Drunk on Books
A/N: I do not own Gakuen Alice. But, it would be awesome if I did.
"Love doesn't care about time; it doesn't care about bloodline whether you're from a family who hates each other.
It doesn't care about age – Juliet was thirteen and Romeo was seventeen.
It doesn't bother and it doesn't choose.
You'll find a person you'll love eventually if you let go of such thoughts of impractical love."
Warning: this is a long fanfiction with a lot of talks about books.
* says that the descriptions are at the bottom.
Ding!
The elevator's doors shot open, revealing a woman with a ludicrous smile on her face. She stepped out of the claustrophobic space, and, in the process, fell flat on her face. Ignoring the fact that she actually did an embarrassing thing, she stood up once more – trying to maintain her poise, looking around if anyone had spotted her. Her auburn hair was disheveled, her make-up was smudged, and her hazel, crystal eyes were red from crying. She was the epitome of wasted – more than that actually. Each stride she took had her wobbling and grabbing for support from the wall. She knew she didn't have the body to ingest that much alcohol. How could she get any more insane?
2709.
2710.
2711.
271 – swoosh.
Her vision turned hazy and, in no time, the woman toppled over, flailing her arms for some wind support like a young bird pushed from its safe nest. It was like someone had meant to trip her. Soon enough, intense curses resonated around the seemingly, empty hallway as she fell forward. Turning mad, she went instinctively for her shoes, catapulting them across the hall where its four-inch heels smacked a man, who just got out of his room which was a few doors away from where she was, near the base of his nape.
An angry expression crossed his face as he rubbed the part where the shoe had hit him.
"Hey! You could've killed me."
He was ready to start a dispute and give the heel-thrower a piece of his mind. However, when he turned around and saw who it was, his expression changed into a simper. Mikan Sakura, his supposed-to-be upright neighbor, sprawled on the floor with a homicidal appearance.
"Oh. Shut up," Mikan murmured as she stood up and reached out to the wall for support. Like a blind person, she staggered in her steps, feeling the walls underneath her palms. Unknown to her, her beloved neighbor didn't even budge, certainly amused with her drunk form.
"Did you drink?" the man asked, emphasizing one word.
2717, Mikan read in front of an overly-familiar door which was right across the man's.
"Do not talk to me, Hyuuga. My brain's already trying to escape from my head. Do not add to my problems," she said, irritated, and dug inside her bag, searching for her keys.
Natsume who was apparently even more entertained, watched her with a keen eye, completely forgetting that he was supposed to buy a new battery for his radio in the mini store down the lobby. He leaned on the wall beside his door, hands in both his front pockets. A cool smirk played on his lips. Obviously, having had the time of escorting his drunken sister home a few times, he knew that Mikan was not just under the influence of alcohol, but was essentially conked out in the love department.
Maybe, that guy, with maroon hair and funny set of yellow eyes, dumped her, he thought, and made a quick glance at his frustrated neighbor. On second thought, let's remove the maybe. He seriously dumped her.
Failing in the attempt to finding her keys, Mikan dumped all the things inside her bag down the carpeted floor. Her purse, brush, compact powder, hand phone, and other useless stuff scattered. Natsume creased his forehead, wondering why she suddenly did that. Even in drunk state, girls never – ever – let their prized possessions out of their much-loved, overpriced hand bags.
Is she even a girl in the first place? he thought.
He changed his mind though, almost instantly, upon seeing how Mikan's dress hugged her curves perfectly, and how that image alone entirely disturbed his thoughts. He looked over her, and realized he had gone into a daze. His ever-so-friendly neighbor slumped down the ground, holding onto the knob of her apartment's door. He heard her cuss a string of enlightening words, and rants about how much this day sucks.
"Lost your keys – I suppose."
Hazel orbs glared at him, thinking that he was the same guy who broke up with her, and a clumsy finger pointed accusingly at him. She didn't know why Natsume morphed into her boyfriend who became her ex-boyfriend about two hours ago; she only understood the sudden urge to decapitate the boy with striking yellow eyes – which in this case was Natsume (according to her damaged brain cells).
"This is your entire fault, you unreasonable dork!" she shouted.
Natsume's eyes narrowed. "Excuse me?"
"To move is to stir, and to be valiant is to stand. Therefore if thou art moved thou runn'st away (Angry enough to run away. You won't stand and fight)," she quoted, angrily glaring at the man in front of him. She loved Shakespeare to bits and practically is the type who spends a large amount of time reading his plays. She didn't know why she suddenly blurted out a Shakespeare line from Romeo and Juliet; she only knows she's out of her mind and totally not in control with her own actions.
On the other hand, Natsume, befuddled, had no idea why she was calling him names, and why the hell she was challenging him into some bloody fight.
"Are you crazy?" He asked, perplexed but not because he did not understand what she said. Heck. He loved Shakespeare. Saying a few lines by Romeo always had the girls swooning over him, instantly moved by his charm and wits.
Mikan groggily stood up, almost falling back. She flashed him a toothy grin – this time seeing Natsume in the form of her senior crush back in high school – and took a step forward, batting her eyelashes surreptitiously.
Natsume felt his heart skip a beat. The way Mikan looked at him was simply alluring, enticing even. He could never deny that he got attracted to this brunette before. She was striking and, well, has a great figure. But, when she opened her big mouth, he reconsidered. He wanted to kill himself for even thinking such things.
Sort of surprised when Mikan took one more step towards him, he flinched. He didn't know what's going on in that drunken mind of hers. All he knows is that Mikan lost her keys, and there wasn't any cleaning staff, who could lend her a spare key, available this late at night. Even if he's nearly the owner of this building, he couldn't possibly possess a set of spare keys for all of the rooms. Besides, his dad won't even allow that.
"You kiss by th' book (You kiss like you've studied)," she said, her eyes boring into Natsume's.
Natsume froze, and he felt his cheeks flush furiously. The cool attitude he prompted to set earlier vanished, leaving him to skedaddle for his dear life and innocence – if he still has any. Clearly, Mikan was imagining him as another guy rather than the one whom she had called an unreasonable dork. Mikan Sakura right now was a hazard, a thing to be avoided. Natsume is a guy after all, and she's a girl under the influence of the ever-deceitful alcohol. Not wanting to have to do anything with Mikan as of the moment, he hastily dug out his apartment's key from his pocket, and successfully turned the door open.
Just when he was about to close the door behind him, a sound of limbs twisting and hitting the floor was heard.
He rolled his eyes, arms crossed, looking over the couch where he had thrown his neighbor. Scanning the room, his eyes landed on the clock that read 1:00 in the morning. He planned to take some shut eye thirty minutes ago but Mikan kept on limping over to his bar, where all kinds of alcoholic drinks were, and tried consuming more.
He should have left her when she, spraining her left ankle, had tried to run after him. Seeing her with that defiant smile on, Natsume knew that he wouldn't get any sleep tonight. It was dangerous having Mikan – who was nowhere near as drunk as earlier yet still is – awake with no supervision. Surely, she would devour all of those bottles, which he had been saving for some parties and future candlelight dinners, in the wine rack.
He sat down the couch across hers. "Now, be a good neighbor and sleep," he instructed.
"You don't have the right to order me around, Hyuuga," Mikan replied, still a bit dazed, but certainly saw things normally. She rubbed her head, and took a good look around the room. The living room was decorated with only two colors: black and white. She felt like she was in some kind of 70s movie although the modern furniture implies the opposite thing.
"This is my apartment. My rules."
She snorted and glared at him. "Whatever. You, no-good businessman."
"As if I care, inept writer," Natsume smartly shot back, adjusting himself in the couch.
Mikan was in disbelief. She was not an inept writer or anywhere near that. She was fabulous, astounding, remarkable and simply great; she won tons of awards. How could he call her that? He doesn't even know much about her. How dare he judge her?
"You know nothing about literature, Hyuuga. Shut it."
"I hate to ruin your defining moment, but I know a lot about the aforementioned subject," Natsume replied articulately, instantly making Mikan's blood boil like lava.
Mikan's eyebrows met, and she glowered at the man seated across her. She was planning to throw at him one of her heels, but, when she reached down for it, her shoes were not there. As if she has been hit with a baseball bat, the scene earlier sunk into her. She remembered throwing her shoe across the hall and it – as if by fate – hitting her lovely neighbor. Unquestionably, Natsume must have put it away as far from her as possible to avoid such incidents.
"Where's my damn shoe, Hyu – Nevermind. Do not make a conclusion that fast. You have to prove it to me," Mikan said, forgetting the whole deal with her heels.
Natsume eyed Mikan, thinking of the most effective way to exasperate her. He chuckled lightly after having been struck of such a brilliant idea. "Tch. I got nothing else to do anyways until you pass out again. How shall I prove it to someone like you who's abnormally obsessed with – what? Nursery rhymes?"
Snap.
Mikan wanted to close around her two hands on his neck and asphyxiate – or choke – him until there's no more oxygen for him to inhale. Unfortunately, she did not want her face plastered on newspapers and be labeled as 'neighbor slayer' or stuff like that (even if she's drunk, she knew that killing was not an option).
"I am not freakin' obsessed with nursery rhymes. I hate Hickory Dickory Dock. I hate how clumsy Humpty Dumpty was. I hate how Little Boy Blue slacked off his job. To put in simple terms, I am into more mature stuff," she angrily replied.
She's a lunatic, he thought, assessing her hysterical boldness.
"Like '*Gone with the Wind'?" Natsume asked with a brow raised, totally entertained with her fits.
The brunette turned scarlet red. "Wh-hat are y-you talking about, Hyuuga? Why would I read something like that?" She asked, stammering.
"You mean you haven't read that?"
"They say it's too mature, and they say it has lots of complicated scenes."
"You're a writer yet you don't appreciate the beauty of those things. Not to mention, you're like twenty-four," he coolly replied, smirking at Mikan.
"I'm twenty-three, Hyuuga. Twenty-three," she cleared, irritated with the fact that he just guessed her age with an added one year. "Let's just say. I don't like novels with too much censored topics. I don't doubt you though. You must always read stuff with those."
She thought for once she won a victorious, glorious fight. She felt like showing Natsume the 'loser' sign, claiming her winning lot. Oh how she thought wrong.
"That is not all that is to that novel, Sakura. It's more than that. And I have a wide range of reading materials. I'm not like you sticking your face in a young adult fiction with vampires, fallen angels, and who knows what else. Do you actually know what reading is?"
Defeated. Mikan was defeated. She imagined hurling a comet straight at Natsume's big head which was so full of nonsense, factual information. She was not into nursery rhymes, but, heck, she loved young adult fiction. It was the best thing in the world – aside from classic novels and plays that is, and nothing can compare.
She crossed her arms over her chest defensively with a self-righteous face. "So, what if I read books with vampires and whatnot? It's the latest trend. I'm a writer – a modern writer. I have to get a view of how the more-into-reading generation grabs a book and reads it. And, you are not in that modern generation, Hyuuga," she pointed out, smirking.
Natsume didn't even change his expression. It was still smug and perfectly irritating. He was enjoying this conversation with someone who was drunk and was getting all protective on her reading habits. "How would I fit in that modern generation when all those novels talk about how hot the fictional character is which, undeniably, is based on the infatuated crazed teenager narrating or is the focus the story? Tell me."
Mikan didn't know what to reply. He was right; she never had read a novel without the main character talking about the other protagonist with descriptions as hot, mysterious, handsome, lovable, and etc. She hates this – she hates when she's wrong.
Her lips twitched in irritation due to the lack of a good logical retort. "Shut up. You're not proving your point here, Hyuuga." Her head ached again but she was not going to let that simple problem get in the way of her winning this verbal argument with her ever-so-conceited neighbor.
"As far as this conversation has gone, I have already proved a lot," he replied smartly, and without hesitation.
Big jerk who's so full of himself, she thought while having the image of drowning Natsume in a pool of ravenous piranhas.
"You haven't," she said through gritted teeth. "Literature is based mostly on classics. What does a good-for-nothing businessman like you know about classics, huh?"
"Oh. Don't forget I own this building. And if you're talking about Shakespeare, Austen, Eliot, and other dead authors, I'm the one to ask," he said matter-of-factly, giving an endearing grin towards Mikan, as he positioned his feet up on the center table and his arms leisurely extended on the support of the couch.
Upon seeing him so untroubled, the brunette fixed her heated glare on the raven-haired man who was obviously enjoying himself. She fumed at the confident aura that Natsume exuded even when he's only wearing his pajamas – white shirt and black jogging pants – and, his figure was only being enhanced by the wee amount of light escaping through the tall, glass windows.
"Really now? I thought your family owned this building, not only you." Her brow raised, trying to set a much better confident look. "I see. Let's talk about Shakespeare. What's your favorite? If you have ever read any."
"Romeo and Juliet," he simply responded, running a hand through his hair tediously and looking at the brunette across him.
A smirk played on her lips. "The popular choice. I knew it. You couldn't have possibly read all of his works."
"I've read all of them but that one got stuck on me," Natsume, surprisingly, replied in a serious tone – for once.
"Why is that so?"
He simply shrugged, averting his gaze towards the view of the city beyond his glass windows. "Well, first, girls love it –" Mikan scowled and had the urge to barf "– second, all the others were not to my liking. I mean Macbeth and Othello were too violent and tragic for me. The other comedies were good but I liked Romeo and Juliet best."
Curious as to why that specific play had affected him too much, Mikan tried to talk some more although in a sarcastic way to get back at him. "Hyuuga, Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy – a tragic love story. Besides, they're stupid."
"Says the one who is," he retorted, amused.
"Whatever. I want to clear you of your confusion. I be –"
"I'm perfectly aware that I am male."
"Not that kind of confusion, I mean the confusion with the story. It's unrealistic, stupid, and reckless. I mean, how could they risk everything for something like that?"
"I thought you like stupid and reckless love pairings."
Mikan ignored him and continued, "As I was saying, their love was out of the ordinary – yes – and perfectly insane. Who kisses someone after fourteen lines of a sonnet? Who –
"They did."
"– shouts to a girl on a balcony? Who –"
"Romeo does."
"– marries a person, who belongs to your family's enemies' household, the next day after you met? Who –"
"Romeo and Juliet did."
"– in their right mind would drink some potion to pretend she's dead? Who drinks a potion –"
"Juliet did."
"– to kill himself just because his lover, his reason for living, pretended to be dead?"
"Romeo Montague," Natsume replied.
"Yeah, and you just answered all of my questions. Great. Should I applaud you now?" Mikan asked as she pretended to clap loudly and praise him and, then, acted as if she's puking.
Natsume sighed. He could say he's entertained, but he doesn't get why she won't get the whole point of that love – the love Romeo and Juliet had. When he read it back in college, he was surely disgusted at the idea of marrying that thoughtlessly, and dying that tragically. However, the more he read the play over and over, the more he understood the reason for such.
"You still don't get it do you?" he asked, crouching forward and staring into her hazel eyes.
Her dramatic, exaggerated pretend gagging stopped as soon as she heard the seriousness in his voice. She looked at him, with the thought of glowering at him in mind, but she couldn't. He was staring at her, scrutinizing her, as if she was a specimen observed under a microscope.
"What? Get that you're a hopeless romantic?" she retorted, happy with what she said.
"Heck no, you're still drunk."
"I know that," she snorted. "What do you want to convey to me, Hyuuga?"
"That love itself is stupid, and unpredictable."
Mikan froze in her seat. He was dead serious, and she was fooling around. This was not about proving himself anymore. This was something else that she couldn't fathom. She felt her palms getting sweaty, and the leather-soft couch became uncomfortable to sit on.
"…tell you what, Hyuuga. I'll not attempt to touch your liquor, and you go to sleep in your room," she said, hoping he'll stop this hogwash. She did not like how things were suddenly staid. She was suffocating in the notion of Natsume Hyuuga talking about love.
On the other hand, Natsume ignored her. As much as he liked the idea of him back on his comfortable bed, he did not trust words coming from a drunken woman, and he wanted to prove a point. "You know why Shakespeare did think of that? It's because Romeo and Juliet represented the ideal people who found true love. Their relationship itself – how they met, how long they decided until they said they're in love, why they went as far as dying for each other – explained how love works." Natsume chuckled, smiled and continued.
"Love doesn't care about time; it doesn't care about bloodline whether you're from a family who hates each other. It doesn't care about age – Juliet was thirteen and Romeo was seventeen. It doesn't bother and it doesn't choose. You'll find a person you'll love eventually if you let go of such thoughts of impractical love."
Mikan listened. She was shunned to. She couldn't believe her ears that Natsume, her smug neighbor telling her, advising her, what love is really about. Natsume Hyuuga, whom she saw with different girls every time they passed by and delivered their usual scowls and snorts at each other as greeting in the corridor, was talking more than she has heard him talk before.
"…because every love is real whether it's in a fictional novel or reality – it is still love. I know it contrasts, clashes, when put together, but that's how it is," he finished with none of the previous superiority in his voice. He didn't know why he shared that with someone like her – of all people; he just wanted to let her change her view of the written piece he cherished.
"…"
The brunette felt her heart thump loudly inside her chest; her cheeks were flushed with the color of blood. Moreover, the heat her alcohol-induced body radiated was not helping at all. She was drunk, but she was conscious.
"Now, have I proven my point?"
"…whatever. Just shut up," she replied, flinching because of the sudden throbbing that had hit her head. She was having a major headache, and her stomach was doing somersaults. She felt weird like, one minute, she feels cold, and, then the next minute, she feels hot.
Natsume, surprised by her action, stood up from his chair and kneeled on the space in front of Mikan. He was not sure why he did; he wasn't the caring type who bothered about someone getting all dizzy and stuff. However, he knew that she was his responsibility as of the moment.
"Are you okay?" he asked, reaching out to touch her forehead.
Mikan slapped his hand away, and scooted over the corner of the couch. "Go away, Hyuuga. I can handle this myself," she snapped, the pain in her head increasing.
The raven-head, however, paid no heed to her comment. He stood up on his feet, and, immediately, placed a palm on Mikan's forehead and felt the hot temperature come in contact with his skin.
"You have a fever," he said. "I'm gonna get some medicine."
He went to his bedroom and searched his stack of medicine. When he found the appropriate medication to give Mikan, he went back only to find her on the floor, trying to find her way to his precious wine rack. As if by instinct, he ran towards her, leaving the medicine on the side table, carried her by one arm over his right shoulder, and marched into his bedroom where he hurled his neighbor on his bed.
"Idiot, what do you think you're doing?"
"Getting a wine bottle?"
Natsume rolled his eyes, thinking that how did he think that she will remember all about what they talked about when all she cared about was wine and that he was talking to someone who was drunk. "I'm going to get your medicine. Don't even think about escaping to the wine rack."
She snorted and watched him exit the room, closing the door behind him. Her headache was getting worse and she didn't know whether to wrap herself up in a blanket or stand in front of the air-condition unit (she forgot though that all the apartments have centralized air-condition units). Her eyes travelled around the room. It was no different than the living room except for a single painting of a red flower on top of his headboard; it was surprisingly clean – much to Mikan's shock. Then, a disturbing thought came across her mind. This was Natsume's bedroom and she was on his bed – she, Mikan Sakura.
Just when she was about to scream, Natsume appeared on the doorway with a glass of water and a medicine on the other hand. He rolled his eyes upon seeing Mikan gawking at him. He sat on the edge of the bed near her and handed her the medicine and glass of water.
Mikan, cautiously, examined the offering. "This isn't poison or anything that will let me abide to your will or something, huh?" she asked.
"What?" he said – almost shocked. "How much alcohol did you actually drink?"
"So, this is fever medicine?"
"Of course, it is!"
She drank the pill and chugged it down with water. She handed it back to Natsume who put it on top of the side table. She was about to rest her head on the pillow when she realized he was still sitting on the edge of the bed, looking at her.
"Why don't you sit somewhere else?"
"This is my bed. I'll sit wherever I want to. You go to sleep," he replied, pushing her head on the pillow. She tried to repel but he was too strong.
Mikan muttered a curse under her breath and attempted to take a shut eye. Nevertheless, she cannot really sleep with someone sitting close to her and watching her keenly, especially if that someone was a guy.
With her eyes closed, she said, "What are your favorite lines from that stupid romance play?" she asked without much thought.
"It's not stupid. I already have told you," Natsume said. "I thought we were done with that stuff. You told me to shut up, remember?"
"I can't sleep with you there on the edge of the bed. At least I need a diversion."
"Oh." Natsume's lips curled up into a smirk and a sly spark glinted in his eyes. "You're distracted with me being here?" he asked teasingly.
Mikan's cheeks turned red again. "Just answer the damn question, Hyuuga."
"Okay. Okay. Jeez. You don't take a joke even if you're drunk," he replied, running a hand over his tousled raven hair. "The first lines Romeo said to Juliet."
"You mean that cheesy part of the sonnet?"
"It isn't cheesy, Sakura."
She raised her right eyebrow and sat up, eyes fixed on him. "Well, recite it."
"**If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss."
He spoke with such feelings that, for a second, Mikan found him quite attractive. She was speechless because she didn't expect that he memorized the line. His eyes were trained on her, and her heart wanted to jump out of her chest crazily.
"Th-that was…" she stammered for the words and finally couldn't find the right things she would say in this situation.
"Beautiful? Lovely? Heart-capturing? Endearing?" he asked without shifting his gaze from her.
After that, he smiled, not a smirk – a gentle warm smile. Her heart was accelerating like a race car on a track. She was caught off guard, completely swept off her feet. She even felt her stomach twist and turn inside her body. She felt a sour taste rise up her throat; it was like a volatile chemical slowly creeping its way out.
"I need to barf," she said, finally realizing what the feeling was.
"What?" Natsume, oblivious, asked in an offended tone.
"I need to puke, Hyuuga. Really bad."
"You should just say you hate the line, Sakura. This must be why your boyfriend dumped you. You're a hopeless romantic yet you do not have the slightest romance in you."
She held him on the shoulders and frantically tried to shake him. She wanted to tell him he was wrong about that part but her need comes first. "Natsume Hyuuga, do not judge why he dumped me. I just need to –"
And, all hell broke loose.
Natsume closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation. He was reeking of the stench of puke. He should've believed her but, no, he had to be slighted by her indirect comment. He was disgusted at the indescribable slimy, sticky stuff spread on his white t-shirt.
"I – I – I'm sorry," she finally said, after seeing the unfathomable expression of his face.
"You should be."
A pink-haired woman, Anna Umenomiya, walked along the hallway. She wore a grey denim vest over a pink camisole, faded shorts and her trusty brown cowboy boots. She was here to visit a friend – a dear friend of hers since high school. She scanned the numbers on the door and stopped in front of the door with a big '2717' on it. She often wondered how her friend, Mikan Sakura, survived living on her own for the past three years. Why? It's because she was a certified slob although she's pretty much successful in her career.
She pressed the doorbell, a shiny silver button, on the side.
No response.
She pressed again; still there was not a single sound. For once, the thought of Mikan suffocating in her pile of scripts and stories haunted her. She looked left and right to see if anyone was around to help her, but not even one was outside their apartments.
Maybe, no one cares, she thought.
She made several attempts but it seemed to her that her friend was not around. So, with leaving in thought, she turned around just in time to see a man – a handsome man – go out of the room across the hall. She was frozen to her spot and she can't seem to move.
His raven-colored hair was tousled in different directions. He was wearing a simple white tee with words 'Got a problem?' on its front and black jersey shorts. The woman blushed at the sight of the stranger in his pajamas.
Finally noticing the woman, he stopped muttering curses inside his head and fixed his gaze on her. He had quite a crazy night because of his dear neighbor who drank too much for her own sake. When he saw that she was standing in front of Mikan Sakura's door, he said, "She's not inside her apartment."
"Who?" she asked, dazed at the sight in front of her.
Sure, she works as a photographer for a famous teen magazine but this man was nothing compared to all those charming, pubescent kids she worked with. This man was beyond handsome – in fact she couldn't find a word to describe him.
"Mikan Sakura? You're her friend. I assume," he replied, breaking her from her dreamy trance.
"Oh! How did you know?"
Uh. You both have that stupid look on your face, he thought but he kept it to himself.
"Well, you're standing in front of her door."
Anna laughed and scratched her head, letting her hair flow down her shoulders. "Uh. Yeah, do you know where she is?" she asked.
"Hell yeah. Wait a sec."
She watched as he slipped back inside his apartment, leaving a small gap open. She hoped she wasn't blushing that mad, but what bothered her most other than the hotness he exuded was why he went back inside his unit.
"Hey, darling Mikan, your friend has come to visit you," the man's voice said from inside the room.
Anna almost slipped, tripped, in her own shoes. Her mouth gaped open and she let out a shocked gasped. She rushed over near the door and tried to peek inside. She saw a small mess in the spacious living room: a few pillows scattered and a blanket sprawled on the floor.
"Since when did we call each other on a first-name basis, Hyuuga?" a familiar female voice shouted.
Anna covered a hand over her mouth and stopped a loud gasp from escaping. That was, for sure, her friend's voice. What was she doing inside this man's unit? she wondered. Could they – No way. Didn't she tell me yesterday that she broke up with Yuto?
"Since yesterday after that," the man replied.
"Oh. Forget about that."
"How would I? It was fairly pleasant."
Anna's mind was full of numerous thoughts – bad thoughts. She presumed that something had happened between these two. Even if she didn't want to think that way, she couldn't help it. After all, they're all grown-ups now.
"I don't want to argue with you."
"Drunk or not, you're still like that."
"Yeah, I still –"
Anna didn't catch what Mikan said because an older couple passed by and her ear pinned on the door was not exactly a good image to see. She was about to listen in some more when the door opened, making her flinch back in surprise, and revealed her friend, Mikan Sakura, with a deadly face and the man with raven hair.
The brunette's face lightened up and she threw her arms towards the woman. "Anna! I'm so glad you came!"
"I was so worried about you, Mikan. Yuto was really a jerk for cheating you for some younger, slutty model," she said, patting her friend on the back.
"Wow. So, that's what happened to you. No wonder you were all fiery and stuff," the man commented, earning him attention from both of the girls.
Anna raised a brow and shifted her gaze back and forth between the man and her friend. Definitely, something had happened. "Excuse me, Mister – what should I call you?"
"Natsume Hyuuga," he said leisurely.
"Oh. You're that businessman who's the son of the business magnate who owns a line of condominiums. If my brain cells aren't fooling around, one of that is this building," she recalled.
Natsume smirked and nodded in response while Mikan wanted to strangle him for his overconfidence. "Don't get too cocky, Hyuuga," she said.
Anna noticed the tension between the two and tried to break the ice. "Anyways, thanks for letting my friend stay over," she said, sounding like a parent who let her child play over some classmate's house.
"Ha. Should I say welcome? I had no other choice," he said, opening his door. "And, Mikan," he teased as Mikan glared at him. "Do not ever drink again."
"My life sucks," Mikan said, plopping down her soft couch. Earlier, Natsume asked a cleaning staff to get her room's spare key, and handed it over to her. She hated how she had to depend on that jerk just for her to get inside her own unit.
"Your life sucks?" Anna said, rushing over side excitedly. "You got dumped, and had a fun night with such a hot guy! And your life sucks? Please."
Mikan was surprised to suddenly be attacked like that. Anna was looking at her with twinkling eyes. If she's thinking right, Anna was thinking some ghastly thing. "Fun? – Oh no, Anna. We didn't do something like that. That's gross."
"Ehhhh? What was all about that forgetting about something that had happened yesterday, and your neighbor practically said it was fairly pleasant. He even said you were fiery!"
Mikan heaved a sigh, still having a hangover from the alcohol intake. "He's being sarcastic. He took me in because I was drunk and had lost my keys. That pleasant thing was that I barfed at him literally. I covered him in puke."
"Ohhhh." Anna's smiled died down. "And, I actually thought you'd have a new boyfriend!"
Hazel orbs widened and stared at Anna like she came out straight from a mental asylum. "Boyfriend? Him? Hyuuga? – What on earth has damaged your mind?" she asked.
"Why? He's smokin' hot, rich and, well, I think he likes you."
"If like has been changed to loathe in the dictionary, then I will accept your allegation," Mikan snorted, stifling a laugh. "And, hot? What is he – some fictional character?"
"Well, you wouldn't know!" Anna defended. "He's better than any other model I've taken a photograph of." She crossed her arms and set her gaze on a note on the table. She narrowed her eyes to get a clear view of the words written. Upon fully reading the note, she gasped.
On the other hand, Mikan blabbed on as she remembered snippets of their literature squabble in her mind. "He isn't. If you want a Mercutio or Paris in a Romeo and Juliet play, then he's perfect. He's practically into classics and 'gone in with the wind' kind of stuff. Heck. He –"
"Oh my goodness! Mikan, he said that you snore loudly and that it's cute!" Anna shouted, finally bursting from impatience.
"What?" She said in disbelief. She held the note Anna read and her eyes almost popped out of her sockets, her face turning into a more intense shade of red, and her jaw dropped open.
00000000000000000
00000000000000000
Dear neighbor, Mikan Sakura,
Next time, make sure no one dumps you because I won't be allowing you to enter my room when you're drunk; don't go drinking without adult supervision. Seriously, you are much crazier when you drink. You say and speak nonsense all the time. You go all war mode like a lunatic wanting to eat live sharks. And, you should remember the lesson behind Romeo & Juliet. They're not stupid, they're in love. I think I've proven my point that I know more than you when it comes to literature. Last thing – before you barge out of your room and come knocking at my door due to wrath – you snore loudly and you salivate while you sleep. I find it cute though.
Your neighbor across the hall,
Natsume Hyuuga
00000000000000000
00000000000000000
"Isn't it sweet? He likes you!" Anna said, giggling as she felt all giddy for her friend.
In contrast, Mikan felt flabbergasted, embarrassed, and angry – all at the same time. She could not believe herself that she would actually stand up, walk out her door and barge into his room just because of this piece of crap. Yes, she did, and she found that his door was open; so, she just went inside.
"Hyuuga! Who are you calling cute? I'm not a five-year old to be called like that!" she screamed as she took a step forward. She looked around and saw that everything was clean again.
"What? You'd rather be called beautiful when you drool or snore?"
She was fixed to her spot when Natsume emerged from his bedroom door, half-naked with only a towel covering his lower body. He had a smug look as water dripped from his hair like crystals that decorated a tiara.
She gulped and eventually turned around shakily, trying to forget the image of his six-pack abs and well-toned muscles. "A-Are you trying to irritate me?" she hissed, stammering.
"Yeah, did it work?" Natsume asked, walking over to the kitchen counter where Mikan was facing. He showed her a smirk and fixed his eyes on her. "Real mature, Mikan. First time seeing a topless guy?" he teased and drank a glass of water, relaxed, without removing his gaze from the brunette.
"You're irritating, Hyuuga. And call me Sakura. I don't like you calling me Mikan. It gives me goosebumps," she said, recovering from her previous shock. "And, please, you're not the only guy I've seen topless. I actually go to the beach."
"Mikan, then why did you flush all red and looked away when you saw me?"
Mikan couldn't argue back. Instead, she muttered a few curses and exited the room, leaving Natsume to chuckle in delight and entertainment. To her surprise, Anna was outside with a gleaming expression on her face.
"What?"
"He sooooo likes you!"
"No, unless I die tragically and he kills himself," she said, entering her apartment with Anna following her. She went to her mini kitchen and chugged down a glass of water.
"So, if he turns into Romeo and you turn to Juliet, then you'll like him?" Anna asked skeptically, analyzing what she said earlier.
Mikan smirked. "No, I don't want another Romeo & Juliet story. If he reads young adult fiction, then I'll reconsider."
"With the vampires and stuff? Why?"
"Yes, because he hates them."
Anna's forehead creased. "How did you know?" she inquired.
"We talked about it yesterday," Mikan answered, sitting on one of the empty couches and turning on the television. Spongebob, she thought as she watched the sponge be stupid and all.
"When you were drunk, you two talked about books?"
"Sort of."
"Perfect!"
"What? Why 'perfect'?" Mikan asked, confused.
"You two are book lovers! I just have to convince him to read books with wolves, vampires, fallen angels and others. Then, you'll have a new boyfriend," Anna said as she threw herself on one of the soft couches and formulated a plan in her head.
"I already told you. Hyuuga is not boyfriend material for me."
"We'll see about that."
"Whatever. By the way, you're spending too much time with Hotaru. You're starting to become a sadistic, evil woman who feeds on the troubles of others," the brunette said as she fixed her attention back to the sponge who was now hopping alongside a pink starfish with green, flowery shorts.
"Oh come on. You love Hotaru! You thought she was super cool back in high school."
"Yes, I love her up until now. I adored her evil ways back when I was stupid."
"Well, what changed?"
"Nothing," Mikan replied obviously stressing the awkward truth that she was still stupid. She basically loves Hotaru's nefarious scheming. However, if that scheming is plotted on her, she would think otherwise. Anna, on the other hand, ignored her and started coming up several scenes in her head to get Natsume Hyuuga, the hot guy, with her friend.
"…"
"What are you thinking of?" she asked, looking at her pink-haired friend in curiosity. Anna was tilting her head to one side, holding her chin with her right hand and having her eyebrows meet in the middle of her forehead.
"Thinking of ways to get you with Hyuuga!"
"Oh brother. Haven't we already talked about this?"
* Gone with the Wind - it is a romance novel set during an American Civil War. It is said to be full of violence, slavery, and other rated stuff. I haven't read it though, but I heard it's not that appropriate for children to read.
** The lines Natsume said from Romeo & Juliet, Act 1 Scene 5, translates to: Your hand is like a holy place that my hand is unworthy to visit. If you're offended by the touch of my hand, my two lips are standing here like blushing pilgrims, ready to make things better with a kiss. (source of translations: NO FEAR SHAKESPEARE: Romeo and Juliet; Yes, I read that version too. It's more fun)
A new one-shot! :))
Yes, I just love reading that much.
I'm learning a lot from the writing workshop I'm attending.
Phew! This took me hours to write. I hope you guys like it as much as I had fun writing it.
I don't know if this is good enough for you.
Please do review! I love it when you guys review!
07 MAY 2011
5:26 PM
(:nineprincess:)