Title: Shugo Chara Pirates (Yes… what a boring name… I know…)

Summary: Amu moves to a town protected by the pirate hunting guardians as a normal girl, until she is swept into the confliction with the Guardians and Easter. Easter, a group of evil pirates, attacks the town in search of the Embryo. Several battles erupt between the Guardians and Easter over the collection heart's eggs. Amu joins the guardians but soon finds herself falling for a certain pirate in Easter's crew.

Note: This my first Shugo Chara story… yeah! Yep, it's a pirate one, I hope everyone enjoys it.

Just so everyone knows, I'm starting the story kinda at the total beginning, where Amu really has no clue about the guardians or the charas or the lock and key, so I hope no one gets too confused.

Also it should be noted that they are in a totally different world (AU I guess) where some things are old style but not everything… example: no electricity, older time clothing, but boys and girls both go to school. You'll see what i mean...

I don't know what my updating schedule for this story will be with school, but it won't be unreasonable… With that said, onto the story!

Chapter 1:

Amu looked out her balcony at the sunset over the sea. She had never seen the ocean before her parents had decided to move to this town on the water. She was mad at them for it.

She hated everything about this place. She hated her new house, she hated this new town, she knew she'd hate her new school, but she could not hate the ocean. So she hated almost everything. A knock at her door made her turn to face her mother.

"Here's your uniform for tomorrow Amu," she smiled. Amu grabbed it and sighed. Her first day at her new school was tomorrow. Her mother closed the door as Amu looked at the long dress. She already missed her old school where she had worn a cute light-blue skirt and a matching button-down shirt with everyone else as her daily outfit. She wondered to herself what other differences there would be living in a large city as opposed to her old town in the country.

Flopping down under the covers of her bed, Amu blew out the candle sitting on her bedside table and closed her eyes. She hoped the sun decided to sleep in the next day.

---o---

"Amu! Amu!" yelled a far-too-energetic voice in her ear.

"Time to get up sleepy-head!" added a second voice. Amu scowled; her pleas to the sun had gone unanswered. She opened her eyes to her three charas, floating above her head. Ran, Miki, and Suu had all appeared as eggs two days ago when she woke up, along with a yellow, fourth egg who had yet to hatch.

"You're still here?" Amu questioned with a yawn as she sat up in bed.

"Of course!" Ran exclaimed. The pink chara put her little hands on her hips.

"We're Amu's guardian characters," Suu explained, "we're always here."

"Unless you don't believe in us," the last floating girl mumbled somewhat sadly. Amu looked at each one of them for a long moment before jumping out of bed and grabbing up her uniform. She slipped on the solid ivory dress and looked at herself in the mirror, not liking the plainness of the outfit at all. The high collar and the lacy pieces at her sleeves and ankles were not to her liking either. After a few alterations, Amu strode from the room satisfied, her charas flying behind her.

The school was only a short walk from her house; Amu had visited it with her parents when they had first moved to the town a little more than a week ago. On her way out the door, her mother wished her good luck and her father called after her saying 'watch out for pirates'. Amu closed the door confused. She hurried to school, noticing her charas following her. Amu panicked.

"Wait! You guys can't come! No one should see you!" Amu stuttered, grabbing them from the air and holding them gently to her chest.

"No one can see-" Miki began to say, but Amu didn't hear her as she shoved the three of them into her school bag and ran towards the school.

---o---

Amu sat alone outside in the grass with the lunch that her mother had packed for her. When the teacher had introduced her to the class, her actions had somehow convinced her classmates that she was cool.

Already she had heard the rumors they all believed about her. Not that Amu cared if they thought her parents were rich or that she was super cool for coming to school with the changes she had made to her uniform, but neither of those things seemed to help her make friends. So she sat alone and ate her lunch.

Her school bag unbuckled and the three charas tumbled out. They floated up to Amu and looked around. Amu took another bite of her food before she noticed them.

"What are you guys doing!" Amu whispered so no one would notice as she snatched Miki out of the air. Ran floated down to her clenched hands.

"Amu, only you can see us," the girl stated. As if to state her point, Ran flew over in front of a boy's face that was reading a book and waved at him several times trying to get his attention. Amu froze as she watched, but soon realized that the boy could not see the little chara. That or he was very good at hiding the fact that he had not noticed a small pink girl standing on his book.

Amu let go of Miki. The blue chara floated up to hover with Suu. Ran joined them after a moment and they landed on Amu's head. Amu felt her nervousness ebb away while she listened to her charas laugh together as she finished her lunch.

After school had ended, Amu gathered up her stuff and walked towards the front entrance. Her charas had tucked themselves away inside her schoolbag so they wouldn't get separated in the crowd. Amu walked outside and noticed that the students had all paused and cleared the walkway to the school.

Five students, or who Amu thought were students, walked together towards the school. They wore something similar to the school uniform, except the dresses were shorter, coming just short of the two girls' knees instead of their ankles like Amu's did. She also noticed that they wore pants under them. Amu wondered why. She stepped with the crowd to the side as she watched them pass.

"Who are they?" Amu asked the nearest student. The boy looked to her with awe in his bespectacled eyes.

"They're the guardians," the boy answered, he seemed to be excited that Amu had spoken to him.

"Do they go to school here?" Amu questioned. The boy nodded.

"But only sometimes," he added, "they're very busy." That made Amu curious. What could keep these kids from school?

"With what?" Amu asked.

"They protect the town from pirates," the boy nodded. He turned back to watch the group disappear into the school and then moved with the crowd to return home. Amu stood stone still, dumbfounded. She had thought that her father was kidding about pirates this morning. She thought pirate attacks were only stories to keep kids from leaving the house alone at night.

Amu sighed and walked the few blocks downhill to her house where she shut herself in her room to do her homework after changing into her more comfortable clothing. She finished just in time for her mother to call her down for dinner.

While they ate, she asked her parents about pirates. Her charas happily munched food from her plate while she did; Amu paid them no notice.

Her father looked at her with fear in his eyes and asked if a pirate had hurt his baby and began sobbing. He had always been so emotional. Her mother calmly explained that since this was a busy town on the ocean that there was a small chance of it being invaded by pirates, but they shouldn't worry since pirating was a more common to the north and rarer where they lived.

Her father stopped his dramatic tears and reminded Amu to watch out for pirates once more. Amu nodded and excused herself from the table, her charas flitting after her to her room.

---o---

Halfway through the next day at school Amu was surprised to hear a loud bell tolling outside the school. The rest of the class stood in a swift motion; one Amu stumbled to follow, and moved behind the large wooden desk where their teacher usually sat. Her teacher mutely threw the deadbolt on the door locked and drew the thick curtains over the large windows. She reminded two boys to stop talking and sat with them in silence behind the desk. Amu huddled between two other girls, wondering what was happening. Ran, Miki, and Suu watched them from Amu's desk.

A shadow appeared under the door and the knob rattled, making Amu flinch. The noise stopped and Amu noticed that no one else looked concerned. After several silent minutes the bell rang again and everyone stood up like nothing had ever happened. Amu thought this was all a little too weird.

As their teacher unlocked the door and pulled the curtains back to let in the sun, Amu poked the girl in front of her.

"What was that?" she asked. The girl seemed surprised that Amu was talking to her at first, but then answered her question with a pleasant smile.

"A Pirate Drill," she replied.

"What?" asked Amu.

"The town sometimes gets attacked by pirates," she said, "so the school does these drills every year so we know what to do if the school is targeted."

"They usually don't come to the school though," the boy next to Amu added. Amu turned to him and listened, "they have better things to attack then a bunch of students."

"Didn't you have Pirates Drills at your old school?" asked the girl. Amu shook her head.

"Wow, your town must have had really good protection against them to not be worried," the boy said with awe.

"Yeah," Amu smiled nervously, "they weren't worried at all about pirates." Amu wasn't going to tell her classmates that it was because there was no way for pirates to attack her landlocked town that she had never sat through a pirate drill. She'd let them think what they wanted.

"That's so cool!" grinned the girl.

"Girls!" the teacher called, "quiet." The teacher turned back to the class and began talking once more, "remember, that once the doors to the classrooms are locked that they won't be reopened until the threat is over. So if you get locked out, don't go to the classrooms because you won't get in, go find a safe place to wait things out." The class nodded and the day went on as usual.

---o---

Amu leaned against the railing on her balcony looking at the stars over the ocean. There were so many. Amu sighed. She thought about the drill at school and about her father's warning about pirates each day and about the guardians who protected the town. She did not believe any of it. Her mother had said that pirates did not come this far south, and she had thought that pirating was less common these days anyway.

Amu rested her forehead against her hands and sighed, closing her eyes. The only good thing that had come from today was that she finally had an excuse to talk to her classmates. It felt good to talk with other kids; she had never been very good at making friends. At her old school she wasn't popular, but she had known a few girls who had been friendly with her and had come over to play on weekends. Now she was alone again.

"You're not alone Amu," Suu said, patting her head. Amu tensed, she thought she had kept that thought in her mind, maybe she had said it out loud by mistake.

"You've got us," said Miki. She landed by her hand on the railing. Ran grinned as well.

"You could always try being a little more honest at school and-" Amu interrupted her.

"But that's not who-" Amu began to say, before she was interrupted herself by her mother.

"Amu time for bed!" her mom called up the stairs.

"Ok!" Amu called back, dropping her conversation with her charas. She made her way into her bed and blew out the candle. The three charas made their way to the basket where their eggs were placed and joined her in sleep.

---o---

The rest of the week was uneventful, as was the next month. School days came and went without anything to keep them from meddling together into an unimportant memory. Her homework was simple, but without any friends to play with after school, Amu spent most of her time at home.

Amu sat under a tree for lunch at school several weeks later. Her charas were snoozing on the grass. She still had a lot of time before she had to go to class, so Amu decided a cat nap was a good idea. The sun was so warm. Apparently this city did not experience cold weather akin to the winters she had seen in her old town. She would miss the snow.

She closed her eyes and leaned against the tree, falling asleep for what she thought was a short nap.

She woke to an annoying sound of a bell ringing in the courtyard. Amu pushed her pink hair from her eyes and noticed no one was eating lunch anymore. She wondered how long she had slept. She turned to the large ornate clock that hung over the school's main entrance and jumped to her feet. She had been asleep for almost an hour.

"Why didn't you wake me up!" Amu shouted at her charas. They cringed and looked at their feet.

"Amu was sleeping so peacefully," Suu mumbled. Ran nodded. Miki shrugged. Amu noticed that annoying bell was still ringing.

"What is that?" she wondered aloud. Her charas turned to look at the clanging metal bell.

"Isn't that the same bell that rang for the Pirate-Drill?" asked Miki. Suu gasped and closed her eyes as her hands clasped in front of her chest.

"Amu!" Ran exclaimed, "it is!" Amu's mind registered the fact that she needed to get inside quickly. While she said she didn't believe pirates would attack the town, she decided today was not the day to test her theory.

She grabbed her bag and bolted to the front doors. She pulled on the doors only to find them locked tight. She struggled with them, panicking when she thought she heard shouts coming from down the street in town.

"Open up!" Amu shouted. She kicked the doors and then had to hop on one foot as pain spiraled up her leg. That was probably a stupid idea, Amu reflected.

"Amu!" Suu shouted, pulling on a lock of pink hair, "Ran found another building, the door looks open." Amu followed Suu and Miki around the school building to the back where she saw what appeared to be a glass building. She had no time to admire it as she threw open the doors and hurried inside. Her charas clung to her shoulders as she darted around a corner and found a set of stairs that led down hidden by a bunch of potted plants.

The glass walls of the building made Amu nervous that someone might see her, so she followed the steps into the dark. There was no light, and Amu tripped when she ran out of steps.

"It's so dark," Suu stated, trembling slightly. Amu felt her three charas around her face as she moved. Suu clung to the open collar on Amu's uniform; Ran sat on her shoulder; Miki floated above her head, but every now and then Amu would feel a strand of her hair pull as the blue chara fell behind.

"This should be far enough," Amu said to no one in particular as she sat down, sliding along the wall until she was on the ground. She could still see the light from the stairway and had no desire to go too far. If she listened carefully, she could still hear the pirate bell tolling in the schoolyard. I wonder if anyone will know I'm missing, she thought to herself.

"Amu," Ran said, scaring the girl who was still in her own thoughts, "can you hear that?" Amu blinked and looked around. There should be nothing that made any noise in this strange building.

"The bell?" asked Amu.

"No," Miki stated, "it's a humming sound."

"It's coming from back here," Suu said as she floated away from Amu.

"Suu!" Amu called. She didn't want to lose the little green chara in the darkness. A clunk was heard several feet to Amu's left and she jumped to her feet, her heart hammering in her chest. A soft light suddenly appeared where the noise had come from. Suu was illuminated in front of a sizeable hole in the wall for a chara to have made.

"Opps," she mumbled.

"Amu, it's in here," Miki said as she dove for the opening. She vanished. Ran and Suu followed her. Amu had no choice other to do the same. She crawled on her hands and knees, squeezing through the tiny opening. It might have looked big compared to Suu, but it was just big enough for her to fit through without banging her head.

The sound of ripping fabric made Amu pause and cringe. Her mother would kill her if she had done what she had thought she had. She stood and looked around the new room, dusting the dirt from her clothing, she felt a rip at the bottom of her dress and hoped it wouldn't be too noticeable.

The room was no more than the size of a large closet. A desk was piled high with papers and books of all colors and ages. It was amongst the mess that her three charas had landed. They surrounded a strangely smooth object that looked oddly familiar to Amu.

It was an egg. Except it had tiny little wings on each side and sat upright on the desk, sandwiched between a book with a bent spine and a small wooden box. Amu heard it humming contently, the sound was not unlike a cat purring when it was scratched. Amu reached out and poked it gently. The vibration quieted for a moment before increasing in strength, almost as if it relished her touch. Ran, Miki, and Suu watched silently as Amu lifted the porcelain egg into the air and looked at it.

She had no time to examine it before the book case to her left exploded. Amu screamed and ducked, covering the egg with her body so it would not break. She felt a strange desire to protect it, what if I contained a chara like the three that had hatched in her bed had? Or maybe something just as important lay undisturbed inside?

Coughing, Amu looked over to the shattered bookcase and saw a blue haired boy standing where it once had been. He was looking at her with some sort of interest in his eyes, but Amu was unsure of why. When she turned, he caught sight of the egg and Amu knew what he was after.

"Give me the egg," he stated plainly. He stepped into the light from the flickering candle that Amu wondered who had lit and how long it had been burning with his hand extended. Amu hugged the egg closer to her body. In the wavering light she could see the boy was a pirate, or at least a sailor of some sort. It was the cutlass in his belt that made Amu believe he was pirate, if him appearing as the alarm went off hadn't been proof enough. He grinned and took another step towards her, she stepped backwards into the wall.

"Amu," whispered Ran nervously as the three charas shrank backwards as well. Amu saw Ikuto glance at each of them and raised his eyebrow in slight interest, but she forgot about that as she finally noticed a strange feature about him; he had ears. Two cat ears made their way out of his hair along with a tail that twirled behind him. Amu was so surprised that she did not even notice him plucking the egg from her hands until almost a second too late.

She grabbed it back, pulling too hard on the egg and the two of them watched it crack open right down the center. The egg burst into two clean pieces. The boy dove for and grabbed each half before they could shatter on the ground and Amu was left with snatching the falling object that had appeared from within it. The object glowed brightly the moment her slender finger wrapped around it. Warmth filled her suddenly. Everything felt right. The pirate seemed to notice that he didn't hold the key item worth taking and advanced on her once more.

"The lock," he grinned, reaching to take it from her hands.

"No!" Amu stated. She wondered what had compelled her to say that. She knew she could very well be killed. The boy laughed, moving closer so that she had nowhere to go, trapped between him and the wall. He smiled confidently, his blue eyes never leaving her golden ones. Amu felt his hands as they wrapped around hers, slowly prying apart her fingers to take the item when another figure appeared in the doorway he had created in the wall.

"Ikuto!" shouted a new voice. Amu looked up and saw a blond haired boy with a scepter pointed at the pirate. The blue haired boy dropped Amu's hands and leaped nimbly backwards a few paces. Amu recognized her savior as one of the guardians. He seemed to notice her as well.

"I have no time to play Tadase," the boy, who Amu figured was Ikuto, scoffed. He twitched his tail, grinned wolfishly at Amu, and bashed through another wall with a giant blue paw. He vanished. The boy watched him go, apparently deciding whether or not to pursue him, before he turned to Amu.

"Are you ok?" the blond asked as he moved to help Amu. She nodded. She opened her hands and looked down at the object in her hands. It sparkled happily.

"The Humpty Lock!" Tadase exclaimed.

"The what?" asked Amu. She looked at the lock in her hands, wondering why it was glittering so much in the dim room.

"Here," Tadase offered, taking the lock from her hands and stepping behind her. He looped it around her neck like a necklace. Amu held it up to look at the piece again. "You found it," the blond haired boy explained, "the lock has been missing for almost a decade now. The only person who could find it was the person who was meant to have it. You found it, so it's your's."

"Thanks," Amu replied. She looked up and saw the blond boy was staring at her. She blushed madly and looked away.

"I h-have to get back to c-c-class," Amu stammered. She jumped over the fallen books and hurried from the room. Tadase watched her go.

Amu didn't go back to class. She raced home and collapsed onto her bed. No one was home, so Amu lay back and turned the golden lock over in her hands, examining it from every angle, wondering what it's function was and why it made her feel so secure. Ran, Miki, and Suu watched Amu as they floated above her.

Amu's heart had finally slowed down from her encounter. Every time she thought back to it, she felt a flush rise in her checks. The lock hummed softly at her neck. She held it up and watched it turn on the gold chain. What makes this so special? Amu wondered, why would that boy want it so bad?

"Who is he?" Amu mumbled aloud.

"What did you say?" asked Ran. Her charas turned to her and Amu flailed her arms in the air panicking.

"Nothing!" she denied hurriedly. She held the lock once more and thought about the two boys, the pirate Ikuto and the guardian Tadase. Suddenly, the life she had been living seemed shallow. As if her charas could pick up on her thoughts, they landed on her knees as she pulled them to her chest.

"Amu," Ran began to say.

"What are you guys anyway?" Amu asked, "you said you were my shugo charas, but what does that mean?"

"We're your would-be-selves," Miki stated, "who you want to be."

"Who I want to be?" Amu repeated slowly. She looked at each of her charas and then to the yellow egg, wondering really who she wished she was. The conversation was dropped as Amu lay back down on her bed and held the glittering lock once more. Her mind replayed the scene of her meeting Ikuto and Tadase until she knew it by heart.

---o---

Amu followed the other girls in her class outside for their gym class the next day silently. No one seemed to have noticed that she missed the pirate attack yesterday, and no one seemed to know that the school had been infiltrated by at least one of the attacking pirates. Everyone had pushed the incident from their minds.

Their teacher told the girls that they would be playing a simple game of soccer. A lot of groans echoed from the girls. They were divided into two teams and the game began. Most of the girls stood in their spots and only moved if the ball was kicked their way. Amu noticed some of them kept watching the others to see what they were doing.

Amu wanted to run after the ball, but refrained since she was currently one of the girls standing still. It was in her cool character not to want to play. She had loved playing outside with her old friends at her old school, but that was not who she was in her new life. Amu jumped when she heard a voice in her head.

"Come on Amu! Let's run!" Amu suddenly felt all her inhibitions melt away. She leaped from her spot and ran full speed down the field to the ball where two girls were jogging towards the goal. Laughing to herself, Amu stole the ball from the other team who had intercepted a bad kick and advanced on the goal. She launched the ball at the goal and watched it sail over the girl's outstretched fingers into the net. Jumping into the air with her victory, she realized her previous inclination to not play had returned. She glanced at the other girls, embarrassment plain on her face.

One of her teammates gave her a thumbs up when the ball was retrieved and some of the other girls even told her that she had been amazing. Amu blushed at the praise and decided to do it again. The next few rounds, more girls attempted to play then before. Amu wondered if she had done that. After gym, Miki and Suu flew over to her from the sidelines. Amu looked around.

"Where's Ran?" she wondered.

"I've been playing soccer with you," the pink chara grinned, "that goal was so awesome!"

"Wait?! You did that!" Amu nearly shouted. Ran nodded and replied with a quick 'yep'.

"What did you do?" Amu demanded to know.

"Character Change," Miki explained.

"We're your shugo charas, so our powers are yours," Ran explained happily.

"So if you're good at sports," Amu guessed, "what do you two do?"

"It's a secret," Suu winked. Amu sighed and followed after her classmates back to the classroom.

That's the end of the first chapter…

This is going to be a shorter story, at least compared to my others. I think this first chapter is a little boring… but the next ones will involve more pirate action and lots of Ikuto-ness! So everything should get more exciting as the story builds xD