A Price to Pay

By Sakura Diaries

Chapter One: The Debt

"Mikan, can you get that?" Mrs. Sakura said as she motioned Mikan to answer the door. It was an early crisp fall morning and both mother and daughter were cooking breakfast. Mikan's father was in their backyard, chopping some wood with her older brother, Tsubasa. Mikan nodded and stopped peeling the potato. She walked towards the door and opened it with a bright smile on her face. Her smile disappeared as quickly as she opened the door, for standing there was the Black Cat – his mask nowhere to be seen.

"Yo-you!" Mikan's eyes widened with fear as she took in his appearance. His raven hair was still quite messy, but his handsome face was without a scratch. Unlike her, who, even after three weeks, still had marks on her already not so pretty face. A smirk graced his sly lips as he whispered, "Nice to see you again, little girl."

She froze when she heard his voice. He was in no doubt real. A few moments earlier she thought he was just a figment of her imagination like the many nightmares that accompanied her every night after that incident. Him coming back to kill her was no exception.

"Mikan, is that Himiko? Can you tell her to wait for a moment?" her mother's voice rang out to where she and her…visitor were but she dared not open her mouth. There was a very good chance of her screaming that a fearsome killer was at her doorstep if she let her voice do the talking so she just stood there frozen in spot. What the hell was she going to do now? She can't scream bloody murder for she was sure her life would end just there and then but she couldn't let him in and risk her family's safety. Hell, this was a lose-lose situation whichever way she looked at it.

She breathed deeply and looked at him in the eyes. He was still staring at her with an eerie smirk on his face and she bit back the urge to cower under her bed. She was not going to back down even if her life was at stake but when she opened her mouth to speak, no sound came out. It seems that her body still hadn't followed her mind's suit.

After a few moments, she finally found her voice, she asked hesitantly but firmly, "Wha-what do you want?"

He ignored her question and glared at her. "Well aren't you even going to let me in?" He rolled his eyes. "So much for courtesy."

Mikan didn't have a chance to react as her mother came waltzing into the living room where she and the Black Cat was in.

"Mikan, dear, why didn-" Her mother paused for a moment when she saw the young man beside her daughter. At that moment, Mikan was ready to make a run for it but her mother just gave the Black cat a sweet smile, which the Black Cat, in her shock, gave in return. Then her mother looked at her expectantly; apparently, she did not appear to notice that she was covered in cold sweat.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce me to this fine young man?"

Mikan badly wanted to kick, scream, anything to get the murderer outside of this house but her lack of mobility deemed it impossible.

"Erm, mom this is, this is…" Well, what was she supposed to say?

"Natsume Hyuuga, at your service ma'am." He supplied smoothly. Mikan watched in absolute horror as Natsume took her mother's hand and kissed it. Her mother was no doubt charmed and by a killer no less.

"Well Hyuuga-san, nice to meet you," her mother said with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "Are you my daughter's boyfriend?" she asked rather frankly in a more hopeful voice than Mikan should have heard.

Natsume then gave another charming smile that if Mikan didn't know he was the Black Cat could have made her heart stop, but what followed definitely did.

"Hopefully I am, Mrs. Sakura." If Mikan wasn't so busy picking up her jaw on the floor, she would have noticed that her mother was certainly whipped and was planning their wedding as tiny hearts began appearing in her eyes.

"Oh wonderful, wonderful!" Mrs. Sakura said as she clapped her hands together. "I really thought my daughter was becoming some sort of a tomboy but finally, she was able to land herself a man, a very handsome man I might add! Oh, I just have to tell your father about this! He would be so pleased!" And without another word, Mrs. Sakura left them. Alone. Together. Them.

Mikan's life had gone haywire. She concluded as she stared at the crimson-eyed murderer. He was now sitting on the only couch in the living room and there she was, still by the door, and not daring to move an inch closer. To say she was shocked by the sudden turn of events was a big understatement.

"Well, are you just going to stand there all day idiot?" Mikan felt compelled to insult back but not only was it against her nature, she was dealing with an assassin so she did the next best thing.

"A-are you going to k-kill m-me?" she whispered pitifully. She was scared and was not embarrassed to show it. After all, after what she had heard she had every right to be.

Natsume rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry little girl. I'm not here to kill you or your family." He assured her but that doesn't mean it made Mikan any less apprehensive. "Though I have to say I'm quite surprised. You still haven't told them to run for it."

Mikan resisted the urge to give a sarcastic remark. Of course she wouldn't, or couldn't would be the more appropriate word because not only was he standing right in front of them but she hadn't actually told anyone about what happened to her. When she went home that night, her excuse was that she stumbled while picking up the herbs needed. It was not so unusual to have a few scratches if one were to come out from the woods so she just had to came up with a good story to cover up for her badly battered body. But why she didn't want them to know? Simple – it would be a waste of time. Their problems were already too much too handle and adding an infamous killer to it would make them break.

"I'm here for a favor. Well not exactly a favor because you're going to do it no matter what." He continued, pulling Mikan back to reality but before she could question him, her whole family came coursing through the door.

"Honey, Tsubasa," her mother started brightly, not noticing she had intruded or the murderous intent her only son was giving off. "This is Mikan's boyfriend, Natsume."

When Mikan first introduced Natsume, she expected her family to be mad at her and not because he was a deranged killer, simply because he's a man and she's well, a girl, barely 18. Plus the fact that she was not known to befriend men a lot, and now that she thinks about it, the only guys she ever associated herself with was her father, brother and the doctor. And they are all either related or way too old for her. But as luck would have it, her brother was the only normal one in her family.

"What do you mean he's Mikan's boyfriend?" Her brother all but screamed. Mikan never knew her brother could turn into different shades until now.

"Hello, I'm Mikan's father, nice to meet you." Her so called father greeted warmly, completely ignoring her brother's outburst, and offered his hand.

Natsume looked at it suspiciously for a moment before taking it with the same warmness. "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Sakura." He paused for a moment and nodded to her brother who was still fuming but refused to speak.

"His name's Tsubasa," Mrs. Sakura said, glaring at her son. "I'm sorry; he seems to be in a bad mood."

"It's no problem." Natsume assured her mother.

The tension between the two young men can be cut with a knife. They were all sitting in the small dining table, eating quietly. It was unusual for them to be this quiet but one won't need sight to see that her brother didn't like her so called boyfriend. But that was to say, natural since it was his job and whatever her brother was thinking about Natsume probably was right on the spot.

Mikan was about to open her mouth, to say something, anything. She wasn't used to silence and it was beginning to become increasingly difficult to breathe and not only that, Natsume seem to bask in her uncomfortable state since he kept on staring at her but before she could have done that, her brother beat her to it.

"Watch it, Hyuuga. That's my little sister you're mentally undressing." Tsubasa growled and gave the new visitor a cutting glare.

Natsume smirked. "I won't have to. I'm going to marry her anyway."

The clashing of metal resounded throughout the quiet neighborhood.

To be continued…

"Now, I know the question running through your head at the moment. Why the hell does he want to marry her? Simple, you'll find out in the next chapter so please review. Pretty please. And thanks for the reviews I got for the prologue, I'm so happy about that! Please keep on reviwing!"

-Sakura Diaries