A/N: This chapter features drugs, and dirty talk.

Chapter 2: Experience

Three weeks had passed.

The weather was agreeable, and so Yuu was spending his Friday afternoon sat in the quad, under a tree. He was reading Natsume, Mochu and Persona's short stories steadily, in silence. They had a meeting tomorrow, and so Yuu was reading their latest works for tomorrow's discussion.

He had just finished reading Natsume's story. Mochu had been right: Natsume was great at exploring sordidness – something that Yuu felt that he could never do, as it seemed to stem from inside observation… experience: something that he lacked.

As Natsume had said, they all had a distinct voice. Mochu's creativity made his narrative twist and turn in different and unexpected directions, which always startled and disorientated Yuu. It was as if Mochu was writing from a different plane to everyday existence, and perhaps this assessment was accurate, as just as quickly as Yuu began to understand how much Natsume liked women, he learnt that Mochu loved to smoke marijuana. Maybe the fleeting smoke inspired him.

Persona on the other hand—

"Hey,"

Yuu looked up, only to see Natsume, who then sat himself beside Yuu. Glancing at Yuu's reading material (Persona's story), Natsume said, "Ah. What do you think?"

"Um… well,"

"Give an honest opinion."

Yuu swallowed before admitting, "Well… it's very dark."

Natsume snorted, "Dark doesn't even cover it. Personally, I'm not entirely convinced by his sadomasochistic nihilsm, but then again, he doesn't seem to like my work either, so maybe it's all about subjective taste. But I can't deny that he writes very well."

"It's a very systematic manner of writing." Yuu supplied; Natsume agreed.

"He's Kuonji's favourite. That probably explains to you his heightened sense of superiority."

Yuu had not met with Kuonji yet. This delay only made him more anxious.

Unexpectedly, Natsume casually said, "Stay away from him." His tone wasn't serious, and he was lazily leaning on the tree trunk, pulling grass unthinkingly with his left hand.

"Huh? From…?"

"Stay away from Persona."

"What? Why?"

Natsume sighed. He clearly was not the type to gossip; he seemed as if he did not quite know what (or what not) to say, which made Yuu believe this advice was genuine rather than vindictive slander. "Look, he's a good guy. I know he is. It's just that there is a lot of background talk that he's part of some very dodgy gang. And from your writing, I can tell you're not ready to see any of that kind of shit."

His curiosity in Persona's rumoured gang activity rose before it was overridden by a more self-serving curiosity. Boldly, bravely, Yuu questioned, "What do you think of my writing?"

Natsume stopped pulling the grass by his side, and turned to Yuu. "Personally, I like your work the best." Yuu felt his cheek heat up immediately. "There this… naivety in your writing. I think you could write a great coming-of-age novel… but maybe you need to see a bit more of the world first… Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

"Tonight? Well, I was planning to go the library."

"As fun as that sounds," Natsume smirked, "my friend's having a party tonight. You're more than welcome to come."

"A party?" Yuu had only really ever been invited to birthday parties: this was unfamiliar territory.

"Yeah. Mochu's going too."

"Okay. Yeah." Yuu decided, feeling resolved. "Why not."

Natsume smiled. "Okay, I'll text you the address. There will probably be a lot of people, and I'm sure no-one will ask but if anyone does, just say you're there for Luca Nogi. Luca's my friend; it's his house and party.

"Okay, great." Yuu nodded. "Thanks, Natsume."

"See you there."

Yuu knew Natsume had invited him in order to for Yuu to 'see a bit more of the world', as he termed it—this new experience could aid and develop his writing. After all, what good would just sitting reading about experience do? Surely it's just a pale comparison to reality. And as he found himself in Luca Nogi's living room, he knew that he was somewhere he had never been before. Yes, the buoyancy was unfamiliar, but even the people seemed different…

The lights were dimmed; conversation buzzing; laughter punctuating the air – all in this warm room. The warmth came from the sheer number of humans crammed into a small space. For a moment, Yuu felt anxious as he awkwardly stood there, and worried that in this sea of laughter and happiness, he was going to drown.

But then he caught a whiff: it was definitely marijuana. Hoping that Mochu might be at the other end, he followed the scent, and to his relief, he saw Mochu (smoking) on the couch, with his arm around a beautiful pink-haired girl.

Through bleary eyes, Mochu spotted him, and a grin split his face. "Yuu! You came!" He scooted to make some space for Yuu on the couch.

"Hi," Yuu said, with a trace of shyness, and with a polite smile, sat beside Mochu.

"Meet my girlfriend, Anna."

Yuu couldn't hide his surprise. He had assumed that Mochu was single, like Natsume.

Anna was not offended by Yuu's expression. She kindly smiled at him, before she leaned over Mochu to say, "Surprised? But you know, he's only dating me because I'm a good cook. Our relationship depends on his munchies."

Mochu took the opportunity to grab Anna around the waist and pulled her close, their flesh pressing.

Somewhat ignoring her boyfriend (but looking very happy), Anna said, "You must be the new member of the writing club. Mochu and Natsume have told me a lot about you."

Yuu blushed. "Oh…"

"Don't worry – only good things." She promised.

"Do you," Yuu coughed, clearing his throat, "do you also study literature?"

"Oh? Did Natsume not say? This is a science house party!" (Suddenly, Yuu understood why everyone seemed so unfamiliar—they were the students of science!) "We're all mostly third year science majors. I'm a medic, but you'll find people who do other subjects here. Luca—have you met him?—does veterinary science and—" she suddenly pulled herself from Mochu's arms and reached out to grab the girl who was passing by, "Hotaru here is a nuclear physicist."

"Hey Imai," Mochu greeted with a lazy smile, "how you doing?"

"Fine." Her voice was monotonous. "Put that out—you're single-handedly smoking up the room."

"Oops, my bad." Mochu complied, stubbing his joint.

"Who's this?" Hotaru asked, motioning at Yuu.

"Oh, I'm Yuu Tobita. I'm a first year literature student."

"Ah. Are you part of the writing club?"

"Our newest member." Supplied Mochu.

"Yes." Yuu added.

"Hmm." Hotaru seemed interested. "Come with me. Let's go get a drink, and you can tell me about yourself."

Yuu could tell this was a woman that did not accept 'no' for an answer, so he stood up, and left Mochu and Anna's side somewhat nervously, following Hotaru like a lost puppy to the drinks table.

"He seems very nice." Anna commented, as she took a sip of her own drink.

Now Hotaru was gone, Mochu was rolling a new joint for himself. "He's a good guy. I would say he's even a genius – he's got a way with words…"

"A genius, huh?" She turned and looked for Yuu. "He doesn't seem crazy though."

"He's not."

Anna turned back to Mochu with one eyebrow raised. "I thought you said all creative geniuses are crazy."

Mochu snorted, as he licked the smoking paper. "Yeah, well, after knowing Persona you do start to wonder if there's a correlation."

"Is he coming tonight?" Anna's tone was cautious.

"Who, Persona? Of course not…"

Mochu lit his spliff and smoked took two drags in silence. Then, he placed an affectionate hand on Anna's knee. "You're my rock, Anna." He said to her, sincerely, and as he patted her knee a few times, he continued to repeat those words softly.

By the time Natsume arrived, an hour and a half later, the party was in full swing: people were drunkenly dancing, clinking their cheap cups, and laughing boisterously: everyone celebrated the cheap thrills of youth. Two steps in, Natsume felt an arm pull him, and he turned to see his best friend smiling at him. "About time, Natsume!" Luca's cheeks were slightly flushed, signalling his tipsiness. "Thought you'd never come!"

"Hey, Luca," Natsume patted him on his shoulder, "sorry I'm late. Unfortunately, I don't have any excuse to give except I couldn't be bothered to move my ass."

Luca laughed. "It's fine. Feel free to find yourself some alcohol – but stay away from the weird moonshine the biochemists made – it's disgusting." But Luca saw that Natsume's eyeline had strayed away from him, and he turned to see what had now caught Natsume's attention.

Luca wasn't surprised to see that Natsume was looking at a girl.

Natsume wasted no time. "Who's that?"

Luca had known Natsume for too long not to know where this was going. Sighing, in both amusement and exasperation, he answered, "Why don't you go ask her yourself?"

Natsume grinned back at his friend. "I just might." And with those parting words, he slithered his way over to the pretty brunette that was talking animatedly to a small group of people. He got her attention by brazenly tapping her on her shoulder.

Blinking, she turned to face him, her face initially flooded with confusion before she offered him a friendly smile. The others just curiously looked at him, wondering why he had just interrupted their conversation.

"Hi."

"…Hello." Her friendly smiled somewhat dimmed, and she now looked at Natsume questioningly. "Um… are you a medic fresher?"

Natsume snorted. "Oh, God no."

"Oh? I'm sorry," she drifted away from the small group she was previously with, edging closer to Natsume so to hear his voice more clearly, much to Natsume's liking, "I didn't recognize you so I assumed you were a fresher. Do you even do medicine?"

Natsume shook his head. "No, I'm a third year Literature student."

The previous smile returned to her face, and she genuinely exclaimed, "Oh, how lovely!"

Natsume raised an eyebrow. "That actually sounded sincere."

Her confusion returned. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Most science students, especially medics have to be convinced that literature is a worthwhile subject."

"Oh really now? Well, how do you go about convincing them?"

"Well it depends." Natsume smirked and leaned closer, and for good measure, even lowered his voice. "If it's a man, I usually outwit them to exemplify the power of language and its uses. If it's a woman…" Natsume tilted his head down to whisper throatily in her ear, "I recite poetry whilst fucking them, preferably from behind."

The brunette stilled in surprise. But then, very slowly, she looked up towards Natsume and met his intense, yearning gaze. She stared at him, unblinking, before she softly asked, "Is that a promise?"

Natsume grinned at her, both excited and pleased at her coy response. "Absolutely. What's your name?"

"I'm Mikan."

"I'm Natsume. So, mine or yours?"

A/N: Ta-da! I bet you didn't think I would update this fast! Now, review replies…

Thank you Crazy Shortie; Anilissa; Guest and Yla for your reviews! I'm going to answer some general questions that were posed….

Can readers expect quick updates? Like 'Summer Wine' I plan to complete this story before summer ends! I will not be updating everyday – perhaps once every two weeks, or so.

Is Mikan the mousy-haired girl? Well, as you can tell from this chapter, no, she was not the mousy-haired girl. I purposefully put that there to throw you off-guard, tee hee.

When am I updating 'Resistance'? Yeah… I can't answer this with conviction. I definitely WILL finish it, even if it takes me a bloody decade, but for now, I'm not sure. There will definitely be an update in the course of the year.

And all of you mentioned 'literature' in your reviews, and I'm glad that you seemed excited by this concept! And I suppose it is a little OOC for Natsume to like literature (as Anilissa pointed out), as in the manga there was no indication of that (except for Natsume's appreciation of visual literature/graphic novels) but I decided to shake up and invert the formula because if you look at all of my stories so far, Natsume is always the scientist whilst Mikan is always a student of the humanities. Which is a pretty gendered assumption on my part? So, here we have Natsume the writer and Mikan the doctor.