Disclaimer: I don't own CCS or anything else by CLAMP!

This was formerly called It's My Melody, but I didn't have anything planned out when I first wrote it. Now I do, and I've rewritten the first two chapters so they should be better! (at least, I hope so :P) Let me know what you think!

-SFairyT

Late August, Downtown Tokyo

Sakura slyly scooted to the other side of the backseat of her brother's car and reached for the dark pink suitcase lying on its back. It had been sitting next to her during the five hour drive from her hometown of Tomoeda to Tokyo.

She started to unzip the side of it, stopping only to nervously glance at her father and Touya in the front. When she saw that they weren't paying attention, she slowly pulled the zipper a little farther and peeped inside. She silently applauded her stealthiness.

"We're almost there, just hold on for a little longer," she whispered reassuringly.

"Sakura? Who are you talking to?"

The girl quickly sat up, rezipping the suitcase and throwing herself back to her side of the car. She wore a guilty expression on her face. "No one! Just talking to, um…" she looked all around the backseat, realizing too late that there was no one in the backseat except for her, and you-know-who.

"Just me! Yep, lil' ole' me! Just talking to myself!" Sakura babbled, forcing a fake smile. Please don't ask questions, please don't ask questions, please…

Fujitaka stared at his eighteen-year-old daughter, and slowly turned around to face the front.

"…is there something I should know?" he whispered out of the side of his mouth to Touya, who was driving the car. Touya had driven to Tomoeda to help Sakura move into her dorm.

He shrugged, his eyes narrowed in focus as he maneuvered through heavy traffic and dodged the occasional cyclist.

Sakura sighed in relief.

Her phone buzzed. 1 new message from Tomoyo Daidouji.

Sakura-chan! Mother and I just got to the dorm, it's so kawaii! When are you getting here? -TD

She typed back a reply. Be there soon! -SK

As soon as Sakura's thumb hit send, her suitcase rumbled and squeaked. Panicked, Sakura smacked the top of it and hissed, "SHHH!"

Touya and her father stared blankly at her through the rearview mirror. "Heh…" Sakura laughed awkwardly, sliding low in her seat.

oOo

Two hours later, Parking Lot

"I think that's the last of it," Fujitaka inspected the empty interior of the car. He smiled sadly, the corners of his light brown eyes crinkling as he bent down to hug his grown-up daughter.

Sakura kissed her loving father on the cheek. "Arigato, Otuu-san! I'll miss you. I'll call every week and make sure I brush my teeth and eat my vegetables and —"

Fujitaka just patted her on the head as she droned on and on and on... Maybe not quite as grown-up.

"And I'll get to see you all the time, right Onii-chan?" Sakura punched her brother lightly on the shoulder.

Touya almost didn't notice because he was too busy glaring at all the freshmen boys that even glanced at his little sister. He was all too aware of all the horny freshmen boys expecting to get laid in college. He finished his soda and crushed the can with one hand, holding it out and dropping it in a threatening display. Two guys making calf eyes at Sakura pretty, athletic figure immediately turned pale.

"Kaijuu," Touya said, not breaking eye contact with the two frightened boys. "If you need anything, anything at all, call me and I swear I'll tear them apart from limb to—"

"Okay, Touya!" Fujitaka clapped. "That's enough." Fujitaka dragged his son away and pushed him into the drivers seat before he could finish. "I'll drop you off at your apartment. I'll call you when I get back to Tomoeda, Sakura! I love you!"

Touya started the car and rolled down window. "Tell Daidouji that I said hey," he said, sliding on dark sunglasses.

"Love you, Otuu-san! Drive safely!" Sakura beamed. She waved at them as they drove away till they were lost in the sea of Tokyo traffic.

She sighed, feeling very accomplished and satisfied with herself. She felt a little sad that she wouldn't see either of them until fall break, and spent a couple minutes contemplating how she would get anything done without her loving father and annoying brother.

Then Sakura blinked. Oh shoot! She spun on her heels and sprinted back into the dorm.

oOo

Room 3413

"Gomen, gomen, gomen!" Sakura wailed as she ripped her pink suitcase open and fished out a small wire rodent travel cage. Inside, you could see a tiny golden mouse with huge ears wheezing and gasping for fresh air.

She opened the wire top and gingerly lifted him up for closer inspection. The tiny mouse was (thankfully) alive, but looked a little worse for wear, his fur matted and messy from being knocked around.

Tomoyo was aghast. "Kero-chan?! Pets aren't allowed in the dorms- how did you get him past your dad and the RA? The poor thing!"

Sakura leaned against the cream wall of her side of the room and let out a sigh of relief. "Well, first of all," she recounted, ticking off her fingers, "I haven't seen the RA, but I got him past the check-in people and into the elevator. Then Kero started squeaking, so I had to shake him around a little to shut him up 'cause Onii-chan was in the elevator with me!"

Kero's eye twitched.

"And then some MORON knocked me over and dropped all his things, and I tripped and um..." her voice got real quiet.

"I may or may not have accidentally dropped Kero's cage on some his head," she looked down in guilt, tapping her pointer fingers together.

Kero's eye twitched again, and he fainted onto a soft bed of aspen shavings.

Tomoyo looked very impressed. "We've only been official college girls for about…" she glanced at her watch. "Two hours, and you've already picked up some hot little college boy? My little Sakura-chan is growing up so fast," she sniffed, wiping away an imaginary tear.

Sakura's green eyes shot a glare at Tomoyo, who was hanging up a string of lights across the ceiling. "He wasn't some 'little college boy'. He was rude and mean and didn't even "I'm sorry!" she ranted.

Tomoyo gave her a look.

"...okay, okay, okay. Maybe he was slightly attractive." Sakura grumbled. "But he hurt Kero-chan! And that is unforgivable." Hmph.

"You head-butt me to the ground and you're concerned about a little rat?" an incredulous voice came from the open door.

A tall guy with unruly brown hair and amber eyes leaned lazily against the doorframe, smirking at the girls.

Well, not at Tomoyo. More like smirking at Sakura as her blood pressure rose significantly.

Sakura sent him an icy glare. "What do YOU want?" she sniped.

Tomoyo sweat-dropped, and elbowed Sakura's arm. "Ow! Tomoyo!" she hissed.

Tomoyo's violet eyes rolled towards the ceiling. Ugh, sometimes Sakura could be so melodramatic.

"Hello there!" Tomoyo gracefully jumped from her bed to the floor. "What can we help you with?" she asked, silently apologizing for her rude roommate.

"I'm Syaoran Li," he politely introduced himself to Tomoyo. "And you," he refocused on the scowling brunette, "Dropped your student ID during our lovely little rendezvous earlier, Miss..." he squinted at the name on the card, "Sakura Kinomoto."

Sakura snatched her ID from his fingers. "Lovely, my butt," she muttered.

"I wholeheartedly agree" he nodded enthusiastically. "Yours is one of the nicer ones I've seen so far today."

Her green eyes narrowed as they met his amber ones. "Are you one of those perverts that my brother keeps telling me about?" she asked, curiously.

"Hey, you said it, not me," he held up both hands innocently.

Grrrrr.

"And I just stopped by to see what exactly was in that suitcase of yours— the one that you DROPPED ON MY HEAD? Jesus, woman, you could have killed me with something that heavy!"

Before Sakura could blink, the stranger was in her room inspecting the haphazard unpacked mess on her unmade bed. "What's this?" her clarinet case dangling from one of his fingers.

Sakura snatched her case back from his fingers. "Don't touch that! I'm sure your little perverted head was fine." Sakura felt her frustration rising. "Now can you puh-lease exit the premises?" she pointed at the open door.

"I can't."

She looked at him. "The door is right there. You've got two legs."

"I'm doing fire inspections," he informed her.

Sakura blinked. Fire inspections? But…he wasn't a fire-fighter.

I mean, he was certainly attractive enough to be a fire-fighter. What, with his brown espresso-colored irises with tiny gold flecks and long lean body—Sakura's eyes trailed from the sharp cheekbones and strong jawline to his lightly muscled tans arms to the way his dark denim jeans hugged his…gulp.

Who does this guy think he is anyway, barging into HER room sprouting nonsense about some "fire inspection?" He doesn't even look like a fire- fighter—they're supposed to be big and muscly and…

Goddamn it, they're supposed to kind of look like Li.

And now all Sakura could think about Li dressed in firefighter red, the front of his uniform unbuttoned and billowing softly away from his tan, toned chest and hard abs…

NO, NO, NOPE! Not going any farther than that. Not that she didn't wanted to.

"…and I'm here to make sure that you didn't bring anything to campus that's going to risk blowing up your lovely little rear end." he explained.

Sakura just stared at him. "…don't firefighters carry hoses?"

"I'm the RA!" he threw his hands up into the air. Sakura then noticed the clipboard in his hand and the pen behind his ear.

Sakura opened her mouth in horror. Her eye started twitching and she stuck out her index finger in his. "YOU'RE the RA?!"

He nodded slowly, "According to this name tag I am." A small piece of paper hung by a blue lanyard around his neck.

Syaoran Li

3rd floor Residential Advisor

TU Fine Arts Building

Tomoyo watched her green eyes bulge out a little bit.

"Aww, is Miss Kinomoto sad to have to share cute little me with everybody else? Don't worry, I've got a special place in my heart for pretty trouble-makers like you," Syaoran winked, tapping the tip of Sakura's little nose.

"You...you...nergh...I...TOMOYO-CHAN!" Sakura wailed.

Tomoyo was watching this interaction with great interest but decided to intervene before her best friend's brain melted.

"Thank you so much for returning her student ID, Li-san," Tomoyo said sweetly. "But, if you'll excuse us, we still have some unpacking to do. Maybe you could do the fire inspection later?"

He saluted her. "No problem, Miss...?"

Tomoyo smiled. "Daidouji. Tomoyo Daidouji, fashion design."

"It's been a pleasure, Miss Daidouji," Syaoran made an exaggerated half-bow. Then he dropped his voice. "Please tell Miss Kinomoto her ID picture does not do her justice at all," he stage-whispered and sent a wink to Sakura, who gaped as he shut their door behind him.

That big fat FLIRT!

Sakura took a look at her ID and groaned. Unlucky her. The photographer didn't warn her in advance, and the picture came out a little cross-eyed.

Tomoyo peeked over her shoulder and clucked sympathetically. "Well, sweetie. At least he was cute, right?" she nudged, suppressing a smile. She had only seen her friend riled up this badly a few times before.

"UGH!" Sakura fumed. "At least for poor Kero's sake, I hope we never have to see that insufferable son of a—" she was cut off by a rustling noise.

A folded note under the door.

oOo

Miss Kinomoto,

As a responsible RA, I regret to inform you that your beloved "Kero-chan" isn't allowed in this residence hall.

But for the sake of your evident visual impairment, and because your ass really is the best I've seen today…

I'll let it slide for now. ;)

-SL (a.k.a your "slightly attractive" next door neighbor)

oOo

"…that PERVERT."

A pause.

"WAIT, HE LIVES NEXT DOOR?!"

Tomoyo suppressed a giggle. College, she decided, was going to be very interesting.