Waltz of the Katana

Chapter 4: Prince

By AutumnIllusion

DISCLAIMER: Hey, I don't own CCS or the characters, you know the routine. All I have is this plot of the story, which as you guys know is based on CCS, belonging to CLAMP. Ooh, I sound official today, ne? P

Authoress' Note: I've been lazy. A procrastinator. Slow. Evil ;;. Hehe. Sorry...I haven't updated anything in about 3 months. Long time...oops. Sorry, I've been doing all these one-shots that I just type up on my computer, and I'm lucky if I even finish writing them. Yeah, maybe one day I'll post one...but right now, they're just results of sitting at home on depressing days after a bad day in school. Well, here ya go...not very long, but I've made an attempt.

He bowed down.

No, not just any ordinary bow let us rephrase it in a more fitting way of the likes of Li. With one easy wave of the arm, he swept down on his knee lightly, then returned to his full length. Then he smiled at Sakura politely.

Sustaining the elegance around her just barely, Sakura managed a wobbly curtsey in return. Slowly taking her eyes off the prince, she held out her dress, placed one foot behind the other, tilting this way and that in the process.

"Princess Yamamoto," the Prince acknowledged her with a tilt of his head. He tried his best to pull his lips into a true upward curve. It came only faintly. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the girl, but...what fun this whole marriage thing would be.

"..." Sakura blinked twice, shifting her eyes to each side, before remembering she was the one being addressed, although with her new name. "Hmm...oh, just call me...Mimi," she agreed.

The next sentences spoken by Ruby Moon were those telling of how brilliant the marriage would be, uniting territories together. That was all Sakura could recognize, before she was sent into a daze of this new fantasy...

...

"Isn't he kawaii?!"

Sakura promptly sweatdropped at this first remark coming from Chiharu when she walked into Sakura's new chambers. Chiharu held a tray of fine metal in her hands, but she quickly abandoned it on a table, then rushed to Sakura's side, where she sat by a window. Her footsteps echoed through the room, walls of fine polished wood.

Sakura sat on a cushion, legs crossed as best she could in her new clothes. She turned away from her gaze out of her window, one the length of one wall practically! It had an amazing view of the kingdom...

"Ahahaa..." Sakura was at a loss for words. She simply waved her fan back and forth at herself, making the petals imprinted on it appear to sway in the wind.

"Right? You're soo lucky!" Chiharu continued, waving her hands in gesture. She took the teapot and tea cup from the tray she had brought, and started pouring drinks. "You're so lucky to have such a cute guy to hang around with!"

Sakura laughed, and stick out her tongue. "Ooohh, and here I thought you liked Takashi Yamazaki..." she teased.

"Yeah, well..." Chiharu pulled her eye and stuck out her tongue in return, "so what, there's nothing wrong with saying someone's cute!" The two grinned, flicking their thumbs up. "What's it like to be royalty now, huh?"

"Well..." Sakura traced the patterns on her gown absentmindedly, "I guess it's...its kinda weird, if you know what I—"

"Wow!" she was interrupted as Chiharu found her way to Sakura's new wardrobe. "This is..." she picked out a fine pair of slippers. Holding them against her own, Chiharu was wearing dull peasant goods, "...beautiful."

Sakura nodded, watching her friend glaze over her fancy properties. And something felt hollow in her...

Seeing the pair of silky slippers tinted the shades of sky blue next to Chiharu's faded brown cloth sandals, something wasn't right. It seemed that while Sakura was in newly found haven above the clouds, her friends and everyone she knew remained on the ground.

A knock on the door replaced Sakura's dreary thoughts. "Oh, come it..." Sakura called out.

Tomoyo pushed the door open, peeking her head inside before bouncing over to meet Sakura and Chiharu.

"Sakura, you know what?!" Tomoyo spun her raven strands of hair around her finger happily. Before waiting for a response, she continued. "There's a ball tonight!"

"Phweee...?" Sakura stretched her arms above her head and flopped back on her mattress. "Already...? I'm kinda tired," she pouted.

"Yes, already." Tomoyo giggled at Sakura's hint of exhaustion. "But that's gonna be so fun, right Chiharu?" she turned, high fiving Chiharu.

"Yay!" the two cheered in unison.

"Alright..." Sakura laughed nervously.

"So that means..." the Tomoyo and Chiharu had smiles creeping up their cheeks, making Sakura continue her nervous laughter. Sadly, she could predict that the end of this sentence would end like... "we get to dress you up to be super-duper kawaii!"

Yes, that was the all-to-familiar exclamation.

"You've got everything, don't you Sakura?"

Looking down, past all the clouds, Sakura could make out familiar figures. Tomoyo and Chiharu stood on the dirt ground, hands shading their eyes from the sun, looking up in that skyward direction, up to admire the wonderful Sakura-bird...

...

The ball was held in the courtyards, much to Sakura's pleasure. She had only captured a small glimpse of them earlier on in the day, and they had been quite nice.

Now, with evening setting in, the sun cast long shadows over the grassy lawns, in shapes of the trees and plants surrounding them. Lanterns were strung up against the trees, beaming little round orangy fire orbs inside them. Among the grassy yards, a little pond had fish of golden-like scales swishing around, while above them crossed a small wooden bridge painted deep red. There was always the faint call of servants running back and forth, racing to finish putting all the tables and refreshments into place.

Sakura waited with Yukito and Toya, by the courtyard entrances. She wore a light yukata, perfect for the hot weather. The hand stitched embroidery of purple lined butterflies made a perfect contrast to the pink fabric, and Sakura couldn't help but be amazed. "Tomoyo-chan would love this, don'tcha think?"

Toya rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah. Get ready, you have an introduction before you go in, and it should be coming up soon." He flexed his arms behind his head, looking rather bored. "I'd never think this would happen to you, a kaijuu," he grinned.

"Shuddup, you Poopyhead."

Toya now recoiled in pain from Sakura's direct hit to his stomach. "Aww, come on!" he whined, crouching over.

"Hmph, you should have known better," Sakura crossed her arms logically, "you were askin' for it." She leaned her back against a wall, grinning.

"Ahh! Sakuraaa!" a muffled screech could be heard distantly.

"Hmm?" they all stopped, waiting to find the source if the voice.

...which happened to be Sakura's bow in her sash.

Figuring this out, she immediately jumped back into a straight position, then tugged the sash around her waist. Unfolding a pocket-like compartment in the bow in the back, none other than the Guardian of the Sun came popping out.

"Oops..."

Kero's eyes resembled something of hypnotic wheels, swirling around and around. "You--"his head swayed from left to right, as he perched himself in Sakura's palm, "squashed—"he rubbed his eyes clear of swirls, "me, ya fatso!"

"Hehehe, sorry Kero," Sakura rubbed the back of her head nervously, while stifling her laughter...something that, while she and Yukito has proven to be able to do, Toya had definitely not.

"Haha, Kero, nice going!" he smirked.

"Shuddup, you sucker!"

Now it was Kero's turn to attack Toya, so he simply flew up to Toya's face. With a flick of his tail, he smacked Toya between the eyes.

"Aww!"

Yukito inched away from the scene just barely, muttering, "Toya's really getting it today...this kinda seems familiar...oooh, dejavu." He straightened the rims of his glasses practically. "Yes, indeed."

"Hmm..." Kero placed a paw to his chin, tilting a smile. "Well, if you must be forgiven, go get me some food during the party, will ya?" he flipped his paws up as in the 'thumbs up' sign.

Sakura laughed, sweat dropping along with it. "Sure Kero..."

Toya turned to his left, peering into the courtyard. "Oh...come on, lets go." He nodded to Sakura, holding his hand out. It was his job to escort her.

"Hai," with a nod, Sakura swung her arm against Toya's, linking together. They marched into the courtyard, now filled with well dressed guests, all waiting for them.

Remembering Yukito's quick princess lectures, Sakura nodded in greetings, and then waved slowly. She smiled, starting to enjoy this sort of elegance around her...

Five minutes later, Sakura had finally escape the conversations that kept coming up from every direction, and was now getting ready to dig into food.

Looking around her, many of the people were dressed in high quality, and they spoke to each other in dignified tones. Although she could not make out the words that each group spoke of, she could only guess the important topics such wealthy humans took interest in...politics, entertainment, arts...

"Oh, hello...Mimi-chan."

Sakura, who had been plucking grapes into her hands, whipped around. In the speed plus shock of finding out that Syaoran stood inches away from her, Sakura threw up the grapes. They found their destination, flying smack into Syaoran's face one after another, before dropping to the grass.

"Eheheh..." Sakura watched as a grape rolled over slowly. "Gomen nasai!"

Syaoran blinked. Okay... he watched as she immediately bent down to pick up the fallen grapes. He laughed a little at this awkward sight, something uncommon.

Raising to normal height again, Sakura joined the laughing. "Uh, sorry Li-kun, I'm kinda—"

"Clumsy?" he filled in.

"Yeah," Sakura swiped a handful of grapes from the food table before walking away with Syaoran.

The two walked side by side in silence, but a comfortable one. It was nice enough to just listen to the sounds around them.

"Oh, watch this:" Sakura grinned, then tossed a grape overhead. She held her hands at her sides, raised a little, backing up to center herself, and...plop. The grape disappeared into her mouth.

"Hey, you're the first girl I've ever met to do that," Syaoran remarked, in a good way. "Except for my cousin Meiling."

"Really?" Sakura stuck out her tongue. This Syaoran guy wasn't just good looking, he was nice!

"Yes, although it doesn't seem everyday that you find a princess catching grapes in their mouth." Syaoran grinned. They found themselves by the small pond mentioned before, stopping halfway across the bridge.

"I guess not," Sakura sweat dropped. Princess...yeah, sure... she thought, internally laughing her heart out. "See, I'm a special one!"

Syaoran folded his arms across his chest calmly. "Sure you are," he said, with a teasing bit of sarcasm. He leaned back on the railing of the bridge, as if in a resting position.

This girl...really was different from any of the other princesses he had encountered before. Different from all the other girls who drooled over him and squealed with their friends every time he ran his hand through his hair, always curtsying every minute or so...(although Sakura did squeal about him with Tomoyo and Chiharu ) Still...it made him feel on edge, intimidated by such personality for once.

Sakura stood the opposite way, leaning over to stare into the depths of the pond, as the fish scattered away from her shadow beneath.

Strangely, she had a new confidence. This Prince, maybe she could get along with him. Maybe they could be friends...this could be fun. She smiled, sinking her chin into her arms. But then again...no, she was just a decoy. It would all be over before it started...what started?! She scolded herself for those thoughts.

Then sounds of instruments came across the courtyard, sprinkled of flutes and drums, softly moving along with a traditional Chinese singer.

Sakura closed her eyes, letting the last bright rays of the sun tinge her soft skin, feeling all of the peace around her. For now, this would do just fine.

"You can call me..." the Prince's voice was saying, "Syaoran."

Authoress' Note: Review! Please? Hehe...