Disclaimer:

I have no affiliation with Cardcaptor Sakura or any other of CLAMP's works. Also any similarities to real life events or people are unintentional unless explicitly stated.


The table was still slightly unstable even with a book under its short leg. The next thickest one in the stack of books donated by volunteers was too thick. Syaoran supposed that it would do for now; maybe one the right size would be donated or exchanged for a dessert throughout the day.

A local cafe had agreed to donate some treats for today's fundraising fair which were to be delivered sometime soon.

He covered the table leg with cloth and went to get another table from the Yomogi Orphanage's dining room.

Inside, lining the far wall, were sealed boxes filled with second-hand clothes, jewellery and pottery that the Doumeki and the Hanato Sisters had purified the night before. Meiling and her friends were busy doing stocktake on all the items while being harassed by of overeager orphans.

"Hey, Keita, carry this with me outside," called Syaoran. The main perpetrator eagerly ran to him.

"Do you need any assistance?" asked Kinomoto, standing up.

"Nah, we got this!" said Keita, pushing him and the table through the door.

"I see," she said, trailing off into a yawn. Meiling's friend gave him a quick wave.

She was probably tired from this morning's cleaning duty as part of their punishment for entering the main school building during the full moon. In the upcoming weeks they were assigned to clean an area of the school before school. That morning, they had to clean the walkways of the school temple. Somehow he found himself in a cleaning race with her, Meiling, Flowright, Doumeki and Kurogane. He was in the lead but Yamazaki sprung out from nowhere, sabotaging the race. She ended up winning because everyone else got caught up in the tumble. At least Doumeki didn't win.

Syaoran tried to figure out why he would have fallen in love with her when he was in Lecourt. She wasn't particularly great at any subject except for physical education. Her skin was a bit darker than average, but she had a small face and large green eyes. Surely the reason he did like her would've been something beyond looks. She was nice, he supposed.

"Hey, slow down," he told Keita. It wasn't easy dodging all the strings and poles that were holding the shade cloth up while holding a table being pushed by a zealous kid.

"Hey, Li," yelled Kurogane by the gate, "the delivery truck is here. Can you help?"

"Sure."

Syaoran and Keita finished their task and joined the end of the line of the students to receive the boxes of egg tarts, sesame balls and mango pancakes being unloaded from the truck. But instead of receiving a box of goods, he received a glare from Toya Kinomoto. Syaoran glared back. He did nothing wrong.

"Tao, don't be mean to him," said Yukito, from deeper inside the truck.

What was he doing here?!

"Hoe? Brother, what are you doing here?" asked Kinomoto, from behind him. "I thought you didn't have work today. You said you were coming to the fair."

"We still are," he replied, handing Syaoran the box with another pointed look. "The morning shift ends in before lunch."

"I guess that means you work with Fujimoto as well," she pondered. "He mentioned that his workplace was donating desserts."

"Yeah, and we're also in some of the same classes." The elder Kinomoto sibling turned his attention to Syaoran. "What are you still doing here?"

Slightly embarrassed, he replied, "I can carry more."

"Are you sure?" asked Yukito. "They're pretty heavy."

Syaoran nodded.

"Be careful," said Kinomoto when he was given another box.

He walked away as quickly as he could.


The orphanage playground filled with students and members of the public and the busiest section was the book exchange. Meiling, Miss Kinomoto and Syaoran were currently in charge of that section. They and their team of young orphans collected the donations of books and put them onto the stacks behind them. In exchange for the donation Mihara's team would give them something to eat or drink.

"Did you know that if you eat watermelon seeds, a watermelon will grow in your stomach?" said Yamazaki as he handed a young girl a slice of watermelon.

"What?!" exclaimed her friend. "But I just ate some!"

"Ah," said Fye. "So sad, so young…"

The boy looked really worried, but the girl with the watermelon argued, "That can't be true! The store sells packets watermelon seeds to eat! You're lying!"

"No it's true!" said the boys defensively.

"No it's not!" she argued back.

Mihara sighed, "That's enough from you two…"

Strangely enough, the Yamazaki and Mr Flowright were well liked by children.

At the other end were the second hand and handmade goods that included indigo dyed fabric made by the eldest Hanato Sister, some picture frames the orphans made, and these strange stuffed animal sewed by Koe.

"They're unidentifiable life forms," said the youngest Hanato Sister when Meiling asked what they were.

Honey was scolded by her eldest sister, but Meiling nodded in silent agreement.

She normally found pre-teens to be extremely bratty, but she liked Honey immensely. She was a very good girl and very calm in contrast to her impulsive older sisters.

Meiling put the book on the nearest pile and it swayed. A lot of books were donated; they even a complete encyclopaedia set, however she spotted a title that caused her to exclaim aloud, "Master of the Multiverse? That's not suitable for children!"

"That's most definitely not suitable for children," laughed a Heung Gong High volunteer. He was part of the team that who was moving the donations to the orphanage library.

"There's even a Beauty's Freedom!" Meiling pointed. The stack teetered precariously in the wind.

"Be careful, Mei-Li," warned Miss Kinomoto.

"I'll start putting them away," said Syaoran, behind them.

"Nah, stay here," Meiling said quickly. She tossed her sky blue hair over her shoulder and put her hands on the hips when he stepped forward. "What? I can totally do it! Just mind the stall."

She put a stack in the volunteer's arms, grabbed a small pile of her own and walked away before Syaoran could say anything. Meiling was pleased with herself for managing to keep Syaoran with Miss Kinomoto. Everything was going according to plan.


Toya sat on a bench under the shade cloth, minding a spot for Yukito who was currently buying food.

Suddenly, hands covered his eyes.

"Guess who, Tao," Akizuki whispered into his ear. On top of being highly annoying and clingy, he found it unsettling that he was never able to sense her coming. Also, that nickname came dangerously close to the meaning of his true name; the first character in his name meant "peach" which could also be pronounced as "Tao".

He removed her hand from his eyes and glared at her.

"Yukito is sitting there."

She immediately sat on his lap and started running her fingers through his hair.

"Get off. " His patience was running thin with her. He'd seen her act this way around other guys. There was no way he'd fall for her manipulations.

Instead, she held the straw to her drink towards him. "Try some. This milk tea is delicious."

He turned his head and spotted Yukito. Toya stood up and yelled, "Yuki over here!"

Akizuki hung from his neck and waved her drink cheerfully at Yukito who was carrying a couple of large boxes.

"Sorry to keep you waiting. The stalls were really packed so it took some time!"

It would've taken a long time to pack all that food as well.

Yukito handed them a sesame ball each. "I saw your sister at the book stand with Li."

"Syaoran?" asked Akizuki.

He nodded. Noticing Toya's scowl he laughed, "Why the terrifying expression?"

"I don't like him."

"Why are you so mean to the boy? Star seems to like him."

Akizuki giggled adding to Toya's annoyance.

What Yukito described was pretty much the reason he didn't like him. That brat was the cause of Sakura's sadness. There was no way Toya could forgive him for that.


"Star, I thought that you were going on your lunch break now," said Tomoyo, looking up from the money she was counting behind the stalls.

"I was going to…" began Sakura, her arm around a younger girl who was visibly distraught. "Is it all right for her to sit with you for a while?"

"Of course." Tomoyo stood up and offered her seat to the girl. "What is the matter?"

"M-my mother," she managed between sobs, "accidentally gave in a book that I n-need for school."

"It's called, "The Story of the Pig Child,"" explained Sakura. "I'll go round up some kids and we'll find it. The books need moving again too."

The girl attempted to stand up. "I need to find the-"

"Don't worry. Everything will be all right. Just sit here with Tomoyo." She flashed a brilliant smile and left to begin the search.

Tomoyo called over Honey, who was helping her sisters at the homemade goods, to get a cup of tea from Fye.

Meanwhile, Sakura and the others formed a line from the stacks of books to the orphanage library and passed them down it to one another. Tomoyo took a photograph of her. She looked so happy and wore the sky blue apron that the volunteers were all wearing with such grace and charm.

"Hon-argh!" Kobato suddenly tripped on a string holding up the tent. The pole collapsed with her bringing down the tent covering the main courtyard. People began to scream and scramble away. Tomoyo and some others created gusts of wind to keep the tent up. Unfortunately the gusts were too strong. Through the paper napkin storm she could see the mad scramble to keep items and table cloths from flying into the wind. Out of the corner of her eye Tomoyo saw small child ducked underneath the table. With a shudder, it began to slant.

His shout was in audible but he held up The Story of the Pig Child triumphantly.

"Be careful!" she warned, lost in the wind.

Pastries were sliding towards him. Li, who was holding up the tent with wind, noticed the oncoming pastries and ran towards them, but he tripped on a fruit peel and landed face down into splattered mango pudding. Sakura reached shielded the child with her body, taking the brunt of the cakes on her back.

The shade cloth stayed up but the playground was littered with food and wrappings. A pot lay shattered on the ground and spilled drinks dripped off the tabletops.

"Are you hurt Star?" asked the child.

Sakura did not look injured. In fact she started to laugh melodically instead. The child began to laugh too and joyous laughter spread across the playground.


Koe and Jia, the student who was reunited with her copy of The Story of the Pig Child, blamed themselves for causing the giant mess. Jia, after much assurance that everyone wanted her to do well on her report finally went home to finish it. Sakura, her cousins and Okiura were now in the principal's office still trying to console Koe.

"It's all my fault we didn't raise enough money," sobbed Koe. Honey stroked her sister's head. "If I wasn't so clumsy…"

With so many people helping, the playground was cleaned quickly however by then the majority of visitors by that point had decided to go home.

Okiura patted her shoulder and said, "It's not your fault, Koe, and it certainly is not your responsibility to pay off the debt."

"Look at the bright side, Koe," said Sakura. "I heard that the principal is offering a scholarship to one of the orphans next year."

"Really?"

"I heard from Mei-Li just then." Sakura had recently changed into clothes that Tomoyo had in her bag. They were a bit extravagant, but it made her cousin happy so she didn't mind.

"And there are some adoption interviews scheduled in the upcoming weeks," added Okiura. "This wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for all your effort. There were many people who told me they heard about the fundraiser from you when they went to visit your shrine."

Koe blushed and sniffled quietly.

"See Koe?" said Cousin Tori. "Today wouldn't have happened without you in the first place."

"But I still feel bad for knocking down the shade cloth. Is there something I can do?"

"The paint store I work at has donated some paint," said Fujimoto from the doorway. He then reported to Okiura, "The children are now cleaned and eating dinner."

"That's good."

"That's it!" shouted Koe suddenly. "I'll paint the rooms!"

"I can't ask that of you!" countered the principal.

"Come next week."

"Fujimoto, you shouldn't say such things."

He shrugged. "She's offering to help, and it would you can rest for once."

"I'd love to help too," offered Sakura. "I really love spending time with the kids."

Cousin Tori said, "I'd love to help too but I have exams soon. Maybe next time…"

"If you could be so kind as to let us assist you," said Tomoyo.

Koe clasped her hands together and held them close to her body. "Please!"

"Well, if you really want to…" relented Okiura.

Sakura and Koe cheered.

Koe wiped her tears, stood up and declared, "I, Kobato, will do my very best!"


Author's Note:

- Hi! I have to apologize profusely for not updating in over 4 months. I've been incredibly busy these past few months and there were a lot of details I had to work out regarding the story. But now I have enough chapters for regular weekly uploads! At least for the next couple months. When I first started uploading the Lecourt Arc I had a decent sized buffer of nearly uploadable chapters that ran out towards the end, but with the Heung Gong Arc I had none. Hopefully I won't go that long without updating again.

- I'd really like to know what you think of the story and if there is anything that doesn't seem quite right to you =)

- My school did a book-bake swap once. It worked really well.

- My friend told me the story of how she'd find her clothes in charity stores that her mother had donated without her permission.

- Also there's a new CCS manga/anime out! I'm excited!

- In some Asian cultures a woman is considered beautiful if she has a small face, big eyes and pale skin. Which, by the way, I don't believe, but this ideal does exist even amongst my family and friends (like, thanks, but no thanks for the skin whitening soap). I kinda just wanted to point this out because when I'd explain that to my non-Asian friends they'd say stuff like, "but I want to have your tan!" There are differing standards of beauty around the world and in the end they aren't what makes a person truly beautiful.