A/N: Thank you so much for all of the reviews! I've been completely out of it, like…sleeping 24 hours out of it, I'll get back to work now

Chapter Two

There's nothing in this world so sweet as love, And next to love, the sweetest thing is hate.

_Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I awoke with a groan, my head felt like it was rushing with water, and when I sat up it felt like it weighed upwards of a hundred pounds. Judging by the position on the sun in the sky, I hadn't been out for more than a couple of minutes. I bit my lower lip as I struggled to remember what had happened.

It didn't take long, because my eyes flittered up and met with his. He was painfully handsome, his crimson eyes glowed with wicked intensity and his messy black hair ruffled ever so slightly in the wind. Instantly I though of the dark haired stranger who'd swept me off my feet in my dream. Unfortunately, he killed that image the moment he opened him mouth.

"I can see your panties, Polka Dots." He said, his voice dead cold, but not quite monotonous. I squealed, and hastily tucked my skirts around me, shooting him the deadliest of glares. His clothes were covered with pumpkin guts, and there was a long tear in the knee, but I could see that they had once been quite fine.

"You pervert!" I hissed, I tried to get to my feet, but instantly a wave of dizziness took over me, and I sat back down, cradling my head in my hands.

"You're the one who showed them to me." He said, I sighed, but didn't bother to look back up at him.

My free hand fluttered to my chest, where my bruise was, it now hurt ten times worse than it had, if that was even possible. Finally, the boy seemed to take pity on me, he stood up, and stepped closer, tentatively, like maybe he thought I was contagious or something.

"Oi, knock it off." He said. I looked up at him, his eyes weren't betraying any emotion.

I sighed, and attempted to get to my feet again, this time it worked, I kneaded the tender area with my fingers, and checked for blood, luckily, there was none. I stepped past him, tilting my chin up haughtily. He spun around and caught my hand

"Wait." He said, his voice gruff and commanding, I was compelled to do just that.

"You can't let anyone know you've seen me." He said his red eyes boring into mine.

"Why not?" I asked, half curious, half because I felt spiteful. He looked momentarily uncertain, his eyes darting this way and that, but he got over it quickly.

"Because you can't, that's why." I felt my lips tilt into a smirk. I jerked my hand out of his and did what was arguably the least intelligent thing to do to someone who you'd just met.

I baited him.

"Well, because you say so…I'll head straight to the Authorities after this." Stupid, stupid, stupid. I didn't know this guy, he could have been a murderer, or anybody really, and I was small and un-armed, easily brought down to size, I suppose I was still a bit dizzy or something. He grabbed my wrist again and spun me around, he looked angry, his brow was twitching, I realized I had done something stupid.

I held up my hands in surrender.

"I'm sorry, I'm kidding, I won't tell anyone I was just…knocked stupid." Fear churned like dirty water in my heart, I kept eye contact with him. he shook his head so his hair fell over his eyes.

"I can't let you go now." He said simply, I felt like all of the air had been sucked out of my body.

"Please." I whispered, my eyes widening to roughly the size of dinner plates. He kept his hand clasped on my wrist as he inspected his nails.

"Where are you headed?" he asked.

"I was just going to buy some Blackberry jam, and then head home." I told him, my voice taking on a pleading tone.

"I'm coming." He said, dropping my wrist and pulling up the hood of his dark red cloak. I gaped at him.

"You're what?" I asked as he swept past me.

"I'm coming to make sure you don't go running to the Authorities." He looked back at me pointedly. Confused, I followed after him.

OoOoOoOo

We walked together in silence, my eyes cast downwards, chewing desperately on my lips.

"So…" I began, as the silence was making me uncomfortable.

"My name is Mikan Sakura." I said, he responded with a little grunt, keeping his gaze fixed ahead of him.

"What's yours?" I ventured.

"That's none of your business." He said. I flinched at his tone, and upon recovery I fixed upon him a glare so lethal that I half expected him to drop dead.

He didn't even look at me, just continued forward, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, dripping with pumpkin guts. We walked in silence for a few moments, until he finally said.

"It's Ruka." I blinked up at him, and he shrugged his shoulders, meeting my eyes with some hesitation.

"Ruka Nogi."

OoOoOoOo

I squirmed under the suspicious look of the shop keeper, Mr. Tsukishiro had sold to me since I was five, and he knew me well. His small black eyes kept darting to Ruka and back to me.

"Are you paying for her sir?" he asked. Translation: Are you courting her? I opened my mouth to say that I was paying for myself when Ruka produced a coin purse out of his pocket.

The coins clinked together as he spread them out on the counter. My mouth fell open, as did poor Mr. Tsukishiro.

"I-I can pay for myself." I said, eyeing the silver and gold coins Ruka had spread out as I clutched my own bronze ones.

"Don't be stubborn." Said Ruka, pushing the money towards Mr. Tsukishiro.

"How much will this buy?"

Mr. Tsukishiro began wrapping jars of jam in brown paper, and before long I had about twelve jars, and a bag to carry them in. I stared stupidly at Ruka as we headed towards my house.

"Why did you buy the Jam for me?" I asked, after a long silence. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't really know." He said, he sounded almost like he was in pain.

A/N: For clarification purposes the boy Mikan met is Natsume, he's using Ruka's name as a alias.