"S-so he called you af-after the pattern of your… underwear?" Mikan had pursed lips, fuming at how the three people she told had not acknowledged the fact that she achieved her goal and merely focused on the funny, now-nickname the said boy gave to her. They were all currently having dinner: roast chicken and stir fry.

"Mikan. I think you should follow his advice, you can learn a lot from that 10-year-old." Her own stoic friend shook her head in disappointment, then inserted a slice of chicken into her mouth.

"Mou… You guys don't even care that I got Hyuuga-san's son to open up, do you?" folding her arms, she gave a great huff and turned her head away.

"Mikan-chan, I think that you don't need us to recognise that you did it because from the start we knew you could do it." Her grandfather revealed, Mikan couldn't act angry towards her 'jii-chan' simply because he was so wise and knew how to make her happy with only a few words. The four then continued with their meal, laughing at Mikan's silliness.

It was a mundane thing for Hotaru to stop by; stay to have dinner with Mikan's family and discuss about her babysitting work. It was also normal for her to sleepover if ever she felt too lazy to go home, despite it being directly beside the Azumi-Sakura house; it was basically a second house to her… She even had a place for her clothes and a spare bed for herself, but she usually shared Mikan's king sized bed as the latter would whine and beg if she refused.

Hotaru's family, the Imai's, were close and fond of the Azumi-Sakura's. Especially the young Mikan, who was best friend with their dear Hotaru. They considered her as one of their own, even Subaru Hotaru's older brother was comfortable when Mikan stayed over or came for dinner. Similar to the Hyuuga's, the Imai's had raven hair with a unique eye colour - violet

11:00 am | Friday

"Hey… Hotaru" Mikan began, hoping her best friend was still awake.

"Idiot. Please. Just tell me tomorrow." The other answered.

"Okay…" Mikan complied obediently, although she couldn't help but imagine how her next night that she'd spend with Natsume would turn out.

Sitting up, the girl looked over to her left and checked to see if Hotaru was indeed asleep. Peering closer she felt a hand drag her down by her hair, "Mikan, when I say tomorrow. I mean to-mo-rrow" afraid of the tone that her icy friend used towards her, she nodded hastily and rushed to her side of the bed forcing herself to sleep.

8:34 am | Saturday

Hotaru was already up, she was curious to what Mikan wanted to tell her – it was just how Mikan was so eager to tell her last night. She wanted to know last night, but sleeping was her top priority.

Waking the brunette up by kicking her off of the bed, she called out "Hey idiot. Get up, you were supposed to tell me something, remember?" the 'idiot' crawled back onto the bed and yawned.

"Ah…. Yeah. I was." Mikan's voice was hoarse and her hair was in tangles, the violet-orbed female couldn't help but snort at her best friend's appearance. Jolting awake every time the brunette began to doze off, Hotaru sighed impatiently and once again pushed her off the bed. Finally, fully awake, the bruised Mikan stood up rubbing her sore head and muttered "So pushy, geez…", the pun was so bad Hotaru cringed and pushed Mikan yet again. "STOP IT I'M AWAKE!" She belted out.

Flicking the others forehead, she scolded her, as per usual, "Don't be so loud in the morning some people are still sleeping." Mikan couldn't help but pout as her best friend always seemed to enjoy telling her off, even when Mikan was the older one.

Groaning, she began "So, I kind of saw Natsume blush when I pinned him down after I chased him. What does that mean?" her head tilted to the side as she waited for the younger yet wiser one to respond to her.

"Well this is just a guess, but I think he likes you." Hotaru shrugged not really surprised, Mikan was sweet and pretty, it would have been more shocking if Natsume didn't like her.

"I know he likes me. I like him too, but what does blushing have to do with it?" Hotaru just had to push her off the bed again, the brunette was just too dense. The said girl didn't even acknowledge the fact that even the twins liked her, but Hotaru wasn't sure about that anymore as they didn't act as overly attached to Mikan unlike before.

Mikan had been the neighbourhood babysitter for 2 years, so it was normal for them to have grown up from their crush on her. They were only 8 back then too, Mikan and her 10 years-old, it seemed like it had been ages since Mikan had lost a child or couldn't control a child's hyper activeness. Whilst Hotaru was reminiscing the other scrambled up onto the bed and tackled the raven head.

"Hotaru! I told you to stop it!" Her cheeks were puffed out and her brows were furrowed together, whilst trying hr best to form a serious scowl. Hotaru gave a rare smile, leading Mikan to gasp and withdraw, "Why are you smiling?". Sliding off the bed and heading to the door Hotaru ignored her best friend's question and walked downstairs.

"I'm heading home auntie Yuka, see you later idiot!" she called out from the stairs.

"What? Wait, HOTAR-" the slamming of the front door muffled the brunette's scream.

That night…

Natsume was laying on the couch when Mikan arrived, his legs crossed and his eyes occupied on his 3DS screen. The elder bolted to the younger and grinned, popping her head in front of the boy she greeted, "Hey! Natsume do you want to watch a film?". The boy's brow knitted together in annoyance at how she blatantly interrupted his gaming session, but not able to get mad at her as she offered the idea of watching a movie. Smirking, Natsume nodded and scurried off into his room to look for the ideal film.

Knowing that Mikan's selection of films would be crap, the 10-year-old brought out his and his father's collection of films that were better than stupid girlie rom-coms. Placing them on the counter he offered his favourite film, 'The Omen' he refused to show her the cover as he knew she would refuse if she found out the genre of the film. Unsure if she could trust him Mikan asked if it was inappropriate for them to watch.

"My dad and I have watched this films many times…" the boy stared at Mikan's expression as it turned from hesitant to relieved.

"But to make sure let's watch the films that I brought!" she tried her best to convince the other.

Just as stubborn as she was, Natsume used the tactic of reverse psychology, "You're right maybe my film isn't good enough for you… let's watch your film"

The girl, easily fooled, felt bad for Natsume and gave in "No-no! I'm sure your film is good too. Ah. I mean, I was only worried that your dad might not want you to be watching it now"

Holding himself from with laughter, the raven-haired boy bit down on his cheeks and replied with "Hn."

"I'll put it in" taking the disc, the gullible brunette slid the disc into the CD player and hauled out her bag filled with snacks, "Just don't tell your dad about this okay?" Nodding the male smiled to himself – oh how she was going to be so surprised.

Later on…

"I'm home!"

Natsume had his head in a pillow and Mikan was nowhere to be seen, his dad had just arrived and switched the closed lights on.

"What happened here?" he asked lost as he couldn't find the supposed babysitter. Worried he rushed to the motionless male on the couch, "Natsume?!", pushing him to his side and gasped. Something was so wrong, he asked the boy where Mikan was and all he received as a reply was a point to the cupboard. Puzzled at the strange behaviour, the adult had not thought of looking at the screen of the TV that was paused on a key scene of the film.

Opening the cupboard, he heard whimpering and saw a quivering Mikan in the far most corner, eyes squeezed shut and her harms hugging her legs. In his most calm voice Hyuuga-san called the two over to him, "Natsume. Mikan." The young girl crawled out slowly not batting her eyes to either of the males, and the male on the couch jumped off and strolled to his dad.

"Now be honest with me Mikan, what did you do to make my son laugh to the point of tears?" He was curious, but seeing as she was unable to even whisper Hyuuga-san gave her a pat on the head and turned his attention to Natsume. His mouth couldn't help but form into a smile indistinguishably to his own son's, it was amazingly contagious if only his son smiled like that more often, "Now. You tell me what you did to Mikan to get her to act like this?".

Natsume broke, his cold demeaner gone; deteriorated to nothing. He burst out laughing as he pointed to the screen of the TV. Hyuuga-san stared at it and chuckled, pulling Mikan and Natsume into a tight hug, "You two are perfect together… Thanks Mikan, my son has never smiled like this since I don't know when." Mikan was no longer tense, he felt her arms slowly hug back and he smiled, he made the right choice of choosing Mikan. She was the one.

Hyuuga-san scolded Natsume to reassure Mikan and offered her to a lift home. Natsume suddenly took his dad by the hand before they left and muttered, "Thanks for getting me a babysitter." His dad knew what he really meant by that and ruffled his son's hair. Locking the door, Hyuuga-san and Mikan had small talk about Natsume; he was a boy with a story. Hyuuga-san's wife had left the two males behind and brought their daughter with her to America for family purposes; Natsume had been very isolated as he was a right mothers boy and a doting brother.

Mikan didn't understand as she was an only child, but knew the feeling of not being with both of her parents – she knew nothing about her own father, apart from that he was no longer around.

Once they arrived at Mikan's house she thanked Hyuuga-san and rushed inside, once the car left Mikan looked around. The lights were off. Something had happened. Panic-stricken, the young brunette jumped over the white, wicket fence that separated her house from the Imai's. Knocking on the door and buzzing the doorbell Mikan cried desperately, "HOTARU!". Tears rolled down her face – no one was answering, what was she to do? Nothing like this had ever happened. Biting her lips, Mikan sat on the floor leaning against the door of the Imai's; 'Where did everyone go?'. Shutting her eyes and taking deep breaths, Mikan calmed herself down. Maybe they all went out together – it was unlikely, but anything could've happened.

Hopping up, she ran around the house and searched every inch to find if they had left any note for her. Under the pot. A small note in her mother's handwriting 'Don't let them get you – I'll find you x'. Shivers ran down her spine, who were 'them' Mikan suddenly felt a presence behind her. Trying to be as subtle as possible, Mikan slowly began walking away, but it only drew closer. The shadow behind her grew and seemed to loom over her petit figure, they were here…

"We are sorry to interrupt the cartoon-mayhem marathon, but we come with breaking news. A whole neighbourhood was burnt down to the ground in a single night, we have been told that the fire started at the very end of the street – a house which belonged to the Azumi-Sakuras… No bodies were found but the family are missing, everything was burnt to a crisp and are unrecognizable… More information later tonight."