Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice is not mine...never will T_T

Note: Slightly OOC

Chapter 6: Party

"Surprise! Happy birthday Natsume!" ALL of his friends were there outside his door.

'Shit. No wonder Nov. 27 seemed special, it's my birthday.' He sighed as he let everyone in his studio.


Natsume temporarily became mute as he watched the crowd before him enter the studio so casually. His head nodded unconsciously as they greeted him.

And his guest.

"Hello Mikan!" Sumire exclaimed as she excitedly rushed towards the brunette.

"Yo, Mikan," Koko and Kitsuneme simultaneously greeted her.

'Eh?!' The photographer wondered incredulously at the sight he was currently witnessing. 'What the hell is going on?!'

"Hi Sakura-san," Yuu shyly greeted the woman who was now the center of attention.

"Hey Mikan, you're here!" Ruka uttered as he went towards the lady's direction.

Natsume head was in deep, deep wonder. He was trying to interpret the situation that was making his head spin. How in the world did his friends know Mikan? Was this some kind of a joke? He couldn't believe that after all his search for the lady, all he needed to do was show her picture to any of his friends then his search would be over. God must had loved making him suffer.

"Mikan, what are you doing here with Hyuuga?" Natsume's senses returned to him when an amethyst-eyed lady questioned impassively as she saw the lady her friends were crowding.

"Hyuuga?" the brunette paused first, placing her slender fingers onto her temples as if she was trying to recall something. "Ah! You mean Natsume?" she exclaimed then shifted her gaze to the photographer.

Hotaru had to admit, she was a bit shocked by what her best friend said. She didn't expect Mikan to know Natsume, let alone call each other by their first names.

"Yes, I mean Natsume," she emphasized the name so that the photographer could very easily decipher her mockery.

"About that, you see Natsume wanted a –"

"Are you just here to blabber about nonsense or did you come here to actually celebrate my birthday?" Natsume had to cut the brunette off. If she had said one more word, his pride would be seriously battered. There was no way he'd let his friends know about this 'favor' for he had never asked them even one. Asking favors was definitely not Natsume Hyuuga, and that was what he want it to be.

At least not to Mikan.

Though he had a lot of things to be anxious about, he was especially concerned about Hotaru. She was too sharp for her own good. If she heard the actual story, she'd had easily cracked Natsume's underlying scheme.

"Well it seems our Natsume really wanted a birthday party after all!" Koko cheered and the rest began to laugh.

Natsume had successfully diverted the interrogation and they all prepared for his birthday.

He always enjoyed himself whenever his friends were around, though his facial expressions would never show it.

He silently watched his friends who were doing their best designing - though it was more like destroying - his studio. He found it amusing how their efforts back-fired them. Koko was in charge of the party streamers and he was doing one hell of a poor job. Not only were the streamers oddly cut, they were also clumsily hanged. Her girlfriend would always yell and scold him but she, too, had her own weird ideas.

"Ahhh! Koko watch out!" Sumire yelled as she noticed that her boyfriend was losing balance on top of the ladder.

*crash*

"Ouch! You idiot I told you to watch out!" she said as she slowly tried to sit after being smashed to the ground by Koko and the ladder.

"You yelled too loud so I panicked!" Koko retorted while assisting his girlfriend to sit properly.

"So, are you saying it's my fault?" she slapped Koko's helping hand.

"Do you think I'm saying otherwise?" he mocked.

"Why you!" Sumire screamed as she charged for her boyfriend.

The couple who were in charge of the streamers were now like bickering brothers. They were tickling each other to death while the others looked at them with disbelief on how they acted too much like a child.

"How long are you guys going to flirt?" Ruka teased, "We still have tons to do."

With that, the couple stopped and continued beautifying the place. Natsume shifted his gaze to where Ruka was and found him with Kitsumeme and Yuu. He was about to approach them but then he had a view on what they were doing so he decided to backed out.

Yuu, Kitsuneme and Ruka were in charge of setting the food, they sure bought a lot. There were different types of food prepared but even though there were lots of selections, bulk of it were dishes of crabs, which will make you think twice if the food was really for Natsume or Hotaru. Although Ruka and Yuu were pretty neat people, boys will be boys. The result of their so-called preparation was a mountain pile of food. The drinks were prepared scantily and spills could be found everywhere on the table. The foods that were commonly in different plates were placed in just a huge one and it was all because of Kistuneme's theory of saving time and water when they would wash the dishes after.

Disgusted with what his best friend had created, he decided to look for Mikan. After few minutes of searching, he found her with Hotaru.

He watched the two girls talked to each other so nonchalantly. He wondered how the two knew each other and why they seemed to be close friends. As he continued to look at them, he saw different expressions of Mikan which he had never seen before. She watched as she pouted, be surprised, angered and smiled. She sure made lots of different faces while talking to Hotaru. Watching them act like this made him feel something inexplicable against Hotaru.

Curiosity was eating him.

Or was it jealousy?

Either way, he only knew of one thing. He didn't liked what he saw. He had to know the answers to the questions that were bugging him the whole time.

'How in the world did they know her? How in the world did they all know her? '

"Yes! Everything is perfect! Shall we start the party?" Koko disturbed his cursing.

"Which part of everything is perfect?" Hotaru glared at Koko after scanning through the place.

"Err…uhmm," Koko gulped.

"Now, now guys," Ruka placed an arm over his girlfriend's shoulder trying to cool the now heating situation, "at least we have food and errr…colorful things hanged, right?"

Hotaru shrugged off Ruka's arm from her shoulder then eyed the so-called food he was talking about, "Is that what you call food?"

"Well, it looked liked one a while ago," It was his turn to gulp.

".Real.."Hotaru emitted an evil aura that everyone just had to stand still and do whatever she was telling them. Koko, Kitsuneme, Yuu and even Ruka immediately ran out of the studio after hearing Hotaru's threat.

"Wow Hotaru, they still act like that when you threaten them," Mikan unbelievably told her best friend.

"They better do," Hotaru uttered as she glared at the guys running figures. "Hey Mikan, I forgot something in my apartment, I'll just get it first ok?"

"Do you want me to go with you?" asked Mikan worriedly.

"Nope, it's okay. Plus, birthday boy here would be lonely."

"Shut up Imai," Natsume shot a glare at Hotaru.

Hotaru went to where Natsume was and whispered, "Just don't do anything funny to the idiot here," then pointed to where Mikan was.

"Huh?" Mikan wondered why her best friend was pointing a finger at her.

"Nothing. I have to go now." Hotaru looked one last time at Mikan before heading for the door.

The room became silent as if grieving over the loss of its annoying members. But it was definitely the contrary for a certain raven-haired young man whose mind was now thanking the development of the situation.

"So, I guess it's just the two of us again," Mikan broke the silence.

"So how did you know about them?" Natsume really knew how to take advantage of the situation. He wanted answers before everybody else could notice that curiosity was killing him.

"Them?" Mikan paused for a while then answered, "Ahh… I get it, well. They're all my friends. Hotaru's my best friend for as long as I can remember and, of course, I would know her long time boyfriend Ruka,"

'I was jealous of her best friend? Wow Natsume.' Natsume thought while he was looking intently at the brunette who was explaining everything to him.

"Sumire and Yuu are my classmates. You know, in the music school. And about Koko and Kitsuneme, I just met them last week when Sumire introduced them to me. That's it!"

"I see," that was all his mouth could give off.

"Hey! You didn't say that it's your birthday today, we could've just postponed this shoot," Mikan changed the subject.

There was a long pause before Natsume finally answered…

"I forgot."

"What?!" Mikan almost yelled incredulity. "Who in the world forgets his own birthday?"

"Me."

Mikan sighed.

"What's the big deal anyway? It's my birthday, so what?" Natsume tried to sound more worth talking to this time.

"Birthdays are important dates you know, it's the day you were born!"

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Natsume mocked.

"Hmpf, I mean you should celebrate it."

"Aren't we celebrating it now?" Natsume was really good at this.

She sighed again.

"I guess you're right," she decided that fighting with Natsume was something she was bound never to win so she dropped the topic and asked something else , "By the way Natsume, where's your family? Aren't they supposed to be here and celebrate this event with you?"

Natsume became rather stiff with her question though he did his best not to let the brunette notice it. He always became somewhat sensitive when it came to family matters. Usually, he would had just ignored the question but something told him that he could trust the lady before him. He wanted to avoid her query but he just couldn't do it. He wanted to be honest with her.

"They're not here, they live in the States."

"Hmm… Why aren't you living with them?" Mikan said, still dense that she was asking about something personal. Too personal.

Natsume looked at the ground and hesitated first but he still decided to answer her, "They didn't like how I spend too much time in my photography. They disagreed but I wanted to do what I want so I, I ran away."

Awkward silence was now clouding his studio. He honestly answered her question and now he was just wondering on what her reaction would be. Would she scold him for being such a child and running away from home? Or would she convince him to go home like what his friends kept on doing.

He was still drowned in his thoughts when he felt a pair of gentle arms surrounding his body.

"Sorry."

The voice sounded so sincere but, at the same time, regretful.

"Sorry for forcing you to answer something you might have not wanted to talk about, sorry for being so nosy," she continued, still hugging him from behind.

"It's alright, it's not your fault anyways. I wanted to answer your question and that's all there is to it," he assured her.

"But—"

"I said it's alright," he didn't mean to sound so rude but that was just how his statement seemed. He was about to say sorry when he heard her speak again.

"If it's alright then why do you sound so lonely?" the brunette said tightening her hug.

He heard his heart thump loudly.

He was completely taken aback by what she had said. He didn't notice that he appeared so poignant since he was so confident of his mask. Though it bothered him how she knew what he was actually feeling since he had concealed his emotions perfectly, he couldn't care less about the answer anymore. Whether it was because his ability was failing him already or did she really understand him better than anyone else, he didn't concern himself any further. He was contented that she was there.

There to comfort and understand him when nobody else did.

He didn't bother replying to her question because he was confident that she already understood how he was feeling. He just let her hug him and became at home in her arms.

The scene that was happening now made him realize one important fact. A fact that he might have been denying for a long time already.

He was already deeply in love with her.

He was in love with Mikan Sakura.

Author's note: I'm really sorry for updating super late. i won't elaborate further since we all know and love the thing school work. *note heavy sarcasm* anyway, i hope you guys forgive me and i promise to try to update if my laziness allows me to. please review and most of all, ENJOY! \^o^/

happy holidays everyone!