Morg: Heyo! So I'm super excited about this chapter because-
Colin: WTF! What am I doing here?
Ikuto: Hey! It's the little pedo!
Amu: 0.o
Mi-chan: Colin! You're here too!
Morg: Oh jeez! How did you two get in here?
Ikuto: …what's she doing here?
Amu: o.0
Colin: Oh yeah! I wanted to be the one to say it since Morg hasn't stopped talking about it.
Mi-chan: But-but! I WANT TO! DX
Morg: What?
Ikuto: Just say it.
Amu: 0.0
Colin: Well, you know how Amu was twelve and Ikuto was seven, giving them a five year difference where Amu was older.
Ikuto: Right, it's backwards from the Manga and Anime, you're point?
Amu: o.o
Mi-chan: SO NOW THAT IKUTO'S AWAKE! HE'S SEVENTEEN AND AMU IS STILL TWELVE!
Morg: Oh yeah, that bit of genius. I didn't do it on purpose, but once I figured out that I did it, I claimed it as a planned work of art.
Ikuto: You idiot.
Amu: So… what's going on? Why is everyone here?
Morg: Mi-chan brought my younger brother, Colin-
Colin: Heyo!
Morg: Into her reviews so I brought him into the opening and closing so it wouldn't be so weird.
Ikuto: This is the longest one you've ever written.
Amu: Can we just go home?
Mi-chan: NO! She might not own you, but I'll use force.
Colin: And I'll use the force. (Star Wars reference! OH YEAH!)
Ikuto: None of you own us.
Mi-chan: I can change that.
Amu: Yep, see ya!
Morg: I'm coming with you and Ikuto
Ikuto: Are you sure you want to? ;)
Morg: Never mind… I'll stay here with these two and write the actual chapter.
Mi-chan: YEAH! XD
Colin: Whatever.
~Unspeakable~
Putting aside everything he'd just learned about himself, Ikuto began his search for the pinkette. Something told him that she hadn't been kidnapped. Thinking back on the day so far, the seventeen year old figured that she had most likely just walked away from them. Something about the way she had been acting, told the blue haired teen that she'd wanted to prove herself as a grown up and in order to do that, she needed to be away from her guide. "Kukai, calm down and think back. Was there anywhere in particular that Amu said that she wanted to go? She's not going to go to something that we've already seen."
Kukai, still freaking out over losing his charge and the fact that Ikuto was completely awake, was having a hard time handling the situation. "I don't remember! She mentioned something about penguins and polar bears at one point, I think. WE'VE GOT TO FIND HER!"
Ikuto was one step away from slapping his best friend. Yes, Kukai earned best friend status. How could he not? The brown haired teen needed to calm down and just think things through like Ikuto was. If they just thought about it for a few moments then they were sure to come up with a pretty decent plan. "So that's where we'll go. Midori and Tsumugu!"
The couple in their disguise had stayed away, but sprang forward the moment that Ikuto called out to them. "Hai!"
"I want you two to stay here. She might come back here eventually."
Mouth open wider than his eyes, Kukai stared at his adopted mother and Ikuto and Amu's state worker in disguise. If Ikuto hadn't called them out, the teen would have never noticed them. "I told you not to follow us!"
Grinning and shrugging, Midori and Tsumugu watched as Ikuto dragged the angry yet worried teen off to find the pinkette.
XXX
Amu waved at the elephant across the enclosure from her. She was pretty sure that it didn't know that she was just saying hello, but the poor thing looked so lonely. She supposed that the zoo wasn't so cool if you had to be in it alone.
Heaving a large sigh, Amu moved to sit on the bench at the top of the hill where the elephants and rhinos were kept. Maybe she shouldn't have walked away from Kukai and Ikuto, even if Ikuto was being a little brat. Her intention of finding the penguins had fallen through considering that she didn't know how to get to them. Sure she'd seen the seals and crossed a bridge with tons of coy underneath and there was that beautiful garden with all the flowers and birds, but Amu had no idea where she was or how to get back. There was also that cool island with all the awesome little lemurs and that big weird tree, but getting back wasn't really a priority. What Amu wanted most, was to go home.
If she went back down the hill and across that bridge she'd end up in the gorilla complex. There were all sorts of monkeys in there and she wanted to see them. Getting to her feet and following the path, Amu headed that way.
XXX
Ikuto scanned the kids in front of the glass at the polar bears tank. The white bears were playing with a giant plastic ball as they sped past the glass. All of the kids screamed and pounded their little fists every time the bears passed them. There was no pinkette among them.
Kukai came out to join Ikuto after checking out the caves on either side of the bear's enclosure to see if Amu was maybe in one of those. No luck. "Do you see her?"
Ikuto shook his head before turning away from the crowd to look at Kukai. "The only problem with Amu saying that she wanted to see something and actually being there would be whether or not Amu knows her way around this zoo. I doubt it, considering the situation both of us are in mentally. She's probably never been here before. I know that I haven't."
The panicked look came back to Kukai's face. "So we're screwed?"
His hand curled into a fist at his side. This idiot really needed to learn how to stay calm. "Kukai! Focus! Amu isn't going to leave the zoo without us. There isn't a reason for her to. Let's go back to where we lost her and look for anything that might catch her eye."
Kukai nodded and motioned for Ikuto to follow him back to the cat complex entrance that they had lost Amu at. On the way to the door, Ikuto let his eyes wander up to the glass enclosed elevator in the gorilla complex. If you rode it, you could see the orangutans playing in their trees. Something pink caught his eye. "Kukai! There she is!"
Ikuto took off running before Kukai could turn around. "Great! Now they're both gone! SHIT!"
Several families skirted the cussing boy as Midori and Tsumugu walked up to him and just hugged him. Midori gave him a small smile before making him sit on a bench that they'd taken over. "Don't worry, they'll find us here."
XXX
The small gorilla had been so cute! And the little orangutans playing in the trees had caught the pinkette's attention right away. She couldn't help but laugh as they chased each other by swinging from vine to vine with their long arms. They also confirmed Amu's suspicions, being in the zoo with someone else made it more fun.
The pinkette blinked as she exited the gorilla enclosure and stepped out into the sunlight. In front of her stood a huge building. The top half of it was made out of small triangular windows. The Desert Dome, the building in which Amu had wanted to go in right away but Kukai had taken them straight to the Aquarium. Well, now she could go through it on her own with no stupid Ikuto or Kukai to slow her down.
"Amu! AMU! Where did you go? Amu!"
The pinkette glanced behind her to see a tired out Ikuto searching the deck alongside the orangutan's pen. Well, she wasn't there so he wasn't going to find her. Amu turned and kept walking without letting Ikuto know that she'd seen him.
Ikuto spun around right in time to catch sight of the girl he was after as she stepped inside a large building. Good, there was only one path through. He'd be caught up to her in no time.
XXX
Amu stared with huge eyes at the mountain of red sand before her. This zoo was so cool! Kukai really was the best for taking them there. With that thought, guilt washed through the pinkette. She had to admit that seeing the things that she'd seen would have been cooler with Kukai's enthusiasm pushing them through it all.
Too late for that now, she was already there and not about to just leave because Kukai and Ikuto weren't with her. The pinkette made her feet move forwards to the first display and found a cute little fox with big ears. "Hey there little guy! You are so cute!"
XXX
Ikuto made it into the entrance of the Desert Dome and glanced around at the maps on the walls and the globe on the floor showing off the different deserts in the world. No pinkette, he took off for the entrance but stopped short when he noticed a couple of other teenage boys shoving each other and pointing at something. He just knew what that something was and he couldn't even see her yet.
Glaring as he passed them, Ikuto ignored everything else as he sauntered up to his pinkette. Sticking his hand in her back pocket of her jean shorts and placing a kiss on her cheek, the teenage boy glanced back at the other boys as he felt his pinkette tense up. He had no choice but to whisper in her ear. "Go with it or you'll have to deal with teenage hormones from just about every boy in this fucking zoo."
Amu gasped as she recognized Ikuto's husky breath. "I-Ikuto! You scared me! I thought you were some pervert! What took you so long?"
Smirking, Ikuto removed his hand from her ass and grabbed her hand to lead her on. "Sorry, long line in the bathroom."
Amu glanced out of the corner of her eye to see the disappointed looks that the boys behind them were giving her and Ikuto. At that moment, she was never more grateful that he'd found her. Once they were out of ear shot and looking at some colorful birds, Amu decided it was time to offer up an apology. "I'm really sorry Ikuto. I shouldn't have walked away."
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to. You do realize the situation we're both in, right?"
The pinkette shook her head no. How come the seven year old brat sounded so cool and so much older than her now? Nothing made sense.
"Look at me, Amu. Do I look seven? I'm seventeen. You are the reason that I'm actually in my right state of mind. Technically, you're sixteen. Our pasts were so horrible that our minds tried to protect us from the real world by shutting down on us."
Amu stared at the boy still holding her hand in horror. So many things started to make sense, but a lot of them still didn't. She didn't feel sixteen. She felt twelve. There was no way she was older than twelve. "But I'm twelve. I am, Ikuto."
With a sigh, the older boy smirked down at her. "Yes you are and I'm seventeen. Let's keep going. I think there's a serval up ahead."
"What is it with you and cats?"
Ikuto only shrugged his shoulders as they passed by the meerkats without really stopping to look at them so they could look at the servals up above their heads. "I think that one only has three legs. Like that tiger we saw earlier."
Amu nodded. Ikuto still hadn't let go of her hand and she was all too aware of that fact. Her cheeks were feeling hotter than normal and the pinkette swore she was blushing. That wasn't possible though. If she was blushing then that meant that she liked the fact that Ikuto was holding her hand, although the boy seemed to have other things on his mind as he studied the cats in front of him.
"Shall we keep going, Amu? We have a lot to cover before our little date is over."
Okay, now she was blushing. "D-date! Who said this was a date?"
Ikuto chuckled before pulling on the hand that he held to make the pinkette come closer to him. "I just said so. It's my reward for finding you and your punishment for walking away. You're stuck with me, Strawberry, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"But-but! I've never been on a date before! I don't know what to do!"
Knowing that he had to calm down the frantic girl before she caused too much of a commotion, Ikuto did the only thing he could think of. He kissed her.
Due to Amu's flailing and her quick shifting, she turned her head just in time so that his lips collided with her cheek, causing the pinkette to freeze all her movements and stare at the ducks in the pond before them. Then it hit her, if she hadn't turned her head then his lips would have met her lips and-
"Come on, Amu. There's so much more for us to see and I heard that the basement of this place is called the Kingdom of the Night. You, me, alone in the dark. Sounds perfect."
Yep she was definitely blushing. Hard core too. The pinkette allowed the teen boy to pull her along past a waterfall or two and through the humming bird canyon. Just as she was passing some more foxes and a couple of turtles right after the jack rabbits, Amu realized what Ikuto had said. "W-wait! The dark! I don't want to go down there!"
It was too late for the pinkette, Ikuto was already leading her down the dimly lit stairs to where she knew it was only going to get darker.
.
Morg: So this-
Colin: *reading the chapter* Hey! That's our zoo here in Omaha!
Mi-chan: IT IS!
Morg: Yep! The Henry Doorly Zoo. It's a top rated zoo. Like top 5 in the world. We're awesome like that.
Ikuto: Oh hey! You're done! We just finished too.
Mi-chan: Finished what? 0.o
Amu: Ummm… N-nothing…
Morg: Are you blushing?
Colin: I respect you, Ikuto. I respect you.
Ikuto: Well, you aren't the only pervert here.
Morg: Just review.
Mi-chan: *nose bleed* OHHHHHHHH!
