Just A Night
Just a Night
-by SleepyArcher
"Okaa-san!!"
Mikan woke up from her sleep with a scream, the events in her nightmare as fresh as if they were real. Which, in a way, was true. As her memories started returning, they featured more and more in her dreams and nightmares. And tonight one of her worst memories appeared during her sleep. The memory of her mother's violent death.
That had been the night when an eleven year old Mikan had lost her cheerful nature a little. Grown up a little. And even though she had been determined to appear the same in front of everyone, those closest to her had known. Like Natsume, like Narumi-sensei, like Ruka-pyon, like….that person so very dear to her. That person she couldn't remember but whose feelings she could understand. Feelings that whispered the unconditional love that person held for her. And in the deepest corner of her mind, she knew how very important that person was to her.
Feeling the warmth of that love chasing away the remnants of that terrible memory, Mikan got up from the bed and went to the bathroom to wash her face. Despite the slight chill in the air nowadays, the cool water felt great. Being a country-raised girl meant she was quite experienced with harsh weathers. The water also helped clear her mind.
She returned to the bed and got into a comfortable position and….waited for what seemed like several hours for sleep to come. She turned to another side but still no sleep. After tossing and turning for several times, she finally steeled herself and got up from the bed again. Putting on a light jacket over her pajamas, she resolutely went out of her room with a suspiciously red face.
She walked through the corridor as quietly as possible and soon came in front of a door similar to her own. And for once she was really grateful towards Shiki-san and her uncle's decision to have her stay in the main building of the High School section of Gakuen Alice and not the dorms. She was even more thankful now, that she wasn't the only High School student staying here. She knocked twice on the door, suddenly nervous beyond measure.
The door opened after a few minutes, the room's occupant staring at her with a raised eyebrow. She felt, if that was possible, even more nervous.
She stammered, "Ca-Can I stay with you tonight?"
The crimson eyes seemed to stare at her even more intensely while she tried her best not to become a tomato, before her boyfriend turned away from her and said casually, "Sure."
He walked into the room, picked up his manga and sat on the couch while she stood at the doorway staring at him incredulously. And suddenly found herself resembling a tomato for a different reason altogether.
Yukihara-Sakura Mikan marched into the room angrily, coming to a stop before Natsume.
"What the heck was that?"
"What the heck was what?" Natsume calmly turned the page of the book, "And do keep your voice down. It's irritating enough when you become super excited during daytime."
Mikan felt steam boiling from her head and despite her best intentions to restrain herself, ended up grabbing the jerk by his collar.
"My voice is irritating? You are the one who is irritating! Did you forget how you insulted Hikari-chan? And answer my damn question already. WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?"
Throughout the outburst, Natsume stared at her calmly making her go madder and just when she was thinking 'to hell with it' and just punch the guy, he suddenly smirked and leaning closer to her whispered, "Well, I thought it's really interesting that you are keeping the polka dots in trend. Wonder if you are wearing other stuff with polka-dots too?" And by the time she realised the pattern on her shirt and pajamas, he had smoothly moved away from the range of her explosion.
It was a wise-move because the usually cheerful girl had given a war-cry and leapt to throttle her boyfriend. Her failure to grab him made her even more furious and she became even more resolute to beat the crap out of him. Natsume dodged again and this cycle of leaping and dodging went on for a few minutes with Natsume smirking to infuriate Mikan more.
The ending was quite predictable. Mikan, inevitably, tripped and would have gotten herself a nice bruise on her forehead if Natsume hadn't stopped her fall quickly by pulling her in his arms. And then just as quickly plopped both of them on the bed. By the time Mikan came out of the shock of almost falling on her face (again to be precise, if one counts the number of times that had happened in her life), she found herself being cuddled by her boyfriend and her desire for revenge-cough-justice decreased rapidly.
The couple stayed in that position for a while, enjoying the quiet comfort the other's presence brought to them. Then Mikan whispered, "Arigato Natsume" and both smiled at each other, the simple gesture carrying far more words than words would have.
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Notes:-
Gakuen: The word gakuen means literally "study garden," but it has nothing to do with gardening.
There are two meanings for gakuen. First, a place that combines multiple schools. That is, if a normal gakkou can be a kindergarten, an elementary school, middle school, or a high school, etc. A gakuen usually combines two of these. For example, there can be a gakuen that has a kindergarten and an elementary school, or a gakuen that has a middle school and a high school, etc. In this case, the middle school part of the gakuen is called chuutoubu, the high school part koutoubu and so on.
In anime/manga, characters are often students of a middle school or high school, so a gakuen that combines multiple educational stages isn't very useful (in anime).
The second meaning, (more useful in anime/manga), is a "school," gakkou, that's prestigious enough to call itself a gakuen instead of just gakkou like everyone else. In this case, the gakuen is often a high school or college (in anime/manga, it's often frequented by the most filthily rich students ever).
When thinking about Gakuen Alice both the meanings fit.
Pyon: The sound a rabbit makes is refered to as pyon in japan. It's also used to make sentences sound cute.
References:-
Meaning and Context of the word Gakuen in Anime and Manga
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A/N: This was supposed to be something else completely but when I actually started writing the story shaped itself like this XD
Also, I added the meaning of Gakuen and pyon because of the subtle nuances in the meaning of the former and the unique term used by Mikan to call Ruka.
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