Hola! EXAMS ARE GONE AND I am going to celebrate my return to fanfiction with a one shot! :) Look out for the update on Unspoken Love, coming up real soon! Please leave a review/favourite this! :)
Tamer of the Black Cat
The competition, in fact, stemmed from humble beginnings.
Mikan Sakura stomped all the way across the classroom to where Koko was reading a magazine.
"I need a favour," She breathed heavily, fist clenched, obviously pissed off at something again. "Tell me what Natsume's biggest fear is."
"What?" Koko looked up incredulously, thinking he had heard wrong.
"Hurry and tell me! Do you know it or not?" She snapped back.
Koko frowned hard and tried to recall the fire caster's thoughts. Now that he thought about it, Natsume hardly revealed anything about himself in his thoughts. Other than something like Mikan being too loud or Mikan being an idiot or Stop talking to that guy; Mikan here, Mikan there, Mikan everywhere, Natsume's thoughts were never really interesting. So he shook his head. "Nope. Can't think of anything. Why? Anything wrong?" He shrugged.
"You can't be serious! Everyone has something that they fear. Natsume has to have one, and I will find out! That stupid jerk, he made fun of me and my nightmares again! Trapped in a world without Howalons and Hotaru and only Jin-Jin with math is the worst possible nightmare one can ever have. And he just rolled his eyes and called me a baby! I'm NOT a baby!" She went on and on. "So, I decided I have to find out his weakness and then I'll show him not to laugh at someone else's fears!"
"Well Natsume doesn't really think of much…" Except for you, he might add. But Koko knew he would lose all his hair the second he told her Natsume's wildest fantasies.
"Really? Not even something that would send him into a panic attack and scream?" She was clearly disappointed.
Hearing Natsume scream? Koko's eyes lit up in an instant, the genius in him ticking fast. His face slowly spread into a grin.
"I could help you with that. Tonight, 9pm, my room. It's time to gather our forces."
By 9pm, his room was already cramped with various individuals sprawled across the floor. The small crowd of his classmates and friends looked up as Koko entered his room, dragging a portable whiteboard behind him. To silence the buzz, Koko knocked on the board twice.
"Attention!" His voice rang and the room quietened down.
"Welcome to the secret meeting, part 1. First, let us take the attendance. Sumire. Hotaru. Please keep your baka-gun, no weapons are allowed. Ruka. Yuu. Kitsu? Stop trying to read my diary! Anna. Nonoko. Mikan. Mochu. Perfect."
"What sort of late night crap is this?" Sumire moaned as she hugged a pillow. "And where's Natsume?"
"Ladies and gentlemen. Tonight we are all here to discuss an important issue we need to solve once and for all. And it is precisely why said Mr Hyuuga is not here."
"Can we get this over? I don't want to be part of some stupid prank on Natsume. Last time you made me pour glue into his shoe and he burnt my favourite shirt!" Mochu protested. Hotaru was already standing up and preparing to leave.
"Hold your horses. This is not a prank, my fellow comrades. This is a competition that will make us risk anything and everything, including our lives. Losers will have to pay the winner their lunch money for a week" A discussion erupted on the floor and Hotaru sat back down straighter than ever.
"Well, what are we going to do?"
"We will be finding out Natsume Hyuuga's weakness." Koko grinned a devilish smile.
Several 'oohs!' had already swept across the crowd. A hand immediately shot up into the air.
"What is the point of this? What will we even gain?" Yuu, the pragmatic one, raised his concerns.
"The point of this is that, how many of you can name me a single thing or situation which will make Natsume Hyuuga abandon any stoic exterior and launch into a panic attack? Have you heard Natsume shout other than when he was angry?"
The floor was silenced. Ruka sweat-dropped when people looked to him for answers. "Don't ask me." He raised his hands in defeat.
"Well, will you look at the atrocity of this situation? Even the best friend does not know! Does this not make you guys curious? The one leverage we will ever have in facing the Black Cat?" At this, even Ruka's eyes widened. "It does make me wonder sometimes." Sumire agreed.
Koko could read the thoughts of the room. Ah, he had their interest. This is such a thrilling and sensitive topic.
"Ok, tell us how the thing would go."
"The instructions are simple. Each person in this room gets one attempt within the week at using something, or creating a situation in which our lovely Black Cat will succumb to in fear. It must be noted that witnesses must be present for the entry submission."
The room spun with excitement. He could already hear some rather fine idea generation.
"Order, order!" He called.
"Now we get on to the rules part.
You bear your own consequences! As I mentioned, there will be high risks involved in this intense competition, so keep in mind what you are signing up for. You cannot back out from this halfway nor expect us to save you from the rage of fury.
You are only allowed to enlist the help of someone in this room for help if you should need any to carry out your plans.
No innocent civilians should be harmed.
Said Black Cat should never, ever, ever find out what is going on! The one who lets the cat out of the bag will be deemed a traitor and automatically loses the game with a double penalty! I repeat, a double penalty!
And that would be all. Please sign on the following sheet to acknowledge the above."
That night, he collected all 10 signatures. Satisfied, he rolled up the piece of parchment and taped it to the back of his door.
"Ladies and gentlemen, brave warriors. Let the games begin."
The first failure came just next morning. The contender Mochu decided that the best chance he had was to ruin Natsume's manga, and he carried out his operation in the classroom and full view of the other 9.
"Yo mate." He approached Natsume. At the sound of his greeting, the other 9 immediately whipped their heads around and waited in anticipation. In any moment now, they either see a charred Mochu or a fazed Natsume Hyuuga.
Natsume barely even looked up and grunted to acknowledge his presence.
"Mate, please show me some mercy."
"What?" Natsume finally looked up from the manga clutched in his hands.
It all happened too quickly. If not for Hotaru's camera in action which captured the moment for them to study in detail later, none of them would have seen the swift grab for the manga and the elegant toss out of the window. The pages of the book soared into the sky, and it flipped and the book dived straight downwards. They all waited for the characteristic thud at the end of it. When it did come, the classroom was soundless, even the other students.
Proud of his achievements, Mochu turned around to gather his results.
The report card showed a massive failure. Natsume merely looked at him like Mochu was the strangest piece of flesh in the world. "What was that even for?" All he gave was a shrug. A shrug! A shrug! Not even a single threat?! Mochu was clearly more traumatized, ironic as it seemed. "What? Why aren't you panicking?"
"Why should I panic? I'm already done with it." Natsume then proceeded to yawn. "I'm going to take a nap."
With one down, there was 9 more to go.
Contestant 2 went down, though she managed to generate a little more reaction than Mochu. Nonoko had recently bred a unique species of spiders that sent blood-curdling screams down the throats of Sumire and Mikan when she showed them her creation. Big, hairy and 8 legged.
Perhaps the great Black Cat was actually afraid of spiders? She had it all planned.
She positioned her spider carefully into his bag while he was away, giving a nod to Koko and Yuu across the room.
Lessons resumed without a hitch. The moment was coming anytime now. Hotaru had her secret camera set. They watched as Natsume reached into his bag for his book when suddenly, he retracted it. Did it work?
He stuck his hand into it again, and they watched as he lifted the spider out with his bare hands. "What the hell?" He murmured. Without warning, he flicked the spider off to the ground, right beside Mikan.
And the result was a lot of unrest. The girls spiraled into screams, the teacher exploded, the attempt a failure.
Following the failures of Sumire, who tried to kiss Natsume, Anna and her cooking, Koko's attempt to show up as a ghost in his room at night, and even Ruka, who tried to trap him in a tiny cupboard to determine the possibility of claustrophobia in his veins, Mikan finally decided what she was going to do. There was not one person she knew who would not react to it.
She had the rest of the team hide behind the bushes when she approached Natsume underneath the Sakura tree. At the sound of her approaching footsteps, Natsume looked up and granted as she stood before him.
"Natsume, can you get up for a while?"
"No." He grunted.
"Aww, come on. I need to show you something!" She pouted and whined.
Natsume closed his book shut and sighed as he stood up. "It better be something good." He approached her, and he could not help but notice how beautiful, how precious she looked as she stood there beneath the tree with the soft Sakura petals raining down onto her, and that loose strand of hair that he could just reach out and stroke. Thank god Koko was not around, he thought. Oh, little did he know.
"So, what is it you want to show me?" He stared at that unusual smile that crept across her rosy cheeks. "Better not be another childish-woah!"
Koko almost sprung up from his crouching position. Hotaru's camera was snapping pictures continuously. Sumire gasped and Ruka almost burst out.
Mikan had tackled him to the ground, straddled herself between him and the most incredible scene happened. "What the hell?" Natsume almost bellowed, before he felt Mikan's slender fingers dig into the side of his ribs, jabbing it. He was so appalled and the position with her over him, so close that he could feel her hair and smell her shampoo, and her warmth spreading across his legs and arousing him shit.
"Mikan Sakura, what the fuck are you doing?" He snapped. She looked up at him, face determined.
"I'm tickling you."
There was a wave of frustration over the witness team. "What the heck?" Mochu voiced his disbelief. Sumire cursed and gave a long sigh.
"Why aren't you laughing?" Mikan demanded angrily as she stabbed into his ribs. Meanwhile, Natsume lay there, startled and resigned at the obliviously innocent brunette. He covered his eyes with his arm as he felt her body weight shift onto him. Her fingers came onto his neck, and crept along, sending tiny sparks down him spine. She was driving his hormones insane already. "Why aren't you ticklish? It's even your neck! Oh my god, I was sure this wha…!"
With a swift movement of his legs, Natsume effortlessly tossed Mikan off, flipped her over so that he was now on top of her, pinning her down with both his arms, face so close to hers she could feel her nervous breath. "What are you doing? Get off me!" She squirmed.
Koko could slap himself. "Poor Natsume… How could he control that?" Anna shook her head.
Natsume gazed longingly into the eyes of the girl below her, wanting more than anything to feel her soft skin on his and hold her, feel her, devour her, with her body trapped beneath him and defenseless, he was on the brink of losing control. Damn Mikan, damn the hormones.
"You were the one who pounced into my arms first, naughty girl." His husky voice hot in her ears. For some reason, Mikan felt her heartbeat escalate.
"Ok, ok. I'm sorry. You're heavy. Can you please get off me now?" She winced.
"Without a punishment? No can do."
"Eh?"
And then he was tickling her, feeling her soft curves as she squirmed against him with all her might, laughing and gasping for air.
She was the biggest failure of them all. Instead of scaring him, she put him in such a state of bliss he did not even question her queer intentions.
The competition seemed to come to halt as the brave warriors fell one by one. It was an utter failure until Sunday, the last day, rolled in. Koko was contemplating on declaring the competition as a failure but Hotaru Imai, genius inventor, child prodigy and the Ice Queen had yet to go for her try.
He thought Hotaru had given up on making a move, until slightly before lunch.
As they headed down to lunch, Mikan was whining to Hotaru again and Hotaru was visibly annoyed at her presence. "Hotaruuuuuuuuu, you are going to teach me math right? Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"
"No. Shut up."
They were reaching the staircase, but Mikan was not stopping her whining. "If I fail this, I would have remedial with Jin-Jin all month! What kind of terrible calamity is that? You have to save me, I'm your best friend!" Ruka, Sumire and Nonoko were walking right behind them, Koko and Kitsu coming down the stairs, Anna and Mochu approaching from the other end. Natsume… he was climbing up the stairs to their level.
"Hotaru, are you listening? Help me please! You won't want me to suffer right? Coz we're friends, right? Best friends?" She gave her the puppy eye.
"Mikan." Hotaru turned to look at her sternly.
"Yeah?"
"Behind you."
The next few moments went down in history. Hotaru Imai casually extended her hand and gave Mikan a gentle shove- not strong enough to make her fall, but enough to make her lose her balance. Mikan felt her foot leave the ground and step into the air, into nothing, and she saw Ruka scrambling after her, Nonoko covering her eyes- as she felt herself
Falling, falling and falling,
Down.
She swore, Hotaru was smirking and Sumire gasping in disbelief. Her life flashed by before her eyes in rapid fragments, the wind was strong under her and there was a loud buzz in her ear. Someone was shouting. Will she break into a hundred pieces? How could Hotaru do this? And then she forced herself to squeeze her eyes shut and wait for the impact.
But the hard impact never came. "Oof!" Instead, she felt herself crashing into something warm and soft and it cushioned her from whatever injuries. She heard a load groan coming from someone beneath her. Her eyes flipped open in surprise, still unable to register her bewilderment. She had crashed, or was caught by Natusme, and she lay on top of him, back against his hot beating chest, in a heap against his body temperature.
"Na…Natsume…" She began, voice shaking. But she was even more shocked when Natsume violently turned around and shook her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Does anywhere hurt?" He was panting, his forehead creased into worry, his face panic-stricken. Wait.
Panic-stricken?
"I'm fine," she choked out. Incredibly, Natsume's face relaxed a little. "What the fuck was that? She fell, and all of you just stood here to WATCH? What is WRONG with your brains! What were you even doing?" He exploded like a volcano, and the room temperature shot up drastically.
Nobody moved an inch.
"What are you still standing here for?" He bellowed. The group watched, still immobilized, as a fuming Natsume Hyuuga balled his fists. They all had seen an angry Natsume, but this had just brought anger to a whole new level. It changed the playing field completely.
"There. Koko, my prize, if you please." Hotaru broke the trance.
"I can't believe it… I should have known!" Mochu smacked himself in the face.
"Oh my god. Oh my god. Hotaru, you are ruthless." Anna murmured.
"I don't doubt your title as the Ice Queen anymore." Sumire handed over her lunch money for the day.
Natsume watched all of this in complete and utter confusion. Mikan was already hobbling up the stairs. "Hotaru, how could you…"
"We have a clear winner." Koko announced, and everyone in the group burst into an applause.
"Guys, what. The. Hell?" Natsume seethed.
"It was pretty easy," Hotaru beamed at the rolls of cash in her palms.
"Mikan, you need to pay up too. Oh, you're fine, right?" Hotaru extended her hands.
"Huh?"
"Pay up, Mikan, Hotaru won, fair and square. Shit, did you get that on tape? I want to replay it again and again!" Koko was exercising his authority.
"I swear, someone better explain to me what is going on here." Natsume demanded.
"WHAT?" Mikan suddenly shrieked. "HOTARU, YOU WON? HOW? WHEN? So, what is Natsume's weakness? Not fair! I didn't get to see it!"
Silence.
Natsume's pulse twitched.
Facepalms.
Curses.
"Seriously? Didn't you hear him shout MIKAN and see the way he bolted up those stairs flights at a time to catch you as if his life depended on it? His weakness is obviously y- " Before Koko could finish his sentence, his hair was a mess of flames.
"Keep your mouth fucking shut." Natsume hissed.
And the great competition ended with a landslide victory with Hotaru Imai in her piles of cash, a bald Koko, a bewildered Mikan who still had no clue what was going on but had to pay double penalty as a result of her tardiness, and of course, a very grumpy Black Cat.
"Hey Koko."
"Yeah?"
"Does this mean Mikan's the Tamer? Or is it Hotaru?"
Koko creased his eyebrows and thought hard.
"Of course it's Hotaru. Mikan may tame the Black Cat, but Hotaru tames Mikan."
"You're right."