I do not own gakuen... I owe this story from Robin Lee Hatccher and comp...

SUMMARY: A motherless little girl's wish for a Christmas angel comes true with the arrival of a beautiful stranger at her father's Idaho farm.

Aoi Hyuuga - daughter of Luna and known daughter of Natsume

Natsume Hyuuga - 29 yo,clerk at the store owned by the Sakura's 11 years back then

Dorothea Sakura - mother of Luna and stepmother of Mikan

David Sakura- father of Mikan

Mikan Sakura - 24 yo, nurse

Mikan freshened herself as best she could in the passenger car's water closet, but she saw little improvement in the chipped mirror.

Her wavy, pale hair was dull and badly in need of a good washing. Her brown orbs had dark circles, evidence of her sleeplessness. Her gray shirt waist was wrinkled and travel-stained. She looked like a woman who had been on a train for too many hours – which was exactly what she was.

She drew herself up straight and shot a determined glance at her reflection. See here, Mikan Sakura, she scolded herself silently, it doesn't matter in the least what you look like. You're here to comfort an injured child. And that's all that matters.

With her head held as high as she could get it, she opened the door and returned to her seat. She managed to maintain her prim, resolute posture until the conductor came through the car.

"Nampa station, next stop."

Her heart jumped into her throat. Her hands tightened in her lap. She felt the blood draining from her face, and she knew she must be as pale as a ghost. She forced herself to take several deep, steadying breaths. It wouldn't do for her to pass out from lack of oxygen at this precise moment.

Once again she mentally berated herself as she reached for her thick woolen cloak, not realizing until then how cold she become without it on. She'd remove it before going to the water closet and had forgotten it upon her return. A fine thing it would be if she became ill because of her carelessness. Imagine coming all this way only to force Natsume to take care of her.

Imagining it was just what she did, and she felt a blush stain her cheeks at the picture it brought to mind.

With a screech of iron wheels against iron tracks, the Oregon Short Line pulled into the Nampa station. As soon as the train came to a complete stop, Mikan picked up her traveling case and her reticule, then rose from her seat. She drew in one more deep breath as she turned toward the exit at the rear of the car, and with a stomach full of battling alley cats, she walked down the aisle.

Natsume waited with his back against the train depot's wall. A bitter December wind whipped small eddies of snow across the platform, stinging any exposed flesh it could find. From beneath the brim of his weathered felt hat, he watched the passengers disembark.

It wasn't as hard to find Mikan as he'd feared it would be. Only three people got off the train, an older couple and a young woman. Clearly, the young woman had to be Mikan.

But when he stepped forward and she turned to look at him, he knew that he couldn't have missed her even if there'd been a hundred other people around her. Mikan Sakura had scarcely changed from the girl he remembered sitting on a pickle barrel, her blond hair in braids, a book in her lap. She still had the same large brown eyes and a familiar, almost waiflike expression on her delicate face.

She smiled a little uncertainty. "Hello, Natsume."

"Hn. Look at you. I think I was looking for a kid in pigtails, but you've grown up."

"that's what happens to a girl in eleven years." She glanced past his shoulder, then met his gaze again. "You came alone?"

"Aoi's not supposed to be out in the cold.

She shook her head. "Of course not."

He stepped closer, reaching to take her traveling case. It was large and heavy, and he wondered how she'd manage to carry it. Although she was tall for a woman, he figured she couldn't weigh more than a hundred and ten pounds. A strong gust of wind could have blown her away.

"Come on. Lets get you out of this weather." He took her arm and guided her toward the flatbed wagon sitting on runners.

He tossed her case into the back of the sleigh, then helped her onto the wagon seat. He hopped up beside her and handed her a lap robe.

"Tuck it around you good. We've got a ways to go, and it looks like we could get more snow before we get home."

They started off to the jingle of the bells and the rattle of harness.

Natsume had also changed in the past eleven years, and yet he was very much the same man she remembered. He was trim, although she had the feeling his arms, torso, and legs were well muscled beneath the thick layer of warm clothing. His face wasn't as smooth as it had been when he was eighteen. There were lines around his eyes and mouth and a few between his thick eyebrows that hadn't been there before. But his eyes were still the same intense shade as crimson. She wondered if he had the same crooked smile that had always made her feel so silly inside. She hoped so.

Mikan clenched her hands together in her lap beneath the blanket, her stomach acting crazy at just the thought of his smile. Afraid he might guess what she was thinking and feeling, she spoke quickly, saying the first thing that came to mind. "It's been a long time since I saw you, Natsume."

"Yes."

She could see the shadow of his beard beneath his skin. It was strangely appealing. She wanted to reach out and touch his cheeks to see what the stubble felt like.

Her thoughts made her blush. Whatever had made her think such a thing? Nothing even remotely close to it had occurred to her when she'd been with Ruka.

Mikan felt the awkward silence stretching between them, and she wondered if he'd guessed what she'd been thinking, then mentally scolded herself for her foolishness. Of course he didn't know her thoughts.

And there was no reason for either of them to feel awkward, she told herself. No reason at all. They'd been friends once. He'd teased and laughed with her and even shared a few of his dreams. They could be friends again. It would just take some effort.

She decided to make the first move. "Was the farm everything you'd hoped it would be?"

He glanced at her.

"I remember how much you wanted to come west and have a place of your own," she said in a whisper. "I just wondered if it turned out to be as wonderful as you'd imagined."

He nodded, then turned back toward the road.

"It hasn't been easy."

I can tell.

"I guess it never will be," he continued. "That's the nature of farmin'. Its hard work, especially when a man's got no one to depend on but himself."

Mikan looked away from him, her gaze set on the snow-covered countryside, dotted here and there with farmhouses and silos, barns and wooden fences. "I'm sorry about…Luna."

When several minutes passed without a reply, she turned her head back in his direction. He was staring straight ahead, his mouth set in a tight line, his entire body warning that she was, treading a forbidden ground. It had been over three years since Natsume had written to Luna's parents to inform of her death, and yet it was clear from his attitude that time had done nothing to heal the wounds of his loss.

He must still love her very much, even after all this time.

She found the thought painful, too painful to dwell on in silence. "Tell me about Aoi. What sort of little girl is she?"

The right side of his mouth curved upward. "The best."

Mikan relaxed. "That's a father talking. Now tell me what she's really like."

He turned toward her, and she could see that his smile was unchanged. The left corner of his mouth still didn't turn up as far as the right. His crimson eyes seemed to sparkle with a brightness from inside. "She's the best. You'll see."

She should have pressed him for information. She should have asked about the accident. She should have made him tell her everything the doctor had ever said or done for his patient. She should have behaved like the trained nurse she was. That was why she'd come out from Chicago, to take care of Aoi, to try to make her well and whole again.

But she couldn't bear to take the smile away from him quite so soon. She wanted to enjoy it just a little longer.

So she smiled back at him and allowed them to continue on in a more comfortable silence.