Morg: Heyo! Some more things have been changed in this story so please reread the first few chapters to stay on track.

Ikuto: You just can't seem to leave this one alone, can you?

Amu: It would be better if you just deleted the whole thing.

Morg: That's not happening. I'm the author. I can change what I want.

Ikuto: I mean, as long as you add more time for me and Amu to be together then I'm all for it.

Amu: Please don't.

Morg: So demanding. The both of you. Thank goodness I don't actually own you.

~Dirty, Little Secrets~

"Are you going tonight?"

"I heard that last week's performance was amazing. They're talking about having her perform more often."

"I wish I could go. My parents would kill me if they found out I was hanging out at the club, though."

"I just go for her song and then leave. That's what most people do."

"The cover charge at the door is too expensive for me to do that."

"It's totally worth it. She's so hot."

"And a really good singer."

Ikuto wanted to hit his head against the top of his desk. The students chatting behind him were driving him crazy. He wasn't sure how Amu could work through all of their talking. "What are they even talking about?"

Amu hummed as she looked up from her notebook. They'd made good progress since they started working on their project the Friday before. She wasn't sure what Ikuto was talking about until she focused enough on something besides the book in front of her to listen to the other students.

Having heard the others talk about her before – not that they knew they were talking about her – Amu kept her face perfectly innocent. "Oh, there's a girl that performs at the local club one night a week. She's pretty popular."

Ikuto had heard some of the others talk about a club before. He just hadn't understood why. "Have you seen her?"

Amu blinked a few times before shrugging. That was a hard question to answer. She wasn't entirely sure why but she didn't want to lie to Ikuto. Not about this or anything. "I've seen recordings."

Nodding at that, Ikuto turned back to his notebook. "Did you find anything else about that one lord?"

Picking up her book once more, Amu shook her head. "It looks like he was self-important rather than actually important. I'm not finding much about him other than that he boasted about killing a bunch of demons and saving a lot of pretty girls."

"Maybe we should have a picture of him fighting a demon on one of the walls. That should be enough of a mention of him."

Smiling at that, Amu went back to flipping through one of the books they'd gotten from the library. She gave a nod and waited for Ikuto to write down the idea in their notebook before going back to looking through the book for more ideas. "So that's the demon part of it. What else should we do?"

"I think we should stick to facts for everything else. Let's find some interesting people, write some blurbs, and draw some pictures for them. It wasn't like people were so big on writing down history at that time."

Amu snorted at that but dropped the book once more. "That's very true. I think between tomorrow's class and when we meet after school tomorrow that we should have it all figured out and can get started on the designs."

Ikuto tapped his pen against his notebook. "We aren't going to meet tonight?"

"I can't meet on Wednesdays, remember?"

"Ah, I forgot. Sorry. I can do some research tonight and bring a few names tomorrow to show you."

Amu closed the book and set it aside before leaning forward just a little. "You don't need to work on it without me if you don't want to. I think we're doing better than most of our classmates."

Ikuto couldn't help but chuckle at that. Amu wasn't wrong. Everyone around them weren't talking about their projects. The club was still the topic of conversation. "That's true. I guess I can take the night off."

"Maybe you can spend some time with your sister?"

Amu knew the moment that she'd spoken that she'd crossed a line. The look on Ikuto's face told her that she was right. "Hey, Ikuto. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything."

For a moment, Ikuto couldn't process anything. He knew that Amu had said something else and that she was looking at him with sorrowful eyes, but his mind was still stuck on his sister. "It's not that easy, Amu. I'm sorry. I can't-"

"No," Amu said firmly. "I don't need you to tell me anything. It isn't any of my business. I shouldn't have said anything. I'm the one that's sorry."

Ikuto slumped into his chair. He let his pen drop onto his notebook and turned to look out the window. "I don't want to talk about it now. That doesn't mean I won't want to talk about it never."

Amu held her breath as Ikuto looked back at her. She didn't move for fear that Ikuto would stop talking.

"We haven't known each other for that long. I think we're becoming friends, but we don't know each other well enough to share that kind of information."

Slowly, Amu nodded her head. "That's fair. We've spent a lot of time together, but it's been less than a week. Let's just take tonight off from our project. We can get back into it tomorrow."

Ikuto returned her nod. "Do you… Do you want to be more than partners? Do you want to be friends?"

There were people that had tried to get close to Amu before. Whatever their reasons, she'd kept them all at an arm's length until they got tired and walked away. She and Ikuto hadn't known each other long, but they worked well together. They did their work, but it wasn't boring or awkward. Ikuto was polite to her parents and talked with Ami like she was someone interesting rather than Amu's younger sister tagging along on their homework parties.

She hadn't known him long but she enjoyed the time she spent with him. "I think we could be."

A very small smile tugged at Ikuto's lips just as the bell rang. "Okay, let's take tonight off and jump back into this tomorrow in class. I'll see you later."

Amu packed up her stuff before getting up to head to her next class. She returned Ikuto's small smile and reminded her heart that they were barely becoming friends. She didn't know him or anything about him besides that he liked to get his projects done ahead of time.

But they were going to become more. For the first time ever, Amu was excited about spending time with someone that could be a friend.

XXX

Ikuto sat in his room for a while before letting out a sigh. He was bored. He was bored and he'd promised Amu that he wouldn't do any work on their project.

Amu was interesting to him. She was a girl with four charas. A girl that was very popular but had no friends. A girl that was quick to apologize when she'd gone too far and upset him. She was a girl unlike any that he'd ever known before.

If he sat in his room just thinking about her any longer he was going to develop a complex.

With a sigh, Ikuto heaved himself to his feet. His mother didn't care what he did or where he went, so he slipped out of his window and into the evening. There wasn't much to do, no friends for him to go meet, so Ikuto just walked around for a while.

His steps unknowingly brought him to the club that everyone had been talking about earlier that day. The line outside was long. Ikuto almost couldn't believe how many people were there. Especially, considering it was a weeknight "Hey, what's the big deal?"

The guy that he'd addressed turned to look at him. "Pinkette goes on tonight in about an hour. Everyone's trying to get in to see her perform. They usually make sure we all get to see it even if they don't let us all in at once."

Ikuto nodded in response before heading toward the end of the line. Everyone was talking about this girl. Ikuto couldn't help but be interested. He wanted to know if she was as good as everyone said she was.

The line moved slowly, but it did move. Ikuto found himself stepping into the club just as the announcer called for the crowd to behave. He found a spot toward the back where he could watch without having to worry about the screaming fans at the front. Some of them he recognized from school.

"You know the rules! Behave or get out. Pinkette will perform in five minutes!"

The crowd went nuts. Ikuto felt a smirk tugging at his lips. It was hard to stay unaffected by such a large audience. But true to the warning, everyone behaved.

The lights dimmed and Ikuto found himself holding his breath. The cover charge to get into the club had been high, but he'd hear it was worth it so he'd paid. The first beats of music had his heart pounding. The song was familiar. The girl, whoever she was, was doing covers rather than her own music.

Nodding along to the music, Ikuto kept his eyes on the stage. Everything was dark. The lights didn't come on until the singer started to sing.

Ikuto couldn't help the way his eyes widened as he took in the pink-haired girl up on stage. She moved around the space like she was comfortable there. Her voice was sweet but she knew how to make it husky and deep. This girl knew what she was doing. She was a performer. She was worth the cover charge. Ikuto understood why his classmates had been so excited for a Wednesday night.

She was too far away for Ikuto to see her face, but he could tell that she was beautiful. She played with the audience and got them to sing along without ever letting the attention slip from her. The crowd went crazy when the song ended. They called for another song and cheered for the singer.

Ikuto almost expected her to come back out and perform another song. She didn't. She did one and then disappeared backstage. The DJ took his spot back and stared up the regular music. The crowd was obviously disappointed.

Just as the guy outside the club had said, many people left. Some went back to dancing or getting drinks, but most left the club. They were still excited about the performance.

Ikuto waited until he was sure that most of his classmates had left before he, too, slipped back out into the night. The Pinkette, whoever she was, was wasting her time at a club in a small town like the one they lived in. She should be performing in bigger venues in larger cities. Her talent was being wasted.

Ikuto shrugged off the thought. She could do what she wanted. The girl was good, but she probably had a reason for why she performed one song one night a week at a small club. If his past had taught him anything, it was that he needed to mind his own business and not be quick to judge others.

XXX

Amu couldn't help but laugh as she entered the back dressing room. "Did you guys watch? That was so much fun."

Ran sped across the room to dive into Amu's hands. "You were so good, Amu-chan!"

Miki nodded in agreement from her spot on Amu's dressing table. "We could hear the crowd from back here. They really wanted you to sing a second song."

"I thought about it, but I'm tired," Amu said as she released Dia from their chara change. "I might ask the owner if he'd be okay with me doing a second song on another night, though."

"If you keep it a surprise the crowd will really love it, desu."

Amu nodded as she sat down to take off her makeup and put her wig back in place. "I'm going to have to think hard about whether I want to do two nights a week or not. Maybe starting off with two songs instead of doing just one would be a better choice."

"We have a lot of work to do to prepare for two songs. We should get home so you can rest."

Smiling at Dia, Amu gave a firm nod of her head before she got up and checked herself over. She couldn't leave if there was anything about her that could connect her to her other persona. She and the club owner had agreed that keeping Pinkette a secret from everyone would only make her more interesting. Amu couldn't afford for anyone to find out about what she did every Wednesday night.

"Besides, desu. You have to finish your homework and spend time with Ami. We should get going."

Leave it to Su to want to take care of everyone. Amu smiled as she scooped the little chara up and nuzzled her against her cheek. "Come on then. Let's go home."

.

Morg: Feel free to give me all sorts of feedback.

Ikuto: There should be more smut.

Amu: There shouldn't be a story.

Morg: I really didn't mean from either of you.