Title: Homecoming
Pairing: Natsumikan, Hotaruka
Genre: Romance/General
Summary: A series of in-between.
Note: After avoiding the fandom for a long time because I don't want to finish the manga because I am afraid that my childhood adventure will come to an end, I finally finish it by reading the whole series for two straight days after eight years of avoidance. I am in my early twenties now and depressed and I had sought for something to ground me and silly as it may be, Gakuen Alice called to me. I cried reading the manga but I had never felt more alive than when I was reading it compared to the last eight years of my life.
Also, reading the Kageki no Kuni Alice, I saw that Mikan and Natsume wear rings now—not just on any finger but on their ring fingers. Oh my. And now that Tachibana-sama had given us a perspective on Mikan and Natsume's relationship, we are kinda wrong, aren't we? We thought it would be full of fighting but they're so lovey dovey and very public. I love it.
oOo
It was odd, Mikan decided. It was very odd but the kind of oddity that doesn't discourage one's person but instead it just intrigued people more. It was a good kind of odd that blooms within one's chest and spreads throughout the blood system like a drug and Mikan knew she was hooked.
"What are you looking at?" Natsume asked besides her and she leaned unconsciously towards his voice. Mikan caresses the thin band around her finger and she felt like there is nothing she can't do. So, she gave him a soft smile to stilt the feelings she has in her chest into a soundless brimming curve, "It felt odd. I had never thought that the emptiness I felt during the last four years will ever go away. But you came, Natsume, you came and give me back the years I had lost and I had never felt more alive. Now, without losing much time, you give me this ring and I…"
"I lost so much time." Natsume interrupted, gently flicking Mikan's forehead. "We should have been together that last four years. You have been my fiancée since that Christmas day and I couldn't even give you a ring. So I won't even waste one second not to give you one now that we're back together. Don't be stupid, Mikan."
Mikan giggled at her partner. His last words bring back memories when they were both ten years old and dislike one another. Who would have thought that they would fall in love and beat fate to be together?
If it wasn't for her, she wouldn't have Natsume today. And she would have… she would have…
"You would never leave me again, right, Natsume?" Red eyes bore on browns, eyebrows wrinkling just enough to show an annoyed glint in his eyes. "Shouldn't I be asking that to you?"
"Of course I would not. It's not like I had a choice back then." She doesn't have a choice back then and she wished she had. If she hadn't lost her memories, she would have kept on wondering what happened to Natsume, what happened to everyone—if she hadn't lost her memories, she sure as hell would be drowning in tears everyday for the last four years.
Natsume stared at Mikan before sighing, gently intertwining their hands together.
"I told you before and I will tell you again, you are mine and no matter how much people want to tear us apart, I will come and bring you back to me."
Fin…
Next: "I don't have that kind of fate, Natsume." Ruka said quietly, "I'm not as lucky as you to beat fate. I can't even remember the name of the woman I fell in love with."