So i finally got this chap done. YAY for no more writers block! However, its still not edited. My sis couldnt come over today but since i havent updated in a while i figured, why make them wait... so yeah anyway ill get the edited version up ASAP. So untill then, rxr!


Natsume watched the sleeping girl in front of him. He wondered why she had collapsed for no apparent reason. She had been fine for the entire time.

What was going on?

The fire flickered slightly, and rain continued to fall outside. Currently, Natsume and Mikan were in a cave, a few miles away from the strange house.

Natsume looked out the cave entrance.

If it doesn't stop raining soon, Mikan and I are going to be here for another night.

It had been three days since Mikan had passed out, and it had also been raining for that amount of time. Sighing, Natsume took the stick laying next to him, and jabbed it into the fire.

Sparks flew out, a few landing on Mikan's face. She stirred. Natsume looked up at her as she groaned and sat up.

"You're finally awake, huh."

Mikan looked over at him, but the sudden movement seemed to have made her dizzy. She clutched her head and lay back down.

"I wouldn't move if I were you. You have been out cold for three days." he stopped poking at the fire. "Care to explain what happened?"

Mikan turned her head towards him and glared.

"Not until you tell me where we are and how we got out of that building."

Natsume scowled.

She's being an idiot again.

"Fine."

Natsume didn't say anything after that.

"Um... I'm still waiting." Mikan huffed impatiently. Natsume looked over at her.

"After you collapsed, the guards caught up with us... I was somehow able to get you out of the burning building, but not before we both got injured by those men."

Mikan was listening intently, but she was also examining her body. She had multiple bruises, and her clothes were covered in blood, but nothing seemed to hurt.

"What happened after you got away?" Mikan asked.

"Nothing really. I found this place, and it started to rain, so we have been here ever since. If you're hungry, there is some fruit over there."

Mikan suddenly realized how hungry she was. Carefully, she reached over to the corner of the cave and picked up an apple.

"You didn't get very much." she criticized, looking at the pitiful pile of fruit.

Natsume scowled but didn't say anything.

For a while, neither of them spoke. It was an eerie silence, filled only by the sound of the heavy rain.

After a while, Natsume spoke.

"So are you going to tell me what happened to you, or not?"

Mikan sighed. "Fine. As you know, I lost my memory, but whenever I got close to remembering something, I would always collapse."

Natsume gave her a startled look.

"So you were about to remember something?" he asked, trying to hide the hope in his voice.

"I wasn't finished." Mikan grumbled. "Ever since I've come back here, I have been getting these memory spells, where I actually know things about before I was eleven."

Natsume watched her intensely.

She might actually stop hating me. If she remembers everything that happened...

Mikan shook her head. "The first time, I was in this room. Suddenly, I got dizzy, and saw myself in the same room. But I was younger, and I wasn't wearing the uniform. You were also there, and you pinned me to the couch for some reason. You also called me polka – dot something or rather."

Natsume snorted. That was the first time he had met Mikan, the first time he had known someone who wasn't afraid of him.

Mikan ignored Natsume and continued.

"Before that, I had dreams. I still have them occasionally, but the intervals between them have gotten farther. It starts out when I am in a dark room, crying. The strange thing is, I can see myself in the dream, almost as it it is a movie." she sighed, "Anyway, I am crouched in a corner sobbing. I am a mess. All of my clothes are destroyed, my hair is cut in different lengths, and I look as if I've been there for days."

Slowly, Mikan stands up and starts to pace around.

"Suddenly, the room lights up, and someone entered. It's a boy with black hair and crimson eyes. Then I scream."

Natsume followed her with his eyes, not knowing what to say. She remembered him, but not really. Before he could come up with something to say, Mikan started talking again.

"I've never told my mom about this, in fact, I don't even know why I'm talking about this. In any case, it doesn't stop there."

"The next time it happened, I was sitting in the classroom, when you burst in, wearing that cat mask. I think I fainted after that. But what I saw in my vision thing, was almost an exact replica of what had happened minutes before. It was kinda like déjà vu."

She stopped walking and sat down.

It's almost as if she has wanted to tell this to someone for a long time, but was never able too. Natsume figured.

Mikan was still talking.

"And just now, I saw a multitude of things. It started out when Reo had kidnapped you, then moved to some kind of festival. After that, I saw something about a penguin, and Hotaru getting hurt. It finally ended with me seeing my mother." There were tears in Mikan's eyes. She curled up into a ball and began to cry.

"What's wrong with me?"


A few hours had passed since Mikan had spilled her secret, and her eyes hurt from crying.

Across from her, Natsume was leaning against the cave wall. He hadn't said anything at all since she started to cry, and Mikan was afraid that Natsume thought she was a freak.

Hyuuga probably hates me even more now. Why did I have to tell him all of those things?

She clasped her hands, and rested her head against them. She was about to drift off, when Natsume spoke.

"The rain's finally letting up. Are you done crying?"

Mikan nodded and wiped the final tears away from her eyes.

Natsume put out the fire and exited the cave. Mikan followed him, and felt refreshed. The air had that musky rain smell to it, and all of the trees and plants were covered with tiny droplets of water.

Mikan inhaled deeply. She had a feeling that her friends were worried about her, and tried to clam down, so she didn't freak them out.

It took a whole day for Mikan and Natsume to make their way back to the hidden school entrance. When they got there, Persona was waiting for them.

"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in." he said smirking. "Was the mission successful?"

"No." Mikan quickly replied, before Natsume could say anything. "When we got there, guards were waiting for us. It seems that they were somehow tipped off that some of us were going to be there."

Persona gave Mikan a hard look before turning back towards the entrance.

"If you say so."

Mikan sighed and followed Persona. She could hear Natsume behind her, and she knew that he was confused as to why she had lied to her teacher, but Mikan had had no choice. It was either step up and try to put an end to all of the nonsense in this school, or give in, and hand over one of the most dangerous alices known.

It was night, so Mikan decided to head straight to her room to take a shower. However, when she opened the door, she was surprised to see a figure sitting on her bed.

"So," an icy voice hissed. "Did you decide that you could avoid me?"

Mikan froze. Had she done something wrong. She flipped on the light switch, and saw Hotaru.

"I've been back for three days. Three days! Where have you been!"

Mikan grimaced. "Apparently, I was unconscious, in a cave, hours away from the city."

Hotaru narrowed her eyes, closed them, then sighed.

"I guess there's no helping it. You're still an idiot." She looked up and smiled evilly. "I heard that you have a date tomorrow." she taunted.

Mikan blushed. "It's not a date. Now can you please get out of my room? I want to go to bed!"

Hotaru sighed again and stood up.

"What ever. See you tomorrow."

Mikan watched her retreating back, before collapsing onto her bed and falling into a deep sleep.


Unfortunately for Natsume, he had the same thing happen to him when he entered his room.

Ruka was on his bed. He looked as though he had had almost no sleep in the past couple of days. Dark rings were under his eyes, and he was petting a sleeping rabbit.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "You and Sakura-san have been gone for days. The whole class is worried about you guys!"

Natsume rolled his eyes.

"We're fine. Mikan just fainted and was unconscious for a few days."

"I see... Wait! Did you just call her 'Mikan'?"

Natsume froze. Ruka watched him, but didn't say anything.

"Must have been a slip of the tongue." Natsume murmured in a horrible attempt to hide his feelings.

Ruka shook his head.

"Admit it, you want to call her that, too her face."

Natsume turned to look at his friend.

"No. No I don't. Now get out."

Ruka let out a laugh and exited the room before Natsume got really mad.

As soon as he left, Natsume collapsed on his bed coughing. The three days spent taking care of Mikan had hurt his health badly. He had done an excellent job hiding it from Mikan though.

Tomorrow was the first day of the festival, and the day that Mikan was going to be going out with that Hiro guy.

The thought made him feel worse.

Natsume reached over to his bedside table and opened the drawer. Inside were two alice stones. One was from Hotaru's older brother, and the other was a small orange stone that Mikan had given him four years ago. He reached in, and grabbed the healing stone.

As soon as it activated, he felt better.

After putting the stone back, he lay down on his bed, and was soon asleep.


"Mikan-chan! Hurry up!" Anna called from outside Mikan's room.

Mikan laughed at Anna's impatience. It had only been five minutes since the excited cook had pounded on Mikan's door, waking her up.

She finished getting dressed and brushed out her hair. Finally she opened the door.

Anna, Nonoko, and Hotaru were all waiting outside the room, looking extremely bored.

"Geez! What took you so long!" Anna cried in a whiny voice.

"It wasn't that long." Hotaru said. She was leaning up against the wall, tinkering with one of her inventions. "We've only been out here for about ten minutes."

"That's right," Nonoko added. "It takes you so much longer to get ready." The girls laughed.

"Sorry Anna." Mikan said sweetly. "I'll be faster next time."

"Yay!"

Hotaru stood up.

"I've waited long enough. I have something to do. Bye."

She walked down the hallway, still working on her device.

"Where is she going?" Mikan asked. "She told me that all of her items were completed."

"They are." Nonoko said. "You didn't know that Hotaru is the vice – president of the student body?"

Mikan looked at Nonoko. "No, I didn't. She never mentioned it before."

"Well, she is. That's were she is going, to get ready for the opening."

"Oh."

Mikan looked down the hall where Hotaru had disappeared.

I wish she had told me.

"Are you coming, Mikan?" Anna called.

"Yeah!"

Mikan followed the girls outside. They walked towards the main part of the academy, where the opening ceremony was going to take place.

Mikan marveled at the sight of the grounds. There were students everywhere building sets, dressed in strange outfits, and hurrying to finish everything.

Mikan was so excited for the day, but the memory of the mission still lingered in her mind. She reached up to her neck and felt the stone that she had stolen from the man. It was a strange green color and was cold no matter what Mikan did to it.

Eventually, the group reached the place that the student body president was to give a speech.

"Who is the president?" Mikan asked.

"Wow, you have been here for quite a while and you still don't know?" Anna said.

Mikan rolled her eyes. "Don't lecture me, I don't pay that much attention to these things."

"Okay then. I guess we should tell you, but we won't" Nonoko teased. Mikan glared at her friends.

"Why not?"

Nonoko and Anna exchanged glances and laughed.

They continued walking, Mikan having given up, followed suit.

When they finally got to the area where the ceremony was to take place, Mikan gasped. She had never quite realized how many students actually attended Gakuen Alice. There was almost no room in the small area for anyone else to come, and yet somehow, no one seemed to be uncomfortable.

"Wow." Mikan whispered in awe.

"We should just stay up here." Anna said, plopping down on the soft grass. Nonoko followed suit, but Mikan was still too surprised to do anything.

"I – I didn't realize that there were that many students in this school." she muttered. The only people that she knew were the ones in her homeroom, Tsubasa, and Nobara. None of the students in the dangerous class seemed to want to be affiliated with Mikan, and since she was in that class, others didn't want to talk to her either.

"Come on Mikan, sit down!" Anna invited, patting the grass next to her. Mikan slowly sank to the ground, her eyes still fixed on the crowd below them. She was barely listening to her friends chatting as the time went on.

Not long after they had sat down, two familiar people walked onto the stage. Mikan's jaw dropped.

"Yuu!" she exclaimed. Anna and Nonoko laughed beside her.

"Yep!" Nonoko giggled. "Ever since we entered high school. He's amazing."

Mikan was speechless. It amazed her how little she still knew about this school, even though she had been here for quite a while now.

Anna and Nonoko talked throughout the entire ceremony, but Mikan just watched. It wasn't long before she noticed the class representatives sitting in the chairs near the Headmasters.

She scanned through them, and her eyes rested on the last one in the line.

Natsume.


Finally, Natsume thought, this stupid ceremony is over, now I can go relax in peace.

He trotted away from the stand, hoping that nothing bad would happen.

Unfortunately, his luck is terrible.

"Oi, Hyuuga!"

Natsume flinched as he heard the cold voice of Hotaru.

He turned slowly, awaiting her wrath.

"What's this I hear? You caused Mikan to be unconscious for three days! What is wrong with you!"

"I didn't do anything." Natsume said calmly. "She fainted for some reason and didn't wake up again for three days. Not my problem."

He tried to walk away but was blasted by Hotaru's Baka gun.

"I don't believe you."

"Obviously." Natsume muttered. Louder he commented, "If you want to blame someone, go yell at Persona. He's the one who made her go on that stupid mission." He walked away before Hotaru could say anything.

Natsume walked slowly around campus, hoping to finally get some sleep. Between Ruka and Persona, he hasn't been able to sleep for quite a while, and it was catching up to him. Finally, he found a nice place where no one seemed to be and lay down.

He closed his eyes and let the sleep wash over him.

It was getting dark when Natsume finally opened his eyes. He sat up and stretched, feeling refreshed after his nap.

"You take forever to wake up." someone commented beside him. Natsume jumped and looked over, seeing Ruka leaning against a tree.

Natsume scowled and lay back down. He was in no mood to talk to Ruka at the moment. In fact, he didn't want to talk to anyone.

"Sakura-san had fun today."

Natsume tried to ignore his friend.

"Hiro seems to be nice. It's almost as if she is falling for him."

However, he was finding it difficult.

"She looked as though she was lonely. I don't think that you should have stayed here all day."

Natsume sat up and glared at his friend.

"Will you shut up!" he growled. "I don't care about that girl, nor do I care about that Hiro kid!" Ruka just smirked.

"Sure you don't. That's why you are always watching her in class, and fidgeting when she comes near." he began to laugh, but stopped immediately when the ground next to him caught on fire. Natsume sighed.

"What do you want."

"Nothing."

"I'm serious..."

"So am I."

"Ruka..."

"Look, Natsume, I don't want anything, but it's obvious that you want Sakura-san, and I don't want to see you get hurt again."

Natsume didn't say anything to this. He didn't know what to say.

"Well," Ruka began slowly, "I think we should head back to the dorms. The festival is over for today." He stood up and began to walk away. Natsume watched his back, still pondering what he had said, and eventually followed.


"Mikan!"

Mikan turned to see who was calling her and saw Anna running towards her.

"Mikan, Mikan, Mikan, Mikan! Come on! We have to get ready for the dance tonight!" Mikan smiled. The past two days had been a lot of fun, but now it was time for the last night.

Everyone had told her about the magical last dance, and how who ever you danced with you would be with forever.

Of course, Mikan doubted this, but she could never know in this school. She had discovered that anything is possible.

"I'm coming Anna." she said sweetly. "What are we going to wear?"

"Well, as high school students, we are allowed to wear what ever we want, so I asked Shinai to sew something for us!"

Anna grabbed Mikan's wrist and began to drag her towards the dorms.

"Come on! We need to hurry!"

"Anna, it's not that important." Mikan laughed. "We have all day to get ready."

"You might, but Nonoko, Hotaru and I have other things to do, so this is the only time we can help you."

Right, they have to do somethings to get ready for the dance. I would hate that.

"Okay, okay. I'll come quietly."

"Yay!"

Mikan stepped out of the bathroom, unsure of how she felt about the outfit. It was a long, satin, crimson dress that sparkled in the lights of Mikan's room. She sighed and began to wonder why Shinai had made her dress red. It's not like she looked good in this color or anything.

Not only that, but it reminded her of Natsume's gorgeous eyes...

She shook her head violently at the thought.

Bad. Baaad Mikan. Hyuuga does NOT have gorgeous eyes!

She looked around. Her three friends had to leave not long after they had forced her into the dress and done her hair. She glanced in the mirror and sighed.

As much fun as she had had these past few days, she was beginning to wish that she wasn't going to the dance with Hiro. She only thought of him as a friend while he... seemed to be more interested.

Mikan sighed and walked to the window. It was getting to be the time where she had to leave.

She opened the door and walked out. The dorm halls were empty, as most of the people were already down by the bonfire. Mikan could see the magnificent fire from the windows of the hallways, and she was excited to get down there.

When she finally exited the building, she was greeted by Hiro.

"Hi, Mikan-chan." he said happily.

"Hello, Hiro."

"Are you ready to go?"

Mikan hesitated. As much as she wanted to go, she really wanted to go alone. Finally, she nodded and followed Hiro to the bonfire.

The entire school was there, dancing and having fun. It was hard to maneuver around the couples and groups of friends.

The dancing was fun. So many people wanted to dance with Mikan that she was tired by the time she was able to get away from the crowded area, she was tired enough to fall asleep.

She sat down at a table, hoping to get something to eat when she spotted Hotaru dancing with Ruka. At first her eyes just slid over them. Then her brain registered what she had just seen.

Hotaru was dancing with Ruka? Since when was she compassionate enough to dance with a boy?

Mikan shook her head, trying to ignore this. She really didn't know that much about Hotaru, so for all she knew, Hotaru could have a soft side to her.

Mikan snorted at this idea.

She tried hard not to laugh so that no one would pay attention to her. She had had enough people after her tonight.

She sat back in her chair and scanned the crowed again. This time, she saw Hiro weaving his way around the other students, heading towards her. Quickly, she stood up and hurried into the woods nearby.

She really didn't want to see Hiro at the moment. As she hurried down the path in the trees, the sounds of the night began to mute out the ones of the festival. Mikan closed her eyes and slowed to a walk, listening to all of the beautiful forest sounds.

Sighing, she opened her eyes and stopped in a small clearing. She looked around her peacefully, admiring the moonlit trees around her. Her peace was shattered however, by a dark voice;

"So, not enjoying the dancing, little girl?"

Mikan froze and turned around angrily.

"What do you want Hyuuga?" she hissed venomously. Natsume just smirked.

"You look good in that color. I'm surprised you chose it. Doesn't crimson remind you of that boy from your nightmares?"

"Stop it!"

"Why should I?"

"Because I said so. I am in no mood to deal with you tonight Hyuuga." she took a dangerous step forward, nearly closing the gap between the two.

"Then why don't you run away?"

Mikan clenched her teeth.

"Mikan-chan?" someone called. Mikan turned at the sound of her name, grateful for once that Hiro was coming. She opened her mouth to respond but instead was yanked back into the shadows of the trees.

"Hyuuga! What are you -" Natsume cut her off, covering her mouth with his hand. He didn't say anything. Mikan began to struggle, a mistake on her part. Natsume pressed her up against the nearest tree.

"Stay quiet." he hissed, looking back into the clearing. Mikan narrowed her eyes and dug her nails into her captors arms. He let out a gasp of paid, removing his hand from her face.

"Don't touch me!" she whispered. "I hate you!" she began to struggle again. She looked up at Natsume and was surprised to see him sad. He was looking down, his hair covering his eyes, but she could see that he was upset at something. She started to talk but was silenced again.

This time, by a kiss.