Of Pyros, Polka Dots, and Hidden Love

A Gakuen Alice Fanfic by (The Writing Challenged) Y.N.T. Maria Blanca

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, I do not own Gakuen Alice. If I did, I'd kill Persona (is it Persona or Personas? Hmm…) and call him a Kurei rip-off. Because seriously, he does slightly resemble Kurei from Flame of Recca, with his constant torturing of Natsume (a flame-caster) and his white mask.

Author's Notes: It's (another of) the CRUCIALLY CRUCIAL chapters of this VERY STUPID story. It's pre-Christmas, so sometime in December Do the Japanese even celebrate Christmas? Oh well.

Author's Rants and Raves: Okay, WHAT GIVES! 146 hits and only THREE REVIEWS? HELLO! That is SO unfair! Anyway, since three people were kind enough to review…dan daraaan daaaaan…I dedicate this chapter to…

Hiyono-chin (who called me –sama and made me her "mistress". Arigatou!)

hopelessromantic75 (who complimented my taste on not putting in an element Alice to make our Natsume-chan jealous…ngehehehe!)

Ayu7 (who likes Tamami-san, my little Trance-alice friend. Thanks for your review!)

I LOVE YOU GUYS!goes all Mikan-ish on ya' butts I hope this chapter lives up to your expectations!

Chapter Five: Tsubasa Wings It (excuse the bad pun)

Ah…The Yultide Season. A season of hope, love, joy, peace on earth, and…

"TSUBASA-SEMPAI! NOBODY'S GONNA WANT TO MARRY MEEEEE!"

Really, REALLY loud screaming.

And you thought that after four chapters I was going to go on hiatus already and call it quits? NO WAY IN HELL MAN! I'm here to torture you for, oh, say two more chapters, unless I decide on more…laughs evilly.

Oh, where was I. Oh yes. When we last left our heroine, she was hanging like a koala on Andou, Tsubasa. The students were in charge of decorations, and Mikan had tried to mount a mistletoe branch on the doorway of the classroom. When she fell off the ladder after mounting it, not only had a barrage of boys passed her by without helping her up, none of them had kissed her!

And so she had, inevitably, gone to her "Tsubasa-sempai". Of course, Mikan was being watched, as usual, by the very same pair of amber-ruby eyes that had watched her from chapter one.

I would have kissed her. Natsume thought to himself, then shook the insane thoughts out of his mind. Ever since the "Mikan" incident, so named because he had called Mikan by her name on that day, he had been trying to play "keep away" from the honey-haired girl. AT ALL COSTS.

Of course, playing "keep away" from Mikan Sakura was as hard as it sounded. For one thing, on the very day Natsume decided to stay away from Mikan, Mikan seemed to be EVERYWHERE…simply because she was holding party-after-party because she had earned another star. Why? She had saved the faculty's butts from the homicidal teddy bear.

So, yeah, two stars. Which spelled two unlucky stars for Natsume. I don't know what they mean by spelled since I didn't do any spelling, but that's how the saying goes, and that is precisely how Natsume felt as he curled up under his favorite sakura tree on the borders of the Northern Forest. He was fervently trying to burn some wood as kindling, and was nigh to exhaustion. The wood was just to wet with the godforsaken snow. FOUR INCHES than morning, a white blanket over everything.

As Natsume bitterly cursed the winter gods for freezing his butt off (it's his own fault, going out in that weather), who should walk past but Tsubasa and Mikan, hand in hand?

She and…and…ANDOU? HAND IN HAND?

You heard me right the first time. Yes. Mikan Sakura and Tsubasa Andou were walking past, hand in hand.

OH S--t!

Hey! This is a K+ fic! Watch your mouth! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the hand-in-hand thing. Yes. Highschool student Tsubasa Andou was holding hands with Middle-schooler Mikan Sakura. Natsume felt his hand grow warm and looked at it. From the sheer intensity of his jealousy, a flameball had appeared. And he knew who he wanted to aim it at.

Unbeknownst (there goes that word again!) to Natsume, Tsubasa was the one watching him. He had known since the day of the RPG game that Natsume was jealous of his and Mikan's close relationship.

Well of course little Natsume (Aww…makes you think of chibi Natsume! That would be so CUUTE!) was mistaken. It was common knowledge among the 'outcast' class that Misaki and Tsubasa were 'going steady'. But since it was the infamous Alice Academy outcast class, well…no one else really knew. And really now, liking Mikan was practically incest. Statutory rape (An older man having carnal knowledge of a child whether consensual or otherwise.) at least!

Tsubasa tailed the angry-eyed boy with his eyes as he continued to comfort a whining Mikan (for the nth time, almost typed MIAKA…JEEZ! Besides, Mikan-chan is waaaay cooler than Miaka-baka.). The two were actually supposed to be shopping for Misaki's present since Mikan, being a girl, would know what Misaki would like…or at least the real Misaki. Tsubasa could never account for her numerous doppelgangers.

Tsubasa grinned, but thoughts of his "devious" plan were interrupted by a tiny voice piping from his side.

"Tsubasa-sempai? Why are you grinning? Thinking of Misaki-san aren't you? Aren't you?" Mikan nudged her senior teasingly,

"Ah…yeah." Tsubasa thought, laughing inwardly. All while Natsume was still on their tail.

After following the "couple" (oh how he hated to call them that) around Central Town and the surrounding amusement and shopping areas (this is beginning to sound like Gakuen CLAMP), Natsume was exhausted, but determined. Tsubasa AND Mikan were now scouting out spots for Tsubasa's surprise for Misaki, but of course, Natsume didn't know that. He only knew what he saw, and what he saw was a "happy" couple giggling (Mikan) and whispering (Tsubasa) as they walked through the notorious Alice "Winter Wonderland" part of the campus, so named because it was a popular spot for wintering couples to gather and have sweet rendezvous amongst the fallen snow.

All this got Natsume ree-hee-heeeaaallly PISSED. And it got even worse. As the couple was walking, Mikan slipped and fell, butt-first, onto the snow. Tsubasa followed, landing face-first on top of her. Tsubasa struggled to get up off the snow, and Mikan struggled under Tsubasa's weight.

What Natsume saw was Tsubasa supposedly "pinning" Mikan to the ground and squirming over her tiny form. He also "saw" Mikan struggling to free herself. What he "saw" was too much for him. He burst out of his hiding place and threw a fireball at a nearby tree.

"Oi! Andou! You hentai! (Speak for yourself, panty-on-the-brain)," Natsume said angrily, "let her go!" Another fireball appeared threateningly in Natsume's hand.

Uh oh…Tsubasa thought, this isn't part of the plan. He shrugged. Guess I'll just have to wing it.

End Notes: If you're wondering about how the title is a pun, well, tsubasa means 'wing', hence "winging it". Anyway, our lovable old Tsubasa-sempai will be a crucial character in bringing Mikan and Natsume together…by any means necessary. (Shadow control. Shaaaaadow controoooool…)

Ciao Bellas!

MB