She was ignoring me. I hated it when she acted like that. Amu was seated beside me, but in a different seatp. She had persuaded Nikaidou to move the tables into columns instead of rows for a change, and he had complied - who was he to refuse the simple request of his best student? The tables were for two, but since most people were intimidated by us we both sat alone. The seat to my left was irritatingly empty. She should be sitting there, not being hormonal on a seat to my left!

Amu drummed her fingers on the table nervously and twirled a pen in high speed with her other hand. To other people it made her look relaxed and bored, but I knew that was far from what she was actually feeling. I could tell that she didn't get the question and was silently throwing a screaming fit in her mind. I knew that she was dying to ask Nikaidou for help, but she was afraid that everyone would criticise her and think that she was slow for not understanding. On the other hand, if she didn't ask for help she would humiliate herself by not getting a good mark on tomorrows test. Usually when she freaked out I would grasp her hand and hold it under the table so that Kukai wouldn't jump up and punch me in the face for touching his sister. I didn't feel like being punched in the face today, but even if I did I wouldn't be able to grab her hand anyway because she was ignoring me.

The last time she ignored me it felt...odd. I didn't want to talk to anyone but her and there was this pain in my chest that wouldn't go away - no matter how many aspirin tablets I took. But this time was different. This time I wasn't going to let it slide until she decided to acknowledge my presence. This time I was going to act. I pulled a blank piece of paper out of my textbook and wrote in a blue pen.

Relax; I'll help you with the questions you don't understand. If you twirl that pen any faster, you'll lose control and maim an innocent bystander.

Ikuto.

I carefully folded the note in half and wrote her name in my neat cursive writing. Once I finished I was about to pass it to her until I faltered. She was ignoring me, so why would she take a note from me if she was pretending that I didn't exist? Time to move onto Plan B.

I tapped Amu's cousin Tadase on the back. He was texting his boyfriend under the table and turned around, shocked. I raised an eyebrow while he muttered a string of profanities. Red faced and embarrassed that I'd caught him in the act; he took the note without a question and gave it to Amu with a sparkling smile. She took it with a grin that lasted for less than a second after she saw my defined handwriting on the front. Amu shot a glare at Tadase, but he had gone back to texting with a light blush on his face and didn't notice.

Even though she knew that I was the one who wrote it, she opened it. My whole soul was hopeful that she had forgiven me and would talk to me again...until she scrunched up the note, threw it out an open window and put her earphones in.

I knew for a fact that her iPod was out of battery, but the mere motion annoyed me to no end. I decided to get her attention another way. I threw my eraser at Amu, completely forgetting that my objective was to get her to forgive me for pissing her off instead of pissing her off a lot more than before. She snapped it in half and furiously threw both halves out the window.

I didn't care if I annoyed her anymore, the fact that she was pretending that I didn't exist hurt. It was painful and I didn't know why. I would catch myself on fire, right now, in Advanced Politics, just to get her to ask me if I was okay.

I almost laughed; that sounded like something Kukai would do to get Utau's attention...but Kukai liked Utau. A lot. And I knew for a fact, after hours of listening to his rants, that it drove him insane.

Just as insane as I was about Amu ignoring me now.

Could it be...no. it was preposterous. Pure blasphemy. Impossible. Ridiculous.

And yet, even though I kept denying it, it sounded more right every time I thought about it.

My chest hurt because it was painful for Amu to ignore me. It was horrible for Amu to ignore me because then my thoughts would drift to what life would be like without her. I knew for a fact that without her I would lose the will to live, and just knowing that was frightening.

"Ikuto, are you feeling well? You look like you have a fever." Nikaidou said, intriguing half the class to look at me in concern.

"No." I muttered truthfully. I was amazed, ecstatic and excited all balled up into a hurricane of an emotion.

Nikaidou nodded in sympathy. "Go to the nurse's office immediately. You don't look well at all."

I got up and gathered my books when a soft voice spoke to my left. "Nikaidou, can I go too? I've finished my work." It was her. My Amu, my angel. Since when did I get so sappy?

Nikaidou nodded and resumed his paperwork without even looking at Amu's work that consisted of half a page of kittens wearing silly hats chasing once gigantic fish. As soon as we walked into the corridor she slipped her tiny hand into mine.

"Hey, are you doing okay? You look like have a fever..." she murmured while rubbing comforting circled into my icy cold hand.

"How bad is it?"

"Either you have a really, really bad fever or you painted your face tomato red when I wasn't looking."

I smirked. "You were looking? Not that I blame you, but I thought that you were busy ignoring my glorious presence?"

Amu flushed and tugged on my hand. "Feeling a little vain are we?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I chuckled feeling a small smile twitch at the corners of my lips. Only she could make me feel like this. Only she made me want to dive head first into life without caring about the consequences.

"You have no idea where you're walking either." She stopped and laughed her beautiful tinkly laugh. "The nurse's room is in the other direction."

I continued walking. "I know."

"Why aren't you going back then? You're sick. Sick people go to the nurse's office." she stated in her tone of authority that made everyone back down from whatever point they were trying to make. Not me. I found it adorable, not that I would ever tell her.

"Because that not my destination."

"Where are you going then, the park?" she giggled while swinging our hands back and forth.

"Exactly. All I need is some fresh air away and maybe practice my violin. It's a good distraction."

She frowned and a small crease appeared in between her eyebrows. I felt the unexplainable urge to smooth it out with my thumb. "Ikuto, the park is ten minutes away. We have to get back to class."

I gave her a lopsided grin. "There's forty minutes left of class, no one will notice and we already have our bags."

Amu nodded in acceptance. We walked down the stairs in silence until she spoke again, shyly.

"Can I come too?" She was lightly blushing, but only I could notice.

"You're always welcome." I murmured, and the next thing I knew I had pulled her tiny body towards my chest and softly kissed her forehead. Amu just looked up at me, shocked, but soon her eyes showed understanding and silent joy. She was happy, just as happy as I was.

We walked out of the school hand-in-hand, both with a light blush and smiles on our faces. It was the first time I had smiled in a long time, and something told me that it wouldn't be the last.