iii. Dalliance

There were only twenty minutes left till lunch. Her German class had ended early and she felt too sleepy to stay behind and help clean the chalkboards. Amu walked slowly through the empty hallways where classrooms still detained their students.

When she reached the library, a yawn escaped her and she had to rub her eyes to rid the tears that collected. Dropping her bookbag onto the library floor, she sat down near the bookshelves under a window and swept her rosy pink hair into a messy ponytail. The books kept her out of sight from the few students who were in the library.

A few moments later, she finished her bento and was waiting for Ikuto to show up. After all, he had asked her to eat with him in the first place.

Amu turned to the side to pull out a book. 'Oh, Rabbit Be Lost. Wonderful.' She rolled her eyes as a small smile crept across her lips. Usually, most people would hate the book she held in her hands because of the frustrating ending.

Amu, on the other hand, liked the end. It was unexpected- ambiguous- unlike all the other endings she's read, which were too predictable. The ending wasn't out of nowhere either because everything added up. Though, she wouldn't put it at the top of her favorites. The beginning was a tad boring, but she was willing to read it a second time.

Amu opened the book. A few pages in, her eyes felt heavy. Before she knew it, the book dropped in her lap and she dozed off.

The sound of the school bell startled her out of her nap. Lunch had just begun for the rest of the school. Her head snapped up in surprise and hit the bookshelf.

"Ow..." As Amu reached up to rub the back of her head, her hand bumped into something next to her. Or someone. And that someone had an intense gaze on the book she had previously been reading.

"Good to see you up, sleeping beauty." Ikuto flipped to the next page of the book before reaching his hand behind her head to massage the sore spot. Then he patted her head.

The girl scoffed before rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What the hell? I thought you ditched me. Not that it would make a difference since I'm always cooped up in the library anyways."

"Hm. Worried about me cheating on you?" His female companion rolled her eyes. "I got held up by Saaya. I had to tell her I was meeting with Nikaidou again," he replied with a smirk.

"Hah. Sounds legit."

Ikuto didn't turn to face at her till he turned another page of the book in his hand. "And the meeting was so urgent that I had to stay for the entire lunch period."

The pink-haired girl rolled her eyes again at his excuse but couldn't stop herself from smiling. "You know, it's a good thing that Saaya isn't on good terms with Nikaidou-sensei or else she'd storm through the school and drag you back with her."

"I know that," he said before smiling back at her.

Amu struggled to stop herself from smiling wider. To distract him, she looked down and pointed to the book. "How do you like it so far?"

"It's weird." She raised an eyebrow and looked amused. "Okay, not weird weird, but like, it feels too... normal. Where the characters are coming from are all weird."

"Hm." The girl hid a smirk. Being the bookworm she was, she knew more than others when it came to books. Conceited, yes, but it was nice to know more than to be clueless. And the book was only going to get weirder from there. "Interesting."

"Yup." Ikuto refocused on the story and leaned back against the bookshelf once more.

Amu slid out another book from the bookshelf since Ikuto had the one she was reading previously and she didn't feel like taking it back.

For a moment, she stared at the cover. Polaroids covered the entire front with words at the bottom of each one- words that were probably quotes from the story. It must have been one of the newer selections from a recently added publisher. And by the looks of the quotes, the genre was romance. Very fitting for the recent romance in her life. Not something she read very often but new books were interesting most of the time.

With Ikuto to her left- still engrossed in the book in his hands- and nothing else to do, the girl began reading the first chapter, "Welcome to New York."

Ikuto leaned closer to Amu as the story passed. Her sleepiness came back and she felt like nodding off with the warmth that seemed to be rolling off of him. As her eyes closed, Amu positioned herself to rest her head on his shoulder while Ikuto read. Feeling his body shift, she murmured, "Boyfriend. Sleepy."

Ikuto hummed in response. Only the sound of flipping pages was heard in the library and lasted till the end of lunch.


Hm... very long hiatus I had.

And this is a short chapter with a lot of boring. Sad.

I want to mention that what happened in the last chapter completely went over my head...
Amu was forced to engage in something she didn't want to with Ikuto. Really OOC on his part and mostly my fault. I am not pleased with myself. So I might have to edit that or just pay better attention in the future... .-.

Other than that, this chapter did not budge the plot much. Even though the story should be done in a few more chapters [unless I decide to do something drastic o.o'']. And who knows how long that will take? -_-''

Leave any questions/comments/concerns in a review. c: