Disclaimer: I do not own Shugo Chara, or else this would be in the series, of course. :)

Full Summary: While in their bed with their daughter, Amu thinks back on her time with Ikuto, wondering how her need to have him around had actually come about. Future!fic

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Amu lay watching her husband sleep with their youngest daughter, who was softly munching on one of his fingers, wrapped in his arms. She smiled at the scene they made--an adoring albeit tired father holding his little girl--reaching out to gently wipe her daughter's dark purple hair out of her face. Ai was a beautiful baby.

Her eyes turned to Ikuto's face, who looked even more like a cat than ever before. But no longer a stray cat, she silently hoped. That worry that he would need to one day go back to his life as a free man ate at her heart from time to time, mostly at times like this when things in their life got ever more hectic. Ai needed attention, as did their other four children, and Ikuto was feeling the pressure even more than before.

At the thought of him leaving, her heart tore. How would she get through everything if he wasn't there to cement her in the present?

The thought made the modern woman in her scream in outrage. He wasn't neccessary to living! He was just something good thrown in there.

But if he wasn't around, I don't know what I'd do.

She couldn't help wondering when his presence had become so neccessary in her life. Had it just been a sudden need? She could barely remember a time when he hadn't been with her, anyways!

Could the first time have been when their first child was born?

Flashback

She lay half-asleep on her hospital bed. Ryuu had just been taken to be cleaned by the nurses, weighing a healthy ten pounds. The baby boy's indigo hair was already thick and curling slightly as it dried, getting "ooo"s and "ahhh"s from Amu's mother, who had been in the delivery room. Seeing their son, however, had been the breaking point for Amu, as it brought all her fatigue to the surface. She'd immediately begun drifting off, only to be woken up softly by Ikuto later.

"Amu?" he inquired quietly. "They're bringing Ryuu in to see us." His tone was a little awestruck.

When she opened her eyes, they were locked with his slightly-worried blue-violet gaze. She gave him a small, reassuring smile, lifting up her hand to stroke his cheek. "Don't be so scared, Ikuto. I'll be fine. I'm just tired." Her eyes started to drift closed once again.

A startled gasp made her eyes snap open almost immediately thereafter.

Ikuto, still kneeling next to her bed, held a small budle in his arms, looking so scared and fascinated that she had to smile once more. The baby in his arms didn't cry, just stared up at his father. The men's looks matched perfectly as they studied one another.

Ikuto looked up at her in awe and she could practically read the worries racing in his mind. He had been worried about his ability to be a father since the day she'd announced that she was pregnant. But now, seeing him holding their child, she knew his worry.

"Ikuto," she said with as much energy as she could muster, "you are going to be such a great father."

His smile dazzled her before he looked back at Ryuu. "Thank you."

End Flashback

Amu shook her head. No, that wasn't it. She had needed him to be with her for the year before she'd found out she was pregnant anyways. From their wedding plans to their actual wedding.

That's it!

Could it have been when he finally asked her to marry him?

Flashback

The pair sat glaring at each other on Amu's bed. She'd just turned nineteen and would be moving to live with her cousins while she sent in her resumes for colleges and waited for their aswers. Knowing he wouldn't take it well, Amu had waited until the night before she left to tell him. And, as she'd predicted, he'd been furious.

"You don't have a say in any of this, Ikuto! This is my life, my future we are talking about! You can't expect me to live here for the rest of my life! I have dreams and things that I want to do someday!" she whispered heatedly, stabbing her finger into his chest. At his suddenly blank look, her temper broke. "So why don't you get the hell out of my bedroom!"

His eyes narrowed on her, wrapping his long fingers around her wrist. "Amu, listen to me--"

Her gaze became icy, her expression dark. "Let me go and leave. That's what I'll be doing tomorrow." Yanking her hand away, she started stomping towards her door, furious that he would suggest that she just stay with him, even though he knew how much independence from her family meant to her.

Tears came to her eyes. She did love him. They'd never made themselves known as an official couple, mostly because they'd never really thought of themselves as boyfriend/girlfriend. But it'd just always been them together, whenever, wherever. But she couldn't be expected to drop everything in her life with nothing from him. He was a stray cat, afterall; if he decided to drop her, where would she be then? No job, no college education...there would be little for her to do.

He caught her arm, spinning her to face him. Fury rose in his eyes. "If you would just listen instead of jumping the gun, you'd get to hear my plan."

"No, Ikuto! This is it; this is the last night I'll be living here." She tried to jerk free of his hold once more, failing.

"You won't even listen to what I have to say--"

"No!"

"Marry me, goddamnit, and this won't be a problem!"

Amu froze in disbelief, eyes widening as he just glared into them. Was he serious? Did he really mean it? "Wh-what?"

Softening at her shy tone, he smiled brightly, suddenly very confident. "Just marry me and you won't have to worry about a thing. I promise that we won't have a worry in the world if you just marry me."

Those tears from before mingled with new, happier ones and she flew into him, wrapping her arms around him. There was no suspicion in her mind about whether he meant it or not. "I...I will!" Moving away from him so that she had just enough room to grab his face in her hands, she kissed him soundly, feeling his arms wrap around her securely. Suddenly, everything was right in the world.

When they pulled away, Amu smirked smugly. "Guess I'll have to tell Mama and Papa about you spending the night again tonight, huh?"

End Flashback

Again, that one didn't seem right. Something had seemed too natural in that one, as well. Their arguments had always easily been swept into teasing which turned into perfect moments that would forever be treasured in her mind.

Was it their arguments that had brought them closer together? It was something that always got them physically, at least.

Flashbacks
(markings = different flashback)

Strolling down the street, Amu tried to hold back her anger as Ikuto's hand somehow kept finding itself drifting from her hip and onto her ass. He had been doing it since they had left her home, going to a movie that her mother had innocently pointed out as a thriller that would have them on the edge of their seats. Or, better yet for her, Amu clinging to Ikuto. Grabbing his hand and finally dropping it away from her, she growled, "Keep your hands to yourself, pervert!"

He laughed, dropping his arm back into place. "Ah, but, Amu, you like it so much when I don't." His hand, much quicker than before, moved to her butt and she let out an annoyed screech. Feeling herself Chara-change, she used Ran's speed to try to trip him, but his reflexes made her short adventure end with her somehow tossed over his shoulder as he laughed and walked calmly towards her home, his hand landing solidly and comfortably on her ass once more.

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Lying in bed, Amu tried to ignore how close Ikuto had somehow gotten to her without her noticing that night. His arms had moved around her while she'd been asleep, tightening unbelievably around her.

After five years--she was now seventeen--of him doing the same thing every time he'd needed her room for whatever reason he came up with, she seemed to be too used to it for her own comfort.

When her door was flung open and her father caught sight of them on the bed, she knew that her father must have thought so, too.

A few minutes later, after a hysterical Papa finally calms down enough, curtesy of Mama, to leave his daughter alone....

"Ikuto, you idiot!" she screamed, pacing her room furiously, stopping only to glare at him off and on. "Now they're going to try to give me the sex talk! Knowing Papa, he's going to act like he found us doing something really hardcore and he's going to be cryin! So, thanks a lot! Why do you always have to come here when you get bored?! Go somewhere else for once!" she shouted.

Moving up behind her, Ikuto pulled her into his chest, resting his face on her shoulder so his face was next to hers. Their position stopped her pacing easily. "Well, you should tell them not to bother. Wasn't it only last week when you asked me to--"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

He turned her in his arms, putting on a thinking expression that made her want to punch him. "Hmm.... That might have been part of it, considering you asked me to put my mouth--"

"Stop talking!"

"That was part of your suggestion, as well," he snickered, kissing her when she almost bite off his head.

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"Do you ever think that maybe it's because I don't particularily like you?" Amu asked, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not everyone wants to go on a date with you, you know," she added matter-of-factly.

Holding his hands up in a defensive pose, he said innocently, "I didn't say anything about a date, little strawberry. I just asked if you wanted to get some dinner. That doesn't have to have anything to do with a date." He smirked mockingly at her, holding his chin between two fingers. "You're the one who jumped at the hope that it was actually me asking you on a date."

Furious, she roared, "Because usually when two people are seeing each other on a regular basis and they don't work together, asking them to dinner implies that they would be going on a date, you egotistical jerk! I was just thinking in terms of--what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

He'd scooped her up bridal-style, right there in the middle of the street in front of all the interested bypassers. Ignoring them, he strolled nonchalantly towards the restaurant where she would learn later that he'd already made reservations for. "Well, you know it gets me all hot and bothered when you're all technical with me...."

End Flashbacks

As her husband slowly blinked his expressive blue eyes open, she smiled, fully reassured, realizing as he gently cradled their child in his arms even as he slept that needing him hadn't happened suddenly. It had been a subtle thing that had quickly taken hold and changed her life. As he'd slowly let her see the better side of him, she'd started relying on him for things she'd never relied on anyone else for.

It was just like how she had fallen in love with him all those years before. Everything had been slowly shifting off her then-axis and moved onto the new one that would prove to be the most important thing in her life.

"What're you staring at me like that for?" Ikuto asked in a teasingly suspicious way. His eyes twinkled with mischeif as he tried to keep the frown on his face. Unfortunately, it was hard for him to do that when he'd just barely woken up.

She smirked. "Well, perv, I was actually praying that Ai's diaper would leak all over you so that I would have a reason to kick you out of my bed."

He raised one eyebrow at that. Slowly rising so as not to wake the baby, Ikuto replied smugly, "Too bad for you, then, huh? Her diaper is fully intact. Got any other reasons for kicking me out?"

Staring after him as he left the room for a few moments, she didn't really think about it. In fact, she as already falling back asleep. She had a full day the next day; five very active children demanding every minute of her attention and another giant mess to clean up, no doubt.

She sighed as Ikuto returned and her smile grew. "I don't have any reason to ever kick you out," she admitted, snuggling into him as he wrapped himself around her. "You've given me everything I could ever want."

A shrill cry from the baby's room broke into their moment, reminding her why Ai had even been in the bed with them in the first place.

Teething. How perfect.

Smirking, Ikuto flipped over, giving her his back. "Good thing, babe. 'Cause now it's your turn."

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This whole idea came from the baby I'm babysitting and one of the pictures on the wall. Lol. Oh, and of course reading Shugo Chara! manga online.
Read and review, pleasee!
Niixx