Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura and Wind Singer will never be mine, but hey, you don't see me complaining…I always throw my tantrums in secret. –laughs-
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Tomoeda
By yours truly.
It was morning, and the first rays of morning sun penetrated the blinds, bathing the room in warmth.
Brinnngg
"Mmm?" Sakura mumbled sleepily, opening a dazed emerald eye. Then, moaning, she turned the alarm clock off with the customary bang and pulled the thick duvet over her head, fully intending to relapse back into sleep. But just before she could close her eyes again, Touya poked his head through the door and swiped the warm blanket off her. Sakura sat up with a start, looking indignant and furious that sleep had been denied her.
"TOUYA!"
Unfortunately, her scream of ferocity was too late and Touya, smirking gleefully, closed the door, a pillow hitting it with a resounding thwack not long after. Sakura mumbled something rude about stupid Touyas and got up from the bed, disappearing into the bathroom. After disciplining her hair with a few vicious swipes of a comb, Sakura clattered downstairs.
"Good Morning, Sakura-chan!" The rest of the family chorused at the breakfast table. Yukito had joined the Kinomoto family for breakfast, and he waved at Sakura cheerfully before popping a slice of bacon into his mouth, swallowing it down in one mouthful. Sakura smiled back.
"Good morning, Outou-san, Okka-can, Yukito…Touya…" The last word uttered was coated generously with malice, and said person smirked back.
"Glad you could join us for breakfast, kaijuu. Had enough beauty sleep?"
Sakura promptly stomped on his foot and Touya howled, dropping his fork with a clang.
"WHY YOU…!!!!!"
Sakura grinned at her elder brother and sat down in her place at the table, tucking herself in to a bowl laden to the brim with hot porridge. The table was soon filled with hearty chatter not long after, punctuated regularly with laughter.
And thus was a typical morning in the Kinomoto Residence.
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Somewhere else…
Syaoran silently picked up his school satchel from its place beside the bookshelf and spread himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich absentmindedly. The house was silent, as it always was in the morning. Syaoran knew very well that his family were not particularly cheerful people when woken up early, especially his mother, and took great care not to disturb them in the wee hours of the morning. Slinging the satchel over his shoulder, he stuffed a set of keys into his pocket and went on his way to school.
Chewing on the sandwich slowly, he made his way through the Sakura Tree path. The path, as you could tell from its name, was lined with Sakura trees and conveyed a feeling of peace and serenity to the people walking along it. Admiring the cherry blossoms which were in full bloom, Syaoran allowed his pace to slow down. School only commenced in two hours time, anyway. Then, his brow wrinkled with thought. Wasn't Sakura the name of that obnoxious girl who sat next to him in school?
What a pretty name for such an ill-mannered girl.
Smirking at the thought, Syaoran reached school fifteen minutes later, and walked into an empty classroom.
Walking over to his seat, Syaoran placed his satchel onto the table, and then sat down. Reclining back into his chair, he waited for the other students to arrive.
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The students arrived one by one, and the class was soon alive with chatter. Sakura ran in with minutes to spare, opening the door with a bang. Dragging her school bag behind her and heaving slightly with the exertion of her run to avoid the school bell, she walked to her table and sat down with a thump, head down on the table, arms spread-eagled as if she had just completed a marathon. Sakura vowed never to wake up so late again.
She heard someone clear his throat.
"Kindly get your head and hand off my table," The voice said, with barely concealed amusement. Sakura groaned slightly and waved the person away, not bothering to look up at him. The person prodded her in the shoulder, clearly losing his patience.
"Takashi went off, so these two tables are mine. Go away." Sakura managed to slur, resolutely sticking her face to table's surface. The person, now revealed as Syaoran, bent down until his face was barely inches away from Sakura's, as if he were talking to a child.
"Did I forget to mention that I'm the NEW student who took ownership of this table YESTERDAY?" At this, Sakura sat bolt upright, blushing hotly. She glared at Syaoran for a few moments before reluctantly shifting to one side, then continued to stick her head to her own table again.
"You can have your blasted table," Sakura muttered, looking in any direction besides Syaoran's.
"I shall very much enjoy it," Syaoran retorted scathingly before sitting down, just as Sensei stepped into the room. Sakura barely had time to give him a look of contempt for his cheek before the lesson began. Reaching lazily under her desk to get out her textbook, she focused her eyes on the Sensei, concentrating hard on the maths equations he had written on the black board.
Then, a few minutes later, she let out a frustrated growl of defeat. Sensei's scrawl was worse than usual today, and she'd been so engrossed in trying to decipher whether that symbol was a pi or an equal that she had already missed most of the lesson. Glancing at Syaoran's notebook discreetly, her eyes narrowed when she found it was filled with notes.
Gah, she thought. Just this once…
Sakura cleared her throat. "Ahem. Li-kun?"
Syaoran looked up from his writing at Sakura.
"What do you want now?"
Sakura's innocent look disappeared in an instant, and an evil grin appeared on her face. Leaning towards Syaoran deliberately, she drew small circles on his side of the table, smiling demurely all the way.
"May I borrow those math notes?" She crooned. Syaoran sweatdropped and smacked Sakura upside the head with his book, then tossed it to her with a glare.
"You could have just asked," He sighed, putting his pencil back into its case. "Anyway, you're really bad at seducing people, you know that?" Getting the full end of a death glare, he just snorted and turned back to the blackboard.
Sakura harrumphed. Opening his notes, she started copying notes down at the speed of light. Then, slapping the notes back onto Syaoran's desk with a huge smack, she turned back to the teacher before he noticed anything suspicious. Watching Syaoran give his book a dirty look and brush it off as though it had a multitude of disease-spreading germs on it, she rolled her eyes.
He might be good-looking, but he's still an obnoxious brat all the same.
She grinned.
Much like me. Maybe I was wrong to judge him at first glance…?
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Nadeshiko hung the last piece of laundry up on the line before stepping back to admire her work. There was no denying it—she was a perfectionist if there ever was one. After making sure the rope that was supporting the wet clothes was securely tied in place, she turned towards the house, fully intending to go in a have a nice, long rest.
Unfortunately, her trip back was interrupted as she felt a distinct rumble from below. Delicate features twisting into a frown, Nadeshiko bent down, kneeling on the dusty red earth. Cupping one hand around her ear and directing it towards the ground, she listened carefully for anything out of the normal.
There it was—another rumble. It wasn't an earthquake though. It sounded more like…a lot of footsteps…people running….no, marching. And the clanking of metal. Very faint, yet audible through the earth. There must be a lot of them. They were very close as well.
Nadeshiko stood up, gazing at the ground almost worriedly. Gazing up into the horizon, her pale emerald eyes flicked every which way, trying to look for the source of disturbance. It was getting dark, and she couldn't see too clearly. Squinting, the woman walked towards the edge of fence and looked hard. If she wasn't mistaken…there was something, something moving in the dark.
Her line of vision moved upwards, and her eyes widened. In the middle of the vast field surrounding the outskirts of Tomoeda, there were hundreds, positively thousands of moving dots, glazing obvious even in the fading sunlight. And right at the front there was a huge flag, a flag…blood red…
The basket she was holding dropped to the ground.
"Soldiers of the Kestrel…" Wide, unmasked fear struck her heart just then, and Nadeshiko turned on her heel and dashed into the house. The thumping grew louder, distinguishable as marching and the hoof beats of well-bred war horses, and the earth trembled once again.
The wind was cold, relentless as it passed.
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A/N: Sorry, REALLY, REALLY short. This is only part of the chapter, but I wanted to post this so prove that I'm alive, sooo…ehehe. -grinning-