The Day of the Finals for the Competition Natsume's POV
I woke up in the morning only to see large brown eyes staring at me. I backed up immediately and almost fell out of the chair, or more like did. I heard a heartful and silky laugh come from that. I looked up and saw Mikan.
"Mikan." I muttered.
"Alive and happy!" she said. I stood up and walked towards her.
"When did you wake up?" I asked.
"Yesterday while you were asleep. I had them move me to another room and give me a minor back surgery so I could at least move around a little bit, though I'm still kind sloppy, but then they moved me back here. They told me to stay in bed too, explaining why I had to lean over and wait until you woke up instead of waking you up myself." She said.
"I see." I said.
"Thanks for watching over me. The nurse told me how you watched over me day and night for the entire week." She said. I turned my head away so that she wouldn't see the blush on my face.
"Yeah, I did. I learned how to salsa for the competition and made a routine, but it seems like I'm gonna be dropping out because you're gonna be here. They told me you can't be discharged until a week after waking up. So I'll be going tonight just to watch." I said.
"Well then at least show me the routine, please." Mikan said. I nodded. I told her each step I would take and how I would take it, pretending that she was dancing with me. And I told her the steps that I imagined her taking. When I was done, I noticed it was about the time I would wake up on a normal school day.
"You should go to school today. Tell everyone I'm okay and to get ready for the dance and competition. The visiting hours deal that you all made has been dropped which means, you are all staying at school and visiting me tomorrow. And I will be very mad and upset if any of them skips out on school or the dance today. And the nurse said " She said.
"And Natsume…" she started. She gestured to come closer to her. Then she gestured me closer. And then…she flicked my forehead.
"Don't you ever skip school for my sake again." She said. I raised an eyebrow.
"I missed that." She said heartily with a laugh. She shooed me away when a nurse, different from the usual, came in and said that visiting hours have not begun yet. I left to my car. Seeing as the hospital was so far from the school, I knew I wouldn't have time to go home so I just went straight there. It wasn't like I was dirty or anything. I had taken showers in the hospital bathrooms, despite how disgusting that sounds. And my mother brought me clothes everyday, knowing that I would not leave my post.
At School In Homeroom Natsume's POV
I'm not surprised that I was the last one into homeroom. But I'm pretty sure everyone else was. Unemoniya and Ogasawara began crying, thinking the worse. Imai walked up and slapped me.
"You left her!" Imai yelled. Ruka held her back from attacking me.
"She woke up today and then shooed me to school." I said bluntly. Unemoniya and Ogasawara stopped crying immediately. All of the girls grouped together and hugged and cried out of happiness.
"Let's go visit her!" Shoda yelled. I held up a hand to stop them.
"She told me to tell you that if you if you go visit her before tomorrow then she will be mad and it is bad for her since she just got out of the coma." I said. They sighed and walked back to their seats hunched over.
"Nice to see you back to normal." Ruka said.
"What the hell are you talking about?" I said, as I sat myself down.
"Don't act like you don't know. While Sakura was in that coma, you were gloomiest dude on Earth. You didn't even talk to me. Not to mention we were too scared to with that dark aura around you. It was like a rain cloud above you with no umbrella to protect yourself." Ruka explained.
"Whatever." I said, looking out the window.
Meanwhile In the Hospital Mikan's POV
Around the time that school was a half hour from ending a few doctors came in and carefully took all the needles from my body. I stood there for a while trying to wake my feet up from lying down for so long. Aoi! The competition! I quickly ran to the closest phone, getting stopped by my nurse telling me I was in no condition to run yet. I speed walked to the phone and quickly put in a quarter dialing my colleague's number.
"Hello?" I heard my colleague say.
"Hi, Nobara. I need your help." I said quickly.
"Oh, Mikan. How can I help you?" she asked.
"I need you to go to my house and get my red orange salsa dress from the closet in there. There are also red orange flats under them that I need you to get. My neighbor, Matt has a key to the place. Then come to the closest hospital to the east of town. I'm there in room 401." I said.
"Mikan, you're in the hospital?!!!" she yelled into the phone.
"I'll answer your questions when you get here." I said and hung up.
Nobara Ibaragi has been my friend ever since I began to work at the club. I had found her in the streets and decided to recommend her to the bar for her to make a living. She wasn't a prostitute or anything, but she was just sitting there starving, just like I used to be. A fellow bartender and waitress, I always have her back and she has mine. She cares a lot about her friends, the very reason I didn't call her first thing I got out of the coma. She would totally freak out. She thanks me everyday for saving her from dying of starvation and giving her a shelter until she had one of her own and always helping her at work and such. I don't know when shell get it through her head that it was nothing. But no time for that. I have to get to the security room. I walked to the surveillance room, walking like any other patient, so that nobody would suspect me. The door was heavy and metal. I tried twisting the knob. No luck. Then I knocked.
"Who?" a deep voice asked.
"Mikan Sakura." I answered.
"Aren't you the patient that just got out of a coma? You can't come in here." The deep voice said from the other side of the door.
"Can you please open the door? I'm too lazy to open it myself." I said.
"Please girl, you can't harm a fly. Let alone right after a coma." Another deep voice said.
"Fine, I'll do it myself." I sighed. I punched the door knob off and then kicked the door down. I saw two men in chairs wide-eyed. One guy with brown hair and the other with red.
"How-How did you do that?" the red head asked.
"If I can take out about 50 policemen, I'm pretty sure I can knock down a metal door. Now I need a favor from you guys, and I won't take no for an answer." I said, walking up to them with a smirk.
"W-what do you need?" They stuttered, cowering in their chairs.
"Just today's surveillance tape for room 401." I said looking at my nails. Seeing as I had no intention in harming them, the guards calmed down.
"What for?" the brown haired guy asked.
"You see, I'm gonna make this long story short. I need to see the dance the guy I love did and learn the routine for the time I get discharged. And you should still be cowering in fear because I will hurt you to get the tape. Not to mention that I grew up on the streets, without parents, and in a street gang." I said. They cowered once again and swiftly handed me the tape.
"I'll give it back to you by later today." I said with a smile as I hopped away.
"And you guys should get a new door! One that doesn't break down so easily!" I called back as I hopped to my room. When I arrived in my room, I worked on getting my legs to work properly, though I wasn't very successful. Somebody burst into my room a few minutes after I began.
"Mikan, what are you doing in the hospital?!" Nobara yelled.
"I was in a coma, but I'm okay now. Let me explain so that you can help me. I know, because you told me, that you were in a classical family, but you liked modern dancing. By any chance are you a fast learner in the salsa?" I asked.
"I owned the salsa before I got disowned, what do you need? But first, are you okay?! Why didn't you tell me you were in a coma?! I needed to know. I mean, you saved me from dying of starvation! You gave me a shelter when I didn't have one of my own. You helped me when I first started working and you still continued to help me. I thank you greatly for that, I mean you were and still are like my backbone. You always cover my shifts for me, when I have trouble, or help me with whatever. And you still don't accept the money for that shift and such! Mikan, why didn't you tell me?!!!!!!!!!!" she said quickly. Told you she'd freak. I walked up to her and patted her head, signaling to calm down. She looked up at me with upset eyes.
"Your welcome, for fifth million time, but this time, you're gonna help me. I need you to practice this salsa with me. I just have about an hour or two roughly, before I have to get ready and you have to help me sneak out of the hospital. I am guessing you have the dress and such." I said. She nodded pulling out a bag from behind her, still looking atrociously worried. I walked over to the tv in the room and popped the surveillance video in the tv. I fast forwarded to the part where Natsume was going to show me the steps, hitting play so it would stop. I joined hands with Nobara and she helped me with the routine. I didn't worry about my appearance doing the technique, but more like knowing it.
An Hour And A Half Later Mikan's POV
After practicing the routine several times, I dropped hands with Nobara. I had explained everything to her while dancing. I walked to the patient bathroom and changed into my salsa dress and flats, coming out as soon as I was done. Nobara commented me on my looks and I thanked her.
"Crap." I muttered when I noticed I didn't have a brush or makeup. I know Nobara was too worried about me back then to even guess of taking her hair and makeup supplies. I began walking toward the door and into the hallway, with Nobara right behind me. I made my way to the nurse locker room. I walked in and took a bobby pin out of my hair. I chose the locker with the hint of midnight pomegranate bath mist coming from it.
"Mikan-chan, what are you doing?" Nobara asked, worriedly.
"Nobara, I was in the streets for a long time before I got off them. I learned that sometimes I needed to steal to get things, but they were usually small things. Which is why I need to pick this lock." I said, getting to work. Not long after, I got the locker open. Inside was just what I needed. I pulled out the brush and makeup kit, walking towards the nurse bathroom next. I began to apply makeup and brush my hair properly. When I finished I put the stuff back in the locker, and closed it as if nothing happened. We walked outside of the nurse locker room before anyone could come in.
"So how are we gonna get out of here?" I asked myself.
"I have my car." Nobara said.
"Good thing. I didn't want to mess up my hair hotwiring another one. Now, let's see. To get out, how about jumping out the window? It would be perfect cuz I always do it." I said, excitedly.
"I don't jump out of windows, though." Nobara said.
"Fine, we'll go to the first floor and jump. We can't have the staff knowing. They'll surely lock me up in the room with guards and everything. That would be a waste of energy to knock them down later." I said, walking to the stairs and beginning the three flights down. Nobody takes the stairs anymore, so obviously the coast was clear. The closest window was in a patient's room and I thanked the lord that there were no nurses in that ward. The patient was asleep too, so it made everything much easier. I jumped out and then Nobara did. I had to catch her, which kinda screwed up my ankle and back a little, but I could still walk and such. We ran to her car, seeing that there was a doctor coming out of the hospital. I got in the driver's seat, knowing that Nobara didn't know her way and she was an extremely safe driver unless one of her friends was in danger. And trust me, extremely safe means going 2 miles per hour going on a 80 mile per hour highway. I wanted to speed off through all the highways and streets, but there was traffic in some parts and I wasn't going to kill anyone for no reason, but most parts were clear and easy speed zones. I parked right in front of the doors to the gym when I arrived. I heard Natsume's name being called along with mine. I burst into the gym right then and there. I put so much strain on my body going through all that. Not even I have that type of energy just getting out of a coma, so I really wanted to collapse at the moment. The face Natsume had on was beyond surprised.