A/N: Thanks for reviewing and adding to favorites and alerts! Love you guys! Hope you enjoy.
Disclaimer: So, again, it's that time of the fic to face the facts. I don't own Gakuen Alice… -sigh-
Chapter 13 Unveiled Secrets.
(Normal PoV)
"Are you really gonna go through with this?" Mikan questions for the hundredth time in ten minutes.
"I already told you I am! Stop asking!" Natsume shoots back.
There's a moment of silence as Mikan walks over to his desk and takes a look around picking up a magazine.
"Ne, are you really serious about this?" She asks as she flicks through it
"I can't very well chicken out NOW, can I?" He answers crossly as he throws some clothes and stuff into a suitcase.
"Alright geez… What's with the attitude?" she lies down on his bed, her legs hanging from the edge. "I'm just saying, I think you might have overdone it a little..." she adds curving her neck backwards to get an upside view of Natsume placing random items next to her.
He continues walking from the wardrobe to the bed but says nothing.
"I mean, I'm not your dad's number one fan or anything but… maybe you are taking this too far…"
Again she receives no reply.
"Besides you can always apologize and say that you were very pissed and you didn't mean it and then everything can go back to normal…" she continues. "It's not like he won't forgive you… He may be the devil incarnate, but he's still your dad." she says rolling onto her stomach. "Hey! Are you even listening to me?" she throws a pillow at him but misses for a few inches.
Natsume just ignores her.
"Okay so, this may not be my place to speak but-."
"Then don't!" he retorts sharply.
"I can't! Alright? I feel this is my entire fault; I don't want to see you fighting with your family just because of me!" she says sitting up on the bed. "No matter how awful your dad is he's still your dad…"
"Right, who was the one saying that we had to crush him no matter what just now?" he crosses his arms over his chest and stares at her.
"That was different…" She looks down at her hands.
"Really, how so?" he asks arching an eyebrow. She stays silent. "You see? There is no difference. You're just saying this because you feel guilty that I'm doing this for you. Well I've got news for you, I'm not." He resumes his packing.
"That's not-."
"Look, I had already planned to do this, you just -."
"I just gave you the final push you needed to fall off the cliff!" she suddenly interrupts him.
"Well that's not how I'd put it… I'm not falling off a cliff, I'm fine. No, I'm glad I finally did this. Now I won't-."
"What about your mom then? Have you thought about her or your little sister? Are you willing to abandon them too just because of some quarrel you're having with your dad?" she gets off the bed and walks up to him, her determined eyes never leaving his.
Natsume looks away. "It's not like I'll never see them again…" he defends. "Besides I've already made up my mind."
"You can't be sure of that… All I'm saying is why don't you take some time to chill out and think about it? And then if you still want to leave after that-."
"Why does it matter to you so much? If it's not guilt then what it that makes you so opposed to THIS in particular?" he points at the half empty suitcase.
"Do you have any idea…?" she whispers staring at the floor. "Any idea at all of what I'd give to be in your place?" she finishes clenching her fists.
"Why would you wanna be in the place of a person whose life is controlled by a father who only cares about money and a family who thinks money equals happiness?" he snorts.
"At least you have a family." she says gritting her teeth as if she were trying to swallow back her words.
Natsume jaw drops but he does nothing to conceal his surprise. "A- ah…" is all he manages to let out as he feels his mind go completely blank and finds himself at a loss for words. 'She always picks the best times to do this…' he thinks.
Mikan immediately regretting having ever said that smiles bitterly and shrugs. "Just forg-."
"DON'T…" he says raising his hand "…tell me to forget it. You don't say something like that and expect me to just pretend nothing happened."
"It's no big deal…" she answers plainly.
"You wouldn't be this upset if it wasn't." they stare at each other in silence. "There's no escaping now." He looks into her eyes, his expression softens. "You know you can trust me right?"
"God, I'm gonna regret this…" she says sitting down on the bed. "You might wanna sit down too…" she says and he takes a seat next to her. "This is something no one knows, not even Hotaru, so if you ever say anything I'm going to kill you." She states seriously.
"P- promise." He answers placing his right hand over his heart "Cross my heart and hope to die."
"How should I say this in a not so shocking way…" she asks herself "Perhaps I should start by explaining the obvious…" she says with a completely blank expression, earning a completely confused look from Natsume.
"What?" he asks, getting more and more confused each passing second.
Mikan places her hands on her lap, takes a deep breath and sighs. "Well as you probably already realized I…" she clenches the fabric of her dress and stares at her fists. "I don't have a father…" she pauses and looks at him to see his reaction to her words, none, not even a blink.
"…or a mother for that matter." She looks back at her hands. "I mean, I must have had them once upon a time but… not that I can remember."
Silence takes over the room once more as Mikan waits for a reply from him.
Okay, let's go back a bit to what Natsume was doing at the time she uncovered the truth.
He was shocked beyond words; that's for sure.
I mean who wouldn't be? It's not everyday that the most popular girl in school (whom you hated just two days ago and now is your friend, sort of) sits in your bedroom and confesses her deepest secret to you.
But that was just beside the point. Three questions almost automatically popped into Natsume's head the moment he heard her say she had no parents.
The first one was 'What made her think she had to keep it a secret?'
The second was 'Didn't she always say that herDADwas the chairman of some major international company and whatnot?'
And finally the third one was 'So who's taking care of her?'
A billion more questions start running through his head, flooding his mind. Like, how come she could hide it this long from her best friend or anyone else for that matter? And would it be
rude to ask her all of the questions he had? Would she be upset if he did? The last thing he wanted was to disturb her anymore than she already was.
He needed to think his next course of action through. He couldn't urge her to tell him anymore, she was upset enough as it was. And if there was something he couldn't handle, that was a girl crying.
He had tried comforting Aoi once before and that hadn't ended really well. She ended up worse than she had begun and he felt guilty as hell so in the end he had to-.
Okay that was WAY beside the point.
'Stop digressing!' he scolds himself mentally.
As the silence around them begins to get unbearable Natsume builds up a little courage and finally decides to do the only thing he considers neutral enough to do in a situation like this.
Mikan's eyes widen in utter surprise as he leans forward and holds her in a tight embrace whispering a soft 'I'm sorry' into her ear placing a hand on the back of her head and lowering it to rest on the crook of his neck.
Okay so maybe it wasn't the most neutral thing to do but… whatever. 'At least she's not crying.' He thinks to himself rather relieved.
Right, scratch that last thought.
Natsume suddenly stiffens at the realization that his right shoulder is slightly wet. 'Oh no…'he starts cursing himself mentally for his stupid decision of such a stupid course of action when he feels Mikan's arms wrapping around him and sobbing ever so lightly (which he wouldn't have noticed had he not been holding her so close) and for a second there he forgets the whole personal space thing and feels the need to hold her even closer.
Mikan's hold on him tightens and she whispers a hushed "why?"
He blinks a couple of times "Why what?" he asks confused.
"Why is it that you have this effect on me? Even though I promised I wouldn't cry…" she finishes to herself.
"Why would you promise such a thing?" he places his hands on her shoulders and pushes her away slightly to get a look at her face.
"I have to be strong so I'm not a burden for everyone else. Crying won't solve anything that's why-."
"What do you mean it won't solve anything?" he frowns "Of course it will! If you don't cry when you're sad then eventually your feelings will overwhelm you and you'll explode when you least expect it." A small smile graces his face "And I wouldn't want to have you going berserk and attacking people…"
"Why not?" she asks sniffling.
"Because then I would have to restrain you and I wouldn't want to hurt you trying to..."
She returns his smile with a tiny one of her own. "Then you'd rather have me clinging on to you all the time crying and asking you to solve my problems?"
"Well, that's not what I mean…" he brushes a stray tear from her face with his thumb "You're the one who has to solve your problems, but if you ever feel like crying I can always lend you my shoulder to cry on. And of course if you ever need help with anything you can count on me to lend a helping hand…" he scratches the back of his head "You know, what I mean is that you should cry if you feel like it and then-."
"Decide on the best course of action when I'm not so hotheaded?" she finishes for him.
"Exactly." He answers grinning 'Unlike what I just did…' Natsume's expression becomes serious all of a sudden. "So… do you wanna talk about it or?"
Mikan shakes her head slowly. "But I will. It's probably better to let it all out now that I already started." she smiles "Besides, I wouldn't want to go berserk later on and hurt you now would I?"
"Then why do you hide it? I mean… even from your best friend… how-."
Mikan shrugs "I… didn't mean to do it… It sort of happened. When I was very little I lived with my Jii-chan. He was nice and all and… Maybe I should start from the beginning of the story rather than the middle…" she sighs.
"Are you sure you wanna tell me all this I mean-."
"You said you'd listen and lend a shoulder for me to cry on didn't you?"
"Yeah but I thought-."
"Then shut up and listen…" she says bluntly and he nods. "I'm not really sure if all of it is true, this is just what I was told…"
(Retelling – brought to you by Mikan)
I used to live with my Jii-chan (A/N: Her grandfather) when I was little, up till I was five. I hardly ever wondered about my parents back then. We didn't have too much money but we managed. We were pretty happy, at least I was.
But I guess happiness can't really last long.
The day I turned five, he started feeling very sick and they had to take him to the hospital. And when he was there lying on that hospital bed he decided to tell me about my parents.
"They were very nice people, and they loved you very much." He said weakly "Always saying how they wanted to help people in any way they could..." His expression turned very serious. "…always thinking about others instead of themselves, your dad usually got caught up in a lot
of trouble. Many said he was common thief, a low life. What did they know? If he'd had the money and chances all those fat businesspersons had he wouldn't have had to resort to stealing."
At the time I didn't really understand what he meant, but as I grew up I figured he was some sort of modern Robin Hood or something. Sounds like taken from a movie, doesn't it?
Anyway, I sort of didn't know what to say at the time.
"Mikan, your father was a hero. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise." He coughed and continued "Your mom Yuuka she told me to tell you that-." Suddenly he started coughing loudly.
"Jii-chan are you okay?"
He held my hand and said "… to tell you that she didn't mean to-." The choughs became more intense and I started yelling for help.
In a second a nurse came running into the room and I was pushed outside and the door was slammed in my face.
I started crying and begging to god that my Jii-chan would be alright. But that was just childish hope I guess…
Deep down inside I knew I wasn't gonna see my Jii-chan again, his smile, or be able to hold him or hear his voice ever again.
When the door was finally opened and I saw the doctor come out I felt for a second that maybe he had been saved. But when a nurse came to my side and kneeled to be at my eye level I knew exactly what she wanted to say.
So I ran away as far as I could get, never stopping to look back. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to, and that was the first time I realized I was completely alone in the world. After I reached my house I couldn't open the front door, so I fell asleep on the ground.
(Tears start flowing from Mikan's eyes as she tells the story and starts shaking.
"If you don't feel like it we can stop here…" Natsume tells her brushing them away.
Mikan shakes her head. "You're the one who said it was alright to cry; besides no one else can see me..." she leans forward and holds him burying her face on his chest. "Just, let's stay like this for a second."
He smiles and smoothes her hair with his right hand while holding her with the left. "I don't mind but… wouldn't you rather use a tissue?" he teases.
She quickly pulls away and apologizes. Natsume scoots closer to her and pushes her into the same position.
"I said I didn't mind…" he repeats enjoying the feeling of the girl in his arms.)
The next morning, a social worker found me sleeping at the front door of my house. She took me to some orphanage sort of place. She said it would be for the time being until my "uncle" came back from some trip to god knows where.
He isn't really my uncle though, he's my dad's second cousin or something like that, or so I heard. But I was told he was the only family I had so it was either him or the orphanage, and considering he was filthy rich the social workers didn't really need to think about it.
A couple of weeks later I was taken to my uncle's house. I found out that he actually hated my dad with all his heart because he supposedly had stolen his "beloved Yuuka" from him and blamed him for corrupting her or something.
"Your father was just a scumbag he deserved to die that night when he was caught by the police trying to escape. But your mother was so devastated when that bastard died… she never got over it and ended up following his steps." He said blowing smoke from his cigarette at me.
"My dad was a hero! That's what Jii-chan said!" I cried.
He slapped me across the face "You will never mention them ever again in this house." He glared fiercely at me "The only reason I'm taking you in is to honor Yuuka's memory and that is all."
He kept glaring at me "You look exactly like her." He said "While you live in my house there will be rules you'll have to follow in exchange for me taking care of you." He said.
"First, you will live at the guest house that is a few meters away from the actual main house.
Second, you will not step foot in the main house unless you're told to.
Third, you will not tell anyone about you real parents or the fact that I'm not your real father; I don't want people knowing I'm bringing up the daughter of that scumbag."
He finished enumerating the rules and took another drag from his cigarette. "If you follow the rules and don't get on my nerves we'll get along just fine." And with that he left the room and told one of the maids to lead me to my new "room".
Like you said, a family could very well live in my room because it was actually designed for that in the first place.
I lived pretty much on my own just seeing the maids every once in a while to bring me food and ironed clothes and the driver that took me to school until I was old enough to drive.
I just got to step feet into the house when he needed to impress someone and said that I was his deceased brother's lovely daughter and that he had taken me in because he was so very magnanimous. I just nodded and smiled.
I met Hotaru when I was six, the first day of school she came to me and said. "Since we're both new to this school and have no other friends I think we should be best friends." with her usual stoic face. We've been best friends since then, but I never told her about my stepfather because it was the rules.
The day I turned ten, he called me to the main house and handed me a credit card and told me it was annoying to have to give me money. "So just use that." He said sounding bored and frustrated.
(Normal PoV)
"And my life has been pretty much what you already know since then…" she finishes and sniffles.
"So that's why you kept saying your "dad" this and that…" he says "What a scumbag…"
"Yeah well that scumbag is the one that's been taking care of me so I can't really do anything about it…" she says bitterly and hiccups.
"Well you can call him a scumbag at least when he isn't here…" he tries to cheer her up.
"Yeah well, he is but at least he took me in when no -hiccup- no one else would, besides it's not like he was abusive or anything…" she tries to defend him (and hiccups)
"I don't think what he did is much better anyway... Going as far as setting that kind of rules…" he clenches his left fist.
"Yeah although I sort of -hiccup-broke the most important one of them just now…"
"You know, it's only breaking the rules if you get caught… As far as I'm concerned we were just talking about a new movie that came out last Saturday…" he winks at her and she smiles, and hiccups.
"Thanks, I think telling someone was a good idea after all. Though I always thought I'd tell Hotaru if anyone at all." She confesses smiling.
"You look cute when you smile with a tearstained face…" and he wipes the tears with a handkerchief he just pulled out of his pocket. "Although I think you look better when you're not crying…"
She stares at him and hiccups in response.
"That's starting to get annoying… You should hold your breath and it'll go away."
"No my face looks fun-hiccup-funnywhen I hold my breath and besides-."
He covers her mouth with his hand "Hold your breath." He commands.
"Erf ou I kzme!" she tries to complain and hiccups.
He rolls his eyes and sighs pulling his hand away.
"I can't -hiccup-believe you did that, it'll go away eventu-."
Natsume crashes his lips against hers and Mikan gasps and suddenly forgets how to breathe.
The door opens and Aoi's face pops out from behind it. "Onii-chan?" she ventures a little further into the room and gasps as she sees the scene developing in front of her.
Natsume and Mikan both gasp and turn their heads to stare at her, both their faces turning a bright red.
'At least the hiccupping stopped…' they both manage to think.
"Umm… I'm sorry to interrupt Onii-chan but…" Aoi starts fidgeting with her fingers.
"What do YOU want? Did you come to kill Mikan on dad's behalf? " he spits venomously.
Aoi eyes get teary and she bows down "I came here to apologize to you. Both of you… Father told me that Mikan-san was just lying to you and was going to break your heart so I thought… I'm really sorry Onii-chan, Mikan-san!" she looks up to meet a smiling Mikan and a tired looking Natsume.
"Aoi-chan…" Mikan starts "No need for formalities, you can call me Mikan-chan. And it's alright; you were just trying to help your brother, no matter how mean he is to you." She says glaring side ways at him. "Beside no damage was done right?" she elbows him "RIGHT?"
"Yeah right..." he says resting his head on one of his hands.
Aoi's face lightens up and suddenly becomes completely serious. "Actually that's not the only reason I came by…" she says staring directly at Mikan.
Mikan swallows "W- what?"
"Mikan-s- chan" she corrects quickly "I came here to warn you about Luna…" she states bluntly.
"W- Warn about what?" she asks laughing nervously "What you're gonna say she's coming here to kill me or something? Like that can really happen…" she looks around the room for an answer "That can't happen… right?" she stares at the Hyuuga siblings wide eyed.
"Well I don't know if she'd go as far as killing but…" Natsume's eyes widen too and he perks his head up to stare at Aoi "Wait so that means she's-."
"On her way here…" the younger girl completes his sentence.
Natsume starts sweating. "When i- is she?" he asks the terror noticeable in his voice.
"That is…" Aoi closes her eyes "Apparently dad called her about twelve hours ago if not more and she was…"
"Save the explanation!" He shouts at his sister standing up. "When?" he asks again.
"About two hours if not less…"
"SHIT! We gotta get out of here!" he runs over to the wardrobe picks up a couple more things and resumes the long forgotten packing.
"So you're really going aren't you Onii-chan?" Aoi asks sadly.
He stops midway and turns to look at her. He walks up to her and hugs her. "I'm sorry." He says softly and backs away "But hey, we'll see each other at school everyday, and I'll come visit when dad's not around and you have my cell-phone number so we'll be in touch…" he grins.
"You can come visit whenever you want too Aoi-chan…" Mikan cuts in.
"What?" both Hyuugas turn to look at her shocked.
"Well you're gonna be staying at my place…" she says matter-of-factly "So I'm simply letting her know she can come anytime she feels like it…"
"Who the hell decided that?" he yells.
"Do you have any better ideas?" she asks raising an eyebrow. He shakes his head. "I didn't think so…" She says walking up to him "So it's settled then…"
Natsume sighs and continues his packing.
After about an hour or so of much giggling and gossiping about Natsume between Mikan and Aoi, the packing is finally done.
The trio starts walking down stairs with his bags and as soon as they reach the bottom a screeching voice is heard from the hallway.
"Natsume-kun I' m home!" Luna's high-pitched scream and some footsteps coming their way are heard.
Natsume starts panicking. "We have to get out of here before she sees us!"
"Aoi-chan you slow her down a bit we'll get out through that window." Mikan says pointing to a large window that leads to the front of the house where she can see her parked car. Aoi nods and after hugging her brother goodbye she runs to stop Luna.
"GO!" Mikan shouts at him as she takes one of the bags and runs over to the window, jumps out and reaches the car. They both get in panting and sweating. She quickly drives away and glances over at the mirror were she can see Natsume's family standing at the front door watching the car speed away. "You should wave goodbye to them…"
He opens the window shield on the roof of the car and pops out. "Bye mom, Aoi!" he says waving. "See you never again old man!" he yells at his father who's currently too busy fuming and screaming at Natsume to "GET BACK HERE BEFORE I KILL YOU!"
He gets back into the car laughing out loud and Mikan starts laughing too.
"His face was completely priceless!" he manages to say between laughs "I would do it all over again just to see that again!" he holds his stomach from laughing too hard.
"So what now?" she asks him.
"Um… I don't know, I haven't really thought about it…" he admits "But what does it matter anyway?"
"I think I could really use a shower and some sleep right now…" her stomach starts grumbling. "And some food too… I really couldn't eat anything during breakfast…"
"How does pancakes sound to you?" he asks staring at the road "Although it's probably already lunch time…"
"Hmm I think I could really use some of that soup you made me last time…" she answers smiling.
Natsume grins proudly "Soup it is then…"
A/N: So not much happened but we found out about Mikan's past, that's good right? I just hope you liked it anyway…
And there you go, Aoi is not an evil bitch, she just thought she was protecting her Onii-chan, so technically she's still nice :)
See you next time! Thanks for reviewing and all I really appreciate it!
To be continued…