"There once was a prince who despised his palace, he would roam the village town and mingle with the people of his country. His appearance didn't help him since his family were known for their bright coloured eyes, therefore he was immediately exposed. Yet, as expected all were kind and welcomed the prince with open arms; they treated him as they would to any other person that lived or visited their town – even though they knew if they did something to anger the prince they would face severe consequences, yet they still accepted him. Despite being friendly to the children in the village, who were the same age as he, the prince refused to talk about his appearance and his life in the palace.

However, it was on that one day where the prince stumbled across an old school, it was decrepit and in tatters, but the children who played were happy – especially the eldest looking girl with chocolate brunette hair. It was her smile. It was as if she were a magnet; attracted by her smile, it drew him towards her. His feet took several steps forward unconsciously, eyes still on the girl the prince glided to her and introduced himself to her.

For weeks on end the prince would meet up with the girl as she was good company and was an incredibly good listener. She was different, special even. The girl had a disorder, she was unable to speak. She would always respond by nodding, hand gestures or through paper; when the prince was not allowed to leave the palace, he would communicate with her through letters, which brought them closer as he could understand the struggle of expressing himself through words on paper, like that of the poor girl.

Soon it was time for his coronation, but for the prince it was all too much for him. Wanting to be with the girl he suggested that they stay together forever and elope to which the girl promised with a smile that she would always be with him even if they couldn't elope – which they didn't due to the girl persuading the prince to stay and go through with it. The prince agreed as he knew that the girl would stick to her word, so he kept that promise.

On the day of the coronation the prince searched for the girl in the crowd, but couldn't find her. He assumed that she had left early, so decided to search for her the following day. Nothing. Not a trace of her, no one knew where she had disappeared to. The prince, heart-broken, kept to himself for weeks. When he had cleared his mind, he realised that he was bound to the girl, as although she had broken the promise – he couldn't forget her and swore to find her..."

"Wha' happen' next?" a small voice questioned.

"Di' he fin' her in da end!?" demanded another voice.

"That will be revealed next time…" the narrator replied in a voice as smooth as silk.

"Awwh! Mi-chan! C'mon you have ta!" the two younger voices replied in unison, the eldest referred to as 'Mi-chan' simply chuckled at their eagerness. They were only 2 years younger, but 2 years still seemed like quite a lot.

The neighbourhood babysitter, Mikan Azumi-Sakura, 12 years old.

"Time for bed!" Mikan hollered as she checked the clock to find that it was '9:00pm', the two boys Kitsuneme and Kokoroyomi refused and ran around their bedroom. Kitsuneme climbed up onto the desk – he had a habit for climbing up to higher ground, meanwhile Kokoroyomi had hidden in his favourite place – under the bed. Mikan, shutting her eyes, clicked her tongue and spoke aloud "Aw… Boys are so immature, I guess they really don't want me to come back next time to finish off the story." She heard two sharp gasps followed by thumping of feet on the floor. Mikan, grinned to herself, before opening her eyes to see that the two were in their designated beds.

Tucking the two in, she briefly kissed both boys on the forehead and bid them a goodnight, "G'night Koko, Kitsu – I'll be back, don't worry!" The boys flashed a mischievous grin then shut their eyes. Mikan sighed, as she shut the door she greeted the twins' parents and kindly refused the money they had offered and instead accepted a token of their appreciation, a box of cakes they had bought for her, her mother and her grandfather.

The girl lived with her mother and grandfather, she never ceased to keep a positive outlook; it was one of her traits that attracted the adults to trust her and accept her as a babysitter. She looked like her mother, but her personality and smarts were from her father.

The following day Mikan was called out by another parent, her best friend offered to accompany her as it was a new face to the neighbourhood. Hotaru was the opposite of Mikan, she was a sharped-tongue realist and told Mikan to accept the money that she would be earning is she wasn't a 'soft-hearted idiot'. As they arrived at the doorstep of the new client, in Hotaru's terms, Mikan gave a weak smile to her best friend and offered that she would do the speaking as Hotaru would end up ruining this opportunity. Reluctantly she approved and simply stared at the air-headed geezer.

Apologising for Hotaru's behalf, the brunette arranged the 'appointment' and left. Hyuuga-san was quite peculiar, he seemed very timid, but with the description of his child it sounded like it'd be a tough job. However, for Mikan a challenge was always fun, the boy was 2 years younger than her, so she expected him to be like the twins she had looked after the previous night.

On the night…

Natsume was a rather tall 10-year-old, for his age that is, he just barely reached up to Mikan's nose; he had raven hair just like his father and strange crimson orbs. The boy was well behaved, the opposite of whatever Hyuuga-san had described him to be. Mikan asked whether he wanted to be friends with her, but was shot down with 'I don't like snot-nosed girls'.

The kid was arrogant and his tone was harsh like someone she was close to. The night went by slowly and the 12-year-old hadn't made any progress with their relationship, she felt that the reason why the younger boy was acting like that was due to him being cautious around new people like herself. Offering the younger a cookie she had brought especially for that night, he shook his head and continued to watch his programme.

As they were watching his cartoons, Mikan kept trying to start up a conversation, but each time he would reply with something witty like 'oh… really? How fascinating' acting as if he cared when really it was obvious he was being sarcastic. The boy didn't act the way a 10-year-old would, he was independent and refused to rely on Mikan.

Although despite all of this, Mikan was determined to get closer to the kid, but didn't want to seem too desperate in becoming friends with him. The boy was already more mature than she was and she didn't want to act childish as he would surely use that against her.

The night came to a close when Natsume's dad arrived and Natsume heading to bed, he didn't want Mikan to enter his room as 'no snot-nosed girls' were allowed. With Mikan being thanked by his dad and apologising for his son's attitude he again asked her to look after Natsume tomorrow night and for the following week to which the young girl happily agreed. Giddy, for tomorrow she set off home to prepare a plan in getting Natsume to warm up to her.

The following day…

Clapping her hands the brunette had gathered her mother, her best friend and her grandfather to help her create the master plan to get Natsume to open up. Her mother insisted that she just be herself and that Natsume would gradually learn to relax around her; Hotaru refused to give any input aside from blackmailing the younger and her grandfather gave her a small smile, encouraging her by saying that she should learn to find a solution by herself to get through life.

Seeing as those whom she could rely on wouldn't agree in giving her advice or suggestions, she turned to the next best thing; other 10-year-olds. Koko and Kitsu, the twins, although they didn't really help the first time as she assumed that Natsume would be similar to them… Then again it was her fault for thinking all 10-year-olds were odd balls like the twins, maybe she grew accustomed to their silliness and found it normal.

She spotted the twins in their usual place, at the park, the climbing frames. Kitsu was hanging upside down and Koko was sitting on the bar, sprinting to them she called for them and asked for their opinions. They gave her some useful and some stupid facts about 10-year-old boys. The main ones Mikan remembered were that they enjoy praise and like challenges.

That night…

Mikan brought a backpack full of gameboards, trivia games and other puzzle games of the sort. She wore her lucky shirt and favourite skirt hoping that tonight would go as planned. It was all going well when they played jenga, but when Mikan toppled the tower over she couldn't help but whine at how nerve-racking it was to be under pressure, which miraculously caused the stone-faced boy to stifle a chuckle.

Blinking once, twice, thrice, Mikan took a double take and gasped, "You just laughed!" she pointed and beamed her 100-watt smile. The raven-haired male scoffed and shook his head, he offered to play another puzzle game challenging the brunette to a match of chess. Mikan was hesitant as Natsume looked quite confident in his skill, the 12-year-old only played a few times with her grandfather. Agreeing to his challenge the two set up the board and began the match.

Loss. Every game, and rematch Mikan played with Natsume would lead her to a loss. Annoyed at this, the older sulked at how he refused to go easy on her as she was a beginner, however this allowed Mikan to witness the boy laugh, smile and communicate to her. She had done it.

"Hey ugly… Ugly!" the male called out to gain the brunettes attention.

"…" not wanting to respond to the mean names he was giving her she ignored his attempts.

"Ugly! Hey answer me! Ugl-… Polka dots." Her ears pricekd at the new name he had given her.

"Polka-what?" Mikan finally answered, clueless about how Natsume came up with that name.

"Polka dots. You shouldn't keep your legs wide open and wear a skirt" Mikan's eyes grew to the size of her gaping mouth in sudden realization.

"Y-you… YOU PERVERT!" grabbing the closest object to her person, a cushion, she threw it at the other which lead to the other throwing it back, resulting in a full out brawl between the two. Mikan began chasing the younger around the room, the table and the couch. When she had him in a tight spot, she pounced onto him and pinned him down using all her body weight. Luckily, she weighed more than him, for now, pouting she flicked his forehead and scolded him "No girl will like you if you're a pervert!"

This declaration was followed by a moment of silence, until Natsume began to turn red – the boy was blushing. Mikan gasped and thought that she was preventing him from breathing and quickly rolled off the younger. Natsume avoided eye contact with Mikan for the rest of the night, which didn't go unnoticed by the brunette.

At around 10pm Natume's dad returned, Mikan had to hurry on home before her mom began to worry; surprisingly, Natsume decided to see her out with his dad and waved goodbye as she left "See you later…" he muttered softly, Mikan giggled retorting with "Don't you mean tomorrow?" She couldn't wait to tell her mom, her grandfather and Hotaru what she had accomplished.