Title: Plain White Underwear

Author: Ah Hael

Genre: General

Rating: T

Pairings: Sort of Natsume & Mikan

Spoilers: Nothing really important

Summary: Mikan gets her first bra but is not so impressed with it or the event. Meanwhile, Natsume is obsessed with seeing it.

Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah not mine. Yadda, yadda, yadda never will be. Boo-hoo created and owned by Tachiba Higuchi. Okay?

Plain White Underwear

Misaki-sempai had once told her to never underestimate the power of a good bra.

Clearly, what Mikan was wearing was not a good bra.

It was her first bra and it didn't make her feel pretty or grown up or special in any way.

Truth is it made her feel a bit silly. The whole contraption was uncomfortable, unattractive, the wires dug into her ribs and it was a big hassle to get into.

The thirteen year old junior high student stood in the center of her room, stripped to the waist, and regarded her reflection in the mirror. It certainly didn't make her look any better. What was the big deal with these things anyway?

She had always figured that it would be so great when she got her first bra. That she would be so grown up. Sadly, just like it had been a few months earlier with her first period, the whole event just turned out to be one big disappointment. The answers to life's great mysteries were not bestowed upon her, the planets did not come into alignment, nor did she have a deep spiritual moment. About the only good thing she could say was at least this disappointment wasn't as messy or disgusting as getting her period had been.

Leaning forward at the waist and shaking her shoulders a bit, she tried to adjust her chest in the small cups in order to reduce some of the discomfort. Okay, well that made things a bit more comfortable, but the thing still looked… so… blah.

She should have taken Misaki-sempai's advice.

At the time Misaki had told her that she should look into buying a nice bra from central town. "Never underestimate the power of a good bra. They make all the difference in the world."

"But Misaki-sempai, I can't afford to spend all my allowance on a bra."

"Trust me on this one. A good bra will enhance areas you want to enhance, hide what you want to hide, make you feel prettier, and make boys notice you more." she said sagely, as if Mikan cared about those things. "You certainly don't want the ones that the school supplies. I don't think they have changed the style in over thirty years. They're butt-ugly, even a centerfold would have trouble making them look good."

"But I don't really need a bra. I've only just started growing and I'm not really that big." Sad but true. Although her breasts were poking out enough to be embarrassing, in all honesty they were only slightly bigger the size of a couple of chocolate kisses stuck to her chest. Why would she need a bra for that?

"Mikan, you are only thirteen and still have a lot of growing in you. You should be thankful they are small now. Girls with large breasts at your age only end up with big sagging fat bags hanging down by their waist by the time they are thirty. And they almost always have a fat butt to match."

She really should have listened to Misaki-sempai.

The school would supply all of the basic needs for all of the students regardless of star rank. Being free though, meant they were pretty much the cheapest, most unappealing brands possible and the lower your star rank, the cheaper and uglier they got. Simply put, if a student wanted something nice they had to go to central town and spend their hard earned rabbits for it.

Underwear was no different. Regardless of rank, the school selection could be described in two words: Plain and White with strong emphasis on the white and stronger emphasis on the plain part.

It wasn't until Mikan had outgrown the printed underwear she had originally brought with her to the academy and needed to order some new ones that she was finally clued in to why Natsume and the other boys made such a fuss over her printed underwear. Unless they bought them, or got them in a care package from their parents, no one in the academy wore printed underwear because no one had owned any. No wonder she stood out so much.

She would never admit it. Not in a million years under torture, but she kind of missed the way Natsume always teased her about her underwear. The attention was kind of sweet in his sick pervert kind of way. And maybe… lately… she might have noticed that for a jerk and a pervert, he wasn't really all that bad to look at. On the rare times he smiled, her insides did funny things and she would almost say he was handsome.

She looked at herself in the mirror again. Ugh. Boring, ugly, uncomfortable thing; she doubted anyone would fuss over any of the girls' underwear now since they all pretty much owned the same thing.

Over the next several days Mikan's mood took a slight downturn. Oh, she was still bubbly and cheery and fun to be around but her good mood suffered constant interruptions. A jab in the side from an underwire if she moved the wrong way, a strap sliding off her shoulder at and unexpected moment, constantly worried that everyone was staring at her chest and secretly laughing. Was this what she had to look forward to?

Mikan was sitting at breakfast drinking a glass of fruit juice when she got yet another sharp jab because she was slouching too much. The sudden stab of an underwire surprised her enough to jerk her whole body upright. Darn it! She hadn't quite got the trick of shuffling and adjusting to avoid the evil thing from digging into her tender flesh.

Wait.

Why did she feel wet?

One quick look down had her letting out a shout of dismay. The fruit juice in her hand which happened to be a lovely vivid red punch was now transformed into an enormous pink stain down the front of her blouse.

"Oh no!" she wailed, trying futilely to blot the stain with a napkin.

"Klutz." Hotaru mumbled beside her. "You'll never get that out."

Across the table Anna and Nonoko made sympathetic sounds. "There are some really good alice designed stain removers." The chemist suggested.

Anna nodded "Or if that doesn't work, you could always dye the whole blouse! That way you would get a new pink blouse out of it." The cooking alice suggested.

Mikan didn't waste time discussing it with them. Instead, she ran back to her dorm room to put on a spare blouse while she tried to soak her ruined one. When she took off her blouse, she found that her ugly white bra had also been stained.

"Great! Now I have a half-pink bra to go with my half-pink blouse." She muttered to herself then stopped dead while her mind grabbed on to the thought and ran with it. Wait… yeah… she could do that… and then maybe that…

The young brunette woman quickly changed into a clean bra and blouse, and rushed off to classes. As soon as classes were over, she went straight to central town to buy stain remover and some supplies.

A week later she entered the girls' locker room shyly. She tried hard not to look at anybody or she would become too self conscious to get changed. Taking a big deep breath she untied her neck ribbon and removed her blazer, then after another bracing breath she unbuttoned and removed her blouse and her skirt quickly followed.

"Oh my god Mikan! They look so pretty!" Anna squealed making her flinch.

"Where did you get those?" Sumire asked with a tone that was somewhere between admiration and jealousy.

"Baka, wasting money on such a silly thing." Hotaru said with just a hint of disgust.

"Well actually," Mikan began…

Natsume grabbed his end of the volleyball net and walked over to one of the posts to secure it while Luka walked over to the other post. The boys were all busy setting up for their gym class while the girls all appeared to be dawdling in the locker room. Most of the boys were muttering about doing all the work while the girls did nothing.

He looked over as they exited the locker room in a clump all chattering excitedly. Ugh, so noisy, and there in the center of them was his girl with the silliest grin on her face.

Okay well maybe she wasn't exactly his girl. It wasn't like they were an official couple or anything. There was still a chance that she might pick Luka over him, but it was generally understood around school that the quickest way to get your ass toasted was to flirt with Mikan Sakura.

Still chattering excitedly but in hushed tones he caught little snippets of their conversation.

"I think daisy…. would be …. great…" Anna said.

"I'm sure… make… pattern." Nonoko added.

"I… something that reflects…" Sumire told them all with a dramatic flourish.

Natsume turned toward Koko and nodded at him to come over. "Oi, what's got them all in a twitter?"

Koko looked at the chattering girls and scrunched his face at them. "I'm not sure their thoughts are all over the place. Something about color and patterns, and Mikan's bra? Where did that come from?" the mind reader thought out loud.

Natsume's head snapped around to look at Mikan. "Bra? Polka has a bra?" he asked, feeling slightly dazed.

Luka gave an irritated yell "Oi! Natsume what are you doing with your end of the net? I'm not going to hold it forever!"

Still in a daze, his arms moved robotically while his mind tumbled the same thing over and over again.

Polka has a bra.

Polka has a bra.

Polka has a bra Polka has a bra Polka has a bra Polka has abraPolkahasabraPolkahasabra.

Polka has a bra!

Natsume didn't remember much about gym class. He did remember getting clonked in the head with the ball while he was zoned out, but that was about it.

Polka has a bra. That was like, the news of the century! Because bras meant boobs, and guys really like boobs. Mikan having a bra meant Mikan had something that sent his brain into complete shutdown for the two classes following gym class.

Luka cornered him at lunch. "What is with you? You've been asleep with your eyes open all morning, and every time Koko looks at you he looks like he's going to pee his pants laughing."

"Polka has a bra." He said quietly.

Luka stood there gaping at him for a few moments. His eyes turned glassy and he blinked at Natsume not really seeing him. "What did you say?" he asked in a high unsteady voice.

"Polka has a bra."

"What? I mean… no… I got that. I mean… are you sure?"

"That's what Koko said."

"I thought Koko couldn't read her mind anymore." He said suspiciously.

"He didn't. The girls were all talking and he was eavesdropping. One of the other girls brought it up."

"Sakura-san has a bra?" Luka said quietly to himself with a look on his face that made Natsume feel a bit better about spacing out for the past few hours. Luka however recovered after only a few minutes.

"Natsume, I want you to ask her out."

Natsume gave him a dark look "We have already discussed this. Like, a hundred times." Luka stayed his objections by holding his palms up at him.

"Just hear me out. I like her. You know I like her. I think she's cute and funny, and, brave, and sweet, and a whole bunch of other things. I would really like it if Sakura was my girlfriend." Natsume tried to hide his grimace. Just because he and the blond boy were best friends, didn't mean he liked hearing it.

"But you Natsume, you're crazy about her. Sometimes I think even literally. You never let anyone close to you but somehow she snuck in. Between the two of us I'm the one who has the best chance of surviving the heartbreak, so I want you to ask her first."

"First?"

Luka gave him a sheepish smile "Don't get me wrong Natsume; this isn't some grand noble sacrifice on my part. If she says no or you mess it up and don't treat her well, I won't let you have a second chance."

"I'll think about it."

"Don't think too long about it, or your chance will be over."

Natsume didn't think about it at all over the next several days. The only thing he could think about was Mikan and her bra. He dreamt about it, fantasized about it, obsessed over it. Damn it! He had to find some way of seeing it!

It wasn't like he could just go over and peek down her top like he did when they were younger. Luka was right; out of all the people in the academy Luka and Mikan were the only two people in his select circle of close friends. Sure that psycho inventor and the shadow freak were sort of close just because of what they all went through with the Elementary Principal, but they weren't really his friends. More like satellites that orbited Mikan.

You did not peek down a girl's top if you considered them your friend. Not if you hoped to keep her as your friend and maybe girlfriend. You especially didn't do it when there was another guy waiting in the wings for you to screw up your chance with her. Mikan would never speak to him again and Luka would swoop in and snatch her out of his grasp.

No. He couldn't just pull her top open and look down it. He had to figure out a way to see without her knowing it.

If Mikan found it strange the way Natsume was suddenly always with her wherever she went, she didn't say anything.

Natsume's first opportunity came when he had a small coughing fit because of the lingering effects of his alice. When Mikan came closer to him looking all concerned, he kind of increased the severity of his cough and leaned heavily against her.

That whole opportunity backfired on him for a number of reasons. The stupid school uniforms which must have been designed by an anal-retentive nun were tied tightly at the throat with that stupid ribbon and the space between the buttons didn't even open or gape the tiniest bit to give him a peek!

Not only that but Mikan panicked and marched him straight to the hospital to get checked out and he spent the next several hours stuck in a hospital room cursing whoever designed their stupid uniforms. There was no way to look under that top without popping a few buttons. Oh, but the thought of popping buttons gave him an idea.

The next day Natsume demanded a small alice stone from Mochu. The telekinetic didn't bother to ask why he wanted one but Koko who was next to him did indeed look like he was about to piss himself for holding in his laughter. Natsume gave the mind reader a glare and took the stone from Mochu.

If he could just pop one or two of her buttons, Mikan might just think she didn't do them up properly.

He tried all afternoon to focus his thoughts through the stone to open a button. When nothing happened, he tried to concentrate harder, still nothing. At one point, Mikan started fidget. He paid it no mind because she was a fidgety kind of girl. It was when she started to look around the room with an irritated look that he got worried. Crap. Was she getting good enough with her alice use that she could detect when someone was using it on her? Was she automatically nullifying him? He tried for a quick easy flip of her skirt to check and sure enough, she fidgeted but the skirt remained down.

Stupid nullification alice!

Next, he tried tripping her. That was met with a bit of success. Not that he could see anything, but his fingers brushed against the definite ridge of a bra strap when he caught her. The confirmation that there was indeed a bra under her clothes did nothing to cool his obsession. If anything it made it worse.

He practically bullied the kid with the x-ray alice into giving him a stone so he could look through the wall and into the girls locker room. Darn that Polka for standing in a spot that put at least half a dozen annoying girls between them. Who the hell cared what those other girls wore under their clothes?

Man, was he sad and hopeless. He tried to deny that he was not acting like a creepy pervert but even he couldn't believe that anymore. Her chest was literally all he thought about. On sleepless nights at three in the morning when the bulk of his brain had long since shut down what was left of his logic could become really skewed. He would find himself reasoning that she had some nerve hiding her breasts from him. As his almost, kind of, sort of girlfriend, they were almost partly his possessions by association and darn her for keeping them from him!

The morning after that little moment of insanity, he was in an extremely foul mood. He was dead tired, his head felt like it was stuffed with wool and chewing gum, and he had just come to the alarming conclusion that his hormones were driving him completely insane. When Mikan filed into class with a few other girls, he scowled darkly at her.

This was also partly her fault. It wasn't really fair to be pissed at Mikan for having a bra and breasts in the first place, but he needed to be pissed at someone and the only other target than her was him.

Her hair was pulled into a pony tail and it was the first day wearing their summer uniforms. He watched her chatting happily with her friends completely oblivious to the fact that she was making him come unglued. How dare she look cute on a day like today.

The rest of the class came in, the homeroom teacher showed up and started nattering on but Natsume ignored them all.

Anger, frustration, desire, and lust were all swirling around within him. Only Polka could bring him to this level of crazy without doing anything but be herself.

Neither he, nor the person he was focusing on noticed the temperature of the room going up but the others certainly did. Many of them looked nervously at Natsume who was glaring hard enough to bore a hole in the back of Mikan's head. They all hoped that whatever argument was going on between the pair would be resolved before they all roasted to death.

Annoyed that Mikan had yet to even acknowledge his existence beyond a quick 'good morning', Natsume gave into the childish impulse to burn the tip of her ponytail. He let out a quick burst of fire and almost snarled at her when every single hair on her head remained un-scorched.

Seriously pissed, he snapped out another fire burst, but this one not only didn't touch her, it kind of ricocheted off her nullification and flew towards the ceiling setting off the fire sprinklers.

Almost everyone started yelling and screaming at the unexpected appearance of rain indoors. Some tried to use their books as make shift umbrellas, others just tried to cover their heads with their arms. Over the chaos, their homeroom teacher told them all to follow proper fire drill procedures and meet outside. The sudden change in water pressure had apparently popped open the sprinklers in several other rooms because people from other classrooms were also exiting the building looking like drowned rats.

When they had finished congregating on the grass outside, Natsume looked around trying to find Mikan and Luka. Luka came over to him quickly as did Koko, Mochu, and Kitsuneme. Koko who was laughing like a loon clapped him on the shoulder hard. "Dude that was awesome!"

"That was an accident."

Kitsuneme gave him a sly look "Yeah sure it was. We know you've been trying to peek at Mikan's bra for over a week now. Well done man! You managed to get them all at once!"

"What?" what the hell were these idiots talking about? He finally spied Mikan and started heading towards her.

Oh.

All that water not only made the white blouse of their summer uniforms cling tightly to her skin, it made it totally see through as well.

There in all their anticipated glory was the small swell of Mikan's breasts incased in a bright pink bra trimmed with a decorative ribbon.

Without thinking, Natsume grabbed her wrist and yanked her away from the rest of the crowd.

"Natsume? What are you doing? Where are you taking me? We can't just leave the class! Natsume?" she called out time and again but he ignored her and kept pulling her further and further away from the others until they were isolated in a copse of trees.

"Ow Natsume, you can't just yank my arm like that." She complained, while rubbing her abused wrist.

The fire caster didn't say anything. His gaze was focused about a dozen centimeters below her face. Now that he was close he could make out all the details of her bra. It was bubble gum pink, which was strange because he thought that most girls in the school had white ones. It was trimmed with a striped ribbon that unless he missed his guess, used to be one of her hair ribbons.

"Hey Natsume! Just where do you think you are looking?" Mikan demanded, forcing him to raise his gaze and look her in the eye.

"You're wearing a bra." He said stupidly. God, when would his brain kick into gear?

Mikan looked down and gave a horrified squeak while covering her chest with her arms. "Of course I'm wearing a bra." She said while her face went pinker than her bra. "I'm a girl. Girls wear bras." She finished, defensively.

"It's… pretty." Again with the stupid, obvious statements! When did he turn into such a dork?

"R-really?"

He nodded shyly at her and held out a ball of fire. "Here, I'll dry your shirt." He told her and used the heat from his fire to dry both of their clothes in almost an instant.

He grinned at her "So, did you buy that special to impress me?" he asked finally managing to fall back into his old routine of teasing her.

She gave him a disgusted look. "No, I just changed it a little because I didn't like the plain white."

"You are so strange Polka." He said, shaking his head ruefully at her.

"What? It's not like I was the only girl with a colored bra. All the other girls have been coloring theirs too."

Really? Wow. He didn't even notice. No wonder the other boys were so pleased.

In front of him Mikan had begun talking non-stop but he wasn't really listening. It was more of a nervous gesture on her part than a conversation that has any real content.

"… and Nonoko created this dye that will actually make patterns! And we found this great shop-"

Natsume stopped her verbal outpouring by putting his fingers over her mouth. He was pleased to see her face change from pink to red.

When he was convinced that her mouth was going to stay shut he herded her gently towards a tree and caged her against it with one of his palms pressed against the trunk while the other cradled her face. Closing the distance between them he kissed her.

Sure he'd stolen a few kisses from her before, but they were just a quick, sweet, press of lips for the most part. This time he decided to take it further; a sort of celebration of Polka growing up a bit. This time he gently coaxed her mouth open using his tongue and the thumb he had on her bottom jaw to pry her lips apart. Once he had the tiniest bit of access he took full advantage and pushed his tongue into her mouth to caress hers. He was rewarded with a low hum from the back of her throat.

It probably wasn't the smoothest or the best of kisses. After all neither one of them had ever kissed like that before but damn did it feel good. Too bad he needed to breathe. Surely there was a trick to that but currently he couldn't think of it.

When they both broke away panting heavily he leaned his forehead against hers. "Be my girlfriend."

"Wha-what?" she asked dazed.

God, could she be any cuter looking so dazed and flushed from his kiss? "Be my girlfriend. I don't want anyone else to kiss you, or look at your bra and panties or anything like that."

Mikan stared at him and nodded mutely.

For her part, Mikan couldn't believe how right Misaki sempai was. She would never have dreamed that when she had done a few 'improvements' on her plain white bras it would lead to Natsume chasing her down and demanding to be her boyfriend. You really couldn't underestimate the power of a good bra.

As punishment for setting the sprinklers off, Natsume spent the rest of the summer as a no star. Even with the chores, the small servings of food and the crappy pay, Natsume was still content because Mikan was officially his girl. And it wasn't like he had to worry about starving or working too hard. Many of the boys of the junior high division treated him like he was some kind of hero because he had managed to soak and thereby expose the bra of every girl in the junior division. Thanks to that bit of fun, most boys were more than willing to share a bit of their food or help with his cleaning duties.

The event had also sparked the strangest new trend in the school that summer. Girls tried to find new and creative ways to liven up their boring white bras and panties while boys tried new and creative ways to see them without getting caught.

Owari

This was the strangest inspiration. I can't believe I just did 4000 words solely on the topic of Mikan getting a bra.

Everyone always makes such a big deal out of Mikan having printed underwear. So many stories make it sound so horrible, like she is defective or something.

Can someone please explain to me what the big deal is? If you went to a lingerie store like Victoria's Secret (go on, try and look online, I dare you) there are tons of different patterned bra and panty sets. Many of them look fun while being kind of cute and sexy at the same time. Why is having a pattern so taboo?

I get that little boys would tease little girls about them, but they would tease them with or without the pattern. That is what little boys do. But that rule does not apply to grown men because I know from experience they actually do. Okay yes, they do like the sexy stuff more, but I've bought unusual colors and patterns before and my husband always smiles when he sees them. He will even add his own comment about them being cute or fun.

So can someone tell me why are patterns bad?

Anyone?

Helloooo?