Morg: Heyo! I don't know about you guys, but this rewrite is going better than I thought.

Ikuto: Meh, it's interesting so far, but you need to get to some Amuto action.

Amu: I totally disagree. Keep Ikuto away for as long as you need to.

Morg: Which is like this chapter.

Ikuto: We're meant to be. Don't fight it.

Amu: You don't own us!

Morg: Thank the heavens for that!

~Drama High~

Amu tapped her fingers against the top of her desk while she stared out the window. The tree that she could see really was magnificent. Her attention was only pulled back into the classroom when the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Someone was staring at her.

Slowly, Amu looked around the room. She tried to keep her expression neutral. She hoped she looked bored rather than suspicious. None of her classmates seemed to be paying any attention to her.

Shaking off the feeling, Amu let her chin fall into her hand. Their teacher had yet to show up for class. He was late, which wasn't too unusual. Everyone just sort of sat around and talked while they waited for him.

The door flew open and their teacher tripped in while calling out apologies for being late. "I do have some news for you. There will be a school fair next month. You are all to prepare a section of history to decorate the halls. The principal wants it to be like a walk through history. I already have your partners assigned and your topics. We won't be covering anything else in class until after the fair to give everyone plenty of time to make a great presentation."

Groaning with part of the class, Amu rolled her eyes before looking out the window again. She got the message loud and clear. They had better make amazing projects or else.

At least, they were already assigned partners. She wasn't going to have to go through the awkwardness of turning down people who wanted to work with her just because they thought she was cool.

But that also meant she had absolutely no say in who she did have to work with.

With another huff, Amu sat up in her chair as she crossed her arms over her chest. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she watched her teacher pull out a list from his bag.

"All right then, come up and see who you're working with and on what time period. Use the rest of today to figure out when you're going to get together to work on this project. You won't have enough time if you just use this period. Classes should be used to ask me questions and to fact-check your area of history. The time outside of class should be used to build your presentation. Is that clear?"

Enough of the students agreed and got up to go see who they'd been paired with. Amu didn't bother getting up out of her chair. Someone, no doubt, would be over to tell her that they were working together.

She saw the few boys that she'd rejected sending her hopeful glances as they made their way to the front of the room. Amu did her best to ignore them.

Ikuto watched as the other students looked at the teacher's list before calling out to someone else. They were slowly all pairing up. So far no one had approached him or the girl he'd seen riding the bike the day before.

Intrigued a bit, Ikuto pushed himself to his feet. It was easy enough for him to get to the front of the room. The fact that he was new and the rumors going around about him had enough of the other students moving to get out of his way. He wasn't sure if their staring was a good thing or not.

Reaching the front of the room, Ikuto read through the list to find his name. He was paired with someone named Hinamori. They were going to be working on the feudal era.

Ikuto turned to look at the room. Some of the students who hadn't had a chance to come forward and look at the list were staring at him. "Who is Hinamori?"

Amu lifted her head to look at the tall guy at the front of the classroom. She slowly lifted her hand. "I'm Hinamori."

Ikuto nodded at her. He was hoping that he wasn't showing any of his surprise on his face. "Cool, we're working together. We got the feudal era."

Amu let out a sigh as she leaned back in her chair and dropped her hands to her lap. "Well, stop yelling at me from over there."

Grinning at that, Ikuto moved to where Hinamori was sitting. "Do you want me to yell at you from over here?"

Scowling, Amu didn't bother to respond.

Not letting her frown bother him in the slightest, Ikuto moved to snag his bag from where he'd been sitting a few chairs behind the girl he was going to be working with. "I'm Tsukiyomi Ikuto. You should just call me Ikuto."

Amu stared up at him for a moment before gesturing to the chair in front of her that was abandoned when whoever had been sitting there went to find their partner. "Then you should just call me Amu."

Nodding at that, Ikuto took the empty seat and turned to face Amu. She was cute, this girl with four charas. "When do you have time to get together to work on this?"

Amu shifted forward in her chair. "Any day except Wednesday. And you?"

"I'm really available whenever."

Humming at that, Amu pulled out her notebook and a pen. "Well, I'll give you my number so that you can call and we can get together. For now, I'd say let's work on it tomorrow after school. That'll give us both time to think some things over before we meet for the first time. We can both bring some ideas to our first meeting."

Ikuto hadn't been sure when he'd been paired with her on whether or not she'd be a good partner for a class project. There was no doubt in his mind now that they'd get along great. "Cool, can we meet at your house?"

The question caught Amu off guard for only a moment. She'd been asked by boys if they could come over before. But Ikuto seemed different. He looked like he was asking because he genuinely wanted to come over to do work. He also looked like he was a bit worried she'd say no. "That's fine. I'll let my parents know. My little sister will be there, but she'll leave us alone to work on our project."

Nodding at that, Ikuto could feel something in his gut unclench. "I don't mind her being around. I don't get to see my sister much."

Amu didn't say anything in response to his little confession. On the one hand, because she didn't know what to say. On the other, because she didn't want them to be friends. She just wanted them to be two people who worked on a project together and then went their separate ways when it was finished.

Ikuto took Amu's number and address with a nod of his head. He slipped the paper into his pocket just before the bell rang. He gave Amu a small smile before getting up and heading for the door.

He'd been intrigued the day before when he'd seen her with four charas. Now he was downright curious. She didn't seem to have any friends, though he'd heard enough people talking about her to know that she was popular. He'd thought that maybe the reason for that was because she was cold or rude. But Amu hadn't seemed like either of those two things when she'd spoken to him.

She had seemed a bit wary at first, but that seemed to slip away the longer they talked about when they were going to do the work that they were assigned. There had to be a reason that she didn't have any friends.

Ikuto knew it would be easy to get information on her if he just asked around, but that somehow felt like cheating. He wanted to know the truth about this girl with four charas. He didn't want to hear rumors and speculations.

So he would wait and see what he could learn about her during the time that they spent together. It wasn't like he had anything better to do with his time.

Ikuto sighed as he made his way into the classroom for his next class. Some of the students already in there stopped talking when he came in. He just rolled his eyes when they wouldn't see and went to take an empty seat in the back. The rumors about him were full of false information. He knew he wouldn't be able to trust anything anyone said about Amu except for Amu.

XXX

Amu ignored the other students around her as she made her way to her bike. As much as she loved Wednesdays, she loved the days that were not Wednesdays just a bit more. She didn't have to rush home to record anything and got to spend more time with her family.

Waking the girls like she always did, Amu tapped the top of their bag after she put it in the basket on her bike. "Hey guys, school's out. I have some stuff to tell you."

Ran was the first to pop out of the bag. She looked sleepy but still gave Amu a bright smile. Amu gave her one in return when Ran moved to her shoulder and nuzzled against her cheek.

Miki pulled herself out next. With a yawn, she relayed a message to Amu. "Dia says she's gonna sleep longer. Su's tucking her back in."

Not at all surprised, Amu swung her leg over her bike and pushed away from the rack. She laughed a little when a grumpy-looking Su pushed open the flap on the bag before climbing out. "What's got you looking down?"

Su mumbled something that had Ran laughing so hard she fell off Amu's shoulder.

Used to their antics, Amu just shook her head as she kept pedaling.

"She said that Dia didn't want a snack before going back to sleep."

Amu just nudged Su with her finger before smiling at her little chara. Miki may have laughed when she told Amu what had Su upset, but that didn't mean that Su's feelings were any less valid.

"You said you had something to tell us, desu?"

"Oh, right. I have to do a partnered project for school. It's a big one so I'm going to need everyone's help."

"Who is your partner, Amu-chan?"

Seeing that Ran had reappeared after she'd fallen off Amu's shoulder made Amu smile down at her. "He's new. Tsukiyomi Ikuto. I've heard rumors that he went to our school before."

"Yeah, but we know better than to trust rumors."

"Miki's right, desu. The ones about you are just ridiculous."

Amu knew that her charas were technically part of her, but that didn't change the fact that she loved them just the way that they were. They had their own personalities to the point where she thought that maybe they should always be just who they were. "I don't believe anything the other kids are saying about him. Most of it isn't very nice. I'm also not really sure how any of them could have gotten the information about him if it was true. I haven't seen Ikuto doing anything in the halls or class that would indicate that the rumors had any truth to them."

"What's this? Amu-chan has been watching him?"

"You call him Ikuto?"

Amu looked between the teasing grins on Miki's and Ran's faces before letting out a sigh. She took everything back that she'd just been thinking about them. She didn't love any of them. "We're partners. We agreed to just use our first names. And I haven't been watching him. I just noticed that he wasn't like the other students. He wasn't gossiping with them."

"Leave her alone, desu. You two are worse than cats with cream."

"Thanks, Su."

"Besides, Amu is allowed to crush on whoever she wants."

Groaning, Amu ignored all three of the girls as they giggled for the rest of the ride home.

.

Morg: Slowly yet surely. You'll become friends.

Ikuto: And then something more.

Amu: Absolutely not.

Morg: And so it is written.

Ikuto: And so it will be.

Amu: You're both ridiculous.