Summary: Li Syaoran is a genius pianist, renowned throughout the world. Sakura is the clumsy cellist who breaks his arm. She promises to stay with him until his arm is healed...but when that time is over how will she bring herself to leave?

Disclaimer: CCS and all its characters belong to Clamp et al. Not me, okay? Okay. Also, Guitar World is an actual magazine aaaand guess what? It doesn't belong to me either XD; The idea for this story was inspired (not based) on the movie August Rush. I personally play the violin but my friend plays the cello. I was also part of the school orchestra for three years so I thought...why not use some of that knowledge and write a fic? XDD And here it is!

This River Flows in You

Chapter One, Idols and Stubbornness

There were many people in the world Kinomoto Sakura admired. Her friend Daidouji Tomoyo for one. Tomoyo had everything she wanted but would probably never have so she merely looked on in awe from afar. Tomoyo seemed to be, in essence, the perfect female; especially with her grace and beauty. Sakura wasn't ugly herself but Tomoyo just seemed to that extra thing that she lacked, something that Sakura couldn't quite get for herself. And probably never would. Another person she admired was her father, a brilliant archaeologist who had astounded the world with his findings not just once. Pride and love welled up in her whenever anyone mentioned Kinomoto Fujitaka. She only hoped she inspired the same feeling in him when people talked about her.

Above all however Sakura idolised Li Syaoran. The Chinese pianist who had taken the world by storm; he'd played in concerts in every major country, and even some minor ones. He'd been a guest in the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; he'd created a masterpiece and dedicated it to the Queen of England. He'd presented himself to the President of the United States on numerous of occasions. He was, many said, a musical genius. With several compositions under his belt it was rumoured that he was attempting to learn every instrument in existence.

Strangely enough however, Sakura didn't like him because of that. In fact, she hated his ambition. It was stilted and she could hear it through his playing. She hated the polished sound to his music, the new perfectionism when he touched the keys of his piano. She was in love with his earlier pieces, the ones that all but screamed of emotion. The ones that whispered of love and loss and picking up the pieces. She loved it – all of it; the sadness; the happiness. It was enough to make her cry that those emotions were gone.

Sakura was a fairly emotional person herself. She laughed, perhaps more easily than most. She smiled when she was happy, cried when she was sad – she wasn't afraid to feel. She felt Li was perhaps the opposite, and she wanted to teach him that it could be different.

When the chance came for her to perform with Li of all people she jumped at the idea. She'd talked to Tomoyo into the early hours of the morning as excitement filled her – too much to be able to sleep on. Her friend didn't mind, or at least, she hoped not.

The orchestra Sakura played in was only a small one, there were barely enough people for it to be called a 'chamber orchestra'. It was formed for fun and fun alone. For someone like Li to come and play with them was a minor miracle. Sakura had heard somewhere through the grapevine that he was old friends with one of their players, Yamazaki Takashi, a bass player.

Being part of the String section Sakura didn't talk much with those in Bass but ever since she'd heard this information she'd tried to seek him out. It hadn't been hard – she'd just never realised that Yamazaki was the same person who liked to tell fascinating stories. Just the other day there'd been the one about the purple cloud spotted in Switzerland...

So she'd found Yamazaki after only a while of searching and asked him about Li.

He'd stared at her for a while before simple shrugging. "I don't think I can tell you about him Kinomoto-san."

Chiharu, his girlfriend from what Sakura had heard, had elbowed him in the side. "Don't be criptic."

"But I can't answer the question properly," Yamazaki had protested.

"Eh? I don't understand...Yamazaki-kun?"

"I haven't seen him in a while – people change Kinomoto-san."

"But, he's...his music..."

Yamazaki had shrugged. "You know as much as me, the boy I used to know was arrogant but...I only knew the kid-Syaoran. Who knows what the grown up Syaoran is like?"

She'd come out no better than she'd started but Yamazaki had told that they'd only been friends in Elementary School. She shouldn't have really expected so much after eight years of parting. What if Li Syaoran was an awful person? What if the person she idolised wasn't like she thought he'd be? If he were still arrogant like Yamazaki had said how could he compose and perform such wonderful music? So many hours she'd spent listening to him, hearing the heart wrenching notes over and over...She didn't want her dream to be just a figment of imagination.

Leaving Yamazaki Sakura diverted over to the Violin section where her friend Tomoyo was sitting. Her flute was cradled carefully in her lap whilst she leaned in to listen to the Concertmaster. Not wanting to bother the two of them Sakura tried to dart past when Tomoyo looked up and caught with her with a small wave of her hand.

"Sakura-chan, come and sit down with us." Left with no choice Sakura made her way over reluctantly, squeezing past several over players before she was next to them.

"Tomoyo-chan, Eriol-kun," she nodded to both of them before shifting stands aside and sitting next to her friend.

"Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Tomoyo's concerned voice echoed through her head a moment before she shook it roughly. She let the silence run for a moment, unsure of how to respond.

"Is anything wrong Sakura-san?"

Forcing a smile onto her face Sakura saw that both Tomoyo and Eriol looked worried and she quickly spoke up before either of them became any more so. "I'm fine, just...thinking."

"What could Sakura-chan be thinking of I wonder? To make you look so sad..."

"I just...what do you think Li-san will be like?"

"Ah, him," Eriol said, cutting Tomoyo off with a small wink. "You'll meet him later – why the rush?"

"I don't want...to be disappointed I guess."

Tomoyo gave her a sympathetic pat on the back. "It's hard to meet your dream face-to-face."

Sakura's eyes widened and she nodded her head vigorously. "Yes! That's exactly it. What will he be like? What will I say? Will he like me?!"

"You'll just have to wait and see Sakura-san," Eriol told her before standing up and wiping down his trousers. He looked immaculate as always and Sakura blushed to think of the old sweater and well-worn jeans she'd put on today. Tomoyo looked like a model sitting next to her in her latest fashion designs.

Eriol walked to the front of the orchestra and used a pen to tap the stand in front of him. "If everyone will get into place we'll make a start today – we don't want to be out of practice for our celebrity..."

Sakura sighed, moving into place and settling her cello into position between her legs, picking up her bow and placing her hands into position. Playing the cello was like breathing to her – she only hoped she didn't stutter when Li Syaoran did eventually turn up.



Syaoran levelled his cousin with an annoyed glance before crossing her arms and shaking his head yet again. "I'm not going."

"You have to! I promised them you'd turn up – you can't turn them down now. They all want to meet you..." Meiling trailed off seeing the stubborn look she was being given. Stifling a sigh she left him in the living room and went over the kitchen area to start chopping up things for lunch, hoping it might calm her down a little.

"You did say you'd go," one of Li's older sisters inputted and Meiling thanked whatever stars looked after her that she wasn't on her own in this. Syaoran was hard enough to look after with three people – never mind just one.

"That was before I heard he'd be there." Syaoran replied. Meiling watched from her vantage point as he took one of the magazines from the glass coffee table and buried his head behind it. She had to swallow another sigh when she saw the title, Guitar World. Syaoran had been trying – and succeeding – in mastering another instrument this month. He'd chosen the 8-stringed electric guitar, to add to what he already knew of the 7-stringed electric guitar, the acoustic guitar, resonator guitar, archtop guitar; flat-top guitar...to be honest Meiling had quite forgotten just how many instruments Syaoran knew how to play.

"Hiiragizawa-kun is not going to do anything to you that you won't do to him. Honestly, your rivalry is pointless – you've already shown you're the best in everything you achieve."

Meiling winced as Fanren finished her sentence. She just knew what was coming next –

"No one can be the best in everything. This rivalry...you wouldn't understand." His voice was muffled coming from behind the magazine but Meiling could hear him clear as day and she rolled her eyes in response, banging around with the pots and pans as a means to get rid of her aggravation. Sometimes she just wanted to get her hands round his neck and squeeze. And then, moments before he ran out of air she'd let go. It would be then that he'd be done on his knees apologising to her for being an idiot. Or, at least, that's how it went in her dreams. In reality the story would probably be quite differen.t

"I couldn't," Syaoran replied. And that was the end of that.

Fanren gave up and left the room, leaving Syaoran to stew by himself. Meiling finished in the kitchen – she'd only made two sandwiches, one for her, one for Syaoran.

Setting his down on the coffee table she moved to sit opposite him.

"You can't not go," she finally stated when the other had finally put his magazine away long enough to start eating.

He frowned but didn't respond, mouth too full of food to talk and be polite at the same time. Meiling cheered for Syaoran's mother for giving him such a strict upbringing.

"You're going to go because you're curious," she deducted, giving a sly smile. "You want to see what he's like and you're not going to stop wondering about it until you go. So you might as well go."

Syaoran scowled at her, grabbing another sandwich to fill his mouth.

Meiling knew she'd won when he didn't reply. Smiling, she gave herself a small pat on the back for her success. Oh if only it were always this easy to get the stubborn man to do the things she wanted...

a/n: so, what do you think? I know they haven't met yet – that's for the next chapter XD; Tell me your first impressions and whether I should continue it or not...I haven't written a SxS fic before so I'm a bit wary of characterisations and such...