A/N: TADAA! I AM ALIVE 8D Yup, yup. And here with a new update...hehe I think this is the chapter I most looked forward to writing xD Anyway, this chapter is dedicated to my friend Antoinette, because she loves this story and her birthday is today! (Well technically, April 29th but we don't have one this year x33)

Chapter 11 – The Other Side of the Story

Rima sighed as she closed the door of her locker. It had been a long day and ignoring glares of jealous girls tired her out. She had been used to it in elementary school but after around two years of not having this kind of treatment she realized how much she didn't like it. Luckily this would only last for one week.

"Rima, are we going to watch King of Comedy tonight?" Kusu-kusu asked her.

"Of course." They always watched that show together. Kusu-kusu really didn't even need to ask. Maybe it was so that Rima could get her minds off things. She smiled at her characters thoughtfulness.

"Talking to yourself?" Rima whipped around and found herself glaring at Saaya Yamabuki and her gang of girls. Of course. Saaya was probably Tadase's fiercest fan-girls.

"No." Rima closed her eyes and flipped her hair. "You must be hearing things."

Saaya glared at Rima. Rima wondered what was up with this direct confrontation. Saaya usually never had the confidence to do something like this. Sure, she was always quite jealous of both her and Amu, but she never actually did anything to them. Rima had a feeling that this time it was different. Maybe it had something to do with the return of Tadase.

Saaya crossed her arms and made herself look tall. Rima was unfazed by this, since everyone was taller than her anyway. "What does Hotori-kun see in you anyway?" Saaya flipped her hair. "After all, I'm much prettier, smarter and more athletic than you." Rima would give Saaya one on the more athletic but other than that –

"I think you've got it the wrong way round." She wasn't going to answer the 'what-he-sees-in-you' question since this wasn't actually a real romantic relationship. Her silence would also make her more threatening, she knew.

When she didn't answer, Saaya snapped as Rima thought she would. "As if!" She hesitated slightly, though, and Rima smirked. At the sight of that Saaya grew angrier. "Hmph, well at least I didn't get kidnapped because of my looks."

Rima flinched at that. It had always been a sensitive subject to her. How the hell did Saaya even know about it? Only the former-guardians (and Kairi) knew about the incident. She never talked about it and she didn't want to. Unfortunately, Saaya looked like she knew that she hit a nerve.

"Hah, you're probably wondering how I knew about this. You see, I have resources. My daddy has an influence with the newspaper and I happened to read an old article about it. Surprised I found out, aren't you?"

"I'm surprised you can even read." Rima smirked again, as Kusu-kusu giggled. Saaya didn't hear Kusu-kusu, of course, but she turned red and glared at Rima. The girls standing behind her didn't laugh and imitated Saaya.

"How do you think it'd feel like to be taken again? I'm sure it's not very pleasant." She clicked her fingers and one of her girls gave her a group of keys. "These are keys to the school store-room. You'll think about how you'll talk to me next time. You'll have a long time to think to yourself in that small cramped cupboard."

"I'm not afraid of you," Rima said coldly. And she wasn't. She had no intention of spending time in a cupboard and she would have laughed at the thought of Saaya overpowering her. But Saaya clicked her fingers again and her group of girls surrounded Rima, grabbing her roughly by the hand and pulling her.

Rima struggled against the girls, but she was out-numbered and before no time at all they were at the front of the storeroom. It was very dark and very small and suddenly Rima remembered the van that the man who tried to kidnap her was going to take her in. She struggled frantically, panicking and having flashbacks about that day.

Saaya, smirked and Rima knew she liked to see her squirm, but she couldn't help it. The girls shoved her onto the floor and Rima felt tears threatening to come to appear. Saaya right in front of her, the other girls standing outside the door looking more triumphant than Rima had ever seen her.

"I hope you feel comfortable on that floor. You're going to spend a whole night there."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Amu stood at the door-frame, giving Saaya the coldest look imaginable. Kusu-kusu was floating next to Amu, giving Rima a worried look.

"None of your business."

Amu pushed Saaya out of her way and helped Rima off the floor. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

Rima blinked a few times, making sure there were no tears and then replied in soft tone. "Yes..."

Amu smiled warmly at her before her expression changed to a fierce one and she was glaring at Saaya. "I thought you were better than this."

Saaya, still being unbelievably smug flipped her hair. "You thought wrong."

Amu narrowed her eyes. "Let me get this straight," she said in an icy tone. "If you ever touch my best friend again – let's just say that it won't be good for you." Saaya suddenly looked like her old self, the one who was intimidated by Amu.

Amu took Rima's hand and they walked out of the school. They stopped after a while and Amu asked if Rima was okay again.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thank you."

"No need to thank me. If it wasn't for Kusu-kusu I wouldn't have known about this."

"Thanks to Kusu-kusu too, then." Rima said, smiling warmly at her chara, who giggled and sat on Rima's shoulder.

"I can't believe Saaya would try to do such a mean thing," Suu said with a sad tone.

"That girl has issues," said Miki.

"She needs therapy," Amu commented, which made Rima laugh.

Amu's expression brightened up, and Rima realized that her face had looked tense and worried. "Hey! I made you laugh!" Amu looked quite proud of herself, seeing as how Rima was hard to entertain.

"For once." Rima smiled and they both laughed together. "So what would you do if Saaya tried anything like that again?"

Amu sweat-dropped. "I don't actually know. The words sorta seemed to come out of my mouth since I was really angry." She looked suspiciously at her charas. "Was I chara-changed with anyone?"

"No!" the four charas said in unison. Amu sighed.

"Well, we could always get Tadase-kun to say he hated her or something like that," Rima suggested, imagining the look on Saaya's face if Tadase said that. Sweet, sweet, revenge that would be.

Amu laughed at how serious Rima looked. "Nah, Tadase-kun wouldn't do that."

"Hey, he might if you asked him to!" Ran told Rima enthusiastically. "Come on! He couldn't say no to Amu-chan when he was dating her."

Sometimes that pink guardian character talked to much. Amu blinked and frowned.

"What's your point? I'm not Amu-chan." ...I don't think that came out right, Rima immediately thought.

"Rima-chan, Hinamori-san!" Speaking of the devil. Or not. I wonder if you can actually use that phrase with Tadase, it doesn't suit him. Well, anyway, speaking of Tadase, here he was now, walking up to Rima and Amu. "I was looking for you Rima-chan. Let's walk home together." And he smiled his Tadase-smile at her

"Hi, Tadase-kun. Sure!" Rima added a giggle, for effect, and took Tadase's hand and waved at Amu. "Bye."

"Bye Rima-chan."

And again, a few metres away from the school gate, they let go of each other's hands.

"I think you over-acted a bit there," Tadase said.

"Hey, better to over-act than under-act, that's what I always say," said Rima.

"You don't always say that."

"Whatever...but you know what I mean."

"I don't know if I do."

Rima rolled her eyes. "Never mind. Just make sure you don't actually fall in love with me." Tadase raised an eyebrow at her. "You know! One girl dates a boy to impress this other boy and the two pretending fall in love."

"So you are doing this to try to get Fujisaku jealous!"

"I'm not," Rima said so quickly and loudly that Tadase started laughing. Rima looked away from Tadase, feeling displeased. She knew that she totally set herself up for that.

They were just passing the basketball court. She realized that Nagihiko was standing in the middle of the court alone and was looking up. Rima's heart skipped a beat when their eyes suddenly met. But she did what she had to do and glared at him and turned back to Tadase.

"What's wrong?"

"Nagihiko."

"Oh." Yes, that name alone was enough to understand now.

"Anyway," Rima continued as if nothing had happened. "I'm serious! Do not fall in love with me because I have enough problems as it is."

"Don't worry, I couldn't fall in love with you even if I tried."

Rima blinked. Alright that was cold! Especially coming from Tadase who was...well, never cold!

Seeing Rima's expression Tadase smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, that's not what I meant." He sighed. "Let me rephrase that. Do you think I'm capable of falling in love with anyone else but Hinamori-san ?"

"Anything's possible," is what Rima would say to anyone else but in Tadase's case... "Sorry, forget I even said anything." Because she knew exactly how he felt.

XOXOXO

Kukai walked into the changing room after a long session of practicing football by himself. He, like Nagihiko, had a tournament coming up. He was about to change when he heard a strange clanging sound. Feeling curious, he peered around the row of lockers and gasped.

"Nagihiko! What the hell are you doing?"

Nagihiko had a hand against his locker and his head bent down. He turned his face to Kukai once he heard his voice. "Oh, nothing."

"What do you mean nothing? You were hitting your head against the locker. Are you trying to give yourself a concussion or something?"

"...maybe."

His two characters were signalling Kukai from behind Nagihiko, telling pointing at Nagihiko frantically.

Kukai sat down on the bench next to the lockers. "Do you have anything you need to talk about?"

"No." Nagihiko paused. "Wait...yes."

"Great!" Kukai said enthusiastically. "Let's hear it! Er – Nagihiko?"

Nagihiko was trembling. He turned around and pointed a finger at Kukai. "This whole mess is your fault!"

Kukai jumped, startled. "My fault? What the heck are you talking about?"

"This whole thing with Hotori-kun, Amu...and Rima-chan," Nagihiko snapped, looking like he was about to punch Kukai.

"Nagihiko!" Temari cried.

"Stay cool. Character change!" Rhythm said. After a few minutes being in Rhythm's character change, Nagihiko and Kukai sat down on the benches with Nagihiko breathing deeply, who (luckily for Kukai) didn't want to punch Kukai anymore.

"Okay Nagihiko," Kukai said. "If you have some kind of problem, you're going to have to start at the beginning."

Nagihiko took one more deep breath. "Alright. Sorry for...losing it just now."

"That's okay, man! I'll hear you out!" Kukai and Daichi did their signature thumbs-up.

"Here goes nothing. Okay, remember Operation: G.B.T.?"

"Yeah. That didn't work out at all, and it wasn't my fault."

xxxxx

Four months ago...

Nagihiko rang on Kukai's doorbell. One of his brothers welcomed him in and he ran into Kukai's room. "What's the emergency?" He sweat-dropped when he saw Kukai lying down on his bed, playing on his PSP. "Oi!"

"Wait...wait a minute."

Nagihiko did not come all the way here to wait a minute and he waled over to Kukau and took his PSP. And turned it off.

"Two steps ahead of you, Fujisaki." Kukai smirked. "I already saved it!"

Nagihiko grinned and threw the PSP at Kukai who was not as good as Nagihiko with his hand-work, fumbled with it before it landed on his bed.

"But seriously, what's the emergency?"

Kukai put his PSP under his pillow and sat up. "I was on the phone with Tadase just now." He frowned and shook his head. "He's obviously not doing too well. The tone of his voice is just...different."

"Different?" Daichi said. "He sounds like he's dying!"

Nagihiko sighed and sat down on Kukai's bed. "And we know Amu-chan's not her usual self either."

Amu had been in a state of near-depression the past few weeks. She wouldn't tell anyone what was wrong but they all knew that it had to do with her and Tadase's break-up.

"So, we have to do something!"

Nagihiko was surprised. Kukai wasn't usually one to mind other people's business. But Nagihiko saw where he was coming from, he just wanted his friends to be happier. "Okay, so what do you have in mind?"

"Operation: G.A.A.T.B.T." Kukai said.

Nagihiko blinked. "Operation what?"

"It stands for Operation: Get Amu and Tadase back together." Daichi grinned. "I made it up!"

Nagihiko blinked again. "That's a long name."

Kukai and Daichi frowned. "Alright!" Kukai said. "We'll make it Operation: G.B.T. – get back together. Happy now?"

"Yes – and no." He looked at Kukai sceptically. "How are we going to do that? They won't tell us why they broke up. I have the feeling that even Hotori doesn't know why. And to top it off they haven't spoken to each other since."

"See that's where you come in." He grinned confidently as if he knew exactly what he was doing which probably meant that things would go very wrong. "Think about it! You're her best friend right? She'd listen to you!"

Nagihiko for once listened to Kukai and thought about it. Amu would probably listen to him. She asked for his advice many times...well Nadeshiko's advice, but same thing.

"It's worth a shot," his female character whispered to him.

"Alright, when?"

"Hmm, you guys need to talk privately. Go shopping or something and then when she's feeling all happy say something about Tadase."

"You know, if we were going to go shopping together Rima-chan would want to follow."

Kukai's grin widened. "See, I'm ahead of you, again! I've already asked Yaya (bribing her with candy, but that's a minor detail) and she said that Rima has a dentist appointment tomorrow. It'll be Saturday so you can go anytime!"

"I still don't think this is a good idea..."

"Just go with it! What's the worst thing that could happen? Plus, I'll be with you."

Nagihiko was surprised. "You're coming?"

"Yep. My spirit will go with you while I stay home and play my PSP."

Nagihiko just about managed to hold back a face-palm. I should have known.

xxxxx

Two days later...

Nagihiko glanced at Amu as he walked her to her house. He thought that the shopping went well, Amu was in a fairly good mood. He told his characters not to say or do anything. Even a small comment or character change might ruin the plan. Operation: GBT is going smoothly so far, though...

"That was fun wasn't it?" Amu said, smiling.

"Yes, it was," Nagihiko said. Alright, now for the confrontation – did I just think 'confrontation?' alright, I think Kukai's spirit is actually here or something. "Hey, you feel fine now, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"I don't know...it just seems like you've been down lately. You're smiling now. You haven't been smiling lately." Nagihiko was about to ask what happened with Tadase when she cut in.

"Only because I'm with you."

Nagihiko blinked. She's down because she's with me? Or smiling when she's me? "Well I like it when you smile." It's better to smile than to be depressed. I think I told Rima-chan that once. Nagihiko smiled at the thought of her. Kukai's spirit interrupted him though, Oi! Operation: GBT here, as in Tadase and Amu, not Operation Get You Together with Rima.

Nagihiko snapped back to attention and saw that Amu looked...distant? Shoot, maybe she was going back to depressed-mode. "I like everything about you." There! Amu-chan's always worried about her four characters. That should cheer her up.

Amu smiled at him and he saw her clips change to heart-shaped. Nagihiko grinned inwardly and mentally high-fived Kukai. "I like you too." Amu suddenly looked down. "Maybe...more than a friend. I mean, I know this is sudden, but you're my best friend and you're so easy to talk to."

Oh, that's nice. Hah, I told Rima-chan that I was her best friend. Wait 'till she hears about this.

Amu then looked straight at Nagihiko, now without her character change. "I'm just...happy when you're around."

Spirit-Kukai nudged him. Oh no, look at her eyes. Nagihiko looked at her properly and realized she had that look that she used to have with Tadase.

What-? Wait – she meant romantically! Oh no, she's serious and she's not even character changed. Oh crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. RED ALERT KUKAI. RED ALERT. HELP!

Spirit Kukai seemed to have abandoned him when Nagihiko needed him most. Nagihiko looked at her properly again, just to see if he was seeing things.

Nope. It was there, he recognised it because he had seen that look for more than three years.

He had to reject her. But he could hardly say, "Oh sorry, I don't like you in that way. But Tadase still loves you. You should call him." That made him sound like he just wanted to get rid of her and she would be doubly depressed. And that ruined the whole point of the plan. He should've said something earlier. He needed help from his characters. He looked at them but they shook their heads. He did tell them not to help.

But there was no going back, and he really could not say no especially with Amu's unstable emotional state.

Nagihiko, with one enormous effort, smiled. "I like you too."

And Amu's face turned back to the one he knew long ago and she rushed up and hugged him. Nagihiko, with another effort, hugged her back.

Amu's characters were squealing with happiness while his characters were trying hard not to look as if anything went wrong.

Suddenly Rima's face popped up in his mind before fading away.

Spirit-Kukai came back and shook his head gravely. I'm going to kill you when I find out tomorrow. Spirit-Kukai was fading too, but he managed to say. Whatever you do, don't tell Tadase. We don't need two dead people in one day.

xxxxxx

The next day...

Nagihiko once again found himself in Kukai's room, though he sat down on the floor rather than on Kukai's bed. Kukai was grinning, waiting to hear the good news. The non-existent good-news, that is. "So what happened?"

"...I became Amu's boyfriend."

And there was a silence.

"YOU WHAT!" Nagihiko winced at how loud Kukai was.

"Just hear me out, okay?" Nagihiko said, and explained what had happened the day before.

Kukai stared at him when he was finished. "Idiot. You are an idiot." He was so frustrated that he got off his bed. "Why didn't you just say no!"

"Then there'd be three dead instead of two!" Nagihiko said. "Amu would have been really depressed."

"I have no idea what you meant about the three instead of two but Amu was already depressed. How much worse could she feel? Seriously! You could've have told Tadase to call Amu and he could comfort her and they might have gotten together."

"That's..." 'ridiculous' he would have said, but Kukai had a point. There could have been another way. He had panicked and wasn't thinking straight. And now they were in one big mess.

"And Tadase..."

"Don't worry, I know, don't tell him, you already told me."

Kukai was surprised. "I didn't tell you."

"Yes you did, your spirit did, anyway."

"Er – I was on a date with Utau yesterday. I needed all my spirit with me, especially with that intense Ramen Contest we had."

"Who won?"

"Me of course – hey, don't change the subject!" Kukai ran his fingers through his hair. "Okay, let's just make sure Tadase doesn't find out."

"Right. Act as if you didn't know about this tomorrow okay? I don't think Amu wants a lot of people to know, she doesn't want that much attention."

"Fine." Kukai sighed. "I'm failing really badly at being Tadase's best-friend."

Nagihiko smirked. "Since when were you his best-friend?"

"Since...well...since he first joined the Guardians of course." Kukai crossed his arms. "Remember? He joined before you did."

"Really, I thought he was closer to me?" Nagihiko grinned. "He did keep my secret."

Kukai scowled. "You want to be everyone's best friend! Besides, he's Tadase! He's good at keeping secrets. I think...And you still call him Hotori!"

"Hmph, okay...maybe I'm not his best friend. But that would make Tsukiyomi his best friend."

"What? No! He's more like family. He told me."

"But don't you always call yourself the big brother of that group?"

"THAT'S IT! Let's have a soccer match, one on one! Whoever wins is right!"

And with that, the boys left the room, forgetting their self-caused problems.

XOXOXO

"And I won that game!" Kukai said proudly.

"Yeah, yeah, if we were playing basketball the story would have been different."

The two laughed. Then Kukai stopped and looked at Nagihiko confused.

"Wait, but I already knew all this!"

"Yeah, but remember that one part that I told you I was thinking about Rima-chan?"

Kukai nodded.

"The thing is...I've been trying to make this work with Amu-chan, I actually felt quite happy for a while." Nagihiko closed his eyes. "But...Rima-chan, just after we got together - whenever she looked at me. It's as if she was asking me for an explanation."

Kukai's eyebrows shot up. "Meaning?"

"I think...I think she...might have liked me." Nagihiko sighed. "Or something like that."

Kukai was silent for a while. "Well I knew that!"

Nagihiko was surprised. "You did?"

Kukai laughed. "It's not like you guys were subtle with your flirting."

Nagihiko turned pink. "I did not flirt."

Kukai's expression went, yeah right. Nagihiko looked at his characters. Rhythm was smirking and Termari giggled. Great, even his characters were against him. Then Kukai's expression turned serious. "So do you have feelings for her now?"

Nagihiko looked as if he wanted to carry on hitting his head against the lockers. "Yes. No. I don't know! ...okay yes. But she seems to have gotten over me...she looked really happy when she was talking to Hotori-kun. He seems to be over Amu too."

"So let me get this straight. You are dating Amu because you don't want to break her heart. You think you still have feelings Mashiro. She and Tadase have moved on and are now dating. What are you going to do?"

"I don't know."

"You know what?"

"What?"

"Your life is messed up."

And it was so true, that unbelievably, the two burst out laughing.

A/N: I'm really too lazy to say anything right now x3 Oh wait, I got something...I realized I love writing Kukai! Especially Spirit-Kukai xD And, I think that it was four months ago..yeah, I'm not good with my own timeline..deal with it! x3Just review and tell me what you thought of the story! 8D