With a Flair of Drama

By Aspirator

Disclaimer: GA is not mine. Story is mine.

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"He gets lucky." Nonoko shrugged, looking around to a disappointed crowd, "right? I mean, what else?"

"That's it?" Kitsuneme threw his arms in the arms in the air, "six times in a row? Natsume defies death for six times in a row because he gets lucky?!" The field agent shook his head, "it has to be something else."

In the followng silence, six pairs of eyes turned to Mikan.

The newbie, taken aback, blinked at the attention. "What?"

"Well, you dated him." Koko pointed out, a little meekly when Hotaru gave him a glare.

Dropping her jaw in shock, Mikan looked around at the blank faces. "Are you kidding? The whole department knows?" Her eyes landed on her best friend. "Hotaru!"

"What's done is done. Can't stop it." She responded nonchalantly.

With a miffed huff, Mikan placed her hands on her hips, "Well, I don't know how he does it. I think he's just stupid-" and here she was interrupted with protests, "you know what, I agree. He gets lucky."

A collective groan elicited from the men. Koko and Kitsuneme rolled their eyes at each other, muttering, "spoil sports."

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"Mochiage." Mikan sighed the name in tolerable patience, but allowed herself to be pulled by his arm into a dark hallway, free of prying ears.

"Stop-" Mochu instinctively started on his usual response, then stopped himself. "Alright, everyone calls me that because I hate the name and it's funny and it sucks and nobody wants to say 'Mochu'. I get it. I'll get over it, this one time, for you." Mochu gathered her in again, to Mikan's exasperation.

"What now, Mochiage? Natsume's a space alien?"

"How did you know - " At Mikan's exasperated look, Mochu responded patiently, holding out his hand to emphasize his point, "Okay, just listen, alright? Superman's from a planet with higher gravity. Thus, when he came to earth he can fly. It makes sense. So, Natsume defies death because he was a government project, you know the whole genetics shebang, but then they realized it was ethically and morally wrong. So they released him to live as a normal person in civilization-"

"Mochiage." Mikan sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Come on," Mochiage dragged out the last word, waving his other hand impatiently to elicit a response from the other agent. "What do you think?"

The female agent started by gently pulling Mochiage's arm off of her shoulders and placing it purposefully by his side with a look. "Hotaru told me this would happen-"

In which the man groaned and crossed his arms, "Well, Hotaru's a-"

But Mikan interrupted with a stern look, continuing, "-and here's my crafted response. First of all, no amount of theories and fan girling will get you any closer to the truth about Natsume. Second of all, I don't know why you all put him on a pedestal because he's not that great." Mochu opened his mouth in protest, but Mikan cut in with a hand before he could speak, "Thirdly, if you keep pulling me into dark hallways, Natsume is not going to be your friend."

The third point completely passing over his head, Mochu extended his arm around Mikan's shoulders again. Herding her further into the dead-end despite her advice, he cajoled in a patronising manner, "Mikan, Mikan, Mikan…listen. I've been working here for five years. He's been here two years. You've been here three months. He'll need something from me eventually, and I'll super cool about it. And I'll give it to him. And of course we're going to be friends. Everyone is my friend, even if they make fun of my name. I can tolerate it, for him." Mikan rolled her eyes, attempting to shrug his arm off of her shoulders, but his grip was firm. "Just think about, really. It makes sense-"

"It's a conspiracy, that's what it is." Mikan rolled her eyes, "We work for the government, come on."

"It's not!" Mochu waved his free hand at her indignantly, "Please, it doesn't involve Russia or top secret codenames."

"What doesn't involve Russia?" Came a new voice from behind the huddled pair.

Mochu jumped visibly, immediately letting go of Mikan and twirling around in a flash. Mikan too, whirled with the grace of a spy but was not at all surprised.

Mochu stared at the man he had been theorizing about standing before him with wide eyes. Mikan, seeing that Mochiage was not going to be the first to speak, and Natsume was waiting for some type of response, spoke up, "that's none of your business."

"We're partners," Natsume responded easily, "whether or not we like it," he quoted Sumire at that point, with a smirk nonetheless, "so it should be my business." Turning to the other man, he addressed him, "who the hell are you, anyway?"

"Mo-" Mikan attempted to introduce him, but the man himself cut in.

"Mochiage." He squeaked, then cleared his throat, "what's up, dude?"

One raven eyebrow quirked at him drily. Then he turned back to his partner, "back to work."

"Don't tell me what to do, partner." Mikan snapped back with annoyance. Then, with a firm pat on Mochu's back - who is still in shock- she sent him a 'I-told-you-so' smile, "better luck next time, buddy."

Now, it was just Mochiage and Natsume.

The latter eyed the former suspiciously for a brief second, then also took off. Mochu let out a breath. Processing what had just happened, he grinned. "He talked to me!" Mochu thought about it for a second, "sort of. I gotta tell Kits!"

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"Obviously," Kitsuneme emphasized the word, holding up a hand to call attention to himself. "he calculates the physics in his head while running -"

"Right, right!" Mochiage chimed in, "he has an internal ruler in his brain that can understand measurements -"

"TO THE MILLIMETER!"

"-exactly," Mochiage points purposefully, squinting his eyes dramatically, "as he sees them."

"That's preposterous." Hotaru tapped her nails on the edge of her laptop, frowning at the dramatic men, "it is physically, biologically impossible for a human being to be able to see something and immediately know its measurement and make calculations with those exact measurements while on a mission."

"No," Koko disagreed, slamming his right hand into his left palm in a chopping motion, "it's physics."

"Physics?" Natsume asked absently as he strolled into the room. His gaze flitted to Mikan briefly as he passed her towards the fridge. "I'm pretty good at physics," he commented as he reached in to grab a bottle of water.

"Are you really?" Kitsuneme leaned forward interestedly, though the question was directed at Natsume, he turned his pointed gaze at the doubtful Hotaru.

Natsume half-shrugged. "Don't expect me to do your work for you." He remarked as he passed by.

"No, no, of course not!" Koko grinned, a little too brightly.

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"You want to see what?" Sumire deadpanned, glaring at the three men standing in front of her with sheepish grins.

"Scholarly purposes, I swear!" Koko claimed quickly.

"Birth certificates are classified," the boss clipped, "and I don't see why it would help you. Natsume, obviously, just gets lucky."

"That's what Nonoko and Mikan said!" Kitsuneme exclaimed, "you women have no imagination!"

"Excuse me?" The boss raised her brow sharply. Koko turned to his friend with a horrified 'why-would-you-say-that!' look. Mochu raised his hands in surrender as if to say he had no part in the comment.

"I mean-" Kitsuneme stumbled over his words, "women are fantastic human beings-"

Sumire raised a hand with a roll of her eyes. In quick succession, she ordered with the authority of the Queen of England. "Get back to work. Get out of my office."

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"Well?" They all gathered around him, waiting impatiently for an answer.

He smirked his signature smirk, causing Mikan to roll her eyes.

"I defy gravity."

There was a collective groan. A change of money and hands commenced.

Then: "IN MY OFFICE, HYUUGA! EVERYONE BACK TO WORK - AND NO BETS!"

There was another collective groan.