A Tainted Heart
Gakuen Alice
AN: Stay safe! Social distance people!
Disclaimer: I don't own GA
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Chapter 3 - Reunion
ScarletMidnight19
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In the huge crowd of people that came and went in the airport, there stood a young brunette waiting impatiently, besides her dark-haired companion. She tapped her finger impatiently against her forearm, her eyes darted from side to side hoping to catch a glimpse of her brother, who was -unsurprisingly- late. She sighed in frustration for the up tenth time in the span of mere minutes.
Akane turned to look at her giving her an unimpressed look. She had the urge to scoff at the older girl but suppressed it, no need to get in Akane's bad graces today.
Soon thereafter the duo saw a scowling dark haired man walking towards them. "Akane, I think I found him" Mikan said
"Kind of hard to miss honestly" Akane chuckled, Mikan grinned she inhaled deep cupping her mouth with both hands and yelled "Rei! Over here!" from her side Akane giggled.
Rei scowled and walked over to them, prying eyes looking at the two girls and the dark haired man before shrugging and going about their day. Once he reached the two girls his scowl was replaced with a soft-warming smile.
"Mikan" he softly mumbled still not believing his sister was right in front of him, it had been three years since the last time he seen her, and here she was all grown. He grabbed his sister and hugged her, oh, how he had missed her. Mikan giggled "I missed you too"
"Thanks for taking care of her these past years Akane" He turned to look at Akane, letting go of Mikan
"No problem, I love being around Mikan-chan anyways" she reassured, He smiled at her, a tint of pink dusting her cheeks. Mikan grinned at the both of them, they were so cute.
"Should we get going or...?"
"Right, let's go then" her brother said grabbing Mikan's and Akane's luggage, Akane insisted she could carry her own, but stubbornness was a trait the Yukihira all inherited, so obviously Akane lost the argument.
Mikan giggled inwardly at the bickering duo. 'Cute' she thought.
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Patience was one of Mikan's more lacking traits. She hated waiting, she rather get things done fast, being patient was just a waste of time.
"Mikan, calm down they'll be back in a few" Akane reassured squeezing her shoulder and sitting down next to her in the family room. Mikan sighed, Akane's presence calming her down.
"The lil brat just finished soccer practice so he's on his way back" Rei informed walking down the stairs
"He's on the soccer team?" Mikan asked, how come she didn't know this?
"Yeah, tryouts were a couple weeks ago, I forced him to tryout obviously but surprisingly he actually likes the sport." Rei shrugged, walking towards the kitchen and disappearing from view.
Akane glanced at Mikan from the corner of her eye, Mikan sported that pensive look that only meant she was over thinking things again.
"Mikan, you're over thinking things" she whispered at the brunette
Mikan's brows furrowed, she bit her lip, and sighed "You're right, I am"
Akane looked at the brunette still unconvinced but let her be, she stood up and walked towards the kitchen, the brunette needed to sort out her thoughts, preferably alone.
Entering the kitchen she came face to face with Rei. The oldest of the Yukihira siblings merely stares at her, his eyes unreadable as ever. They hold gazes for what may seem an eternity before he breaks it, busying himself with what he was previously doing before she entered the kitchen.
"Sit" Rei says in a tone that's practically ordering her to. He doesn't look at her when he says this, instead turning to the cabinets behind him and grabbing two white ceramic plates and two glass cups.
She, however, does as told. Pulling a high chair and sitting down on the marble island. Making herself as comfortable as she possibly can, she ponders over her young charge. It's true that the girl had not seen her family in three years, they had called weekly always checking up on her and -in the first couple of months- updated her on the happenings the family went through, after that the coming months was only polite conversation. The calls at the beginning would range from an hour to maybe two, soon after they became shorter, at first it wasn't that noticeable, maybe ten to fifteen minutes shorter than usual, later it became half an hour shorter, soon after forty-five minutes shorter and so on and so on, and before she knew it her weekly calls were at most five minutes long. The brunette never liked worrying her parents, she never liked feeling like a burden, so she never said anything, instead only cherishing those five minutes that she got speaking to her father, because ever since the beginning it was always her father calling, once in a while her mother and brothers would join the conversation, or even call her for a change, but that was once every blue moon. Right now the girl is ecstatic to seeing her family once more, however the one she was really looking forward to seeing the most was her father. Not that, that was anything bad, but how things were right now it would take some time for the brunette and the family as a whole to build their already fragile relationship. They may be family but as of this moment they were strangers.
"Eat" Rei's voice brought her back from her thoughts.
Looking up her ocean blue eyes looked up to meet pitch black eyes. He nodded his head towards the plate full of food. She blinked, 'when did that get there?' she thought. And as if reading her thoughts, Rei answered.
"You were so lost in your thoughts you didn't notice, I see"
Akane blushed in embarrassment. Rei chuckled at her.
"O-oi! Don't laugh at me!" she spluttered out
"Sorry, sorry you just looked like a tomato a moment ago"
"REI!" Akane's stool slid back with a screech as she stood up abruptly.
Rei tried his best to hold onto his laughter, but unsurprisingly couldn't. He stood from the stool he was sitting on, barely dodging Akane as he did so. Rei laughed even harder as Akane chased him around the kitchen. And that's the scene that Mikan stumbled upon entering the kitchen. She sighed, ignoring the yelling and laughter she walked towards the pantry far away from the duo. Walking in she looked at the rows and rows of snacks and sweets lined up, humming she grabbed a bag of potato chips, and walked out. She followed the chaotic duo with her eyes. Akane was yelling her lungs out at her older brother cursing him to hell and back, however the grin that she showed said otherwise, whilst her brother stopped running from her, but still dodged her, teasing her all the while. Akane's face was red, from embarrassment or sweat, Mikan didn't know, but she suspected it was from both, whilst Rei leaned against the counter, arms crossed and being nonchalant about the whole ordeal. Both teens still unaware of her presence.
Mikan smiled at the duo and walked out of the kitchen. Deciding that both teens needed their time alone.
'What should I do?' Mikan pondered, opening her bag of potato chips and walking towards her room.
Passing the family room, she saw an unfamiliar bag lying idly on the single couch. Curiously she approached the bag, she crinkled her nose in disgust, placing her free hand to cover her nose and mouth.
She felt like gagging, that damn bag smelled disgusting.
"Nee...chan?" a small voice asked slowly almost unbelieving
Mikan tensed slightly, slowly she turned, and came face to face with her youngest brother.
"Youichi" she breathed
Youichi's eye's widened, tears swelling in his gray-blue eyes, he clenched his teeth, and launched himself towards his sister.
THUD.
He crashed onto her, sending both her and him crashing onto the floor. Mikan looked down at the crying gray-haired mess hugging her torso, sobs raking his whole body. Mikan looked to him with wide eyes. Her eyes glossed over and she smiled. She raised both arms, sitting up slightly, and hugged her brother back, he in turn hugged her tighter afraid of letting go, he didn't know if this was a dream or not, but if it was he didn't want to wake up anytime soon.
She didn't know how long they were sitting there on the floor for, but she held onto him until his sobs became muted hiccups and small sniffles.
He reluctantly pulled away from his sister embrace, he sniffled looking up to meet warm hazel eyes, he suddenly felt like crying again.
Mikan giggled softly at him, cupping his face, her thumbs gently wiped away his tears.
"Nee-chan" he said his voice slightly shaky as he swallowed the lump down his throat. His sister radiated of happiness, her cheeks were flushed, and she closed her eyes, tilting her head to the side as she just gave him a heart-warming smile.
"I'm back, Youichi!"
His breath hitched.
This wasn't a dream, it was real. Mikan was back. His older sister was back.
He grabbed her hands that cupped his face with his own, tears stinging the corner of his eyes, this definitely was not a dream.
"Nee-chan!" he wailed as he shook his head, burying his face onto her chest, grabbing fistfuls of her shirt as he sobbed.
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The next day Mikan found herself sitting around the marble island with her family. Her mom was laughing as she recounted a story to her while flipping pancakes, her dad sat beside Rei teasing him and Akane, the latter denying everything while looking like a tomato, the former was rolling his eyes but a ghost of a smirk played on his lips, Youichi sat right beside her arguing with their mother about how 'that's not how it happened.' And it was just seven in the morning.
Last night, right after Youichi had calmed down, Mikan had decided to make tea for a disheveled brown-haired brother of hers.
Once they were seated, tea in hand, Youichi started telling her all about what had been going on with him for the past three years, although he admitted he didn't quite remember much, which was understandable as he was still young and easily distracted. Mikan in turn told him about their uncle, and her adventures with him, she told him about Gakuen Alice and all her quote-on-quote friends, she however did not tell her family about what she had found out, and what ultimately propelled her to come to the states. She decided to keep that piece of information to herself, sealed away in the recesses of her mind.
Later that night at quarter past eleven, her parents had arrived home. Youichi and Mikan had been sitting on the couch, controllers in hand, as they played one of Youichi's never ending video games. Both hadn't even sensed their parents presence as they were to engrossed on the game.
Her parents had just stood there looking at both of their kids throwing insults at each other as both of them tried to beat the other. Once the game was over and Mikan had lost, with Youichi smirking at her and calling her names, and Mikan just sighing and groaning. Both parents had let out a chuckle announcing their presence.
Mikan had turned so fast, Youichi thought she got whiplash, and grinned at her parents. Both embraced her in a hug mumbling about how good it was that she was back. Their reunion was short lived as her Father had let out the loudest yawn she had ever heard. He gave her one last hug mumbling a good night and walking towards his room, her mother following shortly after him.
Looking back at her family and their loud-selves Mikan was glad she decided to come back. Her family's presence was just what she needed at this moment.
"Oh! Mikan"
Mikan looked up from her plate of pancakes to look at her mother, who sat right next to their dad.
"Hmm?" Mikan hummed still half-asleep.
She hated mornings, why hadn't she stayed in her bed sleeping? oh that's right. Youichi had pounced on her, and then had started jumping up and down on her bed, yelling at the top of his lungs for her to wake up, which she reluctantly, and annoyingly, did. Youichi had 'accidentally' pushed her of her bed falling down face first, she was to sleepy to even argue with him, instead her lids were becoming heavier and she was tempted to close them and go to her dream world, but before that could happen, Akane had grabbed her by her ankle and started dragging her away, Youichi following behind grinning from ear to ear. She saw Rei leaning against the door frame smirking at her. 'Damn them all' she had thought. However, she was barely awake and had no energy to even fight Akane, not like she would fight with her to begin with. Akane was scary when angered.
"Does that sound good?" her dad asked
Mikan looked at her dad slightly confused before slowly nodding her head, unsure of what exactly she just agreed to. Her mother beamed at her response.
She heard a quiet giggle, curiously turning she found Akane giggling to herself. Mikan raised an eyebrow. What was so funny that had her guardian on the verge of tears?
Youichi snickered right beside her. "You didn't hear a thing"
Mikan flushed looking away from Akane to look at her little brother, she reached out and pinched his arm. He yelled, dropping his fork, his left hand going to rub at the sore spot on his arm. She cut her pancakes and stuffed them in her mouth ignoring the looks her family gave them both. They shrugged before going back to their previous conversations.
She hummed happily as she ate the last of her pancakes, swatting away her little brother's fork as he tried, and failing miserably, to steal her last pancake. 'Hmm. These pancakes are delicious. I should ask mom to teach me how she makes them'
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Apparently, she had agreed to go out shopping with her mom and Akane. She grumbled. She hated shopping, and Akane knew. At least now she knew why Akane had giggled at her, agreeing to her mother's request.
She should've paid attention to what her mother was asking.
Well, as the saying goes, no use crying over spilt milk. She just hoped that this would be over quickly.
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It had not been over quickly. Her mother and Akane had dragged her from store to store, picking out clothes and forcing her to change. She had squirmed when they started to dress her up, but the more she struggled, the more she became aware how futile it was.
It was a horrible experience to say the least, those two were monsters. She shuddered, there was no way she would ever go shopping with them again.
After that strenuous experience, her mom decided to give them a grand tour of the city. Driving around the city her mother had pointed here and there explaining little things about the history of it all. She had asked Mikan why she decided to come early, and she had answered that she wanted to surprise them, her mother smiled at that. Mikan felt a little guilty for that. Her mother then started chatting excitedly with Akane both gossiping and giggling at the front.
Mikan ignored them after that, instead taking out her phone, planning on updating Sumire and Ruka. Turning it on, Mikan gaped at her screen.
7 missed calls from Hotaru, 3 missed calls from Natsume
10 unread messages from Hotaru, 5 unread messages from Natsume
Reluctantly she opened Natsume's messages.
You haven't been to class in two days. It's unlike you. -N
I went to your room last night. You weren't there. -N
Imai, has been pestering me for you. -N
Is everything okay? -N
Did you two have a fight? -N
She pressed his contact information, exiting out of her message app towards her contacts. She pressed the garbage can icon, a pop up notification appearing on her screen Delete this contact? The delete button was right there just a touch and his contact information would be lost, just a touch and she would've broken ties from him. Just a touch and his name would no longer appear on her screen. Just a touch.
So why was she hesitating?
Through her hesitation, her phone vibrated. A new message. The sender, Natsume.
Whatever you're going through, just stay strong. Smile through your hardships. -N
She inhaled deeply and her eyes suddenly stung.
Her phone vibrated once more. Another message from Natsume.
I love you. -you're handsome boyfriend
She silently laughed at that. She imagined him wearing a cocky smirk as he typed that. Unconsciously she smiled, tears stung the corner of her eyes, and it took all her willpower to not let them fall, she swallowed the lump in her throat. Closing her eyes she counted to ten. She opened her eyes, pressing cancel on the notification.
Opening the message app once again, and ignoring the unread messages from Hotaru, she created a group chat.
To: Permy, Ruka-pyon
I'm fine thanks for asking -your very dear friend Mikan
"Mikan, I forgot to tell you but you'll be starting school on Monday." Yuka told her daughter looking at her through the rear view mirror.
Mikan locked her phone, and looked at her mother. "Where will I be going?"
"Where else? The American branch of Gakuen Alice." Akane told her, handing her a pamphlet of the school.
"Do you just have these lying around?" Mikan deadpanned. Her mother chuckled.
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Gakuen Alice Main Branch, Tokyo, Japan
Narumi twirled into homeroom, class roster in hand. The class ignored his graceful entrance, to preoccupied talking to their friends. As usual, the girls sat in groups gossiping, one group talking about the latest sense of fashion. Another group looked at Natsume with heart eyes, giggling every so often. Natsume, ignoring them, and opting instead for a nap, covering his face with his manga, feet propped on top his desk. The class rep talking with the twins, Mochiage, Anna, and Nonoko. Hotaru sat by herself as usual, tweaking a new invention of hers. The boys sat together, talking about the upcoming tryouts for the sport teams. And an unusually new development, Ruka and Sumire sat together at the front of the class, talking in hushed whispers.
"Okay minna! Please sit down~" Narumi said cheerfully
The students looked at him in disgust, but still doing as he said. He took roll call in sing song voice.
Sumire ignored him, taking out her phone and opening her inbox.
To: Ruka, Sakura
Glad to know you're alive -Shouda
She had forgotten to reply to her, in her defense though she rarely checks her messages. She locked her phone, yelling out a here when Narumi called her name. Her phone vibrated, announcing she had a notification. It was a message, from Ruka.
It's good to finally hear from you -Ruka
She rolled her eyes, he was always so polite.
"Now minna, I know i'm lenient towards you all, but please no phones in class." Narumi stared pointedly at Sumire.
She looked back at him, staring him in the eyes, before pocketing her phone away.
"Now onto the lesson~" He twirled eagerly.
"Sensei?" Anna called to him shyly raising her hand
Narumi looked over to her curiously "Hai?"
"Why haven't you been calling Mikan's name?" Anna asked, slowly gaining confidence.
At this question, the class began murmuring to each other. They all did wonder about the sudden disappearance of the brunette. She was usually easy to find, most of the times she would either be with her best friend or boyfriend, and when she was not with them, she was with their upperclassmen. Mainly Misaki, and Kaname. Sometimes she would be in the elementary division playing around with the little kids. She was ever rarely in the high school division, but when she was there she was usually talking or drinking tea with the student council president.
The past three days, Mikan hadn't been with none of them. Misaki had gone into panic mode when she couldn't find the girl. Kaname had tried to calm her down, but even he was worried when they heard nothing from the brunette.
Natsume still had his manga covering his face, however, the slight tensing of his shoulders proved that he was worried for her. He listened intently to what the gay teacher would say. Finally, he would get an answer.
Hotaru was in the same boat as him. Her whole body tensing as she awaited an answer from him. That idiot of a best friend of hers had suddenly disappeared and no matter how much she contacted her, she never received a reply.
"Ara? you don't know?" Narumi asked in faux surprise, quickly glancing at Hotaru's direction, "She moved back to the states."
AN: Sorry for the late update. I was having a hard time writing this chapter. I don't particularly like it, and i didn't know were to end it, so sorry if it was a bad ending to the chapter. Still it came out decent. This chapter is mainly a transition chapter so not a lot appened but i particularly don't mind. Still, Hope you liked it! Next update will come quicker. Remember to review they motivate me to update faster.
Reviews
Guest1: That's a bit harsh, don't ya think? However, i'm glad you hate them as that was the reaction I was going for.
peach9210: Ah, the deal between Natsume and Hotaru would be explain in future chapters. Now that i think about it that would've been good as a prologue...ah too late. But don't worry everything will be revealed, just not this soon. Mikan really does deserve better. Thanks! Your review made me so happy.
