Someday, if I find a genie lamp... I'll own it. But for now, no.

02: Assault

Characters: Hyuuga N. & Sakura M.

Summary: I jabbed the guy(I hope...) in the gut and proceeded to step on his foot. With a good smack to the nose and knee to the... area, I was good. Thank you, Ms. Congeniality for the S-I-N-G.

Word Count: 2, 270

The Painful Drabbles

Assault

--By: Heartbroken Confession--

Snow.

I cursed when my foot got caught under a pile of snow. I kicked it loose and kept walking.

Why was I doing this again?

Oh yeah, I'm walking through this snowstorm because Hotaru was sounding distressed and told me to go to her place right away. And, well, I can't exactly say no to the girl that's saved my life 5 million times.

I frowned as I flicked some of the fluffy white substance off my bag. Snow was so much better back at Alice Academy. I smiled, thinking of the times my friends and I would go out and play with the snow. Alice snow fights were so much more fun.

Hotaru would use her crazy inventions to launch snows like a machine gun launching bullets. Anna would have her little army of cookies and what not attacking us. Mochu would levitate piles of snow while Koko and Sumire stood to the side. Sumire would curse everytime she got hit --kitty didn't like getting wet!-- and Koko would laugh at her. Which of course, resulted in Permy smashing a pile of snow into Koko's face. Koko being able to read her mind, would dodge the next pile and the it would head straight for Natsume. Which meant Ruka-pyon was going to get hit, because Hyuuga Natsume really never let anything touch him.

All-out snow fights were probably the best part about winter in Alice Academy.

I stopped in my tracks and smiled. I looked up at the snow and closed my eyes to keep it from getting in my eye.

Maybe snow's not all that bad. I took a step forward to embrace the snow when, "BAM!" a hand grabbed onto my shoulder.

Okay, I'm being assaulted. At least, I think I am. But, I'm not worried at all. In fact, I feel bad for this poor sucker. Why? Because, hello! I was the second best after Natsume in our dangerous abilities class (not that I'm proud of it). I can stab his eyes out, break both legs and make it look like an accident. Well, I'm not going to go that far. Self defense first.

I jabbed the guy(I hope...) in the gut and proceeded to step on his foot. With a good smack to the nose and knee to the... area, I was good. Thank you, Ms. Congeniality for the S-I-N-G.

I glared at the assaulter and that's when I felt my jaw drop to the floor.

Is that? No. No way. Hyuuga Natsume never lets anything touch him, nonetheless pummel him over.

"Is that... you? Natsume?"

He groaned, crouched over with a hand over his nose. He stiffened at my question and looked up.

It really is him. It's impossible to be mistaken. His eyes--those familiar red eyes-- widened a slight degree. "Po...lka?" It seemed like he was whispering to himself.

What to do? I haven't seen him since graduation day at Alice Academy 3 years ago. Contrary to the belief of most students, I did not stay at Alice Academy to teach. Nor did I stay with Natsume or Ruka-pyon. In fact, I didn't even come across Hotaru until last year by accident at a local Starbucks. There were just so many bad memories that I couldn't get over. Any contact with something that had the slightest thing to do with Alice Academy was too troublesome. Funny how I even stayed in Tokyo.

But, how could this be? Natsume stayed at the academy. Reluctantly, but he had no choice but to stay. Who else would keep Principal Kounji and Persona in check?

"Natsume." He stared at me, looking as though he had gotten over the shock of seeing me. Please boy, I've known you since we were 10. I know better than that. "When'd you become a child assaulter?"

I started to doubt it was Natsume when he fell over and landed his face in a pile of snow.

"Okay, this isn't Natsume right? You must be that clay boy that pretended to be Natsume. What was his name again?" Nenny? Nendu? Nendo? Something like that.

He growled and got up. "No, I'm not that freaky impostor. I just haven't seen you in so long, I forgot how stupid you are. You were about to walk into a ditch, retard."

I looked behind me and realized it was true. I was about to walk into a huge ditch. Where the hell did that come from?

I frowned and ignored his comment. "What are you doing outside of the academy?"

He shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pocket. 20 years old and as anti-social as always.

"Mission then. I presume this ditch is your doing." I narrowed my eyes at the char marks lining the edges of the ditch. He created this ditch with fire. I sighed, it's a surprise he hasn't killed himself yet with the way he uses his alice.

He scratched the back of his head, "I haven't done one in a while. Which is probably why even you were able to land a blow on me."

I puffed my cheeks and then laughed. "You're right."

"As always," So maybe he has gotten a little more social. "What are you doing out in this snowstorm, Polka? Go home."

"I'm going to Hotaru's." I replied.

"Funny," His brows furrowed, "Me too."

"Why do I get a bad feeling about this?"

"Hn."

Hotaru's room looked like she was robbed. Her usual spotless and glossy clean room was in a disarranged mess. Piles of paper stacked all over the place, tools splayed on the floor, and crumpled blueprints tossed on the ground.

"Woah, what happened?" Hotaru had sounded distressed over the phone, but I didn't think it would be like this.

"Alice Academy, that's what happened." She growled.

Alice Academy? I grimaced. They had promised to cut off all ties to us after we graduated.

"They found.. a loophole." She frowned; snapping the pencil in her hand. "Hyuuga, you know about this, I'm guessing."

He shrugged in response, "I may know a thing or two."

The door creaked open and Ruka came bursting through the door, coated in snow and looking like he sprinted a 5 mile run. "What's up?"

He nearly tripped over his own two feet, "N-Natsume?! And, Sakura! Imai I was expecting. But. Wow. Is this a reunion?"

"No," Hotaru scoffed. "It's a bunch of idiots. We left a loophole in our agreement with Alice Academy and now we all have to go back."

"Wait, what?!" That's not possible. All the students had made sure we would benefit from the deal we had made with Kounji-sensei after the me-being-transferred-to-DA fiasco.

"First, who's we?" I asked.

"We as in, us 3." She pointed to Ruka, herself, and me. "I think they may have pulled Yome and the others into it as well."

I groaned. "Let me guess, Ruka will be helping out the Somatic kids, you'll be helping Technical kids, Koko will be helping the Latent type and I--"

"Will be helping Hyuuga over there." She frowned. "I don't really like the idea of you and Hyuuga training a bunch of kids to be training machines. Nor do I really like the idea of you and Hyuuga teaming up again on those missions,"

Well, of course not. Natsume and I had the highest mission success rate. A euphemism for having the highest kill rate.

Natsume rolled his eyes, "Clearly, that academy would be delighted."

Ruka frowned, "I bet they wish you guys never graduated."

"It doesn't even matter that we graduated anymore." I scoffed, "They have us all in their hold. Again."

Hotaru frowned. "What do we have to go back?" I asked.

"By next wednesday, or else 'dire consequences' will be brought upon us." She rolled her eyes.

"I'm leaving." I waved them off. "See you next Wednesday."

I probably couldn't have stayed any longer. I leaned against the back of the bench I was sitting on. The Stealing and Nullification alices. The perfect set. Render them harmless and then steal their alice away. A monster. The Phantom Thief.

How much would I bet that they're going to give me my old mask?

I scoffed to myself and buried my face into my gloves. Who cares that I'm going to get sick from sitting out in this snowstorm? I bet there's an alice that I stole back in my teenage days that can heal it.

Someone took a seat next to me and my body was immediately filled with warmth.

Natsume.

"Thief." Oh, how I hate that name.

"Black Cat." I sneered.

"You've gotten kinda--"

"Like you? Cynical? Not smiley 24-7?"

"I don't even want to say I told you so. I really don't." He muttered. I smiled bitterly, remembering the days when Natsume told me the academy would ruin me and take the smile off my face.

"But, I told you so."

I glared at him. "Natsume you idiot." I mumbled the familiar phrase under my breath.

"I see you're ugly as always." He stated randomly. It feels like we're talking in the past.

"And you have a big pole up your butt as usual." I grinned.

"And you're still not funny." He smirked.

"I am so funny!" I really have missed Natsume. "Remember my puns?"

"What's brown and sticky?" Natsume questioned with a raised brow.

"A stick! I laughed until I was in knots!"

"Those weren't even your puns."

We continued to talk and I started to like the idea of the academy more and more. To be able to be with my friends again.

I stared in awe at the gates of Alice Academy. I haven't seen these in 3 years, and my memory of them had clearly gotten foggy. It's hard to believe that someone could forget about some place as amazingly designed as Alice Academy. I stepped over a pile of snow and questioned pressing the intercom button to wait for someone to come.

I grinned, then again, I could always hack in. Natsume, Hotaru, and I had figured out how to get past the system back in high school.

I reached forward to see if I still remembered how.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." I looked to the left side on the other side of the gate.

"They changed the system after they found out we hacked it." He pressed entered a password on the other side and the gates slid open from me.

"Hm, party poopers. Are the others here?"

"Yeah." He grimaced, "And they're acting like they're elementary students."

"What? Wh--"

Smack.

Did I just seriously get hit by a pile of levitating snow?

I wiped the snow off my face and saw a sight that I'd been yearning for since the snowstorm started.

Hotaru would use her crazy inventions to launch snows like a machine gun launching bullets. Anna would have her little army of cookies and what not attacking us. Mochu would levitate piles of snow while Koko and Sumire stood to the side. Sumire would curse everytime she got hit --kitty didn't like getting wet!-- and Koko would laugh at her. Which of course, resulted in Permy smashing a pile of snow into Koko's face. Koko being able to read her mind, would dodge the next pile and the it would head straight for Natsume. Which meant Ruka-pyon was going to get hit, because Hyuuga Natsume really never let anything touch him.

And true to his personality, Natsume was the only one who remained dry. The whole gang's back together.

I smiled and thought for a moment.

Maybe coming back to Alice Academy isn't going to be all that bad after all.

--- --- -- -- -- - - -- - - DribbleDrabble2 End - - - - -- -- -- - -- - -- -- --

Ehhhh, I didn't like this drabble all that much. Hence why it's not a story.