You Need to Remember
Written by The Lonely Serenade
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"You need to remember, Natsume," she smiled softly, "Spring follows winter." —NaMi.
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You need to remember
That someone cares for you
That summer follows winter
And life can be renewed
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She was so beautiful like this.
Lying on his bed, body curled up beside him, her long brown locks sprawled on his dark comforter, pleading him to run his fingers through them. The girl then sighed in approval when he draped his arms to bring her closer; his warmth attracted her like a moth would to a flame. Her small hands (so small and so flawless and so, very delicate), clutched his shirt while she buried her face to his chest, humming delightfully as his scent of rain and pepperwood washed over her senses in her unconscious state of mind.
He continued to peruse her; crimson eyes darted over her features, and his lips quirked into the tiniest bit of smile when she furrowed her brows together, looking as if she was troubled by her dream.
"Natsume..."
The said boy raised one of his brows when the brunette murmured his name in her sleep, and he saw her frowning (pouting, in sleep) before she let out a low grumble and pressed her palms to the opening of his shirt, casually brushing his exposed chest with her knuckles, and trailed back to where her hands were before.
"...You pervert."
He had to suppress the deep rumble of amusement that threatened to escape from his lips at how contradicting her words were, for she was the one who had just instigated the not-so-innocent touch on his body not a moment ago, and she was the one who snuggled upon him like a teddy bear; pressing her body too closely that he could feel all the soft curves of her body.
Natsume closed his eyes for a second, shutting all his other senses, to focus on his surroundings. All he could heard were the soft strumming of her breaths, and the silent ticking of the clock in his bedroom.
It was moments like these that he cherished the most.
This was the kind of life that he envisioned himself together with her.
Just watching her by his side, content, and happy.
When he was ten years old he thought that happiness was something that only fools could dream of. It was a pointless matter to grab on; life was not always about rainbows and sunshine and laughter, and he found no reason to even expect a life with happiness because the prospect itself would always go, disappear, like that night (-the cold, cold, freezing, haunting night) when he watched his house on fire and witnessed his sister being held as a captive by the academy.
But then she came, and she was everything that he couldn't be.
She was bright, and cheerful, and so optimistic that at first he assumed there must be something wrong with her brain because she could never stay out of trouble and just always had to fall into one. She was so stubborn and selfless to the point where she did not care about her well-being and risked her safety by fighting against those who wish to conflict harm upon her beloved friends, and she had declared to protect all of them.
To protect him.
But she had done more than enough, he mused.
Her laughter saved him from the endless darkness that had consumed every part of his being. Her warm gestures melted his cold exterior like no one else could. And when she smiled, when she smiled his smile—the beatific, gentle smile that always brought his heart to pound loudly and fluttered thump, thump, thump—he swore upon his own life that he would be the only one allowed to receive that smile of hers and make her keep it until they were old and grey.
He had proposed to her the promise of a life time.
She saw him for who he was.
She was never afraid of him.
And she was his.
His to love. To hang on in desperate times.
And he was not planning to ever let her go.
At that very moment, the girl who just now had been blissfully sleeping in his arms suddenly shifted her weight and positioned herself to search for a comfortable place in the crook of his neck and blinked her lids open when she felt a hand stroke her bangs and tucked her loose brown hair behind her ear. The fleeting touch of cool fingertips sent shiver down to her spine and she moved closer to the source of heat beside her while groaning in disapproval because of the dull ache at the back of her neck.
She lifted her head to ease the discomfort, but then directed her vision to meet the intense gaze of the most important person in her life.
"Natsume," she croaked; her voice a bit husky because of sleep, "Why are you awake?"
Natsume only gazed at her with this odd light in his eyes.
The girl sighed and moved her body again so she could face the black-haired man properly. "Go back to sleep, Natsume."
When he made no response whatsoever, the brunette bit her lips in exasperation before closing the distance between their faces until she could feel the warmth of his breath on the tips of her nose. Her dainty fingers crept to the sides of his face and she brushed her knuckles against his cheeks, her hazel eyes focused sorely upon him.
"What are you thinking?"
"Some...things."
"Things?" She echoed, "Like?"
"Hmm."
She looked at him dryly. "Am I supposed to know what that means?"
"...No."
"Hmmm," she mimicked his earlier response when he drew soft curves at her back, almost giggling at the ticklish sensation it gave, "You're thinking about the past."
Mikan knew that she had hit her guess right on the spot when she felt Natsume stopped his ministrations on her. The notion of Natsume tiring his brain out to think of the horrible and unpleasant past instead of sleeping made her shook her head inwardly. She knew that he was a light sleeper. Natsume didn't like to sleep through the night, perhaps with it being the aftermath of those nightmares that had stalked him years ago. But still, it was not a good habit to develop. Deciding to take the situation into her own hands, she braced herself to face whatever he might do to her for what she was about to initiate.
Natsume's crimson eyes watched as Mikan pondered to her own world and almost chuckled by this confused look on her face if not for the sudden sting that inflicted his cheeks.
When Mikan opened her eyes again, she saw Natsume's crimson orbs glared at her in irritation. He was sending her his infamous 'What the hell did you just do to me' look.
But she was not about to be fazed.
"Well," she started, her hazel eyes stared at everything but his eyes, "You were distracted by pointless things. I figure that you need to snap out of it."
"And stretching my cheeks was the way?"
"I'm not stretching your cheeks!" She protested indignantly, "I was...pinching them."
"...Stupid pig-tail girl."
Mikan rolled her eyes and huffed. "Stupid perverted Natsume."
"But you love me, don't you?"
Her sleepiness was gone in an instant. His question threw her off and she shot him an embarrassed look. "W-What!"
He smirked, knowing that he had caught her in his trap. "You do."
She was resisting the urge to yell "I don't!" but then he would know that she was lying and she didn't need him to provoke her any further with that smug look of his. How could she end up being teased by him endlessly when she only attempted to cheer him up in the first place was beyond her.
Ungrateful jerk, she muttered inwardly.
But she knew he was trying to distract her and she did not like to be subservient and acquiesced to his doings. She wanted to make things clear with him. She needed to tell him.
"Natsume," Mikan gave him a look, hazel orbs brimming with pure, genuine concern, "Listen to me."
He didn't say any comment and she didn't expect him to.
"We're now sixteen."
"We are."
"The academy...is recovering. Somehow."
He paused. "I know."
"Then let me ask you this," she told him, "Do you believe that you could gain happiness and...start a new life? With me?"
"...Why are you asking me this?"
"This," Mikan gestured to the necklace on her neck, uncovering the red, fiery crimson alice stone that was once veiled by her hair, "This is the sign of our promise. And I am not about to run away from it.
"I anticipate it, Natsume."
Natsume's crimson orbs suddenly burned into a darker shade of red and she held her breath when he looked at her with dark, (darklymesmerizing) smoldering eyes. "Do you?"
"A-Anyway," she stuttered, cursing herself at how unprofessional she sounded, "What I'm trying to convey is that, well..."
"Hmm?"
She sighed. "We don't exactly have the best of experience regarding our pasts, but right now," she swallowed and gazed at him with a fixed determination on her features, "Right now, Natsume, is spring."
He stared at her blankly."...It's autumn."
"No, I mean yes, but-no, don't take it literally, what I mean, is that those bad things don't just continue." She bit her lips. "Those bad things we've been through—they're winter. So agonizingly cold and long, and too much sadness. But it will gradually be over, and it has now. Then we will look on a brighter tomorrow. Like, to simply put it, I'm here, aren't I?"
She laughed again at the look he sent her; the sound so rich and pleasant that without himself realizing, his eyes softened just a tad bit and his heart swelled as she played with his fingers.
"I am here, Natsume. By your side. I can touch you." She reached out to him and pressed a soft kiss to his brow. "I can feel you," Mikan then moved her hands to his chest, before stopping when she felt the beating of Natsume's heart under her palm, "I'm alive. You're alive. This is spring. This is happiness."
His breathing was slow as he continued to evaluate her. "This is."
"You need to remember, Natsume, that even after years of our sufferings, I'm still here with you," she smiled at him with so much affection (so much that it hurt not to bring her closer and kissed her silly), "Because even after the coldest of winter, a warm spring awaits."
Natsume appreciated and captured her wrist mildly before bringing her fingers to his lips, "It does."
"And whatever happens, I'll always be with you," Mikan tapped the alice stone (the same one that she gave him on Christmas night five years ago) that hung from the silver chain that circled Natsume's neck, "Through joy and through pain, through everything. I will always be there..." She trailed off. "You do know that, don't you?"
Mikan felt her chin being lifted by Natsume's fingers, and she smiled when Natsume touched her lips with his thumb before murmuring his answer through a kiss.
His lips covered hers gently, too gently, almost as if he was afraid of breaking her. But then she scraped his lower lip in the most affectionate way that he had to restrain himself from losing his composure and she, on the other hand, sighed blissfully into the kiss and brought her arms to the back of his neck to press him against her closer, him doing the same by trailing his hand from her back to rest on her waist, one hand at the back of her head.
Mikan didn't want to stop. She really didn't want to. Because through the kiss she could feel all the rush of Natsume's emotions: the pain, the desperation, the anguish, the fear, and the love.
She felt loved.
The feeling of joy that burst through her system was overwhelming, and she would have cried in happiness if not for the fact that they were kissing right now and Natsume was staring at her and she knew better than to do a foolish thing such as sobbing.
When Natsume broke their kiss, she was breathless.
He thought she was adorable like this, with her cheeks looking a healthy red, and her lips a bit bruised from his actions. And then all of a sudden it hit him; like a stroke of lightning, of what was she trying to tell him all this time. She was referring to his future, of what was going to be expected, and he could just see it, see them like this, and he saw no other future except with her in it.
I'm here for you, she had said.
And he knew. He knew that she would always be there. Always.
"...Thank you, Mikan." I love you.
She gave him his smile, and he could hear the thump, thump, thump rang in his ear. "I know." I love you too.
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You need to remember
That sunshine follows rain
That tears are prayers for laughter
And life can come again
You need to remember
—You Need to Remember by Ray Watson
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A/N: Because I just went through a heart-break and yearned for a happy ending. It sure has been a long time since I last wrote a story, so my writing have probably changed (hopefully better), and this story is not yet corrected so it would be helpful if you can state or point some mistakes that go unnoticed by my sleepy (because reading materials for debates are not refreshing to the least) eyes.
The recent chapters of Gakuen Alice are down right depressing. I just wish the creator would create a happy ending for the both of them (NatsumeMikan!).
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Constructive criticisms are welcomed, and reviews regarding your opinion would be lovely.:)
Best regards,
The Lonely Serenade.