Jury Duty...AGAIN! XD
Title: Shards
Author/Penname:KainaSilversbane
Rating:PG-13
Chapters: Chapter 8 (WIP) REVISED!
Pairings: FujitakaxKaho
Summary: England is wet, cold, and sleepless! Kaho needs some serious sleep, as do the rest, but how do you get people to sleep when they have actually, just woken up?
Warning, Notes: There's a bad sex joke in there somewhere...
Link to previous chapterhttp://community.livejournal.com/reviewers_inc/8261.html#cutid1
Before you continues, this is one of the most altered chapters in the story. Not that the main incidences have been changed, but new parts have been added and altered to give the story a more accurate feel. (ie: I made the time differences make sense XD)
Disclaimer:I own nothing except my crazy imagination, which is seriously twisted and could use a healthy amount of soap XD
Chapter 8
Expecting a long, sleepless night, the people bound for England went to bed early, but surprised themselves by sleeping through the night, and were up early the next morning, resulting in all of them standing in the Kinomoto backyard at 7am, Sonomi off to the side to watch after bidding her daughter farewell.
“How is it that Tomoyo got to come along?” Fujitaka asked as he scratched the back of his head in curiosity.
“Who do you think I’d trust to make sure Sakura got back safely?” Sonomi asked.
Fujitaka resisted the urge to spring an energy ball under the woman’s feet, “Oh…” he coughed to regain a little bit of composure he felt he’d lost, “Everyone have everything they need?”
“Yep,” both young women said at the same time.
“You be careful,” Sonomi told her daughter and Sakura.
“We will be mother,” Tomoyo smiled.
Kaho walked up and asked, “Ready?”
“Yes,” the all answered and moved around so they resembled a small circle.
“You do realize that we’ll be in a bit of a predicament when we get there, right?” Kaho asked.
“How come?” Sakura asked.
Fujitaka slapped his forehead, “The time difference! I completely forgot!”
Kaho nodded, “Since we’re nine hours ahead of England, if we leave now, we’ll be getting there in the middle of the night.”
“What should we do?” Tomoyo asked.
“Well, could wait until later in the afternoon to leave, then we would get there at a decent morning hour,” the looks she recieved told her that that option was not going to happen without a lot of bickering. They had anxiously been waiting to leave since yesterday afternoon. Telling, at least the teenagers, to wait any longer would have resulted in testy moods and antsyness for the rest of the day. With a sigh and a sweatdrop, Kaho continued, “Or we could leave now and haggle with the hotel to let us check in at an ungodly hour.” The grins made the decision clear enough.
Sakura quickly grasped her father’s and Tomoyo’s hands, while Kaho took Tomoyo’s and looked over at Fujitaka. Both hesitated as they moved their hands toward each other, unsure for a moment, before finally clasping hands.
Kaho closed her eyes and worked her magic through the other three that were around her, plus Kero, who was sitting on top of Sakura’s hat. They had to be magically connected to her before she could move anywhere. Once they were all linked to her she had the task of concentrating while having all of their unguarded thoughts flowing through her mind.
This feels so weird!!! Came from Kero
It’s all tingly, Sakura’s thoughts were laced with a giggle.
I hope I brought enough film…had to be Tomoyo…
How will I tell her? The thread from Fujitaka was like a highlighted page in a book. But for all the times she’d been given the chance to read further, she didn’t, merely for the sake of privacy. It was none of her business what he was thinking, may it have been unguarded or not.
After pushing the voices away, she concentrated on the move. The familiar sensation of being weightless and almost numb came over her for a moment before it dissipated and she felt herself standing on solid ground, completely exhausted. She opened her eyes to make sure the others had materialized safely before she released Tomoyo’s and Fujitaka’s hands and dropped to her knees, letting the inevitable exhaustion wash over her.
“Ho-e, that was fast,” Sakura said as she looked around as she pulled up her hood against the rain. “It’s cold!”
Kaho finally began to feel the cold rain soaking her clothes and the bitter wind that accompanied it, “Oh great…it’s one of those days…” She stood blindly and turned her head into the wind. “We’d best move quickly, the rain and wind aren’t going to make this walk any easier.” She shivered against the wind and looked back at her companions, all of them huddling into the coats they’d brought. She smiled, she was glad at least that they had them, even if she didn’t. Turning away she headed west at a trot, hearing the others catch up she accelerated into a casual run, stopping only when they reached a stoplight. With the pitch-blackness of night, few people were out and about, but cars still passed by at a moderate rate, nightshifts on their comings and goings.
“Aren’t you cold?” Fujitaka asked as he slowed to a halt next to her, shivering as he stood there.
“Yes,” Kaho answered. “Very much so with a soaked sweater on, but I can’t do much about it.” She shrugged and watched the lights, waiting so she could dash across the street, hoping the run would warm her up some. She jumped when something warm wrapped around her and she looked over to find Fujitaka had taken off his coat and wrapped it around her and himself. He merely smiled at her as they scampered across the street, turning at the next corner and down another block.
In all it took a frigid fifteen minutes to get there, and once inside they were grateful of the extra heaters near the door. They took this time devise a way of getting themselves checked in at such a late hour. They knew for a fact that the rooms they were booked for were vacant, so it wouldn’t have been a matter of preparing the room, only getting the hotel staff to work around mandatory check in times, which was normally for late afternoon.
“So, what’s the excuse for getting here so late? Or early?” Fujitaka asked.
“Flight issues?” Kaho asked.
“We’d need a story for that...” Fujitaka pointed out.
Kaho pondered for a minute, struggling due to increasing fatigue, “Fujitaka, since you’re an archaeologist, you travel a lot, right?”
“That’s correct, even though I teach, I frequently go out on digs,” the man nodded.
“You’ve had traveling issues then, I assume, where nothing goes as planned, and you end up somewhere either very late, or very earlier?” She continued her questioning.
“Yes,” Fujitaka answered.
“Perfect, just act like how you would be feeling in that situation, grumpy and pissed off at the world,” Kaho finished.
“But...things like that don’t make me made,” Fujitaka shrank back a little at his inability to get annoyed or angry very easily.
It was Kaho’s turn to smack herself on the forehead, “I forgot who I was talking to...again...” She ran her hand down her face in frustration, “Couldn’t you just wing it?”
“Wait, how has it become my responsibility to get us checked in?” Fujitaka asked.
“I got us here…” Kaho pointed out. “And I’m out of practice with people skills. I spent more time running away from them, avoiding them, or having not very nice confrontations with them in the past year than I wish to think about.”
“Point taken,” Fujitaka grumbled in defeat.
Still damp, they walked up to the check in desk, Fujitaka speaking gruffly to the desk clerk, “We have rooms reserved under the name Daidouji.”
The man looked up at him like a he was crazy. “I’m sorry sir, but we dun normally have check ins this late.”
Fujitaka covered up is uncertainties with a disgruntled look and quickly thought of something rude to say, “Look, everything about our flight plans got altered, so we’re here at this ungodly hour! We’re soaked and tired, and all we want to do is get into dry clothes and get some sleep!”
The desk clerk looked at him for a moment with a perturbed look on his face, then began furiously typing at his computer. He did a double check at the screen picking up two room key cards, encoding them with lock scanners, then handed them to Fujitaka, along with a look that begged he not be eaten.
“Ay, would ya like some extra towels sen’ up?” the clerk asked as they walked away.
He didn’t need to be asked twice, “Yes please!” He answered cheerily.
Kaho sighed and dragged him away quickly, “Now he’s going to be very confused. First you’re a grade A jackass at the desk, then Mr. Cheerful afterwards.”
“Dad can’t help being cheerful, that’s just how he is,” Sakura giggled as they made their way towards the elevators.
The ride up the elevator was silent and uneventful, as was the locating of the rooms. Once there though, Fujitaka sat there for a moment, trying to decide which room he and his daughter would take.
“Thanks Dad,” Sakura said as she swiped a key from her father and opened one of the rooms, Tomoyo following, and the door quickly shut behind them.
“Wait a minute…” Fujitaka looked at the one room key in his hand, then over at the person whom he was going to share the room with. Both seemed a little dumbfounded for a moment, then both took a few steps away from each other in simultaneous shock, neither having thought about having to share a room with the other.
“Um…” Kaho wasn’t sure how to go about this situation.
Fujitaka on the other hand, knocked twice on his daughter’s door and said, “Very funny Sakura.” And without another word he opened the door to the room next to his daughter’s and walked in, holding the door open while Kaho scurried in behind him. Much to their relief, there were two beds in the room.
“Good…one thing I don’t have to worry about being teased for,” Fujitaka sighed as he tottered over to the far bed nearest to the adjoining room door and flopped down face first onto it. “Go change out of your wet clothes.” He told her, his voice muffled between the mattress, “I’ll wait for the towels.”
Kaho merely blinked at him before doing as she was told. She changed quickly and stumbled back out as Fujitaka closed the room’s door, holding a few extra towels, one of which he promptly dropped on her head. She grumbled as she made her way towards the other bed and reenacted what he had done a few moments before, falling face first onto the bed, but this time in plain exhaustion.
“What are we going to do about you three?” She asked as the man came out of the bathroom, dressed in dry clothes.
“What about us three?” Fujitaka asked, assuming she was speaking of himself, Sakura and Tomoyo.
“I’m going to easily be able to sleep through the rest of the tonight, but you three are going to be seriously sleep disoriented for a while unless you sleep as well,” Kaho explained as she crawled up her bed to excavate a pillow from under the blankets and buried her face in it. After a moment more of contemplation, she turned her head so she could look over at him. “And I’m at a loss at how to get you out of the loop.”
“Would Sakura’s Sleep Card work?” Fujitaka asked.
“Maybe, I know it’d work on Tomoyo since she’s a normal person and vulnerable to that type of magic, but Sakura won’t be affected, and I’m not sure how resistant you’d be to it.” She smothered a yawn with her pillow.
“I could just turn on the television and watch a reality TV show, those put me to sleep faster than a sleeping pill,” Fujitaka smirked and had to quickly dodge a pillow that was tossed at him.
“Urf…now gimmi it back…” Kaho grumbled as she looked at him pathetically from where she lay on her bed.
“I bet if I tried to shove you off your bed, you’d not be able to stop me,” Fujitaka said as he retrieved the thrown pillow and dropped it next to her, and she immediately threw it at him again, this time nailing him on the side of the head.
An evil grin tugged at the corner of his mouth and he easily yanked the woman gently off the bed and onto the floor, where she landed with a none too graceful, and fairly audible, thud.
Knowing he was just being playful, Kaho pulled herself up and crawled back up onto her bed, found her other pillow, and chucked it at him. He easily dodged it a swiped at her again, this time only getting her partway off the bed before she caught herself and fought against his arm. It was only then that she became aware of the fact that he had his arm wrapped around her waist and she froze at the contact. This made it easy for him to knock her off her bed again, but she didn’t move when she hit the floor, merely sat there with her eyes locked down on the carpet.
“Did I hurt you?” He asked.
“No…I…” she looked up at him and was surprised to find his face a mere inch from hers. He had apparently been in the middle of kneeling down to make sure he hadn’t hurt her and now their eyes had locked together, neither able to look away from the other. She heard herself mumble something like, “I’m...fine,” while the distance between them began to fade slowly.
“Hey Dad, I didn’t know that there was only one door between our rooms,” Sakura said as she opened the adjoining door and surprised the two adults, causing them to fall over, one on top of the other. “Oh…was I interrupting something?” She asked slyly as Tomoyo peered around the doorframe with her camera and giggled.
“NO!” Both adult wriggled away from one another and dashed to their respective beds, both glowing in embarrassment at having fallen into what some would have considered an intimate position.
“Okay…” Sakura gave her father an ‘uh huh’ look before asking, “So what are we going to do? It’s evening here and I’m wide awake.”
“We were just discussing that,” Fujitaka said.
“On the floor…?” Sakura asked smartly.
“No, Kaho’d whacked me with a pillow and I’d shoved her onto the floor,” Fujitaka said.
“Hm…rough eh?” Kero asked as he floated into the room.
Fujitaka coughed at the double entendre, “No!” Kaho merely sat there in stunned silence at the thought.
“So, what do you think?” Sakura asked. “I could use Sleep.”
“Would only work on Tomoyo, and possibly your father,” Kaho shook her head. “If I had the magic, I’d cast a sleep spell.”
“But you don’t,” Kero stated.
“No,” Kaho hung her head in embarrassed defeat.
“Would Sakura or I be able to cast a sleep spell?” Fujitaka asked.
Kaho thought about it for a minute, “You could…but I’d have a problem giving you the spell.”
“How so?” Fujitaka asked.
“One would obviously think the easiest way to do it would be for me to repeat the spell to you, but, since this spell is so basic, and no preparation is needed, the magic is derived straight from the words. Were I to recite it to you, I’d pass out.”
“Could you write it down?” Fujitaka asked.
“Yes, but whether you’d be able to read it or not is yet to be discovered,” Kaho said.
“What, got doctor’s handwriting?” Fujitaka asked.
“No…” Kaho made a face at him, “Depending on the level of magic a particular person is at, spells are automatically set in a language that the user can either understand, or not. If the magic user is at the right level, he or she would be able to read it, if not, it’d just look like gibberish.” Kaho answered.
“To make it so they don’t bite off more than they can chew, right?” Fujitaka asked.
“Right,” Kaho answered as she leaned over and pulled open the nightstand drawer and took out the constantly provided pad of paper and pen. She wrote on it for a few moments, then called Sakura and Fujitaka over to see if they could read it.
Sakura couldn’t, but Fujitaka could.
“Why can’t I read it?” Sakura asked.
Kaho pondered the discovery for a moment. She knew for a fact that Sakura’s magic level was higher than her father’s. Not by much since the man excelled in the subject, but it was still enough to give her an advantage. “It may be because you don’t need a basic sleep spell, you already have a prefabricated one courtesy of Clow Reed.”
“But not everyone is affected by Sleep,” Sakura pointed out. “Like you for instance, and Syaoran. And probably Dad now too.” The girl frowned, “How am I supposed to get around that?”
Kaho chuckled, “Actually, a group of magic users any bigger than two is actually pretty rare to be seen in one place. They’re usually working together and would have no need to use a sleep spell on each other. Since ninety nine percent of the people you’ll encounter will be completely magicless, you shouldn’t worry. You just won’t be able to use Sleep to sneak out of the house as you get older.”
“I’ve always used my window…” Sakura said, then covered her mouth and looked at her father, “You didn’t hear that!” Fujitaka merely scowled, then looked back over at Kaho.
“Let’s just take care of the problem at hand,” Fujitaka said as he took the paper from the woman.
“A word of warning,” Kaho said. “The wielder of a sleeping spell isn’t usually aiming on putting him or herself to sleep, so be aware that it may not work for you, and if it does, it may not last all night.”
“Okay…” Fujitaka said he studied the paper, taking care not to murmur it to himself.
“The two of you should go get in bed,” Kaho told the teenagers. “Once the spell is spoken, it will take affect.” The girls nodded and scampered back to their rooms, Kero included.
Kaho watched as Fujitaka read the spell aloud, it didn’t take long, and soon, right after the last of the words passed his lips, his fell back onto his pillow, fast asleep. Kaho smiled, partly with pride in his success, and partly in gleeful amusement, Fujitaka looked cute asleep!
She stood and removed the paper from Fujitaka’s hand and tore it up, removed his glasses and set them on the nightstand, then went to check on Sakura, Tomoyo, and Kero. They too, were fast asleep.
With a tentative sigh of relief, Kaho stumbled back to her own bed and flopped down, letting sleep finally wrap itself around her exhausted body.
OOOO
This chapter has been revised, but continued crits and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Dearest thanks to claire_chan and sheila_chan (no relation) for the editing!
Author/Penname:KainaSilversbane
Rating:PG-13
Chapters: Chapter 8 (WIP) REVISED!
Pairings: FujitakaxKaho
Summary: England is wet, cold, and sleepless! Kaho needs some serious sleep, as do the rest, but how do you get people to sleep when they have actually, just woken up?
Warning, Notes: There's a bad sex joke in there somewhere...
Link to previous chapterhttp://community.livejournal.com/reviewers_inc/8261.html#cutid1
Before you continues, this is one of the most altered chapters in the story. Not that the main incidences have been changed, but new parts have been added and altered to give the story a more accurate feel. (ie: I made the time differences make sense XD)
Disclaimer:I own nothing except my crazy imagination, which is seriously twisted and could use a healthy amount of soap XD
Chapter 8
Expecting a long, sleepless night, the people bound for England went to bed early, but surprised themselves by sleeping through the night, and were up early the next morning, resulting in all of them standing in the Kinomoto backyard at 7am, Sonomi off to the side to watch after bidding her daughter farewell.
“How is it that Tomoyo got to come along?” Fujitaka asked as he scratched the back of his head in curiosity.
“Who do you think I’d trust to make sure Sakura got back safely?” Sonomi asked.
Fujitaka resisted the urge to spring an energy ball under the woman’s feet, “Oh…” he coughed to regain a little bit of composure he felt he’d lost, “Everyone have everything they need?”
“Yep,” both young women said at the same time.
“You be careful,” Sonomi told her daughter and Sakura.
“We will be mother,” Tomoyo smiled.
Kaho walked up and asked, “Ready?”
“Yes,” the all answered and moved around so they resembled a small circle.
“You do realize that we’ll be in a bit of a predicament when we get there, right?” Kaho asked.
“How come?” Sakura asked.
Fujitaka slapped his forehead, “The time difference! I completely forgot!”
Kaho nodded, “Since we’re nine hours ahead of England, if we leave now, we’ll be getting there in the middle of the night.”
“What should we do?” Tomoyo asked.
“Well, could wait until later in the afternoon to leave, then we would get there at a decent morning hour,” the looks she recieved told her that that option was not going to happen without a lot of bickering. They had anxiously been waiting to leave since yesterday afternoon. Telling, at least the teenagers, to wait any longer would have resulted in testy moods and antsyness for the rest of the day. With a sigh and a sweatdrop, Kaho continued, “Or we could leave now and haggle with the hotel to let us check in at an ungodly hour.” The grins made the decision clear enough.
Sakura quickly grasped her father’s and Tomoyo’s hands, while Kaho took Tomoyo’s and looked over at Fujitaka. Both hesitated as they moved their hands toward each other, unsure for a moment, before finally clasping hands.
Kaho closed her eyes and worked her magic through the other three that were around her, plus Kero, who was sitting on top of Sakura’s hat. They had to be magically connected to her before she could move anywhere. Once they were all linked to her she had the task of concentrating while having all of their unguarded thoughts flowing through her mind.
This feels so weird!!! Came from Kero
It’s all tingly, Sakura’s thoughts were laced with a giggle.
I hope I brought enough film…had to be Tomoyo…
How will I tell her? The thread from Fujitaka was like a highlighted page in a book. But for all the times she’d been given the chance to read further, she didn’t, merely for the sake of privacy. It was none of her business what he was thinking, may it have been unguarded or not.
After pushing the voices away, she concentrated on the move. The familiar sensation of being weightless and almost numb came over her for a moment before it dissipated and she felt herself standing on solid ground, completely exhausted. She opened her eyes to make sure the others had materialized safely before she released Tomoyo’s and Fujitaka’s hands and dropped to her knees, letting the inevitable exhaustion wash over her.
“Ho-e, that was fast,” Sakura said as she looked around as she pulled up her hood against the rain. “It’s cold!”
Kaho finally began to feel the cold rain soaking her clothes and the bitter wind that accompanied it, “Oh great…it’s one of those days…” She stood blindly and turned her head into the wind. “We’d best move quickly, the rain and wind aren’t going to make this walk any easier.” She shivered against the wind and looked back at her companions, all of them huddling into the coats they’d brought. She smiled, she was glad at least that they had them, even if she didn’t. Turning away she headed west at a trot, hearing the others catch up she accelerated into a casual run, stopping only when they reached a stoplight. With the pitch-blackness of night, few people were out and about, but cars still passed by at a moderate rate, nightshifts on their comings and goings.
“Aren’t you cold?” Fujitaka asked as he slowed to a halt next to her, shivering as he stood there.
“Yes,” Kaho answered. “Very much so with a soaked sweater on, but I can’t do much about it.” She shrugged and watched the lights, waiting so she could dash across the street, hoping the run would warm her up some. She jumped when something warm wrapped around her and she looked over to find Fujitaka had taken off his coat and wrapped it around her and himself. He merely smiled at her as they scampered across the street, turning at the next corner and down another block.
In all it took a frigid fifteen minutes to get there, and once inside they were grateful of the extra heaters near the door. They took this time devise a way of getting themselves checked in at such a late hour. They knew for a fact that the rooms they were booked for were vacant, so it wouldn’t have been a matter of preparing the room, only getting the hotel staff to work around mandatory check in times, which was normally for late afternoon.
“So, what’s the excuse for getting here so late? Or early?” Fujitaka asked.
“Flight issues?” Kaho asked.
“We’d need a story for that...” Fujitaka pointed out.
Kaho pondered for a minute, struggling due to increasing fatigue, “Fujitaka, since you’re an archaeologist, you travel a lot, right?”
“That’s correct, even though I teach, I frequently go out on digs,” the man nodded.
“You’ve had traveling issues then, I assume, where nothing goes as planned, and you end up somewhere either very late, or very earlier?” She continued her questioning.
“Yes,” Fujitaka answered.
“Perfect, just act like how you would be feeling in that situation, grumpy and pissed off at the world,” Kaho finished.
“But...things like that don’t make me made,” Fujitaka shrank back a little at his inability to get annoyed or angry very easily.
It was Kaho’s turn to smack herself on the forehead, “I forgot who I was talking to...again...” She ran her hand down her face in frustration, “Couldn’t you just wing it?”
“Wait, how has it become my responsibility to get us checked in?” Fujitaka asked.
“I got us here…” Kaho pointed out. “And I’m out of practice with people skills. I spent more time running away from them, avoiding them, or having not very nice confrontations with them in the past year than I wish to think about.”
“Point taken,” Fujitaka grumbled in defeat.
Still damp, they walked up to the check in desk, Fujitaka speaking gruffly to the desk clerk, “We have rooms reserved under the name Daidouji.”
The man looked up at him like a he was crazy. “I’m sorry sir, but we dun normally have check ins this late.”
Fujitaka covered up is uncertainties with a disgruntled look and quickly thought of something rude to say, “Look, everything about our flight plans got altered, so we’re here at this ungodly hour! We’re soaked and tired, and all we want to do is get into dry clothes and get some sleep!”
The desk clerk looked at him for a moment with a perturbed look on his face, then began furiously typing at his computer. He did a double check at the screen picking up two room key cards, encoding them with lock scanners, then handed them to Fujitaka, along with a look that begged he not be eaten.
“Ay, would ya like some extra towels sen’ up?” the clerk asked as they walked away.
He didn’t need to be asked twice, “Yes please!” He answered cheerily.
Kaho sighed and dragged him away quickly, “Now he’s going to be very confused. First you’re a grade A jackass at the desk, then Mr. Cheerful afterwards.”
“Dad can’t help being cheerful, that’s just how he is,” Sakura giggled as they made their way towards the elevators.
The ride up the elevator was silent and uneventful, as was the locating of the rooms. Once there though, Fujitaka sat there for a moment, trying to decide which room he and his daughter would take.
“Thanks Dad,” Sakura said as she swiped a key from her father and opened one of the rooms, Tomoyo following, and the door quickly shut behind them.
“Wait a minute…” Fujitaka looked at the one room key in his hand, then over at the person whom he was going to share the room with. Both seemed a little dumbfounded for a moment, then both took a few steps away from each other in simultaneous shock, neither having thought about having to share a room with the other.
“Um…” Kaho wasn’t sure how to go about this situation.
Fujitaka on the other hand, knocked twice on his daughter’s door and said, “Very funny Sakura.” And without another word he opened the door to the room next to his daughter’s and walked in, holding the door open while Kaho scurried in behind him. Much to their relief, there were two beds in the room.
“Good…one thing I don’t have to worry about being teased for,” Fujitaka sighed as he tottered over to the far bed nearest to the adjoining room door and flopped down face first onto it. “Go change out of your wet clothes.” He told her, his voice muffled between the mattress, “I’ll wait for the towels.”
Kaho merely blinked at him before doing as she was told. She changed quickly and stumbled back out as Fujitaka closed the room’s door, holding a few extra towels, one of which he promptly dropped on her head. She grumbled as she made her way towards the other bed and reenacted what he had done a few moments before, falling face first onto the bed, but this time in plain exhaustion.
“What are we going to do about you three?” She asked as the man came out of the bathroom, dressed in dry clothes.
“What about us three?” Fujitaka asked, assuming she was speaking of himself, Sakura and Tomoyo.
“I’m going to easily be able to sleep through the rest of the tonight, but you three are going to be seriously sleep disoriented for a while unless you sleep as well,” Kaho explained as she crawled up her bed to excavate a pillow from under the blankets and buried her face in it. After a moment more of contemplation, she turned her head so she could look over at him. “And I’m at a loss at how to get you out of the loop.”
“Would Sakura’s Sleep Card work?” Fujitaka asked.
“Maybe, I know it’d work on Tomoyo since she’s a normal person and vulnerable to that type of magic, but Sakura won’t be affected, and I’m not sure how resistant you’d be to it.” She smothered a yawn with her pillow.
“I could just turn on the television and watch a reality TV show, those put me to sleep faster than a sleeping pill,” Fujitaka smirked and had to quickly dodge a pillow that was tossed at him.
“Urf…now gimmi it back…” Kaho grumbled as she looked at him pathetically from where she lay on her bed.
“I bet if I tried to shove you off your bed, you’d not be able to stop me,” Fujitaka said as he retrieved the thrown pillow and dropped it next to her, and she immediately threw it at him again, this time nailing him on the side of the head.
An evil grin tugged at the corner of his mouth and he easily yanked the woman gently off the bed and onto the floor, where she landed with a none too graceful, and fairly audible, thud.
Knowing he was just being playful, Kaho pulled herself up and crawled back up onto her bed, found her other pillow, and chucked it at him. He easily dodged it a swiped at her again, this time only getting her partway off the bed before she caught herself and fought against his arm. It was only then that she became aware of the fact that he had his arm wrapped around her waist and she froze at the contact. This made it easy for him to knock her off her bed again, but she didn’t move when she hit the floor, merely sat there with her eyes locked down on the carpet.
“Did I hurt you?” He asked.
“No…I…” she looked up at him and was surprised to find his face a mere inch from hers. He had apparently been in the middle of kneeling down to make sure he hadn’t hurt her and now their eyes had locked together, neither able to look away from the other. She heard herself mumble something like, “I’m...fine,” while the distance between them began to fade slowly.
“Hey Dad, I didn’t know that there was only one door between our rooms,” Sakura said as she opened the adjoining door and surprised the two adults, causing them to fall over, one on top of the other. “Oh…was I interrupting something?” She asked slyly as Tomoyo peered around the doorframe with her camera and giggled.
“NO!” Both adult wriggled away from one another and dashed to their respective beds, both glowing in embarrassment at having fallen into what some would have considered an intimate position.
“Okay…” Sakura gave her father an ‘uh huh’ look before asking, “So what are we going to do? It’s evening here and I’m wide awake.”
“We were just discussing that,” Fujitaka said.
“On the floor…?” Sakura asked smartly.
“No, Kaho’d whacked me with a pillow and I’d shoved her onto the floor,” Fujitaka said.
“Hm…rough eh?” Kero asked as he floated into the room.
Fujitaka coughed at the double entendre, “No!” Kaho merely sat there in stunned silence at the thought.
“So, what do you think?” Sakura asked. “I could use Sleep.”
“Would only work on Tomoyo, and possibly your father,” Kaho shook her head. “If I had the magic, I’d cast a sleep spell.”
“But you don’t,” Kero stated.
“No,” Kaho hung her head in embarrassed defeat.
“Would Sakura or I be able to cast a sleep spell?” Fujitaka asked.
Kaho thought about it for a minute, “You could…but I’d have a problem giving you the spell.”
“How so?” Fujitaka asked.
“One would obviously think the easiest way to do it would be for me to repeat the spell to you, but, since this spell is so basic, and no preparation is needed, the magic is derived straight from the words. Were I to recite it to you, I’d pass out.”
“Could you write it down?” Fujitaka asked.
“Yes, but whether you’d be able to read it or not is yet to be discovered,” Kaho said.
“What, got doctor’s handwriting?” Fujitaka asked.
“No…” Kaho made a face at him, “Depending on the level of magic a particular person is at, spells are automatically set in a language that the user can either understand, or not. If the magic user is at the right level, he or she would be able to read it, if not, it’d just look like gibberish.” Kaho answered.
“To make it so they don’t bite off more than they can chew, right?” Fujitaka asked.
“Right,” Kaho answered as she leaned over and pulled open the nightstand drawer and took out the constantly provided pad of paper and pen. She wrote on it for a few moments, then called Sakura and Fujitaka over to see if they could read it.
Sakura couldn’t, but Fujitaka could.
“Why can’t I read it?” Sakura asked.
Kaho pondered the discovery for a moment. She knew for a fact that Sakura’s magic level was higher than her father’s. Not by much since the man excelled in the subject, but it was still enough to give her an advantage. “It may be because you don’t need a basic sleep spell, you already have a prefabricated one courtesy of Clow Reed.”
“But not everyone is affected by Sleep,” Sakura pointed out. “Like you for instance, and Syaoran. And probably Dad now too.” The girl frowned, “How am I supposed to get around that?”
Kaho chuckled, “Actually, a group of magic users any bigger than two is actually pretty rare to be seen in one place. They’re usually working together and would have no need to use a sleep spell on each other. Since ninety nine percent of the people you’ll encounter will be completely magicless, you shouldn’t worry. You just won’t be able to use Sleep to sneak out of the house as you get older.”
“I’ve always used my window…” Sakura said, then covered her mouth and looked at her father, “You didn’t hear that!” Fujitaka merely scowled, then looked back over at Kaho.
“Let’s just take care of the problem at hand,” Fujitaka said as he took the paper from the woman.
“A word of warning,” Kaho said. “The wielder of a sleeping spell isn’t usually aiming on putting him or herself to sleep, so be aware that it may not work for you, and if it does, it may not last all night.”
“Okay…” Fujitaka said he studied the paper, taking care not to murmur it to himself.
“The two of you should go get in bed,” Kaho told the teenagers. “Once the spell is spoken, it will take affect.” The girls nodded and scampered back to their rooms, Kero included.
Kaho watched as Fujitaka read the spell aloud, it didn’t take long, and soon, right after the last of the words passed his lips, his fell back onto his pillow, fast asleep. Kaho smiled, partly with pride in his success, and partly in gleeful amusement, Fujitaka looked cute asleep!
She stood and removed the paper from Fujitaka’s hand and tore it up, removed his glasses and set them on the nightstand, then went to check on Sakura, Tomoyo, and Kero. They too, were fast asleep.
With a tentative sigh of relief, Kaho stumbled back to her own bed and flopped down, letting sleep finally wrap itself around her exhausted body.
OOOO
This chapter has been revised, but continued crits and suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Dearest thanks to claire_chan and sheila_chan (no relation) for the editing!