She looked and smiled.

"Here," Li said, while looking down at the ground.

"Th-thanks," Sakura said.

She no longer felt angry at Kero anymore. She felt happier and freer after looking at Li.

"What is this feeling I feel?" she thought, "why do I feel this way?"

Sakura looked at Li again and found herself blushing as well.

"Hey! I got an idea!" Meilin shouted excitedly, "why not ask that stuffed animal of yours to help us find a park?"

Kero's ear twitched.

"I'm not a stuffed animal!" Kero shouted angrily, "I am Keroberos, guardian beast of the seal."

"Whatever," Meilin said dully, "just find us the closest park."

"Fine," Kero mutters, "stupid, ungrateful brat..."

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Meilin yelled angrily at Kero as he flew high into the sky.

While Kero was searching for the nearest park, Sakura, Li and Madison were trying to calm Meilin down.

"Hmmmm...now let's see," Kero mutters as he looked around, "ah, there's one! Sakura!"

Kero flew down yelling Sakura's name at the same time.

"Calm down Kero," Madison said, "we can hear you loud and clear. Did you find a park?"

"Yup!" Kero said proudly, "it's just a few blocks up the street."

"Well then, let's go!" Meilin said excitedly, "good food, here I come!"

"Hey! That's my line!" Kero yelled angrily.

"Wanna make something of it?" Meilin asked.

"You'e on!" Kero shouted as he charged towards Meilin.

Sakura sighs and grabs Kero by his wings.

"Come on, let's go," she said dully.

"Hey! Let me go Sakura!" he yells, trying to pull free from Sakura's firm grip on his wings. They all continued up the street towards the park. At the same time, Sakura and Li are trying to prevent Meilin and Kero from making contact with each other.

About half an hour later, they all arrived to their destination. The park looked absolutely stunning at this time of year. The trees were full of blossoms and there were many children laughing and playing. Madison found the perfect spot to have their picnic, away from the park visitors and had a perfect view of the park and the beach below. Kero and Meilin forgot about their little feud and joined in on the fun.

"Hey look!" Sakura said excitedly, "my dad made his famous fruit pudding!"

"I want strawberry!" Meilin yelled.

"Peach for me please," Madison said.

"I'll take mango," Li said as he took it.

"Blueberry is mine!" Kero yelled happily.

"And I'll take raspberry," Sakura said.

They ate their lucnch and talked about what they did during the past years. Nothing strange happened at all in any part of the world. Everyone enjoyed the lunch that Sakura had brought with her. Even Kero and Meilin were acting like they were best friends that have not seen each other for years. Li picked up his bag and got up off the ground.

"Uh Sakura, can I talk to you for a bit?" Li asked quickly, trying to keep his blushing down.

"Yeah, sure," Sakura replied.

Li scanned the park for the perfect place to give Sakura the gift he had brought from home.

"Ah perfect!" he thought.

He pointed towards a spot that was empty, but was filled with a few trees and many varieties of flowers. Sakura nodded and followed Li. Meilin gave a nod towards Madison, signalling her intention of spying on Li and Sakura. Meilin crawled behind the bushes and began following them on her hands and knees.

"Hey Kero?" Madison asked, "can I trust you to look after our stuff?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied as he took enormous bites from his sandwich.

Madison too, crawled behind the bushes and followed Meilin.

Li's heart thumped wildly as he and Sakura approached the little clearing he had indicated earlier. He couldn't help but feel nervous about giving Sakura the gift.

"What if she doesn't like it? What if she says she likes it, but yet, she really hates it?" he thought.

His mind was filled with all these horrible thoughts. He couldn't stop them from flooding into his mind.

"Well here we are," Sakura said happily.

"Y-yeah," he stammered.

She smiled at Li and sat down onto the ground. Seeing Sakura smile at him made him feel less nervous. He felt light and calm and really happy.

"So..." Sakura began.

"Well...I ...uh..." Li said nervously.

"Why can't I get my words straight?!" he thought, "come on Li...you can do this! You've given Meilin tons of gifts before...but...this is different...this gift is special...it symbolizes my feeling for Sakura! I can't mess this up! I just can't!"

Sakura couldn't help but notice how nervous Li looked. Her heart suddenly began pounding. She wasn't nervous at all, and yet, she doesn't know why she feels this way and especially on a day like today. Sakura decided to push all thoughts aside and see what Li wanted to talk to her about.

"So...what do you want to talk about?" Sakura asked.

Li took a deep breath.

"I...uh...brought something for you," Li said, "something to congratulate you for becoming master of the cards..and...it's also a token of our friendship."

"For me?" Sakura asked.

Li dug into his bag and pulled out a beautiful hand carved box. On the very top, Sakura's name was engraved onto the wood.

"It's beautiful Li!" Sakura said with amazement.

He handed the box to Sakura, who was blushing very slightly. He watched as she felt her name across the box.

"I engraved it in myself," Li said, not looking up, "go ahead, open it."

Sakura opened the box. It began to play beautiful music.

Meanwhile, behind the bushes, Meilin and Madison were listening intently to Li and Sakura's conversation.

"What lovely music!" Madison said, "isn't it Meilin?"

"Yeah...it sure is..." Meilin replied dully.

Madison knew that there was something wrong with Meilin. She didn't look too happy.

"Hey, you okay?" Madison asked with concern.

"I knew it..." Meilin said sadly, "Li had feelings for Sakura all along..."

Madison suddenly felt sorry for Meilin. She and Li had a lon history together in the past.

"Oh Meilin," Madison said, "I'm so sorry..."

Meilin shook her head.

"Don't be," Meilin replied and smiled, "I had known that things had changed when I first came back here. You know, when Sakura was made master of the cards and had to transform them into star cards.."

"You mean when Sakura transformed the Freeze Card into star card?" Madison asked.

"Yeah..." Meilin said, "ever since then, Li and Sakura became closer than ever before. I had always known that Li and I weren't meant to be...I knew he loved Sakura."

Madison didn't know what to say. Meilin took this really well.

"So, you're okay with it?" Madison asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Meilin said after a while, "at least...we're all still friends."

Madison nodded and gave Meilin a pat on the back.

"That's right!" she said excitedly, "always think positive!"

Meilin nodded and smiled.

"Thanks," she said and they both continued spying on Li and Sakura.

"This music...it's so beautiful!" Sakura said.

Li smiled. He was glad that Sakura liked the gift. Sakura noticed that there were pictures of Li and Sakura together taped under the top of the box. She looked at each of them slowly and smiled at the same time.

"Yeah, those were taken before I left," Li said.

"I thought I recognized them," Sakura said, "we had a lot of fun that day."

"Yeah," Li said, "look inside that compartment."

Li pointed to a little section to the right. Sakura opened it and her eyes widened with surprise. She held up a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

"Oh Li! They're beautiful!" Sakura said.

"I picked them myself. They uh...reminded me of you..." Li said to Sakura.

Sakura's heart pounded and she blushed.

"Here," Li said as he handed her a little bunch of cherry blossoms.

"Wow! They smell so nice!" she said happily as she smelled the blossoms.

"And these flowers won't die," Li said, "I used a little Clow magic to keep them preserved, but still look and smell beautiful, just like you..."

Sakura blushed even more. Li looked at Sakura and suddenly felt embarrassed for saying that.

"Uh...forget I said that!" Li said quickly, "we should head back now..."

"Y-yeah," Sakura said, "thanks for the gift Li. I really like it."

Li smiled and turned to leave. Sakura watched as Li walked away. Her heart still pounded after Li gave her the gift. Her cheeks still felt warm, meaning she was still blushing.

"What's wrong with me?" she thought, "I never acted like this around Li before..."

Then it hit her.

"Oh my gosh...I...I didn't realize my true feelings..." Sakura thought in her mind, I'm in love with Li Showron!"



End Of Chapter Two