~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

Sixth Letter

Deserted.

That's what Mikan feels. She never thought there'd come a day when the school bell would just ring, leaving her all alone without any clue as to what to do or where to go in just a matter of seconds. But then, here she was, exactly in that predicament. Oh joy. Why is her life like this? Isn't she supposed to know what's going on? And yet she always finds herself disoriented with what's happening.

Activity Period, as it turns out is the culprit to her not-so-handy situation, which is walking along the halls of the school, all alone, to who-knows-where and she absolutely has no idea what she was supposed to be doing right now.

Mikan sighed, still walking. It's a wonder that no one's paying attention to her. This period does wonders, she noted.

"Ora," a familiar feminine tuned voice greeted her. "What are you doing here, Mikan-chan?" It was Narumi-sensei, grinning at her with that charming smile of his.

"Narumi-sensei!" Mikan enthusiastically greeted. "Oh, frankly, I don't know." she slumped. "Those three just left me after the bell rang, saying it's already Activity period. Like I'm supposed to have any idea. Hello? I'm a newcomer and I didn't have any proper orientation and they expected me to know everything? Seriously," she pouted.

It was so funny that the blond male just had to laugh, earning a playful glare from the brunette. "Sorry," he stopped then smiled again. "Activity period is a two-hour period for club, Mikan-chan,"

"But I don't have a club!"

"Mmmm," Narumi thought pensively, putting both his hands on his waist. "Well, Hotaru-chan belongs to the Technical class since she loves to invent stuff. Ruka is a founder of this Animal-devoted club and…Natsume pretty much disses club periods. Ah, but Mikan-chan, I'm sure you'll find a club of your own! Why don't you tell me what you love to do most?"

They started walking. Mikan thought about it then sighed. She doesn't have anything she's good at actually, and lately, she noticed that she doesn't have a life either. Her life revolves mainly around the Palace - Princess Lessons, Natsume, the craze inside the place, etc. etc. Isn't she supposed to have time for herself? No, she doesn't. Great. Just great. That's going to earn her a proper club as well.

"What about the Cooking club?" Narumi offered after a downpour of silence.

Mikan glanced uneasily at her teacher and laughed. "Narumi-sensei, unless you want the whole school in the middle of an arson, I suggest you don't leave me in that club,"

Narumi sweat-dropped. "Art club then?"

"Cool,"

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm a great artist - "

"Then there you have it!"

" - for a three year old,"

"Oh," Narumi wiped invisible sweat on his forehead. Somehow, he finds this more difficult than accomplishing his students' grades. Mikan is such a piece of art. How can such a person not have a club fit for her? "Then, the newspaper club?"

Mikan scowled. "Yeah sure. I'll be more like the source of news rather than the actual staff,"

She was right about that, Narumi thought. Those gossip people will devour her in a matter of minutes. Ah. "Music club? Can you sing?"

The brunette smiled. "Yeah. I sing. But I don't know if I'm good at it." she frowned.

Narumi stopped on his tracks and smiled. "Then why don't we try?"

"Right now?" Mikan's eyes couldn't get larger. "In the middle of the hallway?"

"Why, yes."

Mikan looked around her uncertainly and gulped. Heaving a big lungful of oxygen, she started singing a random song. Narumi listened until she stopped.

"Mikan-chan, you have a great voice!" he smiled. "Great. Great. Music club then?"

Thunder.

Mikan looked up to the sky from one of the windows. "Mmm, yeah," she mumbled. "But I'm taking the sky's opinion on it. If I conjure up a massive storm every time I sing, then no thanks,"

It was the teacher's cue to slump. God. Why did he volunteer for this kind of torture? "What about dancing?" he asked hopefully.

"Got two left feet at that," Mikan grinned which eventually turned into a laugh. "Narumi-sensei, give it up," she said. "I really don't have a talent to begin with and entering the Palace deprived me of a life as well. You can say that it's my life now. Everything I do these days revolves around the big old place and the people,"

"You mean Natsume?"

Mikan blushed. Well, basically, yes. But she's never going to admit that. Not in a million years. No. Just no. "Uh - "

"Why don't you join the Natsume-Ruka fan club then?"

"WHAT?!"

Narumi doubled and laughed. "Oh sorry, sorry. It was a joke," he said between fits of laughter.

The brunette paled at the suggestion. He got her there. Join the Natsume-Ruka fan club? Jesus. What's wrong with this teacher? She'd rather put the whole school in fire, thank you very much. Besides, putting the fans aside and their urges to put her in a boiling bowl for dinner, she's absolutely not going to make Natsume catch her dead fawning over him. Goodness! What a thought. Fawning over him? Never.

"For the last time then, Mikan-chan," Narumi coughed, cutting her train of thoughts. "I'm going to give you my last bet and if it still doesn't fit then…" he shrugged. "You're on your own, okay?"

Mikan nodded. Well, the man has helped her too much, anyway.

"Why don't you try the Japanese club?"

Mikan tilted her head. "Japanese club? What do they do there?"

"Tea ceremony, ikebana (flower-arranging) those kinds of things. Well, I figured that you would need those, Mikan-chan, since being in the Royal Palace requires a lot of Japanese traditions and customs. What do you say?" He smiled.

Well, it's true that those might come in handy and she does think that the ex-Empress said something about learning how to brew tea one day. Why not try this club out?

"Alright!" she smiled. "Where is it?"

Narumi put an index finger under his chin. "Room 304, Mikan-chan,"

"Oh. Thanks a lot, Narumi-sensei!" she smiled and dashed off to the club.

The blond male meanwhile, waved after her and smiled then after a while, started walking back to the faculty room.

Oh. But that club has only one member, he thought. Nobara Ibaragi.

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

Natsume stared at the dark sky.

It had started grumbling just minutes after he perched on his favorite branch in the Christmas tree. As usual, he skipped the annoying two-hour-meet-annoying-people-in-an-annoying-club-time, abandoning a certain disoriented brunette at the process. Honestly, he still hasn't figured that girl yet and what she said yesterday about leaving just bothered Natsume's insides.

He knows that what she said was just hypothetical but it had been gnawing on his mind since the words left her lips. Leave? Somehow, the young prince wasn't sure at all if what she said were completely out of the blue because he had this tugging feeling that he's going to lose her soon. But that's impossible, he thought. How could she leave? She was chosen and she accepted. As far as Natsume knows, both of them are certainly going to be married after that process. One cannot escape it unless one has sufficient reasons.

Reasons. Natsume rolled the word in his mind.

What could be the brunette's reasons? The only sufficient reason the crimson-eyed lad could think of was that Mikan might be pregnant which is equally preposterous. He was absolutely sure that she's not. She said so herself didn't she? That time when she freaked out about losing her virginity during her first night in the Palace.

Natsume smirked at the memory.

So what? What could possibly let her leave the Palace?

A lover perhaps? Natsume scowled. But the brunette also said that she had a boyfriend. HAD. Which meant that she's currently single. So then, the next possible reason for that is because Mikan was not fit to be the next Empress. Was she a gold-digger, a killer, a sociopath, a lunatic or what? Natsume tried not to pull his hair out in frustration. How can he not figure out a simple thing such as that idiot's reason for leaving?

How difficult can it be? There's nothing difficult for the Natsume Hyuuga. Or perhaps, the reason behind this all is because there wasn't a reason at all and that he was just reading too much into things. Maybe he is.

He sighed.

"Yo, Natsume!" someone called underneath him, kicking the trunk of the tree too, sending its insides into a fit of quake. "Come down here!"

Grunting, the raven-haired lad easily jumped off his branch and met the annoying airhead who disrupted his rest. It was Tsubasa - with Misaki, both her hands on her hips.

"Natsume, when will you stop skipping clubs huh?" she chided in a motherly way.

Natsume just rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't have graduated two years ago if you can't let go of High school," he muttered, balling his hands inside his pockets then walked away.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Tsubasa asked, chasing after him.

Natsume just pointed at the gray sky, which had been flashing blinding lights once in a while for the last ten minutes. "If you had any plans on soaking wet under the rain, count me out,"

On cue, the engaged couple looked up the sky.

"Cat,"

"Excuse me?" the young prince looked back. Did they just call him a cat? He frowned.

Misaki sighed. "Natsume, you're such a cat, always afraid of rain. It's a wonder you can even bathe properly. Sometimes, I do expect you to lick your face, you know."

Natsume glared at his cousin. "Tame your girlfriend, Shadow," he muttered.

"H-hey, why are you glaring at me?"

It was the pink-haired lass turn to roll her eyes. "Quit being a drama queen, Natsume. Say," she looked around. "Where's Mikan-chan?"

Natsume kept on walking.

"Isn't she supposed to be with you?"

He looked back. "For god's sake. That idiot is not my tail. Stop looking for her from me."

"Finally admitting that you're a cat, eh?" Misaki grinned mischievously while Tsubasa looked uneasily from his fiancée to his cousin.

Natsume's face darkened considerably. "What do you need?"

Misaki looked at him blankly.

"Jesus." he muttered. "You're not going to annoy the hell out of me for nothing. What do you need?"

The strawberry-eyed girl brightened and smiled. "Why, yes." she smiled wickedly.

"Come with us to visit some clubs and look for Mikan-chan,"

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

"Hello?" Mikan called as the door to room 304 creaked open.

Gingerly, the hazel-eyed girl entered the room and looked around. There was a wonderful arrangement of flowers on a case resting atop a Japanese drawer just underneath the mirror. The space stretched for about a meter and a half until a traditional Japanese sliding door.

"Hello? Anyone here?" she called aloud once more, carefully removing her shoes in front of the Japanese doors.

She was about to slide them sideward when the doors opened, revealing a familiar girl in an ocean blue kimono. She was beautiful - so beautiful, in fact that Mikan froze for seconds, staring at her. She had curly brown tresses and dark gentle eyes. She smiled at her.

"Good afternoon," she greeted in a soft voice, just enough to snap Mikan back to reality. "What may I do for you?"

Mikan blinked. "O-oh," she found herself strangely speechless. "U-um, I was wondering if I can join this club,"

The girl just stared at her.

Then she blinked. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Could you please repeat that?"

Mikan twitched a little. She was certain that she said the words quite clear and that the girl heard her perfectly well. "I said, I was wondering if I can join this club."

The girl blinked again. "Sorry?"

This time, Mikan literally frowned. What's wrong with this girl? Is she deaf or something? "I said, may I join this club? Japanese club right? May I join?"

Another blink. Oh god, now she has problem with her eyes too. "Pardon?"

The brunette let out a screech of frustration and pulled out her hair. "Look. If you don't want me in your club, I understand. Just please. Don't annoy me to death and make me repeat what I said countless times."

"Four times," the girl said.

"What?"

"You just repeated your request four times."

Mikan rolled her orbs. "Great. So you're not deaf, just rude. Gee, thanks. I'm going now, if you'll excuse me - "

"No! Wait!" The girl grabbed her hand to stop her. "That's not what I meant. I mean - just please. Come in," she said.

Mikan sighed. What had she gotten herself into again?

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

Loud. Natsume hates loud places, things, people - basically, just everything loud. He hates it.

And the bursting gym right now was not an exception. They - he, Tsubasa and Misaki - were literally wrapped around a hyperactive, stinky crowd and Natsume is trying so damn hard not to throw up. In fact, if he has to bet what color he is right now, he was pretty sure it was close to the color of Mother Nature. What he doesn't understand was how stinky these people could get and how shameless they approached them without any hints of self-consciousness. You'd think that people would have a bit of that since they'd be approaching royalties but noooo.

Natsume wonders what they see them as. Probably as garbage who wouldn't mind another lungful of rotten odor around it. But then again, who goes gaga over garbage?

"Kyaaa! Natsume-sama!" the cheerleaders squealed from their pyramid which topped easily when that girl on the base fangirled uncontrollably.

Nasty sight. Natsume scowled.

"Remind me again what we're doing here?" he muttered through gritted teeth as he glared at Tsubasa.

The latter just grinned sheepishly at his cousin. "Well, we thought Mikan-chan seemed like the sporty type so we had to check out the gym. But I don't see her anywhere. Do you?"

Natsume shook his head and walked away. He had enough of this. Just when he was about to leave the damn place, a group of guys in jerseys blocked his path.

"Leaving so soon, Your Highness?" One asked, grinning in a friendly but cocky manner.

Natsume decided to proceed. But another - taller - blocked his path again. "We were hoping you'd grace us with your presence,"

The crimson-eyed lad just avoided him and tried to walk - again.

"Don't be like that, Prince," one said as he blocked him again, dribbling a ball effortlessly. His patience by now was thread-like. "Why don't you join us for a friendly game? What do you say?"

Natsume glared at them hungrily and easily snatched the ball even before the guy can register what happened so that when he did notice that he was dribbling nothing but air, the prince was already passing the ball back and forth from his palm to the solid floor. Cockily, Natsume spun the ball on his index finger and smirked with equal cockiness at the guys.

"You better not regret this,"

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

"Wow," Mikan implored, her hazel orbs traveling all over the place. "This place is hu-u-ge," she exclaimed.

Before her was a spacious Japanese room - tatami floors, calligraphy banners on the wall, japanese fans, a set for tea ceremony and countless flowers together with a vase and sponge - you name it. This really is a Japanese club. Well, yes. Except they were completely alone. Aren't clubs supposed to have, like, many people around?

"Please, take a seat," the girl offered as she brewed tea on the cup and offered it to Mikan with both hands.

Awkwardly, the brunette spun the cup three times clockwise and took a sip. It was delicious! "Thank you," she said.

The girl just looked at her. Looked at her long enough for Mikan to remember the word self-conscious again and wonder whether she has something on her face.

"Excuse me?" Mikan asked. "Is something the matter?"

The girl flushed cutely and shook her head. "Oh no. I'm alright, thank you for asking. It's just that," she looked at Mikan again. "Were you serious about joining?"

Mikan laughed out loud at the idea. It was so absurd. Serious in joining? Well of course! But the girl didn't even crack a smile but instead, flushed a darker shade of red and looked a little hurt. Mikan stopped abruptly.

"I - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…I just thought that. I … " she started stammering, even the cup she was holding started to tremble.

"Well of course I was serious about joining!" Mikan said, startling the girl.

"You were?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" Mikan smiled. "I was 100% serious."

Then, the most unexpected thing happened. The girl lunged at Mikan and clasped her hands tightly in hers, all the while trying so hard not to cry. "T-thank you,"

"Eh?"

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

"Three on one, couz," Tsubasa whistled as they exited the gym, heading for the school garden where the greenhouse is. The Garden club works there during winter and Misaki has to visit their Biology teacher with the same name. "And you beat them, point-blank. I thought you would have had enough mercy to let them score a point. I thought the whole gym would explode because of all those fangirl squeals," he muttered as he fixed something in his ears.

Natsume rolled his crimson orbs. His cousin is flattering him way too much albeit what he said was true. Misaki on the other hand scowled at her fiancé.

"God," she muttered. "You're welcome to join Natsume's fan club, Tsubasa," she said and stalked off.

Tsubasa looked around him in confusion. Shaking his head at his hopeless cousin, Natsume followed after the lass.

"Hey!" Tsubasa shouted after them. "What did I do?"

And in response, Misaki answered before entering the Greenhouse.

"Be gay somewhere else, idiot!"

If there's one thing better than a no-class day for the students of the Royal Sakura Academy, it would be Tsubasa and Misaki's break up. A lot of students were pining on either of them and were pretty much crestfallen upon the news that the two were going-out. That news had come out when they were still in first year. People waited for their grand break-up for four years, hoping that they'd have a chance to woo either one to a date but the couple just stuck with each other and even announced their engagement during their last year.

So now, hearing Misaki yelling at Tsubasa to 'Be gay somewhere else' certainly sparked up the students' interest inside the Greenhouse. In fact, it had caused a massive tidal wave of greetings and flirtiness around the two with Tsubasa trying so hard to court Misaki back and the latter cruelly ignoring the former. Natsume? Well, let's just say he found another thing to do.

"Misaki-sama! Is it true that you and Andou-sama just broke up?" a guy said, grinning like a cheshire cat. Tsubasa, who was occupied with his own set of fans wanted so hard to smack him but Misaki glared at him to behave.

The strawberry-haired lass just crossed her arms indignantly and refused to acknowledge Tsubasa's presence. "Ask him," she muttered.

Naturally, the guys swished their heads to Tsubasa, foolish enough to hope to see a smiling face. He was not smiling of course. In fact, he pretty much looked like an oni, ready to feast on their faces, making the guys look back to a prettier picture - a fuming Misaki.

"Misaki, come on!" Tsubasa wailed. "Don't be like that!" he cursed. "And we didn't break up okay? We won't!" he shouted.

Misaki turned to him, glaring. "Really," she said, dripping with sarcasm. "Weren't you just so interested in dating your cousin a minute ago?"

Gasps echoed inside the glass covered house, flabbergasted faces turning from the Tsubasa whose mouth was hanging open to Natsume who was caught in the middle of picking out ripe strawberries.

Oh no. Not this again, Natsume thought. Didn't he just come off clean from that ridiculous accusation about being in the tertiary gender? And now he's being linked to his cousin. Being gay is bad for a prince okay? But mixed with incest? Dear god. He'll be kicked out of the Palace before he can even set foot inside.

Tsubasa gaped at Misaki. "W-wha - "

"Speechless now, are we?" Misaki huffed. "What now?"

The onyx-eyed lad twitched a little, fighting off a frustrated laugh. "Misaki," he said lowly. "Do you, by chance…have?"

…

"What?"

"Do you have?" he repeated.

Misaki continued to scowl. "What have? If you're talking about absolute irritation towards you, then I absolutely have!"

Tsubasa just shook his head. The people continued to watch with unfading interest. Natsume? Well, he continued to pick strawberries. "Not that! I mean, visitor? Dot? Red tide?"

"What? Visitor? You mean Aunt Miyabi? Dot… seriously, what are you talking about? And red tide?" Misaki frowned in confusion.

Her fiancé tried so hard not to pull out his hair. "Argh! Woman, why don't you get it?"

"Well, try wiping your fuddled brain clean to make things clearer, would you? I don't get it when you just say it like that! What the hell does 'Do you have?' supposed to mean? I can have many things, Tsubasa! What do I have?!"

Tsubasa let out a frustrated grunt and screamed. "I meant, for god's sake DO YOU HAVE YOUR MENSTRUAL PERIOD RIGHT NOW?" he screamed rather too loudly.

Silence.

Misaki blushed.

Natsume whistled.

The people continued to stare.

"JESUS TSUBASA, HOW RUDE! JERK!"

What did I do?

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

"So," Mikan started as she took another sip of the tea. Somehow, she managed to calm the girl down. "You're saying that you're the only member of this club?" she said fighting her face's urge to twitch. "At least, before I volunteered to accompany you?"

The girl nodded weakly, staring at the ground. Mikan sighed.

"Lovely," she muttered.

"Well then," she muttered and stood up.

The girl reached out to her abruptly, panic in her eyes. "Please don't lea - "

Mikan bowed, shutting the girl up. "I'm Mikan Yukihira, please take care of me," she said and smiled.

For a moment, the girl only stared at her in shock, a stupid but beautiful smile on her face. Then, snapping out of it quickly, she decided to return the favor by standing up and bowing herself.

"Ah, I'm Nobara Ibaragi. Please look after me as well," she said and sat up straight, only to see Mikan's shocked face.

"Y-you're Nobara Ibaragi-san?"

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

Tsubasa rubbed his battered head.

After he had his stupid outburst at the greenhouse, Misaki instantly punched his head followed by another by Natsume so he wouldn't wonder if by tomorrow, he'd have two big bruises on his head. Anyway, the three are on their way to the faculty room to ask Mikan's whereabouts with Tsubasa carrying Natsume's basket of strawberries when they heard snippets of gossips.

"Hey, did you hear?" a guy met with two others who were on their way to their respective clubs.

The other boy fist-punched the former as he approached. "Yo,"

"What's up?" the other asked.

Somehow, the trio paused to watch them, as if some force froze them on their places.

"Heard that the Ice Queen found a servant over at the Japanese club," he grinned.

The other guy raised his eyebrows. "You don't mean that loner in that loser club, do you?"

"Yeah. Nobara Ibaragi. That's her,"

Natsume tensed a little.

"I heard a girl asking to join the club," the guy continued. "And it sounded like that Cinderella Princess,"

Now, Tsubasa was sure Natsume turned completely ice cold. Even Misaki had her eyebrows scrunched.

"We should check them out!" one of them suggested with a stupid grin on his face.

"Now that you mention it, that Yukihira girl looks pretty hot doesn't she?"

"Totally,"

"But that Ibaragi…she's a little scary,"

"Nah. I saw her face the other day. She's gorgeous, man!"

"Cool!"

They were about to stalk off when one of them froze solid, his eyes trained on the trio. Glancing to their companion and to where he was looking at, the two instantly joined their mate, their knees turning into jelly at the sight of Natsume glaring at them. For a moment, Tsubasa thought that Natsume would lunge at them but instead, he turned and rushed inside the building.

And for the third time that week, Natsume found himself rushing to where Mikan was.

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

Nobara paled. "T-that's…" she muttered nervously.

Mikan continued to watch her.

"That's absurd. Natsume's just a childhood friend," she finally said, a worried look on her face.

The moment she said that, a heavy weight seemed to have been removed from the brunette's ribcage, willing her to take in relaxed breaths. Had she been that tensed a while ago? Was she so eager to hear that Nobara and Natsume had nothing romantic going on between them? That's ridiculous! As far as Mikan was concerned, she doesn't care whether Natsume has anyone special.

She has no right to be jealous because what's going on between them is completely out of the bounds of emotional bonds. It's more of in a conventional aspect. So she has absolutely no right to be jealous. She should stop feeling that way.

"I- I see," Mikan said shakily and smiled reassuringly at Nobara. Finding herself relaxed once more, she gallantly took a sip of the cooling tea.

Nobara smiled fondly at her. "Yukihira-san, you like Natsume, don't you?"

That shocked Mikan, who was in the middle of swallowing the tea but instead of going through her esophagus, it seemed that the liquid found another path to flow in, causing her to choke, followed by a series of disturbing coughs.

"A-ah," Nobara panicked and dashed off to fetch some water for the brunette, all the while with Mikan racking herself with coughs. In fact, her eyes were already drowning in tears when Nobara gave her a glassful of water, which she downed in seconds. "I'm sorry," Nobara apologized. "I shouldn't have said that,"

Mikan breathed in, glad to welcome oxygen in her body once more. "Like Natsume! Ridiculous," she muttered. "What made you think that?" she asked, blushing.

Nobara smiled at her again. "It's obvious," she said.

Mikan just gaped at her. "Obvious?" she screeched. "Obvious in what way? What, is there something written on my forehead like, 'Natsume's Property' or something? Goodness!"

The other brunette just tilted her head, seriously considering the idea of telling Mikan that that's how people see her. Natsume's Property: Don't touch lest you die in Natsume's hands. Yep. Pretty much. But she was sure that the young princess would freak out if she tells her that - so she opted for a safer way of explaining.

"Then, Yukihira-san - "

"Please call me Mikan,"

" - Mikan-chan, why did you join this club?"

The brunette blinked. Isn't it because she had to advance on lessons necessary to do well with her Princess Lessons? For what? Well…so that she'll…become a good Empress for the Emperor-to-be. And who's the Emperor to be? Natsume. Wait. Nobara couldn't possibly be suggesting that she joined the club for the sake of appearing well for Natsume right? Right? RIGHT?

"W-well, that's because…"

Nobara smiled at her knowingly. Mikan flushed red.

"Y-you're wrong! I mean, that's not…it's…" she stammered continuously. "That's not…"

Nobara started laughing. "You're cute, Mikan-chan," she said and if possible, Mikan turned a darker shade of red.

"T-that's…thanks," she mumbled. "Anyway, it's not true okay? I don't - "

But Mikan never got to say what she doesn't as the Japanese sliding doors slid open rather violently, revealing a wild-looking Natsume who dashed straight to Mikan and picked her up, bridal style. Nobara's mouth morphed into a small 'o', quite amused with what she's seeing. Naturally, Mikan put up a fight with what Natsume was doing.

"Put me down, Natsume!" she screeched, thrashing around in his arms. "Goodness! What do you think you're doing?! I'm not a baby. I can walk perfectly fine so now put me down!" she screamed.

Natsume glared at her. "Right. If you call dragging your left foot after the rest of you walking perfectly fine then I guess you call what the rest of us doing, limping?" he said then turned to Nobara who looked at him warily.

For some seconds, Natsume and Nobara locked eyes, a sealed conversation going on while Mikan continued to repel her fiancé's actions when Natsume tore it off and walked away.

"Mikan-chan," Nobara called after her. Mikan's head popped out cutely from Natsume's back so that her arms were loped around his neck and she was kind of hugging him. Natsume noticed and went stiff a little but Mikan seemed to be oblivious of her actions.

"Yes?" Mikan asked, still in that position.

"Think about what I said," she smiled, successfully making the brunette blush for the last time that day.

Natsume walked out of Room 304 without much of a thrashing brunette. For some reason, after Nobara said that to her, she went completely slack, as if on a daze and when she actually realized what position they were in, she freaked out. But Natsume stopped for a while and set her in place, still in the same position with Mikan's slender arms around his neck, hugging him as she carried her.

"N-Natsume," she whispered. "I'm letting go,"

"No," was his swift answer.

Mikan tried to look at him but Natsume's hand pushed her back to her position. "What are you doing?! Pervert!"

"Could we please," the raven-haired lad whispered seriously. "Stay like this for a while? At least until I put you down,"

Mikan blushed, still hugging Natsume. "W-w…Fine," she sputtered, blushing, thanking heavens Natsume can't see her face. "But just so you know, I'm not light," she said.

Natsume walked again and smirked.

"I know,"

~(*o*)~(*o*)~(*o*)~

December 16, 20XX

Dear Natsume,

I swear you are acting weirder and weirder each day. What's with that sudden request a while ago? Oh dear. Did you acquire some sort of Pervert Flu, making your pervertedness worse? I swear I thought my heard would implode - it was beating so hard and so fast, it was like it was banging against my ribcage already. And what's worse is that since my chest was glued to yours at that time, you probably felt it. Sheesh! I hate you, Natsume. And what's with those strawberries? A basketful, even. In winter! How did you know that that was my favorite fruit?

You actions today made me feel as if I was in a different month. It's like you made February arrive sooner. Much sooner. Natsume, just so you know…it's not yet Valentine's day. No need to be all sugary, 'kay? Try checking the calendar again. Oh what am I saying? It's not as if you're going to do anything special for me for Valentine's. We're not in that kind of relationship. I must be getting delusional.

Anyway, at least I know that I'm not all alone in that case. Nobara-chan, it seems is also like me. You know what she said? She said that I like you. I mean, don't get me wrong okay? I do like you, just not in that way she was implying. Wait. What was she implying in the first place anyway?! But…I don't just like you okay? Not romantically. No. No. No. Remember what Hotaru said? I'm planning on sticking to that. No falling - got it. Because everything that falls…breaks.

But…I kind of thought of it today. It certainly seems like you became my world now. Everything I do revolves around being a good Empress-to-be which finds its roots for your sake. So basically, everything I do is because of you, Natsume. In a scarier sense of the concept, you can say that it's like you're my world now. Which just makes things much more frightening for me. Right now, you are my sun but what about me when I leave the Palace? What will I leave for then? What will be left of me? Setting you up as the basis for all my actions…the day when I leave everything behind looms as a very frightening day when I'd lost my way.

Somehow, without realizing it, you became my reason for living.

Eight more days Natsume. Eight more letters. Eight more messages for you. Eight more days with you.

Love,

Mikan

P.S. I was kind of happy today - despite that crazy streak of yours. :")

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