Chapter 1

~Winter The Previous Year~

Hikari glanced out the sports hall window, the snow was coming down pretty heavy and the wind looked brutal, she wrapped her scarf twice round her neck, pulled her denim jacket over the top of her hoodie and put a black beanie over her hair, she attached the longer strap to her sports bag, so it went across her body and could just keep her hands in her pockets instead of having to keep lifting the bag back onto her shoulder, then put her tennis racket over her back as well. As she was about to leave her sensei stopped her.

"Hey Momotami," she said "Keep working on that backhand and you could be great."

She nodded, and then stepped outside to brave the cold, having denied a lift from Kazuo she was walking home. Hoshi, her Shugo Chara, hid inside her hoodie, shivering like crazy.

As she walked, Hikari thought over her sensei's words. 'You could be great' she'd said. That was exactly right, could be. Could. She'd broken her wrist, and only gotten her cast off a week or two ago, since then, she'd had little to no strength in her serve, let alone her backhand and her aim was getting worse. Her wrist twinged as she clenched her hands into fists in her pockets. Hoshi seemed to sense this and struggle up to the collar of Hikari's hoodie.

"You can do it Momo-chan!" she said happily and in German "If you really try you can do anything! I remember when-"

"-Shut up" growled Hikari, stopping in her tracks, responding in German "You don't get it do you? I can't do anything right, it's stupid"

"But what about your dream Momo-chan?" she asked, making her German sound odd with Japanese suffixes thrown in "Your dream to make everyone smile, no matter what! You can really-"

"I told you to shut up! In fact, why are you still here? Would-be self my arse. Think about it! No matter how hard you try, you can't make everyone smile, it's impossible, it's a stupid, childish dream. So you should just go back from where you came from."

"Momo-cha-"

"Didn't you hear me? Get lost!"

Hoshi froze, looking at Hikari, actually scared. Hikari rarely yelled or got angry, in fact, she never did, not to Hoshi's memory.

"I said leave!" she yelled, nearly screamed

Kukai ran through the snow, Daichi in his top pocket. Soccer practice had run over, again. He didn't think it actually ever finished on time, which wasn't convenient because of the snow. He hadn't actually played in a game this year, but he supposed that was fair because he was the youngest guy on the team and whereas he may have been team-captain material in Elementary School, here you had to be even better. It was the end of the semester as well, so he wouldn't have to worry about that until the next semester. As he was running, something fell out of the sky and hit the ground in front of him. No it wasn't snow, something bigger. He crouched down to see what it was.

"A Shugo Chara?" exclaimed Daichi, who had come out of his pocket to investigate, Kukai lifted it up in his hands and brushed off the snow. For a brief, stupid, moment he though it was dead, but no, it was ice cold. It was a girl, she wore orange t-shirt and shorts, white pumps and jacket, her hair was bright orange too and tied back in a pony-tail, there was a sun-shaped badge on the front of her jacket. Carefully he stood up and started running again.

~A week passed~

The Shugo Chara identified herself as Hoshi, once she'd calmed down enough to stop babbling in German. She'd just finished telling them about her owner giving up on their dream to make everyone smile when she'd become weak again and faded slightly.

Hikari curled up on her bed, trying to sleep, or at least pretending to. It was Kazuo knocking on her door now, he so far hadn't tried to get her to come out of her room, or asked what was wrong, he was just talking about his latest art-project, he wasn't being self-centered, it was his way, personality wise, now she was more like Kazuo than any one else in her family, but goddamn Kazuo always knowing what to say when she was pissed off. To say she'd gotten into a fight would be an overstatement, she'd had the crap beaten out of her.

She needed to stop being the person that was over-enthusiastic in everything she did, and start being logical, be someone people could get along with. She supposed that brought up what Kazuo had told her once.

'Children are like caterpillars, always dreaming of what they want to become, or what they will become, and there's a stage where we become a chrysalis and then we're unsure of what we are going to be, until we hatch, and become what we are.'

She'd told him he was being stupid and that didn't make any sense, he'd just smiled. Even now, she thought that was crap. What we are like as kids, never stays as we grow up, all you have to do is look out the window and see all the shit in the world, then you know that you've got to be logical, think about things. You can't just magically become something or someone, you've got to work at it, and to do that you've got to forget about what you want to be, and start thinking about what you could be.

Hikari opened her eyes, to be greeted with a Shugo Chara egg. Almost falling off her bed backwards with shock, this wasn't even Hoshi's egg, it was the complete opposite. This one was dark blue with a white crescent-moon, as opposed to Hoshi's bright yellow with an orange sun. It hovered in the air in front of her for a moment, before zooming out the window.

"Wait, what the hell?" she exclaimed, loud enough for Kazuo to hear

"I know right?" he responded, not realizing she wasn't talking to him "And when I say fugly, I seriously mean fat. and. ugly. The guy was a complete walrus, and there was next to nothing there"

"Kazuo Momotami!" yelled their father from down stairs "I don't want to hear you talking to your sister about things like that!"

"Oh, come on Dad!" he yelled back "She's nearly thirteen and what she doesn't hear from me, she'll only hear from the kids at school!"

Dad decided to ignore him, or decide that was a valid argument "Hikari! I don't what to start hearing you talk about that kind of thing!"

"Whatever Dad!" she called, staring out the window, little did he know she had 'that kind' of conversation with Kazuo on a weekly basis ever since she'd entered Middle School. It didn't really bother her, he was more like her best friend than her brother. Though they did have to be careful that no one was within listening range, Ichirou was alright, although he'd moved out now, so was only here for Christmas, but god forbid should Yori hear anything.

"Hey Kari," said Kazuo, quietly "You gonna let me in yet? this floor's damn uncomfortable."

Hikari sat up and ran her hand through her messy hair "Sure, whatever..." she said tiredly, wondering she should maybe get started on her homework for winter break.

Kazuo stepped inside and looked around. "Where's Hoshi?" he asked, Hikari shrugged "I haven't seen her in a while, did she disappear?"

"Not in the way you're suggesting." she said, "She went missing a few days ago, she'll probably wonder back in a day or two."

He sat down on the bed next to her and lay back, his arms behind his head "It's okay to worry you know." he said knowingly

"Who says I'm worrying?" she asked stubbornly

"I used to be a middle child too you know."

"So did Yori."

"Yeah but Yori was too obsessed with you to notice at the time, I think it's only recently hit him that he's got two younger brothers."

Hikari laughed and flopped back on the bed with him, her arms behind her head too. Yelling could be heard from down stairs, it was the familiar sound of Arata's voice. They sighed, then laughed.

"So what happened to you?" he asked, poking the nasty-looking bruise on her left cheek

Kukai jumped as an egg started knocking against his window. It was a Blue egg with a white crescent moon pattern. Hoshi and Daichi jumped too, and went straight to the window, Hoshi started babbling in German again, trying to get the window open on her own.

"Kukai!" said Daichi excitedly "They're from the same person!"

"What?" Kukai opened the window and the egg flew in. As he shut it a crack appeared in the egg and it split open, the two halves of the egg disappearing. It was another girl, wearing baggy blue camouflage trousers, black tank-top, with a dark-blue zip-up hoodie, her hair was dark blue and extreemly messy, there was a black beanie flattened over it, her eyes were also dark blue, there was a white crescent-moon shape on the front of her hoodie.

"A-Aya-chan?" stammered Hoshi,

"Baka!" yelled the new Chara, kicking Hoshi across the room, then zooming over to her and grabbing her by the collar of her jacket "Why aren't you with Kari?"

"M-Momo-chan hates me, she told me dreams are stupid."

"Baka!" she yelled again "You're her Chara and you don't know that's not how she really feels?"

Hoshi froze

"She's been as worried as hell about you! She needs us both you know. No matter how much she's like me, she's still like you on the inside."

"She's right you know" interjected Kukai, Aya glared at him "I've got a friend with three Chara's, but she still needs all of them, so I'd bank on your owner needing both of you too."

Hoshi looked at Aya, who didn't drop her deadly serious gaze.