Possession - a Gakuen Alice Fanfic for Natsume x Mikan. Written by Crystallised.
Before you say anything about their ages, I know that Mikan's meant to be older than Natsume, but I find it cuter if Natsume's older. After all, it seems kind of strange (no offense) that Mikan would be older than Natsume. Enjoy!

Chapter Two - Different Treatment

With a deep breath, Mikan hesitantly took a tentative, small step through the broad, ebony gates.

Mikan walked into the slave market, prompting all heads to turn to her. After all, she WAS the heiress to the most wealthy man in the whole of Japan. Everyone immediately bowed; even the slaves. Mikan laughed uneasily. It was a forced laugh, but everyone seemed to calm down slightly after it. She smiled lightly and said, "I'm here to look for a sla- person that can help me with all my..." Mikan paused, swallowing and quoting what her father said, "...Daily needs."

The whole market was brought into shock for a few moments before everyone began talking animatedly, many people arguing over who would sell a slave to her. Mikan bit her lip, chewing it as she thought, 'I knew this would happen. I should've worn a disguise after all-', but her thoughts were abruptly cut off when a man cried out, "we have a highest bidder! 200,000 yen is our highest so far! Would anybody else like to add on?"

Mikan looked over and her eyes widened, caught in crimson-coloured eyes that stared right through her. She felt transparent when the boy's eyes studied her carefully, taking in her every detail. Her mouth widened slightly in amazement. The boy was handsome, she had to hand it to him. He had slightly messed up ebony hair with bright, alluring, crimson eyes. Although he was wearing rags, Mikan could tell that under his torso, he had quite a fit, muscular figure; but the most eye-catching thing to Mikan was that, he looked barely older than her. This young man, who was probably only slightly older than her, was possibly more caged and restricted than she was.

That wouldn't do for Mikan. She looked at the current highest bidder, a girl with a lustful sneer on her face. Mikan was appalled and realised that the slave that was currently being bidded on must've been popular solely for his looks. At this point, Mikan couldn't help herself but raise her hand and say, "I bid 300,000 yen."

Everyone in the market paused and the girl that was the, ex-highest bidder looked at her with a disgusted frown. Mikan smiled lightly, looking at the man that was selling the boy.

"Nobody else would like to place a bid? 300,000 yen is the final... One, two, three!" The man yelled out, before smiling and placing a collar on the boy's neck, much to Mikan's and the boy's distaste. The man attached a chain onto the collar, with a handle on the other end.

The man led the boy over to Mikan, who was beaming. On the other hand, the boy was scowling.

'She probably just wants me for my looks AGAIN. Like every other disgusting girl here.' The boy thought, a frown crossing his handsome features; he definitely did NOT expect what was actually going to be in store for him. Mikan unwillingly took the handle of the chain leash on the boy and began to lead him to the exit of the slave market. The boy scoffed at her gentleness.

'She's just going to be like all the others once we get out of sight of the market.'

As soon as they were out of sight, Mikan turned to the boy, making his scowl deepen, if possible. Instead of staring at him with lustful eyes though, she looked at him with pure, honest, bright hazel eyes. She smiled widely and asked, "What's your name?"

The boy stayed silent and ignored her, making her pout, much to the boy's amusement. She stood on her tip-toes, and it was then that she realised how tall the boy was. He was a head taller than her just standing normally, and this made her frown deepen. She placed a gentle, small hand on the collar around his neck. He shuddered at her touch, preparing himself for what was about to come, but instead he heard her voice.

"Natsume Hyuuga, huh?" Mikan smiled. Natsume rolled his eyes. She had only been looking at his collar to check his name, he realised. Mikan giggled.

"I like it. 'Natsume' kind of reminds me of Summer," she complimented. Natsume's eyes widened as she didn't let go of his collar, and instead loosened it. Lost in thought, he didn't notice Mikan struggling with his collar and realised what she was having difficulty with after she let out a low growl.

'She's so childish.' Natsume thought, eyeing her. Mikan let out a small gasp, making Natsume's eyes widen, thinking it was something serious.

"Oh my God, I forgot to introduce myself!" She cried out. Natsume groaned inwardly and glared at her for a while, only to be met by Mikan's cheery smiles, which Natsume found hard to ignore. She was so naïve and overly positive that it got on his nerves.

"I'm Mikan... From the, uh, Sakura family." Mikan introduced herself, stumbling on the word "Sakura". If there was one thing she wanted to avoid, it was being categorised in the same type of people as her obsessive, power-hungry father. Mikan didn't like the thought one bit and couldn't help but frown slightly, making Natsume's eyes widen. Mikan continued and said, "I'm sixteen, and my birthday's on the first day of the year. What about you?"

Natsume grimaced. He was older than her, but only by a mere few months, he realised. His birthday was on the 27th of November. Mikan frowned at Natsume's lack of response, which he chose to ignore. Since he first saw her, he had seemed to have made up some sort of secret "mission" to make Mikan frown and pout as much as possible; whilst Mikan had made up some sort of secret "mission" to get Natsume to talk. Although neither said anything, with Mikan being to oblivious and simple-minded to notice anything, Natsume realised what she was trying to do and made it harder for her.

After ten endless minutes of trying to get Natsume to talk whilst trying to take his collar off, Mikan let out an exasperated sigh as she took his hand, surprised at how warm it was.

"Come on, instead of just standing here fumbling with your collar, I think we should just get home and cut it off. It's uncomfortable for you, right?" Mikan reasoned cheerfully, catching Natsume off guard. Her smiles always caught him off guard; and, as much as he hated to admit; he didn't mind being her slave, if he could get treated like this regularly.

Mikan practically dragged him to her large estate. Natsume stood there in shock for a few moments before remembering what he was doing and put the "bad-boy act" back on. Mikan, on the other hand, noticed when he stiffened and let out a nervous giggle. Natsume frowned; it sounded so forced, and even though it sounded strange, from the moment that he first saw her wandering through the tainted streets of the slave market, he felt a connection to her and felt obliged to protect her. That was the only thing that had stopped him from making a run for freedom as soon as she took his hand. Natsume was snapped out of his thoughts as Mikan squeezed his hand lightly and tugged him towards the large, snow-white coloured gates with elegant patterns engraved onto them. She walked towards the doorbell and pushed it lightly.

"Yes? Who is speaking?"

A voice floated out of the speaker.

"This is Mikan, can you open the gates please?" Mikan asked politely, smiling at the affirmal that echoed out almost instantaneously. The gates made screeches and creaks as they slowly opened; and what Natsume saw next nearly made him lose his composure. On second thought, he did lose it for quite a few moments... Again. Mikan merely giggled; it was no surprise, after all, their estate was the biggest in the whole of Japan.

"This is the Sakura residence, Natsume. It covers like, about... 250 hectares? So that's... 2,500,000 square metres. I think our estate is second-best to the other estate in, uhmm, France, I think it was. My friend owns it, you know! Our house only has around a hundred floors and a thousand rooms in total. Do you think it's pretty?" Mikan explained in a joyful tone, making Natsume's jaw open wider. She bit her lip trying not to laugh; Natsume certainly wasn't making an attempt to keep up his rebel façade now. Natsume recomposed himself, again, and glared at Mikan who was trying hard to suppress her giggles.

"Well, since you're done staring, let's go inside!" Mikan winked at him, dragging him once more into the luxurious place. Natsume was determined not to drop his act this time like he did twice already, and boy, it was hard. If someone looked at the outside of the Sakura residence and thought it was fancy, that was NOTHING compared to the inside. Natsume was trying very hard to look calm whilst looking around. Mikan smiled to herself and continued leading Natsume to her room, nodding at all the maids and servants that said, "Welcome back from the slave market, miss."

A few people asked who the boy she was with was, and before she could answer, it had spread like wildfire across the room and, to Mikan's surprise, straight to her father. She bit her lip out of frustration, anger and fear. Natsume noticed this and, like what she had done to him before, squeezed her hand lightly. He was rewarded with a warm smile from Mikan, who resumed to taking him to her room. Inside, he immediately noticed a girl that was sitting at a table, typing away on a computer. She turned around to the sound of the door being opened. The girl had short, jet-black hair; even darker than Natsume's; and mysterious, violet-coloured eyes. She smirked at the two.

"So this is the slave that you bought?" Hotaru assumed - no, deduced - making Mikan cringe.

"He's not a slave to me, Hotaru! He's my friend!" Mikan declared, making Natsume's eyes widen.

'She thinks of me as a friend already?' He thought, his expression wavering slightly. Although it passed by Mikan, it didn't go by unnoticed by Hotaru, who's smirk widened even more. Natsume shuddered. Mikan simply beamed sunshine and rainbows at them, oblivious to the glaring contest going on between her newly-bought-friend and her best-friend-since-childhood. Neither wanted to blink first, but then Hotaru ended up blinking once Mikan butted in and said, "Hey, Hotaru, stop staring at Natsume! I mean, you already have Ruka-pyon!"

Hotaru's glare intensified tenfold as she turned to Mikan, disturbed by the fact that her boyfriend's name could make her waver. Mikan let out a short, intimidated squeal as she quickly moved behind Natsume and clung onto him, still gripping onto his hand. She stuttered, "U-uh, well, anyway, Hotaru, this is Natsume Hyuuga and Natsume, that's Hotaru Imai. She's been my best friend for eleven years and she's from the second-most wealthiest family in Japan, the Imai family."

Hotaru was about to say something when a maid burst into the room, realised what she did, ran back outside, closed the door and knocked. Mikan giggled at the action, whereas Hotaru just rolled her eyes and Natsume cocked an eyebrow. 'Are all the people in here so weird?' He thought. Mikan immediately stopped laughing when the maid said, "Miss Sakura, your father would like to see you... He heard about your new 'boyfriend' and is demanding to meet him."

Mikan blankly stared at nothing for a minute before the maid's words sunk in. She squealed in horror and turned to Natsume and then Hotaru, appalled. "What do I do?! Everyone thinks that Natsume's my boyfriend!" Mikan cried. Natsume just stared at her. Hotaru sighed in frustration and glanced at her desktop longingly, ignoring Mikan's wails.

"There's no way to get out of this, right? Why don't you just..." Hotaru paused, eyeing Natsume with a cocked eyebrow, "...Dress Hyuuga up in formal attire and bring him to your father, explain that he's your new sla- friend, and leave."

Mikan nodded slowly. "Y-yeah, I think da... Mr. Sakura will understand." She cut herself off before saying "dad", making Natsume's expression harden. What exactly was going on with her and her father? Before Natsume could wonder any possible reasons for Mikan calling her father "Mr. Sakura", he was pushed into her bathroom with a servant that took his measurements, who then ran out of the room after scribbling them onto his notepad and bringing back a custom-made, new tuxedo with a full set of the shirt, pants, tie, socks and shoes. Natsume just stared at the servant blankly as he was dressed into the clothes and rubbed with cologne (al the while he was struggling, of course). He growled as his hair, which hadn't been touched for years, was brushed and then sprayed with some sort of liquid that made it smell nice.

Mikan's eyes widened when Natsume stepped out of the bathroom. He looked amazing; he was so handsome, no other boy could compare. Not even Ruka Nogi, Hotaru's French boyfriend. Hotaru ignored his grand entrance and stayed with her face staring at her desktop. Natsume shifted uncomfortably in the clothes. They felt strange on his skin; all he had ever been given to wear were used rags. He felt so pampered that it disturbed him.

Mikan snapped out of her trance and thanked the servant quickly before taking Natsume's hand and walking out of her room, heading towards her father's study. The light pink blush that crept onto her cheeks didn't go unnoticed by Natsume, though. He seemed amused at Mikan's attempts to ignore her flushing. By the time that they reached her father's study, all the colour had drained from her face and Natsume watched as his master paced back and forth, chewing her lip.

He didn't like it.

He didn't like it at all.

'What exactly happened with her family?' Natsume wondered, but he wasn't about to invade his master's private space. Instead, he gave her a gentle push on her back, startling her. Mikan smiled gratefully at Natsume, her newfound strength. He was the source of her courage, the same courage that made her swallow her fear and knock on the wooden door of her father's study. A voice boomed out of the room and Natsume felt Mikan shiver slightly, making him feel even more curious and slightly worried.

"Come in."

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. -Crystallised/Dee