Natsume couldn't believe it.

He had kissed Mikan.

He limped slowly over to a tree. Natsume sat down, his back against the tree. Yuki's surprise attack had drained an unsurprisingly large amount of energy, and he felt too tired to stand.

As he laid there, wet and exhausted, Natsume struggled to catch his breath. But even though his body felt weak, his brain was going through thousands of thoughts at once.

Yes, it was forced. And yes, Mikan obviously didn't like it. But still. His lips felt numb, but at the same time it felt full of static.

Now what would Mikan do? Would she ignore him? Would she ditch Sohma and come to him? Natsume tilted his head back and groaned. He gasped as the shock pains trembled down his whole body.

Thinking of the kiss, Natsume felt stupid for not thinking of the many different consequences. It wasn't like him not to think ahead. But who would be able to think if your one true love was telling you to go away?

Natsume couldn't help thinking about what Mikan had been saying. Why did she not want to see him anymore? What was the reason? Maybe..... because of that Sohma??

He flinched at the last thought. Although Natsume wanted to deny it, he knew that it was a strong possibility.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps. Natsume slowly lifted his head. With another gasp of pain, he forced his mind to focus. Focus on the fuzzy picture of an unknown person walking toward him.

Then he realized it was Sohma. Natsume jolted upright. His immediate feelings of hate quickly replaced the throbbing pain.

"Just sit down, Hyuuga. You're in no position to be standing. Here, I'll do you a favor." Yuki called from across the clearing. He continued walking, stopping a few feet away from Natsume.

Yuki reached out his hands, and every droplet of water on Natsume retreated back into his hand. Natsume could feel the familiar burning sensation slowly oozing back into his body. Natsume knew that in a matter of minutes, his fire would be completely restored.

Natsume grunted. He hated to admit it, but Sohma was right. But Natsume Hyuuga doesn't obey anyone, much less his rival. He settled it by leaning lightly on a nearby tree.

"What do you want?" He asked, trying to keep his tone bored, his voice expressionless.

"You know, Mikan's really hurt. She didn't like what you did at all." Yuki replied, his voice equally expressionless.

Natsume answered with another grunt.

Yuki gave Natsume a devious smile. Now with a taunting voice, he replied,"Aren't you wondering why she didn't like it?"

Natsume avoided Sohma's harsh glare. His mind burned to know the answer. He didn't bother asking "Why", because he knew that Sohma would tell him the answer anyway. But deep down, Natsume could feel his heart quickly putting together the pieces. Figuring out the answer, even if he didn't want to know.

"It's because," Yuki paused, waiting for the suspense to build. "She's in love with me."

And Natsume lunged.


"You two should be ashamed!" the teacher barked. "Now apologize to each other!"

Yuki and Natsume turned toward each other. Both of them were bruised, bloody, soaked, and burnt. Natsume had a nasty bruise on his cheek, and his clothes were soaked. Yuki's shirt was burnt to rags, and blood was dripping out of the corner of his swollen lips.

"Sorry." They both mumbled. But it was very clear that none of them meant it.

Satisfied, the teacher let them go. She ordered both of the boys to change clothes and report to the nurse.


The next morning in class, Narumi couldn't believe what he saw. Yuki and Natsume both had bandages on their faces, and the tension and the quiet in the usually noisy room was completely noticeable.

"What in the world happened?" He cried out in his high-pitched, gay voice.

Everyone sweat dropped.

Mikan stared out the window. Last night, Yuki had knocked on her door. He explained what had happened that afternoon.

Mikan had bawled when she heard Persona's condition. But Yuki had reminded her that none of her friends were in the least way hurt. Mikan knew that Yuki was right, but she didn't know how long she could take not talking to Natsume.

"Nothing." Natsume answered. He glared at Yuki, daring him to disagree.

He didn't.

With the slightest of nods, Yuki replied with a "Hnn"

"Ahhhh. Okay." Narumi said thoughtfully. He didn't press on it. "As you know, we have our school festival soon. It's in three months. And we need a class theme."

Instantly, the class exploded with cheers, ideas, and screams.

Natsume leaned back, placed his manga open-book on his face, and crossed his arms. He knew that there was no way he was participating.

"Also, the Alice Academy council has told us that everyone, and that means everyone, must take part." Narumi exclaimed, glancing at Natsume.

Natsume stiffened.

"Okay! Let's put together our ideas!" Narumi called out.

In minutes, the many desks and chairs had been pushed together into a makeshift desk. Anna took notes, because she had the neatest handwriting. Hotaru did the business calculations, because she was the obvious person for the job. And Mikan was the spokesperson, because everybody loved Mikan.

"We should do something that compliments the people in our class." said Nonoko. "I mean, Ruka, Natsume, and Yuki are insanely hot - blush – and we have a lot of pretty people don't we?"

"Like a cosplaying host club!!!" Mikan shouted.

For the second time that day, the class exploded with noise. Anna took furious notes, Hotaru calculated the costs of costumes, and Mikan smiled as she and everybody talked about the details.

After about of an hour of brainstorming, everything was decided. Mikan was given the honors of reading the plans out loud.

"Koko, Ruka, Natsume, and Yuki will be our hosts. And our hostesses will be Anna, Nonoko, Sumire, and...." Mikan stopped. Her eyes widened as she saw the last name on the list.

"Me??" she squealed.

"Your gorgeous Mikan, and so friendly. You'll make us tons of money!" the class assured her.

Mikan blushed, and mumbled, "OK, thank you."

She cleared her throat, and read the rest of the plans. "Rina, Beni, Akira, and Tsuki will sew the costumes with their special Alices. Yuu and Hotaru will take the money and decide which customers match up with which hosts/hostesses. Everyone else will be the waiters and helpers."

With a pump of her fist, she cheered. "Let's make this the best it can be!"


Over the next three months, the class was buzzing with excitement. The special hosts and hostesses took classes on nice manners and proper grace. Which of course Natsume skipped. Yuki and Ruka were assured that there was no need for them to attend, because they were already absolutely graceful and polite.

(While in the background you could hear a glass breaking, and Mikan crying out, "Oh no! I dropped it! Sorry!")

The costume team took measurements. After that, they were very secretive. Not showing the costumes to anybody. They assured everyone that the clothes were gorgeous, and were fitted specially to everyone.

Yuu and Hotaru took care of everything else. They took a "voluntary" donation of 1,000 rabbits from everybody. Anyone who didn't pay was chased after by Hotaru's special debt collecting robot gorilla. With the money, the best hotel was rented, and the best food and drinks were purchased. The special cloth needed to make the costumes was also purchased from the fund.

Before they knew it, the festival was here.