Chapter 8

On Monday night, when he was comfortably lying in his too-big-for-him bed, Harry decided that he'd pick Amu up from her house before school started so they could walk there together. He'd been to her house before once, so he knew where it was.

For that reason he woke up early the next morning and arrived at her place half an hour before he knew she'd leave for school. He knew it would be more practical to just ask her if he could come over after school, but he had plans with Ikuto, and he really didn't want to cancel them. He felt guilty because he didn't feel guilty for choosing Ikuto over Amu. Well, at least this way he could spend time with both of them. Besides, he saw Amu every day at school.

He walked up the front steps and knocked on the door smartly. A crashing sound and some rustling later, Amu opened the door. Her hair was messy and she had a bump on her forehead, which meant that she had probably tripped on her way to the door. Harry winced in sympathy but then smiled at the surprised look on Amu's face.

"Hey! Do you want to go to school together?" he asked, knowing that she'd say yes in fear of sounding rude when he'd walked all this way just to accompany her to school. It was only a tiny bit of Slytherin behaviour, but Sal was happy nonetheless.

Amu looked shocked and nodded mutely, stepping out of the way to let him in.

"Do you want something to eat? I still haven't finished." She blushed, probably nervous and not knowing what to say. Harry didn't blame her, she'd already told him how she'd never had any other friends before because of her cool appearance. People thought she was aloof and that she didn't want to be friends with them, or they found out that she wasn't really like that at all and then decided that they didn't like her. It was a lot like Harry's fame when he thought about it, if on a smaller scale, so he understood what she felt.

"No, thank you. But do you have something cold to drink?" Whenever he drank tea, or something warm, he would feel tired for a while afterwards. He thought it had something to do with Professor Trelawney and her weird classroom, but he wasn't completely sure.

He looked around curiously as they finally made it to the kitchen only to stop and openly star as Amu's parents acted like children. Sirius acted that way too, so the thing he was really staring at was how they treated the little girl, who appeared to be Amu's sister, like a celebrity. They resembled Harry's fans. He looked at them more closely and came to the conclusion that they could easily be mistaken for a young, just married couple, instead of already having two children. They were that energetic.

"Hello," he greeted quietly, not knowing what else he could say at the moment. They finally turned way from the little girl and looked over at him, probably surprised to see a stranger in their house.

"Mom, Dad, this is my friend Harry Potter. Remember him, mom?" Amu introduced, and blushed at their knowing looks, though she was trying to cover it up.

Amu's mom nodded and looked at him, getting stars in her eyes. Harry nervously rubbed his hands together; it was a bad habit he couldn't seem to get rid of. The last time he'd been here, Amu's mother had gushed over his outfit and asked him all sorts of weird questions.

"Nice to meet you," he said awkwardly, wondering why he was suddenly so nervous. He cursed his charas who were probably already asleep in his bag. When they'd finally got home from their 'exploration' of the Garden they'd still stayed up half the night scheming about their next trip. It didn't seem all that interesting to Harry, just looking around in a giant garden. Or maybe he was prejudice because he'd once almost died in a giant garden himself

"Oh! I remember you!" Amu's mom said excitedly, clapping her hands together "Would you like something to eat, dear? Maybe something to drink then." She said when Harry shook his head, already having had breakfast before coming.

Amu's dad looked at the green-eyed boy seriously before grinning and inviting him to sit. He sat right next to Amu, with her dad sitting opposite of him and Amu's mom next to her husband. Amu's sister sat at the head of the table like a queen, looking at Harry with an innocent smile and mischievous eyes.

"Are you onee-chan's boyfriend?" she asked. Harry looked at Amu, and wasn't surprised to see her blushing. Her dad was choking, and her mom was looking at him hopefully.

"No, we're just really good friends," he said, effectively making Amu's mom lose the hopeful twinkle in her eyes and her dad finally coughed up what was in his throat. Amu was still blushing.

"What's your name, princess?" He asked the pouting child, making her smile brightly.

"My name is Ami," she said with a small giggle "But princess is better." Her mom and dad were cuddling her again, and telling her how cute she was. Harry wondered how Amu turned out so shy with parents like that, it was the weirdest thing ever.

"Here you go, dear," her mom said and placed a glass of juice in front of him. Harry smiled at her in thanks and took a sip. He was happily surprised when it turned out to taste really delicious.

He continued to observe as the family ate their breakfast, with Ami being the centre of her parents attention. It was relaxing, Harry decided when Amu went to get her bag, to just watch a normal family interact.

As soon as Amu returned with her bag, she pulled Harry with her toward the door, looking like she wanted to leave as quickly as possible.

"Bye!" Amu and Harry yelled, the door closing behind them.

"Sorry for just appearing unannounced like that," Harry said as they started walking. "Your family's really nice."

Amu nodded her head, looking distracted. Harry wondered if she'd even heard him.

After walking in silence for a while, Harry noticed that Amu kept looking at him from the corner of her eye from time to time. He decided to put her out of her misery.

"What is it?" he asked and came to a stop, looking her in the eye. He knew that if he didn't bring it up, then she wouldn't ether.

"Well..." she hesitated "Why did you leave with the Cosplay Kitty guy yesterday?" she blurted out and Harry let out a choked laugh at the funny nickname. He'd almost forgotten it.

"His name is Ikuto." He started his explanation. "And as you probably know, he has a shugo chara." He didn't want Amu to dislike Ikuto so he quickly tried to abate any negative feeling she might have for him. "The reason he came on Friday when we were making cookies, was because he had to know if your egg was the Embryo." Amu looked distrustful, but nodded. "He wasn't actually going to steal it," he added, hoping against hope that what he just said was true.

"We met the day after you got the Humpty Lock." He sheepishly rubbed his neck. "I kinda, accidentally, kicked a rock at his head the day after," he said awkwardly, not really liking what he'd done. It didn't help that Amu was openly laughing about it. "And then we came to school together and he said he could show me this candy shop, and it just went from there", he finished, not wanting to explain further.

"Really?" Amu asked. "Well, that's weird, I didn't take him for the candy type of guy," she said and laughed. Harry was glad she took it so easily, it would be difficult if she started to hate Ikuto.

"Well, he isn't," Harry replied slowly. "I don't think I've seen him eat a single one." He turned that over in his head and came to the conclusion that if he didn't eat candy, and still accompanied Harry to the shop and waited for him, then that meant that he just wanted to spend time with Harry. He smiled brightly and started walking again. Amu followed, confused, but glad for her friend's obvious good mood.

The walk to school was peaceful after that, with the sun shining and nearby kids talking loudly, or racing toward the school. It reminded Harry of Hogwarts, when he and Ron had watched the smaller kids trying to find their class, and getting there in time, or when they were the small kids, desperately trying not to be late for potions.

He didn't feel sad about thinking of his friends back in England any more; the only reason he felt sad before was because of the fight they had before he left, but Sirius had assured him that they were fine with him leaving now. He still felt a little guilty, but he'd get over that soon enough.


Harry knew that it was stupid, but he couldn't help it; he loved these sweets, and if joining the Guardians would get him more, then he would do it without second thoughts. The only thing that stopped him was the obvious dislike between Ikuto and Blondie, which would mean things would get more difficult. Harry didn't want things to turn difficult, he wanted peace and quiet, though he knew he couldn't possibly get it.

They were having a small picnic, sitting on a blanket, drinking tea and eating delicious cookies. He was glad Amu had invited him along, but also felt guilty because almost as soon as they'd sat down, Kukai had started dragging Amu around with the excuse of training. Harry snorted behind his tea cup as Amu let out a shriek, and set it down to take another one of those tasty cookies.

"What good weather, right?" Nadeshiko asked, totally ignoring the screams of Amu, her eyes closed to further enjoy the sun's warmth. Harry was also glad that the weather hadn't changed since the morning, and nodded in agreement.

"Yes, it's a good day for some special training," Blondie's chara, Kiseki, said pompously. Harry thought he was rather like Draco Malfoy when they were younger. He wondered how Draco's mother was doing. He hadn't really heard from them after the trial.

"There they are!" Pepe pointed at the couple running past them.

"I'm going to speed up!" Kukai yelled to Amu, who didn't look very good.

"Amu-chi, fight on!" Yaya yelled, both of her hands raised up to cheer Amu on.

"Come on, Amu! You can do it!" Harry yelled half-heartily after Yaya nudged him lightly in the ribs.

"W-wait up, why are we running all of a sudden?" Amu asked, her head spinning from running so suddenly. Harry nearly laughed; they'd been running for a while now, but Amu apparently grasped the situation enough to ask about it only now.

"If you can't handle it at this level, you won't be able to complete the Joker's special mission," Daichi, who was floating next to them, said disapprovingly.

"Special, special..." Amu muttered, "Just what is the special mission for the Joker?" she asked, finally having worked up the courage to do so. Kukai stopped so suddenly that Harry was sure Amu would've fallen if he hadn't stopped in front of her to catch her.

Harry did a chara change with Ricky so he could hear them better, hoping the Guardians wouldn't be observant enough to notice the golden tint to his eyes.

Sometimes, when he didn't want anyone to know that they'd done a chara change, only his eyes, or something else small would change, like his eyes were a little golden with Ricky, blue with Ciel, lighter hair with Dan, and eyes darker with a slight hissing voice with Sal. Otherwise he would have Ricky's Tail and ears, sometimes even paws, though they were his hair colour, the dark blue cape with Ciel, his old glasses with Dan and the snake with Sal.

With his hands on her shoulder, it looked like he could kiss her; Harry could bet all his cookies that that was what was running through her head, as she was blushing and her eyes were wide. Then she pulled away hurriedly and crossed her hands it front of her chest. Harry recognized it as a poor attempt to retrieve her cool. He sighed inaudibly – he'd hoped she'd already dropped that habit, though perhaps it was stupid to expect her to do it so soon.

"Wha-what is the special mission?" she asked again, still blushing. Kukai put his hands on his hips, smiling smugly, but playfully, at knowing something she didn't.

"Hunting X-eggs, that is the mission of the Joker." Amu turned her head to look him in the eye, finally having gotten rid of her blush, and blinked lazily.

"Hunting X-eggs?" She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Do you mean to catch those weird eggs?" Her eyebrows drew together in a frown.

"Yes, if the X-eggs were to be left out of control, their owner will be in big trouble." Kukai mirrored her expression, appearing slightly more serious now. "And so, that is why the job of the Joker is to find and seal the X-egg, or in worst case scenarios, destroy the eggs," Kukai said it all with the same tone, and Harry wondered if he even felt bad for those children whose dreams got crushed.

"Somehow, I don't really like that."

Kukai looked at her with a surprised face.

"Are the Eggs of Heart..." she looked at Kukai steadily, "Also separated into good and bad ones?" she asked and Harry felt proud. That is, until he remembered Voldemort's words 'there is not good and evil, only power and those too weak to seek it'. He shook his head to get rid of the bad memories and looked back in time to see Kukai's eyes widen before he smiled at her softly.

Harry's ears twitched as he heard other voices getting closer. He looked to the pair's left to see three girls stopping to look at them.

"Ah, Hinamori-san is together with Kukai-sempai," the one in the middle said.

"That's really great, right?" the girl next to her answered. Her glasses reminded Harry of his old ones. He idly wondered why he was remembering so much of his life in England today.

"Her personality is totally different from us," the girl with glasses continued.

"Yeah." Agreed the girl who had started the conversation. The two started walking away and Harry looked at the third girl, who had stayed behind, or maybe she just hadn't noticed her friends leave.

"Yeah, she got along with the Guardian members really fast, right?" she said, confirming to Harry that she hadn't noticed them leave. She looked to the spot they had been standing and opened her mouth in surprise, looking slightly hurt, but walked after them.

Harry looked back at Amu and Kukai to see that they had went back to running. He dispelled his ears and took a cookie to enjoy the show. He didn't bother to tell the Guardians what he'd heard, even though they were asking why his eyes had been golden.

If he'd had the ears for a minute longer, then he would have heard, maybe even seen, the figure behind the tree.


"So, where will we go now?" Harry asked, letting Ikuto lead where they was going. Ikuto had already shown him what felt like half of the town, but it was mostly the cafés and other such places. Today, they had just walked around, enjoying the beautiful weather. Harry liked that peaceful feeling in his chest when he was near his mate, and the light wind and sun on his face intensified the feeling.

"Well, there's this old amusement park that I used to visit as a child," Ikuto said slowly, thinking it over. Harry eyes shined and he looked at Ikuto hopefully; he'd never been to an amusement park before, and even when the Dursley's had allowed him to go he could only just watch as Dudley had all the fun, while he had to sit on the bench. One look at Harry and Ikuto nodded – he liked seeing Harry happy.

"Well, come on then!" Harry yelled, grabbed Ikuto's hand and started running full speed before stopping. He looked at Ikuto sheepishly; he had no idea where to go. Ikuto smirked and lead Harry to the left, not letting go of his hand.

Harry liked holding hands and hugging, not having got to do that when he was little. Hermione's and Mrs. Weasley's hugs didn't count because he was already a teenager, and they were trying to squeeze him to death, not hug him. Not that he had anything against them; he just didn't want to die from someone hugging him too tight. It seemed like an embarrassing way to go.

Ikuto also knew that Harry had been deprived of affection in his childhood, so he didn't try shaking Harry off when he randomly held his hand or hugged him. It was something he enjoyed as well, though he hadn't said that to Harry.

The sun had already set and it was dark out. Harry was a little worried that he'd sleep in tomorrow or just be really sleepy, but he didn't mind it if it meant he could have fun with Ikuto. He could tell Remus to call him in sick if he was really tired.

Suddenly Ikuto jumped on a wall had looked down at Harry with a raised eyebrow. Harry grinned at the dare and jumped up behind him. He'd enjoyed walking on walls and climbing trees when he was younger. Dudley and his gang never bothered to look up when they were searching for him. It had been oddly pleasing, looking down at their small forms.

Ikuto walked gracefully, with his hands in his pockets. Harry looked at Yoru, who had cat ears and a tail. He decided that Ikuto resembled a cat. Imagining a tail on Ikuto, swinging back and forth as he balanced on the thin wall, made Harry grateful that Ikuto was walking in front of him – that way he couldn't see Harry's blush.

Finally, Ikuto jumped off the wall and Harry went to follow, but lost his footing at the last minute. He braced himself for the fall, but instead hands wrapped around him, and a warm body pressed against his. The jarring sensation of falling wasn't as painful as Harry had expected, and he opened his eyes. Through the rush of blood in his ears he heard a pained groan.

"Are you okay?" Ikuto asked, sounding breathless. It should be expected really, with Harry falling right on top of him

"What do you mean, am I okay?! Why did you do that? You could have gotten hurt!" Harry looked down at Ikuto, checking him over frantically. "That reminds me, are you hurt?" He ran his hands through Ikuto's hair, making sure there was no blood.

"No. Don't worry, I'll be fine in just a minute," Ikuto said after Harry looked at him searchingly. That was about when Harry noticed how they were positioned. He was on all fours hovering over Ikuto – at first he had been lying on his chest, but in his hurry to make sure Ikuto was alright he stood up halfway.

Ikuto' eyes were really blue. A few strands of hair were hiding of face, and Harry's hands clenched in Ikuto's jacket with the desire to brush them away. His eyes followed one strand straight to Ikuto's lips, which were slightly open. They looked soft and inviting, pink. Harry leaned away before her could lean forward and stood up reluctantly, offering his hand to Ikuto.

"Sorry," he muttered, looking away and lowering his head, trying to hide the blush he could feel growing. He saw Ikuto nod in acknowledgement from the corner of his eyes.

After Harry had checked Ikuto over again, just to be sure he was really okay, he finally looked around at where they were. He couldn't control the way his mouth opened in awe – it was all so shiny and pretty and he'd never been to an amusement park this amazing. Or really any.

"Wonderful," he voiced his thoughts.

"If I throw the breakers, the power comes on for a while," Ikuto said, and as he did the lights came on

The first thought that came to Harry's mind was colourful. It was all so bright and cheerful, everything he'd imagined a normal childhood being. He still couldn't believe how beautiful it was. Harry already loved it.

"Thank you so much for showing this to me," he said sincerely. "Why didn't we come during the day? Can we come here again?" he asked then, excited.

"I don't like big crowds and children running around trying to make you fall or make sticky spots on my shirt, so we're here at night. We can't come here again, it's going to be torn down pretty soon," Ikuto replied shortly.

"That's too bad," Harry said, sensing that this wasn't something Ikuto wanted to talk about. It was too bad though, such a beautiful place being destroyed. He wondered what they were going to build in its place.

"Come on already, Harry!" Ricky yelled form where he was pushing a resisting Sal on the merry-go-round. Harry looked at Ikuto to see him making a shooing gesture with his hands. His expression turned stubborn.

"What, you think I'm going to let you sit here by yourself?" He grabbed Ikuto's hand. "Think again!" Ikuto was probably too surprised to resist, because he came easily when Harry pulled, stumbling along. "It's no fun going on the rides alone."

Ikuto huffed. "You're not alone, you have your charas," he said, expression long-suffering, but didn't pull away. Instead, he willingly sat in the first ride Harry dragged him to, even though Yoru was snickering not so subtly from his own seat.

By the time they'd tried almost every ride, even Harry was starting to feel a bit tired. One thing that was great about being in a child's body again was the endless energy, but apparently it wasn't actually all that endless when you were running from ride to ride during the night.

There was one more ride left, the cup ride for children, which was luckily a slow one. Their charas were all sitting on a bench, Yoru and Sal declaring that they would have to be carried home, they were so tired. Harry gave his charas a betrayed look, but Ikuto was all ready to go again, the first to rise up.

"Coming, or what?" he asked over his shoulder, smirking. Harry grinned and ran after him, glad that he'd finally come around to willingly getting in the rides.

"We're staying here," Ricky declared, dragging Dan back when he looked like he was bout to join Harry and Ikuto on the ride. Dan gave him a betrayed look. Harry left them behind without any regrets. They'd had enough fun for the night.

Ikuto was already waiting inside the ride. Harry looked at the small space that had been left for him, debating whether he should just take another cup.

"Come on," Ikuto said, pulling Harry to sit next to him, almost sitting in his lap. Harry squeaked, making Ikuto chuckle.

The ride started with a small bump, and Harry held on to the railing with both hand, his grip tight. This was the closest he'd been to Ikuto since he'd fallen on top of his at the start of the night.

"You said you used to come here with your family?" Harry asked, desperate to fill the silence. He looked up at Ikuto, then away again. They were so close.

"Yeah, when me and my sister were still little. We used to come here all the time," Ikuto said. Harry winced, noticing the way his eyes darkened at the subject.

He shifted, leaning farther away from the other boy to give him some room. "I didn't know you had a sister," he said curiously.

"She's a singer, pretty popular too. She's two years older than you, I think. We don't meet that often." He was silent for a bit, then offered, "her stage name is Hoshina Utau."Harry's eyes widened.

"I think I've heard her," he said. "She has a beautiful voice." The kids in his class liked to listen to her, he's pretty sure that's how he knows about her.

Ikuto nodded. "She does."

He was looking down at Harry, which just reminded Harry of how short he was. He hated the difference in their height, it was even apparent when they were sitting. Ikuto was 5'11 feet and Harry was barely 5 feet. This as one of the moments he wished he wasn't a child. Or in a child's body, anyway.

And then Yoru and Ricky barged in, engaged in a mock fight. Harry laughed, mostly out of surprise at the random intrusion, and Ikuto smirked at them. Sal came after them, grumbling. Harry was fairly certain he was jealous. It wasn't a secret that he actually enjoyed the little fights he had with Ricky

"Looks like you had plenty of fun without us," Harry said cheerfully as the ride came to a stop. Just as they were getting off the ride, everything turned off, including the colourful lamps which had pushed away the darkness. Harry looked around, disappointed.

"The breakers dropped," Yoru explained, sounded sad too. Harry got out of the tiny ride that was probably for children much younger than him, and started searching for the bag he had dropped somewhere in his excitement. He found it near the bench their charas had been sitting in and walked over to Ikuto once he had collected it.

"So, ready to go home Harry?" Ikuto asked, even as he started walking. Harry nodded and walked slightly behind him, not yet knowing the road and afraid to get lost. He thought about asking Ikuto to stay at his place and eat dinner with him, but he was already really tired and didn't think he'd really eat anything when he got home. He'd much rather sleep in his large, soft bed.

"...-o me, Harry?" Ikuto asked and Harry snapped out of his half asleep state to stare at Ikuto, who was looking at him with a slightly concerned look. Harry smiled sleepily and kissed Ikuto's' cheek, finally giving in to the temptation.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess I'm more tired than I thought. Thanks for tonight. 'Night," Harry said and closed the door without waiting for a response, leaving Ikuto to stand there for a minute in his shock.