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On the surface, it was simply a lovely afternoon tea in a European-themed hotel. A stand in the middle of the table was stocked with scones, jam, clotted cream, small cakes, and finger sandwiches.
Not really Touya's thing, but he did like cake and Sakura was paying (thank you, great-grandpa's trust fund) so he might as well enjoy it. He did make a mental note to take a few cakes home. Yukito wasn't as voracious an eater as when they had been teenagers, but he still had a healthy appetite.
"Is lapsang souchong all right?" Sakura asked, smiling.
"I assume that's the name of a Chinese historical figure of some description."
"That's a tea, and you very well know it. You've worked in enough cafes to know all the teas."
He hid a tiny smile for being able to get his sister to use her exasperated voice. "Yeah, lapsang is fine." He handed over his cup for her to fill.
She gave him a look.
He sighed. He put the cup onto the saucer, then handed the cup and saucer over together. She smiled brightly and filled the cup, then returned it. "I'll let you sweeten it to your own liking."
"Fine." He added one spoon of sugar and stirred it in. He tasted it, then added half a teaspoon more. Perfect.
"You should try the scones. They have currants in them."
Obligingly, Touya took one from the stand and split it open.
"It's jam first, then cream," Sakura suggested.
He snorted at her teatime micro-management. In tacit response, he ostentatiously spread on the cream first, followed by jam, then looked at her with a smirk.
Sakura shook her head. "Honestly. I can't believe you have the nerve to call Syaoran a brat when you act like that."
"Just rattling the monster's cage."
She snorted in a manner most unladylike. "Setting that aside, I invited you here because I have news to share."
Touya frowned. "What news?"
Once again, she smiled brightly. (A little too brightly, he realized in retrospect.) "Syaoran and I have started sleeping together."
Touya dissociated for a few seconds, then returned to full consciousness. "Did you just say…"
"I said that Syaoran and I are sleeping together now."
"You mean that you have futons next to each other…"
"I mean that Syaoran and I are having sex."
The red mists descended. Touya wanted to flip the table and yell that she was being an idiot, she was ruining her life, that the brat wasn't good enough for her. 'Ah, so that's why she invited me to a very formal public place. She's made it impossible for me to make a scene. Cunning.' As enraged as he was, a small part of him admired her deviousness.
He took a few seconds to formulate a sentence, while stirring his tea as aggressively as he could. "What the hell makes you think that you're old enough for… adult things."
"'Sex' is the word you're looking for. And reaching adult age made me think I'm old enough for 'adult things.' If I'm old enough to vote, I think it's okay if I have sex."
"The brat can't vote."
"Only because he's not a Japanese citizen. Is that seriously an objection?"
"You barely know him."
"I've known him for over half my life. Try again."
"What if you get pregnant?"
"We're taking precautions. And in case the precautions fail… Well, I do plan on getting pregnant eventually. I'm already several years older than Mom was when she had you."
Touya closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. This girl. "Why the hell are you telling me this, anyway?"
She looked at him with defiance. "Because I really need you to get used to the idea that Syaoran and I are together and it's serious. You might be home one day and see him leaving my bedroom in pajamas. Or maybe you'll run into him at a convenience store when he's buying condoms. With our luck, you'd probably be the one at the till. If something like that happens, I don't want you to explode. We don't want a repeat of the time when you saw us kissing."
Touya remembered that day. He'd ended up punching the brat in the stomach, which felt deeply satisfying in the moment. Of course, Sakura refused to talk to him for ages, and even Dad and Yukito had been angry with him. Eventually he'd had to swallow his pride and self-righteousness and apologize to the brat, who had the sheer gall to be gracious and forgiving to him, the little bastard. The boy didn't even have the common decency to hold a grudge so that Touya wouldn't feel like human garbage for having punched him basically unprovoked.
"I still say you're too young."
Sakura could hear the lack of conviction in his voice. It was time for her trump card.
"Too young, huh? I just happen to know that you and Yukito were way younger than us when you started doing it. You were still in high school!"
Touya turned red. "That's not true!"
"It is. You can't bluff your way out of this."
"Who the hell told you that? Did Yukito…"
"Of course he didn't! It was Yue. They thought it was information I might need to know. I certainly didn't and made sure that they knew to respect your privacy then on, but I can't change what I'd already heard."
"Does your little boyfriend know you're telling me all this?"
"He does not." She also didn't mention that she had been lying before, and Syaoran didn't yet know that Sakura was planning on deepening their relationship. The Chinese boy was a gentleman to a fault. Sakura didn't mind it: that was the way he was, and she loved the way he was. She rather enjoyed the rush of being the one to take the first step.
Touya glowered in defeat. "I can't stop you from ruining your life."
"I accept your sincere blessings."
"If that brat ever hurts you, I'll…"
"Spare me your macho posturing and answer me something. You've said before what you'd do to him if he ever broke my heart. What would you do to me if I broke his heart?"
"Throw a party, probably."
"So you see him like someone whose feelings don't matter? Well, they do. He's an important part of my life, and that's not stopping anytime soon."
"So, what exactly am I supposed to do?
"Treat him like your brother. Because one day, he will be."
Touya continued glowering for a moment, then suddenly grinned. "So, I should treat him like I treat you?"
Sakura looked nonplussed. "What?"
"Given that you're the monster, what should I call him? His name means 'wolf puppy', Right?"
"That is not what I meant by treating him like a brother!"
As he rode the train back towards his apartment, box of cakes under his arm, he thought about his sister and her, ugh, "lover."
It was a truth that he wouldn't admit to anyone, not even Yukito, and definitely not Sakura, but he actually kind of liked the brat from Hong Kong. Looking at him objectively, he knew that he was a good kid. Responsible and polite. He just had gotten on the wrong foot on their initial meeting, and Touya, stubbornly, had refused to ever normalize their relationship since then.
And Sakura was right: the brat wasn't going anywhere. Those two were definitely going to get married at some point in the future.
So maybe it was time to transition from scowling at the kid to something else?
'Treat him like a brother,' she had said. He could do that. Why berate the kid when he could troll him instead?
And maybe the voice of his conscience could finally stop bugging him for how he'd been treating the brat.
Sakura fidgeted from her position on her boyfriend's sofa. "Syaoran? It's getting a little late."
He looked up from the textbook he'd been taking notes on. "Is it?" He took out his cell phone, looked at it and winced. "Sorry. I just got caught up in my reading. I must have been terrible company."
"Of course not! I love to just watch Syaoran when he's reading intently. You look very cute like that."
He blushed in embarrassment. "That's lovely for you to say, but honestly, I should have been paying more attention to you since you came over here and all. I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"I know you will."
He got up from his chair. "I'll just go get my jacket and I'll walk you home."
His progress was impeded when Sakura held onto his shirt. "Instead of that, why don't you make it up to me by letting me sleep over tonight?"
"Sleep over?" He looked confused. "Really?"
Sakura smiled brightly. "Yes, really!"
"I promised, so, sure. I guess I can make up a bed for myself on the sofa and you can use my bedroom."
"No. You're going to sleep in your own bedroom, in your own bed."
"But I can't let a guest sleep on the sofa!"
"Don't worry, I won't be."
"But…" Syaoran frowned. "If I'm sleeping in my bed and you're not using the couch, where will you sleep?"
Sakura's smile grew. The man she loved had a brilliant mind, but could be remarkably dense as well.
And that was part of what made the chase so fun.