I had a huge brainwave developing my representation of Alices, and this is the second half of the date for y'all.

Enjoy.

"What? You're hungry again?" Nastsume said incredulously, and Mikan just glared at him.

"I'm not fat," she replied curtly.

"I didn't say that," he shot back, "I just said you eat a lot."

"I don't eat much at home," she remarked coldly, "and you are treating me, after all." She glanced into the window of every expensive cafe-etteish place they passed, staring enviously at the people eating carefully prepared wholesome food inside.

"I suppose I am," Natsume sighed, and they turned down a side street; Mikan stopped at a busy stall flogging everything from knock-off watches to alarm clocks to flavoured hair-gel, and he came to rest against a wall again as she pointlessly and aimlessly sifted through the things and halted their journey.

"Why do you bother?" he yelled at her over the rabble, "you never buy anything!" She didn't appear to hear him, and he looked back to the front - they were opposite an arcade filled with twelve year-old school children and a few Yanki off their heads on whatever, but to him the flashing lights just looked like idiot beacons. Why play a fake game on a screen when you could play one in the real world?

Suddenly Mikan was by his side, grabbing his arm and pulling him along quickly. "Let's go!" she hissed, and he wondered who had lit a fire under her ass. She was fiddling with her handbag, and wouldn't let go of his arm until they were out of the side-street.

"So where we going for lunch?" she asked a little edgily, and Natsume detected something. He didn't know exactly what it was yet, but it was definitely there.

"What's your problem?" he asked, "You look like you saw your pimp or som-" She slapped him, but it was only to say 'keep it shut, motor-mouth', and didn't really hurt so much as it stunned. "You're pretty violent," he commented arrogantly.

"You're pretty wankerish," she retorted moodily, and he felt the hand-off, nervous mood deteriorating into something they were more used to.

"'Wankerish', yes, that's a word," he said sarcastically, and she shoved him a little.

"I'll break your glass... hey!" she snapped, "Where are your glasses?!" Mikan couldn't belie that she'd only just realized he wasn't wearing his usual spectacles - perhaps it had been the way he did his hair or something, but she simply hadn't noticed until now.

"Uh, contacts," he answered with a shrug, and Mikan pretended to let it slide. They started walking down the street again and all of a sudden she veered sharply to the side and pushed him along as well, sandwiching them between a vending machine and the wall of a building.

"Hey," she murmured breathily, and turned her face towards his, and after the initial shock passed Natsume looked as if Christmas had come early.

He didn't know what he'd done, but suddenly Mikan seemed to be on the hook. He never should've doubted himself. He leaned in for the... what?

Mikan backed away from what Natsume had assumed to be a long-awaited kiss, and with a grin and a yelp said, "You aren't wearing contacts!"

"What?" he snapped.

"You aren't wearing any, I was looking at your eyes just now, and I don't see them." Even though she had been hitting him all day, this one stung the most.

"What the hell was that just now?!" he exploded, pushing her back and attracting a few suspicious glances from passers-by, "You were looking at my eyes?!"

"Calm down!" she retorted, "What's the deal? You're acting like a weirdo."

"I'm not the one pushing people against walls and staring at their eyes!" Natsume fumed - how dare she humiliate him like that.

"I'm not the one lying about wearing glasses," she spat, and for all his anger Natsume was cowed into silence: his cover was blown.

"Well?" Mikan questioned, and with a huff Natsume gave her the cold shoulder and walked on.

"'Well' nothing, I don't have to explain myself to you," he muttered, and although half of him suspected she'd walk away and the whole deal would be blown, she followed him.

"I didn't think anyone actually wore plain-glass glasses in real life," she remarked scathingly, "what are you, out of a manga or something?"

"Whatever." Natsume scowled, and tried to out-pace her. Suddenly he didn't care about sleeping with her any more - she was too dangerous - too able to look at him the way he looked at other people; she could tell things he thought he had hidden. He wanted out.

"Don't you walk away from me!" she screamed and then he felt her grab the back of his jumper, pulling hard and forcing him to stop; she wrapped a hand around his collar and jerked him around to face her. "Don't you walk away from me," she threatened quietly, and suddenly the desire was back again.

He dropped his bag, put one hand on either side of her face, and kissed her, feeling her jaw stiffen and lock shut; her hands pushing frantically at his chest and arms to get him to back off: he would never back off.

Until she nearly kneed him in the groin. Then he cooled off.

"Would you stop doing that!" she snapped, "God, you're on and off like a bloody light switch."

"Don't push me if you don't want to be pushed back," he told her as he picked up his bag again and let her touch up her lip gloss - fruit-flavoured - he realized as he licked his lower lip. They passed a fast food joint as they returned to the flow of pedestrians.

"I'm hungry," she whined, and gave him a look that strongly suggested she wanted to stop for lunch.

Natsume didn't want to be manipulated, but damn...

"Fine," he groaned, and started toward the store, "will you stop complaining if I buy more food?"

"Will you stop trying to molest me?" she fired back.

"It wouldn't be molesting if you stopped fighting back," he grumbled while they joined the queue for food, "I thought you were..."

"A slut?" she said sharply, and he looked away guiltily. "Real fucking charming," she muttered, and an older person near them gave her a dirty look; she returned it and then ignored them.

"To be fair," Natsume started in a 'well actually' kind of way, and then found a fist very firmly in his stomach.

"You are a million times worse than me," she hissed, "so keep your filthy mouth shut. I'm only doing this as a favour to Sumire." He scowled and didn't say anything until they'd got their food and had sat down at a table to eat it.

Natsume felt like what had been good, beyond good, was quickly slipping into something base and unpleasant - he didn't want that. He had liked it when they weren't at each other's throats, but for the life of him he couldn't work out when things had changed.

He went to the bathroom to splash water on his face and try to think - okay, she knew he didn't need glasses and wore plain-glass ones; okay, when she'd touched him one of those times he'd felt something more than lust; okay, he was angry and frustrated by the fact that they were mad at each other now, and okay... he was getting caught up in this. One date, and he was getting caught up.

When he returned, he'd sworn to himself that he was going to try not to make her mad or start an argument; he was capable of being civil: that was the line that had started this whole affair - 'can you go one minute without being a jerk?' - he could do it.

"Why are you smiling?" he asked worriedly, because he realized that Mikan was, for no reason in particular, smiling like there was something really hilarious that she didn't want him to know about. He took a sip of his drink and unwrapped his burger.

"Enjoy your lunch," she remarked coyly, and he stopped inches from biting into the burger.

"...What did you do to it?" he hissed.

"Nothing!" she protested, "Nothing at all, Natsume--" They both realized at the same time she was calling him by his name; even in the shop she'd just say 'hey!', she hadn't called him by his name once.

"Right," he replied suspiciously, and took another big sip of his drink; actually, it did taste a bit odd. "You..." He held out the drink, "does this taste funny to you?" They both knew he was underhandedly proposing an indirect kiss, but seeing as he'd been stealing them all day it wasn't of the most concern.

"I... I don't like coke," she murmured and politely declined, and Natsume narrowed his eyes at her.

"Did you spit in it?" he demanded.

"No!" she rushed, "That's disgusting! Ew, no way, I definitely didn't." She seemed repulsed enough by the idea that he didn't pursue it any further, and assumed it must be something with the tap. He started to eat his burger with a calmer mind, thinking that he was imagining it.

That was until the straw blocked.

"What the hell is up with this..." he complained as he ripped off the top of the cup, and then stared in horror at the fat, soggy handful of fries at the bottom of it.

Mikan started to collapse with laughter, and Natsume realized that while she may not have spat in his cup...

"What the fuck!" he cried in outrage; hints of amusement present in the sheer ridiculousness of what she'd done. People around them turned around, but he didn't really care. He fished a chip out of the cup and then threw it at her.

Mikan squealed and threw a handful of fries back at him in retaliation; it wasn't long before they were both yelling and screaming and pelting each other with fries and ketchup sachets.

"Could you please quiet down, or vacate the store," a floor manager said sternly, having being directed towards the 'rowdy teens' by other complaining customers - to be fair they were both swearing loudly at each other and causing quite a disturbance.

"Piss off! We're having fun!" both Mikan and Natsume replied almost identically, and then after the initial confusion of mimicking each other (and that they actually were having fun), they realized that they weren't 'welcome' any more, and should probably make themselves scarce.

It was walking out that they caught half of a comment running along the lines of 'they're probably from that school...' and both of them tensed up: they'd been pointed out as Alice Academy kids.

"Fucking locals," Natsume spat, enraged, as soon as they were out the door, "what the fuck do they know anyway?!"

"Nothing," Mikan agreed, just as pissed off, "they're all close-minded wankers... fuckers," she cursed and noticed Natsume eyeing up a nearby bin like he wanted to kick the shit out of it... or something else. "Don't," she warned, "we cause trouble and they'll contact the school." Suddenly, when identified as part of their school, they had banded together, as Alice Academy kids often did.

"Then lets go somewhere we won't get fucking caught," he muttered, flicking his fingers like he was imagining he was holding a lighter, "teach them a fucking less-"

"Seriously don't, Natsume," she warned coldly, and grabbed his arm, "just fucking chill, okay?"

"Likewise," he spat, and she could feel how tense his arms were through his top. He took a step towards her intimidatingly. "You know you want to."

"But I'm not gonna!" she hissed, "Because..." she cut herself off guiltily, "uh, because..." Natsume read her hesitation.

"What?" he asked, "What's... what's your Alice, anyway?" It was a personal question, she could very likely hit him for asking it, but to his surprise she didn't.

"It's... uh," she murmured, and then dug a hand into her handbag, "it's...." She pulled out a small phone charm; nothing special, but it was special, because he knew she didn't have it when she came out... and that it had been one of many on the bustling stall opposite the arcade.

"When did you get that?" he questioned intensely, note the word 'get', he knew she didn't have money to buy things.

She let go of his arm and threw the thing in the direction of the nearest bin. "My Alice is... steal, okay?" she said defensively, "You must have worked it out, right?"

"I didn't know," he replied coolly - cool was the best way to play it.

"Fine, okay, whatever," she muttered darkly, and started to walk off. He stopped her, he reached out and held her arm like she had so many times already.

"Hey," he said quietly, his hand seeming awfully important gripping her upper arm like that, "it's no big deal, yeah?" She shrugged. "Look, I'm an Alice of fire, you think I don't know what it's like?" What it's like to be one of the lowest classes, to be dangerous to the public and property; Mikan knew this already, everyone knew. The kid who once burnt down every bin and and half the trees in school hardly got by without being noticed. That's one of the reasons he didn't mind the title 'library kid' so much.

She chewed on her lower lip: she had been acting like Natsume wouldn't be able to see things from her side of the tracks, and now she remembered that he was her side of the tracks.

"Yeah, of course," she replied, a little warmer. "I didn't think about it like that."

"Tch, it's nothing, okay?" he said awkwardly, and then they slowly started to walk again.

Mikan looked at a clock in a nearby shop, and realized the time.

"Shit! I've got to go!" she rushed almost apologetically, and then realized that this had been a mandatory date for reasons she had entirely forgotten about since they left the fast-food store.

"What?" he said, disappointed.

"I've got my tutor," she explained, "unlike some people my grades suck and I have to study, so I've got to split."

Neither wanted to admit that they had just started to almost bond, especially over the Alice-thing, and Mikan reckoned it was probably good she had to go now, because she might have started softening up to Natsume, and maybe not technically hating him or something.

"Fine," he grunted, "I haven't got anything else to do, so I'll go to the station with you." They walked mostly in silence, Natsume wondered if and when he could hint at maybe seeing her again.

He liked her, not in a pathetic emotional way, but, in a sort of 'I wouldn't mind seeing you a second time' kind of way. She broke the routine, and in three years of exactly the same, that was more refreshing than he'd thought it would be.

However, he never managed to bring it up, and they awkwardly waved goodbye at the divisions between platforms - she, he noticed, skipped the barriers by walking unusually close to the person in front of her, and slipped through behind them without having to have a fare; they gave her some funny looks, but he had finally realized exactly how much more there was to Mikan Sakura.

What's the deal with the Alices? Why don't you wait and see? This story is taking, as stories I write for these two often seem to, some pretty twisty turns. Buckle yo' seatbelts :P

And leave a review :D