Disclaimer: please look at the first chappie… sigh…

A/N: Thanks for my lovely reviewers, Majah, Chanelle98, Sparkling-Ruby Gem. I really appreciate the comments and suggestions. It makes me livelier! Ahahahaha! I've been writing for a long time, since grade six, I think. bah! I forgot about what I first wrote... haha. Anyway, I'm almost half-way through the fic. IMIGHT finish this in two month, at the least. Not sure but I'll keep them coming!

Sai-chan: See? See? You found it at last!

Pinboo: I really liked your story, the Chameleon. It's so... so... so... tsk, tsk! need to widen my vocabulary even more to describe it gets a dictionary Ah, I know! Magnanimous!

CHAPTER 1: THE RELUCTANT HEIRESS

Tomoyo stared dazedly at the writings on the whiteboard, tilting her head listlessly from one side to the other. She was taking down notes and listening to her professor's lecture but she just couldn't concentrate. She couldn't hear her professor, as if she had just gone deaf. They were discussing about the history of who-knows-what but eventually she got bored. Sure, the topic was interesting but unfortunately, her interest was more interested with the clouds outside.

She sighed. She felt she had just been transported to another dimension where time runs slower than a snail crossbred with a turtle.

Wake up, Tomoyo! She scolded herself, glancing down at her notebook. She fought the urge of slapping her forehead. Great! 50 minutes in class already and you've just realized you brought the wrong notebook!

The young girl sighed inwardly as she stared at her sketches of clothes, bags, accessories and shoes. She'd been passionate about designing clothes since who-knows-when. She wasn't really good in drawing but whenever she'd sew her creation together, it'd come out perfectly. Sakura always told her how good she is with sewing.

Tomoyo sighed again, rubbing her eyes. She was still feeling sleepy. After all, that dream she had last night was too weird that it bothered it. She placed her chin on her palm and thought about it.

It was the first time she dreamt about a strange woman with short reddish-brown and lilac eyes similar to hers and she was calling out to her, with her arms wide open as if to embrace her. She'd always known she's adopted by her Aunt Nadeshiko when she was just a baby. Nadeshiko had never failed to tell her that fact. She never had a clue who her parents were, why they gave her to her Aunt.

She had never asked them anything about her real family though. She was already thankful she has a loving family who treats her like a member. And even though her Aunt Nadeshiko had already passed away, her uncle and her cousins never failed to give her the love she had always wanted.

Although, there were times that she wished she had a real family: a real mom, a real dad and a real brother or sister. She was bitter about her parents having her adopted.

Maybe they didn't like her…

Maybe she was an illegitimate child…

Maybe they never wanted her in the first place…

When the bell rang for dismissal, Tomoyo was thankful and rushed out of the classroom immediately. She needed coffee to wake her up and she needed it fast. All that thinking made her pretty down and jelly-like.

But before she could leave the building, her professor called her back, sounding urgent.

"Amamiya!"

She froze in mid-step and turned around to face her professor, a worried expression crossing her face. Was he going to scold her for not paying attention in class? "Hai, sensei?"

"The principal is looking for you."

Tomoyo blinked. The principal was looking for her? "But why is that?" Her professor smile apologetically and left her in the middle of the corridor, stunned. Obviously, the teacher didn't know what the reason was but whatever she did, she didn't do it. At least not on purpose.

Slowly, she made her way to the principal's office, feeling that her every step was heavy, still wondering why the principal had called for her. She had never set foot in detention before. She had always been a good student. Her grades were above average, she was involved in several extra-curricular activities like the Photography and the Sewing Clubs and the Choir and she had been level representative. Surely, there wasn't something wrong, was there?

She knocked timidly on the door and a voice called to her from inside the room.

"Come in, Amamiya."

Tomoyo sheepishly opened the door and stepped inside. She'd only been twice at the principal's office and that was when she asked permission to shift to business management and when Terada-sensei sent her there to give a letter to the principal. But now…

"Take a seat, Amamiya."

She nodded and obeyed immediately, settling on one of the armchairs. She folded her hands neatly on her lap, biting her lower lip. What had she done this time?

That moment, she had then noticed two more unfamiliar people in the room with her. One was a young man, probably a couple of years older than her, with chocolate-brown hair and sharp amber eyes, wearing a stern expression. The other was a vibrant-looking young lady, older than the man, with long auburn hair and brown eyes and she was smiling at her direction. She smiled back uneasily.

"Amamiya." Her attention quickly flew to the principal, straightening in her seat. "These people would like to talk to you."

"To me?" Tomoyo echoed blankly, her gaze moving from the principal to the couple. "I didn't do anything, did I? I swear to Kami-sama, I'm innocent, whatever it is."

"Well, they said nothing to me about misconduct. Perhaps I should leave the three of you to talk." With that, the older man got up from his seat and stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Tomoyo smiled at them tightly after the principal had left. "You're not here to arrest me, are you?"

"No, Amamiya-san, for one thing, we're not allowed to arrest people as we're not cops. Actually, we came here to talk to you about something very important," the man said in a business-like tone, his eyes boring into hers. "We're here to represent Mrs. Sonomi Daidouji of the Daidouji Industries. Do you know who she is?"

Tomoyo looked thoughtful. "No, not really… But I think I've heard her name somewhere… In the magazine I think…"

"Well, Madam Daidouji is one of the richest people in Europe, and possibly in the world," the man explained. "She holds several establishments and corporations internationally. Estimated, all her assets and estates sum up to 15 billion dollars."

The raven-haired girl smiled politely. "Wow… That's something… But what has she got to do with me?"

"Well, Amamiya-san, did you know you're adopted?"

The girl pressed her lips together. "Look here, Mister…"

"Syaoran. Li Syaoran. And this is Akizuki Nakuru."

She nodded absently, feeling her head hurt. "Right, Mr. Li. I really don't care at all if I'm adopted since I'm quite happy with my current family!" she told him indignantly. "Are you those guys who give out scholarships to orphans? Because if you are, I'm positive that—"

"Not quite. We're not here to give you a scholarship or anything but the reason we're here right now is because Sonomi Daidouji recently passed away…" Syaoran paused for a while and Tomoyo sent her condolences, feeling a bit guilty although still confused. "And she left her entire assets to her one and only daughter, Tomoyo Amamiya Daidouji."

There was complete and utter silence in the room for a minute or two, the tension hanging heavily in the atmosphere. Then… Tomoyo started laughing. "Wow! That joke's good! It nearly fooled me! Are you guys comedians or something? I'm pretty sure…" She slowly faltered, seeing their impassive faces. "You're just kidding, right?"

"If we were, then I wouldn't be here, talking to you right now," Syaoran replied flatly. "We're not wasting time here just to make jokes, Amamiya-san. We're here for business."

Tomoyo gaped at him for a while, her purple eyes wide. "Wait, let me get this straight," she said slowly, taking a deep breath. "So you're saying that my real, biological mom just died and dumped me an inheritance worth 15 billion dollars?"

"Well, not quite 15 billion dollars since the government would subtract the inheritance tax—"

Nakuru cut Syaoran off. "Yes, to put it simply," she said, rolling her eyes. Technicality was one of Syaoran's definite flaws.

The girl was speechless. 15 billion dollars plus tax? All hers? Billion, not million! That's got to be enough to send her retiring already at her age. She slowly looked up. "But there's a catch right?" Syaoran blinked at her, confused by her words. "I mean, you wouldn't just give away that large amount of money, especially to a stranger like me…"

"Right!" Nakuru said cheerfully. "Actually, our CEO would like to meet you."

"Meet me? Where is he right now?

"At our main branch in London."

"And he's not here because…"

"He's very busy, you see, trying to deal with the corporation now that the President had died."

Tomoyo sighed. "And I should go to London to see him because…"

"Well, you see…" Nakuru started, scratching her cheek sheepishly. "It was stated in the will that you will hold the reins of the corporation before you can actually get your entire inheritance…" She paused, glancing at the impassive young man. "In short, you have to learn how to become a president of a very large company before anything else."

"Okay…"

Syaoran stared at her. "So… You accept it already?"

Tomoyo thought for a minute then… "No! Of course not! Do you really think I'd suddenly accept it like that!" she retorted, jumping to her feet, and started for the door. She had never felt this anger in her life. "I don't even know her aside from the fact that you say she's my biological mother. She dumps me when I was a baby and now she dies, leaving me 15 billion dollars and more problems on my shoulders without any warning whatsoever! Isn't she being inconsiderate!"

"Amamiya-san!"

The girl pulled open the door and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind her in the process. Syaoran, having to follow instructions from the Supreme Ruler himself, had no choice but to follow her, of course, leaving Nakuru behind. He ran after her as Tomoyo started for the building's exit, dodging several students in the way.

"Amamiya-san, please reconsider!"

Nakuru winced as Syaoran slammed the door behind him, running after the reluctant heiress. Absently, she pulled her own cell phone and started calling Eriol, humming a lively tune.

"Hello?"

"Eriol! Guess what? We found her! We found Tomoyo-san!"

There was a loud bang like the handset falling off the table and a series of muttered profanities at the other end of the line. Nakuru had to smile amusedly as she wondered how their boss was looking like that moment. "You did! Where is she! And where is Li!"

"Um… They're both busy right now…"

"Busy! Busy doing what!"

"Er, Syaoran's busy chasing the girl. She kinda ran off, you see…"

"WHAT!" Nakuru jumped up from her seat and pulled the cell phone away from her ear as Eriol started to shout from the other end of the line. "—that Li is trying to do! Why did the girl run!"

"It's, um, quite a long story and it might take hours—"

"Then cut to the chase already, Nakuru!"

"Okay, okay! Geez, no need to shout, Eriol." Nakuru waved her hand in the air, letting out an exasperated sigh. "It's like this: we told her everything, that she was adopted, that Madam Daidouji died and left everything under her name, blah, blah, blah! We told her that everything is worth about 15 billion dollars, et cetera. We even got to the point where you needed to teach her to become the President of the corporation…"

"And then! What the bloody hell happened!"

"And then… she ran off!"

"Why!" Eriol growled and Nakuru winced.

"Er, she said that it was inconsiderate of Madam Daidouji to just leave her like that and that she didn't want the money."

"That's it!" Eriol snapped and the auburn-haired girl jumped again. Seriously, that young man needs an anger management session. "Nakuru, I want you to run after Syaoran now! I want you to convince that girl that she's important! Now, Nakuru, and don't call me unless it's good news!"

"Eh! But Eriol—"

Then, there was busy tone. Nakuru sighed and returned the phone in her pocket. She had to keep moving and run after Syaoran or she'll never hear the end of it from Eriol.

"Please, Amamiya-san! Reconsider!"

Tomoyo stormed out of the building, ignoring the weird looks she and Syaoran were getting from the students and professors. Honestly, they looked like a couple who had just broken up. "No, I will not reconsider!" she shouted back at him over her shoulder. "That's my decision!"

"Look, we have to talk! There's still a lot of things we haven't discussed yet."

"Yeah! Like what!"

"That the corporation has a lot of people working in it. Your mother made it sure that those people don't lose their jobs, especially those who have families and children. Just think what might happen to them if the corporation lands in the hands of a bad and selfish President!"

Tomoyo stopped in the middle of the quadrangle, much to Syaoran's relief. "He might… force them to resign…"

"Right! And just think of their families!" the young man said, catching his breath. The girl may look fragile and delicate but she could sure run like an athlete. "The reason why your mother gave you everything she has is because she knew, deep down, that you would do something she did. Something good for the people."

She turned around and faced him, her eyes narrowed. "You're not trying to bait me, are you?"

"No, of course not! I mean, why should I try to bait you?"

"I was just thinking that you might resort to using desperate measures such as making up false stories just to get me convinced."

Syaoran had to hold his breath, sweat trickling down the side of his face. This girl's good when it comes to catching someone lying. "Why would I do that anyway? There's not reason for me to do something like that." Only Hiiragizawa's gutsy enough to even try that sort of thing.

"Fine… Let's talk at my place. You can explain to me everything there, as well to my Uncle, but now smart crack-ups!"

"Thank you!" Syaoran smiled at her, letting out a relieved sigh inwardly. "We have a limousine waiting. We could—"

"I have a car, thank you," she interjected bluntly. "And I'm sure I can drive better than your driver."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Oh? But how are we going to know that you won't suddenly run away?" Tomoyo frowned at him then turned away wordlessly. Syaoran felt himself panic at that action. "All right! All right! I believe you! I was just kidding! Let's just go, okay?"

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