Story original written by – Unknown Pain & Rekindled Moroseness.
Continued by – Unknown Pain.
Disclaimer – Disclaimed.

A Bittersweet Pleasure

"Loving you is like touching a star; I know I can't reach you, yet I can't help but try."

-Unknown Pain-


-Chapter VII – Concealed Feelings-

He slammed me against the wall and before I could even scream or do anything else, he kissed me on the lips. I widened my eyes and turned my face away from him, trying to shove him away. But as weak as I was, he didn't even budge.

It didn't take long before he had his face in front of mine again and locked my lips with his. His lips were pressed against mine in a harsh way, trying to make me kiss him back just as readily and heated as he did.

"No…" I managed to get out as he left my lips and went for my neck; he lapped my skin before brushing his soft lips over the same spot. I shook my head and frowned, trying not to fall for his tricks. "No, Natsume," I hissed and he finally let me shove his head away.

He looked at me with lustful eyes, his muscled chest rising and falling with his deep pants; everything said that he wasn't going to back away that easily. "You know," Natsume said, his voice deep and set into a whisper. "You only get me more turned on if you struggle like that."

My eyebrows immediately raised in surprise, cursing for the fact that I blushed. "WHAT?" I cooed and already tried to shrug him off. "Natsume, we can't... We can't do this!" My hands found his chest again and I tried with all my strength to push him away, wanting to get away from him as soon as possible before something would really go wrong.

But then, all of a sudden, he grabbed my wrists tightly and pushed them against the wall above my head, ignoring my shriek of shock. Natsume started to place quick butterfly kisses on my collarbone, to my neck, and then nibbled on my ear; I could even feel his smirk when I couldn't stop myself for letting out a weak moan.

With one hand holding my wrists against each other above my head, he pulled with the other hand the thin strap of my top down my shoulder. I had my eyes closed tightly as he started to do the same actions as before, whimpering sometimes as he bit down on my skin.

I couldn't move anymore: my heart was racing so fast in an unhealthy pace that I couldn't think clearly anymore, and my panting started to match his.

I stiffened as he neared his face near my ear, his free hand cupping my breast. "Mikan.. I want you so much.."


I woke up and sat up with a gasp, my eyes wide. My breathing was loud and fast, my heart was as though it'd explode any minute, and my lips were dry. I ran my hands over my face, feeling how hot it was.

Every little bit that I just saw flashed through my mind again and more butterflies appeared in my stomach. I recalled the way he touched me and kissed me… Everything felt so real, even though it was a dream; I knew it was because that could never happen to me.

I still could feel the presence of his lips on my neck and when I placed my own hand on it, a shudder went up to my spine.

Why in the world was I dreaming about him anyway? Was it because of what happened yesterday..?

I frowned deeply in frustration and placed my head in my hands as the dream and of what happened yesterday replayed like a stupid movie in my head. I didn't want to think about it or to remember it, but, even so, I still loved the way how it felt to be touched by him, kissed by him… I loved it so much that I wanted that it'll happen again..

I quickly shook my head. "Mikan, stop it," I told myself and lay back down. "This is bad…" It really was: things like this never had to happen… But then, why did it happen? Was it just bad luck or something else?

This was all his fault, I started to think; he made me feel like this. But wasn't it also my fault? I mean, I let him do this after all…

God, what did I bring myself into?


"Oi, how long are you going to stay in bed?" I groaned tiredly and covered my face with my blankets, pretending that I was still sleeping and didn't hear his voice. "Oi," he called again, this time a bit louder. I swallowed and frowned from beneath my blankets, wishing he just would go away.

His sigh could be heard and then his footsteps; my heart began to speed up as I realized that he went to my direction.

Why couldn't he just leave me alone?

"Don't make me force you," Natsume somewhat warned and then, after some small seconds, I felt his hands on the blankets. "Don't touch me." I immediately responded with the insides of my cheek between my teeth.

He removed his hand slowly. "So you're awake, huh?" he said afterwards.

"Yes, but not awake enough to get out of bed."

"It's two o'clock in the afternoon."

"So…?"

"Get out of bed."

I still refused to remove my blankets from my head and to look at him. "Why do you care?"

"I don't, but our parents do."

"If that's the case then let them get me out of bed themselves. Now, go away." I got annoyed when he hn'ed in an amused way, of course pressing a smirk on his lips. "Didn't sleep well, I see...?"

"Shut up," I retorted, getting more irritated with the moment he stood there, trying to control my heart as I felt his dark gaze cutting through my blankets and touching me. "You dreamed dirty, didn't you?" Not a second later, I removed my blankets from my head and leaned on my elbow, my burning face turned to him to show him a glare. "Would you just stop?"

Natsume smirked seductively yet amused at me. "It was about us, huh…?" I stared at him with widened eyes, my heart beating even faster as I recalled last night's dream, and blushed even more out of embarrassment. "W-w-why would it be about us?"

The male folded his arms in front of his quite muscled chest. "So I was right," I began to glower at him what didn't seem to interest him. "N-no, you're not!"

This amused him way too much because he went to the side of my bed and sat down near me, his crimson eyes glistered from behind his messy bangs. "You dreamed about us having sex, didn't you?"

"AH!" I immediately yelled and lay back down, covering myself with my blankets.

"You know, I never knew you could be perverted."

"Natsume!"

"Why did you dream things like that about us anyway?"

"S-shut up! I never dreamed about us having sex or whatever. Now go!" I lied and stiffened as he pulled the blankets a bit down so only the half of my face could be seen, and let out a small, surprised whimper as he leaned his face near mine, his breath tickling my ear. "Was I good..?"

That was it: I removed the blankets and sat up, getting out of bed from the other side. With one twirl, I eyed him again, my gaze narrowed and my hands turned into fists. Just when I wanted to explode at him, he stood up, digging his hands into his jean pockets. "Good, you're out of bed."

I blinked, not following him. "What..?" Natsume gave me a blunt look, his eyebrow raised. I soon frowned when I found out what his plan was the whole time. "You just did this to get me out of bed, didn't you?"

He nodded simply, his short eyebrow still raised. "Duh." I glared at him again. "You bastard!" The male shrugged, not really impressed, and headed to my direction. "Still, I never expected you to dream about us."

A blush of embarrassment touched my cheeks again. "I never dreamed about you or us together!" I took automatically a step backwards as he stood in front of me, swallowing silently, still trying to look strong though. "But you just admitted that you did." He obviously ignored everything I just said.

"God, Natsume, I never—"

"Was it because of what happened yesterday?" I stared at him in surprise, not expecting him to say anything about it. "Well?" he pushed on a bit impatiently as I just kept on looking at him in silence. I quickly shook my head, my messy bangs covering my eyes as I turned away. "I-I've got no idea what you're talking about… It was just a k-kiss, right?"

"That's my opinion about it," Natsume responded easily, his look still calm and emotionless as before. "You obviously think differently about it." I bit the insides of my cheek hard, wishing that he'd just leave me alone. "You're wrong… I-I share the same opinion about the whole thing as you do," I glanced at him from behind my bangs. "So I don't know what gives you that idea…"

Natsume just looked at me in silence, a suspicious glint could be seen in his cold eyes; I cursed myself for being so bad at lying. He suddenly let out a soft sigh of slight frustration to break the silence that popped up between us, and ran his fingers through his raven hair. He finally said a low "whatever" before I let him pass me.

I had my gaze on my carpet the whole time and after hearing the soft thud of the door, a loud sigh escaped my lungs; now, why was I feeling bad about this?


"You have to come," Anna almost demanded as she put her hand on the table, leaning a bit closer to my side. I blinked before shaking my head in a tense way. "Forget it." Her pink, thin eyebrows raised immediately. "Why not?"

"Hmm, good question," I responded and tapped my chin with my index finger, pretending as though I was deep in thought. "Maybe because Permy and I are still having a fight?"

Nonoko sighed while her gaze was glued on her small mirror, applying her mascara. "Still haven't things cleared up, I see...?" I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest, somewhat scoffing. "She's the one who's at fault, thus it's pretty simple to think that she needs to be the one to take the first steps."

The two girls started to giggle at the exact same time and Anna shook her head, her lips curved into a small, amusing smile. "Both still as stubborn as ever," she said as she looked at the blue-haired one who nodded her head curtly. "The reason why they became friends."

Unlike they did, I couldn't laugh about it and hated the way they were talking. "Would you two just stop it?"

"But it's the truth," Anna returned easily, her smile still presented, and placed her straw between her lips to sip her coke with it. She swallowed down her drink and glanced at me from her eye corners, one of her eyebrows raised questionably. "Right..? And besides, you said to me at the phone you were afraid that Sumire isn't ready for talking yet."

I placed a loose strand of hair behind my ear, nodding my head. "I know, I know…" I first let out a small sigh before I continued, "But I don't even know where she is,"

"She's at home, I think," the pink-haired one told me. "We told her we'd be sitting at a café with you to talk and asked her if she'd like to come too, but she declined the offer." I rolled my eyes away, getting already a bit irritated. "Of course she did."

"Her party is next Saturday," Nonoko said with a smile as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, placing her elbow on the table soon after, her chin on her hand. "Just come with us that day and see what happens, alright?"

"What about Permy, then?"

"We'll take care of her." The two said in unison and soon we all chuckled. I nodded my head a small moment later with a smile pressed on my lips, and said, "Okay, have it your way." The two high-fived each other proudly for winning, and I just let them, slightly amused; maybe things would get better if Sumire and I made up.


"A party at Sumire's, huh?" my Mom responded as I told her that I was "invited" at her party next Saturday. I nodded and reached my hand out to the bowl with salad. But just when I wanted to grab it, it got snatched away by Natsume who gave me a dry yet simple look, not feeling intimated or whatever at the way I glared at him.

"Do you want to go then?" my mother continued and locked her gaze on me as she pushed her fork, with the piece of meat on it, inside her mouth. As she saw my confused look through the fact that I didn't really get why she asked me that, she added, "You didn't really look or say anything excitedly."

"Oh…" I let out before pressing my back against the back of my chair, my hands on my knees. "I don't know… Anna and Nonoko both want me to come, so…" I gave her a tight smile. "Maybe it'd be fun."

Natsume picked his glass of coke off the dining table. "Don't let her go: before you know it she'll have lost her virginity."

"What?" I cooed immediately while our parents and his sister took the time to get his sentence in their heads. Aoi was the first one that broke the silence that came after I snapped at him with a laugh; I glared at her to make her stop. "Don't laugh!"

"I'm sorry, Mikan," she said between her giggles, trying to do as I said. "But the way Natsume said it made me laugh like this."

"Right…"

Natsume smirked, his eyebrow raised in a challenging way, his arms folded in front of his chest. As if I was going to let him win, "At least I'm not thinking with my dick." His own smirk disappeared slowly that already showed that it was my time to show one.

Nobuo laughed as he saw the way my step-brother looked. "She got you there, Natsume." The said male just glared at him, already annoyed.

"Okay, stop it," Mom came between them, a stern look present on her face. "All of you; I don't want to hear such things while we're eating, understood?" We didn't say anything and then after some second, Mom turned her amber eyes to me. "Mikan, you've got my permission to go to Sumire's party, but make sure you take it easy and don't get home late, okay?"

I answered her with a tense nod, not really knowing how to react differently; I didn't even know if I had to be glad or disappointed.

After dinner, as though Nobuo and my mother wanted to punish me, I had to do the dishes. With Natsume. In the kitchen, where nobody else was besides us… Even though the voice in my head tried to calm me by saying everything would be alright, I still was nervous of being alone with him.

I scoffed as I put my hands in the soap-filled water to grab a plate. "Is it the time of the month again?" he commented, his dark gaze locked on the plates he was drying. I immediately shot him a glare. "Shut up with your stupid comments, jerk."

The male next to me gave me a dry "what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you?" look, his short eyebrow slightly raised. I stared at him in silence for a quick moment before I cleared my dry throat, turning my attention back to the water. "I'm… sorry. Just let's finish this quickly."

Natsume placed the clean plates on each other, letting out a rather irritated sigh. "It was just a kiss." My neck almost snapped through the fact I faced him quickly. "What?"

"It was just a kiss."

I frowned. "Why are you getting at this again? I told you already that I share the same opinion about it as you." He gave me a cocky look. "You forgot to tell me that you're bad at lying."

I rolled my eyes away from him and let the dirty water drain away through the drain. "Whatever, I'm speaking the truth, so…"

His started to stab my back while I was drying my hands with the towel, and I hated it because only the thought of him watching me made my heart beat go faster. But I tried my best to hide it. "Then tell me the reason for your weird behavior." His voice was curt and deep.

I swallowed as I glanced at him from behind my auburn bangs. "What are you talking about…?" Natsume's cold expression began to grow darker, his crimson eyes twinkling of the suspiciousness. He folded his arms nonchalantly, his back against the sink. "Don't tell me you haven't realized it yet."

My gaze narrowed, not wanting to go through this any longer. "Enough! I'm fine and I'm notacting weird. If you don't want to believe my words, fine, go ahead, like I care. But don't go and bother me with it." With my hands into my fists, I walked away, but before I could even take two steps he got a hold of one of my arms, and pulled me against him, our faces near each other.

I widened my eyes, a blush creeping over my cheeks as I stared with horror into his eyes. "Can you still say those words you just told me…?" It almost didn't even sound like a question; Natsume's voice had a whisper-like sound, his face just as straight and calm as before. Even his lips nearly didn't move when he said his sentence.

My heart started to race almost in an unhealthy pace when I noticed I had my eyes on his lips, and quickly turned my head away. "W-what… are you trying to do?" I questioned him in the same kind of voice, failing to sound harsh and angry.

"Figuring out if you're really telling the truth or not," he answered easily, like his way of finding out wasn't a big deal. I bit the insides of my cheek as he cupped my chin between his index finger and his thumb, forcing me in to eye him. "I'm waiting for an answer."

It took a while before I opened my mouth, only to stammer some words that didn't make any sense because of the fact I didn't got a clue how to answer his question.

"Hey," As soon we heard Aoi's voice we pushed each other away as quickly as possible. She stepped inside the kitchen with her raven eyebrow raised questionably. "Can I get a clean glass? I'm thirsty."

I cleared my dry throat, trying to look as normal as ever. "A-ah.. yeah. Sure." Just when I wanted to turn around and reach for a clean glass that stood on the sink, her forehead furrowed when she saw my red face and nervous look and shifted without moving her head her attention over to her older brother who just swallowed silently, looking back at her with a dry expression painted on his face. "Did something happen?" Natsume let his bangs cover his eyes more than they normally did, trying to control the sigh of annoyance that he wanted to let out, while I cursed mentally.

"H-how so?" I questioned her with a confused look. Aoi gave me a straight look, suspiciousness still present in her crimson eyes. "I don't know. The atmosphere around here is… strange."

"You're just imagining things," Natsume told her into his famous, emotionless voice. Aoi gave him an irritated glare. "I'm not imagining things!"

"Yeah, whatever," he responded with a roll of his eyes, grabbed a glass and threw it to his sister that she easily caught with two hands. "Here's what you wanted, now go, you're annoying." Her crimson eyes narrowed. "Idiotic bastard," she muttered under her breath just before she did what the male said, and left us alone.

My heart began to speed up again; we were alone for the second time. I stared at him in silence, wondering what he'll do. But he just looked back intently. I bit my bottom lip as hard as I could, trying to control my heart a little bit but the way his eyes were set on me made it impossible.

I darted my attention quickly around me, trying to find something where I could set my eyes on, and stopped at the clock: seven PM.

I had to get out of there.

"I-I'm going upstairs," I informed my step-brother without looking at him, breaking the silence we had in the meantime. I walked away in a quick pace and didn't care that I didn't gave Natsume the time to reply; I just wanted to get away from him.

My mother noticed me and turned her head to the back. "Already done with the dishes?" she asked in a quite surprised tone, and soon even the attention of Nobuo and Aoi shifted from the TV towards me. I blinked and showed them a fake smile, slightly scratching the back of my head. "Ah… yeah."

With that I wanted to walk further, but Nobuo stopped me, "Aren't you going to watch TV with us?" I ignored the hints of disappointment that were present in his voice and shook my head twice. "No… I think I'm going to bed."

Aoi gave me a wide-eyed stare. "Eh? Are you serious? It's only seven PM."

"So? I'm tired."

Mom cocked her head a little bit to the left, her eyebrows furrowing as she stared at me suspiciously, trying to find out what was wrong. I caught the way she looked at me and just smiled at her to let her stop thinking things that were obviously not true. "Don't worry, Mom, nothing's wrong. I'm just… tired, that's all."

It took her a while to change her expression into something less sterner and let out a sigh, nodding her head once. "Alright. Good night." She presented a small smile. As Nobuo and Aoi were done wishing me good night, I headed towards my room and shut the door behind me.

I plopped on my bed and took a deep breath as I recalled everything what happened between me and Natsume in the kitchen: his touching, the way he spoke, his eyes and his intense look… Even thinking about it put butterflies in my stomach.

This was getting bad…


I looked up as the most beautiful sound I've ever heard popped up: the bell. And as it did, everyone closed their books, grabbed their things and didn't even wait for when the teacher gave them permission to go.

Hotaru and I walked together out of class, going to our lockers. "Finally, the weekend!" I moaned tiredly, hints of relief could be heard in my voice. The female next to me didn't say anything and just looked straight forwards, her eyes on where she was walking. It didn't really bother me; I was already used to her bold, Natsume-like personality.

"Are you going to do something this weekend?" I asked as I put my things into my locker. Hers was just four lockers away. She shook her head curtly. "Not really." She slammed her locker closed. "Lucky," I responded and turned my attention back to my books that I just put away, sighing as I remembered that I had to go to that party of Sumire.

"How so?" Hotaru questioned me as she stood behind me. I shrugged and closed mine, my bag hanging over my shoulder. "I've got a party tomorrow," I told her and faced her again. The black-haired one raised her eyebrow. "And you don't want to go?"

I shook my head before we headed outside. "Then don't go," she told me easily. I rolled my eyes away from her and gave her a matter-of-factly look. "Trust me, if you knew the whole story behind this, you wouldn't even be saying things like that."

"Right. Who's throwing it again..?"

"Sumire Shouda."

"Don't know her." I frowned and opened the doors. "Really? I didn't know that." I returned sarcastically which made her shrug nonchalantly.

We walked to the entrance and I blinked when I saw Anna and Nonoko standing there. As soon as their eyes caught me, they waved their hands at me and called my name. What were they doing there?

I waved Hotaru goodbye when she stepped inside her mother's car before I turned my attention to the "twins". "Hey…" I greeted carefully and immediately got hugged by the two. "Hello!" they greeted back in unison and, what seemed like it took forever, they let me go.

I smiled and flipped my hair over my shoulder. "What are you two doing here?" Nonoko shrugged and smiled back. "Our school ended earlier today so we thought we could go and see you, and to ask if you want to sleep at my house tomorrow."

I slightly frowned in confusion. "Tomorrow…?" The two nodded. "Yeah!" beamed Anna. "Because of Sumire's party. I'm sleeping at her house, too."

"Permy, too?"

Nonoko shook her head. "No; she said it'd be better she stayed home this weekend." I couldn't help to feel slightly relieved about that and just responded with some short nods.

"So, what do you think of it?" asked the blue-haired one to be sure and I smiled at her sweetly. "Sure, sounds like a good idea."

"Alright!" the two squealed in unison, obviously relieved that I accepted their offer. "It'll be fun!" Anna chirped and Nonoko and I just giggled in amusement.

"Do you know how many guests there are coming?" I asked suddenly and couldn't help to be a bit curious about it; she had a big house and Sumire knew a lot of people, thus fifty people wouldn't really surprise me.

"We don't know the exact amount," Anna responded with her eyebrows slightly raised. "But there will be a lot of guests coming ." I replied with a small nod; just as I guessed.

"Oh, hey!" Aoi appeared all of a sudden next to me with a smile. The "twins" greeted back nicely while I just blinked my eyes at her in confusion. "Hey… Where did you just come from..?"

"School," the youngest female returned simply, giving me a dry look. "I still had to discuss something with my teacher. Are you coming, by the way? Dad is waiting for us." She pointed at the grey Mercedes that I hadn't noticed until now.

"Yeah, I'm coming soon," I told her and she walked away after waving Anna and Nonoko goodbye. I turned my attention back to the two as Aoi got into the car. "Ah, almost forgot," Nonoko started suddenly and made in the meantime a ponytail with her hands. "The party starts at eight PM and bring Aoi and Natsume with you."

My good mood fell immediately downwards as soon as I heard the last part of her sentence. "What? Aoi and… Natsume?" Nonoko nodded and gave me a slight confused look, not really getting why I was reacting like that. "Yeah, who else?"

"Why?"

"She said she wanted them to come but she didn't got a clue how to ask them, so we decided to ask it for her."

"So I have to ask them?" I said with an irritated frown. "Besides, it's Natsume we're talking about: he'd decline immediately." Anna furrowed her pink, perfectly shaped eyebrows. "Really? But can't you try? It would also be more fun for him to go to the party, too."

I gave her a slight surprised yet shocked look. "W-what do you mean..?" Wait, does she know about—? "Then there's more people you know who you can be with." She explained with a smile.

A loud sigh of relief escaped my lungs and my heart calmed down a little bit, and I nodded. "Ah… A-alright. But... I think the only way to get him to go with me is to lie."

Nonoko placed her hands on her hips as though she was telling me that it wasn't a big deal. "Just do whatever works." I ran my fingers through my auburn hair, my eyebrows slightly furrowed. "I'm still not very confident about this. What if it goes wrong?"

"We'll see about that," Anna said, not feeling worried or whatever about it like I did. "Just make sure you come, together with Natsume and Aoi, at the party at eight o'clock with all your things for the sleepover, alright?"

I rolled my eyes in an annoyed way but nodded my head nonetheless. "Yeah, yeah. I'll do my best and if things go wrong, I'll call one of you two."

"Okay," Nonoko returned before the two walked off with a smile, waving me goodbye, and I walked to the car and got in.


I closed my mouth as I was done speaking and… "No." I let out a deep sigh, not feeling surprised at his answer. "Why not?" Natsume raised his eyebrow as his crimson eyes were still locked on the manga pages he was reading. "Why would I…?" My eyes shifted quickly to random things as I was trying to think of a reason why he would go to the party of Sumire. "Uhh… to meet new people?"

He furrowed his forehead for a moment. "Yeah, I don't think so." I pouted childishly, not removing my gaze off him. "Natsume, come on.."

Natsume gazed sideways back through his eyelashes. "Isn't that the party that that perm-haired girl is giving…?"

"Uhh… no." I lied, trying to look as serious as possible. Crimson eyes narrowed, "So I don't know these people?"

"Not really…"

Natsume's attention directly turned back to his manga and flipped over a page. "No." I made the best pout I could make, hoping he'd see it. "Come on! Aoi said she wanted to come too."

"Okay, then I'm coming too."

My expression lightened up and I showed my step-brother immediately a wide smile, not noticing how curt and low his voice was. "For real?"

"No." Seriously, why didn't I expect that?

"Natsume, come on!" He suddenly started to growl in irritation. "Leave me alone already," he said, his voice slightly cracking, and placed his head in his pillows again, his manga on his face.

I just stared at him with a deep frown on my face, getting annoyed as well; why was I still doing this? I'm sure a normal person would already leave the guy. "Please, Natsume," I started to moan, creeping closer to him, but he still didn't remove that manga from his face, "Why do you want me to come so badly?" That took me a while to answer; how was I going to reply to that..? I couldn't say the real reason and I also couldn't say that I just wanted him by my side to keep me company so I wouldn't feel lonely.

Right?

I bit my lip and couldn't help to feel curious about it, "B-because… I don't want to feel lonely when I'm there…"

"You've got Aoi," was his blunt response. I swallowed again and automatically, with a small thought that this might work, reached my hand out for his manga, slowly removing it from his face; he just stared at me with wide eyes as he noticed how my face hung above his.

I could feel a huge blush touching my cheeks and my heart speeding up, yet I didn't remove myself from him. "Yeah… b-but I want you.." My voice was set into a soft whisper. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever, the silence surrounding us. And then his surprised expression fainted away into an irritated one and sighed, his warm breath blowing against my face. "Fine," he growled, causing me to blink in surprise. "Now get off me, you idiot."

I did as he said and, with the same blush I still had on my cheeks, I jumped off his bed and twirled around. "Alright! The party starts at eight." He just rolled his rare colored eyes away from me and grunted what seemed to be his answer.

I immediately left his room and fished my phone out of my pocket, texting Anna happily that my mission was completed. As the message was sent, I hurried to my bedroom and grabbed my pajamas and all the other things I needed for the sleepover.

But as I was doing that, I couldn't help to think about how Natsume would react if he'd find out I lied to him… I shook my head a small moment later to get rid of those thoughts, and huffed softly, continuing with packing my bag; as though he'd care.

But just when I thought the whole plan of dragging Natsume into Sumire's party wouldn't fail anymore, I was wrong: when Aoi, he and I stepped inside the crowded house, my step-sister saw Sumire passing by and immediately walked to her to greet her.

Natsume watched her and narrowed his eyes dangerously as he saw Sumire and heard the sentence, "Thank you for inviting me to your party".

"Oi, is this her party…?" the male began in an angry voice and I slowly nodded, not seeing a way to escape. "Y-yeah…"

"Why didn't you tell me that...?" It almost didn't sound as a question anymore. "B-because I know how you dislike Sumire, and Anna and Nonoko asked me if I wanted to bring you wi—"

"Oh, so you only did this for them?" he cut me off, his expression only growing darker. I furrowed my eyebrows and raised them as well. "But if I asked you to come with me, you'd say no anyway," I still tried to defend myself but he just shook his head, brushing his fingers through his messy hair. "Whatever." And without even saying something more, he left me behind.

I growled deep inside my throat, angry about the fact he didn't gave me a chance to explain myself for what I did. "Bastard," I muttered under my breath, slightly hoping he'd hear that even though that was impossible through the loud music that filled every big room in Sumire's big house.

"Hey, where did Natsume go?" Aoi asked me after she stood next to me again, a questionable look present on her face. I just snorted. "Don't know, don't care." Not giving her any time to respond, I left her and decided to go to the "twins" who were, as they said in the text message I got fifteen minutes ago, in the kitchen, waiting for me.

After some long minutes of making my way through thick crowds, I finally got into the kitchen. "Mikan!" Nonoko's voice was the first thing I heard and she, with Anna following her closely behind, quickly headed to me.

We hugged and right after the two let go of me, Anna said, "Glad you made it! Are your step-siblings here, too?" I just nodded my head as an answer and the girls their smile slowly faded away as they noticed the look I was presenting them.

"What's wrong?" Nonoko slowly asked, slightly worried. "Natsume found out," I told her and soon I also shifted my attention on Anna. "Right after we came in, he found out about the whole thing, snapped at me and ditched me. I've got no idea where that guy is."

"Aoi then?"

"Probably with Permy. I told you two that I didn't had confidence in doing this and now you know why."

"Did you mention our names?" Anna questioned and I nodded twice. "Yes, but it only made him angrier and left me."

The pink-haired one tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Hmm, well… I'm pretty sure he did that to cool off so give him the time to do that," She let her hand hang beside her body again. "You need to do that too." She smiled and Nonoko nodded her head in agreement. "Totally. Give me that bag and I'll bring it upstairs."

"So you can have your time on your own," the other female added in a cheerful voice, winking playfully her sky-blue eye at Nonoko and before I could even do something, she twirled me around and pushed me out of the kitchen.

"H-hey, Anna!" I yelled to make her stop, but she just acted as though she didn't hear a sound I just made. "This is a party, so stop showing that long face and shape up!" Right after she said the last word of the sentence, she pushed me forward.

Not expecting it, I couldn't control my balance and bumped against the back of an unknown girl who turned around in confusion. I took some small steps backwards, blushing in embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry… I-I didn't mean to—"

"Aren't you that girl that just came in?" the girl asked me instead of accepting my apologies. It took a while to know what she was talking about and nodded. "Ah, yeah…"

"Well, your boyfriend is dancing with another girl," I titled my head to the side, giving her the "what-are-you-talking-about?" look. "B-boyfriend?"

She nodded and raised her eyebrow slightly in surprise. "Yeah, that raven-haired lad you came in with," She pointed to her left and I immediately followed her finger to see what she was talking about; I saw Natsume with a blonde-haired girl, standing not far away from where I stood.

The two where dancing in a sexy way; the girl turned with the back to him and he slightly pressing his body against hers. A sudden feeling of surprise popped up inside of me as I saw him dancing like that with an other girl, and soon that feeling started to change in something nagging, something that hurt.

"If I were you, I'd have already beat the living thing out of him," that unknown girl her voice ran through my ears while I had my attention locked on the two beings not far away from me. Natsume his hands roamed around her hips and she seemed to enjoy the way he touched her, just like he did.

"Or aren't you jealous?" Her yellow eyes turned to me, waiting for my reaction. I swallowed and had my forehead furrowed without even me noticing it, only seeing Natsume and that girl. "No," I finally answered that question and watched, as though it was a movie, how that blonde female removed from his grip and turned around, pressing her body against him, her lipstick covered lips turned into a seductive smile, their legs moving on the beat. And Natsume just let her, let her press her body against him and just let her look at him with lustful eyes.

"No, I'm not." I said again, trying to convince not only her but also myself for not being jealous or whatever at what I saw happening there almost in front of me. But then… why didn't that nagging feeling disappear?


Sam – And here is the next chapter! :D Mikan and Natsume are only getting closer to each other, and there will come a point where everything is getting out of hand. When that will happen? Soon, I promise. ;)

Now seeing Natsume dancing with an other girl, what will Mikan do? You'll all will read in the next chapter. ^^

Also, I've decided to give this story the rating-T because, like I said before, I will not write LEMONS or other things that has to do with the M-rating. I will go far with some love scenes, yes, but I'll make sure that it fits in the rating T. I hope you all understand it and I'm sorry for the ones who actually were waiting for the LEMONS and wanted this story to be a M. :(

Thanks for reading and I hope you all liked it. Please review and don't flame.

Much love,
Unknown Pain.