Chapter 21

Never in her life has Hotaru Imai been rendered speechless.

Until now.

Now, as she sits in front of her once-best friend, the brunette beauty who is the center of everyone's attention, with sheets tucked around her waist as she tries to sit up in her stark white hospital bed.

Hotaru stands to help her out, but Mikan raises her hand that wasn't hooked up in an IV, her head shaking. "I've got this." The brunette rasps, her voice hoarse.

Hotaru takes a step back but remains standing as Mikan pulls herself up into an upright position.

Aoi said that Mikan had a nervous breakdown, and had passed out. She was taken to the ER and was examined. The check up done by the doctors revealed that Mikan suffered from stress-induced ulcer and dehydration.

"Sit down." Mikan rasps again. She clears her throat as she reaches for the glass of water on the end table beside her bed. She gulps down a swallow, but not more. Her throat hurt. She was going to be in a whole lot of trouble with her manager, but it didn't matter; she didn't have any events in the foreseeable future that needed her to talk or sing much.

Hotaru takes a seat again, crossing her legs, and places her intertwined fingers on her thigh.

A silence ensues.

"I heard." Mikan stars. At Hotaru's confused silence, she continues. "From Aoi. About the whole set-up."

"Oh." Was all Hotaru could say.

Her angel sat in front of her, finally, after years of Hotaru just waiting for an opportunity to run to Mikan, hug her, tell her sorry, and beg for her forgiveness.

But Hotaru does none of the above and stays glued to her seat. Her voice seems to have left her, and she cant work up the gut to speak.

"I'm sorry." Hotaru hears someone say. Was it her? Or did Mikan say that?

No, it wasn't you. The voice inside her head tells Hotaru.

"I'm sorry." Mikan says again, and Hotaru could only watch as a tear fell down the brunette's cheek. "I'm so sorry... that I didn't trust you... and just assumed the worst... and... and I..." Mikan's tears were falling freely down her face now, large, salty tears that made Hotaru's heart break even more at every drop. Mikan's sobs racked her body, although Hotaru could see that Mikan was making an effort to push the tears down, to keep herself from breaking into bigger, louder sobs.

Hotaru wanted to tell her how it shouldn't be Mikan who should be sorry. It was her, Hotaru Imai, that was at fault. It was Hotaru who didn't trust Mikan, who chose her selfish ambitions over her best friend, who left her angel in the dust.

Hotaru opens her mouth. "I..." Tears pricked her eyes, and Hotaru tries to blink them away. She lowers her head because she couldn't bear to see her cry. She trains her eyes on her hands on her lap. Her fingers were shaking. She feels her chin tremble and something warm traces a path down her own cheek as finally, a tear fell from her eyes.

Hotaru Imai began to cry.

"I..." She stutters. "I was hurt." Hotaru begins. "I didn't tell you, because I thought you would understand. That you would wait for me to tell you... that you knew me enough to know that the girl you would see in the party... wasn't ME." Another tear falls from her eyes. A sob wracks through Hotaru. "That somehow, you would know that there was something deeper behind what I was doing..."

A few minutes pass and they cry, Mikan in her bed, and Hotaru in the cold, metal chair. "I'm sorry. mikan." Hotaru breatehs in between her sobbing. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."

Mikan breaks down into louder sobs, her shoulders heaving with every breathe she took. "It was my fault..." Mikan manages to say in between sobs. "I shouldn't have... gotten in the way... and..."

Hotaru couldn't take hearing her sobs anymore anymore. She stands and walks over to Mikan, gently placing her hand over the brunette's mouth. Her best friend's tears wet her skin as Mikan continues to cry. Hotaru meets Mikan's eyes.

"It's our fault. Mine, for not trusting you, for being so caught up in my ambitions that I failed as your friend. Natsume's, for not trusting you, and for letting you go, when he shouldn't have, when he should've told you everything instead of holding back. Its our fault, because you trsuted us, but we broke that trust when we were assholes too caught up in our own lives. Our fault, because we failed to see that you DID love us enough, enough that you would've understood if we told you, but we thought we were protecting you."

Mikan continues to sob into Hotaru's hand. She reaches up and gently wraps her fingers around Hotaru's wrist. She moves Hotaru's hand from her mouth to her cheek, closing her eyes as she leans into her best friend's palm. "I'm sorry..." Mikan sobs quietly. Her breathing starts to level as she finds calm in Hotaru's touch. It's been too long since she's been with her best friend, and she almost forgot the calm she finds in her. Hotaru was Mikan's center, the Finn to her Jake, pineapple to her pizza, ketchup in her cheeseburger.

Hotaru reaches around and grabs Mikan into a hug, as she's longed to do since that day in the party years ago.

Nastume has never been as restless in his life as he is today.

Finally, after 3 years, he can see Mikan. In the flesh, of course, and not anymore in Crimson magazines or televised fashion shows or widescreen movies.

Aoi sent him to pick up Japan's princess from the hospital after a week of confinement. Not because Natsume has access to as discreet a getaway from the paparazzi-infested area around the hospital (but this certainly helped his case) nor because Natsume practically begged Aoi for even just 5 seconds with Mikan (but he was positive that his begging did contribute somehow. He'd seen a whole lot of pity in her eyes yesterday when he was on the point of going down on his knees, just to see Mikan.) But it was because Mikan herself asked for him to come.

He almost wept in joy when he heard from Aoi.

Mikan wanted to see him.

Mikan. His Mikan.

Well, she didn't know it yet exactly, but yes, she was his.

He did do some asshole things. He hurt her pretty bad. He deserved to be given a plaque for being the biggest jerk in history. He didn't deserve her. Not good, kind, sweet, caring, loving, absolutely beautiful Mikan.

But the princess cut diamond ring in his pocket?

It meant that he would everything and anything to make up to her, for the rest of his fucking life.

Well, as long as it doesn't cost him that much money. He already used more than half of his life savings on her ring.

WOAH YES FINALLY GOT TO UPDATE! :)

And yes, PINAPPLES GO ON PIZZA. Don't argue. ;)

Leave a review! Hopefully, I can update soon, sometime WITHIN THE YEAR LOL but don't take my word for it! 3

Thank you for staying with RRM and me for this whole time! Im sorry for taking almost 5 years to get to this almost-finished point. THANK YOU! :)

Love lots,

Hazelchii