Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice.
A/N: Not proof-read. Forgive me. I was just so excited to share this chapter that I posted it on a whim. (Additional notes at the end.)
CHAPTER SEVEN
Not Your Average Stuffed Animal
Rather than going to class that day, I decided to stay in bed, tossing my newly acquired crimson Alice stone in the air as a way to pass the time. Today's encounter with Natsume left me emotionally drained and awfully paranoid, and who knows what kind of danger awaits me beyond these four walls? Will I face rejection, more emotional turmoil, and worst of all, expulsion?
As I allow myself to be submerged in the negativity of my thoughts, it hasn't crossed my mind that day has already turned to night, and if it weren't for the robot in charge of our dormitory knocking on my door and reminding me of the chores that I have yet to do since this morning, I could probably go on for hours. However, I am left with no choice but to face whatever is lying in front of me.
Upon my arrival at the dining room, I come across Yuu and Koko, who voiced out their concern regarding my absence, and if anybody seems to be bothering me. I crack a smile and told them I was fine, that I just had a terrible headache this morning so I didn't bother going to class. Believing this, Yuu informs me of an upcoming quiz in History and Japanese, and an essay that needs to be submitted on Monday for English before retiring to their rooms.
After segregating whatever is left on everyone's plates, I head to the kitchen and aid our dorm adviser in washing the dishes. I'd recall the conversation I shared with Yuu and Koko, and judging from the way they talked to me, they didn't seem to know about anything. If there's some sort of commotion in the academy, Yuu almost always manages to find out about it first. He is, after all, Class C's representative.
This brings me back to Natsume. Why hasn't he told anyone yet?
He doesn't look like the type to start rumors, and if he did inform the principal about this, Yuu would've known about this since I'm under his domain.
"Hideaki, throw these bags in the waste bin outside!"
And there's my cue, and I attend to them the moment I place the last plate in its respective cabinet. I'd move back and forth from the kitchen to the waste bin, carrying two big black bags filled with garbage, and when I had finally brought all ten bags outside, I then proceed to disposing them.
If the waste bin would let me.
Apparently, Alice Academy is filled with gifted students who love to invent new things, and one of their projects is this waste bin that is positioned right in front of our dormitory. Now this is where the toughest part of disposing our trash comes in. The waste bin acts like a miniature incinerator, which is pretty convenient if you ask me, but then they added feet to it, and the moment it senses my presence, it would hide itself and I'd have to run around the dorm, chasing it until I can finally dispose our garbage.
Sure, they invent incinerators with feet. Why couldn't they invent a dishwasher so that I wouldn't have to wash the plates all day long?
After my cat and mouse chase with the waste bin, having discarded all rubbish, I let out a sigh before wiping the sweat off my forehead with my sleeves, feeling a sense of pride over this small accomplishment of mine. Thirsty, I decided to return to the dorm to get a cold glass of water, only to find myself lost in the deep part of the woods again, unable to retrace my steps back to the dorm. As the thought of being stranded in the Northern Woods sinks in, the cold wind blows against my back, its howl lingering in my ears, followed by the rustling of leaves on the ground. Upon hearing a crackle coming from my left, I shriek in fear. My hands find themselves gripping onto my hair as I escape the place from where I'm standing, praying that this wouldn't be my last day on Earth.
I glance back to make sure that I wasn't being tailed by anything in particular, but ended up bumping onto something in front of me. A flashlight flies in the air, and both of us ended up on the ground, groaning in pain from the collision. As soon as I grab hold onto the flashlight, I aim it at the person before me, backing away in the process, though I didn't know how to react when Ruka's face came into the light, and neither did he.
"Hideaki?" Ruka wrinkles his eyebrows in puzzlement.
My mouth agape, I fling the flashlight to the ground, finding a plastic bag filled with cans of beer, with some having made their way out of it.
Ruka laughs sheepishly as he gathers the scattered beer cans on the ground before placing them inside the bag. "I guess you caught me, huh?"
I blinked my eyes in astonishment. "I thought alcohol was prohibited in the academy."
He curves his lips into a smile of mischief. "I have my ways."
I follow Ruka to a cabin situated deep in the woods, the latter proposing that he'd bring me back to our dorm, though it seems I won't be returning at once. Beside the cabin was a log for sitting and a pile of burned firewood, indicating someone's presence before us. He first inspects the place from behind a tree before approaching the log, turning in his place. When he was certain that no one else was around, he gestures at me to come over and sit down, and I do so.
He offers me a can of beer which I accept, because right now is not the time for me to be picky when it comes to choosing my beverages—I am dying of thirst here. As I finish half of the can's contents, Ruka starts a conversation.
"Sorry I couldn't light up the campfire. Natsume usually does that." He scratches his head before taking another sip of beer.
I cringed at the sound of his name. Fortunately, Ruka wasn't able to see that, thanks to our utterly dark surroundings.
"I haven't seen him today, so I thought of drinking by myself, but on the way, I was starting to think that it wouldn't be that fun. It's a good thing that you're here though." Ruka remarked as he chuckled, the alcohol slowly working its way in his head. He switches the flashlight on before directing it at me. "Why are you even here anyway?"
Ah, another reference to Natsume. They really are the best of friends.
"Garbage disposal duties; I was chasing the can and got lost in the woods."
He shakes his can of beer mildly before placing the flashlight atop the firewood, its bulb pointing at us. Thanks to Ruka's ingenuity, we're now able to see each other clearly.
"That's pretty nostalgic." He says, his blue orbs staring wistfully into the distance.
I finish my first can of beer for the night, my thirst quenched and my spirits high before unbuttoning my jacket and the first three buttons of my shirt. Ruka commends me for being sober after consuming one can in less than five minutes, noting how some of our classmates become tipsy from drinking half a can. He hands me another one, and I receive it without hesitation.
While I drink my share at leisure, Ruka gulps down his beer and discards the can in the same bag where the cans of beer are kept. He reaches for his second can, his fingers fiddling with the cap before drinking.
"Say, Jin. How did you get away with that Alice of yours?" he asks rather curiously with his head slightly bending to the side, his fringe brushing his forehead as he does. My eyes trace his features starting from his golden locks to his azure eyes, his nose straight and somewhat up-turned, down to his lips moist from the alcohol as he spoke. "When I was a child, I would always move from one neighborhood to the other. It was pretty hard, I guess."
Averting my gaze to the forest surrounding us, I downed my can of beer as fast as I could, hoping that it would somehow wash away the guilt that's piling up in my chest. Ruka praises me for how well I handle my alcohol.
"I didn't know that I had an Alice in the first place." I sighed, wiping off the foam on my lips with my sleeve. "It's the Nullification Alice, and you would only see it at work if someone would cast their Alice at me. Since I've never encountered any Alices in the past, you could say that I could almost pass as a normal person."
"But how did you end up here then, if no one has ever noticed your Alice?"
I heaved a sigh in disbelief as I recalled the events that led me to this school, and how in hindsight, things have been running quite smoothly—the principal confirmed that I was an Alice and that I possess this unique ability like the rest of the students here, when I thought that I'd be meeting the boss sooner than expected—until Natsume discovered that I'm a girl. Indeed, I've come a long way from home. As for the answer to Ruka's question, I could say that nobody was expecting that I'd have an Alice; for the big boss, the school isn't any different from the other private boarding schools for the elite. Perhaps luck has always been by my side ever since.
"Oh… you know…" I stammered, still thinking of what to answer to his question as I lean forward, propping an elbow on my leg with my head in my hand, the other playfully shaking my beer can. "These people found me and brought me here, telling me that I had an Alice and I believed them."
"That's too bad." He regretted.
"Why is that?"
Ruka gave a sad chuckle. "You would've lived a better life than most of us here in the academy. It's been ten years since I've seen my family. I don't have any friends other than the ones here. Throughout my stay here, I've always looked forward to the day I get out of this school."
I turn my head at him, stealing a glance as he bends his head back while he drinks, and I take a moment to admire his side profile before realizing that I've been holding my breath the entire time.
"Don't feel bad about it. Things aren't going well for me in the outside world either." I countered, shrugging my shoulders in the process as if I were getting rid of the burden that I've been carrying since the day I arrived in the academy.
"Not everything in the academy is good and praiseworthy. Terrible things happen behind closed doors, and people like Natsume suffer the most." Ruka disclosed, his eyes showing pensive sadness as they stared at the ground. "All this time, I couldn't even protect him. He wouldn't even let me be of use to him to ease his pain."
Watching Ruka closely, I could see how he deeply cares for Natsume, and though my opinion of him hasn't changed, there must be something in Natsume that I might have overlooked, and that Ruka must have taken in.
"Ruka, about Natsume… I—,"
"Wow, Hideaki. Your face is glowing." Ruka points out upon getting a good look of my face under the flashlight. "You're as red as a tomato can ever be."
"What?" I reached my hand out for my cheek, feeling its warmth diffusing from the surface. "But I'm not even that drunk!"
"You look hilarious, Hideaki, seriously. If people were to see you like this…"
Ruka abandons his train of thought and laughs without restraint, eventually complaining about how his stomach is hurting from as a result of laughing, which prompted him to stop, though it didn't last for long and he starts cackling again.
"Is it really that funny?" I questioned him, offended by how he manages to laugh for a while now. "You can stop laughing now."
He then opens his jacket and pulls out a small mirror from its inner pocket before putting it close to my face. I was stunned to see my face having turned red from all the alcohol I've consumed despite being absolutely sober.
But I laugh at how red my face is anyway, and Ruka joins me.
Our cackles lasted for a while, and the gloom that has once pervaded the air between me and Ruka has finally lifted. Strangely though, Ruka's laughs gradually softened until he abruptly puts it to a stop.
"Shit." He muttered under his breath, petrified. "Hideaki, stop laughing and keep still."
I scoffed, clueless as to what was happening. "What are you talking about?"
When Ruka doesn't bother to give me an answer, I reckoned I follow his gaze and figure it out for myself—the reason why he froze all of the sudden—and my eyes fall upon a bear.
Standing at around two feet tall, the bear is actually a hand-sewn toy. It shows no signs of emotions as it approached us with its own two feet, and as it came closer to the light, I noticed that the hem of his left ear is slightly torn, and it has black marbles for eyes.
"Oh, a bear!" I exclaimed in delight as I walked up to the scrawny creature, my hand patting its head. "It's so cute!"
"Jin, don't. That's not your average stuffed animal. You could actually die." Ruka cautioned, but I was overwhelmed by the living stuffed animal in front of me. It lifts its head to face me, and as I looked at it expectantly, the bear slaps its hand off his head before turning its back at me, walking away.
For a stuffed toy, the bear was notably strong. My hand was stinging in pain. Although it was tolerable, if I were to take more punches from this bear, it would be no different from getting injured in a brawl. I should probably heed Ruka's advice while it isn't too late.
Alarmed, I take a few steps back to Ruka, who was already standing with the bag of beer in his hand. As he retrieved the flashlight from the ground, both of us remained silent, listening intently to our surroundings. Hearing the patter of feet on the grass coming from our front, Ruka directs his flashlight towards that side, and to our shock, we saw the stuffed bear carrying two axes.
"RUN!" Ruka cried; I shouted as well.
Out of fear, I reach out for his hand as we made our way out of the forest. The bear followed us, swinging its axes in the air upon looking back. While we acted on our fears and ran for our lives, I've forgotten that I was holding a can of beer in my right hand, and it still had some alcohol in it, so when the bear leaped towards us, I spilled the rest of the can's contents at it. The bear fell on the ground, unable to move a few of his body parts, and Ruka and I took this opportunity to distance ourselves from this accursed stuffed animal.
Returning to the high school dormitory, both Ruka and I were out of breath, and I laughed at how absurd everything was—a living stuffed toy that wants to kill me, a garbage can that plays hide-and-seek with you, people with superpowers, a girl disguising as a boy in an all boys' school—I just hope that I'd still be sane by the time I graduate.
"Oh god," Ruka moaned, "There goes our secret drinking place. I should probably tell Natsume. So Jin…"
I look to him, gasping. "What?"
"My hand…"
Unable to comprehend his words at first, I move my gaze to his hand, and it occurred to me that he was pertaining to the fact that I was still holding his hand even after we've escaped the woods and are surrounded by lampposts. I release my clasp onto his hand, my cheeks burning up in the process as I diverted my gaze to the concrete.
"Th-thanks for that…" I drawled, unsure of what to say next; a joke, a high five, anything just so that he'd ignore my flushed face throughout the night. "Ruka-pyon."
"Ruka-pyon?" He reiterates rather disbelievingly before bursting into laughter, and I close my eyes, wishing that the ground would swallow me right this moment. I don't even know what's going on in my mind anymore as Ruka repeats it, as if to taunt me.
"Am I really that—,"
"That was exhilarating." Ruka bellowed, and I take a good look of our surroundings to ensure that nobody was around to see us so intoxicated. I hush Ruka, and he's able to grasp my actions. He points a thumb toward the entrance, "Well, thanks for keeping me company. Until then…"
Afterward, Ruka heads to the entrance, leaving as he should be. I stand still, watching him do so while trying to understand the emptiness that was building up inside me when I've had the pleasure of his company for almost an hour.
I never really understood how people could simply allow their bodies to move freely without their wills governing them. Everything we do has already been decided in our heads and we control our body according to how we want it to. Resorting to instincts alone isn't a sound idea, and letting them take over is quite reckless, I must say, and perhaps it's the alcohol—I'm betting on the alcohol—that my body defies whatever my head commands it to do. Before I knew it, I was sprinting so that I may catch up to him, and my arms magically open to embrace him.
Ruka halts his steps, and believe me, I'm as shocked as he is right now. I had more faith in myself, being the celibate granddaughter of a man who owns a Buddhist temple in Kansai, but now I'm just a girl who can't even control her emotions, allowing her body to just walk up to the man she likes and hug him. How provocative of me.
"Uh, Hideaki, you're hugging me."
"You can let go of me now…"
"Any second now…"
However, in Ruka's eyes, I'm not a loose girl as I claim myself to be.
He thinks I'm just a testosterone driven boy right now.
"Hideaki… just so you know, I don't swing that way."
As I finally regain sense and become aware of what was happening, I pull my arms away from Ruka, who's looking at me expectantly. Is he asking for an apology, an explanation for my actions just now? But I can't give him the answer! Well, not in this state. This is just beyond humiliating.
He scoffs. "You're blushing again."
Wide-eyed, I run straight into my room, rush to my bed and cover myself with a blanket.
This doesn't make any sense.
Do I really like Ruka?
A/N: This is a small achievement, I suppose, having finished a chapter in a week. I must say that I enjoyed writing this chapter thanks to Mr. Bear, who made it all the more fun and pushed Mikan to her limits (along with the alcohol) which resulted to a MikanxRuka moment. Applause. LOL.
Anyway, as always, thank you so much to those who reviewed, subscribed and favored this story. The number of subscribers is pretty astounding—73 users, the last time I checked, in seven chapters. It's very heartwarming, honestly.
Perhaps a preview to keep you guys entertained until the next chapter comes out. = )
"I want to go to Central Town with you guys!"
"Have you settled things with Natsume yet?"
"Sorry about that."
"Excuse me, I have your Alice ID with me. By the way, have I seen you somewhere? You look awfully familiar."
BAKA.
"So it is you. I had to double check since you're wearing a boy's uniform."
"Hotaru!"
Well, that's basically how things will go. Thank you, thank you, thank you so much guys! Any violent reactions regarding Ruka + Mikan? Or something like "Wtf where's my NatsuMikan pairing? That's why I've been reading this!" well, dear reader, be patient. = )
Until the next chapter,
My-violinprince.