"Stand! Bow! Sit!" Tomoyo Daidouji, the class representative's voice rang out in the classroom as their teacher walked in the room. Desks squeaked against the floor accordingly, and as soon as everyone had settled, the teacher rearranged a few papers on his podium, and cleared his throat.

"Well, I know there have been rumors abounding concerning a transfer student and, yes, they were right," an explosion of whispers followed his words, and he waited a moment for the chatter to subside before he continued. "Students of class 2-C, please welcome, from Hong Kong, Li Xiao Lang." Well, at least the teacher attempted to say 'Xiao Lang', but what came out was an awkward and grating mix between 'Xiao Lang' and 'Syaoran' due to his accent, a blunder which didn't go unnoticed by the figure who walked in the door, and was rewarded by a long, steady, and wholly uncomfortable look. The teacher broke eye contact first, and looked back out to the class, obviously ruffled.

The new student turned to the class, his face mostly blank and impassive as he looked out and formally introduced himself, making it a point to slowly enunciate his own name, an action which pulled a deep frown from the teacher, and said frown only got deeper when the newcomer failed to bow as he introduced himself, successfully pulling a Japanese social faux pas.

Seconds ticked by after the last words left the younger male's lips, filled with a tense silence, the students all now leaning forward in their seats in an involuntary movement.

The young man at the front visibly tensed and a distinctly uncomfortable awkward look began to bloom on his face, pulling his nose up slightly, narrowing his eyes just a fraction of an inch, and he turned back to see the teacher staring at the podium intently. As though sensing someone's gaze, the teacher jolted up with an "Oh!" and scanned across the classroom, looking for an empty seat. "It looks like the only open seat is behind Kinomoto-san. Please raise your hand so Li-san knows where to sit."

A tentative hand raised in the back of the room, belonging to a girl who would otherwise be unnoticeable if not for her startlingly green eyes, and accompanied by a careful "Hai!". The teacher nodded at the new student, and all eyes were on him as he trudged his way down the long, long aisle to the very last seat in the row nearest the windows, very pointedly avoiding eye contact with anyone, and ignoring the friendly smile the girl sitting in the seat in front of his tried to give him. He set his things on the desk, and stared quietly out the window for the rest of the class.

The girl in front of him muttered a quiet 'Hoe?' at his cold demeanor, and immediately sought out her friend, the class representative's eyes, but found them, along with the rest of the class, staring at the boy behind her.

Class began formally after that as bulletins were passed around, updates were shared, and schedules for important events were laid out. Nearly everyone soon forgot about the new student, but the few people - mostly girls - who turned to look at him every so often. The first few classes passed uneventfully until their English teacher, an American woman by the name of Mrs. Spencer, a woman with a sharp wit and a sarcastic mannerism took the podium, and suddenly the class seemed a bit brighter. Not only because this was a favored teacher to many of the students, but also because her arrival meant one more class until lunch.

"Well! I hope you all have had a spectacular morning!" She announced in perfect American English, her voice bright and cheery. The few students who understood what she said responded with a similarly enthusiastic 'yes!'. Just as quickly, she slipped into lightly accented Japanese. "Well! It's about to get a lot less spectacular! I have a partner assignment for all of you, annnd..." she counted out the students in the class. "Oh I was right! No one is absent today, and with the new student from Hong Kong, hello back there Mister Li, we have an even number of boys to girls!" She grinned as she watched the student's faces fall, an absolutely wicked look lighting her features. "And guess what else, you don't get to pick your dates... I mean partners!"

A groan passed through the classroom.

"So, boys, I want you all to write your names on a slip of paper, it doesn't matter in what alphabet, fold it up, and bring it up here." She reverted to English as she noticed no one moving. "Chop chop! We don't have all day! Haiyaku!"

A few moments later, the boys began, one by one, standing up and handing the beaming teacher their names, until the last one, the new exchange student, trudged back into his desk. The teacher gathered the papers into a small basket, and shook it to mix up the names, before setting the basket on the podium. "Alright now girls, one at a time, I want you to come up here, grab a slip of paper, and one of these packets," She patted a stack of said packets sitting on the podium next to the basket. "And bring them back to your partner, afterward you may sit anywhere in the room you so choose to work. Ready? We'll start on the side closest to the windows."

The first girl in the row stood up, and did as she was told, and the procession continued until...

"Kinomoto-san..."

No answer, no movement, and suddenly all eyes were on the girl who sat, staring off into space somewhere near the chalkboard.

"Kinomoooto-saan," the teacher called again in an irritated sing-song voice.

Still no response.

Finally, the teacher took a deep breath and called "Miss Kinomoto" just as a strong finger jabbed her harshly on the back, both combining to make the poor young girl nearly jump out of her skin with a frightened squawk of something that sounded like 'hooooeee!'. She blinked rapidly and looked around as someone giggled, then flushed brightly from embarrassment as she got out of her seat and strode up to the podium and extracted a piece of paper. Unfolding it, she frowned at the name written there, two kanji, ones she knew but though she racked her brain, she couldn't think of a combination those two particular characters made that matched anyone in the class. Little... wolf... Who writes their name in kanji...?

And then she froze, and her head snapped up to look at the boy who now occupied the seat behind her, staring disinterestedly out the window. As though sensing eyes on him, he turned to look at her, and their eyes rested on each other, dark amber on emerald green, and suddenly a tense silence filled the room, even the teacher had stopped fussing at her to hurry up and go seemed to fall in the awe the rest of the room succumbed to.

Little by little, the girl's leg unlocked, and she stepped from the front of the class, feeling all eyes on her as she made her way back to her seat, and then beyond a little bit, until she was standing next to the desk of her partner.

"Uh-um, hello Li-san... I guess we're partners and um..." She blinked. "Oh! Right, my name is Kinomoto Sakura," A bow. "N-nice to meet you."

She stood up again to no response, just a blank, almost calculated stare, and immediately she turned for her friend and the class representative, Tomoyo, sitting on the other side of the room, fighting past a half-dozen jealous stares as she sought out the soothing purple-hued irises of her friend, and found them there, twinkling with the smile alighting the young girl's face. Quickly, Sakura tore her gaze from her friend's, feeling relieved now, and back to her partner, who now looked slightly uncomfortable.

His brows began to pull together as his frown deepened. "Nice to meet you, too."

Tomoyo, and Sakura knew that was who it was, giggled softly, and it made her cheeks flush hotly.

Finally...

"... What are you all staring at? Come on now! Let's keep going, as I've said, we don't have all day, and if you and your partner don't finish that packet today, you'll have to finish it on your own time." The teacher's voice was awkward and wavered a little as she spoke, but it snapped the class out of their reverie and the day continued like normal.

At least, for everyone who wasn't Sakura Kinomoto and Syaoran Li. They spent the first several moments in an uncomfortable silence, neither exactly knowing what to say - and Sakura a bit intimidated by the overly serious looking teenager in front of her. So they kept eye contact until Sakura couldn't take it any more and looked away, fidgeting with her pencil and keenly aware that he was still watching her.

Finally, her voice seemed to unlock and she set the packet down on his desk. "Well, this is what we're supposed to work on..." She trailed off as she looked up to find him reading over the packet, his frown growing ever deeper and his eyebrows drawing closer together as he read over the multitude of questions on the paper.

Finally, he set the packet down, and looked up to the silent Sakura with an expression that was... puzzled?

She blinked in surprise. "Hoe... is something the matter?"

He looked uncomfortable again, and she watched as his hand convulsed, the confusion twisting into a cold sort of anger. Sakura stepped back, tensing.

"I... have trouble understanding some of the kanji in a Japanese context," He finally confessed, his voice tight, soft, and she noticed he didn't speak with any accent. Odd.

The confession sent a wave of relief from her body, and she visibly slumped before a warm smile spread across her face and she grabbed her desk, turning it around to face his in a way that would surely give any teacher but Spencer-sensei a heart attack. "That's alright, as long as you can speak the language verbally without any problems!"

He nodded in response and she tugged the packet toward her until it was a comfortable distance between the two of them. "First things first..."

-

"So, Tomoyo-chan, did you finish that packet Spencer-sensei gave to us?" Sakura questioned of her best friend as they decided to take their lunch sitting on the cool grass outside, to enjoy the warm, late spring day beneath one of the trees on campus.

The dark-haired girl nodded in affirmation, and looked to her friend. "And did you and Li-kun finish?"

A light blush tinted Sakura's cheeks as she avoided eye contact. "Um, no actually. I had to help him with some of the kanji so... it went rather slowly."

Tomoyo giggled again. "So, what's the plan for finishing it? Whose house are-"

"Tomoyo-chan," Sakura hissed, blushing bright red. "We... actually planned to meet up during lunch today to finish it. It's only about halfway done so far, but hopefully we can finish the rest without having to go anywhere."

Tomoyo nodded absently, her mind obviously plotting something, a something that worried Sakura into a nervous, awkward smile. Finally, the dark-haired girl looked to her friend, her eyes sparkling, and asked, "He's cute, though, isn't he?"

The blush came back full force. "No! I mean, well, yes, but no! Tomoyo-chan, I'm not sure what you're planning but-"

A throat clearing interrupted her, and she squeaked, turning around to find the topic of the conversation standing there, watching them both with a blank but steady look.

Sakura tried to keep from making any more embarrassing noises as she looked away from his intense gaze, and allowed Tomoyo to speak for her.

"Hello, Li-kun," the girl responded kindly, and the grass crunched softly as he sat on it. He didn't respond, pulling Sakura's attention back to him as he sat watching her.

She squirmed, a little uncomfortable, and pulled the packet out, flipping it open to the page they were on and set it down on a thick book. "Okay..." She paused, looking up to find that his amber gaze hadn't stopped looking at the top of her head. A blush spread across her face and she forced a very awkward smile. "I-is something the matter, Li-kun?"

He blinked and straightened, as though not expecting her to inquire about him, and finally settled on shaking his head. "How much of the packet do we have left?"

Sakura relaxed slightly and thumbed through the packet, making a face as the page count rose higher and higher. "About half. Oh well, with a little luck this half will go faster than the other since I don't have to..." She trailed off as she watched his eyes narrow, his heated glare successful in completely silencing the girl for a moment. When she could speak again, her voice was high and tight. "Anyway, shall we start again? Alright, this one's easy, finally."

If either of the two teenagers were paying any attention, they might've noticed the way Tomoyo looked back and forth between them as though watching a tennis match as they discussed the questions, content with being a background observer at the moment. The gears in her head were turning, and it was obvious by the way the thoughts pulled the corners of her lips up.

This was going to be fun.

-

A/N: ... yes indeed this IS going to be fun. Sit back and relax folks, and just see what weird tangent this is going to go on. Because even I don't know.

It'll be a screaming good time.

CLAMP owns CCS and the characters and that world and a good chunk of my soul.