Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. If I do, Ruka would be the lead star and he'd have rock-hard abs. ;)

starooo

in a plotless fluff

For Karla.

There had been a war.

The evidence is still in place. The room is ransacked like thieves had broken in last night. Clothes are scattered in disarray. The furniture had either been moved or knocked down. And the culprits were guilty of nothing. Instead, they had gone off in a reverie and the sweet, sweet memories of last night lingering in their heads as they sleep.

She was always the early-riser. Mikan Sakura slowly opens her eyes, letting herself be entranced by the sunlight searing through the blinds. She moves, but the blanket wraps itself even more tightly, so she just stays in her position. She turns and sees Natsume's neck. His face is serene and calm. It doesn't look stressed and forced like he does on usual days. It was a waste he had his eyes closed. Those ruby eyes of his that would eventually make her get lost in them. But as she looks at him, his expression is even more beautiful by the second. Natsume is ambushed. Ambushed by his poignant awakenings and he is spellbound. Lost in a world where he is a freeman and where Kaoru is still his mother. Where his family is still safe and ignorant of the manipulated.

(—And Natsume, He is still Natsume Hyuuga from the past. Innocent and haunting.)

And he is in the world where Mikan would be at the porch and her face is engraved with a smile. Where he is coming and she will always be waiting. Where he is loved and found. Where he, Natsume Hyuuga, is at home.

Mikan rests her head at the nook of his neck. She closes her eyes and everything is perfect. He is warm against her and everything is just as it is. She couldn't have asked for anything more.

She is still and for a moment, his breathing pattern (the kind that makes her at comfort. The heat of his breath on her skin that fills in for his absence) is slowly coming to a halt. Silence. And then he grumbles faintly, his arm stretches and finds its way around Mikan's waist.

"Are you awake?" She whispers. Her eyes are still on the white ceiling of his special star room and her fingers—her long, slender, candle-like fingers—run up and down his throat, over his Adam's apple and rests at the tip of his chin. "Because you should be, it's almost time for breakfast and they might come in your room and catch us red-handed under the blankets."

He chuckles, low and silent. His hand is on her bare back, tracing her spine (up and down. Up and down, it goes) with his fingers. "I think that would be splendid."

And she looks up, meeting his red eyes. And right then and there, her breath is taken away. She is smitten and she smiles. "You're beautiful, you know. Almost like a princess." She cradles his face with a hand and laughs softly. "It's weird—and unfair. It's like you came out from a book. Just like a fairytale."

(—you're perfect, that's why—)

He blinks at her. "There's no such thing as those." He muffles shrewdly. "Disney makes you think like that. All those perfect princesses and princes. But they're average people with their dilemmas sugar-coated. They make you think everything is okay and with a kiss, you'll live in a world full of sunshine and roses and those pathetic happily ever afters."

She frowns at him, massaging his cheeks as she argues. "Like?"

"Snow White, for example, is a diabetic girl who takes care of midgets. Let's say she ate something sweet and Disney disguised it as an apple. The prince, however, is actually her doctor who is a closet pervert and kissed her while she's unconscious." He ends but Mikan is still unconvinced. "And they live happily-ever-after. Or so the doctor does, because he doesn't get charged for molesting her."

"So, you're saying that Sleeping Beauty is just stuck in a coma and woke up from an orgasm?"

"Apparently, yes." He says. "So that makes me Natsume. Just Natsume. And you, Mikan. Just Mikan. Because, nothing is actually sugar-coated for us."

"You're a sick bastard." Mikan says, smiling. "But I refuse to believe that there is no such thing as happily-ever-afters."

She looks at him, her lips tugging in a grin. He is mumbling things incoherently, thus, he is still mildly in a trance. He is silent for a moment and Mikan thinks that nothing in life is sugar-coated. Everything is out in the open and the only thing there is to love about life is… well, love. Or so, in Mikan Sakura's case, it is Natsume Hyuuga himself. She was always little miss sunshine and the innocent one in the group. But she had never let herself believe in fairytales (all she wanted was a love story) but she got it nevertheless. She got it. She got Natsume.

"Okay." Natsume answers. "But I still win."

Mikan nods, bumping her head on his chest.

His fingers play with her hair and for a moment, there is silence again. There is always silence. But it didn't bother them, in fact, they even liked it. It made them think. Or sometimes, when they're together, they can be silent and nothing else would matter but them. It's like being in a universe of your own. Where the world is spinning slowly and it's all about them. Just them. Them in their perfectly imperfect ways.

"I think, it's you who's beautiful—like a fairytale." He mumbles in her hair.

Mikan couldn't help but smile. He is back in his own little world again. And softly, as he closes his eyes, there is nothing else more important but this moment.

"Like a fairytale." Mikan repeats and for the first time in that morning, she joins him in his reverie.

In their happily-ever-after.

Author's Notes:

Wow. I'm writing NatsuMikan again. And this time, it's fluffy and… short. Say hello to my grammar mistakes (OMGAH THE NEVER ENDING TENSES) and my overly used punctuations (HELLO PERIOD!). See, I do know my mistakes, I just don't feel like editing at the moment so you can just skip pointing them out. Anyways, I've been inspired by theblanket and well, Dengeki Daisy and Usui Takumi. I miss you Babes. You and your loyalty to my stories. Heh. Come back with pasalubong, okay? :)