- First Release! Oh my god, I'm so nervous. Dx I'm a die-hard fan of Amuto, so I just HAD to make my first release about them =w= Please review, and give me sound advice on what I can improve on. I'd appreciate any help, as I'm trying my best to figure this place out :3 I'd also like a heads-up in case I made any grammatical mistakes, which I'm most definitely sure I did. And, as a future warning and sidenote, I tend to abuse emoticons when I'm writing. (not in the actual story though.) :DDD 3

I'm sorry if the story feels a bit rushed here and there. While writing this, I discovered just how hard it is to change a lovey-dovey image in your fangirl-ish mind into a legit piece of appealing writing. My admiration for all the fanfiction writers out there has just leveled-up immensely ;-;

Anywho, please enjoy~~ :]

*edit: fixed some mistakes here and there~

"Negative Heart: Lock On! Open Heart!"

The dark aura of the swarm of X-eggs was immediately enveloped in bright, heart-warming light, and each egg returned to its previous shade of a heavenly white before flying off to their respective owners.

"That's the fourth batch today," Amu groaned, canceling her character transformation with Ran while trying to catch her breath. Just how many X-eggs are there?

"The number of daily X-egg sightings have increased by 67% in the past two weeks," Kairi replied, pushing his glasses up. "You must be tired, Joker."

"Yaya's had enough! No moreeeeeeeeeee!" Yaya whined—typical.

"Stop whining," Rima said, a glare on her face, "Amu's more tired than any of us—after all, she's the one doing the purifying," the dainty girl's eyes softened as she turned to look at her beloved friend who was currently panting.

Amu laughed, still winded, "I'm fine," she smiled. Though, she had to admit she was feeling rather worn out from all the X-egg action. I just wanna go home and sleep…

"Let's all head back home for today, " Tadase said," We all deserve some rest."

Thank God.

-At Amu's House-

Amu flopped down onto her bed in her pajamas, her face looking a tad bit wan. She was so incredibly tired. These few days had really taken a toll on her—doing so many chara naris and purifying so many X-eggs drained tons of energy—she felt limp and lifeless.

Mmmphh. She grunted, her face buried into her pillow. Her head ached—scratch that, her entire body ached in throbbing pain. But somehow, she felt used to it. Nowadays, she also felt this way after fighting swarms of X-eggs. The pinkette had learned to bare with it, but it didn't mean she liked it.

Amu turned and flipped onto her back. Staring at the ceiling, she noticed how quiet the house was. That's right. Papa was on a business trip and Mama and Ami had gone to Grandma's house to sleep over. What about her Shugo Chara? She closed her eyes, thinking hard, and recalled them muttering something about "Kiseki…world domination…annoying…be back late…."

Guess that meant she was all alone. With her headache of course, which hardly counted as company. Suddenly, she felt her bed moving underneath her.

"Heavy…" a lazy voice whined.

Amu shot up, turned her body around on her bed, lifted up her covers, and saw two half-opened deep blue orbs staring at her.

"I-I-I-IKUTO! W-whaaaaaat?"the pinkette yelled, eyes wide, face flushed, fingers pointing.

"Ah, you're back, " replied a groggy voice," I missed you, Amu-koi," he said with a smirk as he slowly inched closer to a pair of honey eyes.

"K-k-koi?" Amu stuttered blushing madly, "H-H-HENTAI NEKO!" she futilely tried to hide her blushes beneath a stubborn face.

Fuming and incredibly embarrassed, Amu jerked up, dashed over to shut the lights, tossed Ikuto out of her bed, hopped in, and buried herself under her fluffy blanket—facing away from Ikuto. As she slowly calmed down, she realized that her headache was still going strong—in fact, thanks to that quarrel with Ikuto—it was worse. Ugh. Amu squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her temples. Nothing good ever comes from Ikuto's annoying tactics. Why do I bother dealing with him? Amu rolled over in her bed and sighed heavily, her head violently throbbing.

"Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep…" she chanted to herself. The poor pink-haired girl simply couldn't fall asleep. She was so tired from purifying X-eggs, but so restless at the same time. So frustrating.

Ikuto, still hurting from being thrown onto the floor, heard his favorite pinkette sigh in annoying pain. He heard her quietly telling herself to sleep, then groaning when she found herself unable to. Poor Amu. He thought. Slowly, Ikuto brought his hands up to Amu's head and gently petted her hair. Amu breathed sharply at the contact, but immediately calmed down as his gentle touch lulled her to sleep. She was so worn out and sleepy that she didn't even bother mentioning Ikuto's perverted action—in fact, she wasn't even conscious enough to realize that Ikuto was petting her—all she knew was that she felt comfortable and at peace, and that that was all that mattered.

Seeing that his beloved had fallen asleep, Ikuto smirked as he saw her innocent, defenseless face.

"You don't know how much you mean to me…" Ikuto whispered into her ear before crawling under the sheets next to her. Children really are like heating packs…so warm.

Ughhhh. Amu groaned in her sleep. She curled up into a small ball, arms tightly wrapped around her sore body. Even though she had managed to fall asleep, the toll the X-eggs had taken on her had not diminished in the least. Aghhh. She sighed again, her eyelids clenching tight.

Ikuto awoke the moment he heard her groans. He saw the pitiful sight of her curled up, shivering and tense.

"Amu…" he whispered under his breath. He hated watching her suffer, she was too important; she shouldn't be allowed to be in pain.

Amu tossed and turned on her bed, grunting in aching pain. Her head turned from side to side as she unconsciously tried to dispel her nightmares. Blue eyes were filled with worry. Instinctively, Ikuto held the pinkette's light, delicate body in his strong arms, cradling her like the precious treasure she was.

"It's okay Amu…I'm here." He spoke in such a gentle voice—its tenderness shocked even him. How was it that this small body was able to spur such huge changes in him?

As she began to stir, Amu felt comforting warmth enveloping her, all her soreness seemed to be washing away. She sleepily opened one eye and met Ikuto's gentle gaze.

"Iku-"

"Sh. Go back to sleep," Ikuto cut in before the honey-orbed girl could finish speaking.

Amu looked at Ikuto for a second, weakly smiled, and happily succumbed to sleep's call. As she snuggled into Ikuto's arms, she whispered, half asleep, three wonderful words ever so quietly.

"I love you."

Ikuto stared at Amu's face as it was bathed in moonlight, quite shocked from what this girl had just said. He breathed in. He breathed out. He smiled, bent down, and kissed his love on the forehead.

Maybe there was someone who believed the boy who cried wolf after all.