1.

Mikan blinked down at the dark alleyway, staring at a pair of glaring red eyes that stared back at her.

It was raining that night, unfortunately for the umbrella-lacking brunette. And quite heavily, too, heavier than when it started.

She cursed herself for not passing at the chance to share one with Hotaru. Her best friend was off to some invention contest where she'll no doubt win more yen to feed her greedy self, and Mikan didn't want to bother her just before it.

"Are you sure about that?" she vaguely remembered Hotaru asking, looking at her with a skeptical eyebrow raised. She was aware as to why her idiotic best friend was doing this, she was a very easy person to predict.

Mikan then definitely assured her that it'll be fine and she needs to run off for the contest, but not before flashing her one of her warm smiles before she left.

"Dammit," she cursed once again as she ran across the excessively wet streets of Tokyo, gritting her teeth angrily at herself. Sometimes, Mikan thinks that she might be too nice for her own good.

…Is that even possible? She thought this with an awestruck expression.

Luckily, she had wore her blazer that day as it was quite cold, and she was currently using it as her own makeshift umbrella - not her idea but Hotaru's, thank goodness for her. Her shoes were starting to dampen as well, as she ran through puddles, and she grimaced at the feeling of her wet and muddy socks. This'll be a right pain to clean, she chided to herself softly.

It was then when she heard a sudden yelp from the alleyway, causing her to stop her running thoughts.

"W-What the-…?" she muttered, halting in her quick steps and staring back at the alleyway with wide eyes. She could feel her arms starting to strain for holding up her blazer for way too long, and it was getting way too damp, but curiosity sparked inside her and bled through, controlling her following movements.

She approached the opening of the alleyway uneasily, her steps faltering each time. "Hello?" she called, her voice coming out weak. No one responded back, except for a few strange looks from by-passers. She ignored them and strained her ears for more sound. Some... strange shuffling, and pained mewling.

This spiked her interest. Mewling?

Feeling a sudden boost of confidence, she took some more steps into the dirty alleyway. She felt her nose wrinkle at the smell of the dumpster right beside her, but she was quick to ignore it, instead focusing on a box just at the end of the darkness.

She frowned at this, for more reasons than one. Shouldn't it be lighter than that? She stared up a bit and squinted through the heavy clouds. Indeed, it was already passing dusk, and the moon was starting to appear more vivid on the purple-hued sky. At this, she knew she was already worrying her mother for being so late to go home, but that did not falter her task at hand.

However, the rain was starting to clear up much more now, which caused her to sigh in relief and drop her arms, letting her now dirtied blazer hang lamely at her side.

A sudden meow snapped her head up again towards the end of the alleyway, reminding her to focus.

She bit her lip nervously. Now, how was she supposed to do this…? She looked down at her dirtied shoes as she thought furiously, the expression on her face showing this, when her wandering mind noticed the blazer hanging to her right.

Mikan blinked, staring down at the damp blazer with wide eyes, letting her mind run free one more time. If you were a bystander, you could practically see the lit light bulb that popped above her head.

Mom's gonna kill me for this, she thought grimly with a sigh, and she walked towards the source of the sudden scuffling and hissing.

/

"Mikan?!" Yuka Sakura-Yukihira gasped upon seeing the current state of her daughter from the doorway, the plate in her hands almost slipping.

Mikan cringed as she took one step into her home, and smiled at her flabbergasted mother sheepishly. "It was raining…" she explained to her with a hesitant grin.

In her arms was a bundle of cloth, which was suspiciously writhing and moving around aggressively. Upon closer inspection, it was later seen to be her school blazer, the badge with the letterings 'Alice Academy' etched on it gracefully.

Immediately, Yuka rushed to her daughter, hurriedly leaning down a bit and placing a hand on her forehead to check for a fever. Mikan pushed her hand away, assuring that she was fine. This didn't stop the doting mother, however.

"Where were you?!" The words came falling out of her mother's mouth like a spewing waterfall. "You were gone for an hour! When you were late for 20 minutes, I immediately noticed and I started worrying for you dreadfully, thinking you must've hurt yourself or got yourself wet somehow. I started thinking, 'Oh, she has Hotaru, she'll be fine then,' but then I contacted her and she told me you went home on your own and that only made my worrying worse, but then—"

"Mom," Mikan giggled out with an amused smile, but genuinely glad that her mother cared so much for her. "Really, I'm fine!" She spread her free arm to prove her point. Seeing her still troubled face, she explained a bit further. "I just got caught up in the rain, is all." She paused. "And I sort of brought something home."

Like it was a signal for him to come out, the ticked off black kitten in her arms finally managed to dig his way out of the annoying piles of cloth that surrounded him. This tired him out, however, and he gave out a big yawn, letting out a strange sound before licking himself clean.

Yuka stared down at the cat with wide eyes.

"It's… It's a cat," she observed lamely, her mind running wild. Mikan grinned at her reaction, then deciding on elaborating.

"I found him all cooped up and lost at this alleyway," she told her and looked down at the kitten fondly. "He was injured and shivering from the rain, so I couldn't help but take care of him for a bit. I went to Hotaru's house afterwards, and thankfully her brother was there, and he patched him up for me."

Yuka furrowed her eyebrows, still feeling a bit skeptical. "And that's why you were gone for nearly an hour?"

Mikan shrugged. She was telling the truth. "Well, yeah! That's it, really." She let a small smile grace her features. "To be honest, trying to get him from the box took longer than the visit," she admitted, snickering at herself. She could not help herself that she was so slow to do her own things.

Her mother frowned, looking at her daughter with unsure eyes. "And you're gonna take care of him?"

That got Mikan silent.

"…I'm… still not sure," she mumbled, her mood suddenly dropping. "I mean, I want to, honestly. But I'm not sure if you'd allow me!" She frowned. "We never really had a proper pet, right? Uncle's pet fish was an exception because we just had to take care of it for two days."

Yuka pursed her lips. She didn't doubt her daughter's will to do what she wanted, but she did doubt her abilities to continue this will. Her personality did match her father's, after all. "Do you really want to take care of this little guy? We'd have to buy him things that he needs. It would be a handful, too - you'd have to feed, bathe, and all the other things to him every day."

After a few seconds of silence, Mikan nodded firmly. She was sure of that.

/

In the particular classroom of Class 8-B, happy squeals erupted. Students in a five feet radius from the door sweatdropped.

"Oh, my gosh, he's so CUUUTEE!"

"AHH, CUTEEEE!" The surrounding group of girls agreed with this with more squeals. Mikan grinned sheepishly with her new kitten in her hands, unsure on how to tame this sudden crowd. She remembered how Natsume and Ruka-pyon had to deal with this sort of thing every school day and couldn't help but suddenly pity them.

"Can I pet him?! Hey-! OW, he just scratched me!"

Mikan's eyes widened. "Ah, I'm so sorry!" She turned to her new kitten with scolding eyes. "Bad."

The kitten just stared back, seemingly glaring back at her with those red eyes before shutting them once again and curling around to sleep. Mikan frowned. This behavior ticked her off, and she couldn't help but be reminded of a certain someone because of it.

Hotaru glared at the crowd silently from above her new invention. Being slightly allergic to cats, this new presence annoyed her immensely, giving her a bad mood. They suddenly faltered in their activity, feeling the dangerous pair of amethyst eyes bore into their souls, and the girls slowly but surely went to their seats, muttering under their breaths. Mikan felt the air chill around them, and she shivered.

It was amazing how much one glance could affect a whole class. Once again, gulping, the brunette thanked the Lord that she was on Horatu's good side.

"What happened here…?"

Mikan's head snapped up, and her eyes met up with sky-blue ones. "Ah, Ruka-pyon! Natusume!" she greeted them cheerfully, as usual, with a wide smile on her face. "Good morning!"

"Mikan found an abandoned kitten," Hotaru stated with venom clear in her voice, and that was the only few words she had spoken that entire conversation. Ruka's eyes widened at the bundle of fur that now sat on Mikan's desk. Natsume, who was just behind Ruka, rose an eyebrow.

With a few encouraging pokes from the brunette, the kitten finally woke up and stretched for a bit, then staring at the two newcomers with critical eyes. Ruka shifted under his weight, feeling his stomach flip in uneasiness from it's gaze. If that wasn't enough, the kitten's fur was black – a critical sign of bad luck. Ruka wasn't actually superstitious, but he still considered this one factor as to why he felt so uneasy around this new presence.

"You're taking care of this thing, Polka dots?" Natsume muttered loud enough for the group to hear, and he leaned and stared down at the kitten with similar critical eyes. The kitten stared back in return, before snarling at him. He frowned at it. "It has an attitude," he decided.

Mikan snorted before she could stop herself. How ironic. "Speak for yourself," she grumbled, glaring at him for calling him that ridiculous nickname again.

"It's just grumpy because your annoying voice woke him up!" she continued with a confident voice, proud of her comeback.

Natsume narrowed his eyes at her. "Tsk."

Ruka jumped in before another one of their classic arguments began. "H-Hey, Sakura," he hurriedly began, swallowing. "You have a name for him yet?"

Mikan blinked and paused, her scowl dispersing from her face. Huh. That's a good point… She was so stressed on the material things she needed to take care of a cat that she actually forgot to think of a name.

"No, not yet," she admitted. "Maybe you guys can help me with that!"

Ruka smiled, glad to be able to help. Natsume, however, went over and sat himself down at his seat, which was unfortunately right beside Mikan. You can curse their ridiculously flamboyant homeroom teacher, Mr. Narumi, for that. "No one cares about some stupid cat's name, Idiot," he stated flatly with a roll of his eyes, and then setting a copy of a manga on his face.

Mikan gaped at him angrily. Ruka chuckled awkwardly. "He… doesn't mean that."

"Like hell he does," she muttered, her eyebrow twitching with her fists clenched. From underneath the manga, Natsume smirked.

Over the past years since elementary, Mikan had tested her patience with Natsume's constant teasing and insults. She frowned deeply at how long they've known each other. Now that she thought of it, she couldn't believe she's managed to tolerate so much of that.

"Hotaru!"

A 10-year-old Mikan ran through the corridors of her school happily, her pink penguin backpack bouncing behind her and her wide, hazel eyes twinkling with fresh excitement. Just moving in from this prestigious school called Alice Acadmey, she's managed to pass the entrance exam with flying colors.

How? Well, young Mikan wasn't entirely sure herself, but she didn't dare complain. The entire reason she joined this school anyway was just an empty corridor ahead of her. But before she could open her mouth to call her again, she managed to bump into someone.

Painfully.

"Oww…" she complained, rubbing her head painfully. Her head had managed to collide with another student. With this realization, she glared and pouted at whoever was in front of her.

"Hey, that hurt!"

"You're talking like you're the only one," the other student scowled at her. Looking properly at him, Mikan couldn't help but kind of stiffen. He had raven hair, and crimson eyes that glared at me through annoyed slits.

She frowned deeply at his remark. He isn't going to apologize?

"Natsume!" another voice called from behind her. Curiously, she looked back at where the voice was coming from, and saw a male student running towards them. Blonde hair like the sun and deeply worried blue eyes. Mikan couldn't help but gawk, the sight so new to her. He was so pretty! Like a girl!

Before she knew it, Natsume (she guessed his name, from the earlier voiced) stood up, brushing himself off casually, before glowering down at her. Still stunned by the color of his eyes, she just sat there and stared back, a bit afraid of what he was going to do.

"Watch yourself, Polka dots," he said, frowning at her. And with that, he just walked off, towards to where she assumed Blondie was.

Mikan still sat there, stunned. And with that, she knew that her experiences from this school would be a new one.

Wait.

…Polka dots?

"Is she alright?" Ruka muttered to his friend as they walked towards their rooms. "That was a pretty bad bump on her head, you know."

"PEEEEEEEERRRRRRVERRRRTT…!"

Natsume almost felt the corner of his lips twitch upwards. "Let's go."

Ever since that faithful day, the gang had plenty of encounters from each other, 90% percent of them being Natsume's perverted teasing and Mikan's angered yelling from the perverted teasing. They had immature spats as well, that mainly just consisted of ridiculous name calling. Of course, other than that, they met other friends, like Sumire, or Permy, as Mikan had fondly called her since the first day they met, and adorable Yuu and the humorous Koko, and plenty others, as well.

How she would manage to pass her classes without Hotaru and Ruka-pyon's help, she couldn't think of. She had thought of convincing Natsume to help her with it as well, one night when she approached his room, but the door slamming on her face was an enough answer as it was to her.

The more time passed, however, the more Mikan's managed to control her rage to Natsume. She realized one day that she was fast-approaching being a teenager and she needed to experience it to the fullest, and she would not let some sly fox to ruin it. She couldn't help but admit that she was slowly growing to be slightly fond of him, as they had their rare civil conversations here and there.

Three years has passed since then… Mikan suddenly thought this, stunned. She placed her torso on her desk and stretched her arms in front of her dazedly, continuing with her deep daydreaming as the class waited for their homeroom teacher to come. Unknown to her, the new kitten was fondly rubbing his head against her arm, which did not go unnoticed to the two boys beside her.

Ruka watched the kitten with a small smile, knowing this was one of cats' ways to show affection. He was glad to know that it liked Mikan that much, at least. When his eyes managed to flicker towards Natsume, however, he couldn't help but feel shocked by the plain irritation that was clear on his face.

"Natsume…?" Ruka muttered, glancing towards his best friend worriedly. He simply grunted and crossed his arms in front of him, but not before balancing a manga on his face to let himself sleep. He never did pay attention to his classes, anyway.

Ruka stared at Natsume with uncertainty, wondering what caused such an expression from him. Hotaru, who was two seats in front of Ruka, rolled her eyes at the attitude as she continued working on her invention, having a slight idea on why.

Luckily, the morning bell had rang.

Hello, everybody! This is my first fanfiction published on this website, so please do bear with me through it. I'm also awful at updating stories at right times, which is something you'll unfortunately have to bear with, as well... Whoops, sorry.

Aside from that, I hope you enjoy this! And if you won't mind, please do review and tell me what you think of it so far, it keeps my writing reflexes on my toes and tells me on what to watch on.

- V.