Neko-chan: Hi peoples. Sorry for the long wait.

Amu: What took you so long?

Neko-chan: I was just in an out-of-it mood lately.... still kinda in it... sorry if this chapter sucks....

Mirror: Neko-chan does not own Shugo Chara, Peach-Pit does

Also: Himitsu = secret (would be completely out of place to put it in after the word in the story, so translation goes here)

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Chapter 11

Waking up in a Strange Place

~Ikuto's POV~

~flashback~

I was just walking around with nothing to do. To be honest, I was really bored. Nothing seemed to sound appealing. I could have gone to Amu's house like I normally did when I got bored... but it would have been to awkward of an atmosphere.

*sigh* Where is Yoru when you need something to do? I know he would probably just annoy me... but right now that sounded better than nothing.

I was still walking when something caught my eye. Two men were staring at something on a nearby bench. By the looks of it, they were completely drunk. Something urged me to go see what they were looking at. It may have been curiosity, or just instinct that pulled me over there, but when I got there I was pissed.

The two men were staring at Amu sleeping on the bench with dirty looks on their faces. I walked over and shoved them out of the way. "Hey!" one of them exclaimed.

"Shut up," I said as I reached over and pulled Amu onto my back piggy-back style.

"Wait up!" "Don't just keep her all to yourself! Have some *hic* manners and share! *hic*" They complained in a slurred voice. It took every ounce of my self-restraint to keep myself from beating the living crap out of those two.

I walked away from them quickly, and began carrying Amu to her house. She shivered on my back. She was probably freezing. Who knew how long she had been out here?

I ended up deciding to take her to my house. It was much closer than hers, and she really needed to get in some warm shelter as soon as possible.

When we got home, I layed her down on my bed and wrapped her up in the few blankets I had. Then I took my place on the floor and fell asleep.

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~Amu's POV~

I felt my consciousness come back to me, and I opened my eyes a bit. Something was strange. Where was I? What happened last night? Why wasn't I at my home?

Fear engulfed my body as I remembered falling asleep on the bench last night. Was I kidnapped by some strange man? I lifted the covers to look at my body. Thank God. I still had clothes on.

But where was I? I looked around the room. It wasn't very big. There was a computer desk with a violin on it, a small closet, the bed I was on, Ikuto.... IKUTO?!?!

What in the world was Ikuto doing here?! Don't tell me... oh please don't tell me I am at his house...

The memory of us at the park when we kissed flashed through my mind, and I knew I was blushing. I pulled the cover over my face.

"You have got to be kidding me..." I moaned. Reluctantly, I pulled the blanket off of my face and leaned over the bed to gawk at him. He looked so calm when he was sleeping... in fact... he looked kind of.... cute....

Wait! Bad thoughts, Amu! Stop staring at him! Were in a bad situation! Worry about getting out of here! I was scolded my my common sense. As quietly as I could, I pulled the covers back and stepped over them. I neatly folded them back over and climbed over to the end of the bed, not wanting to step by Ikuto.

As soon as I stepped off of the bed, it rebounded back up with a loud, obnoxious squeak. I felt myself grimace. Nothing happened for a few seconds. I don't think I was even breathing.

Once I gained enough courage, I slowly turned my head around to look at Ikuto. He was still asleep with the same kawaii face as before. I let out a relieved sigh, and then continued to walk towards the door.

My hand turned the doorknob very cautiously, and opened the door with ease. No loud sound came this time, and I let out another relieved sigh. As I took a step out of the room, I felt something tug back against my wrist, and I let out a startled scream as I fell back against Ikuto.

"And where did you think you were going?" he chuckled softly into my ear teasingly. I felt my heartbeat race as a chill ran down my spine.

"W-why am I h-here?" Oh great. With all my stuttering and blushing, I'd be surprised if he didn't know I liked him already...

"Silly Amu. I brought you here. You know, it's not really smart to fall asleep in public like that...," he whispered into my ear. My face felt so hot right now... Geeze. This was sooo embarrassing! He must think I'm so stupid for falling asleep on a freakin bench... His face leaned away from my ear. ".. lucky or those 2 guys would have got you..." was all I could distinguish as he murmured mainly to himself under his breath.

"Nani? What two men?" I asked, turning my head to face him, but he still held on to me from behind. He sighed and shook his head.

"Seriously Amu. You're gonna get yourself raped one of these days..." I swear to god my head could have exploded from embarrassment. You could almost see the steam coming out of my ears.

I jumped away and faced him with my back against the wall. "D-d-d-don't t-talk about th-things like th-th-that in f-f-f-front of m-me!!!" I screeched. Did I just break my previous record for stuttering the most?

A smile broke on his face. He brought a hand to his mouth to hide the laughter, but it seemed pointless as little breaks of air escaped through his fingers, making fake farting noised. Finally, he gave up and tilted his head back in a roar of laughter. It wasn't his normal teasing laugh, but an actual laugh laugh. (A/N he he... gomen... I kinda suck at describing things; even in real life. Most things are described with 'fwa', weird faces, and hand movements... And now most people can acutaly understand what I mean since I have been doing it so much... ~sweatdrops~)

At first, I was pissed. He was laughing at my embarrassment. Geeze! What did you expect, telling a 12 year old girl that she is gonna get raped!

Then, his laughter became contagious, and I was laughing too. It seems like it had been such a long time since I have seen him laugh like this... it may have even been the first time.

After a bit, our laughter died down. It felt great, being able to laugh with Ikuto like that.

Though, even though it made me happy, it also made me sad in a way. It made me feel kinda bad. Ikuto must have it really tough. He always seems to hide things from me... What really went on in his life?

A sudden movement pulled me from my thoughts. My feet no longer touched the ground. Ikuto, like always, had picked me up in bridal style. He began carrying me into another room of the house with a tiled floor, a table, 2 chairs, a stove, and a small refrigerator. Couldn't he let me walk just a tinsey bit? Another question popped into my head.

"Hey, Ikuto, why do you always carry me bridal style?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Practice," he said bluntly.

"Practice for what?"

"For when I carry a bride, obviously"

I blushed. He using me to practice carrying the person he was going to marry! This lead to another question.

"Ikuto... do you have an idea of who you are going to marry yet?" I asked. I looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed for asking, but I was just too curious.

He sat me down into one of the chairs with a snicker. "Why would you want to know, Amu?"

My face reddened even more, and I looked away with embarrassment and a bit of anger. He was way too good at avoiding questions, but I wasn't about to let him get away this time.

"Sh-shut up. Just answer the stupid question..." I said, still looking away.

He 'hmm'-ed as he looked up at the ceiling. I turned back to face him, curious about his answer. "I'm not sure." He looked down at me with a smirk. "Maybe."

"URG!!" I pouted, sliding the chair back as I stood up with a jolt. "Why won't you tell me?!"

"Because its a hi-mi-tsu" With each syllable of the last word, he got closer and closer to my face until he was less than an inch away. Just then, Ran, Miki, Suu, Yoru, & Aitora flew into the room and gasped. I watched out of the corner of my eye as Aitora pushed all the other charas into the other room.

Ikuto unexpectedly sighed and pulled away. "You probably want to get to school on time..."

DAMNIT! HOW CAN I KEEP FORGETTING ABOUT SCHOOL?!?!?! "I'll take that expression as a yes."

He picked me up bridal style, grabbed me my school things, and flew me over to the school with a quick chara change.

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I never did get to hear the answer to my question.

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Neko-chan: *sigh* I really am sorry for the late update. For the last 2 days I have had an on-and-off fever... it sucks.

Mirror: SO! IT'S ALMOST BEEN A FREAKIN WEEK!

Neko-chan: I know. ~sweatdrops~ Anyways, I have part of the bonus chapter typed. It has nothing to do with the story, so I may just post it as a one-shot instead of just posting it in between chapters. If I do that, I will be sure to post the name of it in a quick note in this story.

Mirror: ... whatever. When you are done with this, are you going to work on your homework?

Neko-chan:.... maybe... maybe not....

Mirror: ~sweatdrops~ you're pathetic. You've had 2 freakin snow-days, and in those two days, you barely accomplished anything besides sleeping in.


Neko-chan: Hmph. Well
sorry if I like sleeping in on snow days.

Ah well. Anyways, please review! ^-^ (Omg, I so just did the ^-^ on accident, but it looks so much cuter than ^_^ *gomen, random moment*)