~Author's Note~

Hey! Please excuse me if this story isn't the best, it's my first story here on FanFiction.. I'm not that great at story development and character descriptions, so if it is bad then I'm sorry, ill try better next time. ^-^;

I also do not own Shugo Chara or any of the characters. _

Amu ran down the long corridor in her large castle. One of her maids was chasing after her with a dress that she did not want to wear. She looked around hastily looking for places to hide from her maid. She ran to a door and quickly ran inside, closing the door behind her. She didn't move, or even make a sound. She didn't dare.

"Princess Amu! Please come back!" She yelled, trying to find her. "It's only a dress! You have to be dressed appropriately for dinner!" Amu could hear her footsteps as she ran down the hallway. After the sound of her light steps faded, she sighed. She hated wearing things like dresses and always having to do as told. She hated being the princess of her kingdom. She didn't like always having to be proper. And the thing she hated most was how her parents always expected the most from her. They expect her to be the smartest girl in the land, the prettiest, and the most proper, but she didn't like any of that.

She slowly and carefully opened the door, trying not to make the wooden door creak. She peeked her head out of the door, looking both ways to check if she was gone. After she confirmed she was gone, she stepped out of the room she was previously in. She quietly and carefully made her way to her own room, hoping not to run into any of her maids on the way.

About halfway down the hall, she felt a tap on her shoulder. She froze. "Darn", she thought "I've been caught." She slowly turned around to see a grinning Kukai. He stood there in chain armor with a metal chest plate that covered the important parts of his chest. Engraved on a piece of blue fabric that hung from his chest plate was the emblem that represented our castle. It had a red heart on the top, then a yellow diamond on the bottom, a blue spade on the left and a green clover on the right. He had black pants on that were partly protected by pieces of metal around his shin and upper thigh. He had blue boots on that had metal on the top to protect the top of his foot. He had a sword in a silver sheath that was blue in the middle then had a silver cross on the middle that hung from some black leather that was around his waist. He didn't like to wear his helmet, he stated that "It messed up his perfect brown hair that he works so long on to make it look that good."

"Hey Hinamori. You know Miki is looking for you, right?" He stated. "Or are you running from her again?" He chuckled a bit. "Let me guess, wanting you to try on a dress?"

Amu glared at him. "You know how impolite it is for someone like yourself to call me by that name." She stated quiet coldly. She didn't like when people mocked her. "And I am aware of her looking for me, but i am not looking for her at the moment. I am going back to my room to read."

He laughed. "I'm sorry. How about this." He bowed down in front of her, putting his hand over his heart. "Please forgive me my majesty. I did not mean to speak so lowly of her majesty, Princess Amu."

There was one thing that annoyed her even more than being mocked, and that was being treated like royalty. She thought that everyone should be treated equal, but her being born as royalty, she will always be treated as someone greater than normal people. She let out a frustrated sigh, "I would also enjoy if you would not treat me like that."

He stood up straight and laughed. "You know, you should really go look for Miki. She is running all over the place to look for you." He stepped toward me and ruffled my hair. "I have to go now," He began to walk away, but turning around to give her thumbs up. "I wish you the best of luck with Miki." She waved back, as a way of saying thank you.

Kukai had been the family's knight that was raised here in the castle. Everyone trusts him in this castle. Although he can get on Amu's nerves sometimes, but she enjoys his sarcastic personality. He is the only one in the castle that will talk back to her and make fun of her, and most of the time, she does not mind. He was the only besides her little sister Ami that she liked.

She fixed her pink hair and walked back to her room, again trying to be as quiet as possible to not alert Miki or any other of her maids that she was there. She grabbed the handle to the door and opened it. She stepped inside then closed the door behind her, but when she looked at her bed, Miki was sitting on her bed, with the dress neatly placed next to her on the bed.

"And where have you been, Princess?" She asked with a stern voice. "We need to get you ready for the dinner tonight! Su made a large dinner. Many people from across the land will be joining you for this dinner." She grabbed the dress and walked toward Amu who did not look pleased to see her.

"I do not want to wear some ugly frilly dress! I prefer to wear things that do not crush my ribs or not allow me to breath." She crossed her arms. "Why do i have to go to this stupid dinner anyways?"

"Princess! That is no way to speak! Now change into this, you look like a dirty villager in those clothes!" She protested.

Amu lost it. "It's stupid!" She flew her arms into the air. Miki was slightly taken back by the sudden outburst. "I can't do anything! I have to be proper! Stand up still! Don't use foul language! You must wear fancy clothes all the time! Well I'm sick and tired of this! Why can't I be me? Someone who likes to play outside! But I cannot do anything! I was born into this stupid family that only likes to treat me as am object! They don't even love me! They just want me to be smart so that I can take the thrown, but i do not want to!" She felt tears well up in her eyes. "I hate all of this! This castle! I hate it here!" She quickly turned around and ran out the door.

"Princess!" Miki quickly tried to run after her. "Princess, please wait! You cannot miss this dinner!" But she was not as fast as the princess. The princess fled from the castle, running to the massive garden in the back of her castle, but she did not stop there. She ran into the woods behind her castle, running as far as her feet would let her. She tripped, bringing her back into her senses. She was somewhere, but she did not know where.

She stood up and dusted herself off and began to walk. She didn't know where she was though, which was a big problem for her. She never left the castle grounds so she does not know her away around. She pushed through shrubs and thick branches for quite a while. The shrubs and sticks scraping her hands and arms.

After what seemed like forever of passing through mud and leaves, she decided to sit down. She sighed. "What have I gotten myself into?" She ran her muddy hands through her hair, causing her bright pink hair to now have a tint of black and brown. "I'm a mess now, great." She said with a sigh. She stood back up again, "Well, I'm not going to find anything if I just sit around." She walked for no longer than a minute before she got the feeling someone following her. She looked up at the trees and behind her, curious as to why she was getting this feeling, but found nothing, so she began to walk again. Again, she got the feeling someone was watching her.

She sped up her pace, nearly running. She could hear the bushes behind her rustling. She began to run, worried of whom or what it might be. She was quickly running out of breath, she looked back to see if she was able to spot what might be chasing her, but in doing so, she tripped on a tree root that was sticking out of the ground.

She laid her head on the ground and placed her hands over her head in fear. "P-Please don't hurt me!" She pleaded, trembling.

CLIFFHANGERS! Well I hope you enjoyed the first part of my story. I'm already working on Chapter Two, so I'm sure that I will have that uploaded in the next week to two weeks.