Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at a story which is finally not a one-shot and it's about our beloved couple, Sakura and Syaoran! Hope you guys would enjoy this first chapter and I hope it isn't really that bad!
Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura is a wonderful work of art and would only belong to CLAMP.
Summary: An orphaned girl finds herself homeless and perpetually hungry, surviving on stolen food here and there. Her fates changed one day when she was caught red handed by the well-known Li family. Would her life be for the better from now on, or would it be a downward spiral?
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Orphaned love
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The streets were full of people walking briskly to their destinations. Hectic and focused on their tasks at hand, it seemed not that anyone would notice a girl of incredibly small stature crouching by a dark alley, watching the people pass by her with large and observant eyes.
She watched as the pink rays of the setting sun cast its glow over the sky. The day seemed cheerful enough, but not so for the girl crouching at the deserted walkway by herself, with nothing for companion, except for the dust that the people kick up in their wake.
For a whole three or four day, she couldn't remember, she had gone by without food. The past days had been especially bad times for her. Usually she would be able to sneak out a crumb of bread or some leftovers from people's plates when they were not noticing, or when the workers hadn't been quick enough to collect the dishes left by the diners. Or if she really couldn't manage to be that quick, that or she couldn't muster the courage to go for the steal, she could always go to the back alleyways where the garbage bins were. Food would always be there. But the girl disliked the place. Rats and other small rodents would often be there before her, and she didn't fancy herself sharing with these night crawlers. But more often than not, she would have to search for some edible leftovers from the bins since it was the place where most food could be found. Even then, she tried to leave some for her fellow scavengers, no matter how creepy she found them. From her young mind and her small perspective of the world around her, she thought that if she got selfish and took everything for herself, nothing would be left for them, the only creatures she could identify herself with in this massive world. The last thing she wanted would be for these little rodents to dislike and hate her as well.
Since the beginning of her memory, the girl could well remember that she was constantly being disliked by the people around her. Although a large part of early years were a foggy past, she could still remember the times when she got brushed aside by the people she approached for comfort. Those were hurtful memories she rather not have. It was the early times, initially when she found herself orphaned and loveless. She had not remembered how all these started, just that for as long as she could remember, she had just been wandering around aimlessly, hoping that someone would take her in and give her some warm and clean food. Much as she tried to dig into her memory during the starless nights when she slept out on the fields with scarcely a piece of cloth for protection against the breeze, she couldn't recall much of her life, at least the part of her life before she became an orphan.
But there was a time when loneliness had hit her heart fully and she felt that she had to dig hard into her memories to find something, anything, which would give her some good cheer and lighten her heart. Her mind turned up nothing much, except for a very unclear picture of a smiling couple. Their faces were rather unclear but for some unknown reason, she could hear their soft laughter, calming and floating, as though they arose to soothe her lonely heart. The girl had rejoiced then at the little piece of information, that there were actually people who looked upon her such fondly and kindly. She wondered then, if anyone would ever look at her with kindness at all.
The girl felt her eyelids grow heavy and before they could close and give in to blissful sleep, she snapped herself awake. Night is coming soon and by much observation over the past months, she knew that nighttime is the best time to scrape some food into her stomach to ease the ever calling hunger pangs. Much as she wanted to give in to her tiredness, her hunger wins the dilemma. Straightening her body determinedly, the girl stood up and went out onto the streets, a small girl among the throngs of grown-ups.
Walking along the streets and trying to make herself as small and unnoticeable, the girl kept her large eyes fixed on her surroundings. A large restaurant with bright lights and a signboard with a really flowery sounding name caught her eye and she stopped in her tracks.
"Vi–Vio-Le-a…" The girl tried unsuccessfully to pronounce the name on the large signboard with the twinkling bright lights. Giving up, she let her eyes trail to the small outdoor tables outside of the restaurant. With their white colour and elaborate designs, the girl felt that the tables and chairs were really pretty.
Alas! She spotted an empty table which a group of people had just left. The waiters all seemed to be too busy serving the rest of the tables that they didn't seem to be in a hurry to clear the table up. There were not much diners around either, save for a small group of family who seemed to be in the middle of their meal. Instinctively, the girl knew that this is a chance that she should take. There were still a rather large amount of leftovers and if she was fast enough, she could well satisfy her hunger pangs for the rest of the night, perhaps even last her well past a few days.
Seizing the opportunity when she saw that no one around her was looking, the girl ran quickly to the table and with her small hands, tried to grab whatever food that were on the peripheries of the table. Unfolding a scruffy looking rag from the inside of her shirt, the girl quickly deposited the food into it, taking care to not spill them.
After the girl was sure the rag wouldn't hold any more food than it was possible, she tied the ends up and just when she was ready to make her escape, she heard a girl's voice, high pitched and squeaky,
"Look, Aunt Yelan! That girl in the beggar clothes is stealing food on that table over there!"
The girl in question immediately froze on hearing these words. However she quickly recovered as her instincts kicked in and made her realise she would need to escape right away, if she wanted to prevent a familiar round of episode to happen.
Yet as the girl turned around to scan her surroundings, a few of the restaurant attendants had reached her and were blocking any possible routes of escape. Fear reached a top notch in the girl's heart as she realised there wouldn't be any chances of escape now. Cowering under the accusing glares the adults were giving her, tears found their way down her face and the girl started to tremble uncontrollably.
The girl whose voice was hers a while ago pushed her way through the restaurant attendants and stood in front of the trembling girl. Nose wrinkled up in distaste, she eyed the girl's ragged appearance.
Her hair was in disarray and clumps of dirt could be seen clinging on to it. Her clothing or rather, the rags that hung off her tiny frame seemed so filthy that even a beggar would look at it in disdain. Generally, she looked as though the world's most impossibly darkest dirt and smudges had found their way to the girl.
"Meiling, what's wrong?"
Another voice, this one belonging to an adult woman, registered in the girl's mind.
"This girl is so filthy!Look! And she even stinks!"
"Now, now, Meiling, where are your manners? You can't just say such hurtful things to someone you just met, you know?"
The girl heard a rustling of clothes, then felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She shrank away in fear, not because she feared a violent reaction to her but because she feared she clothes would soil the woman's clean hands. Somehow she had suddenly become very interested in her state of hygiene, or more accurately, her state of lack of. She had felt a warm colour rise to her cheeks just now because of the other girl's words.
Please don't hate me…don't hate me…don't hate me…
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Just in case you guys are wondering, the 'round of episode' mentioned earlier is a time when Sakura got thrown out literally onto the streets when she was discovered stealing food, but not before she suffered some blows to her body, given by some brutes.
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