I have deleted my other stories because they just weren't working for me so I hope you do enjoy my next one, Falling Petals.

Disclaimer: I don't own CCS. NOBODY does except Clamp.

Summary: Born in 1987, a few miles north of Tomoeda, Sakura Kinomoto was the youngest sibling of a rich and well-known Japanese family who greatly enjoyed privileges during great times. But wealth and position could not shield Sakura from an evil and manipulative stepmother. Determined to endure through pain and suffering, Sakura finds love in the most unexpected places.

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Prologue

Sakura Kinomoto was the youngest sibling of a rich and well-known Japanese family. Being youngest she did not have privileges to know things like her elder brother.

Touya Kinomoto was a loving brother who protected Sakura very dearly indeed. But even Touya couldn't protect Sakura from the future.

Ami-san was their well-respected stepmother. Though strict at times and occasionally whipped brother and sister, she was a very general mother. Sakura and Touya didn't love their stepmother but didn't necessarily hate her either.

That very morning however, there father was buried in a rich, beautiful cemetery where the green grass grows and where the grass is watered by sweet and salty tears. Amidst their fathers wishes to be buried near their community shaded by a sakura tree and surrounded by Nadeshiko blossoms, Ami-san refused terribly, afraid of petals covering the floor "messily" and the smell of corpses enhancing the mansion, in which the stepmother admired greatly. Sakura was only five at the time and didn't understand why their father had died and was being buried against the ground. Her onii-chan told her that their father was being sent up to heaven with her mother, he didn't look very convincing as tears were stained and etched into his face. Sakura didn't understand at a minor age and had so many questions. Who was their mother? What was heaven? Sakura did not know her mother and therefore did not know her name. Nor her father's. Being young she only ever addressed her father as otou-san. She had asked Touya if otou-san was ever going to visit them from "heaven", Touya calmly looked at Sakura and cupped her chin and simply replied,

"No,"

"Well, if otou-san is going to heaven for the rest of his life- he would have to live in a big house with flowers everywhere – just like our house," Sakura thought innocently for a moment, "Otou-san what does heaven look like?" Touya looked silently and removed his hand from Sakura's chin.

"I don't know," Touya looked sullen, "I guess I'll have to wait to go to heaven,"

"Well can't we visit otou-san and okaa-san and see what heaven looks like?" Sakura asked hopefully. She very much wanted to visit her okaa-san and the curiosity overwhelmed her.

"We can't," Touya loved her sister very much and was very reluctant to tell her why. But Sakura was very confused though, and was wondering why she couldn't visit her own father.

"Why?" It was just one word--- three letters that just might change Sakura's life forever. Touya hesitated, and then told Sakura about life, death, the past, the present, and just barely- the future.

"We have to live with Ami-san and her daughter, baby Yin," Touya paused. He didn't want to live with Ami-san and neither did Sakura, and failed to act cheerfully at the displeasing news. "We will move to their house and leave our mansion." Sakura felt disloyal about not crying for their father's death, and not very sorry for killing her mom because of her birth. Maybe it was because heaven was a place where good people go and live on a fluffy white cloud. Where god will take care of her parents and watch them. And maybe Sakura doesn't feel sorry for her okaa-san because the only female figure she ever knew was Ami-san. But however- okaa-san did go to heaven, and then Sakura really wished she could've known her mother. Sakura only saw a picture of her mom before and indeed she did look like an angel. Sakura presumed that her okaa-san had got sent to heaven early to be an angel. Yes that's right, that's why I'm not sorry. Of course no one would be sorry to be sent to a wondrous land high above the sky and sun, guided and watched by god to be an angel. But after what onii-chan said about moving, Sakura thought why. As though reading her frail mind, Touya answered,

"We can't stay at the mansion and make them move because our father died penniless," Touya furrowed his brow. How could he have died penniless while he had millions in the bank of Tomoeda? "We have to sell our estate." Sakura froze. What about her dolls? Her horse? Her dog? At that age, children were more worried about materials rather than life. Little did the young Kinomoto know that will all soon change.

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