I actually wrote this before I posted the first bit, but then I wanted to write a scene that I now decided is kind of useless so...


4 months from present day

Staring in disbelief at the crumpled letter in her hands, Mikan began to cry quietly. Her grandfather's will and envelope rested on her desk, along with a funeral invitation.

Mikan remembered Narumi-sensei's face as he handed the letter to her, while she was waiting for Natsume to come back.

He had started going on missions, because of his apparent 'debt' to the school. And for the first time, she realised behind the mask of the mysterious teachers, they were full of lies and deceit.

She ran the words of the shocking letter through her head again, not quite believing it.

Dear Mikan-chan

My health is declining, and yet I cannot see you once again before I leave. I miss you, and I love you. Therefore, please understand my reason behind not telling you this sooner…

...

Natsume shot the guard down, before stepping quickly into the shadows.

Tonight the mission was to retrieve the antidote to this organisation's deadly poison that found its way to the youngest principle's body.

Stupid careless idiot, he thought with annoyance before stealing into the darkened corridor. A voice commanded him from his earpiece, directing him to turn left, taking out a jumped up security guard with a well placed kick.

The person who will have the antidote was nefarious among the underground society the Academy sometimes dabbled in, apparently a ruthless and vengeful ex-student whose personal goal was to bring down the head of Alice Academy. Her reasons, of course, are still a mystery.

Natsume smiled, considering briefly joining their side before dismissing the idea. After all, Mikan and Ruka were at the Academy, and doing so would probably mean never seeing them again.

With deadly efficiency, he shot down another person, probably a scientist. Stooping over, he searched her pockets and found what he was looking for. The cardkey. Whispering, Natsume reported back to the command centre.

'Key found. Requesting permission to approach target.'

A crystal clear voice replied, 'Request approved. Take the target alive, preferably.'

He nodded silently, and moved stealthily down another corridor.

you're not an orphan.

Although your father died before you were born, your mother is still alive.

Please do not condemn her for leaving you, because she needed to accomplish her goal first. She needed to reach her peace of mind, and to do that she must leave.

She's very brave, and you are just like her, Mikan. Because of that, I knew I could not tell you her location. Even I do not know where she is at this very moment, but I know she is very close to completely her goal. She and you are so alike, mother and daughter.

If I told you, you would endlessly pester me with knowledge of her whereabouts and probably set off looking for her by yourself.

But I am assured she will return soon, judging by her last letter to me. These were her words:

'I'm so close, it's at my fingertips. Please wait for me, and keep Mikan safe! Love you both!'…

The electronic scanner beeped, and Natsume nodded silently to the two other silent comrades, who are to stand guard at the door.

The target was located, and trapped. He stepped into the room, the gun never wavering in his calm hand.

I kill too much, he decided.

The room was dark, hard wooden floorboards reflecting the sole source of light, a humming laptop. The figure was in the chair, and with a smooth swivel, she turned around.

Her almond coloured eyes bore into his, and Natsume's froze in shock.

Her name, as you know, is Sakura Yuka.

I have included a picture of her, and although you resemble your father much more, you had her beautiful eyes.

I had begged her to stay, that night when she left, but she would not hear of it. Her heart was too big, and it crippled her. Mikan, please, never allow yourself to be so full of hatred and anger that you would throw your life away for revenge.

Promise your Jii-chan this, Mikan, you will never leave your loved ones to pursue to correct the past.

The past is the past, and even if you strive to correct it, no effort is going to undo events. Unless there exists a time machine, you must learn to let go of your past…

It was her. It was her eyes. The ones that looked at him with happiness, sadness and the veritable rainbow of emotion in between. Except they did not belong to her. It belonged to the figure sitting stoically on the chair, pointing in almost defiance at him with a semi-automatic.

He blinked, before returning to the task at hand.

'You,' he growled, 'give me the antidote, or get a bullet hole on your forehead.'

Her laugh was the same too. Natsume shivered.

'I finally meet you, Hyuuga Natsume. It's ok, really. You can take off your mask.'

He was undeterred.

'How do you know my name?'

'I know everything concerning my daughter. Including her boyfriend, of course. I can't have her going out with someone dangerous or someone that doesn't like her back.'

He stared.

'Of course, I could have dispatched you because of your dangerous influences, but I could see she loved you,' she continued, 'and I know you love her. So lucky you.'

'You're her dead mother??? Damn God…' Natsume whispered, bewildered.

Yuka smiled.

'Correct. But the real question is,' she spoke with dead seriousness, 'can you kill me knowing that?'

Her mother…her damned motheris the head of the AAO?? What the hell?

His logical part of his brain decidedly took over, and Natsume replied with another question.

'Why did you leave her?'

'Because I had to avenge the one I love.'

His brow furrowed, as the pieces clicked together.

"Mikan's an orphan, so her father died too. You…you can't have possibly left your only daughter to chase after your husband's killer?"

Yuka smiled, before chirping, "Bingo!"

Natsume's mind whirled.

"You bitch!"

A bullet breezed past her face, leaving a smoking indent in the wall behind her.

"..the hell?" she demanded angrily, standing up.

"You fucking bitch! Do you honestly know how much she cried in her sleep, how much nightmares she had, how much she had said to me: 'My biggest fear is not having parents, because everyone else has them, and sometimes, I'm so jealous I would lock myself in my room and cry for hours. Jii-chan is fine, but how I wish I could have a mum and dad!" he mimicked.

Yuka stood frozen, the vial dropping onto the floor, ignored.

Natsume ranted on, "How could you have left your only daughter to chase after a warped sense of justice? Revenge is just a petty self indulgence that accomplishes absolutely nothing. Even if you sacrifice the principle, even if sacrifice your own self, you're not going to bring him back to life.

You cannot reverse the past, and chasing after your own selfish desires under superficial words like justice, righteousness and honour is not going benefit anyone except your own self-centred mind. How could you?"

Panting heavily, Natsume pointed his gun steadily at the quiet mother.

Suddenly, like lightning, she drew her gun and shot the wall above his head.

She looked up, her eyes blazing with hatred.

"Selfish? What about you, guinea pig?

What about the dozen other people that had their life taken away under the excuse of medical cure, of science, of the greater damned good?

How many people will this deranged school kill before they're satisfied? How can you condemn me for what I want, when it is obvious that I am stopping a killer?

Look at what they turned you into, an emotionless murdering puppet! I have wrestled or my decision for years, and if doing what I believe to be right is stopping my husband's murderer, by God am I going to damn accomplish it!

Greater good is only greater good when the something good will benefit everyone. Your weakness will kill you one day, Kuro Neko," she ground out, "you cannot protect only her happiness and achieve the greater good.

Yes, I'm damn selfish, but so are you. Hypocrisy never did suit you, Hyuuga Natsume."

Natsume's eyes steeled, before his earpiece prompted him. 'Remain on task, and retrieve the antidote before you lose your head.' His blood froze, recognising Persona's dead voice. What's he doing at the command centre?

"So you want the antidote?" her quiet voice permeated his thoughts, "Take it. But do not come on another mission again, or I will kill you."

Picking up the vial, his eyes narrowed before barking out orders in his microphone.

"The target is confirmed as dangerous. B1 and B2 may enter."

Six black-clad men and women entered swiftly, and before Yuka had time to back away, one stuck the hard bun barrel into the back of her head.

She blinked, before smiling bitterly.

"I had bargained you were above this, Hyuuga, but apparently I was wrong," she said, calmly walking past with 4 men flanking her, "I can't see how my daughter would love someone as ignorant and cynical as you, honestly. She deserves so much better."

Natsume stood, staring at the dark whorls of knotted wood in the floor, before whispering to the empty room, "You're right. She deserves so much better."

...she loved your father too much, and I hope you can understand how she stubborn she is, especially as I've never seen her so filled with hatred before.

But you could surely know, you are as stubborn as she was. She loves you, Mikan, and because of wishing for a better for you she went and pursued your father's killer. I am proud to be her father, and I look forward to her reconciliation with you.

Love, Jii-chan

Crying harder, she sat down and hugged the inked paper, before remembering again the underground school scandal.

The youngest principle had died in his own office; a knife plunged through his chest, holding a gun in a death grip.

The limp body of a woman now identified as the escaped head of AAO was found lying on the ground next to him, a bullet wound in her chest.

Although dying of a violent and painful death, Sakura Yuka face was both serene and calm, graced with a gentle smile.

3 months from present day

Mikan looked downwards at the simple arched granite, carved with simply two words and two dates.

Sakura Yuka

1977-2009

No funeral, no eulogies, no grief.

Just two words carved into granite, simply acknowledging the passing of a life. Laying down the bouquet of white lilies and delicate, star shaped orange** blossoms, she knelt on the grass and leaned her forehead against the cool stone.

Her mind wondered back to the sleepless nights, struggling with turbulent emotions.

How can she forgive this person, this person she never knew for getting herself killed before her daughter could touch her, who abandoned her daughter to pursue her revenge, for making her poor father beg for forgiveness for her own mistake?

But…

Mikan smiled, and rocking back on her heels, she looked at the immaculate headstone.

She can.

She can forgive someone that took away one thing she loved most.

Because the world is warped, because the universe is illogical. Because she loved this person, although the said stranger had not done a single thing for her.

But giving her life is a debt that Mikan knew she can never repay back.

Standing up, she looked at the cerulean skies, the clouds chasing each other across the never ending expanse. Really, it was a too beautiful day to cry.

With a hard kick, the punching bag that was only bought a week ago fell on the ground, broken.

Continuing his spinning kick, Natsume sent the limp anger-management device flying across the room.

Guilt wracked and anxious, he pondered why he isn't telling her what she deserved to know.Sitting onto the floor, tired with exertion, he looked out the wide windows of his personal gym room to the wide blue skies above.

He was sorry.

He was wrong.

But he is a damn coward.

And every day faded to a practiced mask on his part.

Every smile from her turned to nothing, every moment with her became meaningless.

Slumping against the cool concrete floor, Natsume ignored the quiet approaching footsteps of the 2nd most person he hated. T

he first is himself, of course. 'Stupid, despicable cur!' he thought with annoyance.

Why can't he confess?

Why is it so terrifying to have her look at the him behind the mask, as what he truly was: the person who sent her mother to her death.

In his mind's eye, Natsume recalled his attempts bitterly.

Mikan was sitting by the Sakura tree he always read by at lunch.

Perfect.

Taking a deep breath, he strode up to her. Startled, she had spilled her bottle of juice onto her skirt.

Quickly she had gotten up, and frantically tried to wipe away the excess orange juice. Natsume watched with a smile, and quietly bent down to screw on the lid to the bottle. When she stood up, she did not face him.

"Mikan, can I tell you something?"

And she turned around, silent tears coursing down her face.

Natsume winced.

"Tell me what?"

It was his fault, and even the sight of him made her cry. He was a monster.

"Hotaru needs you to go to her lab for modelling for her project," he lied smoothly.

Mikan frowned.

She was sure it wasn't his original intentions, but with a small smile, she dried her tears, hoping Natsume didn't notice them.

It's so silly of her, to just suddenly cry for no reason.

After all, being with the person she loved isn't a sad thing, is it?

He tried again.

He tried to try again.

But he was so petrified of her angry, hard glare, her mournful voice and her tears.

The door opened silently, and Persona's high heels made a sharp noise against the concrete as he stopped by the slightly breathless pyromaniac.

"Your progress has declined significantly," he said in a cold voice.

No shit, Sherlock.

Natsume glared lazily up at the impersonal figure.

"We are therefore withdrawing you from missions for the time being, so we can try to administer a cure for you again. You will be completely isolated to prevent outside influences on our experiments."

He stood up suddenly, before exploding.

"Do you know even why my progress is declining? Why I'm depressed? Why I'm burdened with an impossible load of guilt? Instead of trying to decipher me, let me help you bastards by telling you what's wrong with me! Why the hell do you think isolation will improve my health?"

Emotionlessly, Persona cut in.

"Not only are you a danger to society, you are selfish to endanger those close to you by being mentally unstable.

It is for your friends' own safety and in the end, your sanity that we are isolating you. A little accident like the one that landed you here will destroy you this time, and we do not want that happening now, do we?

It is not your place to question our methods of trying to cure you. There will be no negotiation. You will move in tonight.

Pack your things, we expect you at the laboratory by 7pm, or unnecessary force will be used."

Before Natsume could object, Persona already clicked the door shut, with an air of finality. He fell back on the floor, and for the first time since that night Mikan found him bleeding in his room, he contemplated suicide.

….

For the second time within a month, Mikan found a letter slipped underneath her door.

It was plain, without any markings on it.

It wasn't even sealed, the opaque lined paper peeking out from the envelope flap.

Her natural curiosity sparked, and she pulled the letter out, immediately noticing Natsume's name on the bottom, and his cursive handwriting printed over the page.

He had never written her a letter in her life.

It was brusquely short, and with a sense of dread, she started reading.

Mikan,

To the point, I'm going into confinement starting tonight. No, don't cry, it's not your fault. I don't know how long they're going to try to cure me again, but don't worry, I'm sure I'll be fine. Don't look sad, because then you'll weigh everyone else down as well, baka.

It might bring up bad memories, but remember how your mother was imprisoned at Alice Academy before her death?

Yes I'm a damn coward, yes I can't even face you when saying this, but I was the one who ordered her capture.

I indirectly sent her to her death.

I even knew she was your mother, but I still somehow managed to blow up at her.

No, I didn't do it for you, so don't blame yourself, Polka Dot. I don't expect you to forgive me either, so don't force yourself to. You care too much about other people's welfare, honestly.

I don't know when I'll see you again, but don't cry, and always smile so everyone around you will too. Don't be sad for me, Polka, I'm going to be fine.

Also, if you don't get the maths and science homework, ask Yuu for help.

Natsume.

Smiling through her tears and shock, Mikan slowly fell back on her bed before crying herself to sleep again with a letter crumpled into her hands.

1 month before present day

"He is an utter idiot."

Hotaru's typing did not slow as she replied.

"I'm going to kill him when he comes out," she vowed venomously, "Stupid, idiotic cur, he's no worse than Mikan."

Ruka kept on peering outside the window of Hotaru's room, which gave the perfect view of that Sakura tree Mikan always pretended to read by.

"She's still there!" he fumed, "how the hell can he just tell her to smile, to not blame herself, to not cry? God, he is impossible! He even had the gall to tell her not to forgive him! It's like he doesn't know her at all!"

Sliding smoothly onto the window seat beside her boyfriend, she opened the glass windows and shot the crying girl two storeys below with deadly accuracy.

"Get your butt off the damn tree baka, and go do your homework," she ordered in monotone through the megaphone in her hand.

Down below, Mikan rubbed her sore head while complaining loudly, jilted out of her memories of him. The baka gun may shoot compressed air, but it still hurt like hell.

Ruka smiled at the girl as she returned to adjusting a blueprint.

"Really, if those guns were for sale, you would be a millionaire."

"I made my first million two years ago with Amanatsu."

"..Oh."

Ruka mentally reminded himself not to underestimate his girlfriend's resourcefulness.

2 weeks before present day

Coughing violently, his whole body shook with cold sweat.

Persona stared at the drops of blood that fell with mild disdain, before filling out the report on the clipboard.

Another failure.

Natsume sucked in the oxygen in the air greedily, clutching the iron bed frame in the plain white room. He continued writing. Patient shows symptoms of oxygen deficiency, perhaps damage to respiratory system is sustained from Batch 043.

Glaring up balefully with hatred, he lifted himself onto the bed with exhaustion.

The ribs showed painfully on his abdomen, proof of his starvation ritual.

Closing his eyes briefly his imagination wondered back to her, and her smiling face.

He must endure this, he can't commit suicide.

He can't hurt himself, because it will make her sad.

"You may start eating from tonight onwards, as we've finished testing Batch 04."

His stomach growled angrily, but Natsume just silently turned to the plaster wall, trying to block out reality.

"Remember, cooperation is ideal. You wouldn't want any harm to befall your little girlfriend now, would you?"

Digging his fingernails into his palm in frustration, he answered with an angry silence.

Persona only smiled, before exiting the room silently.

It was infuriating.

He can endure weeks of starvation, endless days of pain and eating poison.

Because of her.

But now her life hangs on a thin thread, because of him.

And he hated himself for it.

Because once again, he would kill his the person he loved.

That night, the nightmare of fire returned again. And his hands began to itch once more for the glorious and warm fire.

1 week before present day

He was running away, away from the yawning darkness.

Peering into the direction he was running to, he saw a blinding light, radiating warmth.

He started sprinting, flying towards the prick of sunshine. And suddenly the light rushed up to meet him, and he burst forth into the beyond.

With horror, he looked behind and stared into the lifeless eyes of Mikan, a bloody hole running across her abdomen.

And when it dawned him, that he was the one who killed her, he was the one that burst from inside her, he howled with pain. The fire approached, but he was not scared.

Standing up shakily, he stepped into the inferno.

Waking up with a jolt, wild red eyes searched the white room for combustible items, his fingers yearning to feel the burn.

The room was clean plaster, the floor a bleached carpet.

He gripped the equally white bed sheets with white knuckles, waiting for the wave of insanity to pass.

And when Persona came into the room again, with a new tray of carefully labelled experiments, Natsume knew he's slipping into the bottomless pit again.

3 days before present day.

She glanced up at the rainbow that stretched across the sky, wondering if he could see it too, not knowing that he had already fallen into the dark pit of insanity.

With a sigh, she picked up the novel and headed back to her room.

It was about to rain, after all.

1 hour before present day

With insanity came strength, and he flew past unfamiliar corridors, his instinct drawing him to the door and the delicious potential for the burning inferno that his mind itched for.

His hand was bloodied from the punch that crushed Persona's nose, leaving him unconscious, his muscles burning from continued days of no exercise.

But adrenalin was rushing through his bloodstream, and he knew with certainty that no force on earth, let along sleepy scientists or security guards can stop his path.

30 min before present day

Roused from sleep, Mikan with a yawn got up and looked from her small window to the dark night below.

What was all that shouting, the sirens, the bloody noise? She has a maths test tomorrow, and she wanted a decent night's sleep before failing!

As her eyes slowly adjusted, she focused on a plume of black smoke that emerged the treetops.

It was probably the seniors holding a bonfire night or something, she concluded.

Their major exams had ended just today, and many were out partying. It is their last week of school after all.

And therefore with last weeks comes pranks, such as putting chairs on the canteen roof, setting up a mannequin sculpture with tables and chairs in the middle of the quadrangle, or even cling wrapping the pergola with an abnormal amount of glitter.

Crawling back into bed, she pondered on some crazy ideas for her own graduation before falling back again into a dreamless sleep.

20 min before present day

He stared at the glowing fire, raging with the breezy night, flying east.

He smiled, deaf to yelling, sirens, and screams.

The smoke carried him up, and before he knew it, he was out of the pit and onto the solid ground of sanity.

And then did he realise: the fire was racing towards Mikan's dorm.

10 min before present day

She woke up again, sweating.

The screams were louder, and with horror, she realised something was very wrong.

Jumping out of bed, she shed her pyjama top in the heat, and looked again through her grimy window.

Flames licked up the base of the weatherboard building, people streamed out still in their sleepwear. Ambulances and fire trucks wailed, water pouring in vain onto the growing inferno.

With strength born from desperation she ran towards the door, yanking on the glowing metal doorknob before registering the searing hot metal.

Her hand throbbed, bringing tears to her eyes, but Mikan was already on autopilot.

Methodically, she ran to her window trying to pry it open but finding the window stuck.

Crying hysterically, she banged on the thick glass in vain.

She was trapped.

Shrinking back into the corner she sobbed, realising the death that awaited behind the searing hot doors.

The window was too small to fit her body through anyway. And she squeezed her eyes shut, burning her lungs with noxious fumes.

15 seconds before Present day

Growling in annoyance at the clearly too small window, he drew the prototype weapon from his pocket.

Natsume pulled the trigger, half remembering Ruka's awed description of the weapon, a significantly more powerful upgrade from the normal baka gun.

Although it still fired compressed air, not only is there more power behind each shot, the air have been super suppressed to an almost visible bullet.

Still leaning against the tree, Hotaru closed her eyes and listened with satisfaction as an awesome explosion coming from the east.

Her lips curved into a smile, glad that he had found her untested money bank in the form of a new weapon.

1 minute later

"…Natsume?"

He looked down at the girl in his arms as he slowly descended onto the ground.

"What?"

"I knew you would come."

"Idiot."

With a smile, Mikan closed her eyes, succumbing to exhaustion and unconsciousness.

1 month later

It was the first day of spring, a season of new beginnings and sunny, warm days.

Mikan sat glumly on the edge of her bed, glaring angrily at the cloudless blue sky. A day of new beginnings, she thought venomously, how contradictory. Natsume's one month anniversary of leaving Alice Academy to go to that stupid mental institute.

Glancing at the clock again, she started, before picking up her bag and racing out the front door.

Her floral pink clock faced the sun that was high in the sky, the two iron wrought hands overlapping each other, pointing to the heavens above.

Natsume paced around the fountain again.

She was late, even when he arrived half an hour late.

It was almost tradition, to estimate how late she would be each time.

He glanced at his watch again, impatiently.

The digital numbers blinked back at him: 12.17pm.

"Sorry!"

Looking up, he smiled at her laboured breathing, her hair slightly windswept and her cheeks tinged pink.

"Don't worry, I only waited 2 minutes."

"But you told me to come at 11.45!"

"I came half an hour late."

Gaping, she sat down onto the wide lip of the fountain, fuming.

"And I rode as fast as I could here! I was nearly run over twice!"

Nodding his head as if in agreement, Natsume said sombrely, "To think how you survived those 11 years of your life without me to steer you from an imminent death."

Smacking him in the head with her handbag, Mikan sprang back up and took his hand.

"Well, standing here all day won't buy Hotaru and Ruka's 1 year anniversary party supplies. Let's go!"

Still grumbling, Natsume winced as he rubbed his head.

"What the hell do you keep in that miniscule thing, woman?"

"Oh, the usual things. A brick or two, maybe some iron and lead weights, and usually a poodle or a Chihuahua."

Smiling, he easily caught up to her quick pace, both laughing as they walked the busy streets of Tokyo.

"They're planning something," Hotaru said suspiciously.

Ruka looked over his plate of vegan pizza to the frowning woman, picking at her seafood platter.

"How do you know?"

"Because they're not at the campus today."

"Well maybe they just want a day out. Natsume only returned just yesterday from his stint at the mental hospital."

Hotaru twitched her lips in an almost-smile.

"I think he would be a great psychiatrist, Mikan's hyper-awareness of everyone else's emotions is rubbing off on him."

Ruka laughed, choking on his drink.

"Oh God, what I would give to see the psychiatrists' and psychologists' face after he was done with them!" he grinned, before turning serious; "he still hasn't told Mikan yet, has he?"

Hotaru calmly ate another piece of crab, before insulting in monotone, "Stupid, dense coward. If he doesn't tell her today, I'm marching over and telling her myself."

"No," Ruka said in defence of his best friend, "he will. He always keeps to his promises."

"I have something to tell you."

Mikan set down the numerous plastic bags filled with food and plastic cutlery, and sat with a sigh onto the park bench while licking her pistachio ice cream.

"Don't let me stop you then."

He silently sat down beside her, before getting straight to the point.

"I'm going to move to London in 2 weeks because Cambridge University gave me a scholarship to study psychology there for 3 years."

Dripping onto her lap, her ice cream melted into her jeans. Mikan was too stunned to notice. Waiting a minute for the news to sink in, he broke the silence.

"Because of my new apparent genius, Alice Academy also granted me 100,000 yen as an award for getting in, their first student to have done so, even though I wasn't really an official student. So yesterday I bought a webcam and a headset for your laptop so we can videochat, if you want."

"Videochat…" Mikan echoed hollowly.

With a sigh, Natsume leaned over and licked her melting ice cream, snapping her out of her astonishment.

"I can't see you for another 3 years…" she concluded vacantly, before suddenly turning to him.

"You can't be my date for the Year 12 Formal!"

Natsume groaned, tipping his head back.

"I tell you I'm leaving you for 3 years and the first thing you think of is not having a date for the Year 12 Formal??"

Blushing, she pouted.

"Well, suddenly spouting out that you're leaving me to go to another country for 3 years does wonders for my brain capacity."

"Do you want me to lull you into a false sense of security first with 10 minutes more minutes of shopping or something?"

"No," she sighed before bursting into tears.

With a tired smile, he took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped away her tears.

"At least you're showing the normal signs of reaction."

Hiccupping, she tried to smile, but only succeeded in bawling out more tears.

"A-at least you haven't b-broken my brain with information o-overload."

Pulling her into his arms, he inhaled the strawberry shampoo scent of her hair as she thoroughly drenched his shirt.

"S-sorry. I should be h-happy."

"Idiot, if you were happy, I'd accuse you of cheating on me," he reprimanded.

"Well, I'm effing heartbroken, so you should be over the moon," she sobbed half-angrily.

Smirking, he replied, "Forget the moon darling; I'm over the asteroid belt already."

"I would be angry, except I have no idea where the asteroid belt is, so just let me wallow in self-pity now."

Rocking her gently, he hummed while she cried, neither caring as they attracted numerous curious glances and shocked glares.

Because it was the first day of spring, and spring meant new beginnings, and letting go of your past.

...

2 weeks later.

Tomorrow he would leave, so he really did leave this til the last minute.

He has always been a coward, always been petrified of confronting his past.

Sliding into the vacant car park, Natsume took a deep breath, inhaling the air that swept past the wide open space.

The sun was low, another reminder of his undeniable procrastination.

He smiled.

After all, he nearly didn't go, but for Mikan, who had relentlessly pestered him til he agreed.

It was a small church cemetery out of the way and dotted with crucifixes and rounded headstones.

Natsume scanned the small space before pondering how people always seemed to be able to find a gravestone in a cemetery.

With small hesitant steps he traced the well worn central path, scanning the passing dates.

Of course.

It would be in chronological order.

A little more confidently he stopped at a row, featuring the same markings of 1998.

They were plain crucifixes of white marble, unadorned except for their name and dates.

Standing like small sentinels, the three nearly identical markers cast their shadows at Natsume's feet.

He silently crouched down, laying the three bouquets of white lilies at their base.

And for a moment, he cried silently, guilt welling up in his eyes.

Always cry, because all your sad feelings will be washed out with your tears.

When he stood up 5 minutes later, he remembered belatedly the little truism Mikan had once said.

Thank you, Mum…

Dad…

Aoi.

owari.


Oh, Natsume becomes an even psychologist who likes to torture people with their problems. And then he becomes a defence attorney, after his mid-life crisis because he has no morals, and, um, marries Mikan and lives a normal life. The Academy's experiments were found out, and they had to compensate him so now he's really really rich, not like he isn't already earning $100 per hour asking people 'how do you feel about this?'. And um getting rapists and murderers out of jail too. As a defence attorney. He really is the worst. lol.

oh yeah…

*Equivalent Exxhange- A version of the Law of conservation of Mass, or the first law of thermodynamics. Whatever goes in, the equal amount should come out. Fullmetal Alchemist applied this theory to everyday life. The main character using it as his philosophy. Natsume read FMA because he reads manga, Mikan read it because she liked to gawk over Ed's hawt body. Hey, I did try to portray them somewhat semi realistically, so yes, Mikan is very similar to other girls her age. Actually she was 11, but Ed was only 12 at the start of the manga anyway. ^^

**Orange blossoms- I meant the fruit orange, not the colour. They are white, btw. Funny if orange flowers are actually orange…

I'll post the bloopers/random scenes that never made it up sometime in the future...