Author's Notes: I really, really like this fic. I was watching a movie when I decided to write it, that was
really weird, but they all had neat costumes and ways of speaking. So I thought to myself, Anrui- do a fic
about France. This fic takes place around the Revolution, but nothing solid with that has happened yet. I
used the English names because they sound more like names you'd find in France. I mean, Tomoyo the
French girl? Nah. I know I made her parents kind of mean, and that her father wouldn't hurt a fly. It's just
part of the story, 'kay? I have to start with my classes soon and get a job (I've been so lazy), so I don't know
how I'm going to be able to keep up with all my fics! My how I wish I had more time! Please read and
review. I go around smiling like an idiot all day if I get two or three… I'll even take the worse insults you
can throw at me as long as you're reviewing. CCS does not belong to me (if you haven't figured it out).
-Anrui, the priestess with too much to say. PS. I now accept anonymous reviews (I didn't know I didn't before, so bear with me)!
Sakura looked outside the window, while her mother Natasha lectured her. "You have a rebelliousness unfitting for a young French lady," Natasha continued softly, her voice never the less scolding. "Your father and I make these decisions for your own well-being."
Sakura turned from the window, "So you wish to choose my life for me! You wish to choose how I dress, and who I marry!"
Natasha stood from her chair, her skirts rustling as she glided across the polished floor. She lay a hand gently on her daughter's shoulder, "We have not even come to such decisions as husbands yet. You are but fifteen."
Sakura pulled away from her mother's hand, "Madison has already been married off at fifteen. How many years will you let me have before that is my fate too? One, three?"
"Sakura! Don't be so dramatic! It really is too much for me," she waved her fan gently at her face, "to have to deal with your notions of freedom. When we do decide to marry you, it will be so that you move up in the world and don't have to deal with the realities of poverty and work. You will simply have to be a good little wife and stay in the comfort of your home…"
"I don't want that!" Sakura yelled interrupting her, "I want no part of money! I do not care if I live amongst the rats in the gutter, so long as I am free to love whomever I choose!" She rushed out of the room, heels clicking on the floor.
Her steps slowed down as she left the room. Sakura gazed at herself in the large mirror outside. Her emerald eyes stared back at her, two curled strands of hair framing the delicate curves of her face. The rest was put up in the typical style that loosely hung down from her head until it came together in the back. Her dress was also quite common of the French nobility. A square-like cut surrounded by small lace, draping sleeves where lace (this kind longer and more intricate) also showed around the edges, and a small waist that emphasized how essential the corset was to the dresses design. The dress was a soft pink material, that simmered ever so slightly and looked dazzling as it fanned out in the back. Everyone told her that she was a beauty.
"Humph," she said to the mirror, "all the more reason to sell me off like some prized animal." She tossed her skirts behind her and started off from the mirror.
Aiden, her father, stopped her in the hall, "Why do you treat your mother with such impudence, child?"
Sakura could not answer her father surely, "I have no wish to anger you or mother. I simply do not want the life that you offer to me. I find it artificial."
"What is real then? The revolution that has been whispered in the streets? The lack of quality in the royal monarchy? Do you speak of those things as real? If you do, then you betray our entire family!"
"The nobility has no right to treat people as they do. They treat even their own sons and daughters in a manner that is unfitting of human beings. If revolution is what will bring about the change, then I shall support it!" Sakura winced as her father slapped her. He looked at her for a moment, as if disgusted, and then left her holding her cheek.
Her eyes watered, but she held back her tears. As soon as her father was out of sight, she went quietly out the door and stepped onto the street. Sakura walked resolutely away from her house, knowing that she shouldn't be out without an escort. She had to lift her skirts to keep them from the newly made mud and the puddles that were scattered around the street. Already her high boots were covered in dirt. She sniffed, slightly offended by the filth, but held her head up high.
"Surely you should not be out, Mademoiselle," a young peasant boy said politely, taking off his hat.
Sakura regarded him thoughtfully for a moment, "Are you ever unhappy?"
The boy looked surprised, "Me, Mademoiselle… never. Although I have to work, I dearly love my papa and brothers and sisters." He stepped back as if he had crossed some boundary by speaking to a noble, "I trust you are just as happy."
Sakura's eyes turned sad. "Here," she told the boy, tossing him a gold coin, "Buy you and your family something nice."
The boy's eyes grew wide, and he bowed, "Thank you, Mademoiselle. Truly you must be a saint." He scrambled quickly off with the coin, as if to spend it before it became less real. She stood for a minute watching him leave.
Sakura started to continue down the lane when she heard shouting behind her. "Stop him," a burly man yelled from a distance.
Sakura turned to see what it was about and was knocked to the ground. She looked up and froze as her eyes met with a pair of gorgeous brown ones. He was above her, though elevated because he had landed on his hands which were on either of her sides. His breathing was heavy from the running. "Please get off of me, Monsieur," she demanded.
He got up, and Sakura held out her hand to be lifted from the street. He glanced quickly from the fallen woman to the angry man who was quickly approaching and then sighed. He grabbed her hand and helped her to her feet. Once up, Sakura grabbed his sleeve and pulled him behind her. "Why do you chase this man?" she questioned the one who had just reached them.
"I saw him take a loaf of bread," he pointed a finger, but then backed off as Sakura glared at him.
"And what is the going price of bread?" Sakura asked. The man mumbled a price, and she handed him two coins, "This should take care of your inconvenience. Now leave my sight or I shall tell the authorities that you decided to harass a noble woman in the streets."
The man was apparently still angry, but her last words had put fear in his eyes. "Go.. good day," he stuttered, frightened, before going off the way he came.
"Thank you," the man behind her said, somewhat hesitantly.
Sakura turned to him, "If you would give me your name, I would consider the money half paid."
"Li Syaoran," he told her, "I want you to know that I wouldn't…"
She put a gloved finger to his mouth, "You do know that you owe a debt to a noble now."
"Yes, Mademoiselle, but I do not know what I have to offer," Li looked down, "I am after all just a peasant…"
Sakura silenced him again, "I will have no talk of classes anymore, and my name is Sakura. I expect you to address me as such." She took him by the hand, "I have need of someone to care for my horse, so you can work in the stables and have a room in our house until I consider that the debt has been paid. Is that alright?"
"I don't think I'm in any position to argue. I don't have a family to take care of, and you are offering me better than I can get around here," there was a fiercer quality to his voice as he continued, "But if you think you own me because of a…"
Sakura laughed, "If you think I want to own you, you must have been drinking too much wine." She paused as she noticed he was staring at her. Sakura felt oddly flustered by it. "What?" she asked, blinking a few times.
"I've never known anyone of the higher class to look at me before. It's a little unnerving."
"I'm not what you would call your average French girl or your average French noble…"
"I would wish that you call me Li," he requested.
She patted his hand, "Alright, Li." Sakura wished she could stop the fluttering of her heart. It set her a little off balance. She looked around. The night had already begun to set in, and the sun was barely showing on the horizon. What little people had been out when she had first emerged at the beginning of dusk were tucked away in their houses. She shivered a little, her dress soaked with the water from when she had been pushed.
Doing something unbefitting of her status, she moved over against him, "Put your arm around me please. It's very cold." Li did as he was told, and Sakura smiled, glad to have the warmth. Her father would have a fit, she thought to herself, to see her walking after dark like this with a man. She leaned against him to ward off the growing coldness of the night air and watched her breath leave in little puffs of smoke. Her skirts trailed behind her as she walked, hopelessly muddy.
She stopped him with a hand as they reached her house. "Wait here," she told him before slipping quietly in. "Genevieve…" she whispered into the darkness of the house, "Genevieve…"
The maid appeared before her, "Yes, Mademoiselle?"
"Prepare a room in the guest quarters and place some of my brother's old clothes in it. I am to keep a temporary servant there for now."
The maid nodded at the instructions and curtsied, "As you wish." Genevieve walked back off into the darkness.
Sakura waved Li to the door, "Come. We don't have all night." Li hurried up to the door, glad to get away from the cold. Sakura pointed down a hallway, "Go down there and enter the tenth door on your right. Be careful not to make any noise. My parents are most likely asleep. For some reason, Sakura felt a loss as he too disappeared into the darkness. She shook it off and walked quickly towards her room.
"And where were you," Aiden asked, "When you went off by yourself."
"I was just going to the market, Papa," she answered softly, knowing it wasn't enough.
"Do you think that you can do whatever you want while you're under my roof?"
"No, Papa."
He took her wrist roughly, "Don't you ever do anything like that again! You're mother's been in a faint ever since we found you missing."
Her voice was the only thing to betray she was crying, "I won't, just let go of my wrist. You're hurting me."
Aiden sighed and let her go. His voice had a chill to it, "Sometimes, child, I wonder about you…" He left it at that, and Sakura listened as his footsteps sounded angrily down the hall.
-----
Sakura knocked lightly on his door in the early morning light. It was still dark enough that she needed a candle to make her way through the house. She heard a muffled groan and then a thump. "Are you alright?" she whispered.
"Fine," Li replied from the other side. Sakura waited patiently in the hall, at odd intervals tapping her foot on the floor. She sighed heavily when he finally emerged.
"You look good," she told him, stepping back to take his whole appearance in, "I'm just glad we had something to put you in."
He yawned tiredly and then replied, "You didn't have to give me anything."
"It was no trouble, Li. I swear my family would have just made them into cloths. Now if you'd follow me…" she led him down the halls and back into the foyer. Sakura shuddered as the shadows danced about on the walls like ghosts.
Li noticed and put a hand on her shoulder, "There's only one kind of ghosts I believe in, and they're called memories. The other kind doesn't exist, or if they did, I don't think they'd be chasing innocent girls in their houses." Sakura nodded only, half assured and stepped out into the cool morning air.
"Stay close to me," she instructed trying to gaze past the heavy fog. Li put a hand on her arm. Sakura's back tensed, and she wondered why that simple gesture sent shivers up her spine.
The stables weren't far from the house, but they were barely visible in the thin light that managed to make it through the heavy air. Sakura unlocked the door, wrapping her shawl closer, and threw open the door. A few of the horses neighed lightly at the intrusion, tossing their heads and one or two stamping their hoofs. Li stepped in slowly, looking around at the wooden rafters, the hay in the loft, and the arrangement of the horse equipment.
Sakura stepped forward and lay her hand gently on the muzzle of a frosty white horse. "This is Claire," she told him, affectionately stroking the animal.
"You care a lot for animals," Li observed as he watched her. "I think that shows a lot of good character."
Her cheeks colored, "Mostly just Claire. There are not many other tame animals I have come across."
"Does it bother you to be conversing with a peasant?" he asked frowning.
"No," she paused, "I…" I just get so nervous around you, she finished in her head. Sakura just stood there, unable to answer.
Li seemed to take it the wrong way. He turned away and started working without another word. "Li," she pleaded walking over to him, "Please don't get mad at me."
"I'm not mad at you," he answered flatly without glancing up.
"Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" Sakura took a step forward as Li got up and turned around. They were close enough that she could feel his breath on her cheek. "You're just so confusing," she whispered breathlessly. He leaned down and kissed her. She closed her eyes, her thoughts going to fast for her to catch, and couldn't respond to his soft caressing of her mouth. When he finished, she just hung there for a moment and then covered her mouth with her hand. Sakura ran out with a soft cry, less able to think than before.
