Author: This fic is actually taken from my very first story here in fanfiction, The Young Vet and Heir. I got kind of sick looking at something like it, so I decided to make it go under revamp and reconstruction, to make it better and this is what I came up with. I hope you guys like it.

Blades slicing through ice; glittering ice shards created in the process…people watching them were entirely mesmerized.

Not only ice shards were created, though, but glory as well…

To be famous, is one's dream when on the ice…

And Syaoran Li wasn't a stranger when it came to ice-skating. The chestnut-haired man, aged twenty-seven, pulled off his skates and was only left in his black socks as he got off the rink, only to be greeted by paparazzi from numerous sports channels.

"Syaoran, Syaoran!! Is it true you're going to retire from competitive figure-skating?"

"You had a fight with your last manager, what's going to happen now??"

"You're leaving Canada? Would you give any comment on that?"

The handsome skater had a displeased look on his face. He was annoyed that the media had dared to intrude on his sacrosanct time of practice. "I have nothing to say. Now, if you will please excuse me, I have to go change…" he said quietly; his voice sounding very strange among the excited flurry of questions being thrown at him.

He calmly walked back to the locker room, ignoring the fact that the reporters were still following him. He opened the door, smiling slightly before closing and locking it again upon entering. A large German Shepherd that was obediently sitting on the ground before instantly jumped up and barked happily.

"Hey, Maruda buddy," Syaoran said, kneeling down to rub his dog's fur, "Guess I should bring you to take your shots later, right?"

He got up and walked to his duffel bag, dipping a hand inside and withdrawing a planning dairy from it. Taking a pencil, he flipped it open and started writing in it. "Well, buddy, practice is over, and I'm supposed to be bringing you to the vet next, just like it's written here…" he said to his dog, "It's really better if I don't have a manager. It's annoying, really, to treat me like some kind of celebrity."

The dog whimpered and gave another bark, wagging its bushy tail. Syaoran sighed, dropping the planner back into his bag and started taking off his sweater. "Yeah, well, anyone would like to be a celebrity, but I take ice-skating far more seriously. It's my job, after all."

"Still talking to animals, I see," a quiet, feminine voice, like a female opposite of Syaoran's, said.

Syaoran pulled on a T-shirt before looking at his visitor. "Mother. I assume you got a key from the manager?"

Yelan Li, although already past her prime, still looked quite youthful, with only a few wrinkles from the hard profession of being a monarch handling the large business of the Li Clan, lining her forehead. She was like Madonna, really. "Well, I heard all those questions that those pesky people outside were asking. You're leaving Canada. Is that true?"

Syaoran heaved a heavy sigh, zipping his bag while shrugging a jacket on. "Yes, yes I am."

"Why didn't you tell me? I could've gotten the jet ready for you."

Syaoran grimaced. "No thank you. The last time I got on that jet, I was flown back to Hong Kong, with Meiling waiting for me to take her hand as my bride. I'm not going to fall for that trap again."

The Chinese monarch made a sound of disapproval. "Well, I've supported your dreams of becoming a figure skater for so long, isn't it time you repay me by marrying a suitable woman and producing grandchildren for me?"

Syaoran shivered from the cold glare that his mother seemed to be giving his turned back. "Mother, incest is wrong. She's my cousin," he said with exasperation.

"Rubbish!" Yelan barked, "It's a good way of keeping the bloodline pure!"

Syaoran rolled his eyes. "It's not like Meiling's the only girl with no hereditary diseases or anything. There are a lot of girls out there, perfectly healthy!"

"So why don't you have a girlfriend, then, let alone a wife?" Yelan asked in annoyance. She certainly looked like her son when she was annoyed.

"I…haven't found the right girl yet?" Syaoran said, making up an excuse. In truth, he really wasn't interested in a relationship just then. All he wanted to do was to make it into the Winter Olympics, but he couldn't skate by himself anymore, thanks to that no-good lousy excuse of an ex-manager of his.

"We shall talk about this another time then," Yelan said in defeat, before returning to her usual menacing tone, "So, where and why are you going?"

Syaoran clipped a leash onto Maruda's collar. "Japan. Because I felt like taking a break."

"Also, because to execute that plan…"

He started walking towards the door, past Yelan with Maruda following him. "X-Xiao Lang!" she gasped with shock at her only son's blunt words. She was so surprised that she had used his given name, even after Syaoran had told her not to.

"Or else the paparazzi will stalk and research me until they figure out where I'm from. You won't have much peace at home from then on." Was the aloof man's reason.

"And you said you were really serious about skating!" Yelan continued.

Syaoran shrugged, hand on the doorknob. "I am, but what's there to do, until I'm allowed to skate competitively again? Anyways, wasn't it you who always told me to take a break from skating?" he reasoned, "I reckon I deserve a holiday, after all that fuss that bastard of an ex-manager caused."

Yelan's bottom lip trembled with rage. "Holidays usually don't require you to start hunting for apartments to live in, as well as to ship your furniture along with the rest of your belongings!" she hissed angrily, "Are you intending to leave Canada permanently and start residing in Japan!?"

Syaoran gave a small smirk, twisting the knob, opening the door. "That's the plan."

-

A young woman with auburn hair stroked the poodle in front of her lovingly. "Well, Mrs. Takahashi, Cloudy should be okay now!" she said to an elderly woman standing on the other side of the examination table. "If there are any problems, you can just come back here!"

The elderly woman picked up her precious pet, cuddling it like a mother would cuddle her baby. "Thank you, Sakura! You've been a lot of help! I was afraid I'd lose my baby here!"

Sakura giggled girlishly as she saw the woman to the door out of her office. "That dog has more than enough energy in her to keep on living! You're not going to lose her any time soon,"

Mrs. Takahashi bowed in gratitude, her dog still in her arms. "Thank you very much, Sakura. I really mean it."

Sakura laughed again, this time nervously. "It's okay, really. It's my job, after all!"

The woman finally left, still carrying her dog in her arms. Yes, at age twenty-six, Sakura was quite the handler of sick animals. Single, but devoted to her profession – although she had no choice. Her grandfather had left her the clinic, making her feel responsible for looking after it - she was well-liked by all the residents in Tomoeda. She was sweet, hard-working and honest. So much, that sometimes it was really hard to believe that she even existed.

Sakura went to the reception area of her practice. An ebony-haired woman sat at the front desk, mutinously typing on a keyboard. "Hitachi," Sakura called, "It's time for closing up,"

The receptionist pulled her glasses off, halting her work. "Thank you for your good job today!" Hitachi said, smiling as she shut the computer's system down.

"You too," Sakura replied, "Please lock the front door as you go, will you?"

Hitachi nodded, picking up her bag and heading towards the glass doors. "I will. Have a good evening!"

"I will."

Sakura went back into her office, picking up folders as she went and putting them back into a neatly arranged shelf. Then, through another door, she went through a pathway and into a house.

Upon opening the door, a large, forest-coloured Saarloos Wolfhound bounded towards the auburn-haired woman, being lazily followed by a black and white cat. "Nice to see you too, Kohaku, Kuroshiroi," Sakura said, smiling at her faithful friends.

A shrill ringing started, and Sakura did a little sprint towards the phone. "Hello? Kinomoto residence."

"SAKURA!!"

Sakura winced as she held the receiver away from her ear for a few seconds, waiting for the enthusiastic scream of her name to die down. "T-Tomoyo?"

"SAKURA!! YOU'RE DONE RIGHT!?"

Sakura laughed, amused with her friend's tone of voice. "You don't need to shout. I'm here, and I can hear perfectly fine. And yes, I'm off work for today."

"Sorry…" the soft voice on the other line said, "Listen, I made this new skating outfit today, you know, part of my winter collection, so I really wanted to test out its practicability. You know, comfortable and stuff for skaters to wear while performing!"

Sakura was puzzled. "Don't you hire other skaters to do test runs like that?"

"I do! But today's my off-day, and on a stroke of inspiration, I created this dress and I want you to wear it and test it out for me!!" Tomoyo said in a dazed tone. Sakura swore she could hear glittery and shining sound effects in the background, complete with blooming roses.

"Well…I'm not much of a skater, really…"

"Says who? If you had proper training, I'll bet you'll be one heck of a figure skater!"

"I wouldn't count my lucky stars for that. 'Sides, I love my job right now," Sakura said, grinning widely, despite the fact that her friend couldn't see her from the other line.

"Whatever! Just pleaaaase try it out for me? Won't you?" Tomoyo pleaded, "For meee? Your BFF times twenty?"

"Well, I can't say no to that, I guess," Sakura gave in to her best friend, "Meet you in half an hour at the skating rink?"

-

Standing outside the doors into the rink with a pair of worn-out skates in hand, Sakura felt a chill go up her spine. It was a good chill, for she had a brilliant smile on her face. The sight before her was a familiar one too for after all; she practically grew up with skating as a hobby.

Her brother had worked there part-time once, and Sakura had been going to visit him with the intention of joining him for dinner. She was asked if she had tried skating before and with a shake of her head, she had been introduced to the wonders of ice-skating.

At first, it was difficult though. But she caught on quickly, due to the fact that she used rollerblades as a mode of transport very often back then. She mastered the basics, then went on to try the basic skills that a figure skater should have known. Her side-dream was to be a figure skater; something she perceived would never come true.

"Sakura!!"

Sakura was snapped out of her reverie with the call of her name. "Tomoyo!" she waved at the raven-haired beauty running towards her in a hop-skip motion.

"She sure is excited…" Sakura thought, sweat-dropping.

"Dress! Dress!" Tomoyo chanted, dragging Sakura through the entrance, and going into a rented locker room. She held out a bag, giving Sakura what seemed like an out-of-place smirk.

"T-Tomoyo??" Sakura stuttered, spooked by her friend's creepy appearance.

"OHOHOHOHOHO!!" Tomoyo started laughing her trademark evil-witch-laugh, "SAKURA, MY SWEET! YOU WILL LOOK ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL IN MY LATEST MASTERPIECE!! OHOHOHOHOHO!!"

"O-kay…Tomoyo has gone out-of-character mode again…" Sakura thought, slipping out of her dress shirt and putting on the dress that Tomoyo had carefully laid out on the bench before starting her evil-fashion-genius fantasy.

Sakura studied herself in the full-length mirror they had in the room. The dress was a pale blue, with glittering blue rhinestones studded all over and had icy-blue tights to go with it.

"Matching skates too!" Tomoyo cut Sakura's amazement short. The ecstatic fashion designer held up a pair of pale blue skates, also with blue rhinestones studded all over it. "Actually, I wanted to use sapphires, but my mom told me that the outfit would be way too expensive to buy then. So! I decided to use rhinestones!"

"Interes…ting." Sakura said reluctantly, marveling at her friend's wealth and extravagance, although she had known Tomoyo since they were in elementary school.

"Now…" Tomoyo had a predatory glint in her amethyst eyes.

Sakura laughed nervously. "T-Tomoyo…"

Tomoyo leapt at her friend, costume in hand, and Sakura screamed comically.

"TOMOYO!!!!!!"

-

"Th-that was a very hazardous experience…" Sakura said weakly with a shiver as she walked to the rink slowly with the skates on.

"Aww, it wasn't that bad!" Tomoyo commented happily with her usual angelic smile.

"Not that bad!?" Sakura thought, an eyebrow twitching as she stepped on ice. She skated on the spot of ice for a few seconds, testing the blades out.

"'Sokay, Tomoyo!" Sakura said as he held two thumbs-up.

"Perfect!" Tomoyo said, delightedly clapping her hands, "Now, do a little routine! Be sure to use the costume's flexibility and practicability to its fullest!"

"I will…" Sakura thought, skating to a more empty space past a couple of staring skaters. She flushed with all the attention she was getting. "Guess not everyone has friends that need you to try on their latest masterpiece, huh?"

With no one in the way, Sakura started a series of jumps, twirls and loops. Creating a little mini-routine in her mind, she started with some serpentine steps, then increasing her speed to do a double axel jump, a triple lutz jump and finishing with a quadruple loop. Doing a circular step routine, she pulled an Ina Bauer move and finalized the testing-performance with a death-drop spin.

Slowing down, Sakura gave a small smile. "Perfect."

She looked up to see Tomoyo skating towards her with amazing speed. Sakura cringed, ready for the crushing impact, which was…

"THAT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL!!" Tomoyo hugged Sakura with all her might. "WONDERFUL!"

"H-hey…no need to get so worked up over a made-up performance like that…" Sakura said, giggling as Tomoyo let go of the vet.

"Sometimes, I wonder why you never thought of going pro," Tomoyo said with a wistful sigh, "All the wonderful costumes I could make for you!!"

Sakura laughed at her friend's comment. "That's absurd! I won't be able to make it as one!" she exclaimed as they started skating out of the rink, "Besides, who's going to look after the clinic I inherited from my grandfather?"

Unbeknownst to the chattering young women, a hazel-haired figure stood at a far edge of the skating rink, eyeing Sakura with amazement.

"At last…I've found what I've been looking for…"

Author: I seriously hope it's better than the original one.

Luv,

sakura-pichu16296