x. Disease

"Are you quite alright?"

Disoriented, Natsume looked up, his startled gaze meeting none other's than Mikan Sakura's. She stood in front of him, her lips pressed into thin line, frowning.

"Don't you have someone else to bless your presence with?" Natsume asked her, trying to get up and flee, but not succeeding as his world took a turn of 90 degrees to the left. He tried to grip the backrest of the park bench he had been residing on, but his hand only caught air.

Groggy, he stumbled and would no doubt have subjected himself to the mortification of meeting the earth face-to-face, had it not been for the ever-bumbling Mikan Sakura, who avoided bumbling this time around, and took a hold of his arm, successfully keeping him in the vertical.

He distinctly remembering her telling him never to talk to her again. Whatever had happened to that resolution?

"Well, turns out answering my question is rather redundant now." she stated, pushing Natsume down on the bench again, looking thoughtful.

"What did I do to deserve this fate?" she complained. "I could think of one hundred and four things I would rather do than taking care of you, Hyuuga."

"Likewise.", Natsume retorted. "I would have much preferred it if a good-looking girl had happened to come by and decided to take care of me."

"Incredible.", Mikan Sakura mutter under her breath, puffing. "My good intentions are met with cold ingratitude."

"Oh, quit the melodramatics." he snapped. "I'm truly feeling unwell and your rumbling doesn't help improve matters!"

"Please explain to me what you're doing outside, taking a stroll, when you should be at home, in bed. You're ill, no doubt about it." Ignoring her question, he said "Would you be so kind as to leave me now, Miss Sakura?" Ignoring, in turn, his plea, she did something utterly unexpected and took of her gloves.

"Whatever is it you think you're doing?" he hissed, shocked. He recoiled when she proceeded to press one of her hands to his forehead. (Natsume hated to admit it, but her cool hands felt nice on his burning skin.)

"I'm afraid I cannot leave you alone to your own devices when you are so obviously delirious." Not taking in her words, he had to repress a sigh when she took away her hand. "Come on now, Mr. Hyuuga, do try to show some cooperation for once in your life!"

"What?" Natsume was unable to cope with the situation as it was, and the tiny brunette trying to make him stand up rendered him even more confused. "What is it you want from me, woman?" He intended for his remark to sound snide, but he sounded confused instead.

"I want you to get up so I can take you home. Come on, it isn't far. My family's house is over there." Her gesture indicated a place somewhere yonder. Natsume complied and got up, leaning all this body's weight onto her tiny frame. He was too befuddle to put up much of a fight against her and her fierce temper. "Put your arm around my waist." she instructed, trying to balance his weight and her own, as she wrapped her own arm around his waist.

Again, Natsume did as he was told, letting Mikan Sakura lead him slowly...wherever she was leading him. His head sunk on her shoulder and his eyes fell shut, causing the girl to poke him. "Hey, no falling asleep until we get there, understand?" A few curls that had come undone from her bun tickled his cheek and he noted their flowery smell.

"You...smell good." he slurred. His words apparently stunned her, and it took her a few moments to process them, then she laughed. "Thanks, I guess. You are much nicer when you're feverish, Mr. Hyuuga." He had never heard her laugh before. He liked it.

"How much longer is it?" he asked her, after they had stumbled on in silence for a few minutes. "Oh, not much longer, we're almost there. No need to worry." she assured him. "We're almost–– " Before she could finish her sentence, Natsume was overcome by a wave of vertigo and dizziness, and everything around him went black.

As he came to, he found himself in a warm bed. He tried to sit up, but his muscles felt strained and hurt, so he gave up on that endeavor pretty quickly and turned his head instead, taking his surroundings in. The bed stood in a wide room, next to a bedside cabinet, and opposite a huge closet and a vanity. Before he could recall where he was and how he'd got there, the door opened and Mikan Sakura stepped in, carrying a tray.

"Don't you have a maid for that kind of work? I didn't think your family was that short on money." He saw her roll her eyes, but she didn't acknowledge him with a remark. She put the tray down and set on the edge of his bed. Natsume cocked an eyebrow. She was apparently unaware of the signals she was sending, and the impropriety of her actions. He was starting to get accustomed to her disregard of society's rules and the norms it enforced.

"I liked you better when you were sleeping." she decided, grinning, and handed him a glass of water. He took it and tried to take a sip, ending up spilling the cold liquid all over him. He was mortified by his helpless state.

"Come one, let me help you. I've done this kind of thing a thousand times for my father." She extended her hands, waiting for him to surrender the glass.

"I'm not an invalid, Miss Sakura." he told her indignantly, his voice cold and hard. She merely shrugged. "Oh, if your pride is too bruised to accept my help, fair enough. I can leave."

She made to stand up, but he grabbed for her hand, keeping her. "Sorry." he mumbled. Her features softened. "I have a feeling that word doesn't touch your lips very often, does it? Oh well, beggars can't be chooser." Mikan helped him sit up and drink, ignoring or not noticing his state of undress. She didn't even spare his naked chest a second glance, nor did she comment on it.

When he was done drinking, she pulled the covers up to his neck, straightening them, and smiled down at him. "Ring the bell when you need anything, yes?"

Then she left.

Natsume stared at the door she had just exited. He couldn't fathom what had just taken place. Mikan Sakura was the antithesis of everything that was considered right and proper. Completely ignoring everything society taught young girl to do and how to behave. Intimately touching a man a girl was not engaged to was simply not done, it was condemned. If anyone had seen her and him on their way to the house, a scandal would surely ensue. If anyone were to learn that Mikan Sakura had seen Natsume Hyuuga without clothes, she would be ruined.

Back at the park, she had taken her gloves off without a second thought. She did not even seem to care, his wellbeing the first thing on her mind, despite the antipathy they both felt for the respective other. She ignored society's rules and regulations, only adhering to her own set of rules. (He couldn't help admiring her bravery and recklessness.)

Her behavior was reckless, it was silly, and it would probably be her undoing. But Natsume had to admit to himself that he liked it. He liked her.

(Somewhat.)

A/N: Written around March of 2013.