Rain was pelting down on the ground as Sakura ran through the dark alleyways, dodging the garbage left scattered by animals and street bums. She could hear the voices echoing off of the walls as she ran from her pursuers and she skidded around the corner only to find herself at a dead end.

"Shit." Sakura cursed.

She turned and faced her pursuers. The gang of men that had chased her had come to beat the shit out of her for something she had said to them at work. They were a bunch of drunks who needed to be locked up, but Sakura couldn't do anything about that, and right now she was trapped.

"Ah, the bitch trapped 'erself."

The leader of the gang cracked his knuckles, and they all closed in on her. Sakura had no way of defending herself against six full grown men, so the only thing she could do was make a lot of noise and hope for the best. She kicked the leader, a tall man with tattoos all over his arms, in the groin. He buckled over howling in pain, and one of the other members sent a fist to the side of Sakura's head. She staggered and waited for her vision to return to normal, however there wasn't enough time for that as she felt another make contact with her stomach. She fell to her knees and a foot made contact with the side of her jaw and she could taste blood. Her vision was swimming, and all she could feel was blood seeping through her rain soaked clothes. She felt a couple of hard punches land against her back and coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"That'll teach 'er for messin' with us."

Sakura couldn't make out who said it; she was too busy bleeding on the concrete. They started walking away when all Sakura heard was a couple of loud thuds on the ground and quiet voices talking to each other. Footsteps got closer then stopped, and Sakura felt a warm hand wiping the blood from her mouth. She tried to make out who the blur was, but then she blacked out.

...

When she finally opened her eyes again, Sakura found that her head was on the lap of a boy about her age; he was wearing a red tie and black long sleeved shirt. His concerned gaze seemed fixated on her wounds that had been bleeding far more than average, and by all means she should technically be dead. Sakura realised she was in a limousine, covered in a black jacket with red and gold embroidery on the cuffs and collar. Sakura felt her shirt shifting, and her hand flew with lightning speed. He didn't seem particularly surprised by her grip as he hardly reacted to her.

"That's quite a grip you have there." His voice was soft, and his eyes were still fixated on her blood soaked clothes.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Sakura stared at his face, keeping an iron grip on his wrist.

"What happened to you back there?" His gaze turned to Sakura's beautiful emerald green eyes. His eyes were amber, and held a curiosity that she didn't think much of.

"Just another gang I've had to deal with. Nothing new." She replied stiffly, staring at his warm amber eyes. She found them strangely captivating, but shoved her thoughts aside as she felt a little dizzy.

He suddenly looked more concerned than before, but this didn't arouse Sakura's interest. "I'd like to take you to get medical attention if that's alright?" he asked politely.

"If possible I'd rather you just dropped me home, some things are better left unseen by many." Sakura replied cryptically.

He thought it over for a moment. "Fine." He said reluctantly.

He would rather her see a doctor than ignore her wounds, especially with the amount of blood her clothes were covered in. He didn't quite understand her reasoning, but he didn't want to anger her either. She gave him her address, and he passed on the details to the front.

"I'm surprised that she gets into such trouble with that pretty face of hers. Is she in your class?" Tomoyo, one of his body guards, asked.

"Yes, she is." He replied, watching as she fell unconscious again.

Tomoyo smiled as she looked at him in the rear view mirror, watching as he carefully examined the cuts on her hands and arms. He then proceeded to look out the window at the dark stormy sky, watching the lightning flash across the sky.

Sakura found that she must have nodded off on the way to her house because she had woken up on her bed with the coat over her. She got up and walked over to her en-suite, shutting the door behind her. She had to peel off her clothes carefully, not wanting to reopen any wounds as she didn't feel like dealing with the blood any more than she had to.

Once fully undressed, Sakura stared at herself in the mirror. The scars all over her chest and back were throbbing and the small black tattoo on her thigh in the shape of strange wings burned. Her jaw was swelling from when she'd been beaten by the gang, and her head throbbed like when she had a hangover. She turned the shower to the preferred temperature and started washing away the blood from her body, watching as the water was dyed crimson. She spent about half an hour in the shower scrubbing away the blood and dirt and all of the unpleasant crap, and then got out to dry herself off with her favourite soft black towel. She didn't bother bandaging herself up because she was so used it, so she walked out in her towel and dumped it at the end of her queen size bed before crawling in; she quickly fell asleep, exhausted from all of the nights events.

The sun was shining brightly in Sakura's face when she awoke the next morning. She felt horrible. Her jaw ached and her head throbbed, but even so she still needed to go to school. It was their first day back and she needed her time table. If it were any other day she would have wagged and skipped class which was her usual habit, but unfortunately if she did her foster father would hunt her down later on and drag her back home to live with him. She got up and got dressed into the schools black skirt and white button up shirt, leaving the first few buttons undone as usual. She looked over at her bed at the jacket of the boy from the night before and had a gut feeling that she should take it to school; something struck her as familiar about him, like she had seen him around before, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
She folded it neatly and put it in her bag, which she chucked over her shoulder, and she found her black heels to slip her feet into. They weren't part of school uniform and she honestly did not care and would probably get into trouble again, but life was short and she had other things to worry about. She was supposed to wear her black school jacket over her white school top, which a black lace bra could be seen through the material. She left her tie on her dresser, as she was too lazy to put it on, and she walked down the stairs and straight out the door not bothering with breakfast, something she did regularly, and a very bad habit.

It was a ten minute walk to school, and she quickly dumped her things in her assigned locker. She pulled the coat out of her bag however, and stared at it for a bit, not realising that someone had come up behind her.

"Boo!"

Sakura whacked her head on her locker door and span around immediately facing a familiar face.

"You bastard." She went to hit him on the shoulder but missed since he dodged her.

"Need to give that to someone?" He asked, gesturing to the coat.

"Shut up, Fai." Sakura looked away.

"You know it's true." He pulled a smile.

Sakura stared at him. "Whatever. Where do we all go?" Sakura asked, shutting her locker and holding the coat in her arms.

"Our classrooms are listed in the courtyard." Fai replied.

"Oh fantastic." Sakura rolled her eyes.

They went and headed for the main courtyard where all of the year twelves had congregated, either chatting to their friends or were hustled around the large A3 sized pieces of paper taped up on the brick walls with everyone's names and class listed on them. Sakura walked over with the blonde and looked for her name, finding her class quickly and headed straight for the room that was listed on the page.

"The first day of school is always a fucking nightmare." Sakura muttered as they walked down the hall.

"Your problem, not mine."

She rolled her eyes and twisted the doorknob, opening the door and walking inside. When Sakura entered the classroom, she was shocked at what she saw.

Sakura stared. There he was, sitting at a desk near the window. He stood out from the rest of the students because of the way he dressed-the same as when she first met him; black, gold and red. Only this time his coat had gold chains on it, three of them. Sakura thought she'd seen this attire before but couldn't recall where, and the more she thought about it the more it bugged her.

Feeling pissed off, she walked over and sat in the seat next to the window, her favourite spot because it was also her quickest escape route via the open window. She watched as Fai took a seat next to the boy and turned to him and started a regular conversation. Sakura quickly realised that Fai already knew him and shot him a dirty look; he just smiled at her, and the boy curious to know what was going on turned around to see Sakura glaring at Fai. He said something to Fai, who said something back. Sakura would have liked to know what they were talking about, but then she decided she really didn't care.

Suddenly the teacher walked in, a tall slender female with brown hair and deep green eyes. Her eyes immediately darted to where Sakura was sitting. Sakura lifted her hand and waved in her usual sarcastic manner and the teacher rolled her eyes.

"Out of uniform again, Sakura?" their teacher sighed. Sakura smiled sweetly at her. "I'm going to have to send you to the Principals office Sakura. Not a good start, here's your timetable."

This happened every year, and Sakura really didn't care. She was used to being sent to the principal's office, and she didn't care much for the uniform. She wore what was comfortable for her, however there were others in the room that did care. She felt a pair of amber eyes watching her as she walked out of the room still holding the coat that no one had bothered to point out or possibly hadn't noticed, and even when she shut the door she was sure he was smiling. She went back to her locker and chucked the coat back in before going to the principal's office. She was quite familiar with him, after all she got sent there all the time, but that wasn't the only reason.

Sakura knocked on the door and heard a quiet "come in." She opened the door and walked in.

"Hello again Sakura, how were your holidays?" asked the blonde haired blue eyed man.

"You know, the usual run in's with gangs and shit. What about yours, Yuui?" Sakura asked, making herself comfortable in one of the chairs.

"Not too bad; I had a few things to deal with, but other than that they were ok." He looked up and smiled. "Still not wearing the correct uniform I see." Yuui pointed at Sakura with his pen.

"I feel freer to move around without the jacket." Sakura examined her nails, which she had painted red, a colour that many in the country looked down upon because in one of the legends the colour red was considered sleazy. Sakura laughed at the thought sometimes, since she liked wearing the colour. Suddenly Sakura's thoughts wondered to the boy in her class who wore the red tie and his jacket with the embroidery. That had red on it too.

Yuui's voice snapped Sakura out of her thoughts. "Do try to keep yourself out of trouble for the rest of the day please, though I'm sure there's no point in telling you that. I did raise you." Yuui handed Sakura a uniform pass, and dismissed her from his office.

"Well then, maybe you should stop trying." Sakura half joked as she left.

Sakura walked back to class slowly, still thinking of the boy and his attire. Sakura noticed that he'd been excused for his lack of uniform, and she also noticed that a lot of the girls were whispering and giggling while looking at him when she walked in. She was rather curious as to who he was.

She opened the door to her classroom and walked in. She showed her uniform pass and sat down in her seat, opening her books and taking out a pen. Occasionally she'd look over and he'd catch her staring and she'd look away awkwardly, pretending she was looking somewhere else, and she was sure this amused him. When the bell went she picked up her things and walked out the door without being dismissed, and headed straight for her locker. When Sakura turned around she saw Fai standing there.

"What?" she asked annoyed.

"I have a message for you." Fai handed her a piece of paper folded in half.

Meet me on the oval.

She looked up at Fai. "Who is he?" She asked.

"What?" he looked at Sakura blankly.

"That boy you sit next to-what's his name?" Sakura asked irritated that she had to repeat herself.

"That's Syaoran." Fai answered. He seemed to be highly amused by everything that was happening at the moment. "I'm amazed you don't know who he is."

"Thanks." Sakura decided she should probably return his coat to him, since he asked her to meet him on the oval. She walked to the oval holding the neatly folded coat, and upon seeing him she quickly walked over to him.

"Hello." He said kindly.

"Um…About last night. I didn't get a chance to thank you for your help." Sakura looked past his face, not being able to make eye contact with him. It felt awkward and uncomfortable, and she'd rather she didn't stay around school for long. She held a hatred for school that was unrivalled by anyone else, and while the principal usually overlooked her absences he always ensured she'd done her homework and coursework to pass her classes.

"I'm glad I was able to help you, Sakura." Sakura was shocked he even knew her name. Fai must have told him.

"I wanted to return this to you, but I didn't know where I could find you until today." Sakura held out Syaoran's coat.

"Sorry to trouble you." He said taking the coat.

"It wasn't any trouble really, however I am curious. The school excuses your attire, so you must be someone special." She stared into his eyes, which were staring right back into hers.

"Just the prince of this country." He answered her with a casual shrug. He was so casual about it that it shocked her and for a moment she almost didn't believe him. Suddenly everything made sense to Sakura; how his formal attire felt so familiar to her and why the school excused his lack of uniform. But she was confused as to why he was allowed to wear red. Why in the world would his parents allow that?

"I see…" Her voice trailed off. The reason he was excused for his attire, the reason he was so formal.

"Do you wear a lot of red?" His voice intruded on her thoughts.

"So what if I do?" Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. She began to get defensive-she was used to people arcing up about her wearing of red. If he did too, she wouldn't hesitate to punch him for it, even if he was a prince.

"I'm sure there's one other reason behind your wearing it other than you liking the colour." He replied with a shrug.

Sakura didn't know how to react. Perhaps he wasn't as formal as she thought. "And if there is?" Sakura said defiantly.

"It's not my business." He said seriously.

Sakura was confused. What did he want? "Syaoran, what is it you want from me?" Sakura asked him.

He smiled at her. "I wonder…" he looked up at the sky. "Let's go out." He said the words casually, and Sakura just looked at him.

"Where?" she asked with some confusion.

He laughed, "I meant be my girlfriend." He corrected her. Sakura stared at Syaoran, speechless. Did he seriously just ask her what she thought he had said? He didn't, did he? Then the realisation settled in that he was dead serious and she had no idea what to do. No one had ever asked her out before and she had certainly never liked anyone herself, and now she was caught in a trap of confusion. They hardly knew each other, at least that was what she believed.
Oh crap…

Did you enjoy the first chapter? I hope so. Please review and tell me your thoughts ;)
I'm having a major editing fit.