A one-shot that randomly came to me and I felt like writing it down. I really do feel that Yoru is the most loyal chara you could have.

I've never written anything like this, so I'm not sure how good it is or if it's a little... wierd (not quite sure how to put it). I hope not though.

Also I do know that Ikuto's wish is to be free of Easter, but Yoru's egg appeared before he was made to work by Easter so yeah...

"Yoru…"

"Ikuto… You're now… A free alley cat!"

Ikuto's heart clenched at these words as his guardian character fought back the tears, resting in the palm of his hand.

Giving the cat character a sad smile, he whispered, "Yeah."

He hugged the disappearing chara against his warm cheek, feeling the soft, silky, fur-like hair ticking his skin. Yoru snuggled up close and sniffed with his tiny nose.

So this was it. After years of being by his bearer's side, Yoru's time was up. He was no longer needed. He now saw that Ikuto would be all right without his shugo chara.

Ikuto felt a pain inside his chest at the thought of Yoru leaving him, but he knew it had to come for every chara that was born.

He still remembered the day he found that small, black and white egg under the bed covers. He had backed away in shock and started flipping through every health book he could find. Ikuto mentally chuckled. He had been so confused.

Despite this he never told anyone and kept the mysterious little egg to himself, not wanting to cause anyone trouble or make anyone worry or even be accused of being a crazy person. Children had a pretty creative imagination and though he hadn't been a tiny child at the time his carers would have probably dismissed it as some silly little game, patted him on the blue-haired head and walked away. So he kept quiet and just waited to see what would happen with it.

That was at a time when his life had taken a turn for the worse. His father had left and disappeared, his mother had completely broken down and was sent to hospital, he and his younger sister, Utau, had been sent to live with the Hotoris and then things had started to get complicated with the Hoshina family business, Easter. Though he was young and although the adults told him to be more cheerful, he still became troubled after everything that had happened and from then on he never smiled or laughed. He seemed separate from the rest of the family. He had to be strong and supportive for his little sister and eventually the pressure started to get to him. This must have been how his father felt.

Sometimes when another day went past in the Hotori household without his mother or his father, Ikuto would sit on the porch in the garden under the setting sun watching the birds fly away and just wish that everything was alright again. He wanted to go back to those happy times he'd spent with his family, including his father, and to just be a normal, happy kid like Tadase and Utau. Like the birds flying away in the late summer sky, he just wanted to be free…

And that's where the mysterious egg came in. Yoru's egg.

For some reason that egg made him feel a little bit stronger and a bit more confident. When he had the thing in his pocket he felt able to comfort Utau, to face another day of hide-and-seek with Tadase, to put up with Mizue's fretting over a supposedly 'cursed' violin. See, Yoru had helped him even before he was born.

When he had agreed to go abroad with Tsukasa to search for his father, Ikuto hadn't found it possible to leave the unhatched egg behind. Sure, he was curious to see what the thing was and what would come out if it ever hatched at all, but there was something else, something he couldn't quite put his finger on that told him 'you can't leave this egg behind'. And so it went with him, resting in Ikuto's coat in the warm, safe lining of his pocket.

Whenever Ikuto looked at it and held it in his hand he still wasn't quite sure what to make of it, but still he told himself to just wait and see.

Eventually Ikuto found himself crying with his dad's violin in his hands as Tsukasa-san comforted him, telling him to let it all out, that it was okay to cry and that he had been holding his pain for far too long.

"Because you're-"

"FREE ~ NYA!"

The moment the black and white egg opened Ikuto felt slightly more at ease. The egg split in half and out popped the adorable cat chara that would be there for him for many more years to come.

With his dark blue hair, velvety cat ears, punkish clothes and a long, blue tail that flicked constantly as he hovered in mid-air, Yoru flew over to his new bearer.

"Free?"

Yoru nodded, hair bouncing as he did so. "Mhm. Free!"

And now he really was free, a thing that Yoru had helped him achieve.

Truthfully Ikuto didn't know how he would have survived all those years at Easter without Yoru by his side. Yoru had always been there either grumbling about how much everyone at the company pissed him off, going on about how they would find and use the Embryo for the sake of Ikuto's freedom one day or trying to cheer him up after another one of his missions.

Ikuto didn't want to destroy all those dreams. He really didn't, but somehow his chara had always kept him going and reassuring him that many of those heart eggs crushed would be reborn.

Aside from that, Yoru always wandered off on his own and was always out on his little meetings with the alley cats, but whenever Ikuto was in true danger he'd be sure to rush to his bearer's side and ensure his safety in any way possible.

He was emotional and fussed over his owner's well-being and would be worried sick if anything happened. He even looked after him when he ill, bringing food, water and comfort when he was too weak to stand. There was no better example than the Death Rebel experience, something that Ikuto still had nightmares about.

Throughout the whole thing his guardian character had done his best to look after his bearer. Taking Ikuto to Amu's house, saving him from passing out and dying in the streets, keeping quiet when the mind control took place and he wandered out into the city to transform into Death Rebel for the first time and finally searching day and night with no food and little rest whilst Easter held him. Poor Yoru. But it really was touching to have such a caring chara.

Really Ikuto was surprised to learn how much he was missed during the Death Rebel experiment being the black cat of misfortune as he was.

During one of Death Rebel's attacks Yoru had called out to him. Desperate for his voice to be heard by his owner, he poured all of his emotions into his words. And it worked. Ikuto remembered coming back to reality once hearing that familiar voice, but as usual it never lasted too long. But when he had eventually been freed of Death Rebel and Easter the two had been reunited again.

Since then the two had never been apart. Yoru hadn't wanted to lose his bearer again and Ikuto hadn't wanted to lose his guardian character who was pretty much just another piece of himself.

But now that other piece was disappearing and was no longer needed in this world.

"We'll always be together, Yoru," Ikuto whispered in the chara's ear who sobbed in return.

He was still sobbing as he floated into the air. The two halves of the same black and white egg he had been born from appeared out of thin air and closed around the chara. Ikuto felt a warm sensation in his chest. Then the thing vanished and Yoru was gone.

The silence that followed was strange. It was painful to realise that he would never be able to see his guardian character again and that he was no longer a child, but almost an adult. Ikuto didn't know for how long after he'd still look over his shoulder and expect the noisy, cat chara to be sat there. Life would be… quiet. Something he'd have to adapt to.

Reflecting on the times they'd shared, Ikuto let himself smile.

Yoru had helped him in so many ways. Character changes, character transformations, discovering his real personality. Yoru was a reflection of what he was like deep down. He was his cheeky, mischievous side, a little of his louder self and maybe even a bit of a prankster side. Yoru was his 'would-be-self', who he wanted to be.

Ikuto was positive that there would never be another guardian character as loyal and as caring as Yoru. They could try, but they'd never help out or feel for their owner as much as Yoru had. And he could never have asked for anything better.

Yoru really was a guardian character.

Good ending? Bad ending? Please let me know. I'd like to improve. Thank you ^^