A/N: Tadaa! Sorry for the late update, I was busy with my school holiday x3 Anyway, this chapter is mainly to build up for the coming chapters...I'll try updating sooner next time xDD

I do not own Shugo Chara.

Chapter 7 - Return of the King

"Tadase-sama," squealed nearly all the girls in the class. Rima heard them immediately start whispering on how cute Tadase was looking and already planning schemes on how to get him. This had been absent for the last year Tadase was here, but now since Amu was with Nagihiko, they all had a chance, or at least, they thought so.

Of course, these same girls would crowd around Tadase's table in between classes so the former-guardians had no chance to talk to him until lunch.

"Tadase!" Kukai gave Tadase a one arm hug and ruffled his blond hair. "Long time no see." He was grinning broadly at his old friend.

"Yeah it's been too long, Souma-kun," Tadase said with a happy expression.

"When did you come back?" asked Nagihiko, also with a smile.

"A week ago," answered Tadase. "But I wanted to surprise you guys at school."

"Tadase!" cried Yaya happily, glomping Tadase. "Wah, we all missed you!" She let go and Tadase smiled at everyone.

It was a happy re-union. Even Rima had to admit that she was happy that Tadase returned, though she didn't say anything. There was only one person not rejoicing at the return of Tadase. Rima looked at Amu who was standing awkwardly in the background, looking down and shifting uncomfortably in the background. Her characters were telling her things that Rima could not hear, but she heard a sort of urgency in their voices.

Tadase, Rima saw, noticed too and smiled at Amu in between the gaps of his friends crowded around him. "Hi, Hinamori-san."

Hinamori-san? Rima looked between Tadase and Amu and suddenly realized that there must be some sort of tension between them. They broke up, hadn't they? Of course it would be awkward. Amu didn't even talk to Rima about it. And Tadase had gotten back to calling her Hinamori-san. But Rima noticed that Tadase was still smiling. Was he really okay about it, as Amu said?

"Hey Tadase-kun, it's great to see you," said Amu with a normal smile in just as a happy tone as anyone else.

Good. Rima felt relieved. She probably imagined the tension. They were good all good friends, so there wasn't anything to worry about.

"Hee, I knew the surprise would be good," said Yaya with a triumphant grin. Tadase looked at Yaya with a questioning expression.

"Tsukiyomi told us that there would be surprise when we got to school," explained Nagihiko. "We never thought it would be you, though."

Tadase rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I told Ikuto-nii-san and Utau-chan." He put his hand back down. "I was actually at the Christmas party."

"You were?" asked Yaya, in a tone that reflected the group's surprise. "I didn't see you."

"Oh, I dropped of my presents in the just at the start of the dance. I watched for a while but I left since I didn't want you to see me." Tadase grinned. "Still, it looked like you guys were having fun."

Hmm...Rima didn't see Tadase either, and usually she was good at observing things. She wasn't dancing at the start, so she should have seen him, though maybe she was a little preoccupied with watching Amu and Nagihiko dance.

Nagihiko's smile disappeared. "But that means you saw..." his voice trailed off and he glanced sideways at Amu.

So, Tadase saw Amu and Nagihiko too, thought Rima. Rima looked at Tadase carefully and saw pain flash in his eyes for only a second. No one else seemed to notice it. Rima suddenly felt sorry for Tadase. At least for herself, Amu and Nagihiko didn't know that she liked Nagihiko. In Tadase's case, everyone knew. And what was worse, Nagihiko had actually helped try to get them together. Rima had also helped with that too of course, with Yaya in the lead. Rima and Nagihiko were just mainly caught up in Yaya's plans. Rima pushed that thought out of her mind. That was when Rima spent most of her time along with Nagihiko. It wasn't good to think about things like that at a time like this.

"Oh that." Tadase laughed, which surprised Rima and the rest of them. Rima did notice that it was a more of a nervous one, though. "I heard about it from Utau-chan." He smiled cheerfully at Nagihiko and Amu. "Congratulations! I'm happy for you."

Tadase? Giving out a right out lie? But Rima saw that Nagihiko and Amu seemed to believe him. She thought that at least Nagihiko would notice it, but he was now talking now with Tadase.

Maybe Tadase was telling the truth. Perhaps he wouldn't do anything that might ruin Nagihiko's and Amu's relationship, which would result in Amu being sad. Rima, of course, would not allow that and she doubted that Tadase wanted Amu to be sad.

Still, Rima felt the atmosphere was pretty strange at the moment.

"Commoners!" cried out Kiseki from on the table. "I have returned! We will continue our plans for my world domination! HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The other characters groaned and they all laughed. Kiseki's outburst seemed to have changed the atmosphere.

Rima smiled; maybe things would turn out okay.

XOXOXO

"So, are we walking home together today?" Rima asked Amu on the way to the exit of the school.

Amu shook her head in a regretful manner. "Sorry, I'm going with Nagihiko to the park."

Rima felt something drop in the pit of her stomach. Of course. Just because Amu walked to school with her that morning didn't mean she wanted to walk home with her. Really, the whole point of begging her parents to allow her to walk back from school was so that she could walk back with her friends. If she was going to walk alone, she might as well been picked up by her mum.

"Amu-chan," called Nagihiko, walking towards them, along with Tadase.

"Oh, Hinamori-san," said Tadase. "Could you - " He broke of looking confused. Rima, Nagihiko and Amu all stared at him. He shook his head with a smile. "I forgot what I was going to ask." They all laughed but Rima noticed Amu's laugh was rather hesitant.

"Let's go." Nagihiko took Amu's hand and walked away.

Rima's chest tightened painfully. Pain. How normal it was, these days. She would just have to get used to it. Tadase clenched his fists, which startled Rima, who had forgotten he was there.

Rima thought about how ironic it was. Amu broke up with Tadase. Nagihiko got together with Amu after she was depressed. And somehow both Rima and Tadase ended up being hurt. Rima didn't like irony much anymore.

"Are you okay, Hotori-kun?" asked Rima. She surprised herself in asking that. She wasn't really one to ask if anyone was okay, seeing as she wasn't herself. Still, as comrades in love problems, she guessed it was only natural.

"No need to worry about me," said Tadase with a laugh. Rima could distinctly hear the quiver in his voice. Rima thought she was lucky that she was a much better actor than Tadase. And that Amu wasn't good at spotting lies.

Tadase looked around. "Isn't your mother going to pick you up?"

Rima shook her head. "I can walk home alone now." Yes, keyword: alone.

"Do you want me to walk you home?" Tadase offered. Rima raised an eyebrow.

Tadase shrugged. "I feel like walking around more." Ah, by that he must have meant that, by walking Rima home first, he didn't need to walk past the park where Amu and Nagihiko were at.

"Hey!" yelled Yaya running up to the three of them. "I wanna walk with you guys too." She held up a list. "I gotta pick up some things around town and I have to pass your house to get there, so why not?"

"Sure, Yuiki-san," said Tadase.

They started walking in the direction of Rima's house. They didn't talk for a while, though; Tadase looked deep in thought while Yaya was humming a tune, and Rima didn't usually talk that much anyway.

She too, was thinking, mostly about Nagihiko and Amu. She wondered how Nagihiko felt at Tadase being back. He did look quite awkward before, though she knew he did his best to hide it. Rima thought that Tadase didn't notice Naghiko's awkwardness. Rima did, of course, because she was a good actor. Or maybe it was just that she had been paying more attention to Nagihiko lately.

She looked up at the bare trees. She was sure she had spotted some cherry blossom trees too, though they weren't in bloom yet. This was around the time where she and Nagihiko went to the fair and had to take care of Yaya's little brother, Tsubasa. She wondered how Tsubasa might be doing, he had grown quite a bit since that day. She envied Tsubasa...his family was still together, and he had no worries since he was so young.

No need to worry about a serious love problem.

"Guyyys!" whined Yaya suddenly, jerking Rima and Tadase out of their thoughts. "Seriously, you guys are being really gloomy."

Rima simply looked at Yaya. She knew what Rima was feeling, so she should know that being gloomy was the only thing to do.

Tadase on the other hand looked surprised. "I'm not gloomy. I was just thinking..."

Yaya gave Tadase a sceptical look. "And what you were thinking of was making you look gloomy." Tadase laughed nervously. Rima supposed that Tadase was feeling rather gloomy – no, why was she using such a childish word? – depressed. Tadase just didn't realize that he showed it on his face.

"No, of course not," said Tadase immediately but Yaya continued giving them an annoyed look.

"I know that you both don't like seeing Amu-chan and Nagi together," Yaya stated.

"What? That's not true, I do like seeing them toge- well – I don't have a problem with it, I mean, it doesn't mean anything to me at all," Tadase said very quickly, though he looked more nervous.

Rima sighed. "Well, Yaya, if you know that, then can't you just let us be depressed about it?"

Tadase stopped in mid-sentence of denying further of caring about Amu and Nagihiko's relationship and looked at Rima, astonished.

"Mashiro-san...you...do you mean that you're-?"

"Yes, I'm in love with stupid Nagihiko," Rima answered before he could finish the question. He looked shocked. She saw a look of complete shock on Tadase's face. But for some reason, she felt that it was more shock that she admitted it so quickly, than shock of the fact that she loved Nagihiko.

"Oh..." he said.

"Yes, and we know you're still not over Amu-chan," Yaya said grimly.

Tadase looked between the two of them and sighed. "No...I'm not..."

"But even so," said Yaya. "You guys just can't be depressed!" She shook her head. "Not when everyone's finally back together!" She pumped her fist in the air. "Alright, 'Mission: Get Everyone to Be Happy', starts now!"

"I agree with the commoner," said Kiseki importantly by Tadase's shoulder. "A king cannot be depressed over insignificant things."

"Insignificant," repeated Rima, amused. This problem certainly wasn't insignificant.

"Okay, I'll organize a whole day where the old guardians will just go out and have some fun!" declared Yaya, sounding very excited. "A day that'll make everyone say, Yay! Whee! And Hooray!"

Rima remembered Kairi mentioning that Yaya had used the very same words when she wanted to find what to put in the giant ball during graduation. Rima let out a smile.

Yaya grinned, when she saw Rima's smile and then sounded more excited as she talked about ideas on where they would go and what they would do. Before she knew it, they had arrived at Rima's house.

"Good bye, Mashiro-san," said Tadase.

"Bye Rima-chi," sang Yaya.

Rima watched as the two of them headed into town, and saw that even Tadase managed a smile. Then she realized that she hadn't thought of Nagihiko and Amu for half of the walk back home, like she thought she would.

Yaya had managed to cheer her up after all.

A/N: Hmm...Amu's acting a little awkward, eh? Anyway, the story is now in January...and I need it to be February for the more interesting parts to come in, so it looks like I might put at least 3 chapters until it really gets good. Hope you can stay with me :D Please review.