XxJMLxX asks: If you and your mother had stayed with Aunt Kaoru until Natsume was born, what would you think have happened between you and Natsume?
I'm saving my apology for the end of this story! Miss. Author Person held onto this prompt, hissing something about an AU. I'm not very familiar, so I'm going to give her the reigns for this story! Here we go!
"Auntie!" Mikan screeched, thundering up the stairs. Natsume trailed behind her, a smirk playing on his lips. She burst into the kitchen, latching on to the black-haired woman sipping tea while talking to her mother.
"Oh my," Kaoru glanced down at her hysterical niece and then back at her smug son. "What happened?"
"H-He saw my p-p-p," the word refused to fall from her trembling lips, as if saying it would make the horror all the more real.
Kaoru and Yuka filled in the blank and comforted her appropriately, but not before giving Natsume two discreet thumbs-up. Seeing her underwear? They didn't know he had the guts. Then again, Kaoru thought, self-satisfied, he was her son. He sure as hell didn't get that fiery personality from his dad.
They had been waiting for this. They both knew that Mikan – bless her – would be too dense to make the first move. The plan that they had been brewing since they both got pregnant was finally bearing fruit, the promise of brown-haired red-eyed children sure to come in the future. A squeal threatened to burst out of Kaoru's lips, so she found Yuka's leg, pinching it to try and control herself.
"How about we all go downstairs and watch a movie?" Yuka suggested, blocking out the pain of Kaoru's pinch as an idea forming in her mind. She shot a glance at Kaoru and already knew she understood. The two had basically been able to read each others mind since they first met.
"Oo, oo, can I pick?" Mikan waved her hand around sporadically, her insouciant nature already dissolving her earlier rancor.
"Absolutely not," Natsume's face twisted into a disgusted expression. "Every movie you pick is ridiculously stupid. Besides, Kaoru and I want to see a certain movie, so that's the one we're going to watch."
"I will dangle you over the balcony the next time you call me Kaoru," Kaoru yanked Natsume's ear, pulling so hard her fingers turned ghostly white and his ear dangerously red. She had waged this battle since Natsume was born. Instead of calling her mom like a normal child, he took up Yuka's habit of just calling her Kaoru. It was the one grudge she held against her best friend. "Call. Me. Mom."
"That's not fair," Mikan exclaimed, placing her hands on her hip that she jutted out in blatant defiance. "What if momma and I want to watch something different?"
"You're in the Hyuuga house," Natsume raised an eyebrow and gave her a haughty look, "therefore all Hyuugas have two votes rather than one. Therefore, we outnumber you."
"I'm fine with whatever the Hyuugas want to pick," Yuka smiled behind her tea cup before taking another sip. She more than trusted the Hyuuga movie choice.
"Sounds like we win," Natsume smirked at her, making a run along motion towards his basement. "So why don't you go downstairs and turn on the TV... Polka."
Mikan's face turned so red Yuka was surprised blood didn't spurt from her cheeks. Mikan gasped and spluttered for a comeback against the infuriatingly arrogant boy. After wracking her brain for an embarrassingly silent thirty seconds, she settled with a huff and stormed down to the basement. Natsume tried not to let his eyes linger on her disappearing form for too long, lest his mother and aunt see, but they were sharp as ever.
"So what kind of movie have we wanted to watch for so long?" Kaoru grinned gloatingly, knowing she and he had never talked about any movie they wanted to watch. It was probably a little ruse her son concocted in the hopes of getting his oblivious little childhood friend's arms around him.
"Shut up," he muttered before following Mikan downstairs, his mutterings going along the lines of 'nosy mother' and 'too much estrogen'.
The minute the dynamic duo could no longer see their children, they clasped hands and bounced up and down. Yuka gleefully eyed the basement. "He so wants to pull a move on her. We're going to get out of there as fast as possible, right?"
"Of course!" Kaoru clapped her hand over her heart in an offended gesture. "Who do you think I am? A mother who doesn't want her son and best friend's daughter to get married?"
"You're right," Yuka beamed as she started to pull Kaoru towards the entrance of the basement. "Let's make our entrance and then," she paused dramatically, "our exit."
The two made their way down the stairs, giggling like grade-schoolers. God, the people around him were weird, Natsume thought, slightly disturbed. The two women who raised him were descending the stairs while cackling words like babies and espionage. He just didn't understand those two. Or any of the women in his life, really. His mom was crazy, his aunt was completely eccentric, and his childhood friend was a complete idiot.
Said friend was currently pouting in the corner of the couch. Not for long, Natsume thought smugly to himself. While she was moping on the furniture, he slipped the movie, Insidious, into the DVD player. He personally thought it was a weaker film when it came to horror movies, but it would be just enough to scare his auburn-haired neighbor and best friend into his arms.
Natsume plopped down on the couch and didn't miss how his mother and aunt sat to his left, so that there was nobody in between himself and Mikan. He shrugged it off, not really wanting to deeply contemplate the actions of those two. He pressed play on the remote and leaned comfortably back, making sure to casually throw his arm around the back of the couch.
Just as the first scene opened on the 72 inch screen, Kaoru abruptly stood up, staring intently at her phone. "Work. Apparently one of my idiot underling workers doesn't know how to make a goddamn powerpoint. God, the way those plebeians act towards me, you'd think I'm Steve Jobs. I need to go straighten them out."
Mikan peeked up, eyes widened. Even though she and Natsume were 14, it was still a very shocking experience to hear her auntie swear. Only a few moments later, her mother groaned, checking her phone as well. "Your father apparently doesn't know how to function in the kitchen. You two have fun, I have to go make sure our house isn't on fire."
Mikan watched her mother head up the stairs and out of the basement. She glanced at Natsume, whose eyes were fixed on the TV. She looked up to finally pay attention to the screen, only to see and hear what she dreaded most. Ghosts and foreboding music that could only belong to a horror movie.
She squeaked and Natsume looked on at the movie, satisfaction filling his body. She nervously looked between the jump scares playing before her and the space open next to Natsume. Which would she prefer? Getting possessed by ghosts, or swallowing her pride to hide next to that obnoxious jerk?
It would be a tough decision.
A decision that was made easy by the malevolent eyes of the poltergeists that were trying to kill everybody in the house. She ignored her damnable pride – a pride that could really only be topped by Natsume's own – and jumped over next to Natsume, closing the space between them. She buried her face in his chest, trying to block out the actors and the noise.
Natsume's hand closed over her opposite shoulder, effectively trapping her against his body. She didn't seem to notice his action, though, in her attempts to ignore his movie choice. He allowed himself a small grin as the movie continued to play and tried to ignore the obvious squeals of happiness coming from the stairs that sounded suspiciously like his mother and aunt.
It's been a really long time, hasn't it? I want to offer the biggest apology anybody could possibly offer ever. Everything has been hectic and Miss. Author Person has had a lot (good and bad) going on in her life and she feels awful. But it's time that I change things, and give you guys what you very much deserve! Thank you to all of you who have stuck with me through this story dry-spell, you don't know how much it means to me and Miss. Author Person to see reviews left by you guys, saying that you miss us.
A genius inventor: Alright, idiot. Time to wrap up before you start crying all of the laptop.
B-But, I f-feel so emotional right now!
Kuro Neko: Look what you all have done to her, now I'm going to have to deal with this mess all day.
Alright, no. Bye. Send hate mail to Natsume. Love you. Hate you, Natsume.
Kuro Neko: You love me.
Shut up.
