You Had Me At Goodbye
When Ikuto hears Amu's voice echoing across the airport, his stomach does a flip and his face tries desperately not to burst into the biggest smile he's ever smiled. Only Amu would settle for calling him out with a too-cool-for-you contest. Famous last words.
He finds her-- he's a cat, he's good at hunting things down that he wants to find -- and can't help smirking down at her. They're surrounded by a crowd of gaping busybodies, as if this was a movie or something.
Her face is flushed, and she can't quite make up her mind to be herself or be cool and spicy, and she's the cutest thing he's ever seen, and all he wants is to hold her forever. It's terrible. He's lost himself to a little girl. There's no competition here, she's won long ago.
"I give," he tells her.
And, because he can't help himself, "I love you."
Amu blinks. "What?"
Ikuto had thought of a plan, before he came to the airport, one to indulge himself a little bit, and to mess with Amu's head some more. As far as goodbyes went, he had figured this one should be memorable. It was a fantastic plan, like all the others he's made up.
Here is the plan: he pulls her in close, leans down, and kisses her on the cheek. It's close, really close, but that's it. He delivers his lines smoothly and sashays off into the distance, he leaves seeing Amu flustered and cute and only thinking of him one last time.
Here is what really happens: Amu turns her head just as he leans down and Ikuto ends up kissing her mouth.
He freezes. She freezes. There may be sparkles, he's afraid to check.
The crowd gasps and awws, as if this was a movie, but it isn't, and actually kissing her was not part of the plan.
He pulls away hastily. Amu's face is rapidly approaching a vivid shade of pink. Ikuto's not exactly looking so cool himself, he can feel his ears burning.
"Um--" he manages. "Well. See you around."
"Okay," Amu says in a very small voice, her Charas screeching at her.
He wheels around, marches through the security gate and sets off all the alarms with the large amounts of chains and other metals on his person, and allows himself to be whisked away to a corner for searching, the guard scolding him for his hastiness all the way.
-
You'd think he was twelve or something, the way that one little kiss has been bothering him. Not bothering him, because it was nice -- except it wasn't supposed to have happened. He never planned to actually kiss Amu. Maybe when he'd accomplished something, maybe when she was a little older.
Ikuto groans, and buries his head in his arms.
Things were not going according to plan.
-
He starts seeing her everywhere. When he sleeps, when he's awake; in crowded stores and trains.
Maybe he's just dreaming.
-
Ikuto's in Europe, somewhere, but he isn't sure where. He'd lost track of the time zones a while back. Forget about languages.
The Dumpty Key is the only hint he has to find his father, that and the violin, but it's not helping him at all. The Key's supposed to help him find his true desire. It's supposed to unlock dreams, right?
Wrong.
All it's doing is stabbing into his leg every time he moves. When he pulls it out to look at it, it shoots off weak sparkles. Once he caught it starting to float, pointing somewhere off in the horizon, and he managed to lock it in his suitcase til it settled down.
"Ikutooooo," Yoru whines, prodding it with a claw. "I think you made it mad."
"It's a key," Ikuto says exasperatedly. "How would I do that?"
The Key sparkles with more force, and for a moment it kind of looks like the sparks are coming out in little heart-shaped puffs.
"Nyaaaah," Yoru agrees. "Guess you're right."
-
He's in St. Mark's Square, and Yoru's chasing the pigeons. Ikuto plays his violin in a safe corner away from the birds and their droppings, and tries to prey on people's hearts. All he wants is someone to be drawn forwards by the sound of the violin, someone who'd heard it before and can tell him where, and when, and then he'll have another lead.
He plays snatches of lullabies and solos dripping with moonlight, and doesn't, really doesn't, think of Amu. People stop to listen, people watch him play, but never for very long, never attentively.
Venice is full of street musicians. It's hard to stand out.
-
Finally, he's in England, minding his own business as he wanders around the city streets, when everything suddenly floods in bright, white light, and when it's all washed away, he's Chara Changed. He examines his claws and tail.
"Huh," he states.
"Wasn't me!" Yoru protests frantically, from deep in his soul.
Black Lynx nimbly hops onto a nearby roof, away from any bystanders who might come around. He can't feel any X-Eggs around him, can't feel any other threat, and he's pretty sure he hasn't said anything remotely close to "Unlock!"
He jumps down in a back alley and tries to figure out why he's transformed, and tries to think of how to get himself back to normal.
"Ikuto!" Yoru yowls. "The Key!"
It's floating again, and sparking as if it was a firecracker. He hadn't noticed it leaving his pocket.
"It's found something," he breathes, and grasps it, pointing it like a compass. Maybe it'll lead him to the person he's been looking for. He turns, watching it sparkle, and ends up bumping into someone's back.
He whirls around at the same time the other person does. His eyes widen. When he came to England, he hadn't planned on bumping into Amulet Diamond. Actually, he hadn't planned on ever bumping into Amulet Diamond, not anywhere.
"Y-you!" she exclaims. He's pretty sure he looks like a fish.
"What are you doing here?" he asks.
"I came to visit Nadeshiko..." she trails off, noticing his curious gaze. "It's spring break, you know."
His tail twitches. "Has it really been that long?"
She frowns prettily. She could sneer, or sneeze, or smile, and it would still be done prettily. She's taller than she used to be. "Yeah, it's almost been a year."
She catches herself, and turns away, arms crossed. "D-don't tell me you haven't been keeping track," she scoffs.
When he doesn't respond, she peeks back over her shoulder. "Did you find your father yet?" she asks timidly.
"No," he says shortly. The Dumpty Key's glow is starting to fade. He closes his eyes, and feels himself going back to being Ikuto.
Amulet Diamond's Chara Change breaks the moment he opens his eyes, and Amu's back to being herself. Dia seems to have gone back into her egg.
Amu looks down at the Humpty Lock in surprise. "I guess you must have set it off," she says thoughtfully.
"Nya, did it start glowing suddenly too?" Yoru pipes up, hovering nervously around his head. Ikuto shoos him away, and Yoru snickers.
"It's been... sparkling," Amu admits. For some unfathomable reason, she's blushing furiously. It's even cuter than he remembered. "It started to get stronger when I was on the plane here--" she cuts herself off.
"I guess it was pulling us together," Ikuto says, grinning. He can't help it. It's too funny. Here he was, looking for someone he wanted to see more than anything, and he gets her. Of all people.
"I guess," Amu echoes, doing her best to look like things like fate don't bother her. It's distinctly unconvincing.
Ikuto leans in closer, and pats her on the head. "You grew," he says fondly.
Amu jerks her chin up, and scowls up at him, lips pursed. "I'm not going to shrink, if that's what you expect."
"Stubborn as ever," he sighs. He keeps his palm on her head, relishing the feel of her soft, fine hair in his hands again.
"I should go," Amu says, finally looking away. "The others will be worried by now-- I didn't mean to transform, and I ran off so suddenly...."
Ikuto shrugs. The violin weighs heavily on his back. "I suppose you should. I should go, too."
"We keep coming back to goodbye, don't we?" Amu says, doing her best to smile before her stubborn streak takes over again. "I mean. It's not like I miss you or anything. And I definitely don't like you--"
"Of course not," Ikuto teases. He decides to ignore whatever else she's trying to say, cupping her face in his hands, and steals another kiss.
This time, there are definitely sparkles. And glitter. And somersaults. Wait, that last one's his stomach.
Ikuto steps back, and smirks, hiding his own glee as best he can. His ears are burning again. For whatever reason, Amu brings out the worst and the best in him, and sometimes he can't quite choose which it'll be.
Amu screws up her face, like a petulant five year old might if you take their candy away. "Okay, fine," she bites out. "I might miss you a lot."
He studies her face, which is about as red as a tomato, and nods solemnly. "That's a good place to start."
-
The Dumpty Key sparks, hesitantly. Unlocking dreams is what it was made for, and it would do the same for him, if it could.
-
Ikuto wakes up sprawled across a park bench. It's starting to rain. Yoru's asleep in his backpack, and someone is playing his violin.
-
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author's notes: so um chapter 43 was gorgeous and giddy-making, and it made me want to write fic, and here it is. It is wholeheartedly and unabashedly non-canon compliant, but maybe it'll just be relevant for that much longer. 8D;; It's a little AU, but I wonder where that really starts? So, you tell me: was it all a dream, or was part of it real?