Disclaimer: Cookies!

Thanks to:

A Fan of Romance: (head swells from ego-boosting) he he. Thanks!

Beastfire: (blushes) yes! Yes, of course you can. Wow, that's like, super flattering to me! (Blushes even more)

Ichigo: You're trusting a maniac with my life!

WF: (still blushing) Yep! (Turns normal for a moment) But, can I ask you to wait until I've got near the end of my story before putting Ichigo in yours? Cos, (shifty eyes) something is going to happen to Ichigo that will change her for good!

Ichigo: (sweat drops) what?

WF...

Ichigo: What? What is it! Tell me!

WF: No.

4Everobotmonkeyfan: WF :( watches Antauri dancing around happily) Yes, I think it's safe to say love makes Antauri go OOC. But, hey, who doesn't? And, I'll need to get Animefangirl11's permission before I use her character. But, Jet only appeared cos she was hanging me over a pot of boiling lava and threatening me that she had to be in it to save Otto or else! (Joking!) And I have read Animefangirl11's stories, and I would review too, if my computer would let me. I think it hates popup windows. Or me. Or both.

Twister91: Phew. I'm glad I got that right at least! So no more going psycho on Ichigo for being nice to Otto?

Anonymous but Interested: Aww (huggles you) you're too sweet to me!

A Friend Lost

Ichigo murmured as she awoke, shifting slightly.

"Shh shhh! She's waking up!" she heard some movements and, as she opened her eyes, she heard someone else stirring beside her. She opened her eyes fully and saw a pair of big, green eyes staring into hers. Ichigo jumped back and hit her head on the top of Antauri's chair, she looked around slightly confused at first then last night seemed to leak back into her mind. She looked down at her arms to see Antauri was also waking up. He looked up at her and, as she saw realisation dawn on his face, he blushed and looked down again,

"I'm so sorry for falling asleep on you, Ichigo! I...I guess I was more tired than I thought I was and you were so warm and soothing..." she heard a smack as Antauri covered his mouth to stop him saying anymore.

"Carry on, Antauri!" they heard a teasing voice say close by followed by a snicker,

"Oh yes Antauri! Please, do continue!" they heard a different voice say, before there was an eruption of laughter.

Antauri and Ichigo looked at each other and Antauri moved out of the warmth and soothing calm of Ichigo's arms as Ichigo uncurled herself and stood up out of Antauri's chair. She stretched languidly and looked over at the rest of the monkey team, who were in hysterics. She looked back at Antauri, who seemed to be collecting himself,

"And what, pray tell, is so amusing?" he asked, his voice still shaking slightly from waking in Ichigo's arms. The others seemed to find this hilarious and soon they were off again.

Once they had got a hold of themselves again, Otto came over with a camcorder and showed Ichigo and Antauri a recording of themselves asleep curled up and hugging each other causing the pair to blush and fluster slightly.

"I...I um...Ineedtogogetreadyforuni, bye!" stammered Ichigo quickly, before taking off up to her room, her face burning redder than Sprx when he's sunburnt. This left Antauri to try and think his way out too; being in such a state he said the first thing that came to mind,

"I'll go help!" he blurted out, then he realised what he said and he blushed even more fiercely and the others continued to laugh, "I...I..." he looked around desperately before taking off out of the main room, his face now starting to fry because it was so red.

He knocked on Ichigo's door and when he heard a very timid 'come in' he rushed in. Ichigo looked over at him and blushed again, looking away.

"I'm... sorry that I left you back there, Antauri" she apologised in a very quiet voice, causing Antauri's heart to melt at how sweet it sounded. He floated up to her and gently pulled her face around to look at him; he gave her a sincere smile and whispered,

"Don't be... I liked sleeping with you." Ichigo looked shocked at that and Antauri placed his free hand on her cheek, stroking it lovingly, "And...And I wouldn't mind doing it again... sometime" Antauri felt his cheeks turn red again as Ichigo placed a hand on his cheek, stroking it also, and their faces neared. Their lips had barely touched when the intercom interrupted them and they quickly broke apart. Antauri sighed and hung his head, whilst Ichigo spoke to the 'moment- killer' aka Gibson. (Yes it's him again) After Ichigo had assured Gibson that she would be heading out soon and that she wouldn't be late, she turned back to Antauri and giggled slightly. She stroked her finger around Antauri's cheek and left it under his chin as he turned to look at her,

"See you after school, then?" she asked, kissing him lightly on the nose. He smiled at her in a lovesick way and nodded. He watched her leave and head out into Shugazoom City for her first day of uni and let out a happy sigh.

4 hours, that was how long it had been since Ichigo had left, and Antauri was bored. He'd already exacted his revenge on the others for mocking him this morning, especially Gibson for ruining his first kiss; he'd eaten breakfast, washed, and brushed his teeth as well. He'd tried to meditate, but his mind kept drifting back to Ichigo and waking up in her arms. He floated in the air, staring at the ceiling, and sighed to himself.

'I wonder what she's doing now?' he pondered for the millionth time, then he tried to remember what subjects Ichigo was studying. Dance was one, Art was another, he strained to remember what Chiro had said, and Drama. That was it. He looked back at the hated clock and saw that it had taken him a whole 2 minutes to remember that, he growled in frustration. He desperately wanted something to take his boredom off his mind,

'Anything' he thought, 'just as long as it keeps me from staring at that cursed clock!' As if on cue, the alert rang and the monkey team quickly rushed to the main room to see what they had to stop today. It was Formless, millions of them, all swarming the city and heading towards the Super Robot.

"Let's go team!" shouted Chiro as they ran for their tubes, (I can't be bothered to do the whole activation sequence)

"GO!" they called from their parts of the Robot, and then they proceeded to squash the Formless. Though they did put up some sort of resistance, it was over very soon and the monkey team relaxed once again. Sprx bragged about how easy it had been and Gibson turned on the radio to hear if the Formless had really left the city.

'...Meanwhile, the city is safe again thanks to the Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force!' Sprx's head started to swell up with his ego ' Most places vandalised aren't badly damaged and there were no casualties.' everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but then the news bulletin continued, 'hold...hold on a minute folks! It seems that the Formless did manage to cause some trouble, after all! It appears half of Shugazoom University has collapsed and, witnesses say, the Formless ran off with a hostage!' the Monkey team sat up and they all seemed to know who it was before the reporter described her, 'The hostage has been described as female, short, around sixteen years of age, and with very long white hair and blue eyes. We'll bring you more details as we get them' Gibson managed to turn off the radio, and then his arm fell limp to his side. They looked at each other before hearing a door slam. They looked around and realised someone else was gone... Antauri.

He felt the air burning his lungs as he flew at top speed to reach the site. Students, teachers, firemen, medical staff and policemen all littered the site, trying their best to help those who had been caught in it and get them sent off to the hospital or to safety. Antauri stopped and looked up at the once- grand gothic building that was Shugazoom University. The back half had collapsed and only a few pillars were still standing, the last remains of what had started as a normal day. Antauri felt tears prick his eyes as he flew into the rubble, digging and searching. He needed to find her, he just needed to! But he knew the truth, she was gone, taken by the Skeleton King, yet he just didn't want to accept it. He wanted to her to walk over to him and tell him that they'd described some other girl. But there were no other albinos in Shugazoom, just one. Ichigo. His Ichigo, the one he loved with all his heart and was gone because of him. Yes, it was his fault; he berated himself angrily whilst he continued to dig furiously, hoping against sense itself that he would find her. Then he suddenly stopped, before him on the once beautiful mosaic floor lay something that told him what he hadn't wanted to believe. He bent down and shakily brought it to his face, uncovering the dirt on it with his hands. He dropped to his knees when he was sure of what it was.

"Ichigo's necklace..." he said numbly, and then the entire outside world seemed to stop as he stared at the thing Ichigo prized most of all and would never be without.

"Without this" she'd said, showing him the necklace as it dangled in front of his face, "I would be truly lost, it has all my hope, faith, and dreams in it"

"She's gone" he realised, and sobs started to rack his body, "Gone. And it's all my fault." he fell forwards and clutched the necklace close to his chest, letting his tears run onto it. "Because of me, Skeleton King has her. He's taken her." suddenly he felt nothing but hatred towards Skeleton King, hatred and loathing. He wanted to Skeleton King to hurt he did. He wanted him to pay, cry, and bleed for what he'd done. He wanted his Ichigo back and he would go to any lengths to do it "And I'm going to get her back!" he growled.

Well, that's it. Antauri's set his sights on getting back the girl he loves! So what do you think? Lovin' it? Loathin' it? I can't promise a massive fight scene cos I get bored writing them, but I'll try and make it action- packed!