Ch.2
The house was very comfortable and her room especially was the perfect size and style, but the constant pestering of Ami, was something she couldn't stand anymore. The Hinamori's had only been living in Japan for a few weeks now and already they had fallen into their usual routines. Mr. and Mrs. Hinamori were out photographing and looking for good stories for articles, while Amu was expected to stay at home and watch Ami. Like always Amu had acted like she didn't mind and that she was all too happy to fall into the role as a substitute parent for her little sister. Now however, she was sick of her room, sick of the house, sick of being cooped up with her sister. It was time to at least change one thing about the usual routine.
Amu slammed her cup on the little table in her room startling Ami who had been chatting nonstop about her new friends at school.
"Sissy?" Ami asked in surprise, "Are you ok?"
Amu grumbled getting up. She crossed to her closet and pulled out a sweater because it was somewhat cold outside.
"Get your coat Ami." She commanded, "We're going for a ride."
Ami blinked her wide brown eyes a couple of times before Amu finally lost her temper.
"Now Ami!"
The little girl squeaked and raced out of the room to fetch her coat before her sister could become even more annoyed.
Amu sighed and looked at herself in the mirror on her closet for a few moments. She touched the cat barrette gently and instantly thoughts of him flooded into her mind and caused her to smile so that when Ami returned a few seconds later she found her sister in a much better mood.
"Ah Ami are we ready to go then?" Amu asked brightly.
Ami blinked a few times in shock before nodding. It really was amazing how quickly her sister's mood could change. She often wondered if she would become like that when she got older.
Amu was one of the lucky teenagers in her town to own a car and she loved to take advantage of the luxuries and freedom it brought her. While it was true that because she lived so close to her school and could simply walk there, she chose to drive at every opportunity she could. Today was no exception.
Ami had struck up her chatter about school and her classmates and teachers that were mean or nice, but with the windows rolled down and her favorite radio station playing Amu found that she could block out the majority of her sister's chatter.
Along with the breeze came aromas from a nearby market and laughter from children playing in a local park. Amu inhaled deeply and glanced briefly at the nearby sidewalk. It was at that moment that a certain figure caught her attention. She barely got a good glance but what she managed to catch caused her heart to race excitedly. Had it been him? It had certainly looked like him.
"Ikuto." She whispered trying desperately to concentrate on the road in front of her and failing.
"Sissy!" Ami yelled suddenly causing Amu to snap to attention and slam on the brakes just before hitting a small boy that had darted into the street. She sat in shock behind the wheel for a few moments before she managed to pull the car over to the side of the road and shut off the engine. She leaned her arms and head on the steering wheel breathing shakily.
"Sissy?" Ami asked in concern, "Are you ok?"
Amu shook away the frightened tears that had sprung to her eyes and gave her sister a wavering smile.
"Yeah I'm fine. Sorry about that Ami. Oh…"
She opened her door and looked for the little boy that had run after the marble. He was standing a few feet away just staring at her and the car.
"Hey!" Amu snapped, returning to her senses at his bland expression, "You should be more careful and look before you dart into the street."
The boy just gave her a blank stare before cocking his head,
"Aren't you the one that's supposed to be watching the road old hag?"
It was the words "old hag" that caused Amu to snap.
"What did you just call me you brat?"
"Old hag" the boy replied nonchalantly, "I'll call you it again if you don't apologize for almost running me over."
Amu was really getting pissed now.
"You should apologize to me for running into the road in the first place! Stupid Brat!"
By this time Ami had crawled over to the driver's side of the car and was peeking over her sister's shoulder.
"Ah Hikaru!" she exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"
The boy glanced at Ami with the same bland expression he had given to Amu but now a slight change had come over his lips. They twitched in what could have been mistaken for a smile. He didn't answer the little girl; instead he held out his palm which contained a sparkling crystal marble. It's color seemed to be a mixture between cerulean blue and sea green and the colors danced in the sunlight and reflected on Hikaru's face.
Ami's eyes lit up.
"It's so pretty!"
Hikaru seemed to snap out of his stupor at the sound of the little girl's voice.
He curled his fingers tightly around the marble and glared at both girls.
"It's mine. You can't have it!"
Amu blinked in surprise and Ami started trembling.
"I wasn't going to steel it." She whimpered, "I just thought it was pretty."
Hikaru continued to glare at them suspiciously for a few moments more before he finally sighed.
"This is stupid. You're obviously a lower life form than a normal human since you haven't had the courtesy to apologize yet. In that case I don't have time to waste on you. See ya old hag."
With that he ran off towards the nearby park.
"Lower life form?" Amu blazed, "He'd better hope I never see him again or I'll…"
"Hikaru is actually not a bad kid." Ami said quietly, "He's very shy and doesn't really know how to get along with other kids because his grandfather practically raised him like an adult."
Amu glanced behind at her sister. The younger girl had a look of understanding and sympathy on her face.
"It's really sad. He doesn't have any friends."
Amu sighed and glanced at the park but Hikaru was nowhere to be seen.
I wonder what it's like to not have any friends at all. I at least can e-mail or call my old friends all over the world. What must it be like to be alone?
These questions were still spinning around in her head as she sat on a bench in the park and watched Ami playing with some of the kids.
She smiled and wondered at the way that Ami seemed to be able to make friends so easily.
Was I ever that way when I was younger?
More thoughts like this were still in her head as she drifted off to sleep on the bench.
Amu had never been a heavy sleeper and it was because of this that Ami didn't have to shake her long to cause her to snap awake.
Instantly she became aware of the three presences around them. Three young men, probably in their early twenties were arranged in a triangle formation around the bench she had been lying on. Ami was trembling and clutching to her in pure terror and this caused Amu to swallow her own fear and face the situation head on.
"What do you want?" she asked the men curtly.
"Oh you are quite forward aren't you." The man on her left laughed, "We just wanted to have a pleasant evening with you, didn't we boys?"
Ami whimpered and buried her face in her sister's shoulder.
"Sorry but I don't want to spend the evening with you." Amu replied calmly and started to get up so she could have a better vantage point if an opportunity to run should present itself. She pulled Ami up with her and clutched the young girl's wrist in a death grip.
"Now if you'd please move aside my sister and I should be getting home." She said coolly to the man that blocked her path.
He just grinned.
"Sorry sweety no can do. See we can't allow you to refuse our invitation. However we will let the little girl go if you promise not to be difficult."
Amu gritted her teeth. This was getting her nowhere and it was already getting darker. If Ami was able to run now how long would it take for her to get help? More importantly, would she even have enough sense to get help, or would her terror just cause her to run home like a frightened rabbit.
Unfortunately for Amu the decision was made for her when the man to her right grabbed her around the neck and the one to her left grabbed her wrist. Instantly she let go of Ami's hand.
"Run Ami!" she shouted at the frightened girl.
For a second it seemed that Ami was so frozen with terror that she couldn't move her legs an inch. But in less than a second she had made a blind dash for the sidewalk and was now long gone from Amu's sights.
"Crap" the man holding Amu's wrist grumbled, "She'll get help soon. Should we go after her?"
The man still standing before Amu shook his head.
"Nah I promised I would let her go if our pretty friend here promises to be good." He grinned and touched her hair gently till his hands brushed over the barrette, then his grin dropped to a frown and before Amu knew it her hair was down in a tumble around her shoulders. The man held the barrette between his fingers for a moment before he scoffed.
"This is no good. I thought it might be worth some money but it's just a useless piece of cheep jewelry."
With a flick of his wrist the barrette was flying across the playground and sidewalk into the street. Amu would never know how she managed to break free of the two men holding her but in a moment she was racing after the barrette and leaping through the air over the street to catch it in her palm.
"What the hell?" one of the men shouted before Amu twisted in the air in an attempt to land on her palms. But she was already too close to the ground and instead her head struck the asphalt half on the right side. The last thing she managed to hold onto before she lost complete consciousness was the sound of hurried footsteps, a mess of dark blue hair, and a voice that she seemed to recognize, calling her name.
"AMU!"
