A/N : Hello everyone! I'm extremely sorry for this note, but I'll try to refrain from anymore of these from now on! Anyway, all I wanted to say was that this beginning may seem dull, but that's because I want everyone to understand how OOC every CCS character will be from this point on. Especially Sakura. You'll notice she won't seem very "nice." Let me take this time to point out that she really cares for her friends, but she has a slightly sarcastic touch to her "new" personality. Oh, and this won't really be too romantic, just to warn all you romantics! It's just warm and fuzzy fluff because this story mainly focuses on mystery. Now, if you're still interested...Have fun reading! (:

Disclaimer : Neither Arina nor Saku owns CCS or any of the characters!

Caesar's Consanguinity

By Arina and Saku

Just the Beginning

9:27 PM Tomoyo's House

Tomoyo sighed.

She stood in the doorway to her room, looking around at the mess. Clothing lay strewn about the floor. Her bed sheets had fallen off her bed and were in a pile on her floor, while her pillows had somehow ended up under the bed. The dresser drawers were open, and a sock was hanging over the edge of one. The vanity desk had the usual clutter on it; little souvenirs from Las Vegas, the beach, and even Chinatown, along with a few bracelets and necklaces. A cup and plate sat on her desk, next to her recently crashed computer; it'd somehow started smoking the day before, and Tomoyo socked it in an effort to keep it from exploding. Luckily, it hadn't; but it did freeze up, and the data in it was lost: including her AP bio homework, but more importantly, her pictures of Eriol.

Remembering him, Tomoyo sighed again, walked over to her bed, and plopped down. She roughly grabbed her mp3 player and stuck the earphones into her ear to try and keep herself from thinking. Of course, it was futile, and Tomoyo's mind wandered back to her long-distance boyfriend. He'd moved over half a year ago, and Tomoyo missed him terribly. Sure he came over once in a while, but it just wasn't the same. She missed his adorable smile; his shaggy emo hair; his skinny, skinny jeans that would've made even Sakura's butt look big; his 'girl shoes' (as Chiharu called them), his… everything. Her eyes began to get a little moist; tears? No. They were just a little wet. And spilling onto her cheeks. Was she crying? Of course not! She was just trying to get the moisture out of her eyes.

After a few minutes (hours?), Tomoyo felt herself yawn. Eriol, Eriol, Eriol… She couldn't bear having him away, and yet, he really wasn't, was he? He was constantly in her mind. How she missed him! More and more water escaped her eyes as she thought back on her time with him, little as it was before he was pulled away from her. But as time passed, her heart slowed; her shimmering Persian indigo eyes stayed closed longer and longer, until finally they stopped opening completely.

A single beam of moonlight fell across her peaceful face, and, even with the dried tears on her cheeks, she was beautiful. Her charcoal hair that partially curled outwards at her chin framed her delicate face and the rest, curling inward, rested on her shoulders or her pillow. She lay uncovered, as her sheets were still on the floor, and her body was sprawled on the bed, one of her arms slightly hanging off. The black ring hugging her left thumb was snug, and kept it from falling off. Her mp3 had been on the entire time; now, the screen flashed as the battery became low. At length, the light from the mp3 faded, and the only light left trickled in through the window.

9:27 PM Meiling's Mansion

Meiling hopped out of her bathroom, which, in contrast to her mansion, was tiny. No, she was not Cinderella, but she just didn't need a huge bathroom. And maybe her bathroom wasn't that tiny — it just had a mountain of laundry that had yet to be washed.

Feeling refreshed from her shower, Meiling gave herself a once-over in the mirror and combed her layered arsenic hair that oddly curled outwards. Still, it looked nice, on her, at least. She flexed a couple times, and smirked at her own muscle and cackled a bit. Afterwards, she examined her curves and was satisfied. On the other hand, she put her hand on her stomach, and, like every other girl, thought about how fat she thought she was. Meiling rubbed it a bit, and then sighed before screaming, "I'm pregnant!" to no one in particular. Squinting at herself in the mirror again, she noticed her shortness and wrinkled her nose in frustration. Her full lips drew themselves into a pout before Meiling began laughing and not caring again. She hummed to herself as she turned away from the mirror and tried to jump onto her large, fluffy bed. Tried, you ask? Yes, tried. As it turns out, a huge yellow hippo was blocking the way, and Meiling tripped over it. She felt embarrassed, even with no one around to see her. So, in her idiocy, she began to wrestle it, just as she had with Sakura and Chiharu once before. She laughed at the memories, and threw it against the wall before climbing into bed.

Meiling turned on her Mac; she couldn't wait for school tomorrow. Her weekend had been far from fun, and she was looking forward to seeing her friends again, and maybe sleeping in class. She turned up the music, and opened AIM. However, after some contemplation, Meiling decided not to log on. She didn't particularly feel like typing away at her keyboard all night, and instead just surfed the web a bit. She checked her horoscope, found nothing too interesting, and closed iTunes. She turned off her Mac, bored, and crawled into bed.

Meiling didn't have much on her mind, really, (she never does) and slept easily that night.

9:27 PM Sakura's Home

Tick tock, tick tock.

The clock resounded in the silence of the room as Sakura stared at her computer screen as if her life depended on it; well, it did.

No, not really, no matter how much she felt like it did. She'd been on for the past hour, supposedly researching for her physics paper. In truth, she hadn't done shit. Sakura had been enjoying herself, reading her friend's mystery story. She paused, momentarily, to glance at the noisy clock, and realized that it was almost 9:30.

Damn, she thought. I should be doing my homework.

Oh well, one more chapter couldn't hurt.

Sakura smiled her enchanting smile to herself, and turned her attention back to her computer. It only took a few minutes for her to read the next chapter, but it happened to be a cliffhanger.

I hate cliffhangers, she whined to herself. That one didn't count! I have to find out what happens. One more!

Sakura became immersed in the story once more, and before long, an hour had passed and she still had not found a single piece of information for her essay. She turned her chair so that she was facing the door of her room, and stared at it guiltily. She thought of her parents in a room on the opposite side of the house, probably watching television, and wondered how angry they would be if they knew she had been 'wasting' time. They'll never know, she consoled herself, and I wasn't wasting time… It was put to good use!

Satisfied with herself, she slid off her chair and went over to her bed. She looked at her small circular mirror and examined her face. Her slightly bloodshot but light chartreuse eyes moved slowly as she looked at her ochre and gamboge hair and her long eyebrows. She smiled that enchanting smile again, and turned her head to see her earrings. She removed them carefully and placed them on the desk next to her bed. She then took off her clothes to change into her pajamas, but not without criticizing her body first. Like Meiling, she felt her supposed fat, but in reality, her curves were developed well. She didn't know, but a number of boys at school had been looking at her. Making a face, she quickly pulled on her pajamas so that she wouldn't have to see her body any more.

Afterwards, Sakura began a long process of putting on an assortment of creams that didn't seem to work. Anyone would've told Sakura that her skin was beautiful and that she didn't need any creams whatsoever, but of course, she never believed them. She put the lids back onto the jars and screwed the caps onto the tubes and crawled into bed. It was too hot for her to use her sheets, and so she just lay on top of them. I'm pretty screwed tomorrow, she thought when her mind went back to her essay. Oh well.

9:27 PM Chiharu's Apartment

Chiharu lay on her bed, deep in thought. Her room was strangely clean; it looked as if no one lived in it. In fact, no one had lived in it until about a day ago. It was apparent that Chiharu had just moved into the apartment, as boxes of clothing, books, and miscellaneous items were still stacked on one another, unopened. One particular box was open, however. This one was very small, and contained only two items: an opened envelope, and another sealed one. The sealed envelope had no date or return address, but Chiharu knew what was in it. It held a considerable sum of money, given to Chiharu two days ago. The letter belonging to the other envelope sat on the small bed, next to Chiharu's body. It was a neat sheet of paper, typed, very official. A seal and signature were on the bottom of the letter – not that Chiharu cared.

Chiharu had finally decided to move into an apartment. She just couldn't bear to live in the house anymore; her foster parents were just too… unbearable.

Chiharu's entire family had long since been deceased; she hadn't known any of her family members, but she did know that none of them were alive. That was how she ended up with Mr. and Mrs. Tama. The couple was there when Chiharu was born and had offered to take her in.

Chiharu had talked out moving only two months ago with her two guardians, and after some thought, Mr. and Mrs. Tama had finally agreed to let Chiharu move out on her own. Granted, the apartment was only located a few streets away from the house. Still, they'd agreed, and given her some money to start her off as well.

Chiharu smiled slightly, thinking back on how all that hard work persuading her foster parents had finally paid off. Then, her mind returned to the present. She looked around the place that was now her own. She now lived on the third story of a nice apartment in a respectable part of town, within walking distance of the high school. It'd be nice exercise— something Chiharu obviously didn't need. She was thinner than most of her friends, but still managed a shapely, athletic figure. Her braided pigtailed hair was two inches longer than shoulder-length and coiled a bit inwards one inch below her shoulder. Silky side-swept bangs naturally flared outwards, framing her soft facial shape. The shorter locks of her bangs couldn't flare beside her chin and so made do around her darkened raw umber irises.

Back to the street where we began…

Chiharu jumped a little, before realizing that her cell phone had just gone off. She fished the phone out of her pocket, looked at the caller's ID, and, seeing the name, threw the phone onto her bed in disgust. Turning away, she set her mind to the task at hand: setting up her new home.

9:32 PM

The streets outside were dark. The streetlights provided minimal lighting, creating small areas of cold light that pierced through the night. The wind blew menacingly, foreshadowing events to come.

A shadow moved, and a figure could be seen approaching, had anyone been watching. The figure, covered by the darkness, crept over to a tall, black gate, guarding a mansion. The figure lifted something, and inside could be seen a number pad, presumably for a person to type in a code. Fingers pressed a number of digits, and the gate silently slid open.

Quietly, the figure glided into the courtyard, past the flowers whose bright colors were shrouded by the dark. After a few minutes, the figure reached the stone steps of the building, and slowly moved up them. A leaf fell from a nearby tree, and the sound it made as it hit the ground was the loudest thing to be heard.

The figure had reached the door, and its hand could be seen reaching into a pocket of its coat. The hand was holding a key when it was visible again, and it inserted it into the doorknob. The lock opened with a soft click, and the figure pushed the door open carefully.

Stealthily, the figure moved over to the stairs, seeming careful not to touch anything. Up the stairs it went, and then down a hallway. It turned into the third door, and seemed to disappear.

Outside, the wind howled.