A/N
Peaches: All of my Shugo Chara friends are GONEEEEEE :( Oh well.
Some notes:
1) This chapter has a bunch of really random events that wouldn't make good lone chapters. Sorry, I needed somewhere to put them all. I pinky swear that the next chapters will be much more put-together. Pinky. Swear.
2) There is an incident in this chapter, but it's not THE incident. But I do promise that the chapter with THE incident will be up soon. I promise.
3) There's some Nagamu moments in this chapter. A lot, actually. I promise, the chapter after the chapter with THE incident has your daily dose of Amuto love. I promise.
4) There are a LOT of notes on this chapter. Yeesh. My chapters need to be more self-explanatory.
Anyway, I don't own Shugo Chara! or (sadly) any of the music from the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (which I also do not own).
Enjoy!
Chapter 2: Bouken Desho Desho?
Bouken desho desho
Honto ga uso ni kawaru sekai de
Yume ga arukara tsuyoku naru noyo
dare no tame janai
- Aya Hirano
Ikuto rushed home eagerly. Contrary to most days, he couldn't wait to get home today. He ran up three flights of stairs to his apartment, silently cursing at the fact that his building didn't have an elevator. Ikuto threw the door open and hurried toward the answering machine. A 1 flashed red at him. Yes! A message! This was what he'd been waiting for all week.
Ikuto pressed "Play" and heard his somewhat-of-an-acquaintance Yoru's voice playing from the answering machine.
"Hey Tsukiyomi-san, getting back to you on that address…"
This was it. This was finally it. In three days, Ikuto could finish what he started.
He knew where Amu Hinamori lived.
Nagihiko hung up the phone after talking with Amu for an hour and a half. He sighed and fell back onto his couch. His mom came in and asked, "Nagihiko, are you all right? You remember that you have dance practice in twenty minutes?"
"Yes, I'm fine, okāsan," Nagihiko said. "Amu-chan's just having a hard time today. She misses her sister."
"I see. Well, if you want to go help her, we can move your dance practice to later today." His mother gave him a sympathetic look.
"I think I should. She hasn't been doing well all week."
"Okay, be back in two hours."
"Okay, thank you okāsan."
Nagihiko laced up his sneakers and headed out the door to his car. It was an old piece of crap, but it was HIS old piece of crap. He turned the key, savoring in the sweet purr of the engine. Nagihiko drove over to Amu's building, which was about ten minutes from his house. He pulled into an open space out front and shut off the car.
Nagihiko stepped outside and headed up towards Amu's apartment. He knocked on her door and waited patiently outside, twiddling his thumbs. When Amu opened the door, it looked like she had been crying.
"Amu-chan, what happened?"
"Nagi-kun," she sniffed, "what are you doing here?"
"You seemed really upset on the phone. Are you okay?"
"No, Nagi-kun, I'm not. I don't know why, I'm just not."
"Is there anything I can do to help?" Nagihiko had never seen Amu this torn up before. She usually kept her emotions to herself and didn't let anyone in. She looked scared. She looked vulnerable.
Amu didn't say anything in response. Nagihiko took this as a sign that he should at least try to help. He hurried inside and grabbed her some tissues from the closet next to her bedroom door. Nagihiko handed the box to Amu and said, "Here. Take these and I'll see what I can do to make you feel okay."
Amu took a tissue from the box and sat down on the couch. Nagihiko sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder. She looked up at him and said, "Nagi-kun, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Everyone thinks that I'm strong and I'm handling their deaths, but really, I have no idea how I'm supposed to move past it. I mean, what do I do? I can't sleep anymore! I'm so stuck in the past and I can't move forward and I-"
"Amu-chan, calm down, okay?"
Amu buried herself in his arm and said in a muffled voice, "Nagi-kun, please help me. I don't want to be alone with this anymore." She looked up at him again. "I've tried to keep you away from my personal problems, but I guess I've dragged you into them anyway. I just…" She paused. "I need someone who will just listen."
Nagihiko smiled. "Amu-chan, you're my best friend. There's nothing that I wouldn't do if it could make you happy again."
Amu sat there, and then smiled back at him. She looked a little odd with her silly grin and her bloodshot eyes, but Nagihiko knew that she was truly happy for the first time in a really long time.
Nagihiko spoke up after a few minutes of silence. "Do you want to grab some dinner? You're starting to look malnourished."
Amu laughed. "Hey! I'm not THAT malnourished!"
"So you're saying that you are, just not a lot?" Nagihiko asked with a raised eyebrow.
Amu sighed. "You know, you're not all that funny."
Nagihiko stuck out his lower lip into a fake-pout. "I beg to differ! You do think I'm funny, right Amu-chan?" he asked with a pathetic-looking expression on his face.
Amu sighed again. "Fine, you're funny. Now shush. If we're gonna eat, we might as well do it now."
Nagihiko grabbed her hand and started to drag her out of the door. Amu was taken a little by surprise, but followed along willingly enough. She was just glad that she could finally open up to someone who would really listen to her. Nagihiko was the best possible person to tell, and she was happy that there was finally someone to listen.
Amu was on top of the world. Too bad things couldn't stay that way.
Tadase Hotori was on a mission. He wanted to finally tell Amu how he really felt about her. Tadase had loved Amu since the day he had seen her on the first day of preschool. He could still remember what she was wearing that day. Amu had worn a frilly pink dress with white Mary Janes, topped with a pretty pink bow in her short brown hair. When Amu had dyed it, Tadase was devastated. He had always loved her hair the way it was before she did.
As Tadase sat in the middle of a generic Italian restaurant, he wondered if Amu had gotten the text message he had sent earlier. He thought, Maybe I was too vague… I wonder if she understood what I meant. The message had read, "Please meet me at the Italian restaurant down the street at 7. – T." It was now 7:20 and Tadase was still sitting there alone. She probably hadn't gotten it. Sometimes she turned her phone off for no apparent reason whatsoever.
Tadase checked his phone for the twentieth time to see if Amu had responded. She hadn't. He glanced over at the door out of desperation. To his horror, he saw Amu there. With Nagihiko. Holding his hand. What the hell?
Absolutely furious, Tadase stared at his table and hoped that Amu wouldn't see him. He was blushing with anger. His rage was practically radiating off of him.
To his displeasure, Nagihiko spotted him and waved, smiling. Tadase forced a small grin and meekly waved back to hide his fury. Amu gave him a big smile that nearly broke his heart. It tore him in two. Amu pulled Nagihiko over with her towards Tadase. She eagerly said, "Hey Tadase-kun! I didn't expect to see you here!"
Apparently she hadn't gotten his text.
Tadase mustered a small grin (even though it seemed to be more like a grimace) and said, "Oh, I just stopped by for dinner. Just some spaghetti."
Amu asked, "Is it good? Even though I live a block away, I've never actually been here. Can you say fail?" She laughed brightly. Tadase grimaced inwardly.
"Eh, it's nothing special, but I hear that the chicken is good."
"Okay! Well, we'll see you later Tadase-kun!"
Tadase gave them another forced smile as they walked away from his table. When they were seated, luckily, far away from him, Tadase breathed a sigh of relief. He needed to leave, and fast. He dropped a twenty on the table and headed out of the door.
Amu glanced down at her hand to see Nagihiko's hand still in hers. "Oh, Nagi-kun, you're still holding my hand."
Nagihiko laughed. "I guess I am! Maybe I'm just afraid that your clumsy butt will end up on the floor."
Amu fake-gasped. "You take that back! I am not clumsy!" As she was saying this, she stepped backwards and slipped on a puddle of water behind her. When she hit the ground, Amu felt something give in her knee. Shit, she thought, not again. Why does this always happen at the worst times? I was having such a good time! Ugh.
Amu groaned in pain, swearing out loud. "Damn it. It's always me."
Nagihiko started to panic. "Amu-chan, are you okay? Is there anything I can do? Do you need help?"
Amu said, "Go find some ice." She groaned again.
Nagihiko rushed towards the kitchen in a frenzy. He grabbed the closest staff member and asked in a panic, "Ice, ice, where can I get ice?"
The girl disappeared behind the door to the kitchen. Nagihiko started pacing back in forth in front of the door. Amu called out across the restaurant to Nagihiko, "Nagi-kun, calm down. I can wait for a few minutes." Even though she said this, Amu winced in pain and Nagihiko started to pace faster.
The girl returned from behind the door with a bag full of ice. She stuck it out to Nagihiko, who grabbed it and ran over to Amu. She took the bag from Nagihiko and grabbed a cloth napkin from off the table. Amu wrapped the napkin around the bag and placed it on her aching knee. She sighed in relief, a soothed expression on her face. Nagihiko breathed for the first time in a minute and a half.
"Better?"
"Much. Thanks, Nagi-kun."
"Anytime, Amu-chan."
Tadase sat in his room, staring at a picture of Amu and himself in first grade. They were both grinning madly, like two best friends who knew a secret that the rest of the world would never know. Amu was hugging him over his shoulder, her ear pressed into the side of his neck, grinning like an idiot. It was Tadase's favorite picture of the two of them, so he kept it framed on his bedside table.
What had happened back at the restaurant? Was he just overdramatizing things, or was there actually something going on between Nagihiko and Amu? His best guy friend and the love of his life, together? He couldn't imagine it. At all.
It didn't really matter whether it was real, fake, or just a mistake. Tadase couldn't take the risk of losing Amu to Nagihiko, even if it didn't last. He had to do SOMETHING. What did he have to lose, anyway?
