Disclaimer: I own nothing… although I wish I owned Hotaru… I would ask her to invent me a pain-free liposuction device… I want to lose three pounds.

A Relationship with His Villain

Prologue: Admitting it to His Villain aka Confessions

Crushing on his villain.

How could that be?

He developed feelings for a heartless, mean, and maliciously annoying creature.

How he HATED it!

How could he develop feelings for a person that mocked his whole being all the livelong day? How stupid was he to let his emotions take over him? He was still young; he just turned fifteen… he was not ready for the evil-doings of hormones.

And that evil-doing was to make him wild over somebody.

And that somebody was his villain, the blackmailing genius-slash-witch-slash-demoness from Hell. How sickening.

Why her? Why not Mikan? He was initially attracted to Mikan anyway… why didn't he develop feelings for Mikan? Mikan was nice, approachable, friendly and good-natured. She had also developed into a pretty young lady. She was his ideal lady, so why not her? Why on Earth did he develop feelings for someone who was the complete opposite of his ideals?

Hotaru Imai.

Oh yes, Hotaru Imai. His personal villain. The girl whose daily goal was to humiliate and torment him, and she had succeeded doing that for the past five years. Whether by selling 'Ruka-pyon' cards or by scattering humiliating pictures of him or by eating his eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth birthday cakes or by selling his fifteenth one; her actions had always brought her wanted reactions out of him.

Hotaru Imai… disgusting.

Well, not really… he did like her. She had also grown up to be very pretty… like one of those untouchable ice-princess types. And she had been gentle with her blackmails lately. He was just really mad about their interactions… if she wasn't blackmailing him, she was ignoring him. Their interactions made it clear that he was insignificant to her… and that bothered him. Why couldn't she just randomly smile at him just once… Mikan-chan once said that she had a nice smile… so why not?

He blushed at his thoughts, "Stop thinking of her…" he closed his eyes as he growled to himself.

…

"You're thinking of me." A sudden harsh whisper welcomed his ears and he fought not to blush despite of the hot breath that traveled from his ear to his cheek. He didn't need to look to know whom the voice belonged to.

Hotaru Imai.

He refused to meet her gaze, afraid that she would see his crimson face. He fumbled, "No I'm not, you're crazy… why would I think of you? Of all the peop-HEY! STOP POKING MY HEAD!" He turned to glare at her but was stopped as he realized that she was showing him something, he looked up and raised is hands to feel his head. "Hey… what's this? I don't remember wearing this…" he took off a purple fish-like hat that was suddenly on top of his head… he stared at it, feeling as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Hotaru sat next to him, "Sometimes people become unaware of their surroundings when they are in deep thought. I knew you would be unaware of me putting that on you when I saw you doting alone on this bench. That's my Angler Fish Projector," she looked at the device in his hands, "It shows the things in a persons mind… like the things they are thinking about." She kept her monotone as she explained.

He blushed as horror dawned on him. Slowly, he looked at her features. Expressionless, they were, but he could feel her sneer coming from inside of her. 'Oh God, no…' he swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat.

He silently shoved the device to her hands and looked away from her, hoping that if he'd ignore her, he wouldn't fumble and hint about his feelings… and she might even leave him alone.

She didn't.

"I thought that it would be a good opportunity to get more things to blackmail you with… all I got were images of me." She continued speaking to him, not caring if he was interested or not.

He was. But he kept silent.

…

"So…" her eyes lingered at his figure, "You like me." It was a statement.

His head snapped to her direction and his eyes tried to read her face for any clues of her intentions. As usual, he got none. Hotaru, as secretive as she is, always made her actions unexpected to the poor boy.

His heart thumped as the heat rose up to his face, "NO I DON'T!" He almost screamed as he denied it, "I DON'T, I DON'T, I DON'T!" He shook his head from side to side.

"Stupid… your actions make it obvious." Another statement.

He sent her a glare, but it was beaten by her cold stare.

He frowned and stood straight up, "I don't need this…" he huffed, "Are the images of you the one that made you think that I like you? If so…" he paused, racking his brain for lies, "the only reason why you appeared on that fish thing is because I don't like you!" He finished with a lame lie. A lame lie that anyone would sense, let alone a genius.

"You're a terrible liar…" she looked directly at him, "I didn't need this device to know, dummy. It doesn't take a genius to read you… and I'm a genius."

"Why didn't you torment me way before when I just started to like you the-" he abruptly stopped himself from slipping up; he blushed, "I'm not saying or admitting that I like you though… I don't like you," he mindlessly contradicted his first statement.

Silence.

"You liked me about a month ago; I knew from the very beginning," she didn't even look at him as she said the words, "Contrasting your belief, Ruka Nogi, blackmailing you using that information is useless. People who are charmed by you will deny it and they might even develop a disliking of me… and that may hinder some of my developments whatever they may be. The reason why I bring this up is not to torment you…"

He glared at her as he concealed his blush, "I don't like you… man, I just want to hit you sometimes…" he kept denying.

"You know, violence can also be a sign of affection," she taunted, slightly smirking, "Admit it." She said and he blushed harder.

Not being ready to admit his feelings, he decided to avoid doing it… no matter how obvious he already made his emotions appear to be. He walked away from the girl, not saying a word to her or even looking at her.

"Oh well, if you don't want to admit it… I invented a device which allows me to talk to animals," she called out, causing him to stop and look back, "I'd just go to your animals and ask them about it… maybe I'd get to torture them for answers…" she turned her back on him and walked away.

"You're kidding!" Mortified; he ran towards her as he called out.

Hotaru looked back, "No."

"You can't be serious…" he shook his head and laughed coolly, although his gut deceived him, "You're not that sadistic… are you?" He gulped. That's what he hated about her, she was so unpredicatable… in a quasi-malicious way.

"Who knows… maybe I am." She taunted again and then walked away, leaving him worried.

"I don't believe you!" He called out but she just kept on walking.

And walking…

And walking…

… to the Academy barn.

He gasped and panicked. Not knowing what else he could do, he shut his eyes tight, took a deep breath and ran after her.

"Fine! I like you! Are you happy now!" He forced the words out when he reached her; his eyes still tightly closed… he refused to open them as the fear of humiliation rose in him.

"You should have seen the look on your face," In spite of her mocking voice; she didn't seem to be planning on humiliating him at all… but then again, he knew that she was maliciously unpredictable.

Finally opening his eyes, he stared at her face and could almost see a smug expression… almost. He frowned, "So… how will you torment me this time," his eyes narrowed as he readied himself for further humiliation.

It really surprised him when she just shrugged and walked past him, "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't want to waste my time on meaningless activities with you today."

Her words almost offended him. He growled, annoyed, "So why did you make me go through the whole ordeal?"

She shrugged again, "Guess."

Growing impatient; he growled at her usual nonchalant attitude. As if forgetting his feelings for her, he answered her unkindly, "Because you're mean… twisted… malicious and manipulative," he squinted his eyes and focused it on the ground, pouting.

Hotaru paused for a while to think. She shrugged, "If you say so…" she turned her back on him.

"You know, I discovered something last night," she continued to speak as she walked away from him, "Sometimes boys are mean… twisted… malicious and manipulative to a girl when they subconsciously like her. Did you know that girls can be like that too?" She faced him one more time before continuing to her path… he could almost swear that he saw the faintest smile on her lips. He kept silent as he watched her go.

Silence.

"HEY!" His eyes snapped open as he a sudden realization hit him. He dashed towards her, "Are you telling me that you like me too!"

"Are you?" He reached for her shoulders and forced her to stop.

Hotaru Imai only smirked.

"Treat me to dinner at Central Town and I might tell."

--- End Chapter ---

Author's Notes: A story that my brain nagged me to write last night… Man… I spent all night writing this. Oh yeah! This is my first Gakuen Alice fic… and this is not a one-shot as I'm planning to develop the major characters in the anime with my non-existent plot! Woohoo!

Please read and review.