Superstar

Every world has its superstar. It's beloved individual that is cherished by everyone. In the Kingdom of Clow, it was their adored princess. Syaoran watched day after countless day as Sakura was adorned with amazing flowers as beautiful as herself, given to her by the citizens of her nation. She would come to Syaoran laughing heartily, showing him all of the presents she had been given.

"Really, I have no idea why they go to the trouble!" she would say, giggling in shy embarrassment.

"It's because they love you," Syaoran would always say earnestly, causing her to blush even further.

Sakura was their superstar. Loved by all, adored by all, there was none who could compare. However, Sakura could never ever figure out why, and Syaoran found that he was constantly laughing quietly to himself about how innocent she really was.

On a day when he decided to go with his father up to the castle, as his father went to speak with the king Syaoran went to seek out Sakura. He found her in her extravagantly decorated room, sitting on her large canopy bed and scanning a stack of papers piled on the sheets.

"What are you looking at, Princess?" Syaoran asked tentatively as he approached the bed.

She jumped at the sound of his voice, looking up in surprise and smiling nervously once she realized who it was.

"Oh! Hi Syaoran!" she said with a small laugh, attempting to stuff the papers somewhere out of sight.

Syaoran blinked at her. Sakura smiled and grabbed his arm, pulling him onto the bed to sit beside her.

"How're you?" she asked loudly, obviously trying to distract him from the mysterious sheets of paper.

"I'm fine. Father is talking to the King and told me to go find you," Syaoran answered politely, though he was still glancing behind her curiously at the papers. "Um...Princess, what was that you were looking at just now?"

"Oh, these? They're just...," she trailed off before finishing quickly, "marriage proposals."

Syaoran stared in obvious horror.

"Marriage…proposals?"

Sakura nodded.

"Yes, I've been getting them pretty often recently. They're actually quite amusing…some of them."

"You are very popular indeed then, Princess…" Syaoran mumbled sadly. Undoubtedly they were all very prominent figures, like princes or sons of very well off families. He was sure that Sakura would end up accepting the hand of one of them in marriage.

Sakura stared at him for a moment before saying rather loudly, "But I don't plan on accepting any of them!" She then paused, taken aback by her own outburst, before blushing and looking away. She glanced briefly back at Syaoran, before blushing even more and looking away again.

Syaoran stared at her for a minute, before smiling softly, touched by her reassurances and feeling a little better already.

Noticing his smile, Sakura gave him one of her own and grabbed his hand, pulling him off of the bed with her.

"Come on, Syaoran, let's go play outside!"

Later, as Syaoran and his father were on their way back home, Fujitaka noticed the large smile his son was still wearing.

"What is it, Syaoran? Did you have a lot of fun today playing with the kingdom's superstar?" he asked, happy to see his usually stoic son showing so much euphoric emotion.

Syaoran paused, thinking for a moment, before his smile returned, this time aimed up at his father.

"Yes, I think I did."