Lovely in Gold

Ikuto's POV

It had been about a year since I went in search for my father. I was coming back for my old life, for Utau, for Amu… Amu would be going into 8th grade soon, along with most of her little friends. I just hoped that she wouldn't be with another guy…

"Ikuto!"

"What is it, Yoru?"

"Are you thinking about her again?" Yoru sat down on my violin case.

"Of course I am, I haven't seen her in a year…"

"You know she's moved on by now." Yoru said timidly.

"We won't know that until we see it." I closed my eyes and rested for the rest of the cab ride.

*1 Hour Later*

"Ikuto! Wake up!" Yoru pushed my head around until I gained consciousness.

"What?" I grumbled

"We're here!"

I got my stuff and rushed out the car to run off to Seiyo Junior High. It was the fastest I had ever ran, so I got to her school just as the bell rang for school to be over. I waited for her at the gate, looking at the ground, waiting to hear her voice again.

"Ikuto?" And I stopped waiting.

"Amu?" I looked up to see her with Kukai, Rima, Nadeshiko, Nagihiko, Tadase, and some other girl.

"You're back…" Amu walked up to me while Tadase scowled and Rima and the girl whispered. Amu's hand flew and my face suddenly hurt.

"Why'd you slap me?"

"You left for a year! No calls, no letters, nothing!" Amu just glared at me, tears tickling her eyes.

"I'm sorry, I tried to call, but my phone was stolen. I-…" I pulled the pink haired girl into my arms and held her close. Kukai, Nagihiko, Nadeshiko, Rima, and the other girl ran over to join the hug.

We all separated. "It's ok." Amu smiled at me and my heart melted.

Tadase came over and took Amu's hand. "Oh yah, and she's my girlfriend." He glared at me.

And then my heart froze and shattered. "Oh…"

Amu looked at the ground. "I-…" She looked up. "I'm sorry. I thought you weren't coming back, with no communication I just assumed…"

"Don't assume. If you do it'll make an ass out of you and me." I walked away, Yoru trailing me. Foot steps were also trailing me, who was following me? I turned around with a swift movement and saw the girl who was with Amu that I didn't know.

"I-I'm sorry. My house is this way, too." She looked older then Amu, but probably still in the same grade. Her orangey hair went down to her shoulders and covered her ears. Her skin was pale and, by the smell of her skin, covered in sun block.

"You were with Amu and the others."

"Yah, we're in the same class… S-Sorry about the Amu and Tadase thing. You must like her a lot to get so mad." The girl had guts to say that when she didn't even know me.

"Who are you?" She flinched at the growl in my voice.

"I-I'm Kujyou Toru. Who are you?" She bowed her head little to introduce herself.

I smirked, what a nervous wreck. "Ikuto Tsukiyomi. You're a very nervous little girl…"

"I'm not a little girl! I'm 14, I just failed 4th grade… I'm not the one chasing after a 12 year old!" Toru didn't like to be called a little girl.

"True, but I'm not the one who's following an 18 year old around. I think we're even." Toru blushed, maybe it'd be fun to tease her like I had teased Amu.

"Well, I have to get home or my dad will worry. Bye." Toru walked around and away from me.

"I'll walk with you… if you want…" Was this little brat already growing on me?

"W-Why would you walk with me?"

"Look, you're a cute girl and some pervert guy might try to snatch you or something. And that'd be bad for your mom and dad."

"Just dad, mom left in 4th grade." We walked together back to her house, talking about this and that. Toru was fun to talk to and she made me feel a little better after the Amu thing. "This is my house."

"Bye, Toru." I waved a little.

"Bye, Ikuto." She smiled a little and scampered to her house.

Toru's POV

I closed the door and sighed. Amu would not like me talking to Ikuto. She had told me all about their history together, it was quite adorable. But, sadly, after a month or two after the wedding(the very end of the encore series) her and Tadase had fallen back in love. I couldn't get Ikuto's face when Tadase told him out of head. He looked so heart broken. Why couldn't Amu have waited for him? Why did she have to break his heart? She was still going to his friend, I knew it. Didn't she know that that would just torture him even more? Sometimes I hate Amu for what she does to him…

"Toru…?"

"Yah, Tori?" I turned my head to look at my guardian character.

"Why are you thinking about your best friend's ex-boyfriend?" Tori rested on my shoulder.

I felt my face get hot. "W-What! I'm so not thinking about Ikuto!" I stormed off to my room.

"Ha ha! She's being stubborn again!" Tora flew over next to Tori.

"I bet she's going to fall for him." Tori rolled her eyes. "It's weird to chase after someone so much older then yourself. Plus he's Toru's best friend's ex-boyfriend!"

My face got hotter. "Shut up! I don't like him!" I turned my head and hmphed.

"Suuuuuuure. You're thinking about him so much that you're forgetting about you guardian meeting(the middle school has guardians too)." Tora giggled.

I checked the clock, 5 minutes until the meeting began. "Oh no! I gotta run!" I grabbed my house keys and bolted out the door and towards the school. "I'm sorry, I'm late!" I bowed as I breathed heavily.

"It's ok, you're just in time." Amu smiled at me. I don't know why, but her careless smile was getting me mad.

"Good." I sat down in between Nagihiko and Kukai. The meeting went on, we did some paperwork, we talked about school matters, and ate some snacks.

"Not a lot of x eggs have been seen lately, but I have a feeling that they're going to pop up again." Kukai said in a low voice.

"Why do you say that?" I was suspicious, what would make him think that?

"Utau says a new singer is being recorded. She said she overheard the singer and her manager talking about drawing out x eggs. We should get ready to purify eggs again." Kukai took a bite of a scone.

"Then we should practice character transforming." Amu took a sip of tea.

"Where should we practice?" All of the guardians could character change by now.

"I know a place." Nadeshiko said with that peaceful voice of hers.

We all chimed in to say, "Where?"

She gave a half smile. "The field surrounded by very tall trees my family owns."

"Our family owns, we're twins." Nagihiko corrected.

"Yah, yah, whatever." Nadeshiko led us to the field a little ways away from her house. "Here it is! Let's start practicing."

"Who should start?" Tadase asked.

"How about Toru? We've never seen her character transform, plus she's the newest to our group." Amu smiled at me.

"O-Ok…" I focused all my energy on unlocking my heart.

"Let's do it, Toru!" Tori shouted.

"Unlock my heart!" The power from Tori and my heart flowed through me and all around me. I felt wings sprouting out of my back, fabric covering my skin, and some of my hair being pinned up with a golden T. "Golden Wing!" The transformation was completed.

"Nice job, Toru!" Kukai gave me a thumbs up.

"I-I have another guardian to transform with."

"Then go for it." Even Rima smiled at me.

Tori ended the transformation and Tora flew over to me. "Unlock my heart!" The same rush of power rushed through me, yet it was different. It wasn't the angelic feeling that I had with Tori, it was more courageous. Like a tiger. I could feel ribbon-like fabric rapping around me and ears and a tail sprouting out. "Roaring Tiger!" The transformation was complete again.

"Whoa…" A familiar voice spoke, but I couldn't see who I was from.

"What are you doing here!" Tadase growled at a nearby tree.

"Just stopping by." I turned to see who was talking in the nearby tree.

"Ikuto?"

"Yo. I'm here to help your training." Ikuto smiled slightly.

"How?" Amu spoke this time.

"Battling of course." He jumped off the tree. "Unlock my heart!" A bright light illuminated around Ikuto and suddenly he had ears, a tail, claws, and a different outfit. "Black lynx!"

"You're going to battle Toru!" Amu was obviously against that idea.

"Of course." He faced me and went into attack position.(I can't remember most of the names of the attack moves so I'm making them up) "Slash Claw!"

A wave of claw-like energy came flying at me, luckily I dodged it just in time. "Tiger Bite!" I flew toward him along with a wave of tiger jaw-like energy. He used his claws to deflect it.

"Good job, but I want to feel more pain!."

"Roaring Slash!" Giant ghostly claws appeared on my hands and I slashed at Ikuto. He was thrown back a few yards. I popped out of my character transformation and ran over to Ikuto who had popped out of his character transformation as well. "Ikuto! Are you ok?"

"Yah. Nice job, kid." Ikuto smiled and then grimaced.

"Are you ok!" I shrieked again.

He chuckled. "Yah, just… You hit pretty hard." He got up and patted my head. "Don't worry so much, silly little girl."

"I'm not a little girl!" My face was getting hot as he patted my head.

"Are you guys ok!" The rest of the guardians were jogging over to us.

"Bye kids!" Ikuto ran off and left me alone with the guardians.

"That was awesome, Toru!" I was hugged by my friends and then we all walked home.

Toru made by: Jenna-Hyuga

Drawings used for inspiration: .com/?qh=§ion=&q=shugo+chara+dress+up/d20prl0

And:

.com/art/Unlock-My-Heart-Shugo-OC-122233238