Author's Note: This one's a little dark because they're a little bit codependent, but I hope you enjoy! Merry Christmas!
Once upon a time, two lovers were separated by forces beyond their control: one trapped on a tower, the other forever searching and searching...
Relaxing his muscles, he stretched around the office before he stood before the window, admiring the looming gray clouds. At the top floor of the Esp Co. skyscraper, Natsume Hyuuga could see into the distance, above all the other buildings in Tokyo.
Secretly, Natsume hoped it would be a thunderstorm. He loved thunderstorms. A bit of chaos to disrupt the false peace of the world.
He looked down to observe the spiraling lines of crowded humans, appearing like little ants from so far up.
Among the typical black umbrellas, he spotted a red umbrella with white polka dots. A few times earlier that month he had caught a glimpse of it in the street, so flamboyant with its childish pattern, but it always passed him by. Maybe that day it would come in.
It stopped right in front of his building.
He blinked, and for a second, he wondered if he could control things for his mind because as soon as he thought the person would look up, the umbrella tilted backwards, revealing a tiny pale face. A woman with brown hair.
From his tower of a workplace, Natsume couldn't see anything more than that.
For a moment, he felt self-conscious staring, as though she could see him peeping at her from so high above. It was like she was calling for him.
Then he remembered the building had reflective windows.
"Nice," he said before turning back to his work.
There was no time for a break.
Mikan was confident it was going to be her lucky day; he was up there somewhere, and she would be able to find him.
She just had to get past security first.
"Now, Mikan, I know you don't have an appointment," rebuffed the familiar old guard. "And those doughnuts you've brought me aren't much of a bribe."
"Not even the custard-filled maple bar?" She opened the box once more to let the brown-haired guard take another look. "Let it slide for me this once, Shiki. Please. You know how rich this company is. Imagine putting that money to good use, helping the children of Tokyo, giving them a home and a family, not letting them starve on Christmas. Please?"
Cue Mikan's signature puppy dog eyes. She had used it on him before in vain, but that day, maybe it was the upcoming holiday cheer or the custard-filled maple bar, he sighed before swiping his card to activate the door.
"Oh, all right."
As soon as he returned to his desk from the restroom, he sensed another presence in the room. A second later, the door shut behind him and he whirled around to see a brown-haired, brown-eyed woman smiling brightly at him, approaching with her hand outstretched.
"Hi, my name is Mikan - "
"How did you get into my office?" he demanded, picking up the phone to dial security. "Get out of here."
"Just hear me out one second," she pleaded, lunging for the little button on the receiver to hang up.
He flinched from her sudden move, moving backwards towards the windows. "You're not supposed to be here."
"I know, I know, but - "
He sharply inhaled as he remembered. His authority returned to him. This was no place for her; she didn't belong there. "Out, get out!"
Blinded by a sudden fury and the urgent desire to have her gone and far away, he took her by the arm and dragged her to the door. She dug her heels in, resisting, but she was no match for his strength.
In the struggle, her bag unbuckled, and something tumbled out that made Natsume pause.
A red polka-dotted umbrella.
Staring at the taunting, teasing pattern, he picked it up slowly, as though he were recognizing it from a dream. Could it be the same one?
"Did you see me?" he whispered, grasping that innocent little tool tightly.
Confused by the change, Mikan stepped backwards, deeper into the room. "Huh?"
He stared at her with something intense in his eyes. "Did you see me from all the way down there?"
"You mean when I was on the street looking up at the building?"
He nodded mutely, wavering on the precipice of a leap he didn't know he was about to take.
"No, I didn't see you." Natstume's heart deflated, then swelled with her next words. "But I knew you were up here."
"How?"
Her innocent act dropped; she couldn't pretend anymore. "I see you, Natsume Hyuuga. I know you."
"You don't know me," he spat hatefully. Nobody knew him. Not since he'd disappeared so many years ago.
"But I do. I spent months waiting and watching and hoping for this very moment right here when I could finally be allowed in."
He let the information sink in as his mind raced through all the possible reasons why she, of all people, might be waiting for him. "What do you want with me?"
"If you listen to my offer, Natsume, we can get you out of here."
"I got it!" exclaimed Mikan as she returned to her workplace. "A full sponsorship from Esp Co. for the entire construction in Central Town."
Her co-workers at the non-profit cheered. They had pursued that money for years, writing grants and begging city officials and pitching to companies. All the way to her desk, her colleagues offered their congratulations and pats on the back.
As soon as she settled in, slumping in her chair, she dialed a number she knew by heart.
"The chick has hatched," Mikan said carefully, enunciating every syllable.
"I'm not using your code."
"Awww, Hotaru, I worked so hard on it. What if someone's listening to our call?"
"Nobody's listening to our call. I can guarantee it." Mikan could almost hear the eye-rolling of her best friend, tech genius.
"Okay, well, I finally got up there. He's agreed to the plan."
"Did Natsume remember you?"
"Nope," said Mikan, popping the 'p.' The barely concealed bitterness was evident to Hotaru.
"How was he?" she asked softly, carefully, lightly.
"He looked so lonely."
"Still in love with him, huh?"
Mikan stammered, but Hotaru cut off whatever excuse she was about to make up.
"Just be prepared. He might not be the person you've dreamed about for years. He's been trapped all this time."
"Daily report."
Automatically, Natsume rattled off numbers and statistics and figures; his after-work routine for years.
"What's this?" The page was flipped to that day's expense report: a summary of the transactions Natsume had approved.
"Marketing reported a 5% decrease in public opinion favorability over the last six months. In exchange for sponsoring the construction of an orphanage in Central Town, we should gain back favorability by 17% if publicized properly."
"Huh. Way to take initiative, Hyuuga. Dismissed."
Even if he didn't recognize her, Mikan knew the man by heart. Her own heart.
So many years ago, he had saved her life. When she was a broken girl with a forgotten past and an unclear future, he had literally set her straight and on the path again.
She might have been another faceless classmate to him at the Academy, but he… He was her North Star guiding her home, silent but constant.
It was time to return the favor.
Falling in love with Mikan Sakura was as simple as, well, falling. It required no effort on Natsume's part, but the decision to say yes to her.
It was a risk to let her in, but she already knew and decided to take it anyway. Normally, he'd reject her, shut her out, and push her away, but maybe, just this once, he could allow himself the small pleasure of being with her. And after all those years of living in isolation, he quickly found himself addicted to every bit of her.
Their official pretense was project collaboration, but after work…
He would worship her like a heathen returning to atone for his sins.
Natsume texted her constantly on his personal phone. As soon as he signed out for the day, he called her and joined her wherever she might be. Many evenings, they would cook dinner together in one of their apartments, and afterwards, they tangled themselves in a mess of intimacy.
With him desperately ravenous for any scrap of affection or kindness, Mikan only had to do the bare minimum, and Natsume knew he was slowly losing himself to her.
A touch of the fingers, and his heart would pound.
A word of sincere praise, and he craved more.
A chaste kiss, and he was hers.
The fast-growing and fast-consuming obsession barely outweighed the paranoia, and he was careful to erase any trace of them that might make its way up to the eyes of his… superiors.
They snuck around, stealing little moments like they were currently: holding hands in the gardens of philanthropist Akira Tonochi, who hosted a charity ball. Though it was close to freezing, the two lovers huddled close, bundled up in coats and scarfs and gloves. Natsume wished it would snow.
Mikan pointed out another oddly erotic statue and smothered her laughter, but soon her giddiness broke through.
And Natsume stared at her bright, loving smile, knowing that it was all meant for him, him, him, because she was his, his, his.
He couldn't let….
He couldn't let -
He couldn't let
"Natsume, who's your little kitten?"
Rei.
Smile still stuck on her face, Mikan turned to find one of Natsume's superiors in that very garden: a man dressed in all black with a white mask covering his eyes. Natsume swallowed the cold pit of dread lodged in his throat.
"Oh, I didn't realize it was a masquerade ball," she exclaimed guilelessly.
Rei Serio ignored her, approaching. "Have you been playing around behind our backs?"
"No," Natsume hissed, shifting her behind him. Mikan looked disgruntled to be so ignored by the two men and their strange power play.
She pushed forward, extending her hand. "Hi, my name is Mikan Sakura."
He didn't shake her hand; he only smirked. "I know. You better watch out, little kitty."
Then he disappeared into the hedges.
"You shouldn't have done that," moaned Natsume miserably, allowing his facade to break down in front of her. He rubbed his hands over his face, his mind calculating and assessing the potential damage.
"I'm not scared of Rei Serio," she scoffed. Then she saw the look on his face. "Are you…?"
Natsume looked away from her.
"What did he do to you?" On the tip of her tongue: Did he hurt you?
"It's not him you should be afraid of. He's just a lackey."
"Of Kuonji?"
Natsume's head snapped up. "How do you know that name?"
"I do my research, Natsume."
Mikan leaned her forehead against his, cupping his cheeks, and when she spoke, she breathed life into a hope so strong, he felt like he could live for the first time in years.
She was Mikan Sakura, and she would save Natsume Hyuuga from the darkness.
"You think she loves you? Do you know who she really is?" he asked scathingly, throwing down the folder before Natsume, the photos spilling out.
"Mikan Yukihara, niece of Kazumi Yukihara. She was a classmate of yours in the Academy, don't you remember her?"
Natsume wanted to deny, to protest, to bite back, but he knew better. He stayed silent.
"The little snivelling orphan who trailed the seniors until she got lost in the woods. You found her. You know her," he accused emphatically.
"It was a long time ago. It must be a coincidence," he said blandly, looking Rei in the eyes. Neither wavered. It wasn't the first time Natsume got chewed out by him, and with Mikan in his life, he was determined to fight to the end for her.
"What are you planning with her?"
Almost robotically, Natsume recited, "To construct an orphanage in Central Town. Kunonji approved the plan."
"Well, not anymore. Not with her on the project. Leave her."
Natsume stiffened, his backbone strong.
No. No. No.
He was ready to lash out, the word of defiance hot on his tongue.
"Or else she suffers the consequences."
And the hope that Mikan had gently nurtured all those weeks shattered.
"I don't love you," he said hollowly when Mikan entered his apartment. She had gone grocery shopping for that night's dinner.
Mikan snorted, taking out the vegetables and storing the meat in the fridge. "That's some grade-A bullshit if I ever heard it."
"It's true," he insisted, not meeting her eyes. "I don't want to be with you any longer."
"What do you want tonight, beef or pork?"
Natsume stood up and strode to the kitchen. "I said, I don't want you here."
"Yeah, I heard what you said," she said lightly, deciding on the beef.
"Leave, get out!"
Mikan looked at him, and he saw not tears nor sadness, but anger. Sticking the knife into the cutting board, she stalked towards him like a lioness.
"Never."
Underneath her will, he broke and slumped on the couch. He couldn't let her go, even though it would be for her own good. Call him selfish, greedy, or just a bastard, but he didn't have it in him to send her away, not when every particle of his being yearned for her.
And she was too smart, too astute, too attuned to him to not see through his pretense. Something had happened, and she bet she knew what.
"You'd sacrifice yourself to save everyone you love. I would, too. Do you remember me?"
He did. Even before he saw those photos of her as a child, of her at the Academy, he did. That day in the office…
"I was ten years old, and I was so lonely. They decided the Academy was the best place for me since my parents had attended. I didn't have anybody in the world, except an uncle who didn't know I existed. I thought I could trust those seniors, but they were just high schoolers messing with someone young and stupid. They told me there was a magic bear in the Northern Woods, a stuffed animal brought to life who would be my friend."
He thought he had buried those memories of the Academy, but they played out in his mind like an old childhood film. He had seen her around and had scorned her shameless attempts for attention and love. So arrogant he had been.
"It got dark, and nobody came when I screamed for help, even when I got stuck in the ravine, caught in the muddy pit filled with thorns."
Her cries had been so desperate, almost as though she were an animal dying, unable to accept its fate.
"But then there you were, like sunshine breaking through the storm clouds." Mikan sat down next to Natsume, who stayed motionless. She took his hand in hers, brushing her fingers over his palm.
"You pulled me out of the darkness, and you stayed with me through the night. You held me and told me everything was going to be okay. You let me cry."
Natsume remembered. He remembered that night, soaked to the bone and huddled beneath a tree among large boulders, almost like a cave. He remembered thinking she reminded him of his sister, who had died the year before. He remembered thinking he could protect her.
"And in the morning, you walked me back to the dorms, but then you never talked to me again after that. You ignored me in the halls and told me to stay away from you.
"But I couldn't. I could never stay away from you," she whispered, tracing the edges of his face, his beautiful angel face that had sustained her perseverance through the years.
"And then you disappeared, Natsume, and I couldn't find you anymore. But I knew you were still out there somewhere so I spent years searching for you. They hid you well, using you behind the scenes until I finally saw you at a Christmas ball one year."
He had seen her, but he hadn't known. He hadn't realized there might have been people worried about him.
"You looked so despondent, like a corpse walking, not even alive. I knew something bad had happened to you, and I was determined to find out what. I was determined to help you. I still am.
"If it came down to it, I would sacrifice myself for you, Natsume."
Mikan pulled his face up towards her so he had to look into her eyes, fierce and bright with hope and dedication and love.
"So don't give up now."
The next morning, Mikan arrived at the office to find it in shambles. All computers had been smashed, their data lost forever; their client folders shredded or missing. Some of her co-workers were crying, lamenting the destruction of their life's work. Others raged, calling everyone who would listen.
Natsume arrived at such a scene when he came to pick Mikan up for lunch. He knew exactly who was behind it.
"This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't gotten involved in your life," he mumbled miserably.
Mikan shook her head, juggling two phones and typing away furiously at her computer. "We'll pull everyone together, and we'll fix this. Hotaru can help recover our client information. We can write grants and ask for more money. Everyone will put in a few more hours this week to rebuild our project list. It'll be okay."
He wallowed in his own guilt, thinking about the destruction he had brought to her life, a life that would be better without -
"Natsume, look at me." Noticing his mood, she dropped her work and cupped his face. "None of this is your fault. I chose to get involved with you because I know you're worth fighting for. So don't you dare get any ideas of leaving me."
"I won't, Mikan, I would never leave you," he promised, kissing her fingers. "Leaving you and living without you would be like dying."
"Then stay with me."
There were more than enough people than Natsume ever dared dreamed.
All for him.
Mikan had finally clued him in on the grand scheme at hand. Natsume hadn't been the first student to disappear. Kuonji had a long history of grooming intelligent students from the Academy, forcing them to do his bidding as corporate drones to earn him money.
When Natsume had become more and more reclusive during their teenage years, Mikan had become suspicious. She spent all those years sleuthing and gathering evidence and building a team: people who believed something was wrong and wanted to help Natsume. A few Natsume recognized from a long time ago as Academy teachers.
Narumi, the language arts professor.
Misaki, the biology professor.
Jinno, the mathematics professor.
Himemiya, the junior high school principal.
Kazumi, Mikan's uncle and the high school principal.
Natsume blinked. "Aren't you the security guard for the building?"
"Shiki Masachika. I'm actually not a security guard, obviously. I'm a private investigator." He smiled.
Mikan lay a hand on Natsume's shoulder. "You're done fighting. We'll fight for you, Natsume."
Natsume had never taken a vacation before, but he suspected one of the few reasons he was enjoying it was because of his companion.
Without Mikan's steady, unwavering presence, he would have dissolved into a puddle of anxiety, even in sunny Bali. Instead, she distracted him with sandcastles and jellyfish-watching and many, many kisses.
She communicated with the team of all their movements, and all Natsume had to do was wait.
Then one morning, just before noon, lounging in the shade of their resort room's patio, Mikan propped up her phone. "It's time."
Mikan and Natsume watched raptly as Shiki, Kazumi, Narumi, and countless others confronted Kunoji. He heard Himemiya and Kazumi lay out accusation after accusation, listing dozens of names of other students who had disappeared over the years. They had even found a few who had escaped from their circumstances, ready to take their revenge and testify against him: Hajime, Nobara, Rui.
Natsume remembered seeing them, as hopelessly trapped as he was.
Hotaru and Shiki detailed the discrepancies in financial records. Savvy with technology, she had discovered a paper trail linking Kuonji's name and company to criminal activity around the world.
The teachers delivered the final blow: Rei Serio had turned on Kuonji.
Federal police agents entered the room and led Kuonji out in handcuffs. The team milled around in the Esp Co. conference room and discussed next steps. Narumi turned to the camera and, with a bright smile, gave a thumbs up. Then the screen went black.
"That's it," announced Mikan, taking her phone back.
"That's it."
"You're free, Natsume."
Her words caused such an emotional tidal wave that Natsume had no choice but to weep. Mikan held him, promising him he'd never be alone and he'd never have to be scared ever again.
When the tears ebbed, he still held onto her.
"What are you going to do with the rest of your life?"
"Figure out where I belong, I guess." He buried his face into Mikan's neck, suddenly shy. "Can I…"
"Spend it with me? Of course, Natsume."
Natsume couldn't sleep. Most nights, they lay tangled together, like two ensnared trees, rooting together, growing together. Most nights, he lost himself in the comfort of her touch.
But those few rare nights, he needed more.
"Mikan," he whispered, loath to disturb her sleep but craving her reassurance.
"Mmm?" she mumbled, stirring lightly.
"Tell me you love me."
"Mmmmm." Inhaling deeply, she cradled his head against her chest. Unconsciously, he rubbed his cheek against her. He felt her grip loosen as she drifted back to sleep. Desperate, he shook her again, waking her.
"Tell me you love me," he pleaded.
"Natsume, are you awake?" she slurred sleepily.
"Yes, I'm awake. Tell me you love me."
Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease
Hands gently placed on both cheeks, she raised his face towards her so she could kiss him.
"I love you."
"Say it again."
"I love you forever and more than anyone else."
"You promise?"
"The moon as my witness," she swore. In the dark, her fingers brushed Natsume's cheek. "What's going on?"
"I just needed to hear you say it."
"Well," and he felt her smile against his neck, "you'll hear me say it every day for the rest of our lives."
The tension in his shoulders unraveled with her promises of the future.
I love you, I love you, I love you, she repeated, as often as he needed her to.
"Are you afraid?" She whispered.
"Of what?"
"Of how much I love you?"
"No."
"Good." Mikan leaned her forehead against his, and he could feel her breath on his face, her fingers brushing his bangs away. "Because there will never be anyone else for me. You never have to doubt my love is there. It'll always be right here for you to take. You are my love. As long as you exist, so does my love."
For as long as Natsume breathed and lived, Mikan's love for him would glow and carry them through any dark moments that lay ahead.
"Thank you," he sighed, sliding back into her embrace and wrapping himself around her. Feeling her chest rise and fall with her breath, his body naturally adjusted to her rhythms: his heart beating alongside hers.
Nothing could ever pull them apart now.
… Until the moment came when the barrier lowered, and the princess could rescue her prince before the darkness consumed them all.