Sorry this one took so long to write

Been really busy with a lot of random events that has been happening.

So this is an extra long chapter...I think this should really be 2 chapters...but here it is all in 1

I was actually writing the chapter after this one...and then I realize there was something missing...so I stopped and wrote this one lol

So this was totally unplanned until i realized I never really showed how Mikan feels.

In the past chapters she would worry about people, etc...but nothing to really show who she likes...well maybe a little bit but yeah...so this is dedicated to developing that :)

Months have passed since they first created the guild. Through hard work, they were able to increase their guild capacity to the full capacity of 56 people.

Since they now have room in the guild for more people, they are currently trying to recruit new members. They have postings on the bulletin board looking for people with experience and would want to participate in War of Emperium (WoE). Interested people would fill out an application and submitted it to the guild for review. If Hotaru and Yuu are not out training, they're busy reviewing applications and interviewing people for recruitment. If all goes well at the interview, the new recruit would be invited into the guild for a trail phase. During this trail, the new member can see if they like the guild and the guild gets to see how well the new member fits in.

Hotaru had asked Mikan specifically to welcome the new comers since she was very good with people. So Mikan had been busy showing different people around the guild and introducing them to everyone. She would help them get involved in different guild events and generally hang out with them. Mikan seemed to have done a good job showing off their guild because many of the people end up joining their guild officially after the trail period was over. But because of her assigned job, she wasn't able to help out on any guild missions. She was also having difficulties finding time to train as she's so busy with the new recruits.

Tonight was Mikan's night off to relax. She had retired to her room early to rest but her light was still on and it's getting close to midnight. Hotaru decided to drop in to see how she was doing.

"Hey, why are you still awake?" Hotaru asked as she pushed the door open gently.

"Hey Hotaru." Mikan responded.

Hotaru stepped into her room and saw that Mikan was sitting by her window looking outside.

"Why are you still up? I thought you were tired today and went to sleep early." Hotaru asked again.

"I'm tired but I couldn't fall asleep. So I'm just trying to relax." Mikan responded as she stretched her arms out in front of her.

"Is there a reason why you couldn't sleep?" Hotaru probed.

"I don't know. I just feel so restless." Mikan answered.

"Are you over worked? I could ask Koko or Anna to help out with the new members."

"I don't think I'm over worked but some help would be nice. But then I would feel bad if someone else helps me because everyone else has been going on missions except for me. I feel so useless when everyone else is out on missions while I hang around home." Mikan said softly.

"You're not useless. What you're doing is really important. We really need to get people interested in our guild and you're helping our recruitment a lot." Hotaru told her.

"But I want to help with missions as well. I mean, everyone else gets to do it. It helps the guild and it helps them in training. I haven't really been able to train very much since people just want to relax when they're back from missions. I feel like I'm getting left behind while everyone else is gaining more experience." Mikan pointed out.

Hotaru sighed then she suggested, "Why don't you go set up training parties with the new recruits when you're showing them what the guild is about. Adventure parties are usually a good way to get someone interested in the guild. That way you're still getting people interested in the guild and you get training in."

"That is true. I could do that." Mikan said thoughtfully as she thought of the possibilities.

"Many people like to party with priests for training purposes. It seems like you're quite popular amongst the new guys too." Hotaru teased her.

Mikan blushed, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not that good. I'm sure they would rather party with one of the high priests in the guild now that they're there."

"I'm sure a couple of the guys would much rather party with you then the high priests just to get to know you better." Hotaru continued to tease her.

"I wonder why he never takes me with him on missions then." Mikan muttered softly as she looks outside the window.

Even though Mikan said that under her breath, Hotaru was still able to hear it and smirked. "You're not really restless because you're not given any guild missions are you?"

"Why would you say that, Hotaru?"

"You're restless because he's still out on a mission and you don't know how he's doing. If anything, you just want to go on missions just to be with him to make sure he's ok." Hotaru pointed out.

Mikan started to blush and tried to deny it, "I don't know what or who you're talking about."

"Mikan, you're blushing. I think that's proof enough for me that you know exactly what I'm talking about. I've known you since we were in diapers. I can see right through you."

"Then maybe you would be able to tell me what this feeling is. I'm always so worried about him whenever he goes off on missions. The smallest things he does for me makes me super happy. I feel like it's my personal goal to make him smile, to make him happy." Mikan stated while looking at Hotaru innocently.

"Do you have butterflies in your stomach when you're around him?"

Mikan nods, "At first I didn't, but lately my heart has been beating faster whenever he's around. When he's not around, my mind seems to wonder to him more and more."

"And how do you feel around someone like Ruka? He seems like everyone's definition of Prince Charming. Blond hair, blue eyes, always nice and courteous."

"Well I really enjoy Ruka's company, but it's different. The butterflies are not there when I'm with him. Actually now that I think about it, the butterflies are only there when I'm with Natsume."

"Remember those stories my mother use to read to us when we're little. Fairytales about princesses and their princes."

"Yes, usually the prince would come and rescue the princess and they would live happily every after."

"Remember why they would live happily ever after?"

"Well the princess would fall in love with the prince after he saves her." Mikan responded and then she gasped.

Was she in love with Natsume? Mikan asked herself.

Hotaru looked at her with knowing eyes. "Don't hurt yourself thinking about it. Just follow what your instinct tells you. You know, in the last report I got from him, he said he'll be coming home today."

Mikan looked at her thankfully.

"Why don't you wait for him in his room so you can check on his injuries when he comes back?" Hotaru suggested.

"Thanks Hotaru" Mikan said as she hugged her.

Then Mikan left her own room to go to Natsume's to wait for him to come home.

"I better have a chat with him when he comes back to ensure that he'll take good care of that baka." Hotaru made a memo to herself as she left Mikan's house to go back to her own.

Some time later that night, a sleeping figure could be seen on Natsume's bed.

It seems like Mikan had fallen asleep while waiting for Natsume to come home. She was sleeping on top of his bed curled up into a ball and shivering. She didn't expect to fall asleep so she is now sleeping on top of the bed rather then under the covers.

Natsume was exhausted from his mission. He had intended to come home earlier but something last minute delayed his returned. He was actually thinking about staying an extra day in Juno but a nagging feeling made him travel at night to go home as soon as he could.

When he slipped through the window into his room, he noticed a sleeping figure on his bed. He tried to quietly move around in the room without waking up that person but he stumbled due to his injuries.

His rather clumsy movement seemed to have woken up the intruder in his room.

The person rubbed their eyes before looking at him.

"Natsume?" A sleepy voice called out.

He instantly relaxed knowing that it wasn't an enemy but tried to step out of the moonlight into the shadow so she wouldn't see his injuries.

But his efforts were futile. Mikan had gotten out of bed and is walking towards him.

Before she reached him she slipped and fell onto the ground.

"Owiee," She complained while she slowly pushed herself off her behind and onto her knees. Then she felt something wet on the floor and looked down at her hands.

Blood She thought.

"Natsume! You're injured!" Mikan exclaimed as she quickly pushed herself off the floor and rushed towards him.

"It's just a small injury. It's ok. I just have to sleep it off." Natsume claimed while trying to get rid of her.

"No let me see! There's blood on the floor so it couldn't have been small." Mikan retorted back as she grabbed a hold of his arm.

She dragged him back in line with the window so she could take a good look at him in the moonlight.

Once he was out of the shadow she saw a huge gash on his left arm that was just hanging at his side. The wound on his arm was still bleeding quite a bit and dripping blood onto the floor.

"Omg, how can you say that it's nothing? Here, let me heal it." Mikan commanded as she moved her hands to gently wrap around his left arm.

Natsume didn't say anything nor move and let Mikan use her healing spells on him.

Once Mikan was finished with his arm, the bleeding had stopped and the wound disappeared. But he felt a little light headed and took a small stumble forward.

Mikan helped support him to stand still. "I can heal your wounds but I can't help your blood lost. You must have lost a good amount of blood before you got home." She scolded him as she helped him to his bed.

Once Natsume was in his bed Mikan went to clean up the blood on the floor. She looked at Natsume and sighed, "Now it's your turn. Lets' get you out of those bloody clothes."

"You just want to see me naked." Natsume teased her when she was helping him out of his shirt.

Mikan turned ten shades of red. "I just don't want you getting your bed dirty. I'm the one that has to clean up after you, you know."

"Well it's already dirty since I'm already lying on it. So it doesn't really matter anymore if I get out of my dirty clothes or not. And I'll help you clean tomorrow. I have a day off." Natsume told her.

Mikan sighed as she tossed his shirt onto the ground. He was right. It's already too late to try to keep the bed clean since he's already resting. She was just about to get off the bed to leave and go back to her room when his hand reached out and grabbed her wrist.

She turned back and tilted her head to look at him with questions in her eyes.

She looks so cute like that he thought before tugging her arm to send her flying towards him into his bed.

He wrapped his healed arm around her and said, "Stay with me. I don't want anyone to see you walking around in that."

Mikan looked up at him with wide eyes and blushed. She looked down at what she was wearing and realized that she was wearing short shorts and a tight tank top as her sleep wear tonight.

She silently nodded and tried to adjust herself into a comfortable position.

Her heart was beating so fast and loud she wondered if he could hear it.

Her head ended up using his chest as her pillow.

She could feel his breath slow down to a rhythmic pattern that signalled he's asleep.

His steady heartbeat lull her into a deep sleep.

The next Morning

The sunlight shined right through the window and slowly creeped up on the two people sleeping in bed.

Mikan eventually woke up because the sun was shining so brightly in her eyes.

She yawned and tried to stretch before opening her eyes but found that her movements were restrained.

She opened her eyes only to see Natsume's sleeping face.

She closed her eyes and rubbed them again before opening them to see if she was still dreaming.

She opened her eyes again and Natsume was still there. The memories of last night dawned on her. She blushed again now well aware of what she's wearing and her closeness with Natsume.

She also remembered what she was talking about with Hotaru last night.

She looked at Natsume's sleeping face and wondered how he could look like such an angel when he was sleep. She gently caressed his face with her hand while studying his peaceful state. How she wished he could always be so stress free. A sudden urge for her to kiss him crossed her mind. She couldn't help but wonder how it would feel like to kiss him. Would it be like the fairytales when the prince would kiss the princess?

It almost felt like a need to find out. She slowly pushed herself higher so her face was at the same level as his and she gently touched her lips to his.

The moment her lips touched his, electricity ran through her body. The feeling surprised her so much that she jolted. Her sudden movement seemed to have woken up Natsume as he started to stir in bed.

Natsume opened his eyes slowly only to find Mikan beside him in bed. "What time is it?" He asked groggily.

"I don't know, I just woke up myself too." Mikan responded.

Natsume lifted up his hand to his face to look at the communicator on his wrist.

The time on his communicator showed 7:46AM. "It's still early" he mumbled, "Go back to sleep." He commanded as he closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Mikan and pulled her close.

Mikan was once again shocked by his actions and did nothing to stop him.

Maybe I am in love with Natsume Mikan thought to herself as she slowly closed her eyes again and drifted off into dreamland.

After Natsume's day of rest he didn't have any more missions for a while. Hotaru and Yuu had left the guild in his hands while they're trying to finish off their training so they can transcend before their first WoE.

Natsume wasn't very happy with the task left for him to do. He wasn't a people person and dealing with the guild can be a handful. He was glad that the guild had finished recruitment so he didn't have to conduct any interviews and recruit any more people.

Chances are he would probably scare them away from the guild.

Today was just like the previous days since they left the guild to Natsume. He was so busy looking after the paper work that he doesn't have time to do anything else. Not only does he have to assign missions to various guild members, he had to start planning for the up coming WoE as well. If they were to stick with their original plan, they're going to participate in their first WoE in about a month's time. He has to organize the training schedules in the fighting arena and start getting people to prepare mentally for the games. But for the time being until they're ready for the hand to hand combat training, Ruka has been helping him by organizing parties to go into various parts of Midgard to fight against monsters. That way at least they're still gaining some sort of fighting experience even though fighting against people is very different from fighting against monsters. However any type of training will help the members sharpen their skills to be ready for WoE.

Natsume sighed as he placed the paper he was reading down on his desk. So much to do, so little time.

That's when a cup of hot coffee was place on the desk in front of him.

He looked up to find Mikan smiling warmly at him.

Her smile seemed to take his tension away.

"You seem stressed. Is there anything I can help you with?" She asked gently while moving around him to the back of his chair and started massaging his temples.

Natsume reclined back into his chair and enjoyed the touch of Mikan's hand. He decided to tease her, "I think you would do more damage then help."

"Hey! I can help the guild too you know! Just because I was never sent on missions doesn't mean I wasn't being helpful to the guild. Hotaru said I was a great help in recruitment. Especially with getting more guys into the guild."

Natsume growled at the last statement. Yes he read the recruitment reports. He wasn't happy about the fact that Mikan was attracting a lot of guys into the guild. It's good thing the guild actually needed people like them or else Natsume would have kicked them out.

Natsume snapped out of his thoughts when Mikan hit him lightly on the shoulder, "Hey are you listening to me?"

"Yeah yeah, you were great at recruiting people."

"I said that like 5 minutes ago. I was talking about how I would like to go out and get some more experience in combat now that I don't have to hang around here to do recruiting all the time." Mikan repeated herself.

"You can talk to Ruka about that. He's been organizing parties to go out to different places."

"Yeah but they seem to be so far advance. I would feel safer going to an easier place right now. You know, to get back into things slowly. But I don't know who's available to go with me. Maybe I could just ask one of the new guys that joined."

Natsume seemed to have tensed up at Mikan's last sentence.

"Hey you said you wanted to help the guild right?" Natsume asked.

"Yeah! I want to help the guild." Mikan confirmed.

"Good, you'll come with me to Amatsu."

"Amatsu? Why there?"

"You said you wanted to help the guild."

Mikan nodded again.

"Well there's mission that involves going to Amatsu. Someone requires assistant to get to the shrine outside of Amatsu. It's a dangerous path since it's out in the wild and monsters are lurking. So we'll go and help him get to the shrine. This way you get to help the guild like you wanted to and it will help slowly ease you back into working out in the field." Natsume stated rationally.

"Don't you have to be around to handle the guild?" Mikan asked.

"Don't worry about it. This week's work has all been assigned. I can take the work I have to do for Woe with us on the trip."

"Really? Oh thank you so much Natsume." Mikan said as she hugged him from behind.

Natsume looked down and pretend to be reading again to hide his blush, "Go get ready. I'll come get you in an hour."

Later that day

Natsume and Mikan met up with the merchant in Alberta that wanted to go to the shrines.

They took a boat from Alberta that travels to Amatsu. It takes several hours to get there but it's the only form of transportation since they couldn't find a priest that had the warp. Mikan started chatting with their client during the boat ride. It turns out, the merchant's wife was pregnant and he wanted to go to the shrines of his ancestral home to pray for good fortune. But the path to the shrines has lots of monsters so he had to hire bodyguards to help him get there. Mikan thought it was very sweet of him to do something like that for his unborn child and happily chatted with him the whole trip.

Once they stepped off the boat in Amatsu, Mikan couldn't help but gape at the surroundings. It was absolutely beautiful with the sakura trees in full blossom. She could even see the castle from the dock and it looked amazing. (Amatsu is actually based on ancient Japan so think of something like Kyoto with castle and temples). Their client chuckled at Mikan's reaction and decided to take them on a tour around the town as they walk towards the northern town exit to go to the shrines. As they walked through the market place, Mikan spotted a pretty pair of hair ribbons in one of the vendor stalls. She had her eye on it the whole time they were passing by and made it quite obvious that she was interested in them. Sadly she didn't stop to buy it as she saw the price of the ribbons. It was something she couldn't afford as she's been donating all her money towards the guild.

Once they were outside the town they were in a pretty bamboo forest. It was like a scene right out of a movie. As they walked through the peaceful forest, they heard rustles nearby. Natsume readied his weapons as Mikan casted buffs on the entire party. The rustling got closer and the merchant got more nervous. Then an umbrella popped out of the bushes. Mikan stared at it in confusion while the merchant wiped off the sweat on his forehead in relief.

"Oh it's just a Karakasa. It's a harmless creature. They're actually quite useful when it rains because you can use them as umbrellas." The Merchant explained to the two of them.

Mikan decided that she wanted to examine this creature that looked like an umbrella and walked towards it. She hesitantly put her hand on its' folds and stroked it. The Karakasa immediately opened up like how an umbrella would scaring Mikan and caused her to fall on the ground in surprised. Natsume looked at her with amusement while the Merchant chuckled. The Karakasa twirled around then floated off into the trees on the other side of the path.

They continued to walk to the shrine meeting different types of monsters along the way. Most of them were passive and did not bother the group but the Kaphas found by the water were not very welcoming. The Kaphas were quite territorial and did not like people entering their territory. However the only way to the shrine is through their area as the Shrine was built at the edge of the water on the north side of the lake.

As they're walking towards the shrine through the water, the Kaphas swung their fishing poles at the group and tried to run them off their territory. Natsume fought back as Mikan supported from behind. As Natsume is pressing forward, a Kapha came up from behind. Mikan heard it last minutely and turned around just in time to see the monster getting ready to take a swing at her. She immediately held up her buckler to block the in coming blow. The buckler blocked the direct attack but the fishing pole is very flexible and wrapped around the buckler and was able to hit Mikan's wrist. It was not very painful as her buckler blocked the direct hit but it's something to be noted as the pole can easy cause damage even if you block the direct hit if you're not careful. She pushed the monster back and called out to Natsume for help.

Natsume came over just as the monster was about to attack Mikan again and blocked the blow for her with his daggers. He used his other dagger and sliced the pole in half and growled menacingly at the Kapha. The Kapha was mad that his precious rod got broken and gave out a high pitch screech and charged at Natsume with his broken rod in hand.

Natsume side stepped and hit the Kapha at the back of its' neck knocking it unconscious.

When they finally got to the shrine, the merchant went off to pray. Natsume sat down somewhere close to the entrance to keep guard while Mikan gave Natsume a quick check up to make sure no serious damage was obtained during their fight. Once she was finished the check up and sat down beside him and looked out at the water surrounding them. She found several Kaphas hanging around but they don't seem to come any closer then 10 feet of the building.

"That's weird, if this is the Kapha's territory, why is the shrine safe? Why don't they come any closer?"

"I don't know." Natsume answered.

"Ah, that's because there's a magical barrier protecting the shrine." A new voice answered.

Mikan and Natsume turned around to look at who was speaking to them.

They saw the merchant walking towards them with an elderly monk beside him.

The monk then continued, "You see, there's a holy stone inside this building that protects this building. When this shrine was built many centuries ago, the Kapha's were not here. But one year something happened at the imperial palace. A huge amount of magic force originated from the palace and it affected everything in the surrounding area. It seemed like some of the creatures that lived here got affected by that magical force and changed. The Kaphas use to be turtles that live in the water here. But after that incident, they mutated to a human like form. Lucky for our shrine, the holy stone protected the shrine and everything inside."

Mikan listen tentatively while Natsume started looking around the shrine to examining it.

"Now that you're done here, would you like a warp back to town?" The monk asked the group.

The merchant answered yes for the group and the monk opened up a warp for them.

They gave their thanks and entered into the warp.

Once they stepped out of the warp, they were inside the town of Amatsu again.

Natsume figured this is probably the preferred form of transportation for the monk when he needed to get supplies for the shrine. He can't image the elderly monk fighting the Kaphas on his way back to the shrine with supplies in tow.

Since it was getting late, the last ship back to Alberta has already left. The group decided to stay in Amutsu for the night instead of taking Mikan's warp back to Prontera and using the Karfa services to get to Alberta. The merchant took them to a famous sushi bar to introduce them to the local food. Mikan was so distracted chatting with the merchant and sushi bar owner she didn't notice when Natsume slipped away after dinner.

When she finally noticed his missing presence she decided to go look for him. She excused herself and left the restaurant to look for her missing companion.

She used the map option on her communicator to track down Natsume. She found him sitting below a lone sakura tree up on a little hill. She walked up the hill to the tree, knelt down beside him and poked him.

"Why did you leave without saying anything? It's rude of you to do that you know." Mikan scolded.

"You're interrupting my peace, Polka. You were so noisy at dinner I needed to get away for some peace and quiet."

"Why you!" Mikan said angrily while crossing her arms across her chest and puffing her checks.

"You know it's not right to flirt with a married man."

"I was not flirting. I was just being friendly!" Mikan said defensively.

"Well don't be so friendly with everyone. You never know their true intentions."

Mikan sighs and settles into the spot beside Natsume.

"That's a beautiful sun set." She said in awe while looking at the pretty sky before them.

"Hn. Not as pretty as you." Natsume whispered the last part.

Mikan didn't hear what he said but knew he mumbled something so she turned to face Natsume and asked, "What did you say?"

"Nothing important. Here open this." Natsume replied while placing a box in her lap.

Mikan looked at it with sparkles in her eyes and excitedly opened her present.

When she opened it she found the ribbons she was looking at that morning. (they're called small ribbons in game. It's a middle headgear. You can probably google it)

"Oh thank you so much Natsume. How did you know I wanted this!" Mikan said while hugging him in thanks.

Natsume looked away while trying to hide his blush, "You were looking at them and drooling this morning when we passed the stall. So I stopped to pick them up for you."

"I was not drooling."

"Were too."

"Was not"

"Were too"

"Was not!"

"You did and you were drooling just now when you saw it."

Mikan's hand immediately went to her face to check for drool.

Natsume chuckled and took the ribbons out of her other hand.

"Here let me help you." He said while he took a ribbon and reached for her hair.

Mikan was shocked that Natsume would do something like this and sat as still as a statue.

Natsume took the locks of hair right behind her ear and tied a ribbon there.

He did the same to both sides and then sat back and looked at her and said, "Perfect"

Mikan blushed under his intense stare. "I didn't know you knew how to work with girl's hair accessory."

"I had to take care of my younger sister since we were young." Natsume reminded her.

"Oh right. Thanks again Natsume." Mikan said while flashing him her famous smile.

Then Natsume stood up and started walking down the hill.

"Come on, it's getting dark. Let's go back to the inn."

Mikan got up and scurried along to catch up to Natsume who was already walking in the directions of the inn.

I hope this chapter was ok...when writing about Ragnarok...sometimes I feel like it can go on forever b/c it's really just one adventure after an other

I hope to get the next chapter up in a week or 2...i think the next one will be it...

please review :)

thanks!