Princess Engagement Program 26
Glazed eyes. Aching hearts. Tense shoulders. Shaking hands.
Natsume and Mikan sit close to each other, and yet the distance between them is palpable.
Aoi, who sits across from the couple, could only look at them. She had other things to worry about.
She didn't have time for a weak relationship like theirs. She believed that if they cant even find comfort with each other, they don't deserve any more outsider help.
Aoi knew most of what was going on of course. How things played right into Kaoru's hands.
But this she did not expect.
Her mother in the emergency room, hanging on for dear life.
Aoi feels another shudder of fear course through her system, another tear forming in the lids of her eyes. She tried to hold the tears back again, but a small sob still managed to escaped. Her hand flew to her mouth, trying to desperately keep her lips shut.
Mikan hears the other girl's sniffle and looks up at her supposed-sister-in-law. She sees Aoi's tiny hand pushing the weakness back, trying desperately to hold on to some semblance of strength. When it strength isnt even something anyone could hold on to.
When Mikan sees the tears threatening to fall from Aoi's eyes, she snaps out of her depression and comes back to her senses. She feels that want to hug the other girl, feels something than her own pain. She turns to her side and face towards sher husband, and sees his tension-filled body. Natsume's jacket was on his side, and his white sleeves were rolled to his elbows. Mikan could see teh tendons popping on his arms as the boy fists his hand tightly at his side.
Mikan, hesitant at first, then feeling more love for her pained man, reaches her hand toward his tightly fisted one. But before she could wrap her fingers around his hand, a nurse hurriedly emerges from the emergency room.
The nurse looks around the hall, but when her eyes land on their little group, Natsume, Aoi, Mr. Hyuuga, and Mikan, she takes a moment to catch her breath before asking, "Are you all Kaoru Hyuuga's family?"
The three Hyuugas could only nod, their fear almost palpable. Mikan managed to say, "Yes, we are."
She takes yet another breath. The suspense makes the four even more anxious than they already are. "Mrs. Hyuuga is conscious and is looking for you all," she pauses before continuing, "but we can only allow one person to go in, and when we asked her, she's calling for her husband. The others will have to wait for another hour, when we can transfer Mrs. Hyuuga into a private suite."
At this, the head of the family stands and follows the nurse into the ER. His children are left in the hallway again, still worrying, but a burden has been lifted from their hearts. Their mother is awake, and that's all that matters, for now.
Mikan sighs in relief, but deep inside, her head was running at 140 miles per hour. Her mother-in-law is awake, sure, but they still had no idea what had happened, why anything at all had happened. Kaoru Hyuuga, the last time Mikan saw her (which was just that same morning) was still healthy and bright-eyed and smiling. So what was wrong? Did she collapse due to happiness, then? But why the ER? if it was just a minor bout of nerves, it shouldn't have taken hours for a nurse to emerge.
And what's more, there was still no news about Hotaru. What was wrong with her bestfriend? Was she sick, all this time? When they'd rushed the raven-heaired genius from the palace to the hospital, Mikan had held her bestfriend's hand the whole time, only relinquishing her spot beside the pale lass when Hotaru's brother, Subaru Imai, had taken charge for the care of his little sister. And Mikan awaited for any word from the young doctor, and hours had passes, but still nothing.
"Mikan."
The brunette snaps out of her reverie when she hears Natsume calling her name. She looks up at the boy, who is now standing in front of her.
"Yeah?" She asks, mustering up a small smile for him. Despite all the worry she was feeling, her heart blossomed at the sight of Natsume's face free from sadness and pain. She could still sense a growing worry from him, but he'd recovered form the initial shock of taking his mother to an emergency room. Mikan reached for his hand and wrapped her fingers around his relaxed palm, feeling happy at seeing his fingers free from the fist.
Natsume, upon seeing her smile, immediately felt remorse for leaving her to fend for herself at a hard time. And when she wrapped her hand around his, he almost wept at the regret he felt for being a selfish asshole, But before he could apologize for his jerk-ish behavior, Mikan stopped him by squeezing his hands. Her smile at him held the same feelings of apology. Natsume laces his fingers through hers and reaches out with his free hand to touch her tear-stained cheek, overwhelmed with a feeling of love and security.
Mikan would always be there for him.
And he would be there for her too, he decided.
He would never, ever, ever let go of her hand ever again, no matter the pain, the hardship, or the suffering, this he swore.
Aoi smiles at them before rubbing her cold arms, happy that they've made up. She felt bad for being such a conniving little bitch a while ago, but worry does that to people. Makes them uncaring for whatever else is going on.
"Mikan." Another voice calls out. Mikana and Natsume look up at the same time, putting whatever moment they were having on hold. There, at the end of the hallway, stood Ruka, his face flushed red from running, his breaths coming out in puffs of air.
"Ruka-pyon." Mikan calls out at the same time Natsume says, "Nogi."
"I got a call, from Subaru Imai, telling me to come here." Ruka says as he shrugs off his jacket and approaches the little group. At that exact moment, the ER doors open again, and Subaru Imai walks out, his pale little sister in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse beside him.
"Oh, you're here." Subaru Imai tells Ruka in his usual monotone and poker face, but a wave of hostility directed toward Ruka can be clearly felt.
Ruka starts to shake in fear...
metaphorically.
On the outside, he's quite calm. Steady, chin high, back ram rod straight. Hands hanging at his sides, his eyes staring square at the doctor.
Meanwhile, inside, his heart is beating madly in his chest.
What the fuck is going on? He wonders.
"You must be wondering why I called you here." Subaru Imai says.
Ruka nods then says, "Yeah."
Subaru Imai looks around the hallway, taking in the faces of the group. He turns to glance at his sister, who was seated on the wheelchair, a nurse behind her. Hotaru looks calm and collected, her usual self, only paler and seemingly thinner. She is staring at her knotted hands on her lap. She fidgets in her seat. Not as calm as she usually is, but it was the best calm she could muster.
"Well, Hotaru said that I could tell the blonde boy here," Subaru gives a meaningful look towards Ruka's direction before continuing, "but since you're here too..." He motions towards Mikan, Aoi, and Natsume, "I might as well tell you, since you're all going to learn about it soon, anyway."
Subaru Imai glances once again at his sister, rolling his eyes when he looks away. he gives a sigh before saying, "Hotaru is pregnant."
Silence encompasses the hallway. It seemed to Mikan that the whole hospital had stopped in time, the beeping of machines, the clanking of scissors, the bustling of the nurses, all growing quiet. Mikan glances towards her best friend's direction, and sees the usually confident genius shrinking back into the wheel chair, as if trying to make herself smaller.
Holy crap.
Hotaru is pregnant.
Mikan couldn't quite wrap her head around it.
Hotaru. The responsible Hotaru. The Hotaru who was always one step ahead, always planned. The Hotaru who had everything working in her favor.
"Hotaru is pregnant." Mikan whispers, as if saying the words aloud would help her understand what was going on.
Subaru Imai clears his throat once, capturing back the attention that was taken from him to be directed at the person in question.
Oh crap, he wasn't done talking. Mikan curses in her head.
She pretty much guessed what's coming next.
Mikan could only cover her face with her hands to stiffle the loud sigh she felt coming as Subaru imai says,
"And this blondie french dude over here is going to be the daddy. Congratulations, Welcome to the Imai Family, Nogi."
WE ALL SAW THAT COMING.
Sort of.
At least the pregnancy part.
What we all didn't see is Kaoru being awake.
I didn't really focus much on the Hyuuga-mother on this chapter, seeing as if this happened in reality it would have gne by quite fast. Without all the narrations, the time that would have passed from the doctor coming out to ask for the hyuuga-father to Subaru Imai coming out of the ER would have been like a couple seconds, a momenbt at most. Snap, liek that. The doctor comes out, the doctor comes in, NatsuMikan has their moment for a moment, then Subaru is out with the pregnancy news! OMG.
Lol, what do you guys all want to happen next? XD
I hope you didn't find this chappie crappy. 3
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All my loves and hugs and kisseses,
Hazel-chii
Tell me how I did with this chappie
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