Yo! I haven't written in a long long time, so be nice to me!

Also this is just a one-shot so enjoy!

I Always Knew You'd Be There For Me

"Feel better, grandpa! I'll see you when I get home."

"Good"- cough-"bye, Mikan."

Oh poor Grandpa. What could he have come down with so quickly?

Mikan hurried down the stairs, pulling her backpack on as she did so.

She rushed out the front door, just barely making it before the bus pulled away from the curb.

The city bus made its morning stop two blocks away from the Academy, and Mikan hopped off and ran the rest of the way to school.

"Ohayo everyone!" she said before bending over panting.

"Ohayo."

"You know, you could pass out from lack of breath."

"Thank you for your concern, Natsume. But I think I'll be alright."

"How's your grandfather this morning?" Hotaru at least cared for grandpa's well being.

"Not so good today. He seems to be getting weaker. I don't know what to do."

"A doctor would probably help." Natsume liked to tease Mikan in the early morning.

"Like we haven't seen one of those yet. Of course I took him to the doctor, but we are still waiting on test results. We won't know for another day or so."

"Ohayo everyone." The cheerful voice of Ruka had approached the group.

"Hi," they responded in unison.

"How's gramps, Mikan?"

"Not so hot."

"Sorry to hear it. Give him my best."

"Thanks Ruka, it means a lot that you guys care about grandpa like that."

"Our pleasure. We have to care about someone in your family, don't we?"

"I wasn't including you, jerk-wad."

"Well excuse me."

"Okay, class, we're starting now!" Narumi-sensei was peppy as usual and started the class without further delay.

"Mikan, do you and Natsume want to join Hotaru and me for lunch today?"

"No, she's not invited. If you didn't want to go alone with me, you shouldn't have called it a date."

"No, no that's not what I meant-"

"It's okay, Ruka. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll go check on grandpa during lunch break. But you two go and have a good time." She turned towards Hotaru and smiled.

Hotaru stared her down with an icy glare.

That girl. Always so shy to be affectionate.

"Don't worry, Ruka. I'll see to it, that she eats a good meal."

"That's not really what I was worried about, but…oh whatever."

"What makes you think I want your company?"

"Well because whether you like to admit it or not, we're friends, and who do you think you're kidding? You love my company."

Mikan rolled her eyes at the comment. "Fine, if you must trail along, then there's no helping it I guess. Meet me at the front of the school when lunch starts."

"Gotcha."

"And leave your annoying, evil, egotistical personality here. I don't want you upsetting grandpa." She spit her tongue out at him and rushed to third period class.

Mikan walked out the double front doors of the large academy.

"Tch. Took you long enough."

"Didn't I tell you no attitude?"

"Oh, I probably wasn't listening when you said that."

"Of course you weren't."

…..

"So that's cute that Hotaru and Ruka are sorta dating, or whatever you would call their continuous one date here, one date there, on-off relationship thing."

"Tch. Whatever makes 'em happy I guess."

"And what would make you happy, I wonder."

"Me? Happy? Don't make me laugh."

"Come on Natsume. Everyone can be happy if they try. So what would make you happy? Lots of money? A big house? A successful job? A beautiful wife?"

"I guess I never really cared to think about it. Plus, we both know I'm gonna have all that some day anyways."

"Knowing you, you'll definitely get it. But right now, before you can get all that stuff, while you're still in school. What would make you happy? You're never happy."

"I am happy. I have Ruka, and you, I guess, and even Devil's advocate is there, too. That's kind of all I need. I'd just like to be there for the people that matter when they need it."

"Wow. That was really….wow. I did not just hear you utter those words."

"Hey. I can be a reasonably okay guy if I want."

"No, no there's nothing wrong with it. That's actually the problem. It's too perfect. Doesn't sound like the Natsume I know. Who are you really? What did you do to Hyuuga?"

"Nothing. It's me. I just never said that to anyone really."

"Oh. Well I'm honored that I was first to hear it. And also, I'm glad you're our friend. Sometimes we would be lost without you. Especially Ruka, ya know? He can be a kind of hopeless guy sometimes." Mikan laughed at the thought of Ruka without Natsume by his side, looking around petrified.

"Yeah. That kid. He's been a good friend to have around."

"You have been too, Natsume."

Mikan looked up at him, her seriousness rooting him to the spot.

"Stop looking like that, weird girl. It's scaring me," Natsume said bemused.

"Sorry." Mikan looked away, thinking about how foolish she probably looked. "Well, let's see how grandpa's holding up."

They opened the front door, and after Mikan set down her bag, she marched up the steps.

"Grandpa, I'm home for lunch. Is there anything I can get you?"

She cracked open his door and looked in. He was sleeping, difficultly but cutely.

"Is he okay?" came a hushed voice.

Mikan jumped in horror at the sudden voice whispered over her shoulder.

"Jesus Christ, Natsume! Don't sneak up on people like that. You could have given me a heart attack! Then who would take care of grandpa?"

"Calm down, whiney."

After breathing deeply a few times, she relaxed again.

"Don't do that."

"Sorry, sorry, accident. So how's he doing?"

"Well I don't want to wake him when he's sleeping so peacefully."

"That doesn't look that peaceful. He looks like he's in pain."

"Well, what should we –"

"Uuhhuuhh." Grandpa had woken up suddenly and was gasping for air with much difficulty.

"Oh my god, grandpa?"

While Mikan rushed to his side and was having a panic attack of her own, Natsume grabbed the phone and called in the emergency.

Shortly after, the ambulance arrived and took Mikan and her grandpa to the hospital. Because Natsume wasn't related, he wasn't allowed on to the ambulance. As it drove away, he watched Mikan's face be drenched with tears through the back window.

Natsume's mind was racing. What do I do? Should I go back to school? Why didn't I go with them?

Natsume grabbed his backpack from inside the house and proceeded to go back to school. He figured he was already late coming back, so he walked slowly. There's nothing I can do but go back.

When he was about a block from school, his thoughts finally settled down.

"You liar," he said aloud to himself.

You said "I'd just like to be there for the people that matter when they need it." Well what the hell are you doing going back to school for! You complete idiot.

Without another word, Natsume threw his backpack down where he stood, and raced away from the school.

He ran through bushes, back yards, busy streets and crowded sidewalks, never slowing down. When he saw the building with the famous red "H", he was only more determined to get there. He ran to the emergency entrance and stopped at the front desk.

Out of breath, and still in a hurry, he yelled at the petite woman sitting in her chair.

"Sakura? An…old man with trouble…breathing, with a young…girl. Probably came in…about twenty or so minutes…ago! Which way?"

The tiny woman just stood up and pointed in the direction that he should go. "Down the hall, take a right. Straight ahead!" she yelled to him.

Natsume raced down the long hall. Why must hospital hallways be so long? Then he took the right and sped down the next hallway. When he reached the end of it, he stood, looking around frantically. Stupid nurse!

But then he heard a girl crying. He turned and around the closest corner there was an auburn haired girl hunched over on a bench.

Natsume walked over, sat down next to her, and before she could see who the stranger creeping ever closer to her was, he hugged her. At his touch, she knew who it was. Who else could it be?

"It's gonna be okay. I just know. You have to trust me, okay?"

As Natsume backed away, he saw the girl nod. He looked directly into her eyes; her face was white as a sheet with worry. Tears had stained her cheeks.

"It's gonna be alright."

Still scared, she hugged him again, and Natsume didn't mind how tight her grasp around him was. He was there for her, and that's all that mattered.

"So where is he?"

Mikan released him to point to the room she was sitting across the hall from. Inside, her grandpa was hooked up to an oxygen breathing machine, heart monitors, pulse monitors, and an I.V. came from his hand.

Natsume and Mikan sat on the bench outside the room for quite some time. Eventually Mikan feel asleep on Natsume's arm.

After a long while, the doctor came out. Natsume woke Mikan and she jumped up at the sight of the doctor.

"Ms. Sakura, your grandpa is going to be fine."

Mikan slouched down on the bench. She was crying again, but this time out of relief. She hugged Natsume tightly again.

"Would you like to see him?"

Mikan nodded her head. "Yes, please."

"He's sleeping, but you can come in now."

Mikan started to walk into the room, but stopped. She turned towards Natsume and held out her hand. Without a moment's delay, he got up, took her hand, and followed her into the room.

They gathered around his bed on one side, the doctor on the other, as nurses continued to tend to the machines and monitors he was hooked up to.

"Your grandpa had a heart attack, Ms. Sakura, but he'll be alright. It was a minor one, thank goodness. He was extremely lucky. He should stay overnight for recovery. But when he gets out, he just has to make some adjustments to his diet and such."

Mikan smiled slightly in relief, but only slightly. "Can I stay with him?"

"For a short while. Then we have to move him to a different room out of the E.R."

"Okay, well until then…"

She pulled a chair close to the bedside and sat down. Mikan laid her head down next to her grandpa's hand after picking it up and holding it in her own.

Natsume admired the two before him. He was glad everything was okay. He quietly turned and exited the room to leave the two in peace. He sat down on the bench he had previously been sitting on and closed his eyes.

After half an hour or so, the doctors and nurses came in again to move grandpa to a different room on a different floor. Mikan woke Natsume and they followed the party to the elevators.

When they arrived at the new location, the nurses made themselves busy by situating grandpa in the new bed and hooking him up to monitors again.

Mikan took this time to lead Natsume to the hallway.

It was the first time she wasn't crying and the first time she spoke in awhile.

"Thank you. There's really nothing I can say that will convey how much I mean it. Without your help…we might not have even made it here."

"Hey. Don't worry about it. Like I told you before, 'I'd just like to be there for the people that matter when they need it.' I'm just glad I could make that happen."

"Well you were definitely there for me when I needed someone most. You know, somehow, I always knew you'd be there for me. You're a truly great person, Natsume."

"I'm just glad everything's gonna be okay."

"Me too," she said as she hugged her dear friend.

The End.

Phew! Thank god grandpa's okay.

Well that was my one-shot I had a basic plot for but was mostly making up as I went along. Hope you liked it.

Please review so I can evaluate my work because this was my first story in kind of a long while so help me out!

Thanks.

~Passion's Grace