One of Them

Disclaimer: Hi, I don't own Gakuen Alice.

Previously: "Yeah, good luck. Now that you know my true motives for giving up Mikan, wish me luck on seducing her best friend." Ruka said sighing. Hotaru definitely wasn't going to be an easy catch. Natsume sighed along with him.

"Something tells me that neither of us are going to have an easy time with this."

A/N: GRAHHH! I have no idea on what to do for this chapter!

I guess I'll just have to go with the flow…-sighs- Why am I such an incompetent writer? -shakes fist in air due to frustration- Grrrrrr…

Enjoy anyway.

Chapter 14, Mystery Man

"Do you have any three's?" Mikan said looking utterly and completely serious at Natsume who stared back at her with the same intensity before a slow smirk spread across him face, Mikan scowled in response, realizing the inevitable fate of her.

"Go fish." she cursed. Natsume picked one card up before slapping down his last pair and declaring her won while doing a discrete victory dance; what can I say? He liked to win.

"Damn it! This is the third time you've won! Are you cheating?" she stared at him hard for a second before sighing and slumping down in her chair, which was one of the middle seats in the row all four of them were situated in on the plane taking them to China. Hotaru sat on her right side calmly reading a book while Ruka, who was on the end seat on the right of Hotaru, slept.

"I'm going to sleep!" Mikan grumbled as Natsume broke out into the chorus of the "We are the Champions" song. (A/N: Whenever I lost a game my dad did that to me, I loathe that song) Natsume paused from his singing to give her a small smile which made her blush an adorable hue of red. (And lilmissmex3, I owe that phrase all to you XD)

"Don't be a sore loser." he said in low and, admittedly, sexy voice. Mikan gulped audibly making Natsume's smile get slyer by the minute, she was feeling increasingly uncomfortable and her blush had now spread from the tips of her ears to below her collar bone where it then disappeared under the fabric of her tight black dress. She couldn't help but suddenly feel exposed and indecent beneath his hungry gaze that seemed to penetrate her very soul; it wasn't helping that his hot breath was blowing onto the shell of her very red ear. Wait was he doing this on…purpose? Before she could pursue the thought she felt a slightly cold finger tip lightly trace from below her ear to her collar bone making intricate patterns along the way.

W-whats he doing? she thought panicking then freezing as the low murmur of his voice said something she couldn't make out, because quite frankly she was getting dizzy from their close proximity. If this continued she had no doubt in her mind she would pass out, and why was it so damn sweltering in this plane! Closing her eyes for a moment she took a deep breath. Get it together Mikan, its just Natsume, you know how he is…it couldn't mean anything- the feel of lips against the base of her throat sent tingles up her spine and made her body go stiff. She closed her eyes again trying to convince herself that she wasn't affected by this, nope, she wasn't affected, not in the slightest. She felt his lips move and squeaked as a hand situated itself on her thigh setting her leg on fire. Damnation! Hurriedly fumbling with her seat belt she released herself and clumsily crawled across Hotaru and Ruka -accidentally elbowing Ruka in the stomach in the process- her limbs shaking badly. Damn, traitorous body, she thought as she tried to walk or more like stumble down the aisle way with what was left of her dignity.

Ruka, who had been so rudely awakened, looked at Natsume with a tired and questioning stare to which Natsume returned it with a sly smile and gleam in his eyes that spelled out one thing.

Don't ask.

--

Mikan felt like an idiot. How could she think that that playboy, most popular guy in the universe, Casanova #2 for gods sake! Could be putting the moves on her your classic nerd with extremely bad luck and psycho ex-boyfriends? She couldn't, because the whole theory was utterly ridiculous!

So why was her face ablaze and her legs trembling from a simple touch that he probably didn't even know he did, he was probably just teasing her and here she was shaking like a baby calf who had just learned to walk, it was pathetic and illogical! Its not like she liked him right? Right?! She thought a bit more frantically as her legs finally gave out causing her to not so gracefully fall to her knees in the middle of the aisle way. Her bad luck was proven to be true because as soon as she collapsed a stewardess came speeding down the aisle pushing a metal cart full of drinks threatening to crush her. Her eyes widened in horror as the metal death machine drew closer and closer to where she was practically glued to the floor.

Just as the evil thing was about to mow her over she saw a big blur jump in front of her before grabbing her and jumping into the row of thankfully vacant seats on her left. What the-

"Watch what your doing!" a distinctly masculine voice hollered at the stewardess that was practically doing a 100 meter dash down the aisle. Mikan turned her wide brown eyes toward her savior who was wearing black aviators. Strange they were inside why the sunglasses…

"Are you alright?" she nodded hurriedly giving him a timid smile and trying to ignore the fact that she was sitting, quite comfortably she had to admit, in the guys lap.

"Yes, I'm fine, thank you for saving me." she said letting her eyes study the mysterious man. He had wild chestnut hair and from what she could feel and see -through his tight black turtle neck- a to die for body. He was obviously foreign with his sun-kissed skin and sexy accent. Not to mention the silk, emerald over shirt that had a beautiful golden dragon embroidery on it and fell to his knees; the golden buttons of the shirt ran down the middle of his chest, but all of them were open exposing form fitting beige pants. The shirt looked extremely expensive and was distinctly Chinese. She moved to get up but a sharp prick of pain had her sitting back down, she looked over her shoulder to see that a lock of her hair had gotten stuck on the button of his shirt. She quickly reached to get it but his large hand captured her small pale one, she looked up at his angular face curiously. He grinned at her making a dimple in his cheek show, her cheeks tinged pink, this guy was seriously a hottie.

"I'll do it." he said with his naturally husky voice that made Mikan want to melt.

"O-okay." she said turning to face in the opposite direction to not show him how extremely interested she was. But what girl wouldn't be interested? I mean a hunky guy saving you from being run over, then sitting in the hunky, foreign guys lap, then letting the hunky, foreign, obviously rich guy softly undue your hair from a button on his shirt, what girl wouldn't be totally coming undone by the chain of events? She peered at him again studying the way his angular jaw line jutted out proudly and how his nose was pointed to perfection like an aristocrat, the way his chestnut hair looked as if it would never be tamed. Why…she thought furrowing her brows in confusion. Why does this seem so familiar? She was broken out of her feeling of nostalgia when he lifted her up off his lap and set her gently on the ground making sure she was steady. She smiled up at him.

"Thanks again." she said bowing and turning around and beginning to walk away.

"No problem, be more careful next time, Ms. Mikan." she froze. I never told him my name! Spinning around, about to ask how he knew her, she was met with the sight of a empty aisle. Frowning a bit she began to walk in the direction of her seat again.

Who was that?

--

Sighing Mikan plopped back down into her seat still perplexed about the mystery man that had rescued her. She peeked to her left and then to her right to see that both Natsume and Hotaru were asleep (So was Ruka.) She smiled, Hotaru looked so relaxed when she was asleep, it was a rare sight. Fumbling around she finally found and grabbed her camera leaning over Hotaru and putting her finger on the button about to take the picture when a voice startled her.

"What are you doing?" Mikan who was kneeling on her seat jolted in surprise making her almost fall onto Hotaru. A strong arm locked around her waist, instead yanking her in the opposite direction making her tumble into Natsume's lap. What was it with her and sitting in men's laps? She turned, glaring at him, before hissing quietly as not to wake up their friends and the other passengers.

"Why did you do that?" He just smirked.

"I'm not the one taking weird pictures…" Mikan frowned and blushed.

"I was not taking weird pictures…pervert." she mumbled. She looked at him for a second noticing his tousled raven hair and crinkled outfit, his slightly glazed crimson eyes. He must have been sleeping and now that she thought of it, she to was tired.

"Go to sleep." she said with a yawn before shuffling around and making herself comfortable. She went to grab for one of the indigo wool blankets and one small pillow only to find none.

"Where's my sleeping stuff? " she asked to no one in particular, of course Natsume answered anyway.

"The stewardess took it away because you weren't there." Mikan scowled at him.

"Well, why didn't you stop her?" he shrugged before snuggling under his blanket.

"I wasn't paying attention." she scoffed. Typical. He watched as she attempted to get comfortable, shifting and hugging herself for warmth as the plane was extremely cold now, truthfully he felt a little guilty for not stopping that stewardess but what could he do about it now? An evil thought drifted into his mind, perhaps this could all work in his favor. Peering at her he tried to look innocent, ha! About as innocent as a cougar can look to a bunny.

"Y'know…" she turned to face him as he suddenly spoke, she arched one of her brows in question silently giving him consent to continue speaking.

"If you don't have a blanket, we could share." he said shrugging to make it no big deal. She bit her lip nervously, studying him for a second. The offer seemed innocent enough…but then again nothing was innocent with Natsume; it was damn cold and she was shivering. In the end her misery won over her reason, hesitantly she lifted the armrest, the barrier keeping her from getting to close to him. He smiled, it looked devious in her eyes, and lifted up half the blanket inviting her in. Hesitantly she scooted closer all the while keeping a close, careful eye on him incase he tried something. She shivered again, dang the plane was cold what was up with their air conditioning? Natsume seeing her shiver and being the gentlemen he is warped his arm around her and pulled her into his chest, she couldn't help her sigh of contentment, he was just so warm, inhumanly so. Hearing her sigh he smirked and tightened his grip positioning his pillow behind her head before resting his head on hers. She blushed at the intimate position they were in, almost like they were…boyfriend and girlfriend.

"W-what are you doing?" she asked clearly startled, he just rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly.

"Just go to sleep!" and for once she didn't argue but merely snuggled into him trying to get more comfortable, after all she was exhausted from the plane, sighing again she let sleep claim her.

--

Walking through the crowded airport was almost as bad as when she woke up in Natsume's arms; being teased mercilessly by friends while the flight attendants whispered nasty things and Natsume just ignored it all! Mikan sighed, she had almost not gotten any sleep at all, after falling asleep for an hour she woke up at the feel of someone nuzzling their nose into her and a gently stroking her leg. This pattern had continued throughout the night, her falling into sleep only to be woken up by Natsume doing something or other. Apparently he was very affectionate in his sleep and that was the death or her.

As she continued her trudge through the fast paced crowd she suddenly noticed that the farther she moved the denser the crowd got, what was going on? Tip toeing around and jumping up she saw tons of secret service agents dressed in black suits surrounding a man. She -being as curious as she was- crouched down and moved closer to get a better view. As she finally came to the front of the crowd she was shocked to see the same man that had saved her on the plane. It was impossible not to recognize him with his tall, toned physic and wild chestnut hair; the only difference was that he was missing his glasses though she couldn't really see the front of his face since he had his head turned, most likely away from all the flashing cameras.

It was almost like he felt her presence because in that moment he turned and looked straight at her paralyzing her with the most gorgeous amber eyes she had ever witnessed his eyes were intense and appeared to smolder. She gulped as he begun to walk toward her, something told her to run but his eyes pinned her there making her feel like a lamb in a den of wolves. When a smile suddenly took over his stern features she visibly relaxed. Before she knew it he was only inches away from her lightly taking her hand in his big one. He leaned down kissing her chastely on her cheek; she stared at him in bewilderment. Why the hell is this so familiar? she thought as she stared into his intense amber eyes that looked so familiar it killed her.

"We meet again, Mikan." her eyes widened in realization, shaking her head in disbelief she stared at him for a second before breathing.

"Xiao Lang?"

A/N: I finally updated, though I had no idea where this chapter was going, I'm glad it turned out better then I thought, so if you thought this chapter was better then you expected review to tell me.

Authoress Ranting: Oh my gosh! I finally accomplished one of my goals in life and bought a Hitsugaya plushy! Its currently sitting next to me as I'm typing this rant. -Looks lovingly at the plushy before tackling it into a hug- Its just so cute!! I plan to get a Sesshomaru one next year (at the Anime Expo).

Are any of you readers reading the manga Red River?! If you are don't you just hate queen Nakia (I'm on book 22 by the way). I've only bought 21 and 22 so far since I read the rest online… but I'm planning to buy the rest of them to support the author. I'm also re-reading the series because its just that damn good! -Points- If YOU haven't read the manga (there's no anime) you should rush out to you local book store and buy it NOW!

Note: If you are bothered by UN-graphic (its not that graphic) nudity and or sexual displays (its NOT that graphic, seriously) then you shouldn't buy it. But seriously at first I was a little hesitant but I regret not reading it sooner, the plot is unbelievably good and it makes me want to write so you should that Red River for this chapter.

The plotis so good that you can actually over look any romance that's too explicit for your tastes. Trust me, you may be like "What the hell?" at first but it gets so good after the first book (even in the first book).

Remember I would only be telling you this if I loved you. So consider yourself thoroughly LOVED!

PS. I love Ramses, if Kail wasn't there I would totally support the Ramses/Yuri pairing!

Leave a review if you LUV ME! (I know you do!) Tootles!