VII

"Let me see too!" Ami insisted, reaching out for the latter with grabby hands.

Amu raised the letter over her head so Ami couldn't reach it. There was no way Ami could see this. Even if she didn't understand what it meant, she'd probably find a way to ask Amu's parents. She turned away from Ami, trying her best to keep the poor kid away as she shoved the note back into the envelope and hurriedly planting it under her pillow, throwing herself on the bed and leaning against the pillow when Ami tried to make another grab at it.

"It's nothing important, Ami," she said bleakly. "Go play on the computer or something."

Ami pouted, but it quickly faded. "Aw, that's not fair! Whatever. I was getting bored anyway."

Fortunately, Ami ran out of the bedroom, giggling for a reason Amu didn't understand. After a minute or so, Amu stood up and closed the door, locking it just to be safe. She made her way back to her bed and pulled out the letter from under the pillow. Chewing on her lip, she sat at her desk and opened the letter again.

She read it over, again and again, as if reading it repeatedly would make it less of a problem. Rather, it made it more of a problem. After reading it for the fifth time, she finally concluding several, obvious things. One, this was a threat. Two, it was definitely by Saaya. Lastly,…she was screwed. The letter read:

"Hinamori Amu,
I'm watching you.
If I ever catch you with Tadase again…
Let's just say you'll never see the light of day again.
Signed, YS."

This was a real problem. Saaya was dead serious in wanting to kill Amu. She hurriedly opened one of her drawers and threw the note, envelope and all, inside, as if to help her pretend it never happened.

It didn't help. With how many times she read it, the words were embedded into her mind. She slammed the drawer shut and fled to her bed, using her comforter to…comfort her. That wasn't helping either.

"No, this can't be happening." She curled up into a ball, hugging her knees as she lay on her side.

After lying there for a couple minutes, admittedly letting out a few tears, she poked her head from under her covers and grabbed her cell phone from her bedside table. The only thing she could do was ask for help. She took a deep breath and dialled a phone number, her hands shaking as she fumbled to hit the right numbers, praying she got it right.

She chewed on her lip as she waited for someone to pick up. She was trembling. Having given up on holding it against her ear, her hands shaking too much, she put it on speaker, prayed no one was eavesdropping outside of her room, and placed the phone in front of her on the bed.

The phone rang three times before a familiar voice answered. Amu felt like crying right there. Neither of her personalities could handle this situation well. Still, she sucked in a breath and tried to keep her voice steady.

"Tadase-kun..? It's Amu." she managed

Tadase's relieved and happy sounding voice echoed through the room. "Ah, Amu-chan! Good evening! I assume you got home okay?"

Amu nodded but remembered she was on the phone and that Tadase wouldn't be able to hear a nod. "Uh...yeah." she hesitated. Despite having called to tell Tadase in the first place…she was doubting herself. "But…"

"But…? What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Amu pursed her lips, gazing towards her desk. "Um, yes. C-can we meet somewhere? There's something…that I want to show you."

Tadase paused as if thinking. White noise replaced the line until he finally spoke. "Sure. I'm free in about 20 minutes. Where did you want to meet?"

Amu thought for a second. "Uhm. Can it be somewhere…private? I don't want people to be around us because…um well...you'll see."

"Ah…sure. We'll go up to the roof then. I'll meet you in front of the school then." Amu could hear the confusion in Tadase's voice.

Amu didn't even realize students could go on the roof without permission. Regardless, she managed to agree; Tadase was the headmaster's son, so he'd be able to get away with anything. She said her goodbyes and hung up, deciding to get changed into something more comfortable, just in time for her mother to call her for dinner.

She finished eating as fast as she could when she realized it took her 5 minutes to get dressed and therefore had to finish dinner in at least 10 minutes. Her parents watched her in awe as she shovelled down her food, announced she was done, then promptly said she was going out. And then within the blink of an eye, she threw the hood of her sweater up, jumped into some slip on shoes, and was out of the house in seconds.

The letter was already in the pocket of her magenta hoodie, albeit a little squished. Without a second thought, she sprinted towards the school, trying to push aside her paranoia by telling herself she couldn't be recognized with her hood on. She kept her head down the entire time, just to be sure. It wasn't very efficient for looking out for possible 'enemies' but at least her face was kind of hidden.

As expected from Tadase, the blond was already waiting by the gates of the school. He had what looked like a set of keys in his hand so they could get inside the school. How he got them from his father was beyond her though. Amu had never felt so relieved to see someone she knew she could trust. She almost wanted to hug him but managed to hold back, not wanting to make things awkward for him. Instead, she stopped in front of him, panting heavily.

"S-sorry." she stammered breathlessly. "It took five minutes to get dressed, and then my mom called us for dinner."

Tadase smiled. "Don't worry. You're not late. I just like to be early. By the way, your 'stealth' outfit looks very cute."

He nodded at the magenta hoodie with long bunny looking ears. Amu scratched her head, her face heating up slightly. She tried to play it off and just watched as Tadase pushed the gates open (why were they still unlocked?) and led Amu towards the school grounds, unlocking the front door so they could enter, closing it carefully and locking them again. Amu wanted to believe it was for her own safety.

She followed Tadase in silent. She'd never been in the school after everyone was gone. It was a little eerie. They passed multiple empty classrooms, some still had notes from the last class of the day. Soon, they stopped at a door labelled 'Roof', which Amu probably should have noticed before.

Tadase fiddled with the key ring he had and used a key to unlock the door. They walked up about a dozen stairs, before coming up to another door, which was obviously also locked. Tadase unlocked that as well, holding it open for Amu. Amu stepped out into the cool evening air. It somehow felt colder than it was when she had left the house.

She walked towards the edge, careful of how far she leaned and looked around. The view almost made her forget about her task at hand. "Wow, so pretty!"

Amu was referring to the view, obviously. And while Tadase agreed, he may or not have been referring to Amu instead. He was long used to the view by now. He digressed, though. He smiled softly and stood next to Amu, turning his head to look at her, quickly changing to a more serious expression upon remembering what Amu had called him for.

"So, what did you want to show me?" he asked, studying Amu's face. "You seemed a little off on the phone."

Amu sighed, leaning her arms against the railing as she looked over the edge at the ground below. Despite calling Tadase for the purpose of talking about the letter, she'd been trying to forget about it. She turned around, suddenly feeling lightheaded from the height, leaning her back against the railing instead. Tadase followed her movement with his eyes.

"When I walked into my house…Ami came down and told me there was a letter on my bed." Amu said as calmly as she could, her hand reaching into her pocket to take the letter out. "This is the letter… I don't know how it got on my bed, but I don't want to look at it anymore."

She handed Tadase the letter. He read over the letter carefully, his eyes widening with every word. "Oh my God…" His hand accidentally curled into a fist and crushed the paper in his hand. 'Accidentally.' "This is...troublesome."

Amu nodded meekly. "What should we do, Tadase-kun…? S-should we just…start avoiding each other? But she might get suspicious…" she frowned slightly.

Tadase paused to think. "Well, the obvious answer is to talk to a counsellor and get Saaya reported anonymously."

There was a long awkward silence. The only sound was the occasional whistling of the wind. Amu was back to staring at the city-line. trying her best to not cry. Or at least make sure Tadase didn't see her cry. She knew was stronger than that. But for someone to go so far? Amu wasn't sure how much more she could handle without breaking. Maybe it was the wind, or maybe she was actually crying, but her vision blurred with tears. A drop of water slid down her cheek.

"Amu-chan…?" Tadase placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you crying?"

Amu shook her head, hurriedly rubbing her eyes. "N-no. It's just…the wind…"

Amu realized how lame of an excuse that sounded the moment it came out of her mouth. Tadase turned Amu to face him, placing his hands on both of her shoulders, to make her look at him. Amu sniffled slightly, which made blaming the wind sound even more like an excuse. Tadase's hand moved to wipe away more tears that formed in Amu's eyes.

"Amu-chan, it's okay. Don't worry," he said quietly and calmly. "You're not going to die, and we're going to fix this. Saaya's probably just bullshitting you, trying to scare you."

Amu managed a nod, rubbing her eyes again. "But…what if you get hurt because of this? I'd feel bad if your first impression of me was 'that chick who got you hurt because of your ex'…"

Tadase shook his head. "My first impression of you has nothing to do with what might happen. I already have my first impression of you anyways. Plus, Saaya wouldn't sink as low as hurting her ex. I know she still has feelings for me. But after all this, I'm positive I don't like her at all anymore."

Amu looked at him, tilting her head. "Does that mean you like someone else then…?"

Tadase stared at Amu incredulously. He hadn't expected a question like that. He let go of her quickly and turned away, rubbing his nape. "I, uh… I don't know yet. There is someone I have my eye on…but I'm not sure if I like-like them yet."

Amu blinked, confused by Tadase's reaction, but shrugged it off. "Well, it's none of my business who you like anyway. As long as we both agree Saaya's a bitch." she laughed dryly, vaguely aware of sudden vertigo she was feeling.

Tadase glanced back at Amu, glad she didn't press the issue and nodded. He slowly turned back to face her. Tadase wasn't sure if he was seeing things, but Amu looked awfully pale suddenly. He reached forward again to touch her shoulder.

"Amu-chan…?" he narrowed his eyes slightly. "Are you feeling alright? You look pale…"

Right after he asked that Amu's eyes closed and she collapsed in his arms. Tadase stared down at her with wide eyes, panicking slightly. He shook her gently, hoping it would wake her up. When there was no response, he quickly picked her up and brought her down to the infirmary, not wanting to bother the nurses at the hospital so soon.

A/N: Hello! I'm back with a new chapter~ I'm glad at least some people are reading this. To be honest, I was looking up Tadamu fanfics and they're so scarce lately, which is sad. I get the anime is like 7 or so years old at this point (holy crap), but there's gotta be some fans, new or old. I guess you could say I'm one of the OG Tadamu shippers haha- /slapped. Anyways, I digress. To those reading these stories, thank you. I'm happy you all like my writing. I'll keep writing these as long as I still have people favouriting/reviewing/etc.