It was finally Valentine's day in the wonderful academy of Gakuen Alice.
Breathing in the fresh air of February, Mikan Sakura merrily skipped through the school grounds with a wide smile on her face. For the past week or so, the idea of making chocolates and giving them to her favourite people in the whole entire world was always lingering in her mind.
Valentine's day! What a wonderful day it is!~~ She hummed happily to herself as she entered the main building where she encountered a few familiar faces.
"Mikan chan!" Anna and Nonoko waved at the brunette as they came out of the kitchen, both girls were carrying packets of chocolates in all sorts of shapes and colours wrapped in colourful paper.
Mikan returned the smile and ran up to them, "Anna chan! Nonoko chan! Who are you guys giving your chocolates to this year?"
Anna blushed while Nonoko gave her a sly smile, "it's a surprise, right Anna?" Anna looked shyly at Mikan and nodded. Mikan sighed and put both hands on her hips then grinned at them - she knew exactly who they were giving their chocolates to.
"I'm sure Yuu will love it, Anna!" She reassuringly patted the girl on the back and turned to Nonoko, "and Nonoko, everyone knows that you're giving your chocolate Kitsu-"
Nonoko hissed and covered Mikan's mouth, "that was supposed to be a secret!"
Mikan laughed as she pushed the girl away, "don't worry Nonoko, I'm good at keeping secrets~!"
"I bet you have a whole list of people who you want to give your chocolates to this year, don't you Mikan?" Nonoko, who was still holding onto Mikan, looked at the brunette with a knowing look, "anyway, where is your list?"
Mikan nodded enthusiastically, "you're right! It's all saved on my phone!" She took her phone out of her pocket and showed the 2 girls her long list of recipients, "I'm planning on making chocolates for Narumi sensei, Uncle, Ruka-pyon, You-chan-"
Anna cut her off, "you're giving some to Natsume kun, right?"
Mikan blushed, "m- maybe..." She always gave chocolates to Natsume, whether he actually liked them or not she really didn't know because he never ate them in front of her. "Anyway, I better get going to the kitchen if I want to start making them." She waved to the pair and ran towards the kitchen, ready to get Valentine's day started!
"This is so hard!" Mikan groaned as she stirred the unusually watery batter.
Hotaru, who was coincidentally also making chocolates, stared at her and sighed. "You've already messed it up, idiot," she passed her some flour, "if you put it in the oven like that then it's not going to be chocolate, it's going to be a disgusting mess."
Mikan blew the hair away from her face and wiped her sweaty forehead, "making chocolates is really hard, are you making chocolates for Ruka, Hotaru?"
The girl looked at her and smirked as she added an unusual ingredient to her batter, "naturally." Mikan shivered and laughed nervously as she saw her friend add various alice stones to her mix.
Let's just hope that Ruka-pyon makes it to tomorrow...
She concentrated on her chocolates and separated them into different portions for each person, she took extra care into the chocolates for two special people, Natsume and Yuusuke. She was actually only planning on making special chocolate for Natsume as a thank you for putting up with her for all these years but after some pestering from Yuusuke yesterday, she decided that she would make the future You-chan a special batch as well.
"Are those for Hyuuga?" Hotaru eyed the two separate batches suspiciously, "why have you made two?"
Mikan smiled nervously, "I made a spare batch just in case I mess up," Hotaru looked unconvinced but just shrugged as she returned to her own 'chocolates'. Mikan couldn't help but sigh out of relief that Hotaru didn't continue pushing the topic otherwise it would've gotten awkward, even though Mikan had a thought that Hotaru already knew about Yuusuke she always stressed about how she would explain to her best friend about the mysterious boy if she ever asked. After all, how were you meant to explain to your friend about your 'future husband' when even Mikan didn't believe it herself.
Shaking the thoughts away, she placed her chocolates in the oven and waited.
She hoped that today would go well.
"For me?"
It was now late in the evening and Mikan had just finished giving chocolates to her teachers and beloved senpais, now she was back in her room and wrapped in the arms of Yuusuke.
She nodded at him, "I hope you like them."
His hold on her tightened and he used his spare hand to inspect the chocolates wrapped in pink tin foil with glitter and sparkles splattered all over them. "Did you put your alice in them?" He opened one and put the heart-shaped confectionery in his mouth, his face showed no obvious emotion and Mikan looked at him nervously as he chewed on the chocolate.
"Yeah, I put in a bit of my nullification alice it... Does it taste nice?"
He swallowed it and smirked once he saw her furrowed brows, "you're going to get wrinkles if you keep doing that."
Mikan blushed at his remark and turned away from him, "just tell me if it was good or not."
Yuusuke chuckled, "they tasted great, thanks, Mikan." He pulled her closer to him and gave her another warm hug, which she returned out of pure friendliness.
Now it's time to find Natsume.
6:56 PM and Mikan was standing outside of Natsume's room with chocolates in hand.
She took a deep breath in as she prepared to knock on his door but yelped when the door suddenly opened to reveal a post-shower Natsume with a towel in hand. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt with grey sweatpants, his hair was soaking wet and he looked at her from head to toe.
"What are you doing here?" He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the strange pink packet hidden behind her back. He pointed to it and looked at the red-faced girl in the eyes, "what's that pink thing behind your back?"
Mikan felt like punching him, he knew that today was Valentine's day, right? After all, he's the most popular 1st year in the high school department, he must've received hundreds of chocolates by now.
She chewed her lips at the thought of Natsume receiving chocolates from other girls, what if he didn't want her chocolates? She knew what he did with the chocolates every year and that was storing them in his spare room without giving them a second glance, what if he did that to her chocolates? After all, she never actually saw him eat her chocolates... Then another thought crossed her mind, what if he didn't want her chocolates?
Sensing how nervous she was, Natsume looked at her strangely and sighed. He opened the door wide enough to let her in, "come in."
As if she was on auto-pilot, Mikan walked in without giving him a second glance (which irritated the boy greatly). He clicked his tongue at her attitude and as soon as she sat down on his sofa he crouched down in front of her and gave her a stern glare.
"What's up with you? You're acting more idiotic than you usually do." Truth be told, he was actually worried about her, she looked as if she had just seen a ghost and he was mentally preparing himself just in case he needed to fight anything.
Knowing that she was going to have to give him the chocolates sooner or later, she closed her eyes and handed him the box of her homemade sweets. Not knowing what to do, Natsume stared blankly at the box.
"What's this?"
Mikan opened her eyes and slowly turned her head to look at him, he took the box and looked back at her. "What's the special occasion Polka Dots?"
She looked at him and tried to process his words, is he an idiot? She thought that Natsume had hit his head or something because who didn't know what special day it was today?
"It's Valentine's day chocolate... Stupid..." She watched as his eyes slightly widened, his mouth formed a small 'o' and he carefully held the box in his hands before staring at her long and hard.
"If you want me to give this to that stupid guy you're always with then you can keep your chocolates," he handed the box back to her and stood up as if he was preparing to walk away. Mikan felt her heart beat faster than ever as she saw just how badly he misunderstood the situation.
"No, wait! Natsume, I didn't make these for Yuusuke... I made them for you," she held onto the end of his shirt tightly and he turned around to face her. She swore that she saw a tinge of red paint his cheeks as he took back the small box from her hands,
She smiled at him as he opened the box to reveal 9 of her best chocolates wrapped up in pink tissue paper with pink glitter sprinkled around each chocolate. If anyone compared the chocolates given to both Yuusuke and Natsume then anyone could see that she clearly spent more time on Natsume's chocolates than Yuusuke's, despite them being from the same mix.
Natsume slowly took a chocolate out from the box and popped it in his mouth. Once he swallowed it he looked at Mikan and knocked her slightly on the head.
"What was that for!" She shouted at him as he just stood there smirking.
"I guess an idiot can cook after all," he could feel a small smile threatening to appear on his lips as he stared at the girl he wanted to hug more than anything. Her chocolates were the first chocolates he ate today, he honestly didn't think that she would give him anything this year considering the fact that that other dude kept sticking to her like glue. But he was relieved to find out that he was wrong.
"At least your chocolates from this year are edible," he noted how the chocolates were shinier and overall just tasted better than the wafer ones she gave him last year.
Mikan looks at him in shock, "wait, you ate my chocolates from last year?"
He looked at her, slightly confused by what she said, "did you expect me to throw them away?"
She shook head defiantly, "no! It's not like that, it's just that... I've never seen you eat them so I always thought that you threw them with all the other ones you receive each year..."
His heart ached a little as he saw how she truly felt every Valentine's day, but when she showed him her sweet little smile afterwards as if to say that she's okay and that she's really happy, he couldn't contain it in any longer.
So when Mikan said: "I better get going Natsume, see you later!" Natsume immediately grabbed her arm to pull her back down to the sofa.
"You're staying with me," and he possessively held her close to him. Confused by the whole situation, Mikan just pinched his cheeks and smiled.
"I'm just going back to my room Natsume, I'm not disappearing."
He sighed as he looked at her and gave her a chaste kiss on the nose. He grinned at her red face as she processed what just happened.
"N- Natsume! You!" She pointed at him but failed to say anything to the boy who continued to take great amusement in looking at her bright red cheeks. Not knowing what to say next Mikan gave him dagger eyes and ran out of the room, "I'LL DEAL WITH YOU TOMORROW NATSUME HYUUGA!"
After she left, Natsume plopped another chocolate into his mouth and smiled to himself.
He was really looking forward to next year.
Author's note:
Guess who's gonna spend Valentine's day alone?
Me.