Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara or the original characters. I am taking creative license in that things are going to change. Any non-original characters are my own.
A/N: This story is for my lovely roommate who inspired the ideas that is the reason for this story. Nagihiko is not going to be the same character as Nadeshiko. They are two different characters (still twins) with their own subsequent guardian characters. I will decide later if Nagihiko enters the story at all. Reply with preferences if you have one.
Planned pairings: Ikuto/OC, Amu/Kukai, possible Nadeshiko/Tadase, other ideas welcome, only the first two are set, just place ideas in your reviews.
::music::memory::magic::
"Stand up!" A man yelled at me as his fist connected with my back. I could already feel the bruise forming as I tried to stand. His foot came up and caught me in the stomach. He always avoided the obvious places, my arms, legs, face, anywhere that would show.
"I fucking told you to stand up!" He screamed and grabbed my shoulder dragging me to my feet. I wanted to cry out, whimper, make some sound, but nothing came out. No tears came from my eyes as the water built up behind my eyes.
'Who are you?' I wanted to scream. 'What have I done to you?'
However, nothing ever came out. My questions left unanswered as I was thrown back to the floor, sliding into the coffee table in the next room.
"Never again!" The man screamed, bringing down his bottle on my chest. "I don't want to find out about you talking to that bitch again!"
"Hai…papa…" I finally spoke, but it wasn't my voice. It was small, like bells. The voice shook, and he pulled me up and threw me against the wall where he punched my gut.
"Yes sir," Papa demanded.
"Y…Yes, s…sir…" I stuttered.
"Don't stutter, speak clearly when you talk to me!" He said back handing me, knocking me to the floor again.
"Gomen, Sir. I will do better."
The man nodded, thoroughly pleased.
"Get out of my face," he snapped. And pulled myself off the floor and struggled to reach my room. It was bare, but it covered my secrets, the evidence. I fell onto my bed and cringed as I blacked out. What felt like mere seconds later, a fierce pain shot through my right shoulder.
My eyes flew open, familiar blue walls met my dark violet eyes as I took in my surroundings. Cold sweat stuck to my skin, cool air came from the window making me shiver.
'What was that?' I wondered as I gasped for air. I felt my heart race in my chest as I tried to make sense of my dream.
"Ikuto!" A voice called, followed by soft footsteps on the steps. By reflex, I quickly slipped out the door that connected to a small balcony. The door to the bedroom opened, pouring light into the room before it closed again, the footsteps retreating back down the steps.
I slipped back into the dark room and collected up my uniform before moving down the hall to the bathroom. The clock on the wall read 5:00. My sister wouldn't be up for another half an hour, giving me a chance to get a shower.
I turned the water on, letting warm up as I removed my pajamas before stepping in. The water washed away the sticky sweat left from the night, leaving my skin clean. After rinsing soap from my body, I stepped out and grabbed my towel. I had to be careful to take my dark blue towel and no other. If I wanted to smell like perfume all day, mother's lavender towel would do, if I wanted to die, my sister's purple one, as for my step-dad's, well I wouldn't even touch it with a ten foot pole. Therefore, the only logical choice was my own. Don't you just love how logic works? It keeps you alive at the end of the day, alive and smelling natural.
"Ikuto!" Mother again, probably making sure I haven't run away yet. It's not like I could anyway, as much as I wanted to. The bedroom door opened down the hall. Without seeing me there, mother closed it again and retreated back to the kitchen. I dressed quickly, pulling my shirt on just as someone began banging on the locked door.
"Ikuto!" Cue my annoying little sister, the reason to be up at 5:00 for a shower. I just grabbed my pajamas and opened the door. Her face lit up when I passed by, I just ignored her and continued to my room. Okay, pajamas on the bed, Violin on the stand by the closet, now where's the case? I spotted it sitting by the dresser where a small basket sat, holding a black an white egg with sihoette of a cat's face in the center.
"Yoru," yes, the egg has a name, or at least, the creature inside the egg. My guardian Chara, an alley cat named Yoru.
"Go 'way~nya," the cat meowed. Yoru gets cranky in the mornings.
"It's time to get up," I told the alley cat. The chara, barely the size of my palm, just groaned and flopped onto my shoulder, falling back asleep in an instant. This was a normal morning for the Chara, I have a feeling if I didn't get him to leave his egg, he would stay there most of the day and miss breakfast and probably lunch.
"I…ku…to," he mumbled. "Hungry."
The slight growl from my stomach agreed with him.
"Breakfast should be ready by now," I said leaving my room. Yoru dug his claws into my shirt as I moved down the stairs to collect the plate my mother left out for me.
"Ikuto," she greeted when I entered the room.
"Your mother went to call you for breakfast," my step-father stated. "Where were you."
"He must have been in the bathroom," mother defended.
"Shower," I stated and moved back to my room to eat and ready myself for school.
After packing my bag and placing my violin into its case, I still had plenty of time. I turned on my computer to find my IM already opened with a message waiting for me.
~DarkMoon~ has logged on
~DarkMoon~: Mornin' love
I allowed myself a small smile at the simple message before me.
Neko-Nya has logged on
Neko-Nya: morning Kas-chan
~DarkMoon~: still unoriginal as ever I see
Neko-Nya: what can I help you with
~DarkMoon~: thought id pass the time and say morning
Neko-Nya: good morning
~DarkMoon~: good, you do know correct etiquette when someone talks to you
Neko-Nya: Only to you love
~DarkMoon~: least I'm the one, how you doing this morning
Neko-Nya: I had another one of those dreams again
~DarkMoon~: The nightmares?
Neko-Nya: Yeah, one of those nightmares
~DarkMoon~: What was it about?
Neko-Nya: I don't remember
~DarkMoon~: just like the others
Neko-Nya: I can deal with it
~DarkMoon~: just try and get some sleep, you know you are always welcome here
Neko-Nya: I know, ill try and sneak out tonight
~DarkMoon~: I love you Neko
I gave the screen one of my rare smiles, such simple words from Kas were always a great start to the morning
Neko-Nya: love you too Kas, see you in ten
~DarkMoon~: Shit, its already that late?
~DarkMoon~ has logged off
I chuckled, she always lost track of time when we talked. In the mornings, it wasn't such a great thing, but today, I was fine with it.
"Ikuto! Time for school!" My sister yelled. Yes, I am a student, unlike my popstar younger sister.
I havent' properly introduced myself, have I? My name is Tsukiyomi Ikuto. I am a junior at Seiyo Academy in the High School section. Kas has been my girlfriend since we were in eighth grade and my friend since we were really little through her father and my step-father.
"IKUTO!"
Yoru yawns from my shoulder and meows quite loudly.
"Shut up!" He yowls at my sister, who, of course, hears him.
"What was that?" She yelled. I just sigh heavily and grab my bag before she can barge in.
"Yoru," I tell the cat. "Go back to sleep."
"Sure thing Ikuto," he grinned and slipped into my bag to hide from the blond outside my room.
"Where is he?" she demanded, talking about Yoru.
"Leave him alone," I sighed walking down the stairs. Mother had set out a lunch bag on the table for me, which I promptly grabbed and stuffed in my bag next to Yoru. The chara would happily eat it through the day while I shared with Kas.
"Have a good day, Ikuto," mother tells me. I just nod and open the front door. Kas is leaning against the telephone pole at the end of the driveway, her usual façade in place.
"Good morning, love," and whisper and bite her ear playfully. I catch sight of a small black silhouette of a cat's face behind her ear with a small tuff of hair between the ears. It makes me smile, remembering when she got it on our first anniversary. She had been three years to young, but her friend's cousin was a master and did it for her at a discounted rate. Her newest tattoos could easily be seen outside her uniform. The dark green vine climbed the outside of her left leg and down the outside her foot to braid together around her pinky toe easily seen through her black gladiator style sandals that reached her mid-thigh. The vine ended at her knee, twisting at the ends around small black rose buds. Matching vines crawled down the outside of her right arm, ending in the same black rose buds. At her shoulder, the vines faded to black and braided together to circle a blood red treble clef in the center of her right shoulder blade.
"You look beautiful today," I told her, but then, she always did. Her long golden legs showed just enough skin between her shoes and the skirt of her uniform. The top two buttons of her button down were undone showing off just a little of her cleavage with the black blazer trimmed in dark blue she had done that summer. A dark blue belt with platinum vines embroidered on it hung loosely around her waist. Her black hair fell in perfect waves as always and had vibrant touches of crimson both in plain sight and hidden to show up when she put her hair up.
"What kind of hello is that?" she wondered, her bright amber eyes glowing, her smile hidden by stone.
I smirked and pressed my lips to hers in a kiss. Her lip gloss tasted like cherries, it was her favorite and after a year of tasting it on her, it really grew on him.
"You dressed down today," he said when they parted.
"Weather was warm, thought I would show off a little." She shrugged. "Do we have time to stop for coffee you think?"
I nodded as we stopped at the coffee. She had only asked as a courtesy. We could be an hour late for school and she would still stop for morning coffee.
"Have I told you that I love you?" I asked her, winding my arms around her waist.
"Only once, on the computer," she replied leaning back. Her stomach was flat and when we stood like this, I felt every ridge of muscle she had. She was not one of those where you could see abs from a mile away, but if you could get close enough (as close as only I can) you could feel there was a hidden power there gained from her swimming.
Kas was nowhere near an athlete, in fact, she played this flute called an ocarina and played beautifully. My Kas is quite the artist, besides her ocarina, she plays the piano in concert band. Her and I have played a few duets in the class and once had to perform on for the concert. Besides her musical talents, she can draw like no other. For the past two years, she has earned herself a section all to herself, a privilege only a few seniors can earn. Besides each other, outside of school, we hang out alone. We are private people to everyone but each other. She knows everything about me and I know her. This peace gives her precious time to practice and relax, making it easier to perfect these natural talents. We often play together in the park, me on violin and her on ocarina. I simple adored playing with her, feeling the freedom of our notes, no particular place for them to end, just playing notes to play, reading each other. We have gotten quite good at reading each other actually.
"Ikuto, it's our turn to order, what do you want?"
"Usual please," he recited to the girl at the counter. She was new, but her friend was a regular in the morning and had already started to get the coffees, telling the new girl the order to ring up.
"Your total is 573 yen (A/N: about $7.39 in America) please," she recited. I pulled the bills out of my pocket and handed them to the girl before Kas could even reach into her bag. It was the same every morning, we raced to see who would pay.
"You paid all last week," she told me as Kimiko handed us our coffees with a smile. "Thanks Kim."
I just nodded the woman my thanks and took a sip, and got tasted the cream. Despite what you might think, I have a horrible sweet tooth, especially when it comes to Kas's aunt's fudge. I have to hide my grimace as I watch Kas drink her coffee black, only a touch of flavor.
"How do you drink that?" I wondered.
"Same way you do, place the opening to my lips, tip and cup and swallow."
"What's today's flavor?"
"Hazelnut," she replied. "I wanted vanilla, but the hazelnut smelled really good. Want a taste?"
"No thanks," I replied entwining our fingers together as we reached school. Call me possessive, but I don't want other guys thinking they had any chance with my girlfriend.
"Hey you, I have to go to the art room. I'll meet you in class in five."
"Promise?" I smirked.
"I promise," she replied, rolling her eyes and kissing me gently. I watched her walk towards the art wing as I started towards our first class, English.
Please Review
\/
\/
\/
\/
\/