Goose: Caitlin... -twitch, twitch-

Dwarfy: Breathe, Goose, breath.

Caitlin: I'ma bite ya shoulder!

Dwarfy: …

Goose: …

Dwarfy: So I'm Dwarfy and she's just Caitlin? I hate being called Dwarfy!

Goose: But Dwarfy...

Dwarfy: -throws coffee-

Caitlin: Goose does not own Shugo Chara or any other copyrighted thing that may have unintentionally popped up! My hobo ran away!

Normal POV

After his room had been fixed and Rhythm had been severely punished by an angry Temari, Nagihiko's life had gone back to its normal routine (or as normal as it can get when you have a nuclear sister who is dating your best friend who is still trying to pretend he hates you and refuses to admit he doesn't). He and Rima had another date scheduled for that coming Friday afternoon ("Aren't you so happy you have me?" Nadeshiko asked smugly) and Kukai was slowly cracking under the pressure of his forced hate.

But then that happened. It had been a normal afternoon for the two Fujisaki children, who were sitting on Nagihiko's bed playing Go Fish with their charas (so of course, Nadeshiko was winning) when they heard the front door bang open. A man with purple hair, just long enough to be pulled into a short ponytail that hung loosely against the back of his neck, wearing jeans and a T-shirt scooted down the hall and stopped at the doorway to Nagihiko's room.

"Na-chan! Have you missed Daddy?" the man cried, a bit (a lot) louder than necessary. Nagihiko twitched, looking at the man with a sort of comical dread of what was coming. The man then twirled around, stopping in front of the bed, and pulling his son into a bear hug (A/N: Now we know where Nagi gets his bear hugginess!)

"Hey, Dad," Nagihiko choked, his face turning slightly purple from lack of oxygen. "What are you doing here?"

Mr. Fujisaki pouted, looking at his son. "What, I'm not allowed to visit my favorite little gi... boy?" Nagihiko frowned at his father's close save, then looked at Nadeshiko, who had her fist stuffed in her mouth to stop herself from laughing hysterically. Mr. Fujisaki noticed this and looked as well. It took several seconds for this scene to settle into his mind.

"HONEY! I ONLY REMEMBER HAVING ONE KID! WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING BEHIND MY BACK?!" he hollered, jumping away from the kids and running out of the room and down the hallway. They distinctly heard a clang of a pan hitting something hard and someone screeching, "What do you take me for, you (censored because I don't want to mentally scar myself)?!" Mr. Fujisaki came tottering back into the room, sat down on the bed, and looked at the duo expectantly.

"Yaya," Nagihiko said wearily, tired of constantly explaining why Nadeshiko was suddenly real. Judging by the blank expression on his father's face, Nagihiko's brief explanation didn't help at all and the man was still totally clueless.

"Yaya with nuclear chemicals," Nagihiko continued. Mr. Fujisaki let out an understanding "oh!" and was satisfied with this awful explanation. Already accepting the fact that he had a daughter now, he dragged the two children out of the house and down the street.

"Dad, where are we going?" Nagihiko asked hesitantly. He recalled that the last time his father had dragged him out of the house, he had ended up at a drag queen convention, which had not been pretty.

"We're going to go get ice cream, my dearest Na-chan, thank you for asking. You really are such a cute little fluffalumpagus!"

Nagihiko was relieved to see that this was one of his father's more normal days.

They walked a few blocks before stopping in front of an old-fashioned soft-serve ice cream place. They walked in and were greeted by a bored looking waitress wearing a T-shirt and pair of sweatpants, who had obviously just woken up.

"Hello, welcome to Planet Boredom, how would you like to die today?" she asked in a monotone. The Fujisaki trio twitched. The waitress stared for a moment before looking at Nagihiko and saying, "You look like a girl. Can I lick you?" in the same dull voice. Mr. Fujisaki gasped.

"Debbie! It's been so long!" he cried, before Super-Glomping the emotionless girl. "I haven't seen you since the cornflake rebellion of 1983! How have you been?"

"I've been wondering how a Japanese person like me could end up with a name like Debbie," the girl replied, looking at the man who was glomping her. Nadeshiko and Nagihiko just inched away, towards a more normal looking waitress who was looking at her co-worker in disgust (This waitress was actually wearing a uniform).

"Hello, and welcome to Planet Ice Cream, is it just going to be the two of you or is he joining you?" the woman asked, twitching slightly at the sight of Mr. Fujisaki, who was attempting at engaging Debbie in an animated conversation that seemed to have something to do with scrambled eggs and lamps.

"Uh... I think he'll be with us later," Nadeshiko said, noticing that her brother was much to embarrassed to even speak. The waitress nodded and led them to a booth, where the two sat down next to each other. They noticed that there weren't many people around, and Nagihiko decided that this was a perfect opportunity to talk to Nadeshiko without being over heard by certain people (such as their mother, Amu, their mother, Yaya, their mother, Ikuto, and their mother).

"Nadeshiko," he began, not sure of how to say this without risking his chances of living a happy life. He decided to just say it. "Do you like-like as in love Kukai?" he said in one breath.

Nadeshiko stared for a moment. Nagihiko became aware that people were doing quite a lot of staring lately.

"I..." Nadeshiko began, but she was interrupted by Mr. Fujisaki trotted towards them and sat down next to Nadeshiko with a thump. Smiling, the older man grinned from one child to the other, back and forth, and eventually picked his all ice-cream menu off of the table with an unnecessary flourish.

"Methinks that I'll have the banana..." they heard him murmur to himself. Excusing their father's... unique... word choice, they both watched him with interest. If Nadeshiko had to describe him, she would have said he was eccentric, fun-loving, and the type of person who didn't care what other people thought. If Nagihiko had to describe him, he would have said he was weird.

Noticing their stares, Mr. Fujisaki looked up and smiled once more before turning to Nadeshiko. "So, you're really real?" he asked her. Nadeshiko nodded, and he continued. "I'm not proud of the whole cross-dressing family tradition, and I'm not happy that I felt the need to make Nagihiko act like a girl like I did when I was a child. But look at all the good that's come from it: I now have a daughter to go along with my other daughter... I mean son."

Nagihiko resumed his twitching, which he seemed to feel the need to do a lot.

Debbie came up to them minutes later, and after ordering thirty-seven banana ice cream cones (much to the annoyance of Nadeshiko and Nagihiko, who were told they'd have to carry the leftovers home), Mr. Fujisaki looked next to him at Nadeshiko. He noticed she looked a little pale, but she seemed healthy enough. Still, his fatherly instincts wouldn't let this go, and he couldn't stop worrying. Trying to convince himself it was nothing, he clapped giddily when Debbie, along with about five other waitresses and even a couple of grumbling, unhappy customers brought him his precious banana ice cream.

After he finished several cones, he tossed the rest carelessly into his purse (which Nadeshiko and Nagihiko stared at, a look of horror on their faces) and said goodbye to the two outside the shop.

"You're not staying?" Nadeshiko asked, kicking her brother when he looked up hopefully.

"Sorry, m'dears, but I have a thingy to go to. Me and my high school buddies are going to the movies to see Peter the Penguin Learns to Spell . Quite interesting, from what I've seen on the trailors, and it's only eight hours long!"

Nadeshiko and Nagihiko just stared as their father skipped merrily down the street, swinging his purse and humming what sounded suspiciously like a theme song to an anime, something to do with eggs and hearts or something.

The Next Morning

Nagihiko sat at the kitchen table, slowly eating his cereal and thinking about various things. Some of these things included Rhythm's stupidity, Rima, and the fact that Nadeshiko didn't seem to be acting herself that morning. She looked pale, and the usual sparkle in her golden eyes was dimmed.

"Nadeshiko, are you sure you're okay?" he asked for what seemed the eighty millionth time that day. Nadeshiko looked at her brother in frustration, and he took that as a 'yes and if you don't stop asking me that you'll wish you were in the clutches of those demon fangirls instead of suffering what I'd put you through'.

Shrugging off his older brother instincts, he changed the subject, trying to restart the conversation from the day before. "So do you like-like as in love Kukai?" he asked her, looking up to see if his mother was clinging to the ceiling fan to listen to them talk like she had done before on multiple occasions. She wasn't. He turned his attention back to Nadeshiko, who was deep in thought, resting her head on her hand.

"I really don't know," she said after several moments of silence. She grinned sheepishly at her brother, who sighed, smirking slightly. He should have known. After all, he still wasn't sure how he felt about Rima. He stood up and dumped his empty bowl in the sink. Nadeshiko followed him out the door and they walked, taking in the sights of flowers blossoming and birds chirping. Smiling, Nagihiko took Nadeshiko's hand and sped up a bit, leading her to a grassy park, where he spotted Yaya, Amu, Rima, and Tadase waiting for them (A/N: I realize they haven't been in the story much... so... yeah...). They had arranged this picnic several days ago, hoping that they could spend some quality Guardians-And-Nuclear-Little-Sister-of-Guardian time together.

"Nadeshiko! Nagihiko! Over here!" Amu waved to them enthusiastically. The two Fujisakis hurried over to her, noticing that they were sitting on a blanket that had a border of small, multicolored hearts, spades, clovers and diamonds.

"Hey, Amu-chan!" Nadeshiko giggled, pulling the pink-haired girl into a hug. Surprisingly, Amu treated Nadeshiko how she had always treated Nagihiko when he was cross-dressing. They were best friends, inseparable (except when they had dates with certain soccer players and cat boys).

Settled under a large tree, the kids chatted happily, remembering things, thinking of the things they'd like to do with that tuning fork (which they still couldn't understand why it was called a fork).

Nagihiko suddenly felt as if something was about to go terribly wrong. He glanced at Nadeshiko. She was pale. Paler than she was before. She hadn't even touched her food, and she seemed to be dazed.

Before Nagihiko could even figure out what was happening, Nadeshiko was lying on the ground, unconcious.

He felt his mind go blank with fear. What was wrong? Why had she fainted? And why had she been acting so strange all day? He remembered a memory that now seemed so faraway, so long ago, after Nadeshiko had become real but before she had become so essential to his life.

Flashback

Tadase looked at Nagihiko, worry etched on his face. "Fujisaki-kun," he started, hesitantly. "You do realize that there is a possibility... that the effects of the chemicals Yuiki-san mixed could wear off?"

Nagihiko stared at him blankly.

Tadase continued. "I mean, even the most powerful substances can only provide so much. It's highly likely... that Nadeshiko may not be with us for long."

Nagihiko glared at him. "You make it sound like she's going to die," he said bluntly.

Tadase flinched. "Well," he said quietly, "in a way, she is. Think about it: she'll vanish eventually, and I don't mean to sound harsh or anything, but isn't that basically the same as dying? ...Wouldn't she still be gone forever?"

End Flashback

Nagihiko felt his blood run cold. No. She couldn't leave. She couldn't, after he had become so attached to her. But Nadeshiko's face was white as a sheet, her skin cold. She had been fine the day before. Don't illnesses usually start small before becoming so bad?

Nadeshiko was disappearing. She was slowly getting paler and paler, contrasting her dark hair. But Nagihiko was determined; he wouldn't let her go.

Goose: Well... I feel that was rushed...

Dwarfy: Meh.

Caitlin: Can I break your pencils in half?

Goose: You're still here?

Caitlin: Yeah.

Dwarfy: Such engaging conversations.

Goose: Dwarfy! You said big words! I'm so proud!

Dwarfy: Shut up.

Caitlin: Review and you'll get the bacon I stole from one of Goose's friends that she was gonna give her reviewers!

Goose: Caitlin!