Title: A World Away
Series: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Romance / Adventure / Action
Summary: On her sixteenth birthday, Sakura leaves Japan in more ways than one.
Disclaimer: Cardcaptor Sakura is copyright to CLAMP.
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Chapter One
The sun had hardly been spotted over the horizon of the city, it's light flooding the windows of all the houses and apartments. Stars still dotted the indigo skies, though the normally ominous moon was nowhere in sight. Most of the windows were still covered, keeping their residents from having a rude awakening when the sun finally rose over the skyline.
One window however, in the upper storey of a large yellow house, was open. The curtains had been pulled back on one side by a thin ribbon of fabric, and the revealed window was opened just enough to allow a gentle breeze to tickle the toes of the female residing within the room.
It was her sixteenth birthday. Kinomoto Sakura sat at the desk opposite her queen-sized bed, decked out in a plain pink comforter and white sheets, and turned the emerald shred over between her fingers. Her house was silent, save for the quiet snoring of the golden plush sleeping in the ajar desk drawer and the soft sounds of her own breath. The soft padding of her brother's bare feet sounded outside her closed bedroom door, and Sakura glanced over to the clock, smiling to herself as she imagined what Touya would be like this early in the morning. It was because of his jobs that he had to wake up shortly before five in the morning, only to leave shortly after five.
Her father was still asleep, she expected. Glancing down to Kerberos, Sakura slid the drawer shut, leaving the golden animal to sleep in peace as she dressed and reminisced. Pulling a small golden-green clip from a small bowl on her desk, she pinned her shoulder-length auburn hair up atop her head and wandered over to her closet, leaving the emerald strip to flutter weightlessly to the cluttered desktop.
Her expression was that of a distant stare as she flipped through her closet, pulling out items and throwing them onto her bed. One item of clothing, a lightweight scarf with reds, oranges and yellows blending into each other, fell upon a small framed photograph resting on the headboard of her bed. The photo tumbled onto the bedspread, the scarf wrapped about it slightly.
Finally pulling out the last garment, Sakura padded over to her bed, slippers softly slapping against the carpet. Laying out the outfit from head to toe along the sheets from the headboard to the foot, she recited to herself the outfit subconsciously.
"Pink and red horizontal stripe tank top, stone-washed denim skirt atop navy denim capri pants, white ankle socks, a black belt and…" Sakura trailed off, realising that the scarf had fallen on the photo. "…a red, orange, and yellow scarf trailing down to my ankles…" Flipping the scarf onto the outfit, she lifted the frame to a level at which she could pick out the details.
It was a simple photograph, with herself, Daidouji Tomoyo and Li Syaoran posing together on the wall surrounding Sakura's home, where she still resided. The photo had been taken years ago, before Syaoran left for Hong Kong. The day he left, her heart had been crushed. She remembered clearly what she did for the following weeks, and she was sure that Tomoyo remembered just as clearly. The brunette had gone over to Tomoyo's for sleepovers almost every night and cried loudly to her best friend.
Shaking the memories from her mind, clearing it, Sakura began dressing, pulling her cottony sleep tank top over her head and subconsciously sliding a pink bra with invisible straps on, followed shortly by the tank top she chose out. No matter how much she didn't want to remember things, they always came to mind.
Before she even realised it, she was fully dressed and gazing at her reflection in the mirror, turning different directions to get the full 360 degree glance at herself. Thoughts still crept into her head, mostly in regards to Syaoran. Sakura hadn't had an ounce of communication with him since he left; no email, no phone calls, no letters. Nothing. Another thought trailed the others however. One that told her to simply cheer up because it was her birthday and worrying people was the thing she did not want to do.
Still, thoughts of him trickled into her head.
Sighing, she collapsed upon her bed, lying down and staring at the ceiling. Her eyelids were getting heavy, for whatever reason, and she was just on the verge of falling asleep, when the doorbell rang.
Shocked by the sudden ringing, Sakura let out a quiet, albeit high-pitched shriek. Clapping a hand over her mouth, she slipped her socked feet into her slippers and ran downstairs, passing her father's room. She paused beside the room, listening for a moment. At the sound of nothing, she frowned, shrugged, and continued running down the stairs, glancing through the glass wall placed beside her door to see Tomoyo, wearing one of her traditional fancy outfits, designed and created by the girl.
Waving, Tomoyo waited patiently outside the door until Sakura unlocked and opened it. In her hands was a small basket, covered conveniently with a white cloth, tucked into the edges of the basket. It was a very pretty display, and Sakura wondered why she brought it by. Though, everything about the fashion designing brunette was attractive that day. The dress reached her ankles, and seemed to have a hoop skirt beneath it. The skirt itself was layered, each layer ending and beginning with a lacy ribbon. The torso resembled a corset, with ribbons lacing up in the front and back. It was a very cute design, and a small part of Sakura wanted to wear a costume designed with that sort of 19th century style in mind.
"Happy birthday, Sakura-chan." Tomoyo greeted, stepping through the doorway and slipping off her strappy sandals, replacing them with a pair of slippers Sakura kept by the door for visitors. "Touya-kun is out this morning?" She was answered with a simple nod. "Aa, one of his odd jobs again. You know he would never like to leave you alone on your birthday. Though…what of Yukito-san?"
"Yukito-kun…I'm not sure where he is this morning. Perhaps still sleeping. At which point--"
"You're unaware of whether or not your scream woke him?" Tomoyo asked, giggling quietly to herself. Her long purple-black ringlets bounced as she did so, giving a cute, childlike effect. "Shall we head up to your room, so as not to disturb anyone?"
"That sounds like a plan. Though I'm still unsure of where my father is." Sakura pouted slightly, crossing her arms before her chest. Tomoyo giggled again, and the two females wandered up the stairs into Sakura's room. Shutting the door after Tomoyo had walked in completely and sat upon her bed, Sakura followed her, sighing and dropping down on the soft mattress as well.
"Tomoyo-chan…I miss him." A deep sigh was released from her as she closed her eyes. Tomoyo gave her a solemn glance and pulled a small envelope from the underneath the cloth on the basket. Turning it over in her hands, she mumbled a quiet reply.
"He misses you just as much, Sakura-chan…maybe more, if it's possible."
"What was that, Tomoyo-chan?" Sakura cocked her head at her friend, snapping back to reality for a moment or two. Her friend simply shook her head, and pressed the envelope into her hands. A few times her emerald eyes blinked, as the auburn brunette looked over the envelope. There was no address, no send-back address, nothing on it. Just a plain white envelope. Slitting the top open, she tipped it, allowing a short note and a plane ticket to fall into her hand.
"Tomoyo-chan, you didn't…"
"No, I didn't. It was Syaoran-kun." Tomoyo smiled warmly at her friend, a lovingly tender look in her lavender eyes. She watched Sakura eagerly read the note to herself a few times, then explained as she read for the umpteenth time. "He sent it to me, with a short letter asking if I could put this ticket and the note into an unmarked envelope. I did so gladly, as well. Are you having a happy birthday thus far, Sakura-chan?"
"Yes! Thank you, Tomoyo-chan…" She beamed undauntedly and pulled the other female into a hug, being careful not to crush the picturesque ringlets trailing down Tomoyo's back. Resting her head upon Tomoyo's shoulder, her smile stayed in place. "I'm having an utterly amazing day."
A few hours passed, and Touya had finally arrived home from a number of his odd jobs.
"Pay day, pay day. How do I love thee, let me count the ways…" He murmured, flipping through the bills he was given for each job. A good amount of money was held in his hand, and another envelope marked "Kinomoto Touya" stuck haphazardly from his back pocket. An apron, from the restaurant he worked at four times a week, was held in the crook of one of his arms, while his jacket was thrown over one shoulder loosely. His tee-shirt was untucked from his casual dress pants, worn purely for his restaurant duties, and his hair was just slightly messed up from the ride home.
"Touya…" A familiar voice came to his ears as he kicked off his shoes and slid on a pair of bunny slippers, walking into the kitchen. Yukito looked back at him, a worried look furrowing his eyebrows. In the grey-haired young man's delicate hands was a sheet of Sakura's specialised stationary, a pale pink sheet with cherry blossom petals dotting the border.
"What's up, Yuki?" Touya scuffed the soles of his slippers against the hardwood of the floor, bringing himself to a standstill beside Yukito, wrapping one arm around his waist and gently kissing his cheek in greeting.
"Sakura-chan. She's gone." He stated simply, leaning his head against Touya's shoulder in response.
"Out to the park with Tomoyo-chan, most likely. Monster." The brunette joked, rubbing Yukito's hair gently with his free hand, having set his paycheques down on the table as he walked over. The snow bunny's expression was still worried as he read over the note written upon the stationary given to the girl for one of her various scattered birthdays.
"To Hong Kong, actually."
Sakura wheeled her bag through Japanese customs, Tomoyo on her tail. The purple-black haired female walked with a perceptible bounce in her step, allowing her ringlets to bounce against her back. She got a few stares from people, likely for her choice in clothing, but also likely because in the crook of her arm she held Kero, who was doing his best 'stuffed toy' impression.
"Say goodbye to Sakura-chan, Kero-kun." She told him, making like she was waving his arm, when in fact, Kero moved his own arm in a very programmed way. "Bai-bai, Sakura-chan. Have fun in Hong Kong!" She mimicked Kero's voice, acting like a ventriloquist. Although, to most onlookers, she probably seemed like an infantile girl who needed to act -- and dress -- her age.
"I'll call you when I arrive, all right, Tomoyo-chan? And you behave, Kero-kun. I don't want to hear that you were misbehaving at Tomoyo-chan's house. I don't want complaints from her mother." Sakura tapped Kero on the nose, smiling enthusiastically. His nose twitched beneath her finger, as did his tail, but the movements were so underrated that they were left unnoticed.
Sakura began wheeling her luggage through the crowded airfield to a seat close by where her plane was to be taking off from on the strip. Turning to see Tomoyo one last time before whenever she left Syaoran's side once again, she beamed and waved with undaunted enthusiasm, only to have her waves returned from both Kero and the younger female.
"Flight 187, now boarding. Will the passengers of flight 187 please proceed to terminal 42. Repeat, flight 187 is now boarding. Will the passengers of flight 187 please proceed to terminal 42." A flight attendant's voice chirped over the PA, alerting Sakura to the departure of her plane. Giving one final wave, she ran off, tears swelling in her eyes.
She took her seat, sliding her bag into the overhead compartment after removing a small notebook, a 0.3 mechanical pencil, an eraser and her cell phone and setting the items on the dinner tray that was left unused. Her phone was already set to aeroplane mode, so she left it upon the tray while flipping the notebook to a blank page and beginning a neatly scratched journal entry, dating it at the top and noting all the things that ran through her mind at that moment.
Sakura's entry was interrupted after a few paragraphs, as an attendant wandered along the aisles, pushing a cart of food and the like. There was hardly anyone on the plane, so she could ask everyone if they wanted anything without annoying anyone. From where she sat, she could only see about ten, maybe eleven more people.
"Hello, miss. Would you like anything?"
The brunette female looked up at the attendant, who smiled and motioned down to the cart. Shaking her head, Sakura replied simply and pointedly. "No thank you. I'm fine at the moment."
"All right. Just give me a call if you want anything later. We should be taking off shortly." The attendant flashed another lively smile and pushed the cart away, asking another passenger a few rows up the same question.
"All passengers, please fasten your seatbelts. We will be taking off shortly. Repeat, will all passengers please fasten your seatbelts. We will be taking off shortly." Another attendant stood behind a small curtain, separating the pilots and kitchen from the passengers. Her message repeated a few more times, and Sakura watched as the other fares did as they were told. Moving her dinner tray out of her way, she did the same, clicking the seatbelt across her lap.
Finishing up her entry in the notebook and snapping it shut, she glanced out the window. The ground grew further and further from her as they took off, and finally the city of Tomoeda was just a dot on the island of Japan. She smiled at the ocean as they passed over, leaving the country.
Sakura sighed quietly, then went back to reading her older entries in the notebook. She skimmed most of them, stopping as she passed a thin strip of fabric marking one. She blinked and flipped back to the page, pulling the fabric from between the pages.
"This is…that fabric." She turned it over in her fingers, admiring it. The brunette remembered having pinned her hair up and dropping the strip upon her desk. She'd have never guessed that it fell between the pages of her notebook. Fingering it again, she glanced to her cell phone, then giggled quietly as she began tying the thin emerald fabric around her cell phone like the cute charms dangling from it.
Just as she finished tying the looping bow, her cell began ringing, a very cute bouncy tune. Sakura fumbled the phone in her hands before flipping the top and viewing the number. From what she knew, it wasn't a Japanese number, and the area code looked like the one for Hong Kong.
"Hallo? Kinomoto Sakura speaking." She answered politely, the same way she always replied to phone calls, whether the call be on her cellular or her home phone. She brushed a stray lock of her light auburn hair from her eyes and realised that she hadn't removed the golden-green clip from her hair since that morning.
"Sakura-chan…" A familiar voice replied. It was a male voice, and for a moment she was reminded of Syaoran. Though, this voice was deeper than his was, naturally. The male on the other end was obviously older than Syaoran had been at the last time they'd seen each other, but the voice had a distinctly Chinese accent.
"Syaoran-kun…is that you?" Sakura asked, instantly grasping the phone with both of her hands securely. Her emerald eyes widened, tears brimming in the corners as she thought of finally seeing him again. She just hoped that he didn't have a girlfriend in the time they'd been apart.
"Yes, Sakura-chan. How could it not be me? Do you really not remember my voice. I'm hurt." She could hear him pouting cutely on the other end of the line, and she laughed quietly. He hadn't changed at all in five years.
"Where are you, Syaoran-kun?" Sakura asked, brushing the loose lock behind one ear and flipping her notebook open again to edit her previous entry in the journal-like manuscript.
"I'm sitting in a park. By the airport. You're on the plane now, aren't you?"
"Yes…but how did you know that? And how did you get ahold of my cell number anyways, Syaoran-kun?"
"Tomoyo-chan gave it to me. Just after you left, she called me from a pay phone and gave me your number, saying that you would be arriving shortly in Hong Kong. You should be able to see the island by now, right?" Sakura glanced out the window, moving the cell to her other ear. He was right, she could see the island. It was lit up brightly, making it all the more foreign to her as of late.
"You're right."
"If you look really hard, you can see me waving to you, Sakura-chan." She could hear him laughing quietly where he sat at the park, likely on a set of swings. Sakura expected that he was waving, even though she couldn't see him from so high up, thus she humoured him, and waved back.
"I can see that. I'm waving as well. Can you see my plane?" The brunette enquired, replacing the phone to her left ear as she began jotting down notes about her short trip on the plane. It was only about midday, she thought, yet somehow it felt later. Perhaps the time difference, as little as it was, was getting to her.
"Is it the Japan Airlines plane, just about to fly into the Hong Kong International?" He asked, the sound of a creaking swing set in the background, confirming her thoughts that he was, just as they had done so many years back, waiting for her on a set of swings. Likely reminiscing, before he'd called her up.
Glancing once again out the window beside her for viewing purposes, she smiled. "Yes."
"I'll see you shortly then, Sakura-chan."
The familiar silence filled her ears, as Syaoran ended the phone call, leaving Sakura alone again in the plane, waiting tolerantly for it to land. Her eyes still locked on the airport below her, she buckled her seatbelt before even the light flashed on and another message boomed from the PA.
"The plane will be landing shortly in the Hong Kong International Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated for the duration of the flight. Repeat, the plane will be landing shortly in the Hong Kong International Airport. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain seated for the duration of the flight."
Sakura felt the plane began it's steady descent, and she viewed the ground as it came closer and closer to her window. Finally stopping, the attendant who had offered her cuisine previously wandered out through the aisles, mentioning to the passengers that the plane had stopped and that they could now leave the plane in an methodical and orderly fashion.
Removing her bag from the overhead compartment and stuffing her notebook, pencil and eraser away, while tucking her cell phone into a small pocket upon the side, the sixteen year old brunette dragged her bag off the aeroplane, following after the passengers before her. She didn't have to pass through the luggage claim, so she would grab a bite to eat at a nearby kiosk as she passed on the way to wherever it was she was going to stay at.
Passing quickly through a customs check, Sakura continued tugging her bag along the tiled floors, stopping as her emerald eyes met a familiar pair of amber eyes. It seemed as though time had stopped for a moment or two, as a smile spread along the owner of the amber eyes' lips, and Sakura's mouth hung open dumbly.
"Welcome to Hong Kong, Sakura-chan."