07. Softening Hearts

His crimson eyes had an unusual glow in them that evening. They were searching the crowd for some certain pair of hazel orbs, restlessly. Finally, they stopped beside the school gates where four girls were standing, chatting and laughing without a halt. He couldn't help but smirk when his vision focused on the brunette who was obviously, the leading talker in the gang. "I wonder how they bear to hear them all!" he thought as he stopped his engine, parking the car in front of the City High School. He knew this would cause much trouble, but he had already made up his mind to go through anything, to get what he wanted.

He'd never expected her to notice him before others did. He already knew that she was slow. So because of that, he needed a hell lot of 'patience'.

"Patience" he thought as he let out another smirk, looking at the distance figure of the brunette.

But everything happened a bit earlier than he had calculated. He had forgotten that the other girls weren't so slow.

They saw him. And recognized him at once. He could feel the heat building up in the crowd. It took some inaudible whispers, high pitched screaming and some annoying yells to make our brunette turn her head to look at his car, much to his dismay. But he could say that she hadn't recognized him yet. "Is she blind?" He thought as he lowered the shutter to give her a clear view.

But no avail. "Stupid bird!" he thought, slapping the steer with his right arm, exhausted. He was about to go to his plan B, when he saw his target moving forward, her hazel orbs widened in horror. He was sure she had recognized him by now, but wasn't so sure why she was moving towards his car. He had never expected her to come to him all by herself. He wanted a bit of drama. "Not like this!" He thought as he observed the girl, and the onlookers.

About thirty seconds passed. The girl stopped in the midway, looking dazed by something she had noticed on the other side of the road. His ruby eyes followed her gaze and, without too much trouble, noticed what was troubling her. Seeing those idiotic guys hooting and making faces at her, he couldn't be patient anymore. He stepped down from the vehicle, stomped towards her, grabbed her by her hand and within 15 seconds, they were both safely in the car.

He looked at her from the mirror, not wanting her to catch his gaze, but as always, she did. She smiled at him, but he didn't want her to read his feelings so that he kept indifferent.

The car drove off, making the onlookers stand still with their mouths forming big 'O's.

"Thanks." She said, wanting to break the ice.

Having heard that, Natsume slowed the car and turned his head to face Mikan. He looked cool as ever, but this time a question could also be seen in his gaze.

"Was that him?" He asked, not wanting to speak the name of the person he was referring to. Till then Mikan had been thinking that Natsume had seen Kaname before. So that question surprised her.

"Who? Kaname-senpai?" She asked in return. She always liked to answer a question with another question which Natsume hated the most.

"Hn." Was his reply. Disgust was visible in his tone. He wondered why he hated to hear that name that much. Now Mikan was sure about who he was talking about. So she opened her mouth to say more about him as Natsume gave her a death glare, implying that he had heard enough of him already. Mikan just pouted.

"Stop looking silly." Said he, focusing on the road. His eyes had got a dreamy look by now.

Another silent session passed between the two.

Now, Mikan's mind was boiling with questions. She was never the one to keep quiet. Even Natsume felt a little uneasy without her talking. He had to admit. He wanted her to break the ice. But wait! Not about Kaname again!

"How come you hadn't seen Kaname-senpai before!" She said, almost cried! Hearing that, Natsume's ears bled. Kaname was the last thing he had expected.

"How come? Why you thought I and your Kaname-senpai used the same bathroom to see each other every time we peed?" He raced with his words, annoyed to death. Hearing that, Mikan raged.

"I'm not talking about a damn bathroom!" She said in fury. She was overreacting by now. Natsume didn't say a word in return. She could say, he was pissed off. After a few seconds she realized that she had raised her voice at him for no reason. She needed to change the topic.

"Umm… So what were you doing in front of our school? You know what! You made the crowd go crazy! And they were talking nonsense about us!" She said and wondered if it had sounded like a complain.

There he looked at her, interested. His mouth had a smirk at one corner.

"Nonsense? What kinda nonsense?" He asked, visibly smirking. She looked at him and pouted.

"You know… Things like we're living together and those same old stuff!" She spoke out, scraping the seatbelt dreamily. Hearing her reply, his smirk grew wider. Seeing this, Mikan looked at him; anger was visible in her eyes.

"Why! Why're you smirking!" She shot back, trying to make him look at her. "Hey! You haven't answered to my question! What were you doing there in front of my school!" She added to her rage. Natsume looked at her, pissed off this time.

"Why would I tell you?" That was his usual answer. Mikan didn't seem to be satisfied with that. Disappointment was visible in her eyes. Not wanting to inquire again, she rested her head on the back of the seat, and closed her eyes.

Still keeping her eyes shut, she opened her mouth to ask something important.

"Where're we going?" She asked, bored this time. Hearing that, Natsume couldn't help but chuckle. Mikan opened her eyes, shocked to hear him chuckling as if it were the most uncommon thing on earth. Maybe, it actually was.

She looked at him, questioningly.

"Why? You wanna go somewhere other than home?" He asked as he stared at her, seductively.

"Very funny!" She said as she turned her head to the other side, raging once again. Seeing her angry expression, Natsume smiled. He smiled! But she didn't see it. He was sure she didn't. So he was relieved.

Mikan's school wasn't so far from home. Yet the traffic had been excellent so that it took more than 45 minutes to reach home. As Natsume drove in through the gates, their mom came out waving from the house, smiling. She was really happy to see Natsume driving Mikan home; one of the rare wonders of the world.

He looked at sleeping Mikan as he killed the engine and unlocked the doors. She was fast asleep. "Dumb bird!" He thought as he smiled from within. He didn't want their mom to see her son smiling or she'd have him in a lunatic asylum in the next minute.

He got down from the car and walked to the other side, not sure what to do about Mikan. If it had been some other day, he would've pinched her nose and made her jump into consciousness. But that day, he didn't feel like doing so.

Opened the door of her side and sighed. She was breathing heavily, her hair all over her face. He could kiss her right then. Wait! What? No. Their mom was right behind him. Natsume pressed down his feeling and took her in his arms, like what a father would do when his loving daughter had fallen asleep on the couch, watching TV.

Kaoru Hyuuga wasn't surprised to see this happen. She had seen this several times when Mikan had fallen asleep in various places around the house other than her bed.

"It must've been a long day for her." She said, looking at Mikan, who was currently peacefully sleeping in Natsume's arms. She followed Natsume as he carried Mikan to her bedroom and put her to bed. Natsume didn't do anything more although he'd wanted to. He left the room without a word, leaving mom to do the rest.

Mrs. Hyuuga tucked her little girl in the sheets and stepped away, wondering what had made Natsume bring her home. Actually, no one knew the answer yet, which Natsume would never tell.

Natsume went back to his car just to take his things out. It was when he saw that Mikan had left her phone on the seat, fallen and stuck at the edge of it. He took it out and smiled as he saw one new message in the notifications. He knew how much she yearned to receive messages. Of course he knew! Besides, everyone knew that as it was something she'd always nag about. Thinking of messages, he remembered how she had once stolen his phone and texted to her own number, just to show Permy that she received a hell lot of messages from people when she had insulted her for not receiving a single message from anyone human.

Natsume couldn't hold his smile from widening. Walking towards his room, he decided to check the message, knowing that she had never had a concern for privacy. Locking the phone had never been her style.

Natsume opened the text message with some unknown trepidation. He hoped it wasn't from a guy, he didn't know why. Maybe, he did know why, but she didn't.

He was both relieved and surprised to see that it was from Hotaru.

"Imai? Huh." He said as he ran through the text, which simply read, "How was the ride?" He knew what she had meant.

"Interesting. Imai." He said as his eyes gleamed in an instance.

He hurriedly deleted the message and walked back to her room just to put it under her pillow so he won't hear any annoying curses from her when she woke up.

When he stepped inside her room, he was relieved to see that she was still asleep. He walked near her bed and stopped, bending down. He lifted the corner of her pillow a little and kept the phone there under it, making sure not to wake her up. He turned to leave as Mikan unknowingly touched his hand which was currently near the edge of her bed. He was startled and felt a sudden outburst of emotions pressing his mind not to leave her that soon.

So my dear readers! I've switched it to Normal POV! I feel much happier this way, I guess! How do you feel about this change? Lemme know…

I'm gonna catch Natsume Off-guard in the next chapter! So stay alert! *wink * wink

Plus! If you're really interested, feel free to gimme ideas about where this should go and stuff. I'll be really grateful for those!

Kisses! :-*

HaCel and xMikanNatsumex thanks for your reviews! :-*

-Awful Nightmare!-