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Amu sat in bed, thinking. She hadn’t seen Ikuto lately, a week to be exact. The last time she saw him was on her date with Tadase. And he seemed so upset then, she was nervous. She was so used to seeing him practically every day, it felt weird to go this long without even catching a glimpse of him. And she had to admit to herself that she missed him, incredibly. It was weird; she’d never really missed anyone before. She felt this tightness in her chest that she knew would disappear if she could just look at him.

People had commented saying that she looked sad; Ran, Miki, and Su in particular. They had come up to her a few days ago.

“Amu-chan, are you okay? You’ve looked sad for a while now.” Su asked, in her sweet voice.

“More like gloomy than sad, but something must obviously be wrong.” Miki went around her, as if looking at her from different angles would help her see the problem.

“You should be happy Amu-chan! Yay, yay, Amu-chaaaan!” Ran jumped up and down, cheering her on. Amu always thought Ran would’ve made a good cheerleader. Usually her peppiness was contagious, but she didn’t feel like joining in the cheering today. Ran noticed after a while, that this wasn’t making Amu any happier. “Amu?”

“I’m fine.” I shrugged, but didn’t manage a passable smile.

“You don’t look near ‘fine’, Amu. You should tell us what’s wrong.” She poked her in the arm, as if this encouraged her to share.

“Yes, telling your friends things makes you happier! We can all worry together!” Su smiled at her.

“It’s just, I miss... someone.” Amu confided.

“Who? Who?” Ran looked like it was taking her a great deal of strength to keep herself from cheering again.

When Amu didn’t respond, Miki tried to guess. “It’s that boy, isn’t it? The one we met that one time...” She couldn’t quite figure out the name.

“Ikuto!” Su piped up. Amu wanted to glare at her, but it wasn’t her fault.

“Yes, it’s him. I miss him, okay? Can I leave now?”

“Don’t worry Amu-chan! You’ll see him again! Definitely!” Ran practically jumped on top of her while trying to hug her.

Amu smiled as Miki and Su joined in, making it a group hug.

All of her friends at school kept giving her reassuring smiles and sympathetic looks. Although it was nice of them, it had started to annoy her.

Her sister had noticed too, as well as her dad, who was always so busy! Was she really that transparent? The thought wasn’t very reassuring, she always tried to look so positive to others; it didn’t feel right for anyone but her to know her problems.

She kicked the blankets off herself, knowing she wouldn’t be able to sleep. She walked over to her balcony, slid open the door, and stepped outside. She stood there, wishing Ikuto would jump up onto her balcony, like he used to do so often, so they could talk. She slumped over the railing, and looked down at the street.

She saw something below, moving. It caught her interest so she peered closer. No, it wasn’t a ‘something’ it was a ‘someone’; a ‘someone’ with blue hair. She felt a spark of hope. Amu leaned over the side of the balcony, grabbed onto the drain pipe, and started to slide down the side of her house. The pipe was cold against her hands, giving them a cold burning feeling. She realized she didn’t put a sweater on as the cold air whipped against her exposed arms. She slipped quickly down the pipe, wanting less cold on her skin. She sighed in relief as she felt the ground beneath her feet. She looked up in amazement, surprised she actually made it the whole way down without falling. She felt unusually lucky.

She turned to see the same person jogging towards the woods. She ran, full speed, towards them. She was full of hope; she knew it had to be Ikuto! Eventually she caught up, and grabbed their arm. Amu saw him whirl around, and her heart beat faster in her chest at the sight of him.

“Ikuto!” she smiled up at him. He looked slightly different than the last time she saw him, she could swear his eyes look too dark, almost black. It must be the light. He also looked defensive, wild, and almost dangerous.

“Amu!” He jumped backwards, and Amu’s hand lost its hold on his arm. “Amu, go home.” He sounded so serious, it wasn’t like him.

“Why? I want to talk to you!” She took a step forwards, but he just took another backwards.

“Not now, go home.” Ikuto turned away and started walking away.

“Ikuto!” She protested. She reached out again, and grabbed his arm.

“Amu!” He whirled around, ripping his arm away from her, sending her arm flying backwards. He looked at her like he wanted to tear her apart. “Get away!”

She couldn’t understand why he was being so mean! Normally he would’ve taken advantage of a situation like this and teased her until she blushed. “Then tell me you don’t want me here,” she challenged him.

“I don’t want you here! Go home Amu!” She felt like he’d torn out her heart, she felt weak, and sad. But, she didn’t want him, or anyone to see that, so she responded angrily, like he was doing to her.

“Fine! You’re such a jerk; I hope I never see you again!” Ikuto didn’t respond to her, he just walked away. She was so tempted to go home and weep into her pillow. But first, she needed to find out what Ikuto was about to do. It must be something... she searched for the right word, but couldn’t find it. She settled for ‘important’. It must be something important if he’s acting like this. She walked after him, treading lightly on the floor, staying as far away as she could while still keeping him in her sight.

She ducked behind a bush as he turned around, almost spotting her. She sat there, counting out a minute, before she stood up again. She peeked out, saw nothing, and emerged from her hiding spot. She looked around wildly, not able to see Ikuto anymore. She wandered around blindly, looking for him.

The cold wind was stinging her arms and face. She ignored it, and kept pushing through the trees. She saw him, crouched on the floor, in a predator-like stance. He was kneeling over something. It looked unusual, strange; almost inhuman. Amu started to walk closer, when she heard a loud cracking noise come from under her foot. She’d stepped on a twig, snapping it in half. She froze in her spot. It suddenly felt wrong for her to be here, like she’d stumbled upon something she shouldn’t see. She really didn’t want to be here anymore, she shouldn’t have followed him.

Ikuto’s head whipped around to look at her. His eyes, now ice blue again, widened as he took in her face. He looked so surprised to see her, so scared. Amu looked behind him, now that she was here; she needed to see the rest. It was a deer, dead and bleeding on the floor, its neck torn open. She moved her gaze to his face. His face was covered in still-wet blood, which he licked off his lips, then wiped the rest off with the back of his hand.

“Did you just... kill that deer?” She willed the other words she wanted to say out of out mouth, but they wouldn’t come. Did you drink its blood? It’s all over you... He looked like he knew what she wanted to say anyways.

“Amu, I-” He took a step closer to her, and she flinched back. He stood slowly; she guessed trying not to scare her. She bolted back the way she’d came as soon as he’d started to stand. She wasn’t really scared, a little sick maybe. The main reason she left was that she felt like she’d ran into some secret, burst the bubble of some furtive little society. It was something she shouldn’t know. Amu felt like she’d ruined the thing between Ikuto and her. And it hurt.

He’d know as soon as he saw the look on her face that it was over. She looked more disgusted than scared, but still. He’d gotten so close, it was the closest thing he had to perfection. And now she was gone. He was all alone now, blocked off from everything.

But, he couldn’t let her leave just like that. He had to explain everything to her; he couldn’t let this secret get out. He knew it was important for the others as well, but he didn’t care much about them.

There were so many conflicting emotions in his head. He wanted to keep her out of his world, keep her safe. He wanted to tell her everything, and have her accept him. He wanted to keep her and love her, but he didn’t want to love her. He didn’t want to feel this way, he didn’t want to want her, but he did.

He ran after her, and caught up in two seconds flat. She was so little, so slow, so human. He’d run at her too fast though, and they both got knocked to the ground. Ikuto landed on top of Amu, holding himself an inch above her to avoid crushing her.

Ikuto looked down into her eyes, but she didn’t look scared, just curious. She was also blushing slightly. He took one hand off the ground, holding himself up with the other, and used it to brush the hair out of her face.

“How did you catch up to me so fast?” her voice shook a little as she asked.

“I’m not exactly normal.” He smiled darkly, before he jumped off her, and darted over to the nearby tree. It took him only a second to do it, if that. He was sure he looked more like a blur to her than anything else. “Before you leave, I need to tell you something. You can leave after.”

Amu got up off the floor, and brushed the dirt off of herself. She walked towards Ikuto and sat down in front of him. “Okay. I’m listening.” She looked up at him with those big golden eyes.

He wanted to just grab her and hold her so badly, but he was afraid he would scare her. He couldn’t take the risk that she’d run away. He took a deep breath, even though it wasn’t needed. “I’m a vampire.”

“Amu!” Amu turned around to see Tadase walking towards her, waving.

“Amu, do you want to walk to the park with me today?” Her heart sped up as he smiled at her.

“Of course!” I don’t think I could ever say no to him. We started walking, and he took my hand is his. I blushed, they were so nice and warm on my cold hands.

We talked about school mostly during the walk. It was nice, even though it was about school. “I don’t get to see you as much anymore because you’re not in my class!”

He sighed, “I know! I wish we could pick our classes. Ah! Do you want some ice cream?” Amu looked over to see an ice cream stand.

She nodded eagerly, wanting a sweet treat. “Yes, please!” Tadase ran over to the stand, and took his place at the back of the line. She sat down on a bench, and stared after him. He looks so cute today.

“Ah!” She felt someone blow in her ear and whirled around in surprise. She looked into those familiar icy blue eyes. “Ikuto, you scared me!”

“What are you doing here?” He asked, leaning forward on the back of the bench.

“I’m... um...” For some reason, she didn’t want to tell him she was with Tadase. She looked over at Tadase standing in line, debating whether or not to tell him the truth.

Ikuto’s gaze followed his, seeing what she saw. “Hot date? Trying to make me jealous?” He leaned in closer, and blew into her ear again.

“Hey!” she pushed his face away. “And no, why would I do that? And we’re just friends!”

“Really? I was kind of hoping you were.” He ruffled Amu’s hair with his hands. “But, if you’re not on a date, I can sit with you, right?”

He had her there. The only alternative to saying yes was to tell him she was on a date. Which was a lie, unfortunately, and she didn’t want him thinking that either. She had to give him the obvious answer. “Yes, you can sit down.” This is going to be so awkward.

Ikuto sat down, and slung his arm around her. She felt her face starting to turn pink. “Ikuto, we’re in public,” she mumbled.

“So?” his face was so close to hers she could feel his breath.

“People are staring,” She could see people around them looking as they walked by. Some younger girls pointed with their friends, squealing in delight at the cute boy.

Amu looked up at Ikuto as he was about to say something, when she heard a well-known voice. “Amu, who’s that?”

She turned slowly, not looking forward to this conversation. “Um...”

Luckily, Ikuto stepped in for her. “Tsukiyomi Ikuto,” he stuck out his hand to shake Tadase’s. Tadase was holding an ice cream cone in each hand, so he was unable to. Although, it’s doubtful he would have if his hand were free anyways.

“Hotori Tadase,” He turned back to Amu. “Here, Amu.” She grabbed a chocolate ice cream from his hands.

“Thank you Tadase!” She smiled happily as she ate her ice cream, but she was a bundle of nerves inside. Sparks seemed to be flying between Ikuto and Tadase.

“If you’ll excuse us, Amy and I are on a date,” Tadase grabbed her hand, pulling her off the bench.

Amu choked on her ice cream, “We are?” She felt butterflies in her stomach.

“Aren’t we?”

“Are we?”

“Well, it’s not a date if he’s here,” Tadase looked over at Ikuto and glared at him.

Ikuto got up and walked over to him, he was a lot taller than Tadase. “Maybe someone wants me here?” He looked over at Amu.

“I, uh, um-” she didn’t know what to say. She just stuttered, and looked back and forth between the two of them.

“She’s with me right now, you can see her later,” Tadase pulled her closer to him.

“Are you saying you want to share her or something?” Ikuto asked, amused.

“Ah! That’s not what I meant!” Tadase looked at Amu, begging her with his eyes to believe him. She gave him a small smile. “Can you leave us alone for a little bit?”

Ikuto looked like he wanted to rip Tadase’s throat out, but all he said was, “Fine. Goodbye Amu.” He never took his eyes off Tadase’s until he turned around, and stalked off.

He looks upset, thought Amu, maybe I should go after him? Her thoughts quickly vanished when Tadase smiled at her.

“Come on! Let’s go!” He grabbed her hand, and she ran after him.

How dare that kid think he can just go out on dates with my Amu!? He can’t have her! She’s mine! Ikuto shot his fist out, hitting a tree so hard about 6 branches fell down to the ground around him. He knew he shouldn’t feel like this; that these thoughts were really wrong, but as much as he told this to himself he couldn’t keeps thoughts like these from flowing into his mind.

He grabbed a low hanging branch of a tree, and snapped it off in one fluid motion. “Damn it...” he knew she wasn’t really his, he couldn’t keep her. He couldn’t tell her the truth; it wasn’t her world, it was his. She deserved a long normal life, one without him. He’d have to leave before she went into gr.9 anyways. Less than a year...

He walked along, wrecking anything he could as he went. Tearing branches off trees, smashing benches, ripping bushes out of the ground. It didn’t make him feel better, just gave him something to do. He stopped after a while, a little of his anger gone, and looked back at the path of destruction he’d caused. It looked like a small hurricane had gone through.

He leaned back against one of the very few trees that weren’t ruined. He slid down the tree, and sat down on the floor, and hung his head. None of this is fair.