Chapter 21

The next day started off normally enough. He went to school as usual, meeting Amu half way down the road. She thanked him again for finding Su and throughout the day kept a closer eye on her whimsical chara. They also met Amu's little fan along the way, and Harry was a bit concerned when he appeared to be let down even though he was walking right next to his idol. When Harry asked him what was wrong the boy confided in him that his dog had gone missing.

When the classes ended Amu told him not to wait for her, and left for the Royal Garden. Lately she'd felt secure enough to go there on her own. It was probably the result of the sleepover she'd had with Nadeshiko. They seemed closer now. He was happy for that, that she at least had one good friend there, though the other Guardians seemed protective of her as well.

After that he went home. And that was when things progressed differently.

Sirius pinched the bridge of his nose. "So what you're saying is..." he opened his previously tightly shut eyes to glare at Harry. "Yesterday you went shopping for Christmas decorations with Amu and her little club mates..." His eye ticked, "And you didn't once think about buying something for us. Even though. We. Have. No. Christmas decorations!" He yelled out the last words, making Harry cringe in shame. His charas cowered behind him. Even Ricky, who was supposed to be the courageous one. Traitors.

"Sirius, you're being overly dramatic again," Remus commented calmly, sparing them only a brief glance as he turned a page in his book. Sirius whirled around quickly, fixing his glare on his lover. Harry thought he looked a lot like Snape when he did that, but chose to keep his mouth shut. He was in enough trouble already.

"Am I?" the animagi asked threateningly. He pointed at Harry and made a complicated gesture with his hands, appearing frustrated. Remus sighed and stood up to face Sirius properly. He was relaxed and wore casual clothing. Harry still sometimes got a happy and proud feeling when he compared it to the way he'd been before.

"How about this then?" He closed his book and leaned over to place it on the table. "What if we go shopping together?" he suggested logically. "That way we can all get something of our own taste and everyone will be happy."

Sirius gaped, completely gob-smacked. Harry looked at him hopefully, his charas daring to peek out from behind his shoulder. Would that really work?

"That's a brilliant idea!" Sirius exclaimed, looking between the two other wizards and beaming proudly.

"So you're not mad?" Harry asked cautiously, not quite sure if the danger was gone. You never knew with Sirius.

Sirius shook his head and patted in godson's hair, not noticing his wince, "You're still an idiot, but it was beneficial this time, so I guess it's alright."

With that out of the way his charas flew out from their hiding place and started chattering excitedly, making plans or what they wanted to buy. Sirius laughed merrily, as if the last few minutes hadn't happened at all.

"We should get a tree as well," Remus mused quietly, drawing the attention of the others.

"Ah! And presents!" Ricky added, the other charas nodding to show their agreement. Harry wondered if he should get a present for Ikuto as well. Something small, perhaps something to do with magic. Ikuto had been fascinated by what he'd been shown already. He could even invite him for-

No. He was getting too carried away. His mate had a life of his own. A family. Even if he didn't really like his step-father all that much and tried to avoid his sister for most of the time. They would still probably spend Christmas together. Maybe. And anyway, it was still too early to be thinking about all that yet.

"Shall we go right now?" he asked to get away from his thoughts.

"Yeah!" Sirius turned his puppy eyes on Remus. "We should go right now?" Remus laughed at his enthusiasm, but that was to be expected. This was officially the first Christmas they had with only the three of them, as a real family.

"Okay, okay, we'll go right now."

Ikuto held up the X-Egg in his hand, studying it carefully. He hated looking at it. The negative energy felt nauseating; it felt wrong, all wrong, it wasn't supposed to be like this. He knew Harry could turn it back, had seen him doing it. But Harry wasn't here, and he couldn't do anything else. He had to break it. That felt wrong too.

He contemplated doing a chara change to make it easier, but that wouldn't help. Yoru represented his want for freedom. He couldn't use it to destroy somebody else's, probably somebody innocent, just a random kid's, freedom to be themselves.

"What are you waiting for, it's not hard. Do it quickly so we can go home already." His sister. This was why couldn't do anything else. She was the reason he had to destroy it. And he would. Just to bring them one step closer to their own freedom. Or was it one step farther? Sometimes he couldn't tell the difference between the two.

"Ikuto!" He turned his head sharply, seeing the form of Harry (and his guardians, both of them holding bags stuffed to the brim in both hands, but they weren't all that important to Ikuto right now). Harry looked like he usually did when he was outside the house, which meant the huge bag he was carrying needed to be held by both of his tiny hands. Well, they were tiny when compared to the hands he had as a nineteen year old.

Ikuto was glad he was in his younger body. That meant he could avoid the headache of Utau seeing Harry in his older form and later seeing him in his younger form, which seemed like too much trouble. He wouldn't even begin to know how he could possibly explain it.

"Harry," He responded, pushing the troubling thoughts away, the relief he felt at not having to crush the egg seeping through to his voice. Utau looked between them questioningly, a frown marring her beautiful face. She didn't know about Harry, didn't know that he had been spending most of his free time being with him. He hadn't told her. He hadn't wanted to.

Harry finally noticed Utau by his side, his smile faltering before coming back full force, if a little more strained, "We didn't expect to see you here. Who's this?" He asked curiously, and didn't waste time being subtle about it either.

Ah. Of course. Harry didn't know what Utau looked like, so he had no way of knowing that this was her. It would be too much to make the connection that quickly. His sister stayed quiet, scrutinizing the new people with narrowed eyes. She was probably already suspicious of them.

"Harry, this is Utau." He didn't bother saying anything more. Harry would understand. And he did, his eyes going wide in recognition. Ikuto had told Harry about his sister, had just recently gone to him when Utau officially became Easter and started dong their dirty work. Too young, they'd said before, not enough experience and not useful enough. No matter that their mother had tied them to the company a long while ago already. And now she was useful, using her chara change to extract X-eggs with her singing.

"Oh." Harry appeared distracted as he catalogued her appearance. She barely came up to Ikuto's shoulder, but was still a bit taller than Harry. He paused at her eyes, the same shade as Ikuto's, and at the cross necklace, identical to the one around Ikuto's neck. Subtle signs, but there all the same.

"And you are?" Utau asked pompously, taking a step closer to them as well as to Ikuto. He was a bit suspicious about the fact that Nikaidou hadn't told her about Harry, or probably about Amu neither. What could he be planning?

"This is Harry, and his guardians Sirius Black and Remus Lupin," Ikuto introduced, ignoring his sister's look of confusion at the different surnames. "We're friends." Utau was certainly surprised, if he were to go by the look on her face. And why shouldn't she be? Harry was the same age as Tadase, but after that awful time he didn't like to think about, Utau had been the youngest person he associated with, and she knew that.

Harry didn't pay her odd expression any mind and seemed to finally notice the X-egg in Ikuto's hand, putting down his bag and stepping forward in concern. "Do you want me to take care of that for you?"

"Hmm?" Ikuto lifted the egg higher with a disinterested air. "If you want," he said finally, looking as if it didn't matter either way. In reality this was exactly what he wanted, what he had hoped would happen.

"You can go on ahead and get the tree," Harry said to the older men beside him. Sirius took Harry's bag with a smirk, playfully ruffling his hair. "Have fun." Then they nodded their goodbye to the teens and left.

"So!" Harry clapped his hands in excitement. Utau looked on in bemusement as Harry did his character transformation with Sal, the most surprising thing about it being the snake that formed around his shoulders, and purified the egg. The light it emitted was a little too bright for Ikuto, so he had to look away for a moment. The egg turned back to its original white colour and flew out of Ikuto's hand to its rightful owner.

Utau stared at Harry, caught completely by surprise. "What..." She turned to look at Ikuto accusingly. "You're friends with a Guardian?"

Harry laughed. "I'm not a Guardian." He smirked at her, which just made her madder.

"Come on Utau," Ikuto turned his back to them before she could respond and started walking away, not sparing them another glance. Utau hurried after him, glaring over her shoulder at Harry the whole way.

"Bye!" Harry called out cheerfully, making Utau shoot him another nasty look. How had Ikuto known this would happen when they met? Though he had hoped it wouldn't be like this, it was just too predictable. Utau was jealous of anyone who was close to him. It was good that she didn't know how much Harry really meant to him.

"Potter-senpai!" Harry looked up at the call of his name, not all that surprised to see Amu's little fan waving at him. He was the only one who didn't listen to Harry when he said that he would prefer to be called by his given name, but Harry sort of liked it.

"Hiroshi," he greeted cheerfully. The younger boy blushed at the familiar way Harry greeted him, embarrassed. The kid was actually pretty cute, like Utau. Harry wasn't exactly sure what he had thought she would be like, but she was different from how he imagined her. And she was definitely different from Ikuto. "Have you found your dog yet?"

"No," Seichiro answered sadly, looking down at his feet for a moment before looking up in determination. "But I'm going to!" He declared hotly. Harry smiled at him warmly. He seemed like a good kid.

"Why don't I help you?"

"That was quick," Sirius commented with a raised eyebrow when they finally came home, a huge Christmas tree trailing behind them. Harry was already waiting for them and had even made dinner.

"Yeah," Harry answered nonchalantly, helping them with the bags. They would've had more stuff, but most of it was being delivered later. They probably went a little overboard with all the Christmas stuff, but at least they got it out of the way. His charas were already planning where to put everything. They had gotten to chose something for themselves as well and were very excited about it all.

"I would've been quicker if I hadn't bumped into a friend and helped him find his dog." He wasn't actually all that close with Seichiro, but he didn't know what else to call him. "The contact information on his tag had faded."

"That's nice," Sirius said distractedly, making Remus sigh dejectedly. He gave Harry a proud smile.

"Good job. Now, let's eat first and then unpack things after," he said decisively. "I'm hungry." Sirius groaned in agreement and plopped down in his usual seat at the table. Harry laughed at him as Sirius gave a pathetic moan.

"You didn't have to carry three bags plus a large tree," his godfather said with a whine as he loaded up his plate.

"Sorry," Harry said insincerely. Sirius gave him a look, but then let it go as he started eating, Remus following his lead. Harry didn't feel all that hungry, as he was pretty excited as well. He decided to go help his charas until they were done eating and could start the real decorating. This could possibly be the best Christmas ever.