Disclaimer: Oh my gosh, you guys, almost the entire chapter is mine. Anyways, most of the chapter is mine, the other portion is ShellyCullen's, the plot is ShellyCullen's, and the characters aren't mine.
On another note, I might not be able to update frequently. I picked the hardest AP classes that are available to me, sob. So, yeah, I'm buried in summer work (which I barely even started on OTL). So even though I'm bursting with inspiration, I don't have time to get it down, ugh. But I'm pretty determined to keep this going and never have it on hold until the finish, so I'll still update every week (or I'll at least try to...).
And Shugo Chara isn't mine.
Chapter 4
Favor
"We should have asked him where he dropped us off," Mashiro complained for the umpteenth time since the prince let them off near a river.
"At least he let us go," Amu grumbled, digging through the bag as they were walking for some of the dried meat.
"In the middle of nowhere," the blonde mumbled.
The taller girl rolled her eyes as she bit the slab of beef between her teeth to put the bag back on her shoulders. "We can look for landmarks and locate our position on the map."
"Hinamori," she stopped as Amu turned around, "I'm pretty sure there aren't waterfalls on the map," the girl said. She stuck an arm out in the direction of the waterfall that fell into the river with a thunderous roar.
Amu winced. "Let's just keep following the river."
Mashiro gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine."
Moments of silence followed after, and Mashiro gave a cry of frustration. "Dammit! We should have asked!"
Silently, Amu fumed. She's said that too many times already!
To take her mind off her frustration with the prince's lack of sense of direction and Mashiro's complaining, she began to tear off thin strips of the dried meat with undying determination instead of just biting off medium sized chunks from it—which was she was doing earlier.
"Hinarmori~" Mashiro whined. "Let's take a break; I'm tired."
Wordlessly, Amu pulled her bag off her shoulders, dug around, and pulled out the bag of dried fruit. "Deal with it," she mumbled, somewhat irritated. She tossed the package to the small girl, who accepted it with a small pout.
Now munching on a slice of a dried apple, Mashiro asked for the map.
"Okay, I think I know where we are," the girl told Amu. She pointed to a spot in the far corner of the map. "We're about twenty miles from our camp, a bit more than eighteen miles to the farthest camp."
"Are you sure that's where we are?" Amu asked, not completely convinced.
"Yeah, we're roughly half a mile from the valley here," Mashiro calculated as she pointed to the area between two black triangles. "And the valley I'm talking about is there." She pointed to a valley that had a river running through it to the left.
"...Sounds good. Let's go."
They were walking side by side and were silent for the past couple hours, until Mashiro broke the silence.
"Rima," she said so abruptly, Amu choked on the water she was drinking from the river.
After a bout of coughing, Amu managed to cough up a forced, "What?"
"My first name is Rima," she repeated. Then she turned to give Amu a sharp look. "Don't make me repeat it again."
"I won't," Amu said as she held her hands up in a somewhat defensive manner, "I won't."
"And yours?" Rima asked.
Amu quirked an eyebrow. "Amu."
"Amu," she echoed. "That was the name of someone at my school."
The pinkette blinked rapidly, never hearing of anyone with the same name. "Really?"
"No, but her name was Amy."
"Lost, are we?" a voice asked, almost teasingly.
Immediately, Amu pulled a knife from the strap around her thigh, and Rima whipped out the gun that was holstered on her waist. They stood back to back, unknowing where the voice came from.
An Angel stepped out of the shadow from a tree. His fingers were laced behind his head, and his face carried a wicked smirk.
Amu, who was facing in his direction, scowled. It was the same Angel from the alley and from when the prince captured them. Rima stayed in the back to back position, throwing a glance over her shoulder.
"I know it's a bad time to ask," she began as Angels began to reveal themselves, "but should I call you Hinamori or Amu?"
"Either is fine, but for self satisfactory purposes, I think it's cooler if you call me by my last name," the pinkette answered as she looked up at the sky. Looks like four to five o'clock, she thought to herself.
"I was just thinking," Rima said as she pulled the trigger on the gun, narrowly missing the Angel's shoulder as he jumped out the way, "the same thing."
And all hell broke loose as some Angels and Rima jumped at each other, leaving Amu to stand there with two other Angels circling her, including the blonde from the alley.
"Y'know," the blonde began as the smirk on his face stretched wider, "I was wondering why the prince didn't kill you." Amu scowled at his words. "But now that I can get a good look at you, I can see his reasoning."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you really trying to hit one me now?"
His smirk fell. "Maybe."
He and the other Angel took that as some kind of cue and jolted into a sprint towards her. She whipped her head around, looking for a quick escape. Amu sighed through her nose and pulled a gun out of the holster on her waist; she threw the knife at one of them with seemingly lightning speed and aimed a shot at the other. The blonde Angel moved to the left, narrowly getting his arm cut off and escaping the sharp metal with a deep cut on the outer of his triceps. He scowled and leapt impossibly high above their heads, pulling his limbs in and dropping like a rock with his feet pointed at Amu.
The other Angel, who had the bullet soaring across the field toward him, dodged it, smirking in vague satisfaction and continued to run at Amu at breakneck speed.
Figuring out what the blonde Angel was doing and seeing where the other Angel was running towards, she stood in waiting—waiting for the chance that she narrowly took to leap out of the way before the airborne Angel landed at hundreds of pounds of pressure on the other, effectively creating a massive crater under the force of impact.
Amu ran towards Rima, who seemed to glide through the air and whip around to land hit after hit on the Angels that attempted to engage in combat.
"I got it, Hinamori!" the blonde reassured. "Just wait a while and these guys will get themselves knocked out in no time."
"Uh-huh…" Amu said as she quirked an eyebrow.
And the Angels begrudgingly agreed. They scowled and ran towards the Angels Amu was with earlier to pick them up and flee into the forest.
Rima was panting hard from exhaustion and Amu could barely keep herself from falling to her knees.
"How are we so," Rima paused as she gulped another breath of air, "tired?"
Amu supported herself with the hands on her knees and panted as she held up a finger for every reason. "Dehydration, malnutrition, the like."
Rima gave her a confused look, and Amu shrugged. "My mentor talked a lot during practice."
The blonde gave her a look of somewhat acknowledgment and said, "I say we camp out here for the night."
The pinkette shot her a look that couldn't have said anything else but, 'Are you stupid or dumb?'
Rima sighed. "Guess not, huh?"
"No." Amu shook her head in exasperation and pulled the map out.
Rima groaned as she hoisted the large care package on her back and followed Amu into the dark depths of the forest.
"Geez, Hinamori, I was wondering when you were going to get here!"
Sheepishly, she gave a laugh and averted eye contact with General Jin. He was the commander's brother; Kee was only older by minutes. They looked like the twins they were, but judging by personality, one could barely tell. Kee needed more control and always seemed uptight, whereas Jin was easygoing and only loosely held onto his subordinates.
Rima gave him a short nod, which he returned with a smile and short greeting.
Suddenly, his face turned serious. "Some scouts told me you were captured." It was more like a statement, and Amu knew. She looked at him in the eye and gave a slow nod. "Mashiro, also?" Another nod. "Strange," he muttered to himself.
"They let us go—!" Rima jabbed Amu in the side, hard, with her elbow, "I mean, the prince let us go...sir," she added as an afterthought.
Jin nodded and rubbed his chin. "Okay," he answered. "Did he set conditions, or…?"
"He said he'll hold me to a future favor."
The young general gave a thoughtful nod. "Alright. I'll keep this bit of information in mind. Be sure to tell my brother what happened." He turned around and left, leaving Rima and Amu standing in the middle of the large room.
"Don't you think he should have been more worried?" Rima suddenly asked.
Amu gave her a look. "What?"
"The prince said we were unconscious for at least a day."
Amu shook her head. "And?"
"In normal circumstances, being gone for a day doesn't really strike as odd, but in this situation, what with Angels running around hunting down humans, don't you think he'd be a little more concerned? I mean, think about it, he would have called Kee, right? And would ask for the statuses of the personnel, which he had been expecting to send the care package, but instead, he let it be."
"What are you talking about," Amu deadpanned. This is getting nowhere.
"We were supposed to be here the night before," Rima continued, "but we weren't."
The pinkette sighed. "Thank you, Captain Obvious."
The small blonde glared up at Amu. "What I mean is, he should have been more concerned, instead of just calmly asking where we've been and why we weren't here. He shouldn't have just said, "Oh my gosh, Hinamori, you're finally here blah blah," he should have freaked, demanding what happened and stuff. I mean, that's what I think the general would really do. And he didn't even ask for the care package!" The girl turned and gestured to the large canvas backpack.
Amu shook her head. "I still don't get it."
"Obviously," Rima murmured to herself.
"I heard that."
"I don't care." The blonde sighed. "Look, just keep an eye out for him, alright? He's acting different, and it's giving me a bad vibe."
Amu opened her mouth to say something, but Rima hushed her and said something about someone coming.
"Hello?" The voice echoed, and a boy walked out from the doorway. He turned his head to look around, and when he spotted the duo, he smiled and waved. "Hey!"
Awkwardly, Amu gave a short nod and Rima slightly waved.
He ran up to them, and said, "The general sent me to get you guys. He said Mashiro should know her way around, but he wanted me to show you guys to where you'll be staying for the night."
Rima held a hand up to keep him from continuing. "It's fine. Tell the general we'll be leaving soon."
The pinkette discreetly pinched Rima's side. "What she means is, we'll be leaving to our room soon."
The boy gave them a confused look, shrugged, and turned to walk away.
The blonde gave Amu a glare, to which Amu returned with throwing her arms in the air and a face as they followed the boy.
'What were you thinking?' Amu furiously mouthed.
'Hello! Suspicious general!' Rima mouthed back with equal furiousness.
They went into a long hallway, and the boy went into an explanation of hallways full of rooms for different things. "The right hall on this floor is used as a housing type of thing."
Disinterested, Amu and Rima numbly nodded. Not that the boy noticed; he was walking in front of them.
Suddenly he stopped, and the two nearly ran into him. "Anyways, here's the room you'll stay in for the night!" he said with a grin. "If you need anything, find someone around somewhere!"
He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door. "It'll stay unlocked unless you lock it from the inside."
Amu nodded and walked in, examining the sparsely furnished room. The walls were painted a smooth dark blue and the beds were hanging from the ceiling on nylon ropes.
The orange sunlight that seeped through the leaves of bushes, stones, and finally the window lit the room and gave Amu a slight headache from the sharp contrast of colors. Nonetheless, Amu gave somewhat of a contented sigh. She couldn't remember when the last time she stayed in a room with a window was.
Rima had disappeared behind the door that probably led to the bathroom, and Amu let herself lay down in the bed beside the window. She felt the need to completely relax—something she hasn't been able to do since her parents—
No, no, no, no, don't go there, Amu thought to herself as she violently shook her head, as if that could rid those thoughts.
Instead, she closed her eyes, breathed in and out slowly through her nose and let her mind drift away from the dark parts of her thoughts. It still went back to the war, the humans in hiding…the prince.
Her clothes stuck to her skin uncomfortably as she waiting for Rima to finish with diminishing patience. When the blonde girl walked out in a black t-shirt and dull green sweatpants that held her ankles in elastic cuffs, Amu stood and went into the bathroom to take a—cold—shower.
She turned off the water and pulled on a tight black t-shirt and grey track pants that barely stretched down to her ankle. Amu walked out through the door with her clothes in her hands. Carefully, she pulled the pieces of metal plating from the garments and laid them on top of her folded clothes next to the bag of supplies.
She laid down in the bed, thinking to herself.
How much longer will this war go on? she asked herself before falling the depths of sleep swallowed her.
"Mom, do you know what those things are coming out of the guy's back?" Amu asked as she pointed to the television. Her mom picked up the remote control in the kitchen and turned it off.
"Nothing, Amu. Hey, dad and I found this board game in the closet in the basement. Do you want to play with us and Ami?"
.
"School can't be canceled!" Amu exclaimed, incredulous. "Midterm exams start today!"
Her father gave her a slight smile. "I guess they start tomorrow, then."
.
"Hide while you still can! Escape! Survi—!" the mayor pleaded on the television. Amu's eyes widened in interest.
"Mom! I think they're doing that fake documentary thing again!" Amu called from the living room.
"What?" her mom asked as she poked a head from the corner to look. "Oh, yes, honey, the fake documentaries…right."
"Yeah, anyways, are dad and Ami going to be back by dinner? Her dance lessons aren't that important," Amu asked.
"I don't know, dear." The pinkette didn't miss the sad tone laced in the answer.
"...Do you even know where they are?"
Amu's mother dropped the plate, and it shattered on the floor. "No..."
.
"Hinamori! Hey, Amu! Amu!"
She jolted, immediately sitting up. Amu looked around, seeing the blue walls of the room and Rima's worried eyes. She panted and buried her thin fingers into her mess of bubblegum pink hair.
"Are you okay?" the blonde asked, concern weaved into the question.
Amu gave a shaky sigh. "Yeah," she muttered, "yeah." Cold sweat wet the roots of her hair, and her heart pounded in her chest.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
Amu pulled her hands out of her sticky hair and laid them in her lap. She glanced at the clock that hung on the wall.
"It's six-thirty, if you can't read it well," Rima said.
A heavy silence hung in the air, and Amu felt the need to cry—not that she really could.
"Two years is a long time," the blonde said.
Meekly, Amu nodded.
Mashiro began tracing circles into her other palm. "My parents fought a lot, and I was usually caught in the middle or was the cause of it."
The pinkette looked at her with sorry eyes, and Rima shook her head. "Nothing could be done about it, but still they lived together. I didn't know why, honestly. And I hated them for it. But when the Angels," she stopped abruptly, clutching her heart, "when the Angels showed up and killed them." She drew a shaky breath in. "Oh God, I couldn't do a single thing but realize how important they really were."
Amu put her hand on her shoulder, and Rima stopped. "My dad and sister went missing before my mom did. I don't really know if they're alive or not, but I know my mom's gone." The pain rocketed through her chest, and Amu found herself doing the same thing Rima did. She grasped the fabric that covered her heart. "They tried to keep the whole thing a secret from me," she murmured, more to herself.
Heavy silence filled the room once more, and Amu sighed.
"Honestly, I don't really think it helps to talk about it," the pinkette said. "It doesn't change what happened."
"Yeah."
"…We should probably get ready to leave and tell the general we're leaving early."
Rima turned to look at her. "We don't tell him anything. We leave the care package with one of the subordinates and go back. It's an eight mile difference, and we need to get back fast."
Reluctantly, Amu sighed an, "Alright."
They walked through the deserted town. It seemed a bit different from the last time they went through, though Amu couldn't tell what.
Suddenly, the sound of running feet rushed behind her and the surge of wind made her loose hair fly in every direction.
She pulled the knife out from the pocket in the back of her pants, and Mashiro whipped her pistol out. The clouds drifted with the wind, and the sun was blocked out. A large shadow loomed over them and slowly grew smaller as the airborne object—er, person—landed on the ground.
In front of Amu stood the prince, with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face. "I'll need that favor from you now."