Exodus

Chapter One: Being Thirteen

Disck: The characters are not mine. Don't sue. Have no money.

Beta read by Stardrop...thanks girl. Again.

It was a hot summer day.

Clothes were thinner, skirts were shorter, and sunlight was abundant, lighting up the special school that was known as Alice Academy.

They were all still in the same class, with the same people, with the same overly cheerful, gay-like homeroom teacher. Natsume was still partnered with Mikan, Hotaru still blackmailed Ruka, Sumire still chased Natsume around while he still did his best to ignore her, and Koko was still the insensitive mind reader they all knew and loved. The only difference was now they were all thirteen years old; taller, bigger, stronger, and hopefully wiser…well, most of them were.

Oh, and one thing that was still the same, Mikan still turned up late to class. Not always, but most of the time.

Natsume blinked in surprise as a girl fell on the floor after bumping hard against him. He also blinked at the painful sound that resulted from the fall and the sharp hiss from the girl's mouth. When Mikan finally lifted herself up, not bothering to ask for help from the guy that she bumped against, already knowing what his answer would be if she did, she tilted her head to the side when Natsume merely frowned at her when he should have been drowning her with insults by then.

"Natsume-kun?" Her wide amber eyes, trustful and innocent, squinted at him. Her long lashes swept across her cheeks as she blinked once, twice. Thinking it was probably just one of those days, Mikan peered behind him and beamed at Ruka. "Ohayo, Ruka-pyon."

Ruka, Natsume's best friend/rival for Mikan's affection and all around victim of Hotaru gave her a pleased smile. His usually cool blue eyes warmed at the sight of Mikan and her pigtails, his blond hair glinting in the sunlight. Since Natsume was still quiet, Mikan threw a questioning glance at Ruka, who shrugged. Knowing Natsume the way they did, they left him alone as they chatted about Hotaru's latest blackmail escapade.

At thirteen, Mikan was still the girl she was three years ago: bubbly, optimistic, strong willed, and oh-so-innocent, though taller and sometimes even smarter.

Unknown to Mikan, Natsume was playing close attention to her, or more precisely to her body. Intense crimson eyes followed her movement, the long length of hair that reached the top of her butt, and the smooth stretch of legs that appeared from the ridiculously short skirt. He knew guys admired Mikan's legs, the sway of her narrow hips, the smooth long gait, and the way they just ate up the ground. Then there was that long, long hair: rich, thick, the intriguing color of caramel that was always tied up in pigtails, high on her head, swinging left to right, following her movements, teasing and waving as cheerful as its owner.

You know a guy is a goner when he finds himself obsessing about a girl's hair.

Natsume never thought of himself as a leg kind of man, but every time Mikan walked towards, near, away, or beside him, he found it hard to concentrate. Of course, she was a still a klutz, but when she was on her feet and walking, the view was spectacular.

On top of those world class stilts, Mikan still retained the slim, boyish figure that she had when she was ten, or so he thought. He didn't know why he never noticed it before. Maybe it was because of the shirt; unlike most of the girls who looked like they would burst out of their shirt if they so much as bent over, Mikan wore a shirt that was probably three sizes larger than she should have, probably because of the summer heat and for comfort.

After all Mikan is a comfort before style kind of girl, so he never thought of it as strange. But when he bumped into her this morning, something she hadn't done for a while, and he will suffer through all the tortures of hell before finally admitting that he missed it, he noticed two things. Two considerable, soft, and supple things.

Mikan Sakura actually has boobs.

Huh.

Okay, they're not particularly big, but it was enough. It surely felt alright when he felt them against his chest. It was intriguing to say the least and needed further investigation. It was easy enough. Since it was summer, he plotted on the best way to trick her into swimming with him, but his mind was distracted by the two distinct shapes popping out from her shirt front, now clear to him after he knew that they were actually there. He mentally scratched his head, since he was Hyuuga Natsume, boy genius extraordinaire, he couldn't risk being caught scratching his head in class like he was confused.

But why the hell didn't I notice it before?

"What didn't you notice before?"

Natsume snapped out of his reverie and met the twinkling eyes of Koko, the sadistic, tactless mind reader. Over the years, Koko was probably the only person who knew exactly what Natsume had up in his mind, which was not always a good thing. For him and for Natsume.

None of your damn business.

Koko grinned. "Awww, Natsume, come on, share your thoughts with the class." His loud and obnoxious snicker caught the attention of the class, leaving the poor substitute teacher mumbling to himself in front of the class.

When each and every one of them turned in their seats and looked at Natsume, they didn't have to be a mind reader to know that if they kept looking at him, all of them would end up in the hot seat…literally. But they were saved from that cruel fate when Mikan, who sat in front of Natsume, tilted her head, pigtails bouncing, big eyes blinking, and laid her head on her folded hands against the back of her chair with her lips pursed looking as cute as a puppy dog. They watched as Natsume's crimson eyes settled on her face and softened, even Ruka had a sweet smile on his face. "Ne, Natsume-kun."

"What?" His face was once again impassive and his voice toneless, his eyes returning to the manga he was pretending to read.

"What were you thinking?"

He unconsciously shifted on his seat then caught himself when he noticed Hotaru's violet eyes shifted towards his and narrowed. The girl had a knack of guessing what he was thinking when it came to Mikan. "It's nothing."

He lifted his head when she didn't start whining and caught the worried look in her face. The idiot really is transparent.

"Is it..." She bit her lip, a habit when she was unsure of what she was about to say and Natsume had to will himself not to look at her lips because Hotaru was watching him far too close for comfort. Not knowing that the two guys in front of her would love to just take a bite of her, she leaned closer to them. "Is it a mission?" She whispered.

Sumire, those damn cat/dog ears of hers, heard it anyway and snorted. Loudly. "Of course it's a mission you baka, what else would Natsume-kun be thinking about? You?"

Natsume lifted a brow and Koko's chortle faded.

Sumire sniffed and looked down at Mikan though how she could manage that was a mystery since Mikan was taller than her, even though they were sitting down. "Unlike some people, Natsume-kun takes his responsibility very seriously. So, quit interrogating him and leave him to his thoughts..."

Ignoring Sumire who was still singing his praises, Natsume frowned at Mikan when she suddenly turned quiet. "Why did you think I was thinking about a mission?"

"You missed the last few hours of class yesterday and you came in late at night."

He closed his manga and tapped it on the palm of his hand lightly while he subtly spread his gaze around the class. One by one, all of them shook their heads, answering his voiceless query. Some time ago, after finding out that Mikan had developed a habit of waiting up for him whenever he was on a mission, and as a result, became even more klutzy than usual and therefore became a mortal threat to herself and others, Natsume forbade anyone to tell her that he was on a mission and gave permission to create all kinds of excuses for him as long as it didn't destroy his ultra cool reputation.

When his eyes encountered Hotaru and she returned it with an empty stare, he dismissed the possibility of her as a suspect instantly. "Well, it's either you suddenly went all nosy or someone opened their mouth."

His eyes shifted to an uncomfortable Ruka, who was petting his ageless bunny like crazy. "Mou, Natsume-kun, don't be mad at Ruka-pyon. I nagged at him. You know how I can nag. I nagged him to pieces."

Natsume lifted an eyebrow at his best friend, who blushed guiltily.

Anna and Nonoko giggled. "More like she smiled at him and he instantly caved."

"Anna. Nonoko," Mikan hissed, defending Ruka's honor, but it was lost in the laughter of their classmates. Natsume took one glance at his miserable looking friend and rolled his eyes. "It's not a mission."

"Then what is it?"

"None of your business." He opened his manga again and started to read seriously this time, but was lost in the sweet feeling that she bothered to check up on him. It was such a...Mikan-like thing to do. Of course, he didn't make a big deal about it, it was just Mikan's way; she was a born worrywart.

For the last three years, Class B turned from a cast out class filled with trouble makers into a tight-knit cast out class filled with trouble makers with Mikan as the baby. It was left for Hotaru and himself to rein her in once in a while when she got too excited. Yuu and Ruka were their complete opposites; they were the worse when it came to Mikan. Left to them and the Special Ability Class, Mikan could be quite incorrigible.

When Natsume kept up his pretence of reading, as a testimony to her growth, Mikan philosophically did the next best thing from asking the person involved, which was to ask the resident mind reader. She swiveled towards Koko. Koko eyed Mikan's sweet face to Hotaru's blank one to Ruka's inquisitive one to Natsume's dark one.

You know what I'll do to you if you open your big fat mouth.

Koko pursed his lips, trying to figure out whether the fun would outweigh the consequences. It was close…very close. He finally compromised.

"Since it's summer, he's thinking about swimming."

While the majority of his classmates showed disappointed faces, well, that, and/or suspicion, one of them, guess who, beamed at the idea.

"Swimming? That's great. Can I come? Pleeeease. Pretty please with sugar on tooooooop?"

Natsume and Ruka sweat dropped as they practically felt the invisible waves of hope and happiness vibrating in the air. Her fingers interlaced as in prayer in front of her face that was lit up by the sweet guiles smile that she was famous for, her amber eyes shining with goodwill.

"Che. Do whatever you want." Afraid that he would do something crazy like smile at her, he quickly turned to his manga, his eyes still seeing spots because of the brightness of her smile.

Her smile should be an Alice.Everybody seems to falls for it.

Although Natsume wasn't facing Koko, he could actually feel his eyes on him. He grudgingly thanked the mind reader in his mind and heard the answering snicker.

Forgetting all about the teacher in front of them, everybody was warming up to the idea of a swim. Amidst the hum of conversation, Natsume gave his best friend a sidelong glance. "So," he started and felt Ruka stiffen, "she nagged you to pieces, huh?"

"I didn't…she asked and I...she was so worried, so…I…she...I couldn't just let her..."

Natsume watched as his friend stumbled on his own words and snorted. Ruka was never good at lying or defending himself. "You are so whipped."

Natsume hid his grin behind his manga when Ruka's face did a fair imitation of a tomato, glad that he wasn't the only one dealing with these kinds of warped feelings.

"You're one to talk. You're just as whipped as I am."

Natsume's grin widened. It would've been a pretty good comeback if Ruka hadn't said it with a sulking tone.

Natsume erased the grin from his face when Mikan turned back towards him. "Natsume-kun."

Not taking his eyes from his manga, he grunted.

Taking that as a sign that he was listening, she beamed at him. "When are we going? Today? After school?"

He closed his book and looked at her, already regretting what he was about to say next, knowing that it would make her smile disappear. "I can't today. I have to go for a couple of days."

As he thought, her smile faltered when he stood up at the chime of the main clock. "You have to go now?"

Silence enveloped the room and the eyes of his fellow students followed his movements. He shrugged. "Go without me."

"We'll wait. It's your idea anyway." Ruka assured him and several heads bobbed in agreement.

"Whatever."

"Natsume-kun."

At the door, he turned and looked straight at Mikan, who was watching him with a soft smile and eyes that glowed with trust. "Iterashai. Please come back safely."

Natsume felt his heart warmed and ached at the same time. He didn't even know that he yearned for those words until now. He couldn't help but meet her eyes longer than he ever would, longer than he should, especially in public.

There, in the shape of a thirteen year old girl with bright eyes and long hair tied up in pigtails, was everything he had ever wanted, everything he had ever dared to wish for and to have.

Natsume didn't say anything, he didn't smile, he didn't nod. His face stayed the same: cool, beautiful, unreadable. But the smile and confidence in Mikan's face did not waver and when he spread his gaze around the class, he noticed that it was mirrored in the faces of his best friend, Ruka, and his classmates.

Natsume did the only thing he could in this situation. He rolled his eyes and smirked. "Trust you to think of something so sappy."

Laughs appeared at the pout on Mikan's face.

When Natsume slipped out of the door, Koko caught a wisp of Natsume's thoughts and shook his head at how different Natsume's thoughts and words were.

Arigatou, minna. Itekimasu, Mikan.