Bender: -singing- Oh oh oh.
Ikuto: ...Wtf?
Bender: Oh oh oh.
Amu: Huh?
Bender: Oh oh oh.
Ikuto: She's finally gone mad -_-
Bender: Sexy vampire! I'm fallin' in love! So bite me baby, and drink all my blood! Ohh. Sexy vampire! I'm fallin in love with you! So do what you want to do!
Ikuto and Amu: -_-;; What the fuck...?
Bender: It's my new fave song! I love it!
Ikuto: It's stupid...
Bender: -death glare- Don't go dissing "Oh oh oh Sexy Vampire" I killz you! :D Mwuahaha!
Ikuto: ...Just disclaimer before she starts singing again.
Amu: Bendercat doesn't own Shugo Chara or Surviving Disaster
IKUTO'S P.O.V.
Ever heard of premonition? You know, the feeling that something's gonna happen in the very near future? Well what if you had a premonition that you shouldn't go to work the next day, but the ones you cared about were going to go anyway? Would you still go and try and protect them from some unknown force?
10 Months Earlier
I was running through the smoke and fire-filled hallways. It was like running through the bottomless pit of hell. The burning inferno that I detested with every fiber in my being, Easter.
"Amu! Amu where are you!?" I yelled and looked around myself in horror. She said she forget something important and when she started to take too long I ran after her.
I heard a faint coughing noise come from a few feet away.
"Amu!?" I turned to the sound and saw her collapsed on the ground. I ran over to her and pulled her up to an-almost-sitting position.
"I...Ikuto?" She murmered in a small voice.
"Amu..." Her face had small burns from the fire whipping at her face.
"It hurts..."
I could feel something wet roll down my cheek.
"No...Don't cry...I don't want you to be sad..." She murmered with a small smile on her lips.
I cried even more and held her closer to me.
"I...found what I forgot..."
I pulled away almost angrilly. What the hell was so important that it could cost her her life!?
Amu smiled and held up a silver bracelet with a little blue cat holding a strawberry charm.
"You went back for that!?" I growled with the tears still falling.
"Of course I did...You gave it to me..."
No...No! I don't want to be the reason this is happening!
"Ikuto...I lo-..." She coughed and I could feel her small body go limp.
"Amu. Amu! No! Please! Say you hate me! You...You can't love me! It's my fault...It's all my fault..." I muttered in defeat and carefully laid her back down. "All because of this stupid bracelet..." I picked it up in disgust. It was hot...I picked up the hand that was holding it. The palm of her hand was badly burned. I threw the bracelet across the room. I never wanted to see it again.
I glared at it for at least a minute before I realized something.
It's the last thing I'll have to remember Amu. All the pictures of us together were in my office and were probably gone by now. Her apartment had only the bare necessities, and she wouldn't let me do anything to spoil her. The bracelet was the only thing she's let me give her out of the seven years I've known her. No birthday presents, no Christmas presents, nothing. And while we were walking downtown last month we pasted by a jewelery store. She couldn't stop staring at the simple bracelet and I demanded that she let me buy it for her. And now she's gone...
I dragged myself over to the hated piece of silver and picked it up. It was burning my hands but that just made me hold onto it even tighter, like I wished I could suffocate it. I took one last glance at Amu and ran out of the burning office.
I jolted awake, covered in a cold sweat.
"That's the third time I've had this nightmare..." I muttered to myself. I shivered when I remembered them.
Sure the dreams had slight differences, but they were virtually the same. The first time I had it everyone died. The second time it was my sister and Amu. This time...just Amu. It's almost like each time I have it it just focuses on who's the most important to me. Now I'm worried. Amu's the most important person to me. Does that mean this is gonna happen soon? What if it happens tomorrow? Amu can't go to work. Not if this is really gonna happen.
I reached over to my nightstand and grabbed my cellphone. I have to tell her not to go to work tomorrow...today...whatever!
"Hello?" I heard Amu's irritated, tired-but still alive!-voice answer.
"Amu. Can you do me a favor?"
"...What?"
"Don't go into work today."
"Denied. I need the money for my rent payment."
"I can pay your rent." I don't even wanna think about how many times I've offered her this. "Or you can just move in with me."
"No. I like my apartment."
"If you don't go to work today then I'll let you keep it."
"Nice try...Ikuto are you done? It's three a.m., I have to wake up in like four hours and I'm exhausted! Let me sleep!"
"Amu...please. Don't go tomorrow..."
"Why is this so important to you?"
"...Well...because...I have a very bad feeling that something will happen to you. I just want to make sure you're safe."
"..."
"Amu?"
"..."
"Amu? Hello?"
"-snore-"
I sighed and hung up the phone. Guess I'm going to work tomorrow.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
I was leaning against the hood of my car, waiting for Amu to come out of her apartment. I just wish I hadn't gotten here so early. I ended up driving here at six so I wouldn't miss her. I started to nod off.
"Ikuto?"
I sleepily lifted my head up to see Amu standing in her doorway.
"Ikuto, what are you doing here?" She walked up to me and put a concerned hand on my arm. "You look so tired...At least you don't work today."
I shook my head. "I just need some coffee. And I'm here to drive the both of us to work."
"No you're not. You are going to go inside and sleep. I don't trust you to drive."
"Then you can drive and get us some coffee. And I can't go to sleep. I have work to do."
"Ikuto! You didn't! Why are you obsessing over this!?"
"Because I have to keep you safe..." I pulled her closer to me. "If you stay home today I'll go back to sleep and listen to all your other demands."
Amu bit down on her lower lip. "Ikuto, I can't. I have to go in today. I need to make sure Nagi doesn't pass out."
"Then it looks like the three of us are going to be in my office all day." I sighed and brought her over to the passenger side door.
"No. I'm driving. We'll go get some coffee, okay?"
I shrugged and got in the car while she walked over to the driver's side.
XxXxXxXxXxXxX
"Ikuto! Where are you you pain in my ass!?" What the hell does Kukai want now? He's been bugging me all week.
"Over here," I called. "You impatient bastard..." I muttered under my breath.
"You know I love your sister right?"
"Get on with it, I'm busy. Unlike you, I work at work." We all work in Easter's management department located on the tenth floor. Well, not all of us. Only Amu, Kukai, Tadase, Nagihiko and I work in management. The others work on the first floor. Utau still has her music career but spends every day here so she can see everyone. Lucky bastards...
I took a drink of my coffee before he talked again. "Well, I'm thinking about proposing."
"So much for my coffee." I muttered and wiped the remainder of it off my mouth. All of it went spurting out my mouth and all over Kukai.
"Thanks man." Kukai muttered and grabbed some tissues off soemone's desk.
"Well don't go suprising me like that." I choked out.
"Whatever. So what do you think? You think I should?"
"Why're you asking me this? Utau wouldn't talk to me about this. Go ask Amu."
"Ask Amu what?" Amu came walking up to Kukai and I.
"Whether I should propose to Utau or not."
Amu started squealing then glared at Kukai and I.
"What!?"
"You never saw that happen." She growled.
"Okay! We never saw it!"
"Either way, Kukai! Oh my God! That's so amazing! When are you gonna do it!?"
"If she comes by today, then today." Kukai grinned. "You think she'll be happy?"
"Are you kidding!? She'll be ecstatic!"
"Okay, what happened? What's with all the yelling?" Nagi muttered with bags under his eyes.
"What's wrong with you?" Kukai muttered.
"Rima kept making me take care of Mai every time she cried even the slightest." Nagi plopped on the chair and leaned his head back.
"Is Rima still mad at you for the whole baby thing?" Amu asked.
"She said she wanted one! But once we took her home Rima found out how many times you have to feed and change that thing!"
"Nagi! Mai is not a thing! She's your daughter!" Amu yelled and shook him by his shoulders to keep him awake.
"Really glad I'm not him right now."
Kukai just nodded in agreement so he wouldn't get glared at.
"What's up-nya?"
"Hey Yoru." I nodded my head in greeting. I can never escape my family...Utau comes here every day and Yoru, my cousin, works here in the pets management department!
"Hey! How are things going with Miki?" Amu took her attention off of Nagi and Kukai and finally acknowledged his existence.
"Fine-nya. Hey, anyone know where Tadase is? Dia has a message for him."
"I think I last saw him at the watercooler. If you see him tell him to come to Ikuto's office so we can all talk."
"Wake me up when he gets here..." Nagi muttered and dozed off.
"Anyone got any warm water?" Kukai glanced over at my water bottle.
"Don't even think about it."
"I can still hear you, you know!" Nagi opened one eye and glared at evryone but Amu. He learned not to glare at her. Last time he did he got in huge trouble with Rima.
Yoru came walking in with Tadase and Utau behind him. "Okay, I'm here. What'd everyone want to-"
Beep. Beep. Beep. . Beep. Beep. Beep.
"The fire alarm? I thought you guys already had the drill this month..." Utau muttered and stood next to Kukai.
"Might as well go anyway. It's get us out of working." Kukai grinned.
"Fine. Let's just-"
"Ahhhhhhh! Fire!"
Everyone in my office froze.
"This...is...real!?" Amu panicked.
"Calm down. We just have to get to the fire escape." Tadase put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Yaya's lucky she works on the first floor." Nagi muttered and got out of the chair.
"Well we better get going before we die from smoke-nya!" Yoru announced and started to march towards the fire exit.
Utau shuddered and walked out after our cousin. Then Kukai-of course-, Tadase, Nagihiko, Amu, and me last.
As we were walking I noticed a map of the building on the wall.
"Hey, anyone got a camera phone?"
"Uh, I do." Utau raised her hand. "Why?"
"We might want to get a picture of the map in case we can't get out using the fire exit."
"Good idea!" Amu smirked. "I guess you're not always perverted."
"Oh please, you enjoy my pervertedness, Amu-koi."
Tadase glared at us while Utau took the picture.
"C'mon guys. Let's just get out of here." Utau said and put her phone away.
"Follow me-nya!" Yoru said and dropped to the ground.
"What are you-?"
He started crawling army style on his elbows and knees.
I groaned and went ahead to drag him up. "Be serious for once, or we're going ahead of you."
"Fine-nya..." Yoru muttered and stood up.
We got to the fire exit and opened the door.
"Don't forget to shut it, Ikuto-niisan." Tadase muttered.
I just nodded my head. I already closed it.
We were at the sixth floor when Yoru started acting weird.
"What's wrong Yoru?" Utau asked and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Does anyone else smell smoke-nya?"
I took a sniff of the air and went up to the sixth floor door. I put the back of my hand near it to see if it felt hot.
"Everyone! We have to go back up!" I shouted and started pushing them up.
"What!? Why!?" Just at that moment, after I got everyone back on the stairs the door erupted with fire. The fire making what seemed to be a tiny explosion on the sixth floor.
"Everyone, we need to stay together! We can't afford to lose anyone!" I shouted over the worried panic coming from the people going down the stairs. "Don't go down-!" Everyone had already rushed to the sixth floor. "Forget it! Keep moving!" I wasn't going to let Amu die because of some stupid idiots.
"Where do we go!?" Utau screamed over the sound of the flames and smoke and panicing.
"Back to the tenth floor! There's another fire exit on the other side of the building!"
When we got to the tenth floor we saw that the fire hadn't spread up...yet.
"We need to make sure everyone's still here!" Tadase said.
Yoru did a quick head count. "We're all here-nya!"
"Okay, now we're going to have to move fast. We need to get to the othr side before the fire can spread. But first we need to gather some supplies. Nagihiko, go to the janitor's closet and get some flashlights and any water you can find! Everyone else get all the water bottles, coats, ties, anything that can help us! Does anyone else have their cell phone?" I asked when Utau and Kukai went to get supplies.
"I do." Amu aid and pulled it out of her pocket.
"I need you to text someone. Someone that you know got out."
"Yaya." She said to herself and started texting her. "Okay." She said when she was done and closed the phone.
"Tadase, go get two or three large bags. We'll need something to carry the water i-"
The lights flickered out and the emergency lights came on.
"Nagi! You find any flashlights!?" Amu yelled when she saw him running back to us.
"I got four." He said and gave out three of them. The first to me, one to Kukai, and the last to Yoru. When I got the flashlight I instinctivelly pulled Amu closer to me.
Taadse just glanced at the arm draped around Amu then looked away blushing and glaring. Tadase and I were on good terms, but we've been fighting over Amu since high school. Even if Amu is my girlfriend-and has been for over a year now-he doesn't give up.
"Alright let's go, Amu text Yaya again. Tell her we're on our way to the other fire exit."
"'Kay..." She mumbled and pulled her phone out.
I looked up and down the hall. "Crap." I muttered. "Stay low you guys. There's smoke." That means the fire's spreading fast...We'll just have to be faster.
"Tsukiyomi-san...you don't have to be that low!" Tadase yelled as Yoru passed him on his hands and knees.
"Whatever gets him through! Yoru! You're our leader!" I turned to look at Amu. "I need you to text Yaya every time we change direction." Amu nodded. "Tadase, I need you to leave a trail in case we need to back-track."
"Right..." Tadase said and mumbled something along the lines of, "Bossy bastard..." Someone's mad that they're not the one comforting Amu.
"Utau, find that picture you took of the map. We're gonna need it."
"O-okay..." She stuttered and brought the picture up.
"Which way to the exit?"
"Two lefts then a right."
I motioned for everyone to go ahead of me.
We had made it half way. How did I know? We were about five feet away from the elevator. When we were right in front of the elevator I noticed people inside it.
"No! Don't use tho-!" They ignored my warning and pushed the "Close doors" button.
"W-what's gonna happen to them?" Amu stuttered and stared at the closed elevator doors.
"If they're lucky, the fire will erupt through the doors and kill them quickly-nya. Same goes for the smoke-nya." Yoru murmered.
"Let's keep moving." Amu muttered with her bangs covering her eyes.
"We need to hurry before the fire spreads-nya!" Yoru yelled from the front of the group.
"Tsukiyomi-san! Wait! The fire's spread over there! We need to go back!" Nagi protested.
"Everyone stay low. Smoke kills more than the actual fire does." Kukai yelled.
We went the other direction, crouched down and going as fast as possible. We stopped at the meeting room were caged in by fire.
"Everyone! In the meeting room! It's our only way!" I shouted.
We all ran into the room.
"Now what!? We're trapped!" Utau cried.
"No we're not." I said calmly.
"We can't go forward and we can't go backwards so what the hell are we supposed to do!?"
I smirked at the wall opposite the door. "We go through." I picked up one of the office chairs and smashed it on the ground. We can use the wooden legs to break through the drywall. I found a thin area of wall a few inches off the ground. With the leg acting as a baseball bat I swung and broke through part of the wall. "Tadase, can you see anything on the other side? Smoke? Anything?"
"Nope. All clear."
"Amu, you go first." I said, kneeling next to the hole.
Amu nodded and got on her hands and knees and crawled into the other room. After Amu went Tadase-shocking, isn't it?-followed by Nagi, me, Kukai then Utau.
"Guys! My belt is caught!" Utau yelled.
"Help me pull her out!" Kukai demanded.
We all pulled on Utau's arms but she didn't budge.
"Guys, the fire's spreading!" Tadase warned.
"We're not leaving her." Kukai growled and death glared at him.
"We have to if we want to live!"
"Tadase-kun..." Amu muttered, disgusted.
"We're not leaving her."
"Bu-"
"Tadase! Just work on breaking a new hole for us! Utau! Can you get your belt off?"
Utau's hands flew straight to her belt. "N-no."
"Kukai, you make the hole bigger."
"Right." Kukai muttered and started clawing at the edges of the hole.
"New hole is done." Tadase announced from the other side of the room.
"Everyone get to the next room and wait for us. We'll be right there."
Amu looked at the hole then back at me. She got down next to me and helped Utau get her belt off.
When Utau got out she all but tackled Kukai. He picked her up and carried her to the new hole. I dragged Amu to the other side of the room and motioned for her to go through after Kukai.
"Damn it's hot in here..." Kukai muttered and wrapped his arm around Utau's waist.
I looked around the room and noticed all the electronics on the right side-the side with a window for a wall-melting.
"Everyone get under the desk! There's gonna be a flashover!" I yelled and practically pushed Amu to the ground and under the desk. I protectivelly hunched my body over hers.
The glass wall shattered and made the office a burning inferno.
"Everyone move! Out the door! Go!"
"Ah! Tadase!" Amu screamed when we were in the next room.
We all looked towards the doorway and saw Tadase's arm engulfed in the fire.
"Stop, drop, and roll-nya!" Yoru yelled and pushed him towards the ground
"What room are we in...?" I muttered and looked around. The employee lounge...that means the kitchen is right through that door. "We gotta get him in there." I yelled and pointed towards the kitchen door.
"I'll carry him." Kukai said and went towards him.
"No! You can't just carry him! It could kill him!" I yelled as Kukai reached for him. "We gotta roll him onto all of our forearms." I said and looked at Yoru and Nagihiko with a you have to help carry him look. "Amu and Utau, I need you to make sure there's enough room in there." I said and nodded towards the door with Tadase on all of our arms.
We set him down and I set to work on fixing his burns.
When I was done I looked up at everyone.
"We'll have to leave him here and tell the firemen where to find him."
Everyone nodded like they were in mourning.
"C'mon, we don't have time for this-nya! We gotta get to the director's office-nya!"
All of us went running towards the director's office. Why? It has a large window leading to the outside.
"Okay, we need to find some really long wires. You all need to get to the control room. Take all the long wires out of there. Get the red, blue and gray ones. Don't even go near the black ones. You'll get electrocuted."
Amu stayed behind to help me get the area ready for to make our descent.
"Okay, let's clear the desk. We can use it to hold the wires."
Amu nodded and cleared the desk. We tipped it over and moved it to the doorway.
"Get out of the way, I'm gonna break the window."
Amu looked terrified but stood by the doorway.
I grabbed a stapler off the ground and used it to smash the window. Then I grabbed the printer cord and tied it to the end of the flashlight.
"What are you doing...?"
"Sending the the firemen a signal that we're up here." I murmered and started swinging the flashlight outside the window.
"We got our rope-nya!" Yoru announced with the first part of the long braided cord.
"Okay, who's gonna go first? All you'll have to do is hold onto the rope and we'll lower you."
Kukai nodded and nudged Utau forward.
"Okay, we're gonna lower down Utau." I looked at the window pane. "Nagihiko, hand me the chair runner. If we don't have some kind of runner the cord could break." Nagihiko nodded and handed me the runner. I put it on the window pane. "Kukai, Yoru, tie the end of the word around the desk. That'll keep the last person from falling." They did as told and I started to tie a make-shift harness around a shaking Utau. "Relax, you're my sister. I'm not gonna let you get hurt." I tied the other end of the cord to her harness. Everyone grabbed onto the half of the cord closer to Utau. "You're all set. Just climb out and we'll lower you down. Once you get close enough to the ground the firemen will get you down." Utau nodded and did as she was told.
"Amu, I want you to keep an eye on her and tell us when she's safely on the ground." Kukai ordered.
After a few minutes she said, "Okay she's down!"
"Alright we're gonna need another cord like what I used on Utau." I said and let go of the cord.
"Why?"
I turned to Amu. "Because I'm tying you to me so I know you're safe."
Amu blushed and looked around the room.
"Got one." Nagihiko announced and held up the cord.
I grabbed it from him and wrapped it around my waist. "Come 'ere." I grabbed Amu's arm and pulled her to me. I wrapped the rest of the cord around her waist so we were tied together. I smirked. "We should be like this a lot more."
"P-pervert!" Amu was blushing and looking away.
"Ready you two?" Nagihiko asked picking up the cord.
I nodded and sat on the window ledge with Amu clinging to me for dear life.
"It's okay..." I murmered into her ear and climbed out the window.
We were still about five stories off the ground when the firemen started yelling instructions at us.
"Kick off the building and land on the airbag!" I heard them yelling.
I looked down at Amu and saw her squeezing her eyes shut and clinging onto my shirt.
"Ready?"
She merely nodded and I kicked off the wall and let go of the cord. We hit the giant airbag and Amu's eyes flew open.
"We...We're alive!" She yelled while I wrapped my arms around her to untie the cord.
We climbed off the bag to see a very angry fireman.
"Do you know how dangerous that was!? If you had landed wrong she could've knocked the air out of you! And why the hell didn't you just run down the fire escape!? Idiots! You could've died!"
"I'm hearing a lot of "if's" and a lot more stupid questions." Amu glared at the man.
"Sorry about him. He's afraid because his nephew Kukai might be-"
"Don't even think about finishing that sentence!" He growled.
"Well Kukai's-"
"Bonzai!!!" We all looked up to see Kukai and Yoru jumping out the window. They climbed off of the airbag with huge grins on their faces.
"Can we do that again-nya!?"
"Where's Nagi?"
"Right here." Nagi asid as he climbed off the airbag.
"Um, sir, there's someone still up on the tenth floor. We couldn't move him because he had some realy bad third degree burns." Utau tapped on the guys shoulder.
The captain barked some orders at the other men and some went running into the building.
I'm bored...I'll just tease Amu.
"Amu-" I looked over at her and saw her crying. "Amu! What's wrong!?"
"I was mad at you...for trying to tell me what to do...You knew this was going to happen didn't you?"
I nodded.
"If you knew this was going to happen why'd you still go to work!?"
"Because you were still going and I wanted to protect you."
She slapped my arm. "Idiot! You could've died! Why the hell would you do that for me!?"
I was getting kinda mad. "Because I love you!" I snapped.
She flinched at my outburts, and went to fumble with the charm on her bracelet.
She gaped at her wrist in horror. "My bracelets gone! It broke off!"
"You really love that bracelet, don't you?"
She nodded her head with her bangs covering her eyes.
I grabbed her chin so she had to look at me.
"Why are you smirking?" She glared at me.
"Because it's right here." I smirked and held it up with my other hand.
"How'd you...?" She trailed off and put her bracelet back on.
"This morning when you took it off I grabbed it."
"Why would you do that!? I thought it was gone forever!"
"I wanted to add that to it."
"Eh?" She looked down at the ring I hooked to the bracelet. Her face went kind of blank while she gaped at what she saw.
"Amu! Guess what!?" Utau came running up behind amu and clung to her arm.
"Mm?"
"I'm engaged!" She yelled and held out her hand.
"I...think I am too..."
Rima: -glaring-
Bender: Oh my God!
Amu: What?
Bender: Totally unnecissary cliffie! XD Sorry about not updating...well anything really for a while. I blame school -_- I'll be updating everything but my epilogue for Let the Games Begin. And also, this'll be a weekly updated one-shot series. The next one will be either about Hurricanes or a Hijacked Airplane. Tell me which! And all these chapters will have different POV's for them all. The next one will probably be Nagi's
Rima: -glaring-
Bender: One more thing!
Ikuto: What now?
Bender: Verse two! -starts singing- Sexy vampire! I'm fallin' in love! So bite me baby, and drink all my blood! Ohh. Sexy vampire! I'm fallin in love with you! Cause you need my plasma more than I do!
Ikuto: No comment...
Rima: -glaring-
Bender: WHAT RIMA!? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WHAT!?
Rima: You made me married and have a kid with Nagihiko -death glare-
Bender: -hides behind Amu-
Ikuto: ...Wow...R & R!
Bender: OMG! 5,538 words!