All I remember is that I was yanked from my bed and brought to the palace temple. The smell of smoke was thick in the air and screams could be heard from all around, I looked up to see my mother with a face that could only be described as terrified. Once we got to the main room she turned to me. "You must listen to me," she said as she kneeled to my height, "I am going to send you away from here, this world is under attack and I don't know how long it will be around, the high priest will send you to another world," I felt confused, it must have shown upon my face, because my mother then said, "I can't explain it to you myself, but once you get to the other world, the time and space witch will explain things a little better." With that she walked me to the center of an elaborate circle and the high priest began to chant in a low voice, gradually increasing the volume of his voice until it was a powerful bellow. The wind circled around me, the circle started to glow a golden color, I then looked to my hands and saw that they were disappearing, as if I was made of sand and the wind was blowing me away, I looked to my mother. She was crying, I started to cry too, but I knew that she was trying to save me so I could live. With that last glimpse, I was gone, traveling between worlds.

Sooner that I thought, my journey had ended, I was thrown from the time path and into a strange world, but before I could have a real look around, before me was a woman. She was dressed in a black and white dress with a r head piece placed atop her long black hair, but her eyes were a deep red. "Are you the time space witch?" I said with a small voice, I didn't trust myself to talk normally. Her eyes, that seemed perpetually half-lidded, softened. As if she saw my anxiety, she began with a warm voice, "That I am, I would assume you are Princess Tsubaki, of the land called Hana." My eyes widened, "H-how did you know that." I stated, she smiled, "Your clothes give you away, it has been a long time since I have been to that land, tell me. Are the flowers still there?" she inquired, my eyes became wistful. "They are as fragrant and as colorful as ever, the variety only increases," her smile stayed. "Good, but as with every service given, there must be a price," My eyebrows creased in thought, "But I have nothing, nothing but the clothes on my back." She gave me a look, a look that could almost pierce my soul. "But you have something, what about your necklace, it was what your mother gave you, wasn't it?" My hand flew to my throat, and my eyes widened, tears threatening to fall. "Please I will give you anything but that," I then looked to my wrist, "What about this?" I showed her the bracelet, "this is the bracelet that holds the royal crest, and with it, my title, the second I take it off, I am nothing more than a commoner." She had a pensive look in her eyes, "Very well, but with this payment also comes a contract, since you will be living in this world you must become a student in school, because you are still the age in which children have to go." My face dropped, "But I have already finished my studies-," "In your world," she interjected. "But in this world, it is highly unlikely that you have finished your studies, unless by some miracle, you were some child savant." My head dropped, "So be it," I started, "If I am to survive in your world, then I must gain some insight as to how this world operates." She moved her hand out in front of her, motioning me towards her house, "Since you'll be staying here for a bit, you must call me by something, my name is Yuko." All of the sudden I felt something small jump towards my stomach, I looked down to see a small black creature, with long bunny ears and little hands and feet, on one of its ears was a little ear clamp and in the center of its forehead was a blue gem. "And my name is Mokona Modoki!" I smiled at how cute it was, and then placed it in my hand, "Nice to meet you Mokona," I said to him, and then shook its hand.

I took my shoes off and left them there outside. Once inside the house, I saw how close it was to my world in the decorations, but of course it had its subtle differences. Yuko then led me to a room, once opened; I saw that it was a small bed room. It had a closet, a mirror, and a small dresser in the closet, on top of the dresser, was a shelf that had a bed that was folded up. "This is where you will be staying until you can find a place of your own, nothing special, but a roof over your head." I looked back to her, and bowed down, "No," I started, "this is special, you have done so much for me already, but I do have one question." Yuko nodded her head, acknowledging me to go forth, I then said "How am I to gather the resources to get another place?" Yuko gave me a look, then started, "In this world, common people must go out and go to shops that offer services of kinds, and apply to work there, sometimes they may hire you off the bat, but other times you may have to wait a while for them to reply back, if they reply back, it's called sending out applications, and that is what you will have to do first in order to get some kind of monetary gain here." My eyes widened at that knowledge that was kind of overwhelming me, "You must have done some work at the palace, Tsubaki?" I nodded, "Some chores, but I mostly helped the palace chef's cook sometimes." I noticed that Yuko's eyes widened and got a sort of gleam in them, "So, you know how to cook?" she started, "Yes," I replied, "Do you want me to make something for lunch?" I asked, she then jumped on me, and proceeded to hug me, "Oh that would be so wonderful!" Yuko then grabbed my hand and drug me to where ever I guess the kitchen was.

Once there she then pointed me toward the cabinets where the china, utensils, spices, etc. where. Then I took a look at her fridge, my eyes widened at how much alcohol was in there, surely this woman wasn't consuming this much alcohol! Behind it all was a small amount of food that left much to be desired, "So," I began airily, "What kind of food would you like?" She began to think for a bit, placing one of her hands to her face and looking up in thought. "How about something sweet, that goes with a bit of dry wine, does anything come to mind?" I thought for a bit, and then I thought of a cake we have back on Hana, "How about Green Tea Kasutera?" Yuko smiled and then said, "That would be great, but you'll probably have to go out and get some supplies," My eyebrows creased, "Should I really go out in this," I said, pointing to my clothes. Yuko waved me off, and said, "Nah, you are just fine, you just look very proper, and besides, all people will think is that is a very beautiful kimono," I smiled at her, "Thank you, Yuko."

Before I went to get the supplies, I made a list of what I had to get, since this world was very similar to mine, I kept it relatively the same. I checked off the ingredients we already had, which wasn't many. I then went to my room for a bit, and made sure I was presentable; I fixed my long brown hair back into a knot with my hair ornament, and came out to the main foyer. I saw that Yuko was already there, with a bag and Mokona. "Here is a shopping bag and Mokona here will show you the way to the convenience store," she then pulled out her wallet and opened it, pulling out a few slips of paper, "This is the money that we use in this world, you will use it to pay for the supplies, once you are done, you bring me back the change and what is left of the money, understand?" I nodded and smiled, and then put the money in the bag. I then saw that my shoes were at the bottom of the step before the door, I was a little shocked, and knew that I left them at the back door. I put them on and walked toward the door, I then made sure I had everything; my list, the bag and Mokona, who was already in the bag, "Ready to go, Mokona?" I asked while smiling at him, "He then popped up from the bag and hung on to the side of the bag that was as if he was walking next to me, "Full speed ahead captain!" he said and we were off.

Once past the gates, I saw how different this world really was to mine, in the streets were these metal things with people inside them, and the buildings were huge compared to Yuko's house. I looked back to her house, and saw that it was nestled between two huge buildings. I was a little overwhelmed, but thankfully Mokona nudged me, pulling me out of my thoughts, "We have to go this way!" He said, pointing with his hand, I nodded and smiled at the cute little…what ever he was. We walked for a bit, and before we got to the end of the sidewalk, Mokona told me to wait at the end of it, he told me that the sign across from us, with the red hand, told us to wait and not cross the street. But once the man that walked on the box appeared, we could cross the street! How strange is that, but he also told me that if we wait in the street to long and the red hand appears, the metal things that held people in it, could go and we could get squished.

Now that we have passed a few cross walks, Mokona told me what they were, we were at the door to the convenience store. I didn't see any door knobs, but Mokona told me to just walk onto the black mat in front of the door. Once I did, the door slid open, as if by some magical force! I jumped back a bit, but Mokona said for me to walk into the store, and that it would be alright. I found out that it was some sort of mechanism that made the door slide like that, no ghosts. And that the inside was colder than outside, which felt nice because my kimono's many layers didn't let any breeze touch my skin. Mokona then handed me the list that I made up, and we proceeded to find the items on it. About half way through the list, I couldn't find the rice starch, which held everything together in my recipe; I looked high and low, nothing. All of the sudden I heard a voice to my left, I looked over to see a young man, my age, black hair and light blue eyes covered by glasses. "Do you need any help?" he asked, my look became sheepish, and a blush graced my cheeks, "Um, just a bit, there is this thing I can't seem to find anywhere." He smiled and then asked, "What might it be?" I looked at my list to see if I was looking at it right, "A box of rice starch." He nodded and then motioned to the way he was heading, "It's over here."

We then walked over a few isles, and there it was, plain as day. I sighed exasperatedly, and placed my hand to my forehead, "I take it that you haven't been to this convenience store much?" the man asked. I looked up at him; "Actually," I began, and then felt a nudge in my side through the bag. I knew it was Mokona probably trying to warn me. "This is my first day in town, I just moved here from out of the country." His eyes widened, "Oh, where from?" I then started to sweat, the only place I knew was here and Hana, I then looked to my hands, which held the rice starch, on the front of it, it said Made in China. "U-um, I'm from C-china." I stuttered, hoping he wouldn't notice, thankfully he didn't. "That's cool," he said, and left it at that, "Do you need any more help?" he asked, I looked to my list, what was left, it was just a few things, "If it's not too much trouble, could you?" I asked, he smiled at me, "Sure," he then held out his hand, "Could you hand me the list?" I handed it over, and we walked through the store, "So what's your name?" I smiled, "Tsubaki, what is yours?" he replied, "Kimihiro Watanuki."

Now that he had helped me, we were finished before we thought we were going to be. After we paid for everything, we walked outside, "Well," Kimihiro said, "I guess I won't see you again," my face dropped, "Why is that?" I asked, "I dunno, this just seemed too good to be true. You're beautiful and nice, something's gotta be up." My eyebrow raised, "No, nothing's up," I was a little confused at his statement, "If you don't trust me, here," I then took out my hair ornament that was holding my hair up, and put it into his hands "If we are to meet again, you'll give me that back, if we don't, you get to keep that as a memento, call it serendipity, whatever will happen, will happen. But I have a feeling we'll meet again." And with that, I left.

Kimihiro's POV

When she placed her hair ornament in my hand and left, I felt as if I had seen an angel. After Himawari got asked out, and accepted, I thought my life was over, but I think I just may have found hope. I just really hope she's right about that serendi-whatsit. She was still within sight, and I saw how the hot sun made her brown hair shine a warm honey color. Her hazel eyes still pierced me even in memory. "GAH!" I gasped; the people around me looked to see if I was alright. But I gained composure, alas, here I am. Obsessing over a girl I barely even know, what am I, some sort of freak! I need to be calm, cool…crap.

Tsubaki's POV

When I got back to Yuko's house, Mokona popped out of the bag, stretched and gave a mighty yawn. "Did you sleep that entire time in the store?" Mokona turned to me, "Not the whole time," he said, "just a little after we got outside, the heat makes me sleepy," I smiled at him, then went to the kitchen to put everything away, I then went to give Yuko her change, and told her that I'd be done with the sweets in a little while.

She ended coming into the kitchen to keep an eye on me and to talk for a bit, I told her about my studies in my world, how I learned magic, and how the royal family was before the invasion. While she and I talked, I made the cream for the center of the cakes with my magic. I gathered all the ingredients into the bowl and whipped them with a little air magic. Yuko watched with interest, I then spoke, "You know, the only way to get that light fluffy texture is to mix it with air." With that I did a little flourish with my hands and then the cream floated into the air and back into the bowl. After I created the cakes that were shaped like little flowers, I filled them with the cream, and covered them with the top so the cream would stay in, I baked them for thirty minutes, placed them on a serving plate in front of Yuko and Mokona, "What type of wine did you want," I said as I opened the fridge, "Could you pull out the Shiraz?" I did then pulled the cork and poured it into two wine glasses. Within seconds, they drained their glasses, and started in on the cakes. I saw Yuko's eyes roll into the back of her head, for a second I thought it was a bad reaction, until I heard a moan of delight come from her. "My goodness, It practically melts in your mouth! And it's perfectly sweet." I looked to Mokona only to see him buried face first in a cake, he pulled away with the cream surrounding his mouth; "This is scrumptious!" he exclaimed. After I had a few cakes, I then cleaned everything up, and made some tea. I then put a cup down for Yuko and Mokona; I drank mine and told them that I was going to bed. "Good night," they both slurred, for they had too much wine, and I excused myself.

When I got to my room, I pulled down my bed from the closet and set everything up. After that was all done, I pulled off all but my yukata; I folded it all up, and set it in the closet. I tucked myself in, as I laid down, the day caught up with me. I was alone, no more family, no more hugs from mom that make it all better, no more wise words from the high priest. I began to cry, all I wanted then was my mom, even if we were commoners, I didn't care, mom makes everything better, I ended up crying myself to sleep.


My first CLAMP story, I thought it was good, but you tell me, Reviews warm my frozen feet! Seriously, their blue from the cold.