A/N: Wohooo! Chapter 10… Not much to say, I'll just try to make it less horrible than the last one.
Anyways I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice etc…
Chapter 10 Honestly...
(NormalPoV)
"Ninetyyy-eightthh bottlessshh of beeeerr on the wall! Ninetyyy-eightthh bottleeesshh off beeeeeerrr! On-" Natsume sings.
"Would you shut up already?" The girl carrying him says glaring at him.
"Ugh… Now look what you did, I lost count… Damn it, now I have to start all over again!" Natsume says and starts singing once again. "Onee hundreeeddd bottlesssss…"
"Well if you're not gonna shut up then…" leading Natsume to the edge of the swimming pool, she gently pushes him with just one finger. He completely loses his balance and falls into the water. Everyone starts laughing while he shakes his hands in the air and yells.
"Help I'm gonna drown! Get me out!"
"You can stand up genius…" The girl tells him sounding rather annoyed.
"Imai don't you think that was a little mean? You didn't have to throw him-." Ruka quickly closes his mouth after receiving a deathly glare from Hotaru and backs away a little.
"Unless you want to be next, I suggest you keep your comments to yourself." She says walking to a nearby chair.
"Ohh no you don't!" Natsume quickly gets out of the pool and runs to catch up with her. He suddenly grabs her by the waist and picks her up bridal style. Everyone gasps loudly at the sight of Hotaru being suspended in the air.
"If you know what's best for you, you're gonna put me down NOW…" she says not even showing a sign of being worried.
"Hmm let me pretend I care about the consequences of what I'm about to do for a second…" He rolls his eyes a couple of times and then starts running towards the pool.
"Hyuuga don't make me repeat myself again, put me down NOW!" she demands her voice a little louder than before.
Natsume sighs loudly "Fine… Sorry I don't know what took over me… I'll just put you down now…" a big smirks forms on his lips "NOT!" he shouts right before jumping into the pool bringing Hotaru down with him.
"He's so dead…" Koko says to no one in particular.
"He was such a brave dude… sob, sob." Tsubasa adds pretending to blow his nose with Ruka's shirt.
"I call dibs on the clothes we bought him!" Ruka says pushing Tsubasa away from him.
"Hey, that's not fair! We'll go 50-50…" Tsubasa answers.
"I'm not dead yet! And even if I die you're not getting any of my stuff!" Natsume shouts at them as he comes out of the water.
Hotaru starts emerging from underwater a second later, all faces turn to look at her and Natsume smiles sheepishly.
"How dare you?" she says glaring at him.
'Seriously, how dare I? What was I thinking?' he asks himself "How dare YOU?" he answers pointing at her.
"You're gonna regret this Hyuuga I'm gonna-."
"Aw come on, try to have a little fun. You can worry about killing me later…" he says and then he splashes some water in her face. 'Natsume stop this NOW, you can still walk out of this without looking like a complete moron if you stop NOW!' he thinks and then splashes some more water at her and starts laughing. 'Why can't I stop being so stupid?'
Hotaru looks at him in disbelief. "You're basically saying that if I have fun now, you'll let me have my revenge on you later, no complaints?" she asks although it almost sounds like an affirmation.
"Sure whatever…" he says 'what am I talking about? STOP IT! Damn body, punch yourself! Listen to me!'
"Here you are! I've been looking for you guys." Mikan says as she walks to Ruka and the others, followed by Youichi. She looks down into the pool and notices Natsume and Hotaru standing there. "Hotaru, what-."
Koko, Tsubasa and Ruka exchange mischievous smiles and grab Mikan and Youichi, all of them jump (or are forced to jump) into the pool at the same time. Mikan blinks a couple of times before yelling.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING! You ruined my hair, and my make-up, not to mention my clothes!" she screams at each of them.
'I though she said she didn't care about her clothes getting wet…' Natsume thinks as he remembers that day when they stood under the rain. 'Oh right, but that was Mikan talking…'
"Don't be a party popper Minako…" he tells her pouting.
"Oh my god, have you been drinking?" she says walking over to him.
"You should have seen him, he even beat Koko! It was like one second there where five glasses of tequeehmphl-." Natsume covers Tsubasa's mouth with his hand before he can finish his sentence.
"I just had like two drinks, big deal…" he says trying to look as convincing as possible. 'I bet she isn't buying any of this…'
"Yeah, I bet you did…" she says and sniffs his clothes "You stink of alcohol…" she pinches her nose with her thumb and index finger. "I get the 'he even beat Koko' thing now…"
"Look, it's not what you think I just…" everyone stares at Natsume with puzzled faces and as soon as he notices this he shakes his head "It's not like I need to explain myself to YOU…" he finishes and sticks his tongue out.
"Really mature…" she says grabbing his wrist and starts dragging him out of the pool.
"Let go off me, you don't have to look after me like you were my mom or something!" he tries to break free from her grip, but considering his state, he'd even find it impossible to break free from a baby's grip.
Hotaru and the others just stare at the scene disbelievingly, but choose not to meddle. Hotaru and Youichi because they think it's none of their business and they don't want to be dragged into a troublesome matter that doesn't even concern them to begin with. And as far as the other three go, they just find it too amusing to interrupt.
Once they are out of the group's sight Natsume looks back to check that no one is following them. "Would you let me go already and tell me why you dragged me all the way here?" He says crossly.
"You're making a fool out of yourself…" she states, suddenly stopping walking and not turning to look at him.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're drunk…" She says still not facing him.
"Well at least I'm not pretending to be so that I can steal a kiss from someone else!" he spits and releases his hand from hers. "But I guess that's the only thing you're good at, pretending…"
Mikan turns around and Natsume can see a slight hurt look on her face. She stares at him for a second and then slaps him across the face, hard. "JERK!" she shouts at him and starts walking away.
Almost automatically his body moves forward and he pulls Mikan backwards making her face him. "I'm not letting you slap me and then run away again." He says staring at her directly into her eyes. "Look I just…" he pauses and sighs loudly. "I don't know why I said that…" he drops himself on the ground and lies against the trunk of a tree motioning Mikan to sit next to him.
She stares at him for a while and then decides to sit down. "They say drunken people don't lie… So I guess that's what you really think about me…" she says in a hurtful voice.
"It's not!" he quickly defends "I didn't mean it like that… It's just…"
"It's alright." She cuts him off "It's not like you're the only one who thinks that…" she gives him a fake smile.
"But I'm the first to say it, is that what you mean?" he looks at her and notices the fake smile gone "Look, I didn't mean to hurt you… I'm not really myself right now…" he says placing his hand on his forehead.
"Yeah, you're drunk; of course you're not yourself…" she looks at him and chuckles "You wouldn't have thrown Hotaru into the pool if you were." They both laugh a little at that.
"She probably hates me right now…" he sighs and yet keeps smiling,
"Actually I think she's starting to like you a little…" he looks at her, confusion written all over his face. "Well you'd be dead by now if she didn't…" she explains.
"Oh, we agreed she'd have her revenge on me later…" he says laughing nervously.
"What do you mean later? Umm, you know what? I don't really wanna know…" she laughs.
"Can I ask you something?" he says staring at his feet.
"No…" she answers plainly.
"What? You don't even know what I'm going to ask!" he tries to convince her.
"I said no, and that's definite…" she stand s up quickly followed by Natsume who pins her to the tree he was just resting his back against. "Back off." She says trying to sound menacing.
"No, not until you stop avoiding me and answer honestly…" he says determined to get her to tell the truth this time.
She doesn't say anything and just looks down at the floor not wanting to meet his burning gaze.
"Why can't you just be honest this once?" he asks almost pleadingly.
"There's nothing to be honest about…" she lies feeling rather guilty about it.
"If there really isn't then why don't you just look at me in the eyes and say it?"
"…" she just stands there without moving.
"You want to know the reason why you can't be honest? It's because you're weak… If you were just half as strong as you pretend to be all the time…"
"OKAY! Don't you think it's been enough insulting for one day?" she says, tears forming in her eyes refusing to come out, although probably her shaky voice gave it away.
"Just tell me why and I'll never talk to you again in my life if that's what you want…"
"Why what?" she snaps back.
"Why did you do it?"
"I don't know what you're talking about…" she answers finally calming down a little.
"Stop playing dumb! I know perfectly well you aren't. Now answer the question…" he raises his voice a bit more than he would have liked to.
"It doesn't matter anyway… just leave me alone." She can feel the tears whelming up again.
"Why?" he insists, his patience growing thinner by the second.
"No reason…"
"Okay fine! You know what? I don't care anymore… Do what you want!" he shouts finally losing the last bit of patience he had left.
"Funny to hear YOU saying that…" she lets out a barely audible sarcastic snort, he probably doesn't hear.
"I don't know where the 'funny' part is…" he says seriously.
"What you're mad at me now?" she finally looks at him in the eyes and blushes a little after seeing his thoughtful expression, but she doesn't look away.
"No… Actually I'm not really sure how I feel about you right now…" after hearing this Mikan gasps loudly and Natsume backs away.
They look at each other intently for what seems like an entire lifetime before Natsume starts slowly approaching Mikan placing one hand gently on her face.
(Natsume's PoV)
Ugh, I'm starting to feel a bit lightheaded… What's going on with me? My face feels hot and my heart feels like it's about to come out through my mouth.
I take a step forward, closer to her. She's still staring at me with those almond eyes… I wonder what she's thinking right now. Maybe that our faces are too close to one another, like I am… Perhaps it's just my impression; I mean a while ago I thought that the table was moving…
No, this is not just my imagination, her face is getting closer to mine… or is mine getting closer to hers? All this thinking is making me nauseous…
The world starts shaking and I see darkness starting to cover everything around me. I can't feel anything anymore. Before darkness completely covers everything I see Mikan, Imai and some more people rushing to my side calling out my name…
What's wrong with them? They are staring at me like they've seen a ghost or something… Am… I… gonna… di-…
-Blackout- (A/N: For who knows how long…)
Ohhh god my head's spinning like crazy. Where the heck is this? Ugh I just gotta sit up straight and… whoaaaa… Okay so either a truck just ran over me or a piano fell on my head, and to make things better my mouth tastes like… well actually like coffee and shit… but mostly the second one.
It's so dark I can't even see my own hands, and I feel so heavy I can't get up from my lying position, although the floor's rather soft and bouncy.
Oh- I don't think this is floor… But what is it? A carpet… no, carpets aren't bouncy right? Maybe it is -Mumble-
OH- KAY… Something or rather SOMEONE is moving next to me and the heaviness I just felt is now gone… I guess now I know why I felt so heavy a while ago.
"Hello?" I whisper and wait for an answer. After a while of silence, I reach out to shake the person awake but my hand accidentally lands on… umm… oh well, at least I'm glad it's a girl and not a guy. It would have taken many years of therapy to get over it if it had been the latter. -Sigh-
HOLD IT! Did I just say that there's a girl? And she's sleeping next to me? And I'm lying on what I can only assume is a bed?
This can't be what I think it is, I'm just jumping into conclusions too fast, and my lack of shirt (and pants for that matter) is not really helping at all.
"Hmm… wha… -yawn-." She starts moving and I freak out and fall onto the ground. "What the-?" I hear ruffling and suddenly the room becomes so bright I need to cover my eyes.
"CRAP I THINK I'M BLIND!" I shout while rubbing my eyes brusquely.
"Relax… You just have to get used to the light…" the girl says in an irritated tone approaching the edge of the bed to look at me. "You're gonna hurt your eyes if you scratch them so much baka…" she says as she gently pulls my hands away from them.
I look at her trying to focus and blink a couple of times to get rid of my now blurry vision.
"YOU!" I yell at the top of my lungs when I finally am able to recognize her face.
A/N: Hahahahahahah this is like the most clichéd cliffhangers in the history of mankind. But I've always wanted to do this.
So who do you think it is? Hotaru? Mikan? Someone else? Well at least we're sure it is a girl…
To be continued…