Partners

Aspirator

Important Notes: Don't let the fancy wording confuse you. T minus just means I'm counting down the days. T means time.

Any acronyms, my own made up ideas, proper nouns that you don't recognize, I will explain at the end of the story. This is just to keep the flow of the story going.

Disclaimer for the entire story: CCS belongs to CLAMP. Also, cover image belongs to Alfredo Saavedra on Flickr.

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T minus 180 days.

It all started with, "May I have the honor of being your partner?"

Twinkling emerald eyes glanced up with surprise at the charming voice, she blinked, then smiled dazzlingly. "Since you said it that way," Sakura replied jovially, "you may."

Syaoran plopped down in the recently vacated seat next to her, half in relief at her acceptance and half tiredly from pulling an all-nighter the night before. He continued with a slight curve of the lips, "So if I had said it any other way..."

"I would have to think about it," Sakura teased.

"Phew," Syaoran sighed, wiping a hand across his forehead theatrically, "it's good thing I practiced that in the mirror then."

Sakura laughed, causing Syaoran's smile to widen in contagion. She looked as if about to say something but Takashi - the former tenant of Syaoran's current seat - bounced up to them, sending Syaoran a playful glare. "How dare you steal my spot?"

Syaoran looked around the chair, then turned back to the fellow graduate student, "Doesn't have your name on it." He shrugged, then sent him a grin.

Takashi balled up his fists, but not surprisingly, couldn't keep the smile off his face, ruining his attempt at looking mad. Sakura and Syaoran only laughed at him, and with a shrug, he relaxed, giving up his argument.

He turned to Sakura, but before he could ask his question, Sakura beat him to it. "I think Chiharu's waiting for a partner over there." She suggested with a tilt of her head and a flick of her eyes. The three architecture undergraduate students glanced at their classmate a few tables away, her short mahogany strands covering half her face as she bowed over a sheet of paper in concentration.

Takashi reddened slightly, he threw a wave at his so-called friends as he backed away. "Alright, fine, I'll go away."

Sakura grinned in response.

"Playing matchmaker, are we?" Syaoran commented.

Sakura turned to him, "I am, you didn't contribute at all." She attempted to look at him accusingly but only came off as playfully annoyed.

With a swish of his brown hair, Syaoran shook his head sadly. "You've been hanging out with Tomoyo too much."

Sakura grinned proudly, "I can never hang out with Tomoyo too much; she is my best friend and roommate!"

Syaoran rolled his eyes, "One day, you two will just mold into one person."

"We already have." Tomoyo piped up suddenly appearing beside Sakura.

At Syaoran's bewildered expression and a slip of his tongue - "What the-" - the best friends laughed hilariously.

Syaoran blinked, then sat back as if stupefied. He sat up again, turning his whole body to face the pair, his palms out in accordance with his speech, "You-where-HOW!?"

"She was crawling on the floor to avoid Eriol." Sakura explained, earning a playful smack from her best friend.

"Sakura, don't ruin it!" Tomoyo frowned.

Before any of the trio could react, a voice intercepted, belonging to one dark-haired, blue-eyed student with glasses running up to them. "There you ar-"

"I think I heard my name," Tomoyo lied, already beginning to walk away, "hey Naomi, you called me?"

Sakura smiled cheerfully as the rejected student walked up to them just as the object of his search left him in the dust. "Hi Eriol!"

He glanced at her distractedly, readjusting the books in his right arm and pushing his glasses up with his left index finger. "Oh, Sakura," he nodded at her in greeting, smiling weakly. His eyes shifted to Syaoran's, a stronger smile appeared, raising his eyebrows in acknowledgement.

Syaoran only shrugged lazily in reply, smiling back. Sakura watched the exchange in confusion, then shook her head inwardly, guys, I'll never understand them.

"Took you long enough, huh," Eriol commented. Sakura's brows furrowed, glancing between the two again.

Syaoran frowned, "Oh shut up." He regarded his own best friend with an accusatory stare, "I'm doing better than you."

"Doing what?" Sakura interjected, but she was ignored.

"You have it easy." Eriol rebutted, glancing at Tomoyo's figure in the back of the classroom, sitting together with another student.

Syaoran sent Eriol a sharp glance, as if in warning, but only spoke casually, "Colin's a good partner. I was with him for the biomimicry project."

Eriol slowly peeled his eyes away from his subject to glance at a charismatic student surrounded by his friends, "He probably already has a partner."

"You never know 'til you try."

"Like you have to right to say that."

Sakura slid down her seat, sulking and muttering, "and you say Tomoyo and I talk telepathically. You two talk out loud but it's like a different language."

The two males glanced at her amusedly. Eriol, catching sight of their professor nearing them, backed away, sending them both a wave of farewell.

"Sakura and Syaoran," Professor Terada boomed in his deep, cheerful voice, "finally two of the best minds I've ever seen joining forces." He shook his head, writing on his clipboard.

Sakura grinned, reddening slightly at the compliment, "no need to exaggerate."

The world renowned architect retiring to the teaching field shook his head enthusiastically, "Oh, no no, not an exaggeration." At Syaoran's sheepish smile, Professor Terada lifted a shoulder, "Okay, maybe a little. But definitely the best two in this class." He looked around scandalously, "Shh, don't tell everyone else."

"Oh, we know! We admit defeat." called a nearby student, and a few others around laughed.

"Alright," Professor Terada turning back to the pair seriously, "Just let me tell you this - you two," he looked between the pair, "It's great. Sakura's definitely design-oriented, imaginative, creative, very important qualities of an architect. And Syaoran, you just make it all work, really, I'm surprised you're not double majoring in engineering, the way you can just bring out the functionality, practicality...beautiful. Both of you together?" He whistled, throwing up his hands, "there are no words."

The pair blushed at the compliments. "Oh stop it," Sakura waved a hand at him.

"Alright, alright, let's see," Professor Terada looked back at his clipboard, crossing something out and then writing a few notes. After a quick moment, he glanced back at them with a grin.

"Uh oh." Syaoran voiced playfully.

"So you understand I'll give you two the hardest assignment, right?" their teacher started, "But, you know what? The harder it is, the more fun it is. Really." Professor Terada nodded seriously, then he set the clipboard down. "Okay here it is, jot it down if you want, but I'm sure you'll remember the prompt. It's a little out there, I'll admit."

Sakura picked up her pencil, looking up at him expectantly, as Syaoran sat back, focusing his attention on his teacher.

Using his hands to emphasize his point, Professor Terada explained, "There was some discovery, another Mayan thing, or Egyptian this time, whatever. They figure the world's about to end. Very soon. They called you two, and said, hey, you know, we need some kind of shelter, building, underground hole - that's for you to decide - to save a select few of our humanity. They want a capacity of fifty people. No more, no less. They're not sure how the how people are going to die. It might be another huge flood, or a hurricane, or a fire...no idea. So you're gonna have to be prepared to survive everything. They're expecting to live in that shelter for about twelve months, and then - since they know for sure the Earth's not going to be destroyed, just any living being on the Earth - so scientists, architects, politicians, they're gonna come back out and rebuild it all again."

"Like a Noah's Ark." Sakura spoke up.

Professor Terada nodded agreeably, "exactly. The same concept. I'm going to have a few requirements here. I want, of course, a more modern concept. I want it to be self-sufficient. We're assuming here that the sun's still gonna be there, water, air, all these natural resources. You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger."

The two students laughed.

"Yeah, I mean it, you two. Really, here's the hint, use the natural disaster to your advantage." Professor Terada smiled widely, "It's going to be like a home for these people, and I want it to be something that they can still use later, even when they've left and built up their civilization. It can just be an explanation or a separate CAD (those 3-D computer made designs) model to show its functions once civilization is back up again. We also need labs and workspace for these people to work in while they build up civilization, analyze the new Earth…" the professor trailed off, nodding at them, "You got it?"

"So we're building a Noah's self-sufficient ark-plus for fifty people." Syaoran simplified.

The Professor shook his head at him, "You had to make me ramble, didn't you? Yes, perfect, Syaoran. Questions?"

"What about plants and animals?" Sakura asked.

He shook his head sadly.

"What!" Sakura pouted.

"How about this, the scientists have figured a way to just bring a living cell that they will use biology or whatever science over there, Bill Nye ology, and make all kinds of animals, plants, bugs, from there. Just - it won't be a problem, it'll be a small capsule or something they can leave in the lab. Don't worry about it."

Sakura nodded.

"What materials can we use? When is it due? How big can the project be?" Syaoran questioned.

"Anything. You have access to any material. Good question. We're going to set up a little - I shouldn't say little - I mean, huge gallery in the Student Center. More than display it and you tell me about it, you're going to present your project. It'll be open to the public, and your classmates. But I'm gonna bring in my friends -" Sakura's jaw dropped, causing the professor to pause and chuckle. "alright, friends would be a light word. So NAAB (National Architecture Accreditation Board) members, people from the American Institute of Architects, the world's great architects are gonna fly in, I think I've already had the Dean of the Syracuse School of Architecture respond…"

Sakura's whole body visibly tensed, and Syaoran frowned slightly.

"Look, don't worry about it. You two will do fantastic. And you two, you know, I'm making so many exceptions and my wife tells me I shouldn't have favorites, but you know, anyway, I've planned out spaces with the staff and areas for each group to set up. I have also reserved the entire White Space for one project, I was thinking this one, since it is the hardest, and I'm very happy to give it to you."

"The whole place?" Sakura responded incredulously.

"Yup, all of it. Do anything with it, put your project on the ceiling, the walls, whatever. I would leave lots of space for the audience, however, I'm expecting a big crowd, especially for you two."

"I'm pretty sure the whole class will be there." Another student interjected again, and many nearby or passersby voiced agreements.

"There. That's twenty people already. I'm sure the crowd will be three times that size. And there'll be people coming in and out that day. Just," Professor Terada looked at Sakura's scared expression, "don't worry, you will do absolutely amazing. I know it already."

"Any more questions?" Professor glanced between the two, "Going once, going twice...no?"

Both shook their heads.

Professor Terada picked up his clipboard, "I have high expectations for you two, alright? I want to be blown away - no, I want to be launched into outer space."

"Yes sir." Syaoran responded confidently.

Sakura grinned, "We'll do our best."

"And I'll expect nothing less for your graduation project." He stated as he left.

Once left alone, the two turned to each other. Syaoran was the first to speak, "okay. We've got six months to pull this together. That's one hundred and eighty days."

Sakura grinned, excitement barely contained, "let's do this."

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White Space: this is an entirely made up concept for a separate room made as a multi-purpose room in the Student Center. It has all - you guessed it - white walls and white floors and white ceilings. It's about the size of two tennis courts.

Note: This kind of defeats the purpose of going on hiatus while working on college applications and such, but I just needed a stress reliever (and time waster). I have already written ten chapters to this fifteen-chapter story. And no, I will not post them all right now, you silly readers, I'll post a chapter per week.

I love architecture, it's the coolest thing ever. Any thoughts on this, ideas for their project, what you think is gonna happen next? Let me know below!