Heyyy... it's.. been a while. Slightly. I've seriously lost interest in Amuto! :O Crazy, I know! Of course I'll finish this story.. but I might retire from the Shugo Chara category of fan fiction. Hopefully I'll change my mind, but you never know.

Chapter 17

Utau was intoxicated. So much so that she could only roll around on the floor while quoting romantic movies, much to the peculiar distaste of Amu, who was stuck babysitting the grown woman.

What had originally started out as a girl's night ended up being a night where Utau could mope around Amu's apartment, wallowing in self pity and complaining about how she missed Kukai.

Rima was invited to come along to partake in the wondrously exciting evening, but she declined the offer, stating that she had a date with Nagihiko that night. Utau called her a traitor for choosing dicks before chicks, but that had made no impact.

"... I miss himmmm." Utau whined, sliding her voice up and down. Amu began to wonder if she was doing that just to get on her nerves.

The blond picked herself up off the floor and stared long and hard at the pinkette sitting on the couch with a large bowl of popcorn in her lap, eyes glued to the chick flick on the television. "Why can't... guys like you back? I mean... why-why does..." Utau stumbled over herself, trying to get her words straight. "Why is it that the person you like, never ever likes you back? And they even display signs of feelings towards you, yet when asked, they say 'What? I don't like you. No way!' which makes you feel like an idiot..." Her talking was replaced with a groan as she buried her face back into the carpet beneath her.

She was showing signs of sobering up.

Continuing to groan, Utau flung herself onto the couch next to Amu, where the two friends sat in their pajamas, watching Pride and Prejudice longingly while wishing their Mr. Darcy would come find them soon.

Amu shook her head as she watched Mr. Darcy confess his love to Elizabeth Bennet for the first time. "That kind of stuff never happens in real life." She muttered negatively. "You'd have to be absolutely gorgeous in order to get the guy. And you know those stories that has a hot guy fall in love with an ugly girl? So fake! If they intended on making the story realistic, they sure failed - and quite miserably, I will add."

Utau's violet eyes rolled over in the direction of her friend. "You sure are a ray of sunshine." She commented sarcastically before plunging her hand into the abysmal popcorn bowl.

To say she was frustrated at the moment would be an understatement. Amu was raging mad and... well, pissed off. She was used to people misjudging her, but Ikuto should have known her better than to immediately assume that she never loved him. It made her hands curl into fists and her jaw clench tightly.

Not to mention all the insults he threw her way weren't exactly making anything better.

Utau sighed deeply, leaning back and letting her body disappear into the cushions of the couch. "I think I love him." She commented ever so quietly.

Amu's ears instantly perked up, almost giving herself whiplash after turning her head so quickly. "Kukai? Y-you love Kukai?" She clarified with a goofy grin plastered on her face.

The blond nodded slowly, her face coloring. "I guess I was just in love with the idea of loving Tamaki that I didn't realize my true feelings for Kukai. Either that or I was in denial for the past seven years of knowing him." Realizing her words were starting to make sense, Utau lunged for another bottle of beer, hoping to forget her issues once more.

Amu shook her head and turned back to the TV, frowning at the sight of Mr. Darcy walking back into the rain, returning to who-knows-where. Elizabeth rejected him. How she could do such a thing, Amu would never understand.

A knock on the door made the two girls jump. Glancing at the pinkette beside her, Utau shrugged. "It's your house, you answer it."

Amu opened her mouth to protest as she gestured towards the TV, but closed it again and dragged herself off the couch and over to the door, where she stood on her tip-toes to look through the eye-hole. A wicked smirk Ikuto would be jealous of spread on her face. Turning back to look at the blond lying on the ground, she commented, "I think you should get it." before hurrying back over to the couch, waiting eagerly to watch the show that would be played out for her momentarily.

Sending her a questioning look, Utau obeyed and threw the door open, dropping her beverage on the ground at the sight of a certain male waiting impatiently.

"Ku-Kukai...?"

The brunette held up his hands as a sign of mercy so Utau wouldn't attack him just yet. Everything that was said next came out in a hurry, as if Kukai was simply dumping his thoughts right onto Amu's doorstep. "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I did mean what I said to you, but I didn't mean for it to come out so harshly, but I was angry, so of course it came out the wrong wa- I hope I didn't hurt your feelings, 'cause I- look, I just can't stand hearing about this Tamaki person from your work. I don't want to be the person you come to talk to about your boy problems. I don't want you looking at any other guys but me. I want... you to be with me and no one els-"

Utau shut him up by pressing her lips against his, wrapping her thin arms tightly around his neck. They parted briefly so the blond could bid goodbye to Amu before the two lovebirds closed the door, disappearing out of sight.

Amu smiled sadly at the sight. Why couldn't she be as lucky as Utau? Oh, right, 'cause Utau's a babe She thought to herself bitterly. She exhaled loudly and buried herself under the blankets with only her head sticking out.

Sometimes life could be unfair. There are always days that come around that make you want to scream or cry or just rip something to shreds. Amu had to remind herself that no matter how tough life got, there'd always be a brighter day around the corner.

She was one of the unlucky people stuck waiting for that day to come.

Ring ring

The pinkette slowly rolled her head to look at the phone. She didn't want to get up. She had just curled up in her blanket, which was now keeping her warm.

After a few more shrills from the phone, Amu dropped off the couch and crawled over to it.

"Hellooo-"

"Okay, I know you'll be desperately wanting to kill me after I tell you this, but I have a confession to make!" The male voice on the other line said in a rush.

Amu slowly arched an eyebrow. "Tadase?"

"Yeah, it's me. Oh, and guess what?"

"What?"

"I finally figured it out! It was orange juice that I wanted! Hah! Isn't that funny? I finally remembered!"

"..What?"

"Oh, never mind. I have something to tell you. Are you sitting down?"

'Not anymore' Amu thought before replying, "Yeah."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am." Amu retorted, beginning to feel somewhat defensive, even though she was indeed standing. Sighing deeply, she stomped back over to the couch and sunk into the cushions "Okay, I am now. What is it, Tadase?"

He was hesitant – the exact opposite of how he was behaving at the beginning of their conversation. "Well... I... got a phone call today and it turned out to be Ikuto, and since I didn't want either of you two to continue suffering, I told him the truth about how you left because of Kazuomi. I didn't mean to tell your secret and betray your trust! I'm sorry! But it was just getting out of hand how you were getting tangled in this web of lies. I'll never tell anyone a secret of yours ever again!"

There was silence. Quite a deadly one, I will add. Amu sat, gazing blankly at the TV screen in front of her. "You... told him?" she repeated solemnly.

"Please don't kill me."

Both ends of the line were silent for a few minutes, giving Amu enough time to think everything through. Surprisingly she wasn't angry, nor did she feel betrayed. Tadase was too good of a friend to have bad intentions. Of course she still trusted him. He was only trying to help, after all.

Knock knock

The pinkette's heart nearly leaped out of her chest. "You didn't send him here did you?" She asked quickly, jumping out of her seat and hiding behind the couch.

"No, of course not! But... then again he never did really say 'goodbye' to me.. he just kind of hung up. I'm sorry, Amu-chan. Good luck!"

Amu gritted her teeth together and spoke harshly. "Tadase, don't you dare hang-" He hung up.

She was then thrown into a frenzy, arms flailing in the air and palms starting to sweat. Clutching the phone tightly to her chest, she tiptoed over to the door, jumping when the person on the other side knocked again.

If she was one to swear, she would've, saying all kinds of inappropriate words that came to mind. But she wasn't one of those people so she kept her mouth tightly shut.

Slowly unlocking the door, it didn't even occur to Amu that she was most likely not looking her best. It being girl's night, she was clothed in pajamas and her hair in pig tails.

Her breath hitched in her throat once seeing Ikuto standing there, looking exceptionally good looking wearing a leather jacket.

She quickly composed herself and glanced over her shoulder, muttering, 'how cliché' under her breath before looking back over at the man whose height towered over her own.

They both remained uncomfortably silent while simply staring at each other, her honey-colored eyes mixing with his sapphire ones.

Finally, she spoke. "What do you want?" She asked while chewing on her bottom lip. She almost cringed once hearing how cold her voice sounded.

"I uh..." He began. It was evident that he hadn't planned out his speech beforehand. That was something Amu always recommended one to do.

"Tadase told me.. the truth about what happened that day at the hospital." Ikuto stated, his hands finding their way to the pockets of his jacket. "And I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry for how badly I reacted and how I treated you."

Amu slowly nodded along with what he said, keeping quiet.

"And.. I was hoping you and Yoru could come back to Tokyo with me."

Staring down at her slippers, Amu thought that idea through.

He apologized for how he had been acting towards her and confessed that he still wanted to be a part of her life. But... Amu got an idea.

"No." She replied without hesitation, catching Ikuto by surprise.

"'No'?" He repeated, confused.

Amu nodded once, pursing her lips together. "Yoru and I will move back in with you only if you prove to me that you're sorry for all the things you said. Deal?" She stuck her hand out for him to shake.

Ikuto was taken aback. Prove he was sorry? Words apparently wouldn't make even the slightest difference. He slowly removed his hand from his pocket and wrapped his long, pale fingers around hers. "...Deal..."

Amu gave him a small smile. "You have until my birthday."

The blue-haired male quickly did the math, eyes widening at how few time he had. "That's in three days." He pointed out.

The pinkette released his hand and stepped further inside her house, keeping one hand on the door. Grinning cheekily at him, she replied with a carefree, 'then I guess you'd better start planning!' before closing the door on him, leaning against it as she breathed deeply, ignoring her pounding heart.

She couldn't help but smirk as she waltzed back over to the couch. Sure, she felt heartless, but it'd be entertaining to see Ikuto put some effort into making their new-found relationship work.

"Let the fun begin, Tsukiyomi Ikuto."