A Lot Can Change in a Year

by ThreeLittle EmoNerds

It's been an entire year since Ikuto's odd disappearance. Now, when he comes back, Amu's made some new friends, some of whom have heard of Ikuto and are trying to protect her. Can Ikuto earn their respect and win Amu's heart?

2. 20 Questions

Ayari: Heyloo peoples! This is the second chapter of A Lot Can Change in A Year
Ikuto: Soooo?
Kimie: What?
Ikuto: Do I get to talk in this chapter?
Hiromi: Yeah, yeah yeah, you can do more than smirk this time.
Ikuto: Hmm.. -glares-
Hiromi: Dude quit glaring, you get to talk.
Ikuto: Alright -smiles-
Fangirls: OHMAGAWSH! -get get nosebleeds from smile and faint-
Ayari: -sweatdrop- Yeah... well on with it! Ikuto, do the disclaimer.
Ikuto: What? Why me?
Kimie: JUST DO IT!
Ikuto: -mutters about how authors are picking on him-
MusiicSoul: What was that?
Ikuto: er... MusiicSoul does not not own Shugo Chara or its characters.

Chapter 2: 20 Questions?

Amu's POV

Oh my gosh! What is Ikuto doing here?! He's been gone for a year and now he suddenly comes back?! What the hell? He was wearing his usual smirk though I couldn't imagine why. Probably because of the shocked expression everyone had. Well, everyone except for Ryuu and Hiromi.

"Yo," Ikuto greeted as we all regained our composure.

"Tsukiyomi Ikuto! What are you doing here? Didn't you leave a year ago?!" Tadase yelled, clearly angered by his sudden appearance.

"One: Don't you ever get tired of saying my full name? Two: Can't I visit every once and a while and Three: Can't a person come back after leaving?" he replied boredly, obviously amused by his outburst.

"NO, NO AND NO!"

The rest of the Guardians were watching, especially Hiromi who looked like she was analyzing him. Oh, I forgot to tell you, Hiromi can accurately guess what a person is like just by looking at them. Even more accurately if she chara changes with Aiko. Well back to the topic. I was spacing out a bit and then I noticed that Ikuto was slowly walking towards me, Tadase and the others staring blankly at the scene. "Hey Amu, you miss me?" he said, in the same husky voice I remembered, emphasizing my name. Unfortunately, that same voice was the one that made me stutter and blush so my response turned out like this...

"A-As i-f! I w-would n-never miss s-someone like y-y-you..." Darned stuttering! Darned blushing!!

"Hm... you're being very contradictory, you know that?" he said as he leaned in closer to my face.

Then I saw him back off. I wondered why, but then I saw. Apparently, Ayari TRIED to hit Ikuto, but ended up falling a bush.

Normal POV

"What do you think you're doing you stupid cat?!" she yelled loudly, as she climbed out of the bush, with her hair flaming up.

Ikuto had jumped back and his cat ears and tail were out. Ayari threw several attacks as she was chara changed Mochi. Her hair had transformed into a large ponytail, and a pair of nunchucks appeared in her hands. She yelled at him once again, "You're such a coward, dodging my blows and not even bothering to fight back."

Before Ayari could deliver another blow at Ikuto, a voice from behind Amu spoke.

"Ayari, stop," It was Hiromi's calm, yet somewhat cold voice.

"What?! Why? He was harassing Amu! Besides I can take him! He's not even bothering to fight ba—" before she could finish, Hiromi interrupted.

"He didn't come here to fight," Hiromi said without making eye contact, "And he's strong enough to beat you, Ayari, you should know that."

"Aw, Hiromi!" she whined, "If he didn't come to fight then why is he here?"

Hiromi took a glance at Ikuto which didn't come unnoticed. Ikuto saw that she was looking at him, and got a bit annoyed. Then Tadase spoke. "Kakinomoto-san, how can you be sure that he didn't come to cause trouble?! Did you chara change with Aiko?" He was obviously still pretty angered at the events that had occurred.

"No, but—"

"HA! Then how can we be sure you are correct?!" Tadase interrupted Hiromi rudely.

Hiromi seemed to stay as composed as she was before, but was also a bit saddened that Tadase put his anger at Ikuto ahead of his trust in her abilities. She knew that he knew that even without character changing, she could guess certain things about people accurately.

"Tadase-kun, you know very well that even if she didn't character change with Aiko, she could still correctly guess that about him!" Kimie confronted him.

Tadase, who was previously character changed with Kiseki, dropped the change and was back to his normal self, and said, "Kakinomoto-san—"

He never got a chance to complete his sentence, as Ikuto felt a bit neglected, and therefore jumped in saying, "Well, I can see you have some problems, so I guess I'll take my leave."

Everyone looked his way, before he finished by saying, "Bye Kiddy King, Amu." Once again, he emphasized Amu's name and left the Royal Garden. Amu just stared as he jumped away, still character changed with Yoru. Once he left, Tadase continued what he was saying before Ikuto interrupted. "Kakinomoto-san," he began slowly, "I'm sorry for yelling at you so harshly. I shouldn't have done it and I guess that I just let my vengeance towards that Thieving Cat get the best of me. Gomen"

Hiromi looked at him for a bit before responding. "It's alright Tadase. I forgive you," she replied as she gave a faint smile, the one she usually uses to mask certain other emotions. Tadase thanked her and gave another dazzling smile, which didn't affect her like it did to other girls, but was still pretty assuring.

The Guardians walked out into the sidewalks leading to their houses. Ryuu and Hiromi went another way towards their houses, but then Tadase spoke. "Ah, Kakinomoto-san, Tsukikage-san? Why don't you go this way instead? I know it's much longer, but the Thieving Cat went that way," He warned, pointing towards the street Ryuu and Hiromi were going towards. "And we wouldn't want him to cause any trouble," he finished.

Ryuu replied, "No thanks Hotori, I'm sure we can handle him if he comes. I can protect Hiromi if anything happens." With that last sentence he earned a "HEY!" from Hiromi, and chuckled.

Tadase nodded in response and they all continued walking home. When Ryuu and Hiromi got to the park, Hiromi spoke, "Hey Ryuu, you can go on, I'm going to go to the park."

He furrowed his brow in slight confusion before saying, "You sure? I could come if you want."

Hiromi giggled a bit before replying, "You don't have to watch over me all the time, I can handle myself."

Ryuu smiled and then nodded in approval before walking off towards his house. Meanwhile, Hiromi walked over to the park. She walked around, apparently searching before stopping by a tree. She spotted a tall boy with midnight blue hair and a cat chara sitting on his chest. It was Ikuto. She walked in front of him. "Hey, Tsukiyomi," she greeted calmly.

Ikuto's POV

I was napping snugly beneath a tree with Yoru on top of my chest. Suddenly, I heard a calm and unusually familiar voice say, "Hey, Tsukiyomi."

I opened one eye to look at who was calling me. It was her. That new Guardian. I think I heard her name, that girl, Ayari said it. Her name was Hiromi. I lazily opened both of my eyes and still laying down. As I took a better look at her, I noticed she was wearing the Middle School boys uniform. Why didn't I notice that before? Oh yeah, I was focusing on Amu...

Finally after a few moments of analyzing, I retorted coldly, "Why are you wearing a boys uniform? And what do you want?"

She raised an eyebrow at me before responding to my questions. "One: That isn't very well any of your business, and Two: I want to help you."

What?! Help me with what?? Several other questions popped into my head but i just coolly responded, "Why would I need help? And if it isn't any of my business, then how is it any of your business to help me?"

I was still immensely curious and she made a comeback before I could say anything else. "Fine, if you want to know why I wear a boys uniform, I'll tell you. But not now," she began, "Right now I need to help you with Amu-chan."

Okay, now I'm seriously confused. Why would I need help with Amu? Again I returned her comment with more questions, "Why would I need help with Amu?"

It seemed like forever that she stared at me like I was stupid. "What, are we playing 20 questions or something? You need help getting
to talk to her, which you and I both know is a bit of a challenge since the newer Guardians are quite protective of Amu-chan and the original Guardians don't seem to like you any better," she said with a hint of annoyance evident in her voice.

I smirked and replied, "Actually, I believe I only asked 5 questions, and fine, I'll let you help me."

She glared a bit at me and retorted, "Whatever, and I wasn't asking for your permission to help you, but I guess that will improve the situation."

I raised an eyebrow at her and then said, "Alright then, what are you going to to to help me?"

"I'm not going to help you today, I'll tell you what I'm going to do tomorrow, for now, I think you should meet my charas," she responded.

"Sure," I said, somewhat boredly before continuing, "You can't tell any of the Guardians th—"

Before I could continue, she added, "With the exception of Ryuu."

"Uh, who's Ryuu?" I asked curiously. Gosh this girl said she was going to help me and yet she doesn't even tell me who people are in the first place...

Then she replied, "Ryuu is the guy that was standing beside me when you came into the Royal Garden. He's like my best guy friend and I can't keep this from him," the way she ended it was serious.

I wondered why she made such a big deal about telling this guy, but I guess I can trust her, a bit anyway. I nodded in approval and calmly said, "Fine, he can know, but no one else, now show me your charas."

She nodded and called out three charas. THREE?! Wow, this girl has almost as many as Amu. No wonder she's a Guardian. Apparently she noticed my shock somehow, as she suddenly said, "Oh don't be so surprised. The new girl Guardians have 3 charas."

I shot a slightly confused look at her, which she ignored and started her introductions. She pointed to a chara with long black hair, a front fringe, and golden eyes. It wore a saffron skirt and black shirt with a swirly print. There was a headband with waterlily on it. "This is Aiko," Hiromi said. The character smiled kindly and nodded to greet me.

Next she pointed to a chara with light brown hair that's slightly messy and red eyes. It wore a pansy coloured 'off the shoulder' shirt and gray shorts. It had a white fedora with butterfly on it. The character smiled with a bit of attitude and tipped her hat. Hiromi introduced her as Ayumu.

The last chara had dark blue hair with side-swept bangs. Her hair gets curly near the bottom and its eyes are green. It wore a short black dress and white leggings. It had a hairclip with treble clef on it. Hiromi said her name was Michiyo.

"...Well, now you've met my charas, and I've already seen yours," She replied after finishing her charas introductions, "Now I'm going to leave and tell Ryuu. I'll start helping you tomorrow."

Before I could even reply to that, she took her charas and walked off. Hmm... I wonder if she can actually help me. Maybe she knows another way to Amu's heart. Amu. Ha, it's fun saying her name. Amuuuuuuuuu...

Hiromi: Yay! We finished the second chapter!
Kimie: Aw, I only said one thing... -pouts-
Ikuto: Yeahh! I finally got to talk! And I got a whole POV section. So HA.
Kimie: You're not making me feel any better...
Ikuto: - shrugs-
Amu: Ugh... all I did was stutter...
Ikuto: Oh there you are Amu.
Amu: Stop emphasizing my dang name!
Ikuto: Nah.
Amu: GRRR.
Ayari: ... So while they sort out their problems...
Doshike: Read and Review!
Ayari: -hearts in eyes-
Tadase: Eh?? Where did Doshike come from??
Kukai: Why don't I ever talk!?
Ayari: BECAUSE I SAID SO!!!! -_-''
Hiromi: -ignores- Oh and in your review please tell us if we should change the rating to T.
MusiicSoul: KTHXBAI!