Goose: Some unfortunate news: Dwarfy has decided to quit due to lack of love. So here in her place is my other friend, Duck.

Duck: Hola!

Goose: Unfortunately, Duck is not an anime fan.

Duck: So I have no idea what's going on!

Goose: Yes... I don't own Shugo Chara!

Normal POV

Nagihiko sat in a small wooden chair, asleep, bent over onto the bed and using his arms as a pillow. He had fallen asleep at Nadeshiko's bedside, having stayed up all night, watching her and praying she'd wake up.

"How is she?" Rima asked, walking into the room. Seeing the look on Nagihiko's face, she put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "She'll be fine," the blond said, but Nagihiko was still worried.

There was silence until Nagihiko looked at Rima and asked, "Are the others still asleep?"

Rima nodded. "I can't believe they all insisted on spending the night here. Yaya did some sleepwalking at three in the morning and ate all of the bacon in the refrigerator, but other than that, it was a pretty quiet night," she said.

"They probably wanted to stay close by in case Nadeshiko's condition changed," Nagihiko told her. The couple walked out of Nadeshiko's bedroom, down the hall, and into the living room of the Fujisaki mansion, where the rest of the Guardians were scattered across the floor, snoring a little bit in their sleeping bags.

Amu stirred and her honey-colored eyes fluttered open. She sat up and looked curiously at Rima and Nagihiko, who shook their heads at Amu's unasked question. Sighing and laying back down, Amu stared at the ceiling. After Nagihiko, Amu had taken this whole situation the hardest, seeing as Nadeshiko had been her first real friend. None of them felt any better when they remembered that they still had to tell Kukai about what happened.

Yaya and Tadase woke up moments later, noticed the worried expressions on the faces of the other three, and both, even Yaya, were quiet. The clock on the wall chimed 10:30 in the morning, and Yaya, after mumbling that she had ballet class, grabbed her things and hurried out of the house.

Just then, the phone rang, snapping the remaining four out of an awkward silence. Nagihiko answered, and flinched when he heard that it was Kukai who was calling.

"Yo, Fujisaki!" Kukai started energetically. "I've been calling your sister's cell phone for the past half hour! She's not the type to sleep in, and she said she wasn't busy today! What's up?"

Nagihiko hesitated; this didn't seem like the kind of thing you'd tell a guy over the phone. He finally managed to find his voice (sort of) and choked out, "M-maybe I should meet you somewhere, Souma-kun, and we'll talk there."

"Um... sure, I guess," Kukai answered, sounding thoroughly confused. "See you in a few minutes at the park, then?" Nagihiko agreed, and they both hung up.

Nagihiko turned to the others. "Anyone want to come with me to tell Souma-kun about Nadeshiko?" he asked. Rima then said that her parents would be worried about her, and Tadase muttered something about taking care of his sick grandmother and hunting down 'that thieving cat'. Nagihiko looked hopefully at Amu, who flinched, but sighed and nodded.

Feeling slightly better now that someone was coming with him to his destruction, Nagihiko led Amu out of the house (for she frequently got lost on her way out, even when the door was only three feet away from her). Several minutes later, they arrived at the grassy, tree-filled park, where Kukai stood waiting for them with a carefree look on his face.

"Hinamori! You're here, too?" Kukai asked, grinning at Amu, who was now whimpering. "What's wrong with her?" Kukai was now frowning as he turned curiously towards Nagihiko.

"Uh... maybe you should sit down," Nagihiko advised, motioning towards a wooden bench that was occupied only by several pigeons and one goose. Kukai shooed the birds away (the goose pecked his hand angrily and flew away towards a stand where a girl in a panda T-shirt was selling bacon) and sat down.

"So what's wrong?" he repeated, looking from Amu to Nagihiko. They sat on either side of him, and Amu looked up at him pleadingly.

"Please don't be too upset, Kukai," she begged. Kukai's sense of panic rose. What on earth could possibly be wrong?

"Nadeshiko's not sick or hurt, is she?!" he demanded. The other two glanced at each other.

"Well..." Nagihiko began, "we think Nadeshiko may be.... disappearing." Correction: they knew Nadeshiko was disappearing, and even though giving false hope may cause nothing but pain in the end, they wanted to make the situation seem better than it was.

"What... what do you mean, 'disappearing'?" Kukai whispered, horrified.

Nagihiko looked at Amu, who said shakily, "We're not sure... how much longer Nadeshiko will be real."

Kukai stood up so abruptly that Nagihiko and Amu jumped, startled. Kukai began to walk away, but Nagihiko grabbed his arm.

"Where are you going?"

Kukai glared at the other two. "I'm going to see her, so let me go!" he said, his voice raised.

Nagihiko did not let go. "Calm down before you see her. She's weak right now, and the last thing she needs in someone having an emotional breakdown right in front of her. She'll think it's her fault, and that would make things worse," he instructed calmly. Kukai attempted to wrench his arm away, but the other boy's grip was too strong.

"You think I can calm down?!" the appearance of carelessness was gone from Kukai's face. "You have no idea how I feel!"

Nagihiko did not falter, nor did he loosen his grip. "Don't act all misunderstood. We're all worried, and the rest of us care about her just as much as you do."

Kukai finally managed to get his arm away from Nagihiko. "You don't love her!" he roared, glaring at Nagihiko with his face full of anger and hate.

Slap!

Kukai raised a hand to his face as he gingerly touched the spot that had been slapped, but it had been Amu who had struck, no Nagihiko.

"How dare you?" the pink-haired girl whispered, her voice no longer shaking from nervousness, but from anger. "How dare you even suggest that we don't love Nadeshiko! Sure, we don't love her in the romantic way, but we still love her! We all love her! We're all scared, terrified, of what's going to happen! So don't you ever even think that we don't care!"

Kukai blinked. Both boys were staring in shock, and Amu suddenly felt very self-conscious and felt the need to watch two squirrels fight over an acorn. Very reluctantly, Kukai sat down.

"But... when can I see her?" Kukai looked to be on the brink of tears; he had lost Nadeshiko once, when he found out she wasn't real, and he didn't think he could bear losing her again. Noticing this, Nagihiko couldn't help but regret how harsh he'd been.

"If she wakes up and is feeling up to it, we'll call you over," he said, praying this would make up for his behavior.

"...Thanks," Kukai muttered. Amu looked between the two boys, and an awkward tension filled the air. It was so quiet, you could hear the gentle breeze, until...

"WILL YOU JUST MAKE UP ALREADY?!" Amu screamed as loud as she could, causing both boys to fall over in shock. Covering their ears and eying Amu warily, Kukai and Nagihiko stood back up. They looked at each other for a moment, and only when Amu opened her mouth to scream again did they apologize.

"I guess... I'm sorry," Kukai sighed. "I was wrong to think that you didn't care. You're her brother, and she used to be a part of you, so I guess.. you care more than I do. I'm such an idiot..."

"Stop," Nagihiko told him. "I was way too cold with you, and you had every right to think that I didn't care. I certainly didn't act like it. I was just too proud to show that I was upset. I should be the one who's apologizing, I'm the idiot."

More silence. The corners of their mouths twitched. They grinned. Amu sighed as her two friends gave in and let smiles spread across their faces. Then they all went their separate ways, each to their own home.

Amu felt slightly relieved. It was still nerve-wracking that Nadeshiko was so ill, so frail and delicate, but it would have been even harder if everyone was against each other, in a battle to blame each other. As long as they all stayed friends... they'd manage.

As Kukai walked, he thought.

He wondered how Nadeshiko was doing. Surely, she was at her own home, because they couldn't take a girl that wasn't supposed to exist to the hospital. He wondered if she was awake, was she thinking about him, maybe even dreaming about him...?

He didn't think he could handle the wait to see her, but he would. He would, for her sake. He did everything for her sake these days. He apologized to Nagihiko, only because the thought of how sad Nadeshiko would be to see them fighting drove all anger out of his mind.

He opened the front door and walked past his brothers, who were lying on the couch, eating chips and watching sports. Of course, they completely ignored him as he hurried up to his room and locked the door.

He picked his cell phone up from the bedside table and saw that he had one new text message... from Nadeshiko. Heart thumping, he read it over and over several times before collapsing onto the floor, tears flooding his face.

'Mother and Baaya don't think I'm going to get any better. They think I'm going to disappear any minute now... so I wanted to tell you, I'

The message had ended there. She what? What did she want to tell him? Why didn't she finish her message? Unless... he checked the time the text was received: half an hour ago. 'They think I'm going to disappear any minute now...'

Meanwhile, Nagihiko was just opening the front door of his own house. He looked inside to see his mother and Baaya talking in hushed voices, and they both looked very sad.

"What's up?" Nagihiko asked worriedly. Could Nadeshiko's condition have gotten any worse? Had she still not woken up? His mother looked up, startled, and when she saw her son, a flash of pity crossed her face. Nagihiko was panicking now; the only time he had ever seen his mother so upset was when they had to go to Europe, and this pity was twice as bad...

"I'm sorry, Nagihiko," his mother said quietly. "She's gone."

Nagihiko could feel his world collapsing around him, his heart breaking into a million pieces... how? Why? She was so beautiful, perfect, why did she have to go? Why couldn't he go instead? Why was life so unfair? After all they'd been through, all the fun times they spent together, why did she leave him?

He decided that he didn't believe him, that they were lying, that this was some sort of sick joke. He ran down the hall and opened Nadeshiko's bedroom door; he felt as if his heart was up in his throat. He looked at the bed... empty. You could still see the position she had been in before she had gone, the shape of her head on the pillow... but thinking of that wouldn't bring her back.

He wondered if anything could bring her back.

At the same time, that exact moment, both Kukai and Nagihiko were thinking the same thing: I need her.

Goose: The end... of this chapter.

Duck: Uh... I will pretend I understand what's going on.

Goose: Watch it. Anyway, I'm pleased with this chapter... I think there's more plot to it that the other ones, especially in the beginning. But that may just be me hallucinating.

Duck: Well then...

Goose: AH! I GIVE UP! REVIEW TO BRING DWARFY BACK!

Duck: Hey!