Disclaimer: All rights belong to Higuchi- Tachibana sama.

This story though, belongs to me.

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RECAP:

"Here"

She looked up to see a dry handkerchief held out by its owner who looked away, embarrassed.

She took hold of it and wiped her eyes and face dry and whispered so low, he had to strain his ears to hear it.

"Yes…"

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Chapter 15: Time Schmime

Natsume kept his eyes averted from Mikan's face, waiting for her to stop sniffing into his handkerchief. Watching her cry did something to him. His chest felt a little tighter and he felt mildly irritated and helpless. Confused, he took a couple of minutes to sort out his weird feelings and decided that it was guilt. At making her cry that is.

Yup. That has to be it.

He snuck a peak at Mikan who was still sitting on the ground but now gazing at him with a strange look on her tear stained face.

"What?" he asked raising an eyebrow and was rewarded with a low growling sound that seemed to have come from the area of her abdomen. Mikan's face convoluted in horror and she got up suddenly, her face beet-red. Staring fiercely at the floor she pointed repeatedly at her left wrist.

Natsume blinked a couple of times and stared at his own.

"You want to know the time?"

She nodded mutely.

"Its half past two."

She stared at him dumbly and then-

"HALF PAST TWO??!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE??!!! Correction, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE SO LATE AT NIGHT??!!! ARE YOU SOME KIND OF CRAZY STALKER OR SOMETHING??!!!" she screamed at him, pointing a finger at his face.

"Wha-? Stalker?? Who the hell would stalk you? And what I do with my time is none of your damn business!! And waddaya mean late??" he yelled back, forgetting his earlier guilt.

That was when he noticed what she was wearing. Mikan was still screaming at him, pointing her finger (quite rudely at that), but the only thing Natsume could concentrate on was the fact that she was wearing the same clothes- a light pink tee with a floral print and faded blue jeans, as yesterday. He was still aware that she was screaming at him-wait was that something about him being a perverted stalker?

Stalkers are perverted, so it pretty much went without saying, he mused, rolling his eyes.

This should be fun.

"-What the hell are you grinning about now to yourself? You've gone crazy haven't y- "

"Polka.", he cut in.

She stared at him, a little miffed she'd been cut off. Then-

"I HAVE a name you -"

"Mikan" he smirked. She shut up immediately because for some strange reason, she found it a little difficult to breathe. She blinked a couple of times trying to figure out what was wrong and then realized he'd just called her by her name. For the first time!!!

She would've continued to drift in that hazy cloud of wonder if she hadn't realized he was still speaking.

"-it is?" he asked.

"Eh?" she said intelligently, blinking a couple of times.

His smirk was on full blast now, nearing something of a grin, the pearly whites of his teeth just about showing and it was all the girl could do to stop staring at his teeth or what she could of them atleast and the way his-

What the hell am I thinking?? Concentrate on what he's saying idiot!!

"I asked you what day it was."

"Uh….Friday?? No wait. Its past two, so that makes it Saturday morning. EARLY morning. You should know, since you were here yesterday evening. Which brings me back to the question- WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE AT THIS TIME?!"

He cocked an eyebrow and immediately regretted it. Moving facial muscles when your nose is out of commission is the stupidest, not to mention most painful, thing to do.

"You sure bout that?" he asked, wincing slightly at the sharp pain in his nose. "About it being morning, that is."

"Well, duh. I've been up for the past six and a half hours fixing the library." She said a little miffed.

"More like eighteen and a half" he said, seemingly absently, poking the tip of his nose gingerly with a finger. It really hurt, the blasted thing.

"Ha ha Natsume. That's really funny. You seriously expect me to believe that I'd spend eighteen and a half hours arranging books without even realizing the time?" she scoffed, pointedly ignoring the fetching way he'd poked his nose. "My body clock is pretty accurate you know. I'll have you know that my stomach never fails to let me know when its-"

GRRRRRRRRRUUUMBLLLLLLE!!!!!!!

"-hungry…" she trailed off, her face colouring as the loud noise erupted again, only three times louder, from the vicinity of what she had just been talking about.

Natsume snorted. "Accurate, eh?? You're right about it not failing though."

"I-I-I-Its just grumbling cuz I've been working for six hours straight since eight last night!!!" she replied hotly to the floor, too embarrassed to look up.

Natsume sighed and thrust his watch under her nose. It was quite convenient she was staring at the floor. Now she could stare all she wanted at his watch. He couldn't wait to see the look on her face when she realized he was right.

Natsume looked down at her. She wasn't moving. He bent his head ever so slightly to make sure she really was looking at his watch. She was. Staring at it like a wooly headed lamb just like he'd predicted. And she stared. And she stared. And she stared until Natsume started getting impatient and his hand started going numb.

"There's not much to see you know. I'm sure even idiots like you can read the time." He said half jokingly.

Then

"The watch is digital." He added helpfully.

When she still hadn't moved, he got worried and bent down a little more towards her face to make sure she was okay. Yet another choice he came to regret when her head snapped up, hitting his forehead, making him stagger back , though not so much so as the banshee-like wail that flowed from her now shapeless lips.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON!!!"

The way things were going; Natsume was lucky to sport only a bleeding nose and not ears as well. He covered his ears as Mikan started running around frantically, her hands pulling at her hair, blabbering nonstop.

"Oh-mi-gosh-Jii-chan-is-gonna-kill-me!! I-cant-believe-I-left-the-door-open-all-night!! Hotaru-is-gonna-kill-me-too-I-think-I'd-better-pack-and-move-out-of-here. But-where-do-I-go-its-not-like-I-have-enough-money-anyway." she turned her wild eyed gaze at Natsume, who flinched involuntarily. She rushed up to him, her hands clasped, eyes tearing up.

"Natsume-you're-not-gonna-tell-on-me-are-you? Cos-if-you-do-Hotaru-is-gonna-kill-me-or-worse-stop-talking-to-me! I-don't-want-her-to-do-that-cos-shes-"

Natsume, still recovering from the ear splitting shriek she'd delivered just seconds before, was in no position to decipher what Her Craziness was blabbering. It was all he could do to not sway from her fresh onslaught of gibberish and fall to the ground clutching his already aching and, now, quite dizzy head. So he did the next best thing.

He silenced her.

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You know one of those things you'd hate people doing to you but love doing to people???

Tricks and Cliffhangers for me. Do you have anything you'd love to do to a person but hate having it done to you?? Do let me know!!!

It's not a very big chapter, but my semester exams are coming up and I won't be able to post up anymore until they're done. T_T

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it!!!!! Do review and feel free to ask questions or make requests!!! Who knows, I might use one of yours, my brain is all moldy of late. ^_^

Ja!!