Amu

"We're done!" I declared happily.

The sets were complete, finally. The square in Verona, Juliet's chambers, and the friar's quarters, were all finally complete. Lucky that I'm a better artist than I was a couple years ago, so I could help Nagihiko with the detailing while the others finished everything else.

"So I guess that's it?" Rima asked brusquely, wiping her hands off on the huge white shirt she'd worn over her clothes to protect them.

"They look very nice," Tadase said happily.

"Aw, thanks!" I smiled at him, and he blushed adorably. Wait, what?

"I'm out," Ikuto said immediately, and stood to leave.

'Oh, no, you don't!" Utau lunged and snatched his arm, preventing him from doing so. "You're going to help us clean up. Anyone up for dinner?" Utau called.

"Oh, yeah!" Yaya leapt to her feet and glomped Utau. "Can we? Can we? And then get ice cream later!"

"Down, girl." Utau plucked at Yaya's fingers. My overly-hyper friend squealed and let go, only to fall into Kairi's waiting arms. Immediately she froze and squeaked, going stiff and straight as he pulled her down into a sitting position.

"That does sound nice," Rima mused.

"We have school tomorrow, though," Nade-chan spoke up. The rest of us stared at her.

"Queen," Ikuto coughed, and Nade gave him such a terrifying look he actually stayed silent.

Wow. I could really get used to having Nade-chan around all the time.

"I'll be good," Kukai shrugged.

Kairi spoke up. "So will I. And Yaya."

"I'll have to call my parents," Nagi spoke up.

"Oh, yeah!" I smacked my forehead. "I should, too!"

"It's settled, then," Utau said calmly. "Everyone who needs to, call home, and then we'll go eat dinner at... How about that French restaurant down on Fifth street?"

"Oh!" I gasped. "My parents took me there once, they have really good lobster!" My friends stared at me. "What?"

"Just a tease," The creature rasped, raising a clawed hand and pointing at a tiny child, giggling and laughing as he played with one of his toys, a young mother watching him with pure love and adoration in her eyes. Immediately the toddler cried out in pain, collapsing on the ground, twitching horribly. A pitch black X-Egg, radiating powerful violet energies, rose out of the child's heart and floated in front of the creature. "Let's play." The thing giggled.

Giving the X-Egg a ghastly smile, beckoning towards it with a spidery finger, he whispered, "Hurt them."

The X-Egg sped off into the evening, across the city lights into the distance.

Unnoticed by the demon, hidden in the shadows, a man smiled.

"That was so good!" I burbled happily. "I haven't had French food in a long time."

"Ah, I'm so sleepy now!" Kukai held his arms behind his head, yawning.

"Geez, you're such a kid," Utau groaned.

The russet-haired boy smiled mischievously and leaned towards the idol, smirking slightly. "You called me a kid again," He whispered into her ear. "You're not supposed to call me a kid. Now you get your punishment. Do you remember what it is?"

Utau flushed bright pink, something I'd rarely seen happen before, and muttered. "Stop it. We're in public."

He pressed his lips against her cheekbone. "And?"

She smacked him with the back of her hand. "Stop that!"

"I will if you kiss me," He said happily, pulling her into his arms.

Ikuto cleared is throat, giving Kukai a rather scary look. "Ahem..." Kukai gulped nervously and stepped away from Utau. "We should probably get home now. It's getting late."

"Oh my goodness, Hell has frozen over," Rima declared. "Ikuto's being responsible!"

The blue-haired man scowled. "Go make out with Girly-Boy."

"Eh, I should get home, soon, though," I said regretfully.

"Us, too," Nagi nodded, motioning to Nade-chan. "I have dance practice, and Nade-chan..." He glanced at his twin. "What are you doing?"

She shrugged. "Nothing, really. I—" Her eyes widened in horror. "OH MY GOD!"

"What? What is it?" I turned to see what she was looking at, and gasped. "An X-Egg!"

Floating above our heads was a large black egg with a white X emblazoned across it, exuding negative energy so powerful the light and happiness seemed to have drained from the world around me.

Useless... Useless... The X-Egg wailed.

"I haven't seen one of those in years," Kukai stared at the black, floating egg.

"Amu!" Rima shouted.

"Yeah! Ran!" I shouted.

"Hai!"

My own heart... unlock!

With a burst of energy and the sensation of weight being lifted from my heart and body, the Humpty Lock shining a fierce pink, I popped into my character transformation with Ran, Amulet Heart. Beside me, Rima had become Clown Drop.

"Let's help!" Someone shouted from behind me. I could barely hear who it was over the cacophony of noise coming from this X-Egg.

With a blast of purple light, the X-Egg gave off an explosion like a bomb, strong energy shoving at us from all direction like a ruthless wind.

"Ahh!" I landed hard on the ground, scraping my arms and legs. I struggled to get to my feet, ignoring the thin cuts and scrapes on m skin where blood was flowing freely.

"Kiseki!" Tadase shouted behind me. "Unlock my heart!"

A sparkle of energy, and Tadase was Platinum Royale. "White Decoration!" He yelled, thrusting his staff into the air.

The X-Egg was trapped in a swath of light, struggling violently. To everyone's astonishment, the energy from the X-Egg swelled and mixed into the golden light from Tadase's Golden Staff, turning the golden energy into a nasty purple. With a scream, the egg gave off another explosion of negative energy.

"Go! Go! Little Duckies!" A flood of little rubber ducks surrounded the X-Egg, before being blown to bits and scattered by the X-Egg's power.

"What is with this thing?" I yelled. "Why is it so strong?! Miki!" Switching into Amulet Spade, I twirled the brush in my hand and hollered, "Colorful Canvas!" The X-Egg gave off another explosion and dispersed my attempt.

"Musashi!" Kairi drew his sword and cried, "Inazuma Blade!"

The X-Egg absorbed the lines of pure, arching lightning, and gave off another explosion, now tinged with electricity and the smell of acrid in the air.

"Heart's Desire!"

Heart's Desire?

"White Euphoria!"

What the heck?

From behind me a figure dressed in pink and white flashed above me, shooting balls of white fire at the X-Egg, which dodged the flames with a shriek. The flames ricocheted off a wall and hit Kukai full in the face, who started giggling and prancing around like an idiot.

"Whoops!"

USELESS! The X-Egg, to everyone's horror, began to swell, rowing in size into it was absolutely huge, as if collecting all the broken dreams and negative thoughts and use them to its advantage.

"Dia!" I bellowed, and transformed into Amulet Diamond. "Twinkle Shield!"

With a burst, the energy surrounding the X-Egg burst and shoved violently against my shield as I leapt to cover my friends. Trying desperately to shield the others and brace myself, I held out for another second before cracks appeared in my shield, and it shattered.

"Ahh!" I was tossed to the ground like a limp rag doll.

"Lightning Blade!" Kairi called, at the same time Rima shouted, "Juggling Party!"

The X-Egg screamed, Useless! and attempted to escape, but was trapped by crackling electricity and juggling pins that swirled around it.

"Amu!" Someone cried.

"Negative Heart... lock on!" I shouted. "Open Heart!"

The X-Egg shone a sparkling white, a heart's egg cleansed of its X, and flew away into the night.

With a pop, I turned back, panting slightly. "That was crazy!"

Tadase nodded, flashing back from Platinum Royale. "That's very strange. An X-Egg hasn't been sighted in years, let alone one of such power."

"Why would one just show up now?" Rima asked.

"Maybe it's just a fluke," Utau tried to calm the rest of us down. "We haven't exactly been looking for them, one just showing could happen."

"I suppose so, but what are the odds?" Ikuto frowned. "We would've come across more earlier, right? And one that powerful, too."

"X-Eggs scare me a little," Yaya said nervously, her chara-nari gone.

Kairi pushed up his glasses. "Should we look into this?"

"Calm down, guys," Nade-chan said reassuringly, still in her chara-transformation.

Wait... what?

"Nade-chan, you can transform?" I exclaimed.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. My chara-nari is called Heart's Desire." She curtsied. Dressed in a plain white apron over a soft pink kimono with her hair tied back simply, with a tiny white dove pinned just above her ear.

"I didn't know you could do that!" Nagi said incredulously. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't know it was important." Nade-chan was alarmed. "I didn't know you guys could do it, too."

"Sure," I said, surprised. "With Ran, I'm Amulet Heart, with Miki, Amulet Spade, Amulet Clover with Su, Amulet Diamond with Dia... and I guess Amulet Fortune, technically, with all four of them together."

Nade-chan's eyes were wide. "You can transform with all four of your guardian characters?"

"I only did it once, and that was a really long time ago," I said.

"I'm Dear Baby with Pepe," Yaya volunteered.

"Surprise, surprise," Nade-chan muttered.

"I'm Samurai Soul." Kairi nodded, pushing up his glasses.

Rima shrugged, "Clown Drop."

Kukai laughed. "Sky Jack. I didn't think I could do that again, actually, I've only done it, like, once or twice."

"I used to be Lunatic Charm and Seraphic Charm with mine," Utau said wistfully.

"An angel and a devil," Nade-chan mused. "Interesting.

Ikuto smiled. "Midnight Cross. And..." He hesitated. "Death Rebel, and technically Seven Seas Treasure."

"Seven Seas Treasure? Like, a pirate?"

Ikuto raised an eyebrow. Dammit! Seriously, why can everybody else do that and not me?! "Your point?"

Nade-chan hid a smile. "Nothing, nothing."

"Platinum Royale," Tadase said shyly.

Nade-chan giggled. "You sure had a lot of bows and frills on you. All white. A crown and a scepter, too. What's that about?"

"Sh-Shut up!"

"But, so you can transform?" I insisted.

"What can you do?" Rima was interested. "I guess you already saw what we can do, but what about you?"

"Ah, just a few things. Um... Like Permanent Dream, or White Euphoria. And, um, Sweet Influence."

"What are those?"

"...Um, well, Permanent Dream is... it's a blast of power that traps all X-Eggs within a ten-foot radius. But I rarely use it, because all the X-Eggs that are trapped in the radius are crushed if they aren't cleansed soon enough. And... White Euphoria is a cleansing move, like what Amu did, except it's white flames that come from my hands that I throw at them. And... I'm not a very good shot," She said sheepishly. "And then Sweet Influence gives me total and complete control of everyone and everything around me. But it only lasts like ten seconds, because it takes up a lot of energy."

I jump up and down a little. "That's pretty awesome, though!"

"Anyways," Nade-chan continued, blushing, "It's only one, right? Is that unusual? Because if it is, we should look into it, but if not, then we can probably just forget it."

"That sounds good," Tadase agreed. For some reason, I felt funny that he'd been the first to agree. Probably just my dinner in my stomach.

"Right," Nagi agreed. Rima nodded.

"The X-Egg was really powerful," Su hid behind her hands.

Ran shivered. "Normal X-Eggs aren't supposed to be that powerful."

"It looked normal, but it held a lot of negative energy," Dia said. "To accommodate that much power, the X-Egg should have been much bigger, but it wasn't. It was like a regular X-Egg got a boost of caffeine."

"We can't worry about this now, we don't have any time to go looking for answers," Ikuto crossed his arms. "Let's just stick with the plan."

"That'll work for now." Kairi bowed his head. "I suppose, then, we should part. But, keep an eye out for more X-Eggs, just in case."

"Also, did you guys see how it worked best when two of us were attacking at the same time?" I asked. "If we fight another X-Egg, it'd be best to team up into pairs. Two attacks at once seems to work."

Rima's brow furrowed. "Otherwise we get overwhelmed."

"Right," I nodded. "Let's go home."

Immediately Yaya raced off, calling, "Bye, guys!" behind her, before any of us knew what was happening. Kairi glowered after her.

"I should go. See you, guys!" I waved, then turned to run.

"I'll carry you." Ikuto swept me up into his arms and began running, leaping onto a stone wall and running gracefully. Which was so unfair, he didn't even have Yoru to help him and he was still just like a cat!

"PUT ME DOWN!" I yelled, squirming.

"Now, now Amu," Ikuto scolded. "I'm not going to drop you from a height of ten feet."

I looked down to the ground, which was so far away I felt dizzy. "Take me home, take me home, take me home," I whimpered, clinging to the front of his shirt.

After what seemed like way too long a time above the ground, Ikuto leapt onto my front porch and set me down gently.

"Thanks," I muttered, turning to hurry inside. One glance at my watch told me I was already late.

"Wait, Amu." I turned, and Ikuto lifted my chin up, planting a kiss on my lips.

I felt my cheeks heat up. 'N—N—" I spluttered against his mouth, attempting to hit him hard on the head, but gave up, wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him back as warmth flooded my chest.

He released me, smiling softly, and pulled me in for a hug, resting his cheek on the top of my head. "Amu..."

"Y-Yes?" I stuttered, heart beating wildly, holding Ikuto's shirt in my fists in a desperate attempt to stay upright as my legs had decided to give out.

"I lo—"

With a bang, my door flew open, and I shrieked and leapt back from Ikuto. "AMU!" My dad raced towards me and squeezed the air out of me. "You're home!" He set me down and sent a malevolent glare at Ikuto. "Who's this? What is he doing here?"

"Dad!" I was appalled.

My mother appeared at the door, smiling. "Calm down, Tsumugu-chan. It's just a boy."

"NO! My little Amu-chan isn't allowed to have a boyfriend!"

I sweat-dropped. "You were fine with Tadase."

"That's because he was innocent and obviously like a brother to you! Who knows what this suspicious character will do to you?!"

"He's not wrong," Ikuto murmured in my ear.

"You're not helping! And he's not my boyfriend!"

"But we've gone out on dates several times," Ikuto pouted.

"Yeah, like four years ago!" I protested, and turned back to my father, who was surrounded by flames. "Uh-oh..."

Somehow a large baseball bat had appeared out of nowhere in my dad's hands. "ATTAAAACK!" He roared, and leapt towards Ikuto.

"Bye, Amu!" Ikuto kissed my cheek and began to run away, waving cheerfully at me as my dad chased after him, waving the bat like a maniac and leaving a trail of fire in his wake.

My mother sighed. "Welcome home, Amu-chan."