Author's notes: Hello, everyone! I'm really flattered that I got over 20 reviews for just the first chapter. There are a couple of things I'd like to sort out before starting on this chapter.

Syaoran has not fallen in love with Sakura yet, he's only helping her because he feels the need to protect her. Secondly, Sakura has not fallen in love either she just trusts Syaoran because for some reason she thinks he's familiar to her. That's all.

Chapter 2:

Tokyo and Syaoran's uncle:

"It's ok. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to" he added hastily and then smiled, "I'm Li Syaoran, by the way. And you're Sakura Kinomoto, right?"

My eyes widened, "Li Syaoran?" I whispered, "You're the heir to the Li clan?" I stammered, startled.

The guy next to me looked slightly surprised, "I didn't know I was that famous." He said with a grin.

"I've read about you in the paper once or twice" I shrugged, still contemplating on whether or not I should tell him everything.

"Umm…Miss Kinomoto?"

"You can call me Sakura" I found myself saying,

"Sakura…"he said, "Beautiful name…"he added, "Anyway, do you want to go home?"

I froze. I couldn't go home. After what happened today, Hayato would definitely be raving mad at Li for running off with me. Suddenly I couldn't handle it anymore. My parents and my brother suffered because of me. Now Li's going to be in deep trouble and it's all my fault.

"Sorry" I whispered, my shoulders shaking as I struggled to control my tears, "I'm so sorry"

"Why?" I heard him ask, his voice soft.

"Please leave me and go. Because of me you're in danger. I have no choice, I have to marry him. If I don't more and more people will suffer because of me." I started to cry, I couldn't hold my tears anymore.

"He wants you to marry him?"

"Last year, my family and I moved to this town. Everything was fine back then. I was really happy. But then a few weeks later, the son of the richest guy in Tomoeda, returned. His name was Ryushin Hayato. At first he started following me about and kept insisting that I date him. I refused, hoping he would stop but it started getting worse. He practically killed any guy who even dared to look at me. My friends started to get scared and refused to talk to me. The news spread rapidly. The people started treating me indifferently. Then he pressured me to marry him. My brother, Touya, hated him and when he started to talk of marriage, he got really angry and confronted Hayato. I don't what happened between them, but the next day we got the news that my brother had been brutally injured in an accident.

But it wasn't an accident, Hayato told me that he made it seem like an accident, and he said that if I didn't marry him, he would do worse things than that. Now my brother is in a coma, in a hospital at Kyoto, his friend Yukito is taking care of him. We need a lot of money for his operation. Hayato says he'll pay if I marry him. After that I detached myself from everything and everyone around me. I didn't trust anybody. My parents told me to run away. So this morning I decided to go to the station hoping to get away from this nightmare town but he saw me and now I'm in trouble again. And I've gotten you into trouble as well." With that I broke down completely, burying my face in my hands.

It's the first time I poured out all of my feelings to some one and somehow it felt good, instead of bottling all my feelings inside me.

I stared at the girl, sympathetically who was sobbing uncontrollably. What a horrible life she had. I've lived all my life in luxury and I couldn't help but feel sorry for this innocent girl, who'd gone through so much in life. I dug my pockets and pulled out my handkerchief. I placed my hand on her shaking shoulder and held out the handkerchief to her. She took it from my hands an cried for a bit before wiping her tears away

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine and I'll make sure you'll be too." I said softly. I looked down at her pretty emerald eyes, which were shaking with misery, fear and anxiety but now I could see a small fire of hope shining in them.

We didn't speak for some time. I just watched her as she held the handkerchief tightly in her hands and sat curled up against the wall and looked at the luminous hands of my watch. It was only half past noon. I decided to wait till it was dark before sneaking Sakura back to my hotel,

"Thanks…Mr. Li"

"Call me Syaoran. Mr. Li makes me sound so old" I said and grinned, satisfied that she managed a watery smile.

It was 5 in the evening now. The sun had already set. I had just awoken from my short nap feeling hungry. The girl beside me was asleep too leaning against the wall of the cave, hugging her knees to her chest. I gently shook her awake.

"Hey get up. We're leaving now."

She nodded standing up and picking her bag. I removed my coat and placed it on her shoulders. She looked at me, puzzled.

"Wear it and put the hood up. We don't want anyone to recognize you." She did as I told and we left the cave.

It took us half an hour to get to the hotel where I was staying. I managed to get some sandwiches on the way so we weren't hungry. I crept through the back gate of the hotel and let her in my room. Luckily for us my friends weren't there and it was on the first floor.

"Stay in here. I'll be back in a while" I whispered, letting her in, mentally thanking my careless friends for leaving the window open.

I jumped off the balcony and strolled into the reception counter, only to be welcomed by my friends and the coach.

"Syaoran where were you?" Eriol demanded, catching sight of me.

"I went for a jog this morning and fell asleep," I replied, casually.

"Well good thing you're back. The match has been cancelled. We're leaving back to Tokyo soon." The coach told me, obviously convinced by my lie.

"Why?" I asked, surprised.

"The other team backed out due to some personal reasons. We don't know the details. But this means we go directly to the finals. Now hurry up and pack your stuff. And that goes for the rest of you." He added to my friends.

I looked at my friends once the coach had left, "Come on guys I have a little something to tell."

-----

"So you agreed to help her?" Ken asked, looking astounded.

"What's wrong with that?" I asked.

"I don't think you should go against this Hayato guy." He said, looking serious.

"Yeah Ken's right" Yamazaki added as we walked down the corridor to the room. "I've heard stuff abut this guy. And he isn't the kind of person you should go making enemies with."

I frowned. "I promised to help her and a Li doesn't back out from promises."

"Tell me Syaoran is she pretty?" Eriol enquired suddenly.

"Why do you ask?" I looked at him suspiciously.

"Just wondering if there was any other reason why you agreed to help her." His eyes glinted mischievously.

"Shut the hell up Hiragiizawa!" I growled as I stuffed the key down the keyhole. I opened the door, Sakura looked startled. I saw her throw a frightened glance at all my friends, who were now gaping at her.

"Don't worry. You can trust them" Then I turned to my friends,

"Guys, this is Sakura Kinomoto, and Sakura, these are my friends, Eriol, Ken and Yamazaki." I said

"Wow" Eriol said slowly, "She's hot!"

I glared at him as he moved towards her. She looked even more frightened than ever as she quickly backed away from him and came over to me.

"You don't have to be scared. We aren't going to hurt you" Ken said eager to start a conversation.

But Sakura didn't seem interested to start a conversation. She continued to eye my friends distrustfully.

I sighed and glanced at my watch, "We have one hour till we leave. We've got to find a way to get her out of here" I sat on the bed and beckoned her to sit next to me.

"Sure. That's no problem." Eriol replied at once in his usual smug tone.

"So what's your plan then, Einstein?" I asked half annoyed, half amused.

"Just wait here a sec." Eriol dragged Yamazaki and Ken out of the room banging the door shut as he left. Sakura and I cringed at the loud noise it made.

"You can trust them you know" I told her.

"It'll take some time." I replied

"Huh?"

"Trusting them I mean…" I looked at my hands.

He seemed to understand for he just smiled and said, "I'm just glad you trust me"

I gave him a small smile and then we both fell silent.

"Do you have any change of clothes?" he asked me suddenly.

"Yeah" I replied. He directed me towards the bathroom and said,

"Change your clothes in there" I nodded and went off carrying my backpack. I sighed as I leaned against the bathroom door. For some reason I felt that I could trust Syaoran, but I'm sort of worried about his friends. They seem kind of crazy to me. I hoped their plan was good, because I didn't want to be caught by Hayato and I didn't want Syaoran to get into trouble either.

I pulled my dress over my head, changed my hairstyle to a bun, placed a hat over my head and stepped out of the bathroom.

"Oh, you're back" said Syaoran and fished out a pair of dark sun glasses and handed it to me,

"Wear these. Don't worry, they're mine" he said. I simply nodded and took it from him. Just then the door was thrown open and Eriol, Yamazaki and Ken burst in, looking triumphant.

"Here" Eriol tossed a bag at Syaoran, who caught it looking surprised.

"A wig? Where'd you get this?" He asked surprised.

"Oh. We just snuck it from somewhere" Eriol replied, airily.

"Let Sakura dress up as one of us. You know a soccer player." Ken suggested.

"What about her ticket?" Syaoran asked at once.

Yamazaki pulled a ticket out of his pocket and held it out to Syaoran,

"You think we're fools, man. We've got it too. The coach thinks we're old enough to buy our own tickets. So he'll never guess there's an extra person."

Syaoran looked at me,

"Sorry Sakura. I guess you have to change again." He went over to his bag and pulled a baggy T-shirt and loose pants.

"Here, change into these." He handed me his clothes and I couldn't help but blush for this was the first time I was going to wear a guy's clothes.

I took his clothes and the wig his friends had got and went back into the bathroom. This is going to be a long day.

Finally I stepped of the bathroom, blushing furiously.

"Not bad at all. Except for the fact that Syaoran's clothes are a bit big for you. You make a perfect boy" Ken told me.

A knock was heard o the door and a voice called,

"Come on. It's time to leave. Everyone's ready except for you guys"

"Sure thing, coach" called back Eriol, "Come on Syaoran, let's go."

The boys left the room. Syaoran came over to me and squeezed my hand gently,

"Just stick to me and try not to get too much attention. I'll keep your backpack inside mine and don't forget to wear the sun glasses"

I nodded and the two of us left the room.

I watched Sakura as we entered the lobby. The entire place was buzzing with voices of my teammates, who were cluttered around the place. I could see some of them flirting with the receptionist. Stopping the urge to roll my eyes, I whispered to Sakura,

"Stay here, I'll be back in a sec." But before I could go, Sakura grabbed my hand. I turned to look when I saw a couple of my teammates coming over.

I knew they'd definitely ask questions about her, so I hurriedly dragged her with me and the two of us disappeared through a crowd of people. I turned back to see Eriol talking to them. He saw us through the corner of his eyes and signaled a thumbs-up sign

I mouthed thanks to him as I went to return the room key.

------

I looked at Sakura who was currently sleeping. She sure does sleep a lot. She was tightly clutching at my shirt. I grinned. Either our disguise was too good or Hayato's men were stupid because we easily managed to slip past them are now on the train to Tokyo.

I opened my eyes and stretched. "Are we there yet?" Syaoran turned towards me and smiled that special smile. Those amber eyes….they seem so familiar.

"Sakura?"

I snapped out my daze blushing. "We're here." He informed me as the train screeched to halt. He reached over and pulled the wig off my head and let my hair tumble down.

"That's better" he grinned.

"Ah...ahem" Eriol cleared his throat, "If you guys are done flirting then we can get out of the train."

I glared at him angrily, snatched my bag from Syaoran and stormed out. How dare he say that I was flirting! I fumed.

"Will you just shut up!" I heard Syaoran growl at him and he jogged to catch up with me.

"Well anyway Syaoran, we're leaving to the hotel," Yamazaki called after him. He nodded and continued to walk. "I'm sorry but I have to stay with my uncle. You can stay with me too,"

I didn't say anything. He caught a cab and we sat in. He informed the driver where we were heading and then turned to me, "I hate him, my uncle I mean," he told me. When I didn't reply he went on, "He's a police constable, but a very useless one, believe me. I don't why my mother forced me to stay with him. But that's my mother, always giving unreasonable orders."

I still didn't say anything and kept staring outside the window.

"Still mad?" he asked after a moment's silence. "Don't mind my friends. They're always like that."

I shrugged and gave him a small smile telling him that it was ok. As we turned around the corner he yelled at the driver, "Stop! Stop right here!"

"Huh?" the driver looked at us confused, "But the house you said is over there,"

"Never mind we'll just get off here," he said hurriedly stuffing some bills into the surprised driver's hand and dragging me and our luggage out. He led me down the street. The sky was dark and the street was pretty dimly lit, Syaoran's house seemed to be the last in that street. There was nothing but an abandoned old house nearby. It gave me the creeps.

"Come in here," he motioned me to follow him to the abandoned house. I stared at him confused. "Just follow me," I nodded going after him. We reached the back garden of the house which was covered with weeds.

"I'll hoist you over the wall. You'll see a balcony on the other side. Once you go through the door you'll see a staircase to your right. Just climb up the stairs and the first room is mine. Get in there and I'll join you soon ok?"

I nodded again listening carefully to what he said. "But first wait in the balcony till I come in through the front door"

He quickly lifted me up and sat me on the wall. "Now go!" he ordered. I jumped off and ran towards the balcony.

Once she'd jumped off the wall and I walked to front gate and swung it open. I was welcomed at once by volley of barks and angry shouts. Grinning to myself I walk to the door. The door burst open and my dog bounded up to me and flung itself on me. I'll fell back laughing as he tried to lick my face,

"Calm down, Den!"

Finally the German Shepard jumped off and allowed me to stand up.

"You're finally here!" my uncle yelled coming to the door. "That's dog's a pest! Do you know how much trouble it has caused me?"

"No" I replied in a polite tone that always infuriated my uncle. His face turned purple as it usually does when he gets mad.

"Look at this!" he shoved handful of papers under my nose, "Look at what that dog of yours has done to the evening paper."

"Well you probably refused to give him dinner last night. So he chewed up the paper instead," I replied smoothly. "Now if you'll excuse me. I'm damn tired and I need to rest," I walked past him into the house as Den kept snapping at my uncle trying to snatch the papers from him

"Wait just a minute…." My uncle started.

"What?" I drawled glancing at Den but made no attempt to stop him. "Your complaints can wait till later uncle. I'm tired and Den's longing to sink his teeth into your fat flesh."

My uncle growled, mumbling something under his breath and snapped, "Alright get lost and take that pesky dog with you."

"Sure thing. Come on Den!"

I know that was kind of rude. But my uncle's worth it, he's already set a long list of rules what I should do and what not to do. My uncle hates it if I am late for anything. He once refused me breakfast three days in a row because I got up late. But it wasn't my fault, my alarm wasn't working. I should not eat junk food, I should not watch movies, he hates it if my friends come over or if I hang out with them, he doesn't like soccer and tried to prevent me from going to soccer practice, he hates it if I watch TV so I do not turn the TV on and most of all he detests Den. He hates animals especially dogs, at first he refused to let Den into the house and I really tried to tell him that Den is a well behaved dog and he wouldn't do anything unless ordered to, but my uncle paid no heed to my requests and even refused to feed Den. That got me really mad, and I finally got sick of his stupid rules.

Even though I allow Den to do what he likes, I try my best to stick to his other unfair rules. He's just so frustrating; he treats Den like some piece of dirt. If he's scared of Den I'm ever ready to keep Den out of his way but that doesn't mean he has to be so nasty to him. I tried to be polite to him but he just took that as an advantage and tried to force more rules and regulations on me. I am a teenager after all and I need some sort of freedom too. Not to mention he always thinks I'm up to no good at all. He's suspicious of every little thing I do as though I'm 'breaking the law'. I hate staying with him. But my mother forced me to stay with him. I don't mind doing chores and helping him around the house, but that doesn't mean he can boss me around and prevent me from doing things I like.

(A/n: I would like to let you all know that I have purposely exaggerated Syaoran's uncle for a little more humor and added action.)

I made it to my room to see Sakura waiting for me inside.

"I hope you're not afraid of dogs. Cause if you are, I could leave Den outside." I suggested, holding Den firmly by the collar,

"He doesn't bite" I added.

Sakura smiled at me, "I'm not afraid of dogs. In fact I really like dogs" I loosened my grip on Den's collar and he immediately bounded over to her.

Sakura sat down and fondled him; she was smiling like she hadn't smiled for ages. I felt glad that she was finally happy and her eyes showed other emotions than just fear and sadness.

Author's notes: This chapter's pretty long (7 pages.) Longer than the last one anyways. As I mentioned before Syaoran's uncle has been purposely exaggerated for the sake of extra humor and action. I'm working on my other two stories namely "From Sunrise To Sunset" and "My pet wolf cub, Chocolate" and I'll post it soon (though I don't know how soon, 'soon' is.) Life's been really hectic and I'm finding in it hard to type all three stories but I'll do my best.

Please review! (Please ignore simple mistakes. I haven't had time to re-read.)

Lol,

sakura doll