Disclaimer: I own nothing... Peach-Pit holds all rights to Shugo Chara! and its characters.
A/N: So... this is my 2,033-word oneshot (dunno why I put the exact number, but I'mma freak, what do you expect?!). It only took me about 3 days to write it (not including the days I procrastinated... I'm so bad at that)... which is surprising, because normally it only takes me about a week to fully finish a short oneshot... creeper! Anyway, here goes nothing... I hope you like it! (Oh, and it's sort-of a songfic, I guess... due to the story interruption about three quarters of the way through to put in song lyrics... they just fit so well, I had to add them...)
"Did you hear? Nagihiko-kun's moving to France." A pink haired girl, Amu Hinamori, told her best friend, Rima Mashiro. Amu didn't think twice about telling the blonde this news because, for all she knew, Rima hated Nagi. But Rima, on the other hand, had had a crush on him since they met, she just disguised it with hatred. When Rima heard this unexpected-- and, for her, tragic --news, her heart sank. But she wasn't going to let anyone know. Not even her best friend.
"Cool. When's he leaving? I wanna know when we get rid of that stupid purple-haired cross--" she stopped her self before she could say the word 'cross-dresser' because Amu was still unaware that Nagihiko is the same person as Amu's other best friend, Nadeshiko. There was a pause before Rima could think of a word to correct herself with. Then she saw something, something she really didn't need right now. Her back went rigid.
"What is it?" Amu asked, concerned, as she turned around to find out what her friend was looking at.
Rima disregarded Amu's question and stared straight past her, towards the door of the Royal Garden.
Amu finally got situated to where she could see what had occurred, and saw Nagihiko standing in the doorway, with his school uniform and a note in his hands.
"Oh. I didn't think anyone would be in here." He explained, looking at Amu, who was now rushing down the stairs to greet him, and Rima, who was walking unenthusiastically close behind her.
"Nagihiko-kun!!" Amu squealed, running toward him. "We're gonna miss youuuuu!" Rima caught up with her by this time.
"I'm gonna miss you guys too!" He told them. "Our flight got rescheduled to today... I've gotta leave in an hour." he told them solemnly. Rima was ticked off, obviously, because no one had told her that he was even leaving in the first place, let alone that his flight was in an hour.
She corrected herself when she began to show this emotion by saying, "great! We finally get rid of the girly-haired freak." While saying this, she wondered to herself why she didn't just drop the act and tell him and everyone else how she really felt. She wondered why she had to disguise this feeling in the first place? Probably because she'd never really felt this way about anyone else before... he was her first crush and she didn't know how to deal with that. She could see the hurt on his face as he forced a very fake laugh... it was killing her inside, this feeling.
"Well... I just came to drop this stuff off." He explained as he walked past them, ignoring Rima's apologetic look. He got to the table that, just yesterday, he was sitting at, enduring he last Guardian meeting, though no one else knew it would be his last.
"You weren't gonna say goodbye to us?" Amu asked him suspiciously. Rima was wondering the same thing.
He turned around to face them. "Honestly... no. I wasn't. I didn't want to put you guys through anything else." He held up the note while sitting the clothes down on the table. "That's what this is about... it's explaining why I didn't say goodbye. But I guess I don't need it now." He ripped it up. If Rima hadn't said anything about getting rid of him or the other insults, he probably would've let it be, but this was one of his ways of dealing with the anger.
"Oh. Well... I've gotta get to class." Amu said, heading towards the door. "Goodbye, Nagi. Text me sometime." She said, holding up her phone and smiling.
"Bye, Amu-chan!" He yelled after her.
He turned back around, unaware that Rima hadn't left yet. He felt a tap on his shoulder as he picked up the remains of the note. He whirled around to face Rima, the one person he didn't want to see right now.
"I'm sorry. You know I--" she was interrupted by Nagi.
"You don't have to pretend you want to be friends... and you don't have to apologize." He was upset. He really didn't mean this, but after her comment, it was the only way he could deal with things. He looked at the hurt expression that was now on her face. "Sorry... I'm just upset. Why do we hate each other anyway?" He changed the subject before she could respond to the other.
She was a little confused as to why he thought she was pretending she wanted to be friends. And to be honest; she didn't want to be friends. She wanted to be more than friends. "I do want to be friends with you, Nagi-kun." He winced. It was the first time she'd called him by his first name... his nickname, no less. "I don't hate you. I just... used that as a cover-up for how I really feel..." She trailed off, leaving him confused.
"So... you don't hate me, you want to be friends. It seems as though we're on the same page here... but how do you really feel?"
She was debating on whether or not to tell him when it just slipped out. "I like you. A lot." She immediately regretted it as she felt the blood rushing towards her face.
He smiled. It wasn't the reaction she expected. She expected more of a "you like me?? EWWW. Sorry, but I don't feel the same way... goodbye." But, it's better that he didn't react that way. Otherwise, she would completely regret ever meeting him. "I love you." He told her.
She was speechless. But, before she could respond to his confession, he told her, "Uh... I hate to leave like this, but I've gotta go say bye to everyone else. By then it'll be time for me to go."
"Oh." She had forgotten that he was even moving in the first place due to being completely absorbed in him. "I... I guess this is goodbye, then."
"Until next time... goodbye, Rima-koi." He began to walk out.
"Wait. I have two last requests." She stopped him. "One; don't forget me. And two; text me."
"You'd be pretty hard to forget, Rima Mashiro." He smiled. "I'll text. Don't worry."
And with that, they went their separate ways. Rima went home and Nagi went to tell everyone else goodbye, then to the airport.
***
Rima was sitting on her couch, Kusukusu floating over her shoulder, watching TV with Amu. She was at the point of crying... sure, Nagi might be just another guy, but did he have to wait until he had to leave to confess? Before she could finish her thoughts, Amu grabbed the remote and changed the channel to the news, and it seems as if she did so at the exact wrong moment.
The headline read: "plane crash, no survivors" and the news anchor boomed into the camera, reading off the teleprompter, "flight 1696 to France has crashed just a few miles from the airport after leaving two hours ago."
Rima went through all the information in her head... she knew Nagi was moving to France and he left about two hours ago... "Amu, what flight was Nagi on?" She asked without looking away from the television set. They were both in shock...
"... 1696." Amu whispered.
Rima would've cried, but instead she just stared at the TV, unable to do anything else. She wasn't even sure what the news anchor was saying, she just drowned everything else... except for her thoughts. I could've done something to stop this... I could've persuaded him to not get on that plane... No, I couldn't have. I can't change what's happened now... it's too late. He's gone. Forever.
"I love him." Rima was finally able to admit aloud.
Amu looked at her, confused. "I thought you hated him..." she stated the obvious. Rima tore her eyes away from the TV to look at Amu, who was crying.
"We both confessed right before he left..." and now he's dead she thought. Dead, as in she'll never see him again. It sunk in... she'll never hear his voice, she'll never hear his laugh again. She'd never see his charming smile... all of it's gone. A tear rolled down her cheek.
"It's like I'm looking from a distance,
Standing in the background,
Everybody's saying 'he's not coming home now.'
This can't be happening to me...
This is just a dream."
- Carrie Underwood, "Just A Dream"
Before Amu could respond, there was a knock on the door. She got up to answer it, wiping her eyes on the way. Rima buried her head in the pillow closest to her, wanting to hide somewhere, wanting to never have to face the world again.
The door opened and Amu gasped. Rima didn't really care why, as long as her friend wasn't in danger. She couldn't stand losing someone else. Rima could hear Amu walking into the room, another pair of footsteps accompanying hers. She didn't feel like looking... for one thing; she didn't want this person to see her crying, whoever it was. And for another; she didn't care.
"Rima!" Amu squealed in a happy tone "you're gonna want to see this!" How can she be happy after everything that's happened today? Rima wondered to herself.
Reluctantly, she opened her eyes and slowly looked up, all the while asking "what is so important that you're all happy--" but stopped when she saw who was there. She gasped, too. At first she thought she was dead, then she thought maybe it was just a dream; Nagi never left Japan, they never confessed to each other, that plane never crashed, and she would wake up soon to find all this out... it certainly couldn't be real. But she was wrong. This was, indeed, real.
"I couldn't leave without giving you this..." Nagi said, all the while walking towards her.
"N-Nagi? How are you here... the plane... and you left... and..." she said through the sobs, then gave up on trying to figure it out. She got up and ran to him, smothering him in a hug. She pulled away, an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry... what'd you have to give me?" She was calm now, now that she was sure this wasn't a dream. He hadn't been killed in that plane crash, he never even got on the plane... she was so thankful.
"This." He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers, then pulling away, both of them smiling.