DISCLAIMER: I don't own Shugo Chara!

Story: Far Away

Inspired by: "Far Away" by Nickelback

She had gone to this festival since he left. She bought the tickets just in case he was there, either performing or standing in the crowd. That was six years ago when they split apart. Those lasting words he said to her have always been in the back of her mind, whether it was in her dreams or when she was in school with her friends. As days past, she became more and more…lonely. She had no cat to come bother her in the night.

Amu rested on the hill above the festival, listening to the gorgeous violins play with the pianos, or the flutes playing in harmony with the harps. Every once in a while, she would close her eyes and dream of him just being there. She didn't want him to leave six years ago. Tempted by stopping him, Amu thought about running towards security as he boarded that plane, screaming his name and confessing her love. Back then, she didn't realize her feelings. They were scrambled and thrown together as if she wanted, no, needed someone in her life at that moment. While he was away, she has wondered about what life would be like without him. Sure, she could've been with Tamase, or maybe Kukai. But, they weren't him.

They didn't make her heart skip beats, make her face feel like it was on fire, or make her breathless every time she saw him. She just missed him.

0o0o0o

Every year at this festival, she has never seen him. She hasn't heard anything from him for a year now (they have been sending letters to each other every time he changed countries from the tour) and was wondering if he had simply…given up. She wanted to, after not receiving a letter. But, the festival drew her in this year, and she promised herself that if he was not there, she would never go back. So she looked up at the sky that night, on her knees and wished. She closed her eyes before she could see the shooting star, but she made her wish.

People started to move closer to the festival now, because the music was turning into masterpieces. She wasn't ready. She leaned back on the hill, almost where she and Ikuto used to go, and stared up at the stars. She had to talk to herself for just a moment. "Why didn't I stop you when I had the chance?" She stopped and looked around, almost waiting for him to answer. She sighed. "Of course you aren't here. Why do I keep doing that?" She shook her head and continued. "Ikuto, it's been far too long since I've seen you," she closed her eyes and saw him, "so maybe you were a pervert, or maybe you had become my cat-stalker. It still doesn't mean that you had the right to just leave, like that…"

She began to feel her heart hurt. It was crying, almost as if she were to have an X-egg because of her loneliness. "Perhaps you have found someone in England or Russia that you took a liking to, and simply…wanted nothing more from me. I can understand that, Ikuto. I'm merely too young. But, Ikuto…" She began to sob uncontrollably. "I just love you too much to stop."

She opened her eyes and was surprised. She had never confessed like that. Normally, she kept it to herself or didn't want to believe it. She didn't want him to win the bet, after all. She leaned forward and hugged her knees to her chest. The violins continued to play, but it wasn't his violin playing. They could never compare to his songs or his notes, not like the time in the moonlight…

She could hear applauds from the crowd and the faint talking of the host. People started to scramble on the stage, trying to run off as fast as they could to get the next act on. More and more people passed her up, but she did not look; it was never going to be him passing her up anyway. Not like he would recognize her in the first place. Her hair had grown longer, still pink, and she had been wearing black cargo pants with a sort of dressy purple tunic to go along with them. Still, she wanted to see him, even if it was for one more time. Even if she was never going to see him again, she just wanted to see him to finally let her mind rest.

Amu started to get anxious. What if he wasn't going to come? What would happen then? She had thought about that before. She knew there would be a depression time where she would do nothing but cry over and over again for the love lost. Then, it would be a part of life where she would believe there would be nothing to live for; it was that bad. But, what if he was going to come? What would she actually say to him if he did come? Confess? "Yeah, I could confess to him," she whispered, "but there's always that one possibility that he would turn me down because of another woman. With all my luck, that would be what would happen." She chuckled to herself and listened to more of the music play.

Yes, it was beautiful. She'd rather listen to his music, though. "I went back to that gazebo, Ikuto. The moon was shining so beautifully that when I stopped to look at the scenery again, it just wasn't as beautiful when you were there playing your violin." She sadly sighed and listened to the music stop once more and the host wrapping things up for the evening. "When you stopped, it was like my heart stopped with it, and I wanted more. Maybe," she hugged her knees tighter, "maybe that was when I first became so fond of you, Ikuto." The host of the festival gave his final blessings to each of the people there in the crowd and Amu didn't want it to end. It was too soon!

The music began to play. It was a violin duet. The first violinist to play was stunning. Absolutely beautiful, she thought. Amu closed her eyes and imagined a world with only Ikuto and her in the world. Yes, she loved him that much to think of him like that. She wondered what their love would be like, what their life would be like if they were together. She thought of it as Heaven. To others, maybe it was destined to die, but she knew they would last. Something about him made her believe that, from the beginning. Then, the second violinist started to play. Her eyes shot open. "It can't be..." She stood from the spot and looked down at the stage.

She couldn't tell who it was, but she knew who was playing. It had to be Ikuto, she thought. "Ikuto!" He came! She wasted no time to run from the hill down to the crowd of people hovering around the stage. She had to run as fast as she could to get to the place, but she knew it would take a long time to get down there. She hoped it was going to be a long song, hopefully lasting as long as it could so she could listen to his beauty. The music got louder as she ran closer to the stage and it just rang in her ears like love was in the air.

When Amu reached the crowd, it was impossible to get through the people. There was little to no space from the crowd; it was like everyone needed to be up close and personal to the stage! She started to push people out of the way. At times, she would hear the disgruntled comments from people, and other times, they tried pushing back. But, there were tears in her eyes and Amu knew she was determined to finally get to her love. She had to, or else there would be nothing else to live for, would there? So she pushed as many people as she could when the music was playing. She couldn't talk, she couldn't scream his name. It was like the music hushed her and her heart just wanted to listen.

She was halfway through the crowd when they stopped playing. The crowd started to applaud, clapping louder and louder as they began to leave the stage, him and his father. She looked up at them and jumped. "No!" They couldn't hear her. The noise was too strong for them to even recognize someone saying something like that. "Ikuto!" She screamed. She could barely make out anything from his face, from being so far away, but it was like he never aged. He looked the same way he looked when he left! The host came out on the stage, thanked everyone for coming to the festival, and left. Ikuto was rushed off stage and Amu was left in the crowd, crying on her knees.

0o0o0o

The crowd left a few minutes later, starting to disperse and go home. Meanwhile, Amu sat on the field where everyone once stood, trying to figure out what she did wrong. Why was he leaving her again? Why couldn't she just talk to him? "I feel like I can stop breathing, stop dreaming," she whispered, "because without Ikuto to dream of, what is there to dream about? I feel…" she looked up at the stage with tears in her eyes and sighed. "I feel as though I failed miserably." She rose from her knees and stood in front of the stage. She got to see him, at least, but it wasn't the same. She needed to hear his voice.

Amu turned away from the stage and started to walk back to the hill again. "So that's it," she whispered. She wasn't going to come back to the festival after that. Who knew when he would decide to come back, right? "I guess I give up." She stopped at the bottom of the hill and looked back at the stage. It was still lit up, as if he was going to come back out and play, just for her. Just the thought of it, however, made her heart feel like it was being ripped apart and she felt the tears start to flow down her cheeks. She had to run, to just run away from it all and go home.

So Amu started to run up the hill. She didn't care how tiring it was, or how many times she slipped on the grass, she continued to run. Her shadow was slowly disappearing from getting away from the lights and while she did want to stop to see if he was on the stage, she didn't want to look back. She made it to the top of the hill, but had to fall over and sit on her knees while crying to the ground. Amu knelt down and leaned forward to the ground. She looked horrible, in her opinion, and felt horrible, too. She didn't want anyone to see her face if they were right there at that moment, so she hid it in her hands and started to cry out to Ikuto. "I wanted you to stay! I loved you so much that I didn't want you to leave!" She bit down on her lip in pain and continued to cry. "Why did you leave! Was…was it because you didn't love me because I didn't love you!" She squeezed her eyes and felt tears fall one after another.

"That has never crossed my mind, Amu."

0o0o0o

It was silent. There was no more music to mask the tears, to mask the sorrow she was expressing. Ikuto stood behind her, a little winded from chasing her up the hill. When she fell, he wanted to catch her. But, he knew what she was feeling, what she wanted to say. He just wanted to know. So he stood behind her for quite some time before finally asking: "Why didn't you tell me before?"

Amu didn't know how to respond. For that matter, she didn't even know how she was going to respond! She was crying too hard. She couldn't bring the tears to stop or to even get her voice to talk to him. She looked up at the tree in front of her and could see the faint outline of his body behind her. She really wanted to turn around and just look at him, but she couldn't bring her eyes to actually move. It was like they were frozen and couldn't find the way to break free. She was still feeling the tears dripping from her face and she certainly didn't want Ikuto to see them actually on her face. She heard his voice again felt her heart flutter. It's been too long, she thought. "Amu?"

"I was afraid," she barely whispered. He barely caught it. "Afra--" She cut him off before he could finish. "Afraid." She didn't have the strength to talk anymore. Her lips were trembling from crying so hard and her mouth was so dry. She wanted to ask him why he was there in the first place. Why six years after that day? And she didn't want to see him anyway, since he was going to leave again because of that tour with his father. Looks like he won the bet of finding his father first, she thought. Ikuto felt his heart almost break from the broken girl he loved in front of him. He walked beside her and stood in front of her. She let her head fall to the ground again; she couldn't even look at his feet.

"Amu, look at me," she shook her head. She couldn't. He knelt down in front of her and whispered, "If you don't look at me, I'll make you," and she shivered. His breath on her ears made a shiver run down her spine. She missed it, his voice startling her, the way he made her feel when he spoke…she had to. She was too tempted not to look at him, but her heart was about to burst with emotions and she couldn't hold them in any longer. But, she wasn't ready for looking him in the eyes, not into the midnight blue ones she remembered from years ago that would make her melt. She had to, though. So her head rose and her eyes met his.

It hurt, for both of them. He was hurt from the tears she cried and how she was in pain. He never saw her like that and was now faced with her true sadness. Not to mention the fact that she had been carrying that for six long years didn't help him. She was hurt from actually seeing him after six long years. Amu looked back down at her hands still catching her tears and felt his hand touch her skin again, after those long six years. He brought her eyes to his again and whispered, "I'm so sorry." She blinked and more tears started to pour down her face.

She felt her heart start to mend and break at the same time. Her cold interior wanted to show, but she was too emotional to go back to her 'cool and spicy' act. "So why didn't you come back? Or write? Or do anything if…" she stopped for a moment and continued, "if you are sorry?" Ikuto let his hand drop from her face and she shivered. The electricity left and the heat of his body was gone.

He let his hand rest in hers, no matter if it was getting wet. She didn't know if it was right, but she squeezed. "Amu, you thought I loved someone else, didn't you?" She nodded. He was right, after all. She had the worst fear of him loving another and never telling her about it. "You know that's impossible," she nodded again. But she couldn't help herself. Amu wanted to believe that he was still in love with her even overseas, but it was hard. "I couldn't write because of the tour, and if I did, I would've never gotten your wonderful letters."

They wrote about life, in general, in these letters. Ikuto mostly teased Amu as she grew older and she would always call him a pervert at the end of every letter. He smiled, and rose from the spot. Amu wanted to let go and not stand up, but he held onto her and made her stand up. She was a little taller than before he left, but not by much. She felt as though he was too tall! "Hey, Amu," she looked up at him and stared in his eyes again. She knew it was going to be hard to stare at him all that time.

"Yeah?" she whispered, even though her voice was weak. Then, everything happened so fast that she wasn't given time to react. Suddenly, she crashed against his chest and felt his arms quickly wrap around her petite body. She felt her breathing start to rush and her heart beat faster and faster. "Looks like I still have an effect on you," he whispered. She closed her eyes and wrapped her own arms around him and cried again. She whispered back: "You always have."

They could faintly hear a violin from the stage play but didn't dare look over at the stage. Ikuto held her in his arms as she softly cried in his chest. She kept whispering her love to him and he felt even worse than before. Perhaps if he knew sooner, he would've never left. Amu started to let all of her feelings out and kept telling him that she missed him and needed him. "Amu," he whispered, "I can only come to love you, so do not think I could ever love someone else when I have always had you." She held onto him tighter and spoke:

"Please don't let me go again. Please don't leave!" She felt Ikuto kiss the top of her head and rest his head on hers. They both held onto each other so tight that no one could get in between them. It would be impossible. The music stopped and the lights went off on the stage. They were under the moonlight again, with Ikuto and Amu locked together by the power of their love. Ikuto rubbed her back with one of his hands and she began to relax. She knew the answer before he said it, and she smiled.

"I'll never leave you anymore, Amu. I'm here to stay."

What a cheesy ending.

Well hello! This is my first EVER Amuto oneshot/story, so I hope that it wasn't TOO bad that you think I'm a horrible writer. I know, I didn't make them kiss or anything. I don't know, don't you think that would be over-dramatic in this kind of story? I think a hug was juuuust fine, in my own opinion.

I'll be around making oneshots or a story of Amuto stuff, so be on the lookout! If you liked this, I hope my other ones will be just as great! 8) ..That's all I have, so enjoy and until next time!

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