A Sweet Vacation

Chapter 2

A/N - Whether or not you liked the first chapter the second is here!  BWAHAHAHAHA!  The third chapter should be up whenever I get the time to write it, so if you're actually reading this (which I really do doubt anyone in their right mind would) stay-tuned cuz there's much more to come!  Oh yes, please r&r or I will sic my rabid spore on you.  Mwhahaha! 

Chapter 2: A Card Discovered?

               "Do neon pink pixie wings make my butt look big?"  Sakura asked Madison as she spun around in her new costume.  "And how about this fluffy, blue tail?"

               "Sakura!  You look adorable as a calico fairy bunny, " Madison exclaimed, "Do you really think it's a new Clow Card?"

                Sakura and Madison heard a muffled chuckle, and then a 'smack' as Madison hit her pocket.  "Be quiet in there!  I have a pair of bunny ears for you too!" Madison held up a tiny pair of pink and blue bunny ears.

               Kero poked his head out of the pocket and sniffed indignantly, "I'm not wearing that!" 

               "Not even for some pudding?" Sakura coaxed.

               "Well…maybe for some pudding.  I just love pudding!"

 Sakura sighed, "All right, Kero.  But you can't laugh at me anymore – I won't laugh at you!"

               "No problem Sakura, just get me my pudding!"

               Sakura looked back at Madison, who just shrugged.  Without any excuse, Sakura left her room, forgetting to take off the bunny suit.  "Spoiled guardian brat!" she mumbled as she made her way down the stairs to the kitchen. 

               "Tori, do we have any pudding?"  Sakura asked as she entered the kitchen.

               "Yeah, squirt, it's in the fridge…you should know that.  Tori responded, not looking up from his schoolwork.

               "What happened to that girl you were talking to earlier?" Sakura asked with a sly smile as she dug through the refrigerator.

               "She and her friends are over at Julian's house.  Why do you ask?"  Tori asked, now looking up from his schoolwork.  "Whoa!  Squirt, isn't it a little early for Halloween?" He remarked gesturing to the floppy green ears, the yellow mini skirt, and the fuzzy, red bunny footies.

               Sakura glared at Tori for a long while, then grabbed her pudding and a spoon.  On the way back to her room, she gave Tori a quick kick to his left shin. 

               "Hey, monster, it might hurt a little more if you took off the fuzzy slippers…" Tori choked out, doing a poor job of restraining his laughter.

               "Darn bunny slippers…" Sakura scowled.  She took off one of the slippers and chucked it at Tori, making him yelp, "Solves the slipper problem," she said gleefully.

               Sakura smiled as she walked up the stairs.  When she reached the door, she popped her head in and watched Madison and Kero.  She saw Madison adjusting Kero's bunny ears while he protested vigorously.  She stepped into the room, "Kero, I brought your pudding." 

She walked over to Kero and handed him the pudding and the spoon.  As soon as he was handed the pudding, Kero hastily tore the cover off the pudding container and began licking it clean.  As he ate, Madison was able to adjust the little bunny ears so they would stay attached to Kero's head.

               While Kero managed to stuff a fourth of the container of pudding into his mouth at once (mind you the pudding container is as big as Kero), Madison acknowledged Sakura's missing slipper.  "What happened?  I thought it was cute!"

               "Um…well, Madison, on the way up the stairs I paused for a sec and it was eaten by a rabid saskwatch.  Um…I guess he thought it was cute too…"  Sakura smiled cheesily and shrugged.   

               Kero put the last of the pudding into his mouth, "By any chance was this saskwatch named Tori?"

               Sakura blushed and reached for the phone – an idea had been formulating in her head as she went up the stairs. 

Madison frowned.  "I hope Li likes his outfit better…"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~   

                  "Sa footh ish gthood," Usagi told Julian with a mouth full of cookies and cupcakes.  She began to stuff more junk food into her already bulging mouth as Chibi and the others nodded their approval of the food.    

                 Julian beamed at the senshi and encouraged them to eat more as he placed three more platters onto the round, oak table.  Rei, Ami, Makoto, Minako, and Setsuna politely refused, as they had already had their fill.  Chibi and Usagi's eyes gleamed as Julian set these new platters down.  Chibi greedily reached out and grabbed and handful of adorable pink and blue frosted mini-cakes.  Usagi, however, went for the chocolate chip cookies. 

               While Chibi and Usagi pigged out on the goodies laid out on the table Ami tried to make conversation with Julian.  "So, she began, "you mean to tell us that we haven't moved cities, or times?  We're in the same place we started!  That's impossible!"

               Julian shrugged, "I guess so."  He reached out and grabbed one of the cakes from the platter Chibi was eating off and popped it into his mouth.  "That does seem" - chew, chew, gulp – "kinda odd though."

               Setsuna, who was now listening attentively, chewed on this bit of information.  " I wonder if…"

               "Yes!?" Ami looked at Setsuna with glassy, bright eyes.  She obviously wanted answers and was hungry for this new bit of knowledge about their current predicament.

"What if the button on the Garnet Orb – the one that was pushed – creates a wormhole through realities?"

Minako smiled a crooked smile, "I really hope you two are kidding, because…"

Usagi butted in, "How are we going – sniffle sniffle – to get home?  I want to see my Mamoru again!"  Usagi broke into uncontrollable sobs,  "Mamo…WAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

 Rei grabbed hold of Usagi's shoulders and shook her, "Snap out of it, meatball-head!"

"But…how…are…we gonna…get…home?"  Usagi moaned between her choked sobs.

"Maybe we should ask Chibi-usa, it's her fault we're here."  The senshi glared at Chibi and a tiny 'gulp' could be heard from her end of the table.

"Guys!  You're not going to listen to her she's…uh…drunk!"  Chibi screamed pointing at Setsuna.  Julian in the meanwhile had gone to the kitchen, preferring to stay out of this particular catfight.

"I wish I equipped Luna-P with a self-destruct mechanism," Setsuna grumbled.

"Could've taken them both out," Rei added and snickered.

"Guys!  Guys!  Stop!"  Minako screamed at the others who had joined in by either siding with Setsuna or Chibi.  "This isn't getting us anywhere.  Anyhow, it scared off Julian."

Minako glanced around the table, which was now nearly quiet.  Chibi looked at everyone nervously and reached out to grab another mini-cake.  Her nails made a metallic clinking noise as they hit the empty glass platter.  Makoto began playing with the loose strand of hair again.  Usagi was now trying to stop sniffling over Mamoru, and Rei was helping by muttering 'meatball-head' whenever given the opportunity.  Ami was staring off into space, pondering the many new possibilities in this reality, and Setsuna sat quietly sipping at a cup of tea.  Minako smiled, "That's better."

 Julian took his head away from the closed kitchen door, as he could hear no more yelling or bickering.  He cautiously poked his head out of the door, into the dining room area.  He heard the soothing sounds of silence, and saw the senshi calmly sitting around the table.  He let out a sigh of relief, opened the door fully, and stepped into the dining room, "Are you done fighting yet?" he asked and smiled.

               Minako smiled back at Julian.  "We are," she paused to glare at the other senshi, "done fighting."  She began to smooth her skirt and blushed as she looked at Julian.

               Makoto glanced over at Minako and gave one of those I-haven't-seen-that-look-ever snickers.  Rei, with a mild look of surprise on her face, looked over to Makoto and then Minako.  She shrugged not finding any humor in the color red Minako had turned.  "Can someone get her some water?"  Makoto laughed with tears forming in the corner of her eyes from the stupidity of the next statement she was planning to say.  "I think she's gonna start fire!"

               All the senshi except Minako and Setsuna roared with laughter.  Setsuna rolled her eyes at the immaturity of the inner senshi.  Minako, however, didn't take this so lightly.  She quickly scooped up a cupcake and threw it at Makoto's laughing face.  As Makoto wasn't expecting this, Minako's cupcake flew true and covered Makoto's face in yellow frosting and chocolate cake. 

               It was now Makoto's turn to become red in the face.  She wiped the cupcake from her eyes, hastily grabbed a slice of pie, and threw it at Minako.  The throw was perfect, but Minako knew Makoto was going to retort in this fashion, so she ducked.  The pie flew forward – missing Minako and flying at Julian who was standing behind Minako's chair. 

               Blueberries flew everywhere as the pie made impact.  Julian smiled and sampled the pie, but grabbed a handful of food – whatever was on the platter closest to his right hand.  The food on that platter happened to be cookies.  He threw the cookies – the soft, gooey kind - he had grabbed.  They hit Usagi, who, in turn, grabbed some Jell-O and flung it, hitting Minako.  Soon all of the senshi – even Setsuna – were participating in this food-flinging bonanza.

               Chibi-usa glanced around; no one was looking.  She slowly slunk out of her chair, hoping not to be hit.  As she slipped down to the floor, she sighed – she wasn't going to be hit today.  Setsuna heard the sigh and looked over to the empty chair where Chibi-usa had been sitting.  She knew what Chibi was up to.  Setsuna grabbed a nearby bowl of pudding and flipped it over onto the spot where she hoped Chibi to be.  A high-pitched whine told Setsuna she hit her target.  She smiled, and leaned back in her chair.  Immediately, she was bombarded with little pieces of ice-cream cake. 

               Rei sat smugly in her chair; while she had hit Usagi, Minako, and Makoto, she hadn't been hit and she was confident she wouldn't.  The other senshi, now covered in assorted desserts, noticed this.  Usagi was the first to actually throw something at Rei – a piece of strawberry shortcake.  Minako was next, and a piece of cherry cobbler hit Rei square in the forehead.  Rei, by this point, was yelling with fervor as all the senshi but Setsuna threw pies, tarts, cakes, and cookies at her.  Setsuna sat drinking her cup of tea and pulling chunks of cake out of her hair.  She laughed, though, as a chocolate bon-bon – thrown by Julian – tweaked Rei's nose. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               Li looked curiously at Julian's house as he walked by.  He was here as a favor to Sakura, who had called him and asked him to look into Tori and Julian's new friends.  They both had an odd feeling about them, so he went.  He heard sounds of girls' laughing and screaming.  Bewilderment finally overtook him, and he crept up to the house and stuck his head right up against the dining room window.

               "Thump!"  A piece of cake hit the window; startling Li and causing him to jump back several feet.  After landing, he took another wary step back and proceeded to trip over a nearby shrub. 

"Oomph!"  The wind was knocked out of Li as the impact of the blow caused his knees to hit him in the chest.

 Upon regaining his ability to breathe, Li stood up and brushed off the woodchips that had embedded themselves into his arm.  He quickly looked around to make sure nobody had noticed him falling; he blushed as he thought of what Sakura would say if she found out.

               The temptation to look again grew as the laughter inside the house subsided.  'What is the worst that can happen if they're not throwing food any more?'  Li thought with a hint of sarcasm.

               He crept toward the window, with leaves and branches crunching noisily underfoot.  He tried silencing the noise with desperate shushing noises, but there was no way to get around the 'snap, crackle, and pop' of the twigs and leaves.

               Li reached the window and let out a sigh of relief.  He was very glad no one had come outside to investigate the odd noises in the yard.  Grabbing onto the edge of the window, Li stood on tiptoes and peered through the window, once again, into Julian's dining room.  He was amazed that these girls, at one moment, were screaming and flinging food, and at the next, talking quietly, and cleaning up the mess they had made.  "Minako, I was just kidding," he heard one of the girls whine.

               Cautiously, Li took a step forward, so his face was once again pressed against the glass.  He watched the girl Sakura had described; she was tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes.  This girl was scraping cake off the walls and lecturing an even taller girl with brown hair tossed messily up into a ponytail.  He was getting the same numbing feeling of danger Sakura had had when she first met this blonde girl.  He was so deep in his thoughts on how this could be, that he didn't notice Chibi-usa slinking toward the windows.

               He felt it before he saw anything.  It was the powerful tingling sensation he got every time a Clow Card was near.  The feeling got stronger and stronger until Li thought the force of the card might crush him.  He was about to leave – to run – to tell Sakura about the card and the numbness, but he couldn't will himself to move.  He had to see what this card was, and why he had sensed danger.

               Chibi-usa slipped below the window so whatever was out there couldn't see her.  She wondered what she was going to do next.  She had snuck away this far, so she couldn't back down now.  As soon as this new 'operation stealth' plan had finished forming in her mind, she set it into action.  She quickly jumped up and threw open the window.  Whatever was out there was too caught up in its own thoughts to notice a pink-haired child whipping open windows. 

               She thrust her head out of the window into what appeared to be a human face.  She shook her head right and left, and stuck her tongue out.  She tried making as much noise as possible, "Booga!  Booga!  Booga!"  

               Li stumbled backwards, taken by surprise.  Muttering to himself, he regained composure and did what he wanted to do earlier – he ran.  Li ran using every bit of stamina he possessed.  He ran to tell Sakura everything, he ran to regain filling in his legs, but most of all he ran to get away from the terrifying pink thing.  He couldn't explain it: the eyes, the hair color.  The inability to explain it terrified him most.  Blue hair was one thing, but pink hair and eyes, were an entirely different circumstance.  Li shivered as he ran.

               Chibi-usa watched, bewildered, as the spy ran off.  She hadn't anticipated him running off like that, and now that he had left there was nothing exciting to do.  Usagi stopped scrubbing the walls for several minutes.  She balanced herself on the ladder she was standing on and noticed Chibi-usa sitting at the open window and staring off into space.  "Think you're getting out of doing work, do you?" Usagi swung herself down off the ladder.  She walked over to Chibi-Usa and grabbed her ear.  "I think Setsuna can find you something to do."

Chibi swallowed, she knew Setsuna wasn't exactly pleased with her, and Setsuna could be a little vengeful when it pleased her.  As Usagi dragged her down the hallway to the kitchen where Setsuna was washing dishes, Chibi-usa imagined all the horrible tasks Setsuna would have her doing…jumping out of planes to test parachutes, diving into shark inhabited waters, or even – Chibi shuddered – eating brussle sprouts and spinach.  Nothing, however, prepared her for what Setsuna really had in mind. 

               "Oh, hello Usagi," Setsuna smiled pleasantly as they entered the kitchen.  She looked up from the pan she was vigorously scrubbing.  "Hello Chibi," she said grudgingly. 

               "I saw her slacking out of work…what do you have in mind?"  Usagi asked Setsuna.  A smile played at the corners of her mouth.  Usagi knew Chibi-usa wasn't on good terms with Setsuna right now.

               "Well, gee…lemme go ask Julian.  Hold on, though.  I have a good idea if Julian approves."  Setsuna left the kitchen. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

               The wind whipped at Li's face as he continued to run to Sakura's house.  "Must…tell…Sakura," he panted.  Li continued running until his legs gave out on him, which ironically was at Sakura's door.  Li fell into the door; it let out a echoing 'thwack'.

               "Sakura," Tori shouted.  "Answer the door."

               "You answer it, you're closer!" Sakura shouted from her bedroom.

               Grumbling, Tori got up from his schoolwork to answer the door.  He swung open the door.  Looking around he noticed Li, who looked absolutely exhausted. 

               "I n-n-need to t-t-talk to Sakura," Li panted, sounding nearly as exhausted as he looked. 

               Tori glared at Li, lifted an eyebrow, and then shut the door into Li's head.  He couldn't begin to describe his feelings about that brat kid.  Worst of all, Tori knew Li liked Sakura.  To him, that was a crime punishable only by death. 

               Sakura stepped out of her room and looked down the stairs at her brother, "Tori, who was it?" she questioned.

               Tori hesitated for a second before answering her.  "Eh, nobody.  Wrong address, don't worry."

               Sakura shrugged and slipped back into bedroom, which gave Tori the opportunity to let out a sigh of relief.  At times, he truly thought that Sakura might have feelings for…Li.

               Minutes later, Tori heard a thump and squeal.  He thought nothing of it really.  He knew Sakura and her friends did strange things at times. 

               "Li!" Madison squealed.  "Do you need help?  You look stuck," Madison observed.

               "Gee, I don't look stuck, do I?" Li asked, very sarcastically.

               Not hearing the sarcasm in Li's voice Sakura responded, "Well, actually Li, you do look stuck."

               "I am!"

               Madison and Sakura grabbed onto Li's arms and pulled, after several seconds of uncomfortable tightness for Li, he was free and in the desired destination.  He smiled.

               Sakura wasn't so happy.  "Li!  What were you thinking coming through my bedroom window?"

               "Um…" Li started.

               "You didn't scratch the side of the house getting to the window did you?"

               "There's a tree…"

               "Why are you here?"

               Li sighed, "If you stopped asking me questions I could explain."

               Sakura crossed her arms, "Yes, well, you have my undivided attention."

               Li proceeded to tell Sakura and Madison a very condensed version of what had happened since he ran from Julian's house.  He concluded by saying, "Gee, Sakura.  You'd never guess why I had to run all the way over here."

               Sakura looked at him with amusement twinkling in her eyes.  "Try me."

*All right guys!  That's it for chapter two.  As always, please please please review!!!!  This is Whaphy over and out!*