Hello dear readers! For those of you who have already read my other work: Mage Master, I must really apologize for the long delay. I have been unable to write anything at all for the past months. But I have found a new inspiration to keep me updating and, by golly I will update my stories soon.

But I've also been inspired to write this new story. This is a very light project whose chapter updates will be loose. I'll add more cute adventures between the two of these kids later on. After all, I have Mage Master to continue. So, I hope all of you enjoy this little story. Please rate and review! I'd really appreciate that!

Disclaimer's Note: I do not own any of Shugo Chara!'s canon characters

Chapter 1: Friends Forever

"Ohayo! I'm Amu Hinamori! Nice to meet you!"

She was a weird girl, that new kid. I watched quietly from my seat, taking in the ridiculous clothes she was wearing. Amu, if I had heard that unusual name right, wore what most of my classmates would never be caught wearing. She sported a long pink sweater that was practically trampled over with red dog paw prints, its length stopping just above her thighs. Following further down, she wore these baggy black pants that almost covered her red-with-pink sneakers. Her piece topper was a red-with-pink-stripes knitted cap. Okay, so it seemed like normal clothes.

The only problem was that those were winter clothes.

I don't think any kid would be wearing that now, in the middle June.

Then there was the hair bit. I've seen kids my age, four or five year olds, have orange hair or maybe even dark blue hair. But she had pink hair. Pink hair. Amu was like an anime character from Naruto come to life or something. She was really…odd. I've seen oddballs in Kokoro Kindergarten come and go, yet all of them pale in comparison to her oddness. She was grinning so cheerfully in her weird clothes, not seeming to notice the curious looks my classmates were giving her. It was really brave of her, flashing adversity with a pretty smile. Her cute honey-gold eyes were brimming with life.

Not that I had noticed, of course.

"Okay, Amu-chan. Why don't you sit with…" My teacher, Kahoko-sensei began looking over our tables. I joined her in looking. I shame myself for admitting it, but I'm a bit nosy. Jun's table had one chair left, though I doubted Kahoko-sensei would put a girl with three boys. Ayumi's table had two available seats. I didn't think Ayumi would be happy sharing it with Amu. Ayumi held pride in being "the fashionablest girl in class" and Amu's taste rubbed her in all the wrong places. Maybe Amu would be with Taka-kun, or perhaps….

"Ah, you can sit with Tadase-kun!"

I whirled my gaze back to Kahoko-sensei, my mahogany red eyes wide with disbelief. Me? Be her seatmate? No. No, no, no. I don't do 'seatmates'. I utterly refused from the bottom of my heart. I did not want a seatmate. I was quite content being by my lonesome in my spacey table. Now mind you, I had nothing against the new girl. I'm just…really not good with socializing. "D-demo, Kahoko-sensei…" I mustered. I put on the cutest sad-puppy-look I could manage and stared pitifully at my teacher. Perhaps I could persuade her to change her mind. It always worked on my parents, after all. I forgot that Amu was watching, her lips quivering from the funny thing I was doing. Then, she just burst into laughter.

"Waah! You have such a cute face!" Amu laughed. "Almost like a girl's!"

That comment, that one single comment. Her sentence rang through my head like execution bells. Cute? Like a girl? I felt anger boil inside me and I threw her a mad glare. My seat clattered to the floor when I stood up. "I don't look like a girl! Don't you ever say that again!" I shouted.

I hated being called girly. I absolutely detested it! I was bullied for a whole year because of my looks in my old kindergarten. I figured that, ever since I had transferred to Kokoro Kindergarten, perhaps I'd be treated nicely this time. Yet this girl, with that single sentence, brought back all the horrible memories. My fists clenched tightly as I looked at Amu. It annoyed me all the more to see her look so calm, as if she hadn't done anything wrong. She stared back at me fearlessly, her honey-gold eyes boldly challenging my glare. Then, to my surprise, she put on a pout.

She crossed her arms and straightened up. "Oi, Ebi-kun!" she said. I scoffed at her. E-ebi! I wasn't a shrimp. I was fairly tall! "You'll be an old man faster if you keep frowning like that." she declared, pointing accusingly at my face. My cheeks felt hot at her comment. This weird girl had the nerve to judge me! I pointed right back at her, my face hot with anger. "I'm not short! Plus, it's my business if I want to be an old man early!" I chided.

"Do you?"

"Wha - of course not!"

I slammed my hand on my table. "S-stop confusing me!" I seethed. Amu said nothing after that. She just stood there, staring at me with a unfathomable gaze. The whole class seemed to have quieted down to. It seemed as if everything around us was holding its breath, waiting for one of us to speak again. During this time, my anger started to wane. My frown slowly began to disappear, my body relaxed, my breathing became lighter. It was only then that Amu spoke again. A sweet smile appeared on her face. She let out a small giggle, her expression drastically turning cheery again.

"Ah, that's better, Tadase-kun." she said. Taking off her knitted cap, she dipped her head in a low sincere bow. "Gomenasai. Sorry if I hurt your feelings." I was startled when she ran down the room towards me. I took a step back, and she took a step forward. I took a good look at her this time. Somehow, those weird clothes looked good on her. She was kind of cute.

Not that I had noticed, of course.

"Ah!" I gasped when she extended her hand toward me. She was going to hit me! I shielded my face with my arms. My eyes shut closed, I awaited the all too familiar sensation of a punch land on me, the sensation I had felt everyday in my last school.

"Oi, what's wrong?" I heard her say. "Afraid I'm infected or something?"

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at her again. Her hand was harmlessly outstretched towards me, her fingers uncurled and open. "Let's shake hands!" she grinned. I eyed her welcoming hand warily. Was this some kind of trick? In response, Amu moved her hand a bit closer to me.

Slowly, unsurely, I allowed my hand to grasp hers. I flinched as her fingers gently wrapped around mine. Her hands were smaller than mine, but it fit like some kind of fleshy glove. They were also cold, very cold.

"Let's get along, ne?" Amu cocked her head cutely to the side.

I stared back at her in disbelief. She turned around and waved at Kahoko-sensei. "I'll sit with him." Amu cheered, tugging my arm playfully. I looked back to my teacher. I guess she was a bit surprised by this weird pinkette too. Kahoko-sensei cleared her throat a bit and put on a happy smile. "A-ah, hai! If it's okay with you, Tadase-kun." The redhead looked at me expectantly. I let out a small sigh in response. It's not like I had a choice. I reluctantly nodded. "Sure.." I said softly.

With that, Amu let out a big whoop and sat herself down on the seat next to me. "You can call me Amu-chan, Tadase-kun!" I took my seat and eyed her curiously. As tempting as that sounded, I shook my head in response. "Iie. I'll just call you Hinamori-san." I told her, my voice sounding a bit harsher than I wanted.

I watched a small flash of dejection come across my…..seatmate's face, but it vanished as quickly as it came. "Well, it's a start!" she laughed. Just like that, the noise and chatter of the class back. The tension had disappeared and everyone acted like my argument with Amu had never happened. Class was admittedly livelier with that odd pinkette around. Amu was like my complete opposite. While I was content with sitting quietly by myself, she thrived in being surrounded by my classmates. Everyone seemed to forget entirely about her weird look. Even Ayumi ignored her taste in clothes, seeing how she was too busy laughing at Amu's crazy stories. She'd make jokes everyone would laugh at, even I couldn't help but chuckle sometimes. When we'd do group work, Amu always volunteered to do the hardest task.

"E-eh?! Are you sure you can cut all fifty paper hearts by yourself?" Taka worried.

"Nope! But I'll do my best!" Amu cheered.

When Amu wasn't helping everyone out, she'd be bugging me to no end. She'd bombard me with questions. She'd ask how old I was, what my favorite color was, what my hobbies were, and what flavor of ice cream I liked best. "Uh, vanilla." I stuttered.

"Really? Mine is chocolate!" Amu said.

When it was Recess, Amu followed me everywhere. It felt uncomfortable being tailed along, but no matter what I'd say to drive her away, she'd just keep following me. I walked all over the playground to try and lose her, but to no avail. "You're a shy kid, aren't you?" she suddenly told me. I stopped in my tracks and turned to face her. I let out tired sigh and tried my best to keep calm.

"Hinamori-san…"

"Call me Amu-chan!"

"..why are you following me?"

"Because I want to play with you!"

"Why?" I said.

She gave me a look as if I said something stupid, then she laughed. "That's what friends do, dummy!" Amu said. "For someone who gets top marks in our quizzes, you sure don't know much." Friend? When did I consider Amu my friend? In fact, what gave her that idea in the first place?

"Listen, we're seatmates. That doesn't automatically make us friends." I told her. "So stop following me." I turned and headed for the swing set. Since she didn't reply right away, I thought she finally got the message through her thick head. I let myself grin triumphantly. At last! Now I could have some quiet time.

Oh, but luck was a very mean lady. Today, it seemed, would be one where I wouldn't get my way at all. As I had just taken my first few steps to the swing, I felt something snag onto my shirt. I let out a muted gasp as I was pulled back roughly. Arms wrapped themselves around my neck and locked me into a hug. At that moment, I inhaled the scent of strawberries and saw a flash of pink before my eyes. "Ne! Ne!" Amu said. The feeling of her breath against my ear made me shiver. I felt heat rush to my face and I struggled to keep calm under the circumstance.

"N-n-n-nani?" I managed to say.

In response, I felt her arms loosen around my neck. Amu whirled me around, so that now we were both staring at each other. She must've seen the blush on my face, because she immediately giggled at me. "Ah, gomenasai!" She let go of me now that she had my attention and tossed me a somewhat cheeky wink.

"What do I have to do?"

"W-what?"

"To become your friend, what do I have to do?"

I looked at her dumbfounded. Was this girl serious? Couldn't she see I didn't want her company? I let out a sigh and waved at her dismissively. "Why do you even want to be my friend?" I demanded. I gave her a stern look and, to my surprise, she looked away. Amu took a while to answer. She shuffled her feet a bit, she played around with her fingers. When I looked close enough, I swore I saw just the tiniest tint of red on her cheeks. When she met my gaze again, I could notice a difference in their gleam. Compared to earlier, her eyes were gentler, like in a daze. Her smile was smaller, a sweeter look to them than before. "Because…." I heard her murmur. Because? I leaned in closer. Why was she so shy all of a sudden? This was totally out of character. Amu spoke again, but her voice came out as more of a mumble than anything. "Eh?" I grunted.

To my chagrin, she just shook her head and gave me her usual grin again. "Please give me a chance, Tadase-kun! I won't be a bother, promise!" she whined.

Her eyes suddenly began to widen, her lips pursing tightly against one another. I couldn't believe my eyes! Right there and then, this new girl had the guts to use my own tactic against me. She blasted me with the biggest, regrettably most innocent, sad-puppy-face I had ever seen. I felt like I had been impaled by a sword, twice. Oh, the look in her eyes! The technique of her stare, the way she bended her body just right! I did my best to stay strong and remain loyal to my decision. Being around Amu would only make my life more troublesome.

And yet, she persisted. She grabbed my hand with her own and held it close to her chest, consequently dragging me closer to her. Now I was in the frontline of her assault. She was so close to me! I felt my face burn up with embarrassment. I could tell we were starting to catch our classmates attentions, too. I closed my eyes and looked away, hoping that it would allow me enough time to recover from the cute attack, but the sensation of her cold hands around my own kept tugging me back to the reality of the situation.

"Onegai, Tadase-kun!"

My eyes snapped open and shifted back towards her. Amu's face looked up at me like a puppy….no, like a kitten wanting attention from its master. Really, this girl. With that last sentence, the last bit of my resistance crumbled. I let out a defeated sigh. "Fine, fine. But don't hug me or hold my hand anymore, okay?" I grumbled.

Amu immediately tackled me, causing both of us to crash into the ground. I felt the wind get knocked right out of me as she hugged me yet again. I struggled to get away from her crushing grasp, but she only tightened it in response. "Yahoo! Arigato, Tadase-kun! I won't be bother to you, honest!" she giggled. I squirmed under her, trying to get myself up again. "J-jyoto! Oi, what did I just say, Hinamori-san?" I shouted.

"Call me Amu-chan!"

"No!"

"But we're friends!"

"You're already breaking your promise!" I whined.

As I looked up, I was shocked to see all of our classmates grinning at us. Each of them had devious looks on their faces. Even Kahoko-sensei was smiling at us, well, more me than Amu.

"Eh?! Amu-chan, why do you want to be friends with grumpy Tadase?" Taka laughed.

"Don't be too rough on him, ne? He's really sensitive." Jun grinned.

"Good for you, Tadase-kun! We'll all support you two!" Ayumi joked.

"Be nice, Tadase-kun" Kahoko sensei chuckled.

I blushed at their comments and shot them the angriest look I could. To that, they merely laughed and smiled some more. Amu was no help at all. She grinned back at them and did this little salute to them. "I'll take good care of Tadase-kun!" she beamed. I looked at her incredulously before attempting to get her off me. But of course, that attempt utterly failed. I let out a frustrated groan.

"Geez, this is so embarrassing!"

"Don't worry, I'll help you overcome your shyness!"

"I-I'm not shy!"

"But your blush even if I just get close to you like this."

"O-oi! That's too close!"

"Hahaha! You're really weird." Amu giggled.

"I'm the weird one?" I huffed.

As I laid there on the dusty floor of the playground, pinned down by a beaming pinkette, surrounded by classmates and teachers that were all laughing along at this unexpected outcome, I had to confess: This wasn't so bad.

N-Not that I'll admit that.

Well, that's the very first adventure Tadase and Amu have ever had! It took me a while to figure out exactly how they met. In fact, I have three finished versions on how the two of them met. Among them, this one was best. Look forward to the next adventure this odd pair will have!

Rate and Review, please!