Full Summary:
Syaoran and Sakura are complete strangers when they meet on the hill next to the cemetery one peaceful afternoon. The two seem to click and talk as if they were old friends, but soon night falls and Sakura must leave to go home and Syaoran is left with only the name Sakura Kinomoto and the short time they had together. Three months later, Syaoran returns to Tokyo, Japan to meet his best friend Eriol. When he brings Syaoran to the hottest nightclub in the city where leather and cleavage is necessary, he is shocked to see the familiar face of Sakura as one of the club girls. Could you say a completely different person or what? But Syaoran is determined to find out why Sakura chose such a low lifestyle, compared to his life of mansions and university. Will the two be able to put away their differences in society, attitude, and merely themselves? Or maybe they're not so different after all. S+S
AN: Aiya, I almost forgot to say, this is AU (alternate universe) and in this fic Sakura's mother is not dead until uh...she dies. Yes, you'll get what I mean when you read ^^;;
Disclaimer: CCS and all characters belong to CLAMP.
Chapter 1
Free fall
It was one of those afternoons that she enjoyed sitting outside to see the sunshine and the breeze ruffle the grass. It was one of those afternoons that seemed heavenly and surreal. And yet the simple thought that she was at the cemetery visiting her parents' resting place seemed to shatter the moment. Yes, she would rather go to the park and watch the toddlers throw sand at eachother in the sandbox. But of course, she found herself at the cemetery and found her eyes burning again.
No, she bit her lip hard. She would not cry again. It would only upset her parents who were probably watching her from above as she stood in front of the freshly mounded dirt, and the shiny tombstones that winked back at her. She turned around quickly and ran up the green hill right next to the local cemetery. She remembered rolling down the hill endless times when she was a child. But that stopped when her brother told her there were ghosts around.
Yet right now, she didn't care.
She ran up to the very top and simply stood for a good minute or two, breathing in the perfect air of the outdoors. Nothing seemed out of place. Except for the fact that her parents' bodies lay behind her at rest. She sighed and sat down, taking a thick sketchpad out of her bag and an assortment of different sized pencils. No sound disturbed the ones in internal sleep, and she wasn't about to break the spell.
So she began to sketch. She drew the view she saw below her. The roofs of houses and the smoke drifting out of them. She imagined happy families sitting around the table, talking about the day's events. She sighed with longing. It was only her brother and herself now. Around the big square table fit for four. She scolded herself for thinking silly thoughts and sketched the clouds with a thick pencil. She wasn't sure how much time had gone by, but she was content with the serenity around her. Yet that was broken when she heard the cracking of a twig somewhere down below her.
She didn't bother to turn around.
"Not yet Touya, give me fifteen more minutes," she automatically said.
The sound didn't stop as the footsteps drew near, and yet she still didn't bother to turn as she finished the sun and the roof of a white house. She nibbled at the eraser on the tip of her pencil for a second before a voice interrupted.
"Nice sketch."
And suddenly the tranquility seemed to shatter as she didn't recognize that voice at all. It was not her brother after all. She quickly spun around and thought she was seeing a chimera. A simple mirage, because the face that looked back at her seemed too handsome to be real. Breathless, she could not reply until she thought about what her brother had told her so long ago. "Hoe? Are you a ghost?" She found the question tumbling out of her lips.
The young man laughed and shoke his head. He reached out to touch her, much to her surprise, but was suddenly calmed by the warmth his hand gave to her cool cheek. "See, I'm warm."
She blushed at her own stupidity and turned away. "Gomen nasai."
"No problem," the stranger answered casually as he sat down on a patch of grass a few feet away. He suddenly turned to look at her sketch and pointed out, "Maybe you should shade more colours in the sky."
She tilted her head as she envisioned his idea on her drawing. She finally nodded, "Thanks."
The stranger said something about the grass being wet and how his pants were getting soggy. She found herself giggling as she agreed that the grass was indeed wet. They talked about the houses below and how they all seemed to look like they were from a storybook, undisturbed and beautiful. They talked about the sky slowly dimming and how the sun seemed to say goodbye as it neared the edge of the horizon. He talked about the glow and the hues, and the splatter of colours in the twilight sky.
She could not help but turn to look at him. "You sure know alot about colours."
"I know about other things too," he replied.
"Like?"
"Oh, I don't know...sword fighting, sports- soccer being my favourite, and cooking is enjoyable too," he added thoughtfully and sighed.
She observed him carefully and questioned with curiousity, "Why sigh when you're such a talented guy? Too many girls lining up around the block?"
"No, that's not it," he seemed to flush a bit. "It doesn't matter how many talents I have because my life's planned." His face fell slightly.
"Planned?" She blinked.
"Yeah...family issues," he answered and turned to face her. She once again felt that breathlessness overcome her as the stranger's intense amber eyes pierced her very soul. "How about you?"
"What about me?" She quickly looked away.
"Are you an artist?"
She snorted lightheartedly. "Me? An artist? Hardly!" She picked up her pencil. "I draw for enjoyment. I feel happy and light when I simply sit and draw. I dream too. But when I stop dreaming I think about the silliness of it in the first place."
"Why?"
She shrugged, "It's like you and your 'planned life'. I think I'm stuck where I am."
"On this hill you mean?"
She laughed and shook her head, "No, of course not."
"Oh," he seemed to think his question was as normal as can be. "Why sit here of all places then?"
"...I like it. I feel at home," she explained. "You?"
"Oh, I'm just visiting this town," he answered. "I'm from Hong Kong."
"Ah, interesting," she twiddled her pencil in her hand and drew some smoke. "I'm a lifer in this town. No traveling for good old me."
"Why not?"
"Family issues," she echoed with a smug smile, just as a voice called from a distance. The sun had slipped away without their notice, and she could only look around her shoulder for the source of the voice. "Oh, that's Touya all right. I better go."
The young man was observing her as she packed her things and stood up. He stood up along with her and spoke hesitantly, "If you don't mind...what's your name? Maybe we can talk some other day."
Strangely, she didn't fell intimated like she usually would around strangers. Somehow, she seemed to feel as if she had known this man for years. Smiling, she replied, "Kinomoto. Kinomoto Sakura."
"Li Syaoran," he returned the smile brightly.
"Do that more often," she said.
"What? Repeat my name more often?"
She rolled her eyes, "No you idiot, I meant smiling."
He chuckled, "You too."
"Sure," she smiled just for the fun of it. "Next time I see Mr. Li Syaoran, you better be smiling."
"Deal," he grinned and watched as she waved before turning around to run down the hill and back into the cemetery. As her figure slowly disappeared into the dimming light, he found himself repeating, "Sakura Kinomoto..."
Three Months Later
Sakura Kinomoto, nineteen and stunning, hurried down the busy streets of Tokyo City. She was still rather unaccustomed to the crowds of the streets compared to her birth town of Tomoeda. It had been a little place, where you knew your neighbours down the block and would be able to walk in peace down a sidewalk. But not in Tokyo. It would be a strange occurrence to not be walking down a small alleyway without a person or two.
But moving to Tokyo was not just to observe the differences between the two places. No, it was nothing like that. In fact, her brother and herself had made the decision to sell the old house full of painful memories of their diseased parents, whom had both died from a serious car accident just short of three months ago. Moving to Tokyo was also their decision. They bought a small apartment and lived off of the remaining money they had from the sold house. But Sakura knew that the money would run out soon enough.
And with her brother terribly sick, she knew Tokyo was the best place to look for a job. There would be many opportunities, she just knew it.
A rolled up newspaper in hand, she went to the first place on her list; the bakery. This bakery had to be the busiest in the city, with people lining up sometimes all the way down the street. They made the best pastries and the perfect strawberry cake. Not too sweet, not too bland, and not very fattening if you shared it with a friend. Sakura sucked in a breath and opened the door to the bakery, instantly smelling the sweet aroma of sugar and bread.
"Um, ano...I read an advertisement in the newspaper, about you guys needing more people to help out?" Sakura said as she stood in front of the cash register.
A young girl like herself seemed to be looking at her dubiously. "Can you bake?"
"Well, I could if I learned," Sakura stated hopefully.
The girl was biting her lip and thumbing a ballpoint pen on the pink counter. She wore a frilly apron and a hat, her hair tied in cute pigtails though she looked about twenty. "I'll have to ask Maria, she's the boss," the girl finally declared as she ducked behind the counter to place some newly baked cookies into small baskets. Sakura leaned over the counter and looked desperately at the top of the girl's head.
"Could you please ask her now? I really need this job," she found her voice slightly strained but couldn't help it nonetheless.
The girl sighed and stood up again, brushing the crumbs off her hand. "Where are you from?"
"Well, I just moved here from Tomoeda," Sakura answered brightly, smiling at the name of her birthplace. "It's really small, so you might not have heard of it, but it's a really pretty--"
"School?" The girl cut in with a slightly bored tone in her voice.
Sakura flinched slightly and looked away. "Um...what kind of cookies are these?" She pointed at the ones the girl had just placed into the baskets.
The girl raised an eyebrow, "Almond. Now you didn't answer my question."
The auburn haired girl sighed in dismay. "I don't go to school."
"Really?" The girl seemed surprised now. "And you look so young too! Graduated already...did you skip a grade or two? You must be very smart," the girl seemed to have more interest in her, much to Sakura's annoyance.
"No, that's not what I meant," she muttered. "I dropped out of school." Ouch, Sakura thought to herself as she thought about glaring at the girl who's face fell instantly.
"Oh, I see," the girl cleared her throat and straightened her apron before putting on an awfully fake smile. "Well, the store closes in two minutes so you better go on your way now."
Sakura was about to complain and say that the bakery closed in two hours but the girl was already shuffling her out of the warm interior of the store and out onto the streets again. Sighing in defeat, Sakura hurried off and swore to never buy anything from the stupid bakery again.
As she went on her way, she soon lost track of all the places she had been. And all the places asked to see her resume, and all seemed to stare at her when they realized she was a high school dropout. Kicking the streetlamp, she couldn't help but feel bitter and grumble to herself, "Not everyone's lucky enough to stay in school...some people have to go work for a living. Like me."
She looked down at her newspaper warily and saw that all the job offers had been ticked off, meaning she had gone to all of them already. The streetlamps were flickering on again and Sakura decided that she would have to hurry back or Touya would get worried. She felt her heart squeeze tightly at the thought of her brother. Her only family left. And he was sick. Very sick.
He had the disease their mother had, before she passed on in the accident. Sakura thought that it didn't matter for her mother that much. She had been slowly dieing from leukemia and maybe the accident was a blessing to stop the pain.
But now Touya was sick. And Sakura thought it was not a blessing at all. The money needed for proper treatment was much too expensive, unless one of them worked their butt off. And Sakura decided that she would have to be the one.
And yet she didn't know finding a job could be so terribly hard.
Turning around the corner, she was brought out of her thoughts by the blaring music coming from a distance. Out of curiousity, she found her feet bringing her closer to the sound that seemed to be coming from a building isolated from all the rest. She cautiously approached the flashing neon lights reading "The Vibe", where the music might have deafened anyone in it. And yet Sakura noticed that there were indeed a lot of people in there.
And they all seemed to be having the time of their life.
Not deaf at all.
Curious, she stepped into the building and saw what seemed to be a nightclub. And if she had read more carefully the sign at the front of the building, she would have known the Vibe was the hottest club in Tokyo. Made of glass and silver coated chairs and walls, the Vibe was looking new and alive. And just perfect for the wild teen. But then Sakura noticed another thing.
Most of the people flailing their arms were men. Young teens and young men. And all were staring upwards at what looked to be a couple of girls raving and dancing the night away with nothing in mind, except to entertain the audience staring up at them. They were standing on a higher platform, a stage sort of setting, with flashing disco lights behind them and the bar on the far left wall where other girls dressed in tight leather skirts and cleavage showing tops were serving colourful drinks.
Sakura found herself staring dumbly at the whole scene. The girls were all beautiful with the absolute perfect figure, but Sakura couldn't help but never imagine herself wearing what those girls were wearing now. She suddenly tugged at her own pink sweater and felt rather childish.
"Hey girlie, what's a girl like you doing here?"
She spun around and saw the face of a rather drunken looking man. She backed away and bumped into a dancing group, quickly apologizing but noticed that the man followed her. "Stop following me," she found herself saying.
"But you didn't answer my question," the guy grinned a toothy grin. "What's a girl like you doing here? Come to see some stuff up there?" He pointed a finger at the girls on stage.
Sakura looked at them briefly before shaking her head quickly, "I just stumbled in."
"Well then, all the more to have some fun," the man said groggily as he grabbed her thin wrist. "You haven't experienced Tokyo yet if you haven't experienced the Vibe."
She attempted to get her hand away from him but failed. Grumbling in frustration, she said a bit forcefully, "What if I don't want to experience Tokyo?"
"Well you have to," the man said and pulled her in close. She found herself wanting to vomit at the smell of liquor coming from his breath. Or maybe his whole body was reeking with alcohol, she couldn't tell. In fact, she thought the whole place was spinning with the smell of smoke and the blare of music. She found herself closing her eyes and screaming at the top of her lungs.
"SHUT UP!"
Everyone fell silent. Even the music was turned off as the whole club seemed to have run dry of adrenaline. Sakura opened her eyes slowly and saw that all eyes were turned to her and that she was panting ever so slightly. The man had let go of her and was kind of staring at her in a kind of awe struck appearance.
"...I'll be going now..." Sakura mumbled feebly as she hurried to the door.
That was, until a hand clamped down on her shoulder and forced her to stay put. Sighing, she turned around and thought it was the man again coming to bother her, but instead a female was staring down at her from her high heeled boots. She had fiery ruby eyes and the hair of blackest night. But her eyes looked rather annoyed as she glared down at Sakura.
"Who do you think you are? Crashing our party like that?" The girl demanded in an impatient voice.
Sakura suddenly felt annoyed, wondering why a girl like her had the place to question her. She straightened herself, and raised her head slightly. "I didn't mean to crash your so called party, but someone wouldn't let go of me."
"Oh really? But you see, the Vibe isn't a place where you deal with your personal problems, ok?" The girl snapped back.
"Fine," Sakura snapped back.
"Meiling-chan, calm yourself," another girl was walking up to the girl. Sakura noticed that they were both very pretty and recognized them as girls from the stage. The newcomer had beautiful ebony curly hair and sparkling amethyst eyes that seemed much kinder than the first girl.
"How Tomoyo? This girl," Meiling sneered and looked at Sakura in disdain, "just crashed my night. Nobody does that here. Oh, and look at her clothes. Schoolgirl or what?"
Sakura found herself glaring, all patience and kindness seeping away from her tired mind. "Ok, you know what? You're not very polite are you? And for your information, I'm not a 'schoolgirl'. Actually, I never got to graduate, which is probably very much like you! And why did I dropout? Well, because my parents decided to die and I was left with my brother as my only family!" She nearly screamed in the ruby-eyed girl's face. She caught her breath and instantly didn't know why she had just spilled most of her deepest sorrows. She suddenly fell silent and looked away.
"At least you've got a brother," Meiling finally said. Sakura looked at her again and noticed the fire had faded from the girl's eyes.
"Yes, you're lucky to have a brother," the girl named Tomoyo chimed. "I'm alone in this world as much as Meiling is."
"But we've got each other," Meiling said fondly as she gave Tomoyo a smile. "And the rest of the girls."
Sakura thought the girl looked much prettier with a smile on her face then a scowl, but she kept it to herself. Noticing the heavy atmosphere around her, she coughed slightly and Meiling turned back to look at her again.
"You know what country girl, why are you here anyways?" A hint of interest was evident in the girl's voice as she gave Tomoyo a look before observing Sakura again.
Sakura blinked and looked thoughtful before confessing, "I've been looking for a job and I just stumbled in here."
Meiling's eyes seemed to fill with more interest by the second as she turned to look at Tomoyo again. Sakura didn't like how the two girls seemed to be communicating by reading each other's eyes, but Tomoyo had quickly stepped up and was pacing around her like a shark circling prey.
"Hoe? What are you doing?" Sakura questioned.
Tomoyo stopped pacing, the sound of her heels falling silent before she clapped her hands together in delight. "You have a beautiful figure, um miss--"
"Sakura," she offered.
"Yeah, Sakura," Tomoyo continued. "But you're hiding it under that baggy sweater. And look at your legs. They're nice and long."
"She's just got an attitude problem," Meiling added. "Or else she would be perfect."
Sakura frowned deeply, "Hey, who's got the attitude problem here?"
Meiling looked innocent as Tomoyo giggled slightly before saying, "Well, what Meiling means is that you're perfect!"
"Perfect?" Sakura blinked in confusion as Meiling signaled the music to be turned on again. The crowd of people seemed to perk with life again as everything went back to normal, except for the fact that Meiling and Tomoyo were looking at her carefully.
"One of our girls, Naoko, just quit last week," Meiling explained casually as she looked at her manicured nails. "We've been one short lately so we can't do our usual routine."
"And so, we think you'd fit Naoko's spot perfectly, that is if you're flexible enough," Tomoyo added but beamed. "Other than that, we think we've found the perfect candidate! And that's you Sakura!"
Sakura felt her head spin slightly as she took in the information. Her? One of the girls swinging her hips on stage and singing along with the blaring music? Her? In the tight leather mini skirts and tubes? She wasn't even sure if she could walk in high heels. But then, every bad aspect seemed to disappear as she thought about the main thing this offer brought her.
A job.
"Do I get paid?" She found herself asking quickly.
Meiling clucked her tongue on the roof of her mouth before answering, "Twenty dollars a day from 8:00 PM to 12:00 midnight. You think you can handle it?"
Sakura bit her lip, hard. She unexpectedly realized that this seemed to be one of the hardest decisions she had ever made. Midnight...her brother would be worried. All in all, her brother wouldn't allow her to work in a place like this. But the naughty side of Sakura kicked in and she knew he would never know, he was always in bed now. And there was money to go with it.
And with money she would have a chance to save her brother and get him the proper medicine and treatment.
With money she would be able to pay the rent and put food on the table.
Her emerald eyes suddenly filled with determination as she nodded defiantly. "I'll do it."
"Then welcome to the Vibe."
AN: So how is it so far? I would love to hear your thoughts, so please R+R =) Syaoran in the next chapter...and all that stoof ^^ Stay tooned and thank you for reading! =)