Nani: I am alive and well and probably about to get yelled at by Ikuto in 3..2...1...

Ikuto: THE HELL I AM GOING TO YELL AT YOU! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN AGAIN?!

Amu: Ikuto calm down. I'm sure there is a logical explanation for her absence...right?

Nani: I'M SORRY IKUTO! I am a college student entering her senior year in the fall. College has been kicking my butt with all the assignments, tests, exams, labs. I'm pretty sure next year will be even harder *cries* Plus I'm working again for the summer and taking on a lot of overtime. I need some way to pay for my tuition. And It's hard balancing school, work, anime, kpop, dramas, etc.

Ikuto: *sigh* Whatever, just finish this story already

Nani: I will! The story is almost done. Just a few more chapters. Maybe like 2 or 3 more chapters

Ikuto: *grumbling*

Nani: AMU! Ikuto is being all grumpy and isn't being nice to me!

Amu: Ikuto, say you're sorry for yelling and quit being such a grumpy cat

Ikuto: Oh no, not this time. I always have to apologize to her!

Nani/Amu: Because you're mean!

Ikuto: Oi, quit ganging up on me. I'm sorry!

Nani: Apology accepted :)

Ikuto: Wow, it really doesn't take much to make you all happy

Nani: It's because you're Ikuto and I still have a bit of a crush on you many years later since Shugo Chara finished :)

Ikuto: Okay, well that's not creepy at all

Amu: Hey, he's mine! I mean...Nani does not own Shugo Chara!

Chapter 25

"Amu, don't close your eyes! Amu!" Ikuto's voice slowly faded as Amu closed her eyes and fell into darkness.

At the Hospital

Ikuto and the rest of the group were in the waiting room.

"What the hell is taking so long!" Rima exclaimed.

"Rima please calm down a little." Nagi has one of his arms bandaged from when he was stabbed and use the other arm to wrap it around Rima's shoulders. Thankfully, his injury was not too serious and it didn't take too long before he was out and went to wait with the others. Kukai also did not sustain to serious of a head injury even after getting hit in the head with a baseball bat.

Ikuto was the most worried. While the rest were sitting, he was standing and pacing around glancing every so often at the clock. It had been around 4 hours since they had arrived and Amu had been rushed in the ER.

Nali suddenly burst out into tears surprising everyone. Noru rushed to her side. "Babe, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"

"I'm just really worried that we haven't had any come out and talk to us about Amu! What's taking so long? It's been a little more than 4 hours. Shouldn't we have had an update on her? What if...she's dead and they don't want to tell us!" She started sobbing uncontrollably. Everyone got quiet and pondered on what she had just said. Ikuto walked over to Nali, grabbed her by the shoulders and hugged her tightly.

"Don't you even dare to think such things for even one second. Do you hear me?" Ikuto wasn't one to

It was not until an hour later that a nurse came out and said the doctor would be right out. Everyone stood on their feet once the doctor came out. He made his way to the group in scrubs and taking off his face mask.

"Are you the family of Hinamori Amu?" He asked.

"No we're not, we're her very close friends," Tadase responded.

"I'm sorry, I need to talk privately with only her family, you know like her parents. Is there anyone who is related to Miss Hinamori whom I can talk to?" This had pissed Nali off. She walked straight up to the doctor and did not hesitate to grab him from the front of his scrub shirt, pull him towards her so that they were nose to nose.

Looking at the doctor straight in the eyes, Nali said in low and deadly voice, "Don't you ever mention her parents again. They're not family, we are. If you knew anything about what Amu has been through you wouldn't be out here asking for her good for nothing parents. If you need to tell anyone anything about Amu and her condition, you will tell us. You got that?"

The eyes of the doctor held a bit of fear, but he quickly cleared his throat and nodded. Nali let go of his scrub shirt and backed away.

"Well Hinamori Amu lost quite a lot of blood from the stab wound. We did operate because the knife did do some damage to her organs. There was also some internal bleeding, but we were able to stop it."

"Can we go see her?" Tadase asked.

"Well Miss Hinamori has still not woken up from the anesthesia. She's currently in room 203. All of you can go in and be with her, but only for a few minutes!" Everyone quickly ran past the doctor to go see Amu.

Amu was still under the effects of the anesthesia. When everyone walked into the room they surrounded the bed and just looked at her.

"She looks so peaceful at the moment. It's hard to believe she has gone through all of that," Lulu commented.

"It really is hard to believe, and I was there by her side since we were both 6 years old and she was being horribly abused by those evil son of a bitches." Nali suddenly became emotional and began to cry. Noru went to her side to comfort her.

"Nali, why are you crying." Everyone had turned their attention to Nali, that they had no idea Amu had woken up.

"AMU!" Everyone yelled. They were all ready to pounce onto the bed until one of the nurses who was walking by the room came in to shush them.

"Amu!" They exclaimed a little less loudly. Everyone was super excited to see Amu awake. Some were jumping in happiness, others were smiling widely...all except for one person. Ikuto was quietly behind the group and as they rushed to Amu's side, he slowly made his way out of the room.

Ikuto POV

Why did Amu have to go through all this? Why couldn't it have been me? Better yet, why did I forget her?

I could have saved her from those people. Sure I was young, but I could have told my parents to tell the police. Amu could have been taken out of that house and she would be safe.

I hate myself. How do I go in that room and face Amu? I couldn't protect her from Saya either. All of this is my fault.

I continued roaming the halls of the hospital as a way to avoid seeing Amu and the rest.

"Ikuto!" Fuck. I turn around to see Noru run towards me.

Normal POV

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like? I'm just taking a walk around the hospital. Is that some sort of crime?"

Noru took a step back and brought up his hands. "Woah man, calm down. I'm just looking for you because we didn't know you left the room plus Amu is asking for you."

"Just leave me the hell alone. I'm not going back over there right now."

"What is up with the attitude problem?"

"I don't have an attitude problem, you're just being ridiculous right now!" Ikuto yelled out.

"What the hell man!?" Noru yelled back. The nurses and doctors around the area stared, but quickly scurried away noticing the dark aura being emitted by the two brothers.

"I'm not going to go see Amu and I especially don't want to see your or anyone else's faces right now."

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing! Leave me alone!" Ikuto turned around to walk away until Noru stopped him and turned him around so they were face to face.

Tadase, Nagi, and Kukai who also went to look for Ikuto heard the yelling and ran to where Ikuto and Noru were at.

"Just tell me what's wrong!" Noru yelled even louder.

Ikuto snapped. He

"Woah, what's going on you guys?" Kukai asked. They were completely ignored.

"I said leave me the hell alone!" Ikuto swung and punched Noru in the face. The rest of the guys gasped at what Ikuto had done.

Noru recovered from the shock and his anger rose. He ran at Ikuto and returned the punch. In less than second, both boys were going at it. Throwing several punches and kicks at one another. Tadase, Nagi, and Kukai ran to stop them. It was a struggle to separate Ikuto and Noru from each other. One nurse called security once realizing that even 3 people were unable to separate the two.

Even when 2 big and muscular security guards separated Ikuto and Noru, they put up quite a fight to get out of the grasp of the security guards in order to get at each other. At some point, the girls had heard about a fight from some nurses who were talking right outside of Amu's hospital room. When they saw it was Ikuto and Noru who were fighting, they ran as fast as they could to the scene.

A chief physician was already there by the time the girls arrived.

"I will not allow fights in this hospital. The patients need to rest, not needing to worry that some teenagers will be having some kind of brawl out in the hallways by their rooms. If neither of you are able to calm down and stop fighting, I will have the security guard escort both of you out of here."

Ikuto got out of the security guard's grip and walked away from the group. The other security guard let go of Noru. Seeing that Ikuto left and there wasn't going to be another issue, the chief physician and security guards left.

"What was all that about?" Lulu asked.

"My brother is being an asshole and I don't know why. He just suddenly punched me when I was trying to get him to tell me what was wrong." Nali went up to him and put her hands on his face. He had a bruise forming on his left cheek.

"What do we tell Amu? Do we really want to tell her that both of you fought right after she got out of surgery and woke up?" Utau asked.

Rima looked at the group. "I say we don't tell her what happened until we find out what's wrong with Ikuto."

"I agree with her. Who knows how the news would impact Amu's well being right now" Nagi added.

The group of friends agreed to not tell Amu anything that happened.

"Let's get back to Amu before she worries. You guys were away for quite awhile," Rima said.

"We have to figure out some way to get Ikuto to talk. He didn't even talk to me, and I'm his brother and he tells me pretty much everything."

Nali began to walk back to Amu's hospital room. "When visiting hours are over we'll go to my place and we'll come up with some plan. One way or another we have to get Ikuto to tell us everything and come see Amu. It won't take long for her to figure out something is wrong. I don't want her to get hurt because of this."

Nani: I'll end this chapter right here

Ikuto: What? Why!?

Nani: So I can post this and not have the readers waiting, duh! This is so overdue

Amu: You have got to hurry up and write the next chapter

Nani: I'll start on it in the next 2 days!

Amu: And until then, dear readers don't forget to read and review!

Nani: Once again I'm so sorry for taking so long to update!

Ikuto: Alright stop talking and get working on the next chapter *Drags Nani back to the laptop*