A/N: I hope you like this chapter. If I tell anything about it, you'll know what it's about. So, lips sealed! Reviews please! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. As you all already know.
"Are you crazy or what?!" Natsume's been shouting at us all day long. For the past 3 days, he's been shouting at us all day long. No matter what it is we do, he always seems to find some sort of fault in it.
Nothing is ever up to his expectations. Nothing ever seems to please this man. "I understand you get nervous fresher, but that doesn't mean you reduce your voice to the point where even the person standing right next to you can't hear what the hell you're saying!"
"I-I'm trying my level best here, you don't need to-"
"Well, try harder!" His voice ricochets like the sound of a gunfire resonating in the auditorium hall. "I don't like to repeat myself fresher, so make sure you get it this time and you'd better get it right!" He commanded in a demanding tone.
"I-I will." I replied as he scrutinized me with his laser like eyes before nodding in an unimpressed manner. "I'll be the one to decide that. Take it from the top guys! Check, check, 69! Imai, centre stage, spotlight! Action! Act 2, scene 3!"
"Why sir, you know this is your wedding day. First were we sad, fearing you would not come, now sadder that you come so unprepared. For heaven's sake, please, take off that ridiculous get-up. It's a shame to your estate. An eyesore to this solemn and holy ceremony." Ruka spoke in an elderly gentle voice mimicking Baptista with ease.
"Tedious it were to tell and harsh to hear. It should suffice that I am here and have come to keep my word. But I will have to deviate from it to some extent, which, at more leisure, I will so explain as you shall well be satisfied withal. But where is my Kate?! I stay too long from her. The morning wears. It is time we were at church." Natsume replied haughtily.
"See not your bride in these irreverent robes. Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine." Koko stepped up, covering Tranio's role.
"Not I, believe me. I'll visit her like this." Natsume said speaking confidently.
Ruka's voice changed into one of panic and concern as his dialogue approached. "But, thus, I trust, you shall not marry her. Not in those disgraceful clothes!"
"Yes, just like this. But enough with your words. To me she's married, not unto my clothes. Though I expect she'll wear me out more quickly than I'll wear out what I'm wearing which will be well for Kate and better for myself! But what a fool am I to chat with you, when I should bid good morrow to my bride and seal the title with a lovely kiss!" Natsume playing as Petruchio said boisterously and exits the stage.
The scene cuts to after the wedding ceremony where Petruchio addresses the crowd to bid goodbye. "Gentlemen and friends, I thank you for you. I know you think to dine with me today and have prepared great store of wedding cheer, but so it is, I am called away in great haste. And therefore here I mean to take my leave."
"Is it possible you will away tonight?" Ruka asked. "I must away today, before night comes. Make it no wonder. If you knew my business, you would entreat me rather go than stay. And, honest company, I thank you all, that have beheld me wed to this most patient, sweet and virtuous wife. Dine with my father, drink a health to me, for I must hasten, and farewell to you all."
Tranio's lines are cut and in place of which, Katherine speaks. "Stay till after dinner and let me entreat you." Mikan steps up, speaking with a harsh and sarcastic tone.
"I am content." Natsume says with a smile that matches his words as everyone else in the room cheers.
"Are you content to stay?" Mikan asked just to be sure, as she holds her hands up and Natsume takes them, warming her hands with his.
"I am content you shall entreat me stay but yet not stay, entreat me how you can." Natsume replied with a hint of smugness in his upturned smile as Mikan fumes, dropping both his hands in a fit of fury. "Grumio, my horse!"
"Now, if you love me, stay." Mikan demanded.
"Grumio, my horse!" Natsume roared ignoring Mikan as she screamed.
"NAY, THEN! Do what thou canst, I will not go today, no, nor tomorrow, not till I please myself! The door is open, sir. There lies your way. You may be jogging whiles your boots are green. For me, I'll not be gone till I please myself." Mikan said pointing towards the exit as Natsume smiles. "If you're this high-handed to start with, I can imagine how arrogant and arbitrary you'll be as a husband!" She added.
"O Kate, content thee. Please, be not angry." Ruka said, taking a step forward in an attempt to calm down his daughter.
"I will be angry. What hast thou to do with it?— Father, be quiet. He shall stay at my leisure!" Mikan screamed, glowering at Natsume as she picked a plastic vase lying around and flung it at him.
Natsume ducked in time as the vase hit the wall and landed on the ground.
"Easy there on the throwing." Natsume said as he stared at the empty vase lying on the ground.
"Sorry. I thought it'd have a good effect. I saw the old movie you recommended yesterday." Mikan said shyly. "Yeah, it wasn't half bad. Alright, enough practice for today. Pack up guys!" Natsume shouted as everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
"Thank god! It's already 6 in the evening, I'm starving." Koko said. "Starving? I've got an algebra test tomorrow." Ruka and Kit complained together.
Mikan smiled as she walked over to Hotaru. "How was I?" She asked. "You got a compliment from Natsume Hyuuga. That's a pretty good headstart." Mikan again smiled, feeling giddy with excitement.
"Don't get conceited that easily! I said it wasn't half bad, that doesn't mean that I acknowledge you. You've still got a long way to go, don't let a little praise get to your head fresher!" Natsume said, apparently having heard their conversation.
"Wha? I wasn't getting conceited!" Mikan shouted right back. "Please, save your excuses for someone who believes them. I can see right through you, getting all giddy and excited just because I said something not half-rude. Might be due to the idiotic and ingenuous personality you commoners are blessed with."
"H-How dare you!" And just like that, another one of our quarrel begins and right when we were beginning to get along. I don't think I can ever understand Natsume Hyuuga. He's too much of a twisted personality for me to comprehend.
Whenever I think he might be warming up to me or that he's not that bad, he goes ahead and initiates an argument between the two of us. I don't understand why he always does that. I mean, what is this guy's problem?
"So how was practice today?" Misaki asked as I recalled whatever happened, and somehow, I was not as happy as I thought I was. "Fine. It was fine." I replied lying through my teeth. Misaki frowned. "I know that tone. What happened?"
I stared at Misaki first, pondering if I should tell her. As if like she'd read my mind, Misaki smiled. "You know you have to tell me everything, right?" I frowned at her accuracy of reading my mind but told her everything nonetheless.
"Am I really that naive? That see-through?" I asked Misaki. She hesitated, shifting her eyes, avoiding mine. "A little. But that isn't a bad thing... Not necessarily." She replied conveniently. "Don't fret yourself over it. Anyways, come on, we'll be late for our movie."
Mikan smiled and then realized. "Shoot! I left my purse at school. You go on ahead I'll meet you at the theatre directly." Mikan said and rushed outside as Misaki came out after her. "The theater's on the other side of town Mikan! You can't get there on time in your bike." Misaki shouted.
"I'll manage somehow!" Mikan shouted back as she boarded her pink vintage cycle complete with a flower basket and cycled as fast as she could down the road.
"Excuse me sir, one second!" Mikan said, running down to the college gates. "I-I forgot my purse inside, can I please go in?" Mikan gasped for air, bending down to catch her breath. "Of course, miss. Go right in." Mikan smiled brightly at the guard. "Thank you!" She said and ran inside.
Once inside, Mikan rushed to the auditorium and flung open the doors in a hurry as a startled Natsume spun around. He narrowed his eyes at her. "What're you doing here this late? Didn't you go home?" He asked as Mikan ran inside.
"I-I forgot... My... Purse here." Mikan replied. Natsume didn't reply and neither did Mikan as she got down searching. After a while, Natsume spoke up. "Did you see in the green room?" He asked as Mikan shook her head no. She ran into her room and sighed in relief as she spotted her white purse on the dresser.
"Found it, thanks Hyuuga-kun!" Natsume didn't respond. He sat there glaring at the script – more like scrutinizing it. I felt bad for the paper. "Whatever did that script do to you?" I asked mockingly as he looked up momentarily. "What do you mean?" He asked. I giggled. "You're going to bore a hole into it."
He blinked and for a moment there, I thought I saw him look a tad bit embarrassed. I giggled again and he grunted, his eyes regaining the cold and harshness from this morning. "You were going somewhere?" He reminded me as I frowned.
"What's the point? It's already this late." I replied after I checked my phone. He again looked up waiting for an explanation. "I was supposed to meet my cousin at the theatre, the one on the other side of town. But I forgot my purse and I told her I'd meet her there but it's already 7. The movie starts at 7:30 and I came here on my bike so..."
"Hmm..." What irks me a lot is why he looks soo bored and uninterested when he was the one to ask me himself. "Aren't you going home?" When he didn't reply I assumed that maybe he didn't hear me and I stepped closer to ask him again.
"Hey, Hyuuga-kun? Aren't you going home? It's already 7." I repeated. And again, no answer. I turned my attention to the papers, feeling awkward. "Aren't those the enrollment papers?" I asked, picking a sheet to examine it more thoroughly.
" Isn't this usually the school staff's work? Why are you doing this?" I asked turning the papers to the next page and surely, they were completely filled in neatly and legibly. An irritated Natsume stood up and snatched the papers off my hands. "Could you please stop messing around?" He said and placed them inside a file. "I was just looking at them-"
"Well don't!" He replied severely. I sighed and kept my hands off of any papers. After a while, again he asked. "Why are you still here?" His eyes never leaved his precious papers.
"I'm just a little tired. I'll leave after a while. Do you need any help?" He didn't reply. "Say Hyuuga-kun, it couldn't hurt you to reply, right?" His eyebrow twitched as I said this and he said in an irritated tone.
"'Hyuuga', I told you not to call me that, didn't I?" He said with a frown as I nodded in agreement. "O-Okay. Then, Natsume-kun," Again, a twitch of the eyebrow as his eyes narrowed and his lips pursed.
"Just call me 'Natsume' without the 'kun'. Exactly how many times do you expect me to repeat this to you?" He asked as I stared at him. "What?!" He asked, getting uncomfortable. "Say, Natsume, have you ever seen a chameleon?"
"Huh?" The weirdness of the question puts him out.
"You remind me of one. Pleased in one moment, enraged in the other. Sometimes you are quiet completely focused on your work, other times you are shouting at us. You change personalities like a chameleon changes its colour."
Natsume simply blinked unable to reply to that. Mikan smiled. But before Natsume could reply to put off that smile from Mikan's face, she replied. "Now you'll get angry and say something to make me mad and initiate an argument between us like you always do."
Natsume again blinked, his mouth left hanging. He shifted his eyes away from me and sighed putting the papers and his pen down. "What do you want exactly?" He asked. Mikan shrugged. "And what is 'this' supposed to mean?" He asked after mimicking her shrug. "Nothing really... I just wanted to make conversation... Can I help with anything?" Mikan asked again with higher expectations than last time.
"Isn't your sister still at the theatre?" He asked much to my surprise. "Cousin. And yeah, she is. Tsubasa senpai is with her and I already messaged her that I wouldn't be coming after all. So, everything's fine."
"And exactly why are you SO eager to help me all of a sudden?" He asked. This time, I was the one to blink.
"Hey, what do you mean 'all of a sudden'? Just so you know, you're the one who's always picking a fight with me. I have no personal grudge whatsoever with you or anybody else. It's just that there's nobody else home and I don't have anything else to do..." I replied shifting back and forth awkwardly.
"You're scared of being alone?" He asked with a raised eyebrow. "No! I just—I'm not scared, I-I can't get into the house. Misaki, my cousin, she has the key to the house..." I admit, I was a bit, ok, a lot embarrassed as I admitted this to him. To be locked out of my own house, how lame and embarrassing.
"So, you got locked out?" He asked again as I nodded solemnly. "Yeah. I thought that I'd have enough time to get there and in my hurry I forgot to take the key from her..."
"Huh..." That's it? That's his only reply? Huh?
"You do realize right? A movie runs for at least 3 hours. And it's already 7:30, you plan on staying here till 10?" He asked as I blushed. "The movie is for 2 hours actually..."
"So, 9:30. Don't you commoners have a curfew or something?"
"We're not children, if that's what you mean." Again with that amused smirk. "Uh-huh, sure. Whatever you say." He replied. "Excuse me, just what is your problem?" I asked since it was getting on my nerves. The whole commoner thing.
"Nothing." He said with a blank expression. Then, as though a great idea just struck him, he gestured towards me. "So... You want to help me right?" He asked as I nod. "Just until Misaki comes back. And if you leave early I'll just have to wait outside the house, so... It's perfectly safe but also quite boring."
"Back to the point, you'll do whatever I say? Anything?" He asked. I hesitated. "Well, as long as it's something I can do, sure." I replied wondering where he was going with this. "In that case, I've got the perfect job for you." He said and set the papers down and fixed me with a creepy smirk.
"One day! He can't spare me one day?! Can you believe him mother?" Beside me, a young Hyuuga Aoi fumed with boiling anger.
"I-I'm really sorry," I felt the need to apologize to her even though it wasn't really my fault. "Oh no, It's not your fault Mikan Onee-chan. Why are you apologizing?" I smiled a little at Aoi. At least the sister wasn't as bad as the brother.
"It's I who should be apologizing for what my brother is making you do. You can go home if you want to, I can manage on my own. You don't need to do this." She said sweetly. "No, it's fine. So, what do you not understand?" I asked.
Aoi blushed a little. "Really, Mikan Onee-chan, it's fine." She said as I smiled again. Why are the siblings so similar looking yet so alien when it comes to their different personalities? Like...
Chalk and cheese.
"Mikan is fine. And I was the one who asked him if I could help out so, it's okay." I replied as Aoi smiled a little, easing into her chair. "I-I'm really bad at trigonometry... and English. And I have a test tomorrow." Aoi admitted.
"Let's start with English then. What do you not understand?" I asked as Aoi asked me various doubts. "A noun is a word that refers to a thing, a person, an animal, a place, a quality, an idea, a feeling or an action. For example take this phrase. A box of cookies. Tell me what the noun in this is?"
"Oh, wait, I think I know. 'Box' and 'cookies' because both are things."
"Good. Now for this next sentence, we're connecting these two sentences together. Conjunctions are words that connect two sentences together. These are the most commonly used conjunctions. 'For, and, nor, but, or, yet, and so'. Here, join these two sentences together."
Aoi picked up the pen and concentrated hard on the paper. "I work quickly and very carefully. I drank a glass of water because I was thirsty." Aoi wrote as I patted her on the back. "Not bad. Okay, on to the next topic."
"And done! Mikan, you're soo much more good at teaching that Natsume. I never understand how he arrives at the answer at all. Maybe I'll start getting tuitions from you from now on." Aoi said as Kaoru strides in, "You've both troubled her enough as it is. I'm so sorry, Mikan-chan, for everything. Honestly, that boy of mine."
"Not at all. I enjoyed teaching Aoi. And I'd be happy to teach you again anytime." I replied as Aoi beamed. "Thank you. I'm so gonna ace tomorrow's test." She squealed.
"I should get going. It's getting late." I said my goodbyes to the Hyuuga's and went back to the college building. The guard let me enter without any issues.
"You're still here?" I asked, surprised to see the lights still on, a heap of paperwork on the desk table. He didn't reply. "Natsume it's already 8:13. You should go, your parents are worried." Again no reply. "Honestly, can't you just reply to me properly for once?"
I asked as I walked over to the desk table. "Hey, Natsume!"
"...Hmm..." I had no idea. Natsume Hyuuga had another side to him. An incredibly adorable side. "Honestly, you could have just let me help you." I said and poked him in the cheeks. He squirmed a little in his sleep.
Examining him up close like this, I notice various features I hadn't observed before. Like... He had incredibly long lashes for a boy. And thick yet soft raven black hair. His lips were slightly parted as he slept. His chest heaved up and down as he breathed softly. His hand clutched at the pen as everyone around him, papers rustled every now and then. He looked so innocent... So much like a boy, sleeping like that.
"Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty..." I said and went ahead and shook him by the shoulder gently. It was warm and stiff and somewhat tensed. He stirs a little. "Natsume? Natsume, wake up." This time, I shake him a little harder.
He finally startles awake as I step back a little surprised as he looks around, confused. "What? What?" He sat upright and shouted. Then he scrambles to his feet, way faster than I can even blink. He wobbles and rubs his eyes slowly coming back to his senses.
"Are you okay?" I asked once I found it safe to. He turned around, startled by my voice. It takes him a second to adjust to my presence, "...Yeah... Didn't you go home yet?" He asked as I smiled a little. "I just came by to say that I was going home and I finished teaching Aoi." He nodded sleepily.
"Great. You can go now." I frowned. "Not even a word of thanks?" I asked. "You were the one bugging me for work. You don't say thanks to the people for the work you employ them to do." He replied. "Fine. Fine. I get it. I just came to say that your mother is worried. Just... Go home soon okay?" Again no reply as he stares at me blankly.
"Oh yeah. Here, this is from Aoi." I said and handed him the chit Aoi asked me to give to him. I wondered what it said but apparently nothing good judging from the frown on his face. "Anyways, I'm going so, see you tomorrow."
I wondered what hell of a job she did that Aoi got this better in English in an hour? I once again read the chit she gave to me.
'I'm still mad at you for not coming, but since Mikan is better at teaching than you, I learnt everything and am pretty confident about tomorrow's test, so, I'll forgive you. Be sure to say thanks to her! And yeah, I wrote this all by myself! No help from anyone :) Signed... Aoi.'