Sky: Gomenasai! I am sooooooooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update but I got writer's block. I knew exactly where I wanted the story to go but somehow couldn't just get there. Ugh. I'm trying. I really am. Enjoy!
"Ohayoo, Amu-chan," Su called into Amu's ear the next morning.
Amu rubbed her eyes, not bothering to open them. "What time is it, Su? Stop waking us up when the sun isn't even awake yet!"
"But Amu-chan," Su whined.
"Your alarm didn't go off," Ran explained, floating over so she was standing next to Su.
Amu sat up immediately, accidentally hitting her head on her headboard. "I'm up, okay?" She rubbed the back of her head.
"Chip, syrup, wh –"
"No," Amu interrupted. "I said Miki, Su."
"Chip, syrup –"
"Miki."
"I am Miki," Su said, pointing to herself.
"No, you're Su," Amu said, getting frustrated.
"No, I'm Su," Ran corrected.
"And you're Ran?" Amu asked Miki, getting the hang of it. 'Miki' nodded.
"Ugh," Amu groaned in frustration, putting her hands around her head. "This is so confusing! I can't spend the day like this. Switch back. Now." There were a lot of complaints from three, but Dia – who had decided not to participate in the 'let's scare Amu before she's even fully awake' game – finally convinced her fellow charas.
"Arigatou," Amu sighed with relief. She glanced at her alarm clock. "AHHHHHH!"
Amu's charas – unfortunately – got caught in the mad dash as she rushed into the bathroom.
Dia, who was smart enough to float a bit higher than Amu in the mornings, drifted back down to help tend to her wounded companions. She was grinning. "Happy Halloween!"
"You can just drop me off…..where everyone else is being dropped off," Amu told her mom.
"Are you sure you'll be fine? Are you positive that you don't want me to walk you to the door?" Amu's dad asked from the back where he was sitting with Ami. "It won't be a problem at all. Let me just –"
Amu groaned in embarrassment, even though no one outside of the car could hear her father. "Dad, I'm sixteen. I'll be fine."
"Have fun," Ami said, not looking up from her phone.
"Do you have your ticket? Isn't that dress a little too short? And the collar's –"
Amu stepped out into the chilly October air. She poked her head in for a second to say, "Remember: the dance ends at eleven. Don't come any earlier" before slamming the door shut and walking inside.
Amu couldn't help but let out a "Wow" as she entered the newly-decorated gym. Orange and black streamers were strung around the whole gym. Halloween-related balloons (eg. ghosts, vampires, zombies, etc.) were weighed down by rocks wrapped in construction paper and placed all around the floor of the gym. The food tables were on the opposite end of the doors and had Halloween-themed table cloths to cover their dull exteriors. The lights Rima and Ikuto had worked so hard on paid off; they were flashing everywhere all at once but still not causing too much damage to the eyes.
"BOO!"
Amu was immediately pulled from her "Oh my God! This is so awesome!" world and jumped three feet in the air.
"Hahaha. The look on your face was priceless, Hinamori-san!" Kukai was practically rolling around on the floor with laughter.
"Kukai," Utau scolded, coming up behind her new boyfriend and wrapping her arms around him. This action, of course, got both of them blushing red.
"You…..you're…..?" Amu asked.
Kukai raised a questioning eyebrow. "You got a problem with that?"
Amu shook her head. "Nope. No problem at all."
Just then, Yaya appeared and spotted the new couple's…..embrace. "Awww. Kawaii, ne, Amu-chi?"
"Why are you even here, Yaya-chan?" Amu didn't bother answer Yaya's question.
"'All Guardians have to be present at all dances' blah blah blah," Yaya huffed.
"You look really cute in your costume."
"Really?" Yaya squealed. "Arigatou, Amu-chi!" She was in a bunny costume. She had on a white top with a short, furry white jacket. Her skirt was also white and she had fuzzy white legwarmers. Her white flats had a pink bow each, which matched the gigantic one that Yaya had clipped to her fluffy bunny ears. A huge, fluffy-white cotton-ball tail that stuck out from behind and face paint completed the look. "Now I've gotta go find the snacks." And she scampered off into the crowd.
"What about mine?" Rima demanded. She was a princess and looked every bit like one; from her (probably) faux-crystal tiara to her flowing (and sparkling) pink dress to her pink bejeweled heels.
"Amazing," Amu said truthfully.
"And Tadase?" Nadeshiko encouraged, pushing him over so that he stood directly in front of Amu. Like he said he would be, Tadase was dressed like a king; all the way down to the Royal Cape from elementary school (but modified).
"N-nice," Amu managed to stammer out. "V-very nice c-costume, Tadase-kun."
"Um…argiatou, Hinamori-san."
Amu blushed bright red and tried to think of a distraction. She spun around, showing off her costume. "You like?"
"Oh my gosh!" Nadeshiko squealed. "Kawaii, Amu-chan! I'm so glad you didn't let us see it before now!"
Amu had picked out a cat costume. Short, small, cute cat ears stuck out from Amu's bubblegum-colored hair. Her dress was sleeveless and purple, going down to her knees with a small poof at the end and black firm trim around the top and hem. She had on black ballet flats with a cute purple ribbon. Black gloves with purple faux fur trim around the wrist were used to symbolize paws. A black tail with a large purple bow tied at the end stuck out from behind the dress.
Everyone except Utau praised Amu on her choice of costume. Utau just raised an eyebrow and said, "Not interested, huh?"
Amu blushed. "This was the best costume I could find that I liked and still could wear to the dance. It has nothing to do with Ikuto. Besides, he's not even here."
"But you want him to be, right?" Utau asked.
"I-it doesn't matter t-to me," Amu sputtered. "I'm gonna…go get some punch now. Rima?"
"Punch is good," Rima agreed. Together, the two BFFs walked off towards where Yaya was stuffing her face with candy and various other sweets ("They're free!").
"Do you think we should set them up?" Utau said as soon as Amu was out of hearing range.
"Who?" Nagihiko asked.
"Amu and Ikuto, obviously," Utau scoffed.
"Amu and Ikuto?" Tadase repeated. For some reason, he didn't look very comfortable with that idea.
"Yeah. They obviously have feelings for each other; that's why Ikuto didn't come and Amu changed her mind. So? What'dya think?"
Nagihiko shrugged. His twin slapped him and he said quickly, "Sure. Why not?" Nadeshiko was nodding along excitingly. Kukai basically agrees to everything Utau says. Only Tadase seemed to be having doubts.
Utau didn't seem to see that as a problem and launched into Phase One.
By the time Amu and Rima had returned, everyone knew what they were supposed to do.
"Are you having fun?" Kukai asked immediately.
"Yeah," Amu replied. "It's fun. I guess."
"Why 'I guess'?" Utau wanted to know.
Amu shrugged. "Dunno. I guess I thought this was gonna be a little more….interesting. Why?"
"Just wondering."
"So what were you guys talking about?" Rima inquired.
Nagi looked at Nade, who looked at Tadase, who looked at Kukai, who glared at Utau. Utau gulped. "Um…nothing important, really."
"Really?" Amu said.
"Y-yeah. I mean….just the usual."
"The usual?"
"It's…uh…well…high-school stuff."
"Like…?"
Thankfully, Utau didn't have to answer that as someone screamed.
Unthankfully, that scream meant that something had happened.
"X-Charas!" Kukai exclaimed, pointing at the giant windows at the top of the gym walls.
Sure enough, bigger-than-normal X-characters were hovering by the windows. They looked like they were contemplating how to smash open the windows.
Amu immediately felt for her chara case and was starting to wonder if she had dropped it when she realized she had left Ran, Miki, Su, and Dia back home (they had said something about a party at Daichi's).
It looked like her friends had the same problem.
"Why didn't you bring Il and El?" Kukai asked his girlfriend.
Utau crossed her arms. "They had a fight. Again. And where's Daichi? Isn't he supposed to love parties or something?"
"Yeah. He's hosting a party back home."
"So what will your parents think when they see a bunch of miniature, invisible objects moving?" Rima asked.
"What will your parents think when they see gag mangas moving by themselves?" Kukai countered.
"They're not gonna see anything," Rima said quietly.
Usually, this was the point where Nagi came and said something to cheer her up, but the Fujisaki twins were having an argument of their own.
"Temari's practicing her dancing," Nadeshiko said. "We're having a competition coming up. All Rhythm ever does is beat-box around the house."
"He does not," Nagihiko spat. "He's a way better chara then that graceful thing that does nothing but wave her fan around every day."
"How dare you insult Temari!"
"And you think it feels good when this happens to me?"
"I did not insult Rhythm! It's your own imaginations that –"
"Excuse me," Amu interrupted the twins. "You can argue all you want later, but right now, we have bigger problems."
Nagi and Nade glared at each other and then spun around so they faced the opposite direction.
Amu sighed. "I guess they're not gonna be much help." She looked up hopefully at everyone that was left. "So. Any ideas of how to stop giant X-charas from breaking into our school without help from any of our shugo charas?"
Sky: R&R? Please? It'll help me think better….hopefully :D