With a Little Help From My Friends
Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice and anything related to it do not belong to me, but Higuchi Tachibana.
Hotaru always keeps an eye on her.
She's almost as worse as Natsume in the need to know where she is.
They're best friends after all.
Those months when Mikan was in the Middle School Principal's care, hidden behind his strongest barriers, has left the two almost neurotic in the need to know that she's close by; that they can find her with a phone call, a text, even a robotic bird.
Mikan obliges them.
Every response is filled with smiley faces, exclamation marks, an enthusiastic greeting, small chat, or a pat on the head for the poor robotic bird sent to find her.
She probably needs the reassurance just as much as them.
It's been going fine.
Except that one time when she disappeared.
Oh, it was only for a day.
Of course everyone freaked.
Mikan is...important. Not just as a friend, classmate, wife, but...she still has the Nullification/Stealing Alice. She is...
Dangerous.
Powerful.
Precious.
In so many different ways.
To many people.
Hotaru looks up from her newest invention and outright glares at him.
"Idiot."
He leaves, sparing a glance at the invention that she is so carefully crafting.
It's chick-shaped.
Natsume walks into their home. It's small: three bedrooms and one bath. It was only for the two of them after all.
He wonders how he could have missed it.
The dining room, watching Mikan nibble on a piece of dry toast. She said she had an upset stomach.
He walks up the stairs, disbelief that as much as he pays attention to Mikan, he ignores the important details.
He passes by the bathroom, a box with several white sticks haphazardly thrown in the wastebasket.
If he wasn't too occupied finding her, he would have smashed his head into a nearby wall for missing all the signs that Mikan was...Mikan is...
Natsume enters their bedroom. His pillow is missing from their bed.
He opens the closet door.
Large, tear-filled brown eyes owlishly look up at him. Mikan is curled into the corner, clutching at his pillow against her chest.
"I should've noticed."
Mikan buries her head against his pillow, shaking her head. He can already see tear stains drying from previous bouts of crying. "I...I didn't know how it happened. I-I'm sorr-"
She's cut off when Natsume drops to his knees, leaning foward forward to enfold her into a hug.
"I'm happy. So, so happy."
She bursts into more tears, throwing the pillow onto the ground and clutching Natsume close. She buries her face against his chest, the smell of sandalwood and maple trees surrounding her. She can feel a few tears dampen the crown of her head as Natsume buries her head into her hair. His hand, warm, strong, caring, is against her still flat stomach.
"We'll be happy."
Later that evening, they find on their dining room table is a chick-shaped stroller.
SS: Still feeling like a slacker and writing drabbles. haha Hope y'all liked it. Random: I finally used one of The Monkee's songs as a title for a chapter! Whoo.