Kutau oneshot: Lollipop, Ikuto's POV

It was a gray, clouded evening in Seiyo, and Utau Hoshina was walking alone by the river. From afar you wouldn't be able to see it, but I could, she was crying. Small, blue drops of water were falling from her beautiful violet eyes, and I couldn't help but wondering if I was causing them. I had been pretty harsh to her a couple of hours ago, and I really regretted it. She deserved so much better than to be Easters little toy. We served the same fate, both with just a small amount happiness in life. So why did I have to make it even harder for her?

If she just hadn't been head over heels for me a while ago, then everything would have been fine. Couldn't she just understand that we could never be together? Our connection was one that was never made for such a thing to happen. Besides, I didn't love her like that. My heart belonged a pink-haired, childish, noisy, and most of all beautiful girl, named Hinamori Amu. Nothing could ever change that, she just had to accept it.

She had stopped crying now. Not because she wasn't sad anymore, but probably because she was out of tears. Utau started walking towards the bridge, the one that separates the eastern and western part of Seyio. We used to go there a lot when we were younger, to feed the birds. But that was before the sorrows and losses, before we got that heavy burden to bear; the burden that should swallow our happiness and joy, and leave a huge black hole in its place. Oh how I wanted to go back to those days.

Ikuto's flashback:

"Nii-san, look!" The five year old Tsukiyomi Utau screamed eagerly a she dragged me towards the edge of the bridge. I happily followed her example when she laid down on her stomach and looked at how the swans ducked their head into the water to catch fish. She giggled at the scene before she turned her head to look at me:"Ikuto, do you think our lives will be that funny?" I laughed at how she formulated the sentence. She truly was an innocent child. Unaware of the challenges the world threw at you. I tried to make my childish seven year old voice sound more grown up as I responded: "Life has many ups and downs. But once in the future, you will ignore that, and think about the good things in life. You will find things that will make you smile, no matter how hard life is." "You promise?" she said, smiling innocently. "I promise."

"Ikuto, Utau, it's time to leave!" My mom yelled. "Let's go!" Utau cheered and dragged me away from the water…

I felt a tear coming to my eye as I remembered that promise. Oh how foolish I had been! She was so said that even I couldn't make her happy. I tried my best to form a smile on her face, but I never succeeded. She was gone, my sister was reduced to a lost child, and I couldn't seem to find her again. I don't even remember what we were fighting about earlier. Why had I become so mad? Was I always like that to her?

I could hear her sing as she looked at the water flowing by: "Sasayaku Blue moon, te o nobahitara. Sugu ni tidoki so una noni! Itsumo yasashiku hohoemu dake de, oikakeye wa kurenai ne…" Her voice was so pure, so innocent. More tears were flowing from my face as I looked at her, my sister, singing with all of her heart. I felt like playing along, but then she would know I was around, and I hadn't brought my violin either.

I heard footsteps on the road Utau had just walked on, and turned to see a familiar face. It was one of the guardians, Souma Kukai, loafing around with a lollipop in his mouth. I had always liked that boy, admired him for how he seemed to be positive in every single situation. No matter how bad things were, he would always find something good about the situation. I really envied him that ability.

Suddenly he started running. At first I didn't understand why, but when I heard him yell my sisters name, I realized that he'd seen her and wanted to talk. She turned around due to the noise, and the brunette almost bumped into her. I saw his mouth moving, he probably apologized for frightening her. She mouthed something back, before she turned to look at the sunset. The young guardian put a hand on her shoulder and looked at her with worried eyes. This caused Utau to start crying again. He wiped some tears away from her face, and took the lollipop out of his mouth. He spoke to her in a light manner and laughed a little, before he offered it to her.

I was shocked at his gesture. Of course, I knew that he'd had his eyes on my sister for quite some time, but he really seemed to care a lot about her. I smiled to myself, and turned to leave. I could hear my sisters laugh, and see her smile as she accepted the lollipop. Maybe she had found a reason to smile after all. "Thank you, Kukai!" I whispered, before I chara-changed and started my journey home.