Ikuto sat on the couch for a few minutes, taking in everything that had just happened. He gazed blankly at the words typed up on the screen. He clicked the save button and saved the file under "Amu's ." He pushed himself off the short couch and started walking to the door to look for Amu.
First he checked the girls' bathroom, but he didn't find her there. He went to the elevators to see if she was there. He went to the front desk and asked if they had seen a pink-haired girl leave. They hadn't. He headed back up the elevators and looked around. He asked people walking through the halls if they had seen a pink-haired girl. Eventually, someone told him that they were on the elevator with a pink-haired girl. They had gotten off at level 6. Ikuto wondered what would be there for Amu on level 6. Then it hit him. That's the level that the recording studio is on. He rushed back to the elevators and went to level 6. He went into the recording studio and hid on the stairs, too keep out of Amu's sight. She saw a laptop on the desk that was open to an email account and it was hooked up to the printer they kept down there for legal documents and other things. He looked at the sound panel. The recording light was on, but no one was controlling the sound. He finally looked into the booth to see Amu singing.
Ikuto wanted to hear what Amu was singing. Then he remembered that Amu always sang with her eyes shut. He stealthily hid behind the desk and grabbed the headphones off the top and placed them on his head. He recognized the lyrics immediately. Those were the words to the lyrics she had just written. Her voice came out strongly and beautifully as she sang her heart out. He closed his eyes and his throat closed up as the words escaped her lips. It was even harder to listen to when she was singing it. He tried to pull himself together and tell himself it was all just in her imagination. And she had a great imagination. He composed himself and stood up from the desk as Amu started to finish her song. He stared at her and pretended that he wasn't as touched as he was by her song.
As Amu's song ended, she opened her eyes and was frightened to see Ikuto standing at the sound mixer with the headphones on. She quickly slid off the stool and ran out to the mixing station. Ikuto tried to keep her from reaching it, but she clicked the erase button and the recording light turned off.
"What'd you do that for?" Ikuto asked, accidently letting the anger slip out of him.
"I don't want anyone to hear that ~nya," she looked at him, tears lining her eyes.
"I heard it," Ikuto rested the large headphones around his neck.
"Yeah, and you aren't going to tell anyone. No one will know about that song except for us ~nya," Amu demanded as she poked Ikuto in the ribs again.
Ikuto put his hands up defensively, "Okay, okay. I won't tell anyone." Ikuto grabbed Amu's wrist and put her hand back by her side. Ikuto pulled out his cell phone and looked at the time, "Oh, I ran into Shiragin on the way here. He wants to talk to you. You better hurry."
"Okay, thanks, Ikuto," Amu said. Then she went back up the stairs and left.
Ah, her sweet voice. He hated that he had to betray it. But her song was so tear-jerking that he had to send it to his email and Shiragin's. Amu had left her email up, so he plugged in the jump drive that he had earlier plugged into the mixing panel into the laptop and sent the file to himself and Shiragin. He noticed that she only had a few emails in her inbox. He looked at the first one. She had made a new email account. He knew he shouldn't, but he clicked on the first email and looked at the account information. He memorized the information for later use. He quickly sent the emails and deleted them from the sent folder and turned off the laptop and left. He couldn't help but feel bad about disobeying Amu, but it was for her best interest that this song was heard, because it sounded so real.
Even though was made up.
Ikuto made his way back up the stairs. He saw Amu leave the girls' restroom and head to the elevator. Perfect. He rushed to the stairwell and jolted down the stairs back down to Shiragin's office and bursted in the door. He was filled with relief to see Shiragin sitting at his desk.
"Check your email," Ikuto said quickly. He watched anxiously as Shiragin opened up his email and clicked open a new message. It had the file of Amu's song in it. "Hurry and listen to it before she gets here."
Shiragin clicked on the file and downloaded it, saving it in a locked file on his computer just in case, then opened Windows Media Player. There were a few seconds of silence when Amu had turned on the recorder and was walking back into the booth. She cleared her throat, and started to sing.
Ikuto noticed how intently Shiragin was staring at the colors on the screen. He was drawn into the song, feeling the same overwhelming feelings Ikuto had before. Ikuto even felt them now. They were about half way through the song when he saw Amu through the window in the door. He sprinted over to the door and locked it. Shiragin had to hear the rest of the song. Amu looked angry, but she didn't know why Ikuto was locking her out of the room. Ikuto thanked God for sound proof glass windows. Then Amu tried to say something. He decided to joke with her. He put his hand beside his ear and leaned in closer to the glass, smiling at her. She repeated what she was saying. He still couldn't hear her, so he leaned in even closer. He pulled away and shrugged his shoulders. Then Amu said the words very, very slowly. Slow enough that Ikuto could read her lips. He made out each syllable as she said it, "Un-lock-the-door… ~nya." Ikuto shrugged and left over to Shiragin's desk. He grabbed a sticky note and a pen and wrote "Sorry. I can't," followed by a heart and stuck it to the window for her to see.
Amu sat down by the door and waited. A minute or so later, Ikuto unlocked the door and ushered Amu in. She looked at Shiragin who had a very serious look on his face.
"Are you sure you're prepared to go on this tour?" he asked.
Amu and Ikuto were both shocked by this question.
"Of course I am. Why would you ask that?"
Ikuto lightly elbowed her.
"~Nya," she sighed.
"I just wanted to make sure," he moved the slider for the song back to the beginning and turned the volume up so that Amu would be able to hear it.
Amu looked up at Ikuto who had a scared look on his face. Then she realized what the music was. So many thoughts went through her head. She wanted to hit Ikuto. She wanted to cry. She wanted to run away.
Amu opened her mouth to yell at Ikuto but was cut off when Shiragin said, "Amu, this song is very beautiful. With a few instruments added, we can play this on the radio. It's marvelous."
Amu looked back at him. He was completely serious. "Really?"
"Yes, it tells a beautiful story. Thank you for emailing it to me," he put the song on pause and smiled.
"What? I didn't…"
Ikuto smiled at her.
"I'm gonna get you ~nya," Amu said.
"Its okay, I have a copy of it too," Ikuto gave her a cat-like smile.
"God, Ikuto, I hate you," she crossed her arms.
Ikuto frowned, "I thought we already went over this. We're friends now. Remember?"
"Yeah, my friend that I temporarily hate."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Ikuto shrugged and looked back at Shiragin.
"Well I'm glad you're ready. Because I'm going to tell you where your second destination will be after Beaufort."
Amu and Ikuto perked up at this. Shiragin had been so set on keeping it a secret until they got in the air port to tell them where they would be flying to on each stop. The song must have put him in a good mood.
"After Beaufort, we will be flying to Nassau, in the Bahamas."
Ikuto gave a genuine smile at this. He hadn't been there in forever. Though, Amu didn't know where the Bahamas were.
"Come here, Amu," Shiragin started typing on the computer. "We'll be staying at the Paradise Island Beach Club. Here's they're website so you can show your parents later."
Amu looked at the computer screen. It had a picture of a large pool, and of white villas, and a sandy beach. Then Shiragin typed in another address and there was a picture of a large peach colored building. "What's that?" Amu asked as she pointed at the pink building on the screen.
"That's the Atlantis hotel. We aren't staying there. We're staying at the place with all the white villas. But Atlantis is right down the street, so we can walk down there and go to the water park."
"The water park?" Amu asked.
"Yep," Shiragin clicked on a link that showed a picture of rides at the water park.
Amu looked at the pictures, amazed. It looked so fun. Then Shiragin scrolled to a picture of a slide called "The Leap of Faith." Amu read the description to herself, "The Leap of Faith slide offers the daring and adventurous a 60 ft. almost-vertical drop from the top of the world-famous and iconic Mayan Temple, propelling riders at a tremendous speed through a clear acrylic tunnel submerged in a shark-filled lagoon." Amu stared at the picture. That thing was 60 feet high… She was not going down that. No matter what.
Ikuto walked up behind Amu and looked at the picture of The Leap of Faith. When he went a few years ago, he wanted to go on it, but Utau dragged him everywhere but, because she was scared of it. Maybe he'd make Amu go on it. Ikuto smiled. That would be fun.
"That's… really big," Amu said.
"Yep. Can't wait to see you go down it," Ikuto said, laughing at his own perverted innuendo that Amu obviously wouldn't get.
Amu blushed, "That's dirty."
"Wait, what?" Ikuto stared at her. "You know what that means?"
Amu looked back at him and covered her mouth. She blushed and made her way quickly to the door, "I just remembered that I was supposed to hang out with Yaya this afternoon at the beach. I'm pretty sure I'm not needed for anything… but text me if you need me." Then Amu ran out the door and to the elevators.
"Ikuto, I want to talk to you," Shiragin said.
Ikuto pulled a chair up in front of Shiragin's desk, "Yeah?"
"About the song that Amu wrote."
"That? Oh, that's just Amu's imagination. I mean, its not like she's been raped or anything. She would've told me."
"And why would she have told you?"
"Because we exchanged secrets. She told me about her brothers. One shot the other then committed suicide right in front of her," Ikuto tensed up.
"Ikuto," Shiragin started, "You can't write a song this deep and meaningful without having something to base it on. I think she may have had something like this happen to her in the past."
"What?" Ikuto was shocked. How could he be saying something like this? Of course Amu wasn't raped. If she was, well, he'd be able to tell. "You're lying."
"Ikuto, I'm not asking that you go and solve the mystery of the fact that she was raped or not, I just want you to be delicate about those things around her," Shiragin shut off his computer and started putting things in his drawer. "Are we clear?"
Ikuto looked at him, and Shiragin stared back.
"Are we clear?" he asked again.
Ikuto hesitated, "As ice."
"Good."
Ikuto didn't say anything. He just stood up and put the chair back to where it was before and walked out the door without a word.
A/N- So a few people were asking about the song in the last chapter. I just wanted you to know that it's not a real song. I wrote it. Not exactly for the fanfiction, but I thought it would fit nicely here. So yeah.