All's Well That Ends Well ; A Natsume Hyuga × Mikan Sakura Gakuen Alice Fic

Chapter 4

Disclaimer : I do not own Gakuen Alice in any name, version or form

Mikan was furious and when she was furious, she needed to vent. Her usual choice would be Natsume. But now, she was furious at Natsume. That just made her even angrier. She toyed with the idea of venting to Hotaru but rejected it since that scenario could quite possibly leave her injured. Hotaru wasn't that kind of girl. Ruka was out too since he would only support Natsume. Arggh.. A small part of her wondered how this became so complicated even as she tried to find somebody she could vent to. No ordinary friend would work since Natsume wouldn't want anyone finding out about his injury and she didn't want to disturb Tsubasa and Misaki since they were busy on a project. It occurred to her then that she had a bargaining chip in her hand. Gleeful at finally having found a solution, she set out to find him.

Meanwhile, Natsume stood outside Mikan's room, wondering where on earth she had disappeared to. He was considering whether he should simply wait for her in her room or find Ruka and ask him if knew where Mikan was, when Mikan stomped her way in to his view. When she spotted him, she pointed accusingly at him. "You! Where have you been? I looked all over for you and couldn't find you. And why are you standing outside? You already know the password to my room. You could have just gone in."
"I was going to. But you showed up." He swiftly evaded her first question, distracting her with a question of his own. "Why were you looking for me?"
Milan blinked, "Oh. That's right. I needed to vent."
Natsume raised one brow, "Vent?"
"Yes. I needed to vent to you. I was mad at you!"
"Are you sure you haven't lost what little wit you had?" He asked, mildly.
Mikan made a face, "Very funny. Of course I know what I'm talking about! I wanted to complain about you! But I couldn't!"
Natsume said nothing, so she continued as she keyed in her password and opened her door, "I knew you wouldn't want me advertising the fact that you were injured and the only people who already know happen to be Ruka and Hotaru. Ruka will support you, blindly loyal that he is, and Hotaru doesn't have the patience. What other option did I have?" Her room was a standard 12x12 with a small kitchen and a bathroom on the right. Her bed was positioned along the left wall with a study table in front of the window opposite the entrance. Her closet stood next to the table.
"You could just forget it happened and move on." He suggested, hopefully. Mikan who'd just entered her room with Natsume behind her, simply jabbed her right elbow into his midriff as she pointed out, "That was a rhetorical question!"
At Natsume's grunt, she turned around to see him clutching his left side and wincing. She gasped, when she realized that she had inadvertently jabbed at his injury, "Oh no! I'm so sorry, Natsume! I completely forgot! It was a reflex action!" She went to the closet and brought out a first aid kit. "Sit down. Let me see the wound."
Natsume, who'd regained control over his expression, shot her a withering look. "I'm fine. Stop fussing. I didn't come here to have you play nurse." He added, deliberately, to change her train of thought, "Not that you would be capable of being one."
Anger turned Mikan's face crimson as she huffed, "I'll have you know I can be a great nurse if I so chose to be! I don't know what came over me, trying to help you! I shouldn't have even bothered!"
"No, you shouldn't have." He agreed, walking to the bed and sitting cross legged on it, as he continued to ask casually, without giving her a chance to respond, "So What were you doing at Imai's lab?"
Thrown off by the abrupt question, Mikan answered without thinking, "I wanted to know if she could spy on you for me." Realizing what she'd said, she gasped and  immediately put her hands over her mouth. Understanding dawned when she saw him smirk. Indignation had her throwing the nearest object (a pair of scissors from the first aid box) at him, wiping the smirk off his face as he moved quickly to the left and dodged it by a hair's breadth. He sat on the bed and exhaled slowly, trying to calm his throbbing gut. Feeling slightly better, he glared at Mikan, his tone scalding, "What did you think you were doing?"
Mikan, who'd panicked the moment the scissors left her hand, immediately became defensive, "You asked for it! How dare you try to get information from me! You deserve to get skewered for trying to play me!"
"I asked a question and you answered. I fail to see how that can be construed as playing you." He spoke blithely, feigning innocence, and added, smirking, "But if I had been playing you, which I'm not saying I did, but if I had been, I should point out that I wasn't trying to play you, rather, I totally did play you."
If looks could kill, he would've been in hell by then, considering the waves of fury radiating off her. She just glared as she wracked her brains for a cutting return or a scathing remark, but if her frustrated expression was any indication, nothing came to mind. He couldn't help it, he chuckled at how ridiculous she looked, trying to come up with a fitting comeback. When she heard him chuckle, so clear and carefree, all her fury melted away. She hadn't heard him chuckle like that in quite a while. She smiled. If she had to bear a little insult to be able to witness this, maybe it was worth it. After all, if there was nothing else she could gloat about, at least she could claim to be the only person Natsume Hyuga would ever let down his guard for. The only person he would ever feel comfortable enough to show this side of him, the human side of him. And surely that was an accomplishment in itself. After all, she'd played a huge role in bringing him out of his dark and depressed phase. Even when he'd shunned everyone, including herself, she'd simply followed him around and pestered him until he had no choice but to get used to her.
"You do realize that you're grinning like an idiot, right?" His flat voice shattered her line of thought, jerking her rudely back to the present.
She scowled, "For your information, I wasn't grinning like an idiot. I was smiling. Why don't you get to the point?" She added, when she saw his blank expression, "The reason you're here. You didn't come all the way here to tease me or play me. And I'd guess that you already knew the part about me asking Hotaru to spy on you for me. So what brought you here, to my lair?"
Natsume eyed her warily, choosing his words with care, "I want you to tell Imai to call off her surveillance project. Tell her you don't want her to spy on me."
When Mikan understood what he was trying to get her to do, her smile bloomed, slow and wicked, promising revenge.