This one's for this. pen. is. red. (spaces because FFN wouldn't let me type it without them) for sending my the sweetest PM I've ever gotten, that I promise to reply to later. I'm pooped from actually writing something.

I don't own Gakuen Alice, home skillet.

And while I'm doing disclaimers... I'm not held responsible for how this story sucks even more than the others. I'm rusty, what can I say?

The Little Things

"It was in the way she scratched her ear with her right hand. It was so blatantly obvious. How could he have been such a fool?"

Heartbroken Confession

Hyuuga Natsume froze stiff midstep.

There was something seriously wrong with the situation. He paused, his hands stuffed into his pockets. Holding his breath, he stole a peek out of the corner of his eye to glance at the impossibly short auburn haired girl next to him.

She was angry. He knew.

It was in the way that she furrowed her eyebrows, her left one a millimeter higher than the other. The slight downward curve of her upper lip, along with the frizzed strands of hair near her bangs shot upwards were dead giveaways. But those signs weren't what made her anger so obvious. No. It was in the way she was exhaling.

With her nose.

Sakura Mikan never exhaled with her nose—never kept her mouth shut—unless positively furious.

But why? He briefly retraced the day's events in his head while slowly trudging behind the girl with extreme caution. After nearly losing his left pinky toe the last time, he knew better than to say a word.

It couldn't have been dinner. He had let her order whatever she wanted, eating up half of his month's allowance in the process. Was it the way he glared at her upon receiving the check? She did scold when he got annoyed, saying that he had plenty of money from his special star allowance. But, no, that wasn't it. She'd smiled at him and coaxed him into buying her a box of Howalons afterwards. Besides, whenever she was mad at him for dinner related reasons, her right eyebrow would be higher, not the left one.

He hadn't said much while at the park. There was no way he could have made an ass out of himself then. Unless it was his silence that made her angry. That was unlikely though. She normally didn't mind his silence. She normally didn't even notice how quiet he was, as she was always too busy rambling about Hotaru's newest invention or the results of her latest duel with Bear.

Was it while they were star gazing? His nose cringed upwards at the thought. It would be completely unjust if she was mad at him for that. He'd agreed to do so reluctantly, still insisting that they'd get a better view from the rooftop or higher up on a tree. But no. Of course she thought it'd be more exciting to lie down on the bug infested ground.

He knew it definitely wasn't when they got back to Central Town. He'd bought her orange sherbet from her favorite dessert place and he even gave her two and a half scoops of his dark chocolate soft serve.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was sure of it. Clearly, she was just being difficult and she probably read into something too much. He'd blame it on PMS, but she'd been complaining about cramps a week and half ago, so that wasn't it. It was just because she was a girl. Bitchy girl syndrome. They should start complaining about BGS. Symptoms? Snarky attitude, uncontrollable sneering, and a mean backhand.

"Typical." He muttered under his breath, burying his face into the crimson red scarf she'd given him two years ago for Christmas.

Mikan paused, her boots squealing disagreeably with her scuffing stop. She clenched her gloved hands and turned towards him, her olive eyes narrowed dangerously. "Did you say something?"

"No," He rolled his eyes, fully aware that he was poking a simmering demon with a jagged branch. An acid-covered jagged branch. "Kind of like how you haven't been saying anything for the last twelve minutes."

She pursed her lips before replying, glaring furiously at a tree nearby. "Twelve minutes and thirty-eight seconds, actually. Not like you'd care enough to keep track."

"Excuse me?" He wondered how angry she would get if he set her hair on fire. "Now I'm the one to blame? You're the one who's been acting all upset since we left the shop."

"You're the one who doesn't even know why I'm upset!" She retorted angrily, turning her attention back to him. She poked a finger against his toned chest. "You're so full of yourself that you don't even realize it when you do something wrong."

"The problem isn't that I'm full of myself. And, by the way, I have every right to be self-confident— " A rather unattractive snort escaped Mikan. "— The problem is that I haven't actually done anything wrong. You're the one who's getting angry for no reason, twiddling your thumb like that."

"Oh, well I'm sorry if my thumb twiddling is so offensive to you. What are you going to do, call the thumb police? And don't even get started with me. You've had that constipated look on your face since you realized I was upset."

"It is not a constipated look. It is a highly inquisitive expression to show how confused I am."

"I thought people as brilliant as you were never confused."

He couldn't take much more. He was exhausted from exam week— there was nothing more tiring than tutoring Mikan, Koko, and Mochu at the same time. It didn't help that Ruka had spent the entire weekend before caring for his rabbit's newborns and Imai's sadistic tendencies meant she rather enjoyed watching Natsume struggle with the Three Idioteers. "Well, I'm sure as Hell confounded at the moment. Will you just tell me what's wrong?"

She crossed her arms across her chest and averted her eyes, her cheeks flushing pink. "Mmicecrmfreemscewpwaorm."

Now she was making even less sense. "What?"

"I said," She sighed. "You only shared two and a half scoops with me." She pouted. "You always share two and seven-ninths."

Realization hit. He should have known. Frizzed hair always meant that it was sweets related. Taking note of the light red mark under her ear, he knew he'd missed another important sign. It was in the way she scratched her ear with her right hand. It was so blatantly obvious. He felt like slapping himself across the face. How could he have been such a fool?

But, it was quite comical if he thought about it. She was upset with him about the trivial matter of ice cream, but she'd let him get away with dire offense of eating the blue Howalon. Silly females.

"And you have nothing to say to that, huh?" She tapped her right foot. Scoffing as she turned her head upwards. "Typical. You men are so inconsiderate."

She stomped her foot, crushing a twig ruthlessly beneath her foot as she trudged away in the opposite direction.

He sighed and ran a hand through his bangs. This was going to be a long walk back to campus, full of groveling and ass kissing galore. He knew she wouldn't forgive him until he promised to take their goldfish, Hydra and Kraken, for at least two weeks. And he'd have to sit through a Nicholas Sparks movie marathon with her. He knew— he just knew.

After all, she'd tapped her right foot.

She looked up. "I'm guessing that eye-patch means you forgot to give Kraken his evening snack."

"Just... shut up."

It is because I am so immensely cool that my stories are so lame.

Yours Truly,

Jai.