A/N: Hello everyone! It's my first time doing a one shot for this pair so please be kind. I'm sorry for not updating my other work, Noblesse Oblige, since I haven't had the time to think the plot through. So needing a break from the exam hassle, here's a short one short for all my lovely readers and followers.
I hope you enjoy it! :)
"I CAN'T FIND IT!"
Mikan's scream echoed throughout the alice academy dormitory.
"Just go without it then." Hotaru's muffled voice could be heard behind the walls of the room which she shared with Mikan. Not bothering to conceal her annoyance at having been woken up at noon.
"I CAN'T! YOU KNOW IT'S MY LUCKY ITEM!"
"You can always get another one." Her voice more muffled, probably because she threw the thick quilt over her head to try and block out the light along with Mikan's shouting.
"IT WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN WITH ME ON ALL MY DECISION MAKING OPPORTUNITIES!"
"Mikan just shut up already about your lucky item. Suck it up and spend that energy in your interview."
"I'll look for it."
"Now? Aren't you supposed to be catching the bus in central town?" Hotaru peeked out from under the covers.
"I have 15 minutes to spare." Then the door shut behind her and Hotaru curled back into the warmness of her bed.
"That means I have 15 minutes to put it back." Natsume thought as he eavesdropped, his room being above theirs directly.
There it was, staring at Natsume right in the face. He tried to turn his gaze away from it but the bright pattern screamed for attention in his side vision. He knew the instant he found it, he was knee deep in trouble. Now wasn't the time to be finding things of Mikan's since they were having a cold war.
As usual, Mikan got frustrated by his lack of delicacy when dealing with problems. He couldn't understand how Mikan could overthink everything, especially when it came down to finding a job. Sure she was the most exquisite person he's ever met in his life and her presence seemed to shed some light in the darkness within. But one thing he could never do was baby her when she needed to hear the hard truth.
Being in the last year of high school meant that you had to get a place within the academy's teaching staff to stay, or you could just accept the missions they offered to the top students within their cohort. But Mikan being Mikan, she fussed over which to choose and Natsume was having a bad day after being told off by Persona about his tardy job at handling his mission; so he snapped. He pointed out that she wasn't being sensitive to his needs and right now, he wasn't in the mood to be delicate with her.
Then low and behold, fate just had to mock him just as he collected his laundry from the washroom. Yup you've guessed it right, sitting on top of his pile of clothes, which he finally got down to washing, sat that odious strawberry printed triangular piece of clothing.
Natsume sighed, frustrated that in his panic to try and avoid anyone seeing him with her underwear, he ran straight back to his room with the laundry basket.
"I should have just thrown it back into one of the washing machines! Why did I panic and take that along with me?!"
Having dated since they entered middle school, Natsume knew how much strawberries mean to Mikan. They weren't the same ones he tried to nick off her during their first encounter, as she obviously grew physically, but her secret attachment to strawberry printed underwear never outgrew her.
Picking up the article of clothing by his pinky, he looked at it and sighed once more. He knew what he had to do, and the longer he fussed over it, the more trouble he was in.
"Just walk over to her room and hang it on the door knob."
"Are you stupid?! Do you want the rest of the male population knowing that she has that kind of underwear? Weren't you so stupidly in love with her that you'd burn a hole in anyone's pants if they even so much as glanced at her?!"
"Then what am I supposed to do?! Wait for her to return before handing it to her?! The great Natsume would not be caught dead with women's underwear in his hands, especially that kind of underwear. People would think I'm some kind of pervert!"
"Aren't you already one? Well then, just let her botch up her important interview. You, yourself said that she had to learn the harshness of reality."
"Could you not be a dick?"
"Who are you calling a dick?"
"You!"
"Tick tock. You have 8 minutes left."
"Considering it takes me 3 minutes to walk from the fourth floor to her room, I have 5 left. That's plenty to think of a better solution."
"Creep, you actually timed yourself. How much hanky panky have you down with her?! Actually make that 7."
"Shut up, stop asking the obvious!"
"You do know that it is noon and it's a Saturday and everyone is awake and walking about…"
"Your point?"
"You're standing here arguing with your consciousness when you should be worrying about people catching you HOLDING her UNDERWEAR!"
"Shit… I forgot about that!"
"So much for being the brightest student in the year, after Imai that is."
"Crap! I forgot about Imai!"
"6 minutes left. What's your plan of action?"
Natsume ignored his consciousness and stuffed the lucky item in his front jeans pocket. He would just think up a plan as he walked over. No time to be worrying about other things.
Closing the door behind him, the first obstacle came up right in his face. Sitting in front of him was a dog; make that two- a fuzzy brown one and a robotic one.
"Hey Natsume!" Ruka called out and stopped for a breath.
"What's up with the dogs?" Natsume asked. This wasn't really the time to be stopping.
"Have you heard? Mikan's lost her lucky item and she's looking for it. Won't tell me what it was though, so while I was helping her look I realised that I could see how much training this guy absorbed in our last session together. Mikan wouldn't tell me anything except it smelled like her laundry soap, so I got him to track it down."
"And the mechanical one?" Natsume eyed the metallic dog with its gleaming red eyes.
"Hotaru texted me, saying that if my natural dog could find whatever Mikan was finding first, I'd score a date with her. So she sent in one of her latest projects."
Ruka's dog barked and scratched at Natsume's leg while the robotic dog growled at him.
"Hmm that's strange, he only does that when he's found the thing he's supposed to."
"OHMYGOD OHMYGOD!" Those were the only words running through Natsume's mind.
"Get it together idiot!"
"You know, I've been cuddling Mikan a fair bit lately, maybe her scent transferred to my clothes." Natsume tried to play it cool.
"Heel heel!" Ruka commanded the excited dog who continuously barked. "Oh… that makes sense. He does make mistakes, not sure about Hotaru's dog, but I'll keep looking."
"4 minutes my friend."
"I'm kinda in a rush Ruka, see you later." Natsume ran off, wiping away the sweat forming at his brow.
With one crisis averted, he managed to reach the bottom of the stairs on the floor of the girl's dormitory. All he needed to do now was walk over to her room door and place them back in her room.
"Crisis avoided."
"Think again."
As he looked around for the next obstacle, there it was bounding towards him.
"Yo! Natsume! You free now?" Koko stuffed his hands in his pockets and grinned.
"Of all people why do I have to run into Yome?!"
"What's wrong with me?" Koko asked with a hurt expression. "I thought we were best buddies, of course, I know I'll always be second place after Ruka. Wait, now with Mikan in the picture, maybe I'm third. Oh but that's not counting your family which if I remember correctly consisted of your dad and sister. So maybe sixth? But I know your love for manga, so maybe seventh? I'd like to think I was above inanimated objects Natsucchi…"
"Yome… I'm in a rush." Natsume tried to say it as nonchalantly as possible, while trying his hardest not to bring to mind the fabric in his pocket, which by the way, he was gripping.
But nothing escaped the mind reader's thoughts.
"Natsucchi…" Koko grinned even wider, with a wicked glint in his eyes, "did I just take a glimpse of a certain someone's underwear?"
"Do you want to never sire any children Yome?" Natsume asked irritably.
"No no, I want children, a whole bunch of them in fact. But you know Sumire and how she values her looks. I don't think she can ever handle the fact that she would have to bloat up in order to have a child. In fact I can imagine her going 'NOOOOOO' like a whale." Koko chuckled to himself. "Then again, I think those thoughts are normal for you since you're kinda pervy."
"2 minutes. Man, he can carry out a conversation by himself…"
"Awww… Don't have such thoughts Natsucchi. I find myself being able to be carefree with you, besides Mikan of course. What's the rush though, where are you going? Mind if I join you?" Koko rattled on.
A scene of him planning to place the underwear back into her underwear drawer flashed past Natsume's mind as he concocted a plan for a quick and easy getaway.
"I SAW THAT! SO THAT'S WHERE SHE KEEPS HER-"
Immediately Natsume activated his alice and was about to fry his poor testicles that Sumire came to the rescue.
"KOKO YOME! WHAT'S THIS ABOUT YOU TALKING ABOUT ME BEING A WHALE IF I'M PREGNANT!?" Sumire marched from the lower stairs up to their level.
Koko immediately swallowed nervously. "Eh heh heh… Hi baby!"
"DON'T YOU FREAKING DARE CALL ME BABY!"
"Aww dear… calm down shall we? How long were you standing there for?"
"LONG ENOUGH! DO YOU THINK I'M THAT SHALLOW A WOMAN?!" She grabbed Koko by his ears and hauled him off to her room.
"Save me Natsucchi! Please! PLEASE! HELP SOMEONE! HELP! HE-" And the wooden door slammed shut, muffling Koko's cries for salvation.
With that dealt with, Natsume sprinted to Mikan's room and threw the door open, before shutting it behind him quickly. Marching towards the dresser, he laid his hands on the wooden knobs and was about to tug it open before he dodged a shot which whizzed past his left ear.
"The last obstacle huh?"
"Being a pervert out in the open now Hyuuga?" Hotaru aimed her gun at his head and narrowed her eyes for a better shot.
"I don't have time to entertain you Imai. Just let me do what I need to and get out of here before Mikan comes back." Natsume held one hand up in defeat while slowly trying to pull out Mikan's favourite underwear from his pocket.
"Hold it. Bring up the other hand slowly."
Whistling, Hotaru's robotic dog leaped into the room through the open window and the dog once again snarled at Natsume.
"I knew it. No invention of mind could ever be tricked." Hotaru stated as Natsume held Mikan's strawberry printed underwear like a white surrender flag.
"Ruka's going to be upset that he just lost that date." Another shot rang out, whizzing past his right ear this time. Hotaru checked her magazine and clicked it back in place before aiming at his head again.
The dog barked and Natsume pressed his back against Mikan's dresser.
"For heaven's sake Imai, I just want to get this thing off my possession already."
"Why are you in a hurry? Or rather, why is that in your possession? Mikan would love to stay and talk to you." Evil gleamed past Hotaru's cold purple eyes and she released another shot, aiming for his crotch. But by a hair's width, Natsume was able to jump up and it lodged itself into one of the drawers behind him.
"I knew you weren't a saint but to actually hold her lucky item ransom isn't something a boyfriend should do." Hotaru shot again and Natsume jumped to the side.
"30 seconds!"
"Imai… put the gun down and I'll explain after Mikan leaves." Natsume tried pacifying the ice queen but he knew it was a worthless attempt. Calculating the time he needed to get to the dresser and out of the window; it was now or never.
As Hotaru reloaded another pellet into her magazine, Natsume set off a small fireball near her right ear and dashed for the drawer.
"10 seconds!"
Yanking open the drawer, he stuffed the article in and shut it close, ignoring that it wasn't placed in it nicely.
"5 seconds!"
"Be nice Imai. I'll explain later."
"3!"
Natsume heard footsteps running towards the door and he jumped out of the window.
"1!"
At that moment, the door flew open and Mikan huffed into it, closing the door behind her.
"What are you doing Hotaru? I thought you were trying to get some sleep? Why are you holding baka gun 20.3?" Mikan looked quizzically at her best friend.
Narrowing her eyes out of the window at the large sakura tree that grew, Hotaru looked back at Mikan and replied her.
"A stupid butterfly was fluttering around and I was trying to get it out." Brushing off the issues with her hand.
"And the dog?" Mikan stared at the robotic dog.
"He's there to keep pest out. Did you find what you were looking for?"
Ignoring the large gaps of information not being told to her, Mikan shook her head and dejectedly reached for the work bag she had prepared.
"Did you look in your undergarment drawer? You're always misplacing things."
Mikan's gaze darted to the dresser and there she saw it, her beloved lucky underwear!
"How did… I thought I checked!" Mikan cried out and took it out of the drawer.
"Obviously you're a klutz and you didn't see it. All right, get going or you'll be late for you interview!"
"Thank you Hotaru!" Mikan exclaimed and rushed to the adjacent bathroom to put on her lucky underwear. Then grabbing her bag, she smiled and left the room.
Not looking out of the window, Hotaru fired another shot and Natsume swung back into the room.
"You owe me one, BIG TIME. Start explaining." Hotaru murmured with her back faced to him.
Natsume stretched a little and thanked her. As he reached for the chair in the room, something dawned on him…
"If she was running around looking for her underwear and went to the bathroom to put some on and came out with nothing… did… DID SHE JUST?!"
"She did. Get your head out of the gutter Natsume!"
A shot whizzed past his head and he really wanted to incinerate the baka gun 20.3 but Imai did save his hide.
"Hurry up, I don't have all day." Hotaru threated.
Natsume took a deep breath to calm him down before narrating his situation, "All right… it started like this. I was going to collect my laundry when…"
Remember to R&R! If you want to know the inspiration for this one shot, do drop me a review and I'll PM you! ^^ Hope it made you smile as much as I did when I was writing it.
