Aria in Amber
Prelude: It's a Wonderful WorldLet's go out to the city after the rain
Making our curiosity swell up like a bubblegum bubble
The puddle reflects a blue, blue sky
Without a doubt, tears
Will dry up too, jelly bean
Ah! Let's take our time walking
In the pastel sunlight
Through the happy days and unlucky days.
Fruits- CCS Ending Theme
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It was a beautiful day in Tomoeda. The sun shone brightly, and the skies were clear blue. All around happy faces were to be seen, parents, children, elderly folks, businessmen, artists, students- it seemed as if every person was celebrating. Everything was calm and peaceful, as people strolled leisurely along the sidewalks.
Well, almost everything. In the distance, a faint white and blue blob could be seen hurtling down the road. The blob sped through the streets blowing hats away, ruffling ladies' skirts, raising clouds of dust as it passed.
"HOEEEEEEEEE!" The blob screeched. "I'M LATE!"
The blur turned down side streets, zooming past houses, through a grove of cherry blossoms, past Penguin Park, before making a sharp turn into Tomoeda High School.
In an upstairs classroom, a crowd of girls sat watching the clock. One minute left. "She's cutting it close," a pigtailed girl remarked anxiously. "Any sign of her?"
"She's in the courtyard!" A boy cried. "She's heading for the door, and she's in!"
"Aiyee! 30 seconds left."
"29… 28…27…"
They were still as they listened as the sound of footsteps on the stairs grew louder. "12…11…10…" A girl crossed her fingers. "Come on, Sakura-chan, almost here…"
"5…4…3…2…1…"
The door flew open with a bang, as a ruffled brown haired girl stood in the doorway, panting. "I made it!" A pair of skates was draped over her shoulder, and a backpack was clutched in her hand.
RING! The bell rang, and the students all laughed and scurried to their seats. The brown haired girl breathed a sigh of relief and walked over to her desk. "Ohayo Tomoyo-chan. I thought I'd be late for sure." Straightening her uniform, she shuddered at the thought. Sensei would not be pleased.
The purpled haired girl next to her smiled warmly. "Everything will surely be alright, if Sakura-chan tries. I have faith in you. Congratulations, this has been your third morning on time! You're getting good."
"Arigato, Tomoyo-chan." Sakura frowned. "Did you know onii-chan got a new car lately? And he still won't drive me to school. He'll drive Yukito-san, but not me. Humph." Tomoyo chuckled at her sour expression.
Sakura could never stay upset for long. Kinomoto Sakura was sixteen years old, medium height, with short choppy brown hair, and emerald eyes. Bright and bubbly, she was the type of person you couldn't hate no matter how hard you tried. She was cute, kind hearted, and optimistic beyond imaginable. Although a bit on the gullible side.
And always by her side was none other than her best friend Daidouji Tomoyo. Tomoyo was wise beyond her years. With her keen sense of observation, she picked up on things (especially about Sakura) that nobody else would notice. She had long purple hair, and amethyst eyes. They had been best friends since kindergarten. It was amazing how such a beautiful friendship spawned from a bunny eraser that Sakura had lent Tomoyo.
"Ohayo, Sakura-chan, Tomoyo-chan." A girl in glasses walked up to their desks, followed by a quiet girl with wavy hair.
"Ohayo, Naoko-chan, Rika-chan. How are you?"
"We're good. Sakura-chan, I have a new story to tell you!" Naoko had an impish gleam in her eyes.
Sakura's face lit up. "Yay, a story! Wait…" she noticed the glint. "It… it… isn't a ghost story is it?"
"Iie." The bookworm grinned. "It's about this land filled with dragons and knights, of floating castles in the sky, and magic."
"That sounds interesting." Tomoyo commented.
Naoko nodded. "There's this one knight, with a magical sword, which helps him to go and slay fire breathing dragons. He goes and rescues this princess, you see, and-"
"Sou, sou, did you know that dragons and knights used to be friends.?" A voice cut in.
They all jumped. "Yamakazi-kun!" Rika exclaimed.
"Hai, that's me!" The strange boy with lines for eyes beamed. "Ohayo gozaimos."
"What were you saying about dragons?"
"Sou, sou, that's right. The feud between dragons and humans started over a heating crisis. It was very cold, and humans were freezing without thermal blankets or heat. The leaders of the people cried out to the dragon king for help. 'Oh great, dragon king, please lend us your magical flame. We're going to die!' The dragon king, being compassionate, decided to help the suffering humans, and in doing so, started the world's first heating company. But things went wrong. There was one man who grew greedy, and decided to go steal the dragon's fire breathing technology. However, they ended up fighting, and the man was burnt to a crisp. The humans were furious, and went and slayed the beast. The revenge continued going back and forth, and since then, the bloodshed has not ended."
Sakura's eyes were wide in amazement. "Hoe, so that's where the feud came from. Sugoi…"
The lined-eyed boy turned to her cheerily, and nodded. "Hai, amazing how the root of the problem came from a heating crisis. Which reminds me, do you know how the heating system was inven-" BONK!
Someone whacked Yamakazi with a giant fist. "QUIT TELLING LIES!" the shrill voice screamed.
A pig tailed girl stood behind him with a furious look on her face. "Baka, baka, baka," she muttered under her breath.
"Ouch, Chiharu-chan, that hurts!"
"Baka, you deserved it! You know Sakura-chan believes what you say!"
Chiharu and Yamazaki. Birds of a feather. From as long as anyone could remember, the two had been best of friends. Yamazaki was a mischievous kid, with an imagination that could conjure up ridiculous stories from any subject. Nobody ever believed them, except for poor Sakura. She believed every word that came out of his mouth, from badminton duels, to chocolate-eating parasites. And so Chiharu earned the task of stopping Yamazaki before he completely brainwashed Sakura.
The group giggled hysterically as Chiharu continued beating Yamazaki. Meanwhile, Sakura sat puzzled.
"Wait… so dragons and humans never had a heating crisis?"
All of them stared apologetically at her, sweatdrops on their foreheads. "Oh dear." Rika sighed.
Suddenly, the door slid open, and their conversation was cut short, with everyone racing to his seat. "Sensei's here!"
A tall impending figure stepped into the room, holding a briefcase. He marched solemnly to the front of the room, and slammed the suitcase onto his desk. He looked over the entire room of pupils, as a smirk appeared on his face. The students gulped. It was interrogation time. The math sensei was notorious for his morning questioning, which was him randomly choosing people to answer a difficult math problem.
His glasses flashed, as he scanned the room for a poor victim. A girl trying desperately to hide in the back caught his eye. "Kinomoto-san!"
"Hai!" The brown hair girl looked up fearfully.
"Give me the equation for arithmetic sum."
"Hoeee…" her forehead wrinkled. "Wait… I know this."
Sakura struggled to think under their sensei's stone gaze. "I know this, I know this," she muttered as she whacked her head. Come on, don't embarrass yourself again, wait you know this…
"X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus four AC, all over 2A!"
All the tension in the room dissipated as the class burst out into laughter. The sensei sweatdropped in exasperation. "Kinomoto-san…"
"Hai, sensei." Sakura replied embarrassedly.
The stern teacher let out a long sigh, and groaned in frustration. "Never mind, Kinomoto-san. Just- just study some more. Everybody turn your textbooks to page 150…"
The morning went on, as Sakura sat in her classroom copying down her notes, scratching her head over equations and formulas. A smile lingered on her face, as she hummed a song of happiness and love.
Even if she did always made a fool of herself, life was good.
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"Syaoran-kunnnnn! Where are you?"
The Li mansion was alive with the sound of footsteps and the voices of overexcited women. All the doors were flung open, half-packed bags lying around, shoes and slippers lying on the kitchen floor. Nothing of the sort had ever been seen before in the Li household, normally meticulously neat.
" Little brother! Where are you?"
"Fenmei, did you find him?"
"No, he's nowhere to be found."
"We need to get our luggage into the car already! He needs to get his!"
"He forgot his shoes too!"
"Aiya, little brother's so difficult."
A young boy shook his head as he listened to the chaos. Leaning against the plastered wall of their Hong Kong home, he listened to his frenzied sisters panic. Strange creatures, they were. If they simply walked out to the car they would have found his suitcases, shoes included, already stowed away. Why they worried about his luggage anyway was beyond him- none of them had finished packing herself.
The four energetic girls were going to Japan for the summer, to help their darling brother Li Syaoran. Syaoran was a sixteen year old violin prodigy, living a life of fame and luxury in Hong Kong. Having released several widely-acclaimed albums, finished a sold-out tour of China, and graced the cover of countless magazines as the cover boy for classical music (if such thing), he was now trying his hand in Japan. His popularity spread quickly. Already, he was lined up for a summer concert series at the Tokyo Opera City Concert and Recital Halls.
When his sisters heard the news, they immediately agreed to accompany Syaoran there to keep him company during his performances. Or just to vacation in Japan, one or the other.
"Wah! Little brother landed his own concert series in Tokyo!"
"Syaoran-kun, that's amazing! Japan!"
"Imagine getting paid to work in Japan for a summer!"
"Syaoran-kun, can we come and accompany you?"
"That's a brilliant idea!"
"Yea, we can keep you company!"
"We could go out and eat every day, travel, shop…"
Yes, it was more for the vacation than to keep him company. Spending a summer overseas with his four sisters was not the way Syaoran had planned, but things just worked out that way. Syaoran shut his eyes and grimaced. Definitely, not the way he had planned. He had hoped to spend three months away from his crazy family, to relax with his music. But no, not only did were his sisters coming, but his mother was too.
When hearing the news, Li Yelan had smiled and said, "Your father would have been proud." And with that, she too decided to watch her son perform, much to his dismay. He loved her very much, but there was always an added pressure playing in front of her. She never showed emotion, she simply sat there still, expressionless until the performance ended. It always caused him some pain, to play his heart out, and see the one person whose opinion mattered most to him unmoved.
He looked up to gaze the lovely skies above him. Still, he was sixteen, living out his dream of becoming a professional violinist. That was more than most people could say.
The young virtuoso gazed at the love of his life lying next to him in its sleek black case. Unable to withstand its seductive power, took it into his arms once again.
"I hear his violin! He's in the garden!"
Syaoran let the notes, sweet and uncertain, guide his sisters to his side. He had all he ever wanted. Indeed, he had much to be thankful for.
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It would not be long before the melodies intertwined.
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Disclaimer: I wish I owned CLAMP. Or at least had their awesome creativity.
Coda: Er, well, here goes for my first real fanfic. In my mind, I've roughly planned it out to be a sappy romantic AU fanfic revolving around love, life, and the music bringing them together. (Lame, I know. XD) Hopefully, this will turn out well, or at least better than horrible. I know the prelude's boring and wordy, but read and rate please? Comments, critiques, flames, and how to use line spacing and paragraph breaks to work are appreciated. (Seriously...I'm about to rip my enter key off in frustration. x.x) :D