My first Shugo Chara fanfic. Something that came up so suddenly in my mind.

"Okay, I'll see you at the Royal Garden then! Rhythm will be there too!"

"Okay, I'll bring my soccer ball! See you there, Ran!"

"See you there Daichi!"

Ran and Daichi waved at each other as he flew away through Amu's window. Daichi, Ran and Rhythm had promised to have a soccer match in the Royal Garden this noon. At first, Yoru was included as well to make the team even, but the cat chara had refused, preferring to nap instead. Daichi came by from Kuukai's house to remind Ran of their game.

Ran watched Daichi go with a big smile on her face. "Someone's having a crush," a voice said in a sing-song tone from behind her. Ran turned around to see her sisters, Miki, Su and Dia giggling at her. The pink chara was blushing lightly.

"S-so what?! What's wrong if I like him?!"

Su sighed. "So it's true..."

"Well, there's nothing wrong with having a crush. I have lots of them," Miki said in a thoughtful way.

Dia just giggled. "You must be excited to spend time with him later, Ran."

Ran blushed a little. "Well Rhythm will be there as well, so it's not like we're going to be alone."

Daichi was flying home when he spotted a familiar purplish pink chara flying around a ditch. Temari? What is she doing down there? He frowned when he inspected her appearance. Her usually neat and clean Kimono was drenched and dirty with mud. Actually, she was drenched and dirty with mud from head to toe. Her magenta hair was down for once, the sakura hair clip nowhere to be seen.

Daichi flew down to where Temari was to greet her. "Hey, Temari? What're you doing? You look awful, like you've been caught in a storm."

Temari turned to him. She looked distressed. Daichi narrowed his eyes at her troubled expression. "Oh, hello Daichi. I was looking for my hair clip." Temari went back to look around the ditch.

"Since when did you lose it?"

"Since this morning. Nagihiko had to do grocery shopping earlier today and I offered to help him while Rhythm stayed in the house. We were walking through this street and I was a bit sleepy so I did not realize it when it slipped off of my hair. When we got home, I just realized that I didn't wear it anymore. I came back here quickly to look for it. I thought it fell into the ditch."

Daichi widened his eyes. So that's why Temari was dirty and drenched? Because she had been searching inside the ditch for her hair clip? "Why don't you get a new one?"

Temari looked down sadly. "It was given to me by Nagihiko in the first month I hatched because it matched the red ribbon he wore as Nadeshiko. It was his first gift to me. It's very important." She then startled as if just remembering something. "Oh, I forgot to tell you. Rhythm said he couldn't join the soccer match with you and Ran. He's helping me looking for the hair clip at the grocery store. I said I'd be fine searching by myself but he was stubborn."

"Huh? Oh, okay. But why don't you ask Nagihiko to help? Having a human who's bigger than us sure would help."

"Nagihiko has dance practice, and I don't want to trouble him with this. I'm sure he'll get me a new one if I tell him, but... I want that hair clip..."

Temari continued looking around the ditch and to Daichi's surprise, started to dip into the water, kimono and all, her hands groping around, trying to find something under the murky water. Temari, who disliked getting dirty and always tried to look graceful, willingly dipped into ditch's water. That hair clip must mean a lot to her.

It was a bit of a secret that Daichi had a crush on Temari for a long time. In fact, he had been having the crush ever since the beginning of the guardians, when it was only him, Temari, Kiseki and Pepe for the Shugo Charas. The only ones who knew about it were the king and the baby charas since the four had been together for a long time. The two often argued due to their different characters, Temari being calm and graceful while Daichi was energetic and boisterous. However, they secretly enjoyed their time together despite the many arguments they had. So it was no surprise that the sporty chara had developed a crush on the tiny Japanese princess. Though he never said anything about it. Seeing Temari looking desperately for her hair clip, even going as far as diving into the ditch stirred something inside Daichi.

"Temari, you look awful. You should go home and clean up."

"But what if when I'm away, it goes further away from me?"

"I'll search for them in your place."

Temari turned to look at Daichi in surprise. "You will?"

"Yes. You've been searching since this morning right? You must be tired. Go home and clean up. While you do, I search for your hair clips."

Temari smiled and even with her current appearance, it still looked beautiful. Daichi blushed lightly. "Thank you," she said.

"Uh, no problem," he replied while scratching the back of his head. "Just wait for me at... you remember the park where the guardians used to gather?"

"Yes?"

"Just wait for me there. I promise I'll bring it to you."

Temari smiled gently. She had a urge to hug Daichi, but with her current condition, she didn't want to make him dirty him as well. "Alright then. If you insist. I'll go home to clean up, and then I'll wait for you at the park." Temari flew away toward Nagihiko's house.

After she was gone, Daichi looked down at the ditch. Temari had been searching around the ditch for quite some time and still couldn't find it, so the hair clip mustn't be there. Rhythm was searching in the grocery store and if he found it, he should have told Temari about it. Daichi trailed the street. He stopped when he saw paw prints along the road. His instinct told him to follow the prints. He followed the muddy prints until he saw a dog in front of him. A wet sakura hair clip in its jaw.

"Hey! Give it back!"

The dog, seeing the chara flying toward it, started running away, taking away the hair clip with it. Daichi ran after it. The dog was fast, but Daichi wasn't being an athletic chara for nothing. He outran the dog and quickly stopped in front of it. He grabbed the tiny hairclip and tried to tug it away.

"Give it back! It belongs to my friend!"

Unfortunately, the dog was stronger than him. It pulled away roughly and the hair clip was thrown away from its mouth...

Only to enter the mouth of a mailbox.

Daichi ignored the dog and flew toward the mailbox. "Oh, no!" he exclaimed when he saw a postman come with his motorbike, opening the mailbox and loading all of its content into his bag. He continued to ride on his motorbike. "No, wait!" Daichi shouted. He followed the postman, but he was too fast for the tiny chara to follow. Daichi stopped for a while to catch his breath. The postman would stop eventually. Until then, he needed to rest.

Meanwhile, the postman stopped to deliver the first letter. He opened his bag and saw something pink inside of it. A tiny sakura clip. So tiny that it must be for a doll. He looked at it in confusion. How did it get here? The hair clip was drenched and covered with mud. Someone must've thrown it away. Shaking his head, the postman threw it away and continued on his journey.

The hairclip so happened to landed inside an empty can that was floating on a river.

Daichi caught up to the postman just in time to see him throwing away the hair clip. He watched where the hair clip landed. "Not again!" he flew after the floating can, which was following the river's current. Daichi sped up his flying and finally caught up to it, in time to snatch the hair clip before the can fell down a small waterfall.

"Phew!" Daichi let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the hair clip in his hand with victorious grin. He could imagine Temari's happy face when she saw him coming back with it. Her eyes would widen and sparkle, and blush would appear on her cheeks. He flew away toward the park to show it to Temari.

Unfortunately, bad things kept happening to our green-haired chara. When he flew toward the park, he saw something coming his way. As it got closer and closer, he realized that it was a baseball. And it was flying at an incredible speed toward him.

Daichi yelped and quickly got in the way, the ball briefly grazing his knees. The ball tumbled back and the charas fell to the ground. But at least he was able to get away. He held up his hands and realized that in his panick, he had let go of the hair clip. He looked on the ground, searching for it. When he finally found it, his eyes widened in horror.

Temari's hair clip got trampled by the ball, the petals of the sakura flowers scattered on the ground. Daichi collected the petals in his hands. Temari would be so angry!

After collecting the broken pieces of the hair clip, he went home to Kuukai's house. Kuukai was on a date with Utau and wouldn't be back until evening and his brothers seldom come to his room, so Daichi had the bedroom all to himself. He put Temari's hair clip on Kuukai's table and searched frantically for glue. When he found it, he tried to put the hair clip back together. He didn't want to face Temari's wrath. But more than anything, he didn't want to see her sad. He could imagine it. Her eyes would sparkle with unshed tears and her lips would tremble, but then she would smile at him and said that it was alright even though it was not. It was always like that when she's sad. And Daichi didn't want to see it. No, he'd rather face angry Temari than sad Temari.

Using the glue from a bottle bigger than his own body, Daichi tried to fix the broken hair clip. But it was no use. It was rather too much glue or too little glue and when he got it right, the petals were not put in the right way. After an hour or so, trying to fix it, Daichi sighed and gave up. He lay down and looked at the ceiling, wondering how he would face Temari. He looked at Kuukai's alarm clock.

"It's almost time for my soccer match with Ran..."

Ran was humming to herself while shaking her pom pom as she flew toward the Royal Garden where she promised to meet Daichi for a soccer match. When she flew pass the park, she saw a familiar chara sitting on top of a slide. "Temari?"

Wondering what her friend doing there, Ran decided to greet her. "Temari!"

Temari, who noticed her friend approaching, greeted back with a smile. "Ran!"

"What are you doing here?"

"I'm waiting for Daichi."

Ran blinked in confusion. "Waiting for... Daichi?" Temari nodded. "Why?"

"I lost my hair clip when I helped Nagihiko do some errand this morning. When I was looking for it in the ditch, he came and said he'd look for it in my place. He said, he would meet me here to give it back when he found it."

Ran nodded. She had just realized that Temari's magenta hair that was usually tied into a high ponytail with sakura hair clip, was down today. "Oh... Okay?"

"Where are you going?" Temari asked.

"Actually, I'm going to meet Daichi to play soccer in the Royal Garden. You want to come?"

"Thank you for the invitation, but I think I'll stay here. I promised him to wait here."

"Oh, okay. See you!" Ran waved at Temari as she continued her way to the Royal Garden. Temari waved back.

When Ran arrived at the Royal Garden, Daichi was already there, tiny soccer ball under his arm. "Yo, Ran! Ready to lose?"

"Not a chance!" Ran said, grinning. "Hey, where's Rhythm?"

"Oh, he can't come. He... has something to do."

Ran nodded. Mentioning Rhythm reminded her of Temari. "By the way, I saw Temari in the park. She said she promised to meet you there. Something about hair clip?"

Daichi looked uncomfortable and he was fidgeting. "Uh... yeah... I know... I'll see her later. Now let's play."

The two athletic charas played soccer for hours, having so much fun at it that they quickly forgot about Temari. When it was already 3 in the afternoon, they called it a day and went their separate ways. Ran was happy to be able to spend time alone with Daichi, because Rhythm was busy doing something else.

Daichi arrived home and lay down on Kuukai's bed. He was exhausted but it was fun. Sport was always fun to him. He looked at the clock. There was no way Temari would still be waiting at the park at this hour. He guessed that he would face her tomorrow. Hopefully, he found a way to fix the hair clip by then.

It was sunset and the four of Amu'c charas, Ran, Miki, Su and Dia was carrying a text book in all four directions.

"Seriously, Amu-chan needs to learn to be more thorough. How could she do homework if she left her textbook at school?" Miki grumbled.

"Now, now, she was in a hurry back then," Dia said.

"And yet, we're the ones who have to take it back," Ran said, sighing.

"It can't be helped. Today is weekend and all classrooms were locked, so Amu-chan couldn't get it herself," Su explained. The charas were able to enter the classroom via a small window at the top of the door. When the four flew pass the park, they heard someone talking.

"Come on Mari. It's almost dark. He won't come."

"But he promised me. He never broke a promise."

The four looked down and saw Temari and Rhythm on top of a slide.

Temari? She's still here? Ran thought.

Rhythm sighed. "And how do you know that he didn't abandon you?"

"I know Daichi longer than you, Rhythm. When he promised something, he never broke it."

"Come on. It's almost dinner time. Nagi almost finishes his dance practice. When he notices you're gone, he'll be worried sick," Rhythm said, trying to convince his sister.

"But what if Daichi came later and I'm not here? He'd be very disappointed. And after all his efforts to search for my hair clip." Temari sighed. "When Nagihiko asked, tell him that I will go home soon. I'll be waiting a little longer for Daichi."

Rhythm frowned and Temari smiled gently to ease her brother's mind. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. You go home first. I'll catch up with you later."

"Okay," Rhythm replied in defeat as he flew toward Fujisaki mansion. Temari stayed where she was on the slide.

Meanwhile, Amu's four charas were looking at each other. "What happened actually?" Dia asked.

"I think I know," Ran said. She then explained what she knew to her sisters and the four agreed to go to Kuukai's house to meet Daichi.

Daichi was bouncing his soccer ball on his head. His eyes occasionally landed on the broken pieces of Temari's hair clip. He had found it, but it was broken. And his attempts to fix it only made it worse. He sighed. How am I going to face Temari tomorrow?

"DAICHI!"

Startled, Daichi sat up straight to see four girls looking at him with annoyed expressions, hands on their hips. "How could you be playing around here while you make Temari waiting!" Ran said in anger.

Daichi blinked at them. "Uh, what? Temari?"

"Yes! The girl who is still waiting for you in the park all alone!" Miki added.

Daichi widened his eyes. He couldn't believe what he heard. "You mean... she's still waiting? Right now?"

"Of course! We came by the park to see Rhythm asking Temari-chan to go home with him. But she refused, because she believed you would come" Su said indignantly.

"What are you doing this whole time?" Dia asked him, frowning.

Daichi looked shocked and guilty. He didn't know that Temari was still waiting for him. She was holding to their promise and he... He abandoned her. "I'm sorry!" he said, looking down sadly.

"What happened?" Miki said as the four girls landed in front of him.

"I... I found her hair clip... but... it was broken..." He pointed to the pieces of Temari's sakura hair clip. "I tried to fix it, but I ended up making it worse."

Su went to see the damage. "Oh, I can fix this."

Daichi looked up at her. "You can?"

"Yes. Leave it to me," Su said, pulling out her sewing kit out of thin air.

"I can make it look better or at least the way it used to," Miki added.

Daichi's eyes glittered with unshed tears. "Thank you guys! Thank you so much!"

As Su and Miki went to work, Ran and Dia turned to him. "But why don't you just tell Temari the truth?" Dia asked

"Yeah. Are you scared that she will be angry? Well, Temari IS scary when she's angry" Ran said.

Daichi looked down sadly. "No, it's better if she's angry at me. It's the fact that I know she won't be angry that makes me hesitate to see her." Ran and Dia tilted their heads in confusion. "She would be sad. When she's sad, she tries to hide it and pretend that everything's okay, even when it's not. I can always see it when she's trying to hide her sadness. When I see her sad... it makes me sad too... When she's sad... I want to do anything that I can to make her feel better. And knowing that I'm the cause of her sadness really makes me feel down. I don't know what to do." Daichi bit his lip. "But... I didn't think she'd still be waiting. I didn't know that she trusted me so much... I... I feel so bad..."

Ran watched and heard all the things Daichi said. Her eyes widened when it occured to her. "Daichi... Could it be you like Temari?"

Daichi looked up, his face crimson red. "W-wha? No! I, uh, um..." He scratched his head, averting his eyes from hers. Ran squinted at him. Dia looked at her sister worriedly. Daichi sighed. "I... Yeah, I do."

Ran felt something ache inside her chest. Her face fell and she bit her bottom lip. So it's true? Daichi likes Temari.

Dia put her hand on her sister's shoulder, trying to comfort her. But suddenly, determination lighted up Ran's face. Daichi may not like her the way she liked him, but they were still friends and she cared for him nonetheless.

"Daichi!" she exclaimed suddenly, making the boy chara jump. "If you really like Temari, then tell her that!"

Daichi looked down sadly. "But I don't know how Temari feels about me. And after I left her waiting for so long, she probably hated me now."

"Idiot! If she hates you, then why does she wait for you all this time?! She trusts you so much! You still have a chance!"

Dia looked at Ran in admiration. The boy she liked claimed to like another girl and instead of being angry or sad, she encouraged him.

"Now all you have to do is give Temari's hair clip back and apologize to her, okay?" Ran said, looking at Daichi with encouraging smile. Daichi couldn't do anything but nodded.

"It's finished!" Su and Miki exclaimed. They brought out Temari's sakura hair clip, all clean and neat. It looked much more beautiful than before.

"Thank you Su, Miki!" Daichi said, taking the hair clip.

"You're welcome. Now go to Temari-chan! Don't make her wait more," Su said.

Daichi nodded and he flew out the window toward the park, followed by the four girl charas. It was almost dark out there. Daichi felt really guilty. He abandoned his attempt to fix the hair clip because he thought Temari wouldn't wait for him. But it turned out, Temari had been waiting for him this whole time. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! I'm such an idiot! I'm sorry, Temari! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!

They arrived at the park and sure enough, Temari was still sitting on the slide, waiting for him. When she saw Daichi, her face brightened.

"Temari!"

"Daichi!"

Daichi stopped in front of her and held out her hair clip to her. "H-here... your hair clip..."

Temari's eyes sparkled and her smile widened as she took it from Daichi. "Thank you so much. You really found it. I'm sorry for troubling you." She looked at her hair clip. "It somehow looked better than before."

"It's thanks to Miki and Su" Daichi said. Miki and Su smiled at them.

"Thank you Miki, Su!" Temari said, hugging the green and blue charas tightly. She turned to Daichi with the brightest smile he had ever seen. "And thank you Daichi. You must've been trying so hard to find it. I really appreciate it. I'm sorry I didn't do anything to help you."

Hearing what she said, Daichi couldn't help but looked down in shame. "No... actually Temari... I found it earlier. It... it was crushed by a baseball. I tried to fix it but I couldn't. I didn't know how to face you. And then I went to play soccer with Ran and somehow just forgot about it. I thought you left already so I thought I'd see you tomorrow. But then Ran and the others came and told me that you're still waiting here... I... I feel so guilty... I'm sorry Temari. I'm really sorry..."

Temari went quiet while Ran, Miki, Su and Dia looked at him sadly. For a second, no one spoke.

"But you came in the end, right?"

Daichi looked up in surprise to see Temari still smiling at him. Her hair was back in ponytail, tied with the sakura hair clip. "You've tried so hard to find it for me and then you tried to fix it too. So whatever happened to it, I won't be upset. Because I know you've done your best. And you keep your promise in the end, so it's alright."

Daichi blushed. In his eyes, it looked like Temari was sparkling, especially with the moonlight shining on her. "Temari..." he murmured her name.

Temari smiled and much to everyone's surprise, she leaned toward Daichi and kissed him on the cheek. Daichi's eyes widened, his jaw went slack, while Amu's charas just gaped at the scene.

After a few seconds, Temari pulled away, smiling brightly, flushing deep red. She turned to her girl friends. "Ran, Miki, Su, Dia, thank you too."

"It's alright!" Ran said enthusiastically.

Temari smiled at them. "I think I better go home. Nagihiko will be worried."

"See you Temari!" The four girl charas waved at their friend as she flew toward the Fujisaki mansion. They turned to Daichi. He was still frozen in place, face deep red, eyes wide and mouth agape. Miki came to him and waved a hand in front of his face.

"Uh, Daichi?" Miki called out to him.

"Daichi?" Dia asked in concern.

"Daichi!" Ran slapped him on his shoulder, snapping him from his stupor.

"Huh? W-what?" Daichi looked around in confusion. "Hey, where's Temari?"

"She went home already," Miki replied.

"After she kissed you," Su said, sighing dreamily. Daichi blushed.

"She totally likes you back," Dia said, smiling teasingly at him.

"Temari likes Daichi too!" Ran exclaimed cheerily.

Daichi's face went even redder, if that was possible. Temari liked him too? He felt like he was flying on the wings of love. Great, now he sounded like El.

"Are you just going to stand here and let her go home by herself?" Miki asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Huh? What should I do?"

"Walk her home!" Miki exclaimed. "If you hurry, you might still catch up to her. Look, she's hasn't gone that far" she said, pointing at Temari, who was indeed hadn't gone far.

"Go Daichi. Take her home" Ran said, giving her friend a push on the back with a smile.

Daichi smiled back at her. "Yeah. Thank you everyone. Thank you so much."

Daichi flew toward Temari. "TEMARI WAIT!" the four could hear him shout. They saw Temari stopped as Daichi caught up to her. They couldn't hear what they said but they saw the two charas fly hand in hand toward the Fujisaki mansion.

Ran watched them go and sighed. There was still a little ache inside her chest, but she found herself smiling at them. Daichi and Temari were her friends and she wanted the best for them. If they were happy, then she's happy. She turned to look at her sisters.

"You're incredible Ran," Dia said.

"One day, you will find a great boy chara that will love you just as deeply," Su added, smiling.

"Of course you can find a new crush," Miki said. "There's nothing wrong with having a few crushes in case one of them doesn't wor-"

"Don't put me in the same place as you!"

"What was that?!"

"Now, now..."

"Well it all goes well in the end," they heard a male voice said. They turned around to see Rhythm with a smile on his face.

"Rhythm!"

"What're you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Nagi asked me to pick Mari up. But seeing that she's going home with Daichi, then I guess I'm not needed anymore." He then turned to look at the girls and grinned. "Do you girls want to hang out? I'm kind of bored. Temari might be a little busy with Daichi and Nagi's on the phone with Rima after his dance practice."

"Let's do karaoke in Amu-chan's room!" Su suggested. "Since there's no school tomorrow, I'm sure Amu-chan won't mind." They all cheered.

"You can come too, Rhythm" Dia said.

"Sure."

The four girl charas and one boy chara flew toward Amu's house in a cheerful mood, ready to sing all night.

Omake

"I'm back!" Kuukai said as he opened the door to his room. Usually, Daichi would greet him enthusiastically or whine about how bored he was after being left behind for so long. But his chara was unusually quiet right now. He was looking at the moon with a dreamy look on his face.

"Uh, Daich? I'm back."

Daichi seemed to snap out of his trance. "Oh, welcome back Kuukai. How's your date with Utau?"

"It's fun," his bearer said as he took off his jacket. "What are you doing while I'm out?"

"Oh you know, playing soccer with Ran."

Kuukai hummed and watched his chara, still looking dreamy for some reason. "What happened to you?"

"Kuukai, what would you think if I have a girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend?" Kuukai frowned in confusion. So Shugo Chara can fall in love after all. He shrugged and grinned at his chara. "That's fine I guess. You can do whatever you want. Wait, does that mean you have one now?"

Daichi blushed and nodded. "Yeah... I... I just got a girlfriend."

Kuukai grinned. He wriggled his eyebrows and smirked. "So? Who's the lucky girl?"

Daichi looked down, fidgeting a little. "Te-Temari."

Suddenly, Kuukai's face paled. "What?" he said flatly.

"Temari."

For a few seconds, neither of them said anything. Daichi looked at his bearer, who seemed to be frozen in place. Suddenly Kuukai put his hands on his head and shouted "Nagi's going to kill me!"

"Hey, Nagi. I just want to tell you that Rhythm is sleeping over here in my house. He and my charas are doing karaoke in my room with Ami."

"Thank you for telling me Amu-chan. I hope he doesn't inconvenience you."

"Oh no, he's not. Just thought that I should tell you, in case you're worried about him."

"Thanks again Amu-chan. See you at school."

"See you!"

With that, Nagihiko ended the phone conversation. He frowned in confusion at what happened. Usually, it's Temari who went there for sleepover, but this time it was his boy chara. Speaking of which, his girl chara was also acting weird when she got home. Earlier today, she came back drenched and dirty. When he asked her what's going on, she said she fell into a ditch. After she cleaned up, she went out again only to come back right before dinner time. Ever since she came back, she had been daydreaming a lot. Like what she's doing now, sitting on his table lamp while looking out at the moon.

"Temari..." She turned to look at her master. "Is there something wrong?"

She looked down and blushed. "N-nothing." Nagihiko frowned at her answer. Before he could speak further she suddenly spoke. "Nagihiko... I... I think I'm in love."

Nagihiko suddenly felt hard to breath. "W-wha..."

"And I have a boyfriend now."

Now he felt even more difficult to breath. Boyfriend? Temari? His little girl? So Shugo Charas could fall in love too?

If this came from Rhythm, Nagihiko wouldn't be surprised. The blue male chara was a bit of a ladies' man after all. But Temari? Prim, proper innocent Temari? His little Temari?

Nagihiko suddenly felt like a father who heard his daughter's saying she's going to marry at the age of sixteen.

After trying his best to calm himself, he asked "Who?"

Temari looked down, fiddling with her fingers nervously. "D-Daichi."

A long uncomfortable silence fell between them. Temari looked up at her master. "Nagihiko?"

After a while, Nagihiko smiled his usual serene smile, but the dark aura surrounding him contradicted it. "I'm going to kill Kuukai."