A/N: Well, funny story, I was supposed to be practising original creative writing, but apparently I'm incapable of doing anything of my own when I still have like a million half-planned fanfics saved in my drafts. This being one of them. This has been in my drafts collecting dust for about four years now. It's time it saw the light of day, even if it is just a first chapter or so.

Either way, I hope you enjoy ^^

Summary: Amu didn't think she'd ever have to live with her parents again. Not as a full-grown woman, at least. But oh was she wrong! Her parents are obsessive, her sister is out of control and Ikuto is honestly the most unhappy cat on earth. And she's got three months of this. Three months, thirteen weeks, ninety-one days… She's just gotta get through it. Amuto.

-Title may be changed-

You would think, presumably, that at twenty-five years of age, there would have been no other place that Amu would rather return to than her old family home; a cosy, comfortable little dwelling nicely tucked into the close-quartered suburbs of their busy city.

You would have thought that, being, as mentioned previously, a fair way into her twenties and being the confident, now independent adult that she was, that Amu would have loved nothing better than to escape the hustle and bustle of the cityscape and flee the pressures of adult life by retreating back into the loving, welcoming arms of her mother and father in the home where many glorious, golden childhood summers and warm winters were spent. But, had this been the case — had the woman in question been so positively ecstatic to be stood on the doorstep of her parents' home — then we wouldn't have a story and our favourite ex-Guardian wouldn't have been eyeing the threshold with such a look of dread that it may as well have been the gate to hell.

She raised a hand tentatively and her finger hovered over the doorbell, wavering, her outstretched arm frozen in midair...

"I... I can't do it..."

"If you're going to prolong our suffering, Amu," drawled a smooth, yet tired-sounding voice behind her; "then can I at least dump all this crap until you find the balls to ring the bell?"

Amu Tsukiyomi shot a withering look over her shoulder at the blue-haired man on the path behind her. Her husband was hunched beneath the weight of several boxes stacked in his arms, leaning against their small mountain of suitcases and looking as though he would rather have been anywhere else in the world... And Amu had to agree with him.

"S-Shut up, Ikuto!" She stammered, pink in the face, locking her gaze back onto the little white button just beyond her finger's reach which would sound throughout the house... And signal the beginning of the end. "And, besides!" she went on haughtily, sensing a chance to delay her doom further. "I'm not the one with the balls here! Why don't you do it if I'm so useless?"

Silence met her ears and Amu reveled in that small moment of triumph over her husband.

Until that is when an arm reached over her shoulder; past her still-poised hand—

"Ikuto!"

DING—DONG!

But, alas, it was too late.

Ikuto's slender fingertips retreated from the button of the doorbell and he returned to the boxes he'd abandoned on the pathway.

Footsteps sounded from somewhere inside. This was it. The house was idyllic... But...

The door was a blur as her father practically tore it from its hinges, the calm air of the tranquil neighbourhood shattered by the sudden, ear-splitting shriek;

"AMU-CHAAAAN~!"

There was no time to respond. Before Amu knew it, she was in the bone-crushing death grip that her father called a hug.

"Ah, Papa-!"

"Amu-chan, darling!"

"Hello, M-Mama,"

Midori kissed her daughter on the cheek and tried to pry her husband from her. "Tsumugu, dear let her go, she's turning blue."

"Oops! Sorry, my baby bird, but it's been too long! So fantastic to see you again!"

Their doting was cut off by a grumble behind them. "Hello to you too,"

"Ikuto-kun!" Amu's mother smiled genuinely whilst her husband merely glared at the man who had so dared to whisk his little girl off her feet years earlier. "I didn't see you behind the luggage! Come in! Tsumugu will help you with those!" And she shot him such a pointed stare that he didn't dare argue. "Come on in!"

Amu's father begrudgingly trudged over to help like a little kid ordered to go his bedroom. Ikuto sent her a desperate look. He was going to hate this already and they hadn't even gotten over the doorstep yet. With no escape now, Amu picked up what bags she could carry and followed her mother inside. It was still just as it had been when she was small; still as it was when she'd last left its doors for good, the only exception being that the walls were now covered further by years upon years worth of new photo frames. There was her parents on their latest trips; over here Ami's school photos hung like a perfect timeline and here in the living room there was proudly displayed a collage of snaps from Amu's wedding day. There was distinctly more of her than there was of Ikuto, but then again she hadn't expected much less from the adoring father of the bride. Amu smiled fondly at them, placing down her things at the bottom of the stairs.

"Thank you so much, Mama," she said, admiring the latest set of bird-related shots that hung up by the staircase. They must have been part of her father's latest project. "I don't know what we'd have done without you."

Midori shook her head and pulled her daughter in for a short, sweet embrace as though she were five years old again instead of twenty-five. "Amu, darling, we're so happy to have you home again!"

Amu laughed nervously as her mother pulled away, Her parents were dear to her and caring and kind-hearted above all else, but sometimes she wondered if they ever really got used to her leaving them so abruptly. Particularly her father. She had hoped that this would help him cope once Ami grew wings of her own, but seeing this…

As if on cue, both men appeared in the doorway, hauling in the last of the heavy luggage and enormous cardboard boxes that contained most of her and Ikuto's life. Whilst they'd been packing, Ikuto had suggested that it was probably easier for them to live in those big boxes rather than pack up all their stuff and move here. And she wasn't quite sure if he'd been entirely joking.

"Come on, come on, Amu dear," her mother piped up, taking her hand and leading her towards the stairs. "The room's all set up for you. Make yourself at home again!"

"Might as well." Ikuto drawled behind her, just low enough for her to hear. "We've got three long months, after all…"

She cringed visibly as they made their way up the stairs.

"I can't believe we're homeless."

"Ikuto!" Amu chastised, dumping the last of her clothes into the drawer and shoving the empty suitcase into a corner with all the others. Finally - finally! - they had been left alone in what was to be their bedroom for the next three months. She was relieved, to say the least, she had half-expected her father to stand over them the entire time they were in there just to keep his eye on her. She remembered the first time Ikuto had been permitted to spend the night in their home when she was eighteen. She shuddered. Her dad hadn't left the two of them alone together for more than two seconds. Given his way, he wouldn't have allowed anyone near his baby bird had Amu's mother not intervened.

"Don't be like that!" she went on. "It was generous of my parents to let us stay here! You know they've got their hands full with Ami!"

Behind her, Ikuto grumbled, unconvinced. He was slouched up against the doorframe, eyeing their new (yet, thankfully, temporary) bedroom with an air of disdain usually reserved for grotty hotel rooms or hideous decor. Amu caught his eye and gave him the firmest look she could manage which was pretty difficult, if she was honest. She wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of staying here for the next few months or so herself. Just prying herself out of her father's arms to go upstairs and unpack had been enough of a challenge. The man acted as though she'd gone missing for the last few years. She'd only lived twenty minutes away!

And, besides, it wasn't as if it was an awful bedroom that they'd been given. Really, she was surprised enough that they'd been granted a double bed as opposed to two singles on opposite ends of the house. Amu was sure that was her mother's doing. Her dad probably wasn't very happy about it, but it didn't matter. He couldn't deny the fact that his little girl was now a full-grown married woman who at least deserved to be trusted in a room with her own husband.

Said husband wasn't exactly pleased though. She wasn't entirely sure that Ikuto had quite forgiven her for this yet. She almost felt guilty. After weeks of stress and uncertainty, he had been positively relieved when she'd come home a month earlier and announced that all of their prayers were answered because she finally had found somewhere to stay before they were kicked out of their apartment.

When she told him it was her parent's house? Not so much.

"Your dad hates me." Ikuto said simply, straightening out an already perfectly neat stack of music sheets on their bedside table. Amu half wanted to go over there and hug him. She was sure that somewhere deep, deep down Ikuto was a little disappointed that he didn't have his father-in-law's approval, no matter how amusing he found Tsumugu's level of doting.

"Never let me become that kind of parent, Amu."

Amu laughed brightly for the first time that day. "There's no chance of you becoming any kind of parent. Not when Mama and Papa are gonna be watching us like hawks for the next three months."

Ikuto half-chuckled, half-sighed and quickly looked over his shoulder at the hallway before ambling over and wrapping his arms around her. "I'm not going to last three months like that, Amu." he purred in her ear and she tried to resist the delightful tingling sensation that crept its way up her spine. Knowing the way he made her body react, she wasn't so sure that she'd be able to last three months either.

"Well, look at it this way," she tried to reason, quickly untangling herself from his grasp and moving on to another one of the many boxes that cluttered the floor. "You've got three months of amusement ahead of you. My dad's going to be shitting himself the entire time you're here. I know you like to test your limits with him."

Ikuto sighed heavily, rubbing his temples. "I'm too stressed out for this."

There was a pause. Amu set down the things she'd been unpacking and looked over at him. She suddenly felt a pang of guilt deep in her gut. She knew how much he'd been dreading this. He looked exhausted.

"I'm sorry, Ikuto." she said softly. And she meant it. "But we need someplace to live."

He didn't answer.

"Hey," Amu abandoned their things and went over to him, winding her arms around his middle, burying her face in his shirt. "Oh, come on, Ikuto," she pleaded, quickly doing the math in her head and adding, as if it made everything better; "Just ninety-one days to—"

"No."

Amu sighed heavily into his chest. In the background, she faintly heard her Mama's voice beckoning her downstairs.

Like she'd said — just ninety-one days to go.