A/N:Tadaa- Some of you might be thinking: An update? Within a month? THE WORLD HAS ENDED. I wrote this before school started so you guys got a (late)New Year's present! 8D

Chapter 15 - Flowers

Rima did not want to be here. Whatever spirit that had possessed her to think it would be okay to go on a double date here must have been crazy. She just couldn't meet Nagihiko today, not after she nearly told him that she liked, no, loved him. She inwardly cursed herself again. Rima wasn't sure if Nagihiko knew what she was going to say. Hopefully he didn't. If he did, Rima might as well crawl into a hole right now. Of course, she had wanted to stay home and call Amu to say she was sick, but that would just make Nagihiko suspicious if he didn't know what she was going to say.

Her train of thought was interrupted when a certain blond boy tapped her shoulder. "I see you made it Rima-chan!" Tadase smiled brightly at her. Something about it was off though. Rima could tell that he was just as apprehensive about the situation as she was. She didn't know what happened while he was fighting X-eggs with Amu but something told her that whatever it was, it really affected the former-King's chair.

Rima scanned the area for any sign of Amu or Nagihiko. A lot of people came to the exhibition to admire the flowers, and most of them were also couples. It wasn't too packed though, which relieved Rima; she hated it when it was too crowded. Her height tended to make it harder to get noticed when she was trying to order food from stalls.

She noticed that Tadase didn't try to strike up any kind of friendly conversation like he usually did. It made her even more nervous. This was a flower exhibition. This was supposed to be Tadase's element. If even the flowers couldn't cheer him up she doubted anything she could come up with would help.

Finally, after another ten minutes of waiting, Amu and Nagihiko walked through the entrance together, hand in hand. Nagihiko raised a hand and waved the exhibition guide he was holding as they headed towards them. "I've got the guide so that we can know what's going on in this maze."

"A maze?" Rima looked around once again and realized that the tall hedges had several different openings.

"Yes! Isn't it cool? We'll get to see loads of flowers as we walk through it," Amu chirped.

Rima nodded. "That'll be great!" Don't look at Nagihiko, don't look at Nagihiko, she repeated in her head.

"And if we get to the middle there's supposed to be a special arrangement there." The sound of his voice made Rima look up at him. Her body just didn't want to cooperate with her. Her heart beated slightly faster as she saw him smiling warmly at her.

"So, shall we get going?" Tadase suggested with that same faked-smile from before. Rima was slightly startled, after not hearing Tadase talk for a while.

"Sure," said Amu in reply. She didn't look at Tadase when she said it though, Rima noticed.

The two couples started on the path on the left of the entrance, flowers of all sorts of colours covered the hedges. Rima gasped at the sight of them and stopped to look up at the towering spectacle.

"According to the guide, the flowers grew naturally on this hedge," she heard Nagihiko say, but she didn't turn around. Walking right up next to her he tried to catch her eye. "Don't you think it's pretty?"

"What's it to you?" said Rima, on her guard.

Nagihiko shrugged as if it didn't really matter. He then went back to Amu's side and started talking to her about the flowers as well. Rima clenched her fists. She didn't know what Nagihiko was thinking anymore.

They passed by many different flowers creeping along the hedges (of which Rima couldn't be bothered to remember their names) until they reached a dead end. It was an unusual dead-end though, since it was an enclosed space with a long wooden table in the middle of it with two ladies standing behind them. The table was intricately carved with vines running down its legs. There were a few other people already in the room, and they were standing or sitting in front of the table, working on what looked like a chain of flowers to Rima.

"Hello," the brunette lady greeted them. She held up a flower chain that was connected to have a shape of a heart. "At this area you can make flower-hearts. Once you give your flower-heart to someone it's said you'll be together forever." How cheesy can you get? Rima thought.

Amu on the other hand thought that it was really romantic. Her eyes widened and she looked at the others. "Can we give it a try?"

Nagihiko sighed, but smiled. "No harm in trying right?" He gave Rima a small look that told her he knew she thought this would be pointless.

Giving him a second-long glare, she sat down in the seat next to where Amu had settled, with Tadase sitting down on her other side.

"Wonderful," said the lady clapping her hands together. "Before I forget, the person who you give the flower-heart to must also give you a flower-heart in return for the magic to work!"

Rima could just hold herself back from rolling her eyes at the word 'magic'. The guardian characters seemed to be into it though, since they were getting flowers to the basket to give to their bearers. Rima smiled inwardly when she saw a girl looking over the basket and blinking, probably wondering if it was her imagination that flowers seemed to be floating out of the basket.

She saw Amu was looking down at the chain, frustrated as her colours didn't seem to be matching. Miki was trying to give her tips while Amu stubbornly insisted she didn't need help. Nagihiko was working pretty fast and was almost done, the colours were decent as well.

The one who caught her most attention was Tadase, though. He was looking down at his chain with an utmost concentration, arranging the flowers so that they complimented the ones they were next to.

Rima looked down at hers; she had finished first because she didn't give any thought about it and just put the flowers she first saw in the chain. Tadase's hard work almost made her feel guilty. Almost, but not quite.

The lady over-seeing the area helped put the ends of the chain together so they stayed in a heart shape. Rima wasn't really paying attention to how that was done. She was busy trying to find Kusu-kusu who had fallen into a pile of red flowers.

"Should we exchange our flowers now?" Amu asked the three eagerly.

"I think I want to keep mine for a bit longer," said Tadase. The smile as he looked down at his flowers wasn't faked. Rima could tell that he was proud of his work.

She saw Amu smile at Tadase's expression. "Alright then!" Now she wondered if Amu had also noticed Tadase's smiles were a pretence earlier today,

"Let's keep going," Nagihiko said. "I hope we can get to the middle before the exhibition closes."

Continuing their walk, the four took many turns and ran into another two dead-ends. One had an exhibit of carnivorous plants ("They are flowers I guess," Amu said). The other contained a quiz game all about flowers. Rima thought it seemed a lot like those quiz-shows on TV. Rima didn't bother trying to answer, Nagihiko attempted a few questions, and Amu just guessed. Tadase though got every single one that he was asked right.

Amu crossed her arms. "Ahh! That was really hard! How was I supposed to know how many seeds a Sunflower produces in a month?"

Ran giggled. "Tadase-kun got that answer right."

"Yeah but Tadase's a genius at flowers," she retorted.

Rima watched the two of them, amused. Tadase also seemed like he was about to smile.

They reached another junction soon later. "I think we've nearly reached the middle," Nagihiko said.

"Couldn't that guide have included, I don't know, a map in that thing?" Rima complained. She was getting tired of all this walking. All the guide seemed to have was millions of 'Did you know?' facts.

Ignoring that question, Nagihiko pointed to the path that carried straight on. "I think we should try this one. The hedge on this path is more decorated than the other one."

The others agreed, but just then they heard Kiseki cry out. "No, let go of me!"

A little girl with two pony-tails had grabbed onto Kiseki and was poking him. "It's a garden fairy!"

"I am a king and I insist you put me down," Kiseki yelled.

This just made the little girl smile wider."A king fairy! And a cheerleader fairy too!" She grabbed Ran in her other hand before Ran could do anything.

"Help Amu-chan!"

Amu bent down so she could see the girl at eye-level. "The fairies don't like it when people hold them, could you let go of them please?"

"...You have to catch me first!" She then took off on the other path, giggling to herself.

"Oi!" Amu shouted, running after the girl. "Come back here!" The girl kept running and soon they were out of sight.

"...I can't be bothered to go after her," said Rima. She really couldn't stand any more of this walking.

"I'm going, Kiseki will get mad if I don't." Without another word, Tadase took off.

It took Rima five full seconds to realize she was alone with Nagihiko. Again. "You should go too."

Nagihiko smirked. "And leave you all by yourself? Someone might mistake you for a kid and take you around to find your parents." Rima glared at him. Not her height again. "Let's wait for them at the centre, they'll catch up soon."

A familiar silence fell between them as they walked towards the centre. After around ten minutes Rima's eyes widened at what she saw. There was a fountain in the middle of a very spacious area and flowers were edged along it. There were pretty benches all along the area, and many souvenir stalls.

"Hey look!" Nagihiko walked over to the nearest stall. "They sell ice-cream here. Do you want some?"

Rima stayed silent, contemplating whether or not to get any.

Nagihiko smiled. "I'll pay for it."

"...I want strawberry."

xxxx

This girl was just like Ami, Amu thought when she finally caught up to the girl. She was panting slightly; this path was a long way away from that junction. She was attempting to jump and catch her other guardian characters who took care to float just out of her jumping range. "Can you please let go of the fairies?"

"I don't wanna!" the girl whined, gripping Ran and Kiseki tighter.

"C-can't breathe," Ran choked.

Amu was seriously getting annoyed. Where were these girl's parents anyway?

"Hinamori-san!" Amu turned around at the sound of Tadase's voice.

She sighed in relief. "You don't know how glad I am to see you! This girl just won't give up."

Tadase knelt down and gave the little girl a charming smile. "You said that these were the garden fairies right?" The girl nodded. "Well, if you keep the fairies all to yourself then they can't help make the garden pretty." He gestured to the room around them. "You want the flowers to stay pretty, don't you?"

The girl's eyes widened in realization and she immediately let go of the Ran and Kiseki."I'm so sorry!" She meekly ran back the way she came from.

Amu was once again amazed at how Tadase handled children. They always seemed to like him. Then again all the examples she'd seen were young girls. Even the older girls still fell for his charm. And older woman. She shuddered to think of the old ladies who she saw doting on Tadase while she was with him on a date one day.

Even as she thought it she saw out of the corner of her eyes a group of girls giggling and looking at Tadase, especially at his flower-heart.

The nerve of some people these days.

She quickly pushed the thought out of her mind as Tadase stood up and faced her. "We should probably get back to Rima-chan and Fujisaki."

She stared at Tadase. Why was he...looking through her? He was looking in her direction but it was as if he couldn't see her. Or was trying not to.

That hurt. She knew he still upset about the other day with the X-eggs, but to take it to the extent of trying to ignore her...

A man in a waiter's outfit suddenly walked up to them. "Welcome to the Daffodil Cafe! Nearing the end of the maze, this is your last section before going into the centre of the maze! Please sit down and have some tea that contains our specially made daffodil syrup. We also have other special items on the menu." Before Amu or Tadase could protest the waiter ushered them into two seats. "Please wait a moment!" The waiter then scurried away to get their drinks.

Amu stared at his retreating figure, speechless. She glanced down at the menu as Tadase picked up his own. She guessed Tadase intended to stay for the tea then. She twitched as she saw the menu. What kind of weird cafe was this? Daffodil tea was fine...but daffodil roast steak and daffodil smoothie sounded very suspicious.

She peeked over her menu at Tadase. The way his blond hair fell over his eyes as he looked through the menu made her cheeks colour slightly. She quickly looked down again, annoyed at herself. She was not allowed to just stare at Tadase like that anymore, she reminded herself.

Still...maybe she should say something. "Um...funny how this cafe is named daffodil, right?"

Tadase looked up from his menu and looked at her curiously. "Why's that?"

"H-huh? Oh well...you know...it's one of your favourite type of flowers." Amu couldn't bring herself to look at Tadase. If he had been purposely ignoring her before, she could definitely feel his gaze on her now.

"...you remember?"

"Of course! I mean, we used to bring them to your grandmother together," she said, talking fast. "After school on Fridays."

No response from Tadase. She fiddled with her flower-heart on her lap. Maybe he's back to ignoring me again...

"Amu-chan." At this Amu looked straight up at him, shocked. He was using her first name? Not only that...his eyes were determined and serious. "I know this is long overdue...but I need to know." His eyes seemed to pierce into hers. "Why did you break up with me?"

Amu gaped at him though he held his gaze.

"Amu-chan," he repeated her name. "Please..."

She couldn't take it. Feelings of guilt, pain and uncertainty flooded her. She stood up and looked away from him. "I can't tell you."

"Why?" He didn't sound angry...just...sad.

Amu shut her eyes tightly. "I'm sorry!" she cried, and started running.

xxxxx

Rima and Nagihiko sat down on the bench, eating their ice creams, their flower-hearts in one hand and their ice creams in another. Nagihiko had chosen a mint flavoured one and was almost finished with his. "There's nothing like the cool flavour of mint."

"Strawberry's better." Rima said simply.

"Mint."

"Strawberry."

"Mint."

"Strawberry."

"Strawberry."

"Good we agree." Rima held a smug expression. "I'm not going to fall for the oldest trick in the book."

Nagihiko grinned. "And which book is that exactly?"

"The book that's – whatever. This is getting boring."

Nagihiko made a mock-fake hurt look. "You think I'm boring?"

"Yes." Of course, she couldn't tell him how she was enjoying this banter. How she missed their little arguments.

"Fine then, let's do something not so boring." He got up and looked over to the fountain. "They say you can see something interesting when you look in."

"If you say so." Rima followed Nagihiko to the fountain. Her reflection seemed to have a golden radiant outline around it. She took a look at Nagihiko's which was the same. "Special effects?"

Nagihiko shook his head. "Magic?"

Rima rolled her eyes. Still, there was a kind of...magical quality to the way the water shimmered. Rima was surprised when a fish popped its head up in the middle of her face. She stepped back and tripped over a stray flower.

Nagihiko started chucking. "Scared of a little fish?"

Rima shook her head. "It just took me from surprise!"

His laughter was interrupted when two kids running around bumped into him, causing him to fall face-first next to Rima. The kids ran away, while Rima burst into laughter herself.

Nagihiko sat up and rubbed his head, and laughed with her.

Rima was glad that she could laugh along with Nagihiko like this. She hadn't had such a good laugh in a long time.

Nagihiko watched her tenderly, she really was enjoying herself. "Hey, we dropped our heart-flowers," he said softly. He picked up the heart-flower next to him. Rima soon followed his suit, wiping an actual tear off her eye. "Thanks Nagihiko."

"For what?"

"I don't know. Just...being you, I guess." She finally managed to stop laughing and gave Nagihiko a sincere smile.

Nagihiko's eyes trailed off to the heart-flower she was holding. "That's mine, you know."

Rima looked down, surprised. "Oh. Sorry."

She was about to give it back to him when he shook his head. "Keep it."

Her eyes widened at what he said. He wanted her to keep it? "In case you forgot, Amu-chan believes in the charm and she'd probably want the heart-flowers you made even though you might not see any difference."

"That's not it." Nagihiko held the heart-flower tighter. "I believe in the charm too. And I want you to keep it."

Rima's heart started pounding as she registered what he meant. He wanted them to be...together forever? No way, Nagihiko wasn't the type to believe in a charm like this...was he? She stretched out her hands again. "C'mon stop joking around. Seriously, Amu-chan will be-" She dropped the flower-heart and fell silent as she felt Nagihiko wrap his arms around her.

She was stunned. She couldn't move. "Rima-chan..." he whispered. "That day...you were going to say something else to me. I mean something else to you right?"

She wanted to say no, but she was sure he would hear her heartbeat and know she was lying.

"Were you going to say 'I love you'?"

Rima nearly stopped breathing.

"Because...I love you too."

The words seemed to echo in her mind. I love you. Nagihiko said 'I love you'. He said...he said...

She buried her face into her chest, tears starting to stream down her face. It was so unreal. But she could hear his heartbeat as well. It...it had to be real.

So he had known what she was about to say that day. But it didn't matter at all because Nagihiko loved her too. He was here, holding her. It didn't matter that she was in a fake relationship with Tadase. It didn't matter if Amu knew.

It doesn't matter if Amu knew...if Amu knew...

Immediately she pushed herself away from Nagihiko. She was horrified with herself. She was horrified for Nagihiko. "You're...you're dating Amu." With one last attempt she said, "You're lying again."

Nagihiko looked at her seriously. "I've lied to you a few times before, but you know that I'm not lying now."

Rima felt a pang in her heart."If you're not lying...then why are you going out with Amu!"

He looked pained at that question, but Rima held her ground, waiting for his answer. He hesitated. "It's because she was so upset. After her break-up with Tadase I thought I could help her. But I've been hurting you instead, haven't I?"

Yes. "No!"

"I wanted to get her back up on her feet as her best friend but there was a misunderstanding and somehow she wanted to go out. I couldn't say no."

You should have. "You said yes. You have to take responsibility for her feelings. If you break up with her for my sake she'll be hurt again. Fall in love with her if you have to."

"I can't do that."

"Yes you can. Besides..." Rima's voiced lowered. "I don't...love you."

Nagihiko smiled bitterly. "Who's the liar now?"

Rima stood up and snatched her own flower-heart from Nagihiko and started walking towards the exit.

He grabbed her shoulder but she just shook him off. "Don't follow me! Just...just act as if nothing happened. Tell Amu I felt sick and went home." She started walking again but stopped when she was just past the exit. "I'm really sorry, Nagihiko."

And just like that, she was gone.

Nagihiko leaned against the exit wishing she'd come back. He should have never told her...

The sun had just begun to set, and Amu, who had been standing behind a stall, listening to both of them, slumped to the ground and hugged her knees. "What have I done?"

A/N: OH YEAH BABY! They finally said it 8D Woot. Although Rima's confused what to do now. And yes, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE AMU? You might get an update from me within a week or two, seeing as it's my birthday soon. Anyway, I was really happy when I got some faves/alerts as well as reviews. Nice to know I have a few people still reading Review if you can be bothered to 8D