XVI

The conversation on the way to the hospital was light. After Lulu realized what was going on, she hurried after the three, falling into step next to Amu. Lulu, having just joined the situation, was asking way too many questions and Amu was forced to explain everything. Their conversation all the way there was Lulu asking questions and Amu answering them reluctantly.

Tadase was staring at Ikuto as subtly as he could, wondering why he had gone out of his way to save Amu. Until today, Tadase hadn't even realized Amu and Ikuto knew each other. The other thing bothering him was that Ikuto was being unusually…careful towards him. Usually, Ikuto would be ruffling Tadase's hair to annoy him, teasing him about his height or femininity, or flat out ignoring him. Now he was…being like the caring older (step)brother he used to be.

Tadase then snuck a glance over at Amu, who was still explaining everything to a very confused, nosy Lulu. He wanted to talk to her but didn't want to interrupt the two girls' conversation. Instead, he waited patiently until Amu had finished talking, and after Lulu had run out of questions. After a couple of minutes, Tadase reached his free hand to tap on Amu's shoulder lightly.

"Hey, Amu-chan?" he said softly.

Amu looked over at him, tilting her head. "What is it, Tadase-kun?" She seemed relieved to no longer be talking about Saaya and her brash ways.

Tadase smiled sheepishly. "Thanks for trying to treat my wound…"

Amu bit her lip but managed a meek smile. Was it just him or were her cheeks pinker than normal? "It's no problem, Tadase-kun. Really. I just did what I thought was best."

Beside them, Lulu giggled quietly. Both Amu and Tadase gave her a quizzical look but the blonde just shrugged innocently. Lulu's eyes then gazed across Amu and Tadase and towards Ikuto. Amu could tell she was curious about this mysterious looking man. She decided not to say anything and let Lulu figure everything out on her own on that.

Lulu was indeed curious about Ikuto. He seemed completely different from Tadase and clearly wasn't related to Amu either. She wondered how they both knew someone as mysterious and nonchalant as him. He was Lulu's idea of 'tall, dark and handsome', which was probably a weird thing to think since Ikuto was clearly older than them. She pondered Ikuto the rest of the walk.

As the four arrive at the hospital, Amu replaced Ikuto's post at helping Tadase as Ikuto went to find a nurse. Soon a nurse, the one who attended to Amu a couple of days earlier, came rushing towards them after Ikuto went to the front desk to report Tadase's case. She gave Amu a polite smile, who simply nodded in response.

"You must get yourself into a lot of trouble to come in here again." the nurse said half-jokingly, lined with some concern. "Anyways. This young man claims that someone was stabbed?"

Amu nodded slowly, gesturing to Tadase. "He hurt his leg trying to…save me." she smiled grimly. "Oh, and if possible, could you check on my cuts too? After you take care of Ta-" Amu faltered. It felt weird calling Tadase by his first name to a nurse. "After you take care of Hotori-kun, of course."

The nurse nodded, noting Tadase's inability to walk and goes off to find a bed for him. Ikuto and the nurse helped Tadase onto the bed and whisked him off into a room with Amu following next to him and Lulu and Ikuto flanking the three.

In the hospital room, Amu, Ikuto, and Lulu were told to sit outside while the nurse checked on Tadase and made sure he was good to go. While they waited, Lulu leaned into Amu in her seat.

"So…Amu…" Lulu whispered, "Care to introduce me to your…tall mysterious and handsome friend?"

"I don't think that's how the saying goes," Amu responded in a whisper. "You don't mean him, do you?" she jerked her thumb at Ikuto, who was doing something on his phone.

Lulu nodded enthusiastically, gazing at the aforementioned man. Amu shook her head and nudged Ikuto in the ribs. "Hey. Someone wants to know who you are." She was too worried about Tadase to be the middle man right now.

Ikuto looked from Amu to Lulu and shrugged casually. "Hey. 'Sup. I'm Tsukiyomi Ikuto. Tadase's my 'step brother'. In quotes." He finger-quoted for effect but seemed rather indifferent. "My little sister is Hoshina Utau. Yes. The Hoshina Utau. Keep that quiet, please."

Lulu squealed quietly, her icy blue eyes lighting up. "You're Utau-chan's brother?!" she half-shouted, half-whispered.

Ikuto nodded, grateful she didn't actually yell that as loudly as Amu had earlier. "Yep. That's me. What about you? If Amu called you, you must be significant."

Lulu grinned at the chance to introduce herself. "My name is Yamamoto Lulu de Morcerf," she said elegantly. "I was born in France but moved here a bit ago. My dad is a famous chef." she leaned over Amu to whisper to Ikuto, "And, don't tell anyone, but my mom is an actress."

Ikuto just stared at Lulu. He wasn't too big of a fan on how...showoff-y she was but besides that, she seemed harmless. At least compared to Saaya. Amu patted both of their shoulders.

"Look at that. Both of you are from supposedly famous families." She said. "You can bond on that later! Maybe Utau-chan has met your mom, Lulu."

After a few more minutes, the nurse stepped out, having called a doctor to take care of Tadase fully. The nurse looked to Amu expectantly. "Please, follow me to the next room over and I'll check you out too."

Amu nodded and stood up, following the nurse to the room next to the one Tadase was inside. She sat down on the hospital bed and watched the nurse prepare a few things silently,

"Is…is Tadase-kun gonna be okay?" she asked quietly after a moment of silence.

The nurse smiled, reaching for a roll of fresh gauze. "You really care about your friends, don't you?"

Amu nodded slowly. "Of course! They're my friends. I can't just abandon them when they need me!"

The nurse chuckled softly. "That's really sweet of you, you know."

Amu's face turned red at the compliment. "I-I mean it's only natural…"

Amu winced a bit as the nurse went in and applied some disinfectant to the stitched up cut. She set the bottle down. "Sorry, Hinamori-san, it's just to keep your wound from getting infected."

She wrapped the cut on Amu's arm gently with the gauze and taped the gauze down so it wouldn't unravel. After giving Amu's arm a light pat, she moved on to check Amu's hands, changing the gauze on them too. The nurse finished wrapping Amu's hands and Amu stood back up, bowing politely.

"If you keep getting into this much trouble because of a person, maybe you should tell the authorities." the nurse said seriously. "Surely you know what they look like right?"

Amu nodded slowly as the nurse led her out of the room. "Yeah…but I don't have enough proof. I know its not my job but I'd rather know for sure that they get what they deserve. I've watched enough cop shows to know that words are useless. And I can't physically prove this person is the one who hurt me yet."

"Well if you say so." the nurse patted Amu's shoulder gently. "I don't want to see you back here any time soon, okay?"

Amu laughed lightly, a little bitter-sweetly. "Yeah, I'll try my best."

She followed the nurse out of the room to see Ikuto had disappeared; Lulu said he had gone to the front desk for something. The nurse disappeared back into the room behind them to check on Tadase as Amu paced the halls, spotting Ikuto indeed at the front desk. He seemed to be talking to the receptionist.

Ikuto was a really intriguing person. Amu didn't understand him. How he had acted when they first met he'd seemed pretty annoying and abrasive, yet now he was actually helping Amu and Tadase. The bad vibes from earlier were completely gone now.

"What are you looking at, Amu-chan?" Tadase's sudden voice startled Amu.

She jumped and looked at Tadase, who was back, standing behind Amu, not putting much pressure on his injured leg. He looked a lot better then he did when he came in. She smiled slightly, turning from the front desk and directing her full attention to the blond.

"Nothing, nothing," she said with a wider smile. "How are you feeling?"

"A little better," Tadase responded. "I don't know how well I'll be able to walk but if I have to…I'll push through the pain to seem like I'm fine. It'd be hard to explain why I'm walking with a limp or whatever."

Amu frowned. "I understand…but…please don't push yourself too hard. If you're ever in too much pain, I'll do whatever I can to help you."

Tadase smiled sheepishly. "Thanks, Amu-chan…"

"There you are!" Lulu exclaimed, suddenly appearing next to Amu, once again scaring her. "You left so suddenly and quietly, I didn't even notice before I knew it I was alone! And the nurse had said Tadase had followed you."

"Stop doing that, guys!" She complained, barely hearing Lulu's monologue "I swear if Ikuto tries to scare me too…"

Tadase blinked in confusion but after a second laughed. "Sorry, Amu-chan. Let's save you from getting scared again by walking up to Ikuto-niisan instead so he doesn't even the chance to sneak up on you."

Amu nodded and the three approached Ikuto slowly. Amu helped Tadase as much as she could, letting him lean most of his weight on her. They stopped next to the taller male, who was just finishing up at the front desk. He turned around and looked at the three teens indifferently. He simply nodded towards the door and, getting the idea of what he meant, the four walked out of the hospital, hopeful not to come back for a long time.

Ikuto's voice echoed through the living room of Tadase's house. When there was no response, he walked deeper into the house. As Ikuto walked around the house to find Tadase's father, Amu helped Tadase towards his room. She helped him get on the bed carefully before sitting on the edge of the bed next to him.

Lulu had gone back to her own place, claiming she had sneaked out and should probably get back before her parents realized she was gone. Amu had thanked Lulu for coming to help, even if she didn't end up doing much and they parted ways. Amu, Ikuto, and Tadase continued onward to Tadase's house.

Back in Tadase's bedroom, Tadase gave Amu a tired smile. "Thanks for doing all of this, Amu-chan…"

Amu waited for him to continue speaking. His face looked as if he wanted to say something else but was hesitating. Before Amu could ask and before Tadase could get anything else out, Ikuto knocked on the door. He leaned against the door frame until one of them looked at him. Having their attention, he stepped inside.

"Tadase, you better look at this," he said, walking towards Tadase's bed. He dangled a piece of paper from his hands above Tadase's head.

Amu stood up to grab it, reading it over quickly. Luckily it wasn't a letter from Saaya like she had first been worried about. She turned to give it to Tadase, as it was actually a note from his father. Tadase read it over thoughtfully.

Tadase,

I'll be doing some extra paperwork at the school all night. There's also a meeting I need to prep for. I won't be able to come home tonight, sorry.

Since I'm not too great at cooking, I left some money for food in case you get hungry. If you need anything else, Ikuto-kun is just a call away.

If there's an emergency, please call me. Please don't do anything crazy while I'm gone.

-Dad

Amu sighed. So much for not doing anything crazy. "On the bright side, he won't have to find out you're injured?"

"Unlikely," Ikuto said, leaning against the wall casually. "That guy is mysterious. He'll figure it out. He always does. My main concern is that Tadase will be alone until his old man comes back."

Amu nodded slowly, looking at her hands. "Too bad I can't stay…I can only lie to papa so many time about Tadase-kun's gender…"

Ikuto shook his head. "I've got this. Don't worry, Amu."

"But-" Amu started, but Ikuto silenced her by putting his finger against her lip.

Amu quickly swatted his hand away from him and took a step back but wasn't able to hide the blush creeping up. She nearly tripped over Tadase's bed as she fumbled for the right words to complain. Ikuto sighed and put his hand on her shoulder, steadying her in the process.

"Amu," he said seriously. "I get that you want to help but I've got this. I've known Tadase for longer than you. You go home and pretend nothing happened. I already came up with an excuse for you. Go home before your parents report you as missing or something."

Amu bit her lip but reluctantly nodded. "Alright. I'll come back tomorrow to check on him, though. I'll bring the notes I've been getting from Yamabuki-san, too, so the headmaster can look at them when he gets back."

"If you want I can ask Tadase's father if I can stop by the school as a…student aid or something." Ikuto offered. "To keep an eye on Tadase and that chick."

Amu shook her head and smiled. "It'll be alright, I'll keep an eye on him. And her as well. I promise."

"Will you be fine walking home alone Amu-chan?" Tadase suddenly piped in, looking up at the two, his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Amu nodded. "Don't worry, Tadase-kun. I'm not that far from your place. If I feel uncomfortable I'll make a break for it."

Seemingly satisfied with Amu's answer, Tadase just nodded. Amu waved to Tadase and Ikuto and saw herself out of the house. Tadase waved back as he watched her disappear from his bedroom, listening to her footsteps fade and his front door open and close. Once Tadase heard the door click closed, he narrowed his eyes at Ikuto and nudged his leg.

"What's your angle here, niisan?" he asked curiously. "You're being nice. Too nice. Do you like her?"

Ikuto laughed and looked down at Tadase, ruffling his hair. "Don't worry, kiddo. I just met her. She's cute, but only like Utau cute. I'm being nice to her because you seem to like her."

Tadase blinked, not noticing the blush creeping upon his face. He stared at his stepbrother incredulously. "M-me? Like her? Well…yeah, I like her. As a friend. I mean she's pretty interesting… But I don't think I like-like her if that's what you're implying."

Ikuto raised his eyebrow inquisitively. "I didn't say anything about like-like, kid. But…you don't think you like-like her? You'd better that to your face. You're red from your cheeks to your ears.."

Tadase chewed his lip, his hands instinctively going up to cover his face. Part of him wanted to whine or complain but he knew better than that. Complaining would get him nowhere when it came to Ikuto. Instead, he opted for quickly changed the subject by asking Ikuto to order food for them, hoping Ikuto would let it go for a little bit. He also needed his stepbrother to leave so he could have some time to…think.

A/N: I had to upload this like 3 times bc formatting and all that shit. So that's why there's not much emphasis on words like I usually do. Its 12AM, I'm only working on 2-3 hours of sleep, and I have a headache so I have no patience for this right now I just quickly wanted to upload another chapter. I might start posting my newer (and probably last) Tadamu fanfic soon too.

Again, I do have a list and poll on my page about what type of story I should post next out of ones i have already partly written so if you like this story, please do check my page for more about me and other stories I have/am willing to right. I take suggestions, but not requests. (i.e, you can ask me if I can write/post a story from the fandom's I've listed, but you can't ask specific details about what that story might be)