A/N: Tadaa! A new chapter :D Once again, thank you for all the reviews! This chapter might make you guys a bit happier, I hope. Also, this one is around my usual length for chapters, unlike my last one which was twice as long xD Enjoy!

I do not own Shugo Chara.

Chapter 6 - Snowy Weather

Rima walked slowly back home. It wasn't that far, her mother wouldn't be home anyway. Besides, she felt like she had to walk around; she had experienced too much this night. It felt like maybe it was a test, to see how long she could last until she finally had to leave. If so, she felt like she had failed miserably. What if they acted like that in school? Not that they hadn't, but last time she avoided them. Amu would become suspicious if she did that now.

She shivered as a frosty breeze of wind swept past her; she should have brought a thicker jacket. She felt a sudden coolness on her face. It had begun to snow lightly. Just great, now she would be even colder.

She turned back her thoughts to the party. What had she endured? She saw Amu and Nagihiko smiling at each other in the most endearing way Rima must've thought was possible. They held hands and hugged. Well, she was used to that, right? And they danced. Rima frowned just thinking about it. How come that affected her so much? Sure, it was how they cleansed the X-eggs, but Rima didn't actually like dancing so much. Maybe...it was just because it was with Nagihiko.

"Rima-chan?" called out a faint voice. Rima came to a halt.

"Kusu-kusu, did you say something?" asked Rima. Kusu-kusu shook her head, looking confused. Great. Her depression was making her hear things.

Rima continued walking and pulled her jacket tighter using one hand since she was carrying her presents in the other. The snow was coming down faster and there was already a thin layer of snow on the ground, making her shoes wet. Rima watched the ground with mild interest.

The snow on the ground grew thicker and thicker as Rima walked. "I'm going to get buried by all this snow," muttered Rima to Kusu-kusu. Kusu-kusu giggled but Rima heard a chuckle from someone else.

She suddenly realized that it had stopped snowing...on her at least.

She looked up and stared in a stunned silence at Nagihiko, holding up a blue umbrella for the two of them on one hand and his bag full of presents in the other. Temari and Rizumu floated on either side of him.

"Glad you've finally noticed me," said Nagihiko.

"What are you doing here?" said Rima blankly. She went out to walk off the thoughts of him, not for him to come here!

"Amu was worried about you since it started snowing, and asked me to walk you home since her parents called her to go home too," explained Nagihiko as if it were that simple.

"I don't want you to, I'm fine on my own," Rima lied fiercely. She didn't need him to increase her pain.

"Just pretend I'm not here."

"Too much work. Just go away."

"I promised Amu I would walk with you," said Nagihiko. "So you're stuck with me until we get to your house." Damn Nagihiko, using the Amu excuse on me.

"Fine," she said and walked ahead of Nagihiko. "Then let's just get there fast."

"Oh my," said Temari.

Rima glanced next to her and saw that Nagihiko was easily following her pace. She gritted her teeth. Fifteen minutes to get home. No problem. I can handle that, she thought. Yeah, maybe, if I ignore Nagihiko and this freezing weather. Rima noticed though, that her heart wasn't hurting at the moment, which didn't make sense since she was right next to Nagihiko. Maybe she was just too cold.

"Hey can you stop for a while?" asked Nagihiko. Rima stopped walking.

Suddenly she didn't feel that cold and felt something on her shoulders. Nagihiko had taken off his jacket and put it on Rima.

"What was that for?" she asked unsurely. She didn't know if she should accept Nagihiko's kindness or not.

"You looked cold," said Nagihiko.

"What about you? Aren't you cold?" she asked.

"Sort of." Nagihiko shrugged. Rima glared at him. How could he be so infuriatingly calm all the time?

"If you're cold, why don't you take back your jacket?"

"You ask too many questions," said Nagihiko. Kusu-kusu giggled. Hey! She didn't ask that many questions...did she? "Besides, you looked colder than me." Rima couldn't argue with that.

"Whatever," she said, putting on the jacket properly. "Let's go."

They walked in silence. Rima didn't say anything, but she thought it was nice that Nagihiko gave her his jacket. Her heart was crying out happily while her mind was telling it to stop it. She was hopeless.

"Hey," said Nagihiko. "It stopped snowing."

Rima looked up. It did stop snowing, but there was still a lot of snow on the ground, slowing them down. Nagihiko closed his umbrella and pushed the top until it retracted to its smaller size and put it in his bag. Then he pulled out something else. It was a mask, a traditional Japanese one that was used for dancers.

"You gave me this..." said Nagihiko. "Why?"

"For your Christmas present, of course," said Rima. She stared at the ground as if she was trying to see through it. She wasn't supposed to me explaining this to Nagihiko. That's the reason she left the party in the first place.

"Well, why this?" Nagihiko pressed on.

"You're going to have a recital," said Rima. Amu wasn't here, so she thought it might be okay. Besides, Nagihiko wouldn't stop pestering her if she didn't tell him. She knew him at least that well. "I thought you'd need it to bring out your inner-girl since you're dancing as Nadeshiko." Kusu-kusu giggled continuously. Rima smiled slightly.

"But this is-" Nagihiko stopped in mid-sentence and seemed to change his mind about what he wanted to say. "What does it matter? Everyone's been giving me sports stuff for basketball, which I love a lot." Rizumu grinned. Rima stared at Nagihiko, wondering why he was suddenly saying this. "It's sort of like everyone forgot that there was another side to me."But I still love dancing." Temari smiled. "So...thank you," finished Nagihiko.

Rima looked away from Nagihiko again. "You're welcome," she said. It wasn't on accident that she had gotten him that. After all, she wanted something that would be useful to him. Something no one else would get for him. He didn't necessarily have to like it. Only if she was thinking that, that would be lying to herself since she really did want him to like it. Or at least, her heart did. Her heart, which now felt warm. In fact, her whole body felt warm. Maybe it was because of Nagihiko's jacket. Or maybe it was just Nagihiko.

"We're here," said Nagihiko, startling Rima. She had just noticed that they were standing in front of her house.

"Oh okay," she said. She stood there awkwardly for a moment. "Bye."

"What, no 'thank you' for walking you home?"

"No."

"But Amu would want you to thank me," said Nagihiko with a smile.

"Fine! Thank you," said Rima through gritted teeth.

"That's better," said Nagihiko. "Can I have my jacket back? I guess you could keep it if you like it that much."

Rima felt her face grow slightly warmer and took off her jacket and threw it onto Nagihiko. "Goodbye."

She entered her house and shut the door. One minute later she opened it slightly and peered out of it in the direction Nagihiko would be heading home. She just caught a glimpse of his back when he was out of her view.

She closed the door again and leaned against it smiling slightly. It wouldn't be too bad. Nagihiko...she could handle it.

XOXOXO

Rima woke up a week later by Kusu-kusu's loud giggles.

"It's time for school, Rima-chan!" she announced excitedly. Rima kept her eyes shut...a few more minutes wouldn't hurt. "RIMA-CHAN!" Rima sat up in her bed.

"I'm up," she muttered tiredly.

Ten minutes later she was eating break-fast, dressed up and ready for the first day back at school. She had packed all her stuff the night before, including her holiday homework. She wondered if Amu had managed to finish hers.

"I'm going now," said Rima to her mother who was still eating her own break-fast.

"Okay, bye," said her mother, waving at her daughter.

Rima smiled as she walked out the door. Her mother seemed to be acting a whole lot happier lately. She didn't know why, but it was a good thing.

"Hi Rima," said a voice that Rima recognised as Amu's come from behind her. She turned around and was a little surprised to see Amu running towards her. "Let's walk to school together."

Rima blinked. "Don't you usually walk with..." said Rima not really wanting to mention Nagihiko's name when she was with Amu, "that cross-dresser."

"Don't call him that," Amu scolded Rima playfully. "Anyway, I just felt like walking with you." Amu smiled cheerfully and Rima noticed that Amu was wearing the bracelet that Rima had given her. Rima was wearing hers too. Rima's smile widened and they started walking to school.

"Did you get finish your work?" asked Rima.

"Yeah," said Amu. "But I had to rush." As Rima knew she would. "Anyway, remember Ikuto said that there would be a surprise?" Rima nodded. "I've been asking Utau but she says she has no idea what the surprise is."

"Eru said that it was a wonderful surprise," said Su.

"But then Iru kicked her and she didn't tell us what it was," continued Miki.

"Exactly," said Amu. "I really want to know what it is!"

"I guess we'll find out later," said Rima, amused at Amu.

Just five minutes later they arrived at school. Amu was looking around while they headed to class. "I can't see anything different," said Amu. "What could it be?"

"Maybe it's a ghost," whispered Yaya appearing out of nowhere.

"Ahhh!" shrieked Amu, causing several people to stare at her. Amu regained her composure and scolded Yaya. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Haha," giggled Yaya. "Sorry!" She crossed her arms. "Kukai and Utau-chan wouldn't tell me the surprise either." She pouted. "It's not fair!"

The Amu and the charas crossed their arms too and nodded in agreement. "We should go to class, Amu, we're going to be late," said Rima.

"Oh yeah," said Amu. "See you at lunch, Yaya."

The pair walked into the classroom and exchanged greetings from all their classmates. All of them were talking about how their Christmas was. Saaya was talking loudly about how she went to a ski resort which her dad owns. No one paid much attention to her except her loyal group of other girls.

"Morning," said Nagihiko when he walked in. Rima watched him cautiously as he put his schoolbag down. It might now be easier to be around Amu and Nagihiko now, but she still had to be careful.

She looked away before Nagihiko could see that she was watching him. He walked over to a group of boys and started talking to them. Rima wondered who Nagihiko's closest guy friends were. Probably those in the basketball team too, Rima reasoned. She had not thought about it before for some reason, or she just hadn't noticed. Maybe, because Nagihiko's best friend was Amu and she was always competing with him for her attention that she couldn't see him really being friends with anyone else besides the former-guardians.

The teacher, Mikan-sensei, cleared her throat, and the class fell silent and went to their places.

"Today, we have a new transfer student," she said then she paused, "though I think some of you would know him."

There was a murmur among the students. They had not heard of a new transfer student, and they usually knew everything, or at least what they thought was everything. Amu was arguing with her charas again about the surprise, too busy to concern herself with the matter of the new student. Nagihiko turned to look at both of them with a quizzical look. Rima shrugged. They weren't guardians anymore, it wasn't their business to know who was coming or not. The new transfer student had walked in while the three of them weren't paying attention, and the teacher asked him to introduce himself.

"The surprise can't be that," said Amu at Ran's suggestion that the school would get a life-time supply of ice-cream. "That's just-"

"Good morning everyone," said a voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Rima. Amu stopped in mid-sentence and her head shot up. She stared at the transfer student, her mouth gaping. "My name is Tadase Hotori, nice the meet you."

Rima stared at Tadase, then at Amu who was mouthing the words "No way..." Nagihiko looked surprised to see him, and a little uncomfortable, but Amu looked like someone had literally shocked her. Rima thought these two reactions were quite interesting.

It wasn't that Rima disliked Tadase, but as he passed to take his place behind Amu, she felt that somehow, things around here were going to get more complicated than they already were.

But that was ridiculous. Why and how in the world could things get any more complicated than they already were?

A/N: Yes indeed Rima, how could this story get compliacted? ~grins evily~ Anyway, I think some of you might be...um...upset that Tadase has returned and you guys are sort of predicting the outcome of this story. But Tadase has an important role as some of you might've guessed...you'll see. Anyway, as long as we get a Rimahiko ending, no worries, right?

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