Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.
Claimer: This fan fiction and all errors it might contain are mine.

This is an entry to Hilaire's Gakuen Alice Fan Fiction Challenge/Competition. The prompt is to portray Natsume Hyuuga as a most original rancher/farmer/grazier/someone who makes his living out of agriculture and livestock.

Submission of entries begins on August 7 and ends on September 4. Participation is highly appreciated. Please visit Hilaire's profile or forums for more details.

A Farmer Over A Prince Any Day

A boy born into royalty, forced to marry someone he didn't want to and a girl visiting her hometown. What happens when they play lovers? Do they fall in love themselves?

22nd July

"No."

"But-"

"No."

"But yo-"

"NO!"

"But you hav-"

"No, no, NO! There is no goddamn way in hell I am doing this," a young man said with fierce determination. He glared angrily before storming off, the big doors swinging ferociously behind him.

"But you have no choice sire, the King has already accepted the proposal," a servant mumbled pathetically, but it went unheard for the Prince had already left in anger.

Taking long strides towards the Sakura tree, the prince was fuming. The Sakura tree was the only place where he could be in peace without annoying servants, or anyone else for that matter, bothering him, for it was his secret place. As soon as he got there, he sat down and took a deep breath to clear his mind, but he was still hung up about the earlier incident.

The prince was deep in thought with anger towards his father, the King, who had caused him to be in this misery in the first place, 'How dare he do that? That stupid idiotic father of mine, how could he? He can't just marry me off to some girl without my permission, and it's her! That's even worse. Eurgh,' the prince gave a profound shudder of disgust as an image of a green-haired animal like girl came into mind.

The prince was soon wondering how he could get out of this. He was racking his brain for options, ways, ideas, that would help him out of this crisis. He could just not cope with the thought of having to stare down the aisle as some green-haired monster holding a bouquet of flowers, in a white dress, walked down it. The thought horrified him.

'No,' the prince thought shaking his head, 'No, definitely not. I must have a plan. I must find a way out of this.' He started thinking of various options that he could take. First he contemplated faking death, then saying that he was gay, and then actually committing suicide. He did not really like the third option though; it was a bit…messy. The prince also decided that saying that he was gay was just not believable enough. It was sheer stupidity. How would anyone believe him unless he showed them proof? And he most certainly did not want to do that. Also, since it was an arranged marriage and his father did not seem to care about his thoughts in the first place, he would probably still end up having to marry the green smurf queen even if he really were gay.

So he was left with the first option, faking death. He was a bit uncertain as to how he would go about this, but after a long session of thinking he finally figured out a plan. He would cause a fire and run away. It was ingenious. The fire would destroy most of the evidence, and hopefully they would just presume that his body had been burnt to ashes. It was a hard decision though, because he had his family and friends all here, but he figured to get over his death, his father would probably just marry some stuck up cow because that was what his father always did whenever he was depressed, and his sister, well, he would have no choice but to keep this a secret from her. Hopefully though, she would not be upset for too long. As for his friends, he did not know if he could trust them entirely since they had all taken a vow of loyalty towards the king. If his father were to question them, they would have no choice but to answer truthfully, which would give him away. It seemed that he would have to carry out this plan in secrecy.

At the dead of midnight the prince lit a fire, his eyes, crimson like the fire, were blazing with determination. Cautiously he looked around and seeing no one, climbed out of the window and onto his trusted horse, Blackbeard, that was waiting for him.

'Good boy,' the prince murmured, stroking Blackbeard tenderly, before galloping off into the distance.

30th July

'I'm back!' a girl with brunette hair thought, smiling fondly from her carriage that she was in, 'I can't wait to see Hotaru again.' She had just come back from the big city to visit her small hometown in the country again. This was because her best friend was getting married. She had originally moved out of her home town to pursue her dreams in the big city, but her best friend had drawn her back here. Her best friend had found her 'one and only' and had wanted the girl to be the bridesmaid. Her friend, it seemed, was planning to retire and settle down in the country even though she was still so young. She could afford to though, as she had enough money to last her more than ten lifetimes in luxury.

As the girl opened her carriage which had stopped outside of her house, she beamed a great huge smile. That smile soon turned into a confused yet curious look as she stared at the raven haired man that was staring back at her. Well, actually he seemed to be glaring rather than staring, but then his eyes flickered. They travelled down her, and his face turned into a grin. He said something smirking at her, but she did not catch it.

"Sorry, I didn't quite get that," she called out politely to the man.

He said something again but, yet again, she did not hear what he said. He was just too quiet. This time, the man rolled his eyes, pointed and half-shouted, "Polka dots."

The carriage driver made some sort of noise before blushing bright red. He then gruffly placed her bag on the ground, bowed slightly and rode off as fast as he could.

"Ah, um, bye," she shouted awkwardly waving one hand towards the already disappearing carriage, before turning around to ask the raven haired man about polka dots, but he was already gone. Frowning, she grumbled and pouted a bit before turning around to pick up her bags. As she bent down to retrieve them, she noticed something. It appeared she could not find the hem of her dress. Standing back up, she quickly realised her dress had ridden up showing the whole world her polka dotted panties. Blushing madly, she hurriedly pulled her dress down and figured out why that man had been talking about polka dots.

"Hmph. How rude and embarrassing. He could have just let me realise that my dress was up myself," she grumbled. The girl stomped towards the house carrying a large suitcase, viciously slamming it on the ground as she reached the entrance.

She pulled her hand out turn the door handle but as she did, it disappeared from view.

"Mikan?" a hoarse voice croaked, "Mikan? Is that really you Mikan?"

A man cradling a walking stick appeared at the doorway. Wobbling as he tried to steady himself, he smiled, "It is! Mikan! It is you! Come here, sweetheart and give your grandpa a hug."

Forgetting all notions that the girl had just been in a bad mood, she rushed forward into his arms almost knocking him over.

"Grandpa I missed you!" she held him in a tight embrace. She would have kept on hugging him longer, but a voice stopped her.

"You're killing the old man with your hug," it said bored.

Recognising that voice, she quickly released her grandfather and looked around. She met a pair of crimson eyes.

"You," she exclaimed pointing, "You're the one who made fun of me."

"Made fun of you?" her grandpa repeated confusedly, asking the two, "Do you know him Mikan? Do you know each other Natsume?"

Mikan was too busy glaring at Natsume to answer, but Natsume who just stood there staring innocently back, smirked again and said, "Oh yes, we know each other very well."

Confused by what he meant, Mikan stopped glaring at him. She turned her gaze back to her grandfather, and started to deny knowing Natsume, but stopped when she saw her grandfather beaming.

"Oh, I knew you two would get along well. He just came from the city too. Did you meet each other there?" Not bothering to let them answer though, he continued in a world of his own, "Of course you did. Oh Natsume, now I understand why you wanted this job so much. It was because I'm Mikan's grandfather. You must have tried to surprise her by coming here before her. Oh how sweet. How wonderful…"

At this, both of them looked horror-struck. Their thoughts were synchronised, 'No, no. He's got the wrong idea. Oh no, what do I do? I don't even know that guy/girl."

Their faces both turned even worse aghast, as Mikan's grandfather suggested something that completely revolted them, "Since I know you two are a couple, and so in love, why don't you share a room together?"

"NO!" both of them shouted, "NO! NO! NO!"

"Why would I want to share a room with him? He's perverted and gross and icky looking. I don't want to share a room with him!" Mikan cried, completely forgetting the point that he was also a complete stranger.

"I agree with her, she is gross and icky looking," Natsume said calming down from his outburst that was so unlike him beforehand, "Not to mention the fact that she has such bad taste in underwear."

Mikan was horrified. Not only did she have to stay in a single bed room with some stranger she just met, but she had to fake going out with him because her grandfather thought they were together, and wanted grandchildren. He did not have much longer to live either, which was why she felt bad if she told him it was all a lie and broke his heart. She had no choice but to pretend they were together and sleep in the same room as that perverted freak.

Grumbling, angrily and upset, she climbed into bed, but as she did, Natsume came in the room.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Huh? What do you mean 'what am I doing'?" she was annoyed, "Obviously I'm going to sleep."

"Yeah, but what are you doing sleeping on the bed?" he frowned, "That's where I sleep. Get off."

With that, he shoved her off the bed, and threw her a blanket and cushion.

"You sleep on the floor. The bed's mine," he clarified before turning off the lights and going to sleep.

Mikan could only gape in horror that there was actually someone this rude living in the world. Collecting her thoughts, she shook her head frowning. Snarling at him, she made herself comfortable on the floor and went off to sleep muttering curses.

31st July

Natsume woke to bright light blinding him. He groaned from tiredness. Stretching, he climbed out of bed and stood on something squishy. Rubbing his eyes, he used one leg and prodded the squishy feeling thing. It made a noise.

"Urmph," it sounded, "Owwrph-What are you-rphh."

Natsume prodded the thing again, this time his foot landed in a mouth. Opening his eyes he looked down and found a dishevelled girl with hair sprawled everywhere glaring at him. His foot was still in her mouth. Proceeding to take it out, he lifted his foot but then let out a yell as she angrily bit down on it hard.

"Ow! Woman, what do you think you're doing?"

"Biting your foot, what else?" she spat angrily, "Erugh. Now I have to a bad taste in my mouth. I'll probably get some weird mouth disease thanks you to."

Nursing his sore foot, Natsume retorted back, "like I care," before hobbling out and somehow still managing to look dignified.

Slowly over the course of a few days, Natsume and Mikan settled down their differences to come to a sort of mutual agreement, where neither would talk to each other unless in the presence of Mikan's grandfather. Still, Natsume had managed to observe Mikan during their few days together and somehow managed to pick up on a few of her amusing habits. He had figured out her pattern of underwear every single day and taken to addressing her by them, instead of using her actual name and he had managed to figure out that Mikan found him attractive, though this was not from observation but because she had been sleep talking about him, killing him, in fact.

"Stupid ass," she mumbled, "I don't care if he is so bloody gorgeous it's not funny, he deserves a painful death. A shotgun? No, that would be too easy. Beheading? Nah, something more painful is required. Torture? Yes, that's the best option. Yes…how about dripping water torture, I've heard it's painful and lasts for days. Yes…water torture will knock his handsome face right out of its socket…"

Natsume was a bit weary of her now, because it appeared she was actually planning how to kill him, and detested him greatly. That was how they had come to some sort of mutual agreement because seeing as how they slept in the same room, it would not be difficult for her to kill him if she was in a foul mood. Having her happy was a much better idea.

5th August

Having finished his work out on the paddock, Natsume made his way back to the ranch only to freeze in shock and horror. Standing at the doorway was someone he knew only too well, and that person was being embraced by Mikan. Standing behind him was girl who she looked slightly bored but nonetheless pleased to be there.

The girl, it appeared, was holding a rabbit. He could not see clearly from where he was, but it looked like his best friends rabbit. That rabbit was always extremely fond of Nastume and bounded towards him whenever it noticed he was nearby. It did the exact same thing that day.

Nose in air, it sniffed around, and looked over in the direction of where Natsume was standing, frozen. It leapt out of Hotaru's arms, Mikan's best friend who was getting married, and headed straight for Natsume. As Hotaru and Ruka, Natsume's best friend, turned their head and saw him, they both looked shocked. Ruka was gaping with his mouth wide open, while Hotaru just had a slightly stunned expression on her face.

The rabbit had reached Natsume by now, but was fended off when a sheep came angrily into view.

"Baaaa," the sheep tried to protect its Natsume from the little furry creature that was going to attack him.

The rabbit looked at the sheep innocently and soon it stopped 'baaing'. Natsume recovering from his shock of seeing someone he had not expected to see bent down and picked up the little rabbit. He patted the sheep's head fondly, before turning his attention to the rabbit and stoking it.

"N-Natsume?" Ruka stuttered, "Is that really you? You're meant to be dead."

Mikan looked between Ruka and Natsume and snorted, "Dead? I wish. Dead my ass, he's bloody alive and annoying."

Natsume did not know how he was going to explain this to Ruka, sighing he walked towards them and tried to figure out how he could explain everything.

"So let me get this straight," Ruka said slowly, "You faked your death so you wouldn't have to marry Sumire, and didn't tell me, or anyone else for that matter, because you thought we would tell the King?"

Natsume just nodded.

"You thought we would tell the king? I'm meant to be your best friend and yet, you didn't tell me?" Ruka asked in disbelief.

"I know it-" Natsume started.

"No. I don't want to hear it Natsume. From what it looks like, you couldn't trust me enough so why should I bother listening to you?"

Natsume sank into silence but then Mikan, who had been sitting there quietly listening all this while, said something that made him appreciate her, and give her a grateful smile.

"I'm sure Natsume had his reasons," she said, "It wouldn't hurt you to just hear them out."

Ruka complied, so Natsume spoke trying to explain, "It was because I knew you had sworn loyalty to the King. You would have no choice but to tell him where I was if you were questioned. It was easier just not letting you know, and I didn't want to bother anyone with having to protect me."

Ruka finally understood. He smiled at Natsume and the both of them knew it was all alright, they were friends again. In the midst of all these smiles though, Hotaru had to say something to ruin the moment.

"The King is coming tomorrow for our wedding. People will notice that you look exactly like him. We need a plan."

They all looked at her, pained, exhausted expressions. Why did she drop such bad news on them, when they were finally celebrating good news? Sighing, they all bent their heads down, and started to think of a plan.

Later that night, when Mikan and Natsume were going to bed, Natsume said something that surprised her.

"Oi, polka, you can sleep here tonight," he said.

"What? Why?" she asked incredulously, "Why are you being so nice to me?"

Natsume hesitated. He was not used to thanking people. Couldn't she just see that he was trying to be nice to her because he was grateful for what happened earlier? "Because of what you did beforehand, I," he paused, "I appreciate it and also thanks for helping out with the plan."

"Um…yeah," she said nervously, "I'm glad to help. You're not that bad after all and I know you had your reasons for doing this."

Natsume smiled gratefully, "So hurry up and get to bed. I want to sleep soon, you know."

Mikan realised that he was never very nice for long periods of time, and that period was now over, grumbling as she hopped onto the bed, she looked at him confused, "If I'm on the bed where are you going to sleep?"

"On the bed of course," he answered back as if it were the most obvious answer.

"What? No! Then I would much rather sleep on the floor."

"Fine by me," he said turning over, "I was just trying to be nice. Anyway, it's not like I'm going to do anything to you. Though we do have to pretend we're lovers."

Looking down at the cold hard floor, Mikan sighed. She looked at the bed she was sitting on, and then glanced back to the floor. It was like choosing between the devil and the deep blue sea. The bed looked so comforting and inviting, minus the fact that the perverted jerk was there, and then the floor was cold, rock solid and lonely. Who care about the stupid jerk? The bed was so much more pleasing than the floor that she did not care anymore. She would sleep on the bed, and just pray to the gods that Natsume would not do anything to her.

Snuggling down into the bed, Natsume turned and came up behind her, "Your only here because I'm here right? I knew you couldn't resist me. I bet you even paid your grandpa to set us up together."

Angrily she turned around to protest and saw him chuckling. Realising he was just playing with her she let out a huge huff, and turned back around. She went to sleep again, muttering to herself about how she wanted to kill him.

6th August

Mikan woke up nice and warm. She had not had a good night's sleep in ages. She felt something warm and comforting against her. She snuggled up to it, as an arm wrapped around her pulling her closer. An arm? Why would there be an arm here? She opened her eyes wide. Natsume. Shit. Fuck. He was hugging her. She had been snuggling against him.

"Arghh! Get away!" she shouted jumping up from the bed, "Don't molest me anymore!"

"What?" Natsume said sleepily, "What are you-"

He stopped short. He was sitting there just frozen. Mikan was glaring at him. How come he was not doing anything?

"Uh, um…" Natsume did not know what to say in this situation. The girl before him was shirtless. How? He did not know, and it appeared she did not even know she had no shirt on.

"Nice tits?" he suggested.

Mikan looked confused. She looked down and her eyes widened.

"ARGH! NO!" she screamed, "YOU MOLESTER! HOW COULD YOU! M-MY INNOCENCE! MY VIRGINITY! NO! I CAN NEVER GET MARRIED! Y-YOU BASTARD! GIVE ME MY SHIRT!"

Natsume looked down and saw, in his hand, a shirt. Oh lord, Mikan was going to kill him. Quickly throwing it to her, he tried to come up with some excuse, "I had no idea. There was no way. I didn't do anything. You were like that already. I was asleep. I just woke up. It wasn't me."

Glaring frustratingly at Natsume, Mikan stormed out of the room, with her shirt on.

Natsume just sat there on the bed trying to figure out how the hell her shirt had come off.

Mikan was not talking to him all day. She was the maid of honour or Hotaru's wedding and Natsume was the best man. They had to talk. They were planning on surprising Natsume's father, the king, by being at the wedding, but the plan was not going that well so far. Mikan was not talking to Natsume, and since he could not carry out this plan without her, he did not know what to do.

Sighing, he walked out of the church into the gardens to look for Mikan. He saw her near the food stand, so he approached her. As he got near her, someone called out his name.

"Natsume?" a timid voice asked. He recognised that voice. It was his little sisters. What was he going to do? He could not run, or hide anywhere. As he was about to turn around to meet his sister, he froze. In front of him was his father. He was looking at Natsume in disbelief.

"Natsume? Is that you?" the king called out, "Oh lord, it is you. I thought you were dead. Why would you do something like that boy? Scaring me and making you sister upset. I didn't bring you up to be this way."

Natsume could not say anything. He did not know what to say. He thought maybe instead of waiting for the plan to take place later, he might just have to risk it, and start now, though he knew he would have to improvise.

"Natsume, we'll have a talk later when we get home," his father started frowning, he then clicked his finger and a servant up came to him, "Get me the Shouda family. They're here aren't they? We will arrange wedding date now, and you, boy, will apologise for the inconvenience you've caused."

'Okay, it was time to put this plan into action,' Natsume thought.

"No. I don't want to get married to her. I don't love her," Natsume said defiantly.

"What do you mean don't get married? Since when did you ever disobey me, and what about love? Did I ever love your mother? No. It was arranged for me to marry her and I did. You will do the same boy."

"No, I don't love her. I want to marry someone who I love," he shot back.

"Well do you have someone who you love?" the king asked sarcastically.

"Yes I do," Natsume grabbed Mikan suddenly, and she fell back into his arms, "Her."

"You love her?" the king asked disbelief covering his face, "Don't lie to me. She's just some girl you randomly grabbed in hope of proving your point. You don't even know what her name is."

"I do," Natsume protested, "Her name's Mikan Sakura. She's the granddaughter of the man I'm working for."

The king scoffed, "You working? Now this is even more unbelievable than you in love. If you're going to lie to me Natsume, at least think up something believable beforehand."

"I do love her. I really do."

"Well, if so, then prove it. Kiss her, show me how much you love her with a kiss," the King smugly said.

Natsume hesitated, glancing at Mikan in his arms. She was still quiet, with her eyes wide open.

"See, you won't kiss her," the King arrogantly stated, "Your too much of you father's son to kiss a peasant girl, let alone touch her."

Annoyed that his father said that Natsume was similar to him, because he did not want to be some conceited bastard, he growled at his father angrily and spun Mikan around.

Grabbing her head ferociously, and not caring whether she looked scared out of her mind, he shoved his head in towards her and his lips met hers.

Beneath him, she froze. Realising that Mikan was scared, Natsume tried to be gentler. He needed to make their 'love' look believable, so Natsume needed her to be kissing him back. He coaxed her into a gentle peaceful sort of movement, and soon they were both kissing back passionately. Breaking the kiss they stared at each other. Mikan still had a surprised look on her face, Natsume just looked confused.

Turning back to his father, he said, "Does that prove it to you? Even if it doesn't, I don't care. I just want to be alone with her right now."

Grabbing Mikan's hand, he led her away. Mikan, who was still stunned, did not seem to be in this world, so he dragged her away quite easily. He led her to a Sakura tree which he had found. It reminded him of home a bit, and it was peaceful. He did not know what he wanted to do, but when kissing Mikan, he had felt a spark of some kind. It had happened too, when he was hugging her in bed together. His fingers tingled from her touch.

Looking at her, Mikan's mouth was still agape and her expression was still the same. She had not come out of her state-like trance yet. Staring at her, it made him want to kiss her again. She had not come back to reality yet, so he decided what was the big deal, he may as well, since it was not like he would really have another chance. He placed his lips on hers again, this time with more care.

Leaning in he tried to get her to respond. She did almost immediately. Smiling, he went to deepen the kiss but she stopped him.

"What are you doing?" she asked confusedly, "Wait, how did we get here? I thought we were in the garden, at the church…"

Mikan had blanked out for the past 10 minutes or so. Sighing, Natsume sat down trying to figure out what exactly he felt for the girl in front of him. Then, Mikan decided to sit next to him.

Natsume looked at Mikan and said slowly, choosing his words carefully, "You know, you're not half as bad as I thought you would be. I thought it would be gross kissing you but I…kind of liked it. Thanks for helping out by the way."

Mikan blushed at this, but did not really know what he was talking about, she only remembered him putting his lips against hers, and then blanking out. She did remember that his lips were soft, and nice, even though he grabbed her really roughly. Her hand travelled up to her lips.

"Yeah, I was expecting something really gross and icky coming from you," she joked, "Well at least you know that we don't have to do that again, since I think your dad believes we're in love."

"But I want to…" Natsume murmured quietly, "I enjoyed kissing you Mikan. I want to try, me and you. You know, since I don't have anything stopping me now."

Mikan just sat there. She did not know what to do or say. Natsume looked at her sadly, "Sorry for springing this on you, I shouldn't have. Let's head back up to the church now. Ruka and Hotaru will be waiting for us to start the wedding."

Mikan just turned to Natsume and smiled slightly. Timidly she said, "I want to try us too."

Natsume then broke out with a grin then, and grabbed her hand, his mood lightening drastically, "Let's go Polka, you don't want to give them any wrong ideas about the two of us," and with that they headed up back to church. Natsume knew then that he would choose life as a farmer over being a prince any day. Because if he had not, then how would he have met the one he loved?

End

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