"Why do I want to go to Paris?" Ikuto confirmed the question.
Amu knew that it may not be safe to tread this far in to Ikuto's personal life, but she was too curious, "Yeah."
"My..."
Just then Shiragin came bursting in the door, "Hinamori-san! Good news! The boss loves your song!"
Ikuto shot Shiragin a depressed look, which went completely unnoticed.
"That's... wonderful," Amu smiled, wishing he had come in just a bit later.
"That means that I'm both of your manager's, and as soon as your music is introduced to the world, you'll be touring together!"
Amu and Ikuto quickly glanced at each other in surprise. Ikuto knew how good Amu sang, and how quickly Shiragin liked to move things. They could be touring together within the next week or so.
"Ikuto, is Kotou-san always like this?" Amu asked, pointing to him eagerly gathering papers together with a large smile on his face.
"Yep."
"Come on, Hinamori-san, you have to meet the boss now!" he started to make his way out of the office.
"Whats the boss like?" Amu said as she leaned in closer.
"You'll... be surprised."
And with that, Amu left with Shiragin to meet the boss. Amu payed attention to the different turns they took, trying to memorize the route to the boss's office.
They walked in to a dark room, shelves full of beautiful stones and gems lined the walls. The large chair facing the wall behind the desk quickly spun around to reveal the boss. Her boss was a child, even younger than her. He had light blond hair that fell in front of his face, right above his large eyes.
"My name is Hikaru."
Amu stared at him blankly, "I... I'm Hinamori Amu."
"Don't you think that I'd know the name of a great singer? Especially if they're employed under my name?"
"Oh, yes."
There was a minute or so of silence. Amu nervously glanced around at all the gems on the wall. There was one empty spot, with a plaque under it. She could just make out what was written on it. Embryo.
"Well?" Shirgain asked. Amu had completely forgotten he was here too.
"She has pretty eyes. And she's very skinny too, which is good. Her hair is weird colored though. We'll have to do something about that. I like her sense of style. Her colors will be red, black, pink, and gold. Page Miki-kun, Ran-chan, and Suu-chan and get them to start advertisements and album work, choreography, and getting her outfits together. Oh, and get Miki-kun to work on her hair."
"Will do, Hikaru-sama. Is that all?" Shiragin asked as he pulled out his pager.
"Yes. You may leave now."
Amu and Shiragin walked down the hall back to Shiragin's office.
When Amu walked in, she saw that Ikuto had left. There was a small note on the couch. Amu picked it up and read it to herself, "Dear Amu, I had some urgent business to attend to. Hope everything went great with Hikaru. If it did... have fun putting up with Miki, Ran, and Suu. Heart, Tsukiyomi Ikuto. P.S. Yes, I let you slip whenever you were telling me about your past, but dont forget about your dare ~nya," and it was finished off with a heart.
Amu gasped when she remembered that she was still wearing the cat ears. Crap.
"Come on, Amu." Shiragin cooed as he lightly skipped out the door.
"Um, sure... Shiragin... ~nya."
Shiragin led Amu down different set of hallways until they reached a door with one-way glass, the way being on the other side. There light blue sign beside it that said "Miki."
Shiragin ushered Amu in to the room and shut the door behind her. There was a table, and a chair on each side. There were posters plastered along the back wall. There was also a large mirror along the side wall, and one last large poster on the front wall. Amu walked down over to a chair that said "sit here" in the plastic blue seat. So Amu sat. She glanced around at the posters and read one that said "Kick off your stilettos!" At that quote, a song popped in to Amu's head. She started to sing to herself, waiting for Miki to come in. After the second refrain, Amu was in her own world. She gave a loud scream when she felt something tap her shoulder. Amu very ungracefully slid out of the chair and landed hard on the linoleum floor.
"Well, you aren't very graceful."
Amu looked up to see a girl with short blue hair with a blue beret on. All her clothing consisted of different shades of blue.
"I'm Miki," she put her hand out to help up Amu, "And you're obviously Amu."
Amu shook her head and grabbed Miki's hand, "Wait... if you're a girl... Why did Hikaru call you Miki-kun ~nya?"
Miki gave Amu an exasperated look, "When I first applied here, he thought I was a boy because of my hair and how I acted. So he's called me Miki-kun ever since."
Amu shook her head, "So... What exactly am I meeting you for ~nya?" Amu sat back down in her chair and Miki sat in the one across from her.
"I will be designing your album covers, doing your makeup, and designing your clothes. Oh, and Hikaru said that I need to do something different with your hair color, so I'll be doing that too."
Amu nodded and Miki stood up and left the room. She returned a few seconds later with a pencil, a pen for inking, an eraser, and a large pad of paper.
"Okay, Amu, strike a pose!" she said as she quickly pointed her pencil at the flustered girl.
Amu quickly stood up, but couldn't think of anything to do after that.
Miki looked Amu over, assessing her weak and strong points. She smirked that Ikuto-like smirk that meant trouble, "I love your cat ears, Amu."
Amu blushed.
"Did Ikuto give them to you?"
A creepy feeling was filling up Amu's veins. She nodded.
Miki stood up from her chair, "Tell me, Amu..." Miki placed her hand on the table and swung her feet around and landed on the table in front of Amu. She grabbed the straps of Amu's shirt and pulled her closer to her face, "Do you like Ikuto?"
Amu violently shook her head no.
Miki sighed, "Good. So, since you've supplied this wonderful cat idea, lets get started."
"Cat idea... What ~nya?"
"You and Ikuto will be working side by side, so it only makes sense if Ikuto has a cat-girl with him since, you know, his CD is 'Black Lynx Lover.' Duh. So, basically, you'll be the girl in all of his videos, too."
Amu sighed. She had so much to say, but she wouldn't dare say "~nya" again.
"So strike a cute kitty pose!"
Just then the door flew open, "Wait, don't you need to decide if she's going to be an innocent kitty, or a naughty kitty?" Ikuto cooed as he silently shut the door behind him.
"Ikuto! What are you doing here ~nya!" Amu stomped her foot on the ground.
"Oh yeah... That... 'urgent business'... Didn't really exist. So I just sort of sat on the roof and stared at clouds. So then I got bored. And... Now I'm here. Good enough explanation for you, Strawberry?"
Amu blushed at the nickname, "Where did that come from... ~nya?"
"You mean 'strawberry?' I'm just experimenting with names," Ikuto smirked.
Amu scoffed.
Miki cleared her throat, "Well, Ikuto, that is a good question. What do you want, Amu?"
"Innocent!" Amu yelped.
"Naughty," Ikuto said cooly.
Miki sighed, "Okay, okay, I'll just call Hikaru-sama and ask him," Miki pulled out a sky blue cellphone and quickly dialed a number and pressed the phone to her ear. Amu could hear a muffled greeting on the other end, then Miki spoke, "Um, yeah. So we're trying to decide if Amu should be an innocent kitty or a naughty kitty. What do you think?" Miki nodded her head and listened to the muffled voice, "Okay, I think I can do that." Miki snapped the phone shut.
"Well?" Ikuto said.
"Hikaru-sama said that we should dress you in skimpy clothing that still suggests that you're innocent."
"Um, what ~nya?"
"Just... strike a cute pose, you'll see."
Amu put her knees together and rested her hand on them and leaned over, holding a peace sign on her fingers beside her face which wore a smile with a wink.
"Okay, Amu, I want you to take that hand thats on your knee and put it on your hip, and i want you to spread your legs instead of holding them together because right now it looks like you have to pee," Miki said as she sat down behind the desk, preparing her paper to draw.
Amu did as Miki suggested and stayed as still as she could. She watched as Ikuto walked behind Miki to look at the drawing. Amu blushed when Ikuto smirked and looked at her, his eyes examining the angles of her body up and down. She felt as if she was being purely checked-out by Tsukiyomi Ikuto. Amu felt light headed, trying her best not to fall over. She sighed in relief when Miki put her pencil down and motioned for Amu to come over and look at the drawing. Amu's eyes quickly scanned the drawing, and a blush covered her face. She was leaned over the same position, though she was wearing extremely short shorts and a strapless top that didn't cover her whole stomach area, and her legs were covered in fishnet stockings. She looked up to see Ikuto staring at her, waiting for her reaction.
When Amu didn't say anything, Ikuto cut in, "I really like it."
Amu blushed.
"Well, Amu, do you like it?"
Amu gulped, "Uh... Yeah, its great ~nya."
"Great!" Miki smiled, "Now we can get to work on your hair!"
"Wait, what are you going to do to my hair ~nya?" Amu put her hands on her head as if to protect her pink locks.
"Oh, we're just going to add and change some colors and things like that, maybe cut it into a different style."
"Um, okay ~nya. Sure," Amu put her hands by her sides again.
Miki led them into a different room with a chair, a mirror with lights, and lots of bottles containing different things in them. Miki sat Amu down in the chair and put a wrap around her so they won't mess up her clothes. Ikuto stood behind Miki, staring Amu in the eyes through the reflection just as they had before. Miki grabbed a brush and a black bottle. She opened it and brushed a black liquid into a streak of Amu's cotton candy pink hair and wrapped some tin foil around it. Then she did the same with red right behind the black, except not taking up as much space. Then she got a small brush and some shimmering gold color and put small streaks of gold in her hair, somewhat like highlights.
"This will have to dry for about 20 minutes. You and Ikuto talk, I'm going to take some designs to Suu to start on," and with that, Miki left the room.
"So, I really liked that picture Miki drew of you," Ikuto sat on the arm of her chair, leaning in close.
Amu backed off, "Yeah, no one is to see that ~nya."
"What ever do you mean, Amu-koi? That picture is the cover to your new album," he gave her a smirk.
Amu's eyes widened.
"Weren't you listening to her? Or were you too busy staring at me to listen?" Ikuto leaned in closer.
Amu stared him in the eye. A blush crept over her cheekes.
Ikuto chuckled and pulled away, resting his arm on the back of the chair.
"So," Ikuto said, not bothering to finish his sentence.
"So what ~nya?" Amu asked angrily, thinking he may be suggesting something.
"Oh nothing, just trying to think of something to talk about," he adjusted his position on the arm rest.
All was silent for a while, Amu just enjoying her time with Ikuto, and vice versa.
"Oh, I meant to ask you this earlier, but do you remember that song I was typing on the computer when you hated me?" Ikuto looked at her directly instead of through the mirror.
"Uh, yeah ~nya. Why ~nya?" she was careful not to touch her golden deyed hair to his dark clothing.
"What's your opinion on it?" he asked, wanting an honest opinion.
"Well," Amu thought it over, coming up with a sophisticated sounding critique, "It was meaningful, and it told a story, but I think that the chorus should be a bit shorter, and you should add a verse or two ~nya."
Ikuto thought it over. She was trying to hard to be sophisticated, "You're trying to hard to be sophisticated."
Amu stared at him. She scoffed, then proceeded to push him off the chair.
Ikuto landed on the linolium floor with a thud, "You know, I can feel pain."
"Oh really ~nya? Well, I'm pretty sure that was the point, so I think we're good ~nya," Amu crossed her arms.
Ikuto mellow dramatically crawled back over to the seat like a toddler, and rested her chin on the armrest, "At least you don't scratch like a cat."
Amu showed her long nails to Ikuto, a slightly evil grin on her face. Her eyes glinted murderously in the light as she moved her head to glare at the blue haired boy.
Chills ran down Ikuto's spine at Amu's expression. The excitement came too quickly for him to hide a smile on his face. He quickly stood up. "Now that... That is beyond on mean," he said as he started to walk near the door.
Amu smiled at her victory of finally getting Ikuto to leave.
Ikuto quickly turned around and stuck his head over the back of the chair, resting his pointed chin on Amu's shoulder, "Its exciting," he whispered, spilling hot breath all over her shoulder.
His breath gave her goosebumps.
Ikuto stood up and waltzed gracefully toward the make-up counter and hoisted himself onto its edge.
Amu stared at him and Ikuto stared back.
"Are you cold?" Ikuto asked.
"No ~nya," Amu glared at him. "Why do you ask ~nya?"
"You've got goosebumps," he smirked.
-
A/N- Hey readers. First of all, I want to apologize for all the wait without telling you guys. The only reason I could upload the first three chapters within a few days was because I was on the road for 2 hours, then 2 more, then 2 more, then 7, then 3, then 7. Actually, the only reason I started writing this was because I was REALLY bored. So I'm just letting you guys know that I won't be able to update as often from now on... Second... I'm sorry for such an anti-climatic chapter and... well... I don't think this could even be considered a cliff-hanger... it is more like a... clothes hanger (: But I want to start the next chapter for when Amu gets home from EASTER, and she has to tell her parents about her new career and all that junk. AAAAANNNNNDDDD I had some GREAT inspiration today while I was trying to take a nap on the dock. Which didn't work by the way because it was WAY to windy out there and I had the music up too loud and I was too lazy to roll over and turn it off. And now you wonder how I've written this story. You'd be surprised how lazy I am... 3 words. COLD-MICROWAVABLE-SOUP. Yeah, I had a can of microwavable soup but was too lazy to microwave it for 1 minute. So I drank it cold. It made me sick later that day. Okay, I'm just rambling now... so yeah. Bye. Remember to R&R!