A/N: Hope you guys like this chapter. Sorry the last one was so short. I have requests for more Amuto, so I'm gonna try to put it in soon. But this story will probably have a lot of Rimahiko.

The Million Dollar Bet

Day Four: Part Two

Rima walked away from the grand house that they'd been staying in. Making her way to the stream that ran through the yard, she followed it to the bridge, where she sat on the railing, watching the water rush over the smooth stones of the streambed.

Since last night, Rima hadn't been quite sure what to think. Her emotions seemed to be zigzagging back and forth so fast she couldn't keep track of them. Above all else, the one thing that was confusing her the most was everyone's favorite cross-dresser: Fujisaki Nagihiko.

~Flashback~

The attic was not very big. Rima supposed it would look a lot larger if there wasn't so much junk piled up all over the place. Moonlight fought its way through a small, dingy window high on the wall, letting in barely any light at all.

Rima sat on the bedding she had laid out for herself to sleep on, hugging her legs to her chest. Her chin rested on her knees, and her eyes were wandering around the dark room. The small, silver flashlight she had brought with her was a huge comfort to the petite girl.

A creaking sound came from the door as it opened and Nagi came back into the room, carrying the last of his things, which he set on his pile of covers. Time passed in silence, Nagihiko lying on his back on his 'bed', and Rima still sitting up, hugging her knees and clutching her flashlight. Neither of them were sleeping, and both were aware of the fact that the other was still awake. After at least a half hour of silence, Nagi spoke.

"Rima-chan, why do you hate me?" he asked, sitting up to look directly at her. She turned her head the other way.

"Not that again," she mumbled.

"Really, Rima-chan. I want to know why. Maybe I can change—"

"No."

"No to what?"

"Everything. Just… no," Rima turned her head back to look him in the eye.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Nagi repeated. A silence ensued, in which Rima seriously pondered his question.

She'd thought about it before, but hadn't come up an answer. Af first she'd told herself she was jealous—jealous that he was Amu's best friend. But he wasn't—at least, Nagihiko. Shouldn't she, then, hate Nadeshiko? Nadeshiko, who was Amu's best friend? Nadeshiko, who had lied to all 'her' friends? But Rima frankly didn't care about Nadeshiko.

Maybe it was because Nagihiko had lied to Amu, who was Rima's best friend. It was a workable excuse, but she wasn't sure it was true. In fact, she was positive it wasn't.

"I don't know," she finally whispered. Nagi didn't answer. "I don't know why." More silence. Rima muttered something inaudible—something that was most certainly meant to be heard. But Nagi didn't hear it. "I don't like this attic," Rima changed the subject.

"Neither do I," he said, "And I'm glad you brought the flashlight." Nagihiko reached into a pocket and pulled out a deck of playing cards. "It's obvious neither of us are going to sleep any time soon. Do you know how to play speed?" Rima nodded. She positioned the flashlight so they could see the cards while Nagi began dealing. "Okay, let's start."

They flipped over the first set of cards. 5 and 7. Within an instant, the 7 was a 10, and the 5 a 6. They were stuck. Another couple of cards were flipped, and they began slapping down their hands as fast as they could. Eventually, a slightly ironic war between queens and jacks was played back and forth. Rima placed down a queen, Nagi a jack, Rima another queen, and back and forth until all the jacks and queens were exhausted. They continued playing for a while, before Rima got bored.

"Three out of five game, I win," Nagi stated, though neither really cared all that much. The flashlight was held between them, making each more comfortable being able to see the other's face. "So you probably won't be speaking to Ikuto for a ling time, huh?" Nagihiko asked.

"That's right. I'm putting us on no-speaking terms. I wouldn't talk to you, either, but…"

"But what?"

"I'm stuck here with you. Besides, I'm not mad at you, I just don't like you."

"So it's gone from 'hate', to 'dislike'?" Nagi's eyes lit up. "Well, that's an improvement." Rima glared.

"No, I hate you," she said.

"Oh," sadness filled his voice. More silence. There seemed to be a lot of that around here.

"Now what?" Rima asked.

"I don't know." Just them, the flashlight died. Rima resisted the urge to swear. It was so dark she didn't want to move.

"Nagihiko?" her voice had fear etched into it.

"We're fine, Rima. Maybe we'd better try getting some sleep."

"I'm not tired," Rima said.

"Alright," Nagi replied. Somewhere outside, an owl hooted. This frightened Rima, and she squeezed her eyes shut. The frogs could be heard singing in their bumpy voices. Although she knew it was foolish, Rima was scared. A dog howled somewhere far off. The tiny blond jumped and grabbed the nearest thing she could find, which happened to be Nagihiko's arm. No objections came from the purple haired boy as Rima clung to him, her eyes still shut tightly.

~End Flashback~

A loud "Ready or not, here I come!" startled Rima out of her memory. But that wasn't even half of it. The part that was making her mind and emotions go all weird had happened later on. Rima listened to the water trickling under the bridge, which she was still seated on. It was a calming sound, and she liked it. Maybe it could help her sort her mind out. The chasm of thoughts and emotions was a huge mess right now, the stream seemed to know what it was doing. She stared at the stones that the water was rushing over, searching for answers.

One thing was clear: the memory that had sent her grip on sanity somewhere into the abyss of feelings flowing through her, to the point where she couldn't find it, but knew it was still in existence.

~Flashback~

Rima and Nagi had been sitting in the darkness for hours, the former still clutching the latter's arm. Few words had passed between them. Rima's mind had been focused on one main subject: why did she hate Nagi? She had thought it over so much, she was beggining to doubt her hatred. He hadn't ever done or said anything mean to her that she could remember. Maybe she didn't really hate him…

"Rima-chan," Nagihiko said eventually, "You do know that no matter how much you despise me, I don't hate you." She looked up at the darkness where is face probably was.

"W-why?" she stuttered. Nagihiko's free hand came up to her face, resting on her cheek. His face must have been a lot closer than she thought, because all of a sudden, he was kissing her.

Rima did nothing at first, just sitting there is surprise, some emotion running through her that she couldn't place. It could have been horror, and shock was definitely part of it, but she couldn't quite place it. It was foreign, and she felt like it didn't belong, like she wasn't ready for it, trying to push it away.

But then, by some sort of unknown force, she began to return Nagihiko's gesture. It wasn't something that she particularly wanted to do, but for some unknown reason, she did it. The foreign feeling was overwhelming her, and she wasn't quite sure if she like it or not. It wasn't anything like anger or frustration, and it wasn't like sadness, so maybe she could deal with it. But it wasn't like happiness or amusement or the overwhelming joy she got from comedy. This strange thing was different in a way she couldn't describe.

Unsure and wary of the emotion, she pulled away. She suddenly felt very awkward, realizing what had just happened. She wasn't sure what to do. Should she just ignore that it had ever happened, and go on with life like it was before? That was an easy excuse, and Rima decided to try it. It may not work, but she could at least attempt it.

Moving farther away from Nagihiko, she settled under her covers and placed her head on her pillow. Maybe she would wake up and find that it had all been a dream. Or maybe she would wake up and have forgotten about the whole thing.

"Not a word of this to anyone," she growled to Nagihiko before her surprisingly heavy eyes drooped shut, and she dropped into the abyss of sleep.

~End Flashback~

And now she was confused. Not about Nagihiko: she had him figured out pretty well. She was confused about herself. Was it possible that she didn't hate Nagi? What was that strange feeling that had coursed through her the night before? And most importantly, why did she respond like that?

---

"Tadase, what are you doing in there?" Amu gasped.

"MMghhhhffrrrrg," said Tadase. Kukai helped him out of the closet and worked on taking out the knot binding his hands while Amu untied the gag.

"Why were you in there?" she repeated.

"Ikuto," Tadase replied.

"What did Ikuto do?" asked Nagihiko.

"He tied me up and threw me in there last night. I think he's mad at me,"

"Ikuto! He's gonna get it when I find him!" Amu exclaimed.

"When you find him?"

"We're playing hide and seek!" Yaya exclaimed.

"Let's split up to look," said Kukai. Amu nodded.

"We're also looking for Utau," she added. Everyone ran off to find the two siblings.

A/N: I meant to make this longer, but I had writers block earlier on in the day, and my dad wants me off the computer because I've been on it too much today. But I will write by hand tonight and try to post tomorrow. Gomen, I really wanted to write more. Oh well, there'll be some Amuto in the next chapter.

Tell me what you guys thought about the attic scene! I've never really written fluff before… well I have, but it was really lame. I'm actually quite proud of this.

Oh, and the next chapter will be part three of day four

Arigato! Review, onegai!