A/N: Sorry guys, this chapter is somewhat lame… I'm still not over that writer's block, and it's driving me crazy. Maybe it's because I haven't read anything but fanfiction and manga in several months…

Anyway, I forgot to do this in the first chapter:

Disclaimer: I don't own Shugo Chara, or any other licensed thing that I put in this.

Chapter Two:

In Which the Breaking of Curses is Discussed

~Rima's POV~

Cassandra had come and gone in the blink of an eye, and I wasn't sure what to do now. After pinching myself until my arm was bruised, I'd decided that this could not be a dream. At that point, I cried my eyes out. Not literally, of course, but they were real tears: Kusukusu was gone.

If Cassandra had the power to take Kusukusu away, could the "blessing" be real? It was really more of a curse than a blessing, though. Just think of what people could do to me! If the curse worked the way I thought it would, someone could easily force me to kill myself by simply telling me to. And that was how I decided that I would keep this a secret, not matter what. Absolutely no one could find out about this.

"Rima!" Mama called from downstairs, "Come here!" Something inside my head seemed to click, and my feet began to move on their own accord as I ran down the stairs and came to Mama's bidding. So it was real. I bit my lip, trying not to cry.

"Yes?" I asked, my voice sounding somewhat shaky.

She turned from doing the dishes and looked at me. Her face filled with concern, which was rare. She tended to be a pretty carefree person since dad moved out. She even got a new job that didn't take up so much of her time, so she spent a lot more time with me, and she tended to be pretty understanding. But I didn't think she would understand the curse.

"Why were you screaming just a few minutes ago?" she asked me, "Are you okay? You don't look well."

"I… um… saw a spider. It was really big," I lied. My mother looked disgusted.

"Did you get rid of it?"

"Yeah… I killed it with my shoe."

"Okay, as long as you're alright," she said, regaining the smile that had been on her face before she saw me. After feeling my forehead to make sure I wasn't sick (because I looked pretty bad after crying over Kusukusu), she waved her hand as if to dismiss me.

I ran back up the stairs and shut the door to my room behind me. Turning on my computer, I began to search the internet for answers. It proved of little help when I googled "fairy godmothers", "getting rid of curses", and "getting rid of blessings".

My phone rang. Growling, I glanced at the caller ID. Stupid Fujisaki! He called less than half an hour ago. Which reminded me that this whole thing had taken place in less than that time. How was I going to survive?

I don't know what possessed me to answer it. "Moshi-moshi?"

"Rima!" Nagihiko almost yelled. I managed to be slightly annoyed at the lack of an honorific on my name, but didn't bother to bring up the subject.

"What is it now, Purplehead?" I snapped.

"Are you okay?" he sounded really scared.

"Yes, I'm okay! What did you think: a fairy just appeared in my room and cursed me and stole my chara?" I asked sarcastically, prepared for some comment on my creativity. There was a long pause, and I somehow got the feeling he was blushing.

"Yes," he sounded slightly sheepish, but his voice was stone-cold at the same time. My mind started piecing things together: Cassandra had said something about another godchild… oh, no. Not Fujisaki. Wait… yes. Yes, Fujisaki! Muahahaha, I wonder what his curse is?

"Why would you say that? Is that what happened to you?" I asked slyly. Well, at least I hoped it was slyly: my voice hadn't completely recovered from crying.

"Rima-chan, that did happen, didn't it?"

"Why would you say such a thing?"

"Cassandra Vamist told me she cursed—er, blessed—you."

"And I'm supposing she did the same to you?"

"I don't know. She probably gave us different curses. What is yours?"

"Like I'm gonna tell you," I scoffed.

"Listen, Rima-chan, this is serious. We need to get rid of these curses."

"But how? Do you know how to break a curse?"

"No. But Google might."

"I tried that already."
"Put "how to break a curse" into the search box," said Nagihiko. I'd already googled that very search query, but my fingers moved involuntarily as they typed in the words he'd said. This was the second experience like that I've had now, and it was quite unnerving.

"I already tried that. Nothing useful comes up," I explained. "You're not helping. I'm going to search for something by myself."

"No, don't hang up, Rima," he said. I reached for the end button, but I couldn't push it. I growled. Stupid Fujisaki!

"Fine," I said. "But I already tried Google. We'll just have to find Cassandra and get her to take it back!" I was quite pleased with myself for that idea.

"But she said she was going to London," Nagihiko pointed out.

"So?"

"So how do you expect to get there?" he took on a sarcastic tone. "Oh, hey Mom, can you buy me a plane ticket to London so I can find my fairy godmother who put a curse on me so I can get her to take it back? That'll go real well."

I thought about it, and realized he was right. But there was no way I was going to say that. "Stupid Fujisaki, she's probably not even to the airport yet."

"Baka!" he yelled at me, obviously fed up. I think this was the first time I'd ever heard him yell at me. "She's a fairy. She can go wherever she wants just by waving her wand! Didn't she just appear in your room?"

"Well… yeah," I was now quite upset with myself, realizing that I hadn't really thought that one through. Nagihiko sighed in exasperation.

"Okay, how about we meet at the park and see what we can come up with?"

"…Fine," I agreed on my own. Thankfully, he hadn't ordered me to do anything.

"I'll meet you there in thirty minutes. Is that okay?"

"Sure," I sighed in defeat.

"Bye, Rima-chan."

"Bye," I replied. Thankfully, he hung up, so I didn't have to. Soon, it began to ring again. Amu: thank goodness.

"Moshi-moshi?"

"Rima-chan!" Amu said excitedly, "Come over to my house!" Uh-oh.

"I can't," I told her, although I was already involuntarily walking out of my room.

"Why not?"

I bit my lip. It was too dangerous to go over there just yet. Even if I wasn't able to get Cassandra to take back the curse, I hadn't yet found any ways to get around it. There had to be some sort of hole in the spell: I had yet to find out what happened when someone said "please" along with their command. Then would it still be considered a direct order? Also, I hadn't yet tried to resist that much. How long could I put something off? How much could I slack on? How direct did someone's order have to be?

"Well, I'm sort of busy," I told Amu.

"What the heck could you be busy with? I know you got your fanboys to do your homework for you, and you don't have anything planned for this summer. I'm bored. Just come over, okay?"

~Nagi's POV~

I'm sitting on a bench in the park, and it's been about forty-five minutes since I told Rima to meet me in a half-hour. She was fifteen minutes late. The conversation we'd had on the phone had been… interesting. And for once, she hadn't cut it short and hung up. I felt somewhat guilty for yelling at her, but I wasn't really bothering myself about at the moment.

I flipped through the pages I had printed off the internet, thinking about the curses. Was it coincidental that the girl I'd had a crush on since elementary school and I had both fallen under curses? And that we had the same fairy godmother? What was Rima's curse? Was it better than mine? Worse? She had refused to tell me.

Of course, I hadn't told her my curse, either, but knowing Rima, she would probably use it against me. Amu still didn't know about the whole "Nadeshiko" thing, and I thought I would probably avoid her for a while. It's either that or telling the truth, which I really don't want to do—yet. I plan to tell her someday… just, not for a while… a long while.

"Hi, Purplehead," said Rima. I looked up to find her standing in front of me, panting slightly like she'd been running.

"You're twenty minutes late," I told her. She growled.

"I couldn't help it."

"Where were you? Twenty minutes is a long time to wait here," I said. Rima crossed her arms.

"I'm sorry," she snapped, "I was at Amu's house."

"What?" I asked, slightly surprised. "I told you to meet me here in half an hour, so you go to Amu's house?"

"…" she turned her head away. "Amu told me to come over."

"Since when do you do something just because she says to? You could have just told her you couldn't come."

"When do you think? Even if I had, it wouldn't make any difference!" Rima spat. Her eyes widened, and she slapped a hand over her mouth as if to keep from saying anything else. I started to put things together.

"Your curse…" I mused. "Is it obedience?"

"No!" she replied, a little bit too hastily. I grinned.

"Sit," I commanded. Rima sat on the ground in front of me, glaring. "Stand." She stood. "Not obedience?"

"N-no!"

"Then why are you doing what I tell you?"

"Because… I'm being… cooperative," she stated.

"Rima-chan, you're rarely cooperative," I reminded her. I was going to say "never", rather than "rarely", but that would be an exaggeration, and I knew it wasn't true. Her glare deepened, and it scared me, somewhat. "Tell me what your curse is." I felt somewhat rude, ordering her around like this.

"Obedience," Rima blurted, then she bit her lip and looked like she was holding back tears.

"I'm sorry, Rima-chan," I apologized.

"What is your curse?" she asked quietly. I didn't say anything. At least this way, I wasn't lying. Suddenly, it struck me just how awful the situation Rima was in really was. Someone could order her to do something—anything—and she would have to do it. She was in great danger. My curse not only was easier to deal with, it had several loopholes that I'd already discovered. I could, of course, say nothing: then I wouldn't be lying. I could tell half-truths, as long as I didn't lie. There were ways to get around it.

I sighed. "My curse is truthfulness," I told her. It wasn't fair for me to know hers when she didn't know mine. I didn't tell her about the loopholes, though.

An evil grin grew on Rima's face. "You really enjoyed cross-dressing, didn't you?"

"No," I stated. Rima looked annoyed.

"So what are we going to do about the curses?" she changed the subject.

"This is what I found on the internet," I said, handing her the small stack of paper's I'd printed. "I don't think they're going to be of much help."

"Most of this is about fairy godmothers," stated Rima. I nodded. "But it doesn't say anything about them cursing you!" After reading through the thing's I'd brought, Rima decided that they were useless, and sat next to me on the bench, hugging her knees to her.

"In fairy tales, there's always some way to break the curse," I said. "Probably the surest way is to get the person who put it on you to take it back. But seeing how everything with Cassandra Vamist is working out, I don't think that's going to happen."

"Isn't there usually a cure that's told to the person when they get the curse?" Rima asked. I thought for a moment, and then nodded.

"But Vamist-san called it a 'blessing', so I don't think that rule applies."

"There has to be some way to get rid of it!" Rima cried, curling into a perfect ball-shape.

"I have an idea," I stated, "But I don't think you're going to like it."

A/N: Tell me what you think in a review!

I welcome any ideas you have. Arigato!