A/N: first things first, a huuuge THANK YOU to those who have read and reviewed so far. I was so glad to get feedback! Secondly, to my utter dismay, I have not recovered my laptop yet (basically, it's broken beyond repair, and unless I can retrieve the hard-disk from it, I'll have lost some stuff - including a couple of other stories I was kinda working on). That said, I've managed to borrow a friend's pc for now, so at least I can keep working on this tiny fanfic.

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice, nor its marvellous characters. Only the following story is mine.

Moving on...


- The Powers of Showers -

by AuroraNotturna

2. The one with the Steam Shower

There are things you do not want to experience first thing in the morning. Especially if you're having a hangover worthy of the Hall of Fame of Post-Drinking Pains. And, even more so, if you've woken up in a flat that is decidedly not your own. One such thing could be, for instance, a repetitive ticking noise which sounds as good as fingernails on a chalkboard.

It was for this exact reason that Hyuuga Natsume was stirred from his sleep, on a sunny yet windy September morning, feeling the need to curse all the gods and forces of the universe. What the hell was that annoying noise? And why on earth were his temples pulsing as though there was a disco inside his head?

Slowly - very slowly - he opened his eyes and just lay there (wherever 'there' was). The white ceiling above him had nothing extraordinary going on, apart from the fact that it was higher than the one in his apartment. So yeah, this was definitely not his place. Ignoring his throbbing headache, he carefully sat up. He was on a small, cream-coloured sofa, with a couple of purple-ish cushions at either end. The next thing that caught his eye was a circular, porcelain clock - the source of the ticking - hanging on the wall opposite him. Two thin, brown clock hands indicated that it was 10:45.

Natsume looked around some more. He could tell this was not a guy's place - everything around him screamed girl. From the light colours of the couch he was on, to the flower pots scattered around the room; from the rug on the floor (which his sister would have pegged as lilac or some other weird shade of purple) to the Cosmopolitan magazines on the low table in the centre of the room.

He ran his long fingers through his messy dark hair, thinking. What had happened the night before? Clearly there had been drinking, and quite a bit of it. Had he hooked up with somebody? He made it a point not to sleep around, but occasionally even his inhibitions succumbed to the persuasive powers of alcohol. On second thought, if he had slept with somebody, he wouldn't have woken up on a sofa fully clothed. So, that ruled out the one-night-stand theory.

Aaaargh, he hated not knowing. He needed to wake up - properly - and remember.

As though somebody from above had been listening to his silent musings, Natsume's nostrils suddenly caught a whiff of one of the most marvellous smells on earth: coffee.

Like a sailor captivated by a mermaid's sweet voice, the 23-year-old got up and followed that rich aroma all the way to the next room - a small kitchen, whose only occupant at the moment was a girl with short, black hair. "Good morning, Hyuuga-san", she said plainly, yet kindly.

Oh. Right.

There it was, the missing link. With a few memories now returning to him, Natsume could finally put the pieces together.

The previous evening his best mate had - at long last - introduced to him Imai Hotaru, his girlfriend of two months. Even though Natsume had already heard a LOT about her, it had been good to put a face to the name. Especially since his friend Ruka was crazy about her.

His mouth finally catching up with his brain, Natsume managed to give her a morning greeting - albeit with a very hoarse voice. Damn it, he really needed to drink some water. But, first things first.

"Ruka?", he asked.

"Still sleeping. How are you feeling?"

"Like I look."

"Ouch. That bad, huh?", Imai asked. She sounded serious, but Natsume thought he glimpsed a shadow of amusement in her eyes.

He nodded.

She handed him a glass of water.

"Thanks", he said, accepting it.

"I'm going to take this to Ruka", she said looking down at the coffee mug in her hands. "There's more in the pot, if you'd like."

"Thanks, but I should go home. I really need to have a shower", he replied, mostly to himself.

Imai wasn't swayed. "Nonsense. You can wash up here. I'll get you some of Ruka's spare clothes."

Before he could even utter a reply, she was gone, along with Ruka's coffee.

Huh. Natsume was aware his friend occasionally spent the night at Imai's - what he hadn't known was that his relationship had reached that stage where you're totally fine with leaving some of your stuff at your partner's place. Good for him. Sure, Natsume hadn't spent that much time with Imai, but as far as he could tell she was just right for Ruka. A smart, pretty, no-nonsense kind of gal.

She was soon back with the promised clothing, a towel and a spare pair of slippers.

"Thanks, Imai-san. But are you sure it's ok?"

"Of course. No trouble at all. I've already finished in the bathroom, and it's going to take Ruka a full half-hour before he can face the world."

At this, they both smirked.

Natsume suddenly remembered something. "What about your flatmate?", he inquired.

He had a vague recollection of Imai telling both him and Ruka to be quiet as the three of them had entered the flat a few hours before, due to her flatmate presumably sleeping. (It had been, after all, 3 o'clock in the morning.)

"It's ok, lately she doesn't rise before noon anyway", Imai replied. She had said this as passively as her usual sentences, but Natsume could swear that he saw her shoulders tense up ever so slightly. Huh.

He wasn't the type to stick his nose in other people's personal business though, so he shrugged it off. Plus, his hangover had taken a hold of his sinuses and his chest - he now felt as groggy as you do when you've caught a bad cold.

"Ok then."

Imai nodded in acknowledgement. "Go through the living room - that's the room you came from - then turn right into the corridor", she instructed. "Last door on the left is the bathroom."

"Thank you, Imai-san."

Natsume was thankful for the specific directions given to him. That way, he didn't have to stop even once from the kitchen to the bathroom. He glanced at some photo frames hanging along the corridor - one in particular had something familiar about it - but his throbbing temples urged him to get to his destination. Once inside the bathroom, he didn't waste any time. He quickly located the amenities in the room: a sink unit straight ahead, with a square-shaped mirror hanging above it; a window on the left hand-side, with some cabinets and a chair below it; and a shower cabin in the far-right corner, its main frame encasing sliding glass doors.

Having set the clean clothes on the chair, Natsume flung the towel over his shoulder and went to the sink to splash his face with water. He then noticed his reflection in the mirror -yikes! He looked as though he hadn't slept for two weeks in a row. Later he'd have to ask Imai just how many drinks he'd consumed the night before. He took off his dirty clothes and left them on the floor (yeah yeah yeah, not very hygienic, but he couldn't afford to waste time with that killer headache of his!), before entering the shower cabin and slinging the towel over one of its glass panels.

Facing the wall, he pushed the showerhead up the sliding bar to bring it over his head (it had been too low for his height - another sign that this was a girls' place), and turned the hot water tap.

Hell yeah. That was more like it.

Natsume enjoyed the piping hot water streaming through his hair and trickling down his face, torso and limbs. He turned around, and let his back experience the same sensations. He did this several times before turning his attention to the wall-mounted soap holder. Christ - there had to be at least ten different bottles and tubes on that thing. How was he supposed to pick one? His eyes were drawn to a bright-pink container with the words 'Howalon - the sweetest shampoo'. He popped it open and was hit by a fragrance that could only be described as the perfect blend of honey and marshmallows. Pass.

Going for the most generic shampoo and soap he could find, he continued to clean himself.

The bathroom wasn't very big, which was absolutely perfect for Natsume, because it took less than five minutes for steam to fill up the place. And that was exactly what he needed to clear up his sinuses.

He turned the tap off, and took a few deep breaths to let the vapour work its magic. Still facing the shower head, his back to the door, he closed his eyes.

One breath in, one breath out… One breath in, one breath out…

...This was doing wonders.

One breath in, one breath out… One breath in, one breath out…

...Natsume was so relaxed he didn't register the faint noise of footsteps outside the bathroom door, nor the squeak of the doorknob turning.

One breath in, one breath out… One breath in, one br-

"Hey Hotaru, can I bor- AAAAAAAAAARGH!"

"WHAT THE FU-"

In the span of a second, multiple things happened: Natsume snatched his towel and wrapped it around his waist, then turned around just in time to see, through the steam, a girl's silhouette reaching for a mop in the opposite corner of the room, and subsequently pointing it towards the shower cabin in a menacing way (well, as menacing as a mop can look). Given the condensation on the glass panels, as well as the vapour in the room, he couldn't see her in detail. He could, however, deduce that she was far from happy.

"WHAT- WHEN- WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?", she bellowed, stammering through her words.

There were a handful of things Natsume could say right then, as a reply. His name, for instance. Or the fact that Imai had kindly let him stay the night on the couch. He might have even gotten away with asking the mystery girl for confirmation that she was Imai's flatmate, as the rational part of his brain assumed.

But, as it happens, when somebody walks in on you showering and then yell sat you, reason flies out the window and defensive instincts kick in. And so, with his right hand still gripping the rim of his towel, keeping it in place around his waist, and his left-hand fingers rubbing his temple, the first words that came out of his mouth were: "Would you mind lowering your voice?"

"Would I…mind...lowering...", she half repeated. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?", she shrieked.

Natsume's head was about to explode. "Damn it lady, keep it down!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL ME WHY I FOUND YOU IN MY BATHROOM!"

"Because you didn't knock, genius!"

Pause.

Natsume inwardly smirked. He had raised a valid point.

"Well, I- You- I didn't-", the girl replied, in a much meeker volume. "It still doesn't explain who you are", she continued, a bit more confident.

Natsume was just about to clear things up, but as the bathroom door was now open, and the steam was quickly dissipating, he finally saw the girl properly. From head to toe - or, rather, from toe to head, as the first thing he noticed were her fluffy pink slippers; his eyes then worked their way up her figure - from her slender ankles to her upper legs, which were partly covered by white shorts, then up her red and white polka-dotted tank top (he wisely refrained from staring too long at her chestal region, albeit with great restraint), before finally settling on her face. Damn, she was fit. Her brown hair was tied up in a messy bun, with a few strands coming down here and there. His jaw locked when he spotted a pair of amazing hazel eyes, glaring at him. He could swear he'd seen them before. Her hair too, actually. Heck, her whole figure was not new to him.

While he pondered over this, he noticed her gaze quickly fall to his bare chest and arms, then swiftly go back up to his face. Her cheeks had turned a bright shade of red, which - despite the odd situation he was in - was rather amusing.

And it was at that precise moment that he recognised her.

Same eyes, same hair - same rosy cheeks. He couldn't help but grin.

"So, I guess you saw me stripped after all", he stated, smirking.

He enjoyed the look of confusion that formed on her face. Her head tilted slightly to one side, and her eyebrows furrowed in thought. She spoke again.

"What do you m-"

She stopped when he ran a hand through his wet hair, pushing it back from his forehead so she could see his eyes more clearly. Natsume was not vain, but he knew the colour of his irises was far from common.

That did the trick.

He saw her eyes widen in recognition and her jaw drop.

Before she could even attempt to say something - although he doubted it could have been anything coherent - he noticed a third person appear in the doorway.

"I thought I heard yelling", Imai stated rather plainly, looking at the two of them. "Mikan", she said, focusing on the girl, "fancy seeing you up so early - now, how about you leave my guest to finish his shower?"

"Your...guest?", the girl called Mikan said, her tone a mix of horror and incredulity.

Without replying, Imai took a few steps forward, gently removed the mop out of her friend's hands, and led her out of the room. Before closing the door, the raven-haired girl looked towards Natsume very quickly.

"Sorry about that", she said.

"No problem", he replied truthfully.

After all, this was shaping up to be one of the best hangover mornings he'd ever had.


Not too long after his eventful steam shower, Natsume was all dressed up. Heading back to the kitchen, his dirty clothes balled up in his arms, he paused in front of the photo frames hanging in the corridor. They were all pictures of Imai and her flatmate - sometimes by themselves, sometimes just the two of them, and a few others with people he assumed were relatives and friends. The one he'd noticed earlier, in his groggy hangover state, was a photo-portrait of Imai's friend. It was a very simple composition really: a close-up of the brunette, with her mouth wide open in laughter, her sparkling eyes set on whoever was holding the camera, and her long, chestnut hair flying in a thousand directions due to the wind. She looked, in one word, mesmerizing.

"Nice picture, right? Hotaru took it", a male voice said behind him.

Natsume almost jumped. When had Ruka arrived?

Instead of asking his silent question, he tried to divert his friend's attention from the fact that he'd just caught him staring at a girl's picture. "Finally up then?", he said.

"Yep. Although, by the sound of it, I missed one hell of a meeting", Ruka replied, grinning widely. "Tell me, do you plan on being naked when I introduce you to the rest of Hotaru's friends, or is Mikan a special case?"

Damn. So much for diverting attention.

Natsume ignored his friend's blatant curiosity. "Do you have a spare bag I can put these in?", he asked, his gaze dropping to the bundle of clothes in his arms.

"Yeah. Sooo... do you like her? You were staring at that photo for a whole minute."

Natsume rolled his eyes. That was so Ruka - he was such a romantic at heart. He was probably planning his best man's speech already. Just because he'd seen him look at some chick's picture. Sure, it was one hell of a girl - Natsume had actually wondered after their first meeting if he'd ever see her again - but he sure wasn't going to tell Ruka that. Not while he was in said girl's apartment anyway.

"So, what about my clothes?", he asked instead.

"Tell you what, give them to me and I'll stuff them in my backpack with my shirt - we can do laundry when we get home."

Natsume smirked. "Oh, so you don't wash your stuff together with Imai's just yet?"

The look on his friend's face was priceless. "I- Well- Not usually- But... Oh just give me the damn clothes", he conceded. "And don't think that I don't know what you're doing - you're totally dodging the question."

"What question?", Natsume replied innocently, before handing Ruka his clothes and heading back to the kitchen to have a much-needed dose of caffeine.

As it turned out, he wasn't the only one dying for a cup of coffee.

Sitting on a couple of high stools were his host and her flatmate. Imai's face lit up in recognition as she saw him enter. "Ah, perfect timing, Hyuuga-san. Mikan was just about to come look for you."

"No I wasn't", the brunette protested, slamming her mug on the kitchen counter, her beverage splashing dangerously within it.

"Yes, she was", Imai insisted, giving her friend a strict look. "You said you wanted to apologise, remember?"

"That's not what I m-"

"It's ok, Imai-san", Natsume interrupted, amused. "It's partly my fault for forgetting to lock the door. I should have realised that some people might not be accustomed to the practice of knocking."

"There you go, Hotaru", the girl replied with a satisfied look. It didn't last long, however. "Hang on!", she exclaimed. "What do you mean, 'people not accustomed to knocking'?! Of course I know how to knock!"

"Oh, so you meant to walk in on my shower?", Natsume asked, not even attempting to mask the teasing tone in his voice.

"What!", she countered, scandalised. "Of course NOT, I didn't even know you were there! I just thought Hotaru was brushing her teeth and-"

"Leave me out of this", Imai stated.

Natsume's spirits grew even higher, and silently thanked Imai for leaving her friend to fend for herself - probably she liked taking the mickey out of her just like he did with his own best friend.

"Muuu Hotaru! You meanie!", the brunette replied, pouting. "You know I never meant to be rude!"

"Well, baka, for one I did tell you yesterday that I might come back with Ruka", Imai countered.

"But you're always the first one up! And I knew Ruka was still in bed because the discovery channel wasn't on yet!"

At this, Natsume actually laughed out loud, causing the girls to stare at him. "He does that at home too", he stated quite simply. Yeah, his friend was a full-on nature lover. The first thing he did on any given morning was to have breakfast while watching scientific documentaries on TV. Not for nothing was Ruka majoring in zoology.

The brunette wasn't distracted by the digression, however. "So you see", she told him rather proudly, "I didn't do it on purpose. I mean, I didn't even know you existed, so-"

"Oh really?", he interrupted her, smirking evilly. "You didn't even know I existed? Because as far as I recall-"

"That's not what I meant and you know it!", she defended herself, her face reddening by the second.

"I don't, though", chimed in Imai, her violet irises scanning the two of them. "Am I missing something?"

"Well", Natsume replied, more than willing to spill the beans, "a while back your friend-"

"THAT'S neither here nor there", the girl countered, "the point is that I didn't know there was anybody else in the flat besides me, Hotaru, and possibly Ruka."

Natsume was quiet for a moment. "You're right", he said, smiling. "Apology accepted."

"Thank you- wait, what? That was not an apology! I have nothing to apologise for!"

"Are you sure?", he asked, with a pointed look.

"Yeah!"

"Mmh…", he pretended to be deep in thought, "not even, say, for calling me a s-"

"OK OK!", she cried out. "I mean- I, uh- It's not like I insulted you or anything- So, really, if you think about it-"

"Tell you what", he said grinning, "buy me an early lunch and we'll call it even."

Yep. He'd just asked out his best friend's girlfriend's best friend. Nothing complicated about that.

But hey, carpe diem, right?

The girl called Mikan, now a whole new shade of red, mumbled an incoherent reply, before leaving the room. He caught the words "dress" and "wait".

Natsume looked inquiringly at the remaining occupant of the room. "That was a yes, right?"

Imai nodded, looking at him with what seemed to be admiration. That was a bit puzzling. Did she find it that hard to believe that a girl would accept his invitation? If so, ouch. Still, he didn't dwell on it.

"She's just getting changed", Imai stated, translating her friend's response. "Hey, Hyuuga-san", she then said in a more serious tone, before pausing.

"Yes?", he asked, when she didn't go on.

"...Mikan loves strawberries."

Somehow, Natsume got the feeling that Imai had wanted to tell him more. Again, though, he didn't pry. Whatever it was, it could wait. He'd just scored one hell of a date and nothing, nothing, was going to ruin it.


A/N: weeeeell, that's the second installment of this little saga. I had fun writing it, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it. Please let me know what you think! Thanks again to those who have reviewed, followed, favoured or simply read the story so far.

Stay tuned,

- Aurora