Today just wasn't her day.
Mikan walked slowly to her first class of the day which was with Narumi sensei, but she couldn't help but think about what happened this morning and felt her face redden all over again.
This morning
Mikan groaned as she felt the rays of the sun hit her eyelids and tossed and turned as she tried to return to her blissful state of slumber. She heard footsteps from her side accompanied by the slight ruffling of clothes and slightly opened her eyes to see what was happening.
"Good morning my wife," the smile of her 'husband' greeted her, "what a beautiful Wednesday morning, right?"
She felt her face flush and tried to bury herself in the covers, "what are you doing in my room? And why are you topless!?"
She heard him open the window and sigh, "didn't I tell you yesterday? I'm from the future so I'm not meant to be here, plus, the principal said that I should stay in your room during my stay because it would be too much trouble to get a room for me since I'm not actually a student and whatnot." He uncovered her blushing face from the blankets and grinned, "also, I just wanted to be with my wife."
Mikan turned away from him, "if you're not a student then why are you changing into the uniform?"
"I'm going to attend some lessons, duh." He said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"B- but you said that no-one was meant to see you here," she sputtered as she eyed him tighten his tie, "if people see you around school it's gonna cause trouble for me."
He ruffled her hair, "I'm just kidding," another sigh followed as he checked the time on the alarm clock beside the bed, "I'm just going to see the HSP to talk about what I should do, remember that school starts in 2 hours, I know how hard it is for you to wake up." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead which lead to him getting slapped. Chuckling, he waved and left the room.
She slapped her cheeks and tried to forget about his sweet smile when she woke up. He had disappeared the night before after having dinner together in her room and reappeared this morning to her surprise.
I wonder where he went... She really hoped that he hadn't wreaked havoc anywhere because if he was anything like the present-day You-chan then he was probably up to no good.
She shook her head and carried on walking to class. On the way, she saw the present-day You-chan with Natsume, presumably on their way to class as well. She sighed as she saw them, the 18-year-old You-chan is really different from the present-day one. The more she thought about it, she realised that she has never seen 8-year-old Youichi show her a genuine smile, maybe apart from when he and Natsume terrorise her... But she always sees his older version shower her with lots of sweet moments.
I guess people can change.
She arrived to class a few minutes late but to her luck, the teacher hadn't arrived yet. Smiling and waving to the whole class she walked to her seat next to Natsume who didn't even glance at her. She gave him a small wave and sat down.
It was very awkward.
Maybe he's still mad about yesterday.
She didn't even know why he was so mad in the first place, she didn't ask him to come to her room and threaten to beat up Yuusuke (or should she say Youichi) 'senpai'. So unreasonable, she huffed and turned away from him. Maybe she was being unreasonable by just blatantly ignoring him and making the atmosphere between them worse, it's not like Natsume ever greeted her, to begin with, but still, he didn't have the same aura around him as he usually did.
"Hey."
She jumped slightly and looked over her shoulder to see Natsume now facing her, he looked visibly annoyed and when he spoke his voice was rough, almost as if he had an equally as bad night as Mikan.
"W- what?"
He shrugged and turned around to face the front, "just surprised that your boy-toy didn't come to drop you off at class."
She felt her cheeks flush, so that's why he was pissed off, he was bothered about Yuusuke...
"Yuusuke senpai isn't my boy-toy," she grumbled and swung her legs under the desk, "don't say stuff like that about him."
He raised a brow and she could see that just from his side profile that his mood wasn't getting better, "my apologies then, " he remarked sarcastically, "let me reword what I just said, I'm surprised that your boyfriend didn't come to drop you off at class."
Mikan waved both of her hands in front of her and denied everything, "he's not my boyfriend he's just a distant relative from my uncle's side who's staying in my room as his room is being prepared for him." She bit her lip as she just lied to Natsume, technically he is a relative if we're going to get married in the future... After all, it was Yuusuke himself who said that people weren't meant to know about him.
Natsume shifted himself and relaxed his face on his palm, "is that so?" And when Mikan raised her head to look at him, she noticed a small but visible smile appearing on his lips. She nodded and cupped her blushing cheeks with her hands.
From that moment onwards Natsume's mood had clearly lifted and Mikan felt something change in her heart.
"Welcome back Mikan!" Yuusuke loosened his tie and threw his blazer on the chair in front of the vanity table as he prepared to hug Mikan, but dropped both arms when he saw who accompanied her as she walked in.
"Why, hello there Natsume-kun." The grey-haired male had a sneering smile on his face as he greeted his fellow alice user, "didn't expect to see you here after yesterday."
Natsume glared at him, "I don't trust this idiot to walk back on her own," he remarked as he held Mikan's wrist, "someone's gotta protect her."
"Hey! I'm not an idiot!" But Mikan's comment was unheard by the two males who were both staring at each other, one had a deadly look on his face and the other was seemingly amused by the whole scenario.
"Thanks for walking her back Natsume," he then turned to Mikan, "if you wanted someone to walk you back to your room then you could've called me, after all, we do live together." He especially made sure to emphasise that he shared a room with Mikan, much to the latter's annoyance.
"I don't think she would want to embarrass herself even more by walking back to her room with her cousin." For a split second, Yuusuke's face showed visible surprise as he raised both eyebrows and glanced at Mikan, but then he recomposed himself and gave Natsume a wide smile.
"I didn't think of that at all, thank you for playing the role of the boyfriend Natsume-kun," he patted him on the shoulders and grabbed Mikan's arm so that she was on his side, "I'm glad Mikan has a wonderful friend like you in the academy."
Natsume gritted his teeth but before he could say anything his phone vibrated in his pocket.
"You should probably pick that up," Yuusuke gestured for him to answer his call, "as I walked back, I overheard a certain grey-haired kid say that he wanted to hang out with his favourite big brother."
Knowing that nothing good would come out of arguing with his upperclassman, Nastume glared at Yuusuke and stared at Mikan for a bit before walking out to answer his phone.
After Natsume left, Yuusuke enveloped Mikan in a warm hug and pinned her against the door.
"So you're cheating on me?" He gave her a cunning smile and tried to kiss her on the nose which got blocked by Mikan's hands, "I guess I was the only one who felt lonely after our separation." He faked his sadness and Mikan had to push him off her before her heart pounded out of her chest.
Fraud, she sighed and tried to calm herself down as he turned his back on her and walked towards the massive window near her bed, he's so different from You-chan.
"Natsume just dragged me out of the classroom, it's not like I had much of a choice," she watched him chuckle slightly as if he remembered something funny.
"I guess that's Natsume-nii for you," his smile dropped and he looked solemnly out of the window to the vast forest down below, "he's always one step ahead."
Not knowing what to say, Mikan stared at him and couldn't help but notice how much he looks like Youichi when he's not smiling. He looks so handsome, she felt herself blush, when I look at him like this Yuusuke senpai really does look like You-chan.
"Mikan," she jolted and looked at him, he stared at her for a minute before cracking a small smile, "if you keep looking at me like that I'm going to kiss you."
She shook her head vigorously and walked towards her bed to sit down. "I- I wasn't staring at you," she folded her arms and pouted slightly, "I just thinking about something..." He eyed her as if prompting her to continue talking, "why did you come to the past?"
The room went silent for a while and Mikan cursed herself for asking but before she could take back what she said Yuusuke walked over to her and pushed her down harshly onto the bed. "Ouch!" Mikan winced as she felt a strong hand grip her arm and she opened her eyes to see Yuusuke glaring at her, his silver eyes gleaming like a lion who had his eyes set on a tasty meal.
"It was definitely..." She felt nervous as he studied her face, "it was definitely to see my young wife." He had a ghostly smile on his face and used his other hand to caress her cheek. "However, even though I came from the future I still can't catch you..." She looked at him in confusion but before she could ask anything she yelped at the sudden contact of his lips with her neck.
"T- that's because-" She shivered as she felt his hand inch up her thigh, "Y- You-chan!"
He froze after she called him that and let go of her, noticing her scared expression he held her left hand and kissed it. "Forgive me Mikan, you just look so cute in your school uniform." Her blush deepened as she felt his lips graze on her knuckles. "I was just annoyed to see you flirting with Natsume-nii."
She widened her eyes, "fl- flirting!? Why are you jealous of that?" He didn't look at her and continued holding her hand, "w- we get married in the future, right? There's no need to get jealous."
He remained silent as he cupped her face, still on top of her their bodies buried deeper into the mattress of the bed and she noticed a strange air of sadness around him. "Natsume-nii..." He muttered to himself, unheard by Mikan.
"What did you say?" He looked at her and smiled sadly.
"I love you, Mikan." The silver of his eyes shone like jewels in the evening sun and he held her chin and tilted it upwards before whispering, "and that's not going to change."
Their lips touched as the sun began to set outside and Mikan felt her heart painfully beat within her chest.