Disclaimer : I'm just in highschool. Do the Math :P

Title: Somethings Just Don't Mix
Genre: Humor/Romance
Pairings: NatsumexMikan
Word Count:5,615
Rating: T
Prompt: Acids and Bases

A/N This story was previously posted on my other account. But due to personal reasons, I've removed it from there and have posted it in this account instead. Just sayin. Anyways, I hope you enjoy reading! Sorry if it's a too long, I got carried away :P

Somethings Just Don't Mix

She thought he was just trying to lord over her. What she didn't know was how right he was. After all, not everything in life mixes in the same way as lemonade...

Chapter 1: Somethings Just Don't Mix (Chemistry)

Mikan Sakura was a mess ; her hair was dishevelled and was left loose down her back, her uniform was crumpled for she was wearing yesterday's one (well she thought it was yesterday's as she found it under her 1-star bed)and she was sure she stunk as bad as a skunk. Her eyes had dark circles under them and her room was a disarray of papers, pens and books. On top of that she was starving. She would've taken a shower and then chosen a new clean uniform to wear for the day but she had no time. If it was any other day, she could've just gone to class a bit late. It wouldn't have mattered , even Yuu the class President came late sometimes. He never got yelled at. Then again he's the President. But today was not an ordinary day. It most definitely was not just any other normal day.

Today was the day of her Chemistry Finals.

And she was late.

Again.

She was absolutely positive that Jinno would make her clean the toilets this time. She had already cleaned the kitchens, the stables and even the stupid library for crying out loud! Cleaning the library was absolute torture. There were so many bloody books! And he wanted all of them to be dust—free. But honestly, it wasn't her fault that she was late. According to Mikan it was her alarm clock's fault. Now, if her alarm rang an hour late, was it her mistake? She was definitely sure that she had set the alarm for 7.15 but instead it rang at 8 bloody 15.

She glanced at the analogue clock perched upon her desk. It was 8.20. Mikan smacked her forehead and started muttering a string of profanities which would've even made a sailor cringe.

She had just about 10 minutes to get to the Chemistry lab. The test started at 8.35 but she had to be there 5 minutes prior to the timing. She silently prayed that the elevator would be empty and working; it would take her ages to walk down all those 82 steps. Plus she didn't want to share it with another student cause that would just waste her time(which she lacked).

She quickly snatched a rubber band which was lying on her floor and tied her hair into a loose pony tail. A few strands came loose, but she hardly cared. She had a test to get to first.

Mikan grabbed her back-pack from the bed and then mad a dash for the door. She got her key from her pocket and locked the door securely. She wasn't going to let random fools into her room just because of a stupid test.

However because of this 'stupid' test, Mikan darted down the corridors, nearly bumbing head first into a tiny girl with purple hair.

"Sorry! "She called out as she pressed the button for the elevator.

She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for it to reach the 5th floor. There was a 'click' and then the doors of the elevator opened. It was empty. Yes!

Mikan heaved a sigh of relief as she pressed the 'G' button of the elevator. She then leaned up against the walls, her back-pack on the ground. She closed her eyes. She was tired. Actually tired was an understatement. She was absolutely fatigued. She had spent the better part of the night studying for the Chemistry Final. She sighed again. Oh how she wished that she had taken Natsume's help when he had offered. But she being the stupid idiot that she is, declined.

"Do you need any help with Chemistry Polka?" Natsume had asked as he absently flipped through the channels of his special star TV.

"No," Mikan replied, "I'm quite fine. I'll do it by myself."

Natsume raised an eyebrow, "You'll do it by yourself?"

"Yes."

A hint of a smirk could be seen playing along his lips. "You do know that we have the finals tomorrow and not some pop quiz, right?"

"Of course!" Mikan began indignantly,"Stop patronizing me!"

Natsume shrugged, "But you—"

"For god's sake Natsume! Just because you are so freakin' smart and you don't have to study much does not give you a reason to lord over me!"

Natsume blinked. "Lording over you? What the hell does that mean?"

Mikan narrowed her eyes, "You know very well what I mean. So please enough with your 'let's-help-Mikan-act'. I know why you are doing it."

Natsume grunted, "Well it's good to know that you want to fail."

"Fail?" Mikan bellowed, rage pulsing through her veins. "I'll show you, you stupid git."

Natsume smirked, "Show me what? All the red circles over your paper? Or how about a classroom you'll damage for putting in the wrong chemicals?"

At that Mikan snatched her back-pack from the couch she was sitting on, strapped it on her shoulder and headed out.

"I am going to get better marks than you," she growled, standing in front of the door, "Just wait. I'll definitely get better marks than you. And I'll study all by myself." She said the last word between gritted teeth.

"You're going to fail."

It was safe to say that the conversation had not ended well. Even as she thought about it now, white hot rage pulsed through her. Who was Natsume to tell her that she was going to fail? To fail would mean to get an E which is less than 20% of the whole grade. Plus she had never failed in anything. Sure, she came close to failing but that didn't count. To fail was to fail. Close to failing did not count as failing. Besides, nobody ever failed a test. Other than Koko of course. He had a right to fail which sounds like utter bollocks, but is true. So that's why Mikan had spent almost the whole night flipping through the pages of her thick Chemistry textbook. She didn't understand why or how Chemistry was going to be useful in her future. She wasn't going to be a bio—chemist nor was she going to do a major in Chemistry. So she didn't understand the need of that subject. She could hardly care less whether an acid turned blue litmus paper red(or was it red litmus paper blue?) or whether sodium chloride was neutral or not.

She could turn white paper red too! Did that make her an acid? No, it most certainly did not. And the ions. She hated the stupid ions and their retarded valency. That basically killed her. She memorized the first 10, but then lost hope. It was just far too hard. She should've listened to Hotaru when she had told Mikan to start studying at least a week prior to the Final. But it really wasn't Mikan's fault, or so she thought. She couldn't squeeze in time for Chemistry. Most of her time was caught up for Math (another subject she hated, in fact way more than Chemistry)She had other things to do too, like update her Facebook profile and watch Gossip Girl.

There is no point in mourning now, the damage is already done.

There was another 'click' which indicated that she had reached the ground floor. Before you could even say 'Mouldy Vouldy', Mikan was already out of the elevator and bolting down the halls. She didn't even bother to slow down at the corners. After a minute or two she reached the labs. Mikan grunted, Alice Academy was far too big for its own good.

She tugged at the strap of her back-pack and then fidgeted with the collar of her shirt. Now, all she had to do was to find out which lab her class was in. She vaguely remembered Jinno telling them that their test would be in a different lab. Usually her Chemistry Classes were held at lab 3. She could just pop her head into each and every lab to check whether her class was in it or not. But then she decided against it. She 'd definitely get late then, plus it'd look rather absurd if she kept on going into and disturbing all the other classes. With no other option left, Mikan opened the front zip of her bag and fished out her cell-phone.

To: Perms

Permyy! Tell me which lab we're supposed to be in. ASAP.

-Mikan

Almost immediately her phone beeped. She nearly squealed with joy. Permy had replied!

From: Perms

Lab 7. Hurry up you douche. Jinno already took attendance XD

-Sumire

"Crap." Mikan muttered as she tossed her phone into her bag.

She sauntered down the hall and passed by all the labs numbered between 1 and 6. As she came near lab 7 she halted. It was 8.28 on her watch, so she wasn't late yet. She took a deep breath before pushing the door open.

The second she entered the room, she was attacked.

"Sakura!"

Her head jerked towards the direction of the enough, Jinno was there standing near the middle of the classroom with a green notebook in his hand.

"Yes, sir?" she asked, her voice meek.

"Is there any reason why you are late?" he asked, glinting at her through his red glasses.

"But sir, I'm not late!"

Jinno grunted, "It's 8.29..."He trailed off, looking sheepish all of a sudden.

Mikan beamed, she knew she wasn't late.

"See! I'm not late!"

"Why are you standing there like a lost fool?" Jinno barked looking for a way to divert his thoughts, he couldn't stand being wrong, he then pointed at the only empty seat which was next to Koko, "Go sit there!"

Mikan nearly groaned. Koko? She had to sit next to Koko? Sure Koko was great and all but he was a complete dunce when it came to academics. The boy didn't even open his goddamn textbook. At least she tried. She wished she got to sit next to Ruka or Yuu. They had brains and they'd help her. Unlike some people..

As she made her way to where Koko sat (it was at the back,)she carefully avoided a pair of bright red eyes that were watching her every move. Even though she wasn't looking at him, hell she wasn't even near him, she felt butterflies creeping up her stomach. God knows, but she only ever felt like that with him. She never had this sort of problem with other boys before. It was only him, always with him.

"Hey Mikan!" Koko greeted as she sat down next to him.

"Hi Koko." Mikan smiled.

"Woah. You look like shit."

...She was on the verge of killing him.

"Thanks for pointing that out," she sniffed. Her voice had lost all its former cheerfulness.

"Well you do look like shit. Tough night?"

"You could say that."

Koko cracked a grin, "So I take it that you were studying?"

"That's right." Mikan stifled a yawn that was threatening to escape . The last time she yawned in Jinno's class, he had taken away one of her stars. It was all his fault that she was just a 1-star. She wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

"I studied too."

Mikan stared at Koko. Did he really mean it? The look on his face said that he did. Mikan gulped. This was new. Koko never studied. For him to do so meant a big thing.

Before she could ask him just how much he had studied, Jinno's voice interrupted them. "Now, keep your back-packs beside my desk."

Mikan got up to put her bag and so did everyone else. She saw Hotaru with her nose deeply buried into a dictionary-width textbook. If Mikan thought the textbook she read was long, she was so wrong. Hotaru's looked about triple the size of her's. She gulped, was she the only one who hadn't taken this seriously? She let her eyes roam around the classroom. She did not like what she saw. Almost everyone had their eyes glued to their textbooks while they walked and a few of them were muttering to themselves.

She went back to her seat, next to Koko and put her head down on the table. Her heart was beating frantically.

"I will tell you the directions for the test," Jinno started as he read out from his green notebook. "Listen carefully. Your test paper has two sections. The first section has subjective as well as objective questions. You have an hour and a half to complete the first section. No extra time will be given," his eyes flickered to Mikan as he said that part, she sank into her seat, her heart felt like it would explode any minute, she was that nervous. He then continued on with the directions. "After that, you will get a slip of paper which will have the name of the experiment that you will be doing. This is section two. In this section, you are allowed to work with your partners. You will have to write down your hypothesis and observation for the experiment you have conducted. As your Chemistry teacher, I shall be going around to check whether you are doing the experiment in the proper fashion or not. Any questions?"

Anna raised her hand.

"Yes, Anna, what's your question?" Jinno asked, looking up from his notebook.

"How much time will we get for the experiment?"

"An hour."

She nodded.

"I will not tolerate any form of cheating, is that clear?" Jinno asked the whole class.

"Yes, sir," A few people replied, the others were busy revising in their heads.

Jinno sent a knowing look towards Mouchu who just merely grinned.

"Its 8.40.I will be taking your papers at 10.10 sharp."

With that he started distributing the papers. When he was near Mikan's table, she was sure that her heart had exploded. It'd only be a matter of minutes till she'd drop down, dead.

I'll do fine. I'll do fine. I'll do fine.

She kept chanting that like it was some sort of Mantra.

Finally Jinno reached her table. He passed out the papers to Koko and Mikan.

"Good luck, Sakura," Jinno said maliciously, his lips turning down into a sneer.

Mikan cringed visibly. Her hands were shaking as she wrote her name on the paper.

"Here goes nothing," she whispered to herself.

~(*)~

"Time's up!" called Jinno as he started to collect the papers.

"Did you finish Sakura?" he asked, a leer playing at the corner of his mouth.

"As a matter of fact," Mikan handed him the paper, "I did ."

"Wh-what?" he sputtered, confused. How had Mikan Sakura finished the paper?

Mikan beamed, "You should make it harder next time, Jin-Jin." she drawled.

Jinno blinked, absolutely confounded. Mikan Sakura, the girl who never got a grade better than a D was telling him that he should make the paper harder? What was the world coming to?

Mikan smirked as Jinno left her table, muttering nonsense to himself.

"Holy shit! You found the test easy?" Koko questioned, his eyes widening.

"Nah,"Mikan responded, her chin resting on her hand, "Just said that to piss dear Jin-Jin off."

"Oh. No wonder," he chuckled, "I thought some of Natsume's smartness was rubbing off on you."

Something triggered within her when Koko said that name. She couldn't help it; her eyes went automatically to where the crimson eyed boy was sitting, next to Hoshino. His elbows were on the table and his chin was perched upon his folded arms. Even though she couldn't see his face, her palms became sweaty.

She could not believe she was lusting after the back of his head.

She shook hers, frantically trying to get rid of any such thought. Honestly, she was such a slag.

As if feeling her gaze on him, Natsume twisted around. His eyes met hers. Mikan felt as if all her breath had been knocked out of her. What was wrong with her?

He jerked his head towards the desk, as if asking, "How was the paper?"

Mikan was about to give him a smile but caught herself at the right time. She was mad at him. So when you're mad at someone you don't talk to them and you definitely don't go around smiling at them. So instead she decided on giving him a frown.

Natsume raised an eyebrow before shrugging. With one last look at Mikan, he turned back in his seat.

"I will now hand you the experiments that you shall be doing. Please go collect the materials by yourself and remember to write down what I told you to before." Jinno informed the class with his usual monotone.

"Good luck, Partner!" Koko whispered as Jinno handed out the Experiment papers.

Experiment 1 :

Aim: To show that a solution of acid can conduct electricity.

Materials required : Dilute solution of Sulphuric Acid, battery, ammeter, connecting wires, switch, two graphite rods.

Please write down the Procedure, your Hypothesis and then the observations.

"What the hell is an ammeter?" Koko questioned after reading the experiment.

Mikan sighed. This is why Mikan wanted to sit next to Ruka, or someone equally smart. Now instead of her being the one asking these questions, she'd have to answer them.

"Umm,"she started biting her lips, she glanced towards the desk where Natsume and Hoshino were sitting at. They had already started setting up their experiment, "I think it has something to do with calculating the volts..?"

"What the fuck is a volt now?" Koko demanded, utterly confused.

"A volt is defined as the unit positive charged which is used in doing work."

"Wow Mikan. You actually know?"

Mikan shrugged, what she said was probably wrong anyways, "Go get the materials from the desk; I'll start writing so you can copy that."

Koko nodded and then strolled over to the materials corner.

Mikan looked around her; everyone was busy conducting their experiments.

"Excellent work and Mr. Nogi!" Jinno clapped.

Ohmyfuckingosh. They are already done!

Ruka started to blush while Hotaru smirked. The usual.

"We can go now, right sir?" she asked, already getting her bag.

"Yes, yes, of course you can go! It's a miracle how the two of you finished your experiment just in a span of 4 minutes."

"It was pretty easy—" Ruka began but was cut off.

"I did most of the work." Hotaru put in smoothly.

"Wh-what?" he stammered, this mouth opening and closing like a fish.

Hotaru shrugged, "It's true. The only thing you did was get the materials."

"Imai!Stop lying!"

Hotaru just rolled her eyes, "Come on bunny boy," she tugged at Ruka's uniform sleeve," Let's go, you're annoying the other people."

With that, Hotaru dragged a very confused Ruka out the lab.

Mikan sighed. Both of them were already done. She hadn't even started. She turned her focus back to the task on hand.

She wrote down her Hypothesis and the procedure. That didn't take her so long, it was quite easy. She tapped her pen impatiently on the table.

Where was Koko?

As if on cue, Koko came into view. He had a huge container in his hands labelled 'Concentrated Sulphuric Acid' and two rod like structures and another thing which she assumed was the ammeter.

"Look! I got the WHOLE container for the acid!"

Mikan whistled, "Woah Koko, we're not going to use the whole thing, are we?"

"Of course we are, silly!" he placed the materials carefully on the desk and then sat down,"Jinno said that we have to prove that acids conduct electricity. What better way to do that than proving that this entire jar conducts it?"

"Well, if a bit of it conducts electricity won't the whole thing do too?"

Koko scratched his head, "Well if we lose one lung, then the other won't function properly."

"So?"

"What I'm saying is that we need both of our lungs to survive, the same goes for the acid, we need the whole acid to do the experiment."

Mikan put a hand to her chin, deep in after a few seconds she exclaimed, "The lungs work in pairs!"

"The acid works in whole containers!" he countered.

"Well..." she started, "When you put it that way, it does make some sense."

Koko nodded enthusiastically, "See what I mean? We are going to ace this."

Mikan giggled, "Here," she handed him her paper, "You can copy what I wrote."

Koko shook his head,"Nah, I'll do that later. Let's prove that acid thing first."

She started reading her paper out loud,"The first step is to dilute the acid so that it makes it easier to conduct. The second step is to put the graphite rods in dilute sulphuric acid and complete the circuit."

"Dilute sulphuric acid?" Koko asked, an edge of panic creeping into his voice.

"Yes, "Mikan answered looking up from her paper, "What's wrong?"

"This is what's wrong," he pointed to the container, "It says that's its Concentrated Sulphuric Acid, not Dilute Sulphuric acid."

Mikan was quiet for a few seconds. She closed her eyes and started to imagine that she was reading her Chemistry textbook.

Thinkthinkthinkthink.

She was sure she read about dilute acids somewhere. Now if she could just remember what is was...

"I got it!" she nearly screamed, running over to the sink.

"You did?"

"Yes!" she grinned. She filled up a beaker with water and then brought it over to the desk.

"Dilute acid is a weaker version of the acid. We get that by adding water."

Koko beamed, "You are a genius Mikan!" he then pulled her in for a huge bear hug.

Mikan giggled and then pulled away, "Now come on, we have to make this concentrated solution dilute."

"As you say."

She went over to the table and then unscrewed the cover of the container.

"Huh. What if someone mistakes this for water?"

Koko chuckled, "Well they'd have to be really stupid. It's labelled."

"Right."

"Okay, so now we pour the acid into the water right?" Koko confirmed as he picked up the acid.

"No!" Mikan screeched, it almost spilled as she grabbed it out of his hand.

"Watch it, woman! I was handling an acid!"

Mikan grinned sheepishly, "Sorry. But look, I remember reading that it just can't be added in any way. The water has to be added to the acid."

"What? Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"No, "Koko took the acid from her hand, "The acid has to be added to the water. I remember Sumire going on about that this morning."

"No," she repeated again, "I went through that this morning too. The water has to be added to the acid."

"Mikan, "he pointed at the acid, "The acid goes into the water."

She shook her head. "What do you add in your lemonade?"

"Lemonade?" he asked, confused. "What does lemonade have to do with sulphuric acid?"

"Just answer the question."

"Well, I squeeze the lemon into the water."

"What?" Mikan gasped, "You squeeze the lemon into the water?"

Koko raised an eyebrow, "What do you do?"

"Why I squeeze the lemon into an empty glass and then pour the water!" she said as a matter of fact.

"You do?"

"Yes!"

"Is that why your lemonade tastes sweeter than mine's?"

"Yes, of course!"

Koko smacked his forehead, "After all those lemonade making competitions, you tell me that now?"

She laughed, her nose scrunching up in the process, "Sorry."

"So, what does the lemonade analogy have to do with this?"

"Well it proves that we have to put the water into the acid!"

"Oh.."

"See!I knew I was right!"

Koko started muttering to himself. He could bet on anything that Sumire had said that water should not be added to an acid because it'd produce a lot of heat. Maybe he was wrong. Besides, Mikan was smarter than him, she'd know better..

"Okay, so here goes nothing!" she exclaimed, the beaker filled with water in her hand. She tilted it, "3,2,1!"

The water fell into the sulphuric acid.

Mikan and Koko watched as it started to bubble rather furiously.

It happened within a span of 7 seconds.

KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

"SAKURAA!DETENTION!"Jinno's voice could hardly be heard over the explosion.

...

Oh crap.I just destroyed a classroom.

~()~

Cleaning a classroom which got destroyed because of an acid is not an easy job. Mikan would've preferred cleaning the toilets.

She really would.

Show me what?All the red circles over your paper?Or how about a classroom you'll damage for putting in the wrong chemicals?

She hated how he was always right. She thought she'd get detention for coming late. But instead she got detention for blowing up a classroom.

Great.

Now she was stuck cleaning the floors of the lab. Honestly, she was so sure that water should be added to the acid and not vice versa. Well, she added water to the lemons and that didn't blow up! Plus, lemons had citric acid in them!

She sighed, she really didn't understand the logic behind all that. When would an acid blow up and when wouldn't it?

Due to the explosion of her experiment, Anna and Nonoko, who were sitting in front of Mikan, dropped sodium hydroxide onto the floor. Then Mouchu accidently spilled Potassium chloride on his shirt. A bunch of other things happened too, but Mikan was far to dis heartened to care. Natsume and Hoshino had gotten their experiment right.

She gritted her teeth, she wanted to yell at him so much! Who was he to be always right anyways? Just because he was Natsume bloody Hyuuga didn't mean he could never ever get anything wrong.

Life is so unfair.

Mikan continued to scrub the floor, it had only been 10 minutes since Jinno left but she already felt exhausted to the core. As she was cleaning, she heard footsteps echoing down the hall. She started rubbing the floor vigoursly, thinking that it was Jinno. She turned her back towards the door, she didn't want to see Jin-Jin's ugly face. Who was she to blame? His face really was ugly. She expected to hear his voice screeching at her to work faster. But instead she heard the soft 'click' of the door, indicating that it had been closed.

She panicked, was Jinno going to beat her up? Or worse was he going to rape her?

She turned around quickly, grabbing the sponge in her hand. If needed, she was going to chuck the acid-filled sponge right in Jinno's face.

"Natsume?" she whispered. Her eyes started to narrow. What was he doing here?

"Having fun?" he asked walking towards her with his hands shoved down deeply into his pockets.

"Amazing."

Natsume smirked. "If you—"

"Oh no," Mikan stood up," If you came here to gloat at me, then just leave right now."

"Mi—"

"Oh shut up!" she cut him off mid-word, then she started again, "Yes, I blew up a classroom. I'm a retard, I know. You don't need to rub it in."

"I—"

"Okay, okay! I get it! I should've listened to you. I should've taken your help when you had offered. You're Natsume freakin Hyuuga after all. You could never be wrong."

"Well—"

"Oh god please! I know Natsume! I'm the stupidest person to ever set foot on this planet! I'm going to get a worse grade than Koko!" she wailed, her hands covering her face.

"Bu—"

"But what? I swear to god, if you say that I still wear polka dotted panties, I'm going to shove the whole bottle of acid down your stupid mouth!"

At that, Natsume cracked a grin. He then took a few steps closer, he was so close. Mikan could feel his hot breath on her face.

"I won't say that you're not stupid—" Mikan punched his arm at that but he swiftly ignored it,"But you are the strangest person I've ever met Polka."

Mikan merely stuck out her tongue at him.

"You are a complete idiot and your voice is so obnoxiously loud that it makes me feel like banging my head against the wall," he paused for dramatic effect, she assumed," But, I guess that's what makes you special..in a strange way."

And then his lips were on hers. Mikan nearly melted at his touch. She had kissed him so many times before, but it never ceased to amaze her. His kisses were like toxic. It was just far too good. Her hands went around his shoulder and his wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer. He opened his mouth slightly and almost by instinct, Mikan's tongue flitted through and she moaned, the low sound send a jolt down Natsume's spine. After a few frenzy minutes of intense kissing, they pulled apart.

She unwrapped her hands from around his neck and then took a few steps back, her heart was beating so loud she was sure he could hear it.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you yesterday and calling you a git."

"That's all right," he shrugged, then added, "But I'm not sorry for saying that you'll fail."

Mikan kicked him. "Jerk," she hissed sourly.

Natsume grinned, "I was going to ask you if you wanted any help in cleaning but.."

"Please! Natsume I really do!"

He smirked, "I got a bunch of elementary kids who want to help you clean."

"I thought I told you to stop picking on little kids!"

"They're Youichi's friends."

"You're a git."

"You just flunked Chemistry and blew up a classroom."

"I hate you."

"I know."

0

They were like oil and water. No matter how hard you tried some things just don't mix. Or maybe they do?

0

"Hey Natsume?"

"Yes?"

"What do you put in first to make lemonade, the water or the lemon?"

"The water."

Don't get the analogy? Feel free to ask me :)

Reviews are my drug haha ;)

Carolle Royale