Author Note: All right, so I am officially restarting Shalom II. Firstly I am republishing (with some changes) all the chapters that I had already published. Then the new chapters will start coming. I am going to pace the initial publishing a bit coz I do want to finish End Point before I really get into this one. I can barely keep 2 stories going at the same time, and Black Moon is not going to be over any time soon.

Anyways, Gomenasai for taking so long, and Enjoy :)

Summary of Shalom:

Mikan's (10 yrs old) parents pass away in an accident while she is thrown out of the car in the crash. Due to the shock she loses her voice. She is taken in by her father's best friend Shou Hyuuga, and his wife Kimiko Hyuuga.

Their son Natsume (16 yrs old) ends up becoming her best friend and she is also attached to his best friend Ruka. Around a year later, Natsume's dad and Ruka's parents pass away in an accident, while Natsume's mom goes into a coma. All three of them start living with Natsume's grandfather, Toushrou Hyuuga, who had disowned Shou, but was now regretting it. Also living with them are Natsume's uncles, Narumi, and Misaki. The Hyuuga's are super rich, and used to be mafia like but are completely legit now.

Toushrou convinces Natsume to send Mikan (now 14 yrs old) to boarding school, after her voice comes back in a failed kidnapping attempt, so she could become her own person outside of Natsume's shadow. He finally agrees, and Mikan does not see Natsume or Ruka for the next four years.

Four years later, Natsume (24 yrs old) and Mikan (18 yrs old) meet each other again. There is some confusion as to where they stand with each other but they make it work out. Natsume's mom comes out of her coma. Later with a little push from Ruka and Hotaru (Ruka's girlfriend) and some serious work from Tsubasa (Mikan's sempai and kinda ex-boyfriend) Mikan and Natsume realize that they are in love, confess and now are officially a couple.

Shalom II

Chapter 1

"What are you guys doing?" Mikan asked, and both Natsume and Ruka jumped. They stared at her like guilty kids, and she raised an eyebrow.

Natsume sighed. "Its Narumi's birthday tomorrow."

Ruka sighed. "Ms. Jo (head housekeep/amazing baker) made him a cake for the surprise family party at midnight."

"Are you telling me that you are in the kitchen to steal his cake?" Mikan asked exasperated.

"Of course not!" they both snapped at the same time.

"We're just making some important changes to the cake. Don't worry your little brain about it and leave us alone." Natsume retorted.

"So that's your tune, huh?" Mikan scowled.

"Well we don't really need a judge since we're in it together, and you have been really good friends with him for a while for us to trust you." Ruka explained.

Mikan sighed, "Fine, be that way." she told them before leaving.

Ruka gave Natsume a worried look. "She's gonna get us back for it."

"Probably." he shrugged and Ruka chuckled.

"You do realize that there are a thousand and one more ways for her to get back at you now that she's your girlfriend?" he asked Natsume as they started working on the cake again.

"You do realize that I am fine with whatever she does to me? I don't even dislike dancing, and the only thing that annoyed me was the guys ogling her, but its not that hard to get the message across now that she's mine." Natsume retorted.

"Mine huh? God you're possessive, but then you were always possessive of Mikan." Ruka commented.

"Damn straight." Natsume said coolly.

Outside the door Mikan smiled at that. She had stayed to find out what they were doing to the cake but instead had heard something much better. She left quietly, with neither Natsume or Ruka knowing that she had heard their conversation.

Midnight:

Narumi scowled as someone banged on his door. He had just gotten home from work, for crying out loud.

He opened the door to find Kimiko standing there.

"Yes?" he asked, his annoyance leaving him immediately.

"Umm can I talk to you for a bit?" she asked.

"Of course. Wanna come in?" Narumi asked moving aside. Kimiko shook her head.

"I'll let you change, you just got back right? Meet me in the library asap please." she said sweetly and Narumi nodded. Kimiko walked off to the library. She'd done her part.

Narumi's POV:

I changed into jeans and a black cotton shirt and headed to the library. I entered the room and to my surprise it was completely dark. What was Kimiko-san thinking?

I raised my hand to turn on the light and there was a huge BANG! and the all the lights came on in one. I blinked my eyes trying to adjust them even as I was showered with confetti.

"What the heck?" I muttered as I stared at the people standing in front of me, surrounding a round table that had a huge homemade cake on it. There was Natsume, Ruka, Mikan, Hotaru, Misaki, Kimiko-san, and Uncle Toushrou. I felt a smile slowly spread on my lips.

They all cheered (well uncle didn't but that was kinda expected) and then Mikan bounced forward, took my hand and dragged me to the cake. I chuckled as I saw that it was in the shape of two frogs kissing. Mikan placed the knife right where their green lips touched each other's and made me take the handle. She looked so happy that it made me smile as well. I cut the cake and there was another BANG! and a balloon popped out of where I had cut the cake, blowing up and expanding out of the cake's center in one fell swoop.

I choked when I realized what it was, but then Mikan giggled and then we were all killing ourselves laughing, over a balloon of two princes kissing that had popped out of a cake in the shape of two frogs kissing. I knew who had to be behind it, but it was too damn funny for me to be even annoyed at Ruka and Natsume.

Mikan's POV:

"A balloon of two princes kissing? That was what you had to hide from me?" I snapped at Ruka and Natsume, who were both lounging on the couch in Natsume's room. We had just come back from Uncle Narumi's surprise party which had been a lot of fun. But if this was all they could come up with, these two were getting old.

Natsume smirked at me. "It was going to be live tadpoles, but Ms. Jo's baking is too good to be wasted like that." he told me like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I scowled.

Something was just annoying me though I wasn't sure exactly what it was. "Whatever." I snapped before striding out of his room.

Natsume's POV:

I knew my face was showing my concern as Mikan suddenly left my room. It wasn't like her. She'd fight until we usually forgot what started it, but not just leave like this. I turned to Ruka and his expression mirrored mine.

"I'll go see whats up." I said and followed her. She wasn't in her room, and I could not find her anywhere at all. I would have tried calling her, but her phone was in her room. It was almost an hour later that I finally found her sitting in one of the terrace gardens hugging her knees. I sat down on the grass next to her.

"Hey!" I said but she did not look at me. I frowned and then tugged at her chin until she turned towards me. Her eyes were red rimmed from crying.

I cupped her face in my hand. "What's wrong Mikan? What did I do?" I asked her softly.

She shook her head, and more tears slid down her cheeks. What the hell was going on?

I picked her up and cradled her close to me, and after a minute she rested her head on my shoulder. We just sat there together, for a while, before she finally spoke.

"Its.." she stopped, then "Please don't get mad."

I prayed to heaven for patience. When have I ever been mad at this girl?

"I won't." I told her and she nodded lightly.

"Its silly actually. I felt left out. Like," she looked at me with imploring eyes, to make me understand her viewpoint, "I used to be one of you, one of the group, or one of the guys, but now somehow I am not. Like all of a sudden the two of you realized that I am girl, and I am excluded."

I just stared, and then sighed.

She looked down again. "You are mad." she said in a small voice.

I rolled my eyes. "I am not mad, and no we did not just suddenly realize that you are a girl, we realized that you are an adult fully capable of fighting back. Its not that we wanted to exclude you from the prank, its just that we wanted to know what you would do to us for excluding you." I explained and she sniffed.

"I kinda knew that." she said softly.

"Doesn't look like it." I told her and she let out a watery chuckle.

"Damn straight I am yours huh?" she asked with a small teasing smile. I grinned. "Damn straight indeed."

I looked at her face, and then kissed her tears away. "How about we play a prank together on Ruka?"

"You pranking Ruka?" she asked me stunned.

"With you." I told her and a real smile spread on her face, and then she shivered. I chuckled, and pulled her onto my lap. Mikan snuggled close to me.

"I am sorry I am always acting like an insecure kid." she told me and I could see that she actually felt guilty.

"Look at me." I said and now my voice was cold. She looked up, and I softened my voice and expression.

"Don't apologize to me for what you are, or you think you are. I know you as much as you know yourself, and I love you anyways. If you are insecure, then I'll make you feel secure again, if you're a kid then I'll baby you, if you're sad I'll cheer you up. I am with you because I want to be with you, so don' t decide on your own that its troublesome for me." I said, trying to keep my voice gentle though I knew I hadn't succeeded.

Mikan stared at me, tears glittering on her lashes but they did not fall.

"You really love me that much?" she asked in awe.

I raised an eyebrow. I thought at least this we were clear on. Someday I was going to rid her of all her insecurity.

Mikan smiled again and wrapped her arms around my neck. "Thanks Natsume."

I grinned and then stood up, holding her up. "Enough of this. Sleep time, otherwise you'll be whining all the way to the university tomorrow morning."

She rested her head on my shoulder, trusting me, as I carried her to her room and then tucked her in. She murmured G'night to me, after I gave her a small kiss, and then snuggled under the blankets. I knew she would fall asleep soon enough as I headed into my own room.

I was not surprised to find Ruka still there, though I was amused to find him playing Mario kart on the Wii. He turned to look at me when I entered, but I ignored him and fell back on the bed.

"She felt left out of our little group. She wasn't one of the guys anymore." I explained without his asking and saw his annoyance.

"Yes, I explained it all and she does get it, but we both know that sending her away made her pretty insecure. We just need to work on it, so that she stops feeling that way. It took four years to make this mess, and its only been a year since she's been back." I said tonelessly.

Ruka sighed. "I get it. If we work on it together, it won't take us three more years to fix this."

"Definitely not. Now shoo! I am tired." I said, "oh and turn off the light on your way out."

Ruka rolled his eyes, turned off the Wii, turned off the light and left. For a long while I kept thinking about some way for her insecurity to go away but nothing came to mind and so somehow I finally fell asleep.