Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Sam, stop being depressed. Onwards:

"Slow Down."

Dark shadows. An Alley.

Run.

"Come on Baby, we're not gonna hurt you."

Don't look back. Ignore them.

"Hey, slow down, we just wanna have fun."

Burning heart, aching lungs, sweaty palms.

Never in my life did I wish to fly as much as I had then. They were catching up, my steps were slowing down. I need to get away.

Find light, I told myself. Somewhere with people!

I ran and ran unable to feel the soles of my feet.

I stumbled and fell, hitting my head on the concrete. I could feel darkness threatening to enclose me; it starts seeping through the corners of my eyes.

No. Don't, not now. You're almost there, just a little more. I picked myself up and ran again feeling my pursuers running a foot behind me. Something catches my arm, I yelp. Scared senseless I hit him trying to damage flesh or bone. I struggled against his strong hold feeling the tears streaming down.

I will not make a sound. I will not beg for mercy. I calm myself and try to think. I need to get away. I feel them surround me, there are three of them. One holds me, one stands to my right, the other on the left.

I feel a memory in the midst of this haze come to me from some far corner in my mind.

"Ok Polka, listen closely, this is what you do when your enemy gets a hold on you." I hear Natsume's voice. He comes close to me and leans down so that we are at eye level. He grabs my arms and puts it around him turning around so that I'm facing the back of his head. I feel grateful he can't see the growing blush on my face.

"What's the point of this again?" I say feeling stupid standing there with my arms around Natsume.

"I might not be there to protect you all the time." He says back to me, I can't see his expression with his face turned around but I know that his face is concentrated with the task on hand.

"Exactly what kind of situations do you think I'm going to get in?" I asked smiling.

"I can't take too many chances with that stupid head of yours." He retorted.

My smile fell and an angry vein popped onto the side of my forehead, "Natsume…"

"Shut up and pay attention. The best way to fight back with that small amount of strength in you is to take your opponent by surprise…"

I tuned him out as he continued talking and then demonstrated by stepping on my foot and making me yelp holding it in my hand and jumping up and down with it, I realized afterwards that I had let go my hold on him and he was free.

"Hey, what happened? Is she an actual retard?" I heard someone say as I came back to reality.

"No you idiot, can't you see she's scared senseless." I heard another, deeper voice respond.

Surprise attack? A plan started forming as I felt the hands around my wrists loosen.

I turned feeling my arm and wrist bend painfully but ignored it. I looked at my attacker and then brought back my leg and hit him the crotch, hard.

He let go of me and I ran not giving myself time to think. I heard him cry out and felt my pursuers hot on my heels.

But I ran, faster than I could ever remember. I ran out of the tunnel and felt my body fly and the next thing I remember is being choked. I felt myself fall but not hit the ground and all I could remember was being unable to breathe.

I awake gasping. The dream felt far too real and vivid to the point that I'm convinced that it has to be a recollection of my broken past. I just don't know from where exactly though.

I had been repeating the dream for a while now and each night something more would happen but eventually I would wake up with my nightmare still unfinished. But I do feel nostalgia and I'm sure that whatever it is, it isn't normal.

A glass of water enters my vision as I wipe sweat from my forehead. I look up to see Kitsuneme smiling gently at me. I take the glass of water and gulp it down in one go. When I'm done I give him a thankful smile as I wipe my mouth.

It was Thursday today meaning that I better get all the sleep I can because it was Natsume-Stalking night. I explained to my "guardian" that I had voluntarily told Hotaru of my secret and that if there were any consequences I would take responsibility but Kitsuneme didn't know if there was any and we decided to not tell the higher ups unless they asked. It's not exactly lying you know, its just not telling the truth.

Feeling gross all covered up in sweat I decided to hit the showers and get an early start. After brushing my teeth, taking a relaxing hot shower and blow drying my hair I changed into the uniform. I decided to curl Luna's hair since I had time and was in the mood for bobby doll curls.

I then proceeded to finish any homework left and study for the chemistry quiz as well as pack a lunch for myself and Hotaru. It would have to make up for the French cuisine that Hotaru didn't even look at.

It turned out that I was sill late to school because I burned down Hotaru's lunch and had Kitsuneme help me which means that I had him do the whole thing while I distracted Sumire so that she wouldn't walk into the kitchen while materials were floating around and a bento was making itself since Sumire cant exactly see the gifted chef whose making Hotaru's lunch.

"Luna, I have to turn in my lab report to Sensei, he specifically told me to turn it in before first period so that I can have it back to study for tomorrow's test." Sumire says annoyed with me.

"Ok ok, go sit in the car. I just need to grab my lunch." I tell her and watch as she zooms out the door.

I enter the kitchen to see Kitsuneme wrapping the bento box in a lavender scarf with blue sequences.

"Done?" I ask as I grab my bag from the counter and put it over my shoulders.

"Yup, you know as your guardian I feel pretty useless. Its either getting you a glass of water or making you lunch. You didn't need a guardian, you needed a housekeeper." Kitsuneme says as he starts cleaning up the kitchen counter.

I grin, "No Kitsuneme, I needed a baby sitter, and you, my friend, are doing a perfectly fine job." I say as I put the bento in my bag.

I dash out the door as Kitsuneme gives me a sarcastic smile.

"…Now I've done it…did I listen? No…the old coot just wants to yell…shouldn't have skipped breakfast…thinking about that but…"

I zone in and out as I catch pieces of what Sumire's murmuring to herself while we walk towards the high school building.

I sigh as I move in front of Sumire blocking her path and her view. "Relax, he'll take your report and you'll do fine on the test tomorrow," I tell her as I see her forehead sweat. Who would have thought that Sumire was such a nervous wreck, and about schoolwork out of everything?

"Luna move, you don't understand. He SPECIFICALLY told me that I HAVE to give it in before school starts." She says as she tries to maneuver her way through me.

I start walking backwards as I calm her down, "There's still five minutes, just run and you'll be fi-Waoh!" I bump into someone from behind me. They catch me as I loose my footing. I feel strong hands on my shoulder balance me on the ground again.

I look up to see Natsume's crimson orbs looking at me. My heart starts hammering in my chest at his touch and proximity. I stare back lost, what was I doing again?

His eyes were a deep color today, lighter then yesterday but there was a tension in their sides as though he had been thinking a lot lately. His eyelashes look so long, I can touch them if I…

Ting! Ting! Ting!

The bell goes off and I hear Sumire yelp as she says bye to me and runs towards the school building.

I shake my head lightly as I come into contact with reality once more.

"Good Morning Natsume! Slept well last night?" I say as cheerily as I can.

He looks at me once and then walks away. Rude much? It doesn't faze me though as I run to catch up, "Well okay then, guess it was a rough night." I say as I start walking or more like running to keep up.

"How are things with Imai now?" He asks suddenly looking down at me.

I grin at him and shove a peace sign to his face. "We are BFFs!"

He whacks my hand away like it's a fly and makes a sarcastic face, "BFFs?"

"Yeah, 'Best Friends Forever' Da!" I say as though it's the most obvious thing in the world. "You know, like you and Ruka are." I say incase he still doesn't get it.

"Guys don't have those. And don't compare us to you." He says looking towards the building. I realize he has slowed down so that I don't have to run to keep up with him. I smile inwardly, he's improving.

I ignore the second part of his statement as I say, "So then what do you call guy friendship? Buds? Pals?" I say putting my hand to my chin.

He cringes at my examples, "We don't label." He says.

I'm about to reply until I catch sight of Hotaru. "Watch and be jealous of our lovey-dovey relationship." I run towards her as I wave my hand in the air like an idiot.

Bonk! Bonk!

I fly back and fall face first into the ground as the bullets from the baka gun create mountains on my head.

I look up to see three Natsumes looking down on me. "Why are there three Natsumes?"

I see a shadow of a smile on the three Natsumes before all three merge into the one in the middle as he says, "Yup, definitely BFFs."

I puff my cheeks and get up as I dust my clothes. "Hotaru! Hotaru wait for me!" I run after the stoic girl with all my might as I dodge her bullets.

In the end she runs away telling me she'll see me in English. I walk to first period dejected.

I had fantasized a teary and sweet morning with Hotaru as we catch up and laugh together like the good old times but of course I was way over my head. This is Hotaru after all, and she never fails to crush my dreams.

"Koizumi?"

"Here!" I call as I return to reality.

"Roll call was over long ago, I'm asking you what Avogadro's number is." I look up to see glasses and long black hair tied behind with a ribbon

Gah! Jin Jin of all people! "Umm, I'm sure its six point something."

"6.0221415x10^23"

I gulp down a lump, "Umm yeah, my memory was a bit blurred." I say.

Jinno Sensei gives me a tight smile, "Maybe I can help jog your memory after school?"

Oh no, any other day would be fine but today I have a date with a different Psycho, one with shorter hair and prettier eyes.

Just then the bell rings and I run out the door before I make any promises to Jin Jin.

"Ne ne Hotaruuuuu!" I shake Hotaru's arm back and forth.

"Release me baka." Ouch! She elbows my stomach so that I'm forced to let go of her arm.

I ambused Hotaru in English but she just keeps shooting down my advances.

"Hotaru you've become colder, at this rate you'll end up as a lonely old lady." I reach for her arm again but it only gets me a slap on the forehead.

"I refuse to talk to you until you tell me exactly why you are here. I take it is not to see me." She gives me a cold look.

"But I already told you too much. Uh, you see I didn't exactly ready the Bylaws so I don't know how much I'm allowed to tell you about…the situation." Ugh, I sound so stupid.

She just gives me a blank stare and quietly says, "Its Hyuga isn't it?"

I choke, "Wha? Ho-how do you know?"

"So it is."

"Yeah."

"What is it? Now you have to tell me." She folds her arm in that I-don't-want-your-nonsense.

"The idiot got himself into some trouble." I really don't want to involve her and I know how much it'll hurt her to know another idiot might leave her.

"And?"

"And?" I mimic

"I'm guessing that you have a time limit in that body." She asks.

Oh yeah. "Originally I was given a hundred days, how long has it been since I came?"

"Twenty five days." She quickly replies.

"And I spent a day at home so I have seventy-four days left." My eyes widen as I say this. It's been this long? And yet no improvement…

"That's plenty then."

I look at Hotaru, "What?"

"You got under Hyuga's skin in two days remember."

"We were kids. He was so much easier to deal with."

"Well you know him better than any of us so stop getting sidetracked and save the Baka."

I smile, "Yeah. Thanks for the pep talk."

Hotaru turns her head to the board to listen to the lecture we've been ignoring. But I catch the small smile that rarely appears on her face.

"It's beautiful!" I gush.

"Let me see it." Natsume asks.

"Uhh…I don't think it's.." He takes out his hand and waits expectantly.

I bite my lip, "It doesn't exactly do you justice.."

He takes the paper from my hand. I cringe as I watch the vein in his head pop.

"Why on earth do I have a third eye?" He asks

"What?" I look at the place his pointing on the paper, "That's your nose baka."

"Why is it on my forehead?!" He glares at me.

"Ok so I'm no Picasso. Let me see your sketch broody boy."

Currently its last period and the teacher decided to do something new so she asked us to sketch the person next to us.

He takes his paper out of view. "It's not finished." He says as his eyes roam his paper adding random lines.

"Uh-huh." I reach for the paper and snatch it out of his grasp.

"What the heck is this!? It looks nothing like me!" The sketch looks more like a children's drawing with dots for eyes, a line for a nose and a curved line for a smile.

"What are you talking about? It's perfect." He says taking the paper back and adds slanted eyebrows making my smile look evil.

He nods at his finished drawing, "Yes, a masterpiece."

I roll my eyes.

"Okaay Claas Pvleaze durnn een yaur draaaings and yaou arrre desmassed." The teacher shouts from the front of the room and students slowly get up to leave.

I watch as Natsume packs up and turns his sorry excuse of 'me' in and leaves. I follow him out and spot Sumire getting in our car.

"Bye Natsume, don't do anything I wouldn't do." I say as I run to the black car not waiting for his reply that I know he won't give anyway.

"Hey Sumire, how did the lab report go?" I say as I buckle in the seatbelt.

Her face goes grim, "I don't want to talk about it." She replies.

"Okay…" I say and then shut up for the rest of the car ride.

He's late. He's really, really late.

He's NEVER late. So why is he late now?

He's late. That's all I can think as I pace back and forth waiting for Kitsuneme.

He's my ride to Natsume, I can't fly and I'm freaking out because Natsume could be on his way to his death as I speak. Or pace.

"Ugh!" I pull at my hair. If I don't leave now I might miss my chance. I change into a black shirt and dark blue jeans. I pull Luna's hair in a high pony tail as I leave the mansion through the kitchen door.

It's 7:30 and Luna's father is working late tonight and her mom is out. The only person that I need to worry about is Sumire. I can only pray that Kitsuneme comes back before Sumire finds out I'm gone. That way he can keep her from finding out.

I realize how reckless I'm being as I run down the dark street and through narrow alleys to get to Gakuen Alice but I can't stop now especially when I know that I'm so close and I just might loose him.

I spot him two blocks away from the school as he walks on the sidewalk. I pray he can't see me as I start to shadow him and follow behind him.

I realize I'm doing a sloppy job as he turns around twice and looks over his shoulder countless other times. Calm down Mikan, breathe. He's being paranoid because he knows that he's about to do something bad so he's scared. Yeah, that's it. That's exactly what it-

I look around only to see that he's disappeared from the spot he was originally at. I run to see if he went into the side alley.

I peer inside but there is no one there. I'm about to turn around when someone grabs me by the shoulders. They put a hand over my mouth so that I can't scream and their arm over my waist in a death-hold.

My heart stops.

My arms start shaking as my heart starts up going a thousand beats a second. No, no. Remember Mikan; never show your attacker that you're scared or weak.

I take a deep breath as Natsume's lesson comes to mind. Grab his pinky because it's the weakest and pull it. Then step on his foot so that he has to release or at least weaken his hold on you.

I do so but the person doesn't budge, instead his hold on me tightens. Ok, now I can be scared. The situation seems oddly familiar, as thought the fear that is pulsing through me has occurred before. My body starts shutting down as yellow teeth pulled into a grin come into view. My vision becomes hazy and I cannot decipher between dream and reality. What is going on with me?

Tears stream down my face as I bite the hand over my mouth but it doesn't move and the person turns me around to face him.

"What the? Koizumi?" I hear a raspy voice.

I know that voice anywhere, "Natsume?"

He lets go of me. "What are you…What the hell are you doing here?!" He says as he takes in the situation.

I wipe my tears and suck in a breath to mimic his usual poker face. "I was stalking you."

That takes him off guard, "Why?"

"Because I thought you were someone suspicious." I say as normally as I can.

"So you stalk people who you think are suspicious?" He asks me dumfounded.

"Yeah, that way they can't stalk me." I say with a blank stare.

He stares back at me like I've just told him I'm an idiot. Wait, I actually did say something like that.

"YOU! You- you really expect me to believe you?" He says pushing the hair on his forehead back and wiping a hand over his face.

I nod.

"Well I don't."

"Natsume?"

"What?"

"It's raining."

"There are some dry clothes in the cupboard there."

I nod as I bite down my lip to keep my teeth from chattering from the cold. I'm soaking wet from head to toe and all I can think is 'thank goodness I wore a dark colored shirt.'

Natsume brought me to this inn by the train station. It was close by and he said that it's going to be torn apart in a few months so it's been vacant for a while.

He stands in the middle of the room for a minute feeling awkward, "Umm, when it stops raining you can go home. Then, uh, bye."

He walks to the door as I call after him, "Where are you going?"

"I had business to attend to before I was 'stalked'" Is his reply as he walks to the door and twists the doorknob.

"But it's raining cats and dogs out there." I say, is that stupid meeting so important?

I don't get a reply and instead I hear a low oath a minute later. I walk to the door only to see that the knob isn't twisting. We're locked in for the night.

Natsume kicks the door knob and punches the door. He slams his shoulder but the door doesn't budge.

Great…

"I'll just go to that corner and change then." I say as I walk to the corner of the room to change. There was no furniture, no curtains. Just four walls, a leaky roof and a small lamp by Natsume.

I quickly peel off my wet clothes all the while keeping a close eye on Natsume in case he's peeping but he doesn't take his eyes off the door the entire time.

I put on the colorless sweats and throw on the extra large t-shirt with it.

I take down my pony tail and run my hand through my wet hair feeling nervous as my heart speeds up at the sight of Natsume still in his wet clothes staring at the door.

I sit four feet away from him and watch the lamp make shadows on his face.

It's never been this hard to start a conversation with him but I can't think of anything appropriate to say in the closed space.

"That day, did you mean what you said?" It was barely a whisper and his eyes are still locked on the door but I can tell that he's struggling to ask this.

"Umm, what day?" I ask.

"The day of the fire, you asked me to live for her." I can't tell what he's thinking since he won't look at me.

Oh, that. I clear my throat, "Yeah?"

"You told me she wasn't happy." He looks up at the ceiling now resting the back of his head on the wall.

"And I meant it." I wish he would look at me while talking.

"I've thought about it countless times, what you said. At first…at first I agreed with you, it made sense but when I thought more about it, I came to care less."

Huh? What is he? "I lost you."

"She's gone. And all that's left is for me to continue breathing until my time comes. The way I live won't bring her back."

That's it? That's the amazing conclusion he came up with? "Well throwing away your life won't bring her back either." I tell him as I form fists with my hand to keep them from acting on their own.

"I'm not throwing it away, I'm living the way I want to." He says matter-of-factly as he finally looks at me.

I stand up and blurt before I can stop myself, "Oh so joining a gang and beating up an innocent child is your way of living?!"

His eyes grow dark and he stands up and faces me, "How do you know about that?"

"You really think I didn't know who I was stalking?" I say folding my arms.

Suddenly he's in front of me just inches away with one hand at the wall by my neck and the other by my waist as he effectively cages me in. My heart beats like crazy at the close proximity.

"How much do you know?" He breathes out menacingly, his eyes hard as stone.

"Enough to know that you're a douche-bag with a hobby of hurting the innocent." I stare back at him with a cold expression.

"You don't know anything. You have no right to pass judgment." He lets go of the arm by my waist but holds my gaze waiting for a reply.

"Maybe not, but as far as I know you are only hurting yourself."

He looks at the floor and takes away the arm by my neck releasing me, "You don't know anything."

Ugh, is that all he can say about this? "Then tell me! Tell me so that I can somehow understand what is wrong with you, why? Why are you so keen on throwing away everything?"

His head snaps up and I see raw emotion for the first time. Anger, loss, heartache and something that looks like guilt. He punches the wall by my ear so hard that I'm sure he broke a few knuckles.

"You want to know why? It's because she's gone. GONE! She's never coming back. And I can never change that!" I watch as his eyes grow harder, less humane. Outside lighting flashes and thunder claps almost as loudly as my heart beat.

"Its not your fault." I reach for him but he catches my hand and holds it tightly. Too tightly.

"So that's it? It wasn't my fault that she died so I can move on with life? Is that what she expects of me?! No, it's never going to be that easy." My hand protests from the pain of his harsh grip but I ignore everything.

"You can't keep beating yourself up over what happened."

"I promised her. I told her that I would protect her. If she expects me to move on and find someone to replace her then she's the biggest idiot in the universe." He loosens his hold on my hand but still keeps a strong grip on it.

"No ones telling you to replace her Natsume, but you can't keep living with her memory, you have to move on eventually," I had imagined this situation a thousand times and each one of them I imagined what I would say, and do to convince him but in this eerie room with the thunder booming alongside my beating heart, I am at a loss as to what I should say to this broken boy.

"Move on?" He leans closer so that our noses almost touch, "To who? You?"

"N-no, that's not what I meant," That's the last thing I want you to do.

"I died the day she did." His eyes soften as he says this, I watch as a lifetime of sorrow passes through them.

He lets go of my wrist and turns his back to me and says, "I can never love anybody, not the way I did to her."

Anger boils inside of me as he says this, raw white emotion at the fact that he has closed his heart up so that no one can ever enter.

"You insolent pig!" I yell at the top of my lungs, and watch as lightning flashes again. "You think you're the only one suffering?! Look around you, you're hurting everyone! They love you, and it's hard for them to see you like this!"

"I didn't ask for this ok?!" He shouts louder than I've ever heard. It takes me off-guard as Natsume's never raised his voice at me before. But I swallow the shock and continue digging my grave.

"No one did! Do you think she did? Don't you think that she would give up everything to be with you right now? But she can't! Because her life is over, and you're right, she's never coming back! So accept that already!" I scream at him aware that tears are running down my cheeks.

He grabs my neck, not hard but strong enough so that I can't escape. Great, now he's really lost it.

"What? You want to choke me? Go ahead, I'll just go up to your dead girlfriend and tell her exactly what you've been up to."

"Don't tempt me." He says through clenched teeth.

I smirk through my tears, "No, go right ahead, there's no one to stop you."

At this, his hold on my neck hardens and I find it hard to breathe but I stare back at him daring him to continue.

Eventually he lets go of me and I fall to the ground. I catch something glistening on his face and it's not until he's broken down the door and in the pouring rain that I realize that he was crying.

I sit alone in the dark room listening to the roar of the thunder and the feel of moisture running down my cheeks.

A/N: Sorry for the late update, I know I promised it would be weekly but I had a family emergency so I couldn't write. Hopefully the next chapter will be up soon. Sorry again and thank you for the reviews, they make my day.