Freedom

Summary: Sakura is the strong-willed princess of the Kinomoto Kingdom. Syaoran is the prince of the Li Kingdom. Sakura seeks freedom. Syaoran seeks a bride whose beauty isn't just skin deep. What happens when they both wind up at the same place?

By: Syaokura Dragon

A/N: This is my first fanfic. Please give me any criticism you feel necessary. I'll try to make it better.
Italics: thoughts

Chapter One

Sakura sighed as she sat and waited for her mother to lecture her again. This was the third time this week that her mother had caught her sneaking to the stables and she was furious. As her mother started her lecture, Sakura sighed again and tuned her out. This was about the millionth time she had heard it and could recite it from memory.

"Mother, why can't I ride? I'm seventeen for goodness sake! I should be able to decide on what I can and can't do," she said, breaking out of her daydream of the trail she had been planning on taking that day.

"It is not suitable for a lady to ride astride, let alone a princess," her mother countered.

"What if I don't want to be a princess? What if I want to be a normal girl, not a lady or a noblewoman, just a girl who could do anything she wanted to with her life?! I want to be free! No more stupid rules or protocols. Princesses don't get to do anything! All we do is sit in a room and sew and drink tea. I hate tea! We don't get to give opinions at meetings that concern us all, we don't get to ride astride, we have to ride sidesaddle on the oldest horses and in dresses, and we can't have more than three seconds alone without some servant asking what they can do for 'Her Royal Highness'! I'm sick of it!" Sakura was standing up and yelling when she was finished. Slowly, she sat down, breathing as if she had just run a mile. As if on cue, there was a knock on the door and a young girl poked her head inside the sitting room they were in.

"Excuse me, but I heard yelling. Is there anything I can do?"

Sakura's mother shooed her out of the room. "No, we're just fine. It's nothing to be worried about."

When she returned to her daughter, she knelt in front of her and took her hand and held it.

"I know how you feel," she started softly. "I went through the same phase at your age. I was the more independent of my sister and I. Sonomi was always the one that got he praise for her embroidery and sewing and all I got was a 'Keep working at it, you'll get better'. I was always sneaking out , and I was always caught within ten minutes." She laughed at this part, and then sighed with a dreamy look on her face. "I continued to disobey my parents until the day I met Fujitaka, your father. We fell so deeply in love that I gave myself to him fully. I went wherever and whatever he asked without asking any questions, but I never left his side for more than a day. You will feel the same way when you find your true love," she explained gently, but confidently.

"What if I don't ever find my true love," Sakura cried. "Do I really have marry a nobleman? They are so conceited!"

The older woman chuckled, and then said, "You may marry whomever you wish. If a mere farmer makes you happy, then I will give the finest wedding this kingdom has seen in a century."

"How will I know if I love a farmer when I haven't ever been outside the palace grounds," the auburn-haired teen asked, deflated.

Her mother sat beside her and brushed the hair that fallen into her daughter's face behind her ears. Gently she told her daughter, "I'll talk to your father about this. Maybe the two of us can take a trip together."

A hopeful Sakura asked, "Do you think he would let me go by myself?" Quickly she added, "You know I would love to have you with me, but I think this is something I need to do on my own."

A knock at the door interrupted the pair's conversation. A servant stuck his head in.

"Yes?"

"Sorry for interrupting your majesty, your highness," the balding man said, bowing first to the queen, then to the princess, "but King Fujitaka has requested that both Queen Nadeshiko and Princess Sakura join him and Prince Toya for the midday meal."

Nadeshiko nodded at the man who had so loyally served the royal family for going on half a century. "Thank you , we'll be down momentarily."

left and closed the behind him. Nadeshiko stood and helped her only daughter to her feet. "We should head down now. Your father and Toya are waiting. I'll talk to your father after dinner, so don't bring the subject up," she warned.

Sakura nodded and followed her mother down to a meal of rice and dumplings.

"Syaoran!" Yelan Li was marching through the palace looking for her son. He had skipped lessons again and was trying to avoid the meeting she had set up between him and a nice young woman of noble birth.

Really, he is eighteen already. He needs to stop hiding like a five-year old running from a bath. He needs to marry soon!

She headed towards the garden in the west wing. That had always been his favorite hiding place when he was young. He would hide there whenever the cook saw him trying to sneak a sweet or whenever his four older sisters started chasing after him saying how kawaii he was.

When she strode through the arch leading to the garden, a boy with messy chocolate hair jumped out of a tree. Yelan sighed.

"Syaoran, how many times do I have to tell you? Do not skip lessons! You're going to need them when you become King."

"Mother, those old bags that call themselves tutors couldn't teach me how to hold a fork, let alone a country! They are useless and they put me to sleep. I had an idea. I asked myself, if I have to sleep, why not somewhere that isn't as stuffy as the classroom? Why sleep there when I could sleep in my favorite garden? So I skipped out and got an hour's worth of sleep in," he said smugly.

"And what is wrong with Lady Yuhi? Why must you ignore the fact that I arranged a meeting between the two of you?!" Yelan was getting mad.

"Why should I spend an hour's time listening to some whack job talk about the weather and how she looks and the next party coming up. The list goes on! Where are the girls that actually care about something other than themselves and act upon that care? Are there any," he asked, flailing his arms around.

"Syaoran, you are turning twenty-one in less than three years," Yelan started, exasperated. "You must be married by that time!"

"What about my question? I want an answer! Are there? Are there any noblewomen like that or are they all peasants? Because if a farmer's daughter is the only one that is like that, then that is the woman that I will marry," Syaoran argued.

Yelan looked thoughtful for a moment. Then a triumphant look plastered itself on her face. "I have an idea."

Syaoran suddenly perked up. "What? What?"

Yelan gave her son a smirk. "You'll just have to wait until tomorrow."

"Fine," Syaoran sighed, "but I want to know first thing in the morning."

"Impatience will get you nowhere in life," his mother warned. "Now go practice your patience with Lady Yuhi."

Syaoran sighed. "Yes mother."