#this is a tiny baby fanfic mostly about natsume going 'why am i friends with these ppl' but i hope you enjoy it anyway lol

[lucanogis]

fanfic: paths that lead home

Title: paths that lead home Fandom: Gakuen Alice Length: 3.3k Summary: When Natsume’s friends make him go on a road trip, he thinks they’ve collectively lost their minds. Crossing Japan in 24 hours with the Alice Academy hot on their heels? Only crazy people could come up with that. As it turns out, Natsume Hyuuga is friends with a lot of crazy people. Set before Ch. 179, for day 1 of ga-party’s May challenge.

{ao3}

Natsume isn’t into the idea the first time his friends tell him about it. Actually, Natsume isn’t into the idea the second, third or fourth time it’s brought up either, but then he has felt lethargic ever since he woke up after essentially dying to find out the girl he loves is gone. But his friends are suddenly adventurous and excited and more than a little bit stubborn and they just won’t let him boycott the whole thing. 

It’s a compromise, Luca says, diplomatic and relentless at once. They get to go on their insane, more than a little bit dangerous and frankly, illegal, road trip and Natsume gets to come along to keep them out of trouble. The problem is of course that Natsume doesn’t want to come along and can’t exactly provide protection in his current condition, but somehow he still gets overruled, because apparently the gang is a democracy now. His position as de facto leader of Class 2B has vanished along with large parts of his Alice, he thinks. There’s also the fact that Luca pulls him to the side and tells him about Yuu’s little sibling and how their friend hasn’t gotten to see him in months and really, why fight for a more open school if Yuu, the definition of a good student, doesn’t feel the benefits?

Natsume does wonder why Yuu Tobita is suddenly so keen on breaking Academy rules but then the world has changed during the time he was unconscious, in ways both good and bad. The sting of losing Mikan hasn’t quite subsided yet and some days that sting makes it difficult to notice anything else that is happening around him but he knows, God, he knows she would not want him to be morose and broody. If what Luca says is right then her best friend, the girl no one remembers, risked everything to give him another shot. Perhaps really living again starts here and now, with this damn road trip and his friends. (”You don’t have to go”, Luca tells him, “if you don’t want to. But maybe this will be good for all of us.”) Maybe, yes maybe - and he never was good at saying no to his best friend.

Luca’s borrowed barrier Alice and Natsume’s well honed ninja skills are still functioning well enough to sneak six of them out of the school in the middle of the night. Koko insists on wearing a ridiculous dark hoodie - “Guys, I’m blending in” - and Sumire can’t stop laughing at him. Yuu’s white as a sheet and gnawing on his bottom lip but deeply determined, too, determined enough to crawl through the small hole they made in the Academy’s barrier before all the others. Tsubasa’s coming along because, well, Natsume doesn’t really know why. Mostly because Tsubasa has gotten really protective as of late and is also a little bit into the whole road trip idea, as most maniacs apparently are. Luca keeps giggling nervously, a little bit like he did all that time ago when he got accidentally drunk in the woods. “Oh Gods,” he says as they’re half-running, half-sneaking towards Tokyo’s central train station. “Oh Gods. This is it.”

“If by ‘it’ you mean our impending doom, sure,” Natsume mutters. Koko begins singing “Breaking Free” from High School Musical under his breath, because of course he does.

They manage to sneak onto a train, hiding in a compartment that is transporting potato chips, which naturally leads to way too many eaten potato chips on their part. At some point someone throws up but it’s better than starving to death. The train’s going west, looks about a hundred years old and makes so much noise that their conversations are reduced to hand signals. Natsume is silently relieved because that just means he no longer has to listen to communal singing, which is another habit his friends apparently picked up. They go through Queen’s entire discography as though Narumi made them memorize the lyrics for a test.

The whole thing is...strangely serene. The constant noise reminds Natsume of the days he spent running from the school, forever on the road. Strange, how something so tumultuous can seem so peaceful now. He has his family back now, his father and his sister, but the innocence he had then is forever out of his reach. Natsume wonders whether this was the true reason he agreed to this road trip: The youthful exuberance in his friends’ eyes. Their desire to do a crazy thing, to take a risk, to not care about adulthood or consequence, even though all of them have experienced both.

They’re all a bit more bent and broken than they were. He can see it in Sumire’s face whenever she flinches because the train’s loud noises remind her of getting knocked out during the Uprising. He sees it in the way Tsubasa’s eyes scan the train compartment, as though some unnamed danger will, at any moment, leap out from behind the chips. He sees it in his best friend, who doesn’t smile quite as easily as he used too, who doesn’t quite want to leave his side out of fear that death will part them again, as it has before. But somewhere, in between all that Natsume still manages to fall asleep with his head on Luca’s shoulder while Yuu describes his little sister to their friends. Outside of the train, city buildings give way to meadows, street lights give way to stars. He dreams of Mikan Sakura smiling at him and feels warmth, despite the biting cold of the wind whipping past the moving train.

When they get ready to leave, sometime before dawn because the train pulls into a station Yuu recognizes, Luca leaves a few rabbits behind to replace the stolen chips. It’s not technically currency anyone outside the school can use but hey, they’re also not technically meant to be there so no one cares enough to say something. (Natsume does snicker about the whole thing, none too subtly, but Luca gives him his patented “I haven’t slept and I‘m going to feed you to an animal” look, so he shuts up). It’s still dark outside when the train stops and they tumble out, all ruffled hair and chips stained faces.

Koko uses the magical gift of mind-reading to find them a bus and Tsubasa uses the magical gift of Tono’s credit card (”Did you steal a credit card?!” -”Relax, guys, I borrowed it.”) to buy them tickets. The other passengers are far older them then, retirees going on a trip to the other side of the country over the weekend. They give them weird looks but let them stay, maybe because Tsubasa does his best “responsible adult” impression and talks up some old woman as though he’s known her all his life.

Natsume thinks the bus is a significantly more comfortable mode of transportation but then again, they didn’t really have a choice before. Boarding a train legally would have meant train station cameras and camera footage would have led the Academy straight to them. This way at least they have approximately 24 hours until they’re unceremoniously hauled back.

Koko spends their time on the bus playing cards with Sumire. She beats him almost every time. Natsume briefly wonders whether Koko ever feels the urge to cheat throughout the hours they play, but the class clown doesn’t seem to want to. Perhaps playing with Sumire is entertaining enough or perhaps there is something far better than winning hidden away in the corners of the smile she wears whenever her cards beat his.

At some point, the bus is stopped at a red light, Natsume walks over to where Yuu’s sitting. His friend is staring at the little drops of spring rain that are splattering against the window. Without his Academy uniform he looks different, both less and more himself. Natsume nudges him with his elbow. “Hey,” he says.

Yuu glances at him. “You know,” he says. “You really didn’t have to come.”

“I’ve heard that one before,” Natsume comments.

“But you came anyway,” Yuu notes. He turns around to face Natsume. “Why? You’re smart enough to know this idea makes no sense.”

Natsume shrugs. He doesn’t quite know how to put into words that reason has started to mean less and less to him over the past few months. He was dead and then he wasn’t, he loved someone and that person still left. They freed a school and still have to run from it to see their families. “I wanted to see whether your little sister is as much of a know-it-all as you are,” he says eventually. It’s a lie, but Yuu knows him well enough now not to push. They sit there in silence and watch the weather outside.  

Hail and lightning join the rain and the bus driver announces that they have to camp out until the storm passes. It’s afternoon and Natsume can practically see what’s going to happen next. They’re going to file into some small-town restaurant to wait out the rain and the Academy is going to find them and drag their rebellious asses back to the school. Their adventure, as fun as it was, will have been for nothing all because a bunch of old people and their driver are scared of lightning. He almost suggests stealing the bus but since none of them can drive that plan will hardly work.

As the rest of the bus’ passengers make their way into a small the restaurant to have their afternoon biscuits (or whatever old people eat, Natsume hardly knows any) he walks up to the front desk and puts on his most imposing face. Luca grabs his arm before he gets one word out. “Please don’t tell me you want to threaten someone into driving us somewhere,” he hisses.

“No,” Natsume says. “I want to ask them nicely while looking angry.”

“Natsume!,” his best friend exclaims, before lowering his voice again. “You have to use charm here. If we pretend to be adorable children they have to help us out!” Tsubasa, nods, as though the whole thing makes perfect sense. “Luca's right. The adorable children card is more effective than your demon impression.” Natsume almost uses the last shred of his Alice to burn him for that comment.

‘Pretending to be adorable children’ apparently means telling the waiter some sad and entirely made-up story about how all six of them are looking for their long-lost mother who lives in a town two hours over. They need to get there today because “bad people” are after them and it’s all quite urgent, really. Or something, Natsume doesn’t spend the entire time listening though he does certainly appreciate his best friend’s acting. Sumire helps out, too, and the two of them put on quite the show. There’s tears, lengthy explanations and apparently enough theatrics to cover up the fact that the six of them hardly look alike enough to be siblings. But playing Snow White and Sleeping Beauty in the Alice Academy prepares you for just about anything, so the waiter, wide-eyed and visibly touched, agrees to drive them “home”. He also gets his friend, a young woman currently writing her thesis and probably just looking for an excuse to stop, to help him drive the six of them over. Luca, Natsume and Tsubasa end up in one car, Koko, Sumire and Yuu take the other. This time it’s Luca who falls asleep on Natsume’s shoulder. The two hour ride consists of a lot of awkward questions (”So....you six are all siblings? Did you have different fathers?”) and the waiter telling them his life story. Natsume mostly zones out.

The waiter and his friend drop them off two hours later but insist on waiting in their cars, perhaps to see their reunion with their “mother”. In Yuu’s case, that reunion is a real one and he leads them to the front of his family’s house. It’s a small place, traditionally Japanese place with a tiny garden and a cherry tree right in front of it. The blossoms weren’t in bloom the day before, when they left the school, but now they are. They dance in the wind like tiny pieces of cotton candy. Yuu doesn’t seem to notice them.

He knocks and they all stand back to wait in silence. It doesn’t take long until the door is flung open and a woman greets them, her hair brown and her eyes wide and blue. She hugs her son without saying a word, crying and laughing at the same time and not long after a man appears behind her and falls to his knees to do the same thing.

In the end they are fed cookies and tea and get to meet Yuu Tobita’s young sister, who is inquisitive and annoying and reminds Natsume of Aoi in a way that makes him smile. It doesn’t take more than two hours before the Academy sends Narumi to pick them up but their former teacher doesn’t have the heart to berate them in front of Yuu’s happy parents. He just sends them a look that is equal parts exasperation and fondness and sips tea. Before leaving, they all huddle together and make their teacher take a picture using Sumire’s phone. Natsume tries to get out of the whole thing, but Luca just grabs him and that ends the discussion before it begins.

“I knew you wouldn’t be mad at us, Narumi-sensei,” Koko says with a bright grin, as they’re walking towards the car the Academy has sent. Yuu is behind them, saying goodbye to his family alone.

“If you think I’m not mad Koko, then you’re not as good a mind-reader as you think.” Narumi opens the door of the car and gestures for them to climb inside. It’s a strange moment of Deja Vu, Natsume thinks. He remembers getting in a car more than five years ago, blinking back tears only to find his best friend waiting for him inside. He climbs in now and scoots over to make room for Luca. Somehow, nothing has changed but everything is different.

Sumire sits down next to him. “It was a good trip,” she says softly.

“Did it live up to the one time you went after Natsume’s kidnappers when we were ten?,” Luca asks her.

Her green curls bounce up and down as she tilts her head to ponder the question. Eventually, Sumire smiles. “Don’t get me wrong, seeing Natsume all heroic was great and I loved the extra dose of nightmares I’ll carry with me until I die but...This trip was better.”

Koko, sitting one row behind them, snickers at that. “Just admit it’s because I let you win when we played cards.” Sumire tries to whack him with a clawed hand and Tsubasa leans neatly out of the way just as Yuu raises his hands to placate the two. There’s an aching familiarity to the scene that startles Natsume enough to make him avert his eyes. How strange that he has come to know these people, even though he told himself to never get close to anyone. How strange that their mannerisms are the same, even after they fought for their lives and faced a common enemy and lost so very much.

The trip back is uneventful. They don’t awkwardly tumble out of a train and they don’t lie to a kind waiter to catch a ride. They don’t talk much either, mostly because whenever they do Narumi reminds them of the trouble they’re in, as if any of them are scared of the Academy’s tactics at this point. As it turns out, the car can make the journey from Yuu’s parents to the school in just 10 hours. Unlike the train they took before, it doesn’t have to stop to unload potato chips so they get back to the school early on Sunday morning, the next day. Their classmates greet them at the front gate, cheering as the car passes them even though Jinno, who’s with them, looks about as icy as a human being can without freezing over. They’re slapped with detentions - Yuu’s very first, they’re told - a couple of months worth of cleaning duty and a stern talking to. But kind of saving the whole school does come with advantages and so they soon huddle up in Natsume’s room to share their story with their friends. Pictures get passed around, Koko makes the whole thing seem thrice as exciting as it was and Sumire gushes about Yuu’s little sister. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Natsume finds his feet carrying him outside, to the small balcony attached to his room.

The cherry trees are still in bloom, even here at a place that usually seems so far removed from the rest of the world.

“Should we go see Aoi next?,” a voice asks from behind him. Natsume doesn’t bother turning around.

“You’re pretending that Aoi and my dad haven’t practically moved to Tokyo at this point,” he says. “I think they’re scared that I’ll turn to dust if they leave”.

Luca leans against the railing next to him. “It’s a valid concern,” he says softly, before shaking his head. “Anyway...It was fun, wasn’t it? To for once go on an adventure that wasn’t about saving the lives of dozens of people and freeing our friends?”

“It was stupid,” Natsume corrects, before adding, after a few seconds of silence: “And...fun. I guess. If you call hanging out with a few crazy people all night and all day ‘fun’. Though I don’t think I want any potato chips anytime soon.”

Luca laughs. “Yeah, I can do without those, too.” Then, he frowns. “Though speaking of fun, I did notice you never sang along with us.”

Natsume snorts. “Damn right I didn’t. What are we, the Alice Opera troupe or something?”

“But Natsumeee,” Luca half-whines, half-complains. “We do singing now. It’s a thing, it makes people happy, it affirms our friendship and stuff. It’s like karaoke, except everyone wins.”

“Except whoever’s listening,” Natsume mumbles under his breath. Luca shakes his head at him and links their arms together to lead him back inside.

“One day,” he says, “I will get you to sing with us on a road trip.”

“If there’s one thing I can promise you,” Natsume declares, letting his best friend drag him back into the warmth of his room, from which the laughter of his friends is echoing still, “Then it’s that I will never again go on a road trip. Never. Planes exist for a reason.”

Luca rolls his eyes and Sumire, seeing the two of them, gets up and pushes her phone in front of their faces.

“Look, look,” she says. “The pictures came out great.”

There’s Yuu holding his sister with a proud smile, Tsubasa looking like an exhausted older brother, Koko sticking out his tongue and Sumire doing her best model pose. Natsume finds himself off to the side a bit, standing next to his beaming best friend with a gloomy expression on his face. It’s a ridiculous picture of ridiculous people. It makes him remember something else he once promised, a long time ago, much like he promised to never go on road trips again just a few seconds ago. He promised not to make friends, because one day, having friends would mean losing people. And he’d been right, too - he had lost people. Except that isn’t quite right, is it? He gained a small role in a stage production, a few pieces of badly made Valentine’s Day chocolate, an impromptu birthday party and more, much more than he ever expected to have.

So yes, he’s promising himself to never go on a road trip again. But judging from past experiences, that promise is going to be broken one day and then, well then - Then, Natsume Hyuuga will go on another adventure, as ridiculous as this one, with the people he is thankful to call friends.