Valentine's Day Love Trouble

Amu leaned onto her desk staring up at the window to her left, she bit her finger nail thinking about the 2 boys who always kept occupying her mind. I- I like Tadase right? Yeah, I can't even like Ikuto anyway, we're enemies.. He- He's just a perverted cat! No one should fall in love with perverts! I can't believe I'm even thinking of this, this isn't my "cool and spicy" character...

"It's you're true character, Amu-chan!" Amu broke her gaze away from the bright blue sky to her little floating guardian character, Ran. During break time she was allowed to talk to her little friends, without looking crazy.

"Eh!?~ Did I say that out loud?!" Amu questioned nervously. How embarrassing! Amu smacked her face onto her desk without getting a reply from Ran. Amu covered her hands on the back of her head and mumbled comforting words to herself and attempted to try and stop herself from thinking about the boys again. Su and Miki stared at Amu with pity while Ran giggled to herself. After break time she was back to her usual boring classes, but after school is when she met one of her desired boys.

"Oi!~ Amu." Tadase called from the gates of the school. Some other students stared at Amu and Tadase and whispered somethings about them. Amu noticed all of this and ran to Tadase, he had his usual handsome grin on, his eyes shining brightly, his plaid blue cloak brushed back against his sides. She couldn't help but smiling at him, he was just too hot.

"Hi. Tada- " Amu stopped herself before she could go on. What am I thinking, people are watching. Amu tightened her grip on her book bag and held it over her shoulder, she inched her feet alittle to spread them more apart, this was her "cool and spicy" pose.

"So what did you want?" Amu lightly glared. She changed her tone and attitude to a whole different one. Oh no!~ That came out so mean! I'm so horrible! Amu's inner character screamed at herself. She heard behind her some "She's so cool!", "Wow!~ She talked to the king in such a way!", "That's her cool and spicy character!". She sighed. Tadase seemed to notice also and chuckled at her attempt to be "cool".

"Lets walk home together. I need to tell you something." Tadase smiled again. Amu blushed and walked quickly ahead, Tadase had to catch up with her then they began walking at a normal pace.

"What did you want to talk about?" Amu asked looking over to Tadase. He had a serious expression on and looked dazedly into the afternoon sky. They walked down the hill towards a small street.

"Oh, yes, well you know, its Valentine's Day tomorrow and..." Tadase trailed off, but his face was slightly red. Amu stared at the other 5th grader in shock, what's he trying to say?

"Well I just wanted to say this ahead..." Tadase stopped right where he was and turned to Amu. Amu had to stop but once she looked at Tadase's eyes, she knew that there was something bugging her. She ignored it, she was getting a confession, from the king of the Guardians! How could a girl think when she's getting a confession from Tadase. She stared at Tadase, with her golden large eyes. Tadase smiled but blushed and stuttered to talk.

"Will you be my Valentine?" Amu stood in shock staring at the boy, it was a confession, he does love me! Amu hugged Tadase and whispered yes into his ears. She noticed that he didn't hugged her back, but she let that thought pass too, because she thought he was just in a shock of happiness. Amu skipped away and looked back at her "boyfriend", he was talking to his guardian character, when he notice Amu waving at him, he gave a weak smile. Amu waved harder and ran towards her house smiling happily. As soon as she lost sight of him, her guardian characters looked at her, smirking.

"Gah! I totally forgot you guys were with me!" Amu screeched, she smacked her face with both her hands to hide her now redden face. While she walked down the road her shugo charas began talking.

"Hey, Miki will you be my Valentine?" Ran mocked.

"Yes, Of course!" Miki replied with a high-pitched voice, trying to mimic Amu's voice. They both laughed as they teased Amu of her recent experience. Oh yeah, Valentine's Day.. What should I get him? Amu thought, she looked around the streets to find a small cute store. Amu walked toward the store that happened to sell crafts, she decided she wanted to make him something herself. She glanced at the items as her little friends played around on the shelves. She picked out a nice scarlet colored yarn and some knitting needles. She had minor past experience with knitting and wasn't that great but she would try her best for her boyfriend. She bought her supplies and headed home thinking about Tadase.

"So?~ What are you making?" Ran asked smirking.

"Oh, um, I was thinking about a scarf.." Amu replied shyly.

"Why did you pick out red? Green would look cuter!~" Su chimed in, she dragged out the red yarn from the bag and the pair of needles. Amu looked at the yarn and sighed, this was gonna be difficult she wasn't really good at make crafts. While Amu started to knit her scarf she plugged in her earphone in and listened to the songs she loved Jesus Take the Wheel by Carrie Underwood. After a few minutes, Su noticed an error in Amu's knitting and as Su tried to help Amu she was pushed away.

"Sorry Su, I wanted to do this myself.. I think if I did it myself Tadase would really like it better." Amu said smiling and giving an apologized look. The 3 shugo charas stared at Amu as she went back to work, Amu probably didn't realize it but those words came straight out from her heart. They smiled and giggled towards Amu and chatted about how Amu was beginning to change. Amu fixed her little mistake and kept working on the scarf. She thought about how happy Tadase would look and how happy he would feel. She worked on the scarf for so long she forgot about sleep.

"Ne~ Amu-chan... You should really go to bed now. It's 2am.." Su whimpered.

"I can't.. It's for Tadase.." Amu barely whispered, she was tired but she couldn't stop knitting, then it wouldn't be completed on time for tomorrow. She stared at her sliding doors leading to her small porch, she saw a little light come through the bottom of the horizon. I should really sleep the sun is coming out now. Amu yawned as she went back to work on the scarf. When she finished at 4am, she fell asleep right on the chair, although she had put a lot of effort into it, she smiled knowing that Tadase was now hers and that's all that mattered. Little did she know, a perverted, cat-eared boy watched her the whole time, and when she stopped he still stood there looking at the sleeping young girl, his guardian character looked at his owner as Ikuto jumped away from the scene, crying quietly, running from his tears.

Amu woke up to the bright light that shown through the glass doors, she tilted her head towards her clock, 9:34. Oh no, I'm gonna be late! Amu ran to her dresser and grabbed her school uniform, she quickly glanced at her scarf she had made, which was now in a bag decorated with ribbons and shoved it into her bag. Her guardian characters slept peacefully inside their container on the desk until Amu harshly grabbed the box with her right hand and ran downstairs with her book bag in her left. She snatched a piece of toast from her little sister's hand and ran towards the door quickly slipping on her shoes. Her little sister started to whimper but Amu really had to go, so she couldn't really do anything.

"Sowry." Amu said through the toast in her mouth, she ran towards the school trying to fix her hair every chance she could. When Amu arrived at school she ran into homebase, and apologized to the teacher.

"I'm very sorry." Amu stated. Her teacher looked at her but then turned his head away to face the class.

"It's alright child, now go on to your seat." Amu walked silently toward her desk and flopped down. She hear some of her classmates talking about her. "Is Amu alright?","It's not right for her to be late." Amu sighed, she was up too late making the gift for Tadase. She her boring classes began to started but later during break time she got a visit from a few friends.

Amu walked down the hallway, until she was stopped by a voice calling for her. Down the hall she saw two girls waving towards her.

"Hey!~ Amu!" A girl called out, Nadeshiko one of her best friends was with her other best friend Yaya.

"Hi Nadeshiko, Hi Yaya!" Amu greeted. "What's up?"

"Why didn't you tell us? About Tadase?!" Yaya said. Amu blushed, recalling the events.

"We actually came here to give you a present." Nadeshiko said. "Happy Valentines Day!~" Amu smiled at her friends, she really liked this, real friends and I could be myself when I'm with them! Amu looked at the box Nadeshiko presented to Amu. She took the box, slid off the ribbon and opened the it, inside were homemade cookies that looked delicious, each one looked like the members of the guardians and the rest were cookie hearts; for Valentine's day.

"Thanks you so much, they look really nice!" Amu complimented Nadeshiko. She picked up the Tadase cookie and observed him carefully.

"You seem fond of him? Hm?~" Nadeshiko said though she seemed to have an empty stare. Yaya giggled at the other girl's words. Amu's face grew bright red.

"Eh?~ Oh ah.. I was just looking at how tasty they look." Amu said giving a weak smile. Nadeshiko smiled back and Yaya stole some of Amu's cookies. Amu left the 2 girls and walked back towards her class. While walking Amu heard little quick steps running in the hallway, she turned her head back and saw Nadeshiko running towards her.

"Sorry, Amu I forgot to tell you something!" Nadeshiko called from the end of the hallway, she earned a few stares from a few students though Nadeshiko didn't seem to notice. Amu stood there waiting for her friend to catch up. Nadeshiko led Amu to the roof, she must be telling me something important if she needs to bring me up here, Amu and Nadeshiko finally reached the top of the stairs, they opened the doors that led them to the roof. The sky was now a soft blue, as if to turn gray soon there was also a faint breeze that moved Nadeshiko's hair slightly. Nadeshiko walked towards the fence and leaned onto it, pressing her fore arms on the rail. Amu looked at Nadeshiko, she's acting really strange.. Amu watched the long-haired girl with worry.

"Are you actually, happy with Tadase?" Nadeshiko asked. Huh?

"Um, I guess so-"

"Please, have a yes or no answer." Nadeshiko roughly spoke. Why is she acting like this? Why is she asking this? Amu looked at her friend in confusion, Amu tried to figure out what her friend was trying to lead to in this conversation.

"Yes. I do love Tadase very much!" Amu affirmed. Nadeshiko gave a faint sigh and stared back at Amu, she had a fake smile on. Amu realized what Nadeshiko was trying to get at.

"Oh I get it now!" Amu bursted out. Nadeshiko looked at Amu in shock, then gave her a weak smile.

"...Are you ok with that?" Nadeshiko asked.

"Well I really shouldn't be, but since we're friends I'm okay with it." Amu smiled. This clearly wasn't the reaction Nadeshiko thought she was going to get. "Your secret is safe with me!~ I know a lot of people do like Tadase but I never thought you would like him!"

"Eh?" That certainly wasn't what Nadeshiko was implying.

"That's why you're asking me all of this, right?..." Amu questioned. Nadeshiko hunched over the rails and started laughing. Huh? Was I wrong? Amu thought. Nadeshiko turned her head to Amu smiling.

"... No not really, but... I guess it doesn't matter anyway.." Nadeshiko said recovering from her laughter.

"Let's just hope-" Nadeshiko murmured, but then suddenly stopped and looked back at Amu.

"Would you like to hear a story?" Nadeshiko asked, before getting a reply from Amu, Nadeshiko began her story.

"There was once a boy walking by a lake one night and met an old man, this old man was a god, the matchmaker god. This god told this child that everyone was connected by a red string and the god showed him his future wife. The child being so young, was not interested in marriage threw a rock at the girl's face and ran away. As the child grew older, he was soon to get married and his parents had chosen his wife for him. The man had not seen his lover's face yet but when he did she was covering a bit of her forehead. The man asked why she was covering up that spot, and she replied that when she was younger a boy threw a rock at her forehead. This boy then, knew that, that old man was telling the truth about the red string." Amu stared at her friend, it was really a touching story.

"Why tell me this? What was the purpose for me to even come here to talk to you?" Amu asked, she was now even more curious about their discussion. Nadeshiko looked at Amu in a pitiful way.

"Ah... just to keep something in mind for you." Nadeshiko said. She patted the pinkette on the shoulder and stared into Amu eyes. Amu was kind of freaked out by Nadeshiko's glares.

"Oh you should be going now. You'll be late for class." Nadeshiko said, returning back to her old self. Amu waved a good bye to her friend and went on to her next class. Before she left she hear her friend murmur the words. "I only wish the best for you two..". More boring classes passed by but the thought of the conversation with Nadeshiko still wandered in Amu's mind. A red string.. is she implying that me and Tadase have a string connected to each other? Amu began to fantasize, she stood in the center of a flowery meadow and was lying on the grass, the sky above her was the typical sky blue color and the sun was shining took in the scent of all the different types of flowers around her. Without getting up, Amu randomly chose a flower by her side it was a red rose with no thorns. She observed the rose's stem, shouldn't it have thorns? When she got up to observe the other flowers she saw a man in the distance. She walked towards him, curious about his identity. When she got there, the boy jumped towards her. He had blue hair, cats ears and a tail and they were barely a foot apart. Amu stood there in shock, as the boy walked to the little girl.

"Amu, AMU-CHI WAKE UP!" Ran screamed. Amu jolted up from her desk and was greeted by a few weird glances. Amu sighed, what was with that dream?

After school Amu couldn't wait to find Tadase, she was going to give her boyfriend the scarf she made for him. She searched the Royal Garden but Tadase wasn't there. Uh? He's usually there.. He always goes there for work, where could he have gone? Amu walked around the entire school searching for her boyfriend. Her shujo charas floated around helping their owner out. Amu stopped at the entrance of her school building, everyone had left, they probably all went to have fun on Valentine's Day, while Amu had to search for her boyfriend. Most girls would have ditched their boyfriends by now, but Amu wasn't most girls. She loved the King with all her heart, ever since she first saw him and was extremely happy that he had asked her out. These positive thoughts kept her spirits up to finding Tadase. It was nearly 5pm and Amu was still looking. Amu leaned against a tree and sighed, she wasn't going to give up but she really wanted to find him soon. In the distance she heard people talking. ...No one would be here right now... unless! Amu ran towards the voices with her bag swinging back and forth as she ran, nothing was going to slow her down. As she drew closer she recognized Tadase's voice and ran even faster. Once she got there, her body stood still. She couldn't believe this, she never thought or dreamed this would ever happen, her eyes began to water with tears. Tadase was leaning on top of a girl, both of their lips pressed together. Disgusting, filthy, horrible. Bad thoughts filled her head, when Tadase was done kissing the girl, the girl stood and ran away happy. Tadase walked slowly to Amu smirking, Amu still couldn't believe this, she was still in pain, anger, shock, she didn't know what to feel anymore. Amu wanted to move away from him, he wasn't her boyfriend anymore, it didn't look like he was going to apologize, Amu felt like she had to run. As Tadase drew closer, Amu felt like something bad was going to happen, she closed her eyes tightly ready to embrace what Tadase was going to do to her. Thud! Amu opened her eyes to see Nadeshiko standing right in front of her and Tadase lying on the ground.

"Don't worry, I only knocked him out." Nadeshiko said staring at the unconscious body. While Nadeshiko propped up Tadase's body. Amu was nearly in tears at what had happened. Nadeshiko had a worried expression and looked at Amu in such a sad way, Amu felt bad even though she was the one hurt.

"Tadase planned this all along..." Nadeshiko murmured.

"What?" Amu asked with a sad expression.

"He wondered what would happen if you had a X egg. He wanted to see how powerful you would be. I.. I just couldn't stand seeing your egg turn black so.. I had to save you." Nadeshiko looked at the King with lonely eyes. Amu was devastated to hear this. She didn't want to believe this, that the King used her, never loved her from the start. It was all just a lie. Amu ran away from the two and to a place far away from them. Amu stopped at the planetarium and stood there trying to contain herself.

"Ne~ Amu, won't your parents be angry if you don't go home soon?" Ran asked.

"Yeah we should get going soon.." Miki murmured. Amu's guardian characters floated above her head persuading her to leave. Amu stood still ignoring their words, Su flew down to check Amu's face. Amu's eyes and nose were red, her nose was also running, Amu was tearing up, not yet crying . Su stood in shock at the miserable face she saw, she pulled out a tissue magically. Amu tried her best to smile at the green little girl the fake smile was easily seen through. Amu took the tissue and dried her tears as best as she could. She looked at the bag still in her hands and wanted to cry again. What was the point? What was the point of making this? What was the point staying up until 4am? Why did this have to happen? Why? Why? Why? She clenched the bag and wanted to rip it apart but was stopped by a sound. Amu turned her head towards a tree, a blue-haired boy stood there looking at her. She glared at him, she knew it wasn't nice but she really wasn't in the mood.

"Can you annoy me later? I'm in an emotional break down here." Amu called out to Ikuto. The cat-eared boy jumped down towards Amu and embraced her with his body. Amu stood in shock, everything was happening too quick for her. First crush broke her heart and now second crush is hugging her. She hugged back and cried into his didn't mind, he wanted to be the one comforting her forever and always. She was in a horrible state, Ikuto could tell her egg was slowly turning black. He had to do something, he thought hugging would be enough but.. Ikuto pressed his lips onto Amu's, Amu pushed back into the kiss without hesitating. Amu smiled while kissing the older boy, and Ikuto could see her heart turning back to white, and he smiled too. He had a red rose in his hand, he murmur something about how the beauty of the rose reminded him of Amu. He pressed the rose into Amu's hair and she realized the flower was thornless.

"Amu, I've always liked you and now I love you even more." Ikuto confessed. "I won't be like that jerk, Tadase, he doesn't deserve you, I will protect you, I will help you, I will actually be there for you, because I love you." Ikuto looked at smaller girl in front of him. He felt so embarrassed but it was the truth, he loved her ever since they met but he knew she had an eye for Tadase. Amu looked at Ikuto's eyes, happy to have someone who actually loved her, she grabbed the bag with scarf from the ground and shoved it into Ikuto's chest.

"Will.. will you be my Valentine?" Amu looked up at Ikuto, with her beautiful golden eyes, the eyes Ikuto fell in love with. He took the bag and pulled out the completed scarf, it was soft and bright, he wrapped it around his neck and he pulled in Amu close to his chest for a hug. He wrapped the remaining part of the scarf around Amu's neck, they were now connected. Amu giggled into his chest and looked up at the blue-haired boy.

"We are now connected, like the red string of fate!~" Amu said grinning. She hugged Ikuto tighter and pressed her face back into his chest, snuggling with him. Ikuto remember that myth, two lovers are connected by a red string, tied to their pinky finger and that was the way they were connected, soulmates. He smiled back at the pinkette, she looked so happy, it didn't even feel like she was even sad before. He glanced up at the sky, now turning gray, it didn't really matter to Ikuto though, as long as he was with Amu. The weather was now becoming more harsh, the clouds stirred more quickly and it seemed soon it was going to rain, Amu notice her boyfriend staring at the sky, she look up at the dull gray clouds, she then slipped her hands into Ikuto's and had intertwined their hands with each other's. The young couple smiled at the gray sky, although they were cold from the harsh wind, the red scarf protected their young love.