The 7d

Final Chapter

-x-

-x-

-x-

-x-

Maybe this was a rather cowardly act. By walking out of the mess her fiancé—now husband—created just hours ago and accompanying her new husband through the airport, Mikan had escaped the whole 'blame the Alice user who created fire' thing that went on between her wedding guests, students and police who swarmed the Alice Academy waiting for permission to get in. At this moment, the one who could give permission to anyone entering the Academy was on her side, and he couldn't wait to get away as far as possible.

Leaving Nonoko and her husband to deal with this situation was rather villainy of them, but then again, it wasn't their child who roasted the whole second floor of the Academy. Well… it wasn't her child, for that matter.

Natsume stopped just before the gate, and turned to her. He already changed his torn suit into his casual look. As much as an Armani black double-breasted suit and dress shoes could be casual, anyway. His face held more band-aid than last night, and there were unexplainable bruises that made some people paused and looked at him as they made their way to the gate. In one hand, he held his passport and ticket, he didn't bring anything else.

Mikan remembered him slipping his wallet into his pants pocket, and the wallet wasn't as thick as it was a week ago. In fact, she doubted he had anything in it, but a few bills, his ID and maybe one card he could still use. It would take some time to fatten his leather again, maybe even years to get back to what he was before all this. She couldn't even join him because their minister was really, admirably, but stupidly, fake. Natsume had taken to calling his former best friend as the idiot, and after realizing that she couldn't go right now because all the papers they signed in their wedding was just for show, she couldn't agree more.

Sumire had promised to deal with the real papers, and she maintained the beliefs that as long as the wedding took place in front of so many witnesses –almost burned alive or not- then it's already happening. Despite their status in front of the registrar, they were married in that room. Papers could be dealt with later.

After saying that, Sumire suddenly had a meeting to attend to and dashed out, just before the teachers walked into the clinics and told both Yuu and Natsume that they had a lot of irate guests waiting outside wanting answers.

Natsume did the best thing he could do under the situation. He pushed Yuu out the door and fed him to the sharks. Then he ran with his wife to his room and changed his clothes in a rush. Mikan had paced in the room while he changed. She had to stay, at least until the paper was finalized and she got herself the visa to join her husband. That took more than a week... or a month.

The new America AA principal, however, would have to start working tomorrow. And considering the so-blank-it-echoed situation with his account, now supporting both of them, she couldn't ask for him to stay here. So they hijacked the car that now belonged to Yuu and the chauffeur that also now belonged to Yuu, to drive him to the airport. For now, Mikan needed to stay alive by sharing everything that previously belonged to Natsume in Japan with the Tobitas. That was including her rented house. She wondered if the Tobitas could find out what orange thing was living under her sofa. Maybe someone else other than her could figure out what was the brown fur thing that lived on top of her fridge. It was rather huge for a rat.

She studied her husband. His eyes were clear and he was smiling at her, so she didn't have to wonder what he felt.

"As soon as I'm gone, you have to sign into the registration website and list both our names in it," said her husband. He put his palm on her nape and massaged her neck. "Don't forget to burn that fake paper the idiot made us sign after you copy all our signs into the real paper. That'll make Koko unable to claim that we married with fake documents."

If he said that without massaging her nape like he would train a puppy to listen to him as a new mother, Mikan wouldn't scowl. "I know that. You've said that at least eight times in the car."

His massage got stronger. "I know."

Mikan snarled as she gripped his wrist to stop the legitimately bullying massage. "Back to your high horse, huh?"

Natsume grinned. "I never stepped down." He pulled her nape and leaned down, pressing his mouth onto her. She bit his lip and he cringed as he leaned back. "What's that for?" he said, tongue darted out to lick the revenge bite on his lower lip.

Mikan smirked. "Got anything else you want to drill to me, your conceited highness?"

He snorted. "Nah, like you'd listen." He raised his hands up when she was about to raise her claws. "Anyway…" He took something out of his inner pockets and handed it to her.

Mikan frowned as she took the thin map. "What's this? Another debt I have to clear for you?"

He glared.

Ignoring her husband, Mikan opened the brown map and peeked inside. Papers. "…Really? Another debt? Natsume, I don't know if you noticed, but my mom was merely comfortably wealthy. Not super-duper-rich wealthy."

"It's not a debt," he gritted out as his wife pulled out one of the papers and read it.

Mikan read the paper. Again. And again. She looked up from the certificate to her husband. "When did you do this? I don't know you can change the name on the deed that fast."

"What are you talking about?"

"The name," Mikan said, showing the Laboratorium of Science certificate to her husband, like he wasn't the one giving it to her. "I mean… I know you feel grateful for me clearing up your debt, but when did you change the deed in my name? When did you have the time to do that under the investigation and meetings?"

Natsume blinked. "What?"

Mikan read another paper she pulled out from the map. It was a certificate to the acre of land where the Lab was going to be built. So he also turned the land to her name? "Wow. You're fast."

"Again… what are you talking about?"

Mikan peered inside and pulled another paper. Her breath caught when she read another certificate with her name on it. A house. Another paper was for the land where the house was. "…Really? So… you built a house? And you bought the land? And then you turned the house and the land into my name? Natsume, it's really nice, but I don't really think you should do it because you feel guilty. I mean… I did it because it was a must, I can't marry you in jail. Well, I can, but I prefer not to."

Natsume looked up and took a deep breath.

"How did you do this so fast? Four deeds under my name in less than two days? That's…" Mikan swayed when she pulled out a small, postcard sized blueprint of the house. She wasn't an architect, but she could tell a five floor, ten bedrooms was not a normal size for newlyweds. She looked at the font on the right bottom corner of the small blueprint postcard.

Sakura Mansion.

"Wait…" Mikan's eyes widened as she looked up at her husband's face. Her face paled. "Wait… you…"

Natsume narrowed his eyes. "Get it? I never turned anything under your name."

All the certificates were hers to begin with.

All the buildings and lands he'd built and bought in America were always meant for her.

Mikan stared at her husband for a long time. Natsume looked up at the arrival board and sighed.

"Gotta go," he said, and leaned down, pressing his lips to her. "See ya," he murmured. "Wife."

She gawked at her husband's back until he disappeared from the gate. Mikan looked down, to the priceless papers in her hands, and to the gate, where throngs of people filled in. She looked down again.

"…Oh." she said. "I should've married him when we were ten."

-x-

-x-

-x-

-x-

-The End-

-x-

-x-

-x-

Stay tuned for a preview of

Christmas Cake

The Seven Days sequel

-x-

-x-

-x-

Author's Note:

Whew! I'm so relieved I finally get to this scene, and it's all over. Well, the story of Mikan and Natsume's wedding, there is. It wasn't the full 'Mikan and Natsume' theme that I'm writing to the end, there will be another glimpse of them as beta couple in the sequel, but their story, as dominating and haughty as Natsume is and rock-headed and short tempered as Mikan is, has to end here (before they kill each other because I force them to interact with one another without any more fights. How is that even possible.)

When I first wrote this I never imagined, this will take years to be done. The actual writing itself wasn't really that long, but the writer behind all this has a full time job… and she was already lazy to begin with, so yeah…

Next is a slight preview of the sequel. I'm a bit worried about writing this, because the couple isn't Mikan and Natsume, so I doubt people will read. But I'll give a preview anyway. Maybe then there's gonna be interest for this sequel to really happen.

Thank you, guys, for reading this to the end, and I really appreciate everyone who has reviewed and cheered me to this day! Thank you so much!

Cerespallas, 24 July 2014

-x-

-x-

-x-

-x-

The sequel of Seven Days

Preview of

Christmas Cake

-x-

-x-

If anyone, anyone, offered to introduce her to someone again this week, she was going to kill them. And she meant it.

Then again, Dr. Hotaru Imai, BSc, MSc, MEng, MTech, Ph.D, rarely did anything she never meant to. This was why she was here, in the back seat of the taxi, holding the hand of a five year old son she never wanted, maybe planned but never really wanted to deal with, and glared at the back of the driver's head.

The son scowled at her, the face so much similar to her, but slightly marred by the imperfection of the dad's black eyes and hair. "Why aren't we moving?" the little human demanded.

She gave the same scowl. "Ask the man."

"It's a traffic jam!" said the driver once more. "And I can feel you two glaring at the back of my head. Stop it or I'll just dump you two creeps here!"

Hmm. To glare or not to glare.

Hotaru looked outside the iron prison she was forced to sit in for the last three hours. The tall buildings greeted her, their tall heights and strong foundations only managed to make her scoff. She was familiar with them. She was familiar with this city, this street, this place. She had her two… wait, was it three…? Anyway, she had had her degrees in this United State of America.

"I gotta pee," Ifrit incarnation shouted. "I gotta go!"

"Burn your penis," she said to her son. "It'll stop your bladder."

The tiny demon scoffed, ignoring the gasp from the taxi driver. "I can't burn myself!"

"I left my clamps at home," she replied.

"What kind of mother are you?" the driver yelled, turning back to point at her. Her. She who had been sitting here in this thing for three hours. "How could you say that to your own flesh and bones? You monster! I'm going to report you to the social service!"

She gave him a drool stare.

He snarled. "Oh, so now you finally choose to stay silent? You… you're not fit to be a mother! How could you threaten your own infant son like that?"

Hotaru looked back to the fragile infant, who was hopping in his seat. "You see the problem? He thinks you're my son."

"I can burn your face so you don't look like me," offered the fragile one with a cringe as he put his hands on his genitals, desperately trying to stop the flow. "But AFTER I PEE!"

Hotaru grabbed the door and tried to open it. She frowned when the door refused to budge. She turned to the driver, who watched her with grim eyes. And gun in his shaky hand.

"Seriously?" she said. "You can't do that three hours ago?"

"I thought I'd pass you up, since you're with your son and all," snarled the driver. "But I don't think I need to hold back with a monster like you, who just have a son because you're pregnant and not because you do care." He took a deep breath. "Wallet, please."

Well, isn't he a polite one.

Hmm. To give wallet or not to give.

"I gotta pee!" cried the genital toucher. "Pee! Aaah it's up!"

Hotaru sighed and leaned to the door, reaching for the wallet in her back pocket. The moment she leaned on the door, the lock sprang from its place and the door slid out from beneath her. Hotaru looked with wide eyes as she fell, back first, into the shadows. The dark fog enveloped her, hugged her into its serene mist.

She waved the darkness in front of her eyes with her wallet in hand, and ignored the scream of the taxi driver. Way too dark to see…

When the mist in front of her receded into nothing, she felt a wet patch under the seat, beneath her right calf. Oh, well. She shouldn't leave her clamps at home.

"Sorry," whispered the wet patch maker. "Is it your new socks?"

"And my new pants," she replied, looking up to the face of the man whose feet she was laying on.

The man was tall, much taller than her. He wore a black leather jacket that was obviously tailored to suit him, white dress shirt, black dress pants and blue tie under the jacket. In one hand, he held a black cylinder tablet. Another cylinder tablet hung on his back, the end rested above a branded leather office bag he slung over his shoulders. And he had wide shoulders. His hair was brown, his eyes were blue. Right now that blue eyes looked down at her, crinkling at the end as he studied her. His nose was straight, his jaw strong. His mouth formed a smile, like he was laughing at her expense.

"Well, well, well," he said. "The Old Maid comes to town."

-x-

-x-

-x-

-x-

Preview end

-x-

A/N: (August 2014) The sequel is out NOW! Check out 'Christmas Cake' in my profile and tell me what you think. The plot continues..