Syaoran had been having a really bad day. All he wanted to do was go home, eat something then curl up in bed and block the world out. Unfortunately, he had homework.
Homework. It was such a detestable thing. Homework must have been invented by some miserable teacher, who felt that everyone else had no right to be happy, and decided they should be forced to learn outside of school as well, to make everyone as depressed as the teacher was. And the cycle continued, as students who had been forced to do homework didn't see why the next generation shouldn't have to suffer as they had suffered. It grew until homework became a thing everyone did, and never questioned the point of.
And that was how Syaoran ended up at the library. Research for his homework had become the bane of his existence. Still, he wanted to do well in his classes, not just because his mother was pressuring him to do well, but also because he wanted to do well for himself. He was a proud young man, in the best sense, of course.
Luckily when the sky opened up and shed its heavy load on the world, he could see the library up ahead, and he made a dash for it. As spring had just started the rain still came down strongly, but the sun was there to shine its way weakly through the clouds. He entered the vast doors having only gotten slightly soaked. As he looked around he noticed many people had taken shelter here from the sudden downpour. He sighed, thinking it would be hard to find somewhere peaceful to get on with his homework.
He travelled through the library, which, while not as big as you find some libraries, was big enough to have two floors; after all, this was Hong Kong. After completing a circuit of the bottom floor and finding nowhere to work, he went upstairs. Usually he didn't like to go upstairs as much. The windows were few and far between and there was a feeling of being enclosed. But at least that meant there weren't as many people up there. He was more likely to find a quiet spot. Sure enough, after walking through the sections he found a secluded table, surrounded by books on three sides. He sat so he was facing the way he came in, and dumped the books he had gathered on his travels on the table, then fetched out his work books and sat down.
After what felt like hours but was probably closer to only an hour and a half, he stretched, and admired his work. He had gotten a lot done in this quiet area, but he needed a break. He looked at his watch, and realised he should probably head home now. Hopefully it had stopped raining.
He stretched again, and something hit him on the head. "Ow!" He cried, disturbing the peace. Not that there was anyone around to be annoyed by this. But if there was no one around, who had thrown something at him? He rubbed the sore spot on his head irritably, and guessed it must have been a book fallen from one of the shelves. He looked down into his lap where it had landed. It wasn't a book, but a scroll. Interested, he unrolled it and stared at the kanji. Great, Japanese, he thought, looking it over. Although he could speak Japanese pretty well, reading it was a different matter.
He rolled it up again, and stood to find a place for it. However, he couldn't find a gap in shelves where it belonged. Frowning, he put it with his other books with the idea of giving it to someone who worked there so they could find its proper place. As he did his tour of the library he put back the books where he had got them from, juggling things round.
He got to the exit and found that it was bright and sunny again, and the wetness if the rain was already being evaporated. It wasn't until he was halfway home that he remembered the scroll. What did he do with it? He hadn't given it to anyone, perhaps he left it somewhere? He searched his jacket, and there it was, shoved into an inside pocket. He must have put it there while he was sorting out all the other books. He sighed, thinking of how late he was going to be getting home, but he couldn't just take the scroll. He hadn't checked it out so technically it would be stealing. He would have to take it back. He wondered why the alarms hadn't gone off though. All library stock had a thin strip put on them which set off the alarms unless desensitised by staff as they were being checked out. He should have set off the alarms when he went through the doors, but the silence of the library had not been broken. Curious, he took the scroll out and looked it over. Those strips were hard to see, but on something like this it should be easier. His search didn't last long though, as he made his way back down the road towards the library. He found he was examining its contents. He started to sound out the words, not really paying attention to his surroundings and walking slowly. He also didn't notice, as he said the words hesitantly as he tried to get their meaning, the golden glow that was following his feet. As he went further along, his brow furrowed in concentration, the glow began to gather behind him, trailing after him, and taking a more solid form. At the last word, he finally noticed a glowing from behind him, which stopped abruptly as the form solidified and fell to the ground with a thump.
Syaoran spun around to see a girl sitting there, with short light brown hair and she was wearing the strangest outfit he had ever seen. It looked like it was made up of flower petals. Her eyes were squinting with pain as she rubbed her rear end, like she'd fallen on it. Then, her eyes opened and she looked around, apparently not noticing him. She had the most vibrant shade of green eyes he had ever seen, and they were frowning at her surroundings. Then she said, in a light Japanese voice, "Oh… Bugger."
Heh, sorry, I know Sakura isn't the type to swear, but I couldn't resist!
To anyone who's reading any of my other fics, and is annoyed that I'm coming out with new stories even though I haven't done any on the others, might I just say, I most humbly and deeply apologise, I hope you'll forgive me and that this makes up a little for the lack of chapters being written for my other stories.
Anyway, this one's been plaguing me a bit, so I don't think I could've done anything till I wrote it, then I thought, what's the point in writing it if I keep it to myself? I'm enjoying doing this one at the moment, and I hope you enjoy reading it. If you are, you should really let me know whether my efforts are worthwhile, or if you think it could be better, and so on. I'm not going to tell you to review though, it's entirely up to you whether you do or not. I'd appreciate it if you did, but hey, I'm just an authoress, so feel free to pretend I don't exist and just kick back and enjoy the story as it goes! Well, Mata ne!