July 30th, 2012 - Revised and edited.

Curing Love Sickness
Inspired by the one-shot manga, Celeste Blue.

It was an average day at Alice Academy for Natsume Hyuuga... or so he thought until noon approached the school day and he was called by his math teacher to come over to his office. He was greeted by Jinno-sensei's face when he entered the room and another face of a smiley girl whom he recognized from the homeroom next door.

"Thank you for coming, Hyuuga." Jinno nodded in acknowledgement at the boy before introducing the main topic. "This girl is from class 1-B," He gestured to the girl beside him. "She's not doing particularly as well as I hope for her to in mathematics." Jinno frowned at the girl while she sheepishly grinned in slight embarrassment.

Natsume inwardly grimaced. He could see where this conversation was going. Jinno was going to ask him to give her after-school tutoring sessions. He did not want to

"I'm sorry to ask you of this but if Sakura continues as she is with my maths class, then she won't be able to move up the next grade," Jinno furrowed his eyebrows. "Alice Academy believes in having a one hundred percent graduation rate and we intend to keep it like that."

"I understand." Natsume said.

"You are one of the model students for first years and also the top in my class so you were the first one to come to mind. I hope you can become Sakura's math tutor until the end of the year or at least until she won't need it anymore."

Natsume nodded stiffly at his teacher in compliance. Jinno was a teacher you couldn't refuse unless you wanted to get on his bad side. 'Great. I have to spend my afternoons from now on with this girl.' Natsume thought sarcastically.

Mikan beamed happily at the stoic faced boy. "Nice to meet you, Natsume Hyuuga! My name is Mikan Sakura! Jinno-sensei told me all about you, please take care of me."

Natsume only stared at her in response. '...How does she smile all the time like that?'

Jinno patted Natsume's back in relief and wished him good luck, "I'm counting on you, Hyuuga," He smiled. "Don't worry, I'll bump your grade up for the final reports at the end of the year."

"So you're going to tutor one of the cutest girls in our year level, eh?" Koko asked as he dribbled his basketball beside Natsume.

"Sure." He replied as he shot a basket. Admiring girls who were watching the basketball team cheered for them and Natsume furrowed his eyebrows in annoyance at the high pitched squeals.

"What kind of reply is "sure"? I'm not asking if you want to get ice-cream with me, Natsume!" Koko raised a brow in curiosity.

From what Natsume knew about Mikan Sakura, she was always with her chatty group of friends. Among them, she was the loudest and the one who received the most attention from others. With the way Natsume's friends occasionally talked about her, she seemed well-liked by boys and her friends alike. Whenever he went to the library to study in peace, he would see her on rare occasions being repetitively shushed by the librarian. To put it bluntly, Natsume did not like her any more than he did other girls. They were all annoyingly loud to him.

"Oh, right! You're helping Sakura-chan study for the upcoming exams." Mochu said while he collected the ball Natsume shot and dribbled it.

"You should plan a group date for us with her other cute friends!" Koko grinned like a Cheshire cat as he slapped Natsume a little too hard on the back.

Natsume glared in response while Koko bowed apologetically. "Forgive me, Natsume-sama!"

Coach Narumi blew his whistle and called everyone to sit over on the bench. "Hello my lovely munchie-poo-poos!" He sang. The basketball team simultaneously shivered in their seats and began to question Narumi's teaching degree.

"We're going to try something new today! If it works out, we'll use it as part of our warm up!" Narumi said.

"What's the new thing?" Koko asked with faint hesitation.

"Glad you asked, Koko-kun! Aerobics is the hottest thing right now so watch me as I put on music and demonstrate this new form of exercise!" Narumi smiled and winked at his students.

No one was actually up for watching Narumi do strange displays of movement and turned to pester Natsume on Mikan Sakura instead.

"Daaaaamn, I wish I was smart like Hyuuga or class prez to be able to tutor pretty girls like Sakura!" A fellow team member grinned.

"Tell me about it! But Natsume here isn't interested in dating girls in the first place." Koko chuckled.

"Then let's trade! I'll be Sakura-chan's tutor in your place!" Another boy smirked.

"Forget it, Nanami. You can't even remember your time tables up to 12, what makes you think could tutor Sakura-chan? Besides, you're probably going to spend the sessions trying to hit on her." Mochu snickered.

"What's so good about getting to help that dimwitted girl study?" Natsume asked in annoyance.

Koko, Mochu, and the rest of the team looked at Natsume as if lemonade had shot out from his ears.

"You're one of a kind, Natsume." Koko chuckled and the rest of the team joined in. Natsume rolled his eyes in response and begrudgingly focused his attention on Narumi doing aerobics.

When the last bell rang to signal the end of the day, Natsume and Mikan were already in her empty homeroom class to begin studying. The brunette was barely paying any attention to reading the text books in front of her. Natsume was introducing the current topics that she was learning in class but his words went through one ear and out the other.

"Studying is hard." Mikan groaned as she crossed her legs.

"You've barely even started." Natsume said, "I doubt you're even listening to me." He creased his eyebrows in annoyance and flicked her forehead.

"Ouchie!" Mikan rubbed her forehead and pouted, "I'm not as smart as you, Natsu-sensei."

Natsume brushed off the nickname and crossed his arms. "All you have to do is look at me and listen."

Completely ignoring Natsume's words once again, Mikan lit up in her seat. "Hey, sensei! I have a question!" Mikan raised her hand up as if she was in class with a determined look on her face.

Sensing the new serious aura she emitted, Natsume nodded his head for her to go ahead and ask the question.

"How do you cure love sickness?" Her eyes sparkled ready to concentrate on her tutor's answer.

An unamused Natsume stayed silent and stared at the girl in front of him, unmoving. Breaking the brief silence and puzzlement, Mikan grinned and said "I just wanted to ask someone smart like Natsu-sensei because I couldn't think of the answer by myself."

Ignoring Mikan, he averted his eyes to his text book. "Turn to page 158 where you will see several formulas..."

Mikan blinked at her tutor and then giggled. "You just brushed off my question way too fast!" The now curious Mikan fixed her gaze on Natsume with complete inquisitiveness. "Hey! Do you have a girlfriend, Natsu-sensei?"

Natsume found it weird how her attention was now easily focused on his love life rather than the math work before them. "I bet you do have one! Even though Natsu-sensei doesn't talk much and has a reserved atmosphere around him, he seems like a very nice guy!" Mikan smiled at him.

Natsume's calm composure faltered for a second and his eyes widened slightly. 'I've been called stuff like "composed", "reasonable", and "silent" but I've never been called "nice" before...' He thought silently.

Before he could reply, a sudden deep voice drifted through the room. "How's Mikan-chan doing in studying so far?" It asked.

Mikan's head whipped around to the door and brightened at the intruder. "Ruka-pyon!"

The blonde laughed and walked towards the desk Natsume and Mikan were at. Mikan then faced Natsume, "This is my childhood friend, Ruka Nogi!"

The said boy smiled gently and shook hands with the stoic boy.

"Sorry about Mikan-chan over here. She never studies which is why she's immensely naive." Ruka put his arm around Mikan and grinned. "Despite that though, she's a good girl! It's pretty hard to get her to stop smiling all the time. She's so positive, she'd scream at the sky to stop if it was raining." He laughed.

A rosy tint spreaded across Mikan's cheeks which Natsume did not fail to notice. She pouted and lightly glared at the blonde, "I'm not that naive!" She argued.

A smile then made its way to her face as she giggled and Natsume found himself noticing her blush again. "Though I agree that I'd scream at a raining sky to stop and bring out the sun." Mikan said.

Natsume propped an arm over the table and leaned on his palm as he observed Mikan's blushing face and Ruka laughing. 'It's so obvious...' He thought. He inwardly shook his head and groaned, "It's none of my business. I'm not going to concern myself with her and Nogi."

Four days had passed since Natsume was introduced to Mikan's childhood friend. Natsume was putting his outdoor shoes on when he heard the familiar loud voice of a perky brunette. "Natsu-sensei!" It called happily.

Natsume stared blankly at the girl, waiting for her to catch up to him before they started walking together. "Could you stop calling me that?" He asked.

Mikan placed a finger to her chin and initiated a thinking pose, "What would you like to be called then? Natsu-chi? Nattie-chan? Hyuu-Hyuu?"

Natsume grumbled at all her nicknames. "Just call me Hyuuga."

"If I call you 'Hyuuga', it will feel like we're strangers!" She pouted.

Natsume disregarded what Mikan said and got to the point, "Have you brought the books and materials I told you to take?" He asked.

Mikan gave her tutor a thumbs up and a smile as she pointed to her school bag. She then realized they weren't heading to their usual destination for their study sessions in her homeroom class. "Where are we headed, Natsu-sensei?"

"Up." He replied.

Mikan gave him a questioning look as they reached the door to the roof. "Why are we here today?" She asked.

"I thought a loud and jumpy girl like you would study better in an environment like this." Natsume closed the door behind them as Mikan picked a spot to lie down.

"Wow! This is the best, Natsu-sensei! It's my first time being up here!" She smiled.

Natsume set his bag down and pulled out the sheets he got from Jinno, "Let's finish this quickly, I have basketball practice later."

Mikan lifted herself back up and sat properly next to Natsume. "Thanks, Natsu-sensei." She chirped with a toothy smile.

"Just thought you'd like being outside better than in." Natsume replied.

"No, not for taking me up here!" Mikan laughed. "It's because I know that you have a big basketball game this weekend with Alice Academy's biggest rival team but you're STILL taking an hour out of practice to help me study!"

Natsume's calm composure faltered for the second time in a week as he let out the only smile he gave a girl. A tiny smile at that but as the saying goes, "less is more." Mikan grinned in surprise. 'The first time I've ever seen Natsu-sensei smile!' She thought.

Natsume composed himself and proceeded to wave a piece of paper in front of the girl, "So here's today's assignment sheet."

The next hour passed with Mikan grumbling, cheering, and smiling. "I finally get this theorem! It feels so good to finally understand something in math." Mikan raised a fist in the air as she stared at Natsume's handwriting in awe.

"Good." Natsume said. "I have a worksheet from Jinno-sensei which you can work on tonight."

"Do you like studying, Natsu-sensei?" Mikan suddenly asked.

"I guess so. It's something that comes easily to me, I like knowing that there's always an answer to a problem." He replied honestly.

Mikan's eyes sparkled in a mix of admiration and awe at her tutor. "I have never heard words more true than what you have just said, Natsu-sensei!" Natsume merely blinked at the girl.

Mikan's expression then changed to one of deep in thought. "You know what, sensei?" she began, "I already knew that you were really smart, reserved, and a very popular subject among girls so I didn't know what type of person you would be at first..." She leaned her face on her arm in a thinking pose.

Natsume stared curiously at the girl in front of him.

"I feel like I really know what type of guy Natsume Hyuuga is now!" She giggled then looked at Natsume.

"I feel like I've gotten to know what type of idiot Mikan Sakura is." He said as he flicked her forehead a little gentler then he had on the first day he tutored her.

"Ouchieeee! I'll lose brain cells if you do that, sensei!" Mikan rubbed her forehead with a scowl.

"Natsume." He said quietly.

Mikan stared in question for a few moments before the scowl on her face faded and she grinned in understanding. "Natsume," She said his name properly for the first time and Natsume smiled that tiny rare smile at her.

"...and by the way, you say that you lose brain cells with every time I flick your forehead... but you can't lose what you don't have in the first place." He smirked.

"Go bald!" Mikan glowered at Natsume and smacked his shoulder with her notebook. Natsume found himself trying to contain his first howling laugh in a while.

That afternoon, Natsume had also realized two things. The first thing being just how beautiful of a girl like Mikan Sakura was and the second thing being that he had failed to avoid what he initially considered the most troublesome thing possible to ever do in high school.

He fell in love.

"How's the tutoring going, Natsume, my man?" Tsubasa asked as they entered the locker room. "I presume it's going good seeing as you decided to miss half of practice to help Mikan-chan study," He imitated Koko's 'slimy' grin. "Not only that... you also emitted a warm glow through all of practice."

Completely Tsubasa's teasing, Natsume finally shifted his gaze from tying his sneakers to his sempai, "Hn? Were you saying something?" Natsume asked.

Tsubasa spluttered and pointed an accusing finger at Natsume. "Were you not listening to me? Thanks. Just thanks. I loooooove being ignored when I'm talking to you!" He said sarcastically.

Tsubasa crossed his arms and went over to Natsume when he found his kouhai's attention wavering again. It was focused on a necklace in his palm. It had a pink jewel in the shape of a heart dangling from the silver chain. Tsubasa sweat dropped and decided as Natsume's friend and team mate, Natsume needed to hear the truth: "That looks like a girl's necklace, Natsume. Not that I have a problem with it if you like it, of course..." He rubbed the back of his head profusely.

Natsume rolled his eyes at his mistaken friend, "It's not mine." he said. "It probably belongs to Mikan."

"Oh," said Tsubasa in understanding. "Why do you have it?"

Natsume shrugged. "She must have took it off and put it in my bag by mistake." He then remembered something and turned to the star-cheeked teen, "What do you know about Ruka Nogi?" he asked.

Tsubasa blinked. It wasn't like Natsume to be interested in other people. "Well... I know that he's in the soccer club and has a girlfriend."

Realization dawned in Natsume's eyes and the question that Mikan had asked him popped into his mind. "How do you cure love sickness?" At first Natsume thought it was just a mindless girl thing but now it wasn't like that anymore.

"Why do you ask?" Tsubasa prodded. "Could it be that you like Imai-san?"

"Who's Imai?" Natsume asked with genuine cluelessness.

Tsubasa sweat dropped. "Nevermind, that just answered my question," He said. "Hotaru Imai is Nogi's girlfriend."

End of Part 1

Edit: Okay! So I've gone up and revised this to make it a little better and honestly, I think it IS actually a lot better now so I hope the ones who previously favorited this will come back to read this part again. :)