Hello! This is my very first fan-fic, so please give me constructive criticism!

-- Love-chan

Pairings: Kukai x OC / Slight Nikaidou x OC / Ikuto x Amu x Tadase

Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own Shugo Chara... PeachPit does.

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Feet beat against the paved track with every step as sweat beaded down her forehead. The sun was slowly setting, but she was still running. She had already gone around three times, this was her fourth. Standing at the finish line was her father. He was glancing down at the stop watch and then back up at her. His face was emotionless other than the occasional furrowing of the brow.

Beep.

He stopped the watch as she crossed the finish line like all the other times. As all good runners do, she didn't slow down until she had already crossed and was a few feet away. The girl panted as she walked over to her father. She had one thing in mind; Her time. It was that mattered at the moment. She looked up at him with impatient eyes and he looked back at her with cold ones.

"5:13.", he replied after a silence that seemed to have gone on forever.

Her eyes brightened upon hearing her time come from his mouth. That was the fastest she'd ran that day and it made her happy. She laughed and smiled brightly, throwing her arms into the air.

"Woo-hoo! I'm so happy!", she exclaimed excitedly. She had actually forgotten that he was there until he shouted at her.

"Hotaru! There's nothing to be happy about! I know you can do better than that, so wipe that ridiculous smile off your face! Listen to me and listen good. There's no room for smiles or cheerfulness on the track! You'll never be as good as you can if you don't get serious! Now. Get to bed when we get home, you have school tomorrow.", he scolded before walking back to the car.

Hotaru looked down at her feet, a sorrowful look taking over her features. She stood there for a second before jogging to catch up with her father. She tapped on his shoulder and then stopped, waiting on him to turn to her. He did, of course. He gazed down at her with his stony black eyes, a slightly curious look to them.

"Uhm... If it's okay with you, I'm going to walk home...", she spoke with her eyes focused on her feet, too scared to look up at him.

He continued to gaze at her for a second, seeing her glance up at him once or twice to try to read his face, but it was futile. He made no noise as he turned and walked away. Hotaru knew that that was a yes in his language. She smiled a bit as he kept walking and she continued this until he was in the car and gone out of sight. Her eyes then went down to the track where they stayed. Finally she closed them and dropped to her knees, then a praying position.

"Please God, or Buddha, or whoever else is out there, oh please grant me my requests. I need to be more serious, not just to please my father, but because it will help me. I want to be a serious runner and I want to win... I also need to be more lady-like. With the interviews and parties, I'm just an embarrassment...", she whispered this prayer, hoping that someone was listening to her and would answer it, but she really wasn't expecting any one too.

Opening her eyes and standing up, Hotaru smiled. No matter what happened she always felt better when she was on the track. She inhaled and exhaled slowly before stretching, followed by one last lap around before heading back home. After all, practice makes perfect and that's all anyone wanted these days. By the time she was done it was already dark and that unsettled her. Hotaru would never admit it to anyone, but she was terrified of the dark, especially when she was alone.

"Maybe I should have gone home with papa...", she muttered as she looked around her nervously.

The streets were dark and empty with the exception of the few cars passing by and street lights. It was still scary, though... She stopped in her tracks and looked back when she heard foot steps. Swallowing hard, Hotaru began to walk a bit faster, but she could still hear the foot steps, so she began to jog. That jog quickly turned into her running, though. She looked back as she sprinted down the sidewalk, almost completely sure that someone was following her. She she didn't see anyone she looked ahead, but she was too late. She ran straight into whoever had been walking in front of her.

"O-oww...", she groaned as she sat on her knees, rubbing her head.

"Oh my, are you okay?", she heard a voice ask her.

That was when she remembered that it was a person who she'd ran into! She looked at them, her face red from embarrassment, and opened her mouth to apologize.

"I-I'm so sorry! I thought I heard someone following me, so I ran, but I wasn't watching where I was going...", she tried, not looking at the person for fear that they were angry.

"I understand, I thought I heard someone behind me, but I didn't expect to be ran over by them!", he joked, laughing a bit.

Hotaru finally looked up and smiled a bit. It was a man with glasses and his hair in a pony tail. Kind of cute, but older than herself. She blushed a bit, but was relieved that he wasn't angry with her. He stood up while she was thinking and held out his hand.

"Need any help up?", he asked, still smiling at her.

Hotaru's blush darkened, but she took his hand and stood up.

"Thanks... Uhm...", she didn't know his name so she didn't know what to call him yet.

"Nikaidou.", he filled in the blank, happy to give her his name.

"Yeah, thanks Nikaidou-san.", she bowed as she thanked him, remembering something about manners.

"No problem, but may I ask what a little girl is doing roaming the streets alone at night?", he asked her

"I'm not a little girl and I'm not roaming the streets. I'm on my way home. What about you?", she replied, placing her hands behind her back.

"Hmm... I suppose the same as you, but I shouldn't keep you. It's getting late and I'm sure your parents are starting to worry.", he spoke with a concerned look on his face, causing Hotaru to blush again.

"Yeah, you're right... Plus I have school tomorrow. I'm kind of excited, you know? This new school looks like a castle!", she exclaimed, trying to get a good idea of what it'd be like.

"Castle? Oh! You go to Seiyo Academy?". he asked curiously.

"Yeah, that's what it's called! It'll be my first day! It was nice meeting you Nikaidou-san, I hope we run into each other again!", she joked as she began to walk away.

"Yes, but I do have a feeling that we'll being seeing a lot of each other...!", he called to her, waving as she went on her way.

"Oh yeah! I'm Hotaru!", she shouted, waving back until he was out of sight.

Once gone Nikaidou smiled evilly 'This Hotaru girl... I can feel it, she has an egg. A very powerful on at that... Hmmm... So powerful that there may be more than one. I'll have to keep an eye on her.', he thought as he shoved his hands in his pockets and continued walking, softly chuckling to himself.