madoka: all rightee! Ahmmm… this is the… 9th chapter? is it? I don't know… hahaha… anyways, thanks for those who reviewed and liked this story! Arigato gozaimasu! To those who didn't, Sore wa ii desu. At least you read it. hahaha… thanks for at least reading or just, uhmm, bothering to look. Hahaha… if you're disappointed, tell me, if happy, tell me… if contented, upset, dissatisfied, pleased, frustrated… just tell me! Hehehe… I'd be happy to reply… hehe…

I have another account, but no stories yet. Haha… if you want to know why I made another account, don't ask. I don't know either. Hahaha…

I don't own gakuen alice, campus alice, alice academy, or anything concerning this. Just the plot. Hehehe…

Confessions

"Mikan, wait!" Natsume said as he leaped off the tree.

'Mikan?' she thought, 'When have I ever been Mikan to him? Only once he said that I was 'Mikan', but why call me Mikan again?' she asked herself. "No, I'm going," she firmly stated as she marched off the opposite direction.

"Hey, Strawberries, I told you to wait!" he called after her.

"And I told you I'm leaving—what—hey! Let go!" she shouted as Natsume grabbed her, thankfully not by one of her pigtails, but by the wrist. Mikan didn't struggle to fight him off anymore, knowing that he was stronger than she was.

"Ruka said he thinks that you love me, right?" he asked out of the blue.

"Yeah," she agreed.

"And you said that maybe you do, didn't you?"

"Yeah, hey, you don't have to rub it in, you know," she said frustratingly over her shoulder because Natsume still wasn't letting her go.

"My point is," he said, "the way you feel about me, is the exact same way I feel about you." He let go of her wrist and she turned around to face him. He lowered his head so his hair could hide his face.

"What?" Mikan asked.

"You see, Mikan, I… I love you," he said in almost a whisper, but loud enough so that she could hear. "I just didn't want you too close to me. I don't want you to worry about me. I've already told you this before, that there is nothing in my head other than darkness and I don't want anyone to be concerned about me, I don't want anyone to care for me, and most importantly, I don't want you to see."

"Natsume…"

"So I tried to push everyone away from me. But you just can't stop, can you? Even after I called you names, telling you that your silly head can't possibly understand what's going on in mine—" he said, trying to put some of his insults to reduce the tension the tension he was feeling, "—you stayed there and tried to understand me, and I appreciate that.

I just want to tell you now that I… I love you, Mikan…" he finished.

"Can you, uh, say that again please?" Mikan requested.

"It was hard enough for me to say it—"

"I meant the part where you said my name."

He didn't catch what this girl meant. She wants to hear her name. But finally he understood. He had always teased her, calling her names, and she would always make him say her name, and even spell it out, stressing each letter hoping that he would say it. She was the only one who did that to him. How simple the thing she wanted, but, after all, the simplest of all things could give the greatest meaning to another person, and this was one of them. He gave her a smile and complied.

"Mikan…"

after hearing this, she broke into tears and cried into his chest. Natsume gasped, surprised with her sudden actions. He looked at her for a while, wondering what he would do now.

"You're soaking my shirt," he blurted out.

"Oh," she replied, "Sorry."

"But I don't mind," he replied, returning an embrace, tucking her head under his chin.

"Stop crying."

"I'm not crying," she answered her sobs.

From behind the bush, two people were crouching, speaking in hushed tones.

"No video cam?" asked a blond boy.

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," replied the girl.

Click

"What was that?" he asked again after hearing a clicking sound.

"What was what?" she shot back.

"Never mind," he said. "Hotaru, do you think we should disturb them?"

"Give them 5 more minutes," she replied.

"Are you sure?"

"Minutes, seconds. You know how good a person could be at one thing but bad in the other," she told him, meaning it in a sarcastically but the tone of her voice never changed. "Okay, you go first." Before Ruka could even make out what she said, Hotaru pushed him out the bush and into Natsume and Mikan's view. The moment he fell out, the two parted, half embarrassed, half surprised.

"Oh, hi, Natsume, Mikan!" he said nervously, hoping that his friend wasn't angry. "I, uh, I hope I'm not disturbing anything here."

"Not really," Natsume instantly said, but made Ruka the least curious.

"Ruka?" Mikan asked. "What are you doing here?"

"H-huh? M-me? I was, uh, trying to take those pictures from Hotaru," he reasoned out almost immediately, hoping that they'd buy it. He didn't know what else he would do.

"Pictures? What pictures?"

'Oh no, this is it!' he thought, knowing that he really didn't have an excuse to be there. 'Except for being pushed out by that Hotaru.'

"These pictures," Hotaru suddenly said, moving out of the bush and showing Mikan the photos. His prayer was answered, but then, was that what he really wanted? After all…

"Snow White!" Ruka thundered out when he saw them. "You said you wouldn't!"

"But now I will," she replied flatly.

"Wow, Ruka! You look so cute!" Mikan squeaked, taking one.

"Hey! Give them to me!"

And with that, instead of taking a step back, Hotaru fell. Ruka was determined to seize those pictures from Hotaru's hand, but he didn't realize what was happening. Hotaru fell with a soft thud and Ruka landed on top of her.

'What's this?' I could feel someone breathing under me,' he thought. He tried to remember what happened. 'Let's see… Hotaru… the pictures… Mikan… collision with someone… then Hotaru… OH NO! Hotaru!'

Whoosh.

Hotaru blew swiftly into his ear.

"AH!" he yelled, pushing himself up and saw a Hotaru lying down beneath him.

"Took you long enough," she said, frigidly. "It was fun when it was Mikan and Natsume, but I never said anything about wanting to try it out myself." She flashed the picture in front of him once more. "Carry my stuff," she commanded, pointing to the load she was mentioning. At first, he tried to protest, but with those pictures, there was no way he wanted others to recall him as Snow White. He sighed.

"Fine," he said, finally giving in.

"And if you don't mind," she continued.

"Huh? What?" he asked.

"Get off me," she said flatly.

"Ack!"

---

"Oh, Hotaru!" Mikan said, having another attempt to hug Hotaru.

"Idiot."

"Huh? You let me hug you this time?" she asked, surprised she didn't get what she thought she would.

"What's the matter? Would you rather get hit by the gun?"

"No, it's just that—"

"Okay then." Hotaru took out her Baka Gun and started hitting Mikan again.

"Aaaahhhh! Hotaru! Stop it!"

As they were enjoying themselves, Natsume approached Ruka.

"Hey," he said. It was not like Natsume to start a conversation, but he wanted to talk to Ruka.

"Oh, hey Natsume," Ruka replied.

"Did you see?" he asked.

"Yeah, mostly."

"You heard?"

"Pretty much, yeah, but I won't talk about it unless you want me to."

"Thanks," Natsume said, "and sorry."

"Huh?" Ruka asked, confused. "For what? Mikan? No problem. I figured she liked you better anyway. It was hard convincing her to tell you what she really felt. She said that she didn't know what love was, and she wasn't sure if what she felt was 'love'"

"She didn't tell me that," Natsume told him, watching the two girls who are still greeting each other like they always did.

"She didn't? She probably didn't want you to know. She was really confused. She said that her heart was pounding so fast and she can't explain why. Then she asked about some things she felt, if it was love. I knew at that time she was talking about you," he explained, patting his bunny. "You know, Natsume, she changed you a lot. That was the first time I saw you smile like that."

"Whatever," he said walking away, pocketing his hands. "You'd better call those two now, it's almost ten."

'Natsume,' Ruka thought, 'I want you and Mikan to be happy. You two deserve it after all.'

"Hey, you two!" he called to them, "We'd better go."

"My stuff," Hotaru said. "Now."

---

madoka: if you found it too mushy, fluffy, over-sentimental, schmaltzy (hey that's a word okay!), slushy, or the characters have to be out of their minds to do the things that I wrote or to act the way I made them in the story, tell me okay? So that I can fix it. hehehe… I don't mind a critique. Creative criticism please but I don't mind flames.

I don't do good with endings, so this one was corny.

thanks for the reviews and thanks for the advice and tips, and also for the encouragement. I'll be updating soon.

PS: it's mushy, and I know it.

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natsume: no kiss?

madoka: no kiss.

natsume: this is dull.

madoka: hey, I can't see why ten year olds would kiss unless of course it was accidental! Anyways, how did you read this?

natsume: anyone can read, except for that idiot.

madoka: riiight… stop it with the 'idiot' thing. Haha! I didn't know you could be such a poet!

natsume: I'm not. You made me do it in this story.

madoka: hahaha! I'm evil!

natsume: you're weird.

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madoka: once more, I'm filipina if you don't mind. I'm happy to receive English reviews but I don't mind taglish anyway. Hahaha. Okay… I'm blabbing too much. Anyways, wah! Can't believe that this was supposed to be 4 chapters long but turned out to be ten… hahaha…

sorry if it had to be so late! I just was so confused with the ending. (,). Hope you would be so kind to review. Even if you don't, thanks for visiting this story!

Ps. To those who gave reviews, thank you very much!