Summary: He held her father prisoner, and she would do anything set him free again, never realizing that no matter how much freedom he gave her, she would always be his prisoner.

Note: So yes, I am well aware that many of you thought me to be dead, but when you're in university having two majors and a minor, that's what you feel like sometimes. I've been watching a lot of childhood movies recently and I got inspired to write – something that hasn't happened for a long time now. So here's the prologue. I hope you all enjoy it. Don't forget to drop a review to let me know what you think. Thanks and happy reading =)

Simple Exchange
Prologue

"Sakura?" an aging man called from the bottom of his household beige carpeted steps. He adjusted his finely framed lenses that sat upon his nose and ran a hand through his salt and pepper colored hair.

"Yes, father? You aren't leaving already are you?" A woman with flowing waist-length honey locks and worried emerald green eyes asked.

"No, no. I don't leave for my dig until tomorrow. But, I do need to stop by at Li's house. I wanted to know if you wanted to come with me," he asked his daughter with a charming smile.

"For what? So his snobbish, inconsiderate, brat of a son can hit on me and look as though he's tearing my clothes off with his eyes… again?" Sakura asked, rolling her eyes and crossing her tanned arms over her full chest.

"Now, Sakura. They are old friends of the family…" he trailed off, anticipating his stubborn and hot-headed daughter's reaction.

"Fujitaka Kinomoto! How can you approve of that… that… that thing?! I would rather be single and alone for the rest of my life than reproduce with him!" Sakura cried to her father, walking past him to sit on the table.

"It's just… Sakura," Fujitaka sighed, "just as you're getting older, so am I. Touya is happily married with a family and I just want to be able to see you experience the same joy. I won't be around for too much longer and I just want you to be happy."

"Father, he tore my life apart," Sakura whispered, a far away look in her eyes. "How can I be happy? I want nothing to do with him."

"I just want to see you smile again, like you used to," Fujitaka replied, a sad smile upon his lips.

"What would make me smile is if you stopped talking as if you were going to drop dead tomorrow and go see the Li's without me while making it back to the house in time so we can have our dinner before your trip," Sakura replied with a sigh, handing her father a light coat. It appeared as if a storm was brewing in the last of these summer months.

"Alright, alright. I'll be home in a while Sakura," he sighed once more as he seemed to be doing a lot that evening, and kissed his daughter's forehead goodbye before leaving.

A fist slammed down on the mahogany table centered in a dimly candle-lit cellar with both frustration and anger.

"Fujitaka, you can't keep doing this to me," a man with messy grey locks and piercing amber eyes commented with clenched teeth.

"Lian, I am leaving for Egypt tomorrow. I will bring it back with me this time," Fujitaka told him sternly.

"You told me that if I made it so you could marry Nadeshiko then you would bring the artifact to the elders. It's been nearly 30 years now. What am I to tell them? They keep on asking me… keep on telling me," Lian trailed off painfully.

"Asking you what? Telling you what?" Fujitaka asked, sensing the pain his friend's voice and adapting a tone of urgency in his own.

"They keep on asking if you're good for your word. And if you are as good as I say you are, then we should keep something just as precious to you that was as precious as Nadeshiko was to them," Lian whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Fujitaka asked in confusion. His chocolate brown eyes widened in instant realization. "No… no, you can't have her," he whispered back.

"It's too late," Lian whispered sadly.

"Father? Father, what's so urgent that the Li servants had to call me? Are you alright, what's happened?" A feminine voice familiar to Fujitaka's ears rang through the dim cellar as the doors were burst open.

"Sakura? Sakura get out of here now!" Fujitaka cried, running over to her.

"Lian? Father, what is going on?" Sakura cried bewildered as she saw guards that seemed to appear from no where surround her.

"Sakura, I'm sorry things have to be this way. But we will be taking you until your father can provide us something promised long ago," Lian told the younger girl solemnly.

"Take me instead Lian. I'll send for it immediately. My son will go and get it. He," Fujitaka suddenly stopped speaking, a spasm of coughs and shakes attacking his throat and chest. Lian nodded in understanding.

"Very well. Guards!" Lian called, gaining the undivided attention of the guards who were still standing on the sidelines. "Take the girl outside and Fujitaka to the cells."

"No! Father!" Sakura cried while being forced outside by the waist. "He's sick, without his medicine he'll die!" She cried whilst banging on the door that slammed in her face. She was on the main floor again.

"Tsk, tsk. Sakura, Sakura, Sakura. Don't you know by now that acting like a barbarian will get you nowhere at all?" A husky voice asked beside her ear, so closely she could feel his hot breath on her neck. Shivering at the discomfort she whirled around and pushed him back away from her.

"Well what the hell do you expect me to do Li? Your father has taken mine for prisoner!" Sakura cried, her eyes brimming with tears.

"There, there little cherry blossom," he replied to anguish in a condescending manner. "We can make it right."

"What?" Sakura gasped, not believing the man she grew up to hate was actually willing to help her. "How?"

"Well, it depends how steep of a price you're willing to pay," he continued in his sensual voice.

"Anything, I'll do anything so my father can be free and well," Sakura replied breathlessly, staring into his entrancing orbs.

"We'll do a simple exchange is all," he told her, beginning to circle her like a hawk would its prey.

"What… what kind of exchange?" Sakura asked, afraid of the answer.

"Well freedom for freedom. That kind of thing," he began innocently. "All you have to do is…" he smiled crookedly in her direction, the bangs of his dark chocolate locks falling into his eyes.

"Marry me."

"Why are you doing this Lian?" Fujitaka asked from the inside of the damp cell they had placed him in.

"I don't want to, but I have no choice Fujitaka. I need to do what's best for my family," Lian told him.

"By hurting mine?!" Fujitaka cried, outraged. "I gave the elders what they wanted, but they kept on asking for more. Even after Nadeshiko left us."

"Let him go father," a man with a deep masculine voice interrupted their conversation.

"Ryu? We can't," Lian told his son sadly.

"Yes, we can," Ryu replied, smiling roguishly. "We had a new prisoner now," he told his father while throwing Sakura in front of him where she stumbled and fell to the ground.

"No, Sakura," Fujitaka whispered solemnly, while Lian simply inclined his head.

"Father?" Another voice from the top of the cellar stairs asked.

Everyone instantly looked up to the stranger who stood at the top of the stairs, duffel bags and suitcases around him. He looked exactly like Ryu; the same intense amber eyes, the same messy chocolate coloured hair, the same tanned skin. The only differences were that his lips were fuller, he had more of an athletic build and everything about his features seemed lighter; happier; purer.

"Ah, Syaoran. It's a shame you've always been off to school and have never met the Kinomoto daughter. You should get familiar with your brother's soon-to-be wife, Sakura Kinomoto."

Sakura raised his head slowly to lock shocked eyes with the younger brother of her new fiancée. Seeing him, she choked upon recognition. She gasped for eye and began to sob quietly.

"Not him, anyone… anyone but him."

TBC