Disclaimer:- Sweetsarcastic does not own Gakuen Alice or any of its characters. If you thought she did, you were seriously misinformed.

A/N- And I present the 9th chapter. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

Bright Gray

The next night, I was discharged from the hospital.

"Ah! It's so good to be outside again!" I said, breathing in the fresh air.

" And it's good to see you up and about, Mikan-chan!!" Narumi sensei exclaimed. He had come to take care of the discharge papers.

"Since you're back to being so loud, I guess you're all right now, Stupid."

"Hotaru!" I gasped, turning around.

I looked at her with tears in my eyes. Yesterday, there had almost been a moment when I had thought I would never see her again…

Surprisingly she gave me a small smile." Come here you idiot," she said, holding out her arms.

"Oh, Hotaru!!" I cried, and hugged her with all my might. She laid a hand on my head.

"I know it's hard for you, but try not doing such stupid things. It makes me worry and wastes my time. By the way, you owe me money for that. I could have made a brand new invention…"

I just smiled and hugged her tighter. With Hotaru, it had always been tough love.

A small cough sounded beside us, and I looked up to see that someone else had accompanied Hotaru.

"Hope you're feeling better now, Sakura-san." Ruka-pyon said with a smile.

"Yup!" I grinned, letting go of Hotaru and flexing an arm. "Fit as a fiddle."

"Um…. this is for you." Ruka-pyon stammered, and handed me a clay jar. "It's honey from a rare breed of bees…I hope you like it."

"Aw, Ruka-pyon," I said, touched, " You shouldn't have."

"Oh no," he shook his head," I'm really indebted to you Sakura-san. You saved Natsume, at the risk of your own life. Thank you so much."

"I keep saying, it was what anyone would have done. You don't just stand there and let someone you know get hurt…" I muttered.

"Uh, yeah," Ruka-pyon said, confused. " It's just that Natsume's always been so reckless. He doesn't really care about himself, and is liable to throw away his existence at any given instant. I'm so glad he has you now!"

Before I could think of a reply to that, Hotaru cut in. "And speaking of yesterday…"

She turned to Narumi sensei, and actually smiled at him. The smile made her look even more beautiful than usual, but for some reason it sent a shiver down our spines. "Care to explain, sensei?" She asked in a deceptively pleasant voice.

Narumi sensei gulped. "Of course! Why don't we walk Mikan-chan back home, and I'll explain?"

We started walking back to the mansion.

"First off, Mikan-chan, I'd like to congratulate you." Narumi sensei said. He whipped out a huge bouquet of flowers out of…. some extra large pocket? And handed it to me.

"These are lovely, Sensei, thank you. But what are they for?"

"You've managed to complete the obligatory one week of stay with Natsume! He sent a message to the Council this morning- you're now officially allowed to stay!"

Shock infused me, followed by happiness. I was allowed to stay? I didn't have to be homeless! And wait- Natsume agreed to let me stay?!?

"Congrats Sakura-san!" Ruka-pyon said, as Hotaru commented," Guess we're stuck with the idiot now."

I was still too surprised to even call her up on her meanness. I had really thought Natsume was too irritated by my presence to actually have me around permanently. Guess I was wrong!

"Hey, does this mean I don't have to stay with Natsume anymore?" I asked hopefully.

"Whatever gave you that idea? Of course you have to stay with him, he's still your fiancé!" Narumi sensei said breezily.

I slumped in disappointment. Guess I couldn't have it all.

"Now, about yesterday," Narumi sensei began in a tone so serious it caused me to stop in my tracks," There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Mikan-chan."

"What is it?" I had never seen him look so grim before. He was starting to worry me.

"I've had my suspicions, but I wasn't completely sure until last night. Mikan-chan…. you're… a Nullifier."

Ruka-pyon gasped in surprise, and Hotaru actually looked shocked.

"Yeah I know." I said nonchalantly, causing Ruka-pyon to sweat drop, and Narumi sensei to almost drop to the ground in surprise.

"You knew?!" he almost yelled at me.

"Um yeah." I said apprehensively. "Natsume's called me that before. He comes up with so many nicknames for me; it's hard to keep up. But how do you know about it?"

"Is there no limit to her stupidity?" Hotaru muttered. I pouted at her.

"Mikan-chan… it's not just a nickname." Narumi sensei took a deep breathe before continuing," You're a Nullifier…. as in, you're not human."

He looked at my frozen expression worriedly." You already know about Vampires, how the Nite are different from them, and why they are different. However, we never told you exactly why the Vampires of old declined. It was because of the Nullifiers."

"They were some sort of defense mechanism that Nature came up with to control the plague of Vampires. A glitch in the basic structure makes sets Nullifiers apart from humans. They're more…endurable, and are built to resist Vampires."

"An age ago, they rose to power, and helped the Human race battle the darkness. However, Nature played a cruel joke on them, and as soon as their purpose was completed, they began to dwindle and disappeared. That is, until now."

"Recently, as the Nite's BloodMagic grew, the Nullifiers began to reappear. Only a handful, but it was still a reaction. Only this time, we weren't completely ruled by our instincts. Some of us chose to work peacefully with the Nite. The others…well…. we all made our choices." He finished delicately.

"We?" I asked him quietly.

Narumi sensei seemed surprised that I had picked up on that point. " Uh, yes. You see, I'm a Nullifier too."

Again, I was really surprised. I don't know why, but somewhere along the way, I had just simply assumed Narumi sensei to be a GrayNite too. It made a lot of sense, now that I thought about it. His control over Natsume, for one thing.

"So…. you can resist the Nite?"

"In a way." He replied. " Just like the powers of the Nite are unique to each individual, similarly our defense varies too. I'm a Pheromone type."

"Huh?"

"All Nite are invariably attracted to me." He said, giving me a devilish grin." They just can't resist my charms!"

I allowed that to sink in. I had to admit, it did suit Narumi sensei's personality.

"Yours, however, seems more inclined towards the old method. Direct Nullification. I guess that's why you were able to survive unscathed yesterday." Narumi sensei continued thoughtfully.

"Did you know?" I said softly, not looking at her.

"No." Hotaru said. I could almost hear the frown in her voice." This is quite…. unexpected."

An awkward silence fell over us as we walked a bit more. I tried avoiding their eyes.

Eventually, Narumi sensei cleared his throat." Well, here's the house." He announced in a fake cheerful voice. Seeing that he hadn't convinced anyone, he sighed and bent down to hug me.

"I know this is a lot to digest at once Mikan-chan." he whispered gently." So I'm just going to give you some space. But I want you to know; I'm always there for you. When you feel ready, come on over and talk, 'kay?"

I nodded, and he smiled at me reassuringly.

"Don't worry your puny little head over it, Baka." Hotaru said as gently as she could. "Nothing's changed."

I gave her a tremulous smile, and watched them all walk back in the direction of the academy.

In a daze, I turned around to make my way through the house, and up the stairs. There was no sign of Natsume, as usual. I stepped into my room and made my way over to the window. I pushed it open, letting the wind caress my face and tried to breathe normally.

Eventually, I noticed Natsume lying on the roof under the branches of the Sakura tree. In a split second decision, I climbed out of the window and made my way over to him.

"Can I…. sit here?" I asked hesitantly.

"Hn"

Taking that to be a yes, I parked myself onto a piece of roof next to him, and wrapped my arms around my legs. I tried to tune out my thoughts, and concentrated on the surroundings.

It was a beautiful night out, with the stars shining overhead and the wind blowing gently. Most surprisingly, this felt normal. Sitting out here with Natsume, enjoying the silence. For some reason it felt…comfortable, and there were no bad vibes between us.

I had just told myself that there was something wrong with the picture, and that it wasn't going to last for long, when Natsume decided to speak. " What's wrong?"

I blinked, trying to register the fact that Natsume was willingly starting a conversation with me. "What do you mean?"

"You're never this quiet unless you're thinking about something. And you're fiddling with that chain around your neck, which you only do when you're worried." He sounded like he was stating the obvious.

I realized I had been thumbing Okaa-chan's locket again. It usually calmed me down, but I was taken aback by his observation.

I opened my mouth to answer him but couldn't make it past the bump in my throat. I tried to find the right words as the knot in my stomach tightened.

"Natsume…" I said slowly," have you ever felt like you didn't know yourself? What you might be, what you're capable of? If, suddenly, everything you knew turned out to be untrue? What if you're repulsed by knowledge of your own self?"

Natsume turned to look at me with his intense eyes, and I realized with a jolt that I he probably knew what I was talking about. Too well. Didn't Ruka-pyon say that he hated himself?

Ashamed, I had decided to apologize when Natsume asked quietly," What made you think about all of that?"

I swallowed painfully. Well, he already knew, in a way. But was I ready to admit it to myself?

"Narumi sensei told me… that I'm a Nullifier." I whispered.

"Oh." There was a 'told-you-so' type air around him, even though he didn't say anything.

" The thing is… I, well…" I struggled to get my thoughts out before they strangled me inside.

"All my life I've heard stories about magical beings and creatures of the dark. I've always been fascinated by these stories, different as they were from my commonplace life. When other little girls wanted to princesses, I kinda wanted to be a vampire." I gave a rueful laugh as Natsume made a face.

"But now…" I stared ahead bleakly," Now, when I actually find out I'm not human, I feel like this. I'm still the same person, but everything has changed. How much about me don't I know? How much will change now that I do know? What if I don't want, or believe in, the same things anymore? I'm different. And I don't know if that's a good thing anymore." I finished, feeling helpless.

"Hn. And here I thought you actually had a serious problem."

I turned to glare at him. I didn't know what I had expected after baring my soul to him, but this was definitely not it.

"Only you would have such childish worries, Little Girl." He scoffed. " So you learnt that you had a white view of a black world. So now you have to deal with shades of gray. So what? When you mix black with white you get shades of gray. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. You end up with more variety that way." He grinned at me impishly. He actually grinned at me!

" Learning something new about yourself doesn't change you, it completes you. Just because you're a different species doesn't mean you change who you are. You are the one who chooses what you believe in, and nothing can change that."

I gawked at him as what he said sunk in. It made sense. Perfect sense. I could feel something rising in me again, but this time, it was gratitude.

"Natsume…" I whispered, tears coming to my eyes," Thank you!"

I leaned over and hugged him, expressing all my happiness through it.

Somehow, everything was back to normal.

" Get off me, Pigtails!"

"Argh! You burnt my hair again! Jerk!"

"It's your fault for invading my private space! Idiot girl."

"Insensitive Moron!"

"Ugly!"

"Short-eyebrow freak!"

"Polka dotted panty girl!"

" Insufferable Pervert!!"

Oh well. As normal as it was when you lived with Natsume, anyway. At least he would never change.

Somehow, that thought itself was worth smiling for.

A/n- Not really action-packed, but with this we finish the first arc of this story! The next chapter is a new beginning, in a way.

I realized I had been portraying Mikan as this ditzy, silly, freakishly-horror-absorbed idiot. While the last part is certainly true (;p) I really hope this chapter succeds in giving her more depth.

Please tell me how it was. Reviews rock!

And a Happy Valentine's to all of you!!