Title: Old Feelings Die hard

Pairing: SakuraxIkuto

Word: 2373

a/n: revision of "My love for Pink Haired girls".

It had been a rather chilly day during the month of September in Japan causing the young woman to pull her black cape coat closer to her person. She knew she should've gone with longer pants than the black high shorts that were currently being hidden by her coat and the white blouse she wore didn't help with the problem either. At least the outfit had matched her black thigh highs, that was all she really cared about, after all they had costed her a good amount of money. Besides she was going to see her family for the first time since she had graduated high school which was about 2 years ago and she wanted to impress them.

She had been walking from the store after a quick stop to grab her younger cousin a gift when she had accidently bumped into the chest of a man. The crash wasn't hard enough for her to fall back but it did cause her to stumble a bit.

"Sorry about that, I wasn't watching where I was going!"

The first thing he noticed about her was the oddly familiar pink hair, he was about to give a flirty remark until he noticed that the owner of said pink hair was not Amu. No, the one in front of him was older, probably around his age, and had jade eyes, she was also taller too. Amu only reached around his chin while this girl reached his nose. He could also see that the slight outline of her body under the coat was more mature than Amus' was.

Before he could stare too long and make it awkward, the male tilted his head a bit to the side, "It's fine. I wasn't looking either."

The corner of her lips rised a bit as she took in the appearance of the male. He was taller her with dark blue hair and a handsome face. His eyes also happened to be the same shade as his hair if not a shade darker or so. His body was firm and toned and dressed very casual with black jeans and a simple black dress shirt along with black shoes. He wasn't bad looking at all really.

Had it not been for such awful timing, she would've gladly given the male her name and number even if he didn't ask for them but fate was not on her side as her phone began to ring. She gave an apologetic look towards the male before she bowed her head and walked past him.

He turned his head to watch her figure leave and turn a corner to go deeper into the shopping district. It nearly made him frown that he didn't get her name but at least he knew that she smelt like lemon with roses, an odd mix but it worked.

His own thoughts were turned away from her when his phone began to ring. He looked down to see Amu's name pop up on the screen along with a smile on his lips. "How can I be of service?"

"Don't answer the phone so weird like that, Ikuto! People might get the wrong idea if they hear you!"

Her advice caused him to chuckle, he could already see how fluster her face was. "I'll keep that mind, Amu. So what's up?"

"Oh yeah! I was wondering since you're not here yet, do you mind picking up some cups on the way? I forgot to buy them the other day when I went shopping."

"Yeah no problem, I'm by the store anyways. See you in a bit, love." He smirked at his pet name for her knowing that she probably blew up in a cloud of pink due to embarrassment.

"I told you to stop calling me that… Thanks though Ikuto, see in a bit!'

Not wasting time, the other end of the line went dead leaving Ikuto to stare at the phone screen. It had been almost 2 years since he had confessed to the younger girl about his crush on her though sadly she hadn't taken it seriously. He couldn't blame her though but that didn't mean he was okay with her going out with the little king, not yet at least.

Amu had always laughed at Ikuto when he had said he liked the thought of them being together and getting married, but she always took as a joke. In honesty, it had hurt the older boy since he did truly like the girl and wouldn't mind being with her for the rest of his life but he knew that the only one who brought her that much happiness was Tadase.

Ikuto frowned at remembering how unsuccessful his love life was going and seeing so many couples around him didn't help either. With a small sigh, the boy walked straight until reaching a general store on the corner where he bought a few bags of cups for Amu's birthday. As the cashier rang up his items, Ikuto couldn't help but let his mind wonder to the pink haired female he had met earlier. He had never seen her before and while her exotic look was rare he could have sworn he had seen her before.

Before his mind could figure out why, the cashier told him his total. Ikuto threw some cash on the counter and left the store, not carrying too much about getting change back. He wasn't in a big rush to see Amu but he didn't want to be late like he had been last year.

By the time he had made it the front door and was about to knock on it, the door swung back and revealed the blushing face of the birthday girl. A smirk was instantly on his face, "Happy to see me, dear?"

Her pink face became red once she saw his devious smirk, "Shut up… and yes I'm very happy to see you, Ikuto." A smile bloomed on her face as she gave him a quick hug before letting him inside the house.

"Here are your cups by the way."

"Oh yeah! Thanks a bunch Ikuto! I tried to call my cousin to see if she could get them for me but she said she would be able to make it in time for when I would need the cups, so I called you." Amu grinned as she took the cups away from him and began to set them up around the snack area.

"Your cousin?"

"Yeah! She's been studying abroad for the past 2-3 years now, I don't think you've ever met her before, strange how you guys always miss each other. Every time you leave, she's here and when she's not here, you're here."

"Maybe we're just not meant to meet."

"Mm, maybe but I think if you met, you'd really like her. She really similar to you and she's your age too. Oh! She also plays an instrument as well! We like to call her the prodigy in the family."

That bit of information caught Ikuto's attention, it wasn't every day he got to meet an instrument prodigy, if he got to meet her that is. "Really now? Is that why she's abroad?

A nod from the younger girl confirmed his question. He pondered on if he would actually get to meet her one day because Amu had mentioned how they always missed each other. His thoughts were cut off once again when an arm slung around the boys shoulders, he turned to see the grinning face of one of Amu's friends, Kukai Souma.

"Hey man! Haven't seen you in forever! How've you been?"

Soon enough everyone that was present so far came into the kitchen area to all catch up.

It was nearing sunset when a ring at the door bell sounded and caught the attention of Amu. She excused herself and open the door to greet someone. Everyone was still chit chatting with each other, not really caring at who was at the door until they heard Amu gave a gleeful cheer.

All eyes were on the birthday girl as she was hugging whoever was at the door. It had to be a female since they could hear her voice. She sounded older for sure. Everyone's mind wondered on who it was until Amu made her way back into the living room with another pink haired female following behind her. She was dressed rather classy and elegant with two luggages behind her person.

Ikuto immediately knew who she was, he had ran into her at the shopping district earlier. However it seemed that she hadn't noticed him since Kukai ran up to greet her with a hug.

"Sakura!"

Sakura, he said the name a couple of times in his head and couldn't help but give a small chuckle at the irony in her hair color and her name, rightly fitting if anything else. But what was mostly on his mind was that if she was the cousin Amu had spoken about and said he had missed out on because it seemed that everyone present at the party knew who she was especially Kukai.

"Hey there, Kukai! It's nice to see you again after all these years! You've really grown up haven't you?" Sakura chuckled as she watched the boy blush a bit, it seemed he was still the sweet little boy that she absolutely adored. She hadn't seen anyone of Amu's friends in over two years so it was a bit of a change to see them all grown up with some of them taller than her now like Kukai. She briefly asked him to help her carry her things upstairs before she introduced herself to everyone again.

Once back downstairs and dressed in her loosely tucked in white blouse and black high shorts, she went back into the living room to greet everyone.

Upon entering the room, it was erupted into happiness again. Sakura was overjoyed to see that this many of Amu's friends had missed her this much. She greeted everyone until her eyes met a pair of midnight orbs. It seemed that the cute guy from before happened to be a friend of Amus that she had never met before.

"Hey! Sorry about this afternoon, I left without even introducing myself. I'm Haruno Sakura, nice to see you again." Sakura added a small flirty smile as she outreached her hand to shake his. But much to her bewilderment and everyone else's, he took her hand, flipped it over and kissed the back of it.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto, a pleasure to see you again."

Everyone's face grew pink at his sudden act but it brought a grin to Sakura's face as she chuckled. "I can see why Amu always blushes when she tells me about you and your little shows of affection."

A blue brow was raised as Amu hid behind Tadase from his view, "Oh really? She talks about me? What has she said about me?"

Sakura's cherry lips curved into a full grin, "Nothing you need to worry about… for now."

Everyone laughed as she left the older male hanging, it was all in good fun and they knew now that with Sakura here the party would really get going.

Towards the end of the night, it had been only Sakura and Ikuto left. Everyone had gone home already and Amu was passed out on the couch with Tadase warped around her.

Sakura caught the frown on Ikuto's face as he looked at the couple. "Not a big fan?"

A dark chuckle met her ears as she cleaned the table up. "Opposite actually."

"Really? I had assumed you liked her."

"Old feelings die hard."

"That they do."

Sakura looked up at Ikuto as he took one last glance at the sleeping couple before he also started to help clean the house up for the birthday girl. "How long have you known my little cousin anyways?"

Ikuto gave her a quick look as she moved to sit at the kitchen counter before he picked up the last can of soda. "3, maybe 4 years now, why?"

Sakura interlaced her fingers and rested her chin on them as she watched Ikuto recycle the can and sit lean across the counter from her. She took in his full features again as he did the same. She gave a small laugh, "Amu sure does have a lot of boys going after her heart, doesn't she?"

He laughed at what she said, "Tell me about yourself, Sakura. Amu had mentioned that you've been abroad this whole time."

She smiled at his question, she didn't think Amu would ever mention her to Ikuto after all there was never a reason to. "So she's been telling you about me too, hasn't she?"

"Nothing you need to worry about… for now."

Sakura couldn't fight back the grin as she heard her own words being used against her. "I'll take that as a yes. And to answer your questions, yes I have been studying abroad in France to master the piano."

"The piano? I would love to hear you play it for me one day and see if Amu was speaking the truth about you being a prodigy."

His smirk made the female scoff with a playful smile on her lips, "You'd be breaking Amu's heart if she found out one of her suitors asked her older cousin out, lover boy."

"I don't think she'll mind too much. I'll just make sure the little king can distract her that day."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh at what he said and soon enough Ikuto started to chuckle too. Maybe old feelings do die hard but new ones are born much faster, at least for Ikuto and maybe for Sakura as well.