Hee, second chapter here. Yes, I DO KNOW IT'S BEEN A LOOOONG TIME SINCE I UPDATED BUT please do still tell me what you think, thanks. (:

"The first date is always essential because it tells you how to start things off from there on. Just don't screw it up, and you'll be perfectly fine. If you're lucky, a second date might suffice." –Some old lady from Central Town

:) :) :)

That Saturday morning started out just like any other Saturday morning.

The birds chirped happily as they flew past your window sill. Everywhere, the sounds of happy shouts and laughter of children playing outside filled the morning air. Up above, a beautiful blue sky laced with sunshine was promising of another bright, brand new day.

And by far, that Saturday morning started out just like any other Saturday morning for Hyuuga Natsume.

The shrill birds just seemed to swoop down from all over the place to come annoy you along with your blaring alarm clock. Outdoors, little pests who do nothing but disturb people still in their sleep and pollute the air with their highly-irritating noise run amuck. And the sky, impossibly blue, along with the extremely brilliant sunlight, blinded Natsume the moment they hit his eyes.

Things could always get worse, he'd say, and just at that slight possibility, they suddenly did.

KNOCK, KNOCK.

A sudden rapping came at his door. As comical and pathetic as that sounded, it really was true. Natsume threw a pillow over his head in a desperate attempt to block out the knock.

KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!

Sparing a short, furious glare at his door, Natsume took it to mind that he was going to scorch that…knocker out the next moment he tries something fu—

KNOCK-ITY KNOCK, KNOCK…KNOCK, KNOCK!

Natsume pointed his open palm towards his door without even bothering to look from underneath the pillow burying his head.

Boom!

Problem torched aside, he smirked slightly to himself and concentrated on going back to sleep.

Knock… Knock…

"Natsume… It's –cough- Mikan," the knocker, who apparently was Mikan, called him from outside, her voice choked up with coughing.

Natsume groaned and rolled himself off bed. On the way to the door, he mussed up his hair a bit in irritation before he opened the door to welcome his uninvited guest.

"What the hell is with this pesky house call at six in the morning, Polka?"

Mikan, who was smoking all over, narrowed her eyes at Natsume. Above them, the smoke detectors took no effect which was ironic since Natsume was almost close to burning someone alive just a moment ago.

But of course she wasn't on fire. Of course she nullified it. And of course her pigtails would still catch fire no matter what.

"YOU'RE A FRICKIN' PRICK."

Hell hath no fury like a girl with burnt pigtails.

Natsume shrugged, slanting towards her to extinguish a small flame at the tip of one of Mikan's pigtails with his forefinger and thumb. With a contemptuous smirk, he leaned on the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest. "Should I know why you're here then?"

"Well," Mikan began dramatically, "since you did take time to make sure I got a warm wel— GAH!" Her eyes widened as they travelled downwards from Natsume's face. Almost immediately, her hand clumsily shot up to cover her eyes. "Dear God, wh-where the heck is your shirt, N-Natsu?"

For obvious reasons, the mad blush on Mikan's face only called for the sudden coy expression on Natsume's face. "You flatter me too much, really."

Mikan held out a Pyrex container Natsume didn't notice was with her until now—her eyes slightly shielded—then grumbled crossly with a pleasing scarlet tint still present on her face, "I brought you some breakfast, but you seriously need to put a shirt on first."

Natsume looked at the food cagily. "I would much prefer shirtlessly not dying from food poisoning, thanks," he said.

Mikan put the hand covering her eyes down to her side and looked up. "Relax, geez. It's Anna-made, ok?" she assured him scornfully.

"Well, the freak twin can cook," Natsume found himself admitting. "But can't I just, like, take the food and close the door on you?"

"Boo you Natsume. All I wanted was to just bring you some breakfast because you agreed to help me…" Mikan sniffed, her eyes still glued to the hallway ceiling, "—but sure, you could just take these blueberry waffles and leave me be to starve outside."

All throughout the years Natsume has known Mikan, he knew for one thing when she was being sincere or plainly guilt-tripping him. Right now, Natsume was indecisive about which of the two she was going at because he felt guilty and at the same time heard the distinct sound of her stomach rumbling. He studied her again.

As expected from a morning person, Mikan was already fully-dressed in a light pink hoodie and denim miniskirt. Her hair was tied into her usual pigtails, their tips now burnt. For all he knew, she might have woken up as early as five in the morning just to get ready and buy him an early morning meal from a disgruntled Umemomiya who was probably still sleeping at the time. Considering that, Natsume suddenly felt sorry for both girls.

"Here you go," Mikan handed Natsume the food, "—you've already done enough for me yesterday and I wouldn't want to ask too much from you."

Sometimes it simply amazed Natsume how this girl constantly got to him.

Mikan had already started to trudge away down the hallway when Natsume said, "I'll go put a shirt on." This effectively stopped her in her tracks. "You wait here."

Mikan spun around. She had a smile on her face. "Thanks. This isn't like a breakfast…date, right?"

"Not a breakfast date, yeah," he clarified, feeling a little heat rush up to his face. Not wanting Mikan to see him all pink, he dashed back into his dorm, washed up in the bathroom, then put on the first shirt he grabbed from his closet. Once he was done, he walked to his doorway only to find that Mikan wasn't there.

Oh great, so she ditches him on the—

A voice humming and the sound of cutlery ringing from somewhere in the kitchen area caught Natsume off guard.

Startled, he ran to the kitchen and saw Mikan bent over the kitchen table, setting two plates, glasses and a pitcher of juice out in front of her.

"What ever happened to 'you wait here'?"

"Oh!" Mikan looked up, surprised. "Natsume! I… I just thought I'd get breakfast ready since, uhm, you left the waffles by the table and…yeah." She laughed uncomfortably.

"Yeah you're hungry." Natsume rolled his eyes then sat himself down at the table. How the idiot managed to prepare all this at such a short amount of time when she couldn't even arrive to class early on any given day was beyond him.

The microwave on the counter beside them dinged! to a stop. Mikan went over to the counter and as soon as she opened the microwave, the warm smell of fresh waffles immediately filled the air.

"Breakfast's up!" she chirped as she placed three waffles on Natsume's plate then proceeded to slab a generous dollop of some weird-looking topping on them. She did the same with her own as she seated herself across him and poured themselves some apple juice.

Natsume eyed the blob of mystery matter on his waffles suspiciously. "What's this?" he asked her crudely.

"Orange butter, of course," Mikan said.

"Mikan what?"

"Orange butter," she repeated herself. Mikan then lowered her head and mumbled quietly, "I made it myself."

Natsume raised a skeptical eyebrow. He continued to experimentally fork his waffles some more. Sure enough, the blueberries looked tempting as his fork sliced and stabbed through them, but with all the…Mikan butter in the way, they all of a sudden seemed otherwise.

"You're not touching your food…"

Mikan's cheerless voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked, her forehead all scrunched in worry.

"Hn," Natsume replied. He rested his chin on his hand, staring at his plate.

He didn't really know what was wrong anymore.

In some way, his perceptions told him it was because he had no idea why he suddenly agreed to help Mikan out or how he managed to when he told her a useful thing or two yesterday. For one, he felt completely ridiculous for letting things amount to this. And he didn't know why but it gave him this certain feeling; that somehow giving away your favorite toy to a dear playmate didn't feel any different from giving away a girl you liked to your best friend.

Yep, he didn't really what was wrong anymore.

"Is there anythi—AHH!"

The power all of a sudden went out. Sure enough, dozens of other girls' terrified screams were heard from the corridors below the Special Star rooms. Natsume ran a hand down the side of his face.

"Natsume, Natsume, where are you? GAH, I CAN'T SEE—"

"This…," Natsume choked out, "is…my head. It's…not…a… Stop…unscrewing…it from…my body, Polka."

"Oh sorry." Mikan let go, but kept her grasp tight on Natsume's shirt. "Soo, what n-now? It's times like this when you s-should really consider drawing b-back the b-blinds in your dorm."

"You're shaking," Natsume said flatly.

"N-n-no I'm n-no — Oh s-screw this, j-just go let some s-sun into your room, o-ok?" Mikan stammered.

Natsume got up from his chair and said, "I'll just go switch on my back-up generator, so you stay—"

"NO!" Mikan screamed. In an instant, her arms were wrapped tightly around his waist. Natsume's eyes widened. "I-I mean… No way, you have a back-up generator?"

"This is an hellhole is based on prejudice anyway. What else is new?"

"Prejudice? I'm scared…" Mikan whimpered.

"Tch, you always and forever will be a coward, you know that?" Natsume scoffed. He peeled her arms off his waist but then laced his fingers to hers lightly afterwards. "Come on, the electric panel's just right beside the fridge." He tugged at Mikan to follow.

Natsume groped around for the counter drawer and fished out a flashlight. He shone it at Mikan and saw that she was slightly blushing.

"Wha—?"

"It's nothing."

Much to his dismay, the back-up generator didn't work when he tried to turn it on. Much to his bigger dismay, the flashlight's battery gave out. Then much to his biggest dismay, he felt himself blushing as well.

Luckily for him, Mikan was quick to talk; enough to snap him out of his flustered reverie. "Hey, you have any candles…?"

"Not that I—"

"Light your finger!"

"Light my what?"

"Just… Oh there thanks." Mikan held out a lit candle in front of her, her face alight with a self-satisfied grin visible even in the dark. "So should we pull back the drapes now?"

Natsume didn't answer. That was a no. Pulling the both of them back to their seats, he took the candle from Mikan and propped it at the middle of the table. He sat down and motioned for Mikan to do the same.

"A candlelit breakfast?" Mikan laughed. "Now this is some date, huh."

The boy just couldn't help but smile.

—

Two and a half hours later, long after Mikan had finished her helping of waffles while Natsume hadn't and a short while after the power came back on, they kept the candle lit in between them as they — mostly Mikan — talked the morning away. Strange enough to Natsume, it felt nice, spending time with her like this — what with the moments she never seemed to run out of things to say whilst never failing to have the corners of his lips curve up. But among others, it was mostly Mikan herself that just simply astounded Natsume.

And when the time came when she finally jumped up from her seat and exclaimed about the time, he couldn't do anything but watch as she hastily said bye and quickly left through the door.

Now with only an extinguished candle and untouched breakfast before him, he ate his meal with gusto alone in the dark, knowing that a little bit of it was still Mikan-made too.

—

This was not stalking. It just couldn't be. He had already convinced himself thirty minutes ago that it wasn't.

It just definitely couldn't be stalking. Never.

But really, Natsume hated it when he denied himself at times.

Feeling much more ridiculous by the second, he sighed and bent down lower beside a huge potted plant just as a certain girl in braids and a bright yellow sun dress walked by.

He watched as Mikan sat down at the nearest bench a few feet away. In the middle of looking at her tug at her braids and fix the ribbon of her dress, a voice behind him caused him to jump.

"May I ask why you're hiding behind a potted plant, young man?"

Startled, Natsume turned around quickly and saw an elderly woman holding a broomstick standing in front of him. He cleared his throat and straightened.

"Nothing that concerns you, old lady," he replied.

The woman raised her eyebrow and gave him a knowing look. Crossing her arms, she said, "You know you shouldn't keep her waiting like that."

Natsume felt his heart drop to his feet. "K-keep who waiting?"

She rolled her eyes then cocked her head at Mikan's direction. "I'm sure we both know who I'm talking about, am I right?"

Natsume frowned, saying, "What makes you thi—"

"Pretty girl, handsome boy — makes perfect sense." She shrugged. "I'm an old woman, sonny. Let's just say I know a lot more than you think," she said, resting her hands on her broomstick.

"What the hell are y—"

"The first date is always essential because it tells you how to start things off from there on. Just don't screw up, and you'll be perfectly fine. If you're lucky, a second date might suffice."

Natsume's insides did a double-over. Crudely, he asked, "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

The woman breathed in contentedly before saying, "Just some old lady from Central Town."

"Some weird old lady from Central Town, if I might add," Natsume scoffed, none too polite.

She chuckled. "That's what I am." Then her expression turned stern. She poked Natsume at his side with her broomstick. "Now you go march up to her and stop making that poor girl wait—"

"But I'm not—"

"—before I personally have to drag you over there by your ear or whack you with my broom in front of everybody else and cause you even more embarrassment only an old lady like me can cause," she said tersely.

Natsume could tell from her grim expression that she was pretty much serious. Not wanting to get a spanking anytime soon, he raised his hands in surrender and started walking over to where Mikan was.

"Good luck, son!" the old lady called after him loud enough for everyone around them to hear, Mikan included.

"Eh? Natsume?"

Natsume could only curse the old lady under his breath as he walked the remaining distance between him and Mikan.

In the most collected tone he could manage at the moment, he greeted her, "Yo Polka."

"What are you doing here?" Mikan asked.

Not stalking you, apparently, he mentally told himself. He tucked his hands in his pockets and lied, saying to her the same thing he told the old lady just a while ago. "Nothing that concerns you, Polka."

She gave out a tiny oh before staring at Natsume with those brown doe-like eyes of hers. "So are you supposed to be out on a date too or are you just…?"

Natsume's eyebrows furrowed. "What?"

"Dunno," Mikan shrugged, "just asking. Then maybe we could have arranged for a double-da—"

"No."

Mikan nodded. "Alright, alright," she said. Turning away from Natsume, she further spoke, the slightest hint of irritation present in her voice, "So if you're not out on a date and you being here has nothing to do with me, I told you I'd be able to give you your manga right?"

Natsume was caught a bit off-guard with how wrong she was. It had everything to do with her.

"You know I won't even go into how dense and shallow you are for thinking I'm only here to buy comics," he brusquely told her instead, giving a shake of his head.

Mikan started, "But—" She lifted her head for a split second, but then dropped it right away, as if dismissing a thought. "Ah, nevermind."

Natsume opened his mouth to speak but found that he too had nothing to say. Whatever Mikan was supposed to tell him, he was sure it was supposed to be something that further proved her point.

An uncomfortable silence passed between them. It was only when Natsume caught sight of a familiar blonde head rounding the corner that he cleared his throat and said, "I'll be going now. I think Ruka's here."

Mikan swiftly rose from her seat and looked around. Seeming that she no longer paid him mind, Natsume turned and started to walk away.

Mikan's voice stopped him in his tracks. "Aren't you gonna wish me luck?"

He didn't want to be unkind. "…Sure. Whatever. Good luck."

Natsume could hear a trace of a small smile in Mikan's tone. "You're a good friend, Natsume."

He didn't turn around to face her. "You'll do fine," he said off-handedly.

"I know. This is Ruka we're talking about, after all."

He didn't really know what he should say anymore. And somehow, as he went back to his dorm, he found a tiny part of himself hoping that much wouldn't be true.

"So let me get the straight," Ruka spoke, "first you take me to the batting cage, then to the animal shelter, and then over at the flea market for coin tricks and frozen lemonade."

Mikan nodded, taking a sip from her cup.

Ruka continued, "And so are you just taking me to the fangirl-free places or what?"

Mikan shrugged, beaming. "I'unno, I guess I just tried to show you a good time, then?"

Swirling the left-over contents of slush and lemonade in his cup, Ruka chuckled fondly. He murmured, "You honestly don't even have to try most of the time, really."

Eyebrows raised, Mikan looked him. "Sorry?"

Ruka all but chuckled again, looking back at her with an unwavering emotion in his cornflower blue eyes. "It's nothing."

"Hey now, don't look at me like that," Mikan said jokingly, "you know I'm not some psychic nor did I hire Otonashi-san for this, or uhm…anything." She lifted her cup to her lips rather shakily.

"I don't know, but maybe it's just a talent," Ruka remarked kindly.

Mikan blinked. "What is?"

"A talent," Ruka clarified, "a talent of making people happy. Yeah, like that."

Mikan stared down at her shoes, blushing. "Y-you think so?"

"This was a good after-breakup date, Mikan-chan," Ruka said truthfully. "No, wait, scratch that — the best after-breakup date I've ever had."

"R-really?"

Ruka nodded. "It's been a while since I've been to those places you took me to since I know for one thing that Nonoko-chan and Iinchou share this irrational fear of pitching machines, Shouda-san has this strong belief that fleas are about in most flea markets and Anna-chan's allergic to most animals," he explained. With a laugh, he said further, "And to add to that, I don't know, when I take Imai-san out…"

"She just somehow dries up your wallet quite fast, I know!" Mikan finished for him, laughing along.

At the spur of the moment, Ruka spontaneously looked up to watch as a flock of birds flew towards the sun that he noticed was already beginning to set. He tugged at Mikan's sleeve. "Ah, Mikan-chan, look," he said, "the sun."

Mikan followed to where his eyes travelled. Drawing in a breath, Mikan speculated, "There's no sunset like home's but this one's still very lovely." She gazed back down at Ruka, smiling.

Ruka couldn't help but feel the mild rush of heat to his cheeks as his heart skipped a beat and a tugging occurred at his lips. "I know."

"Natsume!"

Said boy turned towards the call of his name. "Mika—"

BAM!

Natsume's eyes were still closed after the sudden impact. "Polka, what the f—"

"It's a second date, Natsu," Mikan said softly. Natsume opened his eyes to see Mikan's arms wrapped around him. Her embrace around him tightened as she thanked him ever-so lovingly, "T-thank you."

Natsume swallowed thickly. His cheeks heated up — and it wasn't because of the cold. Either way, he didn't bother. Raising his hand almost reluctantly, he let it rest on Mikan's head. "You're welcome, Polka."

OH GOODNESS. There you go dearies, I finally got that chap over with — after, like, what? One and a half, two months? Good God I'm so pathetic. XD Oh but anyway, please do tell me what you think. (:

BTW, my little sisters (Ariisha-chan and I've Perfected Imperfection) and I are hosting a contest. Check out my profile or theirs for details in case you're interested (C'mon, I know you are).

Review pleaaase. :D