Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara or any of its characters.

Hey guys, as some of you might have noticed, I made a couple of edits in this chapter, because I realized it wouldn't fit with the later plot. I'm so sorry for not noticing it sooner.

Thanks to blu2012 for pointing it out. I'll take note of your advice. As for girls.. Don't worry about it, though I don't want to give away anything.

Hope you enjoy.

Downright Delinquents

Prologue

Rain was always the prognosticator of affliction for me.

Not all the bad things in my life happened when it was raining, no. But enough of them were, whenever there was a downpour.

I hated rain.

When I was five, a downpour caused a stray dog to wander into our front porch for shelter and it ended up attacking my cat viciously. It died of blood loss.

When I was seven, my grandmother was diagnosed with colon cancer. It was raining that day. It was also raining two years later when she passed on.

It was drizzling the day I broke my leg in gym class while playing soccer with my best male friend, Kukai, when I was ten.

It was falling when my newborn sister, Ami, was rushed into the infant emergency care with an extremely high fever of 104°F when I was twelve.

And it was pelting the ground the day my parents passed on. The rain didn't settle for a week.

Raindrops flung themselves against the window panes like pebbles. I stared out the blurred classroom worriedly. I had a bad omen about this. A very, very bad omen. I could barely concentrate on what Nikaidou-sensei had to say about the study of Geology.

"And this will be on your class test next week. I sure hope all of you took notes!" Nikaidou-sensei announced cheerily. I slammed my head on my desk, groaning. That's another test I would definitely fail to pass.

"Hinamori! I'll pass you my notes after class," I turned and grinned at my desk partner and also my best male friend, Kukai, as he gave me a wink and a thumbs-up. I could never thank that guy enough, I thought as I returned his smile.

Then, the intercom in our classroom crackled to life. "Hinamori Amu, please report to the principal's office immediately." I startled, casting a frantic glace at Kukai. He knew what I was afraid of every time it rained.

He gripped my knuckles tightly. "It'll be alright." He whispered as almost the whole class stared and gossiped about the reason Principal Tsukasa would want me to see him. "I'm still here, see?" He pinched my cheek affectionately and gave me a push on my shoulder. "Go on, nothing bad is going to happen!"

I smiled at him gratefully, and then glared at the rest of the class. "Hey, what'cha starin' at? Got nothing better to do, the lot of you?" My cool facade took over my nervousness and I walked briskly out of the classroom before breaking into a run, but not before hearing the admiring chorus of "cool n' spicy!"

I was out of breath by the time I had reached the principal's office. Tsukasa-san was already waiting for me in the threshold of the doorway. His usually serene expression was distraught and my heart dropped. Something bad really did happen then...

"Tsukasa-san!" I cried frantically. "What happened? Why did you call me here?"

"Amu-chan," He ran a hand through his light blonde hair distractedly. "I don't know how to say this, but-"

"What is it?" I hissed aggressively.

"Your parents got into a car accident. It seems that they're in critical condition at the hospital right now."

My panicked expression dropped, to reveal the blank mask I've been wearing for years.

I gripped Tsukasa-san's shirt sleeve as if it was the only thing anchoring me to reality at that moment.

"What?"

My blood ran cold and my chest tightened as I fought to keep my tears from overflowing. This could not be happening.

"Take me there. Right now."

Tsukasa-san knew better than to question me about anything. He nodded and turned around, going out the school doors. I stepped out after him without a moment's hesitation into the cold, cruel rain.

It was freezing. Each raindrop stung my bare skin and needles, and I flinched warily. Tsukasa-san guided me to his flashy grey Mercedes and I quickly got in the passenger's seat. Tsukasa-san peeled out of the parking lot, and within seconds we were on the road.

"What's their condition?" I mumbled, almost inaudibly.

He hesitated. "There was a torrential rainfall on the highway. The driver who crashed into them couldn't see clearly through the windscreen. They've both got head injuries, but it's too early to tell if they'll make it or not-"

He was cut off by my sharp whimper, and wisely decided not to speak for the rest of the drive. Tsukasa-san pulled all the way up to the hospital's entrance, parking illegally, but at this point, I really couldn't care less.

I jumped out of the car quickly, with Tsukasa-san on my heels. A nurse clad in white was already waiting by the pale marble counter.

"Are you the family members of the Hinamori family?" She asked briskly.

"She is," Tsukasa-san gestured to me awkwardly.

"Follow me, then." She ordered, then turned on her heels towards a corridor that stated 'No unpermitted entry'. I had to jog to keep up with her speed walking, leaving Tsukasa-san behind.

My heart was pounding so hard with trepidation and anxiety. Panic coursed through my veins, but I kept a straight face. The tears could wait.

We reached a white door, where there seemed to be a commotion inside. She stopped, and I reached or the doorknob, only to have her grip my wrist firmly. "You can't go in."

"They're my parents!" I cried furiously as I yanked my hand away from her roughly. "I don't think I need your permission!"

Her eyes narrowed slightly before softening. "She's in critical condition. You just can't go in to see her yet." She tried to convince me.

Ignoring her, I was about to burst into the room when what she said sank in. My eyes widened. "Wait- her? You mean, you mean Otou-san is okay? Where is he? Let me see them!"

She dropped her gaze when I questioned her. "There wasn't anything we could do. Your father is-"

"No! Don't say that! I don't want to hear that!" I crouched down, huddling into a ball and covering my ears with my trembling hands.

He couldn't be. He wouldn't leave us. He was well and alive in the morning when I made him a cup of coffee! It's been less than five hours since I saw him! He just couldn't be!

This is such a sick, twisted joke. I chuckled darkly to myself.

The nurse continued, though. "He died of blood loss in the ambulance before we even arrived. We did everything we could, truly."

Covering my ears weren't helping me block out any sounds. If anything, they were making the voices sharper. Died, blood loss, Papa...

The hospital door opened slightly, distracting me momentarily. "Is Amu Hinamori here?" A doctor called.

I stood shakily, acknowledging him.

"She's been asking for you," The doctor nodded. "Your mother, I mean. Hurry, you may not have much time with her."

I forced my trembling legs to move forward, my eyes tearing up again. I blinked them away determinedly. I was not going to cry when my mother was in such critical condition.

I rushed into the room with fleeting steps, bumping into several doctors as I passed. Mama was lying on a hospital with fresh, crisp sheets. There was an air mask covering her nose and mouth connecting to an air tube above her bed. There were several bandages wrapped around her head and legs barely concealing the red patches beneath them. Thank god it wasn't as I'd imagined, but it was bad enough.

Mama's face was a sickly pale colour and her eyes were half closed. I dropped to my knees by her bedside.

"Mama..?" My voice was weak, as I gripped the edge of the bed so tightly that my knuckles turned white.

My voice seemed to awake something in her. She turned her head to face me slowly, forcing a smile for me.

So much for my strong side. My tears started straying down my face despite my pitiful attempts to stop the flow.

"Mama." I repeated, my voice shaky with emotion.

She edged her right hand towards me, and I quickly grasped her hand, noting that her face scrunched up in extreme pain when she tried to move.

I lifted her breathing mask gently when I realised she wanted to speak to me. She smiled up at me but my sight was blurred by the tears.

"Amu," Mama breathed.

I winced at how fragile she sounded and gripped her hand reassuringly. "Mama, please, don't talk now, save your breath when you have more energy-" My voice broke twice in that pathetic sentence.

"I love you, Amu-chan." She interrupted me.

"I love you too, Mama." I responded, a bit too cheerily. "When you get out of here, we're definitely going shopping together with Ami, okay? You know you've always wanted to go to that new restaurant in town!"

Mama sighed, running her hand through my pink locks. "Amu, come here."

Obediently, I leant down towards her, and she fleetingly placed a small kiss on my forehead. "I'm sorry, Amu-chan. I don't think I'll be able to make it."

She was panting with the slight exertion, while my hands were shaking so much they looked as if they were vibrating non-stop. "You don't know about that, Mama!"

She ignored my feeble lies. "Where is Papa, Amu-chan?"

A plastic smile froze its way onto my face. I couldn't tell her. Not when she was like this.

"Papa is just fine, Mama! He's waiting for you to get better too, so you can't let all of us down! Ami... Ami needs you, too. And so do I!" I let a string of lies tumble from my mouth, making my expression as reassuring as I possibly could, when I was about to break down.

"Good," Her hands trembled as they rested over mine. "tell them, I love them all."

"You can tell them!" My voice rose a few octaves.

She shook her head, smiling serenely. I swallowed a huge lump in my throat, blinking so I could see her clearer.

Suddenly, a loud, dreaded beeping sound came from the machine that measured her heartbeat nearby. Mama's eyes dulled, and I was roughly shoved aside by a few doctors.

"Mama!" I screamed, not caring that I was making a scene in the hospital. I tried unsuccessful to pull my arm away from Tsukasa-san who was called in to remove me.

My eyes narrowed and too many emotions overcame me as I sank to the floor. "Don't go, Mama!" I stretched out my hand to reach her, and she twitched her fingers slightly as if to meet mine.

But the doctors pushed me aside roughly. "Get her out of here!" But I was impossible to move. I stared wide-eyed, tears flowing freely down the sides of my face as I watched them try to regain her heartbeat with defibrillators. I whimpered desperately as they delivered electric shock after shock to her heart, but her heartbeat refused to regain their momentum. Her body was motionless.

I was fixated on the heartbeat monitor which show the small rhythms of her heart before fading into a thin, but most definitely straight, line. Deafening silence filled the room.

The room went blurry. I let out a long, agonizing heart wrenching scream, my chest heaving with choked sobs. I screamed again, letting out all my trapped emotions; sadness, anger, disbelief, hurt, despair, frustration...

When I was done, I stayed quiet. I felt so empty, so alone.

It hurt. So much it was almost unbearable. I was not only crying for my mom, but for my dad, for Ami. My torso heaved with broken sobs, making me a trembling, sorrow-filled, convulsing mess on the floor.

I had just lost the two most important people in my life.

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- J