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Okay guys, listen up, I'm pretty sad that I don't have more reviews than what I do right now. Now, I don't want to sound pushy or anything, but if you guys like the story so much that you guys put it on your "alert story" file thingy (thanks by the way, I'm flattered ), then you can give me a review giving me feedback. U know what I mean? Okay, now that that's settled!

I really hope you guys are liking this new version of "We Can Get Through This". After the little changes I have made and the major changes to follow for this story, I'm feeling very confident about it

Enjoy chapter 3! We're going to delve a little into the past and learn about how chapter 1 came to be.

Middle school corridor, 3 years ago. Everyone is thirteen.

"I wonder how I did on our last chemistry test"

"We're supposed to be getting it back today."

"I know. I'm nervous, Chemistry is not exactly my forte. Now, give me some flour and a pan, and I'll make you a top-notch cake."

"I would feel better about the test if I had been able to read sensei's mind for the answers to the test. I can't believe they sealed my alice."

"I feel a little creeped out by the fact that you're smiling while saying that, and knowing that you probably failed that test."

"You like it when I smile, Sumi-chan"

BAM!

"…"

"I should've studied. I never got the chance to fly over to the desk to look for the answers. Who would have thought that the one test I don't study for, sensei wouldn't fall asleep like he always does during tests."

"You never study Kitsuneme."

"Yeah well, that wouldn't have mattered if lincho would've just gone with the plan and used his alice, but noooo, he decided to be an honest person."

"You should've studied, then you wouldn't need to cheat, stop blaming me for your actions."

"Hehe, lincho told you! Hotaru, Ruka, Natsume, how do you guys think you did?"

"…."

"I think I did well, Sakura"

"…"

"I refuse to involve myself in idiotic conversations."

"Ditto"

"Hotaru! Natsume!"

"I don't understand what you guys are freaking out about? I thought the test was so easy"

"…"

"I don't think you get to comment in this matter, Nonoko" Nonoko pouted. Anna came behind her, and patted her shoulder.

The chemistry topic ended, and the group found their places in the classroom after arriving. Even after being in their second year of middle school, they each had kept their spots from when they were in elementary.

The thirteen-year olds were talking animatedly, some more than other, when a quavering voice was heard from the door. The substitute teacher peaked his head in through the door, "Narumi-sensei will not be coming for English today because he has a 'cold', and I'm...not available right now, so you guys can have a free period, but Jinno-sensei and Serina-sensei will be here for the classes they teach." Loud groans and moans of disapproval erupted all throughout the classroom, and the substitute teacher, ran away before they took their anger out on the messenger.

Natsume glared at the spot where the teacher had been, "tch, if Narumi doesn't feel like coming to class, the least he could do is tell us before hand so we don't wake up early like dumbasses." At that, he propped up his legs on the desk, took out his trusted manga and put it over his face. Mikan looked at him from her left and sighed. Although she loved her tou-san very much, she agreed with Natsume. Now, she didn't have anything to do for the next hour and half. She looked past Natsume's sleeping figure to see Ruka quietly playing with Usagi, who was on the desk.

"Ruka-pyon, do you want to play a game of tic-tac-toe with me?" smiled Mikan, then she pointed at Natsume in between them, "that pervert is not gonna be any fun."

Ruka smiled, "okay Sakura." Mikan pouted at hearing the blonde boy calling her by her last name. "It's Mikan, Ruka-pyon." Ruka blushed a bit at seeing her cute childish reaction, but smiled at her, "you're right, we've known each other long enough, Mikan."

Ruka was blushing while he said that, which was still confusing to him because, well, he just didn't understand it. He had realized a while ago that he didn't really hold romantic feelings towards the brunette. She was pretty, he couldn't deny that, but he didn't really lover her. It was hard to explain, even to himself when he went though that time when he would be in his room, avoiding his friends, and he would be thinking of what his feeling were for the said girl exactly. It was definitely hard to explain, but he did come up with the fact that he didn't really love Mikan like that, not the way his best friend loved her, wanted her, and needed her. The only explanation his twelve year old mind had come up with back then was that Mikan had been the first girl to show him the interest to be his friend in a non-fangirl kind of way, and since she was indeed a girl, he mistook it as having a crush on her.

Maybe there had been the possibility of a crush, but he didn't want to think about that since he had gotten over whatever infatuation he had with her a while ago. Now all he felt towards the happy-go-lucky girl was a need to protect her when Natsume couldn't, and contentment that they were friends.

Click Click Click

"The girls are going to love this. One smiling, blushing Ruka coming up." said the inventor with the smallest of grins on her face. Ruka glared at the camera and quickly sat up to chase Hotaru around the classroom, in an useless attempt to steal the devise that held his precious face blushing. "Imai! Give me that camera!"

Mikan sweatdropped at the sight of her two friends. It was sort of weird how the only time her 'gentle' friend ever got really mad was when Hotaru blackmailed him. It probable wasn't fun to know that people that stalked you had photos of you doing or wearing embarrassing stuff.

"Imai! Get back here with those pictures!" yelled a red Ruka, out of embarrassment or from anger, it was hard to tell, but he was definitely yelling louder than most days.

Natsume started stirring when he could feel something tickling his cheek. It was probably polka-dots trying to annoy him awake because she was bored. Couldn't she find something productive to do with her time? He got even angrier when the tickling didn't stop, and her...hair? was tickling his neck and cheek. "What the hell.." Natsume opened his eyes to see that Mikan wasn't paying attention to him, but staring at Hotaru and Ruka, who were in the middle of a wrestling competition for her camera. It was then that he noticed that there was a current of air that was getting stronger by the minute. Suddenly, papers were starting to fly off the student's desks and some of the teenagers couldn't help but yell questions at the phenomenon that was occurring inside their classroom.

Ruka and Hotaru, who hadn't noticed, or maybe just didn't care enough about what was going on around them for their own reasons, kept up their antics. Ruka stopped on his tracks, panting a little. Hotaru could definitely be determined when she wanted something. "Imai, you need to stop trying to run away and give me that camera, now!" Ruka's thirteen year old barked at the raven-haired girl, who, in another situation would have ignored it, but a gust of wind somehow managed to push her off her duck scooter. The girl's eyes widened at the reality of her butt hitting the ground any second. It all happened so fast, she didn't even have time to register the fact that she wasn't on the floor in pain, but floating a few inches from the floor, until Mikan rushed over to her and grabbed her hands, making it so that when Mikan touched her, whatever was suspending the girl was no more.

"Ugh!" was the sound that came out of Hotaru's mouth when she hit the floor. Ruka, who was already rushing to her, crouched down besides Mikan. "A-are you okay Imai?" asked the blushing boy. Really? Was it going to be like that every time he talked to a girl?

"Nogi, I'm going to kick your ass." glared Hotaru while she got up with the help of Mikan. Ruka paled a little at her statement. "Hotaru, it wasn't his fault, some strange wind was doing all of it, I saw it."

The gang was coming closer to the front of the class to check on Hotaru and figure out what had happened. Ruka could only nod his head vigorously at Hotaru, "yeah, what she said." The inventor only glared at the blond boy.

"She's right, you know. It was you Ruka"

"As of now, I disown you as my best friend." Ruka murmured as Hotaru looked ready to kill when she picked up her smashed camera from the ground. Ruka was scared of the petite girl, but courageously or stupidly turned his back on Hotaru to ask Natsume what he was talking about.

"EEEEHHHH!"

Natsume didn't have time to explain because the whole classroom was going crazy by his statement and had gone to surround Ruka, questioning him on how he did it. Hotaru looked ready to murder, and Mikan was just looking from Natsume to Ruka trying to process the fact that her friend might have a new alice? She stopped thinking when she, along with her friends, were pushed aside by some of their classmates, who wanted to get closer to Ruka. The boy looked very confused and overwhelmed by what was happening, and couldn't help getting very annoyed by all the people, especially the girl's, asking him to blow them away with his new alice. Ruka couldn't take it anymore, and did what came naturally.

"Everyone, STOP!" bellowed Ruka, noticing how his voice had amplified at some point, and now everyone that had been really close to him, had been blown away by a strong gust of wind and unto the floor. Luckily for him, Hotaru hadn't been affected by it, otherwise, she really wouldn't hold back, and hurt him, no matter what type of crisis Ruka looked like he was having.

Ruka stared at the piles of his classmates around him, some groaning in pain from the impact of hitting the floor and desks behind them. Natsume admitted to himself that he certainly didn't see that one coming, or him being right at all for that matter. He reacted quickly by getting up and dragging his bewildered friend out of the classroom, so he had space and time to calm down. Mikan, who looked ready to faint, noticed herself being pulled by Hotaru, since Mikan still had a hold of her friend's arm after helping her up.

Hotaru and Mikan caught up with Natsume, who was still dragging a dazed Ruka, and they all left the middle school building together.

"Imai, I'm bringing Ruka out here so that he has a chance to calm down and process the situation. I don't think you are what Ruka needs right now to calm down."

"I can be calming; in fact, I can be so calming that people will fall asleep peacefully at my presence."

"They're not falling asleep; they are actually fainting from being in the presence of your evil."

"Well, shame on them for leading me to think that I had a calming presence." Natsume gave up trying to talk to her and instead turned to his friend. He was on the floor, passed out. He didn't even notice that he had dragged him all the way here. He leaned him against his sakura tree and slapped him.

"Ouch!" said Ruka, glaring at Natsume, "I wasn't passed out, I was just in shock"

"Well, I just un-shocked you, I guess" said his monotone friend. Ruka looked at him, and like a computer, ran through the earlier incident in his head, and came to a quick conclusion. "Wow, this is crazy, this doesn't happen often. I have another alice." Natsume just nodded.

"What are you going to do Ruka-pyon?" asked the brunette. Ruka turned to the girls with them. "There's nothing to do! I have the wind alice, I'm guessing, and since I'm already inside the Academy, I think this is pretty cool." grinned Ruka, and Mikan smiled back and congratulated him, as it seemed to be a happy occasion. Hotaru stayed quiet, watching her two friends talk about his new alice, and couldn't help but look at the black cat, who was undeniably looking at his friend with a hint of worry in his eyes. Natsume caught her eyes and they traded silent statements of concern about what could come out of this, the negatives at least.

"We should go back to class, math is after English, and I'm not receiving a detention from Jinjin because you two idiots won't stop fussing like high school girls about a stupid wind alice. Especially you, Nogi." Hotaru turned away from them and started walking back towards the middle school building. Natsume followed behind the stoic inventor, trying to put his uneasiness aside, since it was too early to think that anything bad could come out of this.

"Ahh, Hotaru! Natsume!" yelled Mikan running after them, while pulling a blushing Ruka.

"I wasn't acting like an idiot high school girl" murmured Ruka. Mikan just laughed as they caught up with their two raven-haired friends and smiled at Ruka, "no you weren't, Hotaru was just kidding." Ruka just smiled back at the girl, although he knew that Hotaru was most certainly not kidding, when did the Ice Queen kid?

Natsume, who had been walking somewhere between Hotaru and Mikan, who was next to Ruka, looked back and noticed that Mikan was still holding unto Ruka's hand, who didn't seem to mind at all because the boy, Natsume knew, didn't hold any romantic feelings for the girl, but only cared for her.

Great. His friend was holding Mikan's hand, which was probably like holding his sister's hand, if Ruka had one, and here he was, getting jealous like a big ass. It was also her fault though, for holding the hand of a boy that was neither her boyfriend, thank God, nor her family.

"You should let go of Ruka's hand baka, I'm sure he doesn't want the germs of a girl that wears bear prints on her underwear."

Ruka sweatdropped and then winced in pain as the girl that had been talking to him, made his hand go numb from the death grip she had him on. Thankfully she let go, so that she could, or try to, beat up Natsume for peaking at her underwear. How he always managed to find out the print, she had no idea, but she was sick of it.

"Pervert! Why do you always peek!" shrieked the thirteen year old.

"If you want to call someone a pervert, I suggest you direct your anger at the one that caused all that wind in the classroom before." Natsume pointed at Ruka, who in turn froze when a scary Mikan, whose pigtails were dancing around her head like Medusas', turned to him with a very menacing glare on her pretty face.

"You really aren't on team Ruka today, huh buddy." Ruka grimaced at his friend. Natsume smirked, and noticed a smirking Hotaru, who had stopped in the hallway to watch the show. Ruka sweatdropped as he started running away from the girl that he thought would never be in a position where she wanted to hurt him.

That was the moment that he knew that Natsume and Hotaru were a force to be reckoned with. He also knew never to hold Mikan's hand ever again or be responsible for Hotaru getting hurt in anyway possible. 'With friends like these, who needs enemies?'

Hotaru turned to Natsume, and had a gleam in her eyes. She always thought that Natsume was somehow weak because, unlike her with Mikan, he let Ruka get away with things, and even stepped aside for him that one time when they were supposedly 'fighting' for Mikan. And then for a moment, she almost pitied Ruka, because she knew that while Natsume Hyuga and Hotaru Imai were a force to be reckoned with, her best friend was surely someone you didn't even want to mess with or be around when her underwear was peeked at.

Ruka's room, Present day. Everyone is 16.

Ruka couldn't help the moan that escaped his parted lips as he felt his muscles relaxing under Hotaru's delicate, yet strong touch. He sat on his bead enjoying what Hotaru was doing from behind him. His body was so sore by the end of his mission that he knew if it could talk to him, it would probably cuss at him, very violently. He had been so relieved when he saw her waiting for him on his bed, reading a book, probably to pass the time.

Hotaru's face seemed in complete concentration of what she was doing, working her tiny hands over his broad shoulders and neck. When he had arrived, she could almost feel how contracted his muscles were after a long night of…activity. Now, he was fully relaxed and seemed like he was about to drop dead any second. She massaged his neck, and wrapped her hands around it. Too quickly for him to react due to his tiredness, she pulled and twisted on his neck in a way that it made a loud crack.

Ruka groaned, and then sighed, as he felt a new wave of relieve hit him. "Hotaru, I asked you to stop that. One of these days you are going to end up snapping my head off my neck, and I don't think you will be too happy when you see me dead."

He should know, he saw the dead more than he liked to think, and it wasn't something that was desirable to see.

"I think that I'm getting better at it."

"What I wonder is why you have been practicing on me this whole time." Hotaru ran her smooth hands across his arms and wrapped them loosely around his neck. "You're my guinea pig." murmured Hotaru by his ear, making him shiver. She clamped down on the ear, not hard enough to cause him pain, but definitely hard enough to make him wake up, along with his little friend. Then he felt her chest vibrate on his back and he wondered what was so funny.

"Do you remember the time when Mikan almost killed you, literally, almost killed you because she thought that you had used your alice on purpose to peek at her underwear?"

"No"

Hotaru smiled her small smile, "Sure you do. You said that day was so traumatic you would probably never forget it."

Ruka shivered, but still denied it, "Amnesia" was all Ruka said as he turned around to capture the inventor's lips with his. He joined her position of kneeling on the bed and then brought her down on it slowly, not wanting to put distance between them. Hotaru ran her tongue over his bottom lip and pulled apart, "is this your way of telling me to shut up?"

Ruka didn't bother to answer and just went to attack her lips again. Of course it was, she wasn't stupid, but she would let it go, because at the moment, she was glad to have Ruka in her arms and to be with him like this, and apparently he didn't want to reminisce that particular memory.

Mikan could sure be scary when people saw her underwear.

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Gimmi that sweet and painful feedback, don't be afraid to be HONEST not MEAN, there is a difference. You can call me the most horrible writer in the whole world but you have to back your shit up. That's how it works with me hahaha

Until next time,

yue679