Chapter III:

Different Relationships

"There is no such thing as chance; and what seem to us merest accident springs from the deepest source of destiny."

-Friedrich Schiller

The girl was weird, Natsume finally decided. What had initially caught his attention was the way she had scaled the tree with unbelievable ease, like she had done it countless of times before. Judging by the speed at which she climbed, she probably had. The second thing was that she seemed terrified out of her mind when he first spoke, but didn't even make a single sound during their encounter.

The odder thing was, during the first few seconds, he understood everything she was trying to convey. Her raised hands, her eyes, her intent to make him understand. It was her own language - a language crystal clear to him.

"I'll leave right now," she had shown.

It was as if she had spoken out loud; it shouldn't be possible, but it was.

"Why aren't you -"

He didn't understand what she had meant by that question. Why what?

So he had asked her. But in return, she had looked down, obviously disappointed by something. What the something was, he didn't know and didn't really care all that much.

Then she fell out of the tree, falling unconscious moments after. He would have scoffed at her weakness, but he knew the fall wasn't what got to her. After all, she had stayed conscious a few seconds after. So it had to be something else.

Before he could think more about it, Natsume had noticed the brunette wasn't in the best condition, almost chalk-white for reasons unknown to him. Being the only person around, he had to carry her light body back to the infirmary. Along the way, he had met with Koko, his idiotic, narrow-eyed friend.

Upon seeing him, Koko didn't proceed to tease Natsume about the brunette. Instead, his friend had an almost one-eighty personality change, interrogating him while checking the girl's forehead like a worried mother. Koko had never even told Natsume how he exactly knew this girl - not that Natsume asked.

The girl intrigued him; she wasn't like those screaming girls that all but melted in his very presence. He knew that she was somehow intertwined with this school seeing as she had the uniform on and knew one of the Academy's students, Koko.

Well, whatever, he thought, settling back into the curve of the branch again. He could hear Ruka calling out for him to come back to his classes, but he gave no hint of answering. Ruka would find him eventually. No matter how irking it could be, he always did.

A faint rustle of leaves were all Natsume needed to conclude that Ruka had discovered him.

"No," he said, opening one eye lazily.

"How'd you know I was here? And you don't even know what I was going to say." Ruka paused in his climbing, then raised an eyebrow and asked, "Or did you?"

Natsume raised an eyebrow in return. "One: you're as loud as a dancing bear, or even louder than that." He knew that was an exaggeration, but it was always amusing to see Ruka's reactions to it - like now. He smirked as he saw the blond frown like a child that hadn't been given his candy.

"Two," he said, opening his other eye, "you all but screamed into the loudspeaker to come back to those dumb-ass classes."

"I know I'm not that loud," Ruka huffed, then after a second thought, added, "Though maybe Hotaru is when she's swimming."

Natsume groaned. "Don't bring up the witch. I've finally got suited to the peace."

Ruka glared at him for a few seconds before smiling again, revealing his white teeth. "You are aware that she's my girlfriend, right?"

"Which is precisely why I call her a witch," Natsume said. "You're dating her, so I bet she used some voodoo magic to make you like her."

Ruka rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Natsume. I'm seriously doubting whether you are a genius or not."

"Want to test it?" Natsume challenged. "Even half-asleep, I'm still smarter than you."

"I wouldn't know, because after all, you never come to classes!" Ruka exclaimed.

Natsume flinched. "Tch. This is what I mean by being too loud, Dancing-Bear-Ruka."

There was a pause before Ruka weakly offered, "Fake-genius-cat-Natsume?"

A snort came from the trunk of the tree. "That was pathetic."

Both boys' heads turned down in the direction of the voice. Natsume sighed, recognizing it. Ruka, however, had the opposite reaction. He smiled even more widely, and, delightedly asked, "What are you doing, Hotaru? You almost never come out here."

Hotaru ignored him and fixated her eyes on Natsume.

He sighed again. "What do you want, Imai?" Natsume snarled.

Violet eyes gleamed and a smirk made itself apparent on her lips as she said, "I'm here to make a deal."

"A deal? What deal?" he asked, regarding her suspiciously.

"Aren't you curious about the girl?" Hotaru asked teasingly.

"Girl?" Ruka's head swiveled from side to side like a spectator in a tennis match, his blue eyes demanding answers from his childhood friends. "What girl? Do you have a girlfriend? I can't believe you didn't tell me about this!"

Natsume flicked Ruka's head to stop his wails. "Idiot. I don't have a girlfriend. Don't jump to weird conclusions."

"Oh?" Hotaru's smirk grew wider. "Weird conclusions, huh? I didn't know you felt that way, Hyuuga."

"You know that's not what I meant, Imai," Natsume snapped, glaring at her. "Don't deny it. Anyways, why do you think I'm curious about her?"

"Now I'm really wondering if you play for the other tea-"

"Don't even finish that sentence."

Hotaru sighed regretfully. "Oh well. It was fun while it lasted." Her face transformed from a smug expression to one of seriousness - her business face. "I'll tell you what I find out about her, but in exchange for something I want."

Natsume contemplated her offer. Then he asked, "For what? Money?"

"No. Information for information. Though that's something we'll discuss in private," Hotaru said, glancing at Ruka pointedly.

Ruka blinked, then his ears reddened slightly. "Oh. You mean me, right? Then I'll just be going now," he said awkwardly. Before jumping off the branch, he pointed an accusing finger at Natsume. "You better come to class!"

Natsume watched Ruka disappear behind the green hills, then let himself fall, hands never leaving his pockets. His stance was relaxed and he was slouching, giving no indication he literally fell out of a tree. "How do you know her, anyway?"

"I'm not revealing that information until a later time. So, how about it?"

"Hey, Natsume!" an annoyingly cheerful voice called out.

The raven-haired lad opened one eye, saw who had spoke to him, and closed his eye once more, deciding it wasn't worth it.

"How mean. And here I had some news too." The voice didn't sound any less cheerful than before.

"What do you want, Koko?" Natsume asked irritably, sitting up from his slouch. He yawned sleepily.

"Hmmm," Koko said, circling the bench suspiciously. "Didn't you take like, a five-hour nap during the morning classes?"

"Two. A girl, Ruka, and Imai interrupted three hours of it," Natsume said. "Now, what do you want?"

Koko scratched his head sheepishly. "Well, I had some news to give you, but that's probably all the sleep you had today, so never mind."

"Doesn't matter. I'm awake now. Just tell me and get it over with already or scram."

"Yes, sir." Koko mock-saluted him, causing Natsume to shoot a piercing glare at him. "Okay, okay. Well, about that girl we saw today, she's a -"

"Hello, everyone! What a beautiful afternoon it is today, isn't it Natsume-kun?"

The addressed person directed his glare to the blond teacher. "Shut up, old man."

"Yes, yes. Oh, Anna's not here?" Narumi checked off a box and then set the attendance sheet down on his desk, smiling widely. "Okay, we have some news!" He paused for dramatic effect, his amethyst eyes gleaming. "We have a new transfer student!"

Almost a split second later, there were shouts and yells from students asking questions, but two icy voices silenced them immediately.

"Shut up," Natsume and Hotaru said simultaneously, their cold gazes slicing across the room.

The class shut up at once, not wanting to evoke the teens' deadly wrath. Taking advantage of the sudden quiet, Koko's hand shot up and he yelled, "Narumi! Is the student a boy or a girl?"

Narumi's lips tilted up into a small smile. "You probably know already, don't you Koko-kun?"

"Mmm, yeah. But I'm asking for the class' sake. And they seem too scared to, so yeah," Koko finished.

"Koko-kun, don't begin a sentence with 'but' and 'and'. It's incorrect-"

"To begin a sentence with a conjunction," the class chorused, except for the stoic duo.

"Correct!" Narumi beamed. "Though, grammatical errors aside, the new student is a girl. She's very quiet, so don't scare her. Please come in, Mikan-chan!"

There was a moment of hushed excitement, but no one came through the door. They waited for a few more seconds before releasing disappointed sighs.

Natsume abruptly stood up from his seat. The eyes of his classmates followed his smooth stride as he headed for the other door. "Screw this. Like hell I'm going to wait for someone who won't even come in."

"Wait, Natsume-kun -"

The harsh slam of the door stopped Narumi's words.

"Well, that was somewhat eventful," Koko said, and the rest of the class agreed with him.

Outside, Natsume encountered a strange sight. He found Anna, who was supposedly absent and easily recognizable by her fluffy pink hair, kneeling next to what looked to be a black-brown ball. Walking closer, he saw that the ball was actually a person - the girl who he had met in the tree a few hours ago.

His black boots didn't even make a ghost of a sound as he came closer to the two. Although, the girl seemed to sense it somehow, and her head snapped up, her hazel eyes clouded with the same terror he saw in the tree. Fast as lightning, she jumped up and bolted. At least, until Anna, who was on the track team, grabbed her hand faster than the girl could begin to run.

She froze in her tracks. Literally froze, with her body tensed up and not moving a millimeter as far as he could see.

He could hear Anna's quiet whispers. "Please don't be afraid. Nobody is going to hurt you here. Okay? Calm down and focus. Look closely."

The girl did so, her slim frame trembling imperceptibly. She opened her eyes, and Natsume was surprised, yet again, at the sheer depth of the hazel orbs.

Anna smiled and released her hand, apparently satisfied with her progress. "What's your name?"

Her eyes darted around, before finally settling on him. She hesitated for a few seconds and locked eyes with him.

"Please go," her eyes said.

"Natsume? What are you doing back here?" Ruka whispered.

He shot a glare at the blond. "Don't think this is normal," he said, propping his feet up on the bench. "I'm only staying until she comes in."

"By she, do you mean-"

"Ruka Nogi, tell me the method for the Triangle Law of Addition," the math teacher, Jinno, said. He didn't turn around from the board, continuing to write things nobody really cared about.

"It's... Um..." Ruka quickly scanned the blackboard for anything of reference and found absolutely nothing. "It's... Uh..."

"Vector b is translated so that its tail coincides with the head of a, idiot."

Ruka looked shocked at Natsume's help, but repeated what he said anyways.

"Then, tell me what the Additive identity property and the Additive inverse property states," Jinno said, continuing with his interrogation.

"The identity property states that there exists a unique vector zero, such that a + 0 = 0 + a = a."

Again, Ruka repeated his words, not knowing what he was saying.

"What about the inverse property, Nogi?"

"States that there exists a vector -a, which is called the additive inverse of a, so that a + -a = -a + a = 0."

For the third time, Ruka relayed the information to the teacher, hoping the questions would stop soon.

Fortunately, his wish was granted. Unfortunately, it came with Jinno saying, "Detention, Nogi. You too, Hyuuga."

"Wh-what?" Ruka spluttered incredulously. "We answered the questions correctly!"

"I believe I only directed the questions to you, not Hyuuga." Ruka flushed angrily at his slip-up. "Furthermore, I do not teach about the properties until the next semester. Detention after school. Class dismissed."

Right on cue, the bell for lunch rang. The boys stood up, Ruka gathering his books while Natsume waited for him impatiently by the door.

"I'm sorry, Natsume. I-"

"Oi, Jinno," Natsume called.

A vein popped in his forehead. Jinno turned around from the blackboard, glaring at Natsume through his glasses. "It's Jinno-sensei to you, Hyuuga, and —"

"I'm aware. Now tell me the reason for the detention."

"I thought I made it clear. It was because you two weren't paying attention."

"That's bullshit."

"Fantastic. After class, Hyuuga and Nogi."

"No."

Jinno turned around. "Excuse me?"

"No. Mainly because you have no reason."

He sneered. "Do you mind explaining why you think so?"

Natsume shrugged. "It's simple. You're a teacher. Your job is to teach."

"Your point?"

"To get detention for knowing things faster than you could teach is an invalid reason for detention."

"The fact remains that you weren't paying attention-"

"If you have a reason for us to pay attention, tell me then. Let's go, Ruka."

Natsume slammed the door behind them, muttering expletives under his breath.

"Thanks, Natsume! You saved us!"

He turned to Ruka, who was smiling gratefully at him. "You owe me another one. See you next period."

Before he could walk away, Ruka grabbed Natsume's arm. "Wait. You're coming to the next class too?"

"Yeah. She'll come eventually. She seems interesting."

With that, he ran.

"Here."

He passed a plate over to the younger boy, who took it and scarfed down everything as fast as he could.

The gray-haired teen gulped the last morsel of the sandwich and gave a small smile. "Thanks, Natsume-nii."

Natsume scoffed. "Moronic Youichi."

"Mm. By the way, what happened to your cheek?" Youichi asked, his steely blue eyes scrutinizing the reddening cheek.

"The usual. I don't even know why you ask anymore," Natsume said nonchalantly.

"Damn him. I swear I'm going to kill him. No, before that, I'm going to chop off his -"

"Mm. Say that after you get out of this hellhole."

Youichi shot him a wolf-like glare, learned from none other than Natsume himself. "Damn you too, Natsume-nii."

"You shouldn't say that with a nii added to it, idiot." He flicked Youichi's forehead before looking at the time. "Shit. Class already started."

"Wow. You're actually attending classes, Natsume?" Youichi asked, emphasizing the lack of the nii. He clapped stoically, a hint of a smirk playing on his lips. "This should be in the news or something."

Natsume flicked him again, but his crimson eyes showed faint amusement. "Shut up. Koko said there was a transfer student."

"Hm. Koko's the guy with the weird mind-reading skills, right?"

"Yeah. See you in a few hours."

Natsume closed the metal door for the nth time, his raven locks covering the regret in his eyes.

"You're late, Natsume," Misaki, the science teacher, said without looking away from the textbook.

"At least I showed up," Natsume replied, taking his seat next to Kitsuneme, Koko's fraternal twin.

"That's better than usual. Continue reading, Anna."

"Where was I?" The girl floundered for a second before her ocean-blue eyes brightened. "Oh, never mind, I found it."

Natsume stopped focusing on Anna's words, instead thinking about something else. If Anna was here, would that mean...?

He scanned the room, somewhat unsurprised when he didn't spot the brunette.

A few minutes passed by with Natsume twirling a pen in boredom, until a soft ripping sound was heard.

On a small piece of paper, Kitsuneme had written in his sloppy handwriting, Kuonji again?

He inclined his head imperceptibly, confirming Kitsuneme's suspicions.

Kitsuneme sighed, shaking his head slightly.

Why?

Youichi, he mouthed.

Kitsuneme nodded in an 'I-see' gesture. He looked up at the ceiling, thinking about what to write next. An idea struck him, and he quickly scribbled on the paper.

Why are you in class again?

Natsume raised an eyebrow and stared at his friend, the question clear: Is that bad?

Kitsuneme quickly shook his head. What I meant to say was: you've been to half of second period, another half of third, and now you're in sixth period with us. So, like, two classes today. Why the sudden change?

Only now.

Because...?

Kitsuneme waited for an answer, but none came.

Hello?

Ask Koko.

You're a bastard, you know that?

Mikan was taking a nightly stroll, just as she had done countless times in Okinawa. It was a shame she couldn't do it during the day, with the people milling about, but doing it when evening fell almost made up for it. Everything seemed so beautiful and peaceful then - the midnight blue of the sky, the faint twinkle of the stars, the cool breeze that ruffled her auburn hair.

Smiling simply at the thought of it, she didn't notice the blond in her path. It was only until she heard the dull thump of the boy's textbooks that she actually saw him.

On reflex, she bent down to pick up the books when she froze, her hand floating a few inches away. Already the fear was starting to grip her, squeezing the breath out of her lungs, paralyzing her limbs, making her unable to move.

"I'm sorry," the boy muttered, and she started suddenly. By doing so, her hair, which had been covering her face, was swept to the side. At the same moment, the boy looked up. His brown eyes immediately widened in shock and sheer disbelief.

"M-M-Mikan!" he stammered, making her jump again, but this time in surprise. "Wh-why...I mean...what are you doing here?"

Before she could answer - or at least attempt to - a male teen sauntered up to them, a sneer clearly visible. "Hey, Iinchou," he slurred, slinging an arm around the cautious blond. Mikan could tell he was drunk. She eyed him with unconscious distaste. How many seniors could say they drank to the point where they were just falling into pieces?

Mikan's attention snapped back to the guy, who had spoken again. "Doncha have some cash on ya? 'M all out, ya shee."

He had only began to shake his head when the drunk guy's arm tightened around his neck, making it a choke hold. He clawed at the arm desperately. "C'mon, don' be that way."

Wait a minute. The fear was starting to release her, so she could form something akin to clear thoughts.

Glasses. Warm brown eyes. Blond hair. That gentle voice, so familiar from her childhood.

Yuu?

"S-stop."

The word fell unbidden from her lips, her unused voice shaky and wavering. Her hands flew to her throat, fingers searching for the bruises that had long since faded before falling back to her sides. Her eyes widened of their own accord. What had she just done? Her unspoken vow to never speak until she could make things right again was broken. Shattered, crumbled, broken. What had she done?

It was suddenly harder to breathe. She had two choices now, since their eyes were on her.

Speak, and save her old childhood friend's life, or try to salvage her broken vow.

Heart speeding up, she inwardly rolled her eyes. Well, that wasn't much of a choice, was it?

Her heart pounded painfully in her chest, the monotonous sound drowning out nearly everything, and her ears felt hot. She swallowed, forcing herself to steel herself mentally and physically. She had to do this. "Wh-" She took a deep breath and started again, her voice infinitely more stronger and sharp. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Her words had distracted the guy enough to loosen his hold. Unfortunately, it had shifted his direction to the young girl. He peered at her incoherently, purple eyes clouded. "An' who are ya?"

Her eyes narrowed at him.

Idiot.

The look in her eyes was deadly; the soft hazel color had hardened into smoldering amber.

"Get out of here."

Her words, although quiet, were strong. They were laced with an unmistakable note of command and each word was delivered like thunder shaking the earth; they promised absolute hell if he didn't leave.

Still, the guy was stupid enough to think she was a defenseless little girl. He jumped, hands fisted, a feral grin on his face.

Fuck no.

She didn't make the biggest mistake of her life eleven years ago for nothing.

Her head automatically leaned to the side, and the fist sailed past harmlessly, missing her cheek by miles.

The alcohol was not doing anything good for him. His sense of balance was off, his anger fueled, his reasoning all but extinct, and Mikan could see that. It was obvious who was going to win.

He let out a roar and lunged for her, fingers outstretched for her throat. She smiled bitterly.

How nostalgic.

Using his weight against him, she easily grabbed his hands and flipped him over her shoulder, slamming his vulnerable back into the ground.

"If you actually have brain cells, then you should get out and never come back," she told him, hazel eyes studying him seriously.

Even half conscious, the guy didn't hesitate now. He tailed it out of there as fast as he could, tripping and stumbling every few steps. Though within seconds, all that remained was a fading dust storm.

Mikan exhaled slowly. Now that the adrenaline rush was gone, the fear slammed with full force like a truck. She was utterly numb, seeing things through a haze and hearing things like she was underwater. Completely forgetting the fact she was next to her long-time friend, she managed to scramble up and disappear through the line of trees before Yuu could even get one word out.

"So, how about those lessons? Don't think I'm doing this because I'm obligated to or anything. I really want to pay you back for helping my boyfriend out; plus, I think we could become really great friends," Anna finished.

Mikan turned to look at Sumire, who was shocked into silence - a rare occurrence not seen for at least seven years - by the situation. The brunette clapped her hands in front of the jade eyes, gaining Sumire's attention immediately.

"What?" she snapped.

Tell her she doesn't have to and that I wouldn't mind if she quit in a day or something.

"She says yes. But you absolutely, can not quit," the green-haired girl said, disinterested eyes studying her manicured nails. It seemed that she hadn't gotten over Mikan and Anna's easy relationship yet. Jealousy was ugly.

"Okay!" Anna beamed at Mikan, who was practically turtle slapping Sumire for the wrong translation.

That wasn't what I said! Why would you -

Mikan's hand halted suddenly, inches away from Sumire's reddening arm.

"Hey, what's -" Sumire started to ask, but then her eyes followed Mikan's to the door, which was slowly opening.

"Whatever, you idiot! See you tomorrow!" the blue-haired girl called, rolling her eyes as she closed the door behind her. She blinked at the frozen scene and looked behind her warily, then back at the three girls. "Is there something wrong?"

Mikan barely heard anything. She was already reaching for the front of her black blazer, her hand shaking in trepidation. The blue-haired girl finally understood the situation and began to focus her eyes solely on the hardwood floor as she cautiously headed back for the door.

Too much. It was too much.

Mikan slowly backed out, with her hands trembling, knees knocking into each other, feet in a ninety degree angle to better support herself.

"Wait! Mikan, don't go!" Anna called out suddenly, and Mikan snapped.

She sprinted out the door, past the bewildered girl, not caring where she was going as long as she could just get away. It was too much to ask for her to be in a room with three people at once. It didn't matter if she had just spoken hours earlier. It didn't matter that she was at least trying not to flee when Anna was there.

It didn't matter.

Because the fact remained that she didn't have any real social contact for more than a decade. Nor had she taken a step outside in broad daylight.

Nothing mattered.

Not her efforts, not her desire to help - nothing.

She didn't pay attention to her surroundings, nor cared at that point.

Which was why she missed the raven-haired lad talking to his friend, Koko. And that was how she ended up accidentally tackling him to the floor with her surprisingly strong head butt.

Somehow ending up with his lips pressed softly against her own.

What?

Preview: Different Situations

It was incomprehensible. It was perplexing. And it was utterly, wholly, and completely confusing. What she did to make the people above so angry that they had to make her suffer like thiswas just too confusing to her. First, making her stay in a room with three people at once; then making her run into two more people.

And now.

Having her first kiss stolen by a person she didn't even know. For her, that was on the top of the list of Most Horrible Things That Have Happened in Life.

What the hell did I do to deserve all this on my first day?

Mikan slowly sat up, her shoulders shaking from the shock of what happened. Her already large brown eyes widened, unblinking at the tall, groaning teen in front of her. She watched as he rubbed his head, clicking his tongue in annoyance. His head rose, blood-red eyes freezing her in place with a piercing glare.

Looking at those eyes that were just about ready to kill, she knew she was screwed. In for a torture worse than her worst nightmare. Going to die an early death.

"Haha." Both pairs of eyes, frightened and murderous, snapped to the boy who actually had the balls to laugh. "Well, I see you've met my friend Natsume Hyuuga, Mikan," Koko said, scratching his head awkwardly.

Oh, and she was definitely going to drag Koko down with her into her grave.

Almost in a trance, Mikan saw his brown eyes dart behind her, the color from his face draining at an alarming rate. "Oh shit," he whispered. "We're all screwed."

The brunette almost didn't want to look - for what could be worse than anything that just happened - but she did anyway, her heart about to break her ribs from the excessive pounding. She could feel the dread growing painfully, turning her insides to mush. In a quick and loud heartbeat, Mikan was as pale as Koko, or even more so.

Because Sumire was standing there, her jade eyes just blazing with fury. Judging by the way she seemed furious enough that it looked like any minute now, her permed hair was going to rise as hissing snakes like Medusa, Mikan thought it was very, very likely that Sumire had just witnessed her own sister kissing her long-term crush.

"What," Sumire snarled, "just happened?"

Mikan flinched, her shaking turning more violent. Then of course, things just had to get worse, because the vindictive jerk who she just - no, don't think about it - bumped into decided to say something.

"You're a really bad kisser, you know that?" he drawled, the corner of his lips rising in a condescending, barely-there smirk.

Freaking jerk! He somehow knew that Sumire had the ability to possibly kill me.

Her fear of people was left in the dust, replaced by the white-hot bubbling mold of sheer hate. She turned to him, eyes now just as murderous as his. His eyebrow raised, as if to challenge her.

She almost scoffed in disbelief.

Fucking asshole!

"Mikan." Her head snapped up at the sweetsweetsweet voice, her fear freshly renewed. She almost didn't look, but seeing as she was an act-before-you-think person, her eyes rose to meet Sumire's. And she wished, oh so desperately wished, that she could take it back, because the expression on her sister's face was just horrifying. Sumire smiled at her, eyes fixed on her trembling figure.

When Sumire smiled, shit was going to go down. Mikan knew that Koko knew it too, for she could hear the very audible gulp that did not come from her.

"You -" Knowing Sumire for practically her whole life allowed Mikan the insane ability to predict what she was going to say next. And she was so glad for it, for she had a two-second head start so Sumire to finish what she was saying. "- have three seconds to run."

By the time the word run was uttered, Mikan was already running, rounding the corner.

As she was sprinting away from the raging monster that was unfortunately her sister, she had one thought.

You wanna play, Hyuuga?

Her eyes flashed.

Then we'll play.

A/N: So, it's going to be my birthday on July 13th, and it would be completely bawwsss and the best present ever if I could get some reviews. Preferably 13. Since my birthday's on the thirteenth and all? Yeah, not funny. Okay, getting onto the reviews then.

AnimeMango: You know, I think your name is extremely interesting. Very unique. But, if it weren't for that first part, I would've wondered if it was a compliment or not. Then this review would be completely different. Although you said it was good. So thanks? Ahaha, I have no idea why that was a question. It was supposed to be a statement. STATEMENT. Yeah, I'll just go now.

aurora0914: Here's your update, thank you, and I couldn't really write the whole chapter in his POV, so sorry about that. Do you know how hard it is to write a whole chapter in his POV? It's like trying to break into the government's security system and then you find out it's written in some foreign language. Not easy. So you'll have to settle for like three crappy scenes. And it's so fun to keep people in suspense. Don't you think so? And I'll try to update faster than every two months, I promise. And as for Mikan not talking, that's going to be revealed soon. Dang, I sound like a cheesy movie trailer.

spica14: Is it really impossible? Lots of people can do that. Like best friends, siblings, gfs/bfs, etc. It may not be as specific as this, but you often get the general point across with eye contact and body movements. And when you live with a person for a person for like seventeen years (or see them a lot), it may be possible to actually speak with eye contact and body language. Of course, I have no idea. All I'm doing in this fic is taking that a little further. And this isn't going to last very long, trust me. I'm as eager as you are (I think; if you aren't, well this is awkward) to get her talking. Even though this only the third chapter. Yeah, I have issues with patience. And I didn't make her use sign language or anything, because in this fic, Mikan has horrible memory. She couldn't possibly remember all those signs and stuff. I sure don't, even though I tried to a couple of years back. And thank you, for your review and your honest opinion. Here's a waffle for your work, effort to get over your laziness and type that wonderfully long review? Haha. #