Anxiety

"Your bed should be here any day now, Kairi," Yukari Nikaido announced, her cell phone pressed against her ear. "Yuu will pick it up this weekend."

Kairi nodded and stretched. His back was killing him from his night spent on the floor of his untouched-for-five-years room. "A-arigato, Nee-san." His sister nodded and left Kairi to dress for his second day of high school.

About fifteen minutes later, Kairi was dressed and out the door. "Huh?" Yuu Nikaido, who was cradling his infant son, asked as Kairi opened the door. "No breakfast?"

The boy shook his head and pushed his glasses up his nose, one hand on the door handle. "I'm…not hungry."

Nikaido smiled. He obviously saw through that. Truthfully, Kairi was just too anxious to eat anything. Still, his brother-in-law let him escape with nothing more than a wink.

"Kairi, what do you plan to say to her when you see her?" Musashi asked as they walked to Seiyo Academy High School.

Kairi pondered this a moment. "I'm not positive. Hopefully it'll come to me when I see her." Kairi shrugged it off.

Musashi shook his head. "I hope you know what you're getting into…"

Kairi sighed. "So do I," he mumble, inaudible to his Shugo Chara.

Amu didn't want to be scared out of her mind again like her first day back at school, so she arranged to have the others meet at her house that morning.

"Onee-chan!" Ami called from the living room. "Tadase-chan and the others are here!"

Amu sighed. They were a bit early. "I'll be down in a minute!" she called as she picked up her hair accessory for the day. Today, she chose the black and silver, heart-shaped clip Tadase had bought for her so long ago. She clipped it into her side-swept ponytail and whisked herself (followed by her Charas) down the stairs.

Tadase had been sitting on the couch next to Ami, listening to her patiently while he waited for Amu. Well, she thought, wait no longer, my prince! She slowed her run down the stairs to a gentle walk as she entered the room. Tadase was 'Tadase-smiling' at Ami when his reddish violet eyes fell on her older sister.

He gently held up a hand to stop Ami's story kindly and stood as Amu stepped off the last stair and into the room. Then, his eyes spotted the black clip in her bubblegum pink hair and sparkled even brighter. Amu blushed as he took her hand and kissed her cheek when she reached them. "Good morning, Amu-chan."

Amu swallowed and smiled. "G-good morning, Tadase-kun; Rima, Nagihiko, Kukai, Yaya." She nodded and smiled to each of her friends as she said their name and they stood.

"We'd better be going then," Nagihiko said as he pulled a pale Rima to the door. When he took a second look at her, he frowned and whispered something in her ear. She blushed and smiled at him, shaking her head.

Amu didn't think much of it and pulled Tadase in their direction, their own hands still intertwined. Yaya followed with Kukai after a quick hug from Ami and they were into the fresh spring air. Amu smiled and breathed in the sweet smells of April.

She blushed when she heard Tadase laugh. "What?" she asked.

"I love you, Amu-chan," he said. He had said it to her every day for years, and Amu never got tired of hearing it. "I always will. It made me so happy to see that you still wear that clip I bought for Amulet Heart." He blushed, remembering his silly crush on one of Amu's Character Transformations back when they were in fifth grade.

Amu smiled and blushed herself as she watched Kukai and Yaya arguing (but smiling) yet again and, just a few steps ahead of them, Rima and Nagihiko swung their embraced hands as they walked. "Of course. I remember that day so well. To be honest, I thought of it as a date the whole time." Amu giggled as her blush deepened.

Tadase laughed. "I should have realized that whom I really loved was you by then, Amu-chan," he continued. "I was foolish, and hurt you when I told you I liked Amulet Heart better. I'm sorry." He gave her an apologetic smile.

Amu blushed. She hadn't expected this. She never knew Tadase still held regrets about such a long time ago. She smiled and leaned into kiss his lips.

He returned the kiss as they stopped walking and Amu wrapped her arms around him. They didn't do this often, due to the fact Amu is embarrassed easily, but she was so overcome with his confession that she just had to kiss him.

They were falling behind, but neither of the lovers noticed. That is, until they heard Kukai whistle.

"How can you guys breathe like that?" he asked, laughing.

Amu blushed and pulled away, leaving her hand in Tadase's as they continued walking without a word.