Ikuto turned around to look at her, his stone eyes looked right through her. "Why would I care," Ikuto shrugged, "Like you said, we've only known each other for two days. We aren't friends yet. We're just partners."

Amu watched as he started to walk to the tree line, the veered right to some damaged trees. She watched as Ikuto looked up at a branch of a healthy, living tree about a few feet above him. He jumped straight up and wrapped his fingers skillfully around the branch as if he was a trained gymnast. He pulled himself straight up to the branch, locking his elbows as he pulled himself up to his waist, then pulling one foot over, then the other. He sat up on the branch and closely examined the parade of marching ants on the side of the trunk.

Amu gave a sigh and walked over to the tree. Only then she realized how high he was. She looked around until she found a long stick, about half as tall as her, and poked Ikuto in the foot. She poked him several times before he pulled his foot higher and looked down at her with his dark blue cat eyes.

"Seriously, PMS much?" Amu said. She walked around the tree, examining the different ways to climb up. She finally found a route that suited her, and started climbing. She grabbed onto a small branch, and started to pull herself up. She scraped her feet against the trunk, trying to find a foothold. Soon enough, she had pulled herself up onto the branch. She grabbed onto the next branch. As she wrapped her hands around it, her feet slipped from the branch below. The branch snapped from under her, and was gone in an instant. "I-Ikuto!"

Ikuto looked down behind him as if he hadn't noticed that the branch had broken at all, "You know, it's a lot easier to climb when you have somewhere to put your feet."

"I had somewhere to put my feet," Amu grumbled, "It broke."

"Okay... And? Why are you yelling my name?"

Amu squinted at him angrily. Her mouth pulled into a tight frown, "Could you help me up there, please?"

"I... Guess I could," Ikuto said as if it was the worst thing in the world.

There were a few seconds of silence while Amu stared up at Ikuto's back as he figured out how to get her up to the branch.

"How much do you weigh?"

"What?" Amu gripped on tighter to the branch.

"Ah, never mind. I'm sure I can pick you up. I've done it before. This may just be harder..."

Amu blushed, "H-How do you plan to get me up there?"

"Are you sure you want to come up here?"

"Yeah?"

More silence.

Amu almost let go of the branch, she was so startled. Ikuto's face was a few inches in front of hers... but upside down. She looked up at the branch. He had swung backwards and he was hanging by his legs from the branch.

Ikuto grabbed her by the sides of her chest, under her arms, and started to pull her up along with himself.

"What are you-Ah!"

Ikuto lifted Amu over himself and rested her on his lap.

"H-Hey! I can sit down by myself!" Amu blushed.

Ikuto gave her a serious look, "Nope, the branch is too thin on one side, and the bark is rotting from the bottom on the other side. So there's nowhere else for you to sit," Ikuto wrapped an arm around her.

Amu blushed.

"So why'd you want to come up here so bad?"

"It's because-"

"It's because you couldn't resist sitting on my lap, isn't it," he shot a serious glance at her.

"W-What?" A deep pink blush spread across Amu's face almost as dark as the highlights in her hair, "No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!"

Ikuto smirked at her reaction to his joke, "So why are you up here?"

Amu blushed. This time not because of embarrassment, but because she was nervous, "Ikuto, we..."

"We...?"

Amu didn't know what to say next. She had lost her train of thought.

Ikuto waited ever so patiently.

"Ikuto... We're just friends, I have a right to keep secrets about my past and everything. And of course, that means you do too. For example, I can tell that something is... wrong with you. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to ask about it."

Ikuto looked at her with a half annoyed, half curious gaze. Amu tried to look away, but she couldn't. She figured that now Ikuto was mad at her again, and she felt guilty about it. Amu inwardly gave a sigh of relief when Ikuto averted his gaze down. But... She still didn't want to look away. She watched as the curiosity in his face went away. Maybe he was taking in what she had said? That he had a "problem?" Did he take it too hard? Nothing moved. Nothing but the waves. But they weren't relevant in either Ikuto or Amu's minds. The tree didn't move, Amu didn't move, Ikuto didn't move. He just looked down with an unreadable expression, and Amu just watched. Watched and waited. Waited for some sign that he was still there. She could see his shoulders get tense. And she could feel the rest of his body get tense under her. He nervously swallowed. Ikuto gripped one hand on the branch tightly, and with the other, pulled Amu closer and tighter to him. He adjusted his position under her restlessly.

"Amu,"

Amu was startled by the sudden noise.

"Wrap your arms around me," he said.

"Why?"

"Because, I'm getting sort of tired of holding you. You put your arms around me for a while, so you don't fall off," Ikuto grabbed one of Amu's arms and put it around his neck, and then put the other one around his waist.

Amu blushed.

This gave Ikuto the ability to put both his hands on the branch and lift himself up and scoot back.

"What was that all about?" Amu asked when they were settled again.

"Well, while you were sitting on my lap, you had slipped down my legs toward my knees, and that was throwing off my balance. So I had to move back on the branch. And also, I decided that you probably want to get off of me, so I moved over. What do you say?"

"Y-Yeah," Amu blushed.

Ikuto wrapped both his arms around Amu and moved her to his right, sliding her onto the branch so she could sit down on her own.

Ikuto slouched over. He pressed his elbows into his knees to a point that it looked rather painful. He held his chin in his left hand, and his right hand rested on his left knee. Amu watched as he started to tap his right index finger rhythmically on his left arm. She watched as it sped up to a quick tempo, and didn't slow in the slightest. It went on for minutes, and it interested Amu. And that's what Amu did while she waited for Ikuto to speak. She watched him tap his finger and made a mental note of it too look for it in the future.

"And... You're right. You have a right to keep secrets, as do I," he shrugged.

Amu stuck her hand in front of Ikuto, "Truce?"

Ikuto squinted at her hand, as if concentrating all his energy, then placed his hand with hers and shook it.

The smiled.

"But, Ikuto, why were you so worried about it?"

Ikuto looked out at the waves, "I'm sorry I overreacted so much. It's just because... My whole past, my family, my life, has all been based on lies and secrets. They're just... a nuisance."

Amu tried to imagine how that would be. Your whole life is based on a lie, your family is made of secrets. She felt sad for him. "Well if you're really so worried about it... I'm still completely, 100% virgin."

Then Amu heard the smallest and quietest sigh she had ever heard.

Feeling as if a tension had been lifted between them, they felt free to chat about whatever they wanted, for as long as they wanted. The thought never crossed either of their minds that they had mysteriously left the beach together and left everyone else by themselves.

"Hey, Amu, the sun is setting... I think we should get going," said Ikuto.

"Oh, yeah, you're right. So how do I get off of this thing?"

"Let me get off first, then I'll help you down," Ikuto started to move back to the trunk of the tree.

"Oka-Ah!"

Ikuto quickly placed his left hand on the branch and reached his other down to catch Amu's wrist. He braced his feet against the branch he was on for balance.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

Amu blushed, then looked away sheepishly, "The-There was a big spider."

Ikuto gave her that you-did-not-just-say-that look.

"I'm guessing I'm going to have to save your butt for the rest of the time we're together, right?"

"I I'm not that clumsy! Just get me back up there!"

Ikuto looked at her a few seconds, "Amu, I can carry my weight, and I can carry your weight, but I cannot pull both of our weights combined onto a branch with one hand."

Amu stared up at him, not knowing what he meant.

"We're taking the quick way down," he said, bluntly.

"What?"

"Try to wrap your arms around my neck," he started to pull her up as close as he could to his body so she could get her arms around him.

"Okay, hold on tight, I've gotta move my hand," he moved his hand to her back.

Ikuto was faced with a problem. It was a small, petty problem, but it was still a problem, and he didn't like them. He couldn't figure out where to put his hand. Theoretically, the best place would be her butt, but he had to make sure he was still alive to go on tour later.

"Amu?"

"Yeah?"

"I've gotta grab your butt."

Before Amu could say a word in protest, he grabbed onto her and let go of the branch.

It was a comforting feeling of falling for Ikuto. He felt sorry for Amu. She obviously didn't enjoy it as much as him. He could tell by her scream as the two plummeted toward the ground, holding tightly to each other, even though she knew she was in safe arms. Ikuto landed in the sand, cradling Amu in his arms. Before they landed, Ikuto had moved his hand to the safer area of the back of her knee. He found himself happy with the feel of his bathing suit on her. He put her softly into the sand, but he didn't let go of her. He traced his finger tips along her arm. He watched as gentle goose bumps appeared.

Amu tried to brush Ikuto's hand off of her arm, "What are you doing?"

"Tell me," he said, not really paying attention to Amu's annoyed glance, "Do girls ever appreciate how soft their skin is?"

Amu blushed. "What?"

"Girls have such soft skin, but they take is for granted. You're a girl; tell me why they do that."

Amu grabbed onto his wrist and pulled it off of her arm. She sat down and buried her toes into the sand and wiggled them around.

Ikuto sat down beside her.

Amu watched as Ikuto smoothed out the ground in front of him and started to draw a picture in the sand. But his finger was still tapping. He was using his left hand. She never noticed that Ikuto was left handed before. She watched as his hand shook as he tried to etch in details to the picture of sand. Okay, maybe he's not left handed, he just couldn't draw while he was tapping his finger. She gave him points for trying, though.

"Amu," Ikuto said quietly. His finger stopped tapping as he stopped drawing. He used his right hand to write something in cursive beside the picture. "We're supposed to be going home."

"Oh yeah," Amu stood up and started to follow behind Ikuto, who had started to walk back to the tree line. She stopped in front of his picture. She saw two lines that went up and met at an angle like a triangle with an arch in the middle, sort of like an "A." Then she read the words beside it, "Eiffel Tower."

A/N- OKAY! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(ect. ect. ect,) SORRY I DIDN'T POST ANYTHING LAST WEEK! I was… swamped by stuff. BUT! One of those stuff's gave me a wonderful inspiration for a whole newww plot twist. Oh, and I'm NOT telling you what it is. But I will tell you some things that you can plan to see in upcoming chapterrrssss. 1. A star will fall 2. Ikuto will save a life 3. Amu gets to see something big and fleshy 4. Ikuto will not run over a baby with his motorcycle 5. Ikuto has to decide what not to get wet 6. Amu and Ikuto get sweaty together! So yeah, as you can tell, I'm trying to be vague. So I'll run a contest. If you can guess what each one really means, then I'll give you a shout-out in the next chapter or so (maybe chapter 11, maybe 12 or 13. just depends). So just put the number and what you think it is in a comment/review thing, good luck! Remember to R&R! Every author loves that!