"Well….," Rima said, impatiently waiting for Amu's explanation.

Amu glanced frantically at Ikuto and then back at her friends, her eyes wide with panic as she tried to think of what to tell them. She had never told them about that night when he had promised to come back, so this was an utter surprise to the group. "Um…well…uh…," she was at a loss for words. Ikuto smirked, came up behind her, and snaked his arms smoothly around her waist. Amu stiffened as he pulled her closer to him.

"I'm just keeping a promise," he said simply as he lowered his head to rest on Amu's pink hair.

All of her friends raised their eyebrows simultaneously, Rima's going especially high.

"Promise?" Rima asked curiously. "What promise?"

"T-there's no promise!" Amu said frantically as she tried to pull away from Ikuto. No such luck there. "L-let go of me you…you…perverted cat!"

"Aww, Amu, don't be so harsh. You remember, don't you?" Ikuto leaned down to whisper in her ear, not caring if the other guardians saw or not. "That night, after the fight…," Ikuto whispered softly into her ear as he gently touched her cheek with his finger tips, exactly where he had kissed her all those years ago.

Amu jumped out of his grasp, putting her hands on either side of her face and squealing as she did so. Ikuto just chuckled in amusement and took a few steps back. "Well, guardians," he said. "It's been wonderful seeing you again, but I'm afraid I must get going." The guardians just stared at him, still in shock of the fact that the blue haired man just appeared in front of them out of nowhere after being gone for six years. Ikuto smirked at their expressions. "See ya," he said lazily as he jumped away, giving a special wink to Amu before he disappeared.

Adults started pouring back into the auditorium, seeing that the danger was passed. The guardians quickly undid their character transformations so as not to draw attention to themselves. After a few moments of silence, Rima turned to Amu. "So what was this promise he was talking about?"

Amu looked at her friend and saw the storm beneath her calm façade. Underneath her seemingly innocent expression was anger; anger at the fact that Amu might have kept something from her. "W-what promise?" Amu asked. She still desperately hoped that maybe she could pretend that no such promise existed. "H-he never made any promise to me…," Amu said quickly. Amu's charas giggled quietly to themselves at her attempts to hide the truth.

"No offense, Amu-chan," Tadase said with doubt in his voice, "but your stuttering says otherwise."

"I would have to agree with Tadase," Kiseki said.

"So what was this promise, Amu?" Rima asked again, this time barely containing her anger as she took a menacing step forward. A suspicious dark aura began to surround her as she impatiently waited for Amu's answer. Kusukusu just giggled at Rima's anger.

Amu gulped loudly at seeing Rima's aura and the rest of the groups' obvious curiosity. Well, I can't keep it from them forever, they'll find out one way or another Amu thought with resignation.

"Well, do you remember that night when we defeated Easter and Ikuto…k-kissed me before he left?"

"Of course," Nagihiko said. "After that he just leaped away and we haven't seen him at all since then…until now of course."

"W-well, just before that he whispered in my ear…," Amu said, her voice trailing off into silence as she remembered the soft touch of his fingers on her cheek and the deep vibrato of his voice as he made his promise. A deep blush colored her cheeks making the guardians even more curious as to what this promise entailed.

"Well, what did he say Amu-chi?" Yaya asked with barely contained excitement.

"Well," Amu said hesitantly, "he promised that he would come back for me, no matter what."

The guardians just stared at her, in silence. After a few more moments, Rima finally broke the silence, saying what they all had been thinking, "And you never bothered to tell us this before?"

"W-well…I don't know…it just never seemed to come up," Amu said defensively.

"You could have at least told me," said Rima, her eyes filling up with fake tears. "I'm your best friend. You're supposed to tell me everything!"

"Oh Rima!" Amu exclaimed. "Don't cry! I-I'm sorry."

Nagihiko started to chuckled. "Don't be too worried, Amu-chan," he said with a smile, "she's just pretending."

"I am not!" Rima said, turning to him and giving him a death glare. However, much to Nagihiko's satisfaction, Rima's tears dried up instantly. Nagihiko only chuckled in response.

"Well, this certainly makes things interesting," Tadase commented.

"Interesting?" Amu said. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, Amu," Rima said. "We're not total idiots."

"Yeah!" Yaya chimed in. "Even Yaya has noticed, Amu-chi!"

"Noticed what?" Amu asked nervously, turning around to face Yaya. They couldn't have noticed, could they?

Amu felt a hand on her shoulder as Tadase came up behind her. "Amu-chan," he said softly, "anyone can see how much you care about him."

"Me? Care for that perverted cat? W-what are you talking about?"

"Oh Amu just stop," Rima said, a small smile forming on her face. "We've all known, for a long time."

Realizing that there was no way she was going to weasel out of this one, she sighed. "When did you guys figure it out?" she asked.

"Well, it was a few days after Ikuto-niisan had left," Tadase said. "You were so sad and gloomy all the time, always staring off into space and sighing."

"It didn't really take much for us to put two and two together," Rima said. "Plus, you suddenly started drawing cats in your notebook…"

"I did not!" Amu said as she blushed. I thought no one had noticed that…

Rima giggled. "Of course you didn't, Amu," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

All of a sudden, they heard a deep voice calling them. "Guardians! Come here please!" They turned around and saw Tsukasa waving them over to where a big group of adults were standing. They hurried over to find out what he wanted.

"Ah, here you are. I just wanted to let you know that we have postponed the graduation until next week. The parents seem to have no problem with it." He motioned to the adults gathered around and all of them had the usual star struck look on their face that people usually got when dealing with Tsukasa. "Obviously, we cannot finish it today," he said and glanced at the wreckage. Chairs had been blown everywhere. The podium was overturned and all the diplomas had been scattered throughout the room.

"Ok, Tsukasa-san," Tadase replied with a smile. "We shall alert the graduates immediately." All the guardians groaned inwardly. Just as they were about to be free from all their tedious work, a disaster swept through and they were stuck with making phone calls, yet again.

The five guardians set to work, cleaning up the mess. Fortunately, with the five of them plus Tsukasa's help, the job only took an hour or so. After they were finished, Amu said goodbye to her friends and left for home. The walk home was pretty uneventful for Amu. Her charas just chattered aimlessly to each other about the ceremony, the fight, and Ikuto's surprise appearance. She sighed as she thought again of the blue haired neko. She wondered where he might have run off to, or where he might be now. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice a tall, lean shadow following her home.

Amu walked into her house, exhausted. She quickly told her parents the new date of her graduation and then wearily climbed the stairs to her room. Once inside, she flopped down onto her bed and groaned.

"Are you alright, Amu-chan?" asked Su with worry.

"Just tired, Su, that's all," Amu replied.

"She's right. So many things happened today!" said Ran with excitement.

"Yes," Dia said in agreement. "Even Miki's day was fun, wasn't it Miki?"

The small blue chara blushed delicately then flew off to her egg to grab her sketchbook. The other three charas just giggled, knowing full well what had happened with her at the park. Dia and Su flew off to their respective eggs, leaving just Ran in Amu's vicinity.

"Ikuto-kun has such good ideas," Ran muttered to herself. Unfortunately it was still loud enough for Amu to hear.

"What do you mean he has such good ideas?" Amu asked, raising her head to look Ran dead in the eye.

"What? Oh n-nothing…I just meant….that…that...um…that cornering you at the park w-was a clever way to m-make his…um…entrance…" Ran said nervously.

"Uh-huh," Amu said as something occurred to her. "And I wonder how he knew that I was going to be at the park?"

"I don't k-know," Ran said, twiddling her thumbs. "I guess he really just knows you that well."

"That or he cleverly got a hold of someone who would just happen to convince me to go to the park today," Amu said as a dangerously dark aura surrounded her.

"W-what was that Miki?" Ran said, as if Miki had called her name. "Ok, I'm coming. Well, gotta go Amu-chan. Wouldn't want to keep Miki waiting…uh...bye!" Ran sped off toward her egg, locking herself quickly inside. Amu just sighed as she realized what had happened. Ikuto must have told my charas to get me to the park this morning. The sly cat…

However, as much as she wanted to be mad at her charas, she couldn't help but smile. Wow, I really can't believe he's back…but, what am I going to do?

That certainly was a problem. Seeing Ikuto only confirmed her feelings. She knew that she loved him, so much so that it hurt…but it scared her. Being with Ikuto had always been a "what if" kind of problem. It was something she fantasized about but never imagined happening in reality. She always figured he would find someone better while he was traveling abroad. She even believed it after a few years. Now, he had come back just for her. He even put searching for his father on hold to come back and find her. It was a reality that she didn't know quite how to handle. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, so many feelings she wanted to express, but she had never been very good at that, with anyone.

"Why don't you just tell him," Miki said softly, coming up to float by Amu's head. Amu looked up from where her head had been buried in her pillow to look at Miki. The blue chara just smile encouragingly. "Just tell him how you feel. You can't keep it locked up inside forever, Amu-chan."

Once again, Amu was amazed at how in tune Miki could be with her thoughts. Without even saying anything, Miki knew what her problems were. "But there's so much to tell, Miki. My thoughts and feeling are in such a whirl. I don't know if it's that simple," Amu said with a small smile.

"You'd be surprised how simple things really are," Miki said knowingly.

"But, what if I screw it up?" Amu asked with a slight tremor in her voice. "What if I say the wrong thing?"

"I think Ikuto-kun will be able to understand what you're trying to say. He's always been able to read your thoughts like an open book," Miki said with a smile. "Don't worry about it too much, Amu-chan, I'm sure everything will work out."

"I hope you're right, Miki," Amu replied a small smile. Miki winked and then returned to her egg. Soon, it clicked closed for the night. Amu got under the covers and stared up at the ceiling, thinking.

Hmm, maybe it really is that simple. Maybe, I should just tell him…hmm…

She continued to think about it as she turned off her bed side lamp. However, as much as the situation bothered her, it wasn't soon before Amu was sound asleep, dreaming.

He was outside Amu's bedroom once again, on the same tree branch that he had been the night before. The wind was blowing gently, ruffling Ikuto's dark blue hair. Amu had just turned out her lamp, plunging her room into darkness. Just the way I like it.

Ikuto diligently leaped from the tree and onto her balcony. As always, the sliding door was unlocked, and Ikuto silently eased it open and crept into her room. Walking over to her bed, he gazed down at Amu's face. His breath caught momentarily as he drank in every inch of her face. It was relaxed in sleep, giving her an innocent and childlike expression that she usually didn't have. Her soft, bubblegum hair was spread out everywhere on her pillow. It makes her look so beautiful.

He kneeled down beside her bead and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand, his fingers tracing soft patterns all over her face. Suddenly, Amu turned over in her sleep to face him and Ikuto quickly retracted his hand, afraid that she had woken up but it was a false alarm. Amu simply smiled and sighed, snuggling tighter into her covers as she continued to dream. Ikuto smiled. Oh, Amu, what am I going to have to do to win your heart.

He figured it wouldn't be too hard. He just had to convince her that his love was real, not just a joke to tease her. To his surprise, Kiddy king seemed not to be an obstacle. It was weird, usually when I tease Amu, Tadase gets very possessive and starts sputtering things about how he won't give Amu up to me…but…he didn't this time. He just stood there and watched as I took her in my arms.

"Ikuto-kun?" asked a soft voice behind him. He turned to see Miki and Yoru floating side by side, holding hands. Ikuto smile knowingly.

"Made your conquest already I see," Ikuto teased his little chara.

"S-shut up, nya," Yoru said while sheepishly looking at the ground. Miki giggled softly and blushed.

"Do you know what you're going to do next?" asked Miki quietly so as not to wake Amu.

"Oh, don't worry. I have something perfect in mind, but I'm going to need yours' and the rest of the charas' help," Ikuto said with a mischievous smile.

"Ooo, what is it, nya?" asked Yoru with barely contained excitement.