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Disclaimer- I do not own Gakuen Alice.

Warning- No flames!

Chapter start.

Chapter- His truth.

Mikan POV.

"One more thing Natsume…" a guy with a white mask calls from the shadows under the tree. Natsume stopped, back ramrod straight, his hands rammed into his trouser pockets. "Your next mission is in two days time. Get your strength back up. We can't have the 'black cat' dropping standards."

I caught a flash of white teeth as the moon glinted off his face. He was smiling- an evil twist to his features. He walked away, his black coat whipping around his heels.

Natsume slumped to the ground, his knees tucked up to his chest, his face resting on his knees. A beam of moonlight shone down on him. His raven hair glowed in the soft light.

I realised that I had to get down from the tree I was perched in without getting noticed since Natsume looked angry, and I did not want to be on the end of his wrath.

I dangled my foot down and stretched to place it onto a sturdy branch below me. I pushed off the branch I was sat on, until I was balancing on the sturdy branch below. I dropped down onto the branch hovering just above the ground. I hit the grass and froze as a branch snapped under my foot.

"What are you doing here?" Natsume snapped, his shoulders rigid, and his crimson eyes glaring at me.

I turned slightly to face him, and tossed my brown plaits out of my eyes. "I couldn't sleep. What are you doing here?" I asked. I decided to keep my mouth closed about the black-haired guy-for now.

"Go away." He turned his head away from me, staring off into the night.

I sighed. Slowly, I walked over and sat down beside him. The grass felt nice and cool through my cotton pyjama bottoms.

Not entirely sure on how to approach this, I mumbled, "Natsume, something's been bothering me for a while now. Do you_" I stopped talking as I brought my gaze to look over at him, and found that his crimson eyes were trained to my face.

We stared at each other a moment, until he said, "Are you going to finish that sentence anytime soon?"

After recovering from my shock about the amount of sarcasm he could fit into those nine words, I blushed slightly. I probably sounded like an idiot.

Twisting away from him, I quickly finished my sentence. "Do you have…the fourth group alice?"

His head jerked and out of the corning of my eye I saw his body freeze.

Looks like I was right to think that this was a sensitive topic.

"What makes you say that?" he asked, and if I couldn't see him I would most probably believe his air of nonchalance.

I ran my fingers through the grass, and traced delicate patterns across the strands. "I…just have a feeling." I had an instant image in my head about Kaname. He uses his alice even though it drains his life. But if it makes him happy…

There was silence.

Finally, I couldn't take the quiet any longer. I spun around to face him, and clicked my fingers impatiently. "Natsume_"

"Leave it alone Mikan. Didn't I tell you not to come any closer to the darkness that you don't need to see?" he interrupted sharply.

I was rendered speechless a moment. That was the second time he had ever used my name, the first time at the last dance and now here. We had been arguing both times to. I gave my head the tiniest of shakes to clear my thoughts, and attentively reached my hand out to place on his shoulder. "Natsume, why can't you just_"

He flung my hand away, and glared at me. His crimson eyes flashing. "Get out of here boring girl! He yelled. It felt like a scream in the midnight serenity.

I slowly stood up, feeling hurt and empty. I made my way over towards the clearing in the trees and paused there.

Throwing a glance over my shoulder, I quietly asked, "Who was that guy?"

Natsume's raven hair whipped around his face as he snapped his face towards me. "What guy?" his voice was guarded, but I sensed an undertone of nervousness and…fear? But what did he have to be nervous about? Besides, Natsume didn't get scared.

"The one that was just here. With_" I trailed off in annoyance and fixed him with a confused stare. Why was he being like this?

"I don't know what your talking about." He replied quickly, his voice now dripped boredom.

I placed my hands on my hips and opened my mouth to retort when he said, "Go now. Just go."

Annoyed at his evasiveness and mood swings, I flounced off into the general direction of the dorm rooms. Reaching my dorm, I griped the door handle and flung the door open. Throwing myself onto my bed, I buried my face into my soft pillows and sighed deeply. I hate fighting with Natsume. It just feels so wrong. Wrapping myself up tightly in my blankets, I twirled my plaits around my finger.

I tried to banish our latest argument and fall into a peaceful slumber. But I had the most peculiar feeling that someone was watching me.

On impulse I called out, "Natsume?" into the now eerily quiet bedroom.

No answer.

Burrowing deeper into my cosy nest of blankets, I tried to evict the wave of disappointment that over whelmed me. Feeling like this about Natsume was silly. It wasn't going to progress into a proper relationship, simply because he didn't like me.

He didn't like me and he never would.

Ignoring the growing feeling of suspicious that someone was watching me, I fell into a restless slumber.

*Time skip- Next morning*

Mikan POV.

I groaned quietly to myself as my persistent alarm clock blared to life. Rolling over to click it off, I kicked the blanket off me and swung my feet out of bed.

Stretching, I scuttled over to the window and threw back the curtains. The morning sun lit up the blue sky, and the birds chirped happily. I leaned down onto the windowsill and stared out at the scene before me.

Suddenly all the chirping cut of abruptly and a heavy silence fell over everything. I scanned the scenery for any form of malevolent predators but saw nothing.

It was on my second scan that I saw the source. Tucked in tight to a tree, a man stood under the branches.

Leaning father out the window, I narrowed my eyes at the person.

Moving quickly, he spun from under the tree and started walking off using long strides deeper into the forest.

Who was that? It couldn't be…him…could it?

Chapter end!

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