Over a month already. Don't worry everyone. This story will be finished.

PART 6

"Oh yeah, you have a brother right?" Syaoran asked for confirmation.

"Yeah." Sakura said slowly.

Sakura was getting a little nervous, she had to be really careful about what she said.

"What did you and your family do together?" Syaoran asked, not really able to spend time with his family, he wanted to know.

"Well, We kind of hung out around our home." Sakura answered. "I don't really think it matters when or what you do as long as you can spend time with your family." She continued.

"Wish I could do that, but every time mother's telling me to find a suitable bride, and she's expecting me to marry Princess Rika, and I just don't feel that way about her, she seems more like a sister to me. I just wish me and mother could spend some time together and talk like mother and son should rather then queen and prince." said Syaoran.

"Being royalty does that a lot." Sakura said thankful that in her olds days she was able to spend time with her family even though she herself was a royal, but she had let go of that 7 years ago, she is not a royal now and that's all that mattered.

"Yeah, you know, It's just so easy to talk with you, like I can just tell you everything I feel. I better go." The prince said getting up and leaving as Sakura bowed. She watched as he left and shrugged a bit before finishing the cleanup.

She sighed. This was the time of the year when things are real busy. First would be the festival, then the memorial and then the mid-autumn dance which was in 2 weeks. There will be more work tomorrow for the dance.

As expected the next day was busy with work for the dance. The preparations needed to be started right away because the dance was so close. Time was running out. The only thing they could do about the scam these two weeks was finish the surveys they had made to expose the horrors that Terada has done in his country right now. They needed to figure out ways to sneak the surveys out and sneak them back in without Terada knowing. As if that wasn't hard enough, the citizens may be too scared to say the truth. Terada may have guessed this was one of the things they might do and prepared for it. Even if this idea pulls through, they need to prove that Terada was going to take this kingdom, and that's nearly impossible. Even though the queen was very cautious, Terada was slowly winning her trust. If only the queen and the prince heard what he said. The two weeks passed by too quickly in their opinions, they didn't have time to figure out how to expose Terada at all. This wasn't good at all. They were running out of time. They have known about his scam for about a month already, and he started the plan before telling them. If they didn't find some way to expose him soon, they were all in major trouble. At least after this event, things will die down for the winter until New Years, then there will be a huge celebration welcoming the New Year and things will die down again, at least that was how things usually went, but if Terada was able to put his plan in action, New Years won't be all fun and games with celebration. It'll be more like war and bloodshed, but for now, the mid-autumn dance is tonight and Sakura of course is to perform the opening entertainment before the royals' dance, so she got ready. She just hopes that she can expose Terada before it's too late. Because of all the events, a month's time was already wasted.

Sakura's performance was of course exceptional like every other time she danced and captivated the audience. No one knew how her dancing can be so extravagant. It was amazing. Sakura glanced at Terada seeing him talk with the queen. He hadn't come to the castle since the last time he told his plans to Sakura and didn't have too much time to come here, but he was easily gaining the queen's trust even though the queen was very cautious. He was putting on too good of an act. They were running out of time. It was only a matter of time before he would put his plan into action. Sakura stepped out of the room. A man-made water channel in the castle was outside and she took some time to look into the water with the fish swimming carelessly.

'You're so lucky fish; don't have to worry but anything.' She thought. The cold teasing voice of Terada entered her ears sending shivers down her spine.

"What's the matter? Can't expose me?" he taunted his voice low only for her to hear.

"Believe me, you will be exposed." She said.

"It's been over a month, and you still can't expose me. You have 2 and a half months left, let's see how you put them to use. If you can't defeat me, you know what I'll do." He said tauntingly and dangerously close to her ear.

Sakura stood there for a moment. Then she started to shiver. It was getting cold. She stepped back in to grab her cloak and leave, but she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned around to stare into the passion amber eyes that belonged to the prince. She brought herself into her bent-knees hands off to the right palm face down right on top of left position while greeting him.

"Prince Syaoran" she greeted in her polite gesture.

"It's alright. I was thinking, would you like to dance, it is your specialty after all." He asked.

"I am but a mere servant, I am not allowed to dance with people of higher rank especially your majesty." She said.

"Well, I didn't come here to stand still and do nothing so come on." he said as he took her left hand and lead her to the dance floor.

"But Prince Syaoran, I…" she started but got cut off.

"It's not that big of a deal, and anyone can mistake you as a princess, I'd mistake you for a princess if I haven't gotten accustomed to seeing you in servant clothes, those just don't match you." He said.

"You are over praising me, my prince; I am only a mere servant." She said.

"Alright then, I don't have to make it an order do I? Because I do not feel like coming here and doing nothing." He said.

"You should be dancing with a princess, why not Princess Rika?" she said.

"Because they already made me ask her to dance, and spending the rest of the night leaning against the wall drinking punch is silly." He said.

And so, Sakura got dragged into dancing with the prince. She was worried. She's a servant; she's not allowed to dance with the prince. He saw the worry in those beautiful emerald green eyes. They were so clear and full of emotion, a rare sight. They were so deep. For some reason he held her closer, as if trying to reassure her that nothing's going to happen, which only made her more nervous. He couldn't help but stare into those emerald green eyes that are so captivating. They danced for a while, a little longer than originally intended, but the prince doesn't seem to mind. Sakura of course just got more scared every extra second that she spent dancing with the prince, but she couldn't help it. She did her best to keep their contact the kind of contact there was between a servant and a prince, but she couldn't help it. They couldn't help but stare into each other's eyes. Sakura and Syaoran got lost in each other's eyes. They didn't take notice to anything going on around them. All they notice were each other. They danced for quite a while before they finally stopped.

Sakura left and went back to her quarters. She hated this. Why did she have to get dragged into dancing with the prince? Why couldn't he dance with another one of the high ranked girls there? Why couldn't she figure out a way to expose Terada? Why couldn't her heart stop racing? It was true. Everything was going wrong. She couldn't figure out a way to expose Terada, Her heart is beating like a maniac, why? That night neither the prince nor Sakura was able to stop their racing hearts. They couldn't get the dance out of their minds either. She couldn't stop thinking about his comforting arms and he couldn't stop thinking about her graceful movements that was so harmonious with his or her amazing eyes that was so beautiful that showed so much kindness, care, and understanding. No matter how hard they tired, they just couldn't stop thinking about each other. This is bad. It was totally against the rules, but no matter how hard they try, they just couldn't stop thinking about each other. They just hope that they won't fall in love, and that same thought occurred to both of them simultaneously, 'I can't fall in love with him/her.'

Sakura and Syaoran were worried, really worried. What if they fell in love? They couldn't. It was totally forbidden. They reason with themselves that they were being silly and pushed the thoughts out of their heads. They had more important things to worry about anyways. Sakura walked back to her quarters a slight shiver came to her. It was getting cold. The end of autumn was coming and winter would be here soon, which wasn't good. She needed time as well as her brother to expose Terada, this wasn't good at all. Another 2 weeks had passed since his warning. They had only 2 months left now. It sounded like a long time, but it wasn't if you actually think about it. The survey was a bust. Terada had prepared for it and the surveys never left the Li kingdom borders. Terada had told Sakura himself that he had stopped the delivery. They needed a new plan and fast. That night on October 31st, Sakura and Touya had a meeting to discuss a new plan.

"That Terada!" Touya hissed.

"We need to find some way for the queen to listen to his plans. I'm sure he won't say it in front of me again. I don't think he'll give a hint to the plan when he's here." said Sakura.

"He's not dumb. Like you said, he won't say I word." said Touya.

"There has to be something we can do." reasoned Sakura.

"He's not dumb. He won't leave any evidence. He's being very careful." said Touya.

"We can't waste time. Forget about exposing him, let's make sure we can withstand his attack." said Sakura.

"Good idea. We'll focus on strengthening our defenses. We'll try to expose him, but it won't be our focus." agreed Touya.

"Right" Sakura agreed.

Sometimes when one road is blocked, you go another. That is what they need to do, and that's what they did. Sakura and Touya decided to on making sure they can withstand an attack, which they could do, rather then exposing Terada, which they couldn't do. They would still try, but it won't be the main strategy. That's how they spent the next month.

For some reason Syaoran and Sakura would come across the other when doing their jobs. The queen and King Terada had Princess Rika come over more so that she and Syaoran can get to know each other, but the more time they spent together, the more they felt like siblings. Sakura would feel down seeing them together, but she ignored it the best she can, she wasn't allowed interactions with the prince that way and she has much bigger things to worry about, but Sakura couldn't help but think about him from time to time, his problems, and she would worry that Terada's plan would succeed and Syaoran would be in danger. Perhaps it was just her kindness and desire for no one to be hurt, but was it? It wasn't until that Syaoran's really in danger that she couldn't lie to herself anymore. A month after the dance, she would have to confront her true feelings.

Sakura was sent to gather herbs for medical use and the prince went outside the palace walls for some time alone. He was walking down a quiet path surround with trees. It was a different path, not the waterfall path. He was walking down the path when a rattling sound caught his attention. There at the bottom of the tree was a rattle snake. Syaoran stood still and took slow breath to remain calm. The snake laid there in a circle, ready to strike if it feels it was in any danger. A drop of venom fell from its teeth. Syaoran stood completely still making sure not to make the snake think it was in any danger.

Sakura gathered the last of the herbs and got back on the actual path and started to head back to the castle when she saw Syaoran there not moving a muscle. She then saw the rattle snake posed really to strike in defense if necessary. As luck would have it, something fell from the tree above the snake and it lunged forward. Sakura's eyes went wide and she lunged forward, but too late. Syaoran let out a yell of pain and took deep breaths and tried to remain calm and the snake slithered away. Syaoran fell to the ground immediately and was holding the area just above his ankle. Sakura did not hesitate to bend down and placed her mouth over the wound proceeding to suck the venom back out of Syaoran. Once she was done, she placed some herbs she had gathered over the wound.

"You ok Prince Syaoran?" asked Sakura.

"Yeah, I'm alright now." answered Syaoran.

"Whew." Was all she could say.

Sakura helped Syaoran up and supported him back to the castle. She got the imperial doctor to look at him when she gave the herbs to the imperial clinic. The prince was in good shape and would soon heal. As for Sakura, she was fine too, no problems. Well, the only thing was that she couldn't lie to herself anymore. She had completely forgotten that she might get infections, and get in trouble with that kind of contact. The one thing on her mind at that point was his safety. She tried to reason with herself that he's the prince and so she had to safe his life at the expense of her own, but she knew that that wasn't it. At that moment, she had completely forgotten the fact that he's a prince and she's a servant. She was just plain scared that he would die. Memories of when he helped her flooded back to her. When he helped her up, when he kept her form falling, when he had shared his thoughts with her. His arms gave her such a sense of security. The night of the dance played in her mind. His arms wrapped around her, warm and comforting. She cried that night, she cried for who knows how long. She just cried. She had done something she wasn't suppose to. She had fallen in love with the prince.

my comments:

I hope it isn't rushed. Tell me if it seems rushed. I hope you guys are enjoying the story.