Atarashi Neko
A Gakuen Alice Story
By Rachel Condliffe
Chapter One - Natsume's POV
I came back from the mission tired and injured. I'd sustained two bruises to the head, and I thought maybe one broken rib. Mikan was going to be furious. She was always talking about how "one of these days I was going to REALLY hurt myself and I'd be forced to leave her".
I would never let that happen. I knew she wasn't being clingy, and that she was just as concerned for me as she was for herself. After all, if I left, she would be forced to be in the Dangerous Abilities class. Also, if I left, we would both be torn apart. We NEEDED to be together.
I made myself go to the hospital and get my rib wrapped. If I didn't, I'd have hell to pay - this time from Imai, Mikan's best friend, and Ruka's girlfriend. I'd probably have hell to pay from Ruka, too, come to think about it.
The stupid nurse forced me to take painkillers before wrapping my ribs. She didn't even trust me with pills by now, and had asked the hospital for a shot form of them for me. Then she wrapped my ribs, and I could go.
When I got back to my room, Mikan was there. She was sitting on the bed, having fallen asleep without lying down. She'd been waiting for me to get back.
"Oi, Polka," I said, trying to wake her up, at least a little.
She let out a miniature scream before realizing where she was, who was talking to her, and that I'd just gotten back from my mission.
"Natsume!" she said, launching herself at me. I winced when she touched my rib, but I didn't think she noticed. That is, I didn't think she noticed my wince. She noticed the bandages.
"Natsume, what's this? What happened?" she asked, her voice worried now.
"Nothing," I said. "I just bruised the bone, so the nurse put a wrap on it so I couldn't touch it. I could tell she didn't believe me, so I showed her. "See? They would have put more bandages on it if it were broken. You know that, Mikan."
It wasn't broken, the nurse had said. Just bruised. Badly. Mikan didn't need to know how badly, though.
She looked at how thick the bandages were, having learnt how thick the bandages for each different injury was due to Hotaru thinking that she should know how to wrap any injuries I got. "Since you usually refuse to go to the hospital, idiot," she'd said when I asked her why she'd felt the need to teach Mikan something like that.
"Okay," she said, quietly. She was being more careful of my ribs now, but still holding me tight. "I'm just glad your back safe and more or less sound."
She looked up at me, and I kissed her, loving the way she immediately gave into my kiss. I deepened it by opening my mouth, forcing her to do the same. I then slipped my tongue into her mouth, making her sigh, and making my heart race with excitement and passion.
But I needed air now, so I carefully disengaged myself from our passionate kiss. She started to protest, but I put a finger on her mouth and pointed at the clock. She looked at it, and - realizing how late it was - promptly freaked out.
"How come you got back so late? Why is it almost six AM? What took you so long?"
"It was far away," I answered, as calmly and firmly as I could. It was true. This mission had been far away. In fucking Kyoto. They wouldn't take me by plane because it was too noticeable, so they'd taken me by car. All. The. Way. To. Kyoto. From Tokyo. It was fucked.
"How far?" she asked, and I sighed. I knew I had to tell her, so I did. "Kyoto?" she exclaimed. "Why didn't they just send you with the warp hole?"
"You know they don't acknowledge that it exists. If they did that, what's to stop students from running away from school via the warp hole?" Like you tried to do, I added silently in my head.
"Right," she let out a big yawn, and I smiled slightly at her.
"Go to bed, Mikan," I said kindly. "I'll come once I change, but go back to bed. Get under the blankets, this time."
She nodded and sleepily went back to the bed, where she got under the blankets and promptly fell asleep. God, if that girl didn't spend almost every night in my room, she would probably never wake up. She'd miss every day of school because she accidentally slept in.
The sun was starting to come up now, but I figured we could skip a few morning classes without getting in too much trouble, so I changed out of my mission clothes and got into bed.
Before I fell asleep, I looked at her sleeping face. She looked slightly troubled by something, but otherwise she looked like an angel. I smiled, thinking how opposite from me she was, before I kissed her forehead and snuggled in next to her, hugging her to me as I slept.