DISCLAIMER: Card Captor Sakura does not belong to me and belongs to CLAMP, yeah yeah (Oh, but how I wish I do own them).
Anyway, let's get it on.
SAKURA, SYAORAN AND THE ART OF MESS
ChApTeR 1
Sakura can feel a presence as she stood on top of a tall building. There was no moon, no stars, no light to keep her company as darkness engulfed her. But someone else was just around.
"Is there anyone out there?" she called out loud.
There was no answer.
She reached for The Glow in her bag... wait a minute. Her bag wasn't even with her. Where are the cards?
As though an answer to her question, she felt the presence of the Clow cards dancing while rising from beneath her. She started walking blindly, groping around on her surroundings. Why was it so dark?
A shot of bright light flashed from her side. Sakura smiled at first but was startled at the growing light. It did not make her feel secured. Rather, it made her feel like she was in immediate danger.
"Hoee!" By reflex, her arms went in front of her face to shield it and she squeezed her eyes shut.
Nothing.
Sakura slowly opened her eyes. The light was gone and she was in the darkness again. Why am I lying on the ground? Wasn't I standing a while ago? She tried to get up on her feet but she felt bruised all over, she could barely move her knees. Why can't I stand up?
"Sakura-san."
"Hoe?" She blinked at the sound of her name. "Who is there? Where are you?" she called out.
"I'm right here... Sakura-san."
She blinked again. The source of that kind voice was in front of her, she could tell. "Anata wa... dare?"
She was answered by the illuminating light not far away. A silhouette of a boy her age appeared before her. "It's all right." He rested his hands on her shoulders.
The light behind the boy grew brighter, then shone to full scale. The full moon. TokyoTower came into view behind the boy. Sakura could see his chocolate brown hair, with a light brown lock falling shortly beside his right ear. Her gaze landed on his royal blue eyes, sparkling like gems. "Who are you?"
He smiled. "Don't worry about anything anymore. It's me... Li Syaoran."
Sakura's green eyes grew wide. "Li-kun?"
"...Sakura-san..."
"SAKURA!"
Sakura's eyes snapped open and she immediately sat up. "Hoe?"
"I've been shouting on your ear for the last seven minutes and ya don't react at all! I thought ya want to get up early!" Kero floated in front of her as he spoke.
"Oh, good morning, Kero-chan. I just had this strange dream..."
"A dream? What was it all about?" Kero looked interested.
Sakura stared at her blanket, trying to remember what she just saw in her sleep. "What I can remember is that I couldn't see anything because there was darkness. Then I saw light but it felt... threatening. I don't know why. Then I saw this boy... he has brown hair and blue eyes. He knew me, Kero-chan, but I have no idea who he is. He called me Sakura. And then..."
"And then..." Kero prodded.
"And then..." The rest was a blank in her mind. "I can't remember anymore."
"AAH!" Kero was obviously panicking. "You've got to remember your dream! It could be a prediction of your future. We've been through this already: That's the way dreams are, prophetic especially to people who hold magic like ya."
Sakura frowned slightly. "Well if you hadn't interrupted my dream, it would have made more sense." Why do I feel I really forgot something? Something really important...
"If ya hadn't stayed up so late to finish that novel you were reading last night, then I won't have to wake ya up so that ya won't be late for your class."
This caused her to glance at her clock.
"HOEEE!"
Touya sighed as thunderous steps rampaged around the floor above him. He could tell what was happening even without looking up. The monster woke up late. Again. "Any second now..."
Right on cue, Sakura ran downstairs. "Good morning."
His father looked up from the kitchen and gave her a smile. "Good morning, Sakura-san."
She returned his smile and turned to the framed picture of their mother. "Good morning."
Touya distributed the glasses and set down the pitcher of juice. "Late morning, monster."
As soon as he had uttered the forbidden words, he felt Sakura's foot strike his left one very hard. "Oww!" You'd think the monster had bigger feet than she already had.
She walked proudly past him to her seat. "Good morning, Oniichan."
Fujitaka sat next to Sakura. "Come on now, you two." Touya nodded as he sat down across them.
"Ittadakimasu!" all three said in unison.
As they ate their meal, Touya glanced at his sister who was practically wolfing down on her breakfast. "Let me guess. The monster is meeting someone before class starts and it looks like she's going to be really late."
Sakura scowled at him. "I told you a hundred times before, I'm not a monster!"
"But are you really meeting someone this morning?" Fujitaka questioned.
She nodded. "I have to meet Naoko-chan to return her novel. I have so many activities aside from cheerleading this week, so I don't think I have the time to thank her also properly. Naoko-chan will also teach me composition."
He smiled. "That's really nice of her. But if you're meeting someone, you should wake up early the next time."
"Don't worry, I will."
Touya sighed. "And I suppose you'll go with me again on the way. In case you don't know, I hadn't intended myself to be late."
"Oniichan!" Sakura exclaimed while scowling.
"How are things going in school, Touya-kun?" their father asked.
"Just fine." He took a sip from his juice. "Yuki and I are going to help out in our school's fund-raising activity."
Immediately, the monster's scowl disappeared and was replaced by an excited smile. "Yukito-san will be working with you?"
"Uh huh."
"Yes!" Touya could practically see hearts popping from Sakura's eyes. "Yukito-san will be there too!"
Fujitaka smiled. "Well that's really nice of you to volunteer for your school. What about you, Sakura-san?"
"Well, we are having more art lessons this week, so I want to improve more on my drawing. I still need a lot of practice, so I also asked Tomoyo-chan to help me."
"What are you planning to draw?"
Sakura bit her lip. "I don't know yet."
Touya gulped down his food. "I have a suggestion if you can't come up with anything."
Sakura blinked. "You do?"
"Sure! You can start with basic horror, monster." Touya moved his legs away to avoid Sakura's foot swiftly crossing the table underneath and it struck his chair instead.
"I don't know how Yukito-san can stay friends with you. Why do you always call me a monster?"
He smirked. "Why would I tell you?" Besides, his day wouldn't be complete without teasing his sister anyway.
"Well Yukito-san is kinder than you are! He doesn't call me names like you do!"
Touya leaned forward. "That's because I'm your big brother. It's my obligation. I have no choice."
"What kind of a-"
"Hey." Touya looked innocently at the wall clock. "Isn't this the time when your Terada-sensei enters the classroom and greets everyone a hearty 'good morning'?" He watched as his sister followed his gaze.
"HOEEE!"
"Good morning, Sakura-chan!"
Sakura panted by the doorway before pasting a happy smile. "Good morning, Naoko-chan!" After catching up with her breath, she handed her the book. "Thank you for lending me your novel. I like it."
"You're done reading it already?" Naoko looked awed.
Sakura smiled. "Un!"
"Good morning, Sakura-chan," Chiharu greeted while coming up to her. "Wow! You have beaten the school clock by five minutes! Getting impressive as days pass by." She held up her watch for Sakura to see.
"So I'm not yet late then?" she asked.
Chiharu shook her head. "Not even by one minute."
"Phew! Hey, that's not your old watch, isn't it?"
"No, I just bought it yesterday after school."
Yamazaki suddenly popped out from nowhere with his index finger pointing up. "Did you know that the history of the modern watches that we now have began when there was-" He was cut short when Chiharu pulled his ear.
"Don't even start this early," she warned.
Yamazaki kept quiet for a while but as soon as Chiharu released his ear, he started again. "There was a man who got curious about the rising and setting of the sun, so one day he went outside and-"
"I told you to stop telling lies, Yamazaki-kun!" Chiharu practically yelled.
"Hoe?" Sakura said nervously while she sweatdropped. Chiharu was a nice girl, but when it came to Yamazaki she would do anything in her power to keep him from even opening his mouth. Sakura left the two and proceeded to her own seat.
"Good morning, Sakura-chan," Tomoyo greeted.
Sakura smiled cheerfully. "Good morning, Tomoyo-chan!"
"You look very happy today," Tomoyo observed. "Did something good happen this morning?"
Sakura raised her smile into blissful level and closed her eyes happily. "I managed to be on time today and Yukito-san was with me! And guess what, instead of tossing me one piece of candy like he used to, he gave me this morning two candies and an extra chocolate-!"
"He did WHAT?" A slightly angry male voice interrupted from behind her. Sakura snapped out from her dreamy state, turned around to see...
Li Syaoran. She had forgotten all about her classmate from Hong Kong. Suddenly, images of the boy from last night flashed in her mind. Not only that, she realized that it was the third time she saw the same dream. Now she knew what she had forgotten to tell Kero about. The boy with the dark brown hair and deep blue eyes, the one who told her that he was Li Syaoran...
"What are you staring at? Do I have something in my face that you're not bothering to tell me?" Syaoran's voice cut through her mind. Sakura blinked and found Syaoran glaring back at her.
"Good morning, Li-kun. Um, nothing."
Syaoran continued to stare at her suspiciously and she nervously smiled while sweatdropping.
"Whatever," he said and Sakura sighed in relief.
"But is it true that he really gives you something every morning?" he demanded.
"Oh, you mean Yukito-san?"
"Who else do you think I'm talking about?" Syaoran's words came out a little harshly but his cheeks were starting to glow red.
"It's... true."
He glared at her again and Sakura was starting to get nervous all over again. Quickly she avoided his eyes and turned to Tomoyo instead. "Here, Tomoyo-chan. You can have a candy. Take it." She opened her palm and offered a piece.
Tomoyo shook her head. "Thank you Sakura-chan. But if Tsukishiro-san gave them to you, I want you to have them."
Sakura looked down at her palm. "It looks like only one will be left. I was planning to give the chocolate to Kero-chan and I will take one candy for myself... who would like to take the remaining one?"
Suddenly, she remembered. Sakura turned to Syaoran who was still busy glaring at her and she offered her palm. I hope this will calm him down. "Here, Li-kun. You can have the remaining candy."
Syaoran blinked and reddened while looking at the candy. "This really came from... from..."
"Un!"
He paused for a while, then took the candy. "Thank you." He held it as though it were the most priceless possession in the world. Sakura smiled at him but as she watched him, the image of the blue-eyed boy from her last night's sleep appeared in her mind and she shook her head.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" Tomoyo asked. "Something's bothering you, isn't it?"
Sakura looked at her best friend. Tomoyo knew her too well. "Yeah."
"So what is it?"
"It's actually about my dream. The same one that I dreamed about the other day and the day before that. I saw it again last night."
"Have you talked to Kero-chan about it?"
"Actually, I haven't much. I have to rush from my house to school and then when I come home, I don't remember it anymore. I had managed to tell him a bit of it but then I can't remember the rest of it."
"Maybe it means something," Tomoyo said. "Didn't Kero-chan tell us before that most of your dreams tell the future? You dreamed about Li-kun before and he transferred here the next day. And you also dreamed about The Glow weeks ago. Or was that a month ago? I think it had been months ago. Anyway, you found it at the Tsukimine Shrine the following night."
"You have a point. I'm beginning to remember it fully now but it doesn't make much sense to me."
"What are you two talking about?"
Sakura turned to her side. "Meilin-chan!"
"Hey, what are you two talking about and you look so dead serious about it?" Meilin asked, then narrowed her eyes. "Are you talking about Syaoran behind my back? How could you not invite me in the conversation!"
Syaoran groaned. "Meilin..." he started.
Sakura sweatdropped. "Um..."
"Well you're not going to succeed whatever you're trying to pull, Kinomoto-san," Meilin continued. "You're not going to steal Syaoran away from me. Not when I'm still around!"
"Just leave them alone, Meilin. You shouldn't butt in when people are having a private conversation," Syaoran barked. Meilin looked at her cousin in surprise.
"Syaoran! How could you take Kinomoto-san's side instead of mine?" she whined. "Don't tell me that candy you're holding came from her too!"
Syaoran's face grew a little red. "Not exactly."
"Not exactly?" she echoed. "Then whom did it come from? Come on, tell me! Tell me!"
"Why would it even matter to you where it came from? I just got a piece of candy, okay? End of story."
"Of course it matters to me. I'm your fiancée! I'm not allowing some random girl to start giving you tokens of affection with me in the same room." Everyone else sweatdropped.
"Tokens of affection? Meilin, it's just a piece of candy! Don't make a big deal out of it," Syaoran said.
"But Syaoran-!"
The classroom door opened and Terada-sensei entered with a young woman. "Good morning, everyone."
"Good morning, Terada-sensei!" everyone greeted in unison. Each student went back to his proper seat, including Meilin who looked down at Sakura in superiority before going back to her place. Syaoran looked gratefully at their teacher.
"Everyone, this is the nice lady who was kind enough to share her time and talent with us. Kyou Saori will teach you for two weeks art..."
"I'll tell you all about it later," Sakura whispered to Tomoyo.
Tomoyo nodded. "All right."
Later that afternoon, Sakura was peacefully seating alone by the foot of a cherry tree in the schoolyard. With a clean sketchpad on one hand, an eraser and a pencil on the other, and all the lessons from Tomoyo and Naoko plus the recent art lessons all in her head, Sakura was more than ready to do battle. With sketching and composition, that is.
"People do not need to be experts in order to create art," Kyou-sensei had said. "After all, they started out as beginners and they just developed as they worked on it more. That is also why even you children can even create art in your own way. Art is also an expression of yourself. You can do it with your painting, poetry, even sketching... Most of the time, art comes from inspiration. No, I don't mean the usual romantic inspiration you usually hear from other people. Think about things you usually think about. It could be anything or anyone you see everyday..."
"Kero-chan?" Sakura tried to consider it, then shook her head. What was she supposed to say when someone sees her sketchpad, she had been drawing a stuff toy? "Um, Tomoyo-chan? Oniichan?" Images of Touya screaming at her poor defenseless sketchpad crossed her mind. "Definitely not him. Besides, he calls me a monster everyday." Inspiration... where could she get it...?
Suddenly, it struck her like lightning. "Yukito-san!" Sakura was delighted by her choice. He was the only person who could make her blush like crazy. And he did have a nice personality and a nice smile...
So she set her sketchpad and began to draw. Oh Yukito-san... I really love it when you smile at me the way you do... More excited thoughts about Yukito kept dancing in her mind. But as she continued to draw, she realized that it wasn't Yukito's cheerful eyes or his hair that she was sketching. Sakura blinked, then blinked again while looking at her art. Wait a minute. Her eyes could not believe whom she had drawn. This is the boy from my dream! How can I be thinking about Yukito-san and drawing a different person instead? Not only was she sketching someone she barely knew, she was drawing this stranger perfectly! The features in her pad were exactly as how she saw him. But... but I never was good at drawing! Wow, this is so amazing.
While continuing to draw, Sakura tried hard to picture her brother's best friend but nothing about him seemed to reach her mind anymore. All she kept seeing right now was the dark-haired stranger from her dream. This is my inspiration? From a dream?
It did make sense though. For some reason, Syaoran's presence kept reminding her of him today, even though it didn't days ago. She had been haunted by the stranger's images since this morning and she can't find a way to remove them from mind. Fortunately, nobody except Tomoyo noticed how preoccupied she was during class. Why?
Sakura turned the page and began writing at the back of it using her pencil.
What is this in a dream?
When people sleep, they dream
What they see could be a pleasant sight or a nightmare
But I don't understand why this dream of mine
Had something which is always staying in my mind
Sakura read the lines she had written. It wasn't much of poetry to her. The words at the end of the lines didn't even rhyme that much. Oh well. She was ready to admit to herself that she wasn't exactly the world's best writer. Feeling a little better, she continued to write, oblivious to the swiftly passing time.
And a pair of eyes steadily watching her.
So there, I had the first chapter finished, but I noticed it's kind of short. Please review this so-called work when you have the time to do so. Thanks a lot. : )
