Morg: Heyo!

Ikuto: Save it.

Amu: Not listening.

Morg: I wasn't going to say anything.

Ikuto: Liar.

Amu: She doesn't own us, its fine.

~Overprotective~

"Take me back!"

"Ikuto no, we can't do that."

Even without the ability to fly to heaven, the others had to hold the blue haired boy back. As he struggled against them, Ikuto did not stop screaming his demands. "She needs me! Take me back!"

Tears sprang to Utau's eyes as she watched her brother unravel. His form collapsed onto the ground as he realized that the four angels around him weren't going to take him back. His now almost silent pleas were falling on deaf ears. "Ikuto, please, she'll be alright. Amu is strong. She can handle herself."

It wasn't until his begging eyes turned to stare directly into her gaze that Utau started crying. Kukai had to hold her upright. Never before had she seen her brother look so desperate. As he held her, Kukai realized that for the first time in his life, he had a girl that he loved and he'd do anything to take care of her. The anguish striking his best friend couldn't be fathomed by the brown haired green eyed boy.

Ikuto felt his world closing in on him. Then everything went black.

Tsukasa managed to catch the teen as him panic over took him. "Check him, Kairi. We don't need Amu making it back to find that we didn't take proper care of her human."

The doctor angel stepped forward to place his hand on the side of Ikuto's lolling head. "He's fine. Just sleeping and he'll wake up later. I suggest we use this chance to get him somewhere safe before other angels start appearing."

Yaya glanced up at the sky and for a moment Rima was certain that she could see what was happening in heaven. "Yaya understands now that Amu-chi chose to fight in the transportation room so that no one could follow. Yaya thinks Amu-chi is a very smart angel."

With a sigh, Nagi tightened his arms around Rima. "I couldn't agree more, Yaya. We should use this opportunity to move. Tsukasa, you have a place?"

With a slight smile despite the situation they were in, Tsukasa simply winked. "I'm always prepared."

Not wanting to be left out or forgotten, Kukai managed to get his input in. "Should Utau and I just head home?"

Kairi's look became very serious as he turned to the couple still holding tightly to one another. "No, that's the last place you want to go. You are in just as much danger as the rest of us. Granted, you are human so they can't actually do anything too harsh to you, you still broke the law by going. Thus, you'll be sought out. Come into hiding with us."

One pleading look from his girlfriend decided everything for Kukai. "Of course, my mom barely knows I exist anyways. She won't miss me and I won't leave Utau."

The hold Utau had on her boyfriend only tightened as his words reached her ears. She didn't want to be without him. Not with Ikuto in such a state and them not being able to know if Amu was going to make it back to them. Oh how she hoped that Amu would make it back.

XXX

Flames stopped the flashes of Tadase's twin blades as they streaked through the air. Spinning so that his other hand could not stab her unblocked side, Amu parried and moved away before making her own advancement. Her sword cut the air as it swung down to engage both of Tadase's knives in his attempt to block her attack. They stood locked once more in their battle. Pushing against one another with all their might, Tadase managed to shift his weight and let one of his blades slide down so that it cut Amu's wrist. The wound was small and it didn't affect her ability to hold her sword so Amu ignored it. Tadase only smirked as they clashed together once more. Just as he had her stuck again, he decided to taunt the pinkette. "I thought you were the all powerful Amu? Can't you even beat me?"

Without letting his words get to her, Amu pushed back and struck again. This time, she grazed his left shoulder. "I suggest you fight with your blades rather than your mouth. I'll cut your tongue out if that'll help you concentrate."

Tadase blocked another one of her moves before moving back and away to circle her slowly. He used this chance to check the damage she'd done to his arm, but like her wrist the cut wasn't deep enough to do any real damage. Just like she had done, Tadase ignored the small, bleeding scratch.

Amu knew that he was only giving himself a break so she let him back off for a few moments. The blond didn't rest, however, his mouth instantly started running again. "Amu, Amu, Amu. I could have given you everything. All of heaven and earth, but you had to throw it away for some idiotic human boy."

"I want nothing you have to offer."

A smile that could have melted the heart of any girl, except Amu who thought he looked rather stupid, crossed Tadase's face as he shrugged off her harsh words. "You do realize that when I win, not only will you belong to me, but I'll make you watch as I kill him."

She didn't want his words to get to her, but they did. The thought of someone, especially the idiot before her, hurting Ikuto spurned her to no end. Amu didn't think as she started her next attack. "You will never touch him or me!"

Tadase's plan to back up to prevent the fight didn't last long as Amu lunged across the room to strike. Knives once again stopped the sword. Then Amu realized what he was trying to do. Tadase was purposely leading her towards the door to leave the transportation room. If she got lured out of the room then she'd be trapped in heaven. The chances of her making it back to that room after chasing him out of it were slim. Not only was that, but the whole purpose of fighting there to make the room unusable. If she left it now other angels could use it to follow the humans and angels that she was working so hard to protect.

Thinking fast, the pinkette backed up again so that she was further from the door. "To think that I wasted my time making sure that you would see me kissing him. Now I know that all I have to do is talk about how much I love him. How much he means the world to me. That makes you angry enough to do stupid stuff. Good thing I won't have to worry about it ever again."

If she was trying to piss him off, it was working. Tadase ground the words that came out of his mouth through his teeth. "Oh and why is that?"

Amu smirked as she swiped her fiery blade through the air before her in a threatening manner. "Because I'm going to kill you."

Tadase couldn't hold back any longer. Screaming his rage as he lunged at her, their blades clanged together before Amu was thrown back a few steps by the force of Tadase's attack. She tried to regain her footing, but the blond didn't let her. His second attack sent her falling backwards and with a flick of his dagger; her sword flew out of her hand and disappeared into the air. Her concentration was broken by the sight of the point of his dagger in her face. Amu couldn't have lost.

XXX

No matter how he tried and how he begged, he was told no. They wouldn't even let him stay in the forest. Tsukasa didn't explain the reasoning to him just once, but many times over and over again as Ikuto asked to be let outside. Being alone in their underground hideout would have been easier for the lonely teen, but no. He had to be surrounded by couples. Tsukasa was the only one there without a lover, besides the worried boy, and he claimed it was by choice because his beloved was in another country so she wouldn't be caught by the Council.

"Just let me go out for a walk."

Tsukasa sighed for the thousandth time. "You know why we can't do that. If I let you out, they could follow your movements and even though they can't see us in here, they'd know we were here. Not to mention the fact that heaven would figure out that I can make these barriers."

Without acknowledging that he'd heard what the older man (angel) had said, Ikuto walked away. It wasn't like he wanted to be moping and no matter how many times Kairi and Yaya explained to him that time worked differently between heaven and earth, he couldn't help but wonder why it was taking Amu so long to come back. They said they couldn't be sure exactly how much time was passing while he was down in the hideout, but they were certain that it wasn't more than a day or two. Ikuto was forced to wait longer than a week without hearing a word from his beloved and it didn't look as though that was going to change anytime soon.

There was nothing more that Ikuto wanted, besides his pinkette, than to get out of their little underground home and walk out in the fresh air. Before he'd met Amu, Ikuto had always spent plenty of time wandering around his town. The boy just loved walking; he didn't have to be going anywhere in particular. Despite the size of their new found home, Ikuto was bored of walking down the same hallways. Nothing ever changed. He supposed it wouldn't be so bad if Amu was there, but every time he thought about the angel that had risked her life for them all he got depressed.

Kukai and Utau had learned rather quickly to just let Ikuto alone. Yaya and Kairi were busy with their preparations of getting everything and anything ready for their friends return and Nagi and Rima had yet to leave each other's company for any reason. The purple haired angel never let the blonde human go, not that she minded.

Ikuto passed Nagi and Rima in the hall. They were probably on their way to their room and he was just wandering, again. They acknowledged each other by making eye contact but they didn't exchange words. Ikuto knew that they felt responsible for Amu's absence considering the whole reason they decided to go to heaven was to retrieve Nagi for Rima. He didn't bother to tell them that Amu also used the opportunity to show Tadase just how much she loved Ikuto. He also didn't personally blame them for anything. Every decision that Amu made was her own. That was a hard fact for Ikuto to understand, but at least he knew that he couldn't blame anyone else for what was happening. If only she'd hurry up and come back.

Turning the corner, Ikuto took himself away from everyone else as he walked down another familiar hall.

XXX

It was the mixture of Tadase thinking that he'd won and the last second intervention of Lala. The angel that Amu hardly knew, who had now stood up for her on several occasions, happened to enter the room with her bow fitted with an arrow and shot it directly at the smirking angel holding his dagger in Amu's face. She took the few seconds that he was distracted to wrench the knife from Tadase's hand and plunge it into his chest. The look of shock that crossed his face as he acknowledged the pain and the blade in his torso gave Amu a weird sense of satisfaction. She let him crumple to his side and hold his hands just over the blade's handle.

Lala raced across the room to help the pinkette up to her feet. "Amu, I came as soon as I heard. The Council did an emergency shut down. The portal has been closed. You're trapped here."

The tired angel took a few moments to process what the other girl was trying to tell her. "If they trap me here now, I'll never be allowed to leave. Then Ikuto will die and I'll never see him again. I can't stay."

"I wish I could open it for you but I don't have that sort of power."

Amu ran a hand through her pink hair as she thought over her options. "Lala, how difficult would it be for you to hold the portal open?"

The blonde angel thought it over for a few seconds before nodding. "I might have to sleep for a few days, but I'll manage to hold it long enough for you to get to earth. I don't know how we'll get it open though."

Amu smiled as she stood her ground and faced the controls. "Leave that to me. I'll open it and if you hold it for me, I'll go. Hold it as long as you can."

Taking a step back due to her shock, Lala couldn't believe her ears. "Even you don't have the power it takes to open the portal and travel through it, even if I am holding it open for you. Don't risk it Amu!"

"For him, I'd risk anything. Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be. Be careful, Amu. Enjoy life with him."

The pinkette only smiled before she summoned every ounce of strength she still had after her duel with Tadase. She focused all of her power to make the transportation devices begin working once more.

"You're doing it, Amu! That's perfect. Just a little bit more and I'll be able to hold it!"

With the other girl's encouragement, Amu slammed all of her strength into her task and opened the portal. A wide oval of light appeared in one of the transportation slots and Lala jumped forwards to look as though she was holding the oval open. Amu didn't waste a second as she threw herself into it and just focused on getting back to earth.

Lala watched her go and held the opening long enough so that the other angel would make it through before she collapsed onto the floor, asleep before she ever hit it.

.

Morg: :D

Ikuto: Does this mean that we have to wait until the next chapter to see if she makes it or not?

Amu: I'm sure that I do.

Morg: Yep!

Ikuto: I suppose you should review then, readers.

Amu: You don't have to.

Morg: DO IT!