Lina here, however that doesn't mean that I wrote all of this alone. One year ago as of July 21, 2009 the RP on WBS forums, "They City" has been going on for a year. So I decided that I'd post it here. Heart-chan, Momo-chii, Dove, Sukita and I are the main people that RP in on the forum, so this is by all of us. At the beginning of each chapter I will put who contributed to each chapter. Also this is rated T for the most part, but there are some later chapters that I'll mark as M for sexual themes. Please enjoy "The City"!

Ikuto: Heart-chan
Lina, Elli, Angel, and Hoshi: Lina

Chapter 1:

The Official Meeting Part 1

The day hadn't been fancy. Dreary weather, actually. The skies were padded with dark gray clouds, and the clouds were dripping of rain, it's not that Ikuto didn't like the weather. He only found it irritating. Knowing Utau would probably chew him out for staying out in this cold, wet state of nature, he scowled for a bit.

He leapt carefully from roof to roof, allowing his cat ears to perk up suddenly. Ikuto would have to get home before the weather worsened. But a fascinating smell filled the air. His nose curiously peered up at the sky as if it were searching for something.

Guardian eggs…

Ikuto bounced off the roof and onto the balcony. Yes, he was pretty great with sneaking into people's rooms. The more he did this, the more it seemed as if he had the traits of a stalker. He only stared through the clear door, expecting something to happen.

Inside the room, there was a girl, Lina. She was sitting on her bed holding three eggs. One had a feather cross in the middle the edges with a white ribbon. The other was completely white with a red medical cross in the center. The last one had a yellow star in the middle and music notes going around it like a band. She felt them all three were warm. While picking them up she looked out her balcony door to look at the night sky. That's when she saw him, the hottest guy she had ever seen; yet he did seem to have a stalker like quality about him. She put her eggs down on her bed and walked over to the door and opened it. He had the cutest cat ears and tail she had ever seen! She just looked at him in shock, she had no clue what to do or say. Inside she was freaking out, yet happy.

Ikuto had seen the expression plastered over her face. It was similar to Amu-chan's; shocked and flustered. The only difference was that Amu dramatized the emotions in her expression. This girl seemingly was calmer. His lilac eyes scanned her again, but his face showed his aloof and apathetic behavior.

Once the screen had opened, he stuck his head through the opening and stared at her, distinctly inhaling her scent. Ah, yes, she definitely had Guardian Eggs. Wondrous, healthy Guardian Eggs. A smirk tickled his lips in pleasure when he knew for sure that she had the Eggs.

"You let me in." He stated, and then chuckled. His hair was dripping like the gray clouds from above. The cat ears twitched a bit, irritated by the water. This girl ought to be amusing…

"Umm… yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" She was still memorized by him and continued to stare. "Oh please come in, you must be cold from the rain. I'll go get you a blanket to keep you warm and so you can dry off." She went to go get a blanket.

He gathered his thoughts as he watched her scurry to get a blanket. She was a nice girl, but seemed quite distracted. Having the Guardian Eggs around him would be dangerous for her, but the girl whom he still did not know the name of offered her hospitality to him.

"You're interesting…" He mumbled as he grabbed the blanket. "The other girls would question why I would sneak in. And the rest of the girls slap me and call me a pervert."

The instant the soft blanket left her fingertips; he tightened his grip around her wrist. She had fair skin; soft skin, he noted. The smirk returned to his lips, and malicious intentions floated about the liquid surface of his lilac eyes.

"Are you going to ask me why I am here? Or would you rather introduce me to your parents?" He darkly asked and held his stare. He chuckled again. He wanted to toy with the girl's head. Was she like Amu…?

"You seem nice, but you forgot your manners. What is your name?"

She was definitely freaking out inside now, but keeping her cool on the outside. "I'm sorry, how rude of me. My name is Lina." He still had a good grip on her arm; she was trying to remain calm. "May I ask your name? Also I have no intentions of introducing you to my parents, they'd just freak out and besides they aren't here anyways." Shoot! She could believe she said that out loud!

"Lina…" He muttered and embedded it into his mind. He nodded and approved, letting go of his grip and stare. To stall, he jumped into her bedroom and draped over the blanket. Its soft touch began to soak up the rain on his skin. "As for me, I'm Ikuto."

Silence filled the air as he processed this piece of information.

"You're alone? Heh…" He shot her a wild, colorful grin, but closed his eyes with his face tilted downwards. It was a nice touch to the grin, and it gave his words a dramatic affect. He waited for a bit longer and then flickered his thick eyelashes open.

"How do you feel about being alone with me?" He finally asked. His cat ears perked excitedly along with his tail. The smirk returned like a tranquil belonging to a series of malice. "Do you feel safe, Lina?"

"What about your Guardian Eggs, Lina… Are they safe…?" Ah, yes, the precious eggs. His lilac gaze resigned back to the fair-skinned girl. There was a twisted plot coiling in his gut, and the end won't end out prettily.

"Ikuto… I like that name. As for feeling safe, to be honest I do and I don't. I mean I don't know there is just something about you." She was slowly started to calm down. "How do you know about my eggs? I believe they are safe. They are about to hatch any second I can feel it. Ikuto, do you have an egg too?"

Lina… She seemed gutless. Or clueless, whichever one would work. Ikuto also noted her open aura. Innocent. Naive. Childish. He took honest notes about her in his mind.

"I don't have an egg. I have a Shugo Chara." He corrected her theory in a soothing voice. His aloof personality seemed to mask his sudden excitement.

"Something about me, huh…? Would you like to find out?" He bent down to her height and grinned. His eyes twinkled in glee and seduction as his words softly floated around Lina.

Lina was silent for a bit, just staring into his gorgeous eyes. It was almost like he had hypnotized her. Her heart was pounding. "I am a very curious person," Lina answered, "I like having answers to everything. As for my eggs when then hatch I believe they will become Shugo Charas too, like yours. Only I don't see anyone with you."

"Have you ever heard; Curiosity killed the cat?" He smirked at his light words. Ikuto found the pun amusing and perked his ears again. She seemed calm, but nervous under his gaze. "Yoru tends to wander off. He's a bit of an.… alley cat…"

He looked at the Guardian Eggs in the corner of his narrow eyes. A flash of Amu shot through his head as he counted the eggs. Three. The plot seemed to spark in his coiled gut again, reminding him to get on with the plan. Could this be the Embryo?

"Would you like to know why I am here? Or perhaps you would like to know why this something about me makes you feel unsafe? Your choice, curious person," a note of his casual tease melted in the words. He hadn't noticed, but they were close enough to feel each other breathe.

"I have heard of that phase, it never means anything to me though. I'd love the answer to both of those questions and more. What do you know about the Embryo?" Lina smiled. She knew he knew about it. She enjoyed be close to him. She knew that her long brown hair was touching his cheek, they were after all able to feel each others breathe.

"I don't believe you would enjoy hearing what the Embryo is… from me, that is. You see, we're enemies. You don't realize it, but there's a boundary I have to stay away from." Ikuto softly cupped her chin with his index finger and finished from where he left of, "And that boundary is you and the rest of the world."

In a moment, he swiped away the Guardian Eggs and held them up to mock Lina. His bright red tongue sickly licked one of the eggs, the egg with the star imprinted upon it. "Tell your parents I said hi."

With a smirk, he cackled softly, still holding the eggs for display.

"Hey give those back! And whoever said I was your enemy! I'm not your enemy at all; in fact I'm not as dumb as I look! I actually work at Easter and I have been assigned to work with you, Ikuto Tsukiyomi."

"Angel, Elli, Hoshi! Come say hello to Ikuto."

Just then three Shugo Charas came out of their eggs, even though Ikuto was holding them.

Angel said, "Nice to meet you, aww too bad Yoru isn't here. I love playing tag with him."

Elli said, "At your serious, I'll never let you or Lina get injured!"

Hoshi said, "Eww… you licked me! You ruined my microphone! Now I need to fix it. Oh well nice to meet you."

Lina moved closer to Ikuto, so that they were once again within in breathing distance of each other. "Now what to you think," she smiled.

"I didn't mean we were enemies because of Easter." His face became grim and serious. The lilac became a deadly ultraviolet. "Even if we're working together, I'm after the Embryo for my own purposes."

His response sounded pretty selfish, but it was truthful. The girl came closer to him. Instantly, he was reminded of Utau, his younger sibling. What was with this girl…?

"Hmm, they're not Embryos. Useless…" Mumbled Ikuto. He tossed the helium eggshells at Lina and stuffed his hands into the pocket of his uniform pants. As he felt her brown hair tickle his face, he began to straighten a bit, comfortably distancing himself from her.

"Do you want to know what I really think, Lina…?" Though his tease was gone, the seduction in his voice left obvious traces, most likely left from habit.

"I never meant that I wanted it for myself. I have no use for it. I simply wanted some fun, which was finding the Embryo. I'll give it to you of course." By this time in her long brown hair she had a small braid with a white ribbon braided in it, this was one of her character changes. "Of course I want to know what you think." This time she kept the distance that Ikuto had made between them.

"Hmm…." He toyed with her explanation. She seemed like Utau in a way. But nothing like Amu, apparently.

"I think your reason is stupid," he bluntly mumbled. "Fun, huh? If you believe finding the Embryo is fun, you're messing with some sensitive material. Kiddy King and his cult are after the Embryo, too. Obviously, you have no realization of what the Embryo can do."

Silence again filled the air uneasily.

"Not even Utau thinks this is fun." The blow was low, but it had to be said.

Suddenly the braid and ribbon disappeared. She started to cry. "Why did I say that…? Angel why did you do that?" Angel floated in the air silently. "Angel now look, he hates me!" She looked up at Ikuto with watery eyes. "I don't want to join the Kiddy King. I want to find the Embryo for you because I believe that you need it and want it the most!" She had now fallen to her knees, her nightgown spread out on the floor with drops on water on it. "I KNOW WHAT THE EMBRYO DOES! I-I-I… I know… Why do you act like you don't understand? You act like I don't understand, why? Do you think you're the only one who has been though pain and suffering? I want to help you, not fight against you. I don't like being enemies with people." Her head hung down. "I've disappointed Ikuto-sama…"

Now that the girl fell onto her knees before Ikuto, he felt the pain of guilt rise from gut to cheeks. Had he made this girl cry…? Oh, no, this wasn't a fancy of a situation for Ikuto. Words weren't the greatest features that came out of his mouth. He gulped before he had to recite another explanation.

"I… I don't hate you." Ikuto simply muttered. Geez, the girl was absolutely terrifying with tears; he couldn't even look directly at her while he said so. He blinked his lilac eyes, flustered. Repetitively, the girl irritated him. Now she made him feel guilty… A million thoughts rushed through his head, but no combination of words could break the locked silence.

"I think I've said too much," he honestly stated, coughed, and averted his gaze to the window. He thought about leaving right then, but the girl was still on her knees, crying her heart out to him. Even his slick character couldn't get out of the sticky position.

"You don't?" she said has she looked up at him, trying to look into his eyes. Her tears were stopping. "That's good, I-I don't want you to hate me."

"Elli, please get Ikuto a bed to sleep in for the night, it's cold at wet outside, I don't think it's good for him to be sleeping out there."

"Okay!"

"Angel would you and Hoshi please go to Easter and deliver this letter to the new girl there. I'm sure she'll want to meet you, Hoshi. Angel after delivering the letter you can go and play with Yoru."

"Oh Elli!" Lina called, please also keep an eye on the un-hatched egg.
Lina looked back at Ikuto, "Please feel free to stay as long as you need." With that she fainted; apparently she wasn't in the best health condition at the moment.

Ikuto breathed once again. That was certainly nerve wrecking. He always had a weakness for shorties, and the guys at school had teased him about flirting occasionally with elementary girls. So what? He was a pedophile. Well, somewhat of one.

"I can't believe she wants me to stay…" Ikuto mumbled as Yoru appeared onto his shoulder. The guilt stay lay in his gut as he looked down at the frail specimen on the ground. She looked unhealthy and relieved at the same time; the expression on her face bewildered Ikuto. Sighing reluctantly, he picked Lina up and placed her on her own, soft bed. Waiting for the chara to come back, he sat at the foot of her bed and stared at Lina for a while. Ikuto took the time to reflect on things, particularly the sleeping beauty.

Elli came back somehow or another dragging a bed into the room. It was already made and had a soft feathery pillow on it. She was out of breath by the time she had fully made it into the room. "Here you go Ikuto, I hope it's com-" just in the middle she noticed Lina. "Lina! Oh dear she fainted again?! I should have kept a closer eye on her. Well until she wakes up I need to follow her orders." She went over to a basket and took out an egg, it was hard to see what it looked like though, it was wrapped up in a blanket, and Elli carried it and then went over to sit by Ikuto.

"Actually, you are going to watch her. I'm out of here." Ikuto irresponsibly stated with a lazy wave. He made his way towards the window. Hesitating, he turned to glance at the weak girl and held the stare a few moments longer. He wondered what would happen if she woke up and he wasn't there. He shook his head and made his way out of the window.

"Any last words, Elli…?"

"Yes, why are you doing this to Lina, why are you hurting her. Also I just got this bed for you use it! It's hard bringing it here. Also when Lina is like this I can't use any of my healing powers, She needs you to take care of her until she wakes up."

"Hurting her…? I just barely met her," Ikuto muttered coldly. He turned to face both the chara and Lina. "Take care of her…? That's the least her parents would think. Look at her; it looks like I'm the criminal. I'd better go before I cause any more drama."

"Lina doesn't have any parents! She only has us and a house, how are you a criminal, Lina doesn't think that."

Ikuto widened his eyes. No parents…

He gathered his clouded thoughts for a while after Elli said that. Stubbornly and longingly looking at the window, he sighed. "Fine… I'll stay for tonight."

"Thank you, Ikuto. Please at least stay until she wakes up. She'll like that."
Elli then goes and puts the egg back in the basket it was glowing.

"Tch…" He muttered and walked towards the basket in silence. Glowing already…? He was tempted to touch it, but he knew better. The egg wasn't an Embryo; thus, it was useless to him.

The eggs glow got even brighter; Elli fell asleep next to the basket.