Here is the next chapter, sorry for the late update! Credit for my beta regulusgal for helping me with this chapter and make it awesome!
Anyway, happy birthday for me (yeay o^^o), this is my present for myself and also for you readers ~
I don't own Shugo Chara! Enjoy the chapter, don't forget to R&R!
Chapter 16
Normal POV
Yes, Amu had called off her engagement with Aoi, but that didn't mean that she would instantly be together with Ikuto and live happily ever after like the princesses in fairytales; at least, not now. Amu wanted them to start over from the very beginning. She wanted him to tell her about her forgotten memories about the time they had spent together as children before the death of her sister.
Actually, what she wanted to know the most from Ikuto was the reason why he had chosen to marry Saaya even when he told her that he had loved her all this time.
"Why? Why did you choose to marry Saaya?" she asked the midnight blue-haired man once they were alone inside his bedroom. She needed to know the truth right here, right now.
Ikuto released his breath before taking another one in. "Because I don't want you to be in danger," he answered, trying as hard as he could to sound cool and calm. In an emotional situation such as this, he needed to be strong for Amu. "If you marry me, you won't get a happy, normal life like the dream you told me years ago."
"Don't you trust me to be strong enough to live as the wife of the underworld's leader?" the pinkette asked again, her eyes pleading.
"It's not that, Amu!" he groaned in frustration. "It's just that I wanted to do everything, anything I could to protect you! I've known that you had forgotten about me the night I saved you months ago. You couldn't recognize me, but my desire to protect you has grown stronger and stronger each day.
"To tell you the truth, you're one of my weaknesses. There's a chance that our enemies will use you as a pawn to get to me, and I certainly don't want such thing to happen! I don't want them to hurt you because seeing you hurt hurts me as well.
"I'm afraid that I'm not strong enough to protect you, Amu. I know that the entire fault was on me since I was the one who chose to marry Saaya, but that time that was the only answer I could come up with. I'm sorry!" Ikuto pleaded while his body doubled over until his forehead touched his knees and his arms were wrapped around his torso.
His agony was clearly evident in his voice, and it touched Amu's heart. She rushed over to his side and hugged him tightly.
He was hurt just like her – no; he had been hurt even more than she had. He had had to make a painful decision and willingly sacrificed his happiness just for her sake.
"You definitely deserve someone better than me. If Takahashi Aoi isn't part of the underworld society, I will willingly back off and let you go, as you seem happy with him and I'm glad of it. I'm sorry that I have caused you too much pain," Ikuto mumbled with choking sobs, but clear enough for the pinkette to hear.
Amu leaned back and cupped his cheeks, levelling her eyes with his. Once she got his every attention, she shook her head. "No, Ikuto, the one I have always loved is you, from back then until now," she
confessed. "I gave Aoi a chance just to make me forget about you, but I just can't! I can't forget about you!"
His eyes widened in surprise, and a delighted smile slowly spread across his face. He leaned his head forward until his forehead touched hers. "I love you, Hinamori Amu," he said as if he was saying a prayer. He kissed her forehead before asking her, completely catching her off guard. "Will you be my girlfriend?"
"Yes, of course I will!" Amu said, lifting her head and looking straight into his azure eyes.
Ikuto leaned down and closed their distance completely, planting a soft kiss on her lips. He was more than grateful that the pinkette still loved him and wanted to give him a second chance to make the both of them happy. He swore that he wouldn't let her go again no matter what. He would love her and cherish her until death did them apart –
– Because she was the only one for him.
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"Kyaaa! Look at that; they're kissing!" A soft voice squealed almost silently.
"Hey, c'mon, let's go! If your brother catches us, we'll definitely be dead meat!" Another voice hushed in impatience and dread.
The first voice scoffed. "My idiot brother has finally become a gentleman, and you want me to miss this?"
"Utau, come on! Ikuto will kill us if he finds out that we stalk him." The second voice whispered back.
"Shut up, Kukai!" Utau finally snapped.
Ikuto and Amu stopped their little 'activity' when they heard the blonde shouting and directed their gaze towards the door. There stood Kukai, who was scratching the back of his head sheepishly, and Utau, who was suddenly finding the floor beneath her feet very interesting.
"Utau!" Amu complained. She didn't think that her blonde best friend would peep on her and her lover – which coincidentally was the blonde's brother.
The violet-eyed girl laughed. "Ok, ok, I'm sorry! I'm just curious, okay? By the way, congratulations! Finally, my best friend's going to be my sister-in-law!"
Ikuto gave his sister a dirty look.
Kukai stepped into the room and patted Ikuto's back. "Congratulations, man!" the brunette said cheerfully. The bluenette shifted his gaze towards his right hand man and Kukai immediately felt his killing aura. He ran away and pulled Utau along with him.
"Stupid sister," Ikuto muttered once the door was once again closed.
"That's why we love her," Amu said while giggling.
Ikuto slung his arm around her waist and hugged her from the back, relishing the feel of her small figure against his masculine one completely. How long had he waited for this moment when he could hug his pinkette this close and told her he loved her so much, kissed her, and saw her smiling face?
"Let's go; we need to inform Mom and Dad about our relationship," she said as she stood up from the bed.
He only nodded his head in response as she grabbed one of his hands and pulled him off the bed, guiding him to the living room where their parents were.
"Mom, Dad, Souko, Aruto, we have an important announcement," Amu began once they arrived at the living room and settled themselves on one of the couches.
"We've officially become a couple," Ikuto continued where Amu had left off.
Both pairs of parents jumped up in joy while the new young couple sat there dumbfounded. Their parents sure could act like children sometimes.
"Amu, don't call me Souko anymore. Call me Mom!" Souko exclaimed happily.
"Call me Dad!" Aruto spoke up almost as giddily as his wife. "I'm having another daughter!"
"Call me Mom, Ikuto, and I have a son! Finally!" Midori hooted in excitement.
"Call me Dad and protect Amu or I'll hunt you down!" Tsumugu said firmly, eyeing Ikuto in his threatening way.
Ikuto and Amu exchanged looks and giggled. They were announcing that they had become boyfriend and girlfriend and yet their parents' response was like they were announcing that they were going to get hitched.
"Relax, Moms and Dads," Ikuto said. "We're still only boyfriend and girlfriend; we're not even engaged yet."
The adults froze.
"No engagement?" Souko asked.
"Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Aruto asked.
"Marriage?" Midori asked.
"Good!" Tsumugu exclaimed in relief.
"No, yes, no, what?!" Amu answered all four questions.
Tsumugu explained, "It's good that you guys start it from boyfriend and girlfriend stage. You two still need to know more about each other; don't you agree with me?"
"We agree with you, Father; that's why we decided to become boyfriend and girlfriend first," Ikuto replied, calling Tsumugu 'Father'.
Aruto sighed. "Very well, then."
"Let's celebrate your relationship!" Souko and Midori exclaimed in unison as they headed to the dining room.
Soon, the dining room was filled with laughter and giggles. Kukai and Utau told the adults about how Ikuto and Amu had made up. The young blonde was teasing Amu who blushed ten shades worth of deep red while Ikuto showed them his arrogant trademark smirk. Then Ikuto also told the others about Kukai and Utau's reconciliation. Now, Kukai and Utau blushed and turned their heads to look at other directions while Amu giggled.
"Shut up, Amu!" Utau mumbled in embarassment, making the pinkette laugh.
"Really? How was it? Great, huh" Amu teased the blonde.
"Well, of course," the girl with pigtails replied. She then decided to tease the amber-eyed girl back. "Why don't you try it with my brother?"
She smirked inwardly when Amu blushed again.
"Don't tease my girlfriend – your soon-to-be-sister-in-law, Utau," Ikuto reprimanded his sister.
"Sister-in-law! Nice one, Brother!" Utau praised her brother, earning giggles from everyone and a deep read blush from Amu.
"Of course; what do you expect from Tsukiyomi Ikuto?" Ikuto said, being full of himself.
"Arrogant bastard," Amu murmured under her breath, but Ikuto had sharp ears so he heard her.
"But you love this arrogant bastard, don't you, Amu?" Ikuto asked the pinkette and pecked her on her soft cheek.
"See, he's so arrogant, right?" Amu whined and made the others laughed.
Souko exclaimed, "Aruto, see, your son definitely inherited it from you!"
"But that's why you love us," both father and son said in unison with the exact same arrogant smirks plastered on their face.
TheTsukiyomi matriarch could only sigh in defeat. "Like father like son."
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"Amu, do you want to sleep over here again tonight?" Ikuto asked.
"I don't think so. But I'll come and bring my clothes so I can have a sleepover tomorrow," Amu replied.
"Okay. Bring more clothes so you can put some spare clothes here. You won't need to care about clothes anymore if you want to have a sleepover again," Utau told her pink-haired best friend.
"Sure thing!" Amu said before she walked to the front door where her parents had been waiting for her. She turned around to plant a soft kiss on Ikuto's lips. "Good night, sleep well."
"You too, babe," he winked at her.
"Good night, Utau." Amu bid them goodbye as she stepped into the car and her father drove them away from the big mansion.
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"She has left the Tsukiyomi mansion just now," a voice spoke into his phone.
"Okay, let's move!" The other voice ordered.
The suspicious men moved as their leader commanded them. They were aiming their target right now and their leader didn't want to hear about the mission being failed. They had to succeed this mission or they would be the ones dead. Well, it was kill or be killed; you had to choose one of them – that was another unspoken rule in the underworld society.
"The black car – aim there," the voice commanded.
"Shoot!" The leader shouted as the men pointed their gun to the black car and shoot.
"Now, take them. Don't leave any track!" The leader ordered his comrades.
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"Ikuto! Ikuto! Where's Aruto? We need an emergency meeting right now!" Kairi, the green-haired private doctor of Tsukiyomi household, shouted from the other side of the phone.
"What happened?" Ikuto asked, fully alert due to the urgency in Kairi's voice.
"I saw Takahashi Aoi and his gang shot a black car; when they took the victims out of the car, it turned out to be the pink-haired girl I saw a few months ago!" the doctor chattered.
The bluenette bolted up from his seat. "What?!"
"Yes, I'm on my way to your house when I saw it, and I'm arriving now," Kairi said before hanging up the phone and rushing into the living room where Ikuto was. He quickly grabbed the young master's hand while muttering, "Don't just stand there, stupid!"
The bespectacled man dragged Ikuto to Aruto's study room. He knocked on the door and heard Aruto telling them to come in. "What brings you here?" the former leader of Black Lynx inquired as soon as he spotted Kairi.
"No good; Takahashi kidnapped the Hinamoris just now," the greenette reported.
"What?!" Aruto exclaimed in disbelief; his reaction was just the same as his son's.
What would happen to the Hinamoris, Aruto just couldn't imagine it.
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What do you think? Please R&R, readers!
Sorry if it took a bit longer than I predicted but I hope this chapter could satisfy you ~ Also, please check out my other on going stories called "Another Love Story", I'm currently trying my best to keep both of my stories update. I had post another one-shot story of Amuto, do check it, okay ^.~ (LINK IN MY PROFILE).. Check out more great stories on my profile *wink
Have a great and wonderful day.. Ja! o^^o