Sakura stood quaking. She was nervous like she had never been before. If her brother had asked her right then and there to appear in front of their entire kingdom and speak a few words, she wouldn't have hesitated for a moment. But this was something much worse than that. This was a defining moment in her life.

Her first performance in a school play.

Yes, to some it might not seem to be a big deal. But to thirteen year old Sakura, it was the biggest moment of her life up until that point. She had been privately tutored most of her life and she had just convinced her brother to let her attend a public learning institution this past year. Inevitably, she had caught herself up in various sorts of school activities, the most prevalent at the moment being the theatre group. They had been practising this particular play for a little while now and her classmates had somehow convinced her to take up a major role. Now it was performance time and she couldn't seem to recall how in the world they could have ever persuaded her to do so.

Sakura could feel and hear her heart hammering against her rib cage as she tried to take a few calming breaths. Surely it was unusual to be this anxious. She had no problem with public speaking, not even in front of a large mass of people. But something about having hundreds of people who knew her as their treasured princess scrutinize her as she pretended to be someone completely different sent huge, rather ugly moths flapping around her stomach.

She peeked through the curtains, anxiously tugging on her dress. As she feared, the entire auditorium was packed. She could make out the raised dias on which her brother, the king, was sitting along with his most trusted friend and high priest, Yukito.

Scanning the front rows, Sakura suddenly spotted an empty seat. At this, she inexplicably smiled and relaxed a notch. For whatever reason, this empty seat was a source of support for her and she drew quite a bit of comfort from it.

Letting the curtain fall back in place, Sakura leaned back as she once again pulled at her gown. It wasn't a spectacular dress by any means. To Sakura it felt itchy and it wasn't in the style she was used to at all. As she was playing the part of a girl with considerably less wealth than Sakura was used to, the dress was tattered in sections and overall slightly too large for the princess's small frame. The skirt billowed from the waist and hung down limply to the ground. This gave Sakura quite a bit of trouble walking unless she held up the skirt ever so slightly as her character was expected to.

"Everyone, it is time!" The director and head of the theatre club whispered loudly to the group huddled together backstage.

At this announcement, all of Sakura's anxiety came back full force. All the colour drained from her face and she quickly rubbed her palms on her dress to wipe away the moisture forming on them.

She started shaking when she saw the front curtain slowly lift up, revealing the glamourous stage behind it. When her classmates started leaving her side in order to emerge from the wings onto the stage, she completely froze. She knew she was supposed to be running onstage with her cast mates, but she couldn't seem to convince her legs to move.

Everyone had reached their positions and she was the only one left backstage. There was a horrible, awkward pause as the rest of the cast wondered why a certain someone wasn't saying her line to start off the scene. In the meantime, the audience shifted and shared looks with each other as if asking those around them if this pause was an intentional part of the performance.

"Sakura!" the director's voice whispered urgently. "What are you doing? Get out there!"

The spell that had seemed to restrain all of Sakura's movements suddenly lifted and with a small yelp, she rushed to take up her position. Stumbling ungracefully out onstage, all eyes were consequently zeroed in on the fumbling princess making her way across the scene.

Sakura's cheeks were burning in embarrassment and she couldn't possibly imagine the scene getting any worse. As complete unluck would have it, fate chose this time to prove her wrong. In her haste and complete lack of wits, Sakura had forgotten to hike up her incredibly long skirt. It was amazing that she'd gotten as far as she did across the stage without any mishaps, but in the end, she couldn't escape the inevitable.

Her foot stepped on a large portion of the dress and with an enormous ripping sound and a startled yell, Sakura pitched forward towards the floor. After several flips and rolls, resulting in quite a few bruises along the way, Sakura finally tumbled to stop at the feet of her fellow cast mates who were all looking down at her in astonishment.

Rubbing her head and wincing, Sakura looked reproachfully back at the direction from which she–er–came. She blinked in confusion at the appearance of something sickening familiar strewn across the stage behind her. As realization dawned on her, her eyes widened in horror and she looked down at herself.

To her utter mortification, she was clad in only a tiny white camisole and a matching pair of undershorts. Looking back at her crumpled, torn dress and then back down at herself again, she suddenly yelped and tried to cover her body as best she could with her arms.

Catching a glance at the audience, it made her feel ten times worse than she already did – a great feat to be sure since she was already convinced she would die right then and there of embarrassment – when she saw all of their shocked faces.

That was the last straw. Not wanting to catch the gaze of her brother or the empty seat in the front row, Sakura buried her face in her hands and burst into tears.

"Princess Sakura. Princess!"

Sakura furrowed her brow and squeezed her eyes further shut as a familiar voice called to her softly, beckoning her back into reality.

"Princess..."

Sakura's eyes fluttered open to meet with deep brown ones shining with concern. Slowly, more awareness came back to the groggy princess and she noticed the shaggy chocolate-coloured locks of hair framing the handsome face before her.

When he saw the princess had woken up, Syaoran visibly relaxed. Relief was evident in his features and he even deemed to grace her with a rare smile. "Princess..."

Sakura could feel herself drowning in the eyes that were regarding her with so much warmth. She was just about to snuggle deeper into Syaoran's embrace when the contents of her latest memory feather came rushing back to her.

When Syaoran felt the figure in his arms start to shake, he grew concerned again. "Princess...?"

Against anything he might of expected, Sakura shoved him away and stood up abruptly, eyes blazing. Before Syaoran could say a word, she spat, "You just had to retrieve that feather, didn't you?" before storming off in a huff.

Syaoran, the boy who had just battled a corrupt enchantress, fought off an enslaved army, taken down a demon who proved to be his toughest opponent yet, and suffered countless nearly life-threatening wounds just to retrieve this one sliver of memory for the love of his life...could only gape in disbelief at her retreating back.

Some memories are just better left forgotten...

A/N Haha, how was it? I couldn't resist really. I mean, Syaoran, the adorable little dude, is trying his darndest to retrieve EVERY single one of Sakura's memories... And each time they recover a feather, she only gets a memory of one measly event. So really, if they're recovering feathers in that manner, well...aren't there some of your memories that you think you could really do without?

(For my faithful readers, I'm in the middle of writing the next chapter of Copy and Paste, and then I'll start again on the next chapter of King of the Hill. I just couldn't resist getting this little thing out first!)