How It Is Always Natsume's Problem In The End Series-Talking About 'IT'

Chapter One:

Nothing Good Can Come Out of A Meeting with Hotaru Imai Without Mikan

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, storyline, yes.

A/N: Reviews please…thank you for reading my story.

Anyway, hm, if anyone is offended about eleven year olds talking about sex, uh, sorry, but I mean, in my neighborhood, kids pretty much know about it...so...well, I apologize. That's all. Please don't flame me. Besides, this will be clean..

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He didn't know how he got himself into this situation. Maybe, it was because he was a stinking bastard in his past life and the Gods felt that it wasn't enough that he was in a situation like this, but he had to be in it with the last person he wanted to be in it with..if you know what I mean.

He knows, first hand, that there are worse things in the world and he can think of several that he, himself had done but, right now, it was all he can do not to just stand up, scream the top of his head off, then burn the school down until all that was left were ashes. Especially as wet, drenched amber eyes looked up at him, lips trembling and shoulders hunched.

Even her damn pigtails looked sad.

He clenched his teeth until it squeaked and swore so impressively inside his head, his brain flinched at his choice of words. He didn't know why he was surprise, he should've known that when it comes to the little baka girl, normal is nowhere near where they usually end up but he couldn't help to curse the day he laid eyes on her and her witchy best friend.

Hotaru Imai alone never bothered him until SHE came. In his mind, he remembered how cleanly and how ruthless she was in luring him into her trap, violet eyes gleaming sneakily at him even if the rest of her face was as flat as her voice. He can't help but feel a certain admiration on how her mind works but right now, he cursed the air blue at her very existence.

When he heard Mikan hiccuping his name, looking so hopeful and pitiful and so goddamn cute, Natsume pinched the bridge of his nose, aware of the nagging pain in his head. Probably from bursting a vein.

He shifted on his sofa, trying to get comfortable but knowing there isn't a snowball chance in hell that can ever happen considering the topic that he was going to discuss.

Kami-sama, he was eleven, he had no business talking about something like this, especially to a girl. Well, maybe he did and it wasn't like he didn't understand about the said topic and Kami knows that it wasn't like he lacked the chances to do it, he just lacked the will, because unfortunately, he was stuck..on HER.

He sipped his coke, the bubbles tickling his throat and hoped desperately that he choked on it so he didn't have to do this. He put the soda can down gently on the coffee table because he wanted so badly to brain himself for agreeing to do this and for falling for the girl who was sitting, all curled up with her legs folded under her at the other end of the sofa. Her sweet, sweet face bunched up in confusion and he found himself, once again, questioning his sanity and his set of morals for even thinking about someone so freakin' dense and innocent.

Him, Natsume Hyuuga a.k.a Kuroneko, the most feared and sought after Alice user in the whole damn academy falling for the single star nobody, his partner for a year now, a girl who forced her way into his life and wormed her way into his heart without even breaking a sweat.

It was mortifying.

Stuck on Mikan Sakura, the loudest, most obnoxious girl in the Academy and now, here he was, trapped with the snivelling baka in his bedroom of all places, trying to explain the finer points… of sex.

"Look, youjo," He started, faltered, swallowed, then begin again. "It's like this.."

Four Hours Ago

"You want me to do what?" Natsume almost goggled at the girldroid, Imai Hotaru, though the only thing that betrayed his usual cool expression was the slight widening of his eyes. They were all at Bear-san's place after she called in an emergency meeting which usually doesn't need Natsume's presence, but after waking up at his usual hangout, the Sakura Tree, with the barrel of her baka gun pressing against his head, he realized that this time, his presence was required.

Hotaru's icy violet eyes swept across the table, watching the reaction that ran across the faces of each and every one of them.

The general reaction was outright shock.

The individual reaction however…was more interesting.

Koko's shock was layered with disbelief and a mean sort of glee, probably because he already read her mind, knew what she was thinking but didn't really think that she would actually say it. The glee was probably because, when it comes to Natsume and Mikan, it was a sure bet that things will get very interesting, very quickly.

Yuu's shock was mixed in with embarassment and gloom, already deciding that this is going to end badly.

Ruka's shock was mixed in with dismay, disbelief, discomfiture, awkwardness, jealousy with a pinch of relief. Probably because he knows that Natsume will probably end up doing it in the end, anyway.

Natsume however, was more difficult to read though not impossible, but as far as Hotaru can tell, whatever he felt changed into suspicioun in a blink of an eye.

"I don't know why all of you look so surprise, didn't any of you catch her reaction in sex-ed?" Her jewel-like eyes glinting in the sunlight.

The academy, thinking that they are already at the age where curiosity plus hormones equals trouble, managed a little seminar from class to class, teaching them about sex. Today, it was B class turn. Hotaru thought that it was a good idea, and the speaker wasn't the prim and prissy type, he didn't quote any scripture and made it look like having sex was a sin. Of course he did make sure that although it was perfectly natural for them to feel curious about sex, they should also know just precisely what can or will happen before, during and after sex.

She had to hand it to him, he took 'a picture paints a thousand words' to a whole new level. Which is why they were in this predicement in the first place, since instead of enlightened, Mikan was freaked.

The blunt question delivered with her toneless voice made the guys winced as they remembered their own reaction to it.

"I told you to bail her out of it, didn't I? To say she's sick or something." Natsume gulped down the hot tea, not caring about the damage he's doing to his tongue.

Hotaru clucked her tongue. "She's eleven. She needs to learn about this, just because she's not having sex anytime soon does not excuse her from being ignorant about such things. She needs to understand that even at this age, there are certain things that she can say or do that can be misinterpreted and get her into trouble, so when something does happen, she will recognize it and take the appropriate steps to deal with it."

"You're worrying too much, Imai." Natsume shifted uncomfortably on his seat. Thinking about Mikan and sex at the same time made him twitchy, apparently, he wasn't the only one. Yuu coughed. "Natsume-san is right, Hotaru-san. I think it's too soon for Mikan-chan to learn such things, she's much too.."

"Stupid." Natsume cut him off, uninterested and wanting this conversation to be over. "She's a kid. No one will look at her that way."

Hotaru sipped her tea and watched Natsume over the rim. Even if she wasn't a genius, and inspite of every body's growing suspiciouns whether she was truly human or not, she only needed to be a girl to recognize the look in Natsume's face that sometimes slipped out of his arrogant mask whenever he was looking at Mikan or to understand why he treats Mikan the way he does; with warm indiferrence and cool posessiveness. It explains why that while it is okay for Natsume to touch, manhandle, tease and make Mikan cry, it is not okay for anybody else to so much as make her break a nail.

It amused her to no end to watch the usually cool, untouchable and indifferent Natsume falling for her oblivious, dense, but strong-willed and lovable best friend. To watch his frustrated attempts to get as far away as he possibly can, only to end up closer to her than he was before. Some times, she felt sorry for him, because she can see how hard he is struggling with his feelings and because she knows and appreciates the reasons behind it.

And because she also knows how useless and hopeless his attempts are.

She should know, she'd been there once.

Mikan had stripped them of their carefully built walls, breached their defenses and inserted herself stubbornly into both their hearts.

Even though Natsume had a weird way of showing it which is probably because he has no intention of showing it at all in the first place, Hotaru knew he cared and will do anything for Mikan, including setting himself as far away as he can from her at the cost of his own heart and happiness.

They were alike that way.

That's why, she knew which buttons to push, the correct bait to dangle and the exact words to say.

"A sempai approached her not too long ago."

The four boys jerked their chairs back when Ruka's cup slipped from his fingers and hot tea splashed on the table.

"Go..gomen. Bear-san, gomen nasai..ano..arigatou." He bowed towards Mr. Bear who showed up out of nowhere, cleaned the mess up and got Ruka a clean cup. When he finished, all of them, including Hotaru and Natsume, bowed in thanks and respect to appease the psychotic bear's temper. They watched the gleam in his eyes for a tense minute before he finally walked away to sweep his porch.

Hotaru reached for a cookie, intentionally stretching out the silence. "Anyway, where was I?"

"The sempai." Ruka muttered and as she took a bite then nodded.

"Right, he approached her. He's fifteen."

"You're lying." Natsume narrowed his eyes at her, tea forgotten, a cookie ending up as dust in his clenched fist. Yuu and Koko eyed it warily.

"Why should I lie about this? It doesn't do me any good."

He actually knew she wasn't lying but one can hope, and just to make sure, Natsume glanced sideways at Koko who nodded, "She's not lying."

"If you don't trust me, you can ask Konoko and Anna, they were also there."

"But..but why did he do that?" This innocent question came out of none other than Ruka, not realizing at all of the insult he just paid to his first crush.

Hotaru lifted a brow. "I'll make sure to tell Mikan that you said that."

He blinked at the slight sarcasm in Hotaru's voice, then blushed. "I didn't mean to…it's just that, he's fifteen. Why..what does he want with…"

"A flat-chested, barbaric, screech loving, polka-dots wearing, baka like her?" Natsume continued, red ruby eyes flashing dangerously.

Violet eyes stared calmly back. "Don't you mean 'not so flat-chested, barbaric, screech loving, polka-dots wearing baka'? Don't tell me that you haven't notice because then you would be lying."

Only Natsume was able to glare at her though a tinge of pink flared on his cheek for a couple of seconds, the others were blushing madly and busily looking elsewhere.

"She's been having her periode-" She ignored the choking and anguish groan of male voices, "for as long as three months now, she's taller and her curves are starting to fill out. Mikan may not be as feminin as Anna or as smart as Konoko or as confident as Sumire-"

"Or as pretty as you."

Eyes swerved towards Yuu who was beaming at Hotaru, always supportive of his fellow classmates. Knowing that he was earnest and that he didn't mean anything by it, Hotaru allowed a small smile to grace her features which made the others blink. "But her looks are not hopeless, neither one of you can blink when she smiles or look away when she sets her big amber eyes at you. You guys can hardly say no whenever she tilts her head and give you puppy dog eyes. It's impossible to find a girl as sweet, as lovable, as caring, as trusting and as charming as Mikan. It will take no time at all for guys to start noticing her good qualities and flock all over her."

"So, what does that have to do with us?" Yuu asked carefully.

Hotaru put down her cup and half eaten cookie. "Lets, just humor me, imagine Mikan traipsing along Central Town alone. Picture her big shining eyes, her infectious smile, her long curling pig tails swinging behind her as she gazed in pure ecstasy of her surroundings." From the smiles that appeared on their faces, Hotaru knew that their imaginary Mikan was doing its work. That was fast.

Yuu's smile was indulgent and kind. Koko's was grinning, Hotaru knows why Koko likes to hang around Mikan, it's because being close to her nullifies his Alice, leaving only himself inside his head and even if she'd slipped, her thoughts are pretty much happy and..safe. Ruka's smile was shy and sweet while Natsume was frowning but a small reluctant smile curved his lips but it was his eyes that betrayed him most. The look in them was soft, warm and sweetly sad.

"As she looked around in total frenzy like she always does every time we go there, suddenly a stranger walked to her. He was wearing all black; a black hat that covered his face, a black cape that covered his body and a weird and menacing black aura about him. What do you think she will do?"

"Avoid him." Answered Yuu Tobita, the smartest kid in their class and the B class president. He should've known better.

Koko pursed his lips, "Throw the chilli bom that I just gave her at him."

"..Run away?"Ruka petted his Usagi-chan, his eyes still distant, probably is still trying to imagine what the stranger looks like.

At this point Natsume had a vein popping on his forehead. "Ask him if he isn't feeling hot since he was wearing so much and offers him a drink as she sits down with him in a cool secluded place." All eyes snapped towards him, his answer earning him a slight smile from Hotaru.

Yuu opened his mouth, eager to defend his best friend but then hesitated as he considered Mikan's helpful nature. "She wouldn't.."

Koko sweat dropped, and weakly said, "Even Mikan isn't that…"

Ruka bit his lip. Usagi-chan dropped its head to its paws.

"Without even appearing to move his lips, he introduced himself as 'I-am-a-strange-man-a-stranger-to-you-hence-someone-you-cannot-trust. He also says, 'I have plenty boxes of Hawalons (fluffpuffs) in my car, if you help me take it out, you'll be given five boxes free.' What do you think she'll say?" Hotaru continued her test.

Yuu blinked nervously, Koko opened and closed his mouth, Ruka paled and Usagi-chan's lips trembled while Natsume rubbed his eyes.

"The same senior that approached her, approached her again and asked whether she wants to come to his room later on tonight for some fun…"

"OH MY GOD! MIKAN!!!!!"

Bear-san brought Hotaru a new cup filled with hot tea and she thanked him with a rare smile, when the bear tapped her softly on the back, she could've sworn she heard him laugh.

"Hm. Lavender tea." She sipped her tea as she watched the three boys who bolted like they were being chased by the hounds of hell towards the academy, all the while screaming her bestfriend's name.

In their mind, Mikan was facing the faceless sempai, beaming at him cutely and with barely contained excitement, opened her mouth to say 'OK. What time?'.

The image of her hopping towards the sempai's room, her pig tails bouncing, humming a silly song, her hands filled with board games…happy, sweet, innocent…

"SHEEP!!!SHE IS SHEEP!!!! WAITING TO BE DEVOURED!!!" Yuu's horrified scream echoed towards the mountains and skies as they picked up their pace.

Hotaru eyed the last remaining boy who was gently pressing two fingers against his temple in light circling motions. He finally stood, scowled at her then jumped to a nearby tree, muttering 'damn baka youjo' under his breath.

Hotaru lightly skimmed her slim elegant fingers above the plate of cookie, picked one and nibbled lightly. "You're welcome."