Ah, now this is an idea I planned to come out before the last chapter, but time, christmas, newyears, you know how it rolls.

Mikan is eleven

He was there again, by that tree. Under, against, sometimes even in it… the exact position varied but it was always thatsame tree he seemed to favour over the others.

Mikan loitered. Hotaru was still flying in and out of the Academy on her own whims, and often left her best friend completely lost for something to do when their plans were cancelled. Usually she hung around their various other friends, helping out here, making things worse there – keeping a sort of odd balance in the world of Alice Academy, Mikan-style.

But on this occasion, this morning, she wasn't welcome in many places – the technology-types were having a workshop, Active were on a field trip and the predispositions were in 'structured training'. So she was alone and bored.

Which is why, as a matter of fact, she came here. She had been assuming it'd be deserted… but had also secretly hoped she might be wrong, and that person might be hanging around also lost for something to do.

Fortunately for her, she was wrong, and he was there.

"Good morning, Natsume," she greeted him cheerfully, ignoring the fact that he had his nose buried in one of his manga volumes and only glared over the pages for a second at her in return.

"What are you doing?" she inquired after a pause, and a slow disbelieving blink followed her question on Natsume's face: what did it looklike he was doing?

"Reading." He muttered in something that could barely be classified as a single syllable, let alone a word.

"Oh. What are you reading?" she continued innocently, just killing time for the sake of it, which was unsurprisingly beginning to irritate him, so obviously he didn't bother answering.

However, when he didn't do anything she did instead, leaning over and stepping forwards to peer over the top of his book. Which instinctively caused him to draw it into his chest and turn the pages out of her eyeline.

"Mind your own business, baka." He growled threateningly, somewhat startling the girl before him.

"Oh!" she jumped a little at his tone, "I'm sorry, Natsume… I just was wondering what you were… AHA!" just as he let his guard down Mikan's skinny fingers shot forwards and snatched the book out of his hand, as smoothly as taking candy from a baby.

"Ha!" she giggled triumphantly as she waved the manga about, "Now I can see what you are…Ahh!!"

With no more than a slight breath and inconspicuous click of his jaw, Natsume set the thin pages of his book alight and watched Mikan screaming like a stuck pig as she frantically shook and span and did most things bar dropping the wretched book to put out the flames.

"Baka…" he sighed as she continued to scream, however, she unexpectedly surprised him by coming to her senses around the time her fingers started to burn and with a white-blue flash completely smothered the flames covering what was once one of his favourite chapters of 'Munai-Munai Secret Adventures!' She was getting better at controlling her Alice after all.

He hoped that she'd just drop the charred item and let it be, but before he could react and scramble to his feet she'd began to flick through for relatively unscathed pages, discovering one about three quarters of the way in that portrayed a very 'full-chested' girl having some difficulty with a new (and several sizes too small) swimsuit and a bottle of sun lotion.

Lotion that apparently needed 'rubbing in' more so than any other salve that existed in the market, judging by the amount of 'applying' that followed for what seemed to be the rest of the chapter.

"Uh… Natsume…" Mikan stammered as she let the arm holding the manga swing down and flashed a page of the 'star-super-perfection-babe-character' having further difficulties in a communal shower, "…just…what… kind of… story… is this…anyway…"

For the first time in quite a while Natsume was blushing.

"Ah…" he mumbled, trying desperately to think of an answer that wouldn't have her screaming 'pervert' at the top of her voice for days to come, "it's…"

"Mikan-dummy, there is no point in having one of my portable penguin-contact system prototypes if you don't switch it on." A monotone voice swooped in, quite literally atop a duck-shaped hover-mobile, and as he made a very hasty exit Natsume thanked whatever gods there were for Imai Hotaru.

Eh, my last chapter was kinda weak, this one's got a better idea so I hope it lands well :D

Also, the manga was just way too much of a temptation to corrupt :P