"I can't take this anymore" Syaoran muttered to himself.
It had been a painful three days since Sakura was brought to the hospital and still she wasn't awake. The group had been taking shifts as to who would watch her at which time as not to waste all the days they had to wait. So some would stay and watch her and later exchange so they could train with the rest of the Wolves back at the mansion.
"Can't we wake her up or something?" Syaoran asked no one in particular as he paced the room.
He was the person who hardly ever left Sakura's side. This time it was he, Takashi and Chiharu watching Sakura while the others stayed at home.
"I tried to ask the doctor that but he said it would be best if she woke up on her own" Chiharu said softly. She was glad Sakura was all right but still worried by the fact that she isn't waking up.
"What else did the doctor say?" Syaoran asked, trying to calm himself. Waiting for Sakura to wake up and plotting revenge on the Kins is really irritating him. He wasn't used to waiting for something, he's used to do something straight on but he can't because this is Sakura after all and he couldn't risk attacking the Kins now.
"Well, he said that it's either a side effect of the drug she took or she just doesn't want to wake up yet" Takashi replied, a bit unsure if he should have said that.
Syaoran stopped and looked at him as he shrugged with a sigh, putting an arm around Chiharu as she leaned on his shoulder on one of the sofas.
Sitting back on the chair beside Sakura's bed, Syaoran took her hand in his and squeezed it gently as he bent down close to her ear.
"You have to wake up" he whispered.
*****
Tsuyoshi laughed maniacally as he read through the day's paper. He had been doing this all morning since he got this particular newspaper, loving the piece of news.
"Last remaining member of the Kinomoto family, dead" Tsuyoshi read out from the headline of the news. "How I love those words" he said in a sigh as he looked over at the picture of Li's girlfriend. "Such a pity really" he added before laughing yet again, not at all regretting Sakura had died.
Saori looked up at him, just after she scolded the woman who was doing her toenails for doing the process to rough. She was clearly enjoying herself as she was being pampered, Tsuyoshi's treat of course.
"You know, you can do more fun things other than read that newspaper over and over again" she pointed out with a wink.
Tsuyoshi looked at her and smirked.
"I would but then we'd be giving a free show" he said, indicating the three other women in the room. One who was working on Saori's toenails, one doing her fingernails, and one massaging her shoulders. "Unless you want them to join us of course, I don't mind" he added.
The woman who was doing the manicure looked up to take a short glance at Tsuyoshi but instantly looked down when she saw him grinning at her, but also because Saori gave her a scornful look.
"I'd rather it only the two of us" she replied with a sweet smile, after growling at the women with her.
"See? Anyways, we'll have a lot of time to…pleasure ourselves before I finally put my move on the Wolves"
"We're attacking first?" she asked with a raised brow, making him nod.
"Sort of…you'll see" he said, grinning like a mad man.
*****
"Syaoran" a voice said, making him immediately open his eyes.
"Huh?" he responded, sitting up straight from the couch only to see Jay kneeling beside him with Mei Lin standing with her hands on her hips.
"What are you guys doing here? Isn't Aki and Rika supposed to be here and supposed to come tomorrow morning?" he asked, putting his palm over his face to wake up fully.
"We came here instead of them, and it is tomorrow morning already" said Mei Lin before she looked thoughtful. "Or it is already today's morning…or, whatever! But it is already morning" she said with a sigh, sitting beside him and throwing a folded newspaper on his lap.
Syaoran looked at the two curiously before unfolding it.
Last remaining member of the Kinomoto family, dead
Reading the headline and seeing Sakura's picture below it, Syaoran immediately stood up and looked over at Sakura's bed. Just as he saw her still lying in the same position as before, Jay blocked his view as he stood up in front of him.
"Calm down" he said, motioning for him to sit back down, and he did.
"Geez, I never thought I'd ever see you this uptight" Mei Lin muttered under her breath but Syaoran heard her. He glared at her as he sat back down.
"What's this about then?" he asked.
"My idea" Jay spoke up. "I figured if the Kins thought Sakura was dead, we better confirm it to them. Besides, them knowing Sakura is dead will surely take a load off us knowing they won't come here and make sure she really was dead"
Syaoran sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
"Good thinking" he said as he made his way to the bed.
"And…" Mei Lin continued as she and Jay made their way towards Syaoran. "We need you to get back on track"
Syaoran looked at her with a raised brow and a sort of glare.
"Oh please Xiao Lang, don't give me that look" she replied, waving it off. "You know what I mean. You're becoming a wreck because of Sakura. She wouldn't have wanted you to wait on her and do nothing when you should be thinking about getting the Kins once and for all"
For God knows how many times he did for the past few days, Syaoran sighed yet again. He knew Mei Lin was right. He had been ignoring himself and his duties just to stay close to Sakura and it clearly stressed him out more than he felt stressed when he killed or blew places up.
"See? And you can't deny it coz we all know and noticed your behavior and the state your in for the past few days. So now we have to get you back home and back on track" she said, trying to pull him away from Sakura and out the door.
"Fine, but someone has to stay here with her" he said as he pulled from her grasp. He took one last look at Sakura before shutting the door behind him.
"Had it covered" Jay said. "Me and the guys called in a few guys to guard and we told the nurses and doctors here as well"
"Threaten was more like it" Mei Lin said but with a smile on her face before turning back to Syaoran. "We called in a few people. Some will stay by the hallways, two by Sakura's door and some outside the hospital. They'll be watching out if someone suspicious comes along. But I do doubt it since we posted Sakura as dead and her name was changed from the hospital records but knowing you, we did it anyways"
"You know me too well" he muttered nonchalantly.
"Of course" she said.
As they neared the elevator at the end of the hallway, it opened revealing six huge guys in black suits. Syaoran knew them all perfectly and figured they were the ones the guys had ordered to guard Sakura. The men stepped out as he, Mei Lin and Jay stepped inside.
"Do a good job" he muttered at them as they turned around to press the ground floor button on the elevator.
"Hai" the six men said in a deep voiced chorus, facing the three.
Syaoran gave a curt nod at them as the elevator doors slid to a close.
*****
"You think he'll finally come home?" Tomoyo asked the guys. They were all gathered in the living room, waiting for Mei Lin and Jay's arrival, hopefully with Syaoran.
"For our sake and his, he better" Mika said.
"Yeah, I'm tired bringing his stuff over there for him. He might as well live there while he's at it" Aki muttered, making the group laugh.
He and Rika are the ones scheduled to watch Sakura with Syaoran a few hours in the morning then they'll be replaced by Mei Lin and Jay by 9:00 until 11:00. They agreed that Mei Lin and Jay go there directly since as Mei Lin will have to convince him to come home.
Tomoyo looked up and around the group. Ever since she and her friends joined the Wolves, she had been more than happy especially since they made new friends…and of course met her love. She looked over at Eriol and he was staring right back at her with a smile on his face.
"I don't know what I'd do without you" she whispered so only he can hear.
Eriol smiled down at her as she rested her head on his shoulder, receiving smirks from the rest of the group.
"I've been thinking…" Naoko spoke up, now making everyone turn to her. "What will happen to all of us after all of this is over?" she asked in a soft voice.
Silence filled the room as all the girls turned to their respective partners. The guys all had emotionless faces as they looked at each other before turning to their girlfriends with a smile.
"We'll all talk about this when this is all over" Mika said, draping his arm over Naoko's shoulders reassuringly.
This, however, obviously wasn't enough of an answer for the girls.
"But you c-" Rika was cut off of what she was trying to say as a huge blast was heard outside followed by a small trembling of the ground but enough for one of the hung up paintings to fall from the wall.
"What the hell was that?" Takashi said as he got up from his seat with Chiharu holding unto him.
Everyone else stood from their seats and heard a screeching of tires from the outside. They looked at each other before running through and out the front doors to see Mei Lin, Jay and Syaoran get out from their beaten up car.
"Fucking Kins" Mei Lin almost screamed out as she threw the keys to the car seat at the back of the wrecked black convertible Jaguar.
Jay returned his empty guns back into his holster before he walked over to Mei Lin and tried to calm her down and avoid her from killing someone right on the spot since she was still clutching tightly on one of her guns.
Syaoran was muttering curse words under his breath as he put back his guns in his holster after turning the safety on.
"What the hell happened to you guys?" Eriol asked.
"Fucking Kins can't leave us alone" Mei Lin replied still with an angry face. "And in the morning too! Fucking Bastards…"
"Right when we pulled out to the main road they chased us back here" Jay said, also trying to calm himself.
Everyone turned when they heard Syaoran shout to a couple of people from the inside.
"Go put out that fire before the Department comes here instead, we don't want more people to find us!"
Everyone else turned back to Mei Lin and Jay and saw smoke rise up from fire not far behind them.
"They fucking set part of the old park on fire when we got in. The detectors released the traps and got some of those who were stupid enough to follow us through the park. Some of them stopped outside and threw a grenade instead" Mei Lin explained with a sigh as other Wolves started driving out of the mansion to try and control the fire by the main entrance of the old park.
"C'mon, lets all go inside" Tomoyo suggested as they reentered the mansion to find Syaoran just stepping out from one of the rooms with a serious expression on his face.
"Guys, meeting at my office, now" he said curtly, looking at the guys one by one before walking down the hall and towards the stairs.
The girls knew they weren't allowed to this meeting and seeing Syaoran's serious look, they didn't even bother to argue; so they detoured to the side and back to the living room…except for one.
"Mei Lin, you have to stay with the rest of the girls" Aki said.
"What? Why? I'm an older member that Jay and Takashi and they get to go. Why can't I?"
"Syaoran only indicated us guys" Mika pointed out.
Before Mei Lin could argue, Syaoran's voice echoed through the hall from the top of the grand stairs.
"Only the guys Mei Lin" he said simply before disappearing to the side.
Mei Lin glared at where Syaoran once stood before snubbing the rest of the guys off and walking towards the living room to the other girls.
The rest of the guys just sighed before jogging up the stairs to follow Syaoran.
*****
"This is so fucking unfair" Mei Lin muttered as she sat herself beside Tomoyo.
"Don't worry Mei Lin, the guys are probably discussing some stuff they don't want us in on" Naoko said with a reassuring smile.
"Yeah, they'd tell us after Syaoran tells them" Chiharu added.
"When we go after the Kins, we have to know what they talk about so we can be of equal help so they'll surely tell us sooner or later" said Rika as she rested back on the sofa, pulling her legs up as well.
"Don't you girls get it?" Mei Lin asked, looking at the four of them.
"Get what?"
"The guys aren't telling us coz they're not letting us fight with them" she explained.
"What?" they all said in unison.
"Look, I know Syaoran the most…well, except for Sakura but she isn't here. When everything gets more serious, he excludes girls from helping"
"Then how come he let us join in when we helped rescue his mother, sister and the Kinomotos?" Chiharu asked, feeling that it was unfair for them.
"That was what triggered him that he didn't want girls to help out, especially coz you girls are the girlfriends of my cousins. If ever one of you or me are to get hurt, he'd regret it even more. Plus, since Sakura got back, he's getting even more paranoid about us doing stunts that he thinks are too dangerous" she said with a sigh.
"Well that's fucked up"
Everyone turned to Tomoyo who had just spoken out her opinion.
"All of us have been training on how to defend ourselves and they're not even letting us do anything? I don't know about you girls but I'm helping out even if I have to do it in secret. I've been using a gun for as long as I can remember and I'm not letting that go to waste"
"Me too" Rika said as she stood up. "I'm not sitting around and do nothing to help just coz they think we're a bunch of sissy girls coz we're not"
"Count me in" Chiharu said with a smile.
"I know I'm not as strong as you girls but I know I can help too" Naoko said confidently.
By now, Mei Lin was grinning. She didn't expect the girls to have this much spunk and she wouldn't let it go to waste either. She was going to help whether the guys like it or not…and she knew they wouldn't.
Standing up, Mei Lin looked around at the girls and knew they were all serious about this as she is.
"Count us in too!" came a new voice from the door as it opened fully, revealing five other girls.
"What are you girls doing here?" Mei Lin demanded.
"We heard your conversation from the outside and you got our attention" Aya said, speaking for the group since she was the oldest amongst them.
"So you decided to eavesdrop?" Mei Lin asked her with a raised brow.
Mei Lin may be younger than Aya as well us younger than Emi but they all knew she had a higher rank so she spoke up above them.
"For a good cause…now you have us to help you out" Emi said with a smile at Mei Lin.
Ayumi, Hisami, and surprisingly Jessie, who was the 5th girl with them, nodded their heads.
"The five of you wanna help?" Chiharu asked, eying the girls one by one.
"Of course" they all said.
"Then lets get to work" Rika said with a grin, getting excited.
"Hold on" Tomoyo spoke, before any of them could leave the room. "We must all agree that we mustn't tell the guys what we're gonna do" she said.
They all nodded in agreement.
*****
"What is this about Syaoran?" Takashi finally asked out after all the minutes they spent just sitting around.
"We're gonna end this" he spoke out simply, catching everyone's attention.
"End this?" Aki repeated, making him nod.
"I'm sick of having this kind of fucking life. This war has been going on for as long as I can remember. I proposed to Sakura when I found out she got pregnant only to end up having our unborn child get killed by the Kins. I'm sick of this. We have to end this soon before any of us can move on"
The guys nodded in agreement and felt pity for Syaoran but didn't show it since as they knew he didn't want to get pity.
"What about the girls?" Mika asked, thinking about Naoko and how he's gonna live with her by his side after all this is over.
"Exactly why I didn't allow the girls into this meeting. I'm not saying they're weak but they can surely take us slower into finishing this job. All of you might end up worrying about them while we do this mission if we bring them along to help us"
"Your right but for sure they would never allow themselves to be left out of all this" Jay pointed out, knowing full well that Mei Lin would never forgive him if they do a mission without her.
"Which is why we'll be doing the mission without them knowing. We set a date but we won't tell the girls that we'll be doing the actual thing earlier than planned"
"Won't they get ticked by this?" Aki asked.
"Do you want to bring them along and risk their lives as well?" Syaoran countered.
Silence.
"It's settled. All of you just tell them that we were discussing dates on when to attack the Kins. Call out the Wolves but only the men and tell 'em there'll be a meeting this afternoon at 2:30 at the meeting room so I can explain the plan"
They all nodded at each other and exited the room.
*****
During the meeting, the guys at the front, namely Syaoran, Eriol, Mika, Aki, Takashi and Jay all got weird looks…mainly from all the females in the room.
Sure there were only few female Wolves in the room and they were all allowed to join in the meeting but they all got the hint that they weren't at all needed in this mission. They were hardly ever told to do any of the action, the instruction that were given to them are only to help out when called and to just standby and all that other type of junk.
After the meeting of course, this didn't go to well for them. And the group of girls composed of Mei Lin, Tomoyo, Rika, Naoko, Chiharu, Aya, Emi, Ayumi, Hisami and Jessie all confirmed that Syaoran and the others were really not letting them do anything important.
This of course made them irate towards the guys. They all hoped Mei Lin to be wrong about leaving the females out of the plan and it ended up to be right after all.
"There's something wrong with the plan Syaoran and the others gave out awhile ago" Tomoyo pointed out.
The girls were gathered in Mei Lin's room and they weren't at all happy with the outcome of the meeting.
"What is it?" Ayumi asked.
"Besides hardly giving the females anything to do, they also didn't at all give that much information about the mission in general. Usually they're always explaining every detail, even the useless ones as a precaution but now…he hardly gave out any information at all"
"And I know why" Aya said as she entered the room with a pissed off expression on her face.
They all turned to her.
"Li is having another meeting later at 2:00 with more Wolves coming"
Mei Lin rose from her seat.
"What? Who told you?" she asked, now getting even more pissed at her cousin.
"One of the Wolves who just arrived from Kyoto, I hardly ever saw that man so I asked him what he was doing here. He said that he and a lot of other Wolves were called in early this morning that there'll be a meeting later. And check this, they're all only guys"
"Well, fuck this!" Rika said irately. "They can't just leave us out of this. I don't care what we do. At least one of us has got to join this thing. It's obviously more important that the meeting we just joined in if they had to have this separately"
"They're not being fair to us at all" Hisami pointed out.
"We gotta do something to know what's going on in this meeting. I also don't care if we even have to spy on them. It's supposed to be our right as Wolves to know what's going on and obviously they're not telling us" Chiharu said, now thinking of ways on how to clobber Takashi for even daring to hide things from her.
"Girls calm down" Naoko spoke up when the girls started to argue and point out the biasness of the guys.
They all stopped and calmed down.
"Leave this to me" Tomoyo said simply as she stood from Mei Lin's bed and exited the room quietly but with a determined expression on her face.
*****
A soft knock came from the door.
"Come in" Syaoran said loudly.
"Tomoyo" Eriol said with a smile as his girlfriend walked in and over to him. "Where are the other girls?"
"That's what I came here to talk to you about" she said as she pulled him with her to stand at the end of Syaoran's office, away from the large table occupying the room where everyone else was seated around.
Tomoyo noticed that the guys didn't continue talking about anything while she stood there with Eriol. She inwardly smirked, they were definitely hiding something from them.
"What's wrong?" Eriol asked, cutting off her thoughts.
She looked back at the guys before looking back up at him with a smile.
"Me and the girls are going out at noon and won't be back until maybe around 5:00, you guys won't mind right? We also want to visit Sakura while we're out. I just came here in behalf of us since we can't all come in here at once"
The room was silent since no one else was talking, the other guys obviously heard her.
"What do you think Xiao Lang?" Eriol asked as he looked behind him and they were all already looking at Syaoran as well.
"You five can't just go out on your own, it's not safe especially since we were attacked just hours ago" Syaoran said. 'Then again, it would be good to let them out while we have this meeting…but it still isn't safe for just them' he added in thought.
"Oh no, not only the five of us are going out. Aya, Emi, Ayumi, Hisami and Jessie are coming with us" Tomoyo told him before sending a mischievous look at Eriol who was now looking at her. "Please" she said in a whisper to him.
"As long as you're not out too long, and you must go where a lot of people are or just stay indoors. At least you're going in a big group, I guess you can go" he told her before looking back at Syaoran yet again. "Right?"
Syaoran remained emotionless and eventually gave off a nod.
"There you go" Eriol said.
"Thank you Eri" she whispered in his ear before capturing his lips in a heated kiss.
This shocked Eriol but he didn't mind of course. Tomoyo turned them around so it was he being pressed to the wall with her hands around his neck. His hand snaked around her waist. He opened his eyes to see Tomoyo's closed and he could see the others behind her were smirking at him.
"See you later" Tomoyo whispered with a sweet smile when she pulled back for air.
Eriol smirked at her as she let her arms loose around his neck and trailed it down the buttons of his dark blue polo shirt, down his chest.
"Don't have to much fun" he said before smacking her butt as she made her way out of the room.
"Finished already?" Syaoran asked with a raised brow as Eriol made his way to his seat which was the end of the long mahogany table opposite to Syaoran's.
Eriol grinned and shrugged his shoulders as they resumed their discussion.
*****
"Where have you been?" Mei Lin asked as a smiling Tomoyo reentered the room. "You left for like half an hour without even telling us where or what you were doing"
"Oh I just found a solution to our problems" she said, still smiling as she lifted her laptop and another box in her hand for the group to see. "I told the guys that we'll all be going out until 5:00 today so let's go"
"Where are we going?" Jessie asked.
"My house, hurry so we'll get there faster"
*****
"You think it was wise to let the girls go out?" Aki asked as they all filed back into the meeting room, Takashi and Mika were beside him, nodding in agreement.
Jay and Eriol were also worried but they knew Mei Lin and Tomoyo could take care of themselves better than the other girls.
"They can take care of themselves. Besides, this will be the best way for them to go without any of us explaining to them why they can't join this meeting"
"I guess" Aki muttered, still not convinced but still glad that he didn't have to explain anything about this meeting without an argument.
*****
"Now tell me, what do you have planned?" Chiharu asked as Mei Lin tried to drive through traffic to get to Tomoyo's house quickly. Tomoyo sat beside her at the front with Chiharu, Rika and Naoko at the back seat.
Tomoyo opened up the box and took out a pair of headphones and speakers. Opening and activating the laptop, she plugged the devices to it and started typing.
"What are you doing?" Rika asked.
Naoko watched her closely until her eyes widened in realization.
"Tomoyo, you bugged them?"
The rest of them turned to Naoko before they looked back at Tomoyo who was smiling sweetly…too sweet.
"HOHOHOHOHOH!" Tomoyo laughed maniacally, waving her hand at them to ignore what she had done. They all sweat dropped looking at her. "Really it was nothing. When I talked to Eriol about us going out, I accidentally left a small communicator under the collar of his shirt"
"Accidentally" Mei Lin repeated sarcastically with a raised brow but also a grin on her face. "We're here" she announced, seeing the mansion a few blocks from where they were. She looked at the rear view mirror and saw Aya and the others in another car just behind them.
*****
"So you guys get it?" Eriol asked over the chatter. "Until the end of next week we'll do is some spying on the Kins and 3 days after that we'll be launching our final attack on them"
"Now, all the females don't know we'll be doing this until the end of next week. And they all think we'll be launching our attack 5 days after. So I don't want any of you talking to any of the girls about this plan"
Again, chatter has overtaken the room. The guys at the front all didn't know if the rest of the Wolves agree or disagree with the plan they had discussed…and this irritated a certain someone.
Syaoran exhaled deeply before standing up abruptly.
"Is everything understood?" his voice boomed and got the attention of everyone in the room.
There was silence at first before everyone before them nodded.
"Good" he muttered before retaking his seat.
*****
Tomoyo continued to set up the stuff on the floor of her room. After shushing the girls, she turned up the speakers, just able to catch the last bit Eriol was saying.
"…launching our attack on them"
"Now, all the females don't know we'll be doing this until the end of next week. And they all think we'll be launching our attack 5 days after. So I don't want any of you talking to any of the girls about this plan"
"Great, that's all we get after the trouble of bugging them" Mei Lin said as she rested back on her seat.
When they were able listen in the conversation the guys had, they were a bit too late.
"But didn't you hear what Mika said after Eriol spoke?" Naoko asked. "He said that they w-"
"Is everything understood?"
All the girls jumped at this.
"Bloody son-of-a-bitch!" Rika exclaimed as she stood up, landing a hand over her heart.
The girls all looked at Rika.
"What? That outburst caught me by surprise, I could have fainted from shock!" she said incredulously as she sat back down on the floor…but not before muttering stuff about Syaoran having control issues.
"Anyways…" Naoko spoke again. "He said that they'll be attacking by the end of next week and that they're gonna tell us that they'll be attacking 5 days after"
"What do we do about this then?" Hisami asked.
"Well, we obviously have to train along with the guys as to not raise suspicion that we know they're excluding us from all this" Emi said, getting a nod from the rest of them.
"When the guys go wherever they're going by the end of next week, we'll just have to follow them" Tomoyo said.
"How? They will obviously find out when they see another car full of girls following them" Jessie spoke out.
"Like they obviously found out that I bugged Eriol?" Tomoyo countered with a raised brow.
"Good point" Jessie said with a shrug.
"Okay, it's settled, we'll be…"