A/N: First and foremost I would like to apologize for not updating last weekend. Serious things came up and got complicated. That, and I am currently buried in my grave of school work.
Please accept my apology, my few but dear readers. :)
I'll try to get you two chapters to make up for it.
Now, on with last week's author's note..
A/N: Natsume has the smile of an angel. God I wish I could draw that boy... I finally met Luna and Hoshino (that's the actual name!) and a WHOLE bunch of people! I was so disappointed to find the manga isn't even finished yet, but so happy at the same time..!
Dear Hi, yes, I love your name very much, I might marry it and call it Susan. XD And awww, you are too sweet! I'm so happy to know I have such a loyal reader. :') And.. well... Let me at least tell you, the actual novel does not end very happily, and I've been debating it.. I've decided I'm going to make alternative endings to the fic. Yes, one will be (very) happy, hahaha. But don't worry. We've got a long way to go 'till the end. ;) Also, yes, 'Nothing' is very 'Lord Of The Flies'! :D What can I say, the kids are crazy. Hehehe.
P.S: About Ruka's eyes- In the manga they're blue, but in the anime they're gray, so I got confuzzled. :(
P.P.S: Thank you to Tamashii Karite :)
A late review is WAY better than no review! Hahah, thank you! I forgot about Neji.. XD
0o0o0o0o0
The next morning I purposely strolled by Natsume's tree, if only to brag about keeping my promise. And my end of the bargain. I had the money set aside, in case he remembered our bet. I hoped he wouldn't.
"Ruka forgives you." I called semi-sweetly. He ignored me.
"Natsume!" I yelled. He turned his head.
There it was again. That day, I'd been distracted by something when he'd turned his head. And now, in the daylight, I squinted my eyes..
He whipped his head around back toward my direction.
"How's the operation going, plums?" He questioned quickly, in a low voice. I knew what he was doing, but it was too late. I'd seen it. A blackish bruise on the side of his neck. I assumed that he must have gotten it falling from the tree. Or something. But, why hide it..?
"Natsume, what is that?" I motioned the bruise. He stared. But he never answered. The wrong questions he avoids, the right questions he ignores. Was I picking up a pattern? Was this going to become a riddle, our personal game? I shook my head. I wasn't even making sense.
"Hmm. Bye!" I saluted and he opened his mouth to say something, but I ran. I heard him stumble and had a miniature heart attack but didn't stop, hearing him shuffle back into place. I could feel his Fahrenheit eyes on my back until I turned the corner.
It was silly to me, but I didn't want my daily dosage of Hyuuga, not on my day off. It was getting to be unhealthy. I'd learn how he got injured when the time came.
I wanted to know now.
0o0o0o0
"Mikan!"
Narumi-Sensei caught me red-handed before I could enter the woods that would take me to Mr. Bears new and already abandoned shed.
"Narumi!" He smiled, but it seemed like a strange, hesitant action. I used to call him dad, before I found out that I'd had a father. Not that I didn't know I had a biological father, I already knew that it took a man and a woman to reproduce, and I was well educated of the process, even if it still made me blush. I knew I had a father, but a year ago I saw a picture of him. Then it was different. He had a face.
"Mikan.. I'd like to speak to you." He said sweetly. My heart raced. Yes, Narumi was handsome and had the Pheromone Alice but this was not why, I see him like a (second) dad, and I had my nullification. But because he also somehow was always very perceptive about things going on within the academy.
"Mikan, I have to speak to you.." He said sweetly, stopping in front of me. I looked up at him and tensed.
He waited for me to say something. I didn't.
"About your class..?"
I gave no response again.
"Mikan.." He sighed. He knelled down to look me directly in the eye, even if now he had to look slightly up. "I know you know something. Your class has been acting strange lately. You know which one. Ever since Natsume left." His tone was soft and understanding and tempting. I tried to somehow lock my jaw in place. There was a buzzing that I ignored because it was probably just my mental defense mechanism.
"I.. n-no.." I stuttered. I couldn't lie to Narumi. I bit my lip. The buzzing was getting louder, and he squinted his eyes and tilted his head. I guess he heard it too. He shrugged and directed his attention back to me.
He opened his mouth, and all that got out was "Mi-" before my back was slammed harshly by a small hand that grabbed a fistful of shirt and suddenly I was flying. Somewhat. My screech was drowned out by the buzz that I now realized was a motor engine. This thought registered that the cavalry had come as I watched Narumi's stunned face get farther and farther away. I turned to have a wave of flowing, black, unrestrained hair obscure my vision and glimpses of my violet-eyed savior and her crazy motor scooter that she invented herself.
I carefully shifted as much as I could as she sped so that I could hug her and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
"The padded seats come with a butt-Baka gun." Or maybe she could. I reluctantly ended my embrace.
"Then let me braid your hair as thanks!" I suggested cheerfully. She scowled but wouldn't say no. She secretly loved it when I braided her hair.
"You know, if we had speed limits on school grounds, this would be very illegal..!" I warned as I looked around for something to hold onto, scared of falling off. She rolled her eyes. We kept going until we stopped at a bench. We sat down and she reached for something in her pouch, I watched as she pulled out..
"Ah! No way! Holowan!" I squealed and dove for it. She pulled away and motioned with her hand, the message clear: 'Cough it up'.
I pouted and gave her the 3 rabbits I owed Natsume. Holowan meant more to me at this moment. Besides, if he didn't mention it this morning, he'd surely forgotten, right?
On the 4th piece of intertwined hairs of braid and 7th Holowan, Koko and Sumire came running toward us.
"There you are- Megane and Tsubasa are back with the lock! We're starting!" Koko had said when Sumire opened her mouth. She glared at him.
"I told you my mind is a RESTRICTED area!" She yelled and hit him on the arm. He laughed and it only got her angrier.
Hotaru and I looked at each other. That was fast. I felt my stomach sink at the rest of a day I though I'd spend, gone.
This had become our responsibility in our minds, one we carried out well as we sacrificed the rest of the day trudging back to our rooms, changing and grabbing anything we might need, and heading right back to the forest.
I was going to avoid Natsume. Somehow. It turns out I didn't have to.
Something extraordinary was happening.
I stood there in awe, mesmerized.
Natsume was napping. Napping like a cat lying on a porch in the sun. I suppose it gets boring quite quickly during 9 years of relaxation. He looked so peaceful.
So young.
So nice.
So...
un-Natsume Hyuuga.
I was torn between wanting to pinch his cheeks and running back to get him a blanket, or throwing something to wake him for fun. I would never do any of the above, though. They would almost all end in certain death.
I squinted my eyes and used my hand to shield them from the glare of afternoon sun through the trees. I stepped closer. He was in the shade and I could see he was pale. I stepped closer. His breathing was shallow. I stepped closer.
I hit the tree and felt a little like a mentally challenged person. I probably should have realized by the time I was on my tip-toes and my neck had to extend so far that I started leaning that way that I was getting too close. I looked up and noticed that from this angle all I saw was his hand dangling in midair. I stepped back a little and focused on his flushed face. I scrunched up my eyebrows and pursed my mouth. I needed a closer look.. I had to make sure.. but..
I wedged my foot comfortably into a small wedge of cracked trunk, telling me to do it. He was asleep, it whispered. No one was around, it said. I looked up at an uneven part of trunk protruding not too far above that was just in reach if I jumped and could later serve as a foothold and would give me easy access to the first branch, which would facilitate the rest of the climb up.
Without another thought, I launched myself upwards and grabbed the uneven base to pull myself up and safely lead my other foot to another foothold. I put all my weight onto that one, ignoring the feel of my ponytail being tugged by something it must have gotten caught in and looked back up to look for something else to hold onto-
And found myself looking straight into startlingly red eyes. I screamed and fell back, and the eyes only widened. I fell on my lower back and somehow ended up spreadeagled on the ground. He stared, arm outstretched, clutching the scrunchie of my pigtail in his hand, He was the one that tugged. Despite the pain, the first thing I did was feel for my left pigtail. My hair was sprawled on the ground beside me.
I sat up, hair tumbling down past my shoulder. Still, he stared. Almost no one had ever seen me with my hair down. I felt exposed.
I scrambled to my feet, and thrust my hand toward him.
"Give it back." I said angrily. I glared, he stares. Surprisingly, he drops the scrunchie in my outstretched palm. The unblinking stare/glare contest goes on for a moment more.
Then I turn and run before words are exchanged once more, like I do.
0o0o0o0o0
I retied my hair as I trudged into the shed where most of us were already gathered. I stood there beside Hotaru and she sensed my unreasonable anger, I could tell by the stolen glances. She didn't ask. I wished she would.
The first thing in the meeting was to choose the combination for a lock. Numbers were thrown into the air to fall into a suggestion pile, until one person came up with a wonderful idea.
"1127."
November 27th. Natsume's birthday. We all agreed.
The next thing was just as slow progressing.
"Ok... who's first?"
Silence.
Everyone looked around like they were expecting someone else to step forward and do something, an example for the rest to follow.
Mochiage was the first to step forward. He took something small from his back pocket, and dropped it in front of him, letting the small rectangular paper float onto the dirt. It was a very old movie ticket. Proof that he had once lived out there. That life existed beyond our school. We all looked upon it like a monument, and suddenly, our lives were tied to it. It was so much more than a movie ticket. To us, it represented our compromise, officially established. It was the beginning of our pile.
Yuu then extracted a pair of broken glasses that he kept with him, that his friend who was no longer in the school (A case like Hoshino's) had cracked when he sat down on them in the 2nd grade. After that, we were all moving about, looking for something to donate, to sacrifice. Some even began running in and out and back and forth from the shed to other places to look for things. Yura dropped in a slightly damaged hair clip that her older boyfriend had given her from a set of various similar clips. Wakako and Sumire mournfully put down a picture of them when they were little.
I watched close as Ruka approached and let a collar of a deceased animal from the barn fall into the pile. Tsubaka and Misaki seemed to have been discussing something in hushed tones while this happened. They must have decided something, because then Tsubasa came up and carefully put down a small wooden box on the pile. From both of them it seemed, although I couldn't fathom what it meant to them as he stepped back and they held hands, looking at it like a child. I'd only seen them hold hands once before.
I didn't really have much to offer. I stood there with Hotaru watching as one by one they followed it up with: Kaname, a stuffed animal's button; Koko, a faded blue book; Kitsuneme, a game board with missing pieces and that looked soggy; and Anna and Nonoko together with a spoon that Anna had used to mix the batter for her first cake here without knowing that Nonoko had used it to mix her first chemical solution here, the end result being disaster and plenty of food poisoning.
The rest of us, (the ones that did not contribute), watched like viewers at a precession until we all stepped back to take a good look at our pile, after 3 hours.
Something was missing.
You could practically taste it in the air. The dissatisfied look on our faces said it all. It was getting late and we didn't know what to do.
"...Tomorrow." Was the beautiful word that allowed us to relax until we had to deal with this once again. Tired sighs of relief floated through the room and we all prepared to go our separate ways.
I didn't try to hide from Natsume. Fists buried in my pocket, I walked up to that tree without fear. He looked exhausted, looking down at me.
"What were you going to tell me this morning, before I left?" My voice boomed clearly.
His heavy-lidded eyes made their way lazily to me.
"..You lost the bet." His voice rasped.
My hunch was right. It really did happen.
"You're sick." I felt a lot less glad about this than I thought I would. He didn't deny this, instead shrugging like it was no big deal and it made me mad.
"Alright then, 2 Rabbits seems fair." He drawled.
"It isn't about the money!" I ground my teeth. He was unbelievable.
"What is it about then?" He asked, sounding the tiniest bit annoyed.
"You are actually staying up there, sick?" I yelled. If he said yes, I swear I would..
He nodded.
"Argh, you idiot!" I let out a frustrated scream and slapped the tree as if I could physically transmit the hit to him.
"There is just no way! I mean, I can't- How can you, she doesn't- what about if he, and you- You are just so-!" I yelled nonsense like that in a wavering voice for 2 minutes while he looked at me like I should be in the psychological patient ward.
"2 Rabbits." Was all he said after my tantrum. He only knew how to fuel fires. What else would I expect from a pyromaniac, making me feel like I would suffer from a spontaneous combustion into flames from pure rage. I took the remaining money out of my pocket and threw it up at him. Coins scattered all over the ground.
He never does anything but stare, does he. Its all in his eyes, the way he observed me like this was a strange, intriguing thing. I breathed. I breathed, and waited. Waited to calm down, and start picking up coins.
"Why are you angry?" He questioned.
"Because you are actually willing to put your health in danger just for the sake of your stupid game." My voice had steadied.
"Who said this was a game?" He said grimly. I heard sadness, somewhere in there. And somewhere inside me, I reacted. Somewhere inside me was now absolutely dying to know what this was about. Somewhere inside me had not surfaced yet.
I counted the coins and looked up, puzzled. I tried standing on my toes, but there was no way I could hand it to him.
"Won't you come down to get your stupid money?" I felt defeated.
"Why don't you come up?" He retorted without skipping a beat.
I couldn't respond. I couldn't tell if he was even being serious. He seemed very serious. My eyes flew to a piece of broken green plastic hiding behind the leaves on the floor.
"You should let your hair down. It would look nice." He finished me off. My face was warming fast now. Still, I chose not to respond. I threw the coins back down on the ground and began running to my dorm.
It was a blur, I fumbled with the lock, burst through the door, rummaged through the trunk of extra sheets, grabbed a blanket and was running right back down the corridors and courtyard until I was right back to his tree.
I left the blanket on the ground, with the coins. We shared a long glance. I hoped that through this, he saw everything I wanted to say without me saying it. I could see different things in his eyes now, none of which I could completely identify.
The last thing I hoped to have said with a look was "Goodnight" before I left.
0o0o0o0o0o0o0
(P.S: I just re-read this chapter right now and I realized how absolutely HORRIBLE it came out. I am so sorry, I was probably halfway in a coma writng this. I promise that I will re-write this chapter and fix it up as soon as I can.)
A/N: All I could think about for 3 weeks was updating this story. I'm so sorry I've gotten so caught up in everything, but it seems I'm finally done with this chapter. I'll try extra hard getting the next one up soon.
I apologize if I forgot to thank any reviewer or reader out there, I appreciate all of you!
I was going to say more, but my mind is gone right now. I am so tired.
~Yasu