Thank you Snowrosex3, Animegirl67213, NyammiToast, heaven, someone who likes your story, Kags21, Kuro Neko-Chan, Shugo Princess, Miki-Chann, some gal who saw this, Your Secret Admirer, Rio, xxxUtauloverxxx, AmuxIkutoFan, ChocolateStrawberryxXx, Kohaku, liledormouse, xSkulls-n-Bonesx, THE silVeR m0onLiGhTSHAdow, Diabolical Kitsuora, V-ball runner, XxDotheGIRdancexX, TsukiyomiAlikutoMissaWatusi, Hakumei xo, MiyakoLikesTacos, Pop, Dragon, YO, and Natsuya801923 for reviewing!
I wanted 1OO reviews. I got 127 :) Arigato minna-san!
... and no thanks to all you people who put me on alert and not reviewing. Just kidding. I still love you guys :)
Also major thanks to a special friend (no FF account D:) who helped me write those couple of paragraphs about Ikuto's depressed mind. She's a really great writer and my English-class best buddy XD
From: Tadase Hotori
August 15, 5:37 PM
Have to cancel-
-message deleted-
Amu didn't even bother reading the texts anymore. They all said the same thing. Tadase's going to cancel on her. Her eyes wandered to the clock, and then to Ikuto's office. The blue-haired man was sitting in his chair, idly playing with the edge of a photograph and various other objects on his desk.
5:45... isn't Ikuto supposed to be in a meeting right now? Or soon anyways. Maybe he forgot, I should go remind him...
She stood up and walked over to her boss's office, softly knocking on the door.
"Whatever," Ikuto called out lifelessly. "Come in."
Amu slipped in through the doorway, frowning. Though Ikuto promised that he would get better, Amu hadn't noticed much improvement. If anything, he had gotten worse.
"Ikuto," she reminded him. "You have a meeting to go to, remember?"
Ikuto shrugged.
"Don't really care," He said indifferently, giving his chair another spin. Amu stomped so that she was standing by the chair. She snatched the picture out of Ikuto's grasp and sure enough, it was a picture of Ikuto and Suki when they were still together. Amu sighed.
"Ikuto," she said in a pained voice. "Why are you doing this to yourself? You don't care about anything anymore!"
Ikuto raised an eyebrow, the look in his eyes dead. Not that Amu noticed anymore, he's been looking more and more like this since the day he and Suki broke up.
"I'm just doing what you said," Ikuto told her. "That day, you told me to stop caring and forget everything and then sooner or later I'll get over all of this. I'm just doing what you said."
Amu slammed the photo onto the table.
"I told you," she said in a low, quiet voice. "To stop caring about Suki. Not to stop caring about anything but Suki."
Ikuto shrugged again, completely uncaring.
"Ikuto..." Amu pleaded. "Don't you see what's happening. You stopped caring, literally. Every part of the company that you've been put in control of has gone downhill. I'm surprised that you haven't been fired yet!"
Ikuto stared at her.
"Why do you care so much?" He asked boredly. "It doesn't matter what happens to this stupid place. I'll make sure you get paid either way. And they can't fire me. I have my reasons."
Amu frowned.
"I care," She told him. "Because you're not. Someone has to. And do you know how worried you make me when you act like this? It's not healthy for you! And didn't you promise me that you would at least try to get over all of this!"
Ikuto looked at her straight in the eye, and for the first time, Amu saw all the pain and sadness inside of him.
"I miss her you know," He said quietly. "Thanks for trying and everything, but I don't think I can forget her. Not this soon at least."
Amu noticed the anguish in his voice. It was so strong Amu could almost feel it herself.
"You know what?" She said, trying to keep her voice encouraging. "Just forget about the meeting. How about you just go home and take it easy for the rest of today? You need it."
Ikuto kept his face blank.
"Yeah. Sure whatever," He said flatly, standing up and heading out. Amu followed him out, since it was time for her to go too anyways.
*****
The Next Day:
Amu walked to work, softly humming to herself. She tried to ignore all the magazine displays outside almost every store, all of their headlines stating something about the recent break up of Suki and Ikuto.
She found it unfair that all of them had something along the lines of "Poor Suki-chan!" and "How Could Tsukiyomi Do Something Like this?".
"Did it ever occur to them that this was all Suki's fault?" She muttered under her breath as she pushed the door to Easter open.
"Excuse me," A voice said as Amu walked towards the elevator. "You're Hinamori Amu-san, the secretary of Tsukiyomi Ikuto-san, am I right?"
Amu turned around saw the lady at the front desk staring right at her. The pinkette walked over to her.
"Yes I am," She said slowly, confused. "Why?"
The woman smiled, but in a polite way, at her.
"Miss you don't have to be here today," She told Amu. "Tsukiyomi-san isn't able to make it today, and he dropped by earlier today and told me to let you know that you can just take the day off."
Amu was surprised.
"Ikuto's... not here today..?" She asked. "Do you have any idea why?"
The woman looked both ways before leaning in towards Amu.
"I'm not supposed to tell you this," She said in a low voice. "But from what I know, Tsukiyomi was sent to go talk to the CEO of Easter today. Heard that the poor guy's going to get a yelling for totally slacking off lately. It's about time. I mean, just because he's related to the CEO doesn't mean he can sit around every day and do nothing!'
Amu gasped.
"He's... he's related to the CEO?" She asked in shock. The other woman's eyes widened.
"You didn't know?" She asked disbelievingly. "He's the CEO's son. Why do you think he hasn't been fired yet?"
Amu frowned.
"Well now I know," She said, smiling politely. "And I think I'll just sit around here today. After all, I get paid for how long I'm in the building, so might as well take advantage of a day I get paid for having nothing to do."
"Very smart," The woman said approvingly.
Amu waved her goodbyes and rode up the elevator, preparing for a whole day of just sitting around and getting paid for doing nothing. But deep in the back of her head, she was worried about what was going to happen to Ikuto.
I really hope he's going to be okay...
*****
Ikuto leaned against a tree in the city's park, sheltering himself from the rain. He didn't care that everyone told him that it's wrong to stand under a tree during a thunder storm. He didn't care that he was probably going to get sick from staying out in the cold. In fact, he didn't even care that he just spent a whole day of his life getting yelled at by his dad about how he was a failure in life and would never succeed since he let something so supposedly simple ruin his life.. He didn't care about anything anymore.
He tilted his head back, resting it on the rough trunk of the tree and letting all the memories he had of the place flow through his mind. This was his special place, the place where he and Suki met. Under this very tree, in fact, that was off to the edge of the outdoor stage (think of the stage as the one in episode 49 where Amu sang with Ikuto's violin).
Ikuto remembered that day clearly. He had been standing behind the tree, hidden as he watched Suki sing in her first outdoor performance. Back then he had thought that he felt something special, like Suki was that perfect person. That he had loved everything about the petite singer.
But all those wonderful hopes soon turned into fading memories. And yet as much as they faded away, Ikuto couldn't forget. He couldn't stop thinking about her. The way she smiled at him every day. How she made him laugh when he felt down. The warm hugs when the two of them were cold. He remembered how they used to be. How complete and whole he felt when they were together. He couldn't stop thinking about her, and she probably knew it.
Ikuto sighed and took a step out from under the cold shelter of the tree, allowing the rain to soak him. He closed his eyes as he walked across the stage, reliving that entire day when he met Suki in his mind, pressing the 'replay' button over and over again.
However, the stage was a lot smaller in reality than it was in his head. Ikuto soon walked off the edge of the platform, tripping and falling down the long set of stairs.
He winced as he felt his body slam onto the hard ground at the foot of the steps, a sharp flashing pain mixing in with the cold feeling from the rain. Ikuto tried to use his arms to push himself up, but felt too weak and gasped in pain as he felt his leg fall limp onto the hard concrete.
Well this is a wonderful way to die. I'm on the ground, it's raining, my leg feels like crap along with the rest of my body, and I'm slowly freezing to death.
Ikuto felt the rain pelting him and begun to loose conciousness because of the cold. He closed his eyes, hoping that if this was the end, it would at least come painlessly.
*****
Amu took another twirl in the chair in Ikuto's office, feet propped up on her boss's desk as she watched the pouring rain outside. She had quite a bit of time before she was to leave, but she felt like she couldn't take the boredom any longer. She had done everything from helping the other workers with odd job sto cleaning the whole of Ikuto's office. There was nothing left in the whole building for her to do.
She jumped up and headed out, no longer caring about just sitting around for the pay. She couldn't sit here for another minute, and decided to just go home.
Amu covered her head with her hood as she walked through the rain, all the while worrying about Ikuto. The rain begun to pour harder, blurring Amu's vision. She decided that she would just take a shortcut through the park instead of walking through all the busy streets of the city.
The pink-haired person swiftly walked on the empty paths, wonder how the rain seemed to be calming here instead of the disturbance it was in the busier areas of town. Here, the rain made everything look like it was in place. Trees swaying back and forth. Grass drooping downwards from the weight of the rain drops. Unconcious hobo sleeping next to the stage.
Wait.. what?!
Amu ran over to the person, wondering if the person was okay. After all, no sane person would just fall asleep outdoors when it was raining buckets.
"Um.. sir?" She asked tentatively as she crouched down next to the man. "Are you alright?"
She got no response from the body. Amu rolled him over so that she could see his face, and felt horror wash over her face as she clearly recognized the face.
"I-Ikuto!?" She gasped.
Dun dun dun :) Review please. Chapters after this one will come out a bit slower than before since I have to take these summer classes for the next two weeks. Then after that I'm going to go on a vacation with my family (with my laptop + internet connection of course), but I won't have much time to write during then.
