Me: So this fanfic is a Rimahiko! I just love Rimahiko and Kutau! Have I ever mentioned the time I ate more sugar than normal, and I went into a sugar rush Rimahiko style?

My Sister: Yeah, it was crazy. She doesn't normally eat more than one piece of candy a day, so it was unusual.

Me: Disclaimer, please!

Tadase: MagicWriterK does not own Shugo Chara!

Me: Where did you come from? You're not even in the story!

Rima waved farewell until the train her parents had recently boarded began to fade into the distance. She was happy that they had decided to go to a seminar for married couples in order to bond, for her sake. She didn't really mind being alone for the next three days and two nights. It touched Rima's heart that Yaya and Amu had voluntarily come with her to bid Mr. And Mrs. Mashiro good-bye after she had taken then aside and told them what her parents had decided to do. Of course, both of them offered to have her sleep over their home, but she insisted she was fine in her own abode. Rima coughed.

"Bye-bye, Rima-tan!" Yaya called as she stood some feet away with Amu, waving.

Rima looked up. She has been so busy reminiscing she had not realized they had reached their departures point.

"Bye, Rima! Make sure to call us if you need anything!" Amu added.

Rima nodded, and coughed again. She would need some water when she got home.

Rima walked lost in thought on her way home. She was so out-of-it, she failed to notice the metal pail falling out of the window of a nearby dark, tall, cold building and falling straight at her tiny figure! At the last second, she looked up, and the liquid in the bucket dumped all over her fair golden hair, and her shoulders. Still in a daze, she looked at the building, then at the dented pail laying next to her on the ground. She absent-mindedly fingered a lock of her hair and held it up to eye level.

'I'll just wash it when I get home,' her hazy mind decided, and she continued to amble down, the street, and around the corner. She never heard the frantic shout from one of the building's highest floors.

"We lost the chemical tonic!"

Rima stumbled through her front door (she almost forgot to lock it, but she dropped her key, which made her remember), staggered up the stairs, into her bedroom, and flopped on to the toilet seat in her bathroom. She slowly grabbed a towel and turned on the faucet in the bath tub. Bit by bit, she rinsed her hair of the remains if the substance, and dried off her hair. She even used the blow drier, which she rarely ever did, unless she needed to dry off her hair quickly. Then she tottered to her bedroom, then flopped on her bed, her sluggish body giving in to the pulling grasp of sleep.

The first thing Rima noticed when she awoke was the bright sunlight streaming through her window.

'That's odd. I'm normally such a morning person,' Rima thought.

She pulled her body into a sitting position, then immediately fell back to the bed. The room spun, her head pounded, and all her joints and muscles ached.

'What...? What's going on?' Rima wondered.

She realized she was still in her clothes from yesterday, and climbed off her bed on to the floor, and across the room to her closet. Each move was agony, and she winced often. Finally, after what seemed to be hours, Rima reached her closet. She opened the bottom drawer from her position on the floor. She pulled out an old, tight purple t-shirt, and yellow sweat pants. Her black headband with its little black bow had fallen off her vanity, so she put that on too, to keep her golden bangs out of her eyes. She promptly proceeded to scoot on her stomach across the room (AGAIN) to her bed. But her limbs were starting to burn with just the mere effort of crawling to her closet and getting changed.

'I need help," Rima finally admitted to herself.

She normally detested asking for help, especially in a condition like this. But if it was Amu or Yaya, she wouldn't mind quite as much. She pulled her orange flip-phone out of the pocket of the clothes she had recently shed, which lay in a heap on the carpet. Rima was surprised to see she had two texts from Amu.

Message 1:Hey, Rima, I'd you're feeling up to it, want to go to the movies with us? Yaya and I wanted to see that new movie.

Message 2:I guess you can't make it, or your phone is dead, or you're still sleeping...well, we'll be in the movies for a while.

Rima couldn't believe her bad luck. Her two BFFs were busy, and she really needed some help. She scrolled her contacts list, searching for a light in the dark. She had the phone numbers of lots of 'servants'...but she wasn't so sure she wanted one of her crazy fanboys IN her HOUSE, let alone her room! There was a couple of girls from school...but they were more like acquaintances. Tadase was on the list, of course, but she wouldn't really feel RIGHT, having HIM come to her house to take care of her. And besides, that would be like betraying Amu, which she couldn't do, no matter what! And then...Nagihiko. Rima had mixed feelings about the guy (or was it gal..?). She didn't really DISLIKE him, but she wasn't too crazy about him either.

'Be honest with yourself!' a little voice in her mind chided.

'You need some help, and he's the best option!'

She sighed.

'Oh, alright. But just this once!' Rima said to herself, sighing inwardly.

She clicked the contact and hit [CALL].

Rrrrrrrppppp

Rrrrrrrpppp

Rrrrrpppp

The phone repeated, as Rima waited for Nagihiko to pick up.

'I guess he's not available,' she thought, inadvertently feeling disappointed.

She tossed her melancholy feelings away, and was about to end the futile call, when a voice called out from the phone.

"Rima-chan?"

Rima was so startled, she almost dropped her phone. Not that it would have had far to fall.

"Hello?" Rima croaked into the receiver.

'I sound terrible!' she thought.

"Rima-chan?! Are you okay?" Naghiko's alarmed voice inquired.

"Just fine. *cough* I haven't spoken or drunken anything since yesterday afternoon, is all," she assured him.

"That's not good. Rima-chan, are you sure you feel alright? You sound tired and weak," Nagi pressed.

"Yes, yes. I just wanted to ask y-" Rima began, but she broke down in a fit of coughing.

"Rima!" he shouted, not caring about being polite. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Rima simply stated, once the spasm had ended.

"It's not nothing! But what did you want to ask me?" Nagihiko declared firmly.

"Can you, um, uh, well, are you free today?" Rima stuttered.

Rima could almost hear the purple-haired boy smiling on the other end. As for why, well, she refused to entertain the notion.

"Of course. And what did you have in mind?" he replied, voice oozing with fake sweetness and expectancy.

"Shu-" Rima started to grumble, but she cut herself off with a sneeze.

"Do you need me to come over there?" Nagi asked, genuine concern in his silky voice.

"Mmm," Rima replied. "I-AAAAAAAAAAHHYAAAAAAAAA!" Rima shrieked.

"Rima?! RIMA-CHAN!" Nagihiko hollered, as the line went dead.

He stared in disbelief and horror at his cellphone, wondering what could have possibly happened. It briefly crossed his mind that Rima had called HIM and not Amu-chan or Yaya-chan, but he dismissed the thought, refusing to entertain the notion {sorry, I just love at phrase right now} while a fellow guardian was in need of help.

"Mother, I'm going to visit a friend!" Nagihiko cried, slipping on his tan leather jacket and his sneakers.

"Who?" inquired, but her son was already speeding out the front gate.

"...It must be a girl," she mused.

Rima stared breathlessly at the cause of her sudden scream.

Her hair.

Her hair had grown INSANELY long over night! It trailed behind her all the way back to her bed, and on to her pillow. On the other hand, her golden locks were even softer and glossier than before. But still: hair did not grow over three fold in just one night! It was crazy! Impossible! Absurd!

'I must be even sicker than I thought,' Rima moaned to herself. 'Hallucinating! I'm hallucinating!'

Rima craned her neck to get a better view of her wild hair from the floor. Frustrated, she used the closet as a support, and brought herself to standing position, with much difficulty.

'I'm..starting to feel a little...faint...' Rima realized.

She faintly heard a loud BANG from downstairs, and frantic thumps that rose in crescendo, coming closer by the second.

"RIMA-CHAN!" Nagihiko cried, throwing open her bedroom door.

"I..I wasn't sure you'd come..." Rima panted.

"Nagi..." she whispered, as dark spots clouded her vision, as if she were wearing glasses, and someone had thrown ink or thick black clouds on to them.

It was becoming harder to breath, and even harder to see. She felt herself slipping away, both literally and mentally. The last thing she saw was Nagihiko racing to catch her.

Then all was black.