I felt a warm feeling surround me, wrapping around my body with such a calm touch, that it made me relax my whole body. Everywhere around me was blue. Mesmerizing shades of blue dazzled around, and they felt familiar… very… very… familiar…
"Amu~" A deep voice sounded next to me as I put my pillow over my head and curled up even more, trying to continue that little heart-warming dream. I heard the voice sigh and I felt strong arms lift me up – just like a princess – and gentle lips kissed me lightly on the forehead.
I forced my eyes to open and they took a few seconds to adjust to the brightness of the morning, only to see those blue eyes, the same colour as the dream I had, staring at me.
The heat that radiated from the arms that held me felt reassuring and somehow, comfy. But then I realized who was holding me.
"Ahh…" My eyebrow twitched in annoyance as I stared back at the tall boy holding me, "Could you put me down now? Mr Pervert-cat-that-thinks-he's-such-a-prince-that-he-can-walk-into-my-room-and-just-lift-me-up-while-I'm-still-in-my-blanket?"
He smirked, "Be grateful that I'm not going to drop you on the floor like I usually do." He lowered me down until I was about thirty centimetres above my bed, then suddenly let go of me, making me squeak in surprise.
"Liar! You said you wouldn't drop me!" I shouted at him.
"On the floor I said." He had such an indifferent yet playful look on his face while he turned around. As far as I was concerned, playful and uncaring didn't really seem to go well together did it?
"You're lucky it's the weekends you stupid cat…" And that reminded me… "Holy crap! I need to feed Shadow!"
"Shadow? Who's that?"
"The cat that I bought the other day you idiot." I said as I rushed downstairs to see Shadow playing with a little ball of white yarn with such cute little meows that I swooped him up along with the yarn and some cat food and went straight back upstairs without even saying 'good morning' to everyone downstairs.
When I came back into my room with Shadow I wasn't surprised to see Ikuto reading some of my manga on my bed with a bored expression. I easily hopped up and kicked him off, taking my book away from his large hands.
"Hey… You don't have to kick me to get me off your bed…"
"Well telling you to wouldn't do anything, would it?" I let Shadow explore the bed and he immediately went to the spot right next to me and rubbed my arm, purring.
"Ahh, so that's Shadow. He seems like me in a way doesn't he?" Ikuto smiled.
"Maybe he happens to have that same shade of blue-black as you, but he doesn't have that annoying aura coming from him!"
"Guess so."
"Wow…"
"What?"
"I'm surprised that you admit that you're absolutely annoying…" I stared at him with a face of shock, and something that surprised both me and Ikuto, was the shocked meow coming from Shadow next to me and he, too, seemed to have a shocked expression. Which was even more shocking since cats don't usually make 'shocked' expressions as well as Shadow did.
"Uh…" I managed to get out while staring confusingly at Shadow.
"Nya~?" Shadow's face returned to normal and he meowed while he casually liked his paw and drew it over his ears.
"Ne, ne… Shadow's awake…" I heard whispering coming from the other side of my room.
"Hai-desu~"
"Should we go attack?"
"No no, we must study the enemy before heading into battle…"
"She's right desu…~"
I smiled at the three eggs across my room that sat snuggly on a little cushion. Ran, Miki and Su sure did need to have some whispering training.
A little meow came from Shadow and Ikuto picked up the cat food and put some in a little bowl that he found lying around and put under Shadow's snout. Shadow sniffed it once, then twice, and then he plunged his little muzzle into the bowl, crunching on the little pellets of dry cat food with his tail tip twitching in satisfaction.
-Shugo Chara!- -Chapter 2—
My face was red and buried in my pillow that I hugged tightly.
'He did it again…' I thought to myself, 'He did that same procedure again…' I took the pillow off my face and slapped myself in the face. 'You can do this, Amu! Next time he does that, slap him right in the face like you did to yourself just now!' I nodded to myself and carried Shadow downstairs with 3 confused Shugo Charas trailing behind me in the air.
"Ne ne Amu-chan, Why did you slap yourself?" Ran was always the first to start a conversation, unless it was me trying to break the silence.
"Ah, I was thinking about something stupid again." I answered a bit too normally.
"What was it about-desu?" Su's voice came out next.
"Just some school things like homework and…" I fumbled for a random word, "…Stuff… I guess."
"It's suspicious to me, but since it's the weekends, I don't want to waste my time arguing with you." Miki patted the little sleeping Shadow in my arms and smiled when he started purring softly.
"So, you just argue with me to waste time?" I ask, feeling, once again, annoyed.
"Sometimes." She replies, "The arguing between you and me is normally only necessary if it includes school work or fashion."
It really pissed me off to see that she was feeling absolutely normal after watching Ikuto do the same process to me just a few minutes ago. This time, after he dropped me on the bed, he leaned over and kissed me on the head, then snickered and walked out of the room leaving me dumbfounded with my face as red as a ripe tomato.
As I sat down on the couch, I grabbed the remote and switched it to my favourite channel while setting Shadow on my lap.
As usual, my favourite show was on at that particular time of the day. My favourite time of day used to be somewhere in the evening, but since it was the weekends; the hour had changed to 12, where I could eat lunch and watch my favourite show at the same time.
The main character on the TV shouted a few words so fast that I couldn't even tell whether she was speaking in Japanese or not. I turned on the instant subtitles that showed what they were saying. Sometimes the main character would say things that were incomprehensible depending on how fast she said them. I watched the show, munching on some snacks I found lying around in the cupboard while hugging Shadow with my left arm. Ami and Dad were taking photos as usual around the room, while Mom was cooking lunch for us.
My life used to be peaceful. If you counted Dad and Ami's photo shoots as peaceful things, then I guess it was a really, really peaceful life. Until I met Ikuto; my daily life was ruined. Almost every one or two days, Ikuto would come out and use the 'Make her blush and laugh and walk away' procedure.
While I was lost in my thoughts, the TV show had already ended and Shadow was playing with a different coloured ball of yarn on the couch next to me. This one was a cute pastel pink and he was entangled within the strings, making him look like a squirming ball of bluish black was being attacked by the cuteness of pink and fluffiness.
The telephone rung and I laughed and patted him on the head before picking it up to hear Nagihiko's voice on the phone.
"Hi Amu-chan! The whole group is going to Hotori-kun's place. Do you wanna join us?"
"Sure! I'd love to!" I answered happily, "Could I bring my cat over too?"
"Ah you bought a cat! Of course you can bring him over!"
"Thanks! I'll be over in a moment, See ya!"
"See ya!"
-Shugo Chara!- -Chapter 2—
I approached Tadase-kun's house and knocked on the door before I could hesitate and end up going back home and saying that I was sick or that Shadow needed to go to the vet or something like that.
Almost immediately Yaya came and opened the door, "Hiiii Amu-chi~!"
"Hi Yaya." I smiled at her and walked in with Shadow in his little cage in my right hand.
Everyone was having fun with their Shugo Charas in the backyard of Tadase-kun's house.
"Good afternoon, Amu-chan!" Tadase greeted me with a little smile.
"Hi, Amu!" Rima and Kusukusu said.
"Yo! Hinamori!" Kukai spoke up last.
"Hi everyone! Meet Shadow, my new cat!" I beamed and held up the cage that Shadow was in.
Everyone gasped in excitement and rushed over to see him. The Shugo Charas, Ran, Miki, Su, Daichi - Kukai's, Temari and Rhythym – Nagihiko's, Kiseki – Tadase-kun's, Kusukusu – Rima's, Pepe – Yaya's, and surprisingly, Yoru – Ikuto's, chatted excitedly as they talked to Shadow who was already out of his cage and was curiously looking around happily. I suspected that he just came of his own will like usual to join the other Shugo Charas.
While the Shugo Charas were busy with Shadow, I joined the others by the little pond.
"Why have we all gathered here today?" Nagihiko asked Tadase when I came over.
"Rather than having fun," Tadase began, "I wanted to discuss what we'll do about Seiyo High."
"Go on…" Kukai was staring intently at Tadase, waiting for him to continue.
"It seems that Ikuto is coming to teach music as a student teacher, and we already know that Amu-chan's family and Ikuto are quite close, although Ikuto is always pulling little pranks like what Amu-chan told us about when we were at school. I was wondering if you'd be okay with it, Amu-chan." He turned to me on the last sentence.
I held up my hand in a sign that said 'okay', "I'll be fine! If he tries to do anything then I can get him back, especially with my outer character at school. If he does something that even the students know is wrong, then I can just slap him the next time he visits my house."
"Well, I guess that would work… But he could still embarrass you in class right?" Rima said.
"I can get him back with sharing his little cat habits and use his embarrassing moments and bring out his little character change."
"Amu-chi is well prepared!" Yaya cheered with cookies still in her mouth, making everyone laugh.
"If he does something that you can't help at all then we can also tell the other teachers, to get him back after doing something bad, we can get the Shugo Charas to annoy him constantly while he's teaching class so he messes up and gets embarrassed himself." Nagihiko added.
"Great ideas, guys!" I felt so happy that they knew about Ikuto's annoying act and that they were trying to help me, it was a lot better than having no one to help me if Ikuto suddenly embarrassed me in class, ruining the 'cool and spicy' act. If The 'Cool and Spicy Hinamori Amu' disappeared and released the 'Embarrassed and Clumsy Amu' then my life would be over. Sure I didn't exactly like being all 'cool and spicy', but it was better than the embarrassed and timid side of me, and I liked to wear frilly things once in a while too. It had been like this for years; I'd be the gothic pink daughter and Ami would be the little princess of the family.
Ami had gotten prettier lately; she was about 9 and she grew her hair down slightly past her shoulders, which she normally tied in two high pigtails on the sides of her head. She still dressed in the Lolita clothing that my mom bought her, making her look like a little doll. She was one of the most popular girls in the school due to her cheery appearance and Lolita style embedded into her uniform. She went to the same school that I went to when I was her age – Seiyo Academy. Ah, why am I talking about Ami? This is totally out of the subject!
"Why don't we all have some cookies?" Yaya grins and makes us follow her to Tadase's living room and placed the bowl of home-made cookies that her mother made on the table. She grabbed three and dropped herself onto the floor, rolling around while shoving the cookies in her mouth one by one.
"Yaya! Don't just eat them while rolling around!" Nagihiko scolded her, "You might choke, and what will we do then?"
"Don't worry!" Yaya lazily continued rolling like a pencil, "I'm an expert at this!"
I giggled and saw Shadow pad inside with a crowd of Shugo Charas following him. Yoru was nowhere to be seen, so I was pretty relieved that he wouldn't order Shadow around or anything like that since he was a cat.
"I taught Shadow a funny face!" Kusukusu giggled.
"I taught Shadow how to jump high!" Ran cheered.
"I taught Shadow about beats - yay!" Rhythym shouted after Ran.
"I taught Shadow how to push a rock so that he can play cat soccer!" Daichi shouted next with a 'thumbs up'.
"I taught Shadow how to draw a cat head!" Miki boasted.
"I taught Shadow how to dance!" Temari pulled out her tiny fan.
"I taught Shadow how to cry!" Pepe said, nodding like a professional.
"I taught Shadow-san how to mix things-desu!" Su exclaimed happily.
"I taught Shadow how to rule over commoners!" Kiseki boasted even more loudly than Miki and added a kingly laugh at the end.
They kept on fighting over who had taught the most useful thing to Shadow for what seemed like hours while we ate our cookies, watching as if their fighting were a funny TV show. Rima was especially impressed at the funny comebacks that they shot at each other.
It was a fun day… A really fun day… Until I came back home.
- Shugo Chara!- -Chapter 2 – End –
Hi everyone! Thanks for reading this! Please leave a review on what you want to happen next or add some feedback for me! This is a first-timer, but I think it's actually quite good to me.
