Agent08 Reporting for Duty!

Disclaimer: I don't own a thing. The plot is basically mine and any new characters. That's all. Don't rub it in or I'll ban you from reading my story. HAHA.

"..." - talking
italic font - thoughts
(A/N: ...) - my interruptions
bold font - point of view

Now...on with the prologue!

Prologue

Sakura -

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Just like every other dull morning, my pink alarm clock that I've had since I was in the fourth grade, woke me up. Slowly, but not purposely, I fell out of my bed, the sheets coming with me, landing with a large thud on the floor of my dorm room. I grunted and got on my feet. I did that every morning. I was used to the pain.

I made my way towards the door and wrapped myself in a bathrobe, covering myself completely. I was only wearing a pink tank top and pajama pants until then, but who cared? I was glad I didn't have a roommate. That way I could always walk around the dorm in any clothes I wanted, have music pumped up as loud or as quiet as I wanted it to be, and hear no protests about it at all. Dorm room life was good.

I slipped into the shower, and let the hot water rinse my body of any dirt or tiredness I had that day. When I got out, I wrapped the peach towel around my auburn hair covered head, and the same colour bathrobe around my body. I shaped my hand into a fist and rubbed away the fog that was on the mirror. I took a good, hard look at myself, and noticed nothing wrong. Same emerald green emotionless eyes, same tired skin...Everything was in place.

I got out of the bathroom/shower room when all the girls started piling in, fighting for dear life just so they could get to a shower first. I rolled my eyes and shook my head, making my way bare foot across the hallway back to my dorm. I put on some casual clothes - you know, just the usual navy blue tank top with the royal blue coat, and the faded jeans. I never wore bright colours. Not anymore, at least. After that, I combed my hair until I could run my hands through it, and feel no tangles. Quickly, not wanting to be late for the second time in a row this week, I grabbed my backpack, which I thought had all my materials for class in it, and jogged out of the room.

Instincts lead my way through Seijou College campus. It was quite large, really. I was kind of early, so not very much students were sitting on the many benches, or seated around the big cupid shaped fountain like usual. For the first time in my life, I thought I was actually going to be on time! Anyway, I walked past some early bird students, seated on the green grass. One guy was playing the guitar, and it's nice melody followed me as I walked further and further away. I was disappointed when I couldn't hear the tune anymore, but kept on walking, knowing that I couldn't stay and be late for class again.

As I walked past the few students and the beautiful cupid shaped water fountain that was not yet spurting water, I felt around in my backpack, just incase. I made a mental list in my head, as I checked off all the various things that were supposed to be in there. Science textbook? Check. History textbook? Check. Day planner? Check. Math textbook? Jeez Louis! I can't believe I forgot it. Last night, just as always, I was struggling trying to finish off the last of my damned math homework. Apparently, when I finally did finish it, I forgot to pack the textbook in my backpack.

I swore under my breath, and began sprinting back towards my dorm. I was already so close to my chemistry class! What a shame - I guess I had to be late for yet another stupid class of mine. Maybe I wouldn't? Maybe I'd somehow sprint faster than I've sprinted in my life and magically appear in class, not late, and the teacher not yelling at me for once in my college life. Yeah right.

I sprinted past all the same people, even the guy with the guitar. This time, I was in too much of a hurry to actually stop and listen to the beautiful melody that he was playing. So, I just kept on running. One foot, the other foot, I repeated in my head, just incase I suddenly fell. One foot, the other foot. I had always loved running when I was in grade school. I still enjoy doing it now. But I guess when you're running in a bad situation; you can't exactly relish all the fun of it, can you?

I was so busy with my stupid one foot, the other foot chant in my head, I didn't even see that brown-haired kid crossing right infront of me. I'll let you take a shot in the dark and try and guess what happened next. If you guessed that I ran straight into him, then - ding, ding, ding! You're right. He didn't even bother to get out of my way, that stupid kid. So, I crashed into him, making a loud BAM kind of noise in the process. I landed flat on my ass, and because I forgot to zip up my bag after I felt for my class materials, everything - well, mostly everything - came flying out. Perfect. Just perfect.

I grunted in pain and got on my knees. My first instinct was to beat the crap out of the kid that I ran into, but I had no time for that. I had to gather up all my books and still sprint the rest of the way to my dorm, even though my ass felt like it was on fire. So, as fast as I thought I could, I crouched on all fours and started looking for all my books. I went down that same mental list I made in my head, and only one thing was missing. Where the hell was my stupid day planner?

I got onto my feet, my backpack infront of me, and began to stuff everything back inside. When I did, I looked up, and the first thing I saw was a pair of intense amber eyes. Those eyes were like something I've never seen before in my entire life - you know, until then. I was afraid that I would get lost in them, and waste even more time, but I couldn't. I shook my head vigorously, and ripped my gaze away from his eyes. My idiotic stare suddenly turned into a glare, and I began to see the rest of his body, not just his eyes.

Okay, so on the outside, I looked like I was pretty pissed off, right? Well, I was both pissed off and impressed on the inside. The guy was really big, and no, I don't mean fat, but big! Yeah, sure, he was only wearing a black T-shirt, a red coat over it, and deep blue jeans, but damn! He was good looking. It was as if my eyes had X-ray vision, and I could see right through his clothes. I could just visualize it. His huge six pack, nice and tanned. Just how I like it.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a deep, rich voice came ringing into my head. It was his voice that said, "I'm sorry." All I could do was glare. I must've looked like an idiot, just glaring at him. I knew he thought that I didn't even hear, when he waved a hand infront of me, as if I hadn't heard him at all. "I'm sorry," he repeated, "that was all my fault." and he handed me my leather, peach coloured day planner. At first I looked down at the planner, and then back to him. I did the first thing that came to mind.

I wrenched the day planner out of his grasp, and continued to glare, "Damn straight it's you're fault! Now thanks to you, I'm going to be late for my class!" Okay...So what? I was angry! I didn't mean to! It's just that I was finally early for once, and then he has to go and ruin it by bumping into me, and making me dump all my books onto the ground. Sure, he may have helped me, but I was still really angry. This was going to be the second time this week that Professor Hamilton would yell at me!

Not even bothering to apologize for my rudeness, I brushed past him and continued running to my dorm. I looked back just once, and saw him standing, rooted to the spot, his eyes confused. I did that. I took out the intense feeling in his eyes and replaced it with the confused feelings. I seemed to have that confusing effect on everyone when I was in that stage of my life. But no need to worry, folks. I would get passed it.

When I finally made it into my dorm, I was totally out of breath. My cheeks were red and puffy, and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. Yes, my chemistry class really is that far from my dorm! Anyway, not wanting to waste anymore time, I plopped my bag and day planner onto my bed, and walked up to my bureau. On it was just the usual - the night lamp, the many books lined closely to each other, the opened binders, and a bag of chips I hadn't finished that night.

Why wasn't my math textbook there? I opened all the drawers that were in my bureau and quickly shuffled through everything, feeling for my textbook. I couldn't find it. And I went through all the damn drawers, too! Except for one certain one. The one on the top left hand corner, the one that had the key to it. It could be in there. You never know until you try it out. I took a deep breath and slipped out some keys from my back pocket, chained together by a Hello Kitty key chain. I held out one particular silver one, and slipped it in the keyhole. I twisted it, and with a click, I opened it.

I reached inside, and I shoved my hand in. I felt the soft pink leather of the book, and closed my eyes, savouring its feel. Slowly, I put my other hand in, and brought the pink book up to my face. Sakura Cards, it read. My Cards. My beloved Cards. I opened the book, and out fell a single card. The Windy. I bent down to pick it up, and I stare at it for a long time. It took me such a long time to transform all of them - to make them all mine. When I think of what I had to go through, I'd lost so much sleep, energy, made mistakes...Sacrifices.

Before I let my feelings get the best of me, I shook my head and closed the book. I placed it carefully back into the drawer, and started looking for my math textbook once more. It wasn't there, obviously. I continued my search else where, and you'll never guess where I found it. Beside my bed, on the bedside table, lying open beside the lamp. How forgetful could I get?

I quickly picked it up and shoved it in my backpack, along with my day planner. It had the dude's scent all over it. I couldn't help but take a second to smell it. That's when Kero woke up. A single drawer on my bedside table opened up, and out fluttered a grumpy, tired looking stuffed animal. Yes, that was my Kero. He hadn't changed since I first saw him in fourth grade. Still yellow, still small, still has an enormous craving which seemed to grow as the years went by. Same old Kero!

He flew towards my bed, and lay flat on his stomach, "What's for breakfast?" he asked. What a surprise. The first thing he always asked for in the morning was, "What's for breakfast?" and if there was nothing for breakfast, he'd beg and beg for you to whip something up, or he would ask me to use the Sweet Card on him.

I smiled and walked to my bureau. I grabbed the open bag of Lays Original chips and threw them at him, purposely trying to drown him in all it's greasy, salty flavour. I heard him try to resurface from it all, and out from the top of the pile of chips that fell out, his tiny, yellow, baldhead popped up with a single chip stuffed in his mouth. He chewed it, but with a disgusted look on his face, he asked, "Chips?" and he scrunched up his nose like he smelt something awful, "Chips? Sakura, it's in the middle of the morning! If I wanted something greasy, I would've flown to the hamburger place!"

"Shutup and eat," I ordered as I took a seat beside him. I lifted my hand and began to rub his backside, "that's all you're going to have until I come back from my classes, so you better save it before you die of hunger," I warned him, a hint of sarcasm in my voice. In case you hadn't noticed, in that sentence, I said the word that would trigger my panicked side, and at that precise moment, I had jumped off the bed, and began running for dear life to my first class with Professor Hamilton. Does anyone care to guess what the keyword was? If you guessed "class", then you're bang on!

I sprinted quickly, and now that twenty minutes had passed, the campus was filled with buzzing students, either on the lawn trying to finish some leftover homework, some kids trying to waste time before their classes started, or just some people just chatting and having some coffee. I didn't run into anyone else, if you must know, but when I came bursting into my chemistry class with Professor Hamilton, everyone was already in their white blazers, safety goggles, and experimenting with two test tubes that had different chemicals in them.

I swore as quietly as I could, and luckily Professor Hamilton didn't hear me. I grabbed a white blazer that hung on the coat rack just beside me, and walked over to my usual table, where only I sat. Not surprisingly, Professor Hamilton walked over to me, but I ignored him as if he wasn't there, and put on the blazer, safety goggles, and opened up the textbook to our latest unit. It wasn't until he started talking that I finally acknowledged his dull-as-ever presence.

"Miss Kinomoto!" he addressed me, in his weird kind of upset manner, "Late again." When I didn't answer, he began shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and I could tell he was waiting for a reply. I knew that I should've given one earlier, but I loved to see Hamilton squirm. It was probably the only advantage I had over him when I was late, which I guess was pretty okay.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," I said under my breath, as I poured Solution A into Solution B. I smirked when I saw his head snap up, as he plastered on some, "You're in big trouble now, miss!" kind of face. He always pulled that one on me, but honestly, I didn't care. I always got away with talking back to teachers.

"What was that I heard, Miss Kinomoto?" he asked, that stern look still on his face.

All I could do was smirk, and answer, well, not in the politest manner, but it wasn't a rude manner either, "I said I was sorry, Professor Hamilton. I'll try to make it to class earlier next time," I said, with a fake-sweet smile on my face. This dude was so old he would believe anything he heard correctly.

"Right then," he answered. I expected him to leave after that, but he didn't. I was kind of beginning to get uncomfortable as he watched me stir the now mixed Solution with a glass-stirring rod. "I'm afraid I can't let you go on this one, Miss Kinomoto," he said after a slight pause. With that sentence, he totally got my attention. This had to be the first time he was actually doing something about my being late. Now that was a surprise.

"I'm going to have to punish you. No need to worry, though. It's nothing severe...But, we have a new student at this college, and the boy doesn't exactly know where everything is. Now, I'm not asking you to be his best friend, so don't fret, but I would like it if you were polite," he said, in his old grandfather kind of voice. I always liked it when he used that, because if I didn't love my grandpa so much, sometimes I wished that he would be.

"Alright, Sir," I answered, placing the stirring rod carefully inside the beaker, "I'll be as nice to him as possible." I hoped that was a good enough answer. Apparently it wasn't.

"That's not all I'm asking of you," he continued, just as someone knocked on the door. He put on a somewhat sneaky smile, and took hold of my elbow. He lead me to the door, and opened it. Standing before the both of us was the good looking brown-haired kid, with his backpack on his shoulder, and holding a piece of paper infront of him, studying it carefully.

"Room 257?" he asked, with that same rich tone of voice. He looked up from the paper and first saw Professor Hamilton's balding head. Then, he saw me. I wish he hadn't, because he wouldn't stop. All the both of us did was stare, and I wish we would just stop, for heaven's sake. It was getting kind of embarrassing, since it was infront of a teacher.

"Hello, Mr. Li!" Hamilton greeted warmly, holding out a hand for the brown-haired dude to shake, "You are correct. This is room 257. Please, come in. There is much work to be done," and he lead the both of us back to my table, where he began to introduce us. "This is Miss Sakura Kinomoto," he said, gesturing towards me. I gave a weak smile. "Miss Kinomoto, this is Syaoran Li. He just moved here from Hong Kong." I just nodded.

"Quite interesting." I responded, as if I was actually interested, which I wasn't.

Professor Hamilton smiled a gleeful smile, and said, "I know, it is, isn't it?"

After that particular sentence, neither of us spoke. Though usually very talkative, Professor Hamilton didn't say one word. I think he was expecting us to talk to each other, you know, try to make some friendly conversation. But I didn't budge. Even though this Syaoran guy was really good looking and all that, I could tell that the friendship that we would soon have would be a very rocky one, with lots of bumps in the road. So, I decided from then on that I wouldn't talk to him unless necessary.

"Er, now, the both of you," Professor Hamilton finally said, after pausing a full five minutes, "I want you two to look at each other," and although those were probably the weirdest instructions he's ever given me, I did was I was told. Once we did so, he smiled, "Good! Meet your new lab partners." and my jaw just totally dropped.

"What?" I shrieked, as I had told him the very start of the semester that I specifically did not want a lab partner, "But I thought I told you that - "

Professor Hamilton raised a single finger, signalling for me to be quiet, "Nah, ah, ah, Miss Kinomoto. I am not going to tolerate anymore of you tardiness, but, if you take on this request from me, I'm sure I'll be able to handle it, and then I won't have to yell at you as much, and perhaps I won't have to send you to the Dean's office," he basically threatened. Damnit, he got me good.

My mind totally busted, I just grunted and walked to the back of my desk. Angrily, I slammed my elbows onto the desk, and let my hands carry my chin as I watched Solution A sizzle into Solution B to make Solution C. I didn't even bother to talk to the Syaoran guy and welcome him as my partner. It's not like I was even planning to, and plus, I wanted to make it clear that I did not want anyone, namely him, to be my lab partner.

The rest of the class went smoothly. Neither Syaoran nor me wanted to spoke to each other. I was glad he understood the assignment, so then I didn't have to explain it to him, and we didn't have to talk at all. However, we did have to start talking a little bit after class. Remember how Professor Hamilton wanted me to be "nice" to him? He made it clear that he wanted me to show him around campus, so he didn't have to. You see, it was kind of like a tradition at Seijou College that if a new student comes, the first professor they have for their class is the one to show them where to go. Except for the freshmen, though. The dean did all that work.

After the first bell rang, telling us with it's loud RIIIIING that it was time to go, I threw off my blazer, my goggles, and dumped Solution C, which was now a bright blue colour, into the sink. It was kind of warm, so I unzipped my coat, slung my backpack over my shoulder, and continued to make my way out of the classroom. When I was out, I waited impatiently for Syaoran to come out. A rush of students pushed past me to get to their next class, and I had to fight off this weird twitching in my hands to shove them off of me and tell them to piss the hell off.

When Syaoran finally made it out of his class, he was wearing his red coat again, backpack over his shoulder, and that same piece of white paper infront of him. I rolled my eyes and quickly grabbed the paper from him, before he could make any objections. His mouth opened, but I gave him "the look" that kind of meant "don't say anything so we can just get this over with", so he shut his mouth.

I quickly scanned the white paper that I was now holding in my hands, and gasped in surprise. This couldn't be right! I had to re-read it another three times before the fact that he had basically the same classes as me actually processed through my head. I gave him an accusing look, and shoved the paper into his chest. His hand was brought up, to keep the paper from falling, and I could tell he was confused.

"Are you stalking me?" I asked, accusation dripping from my voice.

"What?" he replied, probably thinking I was a crazy person, "No!"

I didn't believe him one bit, "No, huh?" I said, beginning to walk to my - our - next class. I heard his footsteps behind me and I could tell he was following either because he thought I was showing him to his next class, or either because he thought I was a crazy lady that shouldn't be allowed to walk around campus. "Then why do you have the same classes as me? I have a best friend that only has two fucking classes with me, and yet you have all but one class without me! Coincidence? I think n - "

" - Probably," he interrupted, grabbing the paper from me, and went through it again. He looked from me to the paper, eyeing me suspiciously. No way. He couldn't possibly think I was lying, right? "What's your second class?" he asked me.

"Math," we both said together. He looked surprised. "What's your fourth class?" he asked me, obviously needing more proof that we had basically all the same classes together.

"Information Technology," we both said again, together. He hesitated before he could speak again, probably thinking in his head what he should say next. He couldn't possibly ask me what other class I had in common with him, because I'm sure I gave him enough evidence. Finally, he said, "Whatever, but I can tell you for sure, I am not stalking you," and he just ended the conversation right then there.

I didn't bother talking to him anymore. I took him to his classes, he followed, (and for some reason I always sat directly infront of him) and that was that. I didn't do anything more, and it was pretty clear that we didn't want to speak to each other. And even though we didn't have the last class together, I still had to take him there, not by choice, but because stupid Professor Hamilton told me to, remember? I left him at the door, and continued down the hallway to my own class, and thanked the heavens that I was finally done showing him around to all of his classes.

When finally the last bell rang, I was relieved to know that I was free to do whatever I wanted now. No showing Syaoran around, no dumb lectures to listen to from the professor's, but I did have a tiny bit of homework. Whatever, I'd work on that later. Besides, it was Friday! Which sane person worked on homework on a Friday night?

As I bolted out of the classroom as fast as I could, a whole bunch of other students came flooding out of their classrooms too, filling the hallways with such noise that I could barely hear anything. I did hear one thing, though. Someone was calling my name. It must've been Tomoyo. When she'd seen me walk into the classroom with Syaoran, all tall and good looking behind me, she instantly thought something was going on. She must've been dying to know all the details.

So, I turned around, a smile on my face, glad to see my best friend only for the third time today. My smile suddenly faltered when I saw who was really calling my name. It was Syaoran. He was looking down at his paper - again - and waving his hand at me. That suddenly gave me the idea to just turn back around, and keep walking. I know it was rude of me, but I didn't really care. I was through with showing this guy around. Plus, he was looking at the paper! How would he know that I saw and ignored him?

He didn't find out that I ignored him, just so you know. But he did end up finding me, not on purpose though. When I made it back to my dorm room, I was utterly shocked to see moving men, loading stuff in and out of my room. I ran into the dorm, and saw that everything was rearranged. My bed and bureau were moved to one side of the room, but my side table was still beside my bed. On the other side of the room, just a few feet away from my stuff, and me was another bed with clean white sheets, another bureau except in a darker mahogany shade, and a bed side table also with a lamp perched on it. What the hell was going on?

In through the door, another man came inside my dorm, with two suitcases. My day was so, totally not going as planned, "What the hell?" I said, grabbing the two suitcases from his hands, "What the hell is going on here? This is my bloody dorm and I want you and all your little friends to get the hell - "

" - Sakura?" someone said. Both the dude and me turned to face the person that spoke. My face faltered once more. Why was he here? What in bloody hell was Syaoran Li, doing in my dorm? This was just way too much. He ruins my day by making me late, makes it worse by being in basically all of my classes, and makes shit even worse for me by...Well, I'd find that out soon.

"Syaoran?" I replied, walking towards him, "What are you and these men doing here?"

"I can tell you, Miss Kinomoto," another voice said. Syaoran and I were surprised to see the Dean, Mr. Raymond, enter my dorm. "This is dorm room 112, correct?" he asked. I nodded my head numbly. "Well then, Miss Kinomoto, Mr. Li, I would like you two to look at each other." I'd heard this line before, and I knew what I was expecting next.

"No way!" I blurted out, not even bother to look at Syaoran, "Dean, you can't be serious! Is Syaoran going to be my roommate?"

"Yes way, Miss Kinomoto. I'm sorry, but I don't think that letting you live here by yourself is inaproppriate. I mean, everyone else has a roommate, why should I not let you have one?" he asked, as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Because I don't want one!" I replied angrily.

"Now, now, Miss Kinomoto. I'm sure you don't mean that. There will be no further discussion on this topic, and if I hear any complaint from either of you...Well, you'll just have to deal with it!" he said smugly, walking out of the room.

Both Syaoran and me stood dumbfounded. Oh, as I was saying: he ruins my day by making me late, makes it worse by being in basically all of my classes, and makes shit even worse for me by being my roommate! Now, I was positive that he was stalking me.

From behind us, another man started talking. "Um, miss? Is this yours?" he asked, holding up...I gasped. Kero! He lay in the man's palm, hard as a rock, a fake smile plastered across his face. I forgot! "I found him in a pile of chips on your bed, miss. I took the liberty of placing the chips back on your bureau, and giving the cute little guy to you,"

"Th - th - thank you!" I stuttered, grabbing Kero, "I'm glad you did so," and I walked towards my bureau, and stuffed him into the drawer he always slept in. I watched as soon as I lay him down, he slowly came back to life, glaring a whole through my body. I mouthed an apology to him, as I placed a chip or two inside with him so he wouldn't be angry, and slowly slid the drawer closed.

I looked back at Syaoran. He was smiling stupidly, obviously not knowing what to do.

"Hey, roomie?" he said. I could tell that, that was the only thing he had in mind to say.

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Read and or review, s'il vous plait :)

Signing Off,
Agent08 - My life as a secret agent xD