A/N: Here is the first chapter, enjoy!

Disclaimer: CCS belongs to the CLAMP.

Third Time's a Charm

Chapter 1: The Beginning

-The Human World, Tomoeda, Japan-

-The Present-

The alarm clock rang at exactly 6:30 a.m. And the person who slept on the bed went up and shut it off.

The moment the first one was off, the second alarm clock went off, and once again, the person shut it, more awake now, but still wanting to stay in the comfortable warmth of her bed.

The third alarm clock rang, and this time, Sakura finally awoke fully, sat in her bed, and turn off the last alarm clock that was on her shelf, yawned and stretched.

So you're finally awake, huh? A voice was heard from the direction of feet where her cat laid, he hadn't uttered a word, but Sakura could hear him in her mind.

"Good morning, Kero." She said, smiling sleepily at him.

Kero was what she called him, but his true name was Cerberus.

You know, it's very annoying to wake up ever day to the sound of that thing, He said, lazily stretching, his claws scratching the blanket lightly.

"I know, Sakura said and got out of bed, "but I need it, you know."

Yes, I know, you love sleeping as much as I do, Kero said, his amusement very clear.

Sakura grinned and nodded and then got dressed in her high school uniform, and combed her short hair in front of the mirror.

"Bye, Kero." Hearing no response, she turned and discovered that her cat was fast asleep.

Smiling, she went out of her door and left a gap, to let Kero out when he will wake.

She went down the stairs and entered the kitchen and immediately stopped in her tracks, because there, standing near the stove and wearing an apron was her older brother, Touya.

"Good morning," He greeted, looking up.

"Good morning," She said in confusion, "don't you have another hour until you go to work?"

Touya turn off the stove came to the dining table and put on it a plate of pancakes.

"I didn't feel like sleeping, so I woke up," He explained and took off his apron, hung it on the wall and moved to sit in a chair, looking at Sakura, "You better eat these now, if you don't want to be late for school."

Sakura sat down, and turned her toward a picture of a woman that was on the table, "Good morning, Mom." She greeted and then she started to eat.

Ten minutes later, she had finished, put her plate in the sink, gone to her room to get her bag and went to the front door.

She put her rollerblades and stood up.

"I'm off!" She called.

"See you later, Kaijuu!" Touya called back from the kitchen.

"I'm not a monster!" Sakura's reply came automatically, it was always the same every morning, and she closed the front door and rolled to school.

-

Hours later, Sakura returned, a bit tired after the long day at school.

"Tadaima." She called to the empty house and took off her rollerblades and went to her room, she changed clothes ad went back downstairs, along with Kero who was awake.

She checked the board in the kitchen and saw that her brother was at work, and her father won't return from his excavation until tomorrow.

"I guess it's just you and me again, Kero." She said to her cat.

You made it sound like a bad thing, He indignantly said.

"Sorry, it sometimes seems that even with Dad and Onii-chan, I'm still always alone." She said ruefully.

You have me, Kero rubbed against her leg.

"You're right." She agreed and petted him

-

After eating lunch, Sakura went back to her room and started on her homework, after a while she stared at the assignment her literature teacher gave the class. It was to write a paper about mythological creatures.

Sakura stared at the page and remembered that her father has some books about other and ancient culture, maybe she can find there what the paper required.

So with mind set, she went down the stairs and to the back of the house, where her father's study was located. She entered it, went down the few steps that were there and looked around.

There were shelves upon shelves of books, and she started her search. She went book after book after book, reading the titles that were on their spines, "myth…mythological…'Legends and Mythological creatures'!" She stopped and took out the book and started leafing through it, she went to a nearby desk and put the book on it and continued to read.

She continued to leaf through the book until she came upon a few pages that looked promising, in her haste to go get her notebook, she didn't notice the artifact that sat on the table until her elbow smacked right into it.

"Ah!" She cried and tried to save the bottle from falling, but to no avail. She closed her eyes, already hearing her brother, "You broke one of Dad's artifacts? How clumsy can you be? But I suppose that's normal for a monster.", and expected to hear the crash any moment.

But when silence was the only sound, she cautiously opened her eyes and saw that the curved bottle, green bottle with a pink thread looping around it, was on in side, opened, the cap rolling to one side, but otherwise intact.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Sakura moved to pick up the bottle, but suddenly green smoke began to come out of it and she jumped back in surprise.

The smoke continued to pour out and rise until the mass of green smoke seemed about her height. And then, as quickly as it began, then it was gone to reveal a boy about her age, a little taller than her, his brown hair overshadowing his eyes, which were closed.

He wore flowing green robes, and on his left arm a green ribbon of cloth was tied and it had depicted a profile of a wolf's head, turning left, and all of was surrounded by a circle.

After the initial shock wore off, Sakura asked, "What are you?" The boy opened his eyes to reveal clear amber-brown and stared at her.

"I'm a Genie," He answered in a pleasant deep voice.

"Genie? Like in 'Aladdin'?" Sakura asked, confused.

"No, not what you humans define a genie," He snorted and continued, "I'm from a race called the Genie, we're just like, only we can do magic."

Sakura blinked, "Well, that explained it." She finally said.

"Who are you?" The boy bluntly asked.

"Kinomoto Sakura, you?" She asked him in return.

The boy crossed his arms and in a tone of voice that sounded rehearsed said, "I'm Lord Xio Lang of the Li clan."

"Xi…Xio…" Sakura struggled his name a few minutes.

"You can call my Syaoran," He said helpfully.

"Well, Syaoran-san," She finally asked, "did you really come out of that bottle?"

Syaoran quirked an eyebrow, "You were the one of released me, right?" Upon seeing her confused expression, he added, "Open the bottle; you were the one who did, right?"

"Well, I did…by accident." She sheepishly smiled.

"Accident or no, you released me, which makes you my master," Syaoran said.

"Master?" Sakura asked.

"Mistress," He corrected himself and looked around the room, "When and where we are?" He asked again with that rehearsed tone.

"The beginning of the 21st century and this is my father study, in Tomoeda, Japan." She answered.

"21st?" he said and murmured, "I was in that bottle longer than I expected…"

"What?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Nothing," He said," Now, about your wishes-" But he was stopped by Sakura's hand stopped him.

"I have a feeling this is going to take a while, so let's go to my room instead of standing here." And with that, she picked up the bottle and closed it with the cap, went out of the study with Syaoran following and went to her room, where she sat on her bed and held the bottle on her lap while Syaoran remained standing with his arms crossed.

"OK, shoot." She told him.

"What?" He asked, confused.

"It mean, start explaining." Sakura clarified.

"Oh," He said and continued, "well, our contract is for three months and it will end in the last day of these three months, at midnight."

"So, until then I can wish for whatever I want?" Sakura inquired.

"Yes, but you can only make one wish per day, no more." Syaoran said, "But there are rules."

"Rules?"

"First of all, I don't kill anyone, so don't even ask," From his tone of voice, Sakura could understand that he wasn't joking.

"Second, I can't make anybody fall in love with anybody else, it's not in my power to do that," He paused for breath, Sakura waited for him to talk again.

"And third, I can't bring back the dead, it's impossible." And with that he finished talking.

Sakura was surprised, "That's it?"

"That's it."

"Well-" Sakura started saying, but she forgot what was is she wanted to say because her bedroom door opened and there stood Touya.

"Onii-chan!" Sakura exclaimed in surprise and quickly put the bottle behind her back, "You're back from work early," She added weakly.

"Yeah, the manager told us to wrap it up early," He explained and looked around her room, "Were you talking to anyone? I heard your voice."

"Just myself," She life and smiled sheepishly, apparently Touya couldn't see Syaoran.

Touya looked skeptic but shrugged, "Ok, whatever," he said, "I'm going to make dinner, are you coming?" He looked at her.

"In a minute," She said and watched Touya close her door and listened until he was down the stairs and out of earshot.

She sighed in relief and brought the bottle back to her lap and looked at Syaoran, "What was that?" She asked, refereeing to what had just happened.

"I can turn invisible to anyone but you," He explained, "but if you want, I can turn visible to the people that you want to see me."

Sakura was impressed, "Nice trick."

"It can be handy." He shrugged.

"Sakura!" He brother's voice called.

"Coming!" She shouted back.

"I'll be back later." She told Syaoran, who was looking out of her window and saw that on his back was a strange symbol: a flame and in the center of it a bird was flying, and all of it was surrounded by a circle.

As she closed the door behind her, she made a mental note to ask Syaoran about it and the ribbon with the wolf's head later.

-

An hour later, Sakura returned with a plate of food. She had to convince Touya that she was a growing teenager and as such needed the extra food. Touya just shrugged and said, "If you get fat, don't come crying to me."

Sakura opened her door and saw that Syaoran sat on the floor, looking at her.

"Here," She said and gave him the plate. He took it from her without a word.

Finally he said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Sakura smiled and went to finish her homework as Syaoran ate.

Half an hour later, Sakura was done and went to kitchen with Syaoran's empty plate and put it in the sink. She couldn't see Touya and figured that he was probably in his room or out dating and Kero was probably prowling about somewhere.

She came back to her room, went to her closet and took out a futon, a blanket and a pillow, all of it, she handed to Syaoran.

"Make yourself comfortable, I'll be right back." She said, took with her pajamas and left for the bathroom.

When she was back Syaoran had taken of his robes, and remained with the white shirt and pants that was underneath. He folded the robes and then the ribbon with the wolf's head and put them behind his pillow.

He went to his futon and got beneath the blanket and turned left, away from Sakura bed.

"Good night." Sakura said quietly, turned off the light and went to her bed.

"Good night." The muffled reply came.

And the day came to an end.

-

A/N: And that's it for chapter one!

Dictionary: Tadaima- I'm home.

Onii-chan is Big Brother.

Please, R&R!