Love without Words
By Zilver Wings
Summary: She was the ice princess who was mute. When her family hired a tutor to teach her sign language, they never expected love to blossom. But a princess and a commoner would never work together. However, things change and Syaoran proves not to be an ordinary peasant.
Chapter 2
Guardian Angel
As one of the young maids lead Syaoran to his room, blushing furiously at his handsome features, he let his eyes wander through the painted Kinomoto family pictures hanging on the golden wall.
'That Kinomoto girl look so happy and carefree in these pictures, yet, when I saw her earlier, there seems to be a veil of mournfulness covering her. Her handicap must have been a great attack to her. Oh well, there's no need for me to get so involved with her life. After all, teaching her sign languages is only an excuse to escape from all those clingy princesses okaa-sama keep on throwing at me. I'm so glad uncle Tereda-san was willing to help me find this job. Now all I have to do is to be careful not to let people find out about my identity in case they misinterpret my intentions.'
Unbeknownst by him, things weren't going to be as simple as he thought it would be.
The maid opened the room door wide open and Syaoran entered, smiling broadly.
The room was huge and royal, around the same size as his at home. The wallpaper and carpet were in a dark shade of green, his favorite color, with golden trimmings. There was long wooden desk, several empty bookshelves, a comfy looking bed, a closet and a linked toilet.
The design was simple, but he loved the balcony and how large the windows were, it gave him a great view of the palace's garden and could also see the balcony and part of the room opposite him, which pink curtains were lowered, not giving him permission to see what was inside.
The maid, anxious to please the tutor, saw his curious expression directed to the room opposite him, quickly explained to him.
"Li-san, the princess Kinomoto Sakura lives there. Since you are to be always with her, the king has let you live in this room, which used to be the prince Kinomoto Touya's bedroom."
No wonder it was so large, Syaoran thought.
Interested about Sakura's past, Syaoran asked the maid.
"Can you tell me something about your young mistress?"
Glad to have an excuse to linger longer around the boy, the maiden walked towards the balcony next to him and looked at the sky with a faraway expression, as if trying her best to trace back the forgotten memories.
"Let me see. Princess Sakura was one of the most spirited and happy people I have ever met. She was compassionate and fun to be with, and treated everybody equally and kindly. She even asked me, merely a maid of low status, to be friends with her, and often gave me candies and shared her toys with me. Unfortuntately, fours years ago, a sickness shattered all of her innocence."
Her eyes saddened as she thought of the difference of the current and old Sakura she knew.
"The doctor came to see her and said it was just a small cold, and gave her some medicine, assuring her that she would be fine in no time. That night, Princess Sakura sudden had a very high fever. The doctors were able to save her, but she became mute. It was believed that the fever had caused some damage to her brain. After she knew of her handicap, she began to lock herself away from everyone, even her own family. The only person that fully understood her was her mother, Queen Nadeshiko, but she passed away a long time ago. No one is able to help her," there, she whipped her head to Syaoran and looked hopefully at him, "please, help her. We all love her too much, it hurts every one of us to see her in such grief and pain."
Syaoran was shocked. Even a maid cared so much about Sakura, she must have been very kind, unlike all of those snobbish princesses he knew of.
He wanted to cheer the maiden up, but he could not lie.
"I'll try my best, but it's up to herself to decide whether she wants to overcome her handicap or not."
The girl faltered a bit, but she still managed to smile weakly at him.
"Arigatou. I need to leave, I still have a lot of work to do. Enjoy your stay here, Li-sama."
She gave a deep bow and left, leaving Syaoran in his own world.
It seemed like there was more to do than to teach the girl sign languages. He loved challenges.
"Now, I will ask you some questions and you can just nod or shake your head, okay?"
Sakura looked away.
"Okay, I will take that as a yes. You don't actually want to learn sign language, right?"
No response.
"Did you join because of your otou-san?"
No response
"Are you listening to me at all?"
No reaction.
Syaoran sighed and stood up, advancing to the princess slowly. The first thing his uncle taught him was to befriend with his students, but it seemed as if this one was a little more mule- headed than the others.
"You know, Princess Sakura, I am good at reading people's minds and I know what is going on in that little pretty head of yours." He crouched down in front of Sakura's chair and tilted her chin so she was facing him. Her eyes widened at the gesture. Never in her life had anybody but her family members dare touch her.
Yet, when she saw Syaoran's amber pools, she felt fear. She didn't know why, after all, she was the princess and he was only a commoner, but why was there a certain royal aura around him? He looked grim, and inched his face closer to hers until they were only a few centimeters apart. Her breath was caught in her throat, and yet, she still couldn't tear her eyes from those pools.
She could feel Syaoran's hot breath on her neck as he spoke.
"If you think you can get rid of me by ignoring me, you're wrong, princess, you're very wrong, so don't even try the strategy on me, it would never work."
He squinted his eyes at hers before letting go of her face and walking back to his seat in the living room. He swore he saw a flicker of fear in those emerald eyes before, but they were gone now, replaced by her usual emotionless ones.
He wasn't about to give up though. In fact, the words 'give up' had never been in his vocabulary list, and never will be.
"Do you miss your mother?"
The words escaped from his mouth before he could process it in his brain, and he regret it immediately as he saw her darken.
Her mother promised her that she would always be her guardian angel no matter what happens, and yet, she let her daughter become mute. Her mother lied to her, she was no longer beside her to protect her anymore, she lied to her… (AN: Doesn't this paragraph sounds a little like this one: Little lotte thought of everything and nothing…. Her father promised to send her the angel of music, her father promised her. –The phantom of the opera.)
Suddenly, without a warning, Sakura stood up and left the room, going upstairs to her own bedroom.
Bewildered, Syaoran quickly got up as well and followed her up to her room with no protest from her.
She sat on her desk, flip open her sketchbook and began to draw.
So she was going to ignore him again, but that won't work.
As he neared her, he saw that she was drawing a small angel statue. She had great talent he realized, and yet, there seemed to be something wrong with her painting.
No one knew, but he was quite a drawing fanatic himself, it gave him a peace of mind and could also learn to appreciate the beauty around him. Soon, he realized the problem with Sakura's drawing.
"Your drawing is all wrong."
Hearing his statement, Sakura stopped and her body went stiff. Wrong? She had been drawing for four years, and got nothing but praises on her work even by famous artists, and yet, some teenage boy which she didn't even knew how to draw had told her that her drawing was wrong? What was wrong with him?
Seeing her body froze, he figured he had caught her attention, so he grasped the opportunity to continue.
"It's too dark. Do you see the sunshine reflecting off the statue's left side, especially the face? Yet, in your drawing, we can still clearly see its face, and your shading is a few times darker than what it should be. It's really strange, for a person with such good technique to not see the shadows clearly."
He suddenly took the sketchbook from her and began flipping through her artwork. Sakura tried frantically to get it back, but he was too tall.
"Hmmm, yes, I'm right, your paintings are all too dark, have you not learn about shading at all? It's important for a sketch to look realistic, yours look as if you've drawn them in a dungeon."
By now, Sakura was fuming, which was very rare. That nerve of the man, he was nothing but a tutor, why was he invading her personal space?
She snatched the book when he handed it to her, and to her amazement, he left.
She sighed in relief, but widened her eyes when she heard his cheerful last words.
"Tomorrow, I'll come and sketch with you during our lesson."
She stared after him in astonishment. She seriously wondered if he was insane or not, how could he not feel the least discouraged after how she's been treating him?
Another strange thing was, he never showed any fear around her or her father. If he was to be a peasant, shouldn't he feel a bit scared or be curious about the luxurious things in the palace? Yet he acted so natural. If one didn't know, they would easily have mistaken him to be a prince of the Kinomoto kingdom.
'Hmph, who is he to tell me what to do? I don't have to listen to him.'
The maid Syaoran had talked to earlier went into Sakura's room to give her some biscuits and tea when she saw the fiery in Sakura's normally emotionless eyes. Her heart swirled with happiness. Li- san had only lived in the palace for two days, and had already made such a big progress!
Syaoran pushed open the glass doors leading to the balcony.
A gentle breeze greeted him, and he smiled softly at the dim glow of the stars while leaning on the fence. It had been a long time since he had last felt as relaxed as tonight. His grin widened as he recalled the earlier look on Sakura's face after he had said the last words. She didn't know it, but he was glancing at her out of the corner of his eye, and her horrified expression was absolute priceless.
Just then, a figure walked out of the room a few yards away from his as well, gazing at the stars. It was Sakura. He let his eyes trail downwards as he admired her silently. Her usually pinned up smooth auburn hair was let down, cascaded down her back, ending when it reached her waist. She wore a white night gown, which hugged her curves nicely, showing off some of her slender legs, and was barefooted.
Her emerald eyes reflected the moonlight, making it become even brighter. Her calm pale face tinted with a small blush, and her lips were a luscious red. Her ethereal beauty was too much for him, and he inched slowly to her.
Sakura saw something move, and turned her head to see no other than Syaoran, who was staring at her, lost.
Her angelic face turned to sheer horror. She felt so naked, even though she was wearing her gown. She whipped her body backwards and walked inside quickly, slamming the door with full force.
How could otou-san put him there, it was onii-chan's room!
She hated the boy. First, he intruded into her life, then he criticized her sketch, and now, he was even taking away her other interest, star gazing.
Why did life hate her so much? Would she ever find her guardian angel?
In fact, she had already found her guardian angel, who was closer than she would ever dream of, it would only be a matter of time for her to realize who it is.
To be continued…
Okay, end of another chapter. I'm really flattered about the number of reviews I got for the first chapter, Thank you very much!
Angel-in-the-Shadow- Errr… (Sweatdrops about the big freak thing) I think you should start reading my story, you know, 'absence makes the heart fonder', although I'm quite sure you'd start losing interest in it after reading my lousy story.
Firnoviel- I'm a history buff too! Yup, muteness can be caused by damage of the vocal chords, but I have an auntie who became mute after she got a high fever when she was very young, and became mute, although she could speak after some treatment the doctors gave to her, but there's still some permanent damage to her brain. Anyway, this is just a fanfiction, don't take it seriously, I'm only 15, and not planning to study medical anyway, I love History and Eng Lit. too much! In Biology, I'm still learning about the stupid enzymes. Odd flow? I don't really see anything wrong with it, sorry, but thanks for pointing it out.
Zilver Wings (Uh, my cousin kinda logged into my account and typed some review)- Make her blind? That's kind of typical, there are already a lot of stories out there about blindness. I wish she would speak one day too, if you read the first chapter carefully, you'll realize something, maybe there are some possibilities. (winks)
If you have any other problems, please review me and I'll try to answer you, please continue to support me! (bows low until head touches floor after years of training gymnastics.)
Sneak Peek-
Too absorbed in her sketch, Sakura failed to notice a shadow tower from behind her until it was too late.
"What's a pretty girl like you doing out here all alone? I will be able to teacher you to learn to enjoy the happiness of human flesh."
A pair of arms snaked around her waist and crashed her body against a furry robe of red. Sakura looked up to see a handsome boy with long silver hair and matching eyes grinning maliciously at her. She yanked herself away but he was too strong for her.
"I'm the prince of the Yoshiwa Kingdom, follow me and I'll give you riches and jewelry."
Ignoring her struggles, he began to unbutton her white cotton coat which was over her pink summer dress forcefully.
Sakura gave up and closed her eyes, until she felt his arms suddenly loosened and slid past her body harmlessly as he stumbled forward and hit the ground hard.
Sakura fluttered open her eyelids to see a pair of fiery chestnut orbs.
"Can't you bastard see that she doesn't want you? Scram before I change my mind and decide to beat the crap out of you."
His mouth was in a tight thin line, and his face was red, trying to control his anger. Her eyes traveled downwards and saw a canvas and a few brushes being thrown carelessly on the ground.
End of Sneak Peek