Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice belongs to Tachibana Higuchi. Always has and always will.

Author's note: This chapter is shorter than the usuals, and I know I have probably OC'ed Mikan and Natsume, but please give them time to sink into their characters

À goupil endormi rien ne tombe en la gueule.

A closed mouth catches no flies.

Chapter 4- Introductions,drinks and war.

A week later,

"I'm Hoshino Hoshio." the blonde introduced himself, putting forward his hand when Anna made Mikan meet him.

Mikan beamed and readily shook his hand with her warm on. "Mikan Sakura at your service, if you have any issues related to this place or not, I'll solve 'em." She grinned widely.

"I-It's good to meet you , Miss Sakura." Hoshino uttered, taken aback from her radiant aura.

"Miss Sakura? Man, that's the most respect I've received. Na-da ." She waved her hand dismissively." Call me Mik or Mikan. Sounds more like what my people would call me." She giggled.

"Your people?"

"Yeah, you're a member of this wild house, ain't ya?" Mikan asked, nudging her head to the side, directing towards the club.

"Yes, yes I am."

"So you're a part of us too. Doesn't sound like much but I guess that's enough, ain't it?"

And if Hoshino didn't already feel like he was home, Mikan just welcomed him more into the idea.

He liked this feeling. He didn't really have a home for a long time, let alone a family to come back to and suddenly he was thrown into a crowd of loud, boisterous and terribly, terribly, terribly mannered people...but that was okay.

These people accepted him for whatever of a misfit and outcast he was and probably is. And that was enough.

"Oh Mik, looks like you met my boy, Hoshino." Tsubasa slung his arm around Hoshino in a careless manner with a lopsided smirk plastered to his face.

"Yep." Mikan replied with a smile." Where'd you even pick him up from?"

"Oh now that's a good story to tell."

"What is?" Kitsuneme had joint their conversation.

"How I met the newest addition to our family, Hoshino." Tsubasa introduced to him.

"Oh. Hey. Kitsuneme, the manager of this Shit hole." the slant-eyed man saluted and the obscenity he used last earned him a thwack from Mikan who scolded him. But Hoshino already knew him, Yuu had introduced him to everyone and he had mentioned a boy named Kitsuneme, A.K.A. Kit.

"I met him three times before the fourth time when I decided to drag him here. And you'd be surprised coz all the three times I found him, he was crying, and it would magically begin to rain. Every Damn time." Tsubasa ruffled Hoshino's blonde hair to mess his usual style.

"Crying? Why though?" Kitsuneme furrowed his brows while Mikan nodded to his question as if she had the same thought.

"Uh.." Hoshino bit his lip, he didn't want to say it but Mikan, Kitsuneme and Tsubasa did not take any hint of that, at the end of which he resigned.

"I was bullied." He splattered out at once. "Because I was weak."

Mikan gasped as Kistuneme narrowed his eyes to slits while Tsubasa gaped."You were what?" Thy asked in unison.

Now, he was scared. What if they abandoned him? What if they threw him out like his parents did? He gulped hard at those questions rising in his head.

"I couldn't fight or play games like the normal boys did. I was a nerd, therefore, I was bullied." He said, closing his eyes expectantly waiting for a hit, which never really came.

Instead, he was pulled into an embrace, as two arms enveloped him into a hug, "It's okay." a voice said to him. "You're okay, thank god you're okay."

It took Hoshino a while to figure out that Mikan was the one who hugged him.

" Most people would give up if they would be bullied. But here you are, standing strong as ever." Mikan gave him a smile, which he guessed was the brightest he'd seen. " In Ragtag." she said indicating to the club's name. "You're accepted as whatever you are. No one is weak or strong here. We are just us." Kitsuneme shrugged as he continued.

"But seriously, you're a nerd, man , no wonder I couldn't understand half the things you said. Like what the hell does atrocious mean?" Tsubasa glared as Mikan burst into fits of laughter.

"See, ladies and gentlemen, that-" Kitsuneme pointed at Tsubasa, "-is the reason you should atleast finish high school."

At that point their conversation had got more listeners and a crowd laughed at Kitsuneme's words.

"The truth indeed." Mikan said as she climbed up to bar top and lifted her drink "Raise a cup up people." and when the crowd lifted their drinks to the brunette. "To Ragtag and to the newest addition of our family, Hosshan!"

"To Ragtag and Hosshan." The crowd cheered wildly while Hoshino blushed and looked towards Tsubasa, "Hosshan?"

"Yeah, well Mikan kinda baptized you here, I hope you won't have any problem coz no matter what your name is, everyone ov'r here would know you as Hosshan. Like t's yer name . Actual one." Kitsuneme chuckled as he chugged a shot vodka down his throat.

"Hosshan, huh?" Hoshino muttered, sounds good, I like it. He thought.

"Though, why Ragtag?" Hoshino asked after everyone went home and club had closed down,Mikan who was in her PJ's, she literally slept over at the club, shrugged. "Cause it doesn't have an answer. Does a rag have a price tag? No, yes, maybe, you never know. And this place's like that ya know? It doesn't give you answers just lets you be at home,ya know what I mean, like be you." Mikan said while tying her sneakers.

That night Mikan let him sleep in one of the underground bunkers which lay beneath the club. It was not the mist comfortable of beds but it was sufficient, it made him look forward to the morning light.

"Mikan, you still awake?" Hoshino voiced out.

"Yeah." a distinct voice replied.

"You are a really nice person, I hope you know that."

There was no reply but Hoshino was rest assured that Mikan had heard it and he drifted to sleep.

At the other end , Mikan's lips tugged a smile at the intended compliment. Unconsciously, her hand slipped to wrap itself around the crimson beaded rosary with the silver crucifix hanging at the end.

"Natsume." She muttered unaware of what she was doing and then she made her way to the club and sat by the window.

Mikan was tensed to say the least, she tried figuring his motives, why did he want her back ? What could he possibly get from her?

Mikan steeled her nerves and stared up to the midnight sky, She wasn't going to run away anymore, Come, hail, rain and fury, she wasn't going to budge.

And if he was gonna keep hurting her people like that...

Then that bastard was going down on her hands.

There weeks later,

Mikan found herself riding a bus home, and it was raining for which she secretly wondered if Hoshino was crying or sad, it was almost as if that boy controlled the weather. She laughed at the thought but there was something about rains which made her feel gloomy and sad , it was probably due to this that she was struck by a flashback.

Flashback.

The club was originally a restaurant which was basically Mikan Sakura's dad, Izumi Yukihira and Yuka Azumi, his wife's only property, after they died in the car crash.

It had always been under Mikan Sakura's name, but she received complete authority on it until age of 18. But before she even reached that age, she had turned the restaurant into a Club and named it 'Ragtag'.

One fateful night, an encounter had changed everything because that night, Natsume Hyuuga had stepped into Ragtag. He didn't really walk in with that 'I'm gonna blend in' . He stood out. And boy did he stand out.

And coincidentally, Mikan was up for singing at the stage because Tsubasa had bailed out on his dance performance for he 'apparently' had an upset stomach.(Which Mikan cynically questioned cause he was hogging food in the next door ramen shop.)

It was a Friday. And Friday's always had something up and coming in Ragtag. Always. Which was why Mikan was even singing in the first place.

Natsume was tired, he had come over to Ragtag just to let loose, and because it seemed like this place had the best drinks and chicks. Maybe he'd take a random woman home, fuck her senseless until she forgot her own name and remembered nothing but his.

But when he laid his eyes on a certain brunette, singing like no tomorrow, he had to know her,like they were supposed to be together , it was inevitability. He scowled at other men in the club for looking at her the way only he was authorized to. At this point, Natsume realized that he was acting more psychotic than usual.

He didn't even know her name for fuck's sake.

Yet.

Okay now, he was acting really weird which is why he shook his head and looked back at the sexy brunette , as if sensing his gaze , she lifted her head to meet his crimson orbs with her hazel ones.

Mikan hadn't worn anything exposing but then why did she feel so bare before his eyes? But that didn't mean she would back down, oh no, if that man thought she was some submissive lass then he couldn't be more wrong.

She stared back with twice the intensity he had displayed in his stare which irked him. In the good way. First glance and she already held his attention.

He had to meet her.

And that moment onwards fate had begun rewinding its red strings.

Flashback ends

Mikan snapped from her day dream when her stop came, she got out of the bus with a rather heavy feeling in her heart.

Seriously, she ought to stop doing that. Remembering how things went on between Natsume and her should really be forgotten by her, because his fire burnt her petals and it didn't even leave anything for ashes. Plus they were currently on bad terms, it would be ridiculous for her to still think of him in that way.

Again, her hand clenched its fingers around the rosary but this time it didn't go unnoticed by her. It was funny how she hadn't thrown it away considering how she disliked the person who gave it.

Mikan had been out for a few days, to meet a few people and catch up with what was happening in the business, the normal stuff. She had met Koko too, a car mechanic who could always read others minds though she had no clue how he used to do it.

Mikan smiled inwardly as she entered Ragtag. But something hit her, the aura and atmosphere was grim and there was an ominous crowd around the bar. Something was wrong.

"If it's a fucking war he wants. then that's what the bastards gonna get!" said Kitsuneme fuming with anger as Tsubasa tried to hold him back.

Scratch that. Something was terribly wrong.

"Everyone..." Mikan's voice trailed of as she tried to gain their attention, "What's wron-" She stopped mid -way as her eyes grew wide in shock and her jaw dropped while she clasped a hand over her mouth.

In front of her was a sight of Luna in what could be her last night's clothes, beaten up and bruised as purple and blue mars trailed her skin and she was unconscious but that was not all, she had been taped to the wall with ducktape like she was rag doll. Beside her in a very similar condition was Hoshino who was had a busted lip and a black eye, taped to the wall like Luna.

And on the wall in red- unmistakably blood, because Mikan knew the attacker was grim enough to do so- was written-

"Come and get us if you can, Sakura."

That was just an open invitation to a war.

And somehow, looking at Mikan's darkened expression, and the consequence of the silence which was held around her, Tobita Yuu was positive that it was not gonna be pretty.

Natsume Hyuuga had gone one step too far this time.

TBC

The next update would probably be next month on 29th. And also I made a few changes in the chapters, please go through it again.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Sincerely,

The Author.