This chapter is mostly going to be from Nagihiko's perspective, since we haven't heard much from Nagi. I own nothing, and enjoy!
*~The Doubt~*
For about three days straight, Kukai stared at the wall, reflecting on everything that happened. He found himself glancing at a picture on his bulletin board of Utau and him. He had a huge grin on his face, and his arm was around Utau's shoulder. Utau had a rare smile on her face, looking pleased to be with him. They were such a natural couple, until Kukai had screwed up and dated Rima. He glanced back down at his phone every now and then, at the picture of Rima and him. It looked less natural than the one with Utau. It wasn't quite as casual, and they both looked extremely nervous. He could see a blush on Rima's cheeks in the picture.
Sighing, Kukai pressed the delete button on his phone, and got rid of the picture with Rima and him. Now that things were over with Rima, he felt it would be wrong to have a picture of them on his phone. It did occur to him that he kept the picture of Utau up in his room. However, he was still in love with Utau. Suddenly, Kukai's phone began to vibrate, a phone call coming in. Surprised, Kukai answered the call.
"Hello?" Kukai wondered into his phone, forgetting to check who it was.
"Hey Kukai-Tan, it's Yaya! Come to the Royal Garden today; we have important matters to discuss!" Important matters? Kukai raised his eyebrow.
"What important matters?" Kukai wondered.
"You'll see! Now come on! Be at the Royal Garden in thirty minutes!" On that note, Yaya hung up, leaving Kukai puzzled. Why would Yaya want to see Kukai at the Royal Garden? Shrugging, he made his way to the shower, and got ready to leave.
As he twirled, his dress spun around elegantly. His purple hair that was tied into a high ponytail flipped over his shoulder, as the spin ended. He curtsied towards the audience, which consisted of his mother and housekeeper. His housekeeper, Baaya clapped with one hand touching the other. His mother, however, simply sighed.
"Young Master, that was splendid! You really are improving!" Nagihiko gave Baaya a small smile. His mother shook her head.
"Your movements were completely off. Your footing wasn't accurate at all. That was absolutely terrible. Didn't going to Europe help you at all?" Nagihiko bowed.
"I apologize Mother; I have not had a plethora of time to practice these past few days," Nagihiko murmured.
"Well, make time to practice. You're dismissed for today, but I expect you to go over the routine tonight." Nagihiko nodded, and hurried to his room. He sat on his bed, and glanced into the mirror. He sighed at the reflection. Staring back at him was a girl with purple hair in a long ponytail in a kimono. This girl was wearing red lipstick and mascara. This girl was often called Nadeshiko, which was believed by many to be his twin sister. However, the truth was, she was actually a boy, a boy who wished that he didn't have to dress as a woman so frequently.
"Isn't a mirror supposed to show your image staring back at you?" Nagihiko wondered aloud rhetorically, staring at himself in the mirror. He reached back towards his hair, and let his hair loose from the ponytail. Due to the makeup, Nagihiko still looked like a female. Sighing, he stood up, and went to his bathroom to wipe off the makeup. He left the bathroom, and looked into the mirror. It finally looked like a male, but not even that much, even without including the kimono. He couldn't help but to notice every flaw on his body; the slight acne, the cuts he got on his arm after tripping on something. However, he couldn't help to notice his hair, and how girly it looked. It bothered him immensely.
"No wonder she doesn't like me..." Nagihiko muttered. "I'm hideous."
"Nagihiko!" Temari exclaimed. "You're extremely handsome. Besides, even if you weren't attractive, it's the inside that counts, and you're the kindest person I know."
"Thank you Temari, but she never judged the inside. She's just a conceited brat; that's what Utau said anyway…" Tears welled up in Nagihiko's eyes, but he quickly wiped them away. He told himself that he wouldn't care about Rima anymore, since she was very evident in her hatred for him. However, it was just too hard for Nagihiko to bring himself to forgetting her. She seemed to haunt him, even though he had not seen her in three days. He found every waking minute being a thought of her. And he hated it. He couldn't deal with it. He regretted ever falling in love with her. She said he loved him, but she was probably just toying with his mind, just making him foolishly attracted to her. Yet, she was wearing the necklace he gave her…
The ringing of his phone interrupted Nagihiko's thoughts about Rima. Sighing a breath of relief, Nagihiko picked up his iPhone, and answered the phone call. He saw it was from Amu.
"Hey, what's up?" Nagihiko asked cheerfully, not matching up to his current mood.
"Hey Nagi, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out today? I haven't seen you in a bit!"
"Amu-Chan, it has only been four days," Nagihiko pointed out. "However, I'd love to see you. Should we meet at the Royal Garden?"
"Sounds good!" Amu hung up the phone, leaving Nagihiko with a small smile on his face. He enjoyed seeing Amu. She had been great for Utau and him when they were both upset. Normally, he hates relying on others for his problems, but Amu came right in and comforted him. Nagihiko changed out of his kimono, and put on an aqua-blue polo shirt and black pants. It was a bit hot for the weather, but his mother had insisted on owning at least semi-formal clothing.
"I can't wait to see Amu-Chan and her charas!" Rhythm grinned, as Nagihiko left his room to inform his mother of his plans. His mother nodded, and allowed him to go.
"Yeah, Amu-Chan is someone I can always safely talk to…" Nagihiko voice trailed off when he saw something on his doorstep. He froze, glancing at it.
"That's an X-Egg!" Temari exclaimed, floating towards it. "Why isn't it trying to attack you or anything? It's just lying there, motionless." Nagihiko shrugged, picking it up. It was a clear black egg with a familiar white X over it. Nagihiko examined it, curious for anything unusual about it.
"Hey Temari, do you sense something uncanny about this X-Egg? It's like different from the others…" Rhythm pondered
"I can almost sense something familiar about it. It's like we've seen this Egg before," Temari said wistfully.
"Perhaps it's a certain chara we've purified before with the other guardians that formed into an X-Egg again?" Nagihiko put the egg in his pocket. "We'll show it to Amu-Chan. Since she has purified almost all of the X-Eggs; maybe she'll know." He started to walk to the Royal Garden.
"Why do you say almost all the X-Eggs? Who else has purified X-Eggs?" Rhythm wondered, oblivious. Temari face-palmed.
"Well, Utau-Chan is able to purify X-Eggs as well. Hotori-San has helped Amu-Chan on numerous occasions. Also, if you don't recall, Temari and I were able to purify an abundant of X-Eggs with…" Nagihiko's voice cut off.
"Oh… yeah…" Rhythm remembered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. They walked to the Royal Garden, in silence.
"Nagi!" Nagihiko smiled, walking towards Amu.
"Hey Amu-Chan! How are you?" Nagihiko asked.
"I'm good. I've been busy, babysitting Ami. How about you?" Nagihiko opened his mouth to speak, when Yaya came dashing over to the two of them, as exuberant as ever.
"Amu-Chi! Yaya wants candy now! Come on!" Yaya grabbed Amu's arm, and started dragging her away.
"Wait Yaya!" Amu whined. "I was supposed to be hanging out with Nagi! What are you even doing here?!"
"Yaya was going to discuss important matters with someone about candy, but Amu-Chi is better!~ So, sorry Nagi-Tan, but Amu-Chi and Yaya are off on an adventure!" Nagihiko watched as Yaya dragged Amu's arm away, against her will. Now, Nagihiko was all alone. Since he was already at the Royal Garden, he decided to go inside, and water the flowers. He picked up the watering can that Tadase had previously filled up. He watered the flowers. He noticed a few of them wilting. He put some water on them, and fixed up the soil a bit.
"Sorry I'm late Yaya! You see, the hot water was broken at my house, so I had to use cold water and I was freezing, so I needed to warm up and…" The familiar upbeat voice suddenly ceased. Nagihiko slowly turned, finding himself face to face with someone he really didn't want to be with. The familiar reddish-brown hair of the boy was sloppy, opposed to Nagihiko's neatly combed purple hair. Kukai wore a shirt that was in support of his favorite soccer team, the Gazelles with black shorts, unlike Nagihiko's polo shirt with black pants.
"So, um, where is Yaya?" Kukai wondered, breaking the silence.
"She dragged Amu-Chan to buy candy or something." Nagihiko replied, his voice wary.
"Oh…" Neither said anything for a while. Nagihiko found the silence to be very uncomfortable, but he did not know what to say to Kukai. He placed the watering can down, and forced another glance at Kukai. Kukai's eyes seemed to be travelling, looking at everything except for Nagihiko.
"So… you watered the flowers?" Kukai finally wondered. Nagihiko nodded slowly. "Ah." Kukai shook his head suddenly. "Okay, I broke up with her." Nagihiko looked back at Kukai, surprised. "She wasn't very fond of what I said about Utau. So, yeah… I quit my job too, for, well, obvious reasons." Kukai laughed nervously. Nagihiko noticed that Kukai's cheek was scarlet red, evidently from Ikuto's hitting. Nagihiko almost pitied Kukai. Kukai made a mistake, a large one, which was now slowly ruining everything. All of his best friends were now furious at him. He had someone beat him up. All Kukai's intentions were to receive a job, and due to temptations, ruined everything, including the job. Yes, Kukai had hurt Nagihiko greatly, when he dated the girl that Nagihiko had exclusively told Kukai he liked. However, he never explained to Kukai all of the past with her; how they had dated and how she broke up with him. Kukai had no idea what was between Rima and Nagihiko.
"I dated her too, you know…" Nagihiko muttered, finally being the one to break the silence. His eyes were fixated on the ground.
"Yeah, she mentioned that…"
"What did she tell you about us?" Nagihiko wondered, his eyes darting upwards.
"Not much really. She really only told me that she told you not to tell anyone about your dating and that you were her first kiss." Nagihiko tried his best to hide the fact he was blushing.
"Rima-Chan and I dated after I saved her from a raping attempt." Kukai cocked his eyebrow.
"Wait, what?!" Kukai exclaimed. "You're kidding…"
"Unfortunately, I'm not. Well, it might have not been rape, but it was something along the lines of that. Anyway, I saved her and she admitted her feelings for me, partially since she was shaken up. I told her that I liked her back and that you have been bothering me to ask her out. So, the next day, we didn't go out since I had some dancing orientation thing, but we texted the whole day. After that, we went out, and I took her somewhere romantic I always went to as a child, and that's when we…kissed." Nagihiko wiped away tears that were slowly coming down his cheeks. "Two days later, we met at the Royal Garden, and that's when she ended it with me, telling me that she suddenly hated me and she never wanted to see me again, and to never tell anyone this happened because she wanted to forget the existence of us. I agreed, but I always wondered why. To this day, I am still perplexed." Kukai watched Nagihiko, flabbergasted. Nagihiko looked at the ground, having never told anyone about this.
"Nothing went wrong? It was just… that spontaneous?!" Kukai exclaimed.
"I told you everything that occurred between us. She was smiling though when we went out, and she kept blushing. That's why I couldn't foresee her terminating it…"
"What about that necklace?" Kukai wondered. "She kept gripping it tightly when we noticed you the other day at the park. When did you give that to her?"
"Right before she broke up with me." Nagihiko admitted. "I noticed how perfectly it matched her eyes, so I decided to give it to her. I allowed her to keep it though, since it still was impeccable on her." Kukai gave Nagihiko a melancholic smile.
"Well, I propose an idea! Let's call it, make Rima fall in love with you!" Nagihiko looked up at Kukai, his eyebrow raised. Kukai put his thumbs up, grinning.
"Seems like an impossible cause. Besides, why on earth would I want you to help me?" Nagihiko sighed. Kukai's smile faded.
"I thought that, you know, telling me that meant that you forgave me. I guess it's not that simple... I guess you still hate me…"
"Kukai. I never hated you. Yes, I was absolutely infuriated at you, but I don't hate you. However, I cannot bring myself to forgive you completely yet. You are starting to realize what you did was wrong, but there is so much more you need to do to prove yourself that I can trust you again. I know you didn't know that Rima-Chan and I dated, but I still told you I loved her, and you dated her anyway. However, I am willing to talk to you. I won't entirely ignore you, but I don't forgive you." Nagihiko felt Kukai's eyes on him. Nagihiko chuckled slightly. "I suppose my statement was awfully contradictory."
"Yeah…" Kukai admitted.
"What I'm trying to get at is since I know you don't have really anyone to talk to, besides possibly Yaya but you know Yaya, you can talk to me about anything, and I won't repeat it to anyone else. Although I'm not ready to entirely forgive you yet, I do pity you even though it's your fault."
"Thanks Nagi…" Kukai whispered. Nagihiko gave him a small smile. "Well, yeah, I don't really have anyone to talk to, besides Daichi and Yaya. So, it's nice to have you. I know you're not entirely forgiving me, although I won't lie I'm slightly confused by the way you're treating me, but I just want to say that I'm sorry I dated Rima. You loved her, and I kind of only made it worse. I won't do it again. If I ever date again, it won't be a girl that you have a crush on."
"Thank you Kukai." Nagihiko stood up. "I should get home; my mother wants to me to practice. However, I'm glad we mostly cleared that up." Kukai stood up as well.
"Yeah, me too! Thanks for being there for someone I might want to talk to. I'm sure I'll need someone to lean on." They shook hands.
"See you later, Kukai." Nagihiko left the Royal Garden. When he arrived back home, he was told to immediately start dancing. He changed into his kimono, and went to dance. He felt satisfied, having spoken to Kukai. He knew that Kukai realized his wrongdoings and he would surely never do that again. However, Nagihiko knew the phrase "once a cheater, always a cheater." Although he never technically cheated on Utau, he still hurt her tremendously. Nagihiko knew that Kukai would attempt to have Utau forgive him, but it would take a long time before she did, even more then it would take Nagihiko to fully forgive him, or even longer than possibly Rima to forgive Nagihiko. So, since this would be hard for Kukai and he would learn the true definition of guilt, Nagihiko decided that he could be there for Kukai.
Please review/favorite/alert! I'll try to update soon, but school work will increase, and with the recent release of The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling and the upcoming release of Pokémon Black and White 2, it might be hard. However, the more reviews, the more I'll be motivated!