17. Natsume's Dream

"Natsume…"

"Shhh…Don't stop me tonight…
Don't stop me…

Just don't…" –

"Natsume…?" Natsume almost jumped off the bed, drops of sweat rolling down his face. He opened his eyes in horror; his mind still dwelling in the dream he had been having.

"Natsume?" He saw the brunette he had in his dream, bending over his sweaty face, looking perplexed. For a minute he thought it was also a part of the same dream, but brushed that thought off when he heard her voice for the third time.

"Natsume? You had a nightmare? You're sweating!" Brunette asked, concerned and shocked at the same time.

"Mi—kan" Natsume murmured, still in his dreamy look, sweating like a melting ice-cream. Hearing him whispering her name, brunette's eyes widened in surprise.
"E—eh?" Mikan asked, still bending over his still body, shocked to death. Seeing her confused expression, Natsume shook his dream away and straightened his back, going back to his usual cool posture.

"What're you doing here?" Natsume asked, calm and cool as ever, totally forgetting how he used to feel a moment ago.

"Umm… I came here…umm… to thank you!" Mikan said, trying hard to recover from her shock. Hearing what she had said, Natsume looked up at her, emotionless.

"Thank me? What for?" Natsume asked as he kept eye contact with the shocked brunette.

"For… umm… for giving up your happiness… for me… Your marriage… You agreed to marry me regardless of your—"

"You don't have to think about that." Natsume said as he looked down. "Happiness huh?" He thought before looking at her again.

"You'd better get ready. No time to waste." Natsume said, looking into her hazel orbs, making them grow wider.

"Get ready? What—what do you mean?" Mikan asked, shocked once again.

"Our marriage, what else?" Natsume said; a hunch of soft seriousness in his tone.

"M—marriage? This sooner?" Mikan asked, her heart beating fast inside her chest.

"Why, you wanna do it after the baby comes out?" Natsume asked in a you-must-be-kidding-me tone. Hearing that, Mikan's sweat dropped.

"No… But… Are we really… Are we really planning to take a huge ceremony? I thought it'd be a discreet wedding…" Mikan said, not believing a word.

"Mom… Mom wants it to happen the way she likes. Now it's outta my control." Natsume said, standing up from the bed, topless.

"B—but Natsume… How could we—" Mikan started, as Natsume walked towards his wardrobe and took out a shirt, annoyed.

"Just quit it now." Natsume said as he shot a cool glare at Mikan, totally pissed off.

"Natsume…" Mikan said as she pointed her eyes on the annoyed crimson ones of Natsume's.

"Go prepare yourself." Said he and sighed. Then looked at her with a softened look.

"Don't think too much." He added and turned his back to her, not wanting to continue the talk anymore.

Seeing him suddenly becoming so soft, Mikan's heart stopped beating for a minute. Then she left the room, slowly, not knowing how to start the 'preparations' for her unexpected wedding.

"Eh?!" Was Ruka's only response to what Hotaru had just spilled out of her mouth.

"Yeah." Hotaru confirmed, nodding seriously and making Ruka's mouth gape some more.

"B—but… How did this… how did it all happen in one day?" Ruka asked, stammering, trying hard not to collapse out of extreme astonishment.

"How could I know, bunny-boy!" Hotaru said, annoyed; he was asking too much questions.

"Ye-yeah! Just…Just asked!" Ruka said, not wanting to get killed by his ice-cold girlfriend.

However, that news had pleased him to a certain degree. He knew it was the best that could ever happen to his best friend. Yet he wasn't sure what the reason had been. He remembered how Natsume had suffered because of that girl. So how could that same girl bring him this much happiness all of a sudden? Ruka couldn't believe his ears.

"Is it that shocking, Ruka?" A new voice added to the air, making Ruka jump forward, automatically.

"Na—Natsume!" Ruka yelled, his eyes opened wide. The raven haired lad was walking towards them with his hands placed inside his pockets. Seeing his arrival, Hotaru just turned to look at her shocked bunny boy, emotionless as ever.

"Here you go, Nogi. Ask whatever you want." Hotaru said and started to search her bag for something. Natsume just walked slowly towards them and sat down on the couch, signing Ruka to sit down as well. Ruka was happy that there was no one in his house that afternoon, except for his stoic girlfriend, of course. He wanted to talk to Natsume alone and sort things out at once.

"Natsume…" Ruka said, looking deeply into his best friend's eyes, concerned. Seeing his concerning look, Natsume knew he had to sort things out for his worried best friend.

"Don't worry… Ruka." Natsume said as he smiled at him, slightly, assuring him that everything was gonna be alright. Seeing him smile after a thousand years, Ruka's heart warmed, releasing loads off his mind. But still, he wanted to know what made this huge change in atmosphere. So he opened his mouth, still looking at his raven haired best friend.

"But…Natsume… How did this happen? How did S-Sakura agreed to—"

"I'll explain you everything… after the wedding." Natsume put an end to Ruka's problem, making him withdraw with a frowned face. Yet Ruka wasn't unhappy at all. His heart was celebrating the fact that Natsume was finally getting what he had always wanted in his life, and that was all he had expected to hear.

Meanwhile, Hotaru was bored to death by listening to all this sentimental talk of the two guys sitting beside her.

"That girl," Natsume started, not looking at anybody in the living room. "That girl doesn't know how to get herself ready." He continued and turned his head to look at the violet eyed girl sitting next to Ruka, making her stare back at him.

"Help her out. Imai." Natsume completed his speech as he looked at her violet eyes as if he was making a plea. It was so unlike him to do so, yet Hotaru knew his feelings too well. Seeing his expression, stone cold Hotaru Imai, smiled, making her boyfriend lose his consciousness, literally.

The windows were banging against the wall, reacting too fast for the thunderstorm outside. He couldn't sleep; it was too disturbing. So he sat up in bed and ran his hand through his already messy hair; his eyes steady and piercing the gloom inside the ghostly room.

He had had that dream once more that afternoon. It was so confusing since he could never realize what it had really meant. Yet it was not the time to wander in his thoughts; his wedding was to take place tomorrow. And that thought made him sigh. He had been waiting for that fateful day, yet, his heart was screaming now. His mind was confused that he couldn't keep to his calm poise anymore. He could make it so far, yet, now at the last moment, he felt guilty for something he'd never known.

Recently, he'd been feeling that, what he was doing for her was something he must do at any rate. His mind seemed to have replaced the word 'help' with 'responsibility', without even asking him for permission.

The banging of the windows brought him back to earth, making him check the time in his phone.

"Tsk. 1:30!" He thought, climbing down from the bed. He felt his throat running dry, making him walk in the dark in search of water.

He nearly bumped into the boxes they had prepared the previous night for their long honeymoon tour to Kyoto. His heart blazed at the thought of their honeymoon where nothing was supposed to happen at all. Natsume knew she wasn't yet ready. She would never be, yet, the thought of being together with her this way gave him a familiar smell, which made him go back to the dream he'd been having so frequently for past few days. He was sure that dream had nothing to do with reality, but still it seemed all mysterious to him.

Natsume walked into the kitchen and drank a whole bottle of water, splashing a little on his face to shake away the dreamy look from his eyes. Then he started to walk towards his wife-to-be's room to check if she was doing well in that gloomy weather. He entered the always unlocked room without hesitation and saw two sleeping figures in bed, curled into each other. He knew who that second person was. Her raven haired bridesmaid had agreed to share the bed with her in her last night being a single. Natsume watched his future wife, sleeping soundly next to her best friend, unaware of the extreme weather they were having outside.

Seeing her sleeping peacefully, Natsume's heart eased at once. When he noticed that her hand was touching her belly, he couldn't help but hope their baby was okay as well. He could feel the anxiety he had for the baby she was carrying growing stronger day by day. He couldn't resist but think of both Mikan and the baby as the whole universe he had to protect by putting his life on the line.

His feelings for Mikan weren't a mystery for him.

Yet his growing feelings for the baby she was expecting, were indeed a mystery for him. He hated to think that it was someone else's blood. He could never admit to that fact. All he felt deep inside his heart was, both mother and baby were all his.

"They are mine." He thought as his dream started to flash through his eyes once again.

The sun was filling up the room, putting away the dark shadows of the previous night. The whole Hyuuga house was a total mess that morning; the air filled with grunts, yells, breaking sounds, footsteps, laughs, cries and all that sort of noises.

The brunette bride was sitting in front of her mirror, looking blankly at her own image, her eyes shaking a bit. Her makeup artist had just left the room letting the bridesmaid fill her space. Raven haired bridesmaid who was dressed in a pale pink tube dress with white roses on the hem, put her hand on the bride's shoulder, gently.

"Mikan… It's not like you're gonna leave this world in the next minute. Don't overact! Baka!" Hotaru said; though her start was gentle, her ending was emotionless and cold as ever. Feeling her cold words, Mikan looked at her one and only bridesmaid from the mirror and frowned.

"Hotaru you meanie! You don't understand! You'll get to know this feeling on your wedding day!" Mikan said, muffling her now rising cries.

"It's really okay for me to feel sad on my wedding day. I won't stand a chance to get married to someone from my own household." Hotaru said as she shot a cool glare at Mikan, emotionless as ever.

Though how much she wanted to accept the fact that this marriage won't change anything but her civil status, she couldn't keep herself from wanting to cry so hard.

"Natsume is really unlucky to get a baka bride like you!" Hotaru said as she turned to leave.

"Don't make him regret." Hotaru said before disappearing from the door, making Mikan's eyes grow wide with realization.

"Don't make him regret." Hotaru's last words started to haunt her head over and over again. Thinking of that, Mikan accidently clutched her heart, wondering what to do after this fateful marriage.

"Natsume… sacrificed his whole life for me. He took the blame… he… he took the responsibility… But I… I couldn't do anything for him… till now…"

Mikan was thinking, her heart beating like crazy.

"You don't have to do anything for me." Her thoughts were answered by a deep husky voice which had broken into the room out of the blue.

"Natsume…?!" Mikan spoke, surprised to see her groom before the ceremony started, dashing as ever. Her eyes stopped in his gleaming crimson orbs for a minute, still and frozen. She felt her belly celebrating his arrival, for the first time in her whole life. For her, it felt really different. She wondered if his all black tuxedo had added a different aura to his usual cool posture or was that the same Natsume she had been seeing for almost all her years on earth. Be it any, she felt as if she were melting in his gaze.

"You're blushing." Natsume said out flatly, burning her alive with his crimson flame.

"Eh?" Mikan said, hurriedly brushing away the dreamy look she had in her eyes.

"No need to worry about that. It's all natural." Natsume said out softly, not wanting to make her embarrassed on her wedding day.

"Yeah… I guess…" Mikan said, smiling like the rays of the sun, making Natsume's heart skip a beat. He couldn't believe the fact that she was, finally, happy with the marriage she'd been forced into.

"Our marriage..." Natsume started as he stood fine three yards away from her beaming figure. "Our marriage doesn't necessarily mean we have to get along with each other… physically." Natsume said and sighed inside his mind.

Hearing what he had just said, Mikan's eyes widened.

"Natsume… Why—why would you say… something like that all of a sudden?" Mikan asked, astonished. It wasn't that she had expected to get along with him physically, but Natsume's sudden statement had sounded like rules and guidelines for her.

"I don't want you to think…" He stopped and looked into her eyes again, seriously. "Of me as one of the bastards." He ended up his speech and turned to leave while Mikan stood speechless by the mirror.

"Be yourself even after this marriage. You don't have to change." He said as he stopped in front of the door.

"I'm sure, many would cherish that."

Natsume said and looked back at her. And for another short second, his lips formed a smile.

Whoa! Deepest of all the chapters I've updated so far! Try to guess what I've tried to give you through Natsume's dream! I'm confused too. Haha! Right here, I'm experimenting with my writing.

In the next few chapters, many things will change along with my writing style and especially the core of this story.

My plot is so exciting that I can't wait to put it into words!

It's past midnight and I'm still typing like a total lunatic. Haha! :-D

Please feel free to ask me anything regarding the story's plot.

More mysteries to come!

Keep your hopes!

cposcabee, Katherine Kalissa Amara, Timey Wimey Detecter, HaCel

Thanks for reviewing my story, as always!

Love you guys so much!

Wait for my other chapters!

Kisses! :-*