Author's note It's me again. With the next chapter of your all time favorite story From Sunrise to Sunset (It is isn't it?) Anyways I've finally update "My pet wolf cub, Chocolate" And I haven't received many reviews at all. You're so mean! –sobs-.

So please review ok?-sniffs- It took a lot out of me to get over the writers block.

Anyway-cheers up- here's the long awaited chapter 12! 'N'joy ppl!

Chapter 12:

Sakura watched silently as the majestic sun disappeared behind the horizon and the sky turned slowly from red orange to pale blue. The moon was peeping from behind the clouds welcoming the night. The memories of the previous day flooded into her mind.

I…I uh…I love you Sakura!

………

I don't care whether you're a peasant or even the princess of the Kinomoto kingdom!

……

I still want to marry you because you're the only one who can make happy!

Sakura shook her head as though trying to temporarily erase those memories. What was wrong with her? Wasn't this what she really wanted? Then why did it feel so painful? Sakura sighed. Was there any hope of finding the two flowers within two weeks? It had taken her two whole months to find the second flower.

She slid her hand into her pocket and withdrew the ring that Syaoran had given her. What about her family? Will they agree to this? She wondered.

Mom, dad, Hiroshi, Touya………It's been such long time since I saw you. I really miss you.

A tear slipped from her eye as she tried to sort out her mixed feelings. She leaned her back against the trunk of a nearby tree and closed her eyes. She heard a rustle of leaves behind her and quickly spun around, her eyes looking frantically for the intruder.

And then she saw him.

He stood there staring at her. Sakura took one look at him and ran away as fast as her legs could carry her. She didn't know why but she couldn't face him, not now. Not until she'd sorted out her feelings.

"Sakura!" his voice called after her. But it only made her run faster hoping he wouldn't follow her which he fortunately didn't.

Syaoran stared at her disappearing back. Why did she run away? Maybe she doesn't want to marry me…he thought with a sinking feeling in his heart.

The next day was dull for both Sakura and Syaoran. Syaoran refused to come out of his room even during meal times. His mother tried to get him to come out be Syaoran told his mother that he needed some time alone.

As for Sakura, well a whole day had passed and she had only thirteen days more to find the last two flowers. Again at dusk she found herself standing under the same cherry blossom tree as before staring at the sky.

He came there too. She was about to runaway again but,

"Sakura wait. I…we need to talk," there was firmness in his tone that made her stop.

"About what?" she asked softly.

"Listen…its ok if…if" he took a deep breath and went on, "you don't want to marry me. You can tell me. But please don't ignore me. That hurts even more." He felt his voice crack at this point and Sakura felt her heart break for hurting him.

She walked up to him, her eyes fixed on his face but he was looking at the ground and Sakura could see all the pain and hurt in his eyes. She gently placed her hand on his cheek. He winced slightly but turned to look at her.

"I'm sorry Syaoran. I didn't mean to ignore you. It's just I had so much on my mind and I… honestly don't know what made me run away from you like that."

Syaoran smiled understandingly and took her hand in his. "I understand how you feel. But please don't push yourself too hard. Every thing is going to be just fine. I know it."

Sakura felt a little cheered up seeing him smile again, "Yes, it will be,"

I hope…she added to herself.

The next day much to Sakura's delight, her mother's dairy was glowing. Finally a step closer to my dream. She thought eagerly flipping open the book with her book with a slight difficulty though. She glanced at the words and her face fell with disappointment,

Tra ehru oyfo yti rupehtt neser peri

Sakura couldn't make head or tail of it. It wasn't Japanese or Chinese. And it definitely wasn't English. She let out slow squeak unhappily and decided to fly to the palace. She needed time to figure this one out.

She flew in through the prince's window. Syaoran who was busy training didn't notice her. He swung his sword gracefully slicing the air and a bit of the bed sheet too. Sweat was dripping from his chestnut bangs and his eyebrows were furrowed in concentration. Sighing he placed the sword on the sword on his table and went to the bathroom to take a bath. Sakura was staring at the sword in awe. It was shiny as though it had never been used and the symbol of the Li kingdom was engraved in gold on the hilt of the sword.

"Like it?" a voice came behind her and she saw Syaoran's reflection on the sword.

He picked up the sword and stared at it. "It's a family heirloom. It's been passed down in our family for generations now,"

Sakura flew to his shoulder and looked at the glistening weapon. Then she noticed something that made her heart thump.

When he had entered she had noticed Chinese writing on the front of shirt. But in the reflection the letters were reversed.

Maybe…just maybe…this was the answer she was looking for!

She was dying to find out at that very instant, but she decided that it would be easier if she were a girl. So she had to wait till sunset. She glanced at the sun shining brightly in the sky and sighed. It was going to be a long wait.

Sakura had never spent a drearier day in her life. Every second seemed like hours to her. Finally, though the moment arrived when it was time for sun to disappear behind the horizon and the moon to make its majestic appearance in the starlit sky.

Sakura fetched the diary and the two flowers in it before leaving to the mystic valley. It was a bright evening and Sakura walked past the market place where the shops were just closing down, the street lamps being lit. The cool wind swept past brushing against her hair and her dress.

Within no time she was at the mystic valley staring her reflection in the pond. It was dark but she had her faithful lantern and besides it wasn't yet completely dark. She flipped open her mother's diary at stared at its reflection. The words still made no sense. She groaned loudly in disappointment and fell back on the grassy meadow.

She lay staring on the moon, her hopes carried away by the wind. So this was all a mistake. What a waste of time!

She pushed the bangs out of her eyes and closed them.

"So they weren't reversed but what now?" she asked aloud to herself. She racked her brains to think of the ways of decoding a message from what, her brother Hiroshi had taught her.

Flashback

"What are you reading, Hiro?" asked a ten-year-old Sakura, to her brother. Hiroshi shut the book and held it out to her,

"Secret codes" she read out loud from the cover of the book and looked up at him questioningly. He smiled and said,

"It's very useful, if you want to send messages to people so that enemies cannot interpret it"

"How do you write a secret code? And how do we know that the enemies can't read it?"

"Good question. This book is pretty ancient and has been in the family for ages. See how old the pages are? And it gives different ways of writing codes."

He continued, "for example, the easiest way is write everything in reverse, just like in a mirror…"

"So if you held it in front of mirror you can read what's written! So cool" exclaimed Sakura. "What are the other ways?"

"Well sometimes you can use numbers instead of letters. Like 1 representing A, 2 for B and so on. The same thing can be done for Japanese characters too."

"If you want to make it difficult, then you can write riddles or puzzles, other simpler methods are writing backwards. This is different from a mirror. You have to read the word from back to front; sometimes the splitting of words would vary in order to confuse you"

Hiro showed her an example from the book he was reading…

End of flashback

"That's it" she said out loud, snapping her fingers, triumphantly. She grabbed her mother's diary and pored over it, hopefully.

Tra ehru oyfo yti rupehtt neser peri

If she read it back wards it would read

Irep resen tthepur ity ofyo urhe tra..

If I spaced the words correctly then………

I represent the purity of your heart. Finally she was getting somewhere. She looked up and the first thing that caught her eyes was the lilies floating in the water. That must be it! The third flower. Quick as lightening she waded into the water not caring for the fact that her skirt was getting soaked. Water lily represents the purity of a person's heart. She had no difficulty in finding the flower and soon she was out of the water lying on the grass panting slightly. (A/N: -sweatdrop- I guess I'm not good at riddles. I got that idea from Harry potter, mirror of erised. –Groans- remind me next time not to write stories with riddles. Anyways I'm gonna focus more on SS relationship from now on. Sorry if the chapter was boring till now. Please bear with me! Now on with rest, hope u like it!)

Sakura staggered back home her arms wrapped tightly around herself to protect her from the beating rain but it wasn't doing much good. She was cold, tired and sleepy. Three things you shouldn't be when you're walking down a dark, lonely lane all by yourself. A freezing wind blew numbing all the tissues in her body.

She shivered and tried to walk faster but it wasn't easy considering the fact that the wind was howling in the opposite direction as though challenging her. To make things worse she slipped and fell into a puddle.

"Great" she grumbled loudly to the sky, "Now I'm wet, cold, tired, sleepy and dirty. Just what I need to make my day better,"

The sky roared mocking her. And lightening flashed forcing her to cover her eyes. Sakura decided to hurry up, even though it wasn't easy but then again a rain storm and thunder weren't exactly her most favorite things in the world.

She suddenly heard a sound, a sound of horse feet. She wondered who could be out in such weather. She shrugged it off and continued walking towards the palace. The rain had washed the dirt of her, fortunately.

"Look someone's there!" she heard a voice and in a flash of lightening she saw a horse and cart come toward her. She shrieked and fell to the ground. There were two men riding it. One of them came up to her and pulled her to her feet by the hand.

"It's a girl," he peered closely at her. Sakura didn't like the fact that he was quite close to her. Too close for comfort. He smelt of tobacco and alcohol.

"Hey she's a pretty one," the other man stood beside him.

"I know. We could make a lot of money if we sell her,"

What? Sell?

"Tie her up and throw her inside. Our first catch for today is a great one," said the first man pushing her roughly.

"You're not taking me anywhere!" Sakura screamed gathering a fist of dirt and flinging it the man's eyes. Quickly gathering up her skirts she ran towards the palace tripping and falling with the men gaining on her.

She made it to the palace gates and shot inside before the guards noticed. She hid behind the nearest tree. Fortunately the guard, who was on his rounds came back just in time to see the two men trying to sneak into the palace.

"Hey! You two! Stop right there!" he let a piercing whistle to alert the other guards.

This is my chance! Sakura ran to the nearest open window and clambered in. The guards were to busy arresting the crooks that they didn't notice Sakura.

Sakura was glad to see a fire roaring in the fireplace. Without giving a second thought to the fact that she would be caught if someone saw her she collapsed on the carpet in front of the fireplace trying to get warm.

She lay unmoving like a statue for a long time. At least I'm warm now. Her clothes were dry. Only her hair was still wet. She heard the clock gong eleven times. One hour till midnight.

Sakura closed her eyes and sighed softly. Her vision was becoming blurry. She stifled a yawn trying to force her eyes open.

She was so tired to notice the door being open behind her. Her eyes widened as she felt a large shadow loom over her. She quickly sat and spun around in fear.

"Sakura?" the person came closer and to her relief Sakura saw a pair of confused amber eyes.

"What are you doing here?" he asked surprised as he sat down beside her.

"Syaoran" she whispered. Only then she realized that she was in his room.

"You're soaked. What were you doing in the rain?"

"Syaoran!" Sakura jumped into his arms thankful to see him again.

"Sa..Sakura!" he stuttered falling backwards startled at her action.

"I was so scared!" she sobbed and told him everything that had happened. Syaoran gently wrapped his arms around the frightened girl stroking her damp auburn hair muttering soothingly into her ear.

Her sobs quieted down and she looked up at him pleadingly, "Can I stay here tonight please?"

Syaoran smiled at her, "You don't have to ask," Sakura pulled away from him and stared at his shirt. "Oops! Now you're wet because of me. Sorry."

"Nothing to worry about" He got up and brought a towel. "Dry your hair up or you'll catch a cold," he said placing it on her head.

"Thanks" she replied and proceeded to towel her hair dry, "You can sleep on the bed you know. " he looked straight at the fire but Sakura could see the rid tint lingering on his cheeks.

She shook her head and smiled, "I'm fine here,"

"But…"

"I'll be fine"

He sighed. "You're so stubborn." He brought out a blanket and wrapped it around her and then sat next to her. She leaned on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "It's nice having you by my side," she mumbled sleepy.

Syaoran looked at the girl beside him fast asleep, her breath against his neck. Her cheeks were slightly pale due to the cold. "I'm stubborn too you know," he said removing the towel which was hanging halfway on her head and lifting her up blanket and all.

He gently placed her on the bed and sat down on the easy chair next to the bed. "Good night Sakura," he whispered to her and then picked his half read book from the bedside table.

I think I'll read for a little while longer

Author's note Hey guys! Hope you liked that chapter! I'll try my best to update both my stories A.S.A.P! So I've done my duty and it's your turn to do yours and Review!

Author prefers: Long reviews and constructive criticism is allowed

But no flamers please! So hurry and leave a review ne?

Lol

sakura doll