Nobody knew about it. They never saw it tucked away in his back pocket. He carried it around with him, always hidden in his wallet, but there was suddenly something wrong with that. As he took it out, he carefully straightened out the edges, silently cursing to himself for letting them get bent in the first place. He thought that maybe he had been careless with it over the years, but he knew that it was only from the wear and tear of being confined to such tight space. Precious pictures were not meant to be stashed behind one's student ID.

So as he stared at it - that precious picture from so long ago - he couldn't help but be fond of that memory. He remembered whipping out his cell phone to capture the rare sight in front of him. It was nearly two years ago and he still remembered her scent, why her cheeks had been so rosy, and most importantly, the way she made him feel at that very moment.

Amu had been running down the street, quickly maneuvering around people to get to her destination. All of them gave her harsh glares for being so rude, and a few people yelled after her to watch where she was going, but she paid them no mind. She just apologized left and right and kept running towards her destination. She ran and ran, so fast that it seemed like her legs would give out from underneath her. But she was somehow able to keep herself upright long enough to come to an abrupt halt at the corner of a busy intersection.

She gripped the stoplight tightly and was panting almost violently for breath. She looked both ways, determined to cross the street before the light turned green. When she thought she had enough time to make it, she dashed out into oncoming traffic, skillfully avoiding every car that came her way. That was until she was crossing the last lane of cars. She was so close to the other side that she could almost touch the other stoplight. However, just then, she slipped on a patch of black ice, and went tumbling down. She used her arms to break the fall, but her lower body was still halfway out in the street. The oncoming car honked and tried to skid to a halt, but it couldn't. The ice propelled it forward, even though its tires had stopped moving, and it was sliding uncontrollably in her direction.

Completely in shock, Amu stayed frozen in place, waiting for the car to crush her. Then he came in and played Mr. Hero, quickly running down the sidewalk from the direction she had been heading towards. He grabbed her hand and yanked her from the ground. The car spun out in the middle of the intersection and the cars behind it were fortunate enough to stop in time to avoid hitting him. Amu stayed locked in his arms, eyes still wide from fear and the thought that she had almost been run over. Her whole body shook as she watched the man get out of his car and start screaming in her direction. He was yelling something about how careless she was and that he could have hit her and killed her.

Her eyes teared up and soon the hot liquid streamed down her face. Her cheeks were bright red, while the rest of her was fiercely pale. She was still cooped up in his arms, seemingly afraid to be let go, and she silently cried while the man got back in his car and drove away. After a little while longer, she finally regained enough of her composure to wipe her tears away and stand up. Her knees had two large scrapes on them from being pulled up so suddenly against the concrete, but it was certainly better than having her entire lower half crushed. She looked down at her bloody shins and took in several deep breaths. They started to sting, but she tried to walk around anyway. She only took a few steps before looking up at her savior. She was trying to think of a way to thank him when she realized who he was.

"I... Ikuto."

He stood there, eyes locked with hers. There were a million things he wanted to do at that moment - to ask her if she was alright, to scold her for being so reckless, to tend to her wounds, to hold her in his arms again and comfort her, to kiss her lips... but he didn't. He stood there in front of her and waited for her to retake control of the situation. She brushed off her skirt, messed with her hair, poked around her knees to realize that the scrapes tore off that part of her stockings. She seemed to be doing everything she could to avoid conversation.

The world around them seemed so far away and out of touch at that moment. The people were all silent, everything was moving too quickly for them to keep up, and time seemed to freeze. Then, finally, as he was about to speak, she beat him to it.

"Ikuto... um... thank you, I... I almost was... and then you..."

"Amu."

He finally got the courage to speak when she started rambling. He quieted her down, stepped toward her slowly, and then bent down to her level. He kept his eyes locked with hers as long as possible before he diverted his attention to her knees. The blood wasn't gushing out as badly as it was, but if he didn't get her some medical treatment soon, she would get an infection. She tried to take a step back from him, but it pained her to do so. Her knees cried out to the rest of her and begged her not to take another step. Her face contorted in pain and discomfort and that was when he took action.

He saved any further words for later as he came up to her quickly and scooped her up in his arms princess style. She squeaked out of surprise, but realized that he was carrying her in the opposite direction that she needed to go. As he was crossing the street, this time with the green light, she kept her eyes focused on where she had laid. She saw bits of her blood stain the cement and it made her heartbeat quicken. She had really been injured. She looked up at the sidewalk, remembering why she had bolted out there in the first place.

"N-No, Ikuto, I have to-"

"You have to get home and get cleaned up. Whatever you were going to do can wait."

She wanted so badly to argue with him, to protest and scream until he dropped her and let her go, but she knew it was of no use. Even if she had any feistiness left in her, she wouldn't get anywhere as banged up as she was.

Tadase.

So on their way back to her house, she just lay in his arms, looking back at the road behind them the entire time. He walked as fast as he could without actually running, but stopped all of a sudden. She looked at him in confusion before following his eyes to the darkening sky. She saw millions of white specks fall and watched as they landed on everything, slowly covering the area in a thin blanket of pure white snow. Ikuto shook his head, letting the white flakes fall from his hair, and continued walking, noticing that he was right by Amu's street. He quickly turned on it and made his way up to her house. He noticed that there was no car in the driveway and all the lights were off. He looked to Amu and silently asked her if anyone was home.

"Mom and Dad took Ami out to dinner. They won't be back till after eight o'clock."

He nodded his head and waited for her to fish her house key out of her coat pocket. He unlocked the door and flipped on the lights, while making his way through the living room and up the stairs. He opened her bedroom door and flicked on her light, looking around for any sight of Ran, Miki, or Su. When he noticed that they, too, were gone, he set Amu down on her bed and went into their bathroom. He returned not too much later with a washcloth, peroxide, and some Band-Aids.

He gently removed her stocking, poured the peroxide on the damp cloth, and told her to brace herself for the sudden sting. She flinched, but eventually let him rub the liquid into her skin. He applied it again to her other knee before opening the Band-Aids and putting them on her. He then grabbed the cloth and cleaned off all the dry blood that had flowed down her shins and then went back into the bathroom. Amu's face was completely flushed, but she was happy that her injuries were now taken care of.

When he came back, he lingered in her doorway, leaning up against the doorframe. He stared at her for awhile, carefully phrasing what he wanted to say in his head.

"So, why exactly did you rush out into traffic?"

Her cheeks reddened even more as she looked down at her lap. She began twiddling her thumbs, a habit of hers when she got nervous, and just kept her eyes focused elsewhere. He quickly grew impatient and marched over to her, unsatisfied with her silence, and crouched down to her level. He placed his hands on both of her arms, locking her in place, and repeated himself.

"Amu, why did you run out into the middle of the street?"

"I-I... I was... I was supposed to meet Tadase... we were going to go Christmas shopping together. But I was running late, so I ran as fast as I could to get there. I thought I could make it across the street before all the cars came, but... he probably thinks I stood him up."

A frown formed on his face and he dropped her gaze to look somewhere else.

So, she let herself almost get run over for the Kiddy-King.

He didn't know what else to say, so he stood up, faced away from her, and walked out. She looked up and called after him, but he put up his hand and told her he was just going to get her a glass of water. She calmed down and nodded as he disappeared from her sight. She carefully pulled her legs up and hugged them to her chest. It stung a little, but it wasn't too bad. She hid part of her face behind her knees and let her eyes remain fixed on the door.

What was that all of a sudden? He looked... hurt.

While she tried to solve the mystery, he reappeared and handed her the water. She took it from him, took a few sips, and then set it on her nightstand. He leaned himself up against her closet door and looked around her room. He had seen it what he thought to be a million times, yet it never ceased to amaze him how much her room truly matched her personality. She tried so hard to hide the real her that being in her room was almost like seeing her opposite self. He always wondered why she hid herself. She was a wonderful person - smart, funny, kind, beautiful, with a heart of gold. What was there to be embarrassed about?

He was pulled out of his thoughts by her burning holes in his skin with her eyes. She was staring at him, rather intently, and he had no idea why. He glanced over at her and saw a confused, focused, and analytical look on her face and he couldn't help but laugh. She looked so serious that it was cute.

"What? What are you laughing at?"

After calming himself, he faced her and smiled. She was extremely clueless and she got mad too easily, that it was no wonder why he loved to tease her.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Ugh, you jerk! How can you be laughing at me? I didn't even do anything!"

"You didn't have to. It was the look you gave me - it was cute. You're cute, Amu."

Her face turned bright red and she could only stammer and fidget as she tried to think of a comeback. After a few more seconds, she finally spit out the first thing that came to mind.

"What's with you, saying things like that all of a sudden!"

His eyes softened as he watched her try and regain control of herself. He waited until her cheeks were only a little pink before he sat down next to her. She gave him a quick glare before looking away again. What was it with their game of having each other's full attention and then looking everywhere but at each other? She had found it so odd that he wasn't teasing her more. That was his game, his life's purpose was to make her feel flustered and embarrassed, but he was so quiet and calm now. It was unnatural and she was waiting for something big to happen. Something like a mega 'oh,-you're-gonna-be-so-embarrassed-that-you'll-wanna-die' sort of thing. Otherwise, the universe would explode. One of the two.

But as she waited and nothing happened, she couldn't help but search for the answer by looking at him. He was sitting, one leg tucked up to him, the other hanging over her bed. His arms were wrapped around his one leg and his head was resting on top of his knee. He had an indescribable look on his face. He didn't look bored, sad, or anything that she could think of. He was just there, cool and calm, and it bothered her that she didn't know why. But before she could ask, she heard a tapping at her balcony doors. She glanced over and saw Ran, Miki, and Su waving to her. She dashed up, forgetting about her injured knees, and opened the door.

She looked happy to see them and he figured she must have been silently worried about them since they weren't here. They talked, Miki explaining where they had been. Something about meeting up with Kiseki for a chara meeting. She nodded, a lovely smile still plastered on her face. There was something about that smile, something about that glimmer in her eyes, that got to him. No one seemed to acknowledge his presence, so without really thinking, he grabbed his phone and snapped a quick picture. Noticing that she was now far too busy with her chara's, he slipped past them all, and escaped from her balcony.

That had been two years ago. He sent that picture to his computer and printed it off, cut it out, and stuck it in his wallet. It had been there ever since. Now that he thought about it, as much as he loved that picture, something was wrong with it. She looked as beautiful as ever - wearing her black and white t-shirt with her denim jacket, plaid skirt, and her little black and red hair clips. Her pink hair was slightly messy from her fall, but it looked really good on her. She never really did look bad. So what was wrong?

Could it be knowing that she was dressed up that cutely to see the Kiddy-King?

Although that stung him a little, he decided that even that wasn't it. So what then? As he tried to figure it out, Yoru came floating over and peered over his shoulder.

"Ikuto, what'cha doing?"

"What's missing from this picture, Yoru?"

After a few seconds of silence, Yoru gave him the answer he had been looking for as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You?"

And with that, his eyes lit up, and he grabbed his jacket, his cell phone, and walked out the door.

"I-Ikuto! Where are you going nya~?"

But he didn't answer, he only kept walking. There was something else about him being missing from the photo... it didn't sit well with him. It wasn't just that he wasn't in it; it was that Amu was still focused on the Kiddy-King. She thought of him as her prince. That presented itself as a challenge to him and he smirked at the thought of taking it on.

Just you wait, Tadase. You've kidnapped my princess, but I assure you, I'll be taking her back. This picture will be my proof.

"A/N: I've been dying to write a Shugo Chara! fanfic and especially one for Ikuto and Amu. This idea came to me when I was listening to Pictures of You by The Last Goodnight. I really like the story idea and I hope you all do as well. Please enjoy this story and if it's good enough, I'd be happy to write more stories for this fandom. Please review."