Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice

Dedication: Sam, because even though she hasn't written a piece of story her entire life, she has so much to say about the flaws in my story. I'm totally kidding, thanks for all the advice; I did my best and tried to improve! Hope you like it~

I slump under a tree with its roots cushioning me. It was lunch time now. Normally I would be happy to finally get a chance to eat but the lack of improvement in the day's event stole my appetite. I put my lunch bag next to me and look up at the sky. It was a beautiful day; the sky was clear and the few white clouds that were in the sky floated peacefully.

I sighed feeling melancholic, not even a nice day can lift my mood. I don't know what's wrong with me but I can't even utter a single word to Natsume. I haven't talked to Hotaru either. I wish Sumire were here but she had tons of sleep to catch up on because of staying awake the nights Luna fell into a coma.

I had become such a coward, if it was the old me I would've gone up to Natsume and hit him upside the head for causing me so much trouble in Heaven and making me come to earth just to save his sorry butt. I would've slapped him silly for not letting me exist in peace and keeping me from enjoying all of Heaven's delicious foods. But I couldn't do that, because that girl disappeared the day I died.

"Hey! Come see this! That third year Natsume is beating up some freshman! Man he's hurt so bad I feel so sorry for the poor kid."

"What? Where is it? I want to see!"

"It's in the Cafeteria! Dude, you gotta see this, the freshmen's bleeding so much! Come on!

I watched the two boys run inside the school building heading for the Cafeteria. I blinked, did I here that right? My muscles froze and my turkey sandwich stopped midway to my mouth.

Suddenly I was angry. He's beating someone up? I forgot all the bashfulness and hesitation that I had with Natsume earlier and felt only one emotion that overpowered the others.I was pissed, I couldn't remember the last time I was so mad. I had made him promise me that he would NEVER fight, no matter what. I stuffed the sandwich in my lunch bag and threw it to the side of the tree.

I stood up and marched towards the cafeteria. My mind was blurred with anger, I wasn't even thinking of where I was heading, my body guided me through the long hallways and the right turns, remembering the way to the cafeteria where I had been eating lunch all my life.

There was a ring of people surrounding something. Students were standing in a circle whooping and laughing. They thought this was fun. Anger boiled in my veins as I stalked forward, elbowing my way through the crowds of people to reach the middle.

Natsume was punching and kicking, he was swift and his opponent didn't even have a chance to blink before he was beaten up. His nose was bleeding and his eyes were bruised but he still stood his ground and tried to fight back. What an idiot, why couldn't he just run away? Boys and their egos. I walked to stand in between the two morons. I hated it when Natsume fought; he would get so angry that he would forget that the person he was fighting with was another human being, not his punching bag. Besides, this fight was hardly fair, Natsume was trained in martial arts and had experience in fighting since he was a little kid. He moved his fist back and ran straight for the freshman aiming for his torso.

I knew this move. Natsume was coming for the final hit which would end the fight. He was going to aim at his opponent's stomach to knock out any of the breath left in him. I had seen this move countless times. A hundred thoughts flew into my head as I ran in front of him and pushed him in the chest, hard. He staggered backwards mostly out of the shock. He glared at me and I glared back. I remember the first time I tried to use this move which ended with me in the hospital knocked out for hours.

He felt guilty then and I had used that to make him promise me that he wouldn't fight anyone ever again. Needless to say that the promise was short lived.

"What the hell? Get out of my way." He spat at me. His eyes were livid and I knew that I was in danger zone.

I would've backed off knowing that the look he gave me was one of fury and under normal circumstances it meant that no one could do anything to stop him but I was just as angry as him right now.

"Stop this; can't you see how much you've hurt him?" I said my voice hard.

"This is none of your business." I could tell that he was trying to control his voice.

I looked away from him and towards the crowd of high school students who were all staring at me. I glared at them with unmasked anger.

"Shows over, get out." I said evenly.

No one moved.

"Isn't that Luna?"

"Yeah, the one that tried to commit suicide"

"What is she doing?"

"She jumped from a building, maybe she broke her head."

Someone laughed.

I looked back at Natsume feeling the anger and adrenaline seeping out of my body. It was leaving a cold and numb feeling in its wake. He stared into my eyes for a long time and I held his stare willing myself not to look away. He took a step forward and then stopped looking over my head.

"Natsume! The teachers are coming, you can't get another suspension. Come on, let's go." It was Ruka and he was breathless from running.

Natsume looked at me once and then ran in the other direction just a few seconds before a teacher came in. I stared at Natsume's retreating back until he turned a corner and disappeared.

The teachers dispersed the crowd and took the injured freshman into the Nurse's office. I sunk to my knees being the only person left in the cafeteria.

I slumped my way to last period feeling stares being burned into my back. Just one more period and then the day would be over, yes just one more hour and I could go home to Sumire. I made my way to the Art room and went to the back of the classroom to sit by the window.

"Heloo claas! Tudai ve vill bee lerneeng abot tha different oyal paintings! Everywon peek a patnar and choos colars from my table to paint with." The art teacher was at the front of the class showing different oil paintings. She had a strong accent and was very cheery for the end of a school day.

"Oo Natsumey! Thangyuu foar joining uss!" She bellowed as Natsume came in through the door and went to take a seat by the desk beside me. He looked at me and stiffened. He didn't realize that I would be sitting next to him.

"Okay, farst oaf, let me tel you abot the nature of oyals." The teacher continued and went off into a passionate lecture about the different colors and their role in history with tortured artists.

I looked at Natsume from the corner of my eye to see that he had his head down in his arms. Was he sleeping again? I stared at him in disbelief. How much could one person sleep?

This idiot, he makes everything so difficult for me. I don't know what it is that makes me love him so much, he's the exact opposite of what my ideal was. I stared at his sleeping posture feeling the familiar tug in my heart, I miss him. I want to tell him it's me and hold him again. But he wouldn't believe me, and if he did by some miracle then he wouldn't let go of me, even when my time in this world would end, again. It was painful to watch some one who once cared about you so much treat you like a stranger.

I had been debating whether it was better for me to just protect Natsume from a distance instead of trying to befriend him again since I didn't know how exactly I befriended him when I was seven. But looking at him now and watching him disarrayed made me realize that he was more of a mess than I had realized. The keepsake crystal didn't show everything about him after all.

Friends huh? I decided to give it a try.

Hi. I scrawled into a piece of paper and slammed it on his desk so that he would wake up if he was sleeping.

He stirred, looked at the paper and pushed it off his desk. It fell to the floor and I picked it up.

Swallowing my pride and embarrassment, I tried again.

Are you sleeping? I wrote and put it on his desk with a bit of force.

He spared me a glance this time and turned his head the other way.

I gritted my teeth and continued.

Answer. I wrote simply and shoved it at him forcefully. I was going to make him reply even if it was the last thing I do.

This time he stared at me in disbelief and I stared back. He took my note, crumpled it up threw to the ground.

'Be patient,' I told myself and tried one last time going for a different tactic.

Please Answer, I just want to be friends. I scribbled and put it on his desk.

This time he had the courtesy to reply.

I'm not interested. He wrote and threw at me.

Why not? I wrote back.

I have all the friends I need.

There's always room for more friends in life.

Not in mine.

Don't be so bitter, pretty boy.

The corner of his mouth lifted for half a second before he wrote me a reply.

Why do you want to be my friend?

I had to think about that one. I couldn't tell him that I was trying to get close to him so that I could watch over him and make sure that he survived to see the next one hundred days. I also couldn't tell him that I was the girlfriend he lost a year ago.

I don't know. I said at a loss of better words.

He looked at me and then crumpled the piece of paper, throwing it at me this time.

I took out another piece of paper and scrawled in it.

I am the reincarnation of Cleopatra.

He stared at the paper for a long time and then scrawled back.

What good is a dead queen to me?

Having a dead queen for a friend would be very beneficial to you.

He considered this and then wrote back.

If I say we can be friends, will you stop writing?

Yes.

Lets be Friends.

I grinned at the paper and looked at him only to see him roll his eyes at me.

If you insist. I wrote and was ready to catch the piece of paper that came back flying towards me, crumpled.

I felt accomplished as the bell rang moments later signaling the end of the school day. Natsume was out of his seat and walking out the door as I scrambled to pack my notebook and pencils in my bag to join him.

"Hey! Wait up!" I yelled at him. He ignored me and continued walking faster. Of course.

I sprinted at full speed and almost knocked into him. I ran to catch up and walk by his side.

"We're friends now so can't you slow down?"

"Are you asking me as a friend?" He asked looking down at me. I had forgotten how tall he was; I had to strain my neck just to look at him.

I nodded.

He sped up and left me to run in order to catch up again,

"What's your deal?! You agreed to be friends!" I said breathlessly.

"Correction: I didn't agree, I said that so you would stop writing." He had such an infuriatingly beautiful face.

"Regardless, you said it yourself!" I said and then dashed in front of him to block his path. He glared at me, annoyed. It was almost comical, he was probably twice as strong as me but here I was daring him to take a step forward.

He took a step to the side and I moved symmetrical to him, efficiently blocking his path again. He sighed and gave up.

"Fine, fine. We're friends, now move." He said exasperated. I didn't stop him this time as he stepped around me and continued walking.

"So…how old are you?" I asked as I caught up to him and walked beside him. I already knew but Luna didn't.

"Why do you care?" He asked gruffly.

"Because I'm your friend and friends know each others age." I replied matter-of-factly.

"How old are you?" I'm pretty sure Kitsuneme said that Luna was seventeen.

"I asked first." I replied stubbornly.

"How can I trust you?" He asked.

"What does your age have anything to do with trust?"

"It has everything to do with trust."

This irritating boy, "Well since we're friends you have to trust me!" I said exasperatedly, there was just no understanding this idiot.

"Well show me you trust me as a friend by telling me your age." Real mature Natsume.

"I'm Seventeen." I surrendered.

"Me too." He said cheekily.

I didn't realize where we were walking until Natsume stopped and I looked up to see the boys' dormitory.

"Do you want to come inside my room as well, or do friends not get those privileges?" He asked me with his eyebrows raised suggestively.

"Funny." I told him and turned around blushing. Stupid Natsume, he was still perverted, saying something like that to an innocent girl.

I was about to walk away when it occurred to me that Natsume had been living at home for as long as I can remember. He said that he preferred living at home because there he could have his own space.

"You're living in the dorms?" I asked looking back at him.

"Yeah, I moved a few weeks ago." He answered.

"Why?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Why do you have so many questions?" He said looking annoyed.

"I'm a curious person." I shrugged.

"Well, I'm a keep to myself, mysterious person," he said and turned around to walk to the dorms.

I didn't stop him since I didn't want to annoy him away the first day. I turned back and walked the direction that I came from making my way out of the school and to the driveway where I knew that a black limo would be waiting for me.

"How was your day?" I asked the driver. I really wanted to know his name but I didn't know how to ask the question without looking stupid and rude since Luna probably knew his name.

He looked taken aback by my question, "It was good, how was yours?"

"It was nice, I made a new friend." I said happily.

"That's nice, who was it?" He asked, looking at me through the rear-view mirror.

I spent the rest of the ride talking about Natsume, I have to admit, Luna's driver was a very good listener; he paid attention to my every word and asked questions to clarify. I really needed to find out this guy's name.

We parked in Luna's humongous garage next to a red BMW. I wonder who that belonged to. I looked at the old driver and asked him if he wanted to come inside and eat something.

He looked at me weirdly, "Servants aren't allowed in the main house. Only the cleaning staff is."

"Oh," I had no idea, "Sorry," I said.

He smiled at me in a grandfatherly way, "It's alright, if you're worried about your mother, she's not here, she had to attend a garden party." He said and got out of the car to open my door.

I smiled, so he knew about the relationship between Luna and her evil stepmother. That's good; at least Luna had companions other than Sumire.

I waved at him as I entered the door. I walked straight to Sumire's bedroom which Kitsuneme had told me was the one before mine on the third floor. Speaking of Kitsuneme, I hadn't seen him since this morning when he ditched me first period. What was he up to?

I walked up the giant staircase to the third floor. I passed the second floor which was filled with rooms with mahogany doors. One of them was open and I squinted from the staircase and spied antiques and paintings. It looked like there was a white sofa to the center of the room with a tea set in front of it. A large painting of an angel was behind the sofa, and a gold tapestry hung from the side of the room, only half visible to me.

I was tempted to go inside but I ignored it and continued my way up, I wanted to see Sumire. When I got to the third floor I was panting out of breath. Why were there so many stairs? If these people were so rich, they should get an elevator, it would save so much time and energy.

I knocked on Sumire's door and heard a quiet 'come in.' I entered and saw her on the computer typing something.

"Hey," I said.

"Luna! Your back, oh come sit here," She said gesturing to a wooden chair beside her.

Sumire's room was the complete opposite of Luna's, her walls were cream colored, she had lilac covers and the lightest shade of pink dominated her curtains. Her room was smaller than mine; she had a computer on one corner and a large bookshelf on the other.

"How was school?" She said typing.

"It was good, how was your day?" I said looking at what she was typing.

"Boring. I slept and slept and then woke up and decided to finish my homework. Wait, did you just say that school was good?" She said turning her head and scrutinizing me.

"Waoh! Are you wearing the school uniform? And what happened to your hair?" She said as though she had only seen me now.

"Uh yeah, I was in a hurry so I didn't have time to fix my hair. I just came from school so I'm wearing the uniform, I was going to change, I just wanted to see you first…" I was confused by her expression; she was looking at me as if I was out of my mind.

"Luna, you never wear the uniform. And you always take care of your hair like it's your life." She said baffled.

"Well what do I wear then?" I should've asked Luna questions on her daily wardrobe.

"Uhh, your own clothes? Are you okay? You've been acting weird since the accident." She said looking at me worriedly now.

"What? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. It's just I thought a change would be nice." I answered. Weird? Is acting normal Luna's definition of weird?

"Ok…" she said still looking at me worriedly.

I stood up, "I should go, I need to change and I'm starving." I said quickly and charged for her door.

"You're hungry?" I heard her say as I closed her door.

What? Did Luna starve herself too? I went to Luna's room to change only to be scared out of my skin when I saw Kitsuneme on the bed.

"Ah! Don't scare me like that. What are you doing? And where have you been?" I folded my arms and stared at him suspiciously.

"I've been around. How was school?" He said resting his arms behind his head.

"Good. Get off of Luna's bed Kitsuneme, and what do you mean 'around'?" I said taking out a pair of sweats and t-shirt out of Luna's closet to change into.

"Well somebody needed to do a background check on Luna and see what your boyfriend's been up to." He said still lying on Luna's bed comfortably.

"Good, make yourself useful." I said and then entered Luna's bathroom to change. The sweats were snug and fit me perfectly but the shirt was baggy and too long. I didn't mind though, they were comfortable.

I got back out and hung the uniform in Luna's closet. "So what did you find out?" I asked sitting on the computer chair.

"About Luna? Nothing that we don't already know. You've probably figured out that she's a loner at school by now. Apparently she was bullied by some girls a few years ago which made her shut herself off to anyone. She has average grades, no special talent and the only thing that makes her stand out from a crowd is her family status and face." He finished.

I figured as much, but I disagreed with Luna being average. That was mean to say, and anyway we don't know her enough to say that.

"What about Natsume?" I asked him, I had thought that the Keepsake crystal showed me everything but I was wrong, there was something very wrong with his behavior, much more than usual.

Kitsuneme got up so that he was in a sitting position with his legs dangling off the bed. He looked at me with that conflicting look again and then ran a hand through his hair, "I thought you might want to see for yourself." He said at last.

"What do you mean?" I said, my eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

"I'll take you to see him tonight, that is, if you want to see what he spends his nights doing." He said staring at a spot on the floor.

Way to be ominous, he wasn't really giving me a choice here. "How will you take me?" I asked instead of answering.

"We can take your soul out of Luna's body temporarily; I can put a seal on her body so that it doesn't rot." He said to the floor.

"Ok, then tonight, after dinner," I said and just in time I heard the door open and footsteps walk in.

A/N Whew! That was long, or maybe not for you guys. Anyway, thank you to those that reviewed, it meant so much to me and your comments put a smile on my face. Tell me what you think of this chapter!