Hey you guys! I'm new to the whole GA fandom and such, but I have a whole bunch of other stories planned! ^-^ As for my Hellsing readers I decided to take a break thanks to some advice from my favorite reviewer! So, I did, and while I was away, I discovered a new fandom, and I can't even bring myself to daydream AxS (which is still correct X3) stories, so I might not be back for a while.

Antyways, this is a NastumexMikan story, but they don't appear directly until the last few lines. Why? My sister said I couldn't. So there.

By the way, I don't own Gakuen Alice in any way shape, form or fashion.

"Ruka, why did you give up on Mikan?"

Ruka looked up and met the violet, penetrating gaze of his girlfriend. He shrugged. "I didn't give up on her."

Hotaru scowled looking a little hurt. "So you still like her?"

Ruka smiled. Looks like he made his little Ice Queen jealous. "No, I don't like her."

"But you said you never gave up on her."

"I didn't. I never started with her, so how could I give up on her?"

"You loved her," Hotaru said simply after a short pause.

Ruka cocked and eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Hotaru scowled. "You heard me. Admit it. You loved her, but you let Natsume have her, and you settled for me."

"Hotaru," Ruka snapped, pulling the inventor for her revere. "Stop it. If you will recall, we were ten, I repeat, ten. Trust me, love was the farthest thing from my mind. You could even go so far as to say I still thought several of you girls had cooties. Mikan was no different. She was a new, pretty girl, and she was incredibly nice to me. What did you expect me to do? I never loved her."

Hotaru was still quiet for a while, puzzling over this new information. "You still haven't told me why you let Natsume have her," she said eventually.

Ruka shrugged again. "What would I gain from him not having her? I've told you already, I didn't like her. I was too busy focusing on her purple-eyed best friend," he smirked.

Hotaru ignored his last complement. Well, she didn't voice her acknowledgement, but the light pink dusting on her cheeks and neck made Ruka cheer silently. "You just said we were too young to love anyone," Hotaru pressed.

"He didn't love her."

Hotaru's eyes flashed with fire. "What do you mean he doesn't love her? They've been dating for four years now." Oh, God. If that fire caster had been leading her best friend on all this time, she was going to kill him.

Ruka rolled his eyes. "He didn't love her. Key word being did."

"Well, then why did he have to get Mikan?"

Ruka shrugged. "He needed her."

Hotaru scowled. She hated not understanding what people were talking about. "Explain."

Ruka's brow puckered as he concentrated. "Well… You were here before Mikan showed up weren't you."

"Almost six months," Hotaru said in a clipped voice.

"So you remember how Natsume acted, right?"

"Yes."

"Well, compare that to now."

Hotaru was quiet. It was true. When she had first stepped foot into Gakuen Alice, Natsume had been an emo, depressed boy who would sooner burn you to a crisp as speak to you. He acted up in class, should he bother to show up, and then he never, never, did any of the assigned work. Then Mikan showed up. True, he would still rather fry you rather than hold a pleasant conversation, but after just a week after Mikan came his appearance in class was even more often than his absent days. It was like he had a reason to show up now. A month later Narumi-sensei nearly had a heart attack, when Natsume turned in his first piece of home work. True, it was poorly done, and mostly talked about how stupid of an assignment it was, but it was something. A year later, Natsume was in class every day, unless he had a mission, or he was sick, and every day he would sit right behind his favorite polka-dots wearing brunette. He turned in all of his work, and the only people he "randomly" threatened to kill were those he felt were getting a little too friendly with Mikan.

Those bakas Hotaru thought, smiling. Even after all the obvious signs they were throwing at each other, they still managed to avoid getting together for another year. Whether it was because they were both too stubbornly dense to pick up on these signs (try blaring beacons) or they were both too terrified of the earth-shattering rejection of the other, nobody knew. When the two of them were asked about it, they either blushed deeply, and denied everything, or just shrugged and told the quizzer to leave if they enjoyed the state his or her unburned skin.

"HHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTAAAAAAAARRRRRRRUUUUUUU!" Ruka sing-songed waving his hand furiously in front of Hotaru's face before she snatched it.

"What?" she snapped.

Ruka quickly put his hands up in a surrender gesture. "Sorry, you kinnda blanked out there for a long while, plus we have to go to class now."

Hotaru glanced up at the clock. He was right, they had to be in Narumi's class in five minutes. She ignored Ruka's hand, but allowed him to escort her to the classroom in their usual silence.

"NATSUME! YOU PERVERT! OH I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" a familiar voice shouted from the class room. Just then, a raven-haired boy darted by, his face split open in a wide, now normal, grin.

"YA HAVE TO CATCH ME FIRST POLKA DOTS!" he shouted. As he said that a brunette skidded out of the class room, her face flushed in anger, embarrassment, and excitement. The boy let out another cry of laughter, and put on a burst of speed. Hotaru and Ruka simply walked in the room hand in hand, ignoring the scene they had just witnessed. It wasn't anything uncommon now a days. One bad thing that had come from Mikan and Natsume dating was that the two love birds were often too busy chasing each other to bother to show up in class.

So how was it? *(bounces up and down nervously)* I know Natsume was WAY OOC at the end, but I think that after six years of knowing Mikan and four years of dating her shouldn't he be at least a little happier? No? Fine. He was hyper. That solves everything. Anyways, review, and tell me how I can fix it, please!