Updated! My laptop crashed a few hours after I posted the second chapter, so luckily for you guys I didn't lose any progress. This was written today at college; I love how easy I find it to write, it's such a natural and self-propelling process.

Now, I understand that Mikan still seems strong-willed and possibly unlikable in this chapter, but I personally quite admire her for her strength. If you find yourself hating her try to think about what you would do in her situation, and I find Natsume particularly criminal in this :P

However! If you find the characters offensive, I am proud to say that is more or less the point, they are rather offensive people right now, and the point of this story will be how they are able to make each other into better people.

That said, enjoy the chapter. It has a fair amount of N/Mness (of a kind) in it.

Mikan sat at a table at lunch, pushing her food around her plate, and stared at Hyuga Natsume. He was sitting in the same seat as he had the other day, but she had chosen one tucked away in the corner of the room where he wouldn't notice her.

"Mikan, don't do it," Sumire pleaded tiredly, "it's all in the past, right? I made a mistake and I'll have to live with it, but don't drag it all back up." Mikan was silent, and wearily Sumire said, "You're still going to talk to him, aren't you?"

"Yes," Mikan replied tonelessly, and then with a little more fire lighting up in her eyes said, "I mean, just who does he think he is? I'm sorry but I think jerks who do stuff like that shouldn't be able to get away with it." Sumire had told Mikan the full story now, and although she was justified in saying that it probably wasn't right Hyuga in doing what he did, only she - with her inescapable stubbornness and blunt righteousness - would try to start something with him now of all times.

Mikan believed that no matter how old a crime was the perpetrator deserved his comeuppance no matter what. It was always the same with her.

Sumire wouldn't really openly admit it, but the fact that Mikan cared so much about what had happened to her and simply wouldn't drop the issue made her feel glad to have such a good friend. She knew that if things really went bad for her that Mikan would always be there to back her up, and to be fair, she had always been like this - forthright, speaks her mind, vigilante-ish.

"Well... I guess I can't stop you," Sumire sighed, and Mikan grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, I just can't stand him," she confessed, "this gives me even more reason to hate him." She pushed her plate away and stood up, and Sumire's eyes widened.

"Wait! Mikan! What are you... not here!" she hissed as Mikan dodged Sumire's clawing for her and began to walk across the lunch hall; wolf whistles and the occasional whisper of 'it's her' following behind her. She couldn't help what other people thought about her, and if she wanted to wear her school uniform in a way she thought looked good and made her feel good about herself, then giving into the odd 'slut' comment would just be conforming to the rest of them.

Natsume spotted her coming and curiosity ran hot in his veins - his anger towards her was no less than it had been the day before yesterday, and the fact that he felt himself staring at her short skirt and un-buttoned shirt with a salty lust only served to make him angrier – how dare she make him want her.

She stopped by his table, people now looking around to see why one of the hottest girls in school was staring down the library kid, and leant over it to put her hands flat on it and glare at Natsume even more intensely. This also gave him a fantastic view down her shirt to a black-on-white lacy bra with some kind of gemstone hanging between the cups. Tacky, tacky slut, he thought to himself, but he still couldn't stop staring, and wanting.

"Hey, Hyuga," Mikan clipped cheerfully and sweetly, and a few murmurs ran around confirming that yes, Sakura 'fun times' Mikan was talking to Hyuga 'don't talk to me' Natsume.

Natsume didn't reply, and just stared at her like she was shit on the bottom of his shoe.

"Aw, you shy or something?" she jeered with a little more acid to her tone, and within seconds Natsume had snapped back, "I don't waste time." talking to sluttish wastes of space he thought afterwards, but he knew that he shouldn't speak his full mind now or he'd risk balking his entire revenge plan.

"What?" she replied air-headedly.

"My thoughts exactly," he echoed snobbishly, "'What' do you want with me?"

"I just wanna talk," she said, back to her normal friendly tone, "you don't mind talking to me, do you?" She tapped her foot on the floor and waited for Natsume to come up with an answer.

"Fine," he said shortly, but looking around at the many pairs of eyes watching them said, "you 'wanna' do it here?" he mocked her tone carelessly, like he didn't realise he was even doing it, and Mikan rolled her eyes with dry irritation.

"Well, not if you get embarrassed with everyone watching," she hinted suggestively, and they both knew something had been started.

"I don't mind," he replied hotly, "I'm sure all the guys have seen it before." Meaning seen you, to Mikan, and she wondered why he was so vicious about her being 'loose', not that she was, mind; she didn't do things with boys she didn't know, she didn't have meaningless sex or make out with guys she had no interest in - but because of the way she dressed and the fact that she didn't stay home all night like a good girl, and did it for her own reasons most of them didn't even know about - people like him seemed to hate her guts.

"Feeling particularly jerkish today then," she stated, as opposed to questioning, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"For you, always," he hissed darkly, "I haven't forgotten."

"Forgotten what?" she asked teasingly innocently, knowing full well he meant the slight mark that was still on his cheek and his brand new set of glasses.

"You know wha-"

"Let's get out of here, shall we?" she cut in with a flirtatious edge that she'd sharpened to a point. Natsume considered his options, and replied in the positive.

"Why not," he spat, and shoving his lunch away he stood up, now reminding her of the whole head's height he had over her. Their spectators were both confused and interested.

The door was closer to Natsume, so Mikan had to relent on a point and follow him to the door, but it wasn't without observing the messy shirt ends sticking out from the bottom of his jumper and his obviously unironed pants - he looked disgusting, as usual.

He practically punched the swinging doors to open them and they flew back with a loud bang; library boy was anti-social as ever today.

"Why thank you," Mikan simpered as she passed through the open doors; enraging Natsume by acting like he'd opened them for her.

"Don't flatter yourself," he huffed, and then as they passed into a relatively quite corridor turned around, only to lose balance and stumble as a hand lashed out and pulled his glasses off his face once more: she seemed to have a penchant for doing that.

Mikan smashed the things into the wall - they didn't break, but they did make some satisfying crunching sounds.

"So what makes you so different, huh?" she spat aggressively, now their audience was gone she wasn't holding back on her anger; before she hadn't wanted to make a scene but now she had a free rein to abuse him as much as she felt necessary. "What makes you so fucking special, Hyuga?"

"Uh?" he grunted in confusion: to be fair there were a lot of things that made him special, and better than others, but he doubted that was what she was talking about. "What are you...?"

"So you think you can fuck girls and get away with it? Not have any payback?" she went on, and he realized instantly what must've gone on.

"Been talking to your friend?" he leered carelessly, "that took a while to come out, huh?" He knew that Mikan hung around with Sumire most of the time, and he guessed that she had finally found out about their run-in last winter. Not that it meant anything to him.

"Don't act like it's a fucking game!" she yelled and squeezed his glasses tighter in her hand, her other hand fisting on the collar of his jumper, "did you even think about what could've happened to her, huh?" Mikan tightened her fist, and Natsume allowed her to without resistance - that could come later. "You didn't even have the manners to use contraception!" she accused, and Natsume smirked.

"That's a big word, I'm surprised you even know what it is," he sneered, and then stopped as she slapped him.

"Don't insult my intelligence," she hissed, "I'm just looking out for my friend. Did you even think about what you could've done?" Natsume paused for a moment as if to think on the subject, then smirked again.

"No," he said proudly, "not for a second."

Mikan hit him again. Perhaps it was too far for her to go, but she couldn't believe that he could be so offhand about something that was so obviously serious. It was insulting to both her and Sumire.

"You upset my friend," she threatened darkly, "so I want you to apologise." She wouldn't try to punish him herself, or just meaninglessly beat him senseless – she was better than that, but she at least wanted him to apologise to Sumire.

"I don't apologise," he announced smugly, and she pushed him back.

"Then you're even worse than I thought," she spat, "I've never seen her that upset, you made her feel that bad about herself, so…"

"That wasn't what she said at the time," he retorted arrogantly, and he leant into her fist assertively, "because I'm pretty sure she felt pretty fucking good at the time, she came hard enough-" Mikan pushed again and his back hit the wall.

"Don't say anymore!" she yelled, "I don't wanna hear it, she told me what happened and you took advantage of her-" It was Natsume's turn to cut in this time.

"Don't assume you know the whole story, bitch," he sneered, "I didn't do anything with that slut that she didn't want anyway; nor did any of your other pathetic friends…" He then went on to start naming girls in the school and friends of Mikan – she understood that he seemed to be giving her a list of people he'd slept with, but she couldn't accept it.

She didn't want to accept thinking that this boy, this weird, anti-social, better-than-thou-attitude'd geek, who spent most of his time in the Library and only had one friend, had actually slept with so many girls – and girls that she knew.

"Liar!" she accused, but the look in his eye didn't make it seem like he was.

"Ask them," he said coolly, "they won't deny it." He paused for a moment and she became aware that they were very close together in a hallway alone, and that it could be read the wrong way if you didn't know how much they hated each other.

"Why?" she demanded suddenly, and appeared to catch him off guard.

"Why?" he echoed vaguely.

"Yeah, 'why?' your fucking ears broken?" she cursed.

Natsume thought for another moment, and then with a simple shrug of the shoulders said, "Because I can."

Mikan was horrified, to be honest; she couldn't believe that this was what he was really like. Sure, he was anti-social to most people, and rude to many, but she'd never heard about him being some kind of nymphomaniac sociopath with a serious attitude problem. Before she could think of anything else, suddenly Natsume's hands were on her wrists and he flipped her around, so that her back was pressed hard against the wall as he leant into her heavily.

"Why," he murmured breathily just above her ear as he pushed her wrists against the wall by her sides, and she realized he'd pinned her again, "you wanna try me?" She felt the pressure of his body against hers and was instantly all muscle and struggling and pushing, arms flailing and legs stepping away and away until she was able to tear herself free and backpedal across the hallway.

"Like hell I do!" she screamed, more frightened than angry – she was so confused by his appearance – he looked so goddamn weird most of the time, but he talked and acted and felt like a professional player: perhaps this was what Sumire meant when she said he was 'intense'.

"For your information," she said a little calmer, as Natsume crossed his arms over his chest in a bored kind of way, "I don't fuck people I don't know."

"You know my name," he retorted like that was all she meant, and she threw his glasses back at him (not hard but angry).

"I don't mean your name," she spat, "I, this isn't saying I'd ever willingly touch you in a million years or anything, but I only sleep with people I'm actually dating." Natsume was quiet. "So," she continued anxiously, "you could give all that 'slut' talk a rest too, because if you're not lying then you're a hundred times worse than I am." Natsume grinned in a sick way.

"I'm not a girl," he said proudly, "so it doesn't apply."

"It does!" she yelled back, "you think that you get away with it just 'cause you're a guy? Well guys like you make me sick!" Natsume started walking towards her again, and fast, so Mikan started to pace away to keep her distance.

He caught her wrist and pulled her to a stop, and then with a truly hateful burn in his eyes said, "Sluts like you make me sick." He panted heavily as if he'd lost his breath. "Dressing up like that and flirting like you're gifts to the goddamn world," he spat, "you know how it affects men and that's exactly why you do it." He wound her in to him threateningly, his hand an iron grip on her wrist. "You're manipulative sluts, the lot of you." He could now catch her with his other arm, looping it around her waist and pulling her tight against his body.

"It's what you get off on, isn't it?" he hissed just inches from her face, and Mikan's eyes widened with realization.

"Ha!" she laughed boldly, "ha ha!" she smiled wide and Natsume's rage waned in the place of confusion and a loss of self-assurance, "It's what I get off on?" she repeated in a laughable way, and then trained her eyes back on him hotly, and said, "You know what, Natsume? I think it's what you get off on."

His grip had loosened by now, and she was easily able to pry herself out of his arms and walk off without looking back. Natsume was frozen to the spot, a lost and deeply disturbed look upon his face.

Leave a review please! The reviews last chapter were a bit thin on the ground, so if you are reading this right now then please click that button below this line and leave just a few words letting me know what you think of this, or if you want to read more. If I don't get any reviews then honestly I'll just lost faith and stop writing :( and I don't want that either.

F&L