Headcanon story coming up. :D

I do not own Gakuen Alice. [:

There were parts of her that seemed brand new to him.
She wasn't perfect, and not everything could be brand new just because someone was.
But if only he hadn't found out like this.

She's No Superhero

It was the fact that he was such a surreptitious person that had gotten him into this situation. If he hadn't been the quiet, mysterious boy he was, no one would have wanted to approach him and try to get things out of him—especially not this girl people thought he was engaged to.

"So what are you into?" Yuka asked with a serious face, putting her face at the angle Shiki was looking.

Shiki had been minding his own business earlier when Yuka called him to sit with him on the grass just because.

"Art," Shiki replied.

"You're an artist?" Yuka's mouth fell open.

"I like to appreciate art," Shiki said quietly, barely opening his mouth.

"Oh," Yuka stared at him. "That's nice, I guess." She gave him a small smile.

Yuka sat with her legs crossed—oblivious to the fact that anyone could simply look down and see her knickers—and Shiki knelt on the grass, sitting on his feet as if he was participating in a Japanese tea ceremony.

Now was the time for Shiki to test the theory that idle talk costs lives. He didn't mind sitting there with her, helping her try to make small talk then listening to the deafening sound of silence take over, but he had to admit, this was more than a little bit too awkward for comfort.

"Soooooo…" Yuka held her ankles and started to lightly rock back and forth. "I'm curious."

Shiki looked at her with questioning eyes, hoping he'd succeeded in silently asking her just what she was so curious about, because honestly, the less talking there was, no matter from whose mouth it was coming from, the less he had the urge to stand up and walk away—and that was the last thing he wanted to do right now.

"Do you ever smile?" Yuka pouted. "Or at least say more than ten words in a conversation?"

Shiki did speak more than that sometimes and maybe he did smile and laugh whenever something happened—but maybe he did most of that in his head.

Truth is, the reason why Shiki tried to tolerate this random grass moment with Yuka was because he was confused. He'd been hearing rumours that they were engaged, but for some strange unknown reason, he wasn't completely troubled by the thought of it.

He also realized that he'd been feeling a weird fondness for this girl. Everything about her was brand new. He had never met anyone like her before—he hadn't met anyone with a laugh like hers or eyes like hers; he'd never met any girl who didn't make him feel uncomfortable, or who was so patient with him, or was so bubbly and carefree, yet matured at the same time. She was brand new. She didn't bother him at all, and that bothered him.

Shiki didn't know whether it was the doing of the Alice Stones, or if he naturally garnered instant feelings for Yuka, but he wasn't going to walk away from this moment. If there was ever a time to seize the day, now was the time. He was going to sit through this whole conversation with her on the grass until he found out what had triggered this peculiar infatuation.

Yuka stared at him, hopeless. She was definitely not going to get an answer from him soon—or at all, for that matter.

"Do you have any interesting birthmarks?" She laughed.

Birthmarks? Obviously, she'd been running out of things to talk about.

"I have one somewhere behind my knee," Yuka said, uncrossing her legs so she could look for it. "It's really tiny though, but it isn't hard to spot. When you see it and tilt your head a little to the left, it kind of looks like a rabbit."

Shiki shook his head in embarrassment. Was he supposed to bend over so he could stare at this girl's leg? Because that definitely wasn't going to do him—or his reputation—any good.

"I don't think we'll see it this way," Yuka frowned. She stood up and dusted her skirt before twisting her body and bending down to see behind her knee. "Oh, there it is! Come here, Shiki! Look!"

Shiki stared at her blankly, mentally hoping he wasn't blushing at the sight before him. He wasn't. He felt like he would though.

"Ugh," Yuka's shoulders fell. "Here," she said, walking over to him to give him a closer look of the rodent she had for a birthmark.

Shiki looked away, not wanting to be part of this extremely embarrassing situation. He had no choice though, Yuka came too close for him to avoid. Again, she twisted her body and bent down backwards to see behind her knees so she could point it out. Unfortunately, she had lost her balance and had fallen over to the grass.

One of Yuka's shoes laid several feet away from them, while she laid face flat on the grass.

"Ow," Shiki heard her muffled voice.

Shiki looked away, and then he laughed—as quietly as he could get his laugh to be.

He wanted to stop before she could lift her head and look at him. But how could he after seeing small prints of Piyo on her underwear, and a small hole on her sock that revealed a part of her big toe? Apparently, as brand new as she was to Shiki, her socks said otherwise.

Yuka sat up slowly and looked at Shiki, embarrassed at what had just happened, but noticed him trying to cover up his silent laughing.

"You're… laughing." She said, still embarrassed.

Shiki turned his head and held a hand over his mouth, but his shoulders and stomach's movements gave him away and he had absolutely no way of hiding that.

"You're laughing!" She blushed hard, clearly hating the fact that her new friend found her humiliating situation amusing. "I was going to buy a new pair of socks today, just so you know." She folded her arms.

Shiki didn't stop.

Maybe he didn't find out just what it was that she had that got him the other day, and maybe he never will. But he wasn't naïve. Yuka wasn't perfect, sure, her Achilles' heel was, as silly as it may sound, her big toe peeping out of her sock. She was no superhero. But she did sport her underwear out in the open like Superman did. And what that did to him made him realize that these feelings weren't just because of the Alice Stones.

But if only he hadn't found out like this.

The End.

Author's Notes: I hate how Yuka was portrayed as well, so don't blast me with comments about her OOCness. Lol. And I fail at humour, I've learned. I'm going to stick to more serious fanfics from now on.

Ridley Silverlake