disclaimer: we obviously do not own CCS holds up a club in hand, anyone besides CLAMP who says that they do shall be sued, of course by CLAMP puts club down, not by us, because as we said before we do not own it, for CLAMP owns it, man, I'm just rambling over and over again ‡

Chapter 1: Vial of tears

Orphanage Grounds

Tomoeda City Refugee Camps, Barrack Area C

0037

Touya walked down the corridor with the grocery in his hands, but he couldn't help the empty expression that has adorned his face since they left home, since they came into this dreadful place they now had to call home.

'The war is over', he thought as he looked around, slightly pausing when his eyes took sight of the tall black tower, 'the military base, the 'earth'-lings' military base'.

He scoffed, 'Nasturtium, that's what they named it'.

'Conquest' he thought, directing the gaze once again, remembering the flower his father always gives to his mother. The Nasturtium.

'That's because I had won the conquest of her heart', he remembered his late father saying every time he buys her that flower, and he would always laugh, sometimes even adding a jovial wink.

Oh how he would give anything to get all the happiness back, life was never prefect, but it was never brought to a level like this. He felt so lost and confused, he had lost everything, everything he's known to be was now gone. His mother, his father, his home…

'Well, at least I'll still have Sakura', he stifled a small laughter as he averted his eyes, but the corner of his view caught something he hadn't expected.

Touya saw one of the generals of the earth army. Yes, he had surely seen him before, the old man with a thick bushy beard.

'He was the one', Touya thought as he clenched his fist so tightly that it made cracking sound, Touya glared at him as he walked to the dormitories, 'he was the one who killed okaa-san'

Touya looked down at his feet, he remembered the man clearly, and he was the only bearded man between the generals that he saw surrounded his mother.

He gritted his teeth as he pushed open the old wooden door, revealing their small dim-lit room.

He closed the door as soft as he could, but the noise had woken the chestnut-haired boy up. He leaned on the chair as he yawned. Touya handed the bags in his hand to him as he went and put them inside the storage cupboards.

"Touya-san", Touya heard him call him.

"Hai?" he replied "What do you want?"

"Iie, it's just..." he paused, "it's just you seem worried just now"

Touya frowned and faced away, 'that general', he thought, 'what's he here for? Does he know we are here? What if…"

But he knew better than to assume those horrifying conclusions, for it will only bring worry. And if the time to escape really did come, and he knew, he was prepared for the danger that might be hurled their way, after all, he's been through a lot for a typical 13 year old. So he shrugged off the thoughts.

"I'm fine gaki", Touya replied, trying to his best to keep a straight face, "you're better off worrying about Sakura than me".

Xiao Lang grinned, "Maybe", he said. He smiled at the sleeping Sakura on the bed and stared at her small figure for a while. He turned to meet Touya, but Touya had already disappeared. Xiao Lang sighed. He might be only 8 years old, but he could tell that the older boy was worried about something, he frowned.

'Touya-san has changed a lot', he thought to himself, loosing himself in his thoughts as he peered over the open window.

"It's already spring", he mumbled to himself, he looked at the flowers that scrambled its way up the walls of the building; he reached down and plucked a small violet flower. He smiled as he twirled the flower between his fingers, and then slipped it in Sakura's hair.

"It's for you", Xiao Lang said innocently, smiling, stroking her hair gently as she snuggled up to him, who was sitting on her bed leaning against the wall.

The three year old smiled in her sleep, her eyes closed and her face put up a serene expression.

At days like this, the past seemed forgotten to them, wishing peace would last forever.

Without them noticing, Touya had watched them from the corner, stirring his thoughts as he fought to keep his eyes open. He hadn't been asleep at all last night; he was dead worried about something, and going to buy the groceries this morning didn't exactly help at all.

He pulled up the long sleeves of his shirt and rolled it onto his shoulders. He looked at the long scar that extended its horrible signature from his wrist to half his upper arm, a few centimeters above his elbow.

He winced at the sight as he slowly unrolled his sleeves back. He remembered clearly how the scar had come to be where it is now. It's been exactly 3 years, he remembered the day they had run away, the 12th day of the 4th moon.

The dreadful moment seems to play to him like a movie, the dreadful day, it seemed just like a dream he was pulled into to see the reality he'd gone through.

Slowly, the dream was pulling Touya to leave real world and come to sleep with the lullaby of the wind, breezing through the window that Xiao Lang had left open.

3 years ago

The carriage drew itself faster as 9 year old Touya could feel the wind brushing roughly against his cheeks. He woke up weakly in a fazed mood, his head was hurting and his eyes seem to be pushed into their inner shells as he felt the aftermath of crying himself to sleep.

He looked straight in front of him, looking at the Li brat, who was staring back at him.

"Kinomoto-san", he said without an expression adorning his face but pure worry, "you're finally awake! Your sister's been crying like crazy for the last few hours"

Touya snapped out of his sleepy state and hurriedly turned his attention to his sister, the one-year old girl who was now sleeping peacefully once again. He sighed in relief.

The elder lady turned to him, "I see you're awake, Kinomoto-san"

"Hai", he said quietly, before adding, "Um… Yukimura-dono, where exactly are we going?"

"Out of this ragged mess, child", she said calmly.

Touya tried to control his anger, how dare this woman call his kingdom a ragged mess, but he only nodded silently. She was, after all, his caretaker since he was a mere new-born infant, and he was to respect her like he would his grandmother himself.

Touya sighed knowing he wouldn't be able to see anything to sign off where they are, but he listened closely as he heard rapid horse hooves beating their way.

He raised an eyebrow,' it can't be', he thought,' we only have 2 horses'.

His eyes widened,' except if it was the enemy's horses...'

He shook Xiao Lang violently until Xiao Lang fell from his seat, "What is it?" the chestnut haired boy snapped.

"Listen", Touya said, but later regretted his decision for telling him because all the 6 yeas old managed to answer was, "I hear horses, and I know our carriage is being pulled by those, is that it?"

Touya sighed in exasperation. 'Oh well', he thought, 'maybe it is just my imagination…'

But a few seconds later, Touya knew the arrow that came piercing from the back of the carriage; right halfway through the thick wooden walls were not only his imagination.

The tip of the arrow hung right beside the elder lady's head, and just by looking at her, Touya could see that she was scared and taken by surprise, even behind that smile of hers. But she looked not below 90 and her smile was still on her face like it was painted and nailed to it.

'Man, she must be a veteran', Touya thought as he stared at the arrowhead right beside him, 'she doesn't look the least bit worried.'

"Kinomoto-san," she said, without wiping the smile off her face, "What should we do now?"

Touya was bewildered, he had never been in a fight, trained yes, fought yes, but attacked helplessly with his sister's life at stake, no.

'When I'm king', Touya said to himself, 'I'll make sure they include this in the training curriculum, "how to save yourself from mad attacking enemies who are shooting arrows at your runaway carriage while there is a granny beside you, your baby sister, and a prince from another land with you, who apparently is engaged to your little sister"', he frowned, and shrugged.

"Does that mean you don't know?" she asked him, her eyes gazing into his softly.

He hesitated, he didn't want to make a fool out of himself, not in front of the gaki, but he dropped his hesitation in fear of Sakura's safety. Touya shook his head irritation. His face was flushing and you could tell he was fuming out of helplessness.

Xiao Lang just sat there, too dumbfounded to say anything, after all, being the crown prince and having to runaway with your 1 year old fiancée and her scary big brother wasn't exactly on the things he was supposed to do at such a young age. He chose to stay silent, though his find was fiercely spun around his inner thoughts.

'Protect her', his mother's voice rang through his mind, 'I promised to take care of her', Xiao Lang thought, and he couldn't help but smile at the very small figure that had just opened her eyes in front of him. Her tiny hands reached out as he saw Touya held it.

Touya's hard angry eyes turned soft and warm once he held Sakura's hands. That was when Xiao Lang realized, she was now the most important thing in Touya's life, and his, leave it to his sister to turn the cold and annoying Kinomoto Touya into a loving and caring person.

For once he might be able to forget the war going on, the fight to kill them going on outside. For all he heard was someone yelling, "Hang on! We're passing right through the border!", then a sword's blade crashed, taking advantage of the little hole Touya had made earlier to be the point of the destructive force coming from it's tip.

Kinomoto Touya was taken by surprise, as he felt the blade drive up his arm, he felt numbness take over his whole self, and he couldn't move, nor react as the sword crashed and extended the hole he made into an unmitigated chaos. He felt the splinters enter his new wound while blood, at the contrary was exiting through it, crashing slowly like waves, and did nothing, his eyes widened from shock.

Xiao Lang was in terror, he saw the sword that drove up Touya's arm and he was silenced by the blood running down his arm. The sword pulled out silently.

"Hey", a voice said from outside, "there really ARE people inside it, there's blood"

"Good job", the other said, sarcasm hanging on his tone, "You just stabbed someone"

They both laughed as one of them exclaimed that he knew it was the carriage they were looking for.

Suddenly, as if it wasn't a bad enough moment, Sakura woke up and cried. The elder woman held her out, as if telling Xiao Lang to take her, so he did, right into his small embrace, trying to soothe her and stop her crying as the elder lady lifted Touya's bleeding arm onto her lap.

Touya winced, as if his emotions and senses were finally waking up. He tried not to cry in pain but his expression told otherwise. He glared at Xiao Lang, who was currently in panic trying to stop his sister from crying. He saw how Xiao Lang looked at her sister, as if she was a jewel festooned in gold and diamonds, but she wasn't, she was just a baby, like the innocent angel who had come to bring them warmth in the form of happiness and the will to protect, the motivation to live.

His inner-thoughts seem to have a vast urge to kill him, trying to hold still as the elder lady healed his wounds with her outlandish spells, and they were nothing but sheer oddness to Touya, who had never once managed to understand what magic really does.

For a split second there, they have forgotten these were scars that will last a lifetime, and the war, the fight over lust of blood and power hasn't stopped to its limit. It's still outside, waiting to get them.

Touya sighed as the elder lady finished healing him, it left a scar, but he didn't mind, after all, the pain did stop afterwards. He snatched his hands away, still listening intently for horse hooves, but he heard none.

All he heard was their carriage rolling, and the 2 horses slowing down. He was somehow relieved, 'But was it really safe?' he thought to himself.

The Carriage suddenly came to an abrupt stop, after all the slowing down. The horses were silent. Touya peeked outside but found nothing strange to his vision. He reached for the door handle, but his hand was grasped hastily by Yukimura.

He turned to face her, and saw her face had lost her smile, she was serious.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you Kinomoto-san", she said, her eyes was sharp and her tone was demanding, and a little too cold, then she added, "They're out there, and we all know they're after us, we're better off inside than giving ourselves out for them to grab and kill easier"

Touya stared and scowled, "What do you know?"

She gazed at him, and then the smile returned to her face, "More than you, child, more than you…"

He returned to his seating position, trying to keep still. He fidgeted with his clothing edges, his mind was distant, and he felt so… lost somehow, he knew that his life was going to be downhill from here, it feels like everything's been taken away from him…

Xiao Lang miraculously had managed to keep Sakura quiet as she fell asleep in his arms. He held her closely, his own fear getting to him as he felt his consciousness scrambling into a drift gradually. He tightened his grip on Sakura, 'I can't fall asleep, what if we're caught off guard?' His body had gotten the best of him, within 30 minutes; he was asleep, still holding Sakura to him.

Yukimura Kyoko looked at the sleeping children before smiling at their innocence, the innocence that didn't deserve to be tainted by the bloodlust, the pain of war. She closed her eyes and thought of their future, she only shook her head, trying to have faith in what the future had for them, no, at least for the children, she had lived long enough to live up to her fullest, and was ready to whatever shall happen to her. But the children, she knew deep in her heart she was to protect them with her life, her, a helpless lady, will do everything in he power to ensure they are brought to safety.

'And I pray', she smiled at the sight of them, 'that they will have a peaceful life, no one deserves it more than these naïve and gullible children, not after what has happened to them today'

Minutes, hours passed, and the small sunshine ray that had emerged from the small hole dissolved into the small dazed moonlight. Silence was unbeatable as everyone was lost in their own worlds.

Touya finally fell into a slumber after hours of waiting in the dark.

'Wait', he thought as he suddenly jerked up, he rubbed his eyes, 'what time is this? Where am I?'

He remembered everything suddenly, and he peeked out.

'More horses', he almost cried out in fear, 'the men are armed'

He shook Xiao Lang into a brusque wake. Xiao Lang looked at him with sleepy eyes, but behind the dazed expression, Touya was certain Xiao Lang was going to scream his head off at him.

Touya scooted, giving Xiao Lang space. Xiao Lang only looked at it confusedly.

"Look outside", Touya said, "Men with weapons, with the Maravilla Kingdom's crest on their saddles"

Xiao Lang stared intently through the elongated rough-edged fissure after crouching down in the space beside it. He had handed Sakura to Yukimura before, and now his bare hands were trembling with distress.

"Kinomoto-san", Xiao Lang started to speak, "What will we do? I mean, we obviously can't fight, besides, your sister's life at stake!"

"I know that!" Touya cried out, loud enough for the people outside their carriage to hear.

"Hey!" A soldier outside hollered. "They are the ones we're looking for! I heard a kid's voice in there"

That immediately shut Touya up as Xiao Lang murmured something to himself.

"I told you!" another voice outside exclaim gleefully, "Kashiwagi-kun, you owe me 50 pons!"

"Iie! Masataka-kun, I only bet 25 pons!" the supposedly Kashiwagi answered.

"Humph", Xiao Lang sneered, 'They actually make bets on finding us?', he thought, and somehow he grinned, it made him feel worse in a way, but it still made his ego go up by a few levels compared to the ego he had when he escaped.

"Could you like, stop listening to their conversations and help me try to plan our escape?", Touya asked Xiao Lang, there was a sense of anguish in his voice, so Xiao Lang backed away from the window.

"Gomen Kinomoto-san", Xiao Lang said.

"So, boys, what do you have in mind?" Yukimura asked them.

Xiao Lang looked at Touya, who looked back at him.

"What if", Xiao Lang suddenly said, his loud juvenile voice breaking the silence, "We escape at night? It would be better when they are asleep."

"Some of them would be awake," Touya pointed out.

The carriage was once again silenced, none of their minds have been clear enough to think things out, and things were just getting irrationally insane as their lives turned upside down as of this day.

"We can make a distraction," Yukimura said suddenly, "later on, Kinomoto-san could push the wheels off the cart, I'm sure your hand can fit through the hole, and besides, the hole had enhanced its size thanks to the blow back then"

Touya grimaced, "Very well", he said, rubbing his scar.

"And Li-san could hold Sakura while the three of you run", she smiled, "I'll try to stall them longer."

"How?" Xiao Lang blurted out.

She only smiled and took out a peculiar looking bottle out of her small leather bag, "illusion powder, it makes you hallucinate, and if taken in huge amounts, it may affect you for a few years, or it might erase your memory"

Touya grinned, 'maybe this was a good plan after all'

End flashback

Touya sighed, 'I remember', he thought, as his eyes fluttered open, 'that night seemed so long, after 2 days we were curbed in that small hell, and I wish I could've suffocated and died'

He looked at Xiao Lang, left into his sleep, with Sakura beside him.

The black haired boy couldn't help but to let a small smile adorn his face, 'that gaki, protected my sister back then, I know now she's in good hands'

But then again, he still couldn't help but to bother Xiao Lang, the fact that he still persisted to stay with them, to work with them, and most of all, to be there for his sister told every brain nerve is his mind to trust him.

Kinomoto Touya couldn't say anything, as every word he could think of was stuck in his throat, as if resistant to walk out freely of his mouth. He still couldn't find the word to describe their escape.

'Miraculous', he thought, 'that's one word, but a far too mundane word for it'

He closed his eyes, remembering the flashes of lightings and thunder on the storm, the rain crashing hard to the ground as their plan worked out smoothly.

They ran out the carriage's other door as the wheel he knocked off slid down the hill, and somehow crashing down with a loud sound effect. The guards woke up with amusement in their faces, and all of them went to check what the whole ransacking noise was all about.

Yukimura's orders echoed in his mind as he dragged Xiao Lang, who was carrying his sleeping sister. He would have worried about her waking up and crying, but Yukimura-san had seemed to have that all planned when she released a few drops of a bluish transparent liquid into Sakura's mouth earlier before they executed their little plan.

'I do hope she was serious when she said it was harmless', he thought, as he eyed Yukimura, whose figure soon vanished with the distance and the thick shades of the forest, ' I take your word as truth Yukimura-dono, do come back soon'

His last conversation with him before everything struck seem to echo, its reminiscence resonating, wavering to call to him, embracing him from the cruel reality, but yet opening his eyes to it. Opening his eyes to tell him plans don't always go right, life can't be predicted, and yet the same sentences still wavers in his mind, never willing to let go.

"Kinomoto-san," she had said, when night was about to engulf the land they used to call home, "Will you take care of them?"

"Don't be foolish Yukimura-dono", he said, fuming, "Of course I will, besides, nothing will happen"

"When I'm gone Touya," she said, looking at Xiao Lang and Sakura, who was nonetheless asleep again.

She let in a lengthy pause.

Touya stared at her, 'she hadn't called me with my name since I was a child', he tried to hold the possibilities of things that she might mean down to the most jovial things, 'is something wrong?'

"Of course something is wrong child", she said suddenly, as if she had read his mind.

He wasn't very surprised then, he had always knew Yukimura Kyoko was never an ordinary maid, not by the way she talks, the way she acts, she was elegant and sophisticated, yet she was so inexplicable. She was one of a kind, the one that could be your typical old lady who'd bake cookies for the children she took care of, and she would unpredictably turn into the dangerous magician, a healer and yet she still could heed them like a god sent angel, like the shepherds that would watch over his herd like they were his own to raise.

She was extremely inimitable that woman, and yet something made him uncomfortable around her, it's like she actually was able to make them trust her with one movement of her fingers and listen to her with just one tingling warning in her voice.

'She was', he remembered, 'there all the time'

So he did all he could, smile and try to look as innocent and hopelessly lost as possible.

"You will have to take care of them you know", she said, "Not all plans go as they should, sometimes we can't see what's going to be ahead of us, even looking above your limitations won't bring you to the other side"

He nodded, trying to discern all he had heard.

"Look at them Touya", she said, so delicately that it was like a faint whisper outside, whispering like the voice of the forests, "one day, they'll be the most respected people in all of Li Land, and yet, all of this was taken away"

Touya casted his glance away, looking at the red sky reflecting through the hole as he knew the gloom of the night had just started to show its signs beneath the layer of air that was open to them, the link of their eyes to the things outside their small space, what they now had accepted as their sanctuary in its own way.

"You understand right? If anything happ-", she said, but was cut off by Touya.

"Nothing's going to happen", he snapped.

"We all know too well to merely say nothing's going to happen", her soft grey eyes seemed to have lost their twinkle, and it looked rather tired.

"I've seen a lot and have lived long enough", she said, as if she was happily releasing something with no burden, "If I don't return, leave, it is a chance for you to live, remember to be true, no matter what"

Silence had once again befallen Kinomoto Touya, crown prince of the fallen Kinomoto Empire. He looked at her weary face, her pale skin that seems to radiate her charisma, and the respect he had always had for her.

'She's taken care of me since I was a child, since my mother was one herself', he closed his eyes for a split second, a small frown garnishing his 10 years old face ' she's like… a grandmother, a figure of warmth, and yet now she's saying she'll be gone and all this philosophies'

'But she's right,' his conscious fought back, 'what if everything doesn't go according to plan? You've lost everything, you can't lose it again'

He looked at the tender old lady, looking weak and defenseless, but still had that caring smile painted on her face.

"Life's never planned, you just choose the road and walk on it's darkness, jump over the obstacles, but you can never see the things coming," he remembered his father had said, "but we must always be strong, and keep hold of those precious, because life isn't to be called a life when there's nothing to care for, when there's nothing you hold dear"

"It's just an empty vial of tears," he whispered to himself as he saw the old lady look at him. His eyes couldn't help but look down in spite of the unknown shame he suddenly felt.

"Will you listen to me now?"

Touya knew, she had many more to say, so he forced himself to listen, somehow, to the pain it might be, and yet, he now knew nothing else, his consciousness slowly rubbing away as he knew every word she will say, will be truth.

He slowly lifted his head up to face her. Yukimura Kyoko accepted the gesture as one that said that he will.

Touya Kinomoto is willing to listen to every word Yukimura Kyoko was going to say. He will fight back to veracity, saving the tears to be used as a symbol of happiness; he won't let anyone cry this time.

And he won't back out.

To be continued…

A/N: it wasn't a very long wait was it? Anyway, as I told you before, there will be a bunch of flashbacks, and the storyline won't reach Sakura finding out the truth etc,- until probably the 5th chapter. Yes, it's a long way to go, but without these god damned prologues and flashbacks, I would be rained down with questions, which of course I would gladly answer…

I'm sorry about the fact that this was not a very good chapter, yes I'm sorry that flash backs and italics are just freaking annoying. So, next chapter is going to be called angel from the rubbles, the continuation of this conversation, and their temporary happiness when they found trust. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope you will enjoy the next one. I'll try to upload it as soon as I can, when I've typed it…

Well, you know what you have to do now... Just press that button right over there, on the left corner okay? grins

Thanks to all the people who had reviewed, you guys motivated me, see? The more reviews the faster I will work! So give me more reviews! I expect reviews of constructive criticism and the ones telling me how much you like the story cough cough, for the flames, don't waste your time… Thanks to Alex-chan, Rikku-Tasuki (nope, I was just plain bored, and this idea pops up ), Facade1, ffgirl-07, Star-Moon-Angel, Yooso (I tried to put the flower's meaning in the story instead of the A/N, thanks for the advise bows), f-zelda, darkazureblossom, babegalanime, dbzgtfan2004, Lil-BabYAnG3L, bluephoenix250, HIEI LOVERS, 2 OVERLY obsessed and WolfStarMoon for your reviews! Everyone, thanks for reading this story, you have my deepest regards and appreciation…

Right then, see you all next chapter!

Baka Deshis