Note: First fic! I tried, believe me. I have the outline and it's been planned out already, but knowing myself, the story might still swerve completely elsewhere. Ruka-Hotaru centric fic. This fic will be over in four chapters flat.
Somewhere in the coasts of Japan, Mikan Sakura gawked at the article on the front page of Tokyo Times. It was really a good thing that she had not yet taken a sip of her morning coffee, else she would have spat out steaming hot liquid all over herself and the breakfast counter. Natsume would not like that at all, considering today was his House Chores Day.
"Hun," she called out to her fiancé, who was busy making breakfast, "what do you know about Savannah Chapelstone?"
She glanced at Natsume who was by then already sautéing garlic and onions. He had his eyebrows furrowed; he squinted through the smoke that rose from the pan. "She's the daughter of Sir John Chapelstone, the guy who began the Endangered Species Protection Program. Ruka used to tell us about that girl, remember?" Taking the newly-cooked breakfast off the pan and into their plates, he looked at Mikan and saw the manic expression in her eyes. "Why ask?"
She took her time in answering and waited until he had set down the plates before breaking the news. He might just drop their breakfast, and she would really hate wasting delicious bacon and garlic rice. Infuriatingly enough, Natsume was a brilliant cook as well.
"Mikan, why?" Natsume asked again. She sent him an apologetic look. "Because it says here Ruka just got engaged to her," she murmured.
Hot coffee spilt over the table and she watched Natsume gag over his drink. It should have been a funny scenario but it wasn't because...well, because Ruka was getting engaged.
To someone not Hotaru.
"Ruka is what!" Natsume spluttered in disbelief. "Engaged? To be married?"
It was a mark of the gravity of the situation that Natsume Hyuuga was being uncharacteristically slow, but Mikan hardly had any time to point it out. She was still too shell-shocked herself. "Yes, I suppose so," she replied weakly, putting down the paper and staring ahead unseeingly.
She could not believe the suddenness of everything.
Just a year ago Ruka and Hotaru decided to call it off. Everyone all thought Ruka would be the one stuck and Hotaru would be the one soaring past the messy break-up they had. Instead, twelve months bore witness to Ruka having a successful career somewhere in France and to Hotaru being as workaholic as ever. The big difference, however, is the fact that they've been hearing news of Ruka's flames—today a beautiful model, tomorrow a gorgeous scientist, the next day a genius writer—whereas Hotaru stayed single as ever and went to plough on her inventions while occasionally holding charity balls for animal welfare organisations.
And now this... Mikan couldn't understand how it all came to this.
"Call Imai," Natsume voice suddenly floated to the forefront of her thoughts. Her hazel eyes found his crimson one, wordlessly asking why.
"You have to stop her from executing diabolical plans to reveal Savannah's most incriminating secrets." Natsume began chewing up his breakfast. "Trust me, this is going to be one hell of a messy affair."