Hi :3

Haha. Yay, my first Tadamu fic. They're cute, ne? I don't have that much to say for this one except that there shall be slight OOCness.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it!

'But I'm fine!' Amu protested, even as she winced in discomfort. She knew Nagihiko would be adamant. Last week, she'd taken a bad fall. Well, she reflected, 'taken a bad fall' would be an understatement. In her hurry to leave for school one morning she had slipped on one of Ami's toys, fallen down the entire staircase, and had sprained, bruised and broken parts of her body that she hadn't even known existed. And now she was at home; aching, miserable, and above all utterly bored. Her shugo charas were playing outside, in a nearby park. Even they had abandoned her for the balmy bliss of summer.

'Amu,' Nagi's voice came over the phone in such a way that she could tell he was sighing, 'I know you're unhappy about this. But you needn't be bored for long. Hotori-kun should be arriving soon to keep you company.'

'Nagi, he's driving me insane,' she groaned. During Amu's recuperation, Tadase had taken it upon himself to be there for her at almost all hours of the day. And in her period of reduced ability, he seemed to be taking great joy in making excessive use of his own abilities. Or rather, one ability in particular. Holy crown.

Holy crown. Amu rolled the words around on her tongue, wrinkling her nose in distaste. Over the past few days she had gained a particular disliking for Tadase's – apparently favourite – power.

Nagi laughed. 'You know you'd be the same way if he was injured. I've got to go, Amu-chan. Papers to sort through, dreams to save and all that jazz.'

'I would not be the same,' Amu argued, but it was too late; chuckling, Nagihiko hung up the phone.

'One milk-a-cow. Two milk-a-cow. Three milk-a-cow.' Amu tried counting the number of glasses of milk she could probably drink before Tadase arrived. Milk made her sleepy – if she drank enough glasses, maybe she could sleep through the next few hours. Or weeks.

The doorbell rang. Sighing, Amu turned and hobbled towards it. She was hobbling for two reasons. One, it hurt too much to move normally, and two, hobbling would delay the ordeal that Tadase's presence would inevitably present.

Amu opened the door, and sure enough, there stood her smiling sort-of-boyfriend. 'H-hey, Tadase-kun,' she greeted him, trying to sound enthusiastic. Normally she would be overwhelmed with sparkles right about now. But Tadase probably deemed sparkles too dangerous for her, in her current fragile state.

'Hello there, Amu-chan,' he beamed. 'How are you feeling?'

'I'm just fantastic,' she muttered, swinging the door wider to let him in. Still smiling at her pleasantly, he entered. He walked pleasantly. Heck, he probably puked pleasantly.

Squeezing the knob tightly in an attempt to rid her frustrations, Amu shoved the door shut –

'Holy crown!'

And she was suddenly face-to-face with a soft, bouncy mass of the translucent, orange, jelly-like matter.

She whirled around to face him. 'I was just closing the door!'

'Amu-chan!' he said, looking shocked. 'Door-closing is dangerous, you know. Did you know that ten people are killed by doorknobs a year?'

'That is ridiculous. Where did you hear that?'

He beamed again. 'I read it. In the safety book I'm reading, "It Could Happen To You." It's interesting, you should read it.'

'Aren't you worried I would get a paper cut?'

'Oh, yeah.' Tadase pondered this. 'Well, I could always read it aloud to you. In a room with sound-reducing wall foam, of course.' Satisfied with this idea, Tadase led the way into the kitchen, and Amu noticed for the first time that he was carrying two plastic bags. Once at the kitchen bench, he removed a tub of ice cream from one of the bags. 'It's Neapolitan,' he announced gleefully. 'So there's chocolate and vanilla! And the best part is that I had the ice cream vendor soften it before I brought it here.'

Briefly Amu wondered how exactly said ice cream vendor had softened the ice-cream, then decided she didn't want to know. While Tadase was still busy in contemplation of his soon-to-be-consumed vanilla ice cream, Amu edged towards the spoon drawer. Thinking she was triumphant, Amu quickly reached out to open it.

'Holy crown!' Tadase cheered.

'Tadase-kun!' she exclaimed in increasing irritation.

'Amu-chan, you needn't exert yourself-'

'I want a spoon!'

'Don't worry, I anticipated that.' Amu watched in disbelief as the bishounen reached into his bag and retrieved a small plastic spoon and bowl, complete with duck patterns.

'That is for babies. I'm not eating out of it. Even Ami wouldn't eat out of that. Even Yaya wouldn't eat out of it.'

'Yaya wouldn't fall down the stairs.'

Oh, snap. Amu was about to argue that Yaya would, in fact, be likely to fall down a flight of stairs at least once in her life, but decided that discussion would only lengthen this bizarre conversation. 'Just gimme,' she scoffed, grabbing the bowl and spoon in as dignified a way as was possible when taking a bowl and spoon meant for babies.

Amu watched as Tadase slowly scooped out her ice cream, then slowly scooped out his own ice cream (pausing several times to remind her, yet again, that it was vanilla) before she decided she could really take no more of this. How far was he going to try her patience?

'Tadase-'

'All done, Amu-chan! Now, I've brought a DVD for us to watch.'

'Horror?'

'No, feel-good. With a nice splash of comedy.'

Of course. Amu followed Tadase into the lounge room. He bent to fiddle with the television set, and before he could object, Amu seized the DVD case and turned on the DVD player, pressing the open button repeatedly.

'Holy crown!'

Amu was gently projected several feet away from the DVD player, by means of semi-transparent orange cushion. Amu just gaped at him.

'Amu-chan, what if your fingers were caught while it was closing? Or something even worse? Better safe than sorry.'

Tadase placed the DVD in the player and pressed play. Wordlessly Amu stomped-slash-hobbled to the lounge and sat down-

'Holy crown!'

'Tadase-kun!'

'This lounge is much too hard. And it's old – what if there was a spring sticking out of it?'

Amu huffed and crossed her arms, staring straight ahead. Tadase sat down next to her, and she flushed. As cross as she was with him, being this close was still electrifying.

'Amu-chan.' Amu had every intention of ignoring him, but when he said her name like that, she couldn't. She turned to face him. His expression was genuinely remorseful. 'I'm sorry, Amu-chan. I know I'm being a little over the top.'

'Ya think?'

He laughed, then quieted. 'It's just...' he paused, as if deliberating. 'I can't help worrying about you. You leap into everything so bravely, which is one of the things I admire about you, and it makes me happy to see you so full of vitality, but...' he paused again. 'Sometimes I worry that you don't ever stop to consider the possibility that it might be dangerous for you.' He watched her anxiously.

She was reckless. Of course he was too nice to ever say it so bluntly, but Amu knew that was what he meant. Amu suddenly recalled Miki warning her about taking the things she could do for granted. And here she was, taking her health for granted. Tadase thought so, Miki probably thought so. Was that what Ikuto thought? And her parents? It had never even occurred to Amu that other people would be affected by her recent injuries. That they would worry so much.

'Please don't beat yourself up over it,' Tadase said softly, as if reading her thoughts. 'It's nice to feel invincible. I used to...' his eyes grew distant, pensive; their ruby depths were worlds away. 'I guess growing up in my house, around my grandmother, and seeing what happened with Ikuto-niisan's and Utau-chan's parents, I've learnt that health doesn't last forever. But Amu-chan...' he was back in the room again, now smiling across at her. 'You have a way of warming people, Amu-chan. Your energy is empowering. It's because you're so brave that people can be brave themselves. And if there's anyone strong enough to take whatever life throws at them, it's you.' He glanced down. 'I realise I shouldn't worry so much, and I'm sorry for being this stifling. I just, I don't want to see you get hurt.' He glanced back up at her. His eyes were utterly sincere.

'Oh. Uh, wow. Thanks,' she spluttered, and a tentatively shy smile played across his lips again. Amu would have thought of a better response than that, but the truth was, her brains were turning to mush. Tadase was breathtakingly close. So close that she could make out the tiniest details, things she had never noticed before; like the way his smile went slightly crooked at the corner when he was really, truly smiling, or the myriad of small freckles that dusted his nose like cinnamon. His golden bangs fell just slightly over his eyes, but his crimson gaze never hers. Amu's heart was pounding so hard that she was sure he'd hear it. He was moving even closer, and she was aware of herself moving closer as well; as if they were two notes on a piano, an unresolved chord stepping into resolution, and the sound was perfection – a soaring sound that made her heart sing.

'Amu-chan,' he whispered. His eyes were caressing and tender, yet deeply serious. 'There's something I need to tell you.'

'Anything,' she said breathlessly. He leaned ever closer, eyes locked on hers, as if what he was about to tell her needed to remain a secret for all of time. His lips opened just slightly, and she felt her own lips responding by opening ever so slightly as well. She moved in, and keeping his eyes focused on hers, he whispered...

'Holy crown.'

Amu's puckered lips kissed something soft but not Tadase, and suddenly she was gazing into orange, not deep red. Appalled, she found herself face-to-face with the infuriating jelly stuff, as it propelled her – gently, of course – away from him. She bounced there awkwardly for a moment, and pinched the stuff to be sure it was really there. But above the sound of that terrible bouncing and the sounds of her own dismay, there was one other sound Amu became aware of – the sound of amusement. Amu stared in discomfiture, annoyance and above all utter astonishment as Tadase collapsed into giggles behind the translucent screen.

Yay! I'm actually fairly happy with how this turned out. When I started it I was intending for it to be all comedy, but there was a serious moment or two there - it was necessary, to lead on to the next part. Also, in case you're wondering, there is actually such a thing as sound-reducing wall foam. Or ring-reducing wall foam, or something like that. When I was in my school band the conductor had some installed on the wall behind him. We weren't allowed to touch it, 'cos it was (apparently) very expensive. XD

Thanks for reading~ and I hope you liked it! Review? I love reviews. I love them even more than Tadase loves vanilla, and I'm pretty sure that's a lot.