It had been instantaneous.

All it took was one all encompassing glance, one eye locking gaze, and it was done. They both stiffened, their faces vacant in awe. It was instant. It was inevitable.

Until Meilin spoke and broke the spell that had spanned hours in an instant

"Kinomoto, this is Syaoran, my cousin I've told you so much about."

In the same space of time as it had taken them both to react, both of their expressions changed, clicking into place. Where once there had been ambient eyes, then astonishment, now was one emotion.

Animosity.

Syaoran glowered down at the petite girl who was glaring up at him. His cousin stilled, confusion obvious on her features. She looked back and forth between the two quickly for a moment at a loss for words at the sudden shift in their attitudes. Well, actually, she wasn't too confused by Syaoran; he usually glared at new people as if it were the new party game. But Kinomoto…she'd never seen Kinomoto glare at anyone but her older brother before.

"What's up? He step on your foot?"

Shaken from whatever her thoughts had been, the petite girl quickly smiled at her friend. "It's nothing, Meilin-chan." Then, with obvious reluctance, she looked back to Syaoran and plastered on a smile. "It's nice to meet you, Li-san," she murmured, bowing as little as politeness would allow.

In response, Syaoran let out a snort and looked away. If it hadn't been for the way Kinomoto's increasingly fake smile creeped her out, Meilin would have smacked him over his head. Instead, she decided to do what all the best social tacticians did:

Retreat.

"Oh, look, Kinomoto. There are a few of my other cousins. Let me introduce you."

In a heart beat, the fake smile turned genuine and Meilin let out a sigh of relief. Still, Kinomoto managed to impart one final glare at Syaoran before Meilin could whisk her away. Confused and astounded, she introduced her friend to her other family members, lost to wonder what on earth had happened between the two of them in such a short time.

--

"What did you do to her, Syaoran?!"

"I told you, I didn't do anything!"

Syaoran groaned as he flung himself backward on the couch. Meilin stomped up to him, stepping none too gently on his bare foot. His head snapped up and he glared at her fiercely.

"I know you are lying, Syaoran! Kinomoto Sakura is one of the sweetest girls on the planet! It's almost annoying she is so nice."

"Then why are you surprised that I find her annoying," he grumbled at her.

She waved her hand casually, dismissing the question. "Oh, I know you are a jackass who can't get along with strangers, but she was glaring, too. You must have done something to her to make her behave like that. And that smile…," Meilin broke off with a visible shudder at the memory. "Brr. That was the most disturbing thing that I have ever seen in my life. I didn't know Kinomoto could give a fake smile."

"Apparently she can," he muttered.

"Precisely. So once more, I ask: what did you do to her?!"

He glared at her. "Meilin! I have told you over and over that I didn't do anything! Lay off! Even Miss Perfect has got to dislike someone occasionally."

"I never said she was Miss Perfect! She is definitely not perfect." Especially when it came to being on time, Meilin added silently. Definitely not perfect.

"Not from what I saw," he muttered so low she almost missed it.

A glimmer lit in her eyes at the comment. "Ha! I thought I saw you checking her out!" She received no response but a glower made greatly less effective by the blush on his features. "She is pretty good looking. She has her pick of men. Her boyfriend, Hiiragizawa-san, is considered to be extremely lucky that she chose him."

Syaoran groaned and quickly got to his feet before making his way to his bedroom.

"Hey where are you going? You have to tell me why you were so mean to my friend! Come back here!"

He turned and pinned an unusually fierce glare on his cousin. "I didn't do anything to her. Stop talking about it. It is annoying. Leave it."

With that, he went into his room and shut the door behind him with a snap, leaving Meilin to stare curiously after him. Even for her grumpy cousin, this was a bit extreme. Something had to be up.

--

"Syaoran, I know you completely lack anything that could vaguely be considered people skills, but seriously how could you do that?"

"Do what?"

Meilin slammed the door to their shared apartment, only barely resisting the urge to throw the shoe she was taking off at his head.

"You know exactly what you did, Li Syaoran!"

"Look, Meilin, she was the one who was rude to me first. I only reacted in kind."

"You started glaring at her from the moment you walked in the door! And at Hiiragizawa-san! Good lord, what did HE do to you? It is one thing if you wanted to just snipe at her, lord knows for some reason you've managed to earn her ire, which is pretty scary, but Hiiragizawa-san didn't even say anything more than nice to meet you before you started ripping into him as well!"

Meilin didn't catch his reply as she dropped her bag in her room. She thought she heard something that sounded like 'creepy bastard' but she couldn't be sure.

"This is a new low, even for you."

He glared at her as he stood at his own door, taking his tie off. "I don't see you yelling at her. She called me a fair number of names, you might recall."

"You spilled your water all over her WHITE gown, Syaoran. White! It was almost completely see-through!" She paused a moment at the decidedly not antagonistic look in his eyes as he recalled the incident, but she decided not to comment. "You are lucky it was only water and that Daidouji, for some reason, loves you. I sear if you had spilled that red wine you'd been drinking…."

"Heaven forbid she ruin a dress," he replied sarcastically.

"She is a model, Syaoran! How she looks in a dress is her job! Grow up! Please!"

"I will when she does," he smirked before ducking into his room to avoid the pillow she'd thrown at him.

Meilin repressed a scream of frustration. She did not understand the behavior between those two. It was almost enough to make her believe in hate at first sight. With a sigh, she closed the door to her own room and fell onto her bed, thoughts clouding her mind.

--

"I swear on pain of telling your MOTHER, Li Syaoran, that if you do anything to ruin my birthday part tonight, you will suffer to your dying breath."

He held up his hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. I'll behave myself."

She smiled, the expression deepening as he opened the door into the lavish ballroom, already filled with well wishers.

"Of course," he added quietly, "that is provided that she behaves, too."

Meilin glared at him before quickly replacing it with a grin at the happy applause that greeted her entrance. She glanced over as he bowed and kissed her hand before quickly disappearing into the gathering crowd, well beyond her reach. She rolled her eyes before letting her guests take control of her attention.

It wasn't until an hour or more had passed that her wayward cousins caught her attention again. She was standing to one side of the dance floor, sipping champagne and chatting with Daidouji, when the other girl squeaked. Following her line of sight, she saw Kinomoto being led out onto the dance floor by none other than her stupid cousin. If her jaw dropped in amazement, hers was not the only one as several people around the roomed stopped mid-sentence to stare.

Meilin was fascinated despite herself. She could tell by the expressions on their faces, as they executed an excellent tango, that they were, in fact, arguing. Every now and again, Kinomoto's smile would falter and her green eyes would flash. Nothing they did was really causing a scene but, still, for the life of her, she could not understand why two people who seemed to truly hate each other would be dancing together.

She looked away to answer a question and, when she looked back, they were gone.

--

Something was definitely off. Meilin quietly closed the front door, dropping her shoes onto the waiting rack. Nonplussed, she looked around the dark apartment, dimly lit by the twilight hour seeping in through the windows. After a moment, a soft clank sounded from the kitchen attracting her attention. She padded quietly over and found her cousin, facing away from her, wearing only a pair of flannel sleep pants.

"Umm, Syaoran."

"Mm?"

"Are those Kinomoto's shoes by the front door?"

He stilled, silent, then, after a moment, "Mmhmm."

Meilin was at a loss. She, of course, noticed the bright red shade of his ears, keying her into his embarrassment even though he kept his face averted. And embarrassment probably meant that he had something to feel embarrassed about. Which meant that not only was Kinomoto at their apartment at a very unlikely time of the morning but that she had also probably been their all night and they had probably been doing something that they'd find it embarrassing for her to know.

Which, alright, Meilin knew Syaoran had sex. She knew that Sakura had fooled around with her boyfriends too. What she still hadn't figured out was why, all of a sudden, the two of them were doing that with each other.

"So," she drawled, breaking the silence that had fallen. "How long has that been going on?"

Silence. Then, "Since your birthday."

She blinked. "That was like, two months ago? How did I miss that you and Kinomoto were…for two months?"

If possible, his ears got redder. "We weren't…for two months. But at your party we, uh, yeah and um, after that we sort of, um, started dating."

"I thought you two hated each other!"

He shook his head silently. Then, having finally mustered the courage, he turned and smiled at her before nodding gruffly and heading towards his room where Kinomoto undoubtedly was asleep.

"So, what? You two are in love with each other?"

"Something like that."

"When did that happen?"

He turned and looked at her, hand on his doorknob, and smiled.

"The moment I saw her."

With a final nod, he opened the door and went in, closing it softly behind him.

Meilin stared, completely lost. Really, she was happy that they were together now. In fact, it had been her intentions all along when she'd introduced them at that party more than half a year before….

"Idiots."

I don't own these characters.

AN: I suddenly remembered writing this sometime ago and hunted it down. It actually has a halfway written second chapter and could be worked into a third chapter (one from Syaoran's point of view and one from Sakura's.) I'll put them up if anyone asks.