Karin: Here's a quick update. I started writing this before going back into the story to check my facts and I totally forgot the boys know about Mikan's plan to leave, but in here it is acknowledged. Anyway, I ended up going back and reading some of my old writing for this story and I couldn't help but wince at how bad my content was. Honestly, I don't know how this story got so popular what with me reviewing my old writing, but I guess because it's been so long it's lost some of its fans. Anyway, to those sticking around to see my writing improve, thanks for that. Glad you like this story!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.

Of Challenges and Conversations

"Cheers!" the four friends clinked their glasses together in celebration. They gulped down their drinks at the same time, the cool taste of cola refreshing them as it rushed down their throats.

"Another great escape from disastrous consequences!" Mochu cheered. His friends nodded in agreement, all sighing in relief at the thought of not having to own up to destroying part of Alice Academy.

Reo pulled away from Mikan, looking down at her with affection in his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off from a loud shout.

"Who stole one of the golf carts and destroyed part of the school?!" the maintenance man angrily screamed. Mikan's eyes bugged out and Kokoro, Mochu, and Kitsuneme beckoned her closer so they could flee. Mikan quickly shook Reo's hand and ran to her three best friends who took off like the hellhounds were chasing them.

"It was nice of Serina-sensei not to tell anyone." Mikan mused, glad that the professor was so happy with Reo's performance, she kept it to herself at who the culprits were for vandalizing the school.

"Yeah, and luckily your mom doesn't know we were with you cause she'd definitely know it was us." Kitsu pointed out. After all, Yuka was very familiar with their shenanigans. They shuddered as they thought what would've happened if Yuka had known it was them who destroyed of the school.

"Let's celebrate with getting smashed!" Mochu whooped.

"We're underaged, stupid. We can't buy any alcohol." Mikan said. He waggled his eyebrows and brought out a bottle, grinning mischievously.

"I stole it from my dad's special stash!" he claimed proudly. "It's his specially made wine!"

The bottle took on a heavenly glow and angels sang in their minds.

Wine from the holy brewer himself!

"I'm not getting drunk at a mcdonald's bro." Kokoro told him. Nonetheless, his licked his lips at the memory of Mochu's father's special wine.

"We don't need to be at a mcdonald's." Mochu told them, eyes glinting.

Natsume's eye twitched as he entered the apartment, hearing boisterous singing that slurred every other sentence coming from his future step sister's room. He had retired early from Reo's celebration dinner with the family at a fancy restaurant because he could only take so much being in a social setting. He had thought it would just be him when he got back, and he couldn't help but sigh in relief that for once, he didn't have to share his space. He loved his family, but he didn't care for being cramped in small space with them for so long.

However, that all went out the window when he opened the door and terrible drunken singing entered his ears. He slammed the front door, hoping the sound would alert his annoying stepsibling to stop being obnoxious, but unfortunately for him, her and apparently her backup singers paid him no heed and continued their shenanigans.

Heading over to her bedroom door, he pounded on it as they were on the chorus of "Leather Pants" from Yugioh Abridged.

"Oi, Polka! Keep it down." He commanded irritably. He could already feel a headache coming on from their singing. "If you don't shut up I'm coming in there and knocking you out."

Suddenly, the door swung open, and Natsume's eyes widened as Mikan threw herself at him, giggling like crazy. He was even more surprised when he realized she appeared exactly as she did on stage—capless.

"Na-tsu-meeeeeeee." She chirped, squeezing his middle. Her cheeks were flushed from the alcohol she had apparently consumed. "Don't be mean, yeah! Everything—" hiccup" everything's all good! You be mean" another hiccup "and you get wrinkles all over your pretty face!" she nuzzled him. Natsume's mouth dropped, his cheeks flushing at how she called him "pretty".

"Pretty boys getting wrinkles…" three male giggles sounded from her room. For some reason, that bothered Natsume.

"Ne ne," Mikan brought his attention back to her. She was poking his cheek. "You should smile more, Natsume. You'd be a lot more handsome if you smiled more!" she gave him her brightest smile and he was mesmerized by how she pretty she was when she smiled like that.

Then her eyes glinted mischievously, and her grin turned sleazy.

"If you do that then you and your brothers will make me a fortune off prostituting you hehehe."

WHAM!

Anddddd the eye twitching was back at full force. Mikan was on the ground with swirly eyes as Natsume shook his fist above her, his teeth clenched while a vein throbbed on his forehead.

He glared down at Mikan, unconscious, and felt himself calm down. Sighing in defeat, he ran a hand through his hair and picked her up from the floor. She was sleep talking the lyrics to "Leather Pants" and even in sleep, it seemed her idiot companions were in sync with her. He carried her over to her bed, not bothering to be nice to her friends and made sure to step on their faces, leaving shoe prints on their cheeks. They appeared to not have noticed and continued to snooze on.

He approached her small bed where a boy his age was already snoring. He had shaggy sandy brown hair and was wearing a hoodie and worn out jeans. Mikan seemed to have sensed the boy in her bed for she reached out for him, and Natsume was shocked that as soon as he put Mikan down, the two of them immediately maneuvered into a spooning position with the guy as the little spoon.

Natsume's eye twitched again and he detached the boy from Mikan's hold, tossing him carelessly to the floor, and replacing his spot in Mikan's arms with a plushie she had on her bed. Mikan just grinned in her sleep, drooling on the stuffed animal. Satisfied, the raven-haired boy made his way to exit her room, but her whimper drew him back and he found she was shivering from no blanket. Natsume sighed again, rolling his eyes, and gently placed a comforter on top of her. Mikan immediately cocooned in it.

With that, Natsume left her room, shutting the door behind him. His crimson eyes fell to the floor where Mikan dropped the bottle she was drinking from and he picked it up, curious. He sniffed the contents, annoyance mounting as he realized the source of why Mikan and her pals were so insufferable.

"Who the hell gets drunk off of grape juice?"

"Dearrrr," Mochu's mom called to her husband as he was tinkering with some mechanics. "Mochu stole one of your special bottles again."

Mochu's father turned to her and gave her a thumbs up, grinning.

"Don't worry, honey! One of these days he'll figure out I've just been making homemade grape juice!"

Mikan groaned, awoken by the shrill ringing of her cell phone. Her boys slept on as she flung her hand haphazardly in order to grasp the annoying device. Flipping it open, she placed it at her ear and moaned, "Hello?"

"Mikan." Hotaru's voice greeted from the other line. A drunk smile spread on Mikan's face.

"Heyyyyy wifey." She drawled out, giggling sleepily. "Making the world a better place?"

"Only if it makes me richer." Was her blunt reply and Mikan giggled some more.

"That's my wifey!" Mikan praised. A sigh sounded from the other line.

"I assume you've been drinking Mochu's dad's homemade grape juice again."

"Grape juice? Psssh, that's funny Hotaru." Mikan giggled excessively.

"Mikan, is there something you want to tell me?" Hotaru asked. Mikan was confused.

"Like what, wifey?"

"Like who was that boy with you in the photo Kokoro sent me." Hotaru stated passively. Mikan snuggled deeper into her comforter.

"Oh him—he's just one of my dumb stepbrothers." Mikan explained, drunk grin still on her face. "They've been ruining my lifeeeeeee."

"How so?"

"Welllllll, mom's getting remarried and he has all these boys and they dedicated their lives to making mine miserable, but then I beat their leader up with my frying pan so we are cool now in this weird way but we're not at the same time cause they still make fun of me and tease me and give me nicknames but then they'll smile at me like we're cool. Boys are weird Hotaruuuu."

"I see."

"Like one even calls me by my underwear patterns. Isn't that weird? Why do boys do that? Why can't they be like Koko and Mochu and Kitsu where they're all idiots who will do whatever I want?"

"Because we trained them to."

"Ah yeah, that's right. You're so smart, Hotaru." Mikan slurred out sleepily.

"Mikan."

"Yes, wifeyyy?"

"Are these boys living with you?"

"YUPPPPP. We're all crammed into our small apartment while renovations are being done to their house. Isn't that funny, Hotaru?"

"Quite."

"Ne ne, wifey, when are you coming home? I miss you." Mikan pouted. She heard Hotaru chuckle on the other line.

"Sooner than you think. Now go to sleep, Husband."

"Okay! Bye Wifey!" with that, she hung up the phone and promptly passed out, drooling all over her pillow.

Hotaru hung up her phone, narrowing her eyes. So Mikan is living with a bunch of teenage boys under a small roof… Not liking where this was going, Hotaru dialed a phone number.

"Onii-san? Yes, sorry it is late, but I was wondering if Mother, Father, and you would feel about me returning home early…"

Kokoro groaned, feeling like a truck hit him, and he rubbed his face. His body hurt all over and he slowly moved, feeling some of his body parts crack and pop. He winced, rubbing his head to help rid the pain, and was surprised to find he was on top of Kitsu and Mochu on the floor.

Yawning, he got up from laying on top of his friends and headed towards Mikan's bedroom door. Opening it, the light from the hallway burned his retinas, and he heard his three friends hiss at the light, before stepping out and closing the door behind him.

Brown eyes blinked tiredly as his eyes adjusted to the light of the apartment, and he blinked confused, coming face-to-face with ten pairs of eyes staring at him in shock. He stared back, just as shocked.

Oh shit…

Yuka blinked in confusion, surprised to see Kokoro actually spend the night in a long time ever since he moved out to the country, but came to her senses and smiled.

"Koko, honey!" Yuka greeted warmly, she got up from the table and went over to embrace him. Everyone except Natsume (who knew about his presence) just gaped at the fact that Yuka was embracing a boy that came unannounced out of her daughter's room.

"Um… Yuka?" Narumi blinked, questioning his fiancée's sanity at the situation. An unknown boy just came out of her daughter's room. Why wasn't she freaking out?

Natsume was surprised as well, not expecting Yuka to be okay with the teenage boy's presence. He had thought that Mikan had snuck him and the other two in without Yuka's knowledge and figured she'd get yelled at in the morning, and most likely ban the boys from their apartment so he wouldn't have to deal with them around Mikan again. It seemed though, that wasn't the case.

His brothers just gaped at the fact that a boy they didn't know, or even heard of, just casually coming out of their future stepsister's room like he belonged there. Reo recognized him as the boy who was dancing with Mikan backstage during his performance. He didn't feel threatened by his presence then, too engrossed in his music and his happiness at Mikan attending the concert. Yet now, seeing him here coming out of her room, and the implications behind it, made his eyes narrow. His brothers followed sweet, obviously thinking the same lines. Kokoro gulped at the murderous gazes they gave him. Hell, even the five-year-old was giving him a nasty look. He sweat dropped.

Well at least this can't get any more awkward… he told himself.

However, his relief was short-lived when Mikan's bedroom door opened again with Mochu and Kitsuneme entering the lit hallway.

"Hey Koko! You think you can get us some aspirin? That special wine gave me a bad headache. I feel like someone stomped on my face." Mochu rubbed his aching head. When he didn't get an answer, he looked up to see Kokoro's look of horror and the looks of displeasure all the males at the dining room table were giving them. Ruka and Yuu recognized them from the forest fiasco, but that didn't really endear the two to them as they didn't know their exact relationship with Mikan. Realizing what this must have looked like, the three accused males blushed heavily.

Well… it's not like it can get even more awkward! Koko tried to be optimistic as he sweated.

Sadly, his hopes were brutally murdered when the bedroom door opened again, this time Mikan entering the hallway, her clothes from yesterday wrinkled severely as well as her hair sticking out at odd angles, showing off some serious bedhead. She rubbed some sleepy crust out of her eyes as she yawned. She walked right towards Kokoro and slumped against him, snuggling into him sleepily.

"Warmmmmm." She sighed happily. Kokoro felt the increase of death glares upon him and his friends, and he gulped nervously. The only one who seemed to not be sending him death waves was Yuka.

"Hi honey, did you guys have fun last night?" Yuka asked casually, as if seeing teenage boys coming out of her daughter's room wasn't a big deal. Mikan mumbled incoherently and snuggled closer to Kokoro, who just wished the ground would swallow him whole. Mochu and Kitsuneme were thinking along the same lines.

"Yes, Oba-chan." Kokoro answered for his best friend, trying in vain to remove her from his person. However, she wasn't having it and hugged him tighter, nuzzling his chest. The intensity of the glares increased tenfold.

"I'll make you guys some plates then. Koko, sweetie, can you make sure Mikan, Kitsu, and Mochu have their aspirin? I have a feeling Mikan's going to be feeling it really bad when she is fully awake." Narumi just gaped at his lover.

"Sweetheart… didn't you hear them when they said they were hung over? Mikan-chan was drinking with these boys underaged!" Narumi pointed out, shocked Yuka was so nonchalant about this. She surprised him further when she laughed, waving him off.

"Oh honey, they're underaged! They can't buy alcohol. Most likely Mochu stole some of his father's 'special wine' and we all know it's just homemade grape juice!" she continued to giggle. Mochu let out a groan.

"Why does everyone say that?" he moaned, as he nursed his throbbing head. Kokoro handed him a glass of water and some aspirin, which he gulped down hurriedly. Kitsu followed sweet. "We'd have to be pretty pathetic then if we got smashed off of that."

"You are." Natsume stated. The three males looked at him in shock at his blatant distain.

What crawled up his ass and died there? The three thought, Is this what Mikan has to deal with all the time? No wonder she's gets pissy!

"What about them coming out of Mikan-chan's room? Yuka, she had three unknown boys sleep over in her room!" Narumi spluttered. Being the father of just boys, he wasn't sure at times what was appropriate for being the parent of a teenage girl, but he was pretty damn sure having teenage boys sleep over in your daughter's room classified as a "no-no". Yuka seemed to have caught on to what Narumi and her future stepsons were implying and she burst out into laughter. Her laughter was so intense that she had to bend over and hold her stomach. Tears from her guffaws came to her eyes. The males at the dining table were all flabbergasted and Mikan's friends just felt their faces turn redder in embarrassment.

"I-I'm sorry, Darling." Yuka choked out, wiping a tear from her eye. "But the fact that you just suggested Mikan could've had an orgy with these three—" here she chortled again, and Kitsu, Kokoro, and Mochu had the decency to look offended. "Oh, no offense to you boys, but honestly they're more likely to be caught sneaking into a Hamilton showing than debauchery!" the thought of Mikan and her boys having some kind of sex orgy going on was really laughable. She faced everyone at the table. "These are Mikan's friends since kindergarten days! They practically live here—especially this one." She gestured to Koko, who gave off a grin. Mikan was still holding onto him. Yuka eyes lit up in adoration as she looked at her drowsy daughter. She came forth and gently pried her away from Kokoro, getting a fleece throw from the old couch, and placing it around her daughter's shoulders. She ruffled her hair affectionately, smoothing down the strands sticking up.

It was then that all the males present realized Mikan was without her hat, and they could perfectly see her features. For those that haven't seen her face already, they were shocked to find how average and human she looked—not expecting a normal person under their demon of a stepsister's hat. She had a young face, with a few pimples here and there where her bangs were, and they saw she still appeared to have some baby fat on her cheeks with freckles scattered across her pale face. Her usual expressive eyes were now dulled and half-lidded, due to still being half-asleep, but that didn't take away the warm caramel shade they were. Her future stepbrothers wondered what they were like when she was awake.

All in all, she was just another human being like they were. No deformities or blemishes like they thought, and it made them realize just how young Mikan was, despite acting older than she seemed. Seeing her so relaxed was something new, and they found this display of her personality to be endearing. It stirred warm, fuzzy feelings in them.

Narumi smiled at how adorable his future stepdaughter was. He remembered all the times Yuka would gush over her child during their dates, and he was happy he could see his future wife's display of affection for her daughter, who he realized, was still just a teenager despite her high and mighty attitude.

"Mikan, sweetie," Yuka cooed at her child, and Mikan turned her head sluggishly to give her mother her attention. "Do you want pancakes or waffles?" she asked, her eyes shining tenderly. Mikan blinked slowly, registering her question.

"Mickey Mouse pancakes." Mikan mumbled out. Her stepbrothers choked, their faces turning red.

So cute!

Yuka smiled, caressing her child's face. She had so much Izumi in her. It had been so long since she had seen her daughter's features, and she was nostalgic when she found Izumi staring back at her. Mikan may have gotten her hair and eye color, but she definitely got her personality and essence from Izumi. Melancholy glistened in her eyes as she remembered how much the loss of her father affected Mikan. She wished she could take all the hurt and pain away from her daughter's soul, but knew that it would be in vain. If Mikan's friends couldn't rid her of her guilt, then how could just her mother?

She hoped with the new additions to their family that perhaps Mikan can learn to leave the hurt behind and step forward into a new beginning in her life. She knew Mikan felt betrayed that she was getting remarried, thinking it was a slight to Izumi's memory, but Yuka knew she would always love Izumi, and would continue to love him. She hoped that one day Mikan would understand that she wasn't replacing Izumi, but she was welcoming Narumi and his sons into her heart.

She was making herself happy, just like Izumi would want for them.

"Okay, Mickey Mouse pancakes it is." Yuka cooed to her child. She turned to Kokoro, Kitsu, and Mochu. "You all make yourself comfortable, okay boys? This will take a bit." The three boys nodded, heading over to the couch with a drowsy Mikan in tow. They all crammed onto the old squeaky couch, Kitsu and Mikan in the middle, and Kokoro and Mochu on the ends. Mikan snuggled into Kitsu and Kokoro, and the friends gave her a fond smile.

"So…" Narumi coughed, feeling awkward after he had accused Mikan's friends of being her lovers. "You've known Mikan-chan since kindergarten?" he asked, trying to make conversation. His sons inconspicuously tuned their ears to the conversation.

"Um… yeah." Kitsuneme answered, adjusting the blanket around Mikan to keep her warm as Mikan snoozed on. Mikan's heater wasn't really the best. He wondered if maybe Narumi would get it fixed for them or if they could save up for an electric heater for Mikan's room. "We met around then and have been friends since."

"Except him." Mochu jabbed a thumb at Kokoro who was petting Mikan's head softly. "They've been joined at the hip since they were three."

"Not always." Kokoro laughed nervously, rubbing his neck in a bashful manner. "She actually hated me at first." He told Mochu. The other two nodded in remembrance.

"Oh yeah, she did." Kitsuneme recalled the story. The other males in the room felt like they were being shut out from the conversation.

"Why did Sakura hate you?" Ruka asked curiously. The three friends jumped, realizing they had an audience, and felt themselves clam up.

"Uhhh, you know, I had cooties." Kokoro laughed anxiously. They narrowed their eyes, not believing the statement for a second. Kokoro sweat dropped. Yuka tutted.

"Oh kids, don't act like they are about to steal Mikan's innocence!" Yuka scolded, not liking how her future sons are regarding her surrogate sons. "Jeeze, I'd hate to see how you all will act when she actually gets a boyfriend!" but then a giddy smile came upon her face and she held her cheeks. "But then again, seeing you all go overprotective of your sister is so cute!"

Seven glares zeroed in on Kokoro at the statement of Mikan having a boyfriend and he gulped, sweating, as he stroked Mikan's hair.

Why are they looking at me like that?

"She's our stepsister, Yuka-san." Akira stated. Yuka pouted.

"Awww and here I thought you'd finally start thinking of each other like family."

That's not happening. The seven males thought in their minds. You don't find your family cute.

"All done!" Yuka announced, bringing forward plates with pancakes on them. At the aroma of food, Mikan's eyes snapped open and she took the plate hurriedly, chomping down on her pancakes. The three other friends followed sweet. The Narumi family sweat-dropped.

"Thanks mom!" Mikan said in between bites. Yuka grinned and ruffled her daughter's hair. At that moment, Mikan's eyes bugged out as she realized her hat was missing. Her mouth dropped in horror and she quickly raced to her room, retrieving her cap, placing it forward on her face and pulling the bill of it low to hide her embarrassment.

"Mikan-chan, you don't need to be shy." Narumi cooed, wanting to encourage his future daughter. "You're very adorable." He complimented. Mikan's eyes glinted under her cap and he gulped. She swallowed her food slowly.

"I am fearsome." She corrected. Narumi sweated.

"Fearsomely adorable?" he ventured. The heat of her stare intensified into an inferno and Narumi dug into his chair.

"Erm right… you are fearsome. How could I be so silly…"

Now dressed in a thin navy hoodie that hugged her form, ripped-at-the-knee jeans, her beat up sneakers, and her signature baseball cap turned backwards, Mikan smirked as her eyes gleamed in excitement. Kokoro grinned back at her from his place on the field, fiddling with the baseball behind his back. Mochu was bouncing back and forth on first base as Kitsu was behind Mikan, crouching in the empire's position. Mikan readied her baseball bat, and Kokoro launched the ball towards her. It went flying as Mochu cheered, running all the way back to home base and high-fiving the girl.

"Nice one, Dad!" he commented. Mikan smirked and bumped fists with him. Kitsuneme and Kokoro let out a groan.

"No fair, Mikan always wins." Kitsuneme complained. Mochu gave them a smug grin.

"That's why I always try to be on her team!"

"Maybe it should be all of us VS her next time?" Kokoro suggested jokingly. Since he had stayed the night, he decided to stay for an extra day. His relatives would understand. Plus, he had really missed his friends. It was like a breath of fresh air entered his system in their presence.

After the awkward breakfast, the four friends decided to split and go to the park to hang out. It was relieving to be out of the tense apartment. Mochu, Kitsu, and Kokoro didn't know what were her stepsiblings' deal, but they didn't really want to be the source of their wraith, so they thought it was best to hightail it out of there.

"And you'd still lose." Mikan pointed out. Her friends laughed. Mochu threw his arm over Mikan's shoulders.

"Just think! Soon you'll get your first term grades back and then you can say bye-bye to Alice Academy and hello to us 24/7!" he exclaimed. Mikan laughed.

"It'd only be 24/7 if we lived together, Mochu." She replied. Mochu, Kitsu, and Kokoro grinned.

"Meh, give it time. I'm sure Hotaru would be up for it." Kitsu said. Kokoro laughed.

"Yeah, but with her taste we'd need a fancy house and none of us can afford that." Koko laughed.

"Nah, she'd let us live there for free, but make us her slaves." Mochu disagreed. The four friends laughed loudly at that. It was very plausible Hotaru would be too stingy to hire a maid staff for a big house and instead try to get her friends to do it for free.

"You're leaving Alice Academy?"

The four of them turned to see Yuu, Ruka, Akira, Tsubasa, Reo, and Natsume standing there behind the chain link fence with shocked expressions.

"Ah! Tonouchi-san, Tobita-san, Ando-san, Nogi-san, Hyuuga-san, Mouri-san!" Mikan called out surprised. She quickly tried to maneuver her cap forwards but Ruka's voice stopped her.

"We've already seen what you look like, and we'll be related soon. It doesn't make sense to cover your face now." Ruka pointed out. Mikan dropped her hands from twisting her cap, surveying them with curiosity.

"There's no need for formalities, Princess." Akira said. He gave her a genuine smile. "like dear Ruka says, we'll be family soon." Mikan pursed her lips.

"Yeah, but let's face it. We all know we're only going along with it for our parents." Mikan responded without any real bite.

"True, but you're growing on us." Tsubasa grinned at her. Mikan looked at them like they grew a second head.

"Okayyyy…" she drawled out awkwardly, shifting on her feet. Natsume's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean you're leaving Alice Academy?" he asked. The four friends blinked at him, confused at why they cared.

"Well… yeah." Mochu replied. "You didn't think she'd just go to another school she didn't want to go to without a fight, right?" he asked, as if it was obvious that of course Mikan would fight to attend the school she wanted.

"We're not there, so why would she wanna go there?" Kitsuneme inquired, honestly flabbergasted they thought Mikan was attending Alice Academy without a backup plan to get what she wanted.

"Our parents are making her go there for her education." Reo furrowed his brow, not liking what they were implying. They remembered the morning Yuka and Narumi told Mikan she would be transferring without a fuss. It had been their idea in an excuse to "bond" with her, and Yuka and Narumi thought it was a great idea, but it appears Mikan had some kind of contingency plan.

"Yeah, but if I pass all my exams with 'A's and stay out of trouble all of first term, I get to go back to my old school." Mikan informed them, wearing a confused expression.

Their eyes widened, realizing she was right and they were reminded of her deal with Yuka and Narumi. However, since the month had passed, they assumed she lost the bet and had to resign herself to going to Alice Academy.

"Mom extended the deadline because she wanted me to have a challenge." Mikan told them, seeing their expressions. "Said something about a month being too easy for me to meddle into getting my way." Mikan blew a raspberry as she recalled her mother chirping about extending her deadline to "build character". Truth be told, Yuka was hoping that with her now getting along with her future siblings, she would change her mind about the deal and stay at Alice Academy. She knew Mikan wanted to go back to her old school, but Yuka wanted her daughter to have opportunities she didn't have, and Narumi wanted to help her make that happen.

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks that they forgot all about their previous feud with her and her zealous plan to leave Alice Academy. It seemed so long ago that she had their distain. Ever since she stood up to Natsume, they found their dislike for her had been replaced with curiosity instead. Her words and passion seemed to draw them in like a moth to a flame.

"You can't leave Alice Academy." Yuu said. Mikan raised an eyebrow. Did the mouse just talk back to her?

"What…?"

"He says you're not leaving Alice Academy." Natsume repeated for her, a determined expression on his face. Mikan gawked and started raging.

"The hell I can!" she snarled.

"Then play us." Natsume proposed. Mikan blinked in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Mikan asked.

"Play us in dodgeball and if you win, you can keep up the deal with your mom." Natsume continued. Then a glint came to his eye. "If we win though, you have to drop this dumb plan and stay at Alice Academy with no fuss."

Kokoro, Mochu, and Kitsuneme narrowed their eyes, not liking the ultimatum that was being thrown their best friend's way. They took a step forward, trying to intimidate Mikan's future family into backing off. The boys on the other side of the fence, even Yuu, raised an eyebrow in challenge, daring them to try anything.

"So basically, if we play you, you'll shut up?" Mochu asked, clenching his fists at his sides.

"Essentially." Akira gave him a fake smile. Mochu felt his hackles raise. "Though there's only four of you and six of us."

"We'll find more players." Kitsuneme promised.

"You better if you want to be able to compete." Tsubasa grinned cockily. He winked at Mikan "Chibi-chan, think you can find more players other than your boytoys?"

Mikan glared, the force of it causing the brothers to pause, not expecting her to get so angry with them. Her eyes were like amber flames, searing into their souls.

"Do not refer to my friends so shamefully, Ando." She hissed out. Tsubasa gaped at her harsh tone. Guilt immediately welled up inside him at his teasing. "These guys have been with me through everything. I will not tolerate you slandering them." Now Tsubasa felt like a dick.

He was about to apologize when Kokoro stepped forward, a resolute expression on his face. They raised an eyebrow at his attempt to be frightening.

"We'll play your game." Kokoro said. "However, once this is over, you will kindly take that stick out of your asses and show my best friend the respect she deserves. I understand you and her are not happy with your arrangement, but you will respect Mikan."

"We respect her." Reo shot back, incensed at what this twerp was insinuating. Kokoro shook his head.

"No, because if you did respect her, you wouldn't have assumed she was sleeping around this morning because you would know she isn't like that. If you respected her, you would not be challenging us right now to this game against her wishes."

That stung, but Natsume wasn't going to be deterred. Crimson met Brown and the two stared each other down.

"I'll pay. On one condition." Mikan announced. She stepped forward and faced Natsume on the other side of the fence. For some reason, his hands itched to touch her through the barrier separating them. "You will also extend respect to my friends. If we're going to be family, you must accept my first family."

"Fine." Natsume nodded. "One week from today."

"One week." Mikan agreed.

Karin: Sorry this is so short compared to the last two updates but I kinda burnt out as I neared the end of this chapter. Originally it was supposed to be a lot longer but I wanted to publish this really quick to make up for my absence.

Please review if you can.

See ya next time!

Replies to Reviews

Guest- thank you so much for reviewing. Glad you liked the chapter. I was worried I may have been away from the story too long to continue it right where it left off.

SunBabyBoss- I hope you like this chapter like you liked the last one. And I'm glad you think the flow hasn't been interrupted.

Arise and Awaken- I'm surprised cause I looked back at my writing in this story and honestly I'm kinda embarrassed at my writing content, but I am happy you like it enough to stick around for this long. That makes me so happy that you like this story so much.

Layliaman98- lol glad you liked it.

Keixseth- Very glad you liked the chapter. I'm sorry I've been away for so long. Hopefully my story content will continue to get better and better as time goes on.