Cupids' Game

Summery: The Valentine's Dance is coming up and the love is in the air! Ruka, Hotaru and the gang tries various ways to get Natsume and Mikan to go out with eachother and confess. Will they succeed?

Chapter 1:

A beautiful long haired brunette was late. Even though Mikan was in the last year of Middle School and a three star, she still managed to wake up late.

"WWAAA!!! I'm late again!" she cried as she ran down the hall. But she didn't know that a crimson eyed fire-caster was around the corner, waiting for her to bump into him. Well, let's just say that it was Natsume's daily routine. Wake up, take a shower, dress for school, and his favorite part, finding out what Mikan's underwear was that day.

"Ouch! Sorry…" yes, you guessed it.

"Watch where you're going Polka! Or should I say, Stars?" I'm sure you can tell who that was.

"What? PPPEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRVVVVVVEEEEEEEERRRRRTTTTTT!!!!!!!!" the mad girl yelled for the whole school to hear.

"Here we go again…" Ruka sighed as he said this.

"They never change, now do they." The Ice Queen, Hotaru, said to her boyfriend. They had been going out since last year. After Ruka found out that Natsume loved Mikan as well, he decided to give up on his first love. He knew that Natsume needed her and that they were born for eachother.

"Good morning everyone!" a cheery voice filled the class as Mikan came into the classroom. "Hello Hotaru! Ruka!" the teen said as she placed her bag on her desk. After all those years of Baka gun shots, Mikan decided to give up on trying to hug Hotaru. "If she wants me to hug her, she'll tell me to," she had declared on the first day of middle school.

"Good morning Mikan," Yuu, the class-rep greeted his friend. "Where's Natsume? He usually comes to class by now."

"It's Tuesday. Mr. Narumi teached first period, so he's probably skipping class again. He's hopeless." Mikan said as she shook her head.

"Good moring class! I have wonderful news!" Mr. Narumi called out to the group of kids. He wore a pink frilled shirt with a long denim skirt. Talk about gay.

"Are you getting married?" a student yelled out.

"No no, my child, but I wish I were. Well, we're going to have a Valentine's dance in three weeks for the Middle School department!" The teacher announced to the excited class.

"Oh and there's more to that! In order to attend the dance, you must have a partner to go with. The teachers in the middle school department have a meeting with the principle, so the next period will be study hall. Tata kids!" He added.

"Ooohhh! I want to go with my Natsume-sama!" Permy swooned as she daydreamed about impossible events of her and her "love".

"I'm supposing you're going with Ruka?" Mikan asked her best friend.

"For an amount of Rabbits…" the raven haired girl said. As Ruka pleaded Hotaru to go to the dance with him, Mikan wished that she could go to the dance with Natsume. "Nah, he'll definitely say no. I'll just find someone else to go with," she thought, disappointed.

"Who are you going with, Mikan?" Anna and Nonoko asked their friend with sparkling eyes.

"How about Natsume?" Koko asked with an amused look on his face.

"What the heck! Why would I go with the anti-social pervert? I'll just see who asked me out and choose one of them." Mikan said with an annoyed voice.

"Oh no… I'd better go and find Natsume and tell him about this." Ruka said to Hotaru as he got up to find Natsume. Both Ruka and the rest of the school knew very well that there were a lot of boys in love with Mikan. She wasn't the little no-star girl anymore. Mikan had a beautiful face and a perfect body that matched her nice and caring personality. She was the dream girl of every boy on campus.

Ruka found his best friend sitting under the special sakura tree. It was the same place where the fire boy kissed Mikan five years ago.

"Hey!" Ruka said as he panted next to the manga-reading boy. No, he was not a boy anymore. He was… well, let's say, a "gentleman" (even though he was nowhere near gentle).

"What are you doing here?" Natsume said as he looked up from his book.

"Free period. And we're having a Valentine's Dance in three weeks." Ruka told him as he sat down.

"So?" Natsume asked again as he thought about going to the dance with a certain brown-haired girl he loved so much.

"Aren't you going to take her with you?" blond animal-lover asked, hoping he would say yes.

"No," he replied with a grunt. He thought that the polka-dotted brunette would turn him down.

"Sigh, you do know that a lot of boys are going to ask her out. And she did say that she was going to choose one of them to go to the dance with." Ruka persisted. He glared at his friend. He knew how popular Mikan was. For goodness sake, she had her own fan club just like him! And every time a poor boy asks Mikan out, he sends them to the hospital wing with burns all over.

"No. I'm not asking her. She can go with whoever she wants to go with. It's her life." Natsume said.

"You love her! She might feel the same way!" Ruka persisted.

"Hn. She does feel that way." Natsume replied and looked down to read his manga. Ruka was tired of Natsume hiding his feelings.

"Well, I'm just telling you that if you don't tell her how you feel, you'll regret it." Ruka said as he got up to leave for the next period.

When he came into the classroom, Yuu, Koko, Anna, Nonoko, and Hotaru was whispering in the corner of the classroom.

"What are you guys doing? Where's Mikan?" Ruka walk to them as he looked around the class.

"Mikan went to get some textbooks for Mr. Misaki. And if you want to know what we're talking about, come here," Hotaru said before she whispered their secret plan to her boyfriend. Ruka's eyes widened. There was no way that Natsume wasn't going to ask Mikan out to the dance now. At long as he acted the way the friends hoped he would.

To be continued…