Morg: Heyo! I really am enjoying this one a lot more this time around.

Ikuto: That's probably a good thing.

Amu: Yeah, what with it being the third time you're trying to write this one.

Morg: I was young and dumb and didn't know what I was doing.

Ikuto: Was?

Amu: Still are.

Morg: Rude.

~Drama High~

"All right," Ikuto said with a groan as he put their papers to the side. He rubbed at his forehead as he shook his head. "I don't think I can manage to cram any more information into my head tonight. Let's stop."

Amu chuckled as she bookmarked a few websites before closing out of them. "That's fair. We've been at this for over an hour."

Ikuto groaned again before he caught the sound of giggles coming from the bed. "Besides, I want to see the amazing picture that Ami was working on."

Ami perked up as both Ikuto and Amu turned to look at her. "It really is amazing!"

Amu smiled as she motioned to her sister. "Let's see it then."

Scrambling, Ami got off the bed and made her way over to where Amu and Ikuto were sitting. She looked down at the tablet screen for a moment longer, swiped something with her fingers once and then twice before she turned it to show them. "Ta-da!"

Ikuto made a show of studying the picture carefully. He could not tell what it was supposed to be, but he knew better than to dampen a child's excitement about something they created. "This is impressive."

Amu made a noise of agreement as she watched her sister puff out her chest. "Did you save it so we can show mom and dad later? I don't want them to miss out on seeing such an amazing picture."

"I almost wish I could take it with me," Ikuto said sadly. "I would hang that on my bedroom wall. It's so cool."

Ami giggled as she saved the picture and then gave Amu her tablet back. "I can draw you a picture to take home the next time you come over, Ikuto. I don't mind!"

Ikuto grinned as he nodded. "That would be amazing. Thank you, Ami."

Amu switched her tablet off before she got up from her desk and set about helping Ami clean up from their snacks and drinks. She looked over her shoulder and caught Ikuto just watching them. The look in his eyes was still a little sad and she didn't understand why but knew better than to ask. "Hey, you hungry?"

"Yes!" Ami cheered.

Amu shook her head as she bit back a smile. She turned to look at Ikuto again. "I'm going to make some supper. If you're hungry and you want to stay, then stay."

Ikuto met her gaze again. He studied her face for a moment before he slowly nodded. "If you don't mind having me, I'd like to stay."

"Then stay," Amu said with a shrug as she walked out of her room with Ami. "But come downstairs and help!"

Ikuto chuckled as he gathered their papers together and stored the ones he was taking with him in his bag. Then he took it downstairs and left it by the door before he joined the two girls in the kitchen.

XXX

"I told you," Tadase sneered as he shoved Ikuto back into the wall. The boys around them laughed, giving Tadase more confidence in his bullying. "Stay away from her."

"We're partners for a class," Ikuto said with a roll of his eyes. "What do you want me to do?"

"Fail."

Ikuto didn't move as his bag was shoved into his chest so hard that the air got pushed out of his lungs. He stayed where he was leaning against the wall as the rest of the group followed after Tadase. None of them looked back at him, though he was glad they didn't.

He was pretty sure that none of them knew the reason Tadase wanted to be mean to Ikuto. And while he used Amu as an excuse, Ikuto knew that she wasn't the actual reason.

Sighing, he straightened up as the bell rang. He was going to be late for another class but found that he really didn't care.

XXX

"Didn't you hear?"

Amu almost groaned as the girls got a little louder next to her. It was like they were trying to force her to hear what they wanted to say.

"I heard," another said.

Giggles sounded before the first one cleared her throat. "They told me that Tadase isn't going easy on him. Told Ikuto he better fail rather than get too close to Amu."

Amu kept her gaze out the window. She made sure to not show any sort of reaction to hearing her name in their gossip. What she didn't understand was why Tadase thought he could tell Ikuto to do anything in regards to her. It wasn't his choice what Amu did. It wasn't Tadase's choice what Ikuto did.

If Ikuto started to avoid her then she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

The bell rang, causing the girls to quiet down, though Amu didn't miss the looks they were sneaking at her out of the corner of their eyes. They'd said what they'd said loudly in front of her in an effort to get her to react.

It was too bad for them that she was so used to pretending she didn't care about any of them that she didn't have to try very hard to stare out the window until the teacher called their attention to the front of the room.

XXX

Amu looked up as someone sat down in front of her. She was not surprised to see Ikuto. She was, however, surprised to see that his uniform was slightly torn and that he looked like he'd been in another scuffle.

She studied him for a moment and caught sight of his guarded look before she sighed. "Do you want me to say something?"

"To who?"

Amu sighed again. "I heard from some very loud, very annoying girls that Tadase is picking on you because of me. Do you want me to tell him to fuck off?"

Ikuto lifted an eyebrow as he studied the girl before him. Then he shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you what you can and cannot say to him but it's not about you."

"That's not what I heard," Amu muttered as she frowned down at her stuff. "They were very clear when they were making sure I heard what happened."

Ikuto sighed before he leaned back in his chair to study her for a moment longer. "I've known Tadase for a long time. This thing he's doing where he's got a bunch of guys with him while they shove me into a wall or knock my books out of my hands isn't because of you no matter what the rumors say. He's just using you as an excuse."

"So saying something to him wouldn't make it stop."

Ikuto shrugged. "I would love to see you tell him to fuck off, but no, it wouldn't make a difference here."

Amu narrowed her gaze as she watched Ikuto wipe at the corner of his mouth. "Won't your parents notice that you're being bullied and talk to the school or something?"

"Or something," Ikuto muttered before he met her gaze once more. "You haven't heard the rumors?"

Amu scoffed as she folded her arms over her chest. "I do my best to avoid what everyone else in this school says about each other whenever I can. I just couldn't start screaming earlier to avoid what those girls were saying about you and me and Tadase. I hate rumors."

Ikuto winced as his smile pulled at the small cut he had on his lip. "My parents won't notice."

"Cool," Amu said as she shifted some of her stuff on her desk. "This is the part where I awkwardly tell you that I'm here for you and you say thank you or something."

"Thank you or something," Ikuto said with a smirk.

Amu nodded at him before gesturing to their work. "Let's get to work on this. Contrary to Tadase's opinion on the matter, I do not want to fail."

Ikuto couldn't help it. He laughed as he pulled out his folder and got out some of their notes. "Yeah," he agreed. "Me either."

XXX

Amu frowned as she caught sight of Ikuto being slowly surrounded by some of the boys in their school. They should have all been heading home for the day but instead they were up to something. She bit her lip for a moment before she scowled. Amu was not the type of girl to second guess herself.

"Ikuto," she called just before one of the boys could reach out and snag his bag to drop it. Instead, the boy aborted the movement as they turned to look at her. "Aren't you coming?"

Ikuto stared at Amu for a moment before he slowly nodded. "Well," he said to the awkwardly lingering boys around him. "I guess I have to go. Maybe we'll try to do this later?"

"Make all the jokes you want," one of the boys sneered. "Tadase won't like it when he finds out you were spending time with Amu again."

"Excuse me?" Amu snapped as she switched her gaze to the boy who'd thought he'd been too quiet for her to hear. "What did you just say?"

"Dude," another student muttered. "You don't piss off Amu."

Amu didn't bother to switch her gaze off the first boy. "Did I just hear you try and dictate who I can and can't spend time with?"

"No," the boy stuttered out. "Amu-chan, that's not what I-"

"Because," Amu bit out as she cut him off. "It sounded like you did and I cannot begin to tell you how stupid that would be. I don't even know your name."

The boy made a wounded noise as he stepped back. "We have class together every morning. You sit two-"

"Does it look like I care?" Amu's voice was quiet, firm, and deadly. Several more of the boys backed off. "Do you think I want to know your name? You're a bully. You're an idiot. I know everything about you that I need to know and I don't like you."

"Amu-chan," the second boy tried again. "We didn't mean to-"

"Yes, you did," Amu said without mercy. "Ikuto is my partner for a class project. He is also my friend because, unlike you idiots, he has more than rocks for brains. Do not try and tell him to stay away from me. If you do anything to ruin my grades I will never forgive any of you."

One of the boys who hadn't spoken yet nodded as he backed away. "Got it."

"Come on, Ikuto," Amu said as she turned on her heel and began to walk away. "I want an A. We're going to my house to work on this stupid project."

Ikuto watched her for a moment before he glanced back at the others. "Later."

Amu huffed as she walked away.

"Dude," one of the boys whispered. "I've never seen her be so cool."

"I think I just fell a little more in love with her and all she did was yell at me."

Sighing, Amu waited for Ikuto to catch up to her at the bike rack. "You don't have to come over if you don't want to. I just didn't want to see them cornering you for no reason."

"Amu," Ikuto said as he adjusted his bag on his shoulder. "That was amazing."

Amu shrugged as she unlocked her bike. "The kids at this school seem to think I'm unapproachable because I don't tolerate their pettiness. I hate liars and I hate gossipers. Half the boys and even a few girls have confessed to me without ever having spoken to me before. I am not interested in using other people to seem more cool and I would rather they stopped trying to use me."

Ikuto nodded as he agreed with what she said. "But they just froze up when you called my name."

"Ah," Amu said with a small smile tugging at her lips. "I have a bit of a reputation for being a hard ass. I'm surprised you haven't heard that rumor yet."

Ikuto shook his head as he laughed. "No, I can't say I have."

Amu looked at the few boys that were lingering just to watch her for a little bit longer as she talked to Ikuto. "They'll probably leave you alone for a little while. I don't know what Tadase will do though. Sorry about that."

"I don't care about him," Ikuto said with a shrug. "I want to finish high school and go to college. Getting into fights and beating him up wouldn't help me do that so I just don't fight back."

"I wondered," Amu admitted as she began to push her bike down the road. "You don't look like someone who would lose a fight."

Ikuto laughed again as he followed her. "Not usually, no. I stop the other boys from going too far but I don't fight back."

"Well," Amu said after they turned the corner and were out of sight. "If you want to come over you can If you don't then that's fine, too."

"If you don't mind, I would like to," Ikuto told her quietly. "Is your sister going to be home again?"

"Yep," Amu said as she looked at her watch. "She's probably wondering where I am."

"Do I have to help with supper again?"

"If you didn't want to cook for us then you shouldn't have let us know that you were good at it," Amu told him without looking at him. Instead, she kept her gaze focused on her bag and her fiddling with it.

Ikuto chuckled as he turned toward her house. "Fine, but I want another picture for my wall."

Amu laughed as she finally looked up at him. "That's something you'll have to take up with Ami."

"I know you can draw, too, Amu," he told her as he followed along after her. "I don't think you have to keep making Ami do all the work."

Amu snorted but blinked hard when she noticed that he didn't seem to be joking. "Wait, really? You want me to draw you something?"

Ikuto shrugged as they turned another corner. "I wouldn't say no if you did."

Amu bit her lip as they walked for a bit in silence. She could draw him something. She didn't know him all that well despite the time they were spending together, but she had told those other boys that they were friends. And friends did nice things for each other. Like cooking them supper and praising their sister's horrible art skills.

"Fine," Amu said after a while. They were almost to her house and she wanted to make the deal before Ami heard. "I'll draw you a picture but I get to decide what it'll be and you don't get to ask when it'll be done. I'll work on it when I have time."

"Deal," Ikuto said as he held out his hand.

Amu glared at him for a moment before she took it. "Don't make me regret this."

"Never," Ikuto said with a grin.

.

Morg: Look at that. You're becoming friends.

Ikuto: Cute.

Amu: No.