AN: So I did get something up before I left. Yay! I still have a couple days left though. Please take a look at the AN in bold on my userpage though. I'll see you all sometime!

Like Brushing Teeth

Amu's POV:

I woke up to Ran's cheering and the light filtering through the shades in my room. Typical. So typical that I wasn't expecting it when instead of stepping on a soft rug and dragging myself to the closet to get dressed, I tripped over a brown still-sealed box. I was mostly unpacked by now, but some stuff was still laying around in boxes. A lot of empty brown boxes sat in messy piles of stuff around my room.

I checked my phone to see if Rima or anyone had texted me. There was one from Rima, basically saying good night. There was also one from Shuu, asking me if I could swing by to talk to him after school. I replied to Rima with a quick 'good morning' and Shuu with an even quicker 'okay' before getting up and dressed in the new uniform with the colorful plaid skirt.

My homework was done, the girls were in their eggs in my bag, and I had a piece of toast in a half-bite to hold it into my mouth until I got out of the door, my mom yelling after me to have a good day. At least some things don't change. For a moment I almost felt like I was at home, going out to meet Tadase and Rima and Yaya and Nagi at elementary school. Until my skirt caught on a bush and I remembered how it tended to catch on this particular bush because of its longer length. It went almost up to my knees and was annoying as anything.

Really, I rather liked the too-short red plaid skirt we had at Seiyo. This was not a welcome change, but still an inevitable one.

The school morning went by without a hitch. I found out that Hanako was in 1-C, and that the boy student council member in 1-B was named Ichiro. Fujimoto Ichiro. He gave me a badge that looked like theirs. When I asked, he explained that I needed that to gain entrance to the Student Council meetings. It was a sort of symbol, like the Guardian's royal capes. I found myself adding it to my shirt in spite of myself.

I met up with Hanako and a few of her friends for lunch at one of the faux-wooden picnic tables. I didn't really pay attention to their conversation, but they seemed quite the chatterboxes and nattered to themselves for the rest of the period and I went largely ignored as I wallowed waist-deep in muddy thoughts.

Thoughts of Hanako were not so forefront as thoughts of the Student Council as a whole, and their singling me out. The fact that this town seemed to have a high population of x-eggs. What was causing that anyway? That nagged at me, but I pushed it away too. How was Shuu really taking this? How was he going to react? What would he have to say to me? Then there were the thoughts of my friends. My real friends, back in Seiyo or wherever they are by now. Was Easter causing any more trouble? How was Utau faring?

How would the rest of my family react if they learned that Ami's 'Super Characters' were not only real, but that their other daughter went into battle with them?

That was the real pit of my worry. Shuu had already found out. What would happen if he spilled anything to them? What if they believed him? What would my family think if they knew what the Guardians had always struggled so hard to hide? What if Mama found out the real reason I was out late so often with the Guardians and my 'teacher'? What if she found out the real reason I had hidden Ikuto in my room for so long?

What if they disapproved?

I could see my mother's disappointed frown. My sister's tears. My dad, bawling and running for the bathroom as he 'ran away' again.

I could see the distrust in their eyes. Them never believing me or believing in me anymore. Mama always believed in me. I felt cold as I realized just how much that meant to me. Just how much my mom meant to me, and her support and approval even though she really didn't know what it was that she was approving of. I saw how unbalanced and useless I would be if she turned her back on me. Like a stool trying to stand on one leg that was on one side of it and failing.

When it came to people's heart's eggs, there would be no mistakes. There would be no failures. There couldn't be.

The bell rang loudly in my ear, heavyness settling around me like death's shroud and ringing in time with the bell. Everyone walked or skipped back, talking and laughing, with a smile on their face. I pasted one on mine that I hoped didn't look too fake and headed inside. And then it happened.

It wasn't the bell that rang, but a sort of hypnotizing gong. A low, haunting tune flooded my ears from the loudspeakers. Quickly, as quickly as I've ever seen, students fell. Their eyes turned to the otherworldly dullness that denoted x-eggs. Surely, people's chests started to bubble and ripple and in the space of a few seconds the heart's eggs of the entire student body was turned from the healthy, wonderful white with golden angel wings and halo to the dark black that starkly contrasted with a bright white X.

The x-eggs glistened in the sun and I stared for a moment, stupefied. What the hell?The girls peeked out of my bookbag as the first one started to crack, revealing the eyes of an x-character. That was bad, if they were becoming x-characters already. That and the fact that x-eggs were much easier to deal with in comparison to x-characters.

Miki pushed out of the bag with a worried look on her face. "Amu-chan!"

"Yeah." I replied to her unspoken question. Can I character transform with you to take care of these x-eggs? "My heart, unlock!" Bright lights dazzled me for a moment before they settled into the familiar pattern of sparkling, neon-ish purple and golden stars trailing gold-silver sparkles. Miki's egg re-entered my heart and I burst out of the familiar eye-killing light. "Character Transformation: Amulet Spade."

For a moment I wondered why I always felt the need to announce my character transformation, even if no one was there. Then I realized that everyone did it. Something else to look into later. For now, I had bigger fish to fry. Several other eggs started to crack. I located them and started to aim with my ridiculously large (but somehow not unwieldy) paintbrush in their direction. "Colorful Canvas!"

I took out swathes of cracking x-eggs at a time with Colorful Canvas. I got lucky that none of them fully cracked and that I had eventually taken all of them down. One burst of Open Heart later, the droves of eggs whitened out once more, and returned to their proper places. It was seriously like brushing so many teeth. Or bleaching them.

We separated from our transformation and I located Hanako and her two girlfriends. I watched as two hearts eggs went into the other girls' hearts, but none went into Hanako's. Ah well. I must have missed it, or her heart might just be really strong. Her eyes were shut, so I couldn't be sure about the dullness. I brought my hand close to her face, intending to check. Just as I was about to reach her eye, she snapped them open and blinked furiously. I blushed and used my closeness to poke her head instead. I needed a cover story, of course.

"What was that for, Hinamori-chan?" She jumped up, rubbing at the spot I had poked her at.

"Well, forgive me for wanting to make sure you were okay." I crossed my arms and angled away from her, looking at a clump of people starting to sit up. Strangely, no one seemed to notice anything was out of the ordinary and the rest of the school day passed by rather peacefully.

After school, I first met up with the Student Council. We met just where Hanako had told me to. I learned that aside from Hanako and Ichiro, the eighth grader I had met was named Omori Kinfusa. The other two were a pair of twins in the seventh grade. They were the Nakamura twins, both with tufty thick light-medium brown hair and wide honey-brown eyes. They were a girl named Junko and a boy named Benkei. Benkei apparently took pride in that he was three minutes older than Junko, and they both played around a lot.

I didn't know much of what to expect, but there was no tension in this group. They were efficient too: they did manage to sneak in a lot of work between laughing or glaring fits. At first I was a bit taken aback, but it was a comfortable atmosphere and I found myself relaxing and basking in it, giggling every once in a while at one of the twins' jokes. The only one who didn't laugh was Kinfusa, but I can't say I was surprised. Ichiro seemed to buzz with nervous energy at first, only showing shy smiles. But by the end he was laughing nearly as hard and as profusely as Hanako.

Hanako's hair was still frizzy and she still smiled more than she frowned and she seemed like someone I'd like to have as a friend. In that spirit, I let her walk me home, chatting idly with her as she pointed out various landmarks and big streets in the town. By the end of our walk, we were already starting to plan a shopping trip together. It turned out that she liked trying on new clothes nearly as much as I did and knew of some stores I might like.

Things were turning up for me and I waved goodbye reluctantly to the girl as I walked inside my house. My gloom-and-doom attitude settled again as I realized one more thing I had to face today: Shuu.

Groaning as I flopped down on the new, leathery couch after calling out my arrival to my mom, I pulled out my cell phone. There were no new texts from Shuu or Rima, but Tadase sent one. Evidently, he was leaving Seiyo today with Tsukasa. Tsukasa had retired over the summer.

It had been such an odd affair, really. None of us really thought of Tsukasa as being old at all. He was just Tsukasa: our creepy-ish, weird, quirky, semi-reliable, insightful rock of a school Chairman, Founding King of the Guardians, and Planetarium Caretaker. I know I have fond memories of the ivy-covered planetarium. And I know that I'm not the only Guardian to. Actually, I'm pretty sure that he still wears that hat. After all, who else would take on the planetarium but our star-crazed King?

But he was also Tadase's uncle, his mother's older brother. So he was, in fact, old. Old-ish. Gah, it hurts just to think of it.

I replied back to it with a good luck and a smile. Before I sent it, I stopped. Skipping a line, I wrote. Tadase-kun, can you ask Tsukasa-san about how many x-eggs are normal and how many make the number abnormally high? I checked it over and sent the message.

The next one was to Rima. Hey, can we talk? I mean, on the phone or something. Something odd happened here today, and I want a second opinion. I thought about the x-eggs at school. That was most definitely odd. I sent that to her and put it out of mind for a moment. I took a moment to ooze down into the couch before sitting straight again.

My final text was to Shuu. When is your break?

The reply was almost immediate. In fifteen. I'm just about done with a batch of dish washing.

I chewed my lip. Not a lot of time. In twenty, then, can you meet me by the tall tree in the middle of the park?

I knew he knew what we were going to be talking about, and I could practically taste my apprehension to talk to the Guardians after first learning about the charas. Soon enough I got his response. kk.

He arrived twenty two minutes later, usual grin looking a bit forced on his face. We made eye contact and it disappeared entirely. He held the book under his arm, and he handed it back to me. I patted the empty spot on the bench next to me and he sat. His body was rigidly tense. I waited for him to start the conversation, not remembering what they had said to me the first time.

"So-oooo, what did you think, Shuu-nii-chan ?" I put out. It was pathetic, really, but Shuu twitched.

"I think that this chara thing doesn't make any sense." He obviously didn't know what to think, and he fiddled with his fingers and the hem of his shirt nervously. "But the egg thingy fits with the story."

This wasn't working. He was too nervous, too apprehensive. The whole point of the charas was that you weren't so self conscious, but more relaxed. More yourself than you ever had been before. My phone beeped, loud in our silence, but I ignored it. Shuu checked his watch.

Suddenly, I got a lightbulb of an idea. "Hey, Shuu-nii-chan." His face snapped towards me.

"Yes?"

"Try baking some cookies, or a simple cake. Or that delicious little strawberry thing you used to make for me." I smiled at him. "Relax a little bit. It's okay if this doesn't make any sense to you yet. It'll come, if you let it. If you want, I won't try to push you anymore. It was just that this was pretty similar to how I got introduced, except that Ran and Miki were already hatched at the time, and Su came out soon after. I was nervous too, but it ended up okay."

He looked at me with a bit of wonder and I smiled at him, playfully nudging him up from the bench. "Go!"

He nodded, somewhat dazedly at me. I nodded encouragement at him again. He turned his back after a quick goodbye, presumably on his way to make some sweets. Like he always had loved doing.

Then I stiffened. There were more x-eggs. Shuu was taken care of. Rima or Tadase or whoever could wait. There was work to be done.