Good news! I found another piece in my documents. :) And, judging from how amazingly supportive each and every person was to my baby sis Mars, I needed to respond somehow. I realize that maybe I can take on her anger for posting something that wasn't 'ready'.
I felt it out of my place to respond to reviews, for it should be what she does for you guys when she returns. But still, I'd like to let all of you know that I am so grateful that Maria was surrounded by such wonderful, kind-hearted souls.
The doctors are going to try the stimulation thing late tonight. I'm worried, but I will pray, for that is all I can do at the moment. I will read the personal messages that you all sent to her (and perhaps respond to them) tomorrow, as tonight I will be strictly holding her hand.
I think she made this story some time ago, when she was 12. I remember her showing this to me. She added some notes, and a disclaimer, I see, but otherwise, it's the same piece. She will probably butcher me for showing this to you, but here it is. :) Once again, I didn't edit a single word.
-Elena
A Night Out
In which men and women complain about their partners with no regrets.
Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice at all.
Author's Note: This is really long. :P Sorry that you have to endure it.
Hell yeah. This is a slight-NatsuMikan fic. I never thought I'd do this, since it's so overused, but I thought overusing and overused idea would somehow stop it from being overused. Whoa. Overuse of the word 'overuse'.
Damn. It's like I'm on crack. -_-
Mikan Sakura woke up that fair morning, and found herself staring at the calendar.
It was Thursday. Thursday. Mikan loved Thursdays.
Ah yes, it was the famous Ladies' Night and Guy's Night, wherein girls could, without the company of their no-good husbands, release their anger.
It was situated perfectly. In order to make sure they don't have to see their partners all throughout the night, they would suggest a guy's night out including their friends, and then pick a place where it was rest assured that their men would not go. For instance, a public library.
"I'm leaving now!" Mikan yelled out to her beau, who, like every day, unenthusiastically nodded his head while reading the paper. She doubted he was actually reading the paper, and rolled her eyes. She quickly made her way out the door.
The moment the front door went shut and she drove out of the garage, the house phone rang:
"NATSUME!" A familiar voice called.
He picked up the phone, slightly irritated from the idea of having to speak, and coldly responded, "What do you want?"
"It's Ruka." Transmission on the other side made it difficult to hear. "… I told the guys for Guy's Night that we'll be in my household."
Natsume rolled his eyes, "That thing again? I don't even like Guy's Night."
Ruka pushed, "Yes, you do."
"Whatever." Natsume laid himself on the living room sofa, and curled up as an infant.
"It's starting now. So come, okay?"
The line was cut, before Natsume could even get remotely close to complaining. He hated it when he couldn't say what he wanted.
"Hey girlfriends!" Mikan opened her arms in delight to see her close friends surrounded together in the Karaoke room.
"Hey!" They replied, all but Hotaru with increased enthusiasm.
"Alright. Who's starting?" Mikan squealed in excitement; she looked over at Hotaru for support in this matter. She didn't get any.
Hotaru was brutally honest, nearly crushing everyone's hopes. "Why are you so excited? This happens every week."
"Well," Mikan laughed, "there's always something new to whine about every week."
Finding an excuse to complain, the girls nodded their heads in agreement.
"Yo!" Kitsu flew into the Nogi household, literally. Ruka flinched at the sight of the scene.
"Please." Ruka glared, "Don't break anything. My wife will slaughter me if you do."
Kitsu shrugged, and joined the ranks of the rest of the men, who were sitting around the tables. Koko looked up at Ruka, pointing at a medal of which he was interested in.
"Am I still on probation for what happened last week?" he asked, referring to the time when Ruka got grounded by his wife for Koko's misbehaviour.
"Yes."
Koko sank in his chair sadly.
Through the door, some footsteps were heard. They were slow, collected, and immediately they all knew who they belonged to.
A crimson-eyed hot-tempered man made his way into the room, while asking:
"Right. So who's first to complain?"
"Alright. I'll start." Sumire sighed, looking around. "As you all know, my husband's an idiot. A sweet, but total idiot."
The females nodded, particularly Mikan, recalling the many pranks of his she was a victim of.
"Well, sometimes, his jokes go too far." She took a breath, before beginning again. "This morning, he told me to lose weight because I was getting fat."
All of the members in the room gasped slightly, listening for her continuation.
"I mean, what kind of ass tells his wife that she's fat? Apparently, him." Sumire rolled her eyes and groaned. "Well, anyways, I'm just really pissed off right now, because he totally doesn't understand my true emotions."
Followed by nods, nods, and more nods.
"OOH! Me first!" Koko raised his hand as a first grader would, high and waving in the air, so as to catch attention.
"Alright fine, start."
"Well, you know my wife. She can be a little difficult sometimes." To which Natsume scoffed, and commented, "Sometimes?"
Koko glared at Natsume, but only for a couple of seconds before replenishing his train of thought.
He threw his hands up in the air in confusion, "She's so hard to understand! I mean, last week, she told me that I needed to tell her the truth more often. She even told me to be blunt with her. So this morning, I told her that she was getting a little heavy-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Kitsu interrupted, "You told her she was fat? Dude! That's against the whole book of courtesy!" Kitsu stopped, to get The Bro Code Travel Edition from his backpack. "Didn't you read the book?"
Koko scoffed, "Well, she shouldn't have taken it that seriously. She ignored me for the entire day after that."
"I would, if I was called fat." Yuu mumbled under his breath.
"Alright, ALRIGHT!" Koko sighed, "I lose. I was wrong. I'm sorry."
"Don't tell that to us," Ruka ordered, "beg her to forgive you after what you said."
The crowd of men nodded in agreement.
Anna raised her hand innocently.
"Go ahead, Anna!" Mikan encouraged, and Anna nodded relentlessly.
"Well…Kitsu is a great guy and all." She started nervously, "But he messed up my cake this morning."
"What?" Nonoko, shocked, wanted to know more about the situation.
"He…. He… stepped on it!" She broke down, crying. "It was the cake for the competition due tomorrow, and he was messing around, flying as usual. And he…"
Small fragments of sympathy released from Mikan's mouth: "Oh no…"
Sumire shook her head, while patting Anna's back. "That bastard. You let your frustration out, Anna. Let it all out; we're here for you."
"Oh, I have a confession." Kitsu looked down and around suspiciously.
"You're gay?" Natsume asked, seemingly uninterested in the whole situation.
"WHAT? No…." Kitsu paused, and gulped down some of the guilt he felt at the moment; even discussing it made him feel terrible. "I killed-no, not killed- broke Anna's cake. Well, at least, I stepped on it, real hard. And she needed it for her competition, that's tomorrow."
Yuu felt a need to step in and give his two cents, "She'll come to forgive you, Anna will. And when you think about it, it's Anna. She's supposed to be able to whop something amazing up in 5 minutes if she wanted to."
"Just tell her you're sorry," Ruka claimed uneasily, "If you don't admit defeat, she may never back down from the fight and wage war."
Natsume glared at Ruka in disbelief. Was he really seeing his best friend so… so… defenceless? The thought scared him a little, and he felt a necessity to ask:
"Ruka, since when have you become Imai's subordinate?"
"It's Nogi now, remember?" He quickly corrected, and sat down. "And I'm not her bitch. She's just difficult, is all."
Every single man in the room aside from Natsume and himself responded to this statement simultaneously: "Welcome to my world, man."
"Nonoko? Got any problems?"
Her helmet-styled hair danced on her head as she shook her head, and she smiled. "Yuu is just dreamy."
Sumire scoffed, "Yep. That's the first stage of marriage. And then afterwards… It's just, 'You're fat', all over the place."
A sudden inspiration came to Mikan's mind, and she couldn't help herself from asking Nonoko an undying question:
"When you tell Yuu that you love him, do you say 'I love you, Yuu?' Couldn't you shorten it, to 'I love Yuu'?"
Awkward silence followed; Hotaru was the first to break the silence:
"Don't ever do that again."
"Hyuuga? Got any problems you wish to confess?"
Natsume sneered. As if. He felt his life was perfect, just the way it was.
"Tell us at least one problem, Hyuuga."
Natsume thought for a second. Maybe there were a couple of things…
"Mikan! Your turn!"
She was shocked to find that she was chosen, for she never was chosen before. Therefore, she had no idea what to do, and was at a loss for words.
"Um…" She dug as deep as she could, but couldn't find anything.
"Come on, Mikan." Hotaru urged, "There must be pages worth of complaints…. Or did you sign something?"
"No. I didn't sign anything... I'm trying to think of some bad stuff…" Sudden inspiration came to Mikan: "He leaves his books all over the place. That really annoys me."
"She's so damn loud all the time." He stated matter-of-factly, while etching a doodle on Ruka's mahogany table.
Then, a door opened for the both of them. A door, wherein they never dared to enter.
On the other side of this door, was the two years worth of complaints they had not communicated to anyone, even themselves.
"He's so crap at music, that it makes me want to cry."
"She sings random kid songs in the shower, and still uses little kid underwear."
"He's so arrogant, self-centered, and sometimes tough to deal with."
"She's so dumb."
"Alright, fine. He's always tough to deal with."
Both of them paused, and time almost stopped.
Why were they saying all of these things? Hadn't they fallen in love? Weren't they in love? They realized that those little fractures on an otherwise perfect image, was what made them fall in love in the first place.
Then, from the bottom of their hearts:
"That's why I love him." "That's why I love her."
Everybody was speechless, hearing what they had to say, and their hearts were warmed with the brightness of their words.
Koko rang up Sumire to apologize; Kitsu bought a cookbook for Anna. For the first time, Hotaru bluntly told Ruka she loved him. And Nonoko? She let Yuu know that 'I love Yuu'.
The night, young and raw, was robbed of its beauty by the pitch-darkness of the early morning. The moon was out of its original place, and the darkness colored the streets.
Everyone took this as a sign to return home.
As Mikan crawled into bed next to her elementary sweetheart, she felt like she had suddenly accomplished something.
She felt freedom from a long time of keeping complaints to herself; he saw the mirror of himself, and couldn't imagine a world without the imperfect her.
That one night out, was a whirlwind adventure that got them both to rediscover love.
And fall in love, one million times over.
x X x X x
But wait.
Her toe hit something hard on the ground.
A book. His book.
The pain swam through her body quicker than the rediscovery of love ever did.
Damn.
Ladies' Night was going to have to be moved up to Monday.
Author's Note: Please don't kill me! D: Oh well, hope you liked it!
