A Night of Pure Love

Chapter 1

Angel Stardust

NOTE: A tiny bit of profanity from Syaoran and Toya. No more than that. Lots of Romance though, okay?

The Archaeologist

Sakura Kinomoto was the beautiful princess of Kingdom Clow. She loved everything about her home. In fact, she thought it would be simply dreadful to leave it. It would simply break her heart. She felt as if she didn't need to fall in love and get married. She was already in love with the Kingdom of Clow!

That was before the men came; the twenty or so young men who came from a far away place. A group of young archaeologists who would change Sakura's view of love…forever.

It was a beautiful, sunny day. Sakura walked up the stairs and into the glass-encased astronomy tower to look down upon he beloved little village. Sakura averted her eyes to the horizon, and was shocked to see a cloud of dust rising and approaching rapidly. She flipped around, slid down the circular banister, straight into the arms of King Touya, her older brother. "Sakura Kinomoto! What do you think you are doing?" Touya demanded. Sakura managed to gasp that there was a dust cloud approaching, she was so out of breath. Touya's eyebrows converged together. This had never happened before. Kingdom Clow didn't usually have visitors; especially not unexpected ones. What could this mean?

Toya immediately notified Yukito, the high priest, to summon all the Charter Mages and sorcerers together. "We might be under attack," he added, so that only Yukito could hear him. Yukito nodded solemnly and gathered the magic users together while Touya commanded the troops into defense position. Sakura could only watch. Her heart was pounding with rage and fear. Who would attack the land of the Clow? What had they ever done?

Soon, the faces of the arriving party were discernible through the dust of the desert surrounding the Kingdom Clow. Not warrior faces, but friendly ones. But what were they doing here? The leader of the group, a young man about Sakura's age pulled up. A small monkey chattered happily on his shoulder. He smiled, jumped off his horse, and bowed to Touya. "I am Syaoran, an archaeologist," the young man said, "I mean no harm. My fellow diggers and heard of the Kingdom of Clow and its ancient ruins, but we never imagined people living here." Touya scowled. An archaeologist? What a poser. This guy was a…a…a kid. He was Sakura's age, and Sakura was only sixteen! What was he trying to pull?

Slowly, one-by-one, all the other men on the horses got off and bowed, too. They each said their name, then bowed. How sweet they all are, thought Sakura, especially the one with the monkey on his shoulder!

After everyone was introduced (including Touya, Yukito, and Sakura), Syaoran pulled out a scroll and handed it to Touya. "We would like permission to dig up some ancient ruins a few miles around your city, your majesty," he said courteously. Touya read the scroll, grunted, then signed the scroll with a disapproving nod. He sighed. Idiots like Syaoran were always asking him for permission to do something stupid and fruitless like archaeology. Syaoran smiled in reply. "Thank you, your majesty," he said bowing.

"May we set up camp around that area also?"
"I suppose so."

Touya hated people who set up camp around his beautiful city. It just made Kingdom Clow look so shabby that way. Nonetheless, this guy was way to smiley to object to. To Touya, it looked as if this Syaoran kid just couldn't be offended. He'd probably just smile bigger and laugh and think you were funny. Great.

It was sunset in the Kingdom of Clow, and Sakura thought that it must be the most beautiful sunset that ever existed. The red and pink blended into the purple, which blended into the blue so that the sky was painted with slashes of bright color. She tried desperately to save it one her canvas, but it was too late. The sunset had vanished. Sakura sighed and put her painting away. She wished she could have that sunset...all to herself...how wonderful it would be to have saved it! Then she could have given it as a gift to the kawaii archaeologist guy. They would have been friends! Sakura sighed. She really liked him. His name was so wonderful too. Syaoran...Syaoran...

Sakura hadn't even known she was asleep until she woke to find Yukito gently shaking her. "Princess Sakura, are you alright?" Sakura nodded sleepily and yawned. "Did I miss dinner?" she asked. The priest smiled. "No," he said, "we have saved you a portion, would you like it brought up to you now?" Sakura nodded again. Yukito left to get her food. She sighed. Shoe wondered what time it was. Maybe it wasn't too late to share some dinner with Syaoran? She sighed when she saw the window. It was so dark already…she could see the galaxy of Mikono roaming in the sky…

Sakura suddenly felt a light tap on her shoulder. She jumped. A pretty maid held a tray of food out to her saying, "Here is your dinner Princess Sakura."

Sakura sighed and thanked the maid. She didn't feel too hungry. She dropped the tray on her desk. So much for missing dinner. She hadn't missed a thing except complaints from Toya and lectures from Yukito. Good grief, couldn't dinner be something good to go to and not good to miss?

Syaoran lay in the sand, watching the sky. It was so beautiful here in Kingdom Clow. He never wanted to leave. Never, never, never. "You would have loved this Dad," he whispered into the night sky. He had never thought he would be in such a beautiful place….