This is a one-shot, I believe. Short and sweet. Enjoy~! Gah! Is anyone else having the problem with this DAMNED DOCUMENT MANAGER?! IT WONT EFFIN CENTER MY TEXT!!!! It made me mad...
Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you all? I do not own it. –sniffs- you just want to rub it in, don't you? –wallows in corner-
Happy Reading!
Love Sickness
By Tsuki's Angel
~One-Shot~
"As we have explained, Mikan's parents wanted to hire a tutor because of how academically low her grade point average is," Mr. Narumi explained. "Natsume, we are entrusting you with this task. You will tutor her every day after school until the end of this year."
Natsume groaned inwardly. He so did not want to babysit some freshman. He was a junior himself. He quietly glanced at the freshman he was to tutor. She had beautiful brown hair that curled naturally at the bottom, and stunning hazel eyes. She caught him staring at her, and she smiled.
"Nice to meet you, Natsume!" Mikan cheerily said. "I'm Mikan Sakura!"
"Hn," was his reply.
"Sorry for the inconvenience, Natsume," Mr. Narumi apologized. "Good luck! Adieu!"
With that, Narumi left the empty classroom to the two. Natsume glanced down at the smiley Mikan. She was looking out the window with a blank expression, but when she saw that he was looking at her, she quickly smiled.
"Well, Natsume," Mikan said. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow!"
With that, she quickly sped off. He walked over to the window and glanced out. All he saw was Luca Nogi, the guy from the same basketball team as him, with Hotaru Imai, the blackmailing queen of the school. Why was she staring at them? He shrugged it off and decided it was time to go home.
~-~-~-~
"Nice shot, Natsume!" Tsubasa Ando yelled from across the court. Natsume had just shot a basket. He was on a roll today. The coach blew the whistle, signaling that practice was over for today. Natsume grabbed a towel from the nearby bleachers and wiped the sweat off his face. In the distance, he heard some very loud laughter. He turned to see Mikan Sakura laughing with some of her friends. Why did he have to end up tutoring her? She was the loudest one out of the whole group. Frankly speaking, he didn't really like her.
"See you later," Natsume said, grabbing his duffle bag and heading towards the exit. He had some tutoring to do.
In the classroom, Mikan was sitting in a desk that turned to face Natsume. He was explaining to her how to use the FOIL method for math.
"Oh, Natsume!" Mikan said all of a sudden. Natsume's head perked up at the sudden loudness.
"Hn?" Natsume said.
"I have a question," Mikan said.
Natsume was quiet, signaling her to ask her and get it over with. He was clearly bored out of his mind. She clearly did not see that.
"What is it?" he said, exhausted.
"How do you cure a love sickness?" Mikan asked, dead serious. Natsume was silent. "U-um, you see, I wanted to ask someone smart for once! I'm not very bright, so yeah."
"Take out a clean sheet of paper," Natsume instructed. He was already writing down practice problems for her, obviously ignoring her strange and out of the blue question.
"O-okay," Mikan said, taking out her notebook.
"So you're seriously studying this time?"
They both looked up to see none other than Luca Nogi. Mikan beamed.
"Luca!" Mikan said.
"Hey," he replied.
"Natsume, this is my childhood friend, Luca Nogi!" Mikan proudly announced.
"I know who he is," Natsume blandly replied. What he didn't know was that he was her childhood friend.
"Sorry if she's troubling you, Natsume," Luca said. "She can be a bit of a nut at times."
"That's not very nice," Mikan said, pouting.
"She's not a bad girl though," Luca said, smiling. "Teach her something."
"Hn," Natsume said. Is this how things are going to be for him from now on? This was such a pain in the neck…
"Okay~!" Mikan said, taking out her pencil. "What to learn first?"
~-~-~-~
"Natsume!" came her voice the next day. "Can we do the tutoring outside today? Or how about on the roof?"
"We're not allowed on the roof," Natsume said simply.
"What?" Mikan pouted. "But I see you sleeping up there all the time!"
Natsume was lost for words. That was true. He didn't say anything, but headed in the direction of the roof.
"Yay!" Mikan squealed. "Look how blue the sky is!"
"Hn," Natsume's reply came.
"How can you not be interested?" Mikan gasped. "It's such a nice day out today!"
"Let's just hurry this up," Natsume said. "I want to go home."
Mikan sighed.
"I'm sorry you got stuck with me as your student," Mikan said. "But I really will try my hardest."
Natsume didn't reply. He just sat down on the ground, and began to take out some supplies. Mikan sat down next to him.
"Thanks for putting up with me, anyways," she said, giving him a bit of a smile. "Thanks you wasting your afterschool time for teaching me this stuff."
Natsume glanced at Mikan and smirked. He took out a sheet of paper.
"Here is your assignment sheet," he said, tapping it on Mikan's head.
"Yes sir," Mikan replied. Natsume started to teach her.
"…so you just replace the xwith 0, and you find the y-intercept," Natsume concluded. Mikan's face showed acknowledgement.
"I get it now!" Mikan said in awe. "It's so clear. Natsume, you are so smart! Do you like studying? I'm amazed that you know all of this complex stuff!"
"…Not really," Natsume replied.
"Eh?" Mikan said, tilting her head. "So you don't like to study?"
"It's not that," Natsume said. "I'm just saying that this stuff isn't complex. I mean, compared to people, it's a heck of a lot easier."
"Eh? What do you mean?" Mikan asked, confused. Natsume sighed.
"Well, in math, everything has an answer," Natsume said. "And it can be correct. But, you can't apply formulas or definitions on humans. They truly are, as you said, complex."
"Oh," Mikan said. "Oh! Wow, you're right! People are complicated…Natsume, you really are smart. I never thought in a million years that a guy like you would exist—someone who is smart, active, and popular, but I guess you proved me wrong."
"…really now?" Natsume said. Mikan blinked, and then she burst into a fit of laughter.
"That reaction is so you!" she said, falling over onto her back. She checked the time and gasped.
"Ohmigosh!" Mikan said. "I have to go now!"
She quickly got up, gathered her stuff and ran towards the stairs.
"Bye, Natsume!" Mikan yelled. "Thanks for the tutoring! I really understand it a lot more!"
With that, she left. Natsume glanced at the ground where she was sitting. She had dropped her necklace. He picked it up. Huh. A heart shaped pendant hung from it.
~-~-~-~
"Good job, everyone!" Coach yelled. The basketball players tumbled inside the locker room.
"Nogi," a stoic voice said. Natsume turned his attention to the two. It was Imai and—obviously—Luca.
"Hey," Luca said, throwing an arm over her shoulders. Natsume raised an eyebrow.
"Are those two dating?" he asked Tsubasa, who was nearby.
"Yeah," he said, smirking. "They have been for a while now."
'This is my childhood friend, Luca Nogi!'
'Natsume, I have a question! How do you cure a love sickness?'
The question rang in his head. It was pretty obvious now—what she felt.
"Really…" Natsume mused.
"What?" Tsubasa said. "Are you in love with Imai?"
"Who?" Natsume said, even though he obviously knew who Imai was. He left Tsubasa there, confused and went off to his lesson on the roof with Mikan.
"Natsume! Look!" Mikan said, holding up a paper. "I got a B on my math test! Isn't that great?"
"You've shown a lot of improvement," Natsume said, taking a look at her paper. She took a seat next to Natsume. Natsume held up the necklace in front of her face.
"You should have shown Luca your test first," he said.
"W-what?" Mikan asked, stuttering. Her face flushed as she snatched the necklace away from him.
"You like him, right?" Natsume asked.
"H-how did you…?" Mikan started.
"You're obvious," Natsume replied.
"A-ah…I see," Mikan said, looking down. "Well, this necklace means nothing. He gave it to me when we were little. He has a girlfriend now, so u-um…"
"I won't tell anyone," Natsume replied. "I'm not really interested in that kind of stuff."
"Really?" she said.
"Yeah," Natsume replied. "Just do your best."
"Eh?" Mikan said. "Wait, no! What?"
"You're just blabbering now," Natsume replied blandly.
"I-I'm sorry!" she replied. "Let's just get today's lesson started!"
"Okay," Natsume said. "Turn to page 189…"
"Natsume, do youlike anyone?" Mikan asked.
"…That kind of stuff is just plain bothersome," he said, sighing.
"Then what do you want to be when you grow up?" she asked.
He raised his eyebrows. What was with the sudden interview?
"A doctor," Natsume replied. "That's what I want to be."
"Why?" Mikan asked. A vein popped in Natsume's forehead. She was so persistent…
"I want to help others," Natsume said simply.
"That's amazing!" Mikan said. "I'm sure you'll make a wonderful doctor one day!"
"How do you know that?" he asked.
"Because you have the feeling of love in you!" Mikan said. Natsume's eyes widened.
"What?" he asked. People usually call him cold hearted and emotionless.
"You are really warm hearted. I mean, you teach me, and listen to my endless stories all the time, and you don't complain," Mikan said, smiling.
After lessons, they both left and walked downstairs and towards the bottom floor.
"So what do you want to be when you grow up?" Natsume asked suddenly.
"Me?" Mikan said. She pursed her lips. "I think I want to be a pastry chef."
"You think?" Natsume asked, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah!" Mikan said. "Because I love to bake and stuff. Maybe I can make you something sometime…?"
"…Whatever," Natsume said.
"I'll take that as a yes!" Mikan said. "What do you want? Do you thing some—"
"What?!" someone yelled nearby. Natsume's and Mikan's attention flew towards the voice. "Why did you break up with Luca?"
"I thought it best not to have a long distance relationship," said another. Mikan and Natsume knew who and what they were talking about. Hotaru Imai had just broken up with Luca Nogi.
"Just because you're transferring?!" the voice yelled.
"Of course," she said. "I don't want to have a relationship with him. He's just going to drift away, anyways."
Mikan stood there, shocked. She ran.
"Mikan!" Natsume yelled, running after her.
As she was running down the hallway, she caught sight of someone. It was Luca. He was sitting alone in a classroom, looking really upset. She walked in and stood beside him.
"Did you ask her why she broke up with you?" Mikan asked, her bangs shadowing her eyes.
"How did you know that?" he asked bitterly.
"That doesn't matter!" Mikan yelled. "Did you ask her for a reason?"
"No," he said. "She just suddenly broke up with me."
"You should have put up a fight, Luca!" she said. "I really think she still loves—"
"Mikan, I'm sorry, but can you please stay out of this?" Luca said. "You have nothing to do with it."
Natsume walked up behind Mikan and tapped her head with a notebook.
"I want to teach you one more thing," he said. "Come on."
Mikan looked back at Luca one last time, then nodded and followed Natsume out and back to the roof. Once they were up there, she leaned back against the railings, and sat down, sighing. Natsume did the same.
"I'm sorry you had to see that," Mikan said to Natsume. "He really can be hopeless on his own at times…He worries about me too much, and never looks out for himself. I get worried about himsometimes." Mikan laughed bitterly. "So, it's got nothing to do with me, huh?" She stared at the sky with a sad expression on her face. "Natsume…How do you cure a love sickness?"
"…Think about it yourself," Natsume said, getting up. "As for the thing I wanted to teach you—page 145, problems 1-20. Figure it out yourself."
"E-Eh?" Mikan asked, confused. She just sat there looking up at him.
"Tch," he said. "Don't make that face."
"U-um, sorry," Mikan said, sniffing a little. She looked back down. Natsume sighed and ruffled her said.
"Just do your best," he said. He left right after that. Mikan looked after him, a small smile forming on her lips.
Natsume, on the other hand, stopped at the bottom of the stairs. He was aggravated with himself.
"Why do I give a damn?" he thought to himself, punching the wall. "What am I doing? 'I'm not interested'…who said that again?"
~-~-~-~
"Ah, Natsume!" Mikan said. "You're here early."
"I guess so," Natsume replied.
"Lookie here!" Mikan chirped. "I got an A on my quiz!"
Natsume took the paper and analyzed it.
"Impressive," he said.
"…Natsume?" Mikan said.
"Hn?" he replied.
"I told Luca everything," Mikan said. His eyes widened by the slightest bit. "It was probably unnecessary, but I told him all about Hotaru's and my feelings. I also returned the necklace…"
"…Is that so?" Natsume said.
"Yup!" Mikan replied. "Somehow, I feel refreshed! Luca and Hotaru are probably getting back together now!"
"That's…good," Natsume said slowly.
"Thanks," Mikan said. Natsume raised an eyebrow.
"For what?" he asked, surprised.
"You said 'Just do your best,'" she said. "That really worked on me."
Natsume stared at her for a long moment.
"Eh?" Mikan said. "What is it?"
"…nothing," he said. Natsume was beginning to feel strange. He stared at her again, and smirked. Mikan tilted her head. Natsume looked away, feeling that strange feeling again.
"Natsume, if there's anything bothering you, you can tell me! I mean, you've always done that for me, right?" Mikan said. "Err…unless that would be bothersome to you…I mean…"
"…I do," he said. Mikan perked up. "I…have a question to ask."
"Eh? What is it?" Mikan asked excited. It was nice out. It complimented her smile. Natsume looked at her.
"How do you cure a love sickness?" he said.
~Fin~
Done with this one-shot. How did you like it? Were the characters too out of character? Did you even like it at all? Sorry if there were any mistakes. I did this rather quickly. XD
INSPIRED BY CELESTE BLUE!
REVIEW!
V
V
V
