Lulu=Amu

The Group Project.

The peaceful evening of a Wednesday was interrupted by a harsh knock. Amu had finished her coloring homework and was on to do some arithmetic when she nearly hit her head to a side of a table at the response to the sudden sound.

Even though she could recognize the past people, she seem to be unable to do things that needed skills such as riding a bike or swimming.

"Make sure you know who it is before opening the door," her mother had warned. Souko and her husband were called overseas for their work for a year so it was just Amu and Ikuto in the house.

Amu carefully made her way through the mess that had been piling in the living room. She was never a neat freak, past or present.

It took a second for Amu to realize that she would need to get a chair to be able to see through the peephole. A loud, horrifying screech rang across the hallway as she dragged the kitchen chair to the front door. Amu gave a great gasp as soon she looked.

Without a second hesitation she jerked open the door.

"Rima! Kukai! Yaya?" Amu yelled in excitement. It felt like forever since she's last seen her (former) best friends. They looked at her with deep wonder and bafflement.

"Who is this midget?" Rima muttered. This caused Amu to flinch considering that this is Rima she was talking about. The last time she checked, Amu had always been taller than Rima. Then again, it had been a while since Amu checked.

"My sister," Ikuto said as he walked toward them. He looked at them with raised eyebrows. "You came."

"Yep. After all, the library is really loud and cramped to do our project," Rima said with a shrug. "Also, you didn't tell us you had a cute sister!" Yaya added making Amu smile.

"I'm Lulu," Amu introduced herself.

"I'm so touched though," Kukai said, pretending to wipe tears from his eyes. Ikuto rolled his own sapphire orbs. "Who knew you thought of us so much that your sister we never met before would even know our names and our faces? What did you do? Bring out the old yearbooks and finger out who is who? That's hard to picture."

"I never told her," Ikuto said coldly. Kukai laughed, evidently not believing the honest remark. The girls walked with Ikuto and Kukai into his room discussing about Happy from Fairy Tail and its latest chapter.

As Amu followed behind, she couldn't help but feel a little sad and excluded. It's been years, many years since she had been in their tight circle but to her, it could have been yesterday. Her friends she had made right now never felt so close like the ones she made before had been.

"Hey, what's that?" Kukai asked curiously as Yaya put down a small box next to her. Amu slipped inside the room.

"Cake! Yaya loves cake! Yaya heard that you bring sweets when you come to someone's house. Yaya will give some cake if you be nice to Yaya," Yaya said merrily.

"Uhh..I think you got it wrong. You're suppose to give the cake to-" Kukai tried to explain but was cut off by Rima.

"Let's just start already." However even Rima was distracted when Yaya's mouth-watering cake was pulled out.

"Does Ikuto's sister want some?" Yaya asked rather politely. Amu must've looked young. Really young for Yaya to be willing to give her sweets to people who weren't her friends. Yaya had the courage to give a downright no to a teacher however, she did seem to have a difficulty to say no to toddlers.

It was a cute, strawberry cake. There were bunch of pink frosting at the side with sprinkles decorated with a bit of chocolate at the border with a few mini strawberries surrounding a large one at the top.

"Why does this always end up like this?" Ikuto groaned. It felt like his friends came here more for a place to eat food than anything to do with a project or anything else academic.

"I'll be eating the queen strawberry," Rima announced and plucked it from its center throne just before Amu could dive forward and take her glory. Amu nearly dropped her chopsticks.

Yaya and Kukai chuckled. "Ah, if Amu had been here she would have definitely taken them!" Amu paused from her grinding of a smaller strawberry, a little surprised.

"Yea she liked strawberries didn't she? I've completely forgotten." Ikuto added with a pause. "Hey Lulu, if you're done, can you go outside? Oniisan and his friends need to work on the project," Ikuto said turning to Amu. She gave a silent nod and put down her plate and left with the door slamming to a close.

Amu had to admit she was slightly disappointed but at the same time relieved. It felt that they had moved on. Maybe it was just to her. Just to her that time had stopped since she had met Ikuto. She had no intention of getting back with him which would be just plain creepy considering their age difference but forget? She had thought they both liked each other. Truly. Had she done that alone?

Suddenly, she remembered the plates. She knew if her mother had been here, she would have been proudly sent to pick up the plates and put it in the kitchen. She opened the door again.

"Plates?" Amu asked as she bent over to take her own. They slowly handed her theirs. It was then when she got the first hint. It was when she was leaning over to Ikuto when she actually gotten a good look at him. They weren't very close sibling-wise and it had been only a month since her arrival.

He was skinny.

Maybe anorexic would be going overboard but it was definitely not the healthy type. She noticed he hardly touched the cake. She had never seen him eat. His face had always been the long-ish type so his face wouldn't be much help for detecting something like this.

"Thanks. I just remembered that I needed to buy some onigri for dinner. Sorry, Lulu, I'll be back," Ikuto said as he stood up and walked out the door.

"Oniisan seems to be kind of skinny," Amu muttered as she turned to leave. There was no comment. At first she thought it was because they were either disregarding her because she was a kid or they couldn't hear her.

"He's always been like that," Rima informed. Amu twirled around, ready to protest. She had known Ikuto much longer than Rima had and even though Ikuto was no glutton she knew he had nothing against food. "That is, ever since Amu died."

It was then when Amu realized that time had stopped not only for her 6 years ago, but for Ikuto also.

Ugh...my teachers should seriously STOP updating more homework. I swear I would write down the homework from the computer, refresh and there would be more to do. Gaah..

REVIEW! As much as I would like to deny it, if there aren't reviews I get seriously less motivated and end up giving up without much consideration.. D: