A/N: Tadaa! Wow, I updated after about a week. I usually update about once a month. I guess this story is really fun to write, so I hope you enjoy reading it. :D

Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara.

Edit: Page breaks, again.

Chapter 3 - Avoiding Them

Rima was walking down a corridor in school. The strange thing was that it was totally deserted. Rima blinked, and then she saw Nagihiko. What was he doing here? Everyone else was gone. She followed him as he turned a corner, but found herself face to face with Amu instead.

"How could you Rima?" cried Amu, tears rolling down her face. "I thought we were friends!"

"But I am your friend," said Rima.

Amu's face suddenly turned furious. "No, you're not!" She turned away from Rima. "I'll never forgive you! NEVER!"

Rima took step back, her eyes widening in horror.

"Go away!"

A black hole appeared beneath Rima's feet, and she fell.

She kept falling, down into darkness, down to no return. Falling...falling...falling...

Rima felt a sharp pain in her head as her eyes flew open. She was panting heavily, her face, stark white. She looked around, and found that she had fallen off her bed. Her breathing steadied and she felt immense relief, realizing that Amu did not hate her and that she was not at the bottom of a dark pit.

Why would Amu hate her? She didn't do anything. It was all a dream after all – a nightmare. The school would not be deserted during school hours, and she wouldn't go following Nagihiko...

Any colour that had returned to her face, drained away immediately.

I had the dream because I – I like Nagihiko. She still in fact, had feelings for Naghiko, feelings that did not go away as she had hoped. Rima had imagined that that would what it would feel like if Amu had found out that she liked Nagihiko. She didn't think a black hole would open beneath her, but Amu's expression would surely be the same.

"Rima, are you okay?" she heard Kusu-kusu call out from her egg. "It sounded like you feel pretty hard."

"Yes...I'm okay," she said. It wasn't a total lie. It didn't hurt when she fell, but she did feel miserable about having feelings for Amu's boyfriend.

Rima glanced at the clock, it was time to go to school.

XOXOXO

Rima sat in her seat, glancing around nervously. At any moment, Amu and Nagihiko would walk in. Hand in hand. Maybe they might have fallen sick, Rima hoped. No, what was she thinking? What kind of friend thinks that? And anyway, they were healthy and would still come to class.

And they did.

Rima held her breath as she saw them walk in. She felt a tinge of pain in her heart, though it didn't hurt as much as the day before. She still didn't feel like talking to them, though.

Don't notice me...please...

But they did.

"Morning, Rima!" said Amu happily.

"Morning..." Rima managed to say.

"How did that thing go with your mum?" asked Amu.

Rima was confused for only the slightest moment, then expertly turned her expression to an exasperated look.

"She wanted me to help her cook dinner," said Rima. "Though she knows that I'm not good at cooking."

Amu laughed. "Well mum's can be like that sometimes."

Amu bent down to take out her books.

Thank Kami-sama, Amu didn't notice anything...but I hate lying to her.

"Hello, Rima-chan," said a voice Rima had dreaded to hear. Pain shot through her as she heard his voice.

She didn't dare to look up at him and said, "Good Morning, Nagihiko," without looking into his face.

XOXOXO

She peered from behind the door to the cafeteria. No sign of Nagihiko. She walked to sit with Yaya.

"Hey! You went out shopping with Amu and Nagi yesterday!" whined Yaya. "Why didn't you bring me?"

"You had ballet practice," said Rima, a little annoyed that Yaya mentioned Nagihiko's name.

"Oh, right, and Amu-chi said that you left early," said Yaya. "But I still heard about what happened!"

Rima's eyes widened in panic. Did Amu find out? Did she tell Yaya?

"Nagihiko kissed Amu!" squealed Yaya.

Rima nearly choked on her food. "W-what?"

He and Amu – no! – it couldn't have happened.

"It was only on the cheek, but it's still something," said Yaya.

"Oh, I was there," said Rima, feeling relieved that that was all that happened.

She then felt angry with herself. I must not feel this way! Nagihiko can kiss Amu on the lips if he wanted to for all I care! Because I don't care! Not at all! Not even one tiny bit-

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the cafeteria door open, and long purple hair, coming out from it.

Without another word to Yaya, Rima abandoned her food, grabbed Kusu-Kusu, who was talking to Pepe, and raced across the cafeteria to the opposite door. She pulled the door open and ran out of it.

"Rima-chi?" she heard Yaya call out, just as the door closed.

She rested with her back against the door, breathing heavily.

That was close...too close...

"Mmmph," said Kusu-kusu, struggling to let herself out of Rima's grip.

"Oh sorry," said Rima, releasing her chara.

"What was that about?" asked her chara. "You grabbed me when Nagihiko and Amu were walking in! Why did you – Oh!" A look of understanding was now shown on Kusu-Kusu's face.

"It was because they walked in together," she said.

Rima was surprised. Kusu-kusu wasn't there yesterday, and Rima didn't tell her.

"How did you know?" asked Rima. "Is it that obvious?"

Kusu-kusu shook her head. "Nope! I'm your chara! I know these things!" She giggled normally.

"Okay," said Rima. "But don't tell anyone about this. Absolutely no one."

Kusu-kusu nodded seriously.

Rima pressed her face against the small glass window on the door. Amu was holding hands with Nagihiko and coming her way.

"Let's go," whispered Rima hurriedly, and dashed to her classroom.

She didn't talk to either Nagihiko or Amu that day. When the bell rang, she ran out of the room and made her way for home.

The next day, Rima came to school as usual, but she refused to make any contact with Amu and Nagihiko. She was the first one to leave the classroom. At lunch, she had eaten a sushi pack that her mum had made in a corridor next to her locker. Even after school, she took the back exit of the school, so Nagihiko and Amu wouldn't see her.

This continued over a week.

If I can keep this up for two more days, Rima thought, on the morning of the second last day of the school term, I'll be safe. Rima had figured that if she avoided Amu and Nagihiko for a week, and didn't talk to them over the Winter Break, then maybe her feelings for Nagihiko would disappear completely. Rima thought that the crush might already be going away; it didn't hurt at all when she saw Nagihiko playing basketball on her way home.

The day was the same as usual. She had managed to stay out of Nagihiko and Amu's sight.

Until the end of school.

Rima had opened the door of the back thinking, only one more day. She hadn't counted on Nagihiko waiting for her outside.

Her heart skipped a beat. He was smiling at her with his beautiful smile.

I can't believe I just called him beautiful...weird...she thought. But I really do like his smile...

"Rima-chan, are you avoiding us?" demanded Nagihiko, though he was still smiling.

Rima froze, her brain working fast. What do I do?

"No," she said, in a steady voice that surprised even herself.

"Then why are you taking the back exit?" he asked her.

"Because I feel like it," said Rima.

"Rima-chan, Amu's worried about you," said Nagihiko.

Oh damn it...What do I say?

Whatever she told Nagihiko, he would definitely tell Amu...and Rima didn't want that. She glanced ever so slightly at Kusu-kusu, her eyes pleading 'help!' But Kusu-kusu merely giggled as Rima had instructed her to do whenever they might be in danger of Rima's feelings being exposed.

Then an idea dawned on Rima.

"I didn't want to get between you two," she said.

Nagihiko's eye brows had risen in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Well, that day when we went shopping. You guys kept acting lovey-dovey. It's no fun since I was getting left out. It was like you guys felt sorry for me and just wanted me to tag along on your date," she said, feigning anger, while actually desperately hoping that he would believe the excuse. "I wanted to hang out with Amu!"

There was a silence.

"Oh, that's why," said Nagihiko, wearing a look of comprehension.

I can't believe he believed that. Thank you Kami-sama!

"I'll tell Amu-chan , maybe you guys can hang out without me," said Nagihiko with a laugh. "I'm sorry for spending so much time your best friend."

"Yeah," said Rima. "You better be."

There was another silence.

"Hey, do you want me to walk you home?" asked Nagihiko. "Amu-chan went ahead of me."

Rima's heart skipped another beat.

Yes! Her heart cried out.

"No thanks," she said instead.

Even if Nagihiko's offer was only a friendly one, Rima couldn't risk it. Even at this second, being in Nagihiko's presence was dangerous; her heart was already beating too fast for her liking.

"I'll just go by myself," she said, and walked as quickly as possible without running pass Nagihiko, her heart aching.

"Bye-bye!" said Kusu-kusu cheerfully to a confused Nagihiko, Temari and Rizumu.

XOXOXO

"Hey Nagihiko," said Amu looking over her shoulder for any sign of a certain someone. "Did you notice that Rima's been...not around lately."

Nagihiko, who had been outing some books in his locker, looked at Amu.

"Yeah, I did," he said. "I talked to Rima about it after school yesterday."

"You have?" said Amu feeling surprised. "I haven't had any chance to talk to her."

It was true. For some reason, Rima always seemed to mysteriously blend into the crowd whenever Amu tried to catch her attention and Amu first thought that they were coincidences. She could almost swear, though, that once, Rima had seen Amu and had run in the opposite direction.

Amu had a feeling that Rima was avoiding her, but she didn't know why. When she asked Yaya about it, she merely shrugged and said that maybe Rima was just busy.

But why did she suddenly become so busy? Amu thought. It was the last day of school now, so there wasn't much work to do unless you wanted to finish your Winter Break homework early. And Rima's not the type of person to do her homework early...

"She didn't want to get in our way," said Nagihiko, snapping Amu out of a train of thought.

"Get in our way?" repeated Amu, puzzled.

"She wanted to spend time with you, and said that she didn't want me always being there," said Nagihiko.

"That makes sense," said Dia, the wisest of Amu's charas.

"Oh," said Amu. She suddenly felt guilty. She had been paying less attention to her best-friend lately. She could understand why Rima would be mad.

"Okay Amu-chan!" cheered Ran enthusiastically. "Today will be operation 'Talk to Rima'!"

"Eh?" said Amu.

"Yeah! This will be the perfect chance for you two to hang out! To celebrate the end of school term," added Miki.

"Okay..." said Amu looking unsurely into the faces of her four charas.

"Don't worry everything will be just fine," said Nagihiko, encouragingly.

Amu felt her face turn pink. "I'll do my best."

"Hey Rima," called Amu to Rima as she was leaving the school gates.

"Amu?" said Rima.

Amu panted for a while. She had run to make sure she didn't miss talking to Rima. She then straightened up, glanced over her shoulder to see Nagihiko give her a smile and turned back to talk to Rima.

"I heard from Nagihiko about the last few days," she said. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you a lot."

Amu waited for a reply, but Rima just stared, so she continued.

"So why don't we hang out today it make up for it?" said Amu, hoping Rima would forgive her.

"I – um –I really want to hang out with you but the thing is that I sort of have plans," said Rima quickly.

"Really?" asked Amu curiously. "What plans?"

Rima paused for a second, then opened her mouth, but Amu didn't hear her say anything.

"Rima-chi!" sang out Yaya, who suddenly, as if by magic, appeared at Rima's side. "Let's go! I want my ice cream now!" She pulled at Rima's hand and practically dragged her away, their charas floating as fast as they could to keep up with them.

They were gone before Amu could say anything.

"That didn't go too well," said Nagihiko.

Amu shook her head.

"Don't worry-desu," said Suu. "You can call her and make plans later."

Amu nodded. "I will," she said brightly.

A/N: Yes, this is a sort of slow chapter, right? I don't even know what a slow chapter is but it felt right to call this a slow moving chapter. Anyway, my friend brought up that Nagi twirling Rima was flirting (or were you thinking of another part? 0_0) and I was sort of thinking that too when I was writing it. But that's how I wanted Rima to realize (sort of) her feelings. So, just take the twirling as Nagihiko's unconcious play-boy-ness in his blood, I'm sure every boy has that. (Wasn't there an episode in Doki where he danced with some girl?)

Also, I realized that I updated sooner because you guys gave me good reviews, thanks for them! School starts soon tomorrow so it'll be harder to update but if you review maybe I'll manage to squeeze in an update. :D