Disclaimer: All rights belong to Higuchi- Tachibana sama.

This story though, belongs to me.

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RECAP:

. By the way,", she asked casually "how's your back?"

"Oh that's perfectly fine. I -", he broke off, confused.

Hold on…my back?

He whipped around and stared in shock at Hotaru whose face had turned grim.

Shit.

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Chapter 9 : Caught??

"So…you knew it was me.". It was a statement.

"Pretty much.", she answered just as matter of fact-ly. "I have all five of you on tape. Your friends made the mistake of not disguising themselves, but I would've nailed them anyway."

Natsume cursed himself inwardly and remained silent. Hotaru narrowed her eyes at him.

"I knew Mikan was stupid; never expected you to get a license for the same. If she didn't have that Alice to protect herself with, she would've died. I can't believe you let her childish remarks get to you."

"I didn't have a choice at the time-"

"Don't give me that bullshit! You did! You could've left! Mikan gave you a reason and you still didn't believe her!" she hissed.

"Dammit Hotaru, it wasn't just my ass on the line!" Natsume almost yelled. "I had to think about the others as well!"

"I don't care. All I know is that you snuck in here, almost killed Mikan and near destroyed the place. You may have your reasons. But that gives you no right to do what you did. You were never a thief or the kind of person to hurt the innocent. I guess two years can do a lot to a person."

He turned away, his hair concealing his eyes.

You have no idea…

"Look at me Natsume! Look at me!!"

He reluctantly forced himself to look at her.

"Whatever the reason, whatever gig this thing is, I suggest you play it a little more carefully in the future. Also, stay away from Mikan. Lay one more hand on her and you'll regret it for the rest of your life" she told him icily.

Natsume had never seen Hotaru this pissed off before. Normally, she'd demonstrate her irritation by testing out her more dangerous inventions on the source of it or even extort large amounts of cash. He'd never heard her verbally lash out before though. He opened his mouth, realized he had nothing to say and abruptly shut it. He looked down at his feet, hoping they'd give his uncharacteristically uncooperative brain something sensibly safe to say.

(A/N: Is it just me or did that last sentence have quite a few alliterations?? Lol!)

He almost jumped when she spoke again.

"Thank you."

Eh?

Natsume was stumped.

First the woman blasts me, then she thanks me.

Hotaru had gone back to looking at the books again. He eyed her suspiciously.

What the hell is she upto?

"Don't look so confused, fool. That was exactly what it was. A thank you. Just take the damn thing already."

Natsume glared at her. "What do you expect me to do then? Say you're welcome?"

"For starters, yes." Hotaru sighed and turned again to Natsume. Her face had softened up even with the underlying anger. Natsume was still suspicious. He didn't understand her. Never had and probably, he admitted to himself, never would. Hotaru understood what his expressions meant and took her time before explaining.

"The hidden camera's doofus. I watched everything. From the minute you entered to the minute you left."

Natsume's brain still wasn't working. He tried to snap it out of its stupor, but it refused to budge.

I guess I'll just have to listen to her completely to understand.

"You had your chance", she continued softly "when the shelves fell. You had enough time to escape and had you done so, you would've remained unhurt. You chose her safety over your own and that's what matters."

She lifted the corners of her mouth in what Natsume recognized as her first real smile that afternoon. A really small smile, but a smile nevertheless. He let his shoulders relax. He hadn't even realized he'd tightened them up a little in defense. Then she turned stern again.

"I saw and heard everything Natsume. I know what you want but the question is, why. Now I know," she continued as she watched him stiffen "that this is a mission or something of the sort and is obviously top secret." She smirked at him. "But I know about it now, so that's not valid anymore. So let's make a deal."

Natsume raised an eyebrow at Hotaru. She definitely was upto something. He known her long enough to figure that out. And, he admitted to himself, that really didn't take that long; a day with Hotaru and you could practically see the dollar signs light up in her eyes when she came up with one of her schemes. He nodded his head at her, inciting her to continue.

"You tell me what your goose-chase entails and I'll keep my mouth shut about this to everyone, Mikan included. I'll also permit you to come here whenever you please for the whole 'library-purchase thing' and talk to Mikan about it; provided you don't hurt her."

Natsume stared. He couldn't help it. It made no sense to him. Hotaru and generous never went together. In fact, he was sure that those two words were positively forbidden from being in the same dictionary, let alone being uttered in the same sentence with each other. And now, that very Hotaru was actually displaying…generosity?? Unless..

"And?"

"And what?", said Hotaru innocently.

"And what else do I have to do to make sure your mouth remains shut? You don't expect me to believe you'd actually turn ..generous overnight now, do you? "

Hotaru tried to maintain her innocent expression but her mouth suddenly split into a wide (not to mention evil) grin.

"You know me well Hyuuga. Actually there is another thing. A small payment of oh..say I don't know, 10,000 rabbits everytime you come to the library should do."

Natsume's jaw dropped.

Is she crazy? No wait. Let me not answer that. 10,000 rabbits. For a month. Excluding the days I have to report to Persona, that would make it 270,000 rabbits approx. Damn..

"Deal. 10,000 rabbits everytime I visit the library. You will keep your side of the bargain."

"No problem. Now," Hotaru narrowed her eyes "Tell me."

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"-and they'd already caught up to us, so I flew us off the roof. The last thing we saw were their big jaws dropping down…before they fell off the roof of course."

Anna and Nonoko burst out laughing, joined by Luca and Yuu. Koko and Kitsuneme made such a funny pair, both managing to keep their audience enthralled with their escapades.

"I haven't heard this one before", choked out Luca, wiping away a tear.

"Yeah, you guys always manage to get into such interesting situations. What I'm so surprised by", laughed Yuu "is that you get away every time!!"

The look-alikes grinned at each other.

"Not everytime. Well..almost"

"You were actually caught filching food from the kitchens once?" asked Yuu.

"Almost!! Almost! We would've been in a few seconds but along came Natsume and burnt one of the guards' shirts off. We were lucky to have him around."

"Speaking of which..." said Luca looking around "Where is he? I saw him go off to the library ages ago with Imai-san."

"Right here." Said Natsume as he left the main library and joined the group in the reception.

"Don't worry", said Hotaru, following close behind, smiling. "I just wanted to have a heart to heart chat with him. It's been a long time."

Luca felt uncomfortable with her gaze upon him. No matter how much he tried, those eyes and that smile seemed to do funny things to his stomach. He shook himself and looked away.

Hotaru noticed and smiled to herself.

Interesting.

She frowned when she realized Mikan wasn't around.

"Where's Mikan?" she asked. "I thought she'd gone up to get some juice for everyone."

Everyone looked up at the stairs behind the counter where Mikan had disappeared. It had been over half an hour and she hadn't come back down yet.

"What's up there?" asked Natsume motioning his head towards the stairs. "More books?"

"No.", said Anna shaking her head. "Just a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen."

"Hunh? What do you mean?" asked Yuu voicing all the boy's confused thoughts.

"Anna didn't phrase that correctly." interrupted Hotaru smoothly. She looked up, debating with herself.

Might as well. They're going to find out anyway.

"Up there are the living quarters."

Natsume frowned.

Living quarters? Isn't this just some run down old library?

"This library" continued Hotaru "has belonged to the Sakura family for generations. Or rather, the land has."

She waited for a few seconds, letting her words sink in. The five boys were silent, but they were beginning to understand the significance of those words. Hotaru looked around and continued.

"But that isn't all. This may just be a library to us but to the Sakura's, and to Mikan, it's a whole lot more. You see, this," she said looking Natsume squarely in the eye "is her home."

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Really sorry this one's late guys, but my computer was outta commission for a really long time and then I had my tests and then a writers block. *whew…pretty tiring list eh?* This one'll be the last one for the year since my exams are coming up and I wont have time to work on this. Hope you like it!! Do review!! I'll love to hear your feedback!!