This is what happens when I get sidetracked with my main story. Hope you like this not-so-short two-shot about our favourite couple! : ) I quite like short stories because they are more light-hearted and also fun :3
I do not own Gakuen Alice.
(Check out my main story, Last Hope Remaining! Just filter it through by selecting 'Adventure' as one of the genre options and you'll find it real quick hehe. I promise I am working on it! Slowly but surely it would come…)
When the two first encountered, it was an unusually stormy day. The sky was a grey swirl of ominous clouds with a touch of lightning. The way the rain crashed on the roof of the bus and slashed at the windows reduced all visibility. Natsume Hyuuga cursed, thinking about the mess awaiting him at home-he hadn't kept the laundry nor closed the windows-he was simply dreading the moment that he had to hop off the bus.
Natsume was just a typical guy living in a quiet neighbourhood, apart from the above average looks he had. He had been living in the same neighbourhood all this life, and nothing interesting ever happened. Well, if you count out the time when he was 12 and his parents quarrelled for god-knows-how-many times, until finally, his mother snapped, packed up her bags, and left. The Hyuuga household thus became the gossip centre of the neighbourhood for a while, and everybody had somehow gotten word of his family situation. Not that he really cared, anyway. 6 good, long years had passed, and his father was hardly at home. Even if he was, he was drunk and slumped on the sofa. He had never heard from his mother again.
If you had to describe Natsume with three words, it would be cold, indifferent and independent.
The bus made a deep swerve to the right. 1 more stop, he noted to himself. That was when he first took note of a figure, sitting two seats in front of him. A brunette. She was leaning against the window and staring out into the waterfall that unleashed outside.
Natsume knew that his stop was one of the last one the bus's route. Usually, by the time his stop approaches, there would only be him left in the bus. Lots of space and quiet time to himself. But not today. A brunette had to just be there to block his vision, he thought. Under the lighting of the bus though, he could not help but take note that her hair was incredibly shiny and smooth. Those locks of hair, though half blocked by the seats, were a delicious caramel colour and its shine-he could not tear his eyes off of it.
When the bus finally screeched into a stop and he saw the brunette in front of him stand up abruptly, Natsume snapped back into reality. He quickly scrambled to his feet upon realising that it was his stop as well, and stumbled off the bus in a hurry.
He grumbled under his breath as he took a leap towards the bus-stop. The shelter provided there was so minimal he could still feel the rain splashing and soaking into his shoes. Groaning, he dug into his bag for his foldable umbrella. As he struggled to pull it open, he suddenly remembered something and quickly turned around.
She was standing there, watching the raindrops fall down the sky as the downpour dragged on and drowned out everything else. She was wearing a simple white spaghetti-strapped dress, and across her shoulder slung a small bag. Her frail looking arms slowly reached out into the distance and Natsume watched as the rain danced on her arm and slid into her palms, her hands.
Damn, he thought. It could not be she did not have an umbrella, right? Natsume shrugged as he tore his eyes and turned away. She was just a stranger, she was not part of his responsibility or anything. And that was why Natsume could not understand why he had turned back and walked up to her. He knew that his umbrella would have stood no chance in the storm, and needless to say, for two people it would not provide much cover. But something about the girl made him turn back for her. It is usually rare for Natsume to initiate any form of conversation, especially with people he didn't know.
But ah, his legs were already walking towards her...
"Hey." His mouth moved on its own too!
The girl turned, a bit startled at his sudden interruption, but said nothing.
"You can have this if you don't have one." He said and shoved his unbrella forcefully into her hands. And within this 10 seconds, he decided it was the end of his compassion and weird loss of self control, so he turned to stalk off nonchalantly. He was just a few steps away from crossing the shelter of the bus stop before he felt an arm grab him.
"Thank you for your offer, but i don't want you to get wet. Please take it back and use it on yourself instead."
Natsume grunted. The only time he decided to be nice was rejected.
"Then what about you?" He stared at the umbrella in her hands.
"I'm okay. I can just wait for the rain here. I don't live very far away from here." The girl smiled, nudging him again with the umbrella, signalling him to take it.
But it was the first time he had seen her since he started living here.
"Wait for this rain? Are you kidding me? It will probably last till the night."
"But you will be wet, and i don't like that." The girl pouted, and Natsume couldn't help but realise how cute she looked...
"Look, can you just take it?" He sighed, trying not to look at her.
"No! Unless you stay dry too."
And that is how Natsume came to walk her home, both sharing the umbrella. The umbrella obviously stood no chance against the storm, but since she had insisted, Natsume could only tilt his umbrella to her side more. She clutched onto one of his arm tightly as they walked, and they were pressed so close together that her hair kept sweeping into his face, yet when it left he couldn't help but notice to faint lingering scent of strawberries...
It turns out that she was staying just 2 streets away from where he lived. Their eyes met for a while as they stopped in front of her porch and Natsume tried to wipe away the droplets of rain still clinging onto his hair. Luckily, she was somehow quite dry. Natsume watched as her eyebrows twisted into a frown.
"Wait here," She added before kicking off her own shoes and scrambling into her house. A minute later, she rushed back with a towel in one hand. With a tiptoe, she wrapped his head in the towel, ruffling it in the process.
"Thanks for the umbrella," she beamed. "I think you should stay for a while. The rain's still heavy..."
"It's okay."
Natsume merely gave a shrug before tugging off the towel and turning to leave for his own house. He knew at the back of his mind though, that the girl had waved to him even as he stalked off and that he was going to probably going to take a detour from his usual route home for a while. He clutched onto the towel in his hands as he quickened his pace away from where she stood, though taking a piece of her with him. Even in the rain, the towel, though small, gave him mysterious warmth, much like his umbrella.
The second time they met, was on the bus as well. Coincidentally, it was drizzling that day as well, like a situation created by God for them to meet. He had seen her coming up the bus, even if he pretended to be interested in the scenery he had passed by for years. This time though, she slid into the seat beside him.
"We meet again! On another rainy day! Thanks for that time," She cheerily smacked him on the back. Natsume grunted to acknowledge her presence. He was secretly glad he had met her again.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"Home."
"From?"
"School."
"I see. I'm going home too! It's not really my house though..."
Natsume was confused. "Why?"
Her face softened as she turned her gaze ahead of her. "I'm living with a friend of my parents. My parents sent me here because it's a nearer place to the hosp- city..." Her voice fell a little, and Natsume knew that somehow, that was not the whole story.
"Where were you?" He brought up.
"Just the…library. I go there to read often, and to look for stuff. Since I don't go to school and all."
"Why not?"
"I never get to hang around long enough." She replied with a sad smile.
"I wish I could get away from it," Natsume shrugged, to which the girl beside him chuckled. She sounded like a tingling bell, her eyes straight ahead, not knowing that he was staring at her from the corner of his eyes. The next thing he knew, she pulled him up with her, Natsume jumped and scrambled after her off the bus.
"I actually remembered my umbrella this time," Natsume watched as she sheepishly pulled one out of her handbag. "Come around and play sometime, won't you? My parents' friend's quite busy, she's usually not around and I get lonely." She grinned at him before turning to take her leave.
"You haven't told me your name." He called out.
She whipped around. "It's Mikan Sakura! Nice to meet you, Natsume!" Mikan beamed and gave him a wave. It did not matter how she knew his name, nor the fact that she just yelled that from across the road and Natsume could see a few curious kids looking out the window. It did not matter that the drizzle was still going on-inside him, he felt as if the Sun had just risen after a long, bitter Winter. He stood, entranced, until her figure disappeared down the lane and round the corner.
They had met often after that. At least 3 times a week, the duo would find themselves beside each other on the bus, in a corner, reciting their own stories. Natsume didn't know when, but he started saving a seat for her, and craning his head out of the window to check if she was there. There was once that Natsume had gotten off from school early, but he sat at the school bus stop until it was the usual time-in order to see her smile again. Mikan Sakura was always smiling, no matter what grouchy expression Natsume wore. Their bus trips may not have been long, and especially with such an incessant voice that went on and on, Natsume realised that sometimes, he had wished for the rides to last forever. On days when she did not appear, Natsume would sink back into his seat and count the stops till home. It was not that they had a heated discussion with each other on the way home, but just her scent, her eyes, that melodious laughter- it made this rainy season warm and less draggy. On some days when Mikan would look pretty exhausted, the two would just sit in silence, comfortable just with each other's presence-like today, for example.
Natsume would refrain from asking her anything when she was not in the mood for talking. He respected her privacy. He kept himself occupied by looking out the window. It was drizzling again. Suddenly, he felt something fall onto his shoulders. Startled, he turned to find Mikan sleeping on his shoulders, her hair falling into her face and tickling his neck. The familiar waft of berries and honey invaded his senses, and all of a sudden, all he saw was her. He shifted his body closer to her and tucked one strand of hair behind her ear. For the rest of the journey, he found himself just running his hands through her hazel locks while she snuggled into him.
Since a few weeks ago, they had started going over to each other's houses. Usually it was Mikan's place, because Natsume didn't know when his father would burst through the front door and start yelling the house down in his drunken state. They would together on the couch, occasionally with a mug of hot cocoa between them, and pick a weekend movie. Mikan had stated that her parent's friend was quite the movie fan-so they discovered a large stash of movies dating as far back as decades ago- at their disposal.
It was Natsume's turn that week, and he popped the CD in with a smirk on his face.
"I don't like that smirk on your face," Mikan eyed him as he took his place beside her on the couch. "Please tell me you didn't pick something stupid or childish," she groaned.
"It'll be good, trust me and just watch."
So Mikan sat back, with her arms crossed, ready to watch what Natsume had picked to be so confident-until she yelped as the music boomed through the speakers and the screen screamed "Insidious" in blood red letters.
"This isn't good at all!" She shrieked and reached for a pillow. Natsume merely smirked and jeered at her. "You said I got to pick."
She yelped again and buried her face deep into the small pillow in her hands. "It hasn't even started," Mikan didn't even need to see Natsume's face to know that he was enjoying this. She could feel him shifting closer to her. He probably planned it all along.
She kept her eyes shut throughout most of the movie, choosing to bury her face into the pillow instead, shrinking away from the screen as she watched the flashes of scenes go by. Natsume had slipped an arm around her, she could feel his muscular arms around her. She told herself it was ending soon, that she just had a little more to go through. The movie had grown silent suddenly, and she looked up from her pillow-at the wrong moment. The face of the ghosts-or whatever, magnified on the screen and all hell broke loose. She pounced into Natsume's chest and screamed, while Natsume hurriedly reached for the pause button. He could feel her hands clawing at her shirt-tight and trembling, and he looked down and noticed the tears in her eyes.
He felt guilty for reducing her to tears, but as he felt the closeness of their bodies, her clutching onto him like her life had depended on him-he could not but help feel a tinge of excitement. He gently reached for her hands with his and gave them a squeeze as she slowly looked up at him. Even while crying, the girl still looked too cute for him.
"You jerk!" She sobbed, snapping him out of his thoughts. She began to hit him in the chest with both hands, now that he had let go. "You just wanted to see me cry, didn't you?" She continued to wail.
"Your expression throughout the movie was priceless, Mikan." He smirked.
"I hate you." She pouted, ready to send another punch, but with one swift movement of his arm, Natsume had got hold of her and pulled her even closer to his body. She watched as his hand wandered and studied through her palm, as if reading her lifeline. Mikan could feel her heartbeat through the tips of her fingers, and imagined that he could feel it as well. Natsume had smelled of evergreen and just a tinge of the detergent lingering on his shirt. He gazed down at her and stroked one side of her cheek, roaming his thumb around it.
"You know I would never hate you," He whispered, his breath hot on Mikan, and watched her reaction. Mikan shifted her gaze away from him for a while, before looking back at him. No matter how many times their eyes met, Natsume could get lost in her eyes. When her eyes slowly shut close, he took it as his cue and wasted no time in claiming her lips.
At first, it felt like nothing, until she started to react to him. When the feeling came back, Natsume felt the taste of seasons explode inside him. Her hair still smelled like Autumn-honey, yet the heat of their bodies pressed together was like the fiery sun in the middle of Summer. Everywhere she touched-his chest, his face cupped in her hands, her hands around his neck as she deepened his kiss-he felt flowers blooming at the traces of her touch, yet her smooth skin- her small back, her face- they were smooth and light as the gentle first-snow of Winter.
That night-they fell asleep with Mikan's head rested in his bare chest, hair sprawled over him.
He was standing in front of her doorway, repeatedly spamming her doorbell. He didn't care if the owner was at home or not, but something was definitely wrong with Mikan. Ever since she took a week's break to visit her parents elsewhere, she had not been quite the same anymore. She talked less, laughed less, and wanted to cuddle and make out less and less-until she stopped appearing wherever he was altogether. Every time he was concerned and confronted her about it, she would brush it off and say she was tired.
He had to figure out what was wrong with her.
The door jerked open and Natsume did not even wait for her to invite him in as he pushed through it. She wore that glum look on her face again, as if she was not surprised at his sudden visit.
Natsume had her backed up against the wall and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"Tell me what's wrong. Now." He spat.
"What's wrong?" She looked up at him, failing to hide the sadness in her eyes.
"Don't screw with me. You didn't reply my texts. You weren't on the bus. You didn't want to watch a movie last week. When I tried to kiss you 2 days ago, you pushed me away!" He could feel his emotions spiralling out of control. "If it's something I did, hurry and say it! You're driving me crazy!" He covered his eyes with his hand, supporting his head.
"You didn't do anything." She began, and Natsume met her gaze.
"Then what do you want?"
She brushed off his hands from her shoulder.
"Natsume…I want to break up with you."
Outside, the roar of thunder echoed throughout the neighbourhood.