This chapter hasn't been fully edited yet. I shall do that later IF I have enough time.

And that annoying notebook is still lost…sheesh.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

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Chapter 7

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"Welcome to my and Mikan's hometown."

The two boys stared at her as they digested what she said. Natsume recovered first from the shock, tearing his eyes away from Hotaru to admire the picturesque view at the foot of the hill. Houses of all shapes and sizes met his eyes, looking as small as dolls' houses from where he stood. Still, it was but a small village; he could see the entire village in one glance.

"Why here?" Ruka said at last, breaking the silence between them.

Hotaru shrugged. "No money."

Natsume kept silent. So this is Mikan's hometown, he thought. Somehow, she didn't seem so out of place when he pieced her together with the village despite her loudness and naivety and the peaceful, silent ambience in the village. Would her village have been more tranquil after her absconding to Tokyo five years ago?

Ignoring the two boys, Hotaru walked back to her mole-shaped robot and touched it lightly with her forefinger. It started to shrink, its long drill receding back into its metal body. Soon the robot was small enough to fit into the palm of her hand. She pocketed it quietly before turning to look at the two boys.

"Let's go," she murmured. Then she set off toward the village, not caring to check if they were following her. The sun shone warmly on the back of her head, bathing the village below them in a peaceful glow.

Watching her silhouette, Natsume and Ruka exchanged glances then followed her, taking brisk steps to catch up with Hotaru.

The villagers were friendly and generous with their smiles. As the three teenagers walked down stone-paved streets, people who caught sight of them would beam and say hello even though Natsume and Ruka were practically strangers in that place. Those who recognised Hotaru exclaimed in surprise and greeted her in an affectionate manner. She returned their greetings with small smiles and almost imperceptible nods before slinking into one of the less occupied streets. Such attention obviously displeased her unless it was focused on one of her inventions.

Natsume and Ruka trailed behind her, feasting their eyes on the unfamiliar environment. The air was less fresh than when they were on the hill, but it was still cooler than that of Tokyo's. It was a nice change from the stifling heat autumn afternoons normally brought to the developing metropolis.

There were no towering buildings to block any fierce sunrays, but there were trees of all shapes and sizes round every corner. Not a single house was without at least one flower bush that beautified the garden. This village was truly a stark contrast to the technology-based Tokyo – one was full of grey skyscrapers and office buildings whereas the other was a splash of various colours, mostly green. It reminded him a bit of what he used to call home.

Shaking his head to clear it of a sickening image of the town burning down to the ground, Natsume tried to steer his thoughts toward less depressing topics. There was no time for brooding, however. Hotaru had stopped in front of a house, looking at it with unfocused eyes, perhaps lost in her memories.

A stone dislodged by Ruka's boot broke her moment of reminiscence and she stood straighter in a more determined posture. Her slim body, the way she held herself, the sheer determination in her eyes…. Yes, she would make a good leader someday, Ruka found himself thinking. Not that he would say it out loud.

Meanwhile, Hotaru reached out and pressed the doorbell. They heard a sweet tune ring throughout the house from where they stood beyond the formidable gates. No one came to them for some time. Natsume was starting to doubt if Hotaru's memory was as good as he thought it was when the main doors of the house opened to reveal a thin, elegant woman.

As she came closer, Natsume could see that she had shiny black hair, a fair complexion and shocking violet eyes. Hotaru's shoulders tensed and she inhaled sharply, her eyes seeing only the woman. Her clenched hands trembled at her sides.

"Mother," she murmured. The woman slowed to a stop. Disbelief was written all over her face. "I'm home." Hotaru could not suppress a half-choke that sounded very much like a sob. Five years…five long years since she had last seen her mother. Her heart felt as though it was squeezed by an invisible hand.

A few more steps closed the gap between the mother and daughter. The woman reached out to caress Hotaru's face as though to convince herself of Hotaru's presence, in the flesh. Then she smiled and hugged Hotaru tightly.

"Welcome back, Hotaru. Papa and I missed you so much…"

Her mother started to cry. Hotaru's eyes were sparkling with unshed tears while she savoured her mother's embrace. Natsume and Ruka looked on, unwilling to spoil the moment of reunion between the two. Seeing them reunited so happily reminded Natsume of Aoi. He recalled her face with a bitter longing. It has been so long since he last saw her.

It took a while before Mrs. Imai let her daughter go. Drying her tears with one hand, she hiccupped and smiled at both Natsume and Ruka through her tears, looking over Hotaru's shoulder. Hotaru stood stock-still, either out of embarrassment or discomfort.

"Are they your friends, Hotaru?" Mrs. Imai said warmly. Without waiting for an answer, she straightened and ushered them into the house. Natsume watched the gates swing closed out of the corner of his eye, a part of him recalling the frustration of staring beyond the gates of the Alice Academy, unable to escape. It was with some difficulty that he managed to tear his eyes away from the gate and enter the Imai household, where the sense of being imprisoned grew stronger.

Looking around the living room they had entered, Natsume tried to think of the house as a place to stay, and not as a prison. It was hard. The gloom that had settled in the house – because the sun did not shine into the room – set everything a shade darker; more sinister, more depressing. The fact that the almost-blank walls were painted a light grey did not help either.

A sofa occupied a corner of the room, followed by two rattan chairs and one quaint coffee table that seemed antique. The green carpet under Natsume's feet felt thin and worn, but it was still in good condition, its colour the hue of new grass. It was stood out in sharp contrast to the bleakness of the wall and the rest of the furniture.

Natsume's sharp hearing caught the sound of approaching footsteps. Unconsciously, he took a step back toward Ruka and Hotaru, unsure of what to expect. Crimson eyes narrowed in the direction of a dimly lit corridor that extended from the living room. The other three noticed the subtle trace of wariness in the air and turned their heads to watch as a silhouette emerged from the gloom, revealing a middle-aged, bespectacled man with black hair that was turning grey at the roots. He blinked in surprise at the crowd.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" he said, chuckling. His voice was light and had a slightly dreamy quality to it, much like Hotaru's. Pushing his spectacles higher up the bridge of his nose, he took his time examining the newcomers, sparing a smile for each of them.

Then his gaze settled on Hotaru, and his smile stretched into a wide grin, eyes wide with disbelief. She returned his stare, standing straight and looking as cool as a cucumber, never mind that she was trying to salvage her dignity after being stuck in her rather revealing dress.

The fragile tension in the room broke when the man started laughing out loud. Ruka didn't realise that he was holding his breath, but he was. He exhaled and smiled tentatively at the man, whom he deduced to be Hotaru's father. The deep, purple-coloured eyes Hotaru had were definitely inherited from him.

"Hotaru, my girl!" he boomed, scaring the three children out of their skins. The next moment, he had crossed the room and overturned a chair in his haste ("Be careful with that chair!" Hotaru's mother said, exasperated). Ignoring his guests and his wife, he strode forward and scooped Hotaru into his arms, so that her feet dangled a few centimeters above the carpet.

A snort escaped Ruka as he watched the father and daughter reunion, torn between the desire to laugh and the fear of Hotaru's blackmailing. At the moment, though, it was he who had blackmailing material against Hotaru, and she did not look very happy about it. She shot him a glare from where she was, still stuck in her father's bone-crushing embrace, promising the blonde a lot of pain if he dared emit so much as a laugh. Ruka's next snort died in his throat, sounding rather strangled.

Hotaru pushed lightly against her father's chest with her palms. "Dad," she murmured. "We have guests."

The man looked around, surprised. Natsume and Ruka sweat-dropped at his apparent ignorance. Setting Hotaru down, he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, his eyes set in two upward curves as he grinned.

"Well, so we do. I'm sorry for not realising earlier," he apologised, bowing to the two boys. They introduced themselves then returned his bow stiffly, their bodies still sore from the bumpy ride they experienced on the way to the village. Beside them, Hotaru's mother snorted.

"Didn't realise! They're not tiny – this boy here," she said, pulling Natsume closer to her, "is almost as tall as I am, and you didn't realise they were here!"

"Well, I saw our beloved daughter…" he protested weakly, crumbling under his wife's raised eyebrow. "What about it?"

As Hotaru's mother launched into a tirade, Hotaru glanced at her two friends and gave them a helpless look. Shrugging, she said, "Meet my mum and dad."

Even Natsume could not suppress a chortle.

A full five minutes (and an interesting argument between Hotaru's parents) later, Mrs. Imai calmed down enough to properly introduce her husband to Natsume and Ruka. The man grinned and waved at them from behind his wife, looking none the worse for wear after the brief argument. The two boys forced themselves to smile.

"Hotaru, dear, why don't you show your friends around our house? Oh, I know it's not much," she said to Natsume and Ruka, "but it's comfortable and that's what counts."

Not trusting themselves to speak, they nodded and filed out of the living room and into a small garden behind the Imai residence. Hotaru stared at an interesting hole in the ground and actually start shuffling uncomfortably, just a bit.

"So…how do you find my parents?"

Ruka cracked a wide grin. "Great!" he said. "And the look on your face when---"

His voice faded away as he met Hotaru's cool, penetrating gaze, and he gulped. He knew that look very well, oh yes.

A moment later, Ruka was sent flying across flower beds by Hotaru's giant fly-swatter, begging for mercy. Natsume watched the pair with slight amusement twinkling in his eyes. The scene was funny to watch…when you're not the one being beaten up, that is.

Natsume whirled around quickly upon hearing a burst of laughter from somewhere behind him. There, on the doorstep, stood Mrs. Imai, who was the person Natsume had heard. She covered her mouth with one hand as she laughed; a beautiful, tinkling sound that seemed ethereal.

Natsume flinched when the sound of her laughter reminded him painfully of his lost sister. He could not understand why he kept thinking of her lately. The two siblings had been separated for a few years already; why brood over it only now?

Still, separated or not, Aoi was his sister….

Noticing that Hotaru and Ruka were heading back to the house, Natsume followed suit, sparing one last glance at the garden before stepping into the cooler, more dimly-lit building.

Over a simple dinner, Hotaru's parents pelted the three youngsters with questions. Natsume and Hotaru either nodded or shook their heads when asked a question, them being not very talkative by nature. Ruka's polite answers (in case either of Hotaru's parents were easily annoyed and short-tempered like their daughter) were like magnets for the slew of questions that followed throughout the entire half an hour.

Inwardly, Natsume chuckled as he watched Ruka from the corner of his eye. The poor boy was trying to juggle between eating his dinner and talking to the adults, and as a result managed to do neither very well. Ruka was the last to clear his plate at the end of the meal.

It felt awkward to be washing their own plates again after not having to wash them during their stay at the Alice Academy. They gripped the sponge firmly in one hand and their plates in the other, carefully cleaning any residues of their dinner off the plates. Their hands slipped and slid; the laws of friction did not seem to apply when it comes to washing plates. Or maybe it was the soap.

Probably the soap, Natsume thought, cringing when he lost his grip on his plate. It crashed resoundingly into the sink. Natsume heaved a small sigh of relief after confirming that there were no lasting damages on the ceramic surface. Who knew that it was so hard to wash a plate?

Mrs. Imai later told them that Natsume and Ruka were to share a room and Hotaru could use her old room. She apologised for any flaws in the rooms, as their arrival was unexpected. The two boys denied and thanked her for her hospitality. The rest of the night was spent talking and watching television. It almost felt like family to Natsume and Ruka. It felt…nice.

Later that night, Natsume and Ruka snuggled into their beds. The beds were thin and felt like a board with barely an inch of soft material stuffed in it. The blankets were made of a coarse fabric, musty and full of dust that had been beaten and shaken out as well as they could before they used it. Despite the unattractive beds, they slept well throughout the night, fanned by cool midnight breezes that entered from the open windows.

Morning set the room in a different light than what the two boys saw the previous night. The air seemed to shimmer as a soft light filtered into the small room, bringing with it the cheerful greetings of birds from the outside. In his semi-conscious state, Natsume imagined that he could hear the trills of a finch and the twittering of a sparrow. He let the peaceful atmosphere envelope him, relaxed and comfortable on the bed.

His ears registered the shifting of fabric and he turned his head to the left to see Ruka blinking sleepily at the ceiling. Ruka smiled when he saw Natsume looking at him, mumbling a 'good morning' that was punctuated with a yawn.

"Nice morning, isn't it?" Ruka said appreciatively. Natsume grunted and let his gaze rest on a tree branch outside the window. A single bird was there, hopping about and cocking its head to the side as though listening for something. It flitted away after a while, perhaps to find some food.

A quiet knock at the door prompted the two boys to get up and make their beds before opening the door. It was not hard to do – they just had to fold the blanket and arrange the pillows on the bed. Mrs. Imai was smiling at them when they greeted her at the door.

"How was your first night here?" she asked. Natsume and Ruka assured her that they were comfortable and thanked her once more for her kindness, then followed her into the living room for breakfast. Hotaru and her father were already there, spreading butter on pieces of toast. They exchanged greetings and Mr. Imai invited them to sit, which they did with growling stomachs.

Breakfast was simple – just butter or mango jam spread on toast, and a cup of tea each, but it was satisfying and tasty. Hotaru helped her mother clear up while her father kept the two boys occupied with questions about the Academy. Natsume and Ruka fidgeted and answered as curtly as they could. Breaching the subject was not something they were comfortable with, not yet.

They breathed a sigh of relief when Hotaru and her mother appeared, thinking that Mr. Imai would stop questioning them. Unfortunately, Mrs. Imai took a seat and motioned for her daughter to do the same, then started asking questions of her own. Natsume and Ruka shot Hotaru imploring looks which she pretended not to see.

"So, what brings you out here?" Mrs. Imai asked the three. Beside her, her husband nodded and leaned forward in his chair, resting his chin on his hands as he waited for their answer. The three teenagers squirmed in their seats.

"We came to---" Ruka said haltingly.

"Find someone," Natsume finished, looking anywhere but at Hotaru's parents. Hotaru nodded when her mother shot her an inquisitive look.

"And the Academy allowed you to do it?" This time it was her father. All three youngsters shook their heads.

"We ran away," Hotaru said, "to find Mikan."

Mrs. Imai's eyes, which had widened, softened as she understood. Her husband looked equally shocked, though if he had anything against their decision, he did not voice it. Instead, he exchanged glances with his wife and almost smiled. Natsume got the shock of his life when the patriarch clapped him on the back.

"Well, I don't know where Mikan-chan might have disappeared to, nor what caused her disappearance, but good luck finding her," he said, grinning. "She was a nice kid, despite her clumsiness."

Natsume snorted and Hotaru managed a small smile. Thankfully, that was the last of their interrogation and all five filed out of the house to bask in the morning sun.

….

EDIT (2/3/08): Changed 'three' to 'five' years. Thank you mountainelements for pointing it out! Just to clarify something: Natsume, Ruka, Hotaru and Mikan are all fifteen now.

Um. I'm not sure if this is the perfect place to end it, but I've delayed this chapter long enough as it is, in my opinion. So, er, yeah. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Reviews are welcome; criticism even more so. Just refrain from flaming if possible. Oh and if you spot any mistakes, feel free to tell me. It'll be greatly appreciated. Thanks!