16. Finally, at ease!
"I won't have any choice but to snatch her away from you." Natsume said and Mikan's jaw dropped.
"Na-Natsume! What's he talking about?" Mikan thought as she tried hard to understand what was going on between Natsume and Kaoru. She had no idea what Natsume had been talking about all this time. But for her, one thing was clear, her being pregnant, wasn't a secret to anyone anymore. But with this drama which Natsume was creating, she had no time to be embarrassed about her situation in front of her mother.
"Na—Natsume…" Her mother spoke, both shocked and surprised. Her tears had stopped in the midway by now. Hearing his mother speak, Natsume looked up, confident as ever.
"Don't think I told you of this to get your blessing." He said and turned his head away. "I'll do this… no matter what comes in the middle." He said, looking desperate this time.
Meanwhile, Kaoru was trying hard to recover from her shock, still looking dreamily at her son. In two more seconds, she seemed to have made up her mind to face the situation without breaking down. Therefore, wiping her tears, she turned her head to look at Mikan, who was totally outta her mind right now.
"Mikan… Why… why didn't you tell me something… something so important like this? Why didn't you tell me that you and Natsume had… something going on between you?" Kaoru asked, her eyes flickering with tears. Hearing that, Mikan's head started to ache all of a sudden. "I and Natsume? Had something…" she thought as a ball of sweat rolled down her face. "What's this?! This is not the real story!" Mikan added to her thoughts as she looked at Natsume with widened eyes, not knowing what to say in return to her mother.
"There's no point in asking her now." Natsume broke into the middle, not taking the risk of Mikan ruining the whole drama. "Besides, you should've noticed it yourself." Natsume stopped as Kaoru shifted her look to Natsume, surprised.
"There're some feelings… that we can't show out in the public." Said he and turned to leave the room, still holding Mikan's hand tightly.
"Let's move, baka!" Natsume whispered to Mikan's ear before he dragged her out of the room, annoyed.
Kaoru, on the other hand, was left alone in Natsume's room, thunderstruck.
She didn't know what she should do now. She had no idea about anything, yet one thing was crystal clear. "It was just as I had imagined." Kaoru thought as she looked at the retreating figures of her son and her future daughter-in-law.
"Natsume! What was that?! You lied to momma! She must be so disappointed by now!" Mikan cried out loud as Natsume threw her on her bed and closed the door behind him, locking it from inside. "Tsk! This girl!" He thought, putting both his hands inside his pockets.
"Listen to me baka. Remember you asked if there was a proper way huh?" Natsume asked, looking at her raging hazel orbs. Hearing him asking that, Mikan turned her head away and pouted.
"You call it a proper way?" She asked, not looking at him. Criticism was visible in her tone.
"Yup. And this is the only way out." Natsume said out coolly as he reached Mikan and sat on the bed, next to her surprised figure. "But…" Mikan said as she felt his body next to her, nearly touching her shoulder.
"No buts little girl. You and I…" Natsume stopped to look seductively at Mikan's wide open hazel eyes and wrapped her shoulders with his right arm, smiling inwardly.
"Are getting married." He completed his sentence, making Mikan faint, anime style.
"Wha-whattt?!" Mikan asked as soon as she woke up from her unconsciousness.
"Yup. You heard it right." Natsume said as he tried hard to keep himself from chuckling. Hearing him confirming her thoughts, Mikan started to shake unstoppably.
"WHAT! No! Natsume! Are you outta your mind?!" Mikan yelled as she looked at the crimson eyed lad with her gaping eyes. Hearing her oppose, Natsume's expression changed at once. With that, he quickly removed his arm from around her shoulders and stood up, his back turned to Mikan.
"Don't forget…" He started, bangs covering his cold crimson eyes. "That I'm trying to help you, baka!" He said and disappeared from the room at once, leaving Mikan to ponder on what He had just said.
"Natsume… Is he really offering me to marry him? Be—because… there's no one left to accept my hand in a critical situation like this? But…still… this isn't something really unimportant! It's a marriage after all…! How could he… how could he just throw himself into a marriage that he doesn't want at all… just because someone worthless like me is in trouble?" Mikan thought as another tear rolled down her face. She couldn't believe that Natsume was ready to get into a marriage just because he wanted to help her out. "Don't forget… that I'm trying to help you, baka!" Those words started to repeat inside her mind.
"He sounded… he sounded so serious…" Mikan thought as she took hold of her head with both her hands, confused.
"Ohhh! Kami! What am I gonna do now!" She cried out loud as she threw herself on the bed with a loud thud.
"What am I gonna do now…" She repeated that sentence, this time, putting her hand on her still flat belly, looking at the empty ceiling dreamily. Many things had happened just for one day. For her that day seemed like a whole year. Eventful and endless.
"Mikan."
Mikan heard someone calling her name and felt someone's breath next to her ear. With that she returned back to consciousness and opened her eyes, only to see a pair of icy violet eyes bent over her face. It didn't take long for her to realize who that was.
"Hotaruuu!" She cried like a three year-old as soon as she recognized her icy best friends face.
"Shut up, baka! You pisses me off!" The raven haired girl said as she distanced herself hurriedly from the drooling brunette.
"Hotaru! What're you doing here? What time is it now? Umm is it still the same day?" Mikan asked, totally confused.
"It's 8.00pm now." Hotaru said, looking at her surroundings. Hearing that, Mikan's eyes withered.
"It's still the same day…" Mikan said out dreamily, looking down at her crumpled dress.
"What happened with Natsume?" Hotaru asked out of the blue, making Mikan go back to that odd past.
"Ohhh Hotaru… You're here to continue that scary talk?!" Mikan asked as she pouted at Hotaru's inquisitive cold eyes.
"Why, do you think I came all the way here just to see your baka face?" Hotaru asked emotionlessly as ever. Hearing that, Mikan's rage started to overflow.
"Grrrr! Hotaru you're mean as ever! Oh yeah! He asked me to marry him!" Mikan said, irritated to death. By telling that, Mikan couldn't get the expected response from Hotaru anyway. The expected response was a series of big O's but all Hotaru said was—
"Nice idea."
"Eh?!" Mikan's jaw dropped, anime style.
"Only I feel sorry for Natsume." Hotaru said, taking a bottle outta her backpack.
"Sorry? For Natsume?! Baka! You should feel sorry for me!" Mikan said, shaking with extreme rage. Seeing her rage, Hotaru opened the bottle in her hand and started to eat her most precious crab-paste that she had kept to be used in crucial moments.
"Of course not. Natsume's gonna get married to a super baka girl who has never loved him in her whole life. So isn't he the one I should sympathize with?" Hotaru said, not bothering to look at her raging best friend.
"Hotaru-no-baka! Isn't it the same with me?! Ain't I gonna get married with someone who has never loved me too?!" Mikan asked, putting her hands on her hips, extremely irritated. Hearing her question, Hotaru stopped eating and turned her head to look at her.
"When are you gonna notice what's happening around you, baka?" Hotaru asked, throwing another emotionless glare at Mikan, who was kneeling down on the bed.
"If your idiotic mind can't understand what he's actually gonna do, at least, just try not to question him." Hotaru said, not letting Mikan answer to her previous question.
"If you can't protect yourself (of course you've proved that you can't.), just let him do that." Hotaru sounded too damn serious this time. Hearing her saying those words, Mikan's rage automatically subsided and was replaced by a teary emotion at once.
"Trust me, Mikan," Hotaru added as she suddenly grabbed her hand and squeezed it, convincingly.
"You won't regret it."
Said Hotaru as Mikan jumped forward to hug her best friend who had just now made all her worries fly away. Mikan was no longer confused. She knew what she had to do next.
"Natsume…"
He was brought back to earth by someone calling his name. He knew who that was and sat down on his bed at once, putting on his t-shirt.
"Come in." Natsume said, ready to have a deep conversation with his mother who walked inside the room in the next minute.
"Natsume… Can we have a little chat about the previous incident?" Kaoru asked, calmed down now. Natsume had expected this to happen, so he looked up at his mother and nodded. Seeing his approval, Kaoru walked towards her son and sat beside him, dreamily.
"Hmm… I feel really tired tonight…" She said, looking at the opposite wall, distractedly. Natsume knew he didn't have to say anything just yet; so he kept silence.
"I couldn't make up my mind to face Mikan yet." Kaoru said and smiled soon afterwards.
"Mom." Natsume spoke out of the blue, catching Kaoru by surprise. It'd been a long time since she heard Natsume calling her 'mom'.
"I'm not trying to say what we did was right." Natsume started to go through his speech. "I'm not asking you to forgive me at all. But still, you got to forgive her." He said, giving his mother a softening look which made Kaoru's heart skip a beat.
"She…" He stopped to turn his head to look at the blank wall in front of him. "She doesn't deserve an unhappy life." Natsume said, breaking that pin drop silence with his deep hoarse voice.
"All she want is… is to be with you. So don't—" Natsume stopped to look into his mother's deep crimson eyes. "Don't avoid her. Don't make her feel lonely, just 'cause she's made one wrong move in her life." Natsume ended up his speech and looked down, trying hard to suppress his feelings.
All of a sudden, he felt an arm running around his shoulders, pulling him into a soft embrace.
"You love her so much, don't you?" Kaoru asked as she tightened the hug, making Natsume look surprised at her.
"You think your mom's that old not to see her son's heart?" Kaoru asked again, smiling this time. Seeing her smile, Natsume looked away, not wanting her to read his mind anymore.
"But the action you took to prove your love, was really bad Natsume…" Kaoru said as she stood up from the bed, again in a state of agony.
"I still can't believe my own son… did something like that." She said, her back turned to Natsume. "But… you two remind me of a couple I knew." Kaoru added to her speech from within her mind.
"I wish you could've waited… waited a little longer…" She said as she turned to face her son who was still sitting on the bed with his head rested on his hands.
"However… we can't forget that you've crossed the line. So…" Kaoru stopped as Natsume looked up at her face, perplexed.
"So I guess… You got to pay the price." Kaoru said and Natsume's eyes widened in surprise, not knowing what she was implying. Seeing her son's confused eyes, Kaoru made her mind to put it into simple terms.
"Don't look so terrified... It doesn't suit you." She stopped and smiled at her son, mildly.
"Go ahead and marry her…" She said at once, making Natsume choke a little. He had never expected her to say that this early.
"After all… I don't wanna make a fierce guy like you my enemy." Kaoru said out playfully and chuckled a little, making Natsume sigh in relief.
"And… I know… I'm sure… I'm handing Mikan to the rightest person on earth!"
She said and turned to leave after giving Natsume a heartwarming smile.
So finally… He was really, at ease.
He walked past her door. The lights were still on, so he walked past it again, just to check if she was crying alone. He was about two three yards away from the door when he heard the door knob opening with a crack sound. So he hurriedly turned around and started to walk in the direction of the stairs.
"Natsume." He heard a cold female voice calling out for him, making him stop in the midway. Then he turned around only to see a raven haired girl with violet eyes, standing by Mikan's door, smiling. This definitely caught him by surprise; her calling him by his first name of course. Hotaru Imai, who had used to call him 'Hyuuga', had just called him 'Natsume'.
"Imai?" Natsume asked, surprised. Hotaru could see his crimson eyes gleaming, even in that pitch black darkness. Hearing him calling her name, Hotaru smiled again, much to Natsume's amazement.
"Thanks." Hotaru said all of a sudden and walked away without another word, leaving Natsume in a shock.
After taking another glimpse of Hotaru's retreating figure, Natsume stared at Mikan's door, thinking whether he should break in or not. Staring for a few seconds, he did what he felt so much like doing.
He broke into her room without warning.
"Natsume!" Mikan yelled, her eyes widened in horror.
"Oops! Nice timing, Flatlands!" Natsume said, seeing his future bride in the middle of a struggle to get rid of her day clothes. Simply, her hair was woven around a button of her top which was halfway through her head, giving Natsume a front seat view of her literally not so flat boobs.
Hearing his sudden remark, Mikan shivered, her face redder than Natsume's eyes.
"Close your eyes, you hentaiii!" Mikan shouted her lungs out, standing there in front of him, immovable. Of course, she was actually immovable for her hair was stuck in her top.
"Oh… should I? You close your eyes." Natsume said coming closer. And this made Mikan go totally crazy.
"Stop right there! On more step forward and you're dead!" Mikan yelled again, threatening this time. Hearing her threatening voice, Natsume just chuckled, making Mikan go wild some more.
"I told you already. If you can't watch this, close your eyes." Natsume said out coolly as he reached out for her shaking figure and pulled her closer, making her actually close her eyes.
Seeing her slowly closing her eyes, Natsume couldn't help but stare at her lips which were tightly closed as a sudden desire passed through his brains. But he brushed it off at once and concentrated on his main business.
Then he carefully turned her around, searching for the place where she had her hair stuck on. Mikan still had her eyes tightly closed, not wanting to see what Natsume was performing on her. Within a minute, Natsume could find the spot and released her hair from the cloth at once, without her knowing at all. Then he immediately pulled down her top, placing things again in their righteous places.
Mikan was waiting, waiting to feel Natsume, but wait! Nothing happened at all.
"What're you waiting for, baka?" Natsume said, not wanting her to drive him crazy anymore by keeping her eyes closed. Hearing his sudden outburst, Mikan's eyes popped opened, shocked to death.
"Why—why didn't you… do anything?" She asked, stammering.
Hearing what she had said, Natsume smirked, coming closer.
"Why… what did you expect me to do, huh?" Natsume asked as he reached out for her face with his, their foreheads almost touching.
"No—nothing!" She said, stammering once again. Natsume could clearly see the blush on her face and that was something he had yearned to see; her blushing, for him. But suddenly, the realization hit his mind and that same realization darkened his expression, making him remove his face from hers and turn to leave.
"I'd never do anything of that type to a woman, who freaks out when I'm around." He said and left the room, leaving Mikan to muse upon what he had said.
"Natsume…"
She murmured as she clutched her top, which Natsume had pulled down for her.
"Mikan… You look really pretty tonight… That I can't keep my eyes off you…"
"Oh… Umm… Senpai…"
"Oh there… You've spilled your coffee all over your dress… Let me help you…"
"Uh… No… Senpai… It's just a mere stain…"
"No look! You can't go home like this… Let's go upstairs and clean up. C'mon, I insist."
"Uh umm… Okay then… Thank you very much for your concern… Senpai…"
"Oh C'mon Mikan… You don't have to thank me for everything I do. I do all this, just 'cause I like you very much."
"Here… you can go to any of these rooms and clean yourself up. I'll wait here."
"Uh… Senpai! What're you doing here…?"
"I told you… I can't keep my eyes off you…"
"But… Senpai…"
"Just… Just give me another half an hour with you… Please…"
"S-senpai…"
"Please… Mikan…"
"Trust me… I won't leave you…"
"Trust me… I won't leave you…"
"Trust me… I won't leave you…"
Trust me…
Trust me…
I won't leave you…
Hello there! How are you feelingggg? Haha! So there goes my 16th chapter!
Umm I didn't wanna update this sooner, but what to do…
My fingers won't stop typing! Damn it! :-D
There's nothing much in this chapter though… ;-(
Umm we'll see what happens next! I'm done with my plot so… umm I can tell you for sure that this won't end in another 10 chapters.
Uhhhh… I dunno…
Anyway…
HaCel:- Yup. Even I didn't expect them to return home. But what to do… Mikan didn't wanna leave that sooner. It's her story, after all. :-D
cposcabee:- Here I've updated for you! :-) Thanks for following my story this far! Keep reading honey!
Timey Wimey Detecter:- Of course you could say so! Only his crust is sassy… Not his heart though! :-) Natsume-kun! Bravo! :-*
Forever alone:- Yeah yeah! Cheers for singles! *cry
Katherine Kalissa Amara:- Here, guess now you know how she got pregnant! Gotta tell you… Coffee leads to many scary things! Haha! ;-)
I'm soo happy that I receive at least 4 reviews per a chapter! :-)
If you guys really love me… (My story, of course!) umm please review more and more…
I'll meet you soon with my 17th chapter…!
Till then…
Bye!
Love you all! :-*
-Awful Nightmare-